THE SIMPSONS SPOOFS METROPOLITAN MUSEUM AS “MUSEUM OF GENERATIONAL WEALTH”

 by Hrag Vartanian

Marge Simpson learns of plans to rob the Gen Gala. (screenshot by the author)

The Simpsons has long been in touch with the zeitgeist, but recently the show has been dipping its toes into the art world with more regularity. In this week’s episode, “Uncut Femmes” (Season 32, Episode 17), Marge is hosting a “Gen Gala” watch party, which apparently includes some A-level gays.

Little does Marge know, there’s another plan in the works, as she ends up as part of an Ocean’s 8-inspired female crime gang trying to swipe a jewel from the gala at the Museum of Generational Wealth — oh yes, they did. And that’s the biggest gag. The museum is clearly fashioned on the Metropolitan Museum and its popular Met Gala, a celebration of wealth, celebrity, and brand tie-in more than anything else.

Like most cartoon gags, the jokes aren’t deep, but “generational wealth”? Accurate.

The Museum of Really Modern Art in Futurama (screenshot by the author)

Past museums featured in The Simpsons include the Springfield Museum of Natural History, which advertised “Now With Multi-Ethnic Cavemen,” and the Springfield Museum, with the slogan “Truth, Knowledge, Giftshop.” The show has also nodded to the Springfield Folk Art Museum, Springfield Palace of Fine Arts, and even well-known IRL museums like the Peabody Museum of Natural History and the Best of the Smithsonian.

This Met Museum spoof is even funnier than the time Futurama imagined the Museum of Modern Art in the future as the Museum of Really Modern Art and returned it to its original building in 1939.

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