The best joke in The Simpsons Christmas Special is straight out of Family Guy

“The Simpsons” is a cultural institution, a show that has changed both television and animation since it began airing in 1989. Since then, “The Simpsons” has told honest, emotional stories like “And Maggie Makes Three,” which highlights Homer’s sacrifices. Makes for his family, or As silly and crazy as the illegal crime simulator “A Serious Flanders” And the very violent deaths of some of our favorite characters.

During the show’s 35 years, The Simpsons has earned a reputation for making accurate predictions about our real world. By tackling many different topics and making fun of many targets, some jokes or plots end up ringing true weeks or even years after the episode airs — including Ridiculous predictions like the results of the presidential election, Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, and faulty voting machines.

Not only did this happen with “The Simpsons” anticipating actual events, but the fact that the show ran for so long and told so many stories across hundreds of episodes meant that other shows ultimately struggled to come up with new things to do with the escape. It was not covered by the series, leading to “South Park” parodying this very issue in “The Simpsons Really Did It”.

It turns out, after 35 years, sometimes last Show I actually did it first. In the case of “O C’mon All Ye Faithful,” the new Christmas special from the “Simpsons” series on Disney+, there’s a great joke that was actually covered years ago — by “Family Guy.”

In “O C’mon All Ye Faithful”, famous British psychologist Darren Brown comes to Springfield to use some psychological magic tricks to lift the Christmas spirit in the town, but Homer ends up accidentally hypnotized into believing he is Santa Claus – A clever twist on the show’s first Christmas special in 1989.

Homer, who previously thought he was bad at giving good gifts, is now so good at it that he believes he is Santa. He gives Smithers a thimble, and while Smithers looks confused and doesn’t think it’s a thoughtful gift, Mr. Burns walks into the room and thinks the thimble is Smithers’ gift to him. Remembering how his favorite childhood toy was a thimble as well, Mr. Burns becomes so overwhelmed with joy that his face turns into a smiling Grinch, and his heart grows three sizes. However, instead of this being a happy occasion, it led to him being taken to hospital for “emergency heart surgery”.

It’s a funny joke that’s one of the highlights of the special, from the cute clip to the animation on Burns’ face as he contorts as the famous green creature who hates Christmas. However, although it’s funny, this isn’t the first time a Fox cartoon has used this exact gag. Back in 2020, the ‘Family Guy’ season 19 episode titled ‘The First No L’ also resulted in Lois’ heart growing three sizes when her family proved their love for her, and she was rushed to the hospital because of it. It’s finally time for “The Simpsons” to face what other shows have faced over the past two decades. But the rest of the specials are pretty original — at least for Springfield.