Warning: Spoilers for The Simpsons season 34, episode 21.
Although The Simpsons season 34 doesn’t bring Fat Tony back for every single episode, the long-running animated family sitcom is still starting to over-rely on the minor villain. A lot of characters in The Simpsons can’t sustain a whole episode of their own. Admittedly, there are plenty of supporting characters who viewers want to see more of, like Krusty’s daughter Sophie. However, there are also a lot of characters that the series introduced years ago who don’t need to return anytime soon, like the Honorable Avril Ward from The Simpsons season 6, episode 16, “Bart Vs Australia.”
Some of the show’s characters were unexpectedly promoted to major players in the later seasons of The Simpsons, while others have been demoted out of existence. The Simpsons returned Hank Azaria’a Apu due to concerns about cultural insensitivity, meaning the character vanished from the series after 2017 without any canon explanation. However, this is a better alternative than The Simpsons over-relying on one-note characters for numerous unrelated plots every few episodes. This has become an issue in The Simpsons season 34, where Joe Mantegna’s Fat Tony has become a regular fixture despite his limited comedic potential.
The Simpsons Season 34 Relying On Fat Tony Gets Old Fast
In The Simpsons season 34, episode 21, “Clown V. Board of Education,” episode 13, “The Many Saints of Springfield,” and episode 11, “Top Goon,” minor characters get tangled up in a bad business deal with Fat Tony and are threatened by the mob boss. In “Clown V. Board of Education,” Fat Tony shook Krusty’s clown school down. In “The Many Saints of Springfield,” he came after Ned Flanders. In “Top Goon,” the villain pursued Moe for debts he owed. Since The Simpsons season 34’s more inventive episodes have proven surprising and fun, it is disappointing to see the series rely on this storyline so often.
The Simpsons has a bigger canvas to work with than most television shows. Having been on the air for over thirty-five years and seven hundred episodes, The Simpsons has amassed a vast cast of minor characters. Not only that, but the series still has immense cultural capital, meaning The Simpsons could get high-profile guest stars for most new episodes. With this in mind, it is dispiriting to see the creators of The Simpsons repeatedly return to an overly familiar and predictable plot. This is especially unfortunate since it has taken the show years to touch on timely topics. For example, The Simpsons only addressed COVID-19 in 2023.
Two Fat Tony Episodes Followed The Same Set-Up
Fat Tony is a pretty one-note character, so relying on him in every third or fourth episode gets old fast. Not only that, but two of the season 34 episodes that focused on Fat Tony also followed exactly the same setup. An unlikely cynical character (Moe in “Top Goon,”/ Krusty in “Clown V. Board of Education,”) inspires a rebellious Springfield kid (Nelson/ Bart) to success, gets in trouble with Fat Tony, and is saved when said kid intervenes. This plot was fun in “Top Goon,” but seeing it revisited less than a dozen episodes later in “Clown V. Board of Education” couldn’t help but feel derivative.
It doesn’t help that the story of “Clown V. Board of Education” also borrowed from The Simpsons season 6, episode 15, “Homie The Clown.” In that outing, it was Homer who learned clowning from Krusty, not Bart, but the rest of the episode’s stories are disarmingly similar. While The Simpsons season 34 parodied its past in earlier episodes from the outing, this felt less like an homage and more like a carbon copy. Since “Clown V. Board of Education” featured few direct references to “Homie The Clown,” it seemed as though The Simpsons was trying not to draw attention to the comparisons between the two episodes.
This Simpsons Season 34 Trend Wastes A Classic Villain
Mr. Burns was the primary antagonist of The Simpsons during the show’s ’90s Golden Age when the series received most of its critical acclaim. It would make a lot of sense for the citizens of Springfield to end up indebted to Burns rather than Fat Tony, meaning these plots could have used more than one major supporting star and mixed up the formula more. This missed opportunity is particularly unfortunate because Burns is also a fan-favorite character who hasn’t had much to do in recent seasons of The Simpsons. Unfortunately, much like Bart and Rayshelle’s relationship, this potential story has been wasted in The Simpsons season 34.
