Matt Groening's Simple Response To Fans Who Say The Simpsons Was Better In The '90s
by Joe Roberts · /FilmThe golden age of "The Simpsons" is a hotly debated topic among fans. Some believe the show was only good between seasons 3 through 8, while others will extend that by a couple more seasons. I happen to think season 11 isn't without its charms, but generally, fans agree that the best seasons of "The Simpsons" are a distant memory at this point. According to creator Matt Groening, however, anybody who says this simply isn't watching the series.
It's not exactly surprising that "Simpsons" fans feel the show's best years are behind it. This is a series that's been on the air for almost four decades — an incredible achievement, especially considering "The Simpsons" was never supposed to run for more than 13 episodes. No show could possibly maintain the same quality throughout such a run, so it's not really all that big a knock against Groening's animated comedy to say that it's not as good as it once was.
For the show creator himself, though, there's absolutely no merit to the argument. In a 2026 interview with the New York Times ahead of the show's 800th episode, Groening was asked what he has to say to people who say "The Simpsons" peaked 30 years ago. "The thing about humor is anybody can say, 'That's not funny,'" he replied. "Everything isn't for everybody. [The show has] been on an awfully long time. People who say, 'The show hasn't been good since Year X' — you're not watching the show!"
Continuing, Groening said the show's writers and animators have tried hard to challenge themselves in recent years. "I don't know how the animators do it," he continued. "We've been incredibly ambitious with our efforts not to repeat ourselves and surprise both us and the audience."
Matt Groening is right and wrong about The Simpsons
Regardless of what Matt Groening says, there is clearly a widespread sense that "The Simpsons" lost its way a long time ago. Every ranking of the best "Simpsons" episodes, /Film's included, is packed with earlier episodes, and this isn't a coincidence. The funniest moments in "The Simpsons" were when the show was at its sharpest satirically, and I don't think anybody could genuinely argue that this show is delivering its most biting satire in 2026.
That said, there's likely something to Groening's assertion that critics just aren't watching the show. In the '90s, this series was nothing short of a phenomenon, whereas today, "The Simpsons" simply doesn't have the cultural relevance it once did. In that sense, there's no doubt fewer people are watching it now than in the past. Even so, the criticism that "The Simpsons" hasn't been good for a long time has been around so long and become so engrained that it's become a kind of easy refrain for everybody, including those who haven't watched it in a long, long time.
What's more, it's not as if everybody is accusing the show of being terrible. Heck, /Film's own Rafael Motomayer outright argued that "'The Simpsons' is still good, you guys!" back in 2023. Likewise, the fake series finale that served as the show's season 36 premiere in 2024 (itself inspired by "Simpsons" fans constantly asking when the animated sitcom will end) was clever in its own way. The thing is, there's more to this specific critique than whether or not "The Simpsons" is genuinely "good" anymore.
Old Simpsons would have something to say about new Simpsons
It's not just that "The Simpsons" got worse. It's that it lost its subversive edge, and that's devastating to a show that relied on that very thing to become as celebrated as it once was. In a sense, it was the perfect show to wrap up the 20th century, poking fun at several decades worth of pop culture and, in the process, reckoning with it all in a way that ensured large swathes of the viewing public went into the 21st century doing exactly what Matt Groening and his fellow writers intended. As the creator put it during the BBC documentary "The Simpsons: America's First Family":
"If there's any kind of overall message we have with 'The Simpsons,' it's not a specific progressive political message, but it's an overall very important message: Your leaders don't always have your best interests in mind, your teachers, your religious leaders, your political leaders, your spiritual leaders, they may be flawed."
"The Simpsons" became its own institution long ago, and in a way, it's only right that it should come under the same scrutiny it applied to institutions and longstanding cultural norms and traditions in the '90s. In other words, early "Simpsons" would very much be the kind of show that asked whether 40-year-old "Simpsons" needed to exist. I'm not sure that, as "The Simpsons" passes its 800th episode, the answer would be all that comforting to Groening.