Published Aug 23, 2026, 8:30 PM EDT
After joining Screen Rant in January 2025, Guy became a Senior Features Writer in March of the same year, and now specializes in features about classic TV shows. With several years' experience writing for and editing TV, film and music publications, his areas of expertise include a wide range of genres, from comedies, animated series, and crime dramas, to Westerns and political thrillers.
With over 800 episodes to its name, The Simpsons has an abundance of classic material to dip into during the production of its second feature film, and the classic joke references have already begun. This new movie’s title alone has elicited plenty of laughs from devoted fans, with some noting its similarity to an ingenious gag from season 5.
During an episode starring Kathleen Turner in one of the many Simpsons cameos by celebrity not playing themselves, Lisa challenges the misogynistic characterization of her beloved Malibu Stacy doll by its manufacturers, which she believes is setting a negative example for young girls playing with the toy.
Turner’s Stacy Lovell, who originally created the doll, supports Lisa’s campaign for a doll that instead models strong, independent womanhood. Of course, as with countless Simpsons episodes of this nature, Lisa’s cause is undermined in the most farcical terms by a corporate copout.
This satirical climax features the episode’s best joke, which has now been applied to the title of The New Simpsons Movie, itself a follow-up to Homer and the family’s first foray into cinema. It may have taken 18 years for Matt Groening and his team to start working on this second big-screen release, but it’s already got us giggling.
The Simpsons Made A Gag About Their New Movie Title Decades Ago
A recent 20th Century Studios announcement confirmed that The Simpsons’ second movie is coming to our screens in September 2027 under the title The New Simpsons Movie. While this name suggests the feature will be markedly different from the franchise’s 2007 debut on the silver screen, it also plays up to a timeless gag from the show’s golden age.
In the 1994 episode “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy”, Lisa finds her efforts to rid toy dolls of their sexist traits undone by a single flimsy accessory. After Lisa creates her own Malibu Stacy rival with more aspirational characteristics, the original toy’s manufacturers finally agree they need to modernize. So they give Malibu Stacy a new hat.
They successfully pass off this minor change to the preexisting product by displaying the marketing tagline “with NEW hat!” on its box. The accentuation of the word “NEW” in bold capital letters is enough to generate a frenzy among the young girls (and Waylon Smithers) excited at the prospect of their favorite toy getting a makeover.
It’s precisely this joke that The New Simpsons Movie taps into with its title. The word “New” is being used ironically – even in the visual presentation of the title – to satirize the corporate laziness behind a lot of franchise filmmaking, while poking fun at the widely-held opinion that The Simpsons has well-and-truly entered old age as a TV show.
Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy Is The Ultimate Satire Of Corporate Repackaging
Featuring voice actor Pamela Hayden in one of her most iconic Simpsons roles, “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy” is among the animated sitcom’s best sendups of corporate irresponsibility. Hayden voices the episode’s titular doll, which is a parody of Mattel’s Barbie in the real world.
Although indifferent to Lisa’s plea for the doll to be redesigned so that it’s less misogynistic, the manufacturer of Malibu Stacy has no choice but to listen to her once her rival doll becomes popular. After a hard night of brainstorming, however, the company’s creative minds come with an idea very different from what Lisa wanted.
They decide simply to repackage preexisting Malibu Stacy dolls with the addition of a new hat, which is cheaper and easier than coming up with any genuinely new design. Because of how they market the hat, though, it works on little girls who’ve spent years playing with Malibu Stacy, as well as longtime collector Waylon Smithers.
The Simpsons now appears to have turned the sharp-tipped pen that scripted this joke on itself, by effectively lampooning its “New” movie as a corporate hand-me-down. Given the franchise’s fine tradition of self-deprecating meta-comedy, we shouldn’t be surprised.
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The Simpsons
9/10
Release Date December 17, 1989
Network FOX
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Homer Simpson / Abe Simpson / Barney Gumble / Krusty (voice)
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Marge Simpson / Patty Bouvier / Selma Bouvier (voice)
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English (US) ·