‘Simpsons’ Episode Shows Backward Moon, Science Nerds Jump to Stupid Conclusions

Recently we heard about one dude’s theory that the last 20 years of The Simpsons has taken place in Homer’s head ever since his coma in back in season four. Now we have another fan hypothesis: the show actually takes place not in the United States, but in the southern hemisphere.

In the January 25th episode “The Musk Who Fell to Earth,” a brief shot of the moon showed that the crescent shape was actually facing the wrong way – to Americans, and others in the northern hemisphere. For our friends down under, the moon appeared normal, and thus the show is likely set there, according to Simpsons fan, astronomer, and Slate’s Bad Astronomy blogger, Phil Plait.

Of course you’d have to ignore the abundance of American references, the lack of foreign accents, and all the other obvious cues that The Simpsons is set in the good ol’ US of A – and, like me, simply blame the anomaly on shoddy Korean animators. They don’t have windows in the local animation studio/sweatshop/internment camp, so the slave workers have probably never even seen the moon.

Besides, we all know that the toilets on the show swirl the correct, American way, and that’s a scientific fact no one can dispute.

[via Slate]