I am not a fan of The Simpsons and South Park. I don’t think they were ever funny and I think they’re stuck in the 1990’s and 2000’s type of humor.
BUT I think the two shows could’ve done well to the present day had they allowed one major thing: If the characters aged as the show progresses, and the world around them changes. Think about how poignant it would be if the kids who grew up watching the two shows back in their heyday saw the characters grow up with them as they enter middle school, high school, college, and then adulthood. I think the two shows would remain relevant and probably be very funny and reflective of our world. A common complaint about both shows is that the characters are static and haven’t changed in 20-30 years, and that some jokes haven’t aged well for today’s world. I thought of addressing that if the characters grew up, maybe their “flanderization” would make sense. Think about it, some people with negative personality traits get worse as they get older because growing up made them more antsy and volatile. And some people grow wiser and calmer too.
Here are my ideas:
Simpsons in 2025 (Bart and Lisa are now in their early 40’s, Maggie is in her mid 30’s, Homer and Marge are now 70 something and are adjusting to the world that is different than 1988):
Homer is a retired 73 year old man who is bitter about the world being different than what he is used to. He watches too much political content on TV and online. He subscribes to radical media pieces (talk radio, social media, news channels), and wants to bring America back to what he knew growing up. He has become more irritable, grumpy, moody, and dour.
Marge is 70 years old but works in a part-time teaching job to support her and Homer. She is still patient, but her patience is becoming shorter due to Homer’s toxic attitudes and working hard to support them both while Homer is sitting, watching TV or surfing the web for hours, and she not only cleans up the house but has to do seasonal work at a middle school.
Bart is a washed-up YouTuber and now a Twitch streamer (think about Asmongold and HeelvsBabyFace). He went to college and was a frat boy and a prankster, but he was okayish at classes and got a 3.0 GPA. He got a job at a tech start-up because he is a frat friend with the start-up’s CEO. But he found himself bored and sleeping at the workplace. He discovers YouTube (this period happens in the mid-2000s, just as YouTube was launched) and makes, at that time, funny YouTube videos and rants about stuff. He gets a following and quits his job to work as a full-time Youtuber. He was a star for years until the late 2010’s his humor hasn’t aged well (he was a prank and skit channel that relied on cringy humor from the 2000’s). He then decides to go political as a bid to stay relevant as his popularity tanks. By the 2020’s he switched to Twitch because youtube kept demonetizing his videos and starts ranting about political correctness and big tech censorship.
Lisa is a tragic one. She works as a college professor on public policy and has a very optimistic worldview that she could change the world by setting an example. But as she grew older, she noticed that despite teaching generations of students, she had no major impact on society. She thought that she could magically change the world for the better, but in actuality, the world continued to slither downhill, making her jaded, cynical, and heartbroken. She still has hope but wants to survive society rather than change it.
Maggie has the most wholesome adulthood. She works as a biomedical engineer at a pharmacutical company and has a modest income but lives a humble life.
South Park: All the 4 main characters are in their mid 30’s and have adult responsibilities and are struggling to accept adult life.
Stan is an accountant but is bored and depressed from his office job. He suffers a mid-life crisis and feels that he is trapped in a cage that he was set up to be in to be a cog in a machine.
Kyle is a surgeon who wants to help people but suffers from self-doubt and impostor syndrome.
Cartman is a washed-out political podcaster and rants about political correctness and says conspiracies (a parody of Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones, and this might ruffle some feathers, but remember, South Park pokes fun at everyone as they claim) and has only 100 followers and lives with his mom.
Kenny has the most wholesome adulthood of them all. He works as an elementary school teacher and helps kids who are struggling, just like he was.
There I wrote quite a lot and I hope you like my ideas.