If you’ve caught The Simpsons on the 2026 Television schedule, you may have noticed something a bit different about the long-running animated series. The show has slowly been phasing out one of its oldest staples: the opening couch gag. The series showrunner, Matt Selman, is opening up about the decision behind gradually scaling back the iconic opening moment of the show.
Speaking on the Four Finger Discount after-show podcast, Selman addressed why those “funny” couch gags aren’t guaranteed every week, even though fans clearly love them and are the highlight of some of the best episodes. According to the showrunner, it's not a matter of not wanting to do them, but a matter of storytelling priority. He explained:
I wish we could have the time for a funny couch gag every episode, but I’m not going to cut the storytelling short to do so. I want to tell the best story we can, and to do that, we’re going to need twenty minutes and forty seconds.
It’s a pretty straightforward explanation, but it gets at something easy to forget with a show that’s been running for over 36 years. At the end of the day, the couch gag is still a bonus. A fun one, sure, but not the main attraction.
When you think about how much The Simpsons tries to pack into each episode, the math starts to make sense. You’ve got an A-plot, usually a B-plot, a handful of running jokes... plus whatever cultural references they’re juggling that week. All of that has to fit into a pretty tight runtime. Something has to give, and sometimes, that something is the extra time needed to craft a more elaborate opening.
There’s also the reality of production. Some of the show’s most memorable couch gags have come from guest animators or involved entirely different animation styles. Those sequences don’t just happen overnight. They take time, money, and a lot of coordination that isn’t always feasible on a weekly schedule. Selman didn’t shy away from that side of it either, adding:
If I had infinite money, I would put a couch gag in every episode that would just pop up on streaming, and you’d be surprised by it, but we have to put our money into what’s in the main product first.
The Simpsons has managed to stick around for decades, not because of any one gimmick, but because it knows how to pivot and adjust while keeping its core intact. The couch gag is part of its identity, no question, but it’s not what keeps people coming back week after week. As much as this feels like the end of an era, it also makes a ton of sense.
All of this to say, it doesn’t mean couch gags are going away entirely. When the show does go all-in on a couch gag, it’s going to be because they’ve found an idea worth the time and effort. And when that happens, I’m sure they'll hit like some of the very best couch cags of the past.
The Simpsons just wrapped up its 37th season and airs on Fox at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Sundays. After that, you can catch the episodes streaming with a Hulu subscription. While we wait to see what’s next for the show, fans can binge all their favorite character moments and storylines by streaming the whole series, and it's probably the best thing available on the Disney+ platform.
