BONUS! Bart Simpson Thankgiving Day Parade Balloon
Added 2024-04-16 08:00:01 +0000 UTCA fun little joke in which Homer says that adding any "flash-in-the-pan" cartoon character would turn the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade into a "farce".
They're poking fun at themselves here, obviously, as the show had only been around for just under a year but Bart was still premiering in the parade in 1990, the same day this episode aired.
I'd be interested to know how far ahead this balloon had been planned, as the joke in the show would have been produced several months in advance. It looks like by the time the show was in production the balloon design hadn't been finalised - or at least not shared with the staff. That or such attention to detail did not seem necessary, as they did not expect their flash in the pan cartoon to be needlessly analysed by some nerd 24 years later.
The balloon appeared again in the 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1995 parades, before being retired due to a change in regulations for balloons. I'm glad he's gone. He's terrifying.
This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.
