On Sunday, the long-running animated series “The Simpsons,” known for its many aspects of American life, finally put the beleaguered NFT market in its crosshairs.
During a segment of the 34th annual Halloween-themed “Treehouse of Horror” anthology series, Homer accidentally places Bart on “the blockchain” as an NFT, sparking a daring rescue mission involving multiple eerily recognizable designs and characters from the NFT ecosystem.
Here are a few key highlights from the episode, which pokes fun at the NFT hype and references the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Doodles, Beeple, Dmitri Cherniak’s “Ringers,” and much in between.
Homer’s thoughts on the value of NFTs
Once Homer realizes he’s destroyed his son’s physical body by turning him into an NFT, he’s devastated — until he realizes that NFT, the first ever made of an actual human being, is worth $1.5 million is worth.
Never let The Simpsons predictions fade away.
NEW NFT BULL RUN INCOME!! pic.twitter.com/GiMKvCoOJ8
— Solana Sensei (@SolanaSensei) November 6, 2023
Afterwards, Homer, who makes a lot of profit, tries to convince his wife Marge that this move was for the best.
“Honey, remember how we always said we wished Bart was less replaceable?” he asks her.
However, Marge does not take kindly to the development and panics when she sees Bart on Homer’s phone screen.
“Aaahhh! My baby is an app!” Marge exclaims.
Homer quickly corrects her: “Um, no, apps actually do things. He’s an NFT.
Marge meets the lower classes of the NFT verse
Marge plans to save her son and soon names herself an NFT. She soon discovers that “the blockchain,” as she calls it, is organized in a strict hierarchy, from the most hyped and valuable tokens to the forgotten and now worthless tokens.
At the back of the literal train that embodies this hierarchy, she encounters multiple NFTs reminiscent of CryptoPunks, Doodles, Axie Infinity and NBA Top Shot moments – each of which has encountered significant hurdles or depreciation in the past year and a half. .
Courtesy: 20th Television Animation/Hulu/The Walt Disney Company
The engine of the NFT ecosystem: FOMO
We soon learn that the train Marge is traveling on, which carries all the NFTs, is powered by the brute force of FOMO: a propulsive, hyperactive energy source that (as the show eventually reveals) can collapse in on itself at any moment.
A meter shows the train moving along with a healthy level of FOMO: “Uber driver says ‘go for it.’”
Courtesy: 20th Television Animation/Hulu/The Walt Disney Company
The true source of NFT value: conquering the market
In the next carriage of the train, which is presumably for smaller, more valuable NFTs, Marge runs into each other a gathering of “Cuddle Kittens” – clear stand-ins for the CryptoKitties NFT collection. CryptoKitties, some of which have been sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars each in 2021, they now sell for an average price of $19, according to NFT Statistics.
Marge learns from these cats that in order to increase her own value as an NFT, she must kill as many other NFTs as possible. As one Cuddle Kitten puts it: “What you call mindless carnage, crypto bros call ‘disruption’.”
Courtesy: 20th Television Animation/Hulu/The Walt Disney Company
Digital art: the upper echelon of the NFT hype cycle
When Marge finally gets to the front of the NFT train, she finds herself in an elegant hallway populated by millions of dollars worth of digital artwork. The pieces she encounters are clear stand-ins for real works of art in the chain, including Beeple’s ‘Everydays: The First 500 Days’ and ‘Human One’, XCOPY’s ‘A Coin For the Ferryman’ and Dmitri Cherniak’s generative ‘Ringers’ . ” series.
Courtesy: 20th Television Animation/Hulu/The Walt Disney Company
There she also finds Bart, who gets a massage from a ‘Jaded Ape’ – an unmistakable reference to the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which according to ‘The Simpsons’ is apparently still one of the best surviving NFT collections. writing team.
Courtesy: 20th Television Animation/Hulu/The Walt Disney Company
Some of the artists referenced in the scene took to Twitter to rejoice at the references, which they apparently found complementary.
WUTTTTT🤯
It’s impossible to overestimate the impact Simpsons had on me growing up, a bucket list moment. 🥹🥹🥹https://t.co/n4hftm2f9r
— beep (@beeple) November 6, 2023
gm 🤣 pic.twitter.com/UYgAIop6v8
— XCOPY 🏴 (@XCOPYART) November 6, 2023
The Simpsons references Ringers pic.twitter.com/KWbYxGjVNh
— Dmitri Cherniak (@dmitricherniak) November 6, 2023
And one last great line from Homer
“This is my chance to not miss this after missing everything! The housing bubble, the first technology bubble, the second technology bubble, the current technology bubble. For once, I want to be the guy who gives all his money to Bernie Madoff!