According to CoinDesk, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the blockchain made a special appearance on The Simpsons during the Treehouse of Horror 34, the Halloween special episode of the iconic animated series. The first chapter of the episode, titled 'Wild Barts Can't Be Token,' made numerous references to the overvaluation of on-chain NFTs. NFTs are a special type of crypto asset that allows holders to prove their ownership of real or digital items.
In the episode, Marge battles through the blockchain to rescue Bart, now a living NFT, while the city's mayor declares that Springfield's art gallery will be digitized. There are also plenty of appearances by blue-chip NFTs, like the Beeple, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and second-tier PFPs being shown as nearly worthless. Noah Bolanowski, an NFT collector and adviser to Crypt Gallery, an IRL NFT gallery, analyzed how the show portrayed NFTs on social networking platform X.
This isn't the first time that crypto or NFTs have appeared on The Simpsons. In 2020, the episode 'Frinkcoin' featured Jim Parsons educating viewers on cryptocurrency, complete with a singing ledger book and teases to the identity of Satoshi. Last year's 'The King of Nice' had a gag where Krusty the clown is forced onto the celebrity-for-hire app Cameo because he blew all his money on NFTs. Simpsons creator Matt Groening has also snubbed crypto and blockchain in his other popular animated series, Futurama, which mocked crypto miners in an episode titled 'How the West Was 101001.' The latest Simpsons episode appeared to have a minor impact on the floor prices of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, up 0.3% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data, and the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, with its floor prices up 2.9%. In comparison, the cost of ether is down 0.14%.