Film Theory: We FOUND The SIMPSONS!

most tavern now speaking hi I was hoping you could tell me what state Springfield is in session go when I get a hold of you I'm gonna use your head for a bucket and pick my house with your brain well that escalated quickly hello Internet welcome to film theory the show that proves you can turn watching Netflix reruns into a job and while reruns are the only way to enjoy most of our favorite shows from the 90s unless you know someone's eager for a quick cash grab based on brand awareness there's one show that is hung on The Simpsons came out in a simpler time time when cell phones were the size of bricks and the word fleek hadn't earned itself a place in the dictionary speaking of the dictionary though homers catchphrase of dough was actually added a few years ago and it's where the common usage of the word Mac comes from crazy right from the kwik-e-mart the prototype of internet trolls The Simpsons is truly a cultural icon and yet after nearly three decades one huge mystery about the series remains unanswered where do the Simpsons live we all know they live in Springfield that part's obvious but the state has always been a question and this isn't by accident the show has taunted viewers for years by giving information that would make it virtually impossible for anyone to determine exactly where Springfield is notice though that I said virtually impossible because after sifting through the evidence there is more than enough proof to deduce where the Simpsons actually reside today we're closing the books on one of prime times longest-running riddles now hold on to your comment hand all you walking Simpsons encyclopedias I'm sure you're just waiting to point out that there are tons of jokes and references in the Simpsons that contradict each other what about that time in the Simpsons movie for instance when Flanders says that the four states that border Springfield are Ohio Nevada Maine and Kentucky no such state does or ever could exist well stupid sexy Flanders that's a fair point but here's the thing the running jokes about where Springfield is mostly there to throw off would-be theorists so if we want to determine where Springfield really is we need to look for evidence that's given when the show isn't joking about the impossibility of its location reference also goes to episodes that are older both because they're less likely to present Springfield as a place that couldn't exist and because many die-hard Simpsons fans consider episodes after season 9 to be non canonical because the show changed executive producers got all that good because we have a mystery to solve since the Simpsons take so much pride and never revealing its big mystery our best tactic to prove where Springfield is is to work backwards and eliminate where it isn't 50 states is a lot to cover so let's knock out a bunch right off the bat in season 5 Bart wins a call-in contest at Springfield's local radio station and gets to choose between a grand prize of $10,000 or an elephant Bart picks the elephant high jinks ensues and Homer gets stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits so what's this have to do with Springfield's location well the radio station Bart calls is named kbbl and it's referenced in a number of other Simpsons episodes from the first several seasons so we can say that it is indeed a permanent fixture in Springfield and not just someone off joke a random writer came up with why does this matter well in the early 1920s the Federal Communications Commission established a system for radio station call letters all states east of the Mississippi River would have call letters that started with W like NBC's New York radio station WNYC and stations west of the mighty Mississip would start with the letter K Springfield's kbbl thus could not be in any of the 26 states that are completely east of the Mississippi River Minnesota and Louisiana are the exceptions with stations that start with both K and W so they'll stay for now but still there goes half the country in one fell swoop how has no one figure this out yet seriously people do your research then again maybe I've spoken too soon because from here gives a lot trickier we get some good geographical clues from the season 7 episode Bart on the road Bart manages to get a fake ID rent a car for spring break and ends up getting himself and his friends stranded in Knoxville Tennessee on the road from Springfield to Knoxville the group drives through Branson Missouri stopping to listen to the smooth crooning of Andy Williams if you're wondering who Andy Williams is don't worry people watching that episode at the time it was aired probably didn't know who Andy Williams was such a random old reference anyway let's take a look at the map Branson is in the southwest corner of Missouri and Knoxville is in eastern Tennessee Bart would have had to take a pretty major detour to get to Branson if their point of origin was in Louisiana Arkansas or Texas so we can eliminate all of those and unless the rental car is one of those duck boats that goes from water to land they drive into Tennessee from Hawaii no big surprise Hawaii is off the table in this episode we see a map of all the nuclear reactors in the United States above homers workstations when the camera zooms in we can see California Nevada and Utah completely and none of their reactors are labeled Springfield another three states bite the dust now we need to think about the topography of Springfield we know that Springfield has mountains from episodes like mountain of madness mr. plow and king of the hill not to be confused with this one damn it Bobby hungry I swear my new year's resolution is to stop doing impressions in the Simpsons episode king of the hill Homer gets in shape and is hired by a protein bar company to climb the murder horn the tallest mountain in Springfield in one scene we see Homer sucking on oxygen tanks witches guides packed to prevent altitude sickness according to WebMD altitude sickness is extremely rare below 8,000 feet above sea level Minnesota Iowa Missouri North Dakota South Dakota Nebraska Kansas and Oklahoma all have highest points that are shorter than that 8,000 foot mark 2.4 kilometer so they're all out that means we're down to our final 9 Alaska Washington Oregon Idaho Montana Wyoming Colorado New Mexico and Arizona this isn't a surprise but it's definitely not Alaska in the Simpsons movie the entire family uproots from Springfield and moves to Alaska we even see them entering the state for the first time so Alaska is out we've got a couple of clues that help us eliminate some southwestern states as well the season 5 episode Boy Scouts in the hood clearly I live the thug life myself Bart and his jr. camper troupe get lost when they go whitewater rafting Homer tries navigate using a map of krustyburger locations and says the following hey there's a New Mexico and in the process knocks the state out of the running now let's jump ahead to seasons two season sevens king-size Homer in it Homer gets to his desk at 8:58 in the morning marking that it's the first time he's ever been early for work quote chip roll of daylight savings days this eliminates Arizona because it's the only state in the lower 48 that doesn't observe daylight savings time geez Arizona way to be different at least it's simpler than Australia's daylight savings time system I mean seriously did you know about this they have half-hour time zones and the continent is divided into how does this make any sense anyway another big Geographic clue is Springfield's proximity to water besides the fact that one of Springfield's odd residence is a grizzled old sea captain we see in numerous episodes that Springfield is near the ocean Homer and Marge take a romantic walk on the beach in and Maggie makes three from season six Bart and Lisa track down Krusty the Klown disguised as a longshoreman and Bart the Fink and Marge and Homer reunite and declare themselves soul mates at a lighthouse in lva hey elviejo lva hey mysterioso didn't West row Homer yeah that's an episode that appeared in season 8 well we don't have a solid indication that Springfield is a beach town necessarily it's safe to say that it must be a short distance from the coast as a result all remaining landlocked states are out sayonara to Idaho Montana Colorado and Wyoming and that my friends leaves us with to Washington State and Oregon these two states are really similar their geography climate topography and demographics are pretty close to identical but there's an incredibly minor detail that helps us eliminate Springfield from one of them and it's so small that I can guarantee that even the most hardcore of Simpsons aficionados might have missed it which one is it place your bets in the comments now and then let me know if you won ready in the season 7 episode much of puh about nothing a bear wanders into Springfield leaving an angry mob to demand protection from the Bears mayor Quimby establishes a bear patrol and when Homer next opens his paycheck he's outraged to see a five dollar tax for this new government service but if we zoom in on that paycheck on the left side three rows down that paycheck indicates that ten dollars and forty-five cents were withheld by state tax why does this matter because there are nine states in the US with no state-level income tax Alaska Florida Nevada New Hampshire South Dakota Tennessee Texas Wyoming and last but not least Washington State i Caramba we have ourselves a winner The Simpsons home town is Springfield Oregon now admittedly no single small town could have every single feature that the Simpsons have ascribed to the fictional Springfield over the years but geographically and based on Clues hidden throughout the series Oregon is indeed the best fit with a little bit of everything coastline forests deserts tall mountains and gorges man I'm starting to feel like the Oregon Board of tourism Oregon more than just trail but you're still having a cow over the results there's one more piece of evidence to consider and it comes from the creator of the series himself Matt graining some diehard Simpsons fans might remember that before the Simpsons was its own show it was a series of short cartoons on The Tracey Ullman Show Matt grading was a cartoonist whose most popular cartoon at the time life in hell had caught the attention of the makers of that show who then asked him to pitch cartoons for the series raining wanted to make sure that he would retain all ownership over life in hell so he pitched a cartoon to The Tracey Ullman Show on the fly as he improved his way through this pitch he named the patriarch after his own father Homer and he said that the family would live on Evergreen Terrace the same street that he grew up on as a child want to guess where Matt graining is from yep Portland Oregon in an interview with Smithsonian magazine graining said that he initially wanted to name each character after street from Portland and for a while he succeeded turning Portland's Flanders Street Lovejoy Street and Quimby streets into recurring characters on the series and the real-life Springfield Oregon is just a short trip south on Interstate five from Portland even though the Simpsons Springfield is meant to be an anonymous all-american city it's been set in Oregon from the very first pitch but hey that's just a theory of film theory and cut so that's pretty awesome but admittedly I'm not the first Simpsons theorists out there in fact did you know that a lot of the Simpsons writing team have advanced degrees in math and physics it's true one author Simon Singh actually tracked all the mathematical references in the show to uncover the surprising truth that the Simpsons loli introduces number theory into the minds of its viewers no joke and if you're interested it's worth mentioning that the book is available to download on audible.com audible has been a regular sponsor for us this video included and for good reason it's a service I believe in for instance I myself didn't have time to read simon's book but I did have time to listen to it in the car chapter by chapter driving between meetings and it was fantastic I highly recommend you check it out but I wouldn't know that without the service and currently listening to the Gospel according to The Simpsons which looks at how the Simpsons treat religion it's pretty cool stuff and audible makes quote-unquote reading more books much more possible in my everyday life and if you want something other than deep analysis of cartoons I don't know why you would but maybe you do for you audible has over a hundred and eighty thousand books available to download and listen to and if you want to check it out you can have a 30 day free trial by going to audible.com/veritasium and in turn support our ability to do more videos for you and you do that by simply getting your 30 day free trial by going to audible.com that's audible.com slash fi lm t now if you'll excuse me I need to find some books about inception maybe someone out there knows what that movie was all about

Channel: The Film Theorists

Views: 15,000,968

Rating: 4.8978491 out of 5

Keywords: Simpsons, The Simpsons, Bart, Homer, Springfield, cartoon, animation, comedy, where is springfield located, springfields location, real springfield, simpsons springfield, mystery, solved, truth, Matt Groening, film theory, film theorists, matpat, matthew patrick, matthewpatrick13, film, movie, tv

Id: S3FtIuVNY8k

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/binary]

I have to say, as insightful as this guy's videos tend to be, the character he plays is just totally grating and unfunny to me

[u/improbablydrunknlw]

That guy interjecting his stupid meme faces into that video ruined an okay video.

[u/AlmostLosers]

Where is it officially? Can't watch the video at work.

[u/rnon]

Greonig

[u/DerthOFdata]

The fact that Matt Groening is from Oregon is also a pretty big clue.