‘The Simpsons’ Finally Outs Waylon Smithers, With A Wonderful Cameo By George Takei


The Simpsons have often centered their episodes around gay, lesbian, and transgender issues. But last Sunday, the animated sitcom took its support of the LGBTQ community to a whole new level, as a major male character came out as gay, according to USA Today.

Such a move had been anticipated for a long time, as Waylon Smithers has always had feelings for his boss, Mr. Burns. Producers of The Simpsons revealed the character would come out of the closet back in September.

And The Simpsons fans finally saw it last Sunday: after 27 years on the air, Smithers has finally revealed his sexual orientation. The episode, titled “The Burns Cage,” was a yet another example how the show smoothly keeps up with the times.

But the thing with Smithers coming out as gay on The Simpsons is that the writers expertly had fans anticipating the moment for years. It wasn’t just a cliché that was developed over a few episodes. It has been a long 27 years, and the fans finally got to see that moment.

So, in The Simpsons episode last Sunday, which also featured George Takei as a guest voice, Homer Simpson helps Smithers out by helping him find a boyfriend after Smithers realizes that Mr. Burns will never love him back.

But what fans of The Simpsons loved the most about the latest episode of the animated sitcom is its sweet backstory. According to the writer of “The Burns Cage” episode, Rob LaZebnik, he was inspired by his own son Johnny’s experience with coming out as gay.

And by writing this episode, LaZebnik was telling his son he loves him, as told by the writer in his interview with the New York Post.

“I am a Midwestern guy, so I don’t tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I thought, ‘What better way to tell my son I love him than to write a cartoon about it?’ “

Meanwhile, it appears that The Simpsons predicted the fresh Panama Papers scandal, according to Esquire. Recently as many as 11.5 million files were leaked, revealing that some of the most powerful and influential people in the world are corrupt.

Last Sunday, 12 national leaders, 143 politicians, and a number of huge firms were linked to offshore tax havens, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainian president, and the Icelandic president being among them. But for longtime fans of The Simpsons who have been paying attention over the past 27 years, this probably comes as no surprise.

Twenty years ago, in 1996, The Simpsons released an episode titled “Bart the Fink” in Season 7, in which Bart Simpson exposed Krusty the Clown’s immense tax fraud. The episode described the fraud in a rather humorous manner.

One of the scenes of that particular episode of The Simpsons featured Krusty the Clown’s bank manager in the Cayman Islands, who accidentally spills the beans over the phone. He says that he cannot disclose any information about that “customer’s secret, illegal account,” but then as he hangs up the phone he realizes what he has just said.

“Oh, cr*p. I shouldn’t have said he was a customer… Oh, cr*p. I shouldn’t have said it was a secret… Oh, cr*p! I certainly shouldn’t have said it was illegal!”

And fans of the animated sitcom know that The Simpsons are famous for making quite a few accurate predictions over the years. For example, the show has already predicted Donald Trump’s presidency, Alan Rickman and David Bowie’s deaths, as well as Star Wars and Alvin and the Chipmunks sequels in theaters.

[Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images]

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