10 TV and Movie Fan Theories That Will Ruin Your Childhood

The Simpsons has been around for thirty years, still airing new episodes of the show to this day. Throughout the course of the series, the characters seem to celebrate things like multiple birthdays and summer vacations, though time never actually seems to pass. Though one theory says this is because the town of Springfield is trapped in a time warp, a darker suggestion is that this is because Homer Simpson has been in a coma since a 1993 episode of the show. Ever since, the events we’ve seen play out on the show have all been in Homer’s mind only.

This theory’s roots begin with the 1992 episode “Homer the Heretic,” which features a scene of God telling Homer he’ll be dead in six months. Fast forward six months later to the 1993 episode, “So It’s Come to This.” In the episode, Bark pranks Homer with an exploding beer can, placing the Simpson family patriarch in the hospital. There, he is crushed by a vending machine, which puts him into a coma. Ever since then, Homer has remained in this coma, merely imagining every single episode of The Simpsons to have come out since then.

Thinking about it, the theory does make sense. Because Homer is subconsciously aware of time passing, he sees his children having multiple birthdays pass, yet he always sees them as their 10, 8, and 1-year-old selves. Pop culture references are continuously updated as well, due to a TV that’s always left on in Homer’s hospital room. It’s also been pointed out that the show’s storylines were much more grounded before the coma episode, with the more outlandish stories (such as Homer going to space and Maggie shooting Mr. Burns) all coming out afterward. This can all be rather simply explained by this intriguing coma theory.

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