An astronomer has discovered that ‘The Simpsons’ is not set in America.
In fact, it’s not even in the same hemisphere as Springfield USA’s purported location.
Phil Plait wrote in a post for Slate how he noticed in a recent episode featuring SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk that the crescent moon points in the wrong direction.
If the scene in question is set at dinner time, as seems clear, the tips of a waxing crescent moon should point left, not right. It’s a funny post and worth reading in full.
The Independent notes that there are places named Springfield in both South Africa (where Elon Musk was born, incidentally) and Australia.
Of course, there is another explanation: that The Simpsons is not set in reality at all. Another recent theory postulates that everything in the show since April 1993 has in fact been taking place inside Homer Simpson’s mind, the venerable family patriarch having been plunged into a coma by an exploding beer can.