Monopoly is a board game published by Parker Brothers, a subsidiary of Hasbro. Players compete to acquire wealth through stylized economic activity involving the buying, renting, and trading of properties using play money, as players take turns moving around the board according to the roll of the dice. The object of the game is to own every piece of property by driving the other players into bankruptcy. The game is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single entity.
History[]
Hasbro[]
Monopoly is the most commercially-successful board game in United States history. According to Hasbro, since Charles Darrow patented the game in 1935, approximately 750 million people have played the game, making it "the most played board game in the world." The 1999 Guinness Book of Records cited Hasbro's previous statistic of 500 million people having played Monopoly. Games Magazine has inducted Monopoly into its Games Hall of Fame.
The Simpsons[]
After Luann Van Houten forbade Milhouse to play with Bart, he tried to play Monopoly with Maggie.
When Herb Powell visited the Simpson family, they played Monopoly. When Herb came to Ventnor Avenue, which Lisa owned, he became a bankrupt. Homer started laughing at him because the same thing happened to Herb got bankrupt in a real-life too and Herb punched him.
When an acid rain fell over Springfield, Marge suggested to play original Monopoly (mostly because they already had many versions of the game already, and Marge felt the original was weird enough as it is due to an iron piece being a land lord). They started playing, but when Lisa wanted to build a house on her property, she saw all houses are gone, because Maggie had stuffed them in her cheeks. Homer ended up on Bart's property, full of houses and hotels. Lisa then noticed that Bart was cheating, as he had made hotels from Lego. Marge said that it was just an accident, but Lisa thought that Marge defended Bart just because he had bought her a house on St. James Place. Homer and Bart soon started fighting when Bart insinuated that Homer won't be able to take care of Marge in response to Lisa's accusation. Marge and Lisa joined the fight to split them up. Scared, Maggie called the police. As the police arrived, the hat piece smashed through the window. Lou said that it was another case of Monopoly-related violence. Chief Wiggum then wondered how the Parker Brothers slept at night.
When Milhouse moved from Capital City back to Springfield, he gave Capitol City Monopoly to Bart who later played it with Lisa.
Variations[]
Behind the Laughter[]
- Monopoly is a real board game by Parker Brothers; there are many different editions of Monopoly, including several The Simpsons versions.
- In "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)" Mr. Burns, while saying he has a monopoly to maintain, also says he owns the electric company, the water works, and the hotel on Baltic Avenue, all of which reference properties that can be bought in the original version of Monopoly in the US (Baltic Avenue's equivalent in the UK being Whitechapel Road).