Does The Simpsons Suck at Death?

I guess the more straightforward question is "Does The Simpsons Suck at Killing Off Its Characters?" but saying they "suck at death" is so awkward and somehow fitting for this immortal TV series, I went with that phrasing instead. We shall see if the YouTube algorithm punishes me for this awkward phrasing

I found a "best of larry" compilation that legit had no larry lines in it

I think Larry’s death should have been a fully Moe centric story. Show him realizing that he saw Larry every day without actually knowing him and how he can relate that to his own loneliness. Then he could have a whole adventure about trying not to end up being forgotten like Larry. That could spin into any number of lessons depending on how much the show expects you to care about Larry.

Note: Poochie died on his way back to his home planet. Krusty: Poochie's dead! (Children cheering) Best handled death in the series.

The writers will never top Poochies death. Always a tear jerker. He just wanted to go back to his planet

Having a Larry episode WITHOUT Sam was so fucking dumb.

I feel that if Agnes Skinner died on the show, it'd make a better splash since she's tied to a well-known secondary character. Plus it'd be fun to see how Skinner will be living his life after the death of his "mother".

i remember before the airing of the episode when Krusty's father died, the commercial for that episode had this "guess which character is going to die and stay dead" thing in it and my dad immediately said it will be Krusty's father and my mom questioned why and he stated, "because they never use him" and i believe this statement very much illustrates your point in this video

I found Larry's death especially poignant for people who live in a social bubble their entire lives. The image of him sitting and eating by his lonesome while the other four have their wacky adventures, not even thinking about him, is gonna stick with me for YEARS to come. Maude had several people to attend her funeral. Even Bleeding Gums had Lisa to speak to on his deathbed. Even GRIMES had a full funeral turnout and people to witness his death. Larry? Nobody. They only realized they ignored him when it was too late to build a relationship.

I'm not mad that they killed Larry, I'm mad that they killed Larry and didn't have Sam in the episode at all.

If they could get to Larry, no one at the Retirement Castle is truly safe. Except Jasper.

of course edna's death felt more meaningful than a lot of the others. you've got characters being killed because they decided the best move was to kill them, and then you've got a messy situation where there's real emotions outside of the series and everyone is just trying to figure out where to go from there

"In other news the president dyeeees, his hair."

Here's some food for thought: The death of Snowball II was handled so flagrantly, the two Simpsons wikis don't agree on whether or not it was even canon. Wikisimpsons marks Snowball II as still alive, but the fandom wiki marks her as canonically dead.

I still remember that Troy McClure joke where it's like 'Which Two Beloved Simpsons characters died?' And when the answer showed up as Dr Marvin Monroe and Bleeding Gums Murphy, he was like 'No they were never beloved characters'

It’s amazing how many people have reacted to Larry’s death when so many talking about Larry didn’t seem to know he existed in the first place.

Apu’s last speaking role was in 2017. Since then he’s just been a background character. I imagine if they wanted to kill off a major character, they’d probably choose Apu

Their handling of Edna's death always gets me choked up. I think they handled it well BECAUSE they didn't control it. There was no joke and the writers couldn't hide behind comedy or hand waving it away. Instead, it was the writers and actors putting their honest emotions and feelings on full display. It was a death that effected them, and it shows in the episode

You know what I wanna see? An episode where Dr. Hibbert discovers he is the brother of "Bleeding Gums" Murphy. He never had any contact with his estranged brother, except for the brief interaction he had in "'Round Springfield" . That single moment they met, and he ditn't even realize they were related, sticks to Dr. Hibbert. He then goes out and tries to learn more about who his brother was, and what life was like for him. Maybe listening to stories of people who interacted with Murphy back when he was alive. His feelings, passions and doubts.

I think Edna's death was probably handled about as well as it could have been. They kinda didn't have a choice but to kill her off offscreen since her voice actress obviously wouldn't be able to voice her for an on-screen death, and having Bart break the news on the show makes sense since Bart is easily the character she has the most history with. I also understand them not wanting to have a big spectacle about it, like having a dedicated episode to the fact that she died, because it just feels wrong to use the death of a real-life person as a jumping off point for an episode of a cartoon. Overall, I think they made the right call with how they handled it, and I'm not really sure how else they could have done it.