Libraries in the Simpsons

Libraries come up time and again in The Simpsons, many more times than they show up in Futurama, despite the fact that some of the same people made the latter show. There are some mentions of the library in the series which I’m not going to mention here, [1] so I’ll try to mention the important ones in this short post.

The first time, I believe, a library is shown is the episode “Bart the General,” where Bart is explaining the costs of war (with some exceptions like World War II, the American Revolution, and the Star Wars Trilogy), imploring people to learn more about it by traveling to their local public library:

Apart from Sideshow Bob smoking a cigar in “Cape Feare,” at a showing of a film at the library, in “Dog of Death,” there is a news report about “lottery fever,” which includes a bulletin saying that every book about the lottery has been checked out from the local library, the Springfield public library:

In “Marge the Lam,” there is a joke about the convenience store and the public library, as Homer confuses both. And a librarian challenges the preacher about borrowing a book (the Bible specifically) in the episode “Bart the Mother.” And he has a spat with the librarian after that.

And the joke about a librarian who “only read about dancing in books” in the episode “Last Tap Dance in Springfield.” That’s all I could find in a search on Frinkiac, although I know this isn’t comprehensive.

© 2021 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

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Notes

[1] I’m talking about episodes like “Much Apu About Nothing,” “Bart After Dark,” “I Love Lisa,” “Lisa’s Substitute,” “Lady Bouvier’s Lover,” “Homerpalooza,” “One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish,” “Homer vs. Patty and Selma,” “You Only Move Twice,” “Treehouse of Horror VI,” “Krusty Gets Busted,” “Marge on the Lam,” and “Some Enchanted Evening.”

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