The 45 Best Simpsons Episodes of All Time

Golden-age half-hours, cult deep cuts and one or two episodes people still insist were the last great one.

1. 1
   Marge vs. the Monorail

   Conan O'Brien's season 4 classic in which a smooth-talking salesman cons Springfield into buying a doomed monorail.
   1000pts
2. 2
   You Only Move Twice

   Homer takes a dream job with Hank Scorpio, a supervillain who happens to be the perfect boss.
   911pts
3. 3
   Homer Goes to College

   Ordered to retake nuclear physics, Homer acts out every campus-movie cliché: he befriends three nerds and steals a rival college's pig mascot.
   723pts
4. 4
   The Cartridge Family

   After a soccer riot, Homer buys a handgun for home defense and waves it around until Marge takes the kids and moves out.
   663pts
5. 5
   Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment

   When Springfield revives a forgotten prohibition law, Homer becomes the Beer Baron, smuggling beer in bowling balls and brewing bathtub gin in the basement.
   623pts
6. 6
   The Springfield Files

   Mulder and Scully, voiced by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, investigate Homer's alien sighting in an episode introduced by Leonard Nimoy.
   623pts
7. 7
   Lisa on Ice

   Lisa turns out to be a gifted hockey goalie, and a game between her team and Bart's sets the whole town against itself.
   623pts
8. 8
   Homer the Vigilante

   A cat burglar strikes Springfield, Homer leads a bumbling neighborhood watch and Sam Neill voices the charming thief Molloy.
   592pts
9. 9
   El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer

   Homer eats the Merciless Peppers of Quetzalacatenango at the chili cook-off and hallucinates a spirit guide, a space coyote voiced by Johnny Cash.
   579pts
10. 10
    Who Shot Mr. Burns?

    The two-part cliffhanger in which Mr. Burns blocks out the sun and is shot by a mystery assailant, a whodunit that kept viewers guessing all summer.
    579pts
11. 11
    A Fish Called Selma

    Washed-up Troy McClure marries Selma to revive his career, culminating in the Planet of the Apes musical.
    529pts
12. 12
    And Maggie Makes Three

    A flashback to Maggie's birth explains why Homer quit his dream job at the bowling alley and why his office wall reads 'Do it for her'.
    529pts
13. 13
    Bart Sells His Soul

    Bart sells his soul to Milhouse for five dollars, then spends the episode trying to get it back as strange things start happening to him.
    529pts
14. 14
    Mr. Plow

    Homer buys a snowplow, advertises Mr. Plow with a late-night jingle and loses customers to Barney's rival Plow King business.
    529pts
15. 15
    Lemon of Troy

    Bart leads Springfield's kids on a raid into rival Shelbyville to steal back the town's beloved lemon tree from a police impound lot.
    529pts
16. 16
    King-Size Homer

    Homer deliberately gains 61 pounds to reach 300 and qualify for disability, so he can work from home in a muumuu.
    529pts
17. 17
    The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson

    Homer travels to New York to retrieve his car, booted at the World Trade Center plaza; after 9/11 the episode was pulled from syndication for years.
    529pts
18. 18
    Bart's Comet

    Bart discovers a comet heading straight for Springfield, and the town fights over places in Ned Flanders's bomb shelter.
    473pts
19. 19
    The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show

    Homer voices Poochie, a dog added to Itchy & Scratchy by network executives, in the episode that passed The Flintstones' prime-time animation record.
    473pts
20. 20
    Flaming Moe's

    Moe steals Homer's cough-syrup cocktail, renames it the Flaming Moe and turns his tavern into a hot spot where Aerosmith plays.
    473pts
21. 21
    Itchy & Scratchy Land

    The family's vacation at the Itchy & Scratchy theme park goes wrong when the animatronic robots turn on the guests in a Westworld parody.
    473pts
22. 22
    Lisa's Substitute

    A substitute teacher shows Lisa a wider world, and leaving hurts more than she expects.
    473pts
23. 23
    Homer at the Bat

    Mr. Burns stacks the plant softball team with nine real major-league ringers.
    473pts
24. 24
    Bart on the Road

    Armed with a fake driver's license, Bart rents a car and takes Milhouse, Nelson and Martin to the long-closed World's Fair in Knoxville.
    473pts
25. 25
    Cape Feare

    Sideshow Bob stalks Bart to Terror Lake in an extended parody of Cape Fear, rakes and all.
    410pts
26. 26
    The Last Temptation of Homer

    Homer falls for his new co-worker Mindy Simmons, voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer, and has to resist temptation on a work trip to Capital City.
    410pts
27. 27
    Homer's Phobia

    John Waters voices antiques dealer John, whose friendship with Bart sends Homer into a panic; the episode won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.
    410pts
28. 28
    Homie the Clown

    Homer enrolls in Krusty's clown college, and his resemblance to Krusty gets him mistaken for the indebted star by the Springfield Mafia.
    410pts
29. 29
    Bart vs. Australia

    A collect call to Australia lands Bart in an international incident and an Australian sentence of a 'booting', a kick from a giant boot.
    338pts
30. 30
    Homer's Enemy

    Hard-luck everyman Frank Grimes joins the plant and is destroyed by the injustice of Homer's charmed life.
    338pts
31. 31
    Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood

    After a sugar-fueled Squishee bender, Bart wakes up as a Junior Campers member, and a rafting trip with Homer and Ned goes badly wrong.
    338pts
32. 32
    Homer's Barbershop Quartet

    The Be Sharps rise and fall as a note-perfect parody of Beatlemania, with George Harrison cameo.
    255pts
33. 33
    Last Exit to Springfield

    Homer becomes union president to save the plant's dental plan, because Lisa needs braces, and ends up leading a strike against Mr. Burns.
    255pts
34. 34
    Homer the Heretic

    Homer skips church on a snowy Sunday, has the best day of his life and argues the point with God in a dream.
    255pts
35. 35
    Deep Space Homer

    NASA sends Homer into orbit with Buzz Aldrin to boost ratings, where a cloud of potato chips and an inanimate carbon rod steal the mission.
    255pts
36. 36
    Homer Badman

    A gummy Venus de Milo stuck to a babysitter's pants makes Homer the target of a tabloid TV frenzy in this satire of 1990s media panic.
    255pts
37. 37
    22 Short Films About Springfield

    A string of vignettes about the townspeople that includes 'Steamed Hams', Principal Skinner's doomed lunch for Superintendent Chalmers.
    255pts
38. 38
    The Boy Who Knew Too Much

    Skipping school, Bart witnesses the incident behind Freddy Quimby's assault trial and must choose between the truth and detention.
    255pts
39. 39
    Homer's Triple Bypass

    Homer needs heart surgery he cannot afford, so he goes to discount surgeon Dr. Nick Riviera, and Lisa ends up coaching the doctor through it.
    255pts
40. 40
    Rosebud

    Mr. Burns will trade anything, including the town's dignity, to get his childhood teddy bear Bobo back.
    255pts
41. 41
    Two Bad Neighbors

    Former president George H. W. Bush moves in across the street, and his feud with Homer ends with Gerald Ford moving in next door.
    158pts
42. 42
    Treehouse of Horror V

    The Halloween anthology peak, led by The Shinning and its no-TV-and-no-beer madness.
    158pts
43. 43
    Homer the Great

    Homer joins the Stonecutters secret society, is hailed as its Chosen One and hears the members sing 'We Do', with Patrick Stewart as Number One.
    158pts
44. 44
    Homer Loves Flanders

    After Ned Flanders gives him a football ticket, Homer flips from hating his neighbor to following him everywhere, to Ned's growing despair.
    158pts
45. 45
    Bart of Darkness

    Stuck indoors with a broken leg during a heat wave, Bart spies on the neighbors through a telescope and suspects Ned Flanders of murder.
    0pts

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