Season 23 was announced on November 11, 2010. It premiered on September 25, 2011 with "The Falcon and the D'ohman" and ended on May 20, 2012 with "Lisa Goes Gaga".
Homer meets a new security guard, Wayne, at the nuclear power plant, who is a former CIA operative. Unfortunately, Wayne gets fired for attacking Mr. Burns while a group of Ukrainian mafia members are on route to Springfield to kill Wayne. Later, Homer is kidnapped and Wayne must leap into action to make a rescue.
Superintendent Chalmers is convinced into educating Bart about Theodore Roosevelt, which turns out to be successful. Bart invites the bullies to his education stint, and they like it; however, when Nelson gets injured on a unauthorized field trip to locate Teddy Roosevelt's spectacles, Chalmers gets fired. The boys then take over the school, with all of the kids in it, and agree to allow the staff to enter if Chalmers gets his job back.
Bart and Martin invent a robot baby seal for a science fair. The plans turns into a success and the toy actually made Jasper and other senior citizens happy. However, the managers of some cemeteries realize that the number of funerals are depleting and turn the seals evil. Meanwhile, Homer gets a new assistant, but he becomes her assistant when he ditches work so he can watch a comedy film with Barney.
Marge wants to be as fun as Homer so she, Bart and Lisa taste foreign food. They become foodies and get an invitation to the famous restaurant in town, but Marge didn't want to invite Homer and told him the wrong address.
When Lisa discovers that the author of her favorite fantasy series was hired to be the face of the book while the entire series was planned and written by committee, Homer and Bart decide to gain fame the same way with a novel about a ghoul attending a prestigious academy — until a real publisher wants to publish their work and change it into yet another teenaged vampire love story based on Twilight.
Homer is promoted to account executive and has an ad professional to guide him through the process. However, Homer's newfound lease on life comes at a cost. In the meantime, Bart starts classic works.
Krusty is down on his luck when his show gets cancelled and he also loses his talent agent. To help him out, the Simpsons find a veteran agent, who happened to be his first one, Annie Dubinsky. Despite their troubled past, Krusty gives Annie another chance. The move to bring the retro style helps revive his show. However, it has downside, Krusty must choose of getting help afterwards, from his agent or the network.
At Christmas 30 years in the future, Bart and Lisa bring their kids to Homer and Marge's house. When there, they learn about parenting and loving your family. Meanwhile, a pregnant Maggie is traveling to visit her family and falls into labor after arriving in Springfield.
Homer's antics on an airplane in protest over modern air travel becomes a viral video thanks to Bart...and lands Homer a job as a conservative pundit on FOX News.
In a parody of The Social Network, when Lisa and her family went to a new shopping mall, she met some of her friends, but they mentioned that she was lame and very dorky. After realizing she does not have friends, Lisa creates a social network site, Springface to gain their attention. However, the residents of Springfield soon become addicted to it, and later have car accidents and many injuries. Will Lisa escape this situation? Will she still have friends?
Moe's bar rag tells the story of how he went from a beautiful medieval tapestry to being Moe's most-used prop. Meanwhile Bart tries to win back Milhouse's friendship after Milhouse takes offense to Bart comparing their friendship with the relationship Moe has with his bar rag.
Lisa falls for Nick, a boy who loves to read Ernest Hemingway stories. Meanwhile, Bart and Milhouse team up with Adam Savage and Jamie Hynemann (the hosts of the science reality series Mythbusters) to crack some urban schoolyard legends.
After everyone in Springfield (except Ned Flanders) agrees they have had enough of the Simpsons, the family is officially banished from the town. Moving to a deranged "off the grid" commune, the family embraces a new lifestyle as wild mountain people. Upon learning that the Simpsons actually enjoy their new home, the rest of Springfield decides to move in too.
Bart plasters unflattering graffiti images of Homer all over Springfield. They catch the eyes of established street artists Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Kenny Scharf and Robbie Conal, who catch him in the act, and they invite Bart to exhibit his work at a gallery show of his own. Meanwhile, a new health-food superstore threatens to put the Kwik-E-Mart out of business.
In a parody of Christopher Nolan's Inception, following a traumatic incident, Homer's bed-wetting problem worsens, and his family plans to infiltrate his dreams to get to its subconscious source. Also in Homer's dreams is where his late mother Mona Simpson (voiced by Glenn Close) resides.
Mr. Burns replaces all of Springfield Power Plant's employees with robots but plans to keep Homer as the sole human worker. With unemployment at an all-time high and mechanical arms operating the workplace, Springfield becomes a dismal and humorless place. But when Homer's machine-programmed peers start to turn on the community and his former real-life fellow employees come to the rescue, they all realize that robots can't replace human friends. This episode is a parody of the movie I, Robot.
When Bart is forced to chaperone Jimbo's girlfriend, Shauna, to a movie, Shauna develops feelings for Bart, resulting in serious trouble with the bullies at school. Meanwhile, Homer buys a new treadmill, which comes with an online TV website, and becomes hooked to the show "Stranded".
The Simpsons are going on a cruise vacation — one that Bart doesn't want to end, so he fakes news of a viral pandemic on land so everyone (including him and his family) can stay on the boat.
Following a disastrous date and a head injury at work, Homer begins seeing a suave superspy who gives him advice on how to be Marge's dream man. Meanwhile, Bart stuffs Nelson full of Krusty Burger's nutritionally dubious food to weaken him and stop his bullying forever.
Ned and Edna announce that they secretly got hitched, so Marge throws a wedding party for them. But marriage invites trouble when Edna consults Bart, so Edna 'improves' Rod and Todd's lives.
Lisa tries to reverse her status as the least popular student in school by ghostwriting positive things (naming herself truthteller) about herself on the school blog. When her plan backfires, her social ranking plummets to a new low – until Lady Gaga (guest-starring as herself) arrives.
Note: This episode is regarded as the most notorious in the show's history.
When a fan asked why there were no musical numbers in The Simpsons Movie, Jean said that they wound up on the cutting room floor, including a big song about Alaska, with music by The Eurythmics' Dave Stewart. "They got pretty far along in the animation, and then we got scared that the movie began to drag in that section," explained Jean, noting that the song will be included on the next DVD release of the movie.
In answering a fan's question, Groening said that it was always his intention to not have the characters on the show age, thanks to the wonders of animation. But, as he quipped, "we may do it when we run out of ideas. That may be the last sad season of The Simpsons. Bart will turn 11."
Two more "Banksy-eseque" gags occurred during the season.
The 500th episode, titled "At Long Last Leave", aired February 19, 2012.
Although Lisa explored romantic possibilities with Michael Cera's character, "(...)she may ultimately find true love with a certain four-eyed nerd."[3]
The show bent its format with an episode that followed the saga of Moe's bar rag over hundreds of years, voiced by Jeremy Irons. ("Moe Goes from Rags to Riches")
Homer became a Glenn Beck-esque TV pundit and leader of the "Gravy Boat" movement. His preferred presidential candidate is Ted Nugent, who guest-stars. ("Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson")
Homer became addicted to Stranded, a show that's based on Lost. The show ended 5 years previously but Homer wouldn't let anyone tell him how it ended.[4]
