When it comes to the real ages of each character on The Simpsons, the topic is better left unsolved. Overthinking it causes headaches.
The programme, which premiered in 1989, has already aired for 35 seasons, although almost none of the characters have aged.
Bart is still 10, Homer is around 40 years old, and family baby Maggie has only ever appeared as an adult in flash-forward or non-canon episodes.
Mr. Burns, the proprietor of the nuclear power facility where Homer Simpson works, is one figure whose age has remained a mystery.
Mr Burns (full name Charles Montgomery Burns) has been a series constant since the beginning, frequently used to satirise the ruthlessness and greed of early twentieth-century industrialists, voiced by Harry Shearer, who is now 80 years old.
Now, one Reddit user, Ridley CR, believes they may have worked out how old Mr. Burns is, but you’ll have to go back to the beginning of time to find out.
During an episode of The Simpsons’ 17th season, which was released just before The Simpsons Movie, Lisa and Mr. Burns attempt to gain entry into the latter’s panic room.
To get them both inside, Mr. Burns answers the security question ‘Enter your place of birth’ by typing the word Pangaea into the keypad.
Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed 335 million years ago and began to break apart almost 200 million years ago – it is the first ancient supercontinent to have been reconstructed by scientists over the last 100 years.
If Mr. Burns was born in Pangaea, Springfield’s oldest inhabitant predates much of recorded history.
Other references to Mr. Burns’ age have appeared in previous episodes, like Homer confessing that he believes his employer is 104 years old after hitting him in the face during an altercation.
Burns has also made references to former governments and nations, including Prussia (now part of Germany, Poland, and Russia) and Siam, Thailand’s formal name until 1939.
In an early episode, when assembling a softball team at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, he inquires whether Honus Wagner, Cap Anson, and Mordecai Brown are still playing; all three players had died by 1955.
Other references to his age include him citing his mother’s affair with 27th US President William Taft, who served from 1909 to 1913, and that he’stopped monitoring’ his stocks before the September 1929 Wall Street crash.
And it isn’t the only stunning discovery Simpsons fans have received this week, after learning that Ned Flanders may have had over 50 wives.
A flashforward in a season 29 episode reveals that Flanders has a shrine to his ex-wives, with images of them covering nearly an entire wall of his home.
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