0073, 0074 & 0075 - Nuclear Waste

It's debatable whether these three should count in the official numbering. They make little noises, but do they count as indistinguishable voices within a crowd? I mean, I know two's a couple, but who knows at what number a crowd begins? Science has yet to determine.

Anyway, if you have a problem with it, take it up with my supervisor.

Here's a weird bold unrefined idea that I'm going to bat around for about the next 357 words: I think The Simpsons has had an overall negative effect on the public perception of nuclear energy, and potentially the world as a result of this.

The Chernobyl incident  was three years before the show aired, and  was obviously the defining word on nuclear power - and how disastrous it could get - when the show was being designed. We take it as given now, but Homer working at a Nuclear Power Plant is intended as a joke, that a buffoon could be put in charge of anything so dangerous is laughable. His promotion to safety inspector at the end of this episode is an extension of this idea. Him? Looking after nuclear materials? Can you believe it?

Over time, the idea of Homer being stupid and the concept of nuclear power being unsafe are conflated within the show. It's difficult to say whether the show is saying it is just this plant that is a potential disaster, or that every plant is like this. Of course, the show is funny because things go wrong, that's pretty basic, but I think there has been no more prominent example of nuclear energy in media in the last 30 years. As a result, many associate nuclear energy with a cartoon, and that it is ready to end the world at any moment.

This Forbes article doesn't even mention the Simpsons as a cause for the public reaction to nuclear energy, but I know my generation watched a far more Simpsons than the news. Ask people to name five things associated with nuclear energy and I'll bet The Simpsons comes up more often than it doesn't. I'll admit I have no research to back up any of this, and that this is a half-baked idea at best, but sadly the Patreon doesn't make enough for me to hire a full research team for this. Yet.

The truth appears to be that nuclear power is pretty safe, and The Simpsons has damaged its reputation far too much.

*paid for by the C Montgomery Burns Foundation.

This post is part of my "Every Simpsons Character Ever" series. For a list of my rules in this project, click here.