Some eagle-eyed fans of The Simpsons celebrated a notable in-universe milestone on 12 May: Homer Simpson’s birthday.
The date is commemorated thanks to a classic Simpsons episode which gave viewers a fleeting look at Homer’s driving licence, where the date of birth was written in tiny print.
Even though Homer’s age has long been said to be 39, his birth date, which reads “05-12-56”, means that in the year 2020, he would be turning 64.
People posted about the occasion on Twitter, noting their surprise at the character’s advanced age.
“How can Homer be 64?” asked one commenter.
“Seems too young, but grandpa simpson is still around, so I guess they just started young,” joked another. ”Of course, Bart is in his 40’s so all things are relative.”
Of course, The Simpsons has always had a fairly lax attitude to continuity.
With a few exceptions, the series has always reverted to the “status quo” at the end of each episode, with events seldom carrying over from one episode to the next.
The series has also presented multiple conflicting versions of some key events, such as Marge and Homer’s courtship – which was initially shown to occur in the 1970s and early 1980s, but was later moved to the 1990s in the 2008 episode “That 90s Show”.
