The Simpsons Halloween episode pokes fun at NFTs

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain came up in a special appearance on The Simpsons shown in the US yesterday.

In a Halloween special episode, Treehouse of Horror 34 referenced NFTs in the first chapter of the show called ‘Wild Barts Can’t Be Token’.

NFTs are a special type of crypto asset that allows holders to prove their ownership of real or digital items. The unique digital assets have taken the art world, collectibles market, and virtual goods space by storm, although some believe them to be “totally worthless“.

In the Halloween special, Marge fights through the blockchain to rescue Bart, who’s now a living NFT, while Mayor Quimby proclaims that Springfield’s art gallery will now be digitised.

The episode also takes aim at the Bored Ape Yacht Club and second-tier PFPs.

It isn’t the first time that crypto – or NFTs – has appeared on The Simpsons.

In 2020, ‘Frinkcoin’ features The  Big Bang Theory actor Jim Parsons discussing crypto, with Satoshi Nakamoto also making a guest appearance

“For cryptocurrencies to work, we need a record of every transaction that occurs. These are recorded in what’s called a distributed ledger,” Parsons says in the episode which was televised before the March 2020 pandemic crypto crash.

“When you use the currency, the transaction is recorded in the ledger, and when one ledger book gets filled up, we add to a chain of previous books – that’s the blockchain,” he added.

In 2022, ‘The King of Nice’ episode showed Krusty the Clown joining the celeb app Cameo because he lost all his cash on NFTs, or “non-funny TV shows” as he described them.