Cartoon characters don’t age, but their voice actors do. And sometimes, they even die.
“The Simpsons” traditionally retires a character when a voice actor dies, and over their long, 35+ year run, sadly, this has happened multiple times.
In 1998, when comedian Phil Hartman was murdered in his sleep, the show lost two gems: Huckster attorney Lionel Hutz (“This is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since my suit against the film, ‘The NeverEnding Story!”) and washed-up actor Troy McClure. In Simpsons lore, McClure’s acting credits included “Gladys, the Groovy Mule,” “Man Versus Nature: The Road to Victory,” and “The President’s Neck is Missing.”
Hartman was perfect at both.
There’s a “Simpsons Did It First” phenomenon on the Internet, where all kinds of future events were (allegedly) foretold by “The Simpsons,” including the presidency of Donald Trump.
I’m gonna give “The Simpsons” partial credit for Joe Biden’s health scandal, because our brain is only about 5.5 inches above the top of our neck. So, no — the president’s neck wasn’t missing, but for most of Biden’s term, his brain sure was.
Joe Biden’s health — or lack thereof — is the #1 topic in the country today. Conservatives had reached a consensus over the “lack thereof” many years ago, but over the last 72 hours, it’s been unavoidable for liberals.
In today’s New York Times’ “The Morning” eblast, which includes a rundown of all the paper’s top stories (and the readership of which, of course, veers far to the left), the Times noted:
For the second day in a row, The Morning’s most-clicked link was about what the recording of Biden’s special counsel interview revealed about his health.
Lots of conservatives are puzzled (and/or annoyed) that it’s taken ‘em this long to figure it out, because Biden’s infirmities were so ridiculously obvious. Especially after his mind melted on live TV during his debate against Donald Trump, how could there have been any doubt?
EVERYONE KNEW THE PRESIDENT’S BRAIN WAS MISSING!
But it’s not an act: Liberals are legitimately shellshocked. They knew Biden’s health was kinda-sorta bad — but they had no idea it was THIS bad!
Humans think emotionally, not logically, and we hold onto plausible deniability until it’s forcibly ripped out of our hands. In our heart of hearts, we’re emotional thinkers. That’s why I’ve always contended that our old pal Ben Shapiro has it exactly backwards: The truth is, “Feelings don’t care about your facts.”
The heart wants what the heart wants. More often than not, we decide emotionally and then justify intellectually.
I wrote about this after Pete Rose died, noting that his fan support dropped dramatically once he finally came clean and admitted to gambling on baseball. Even though it was freaking obvious he was guilty all along!
Plausible deniability is a powerful thing.
Over the last 72 hours, liberals were stripped of their plausible deniability. And then, immediately afterwards, the sudden whiplash of Biden’s cancer announcement set their heads spinning. The ground is still shifting beneath their feet; where they are today isn’t anywhere close to where they’ll be by the end of the month.
Betrayals take time to process. It’s true in personal relationships, and it’s even more true in tribal identities — which absolutely includes political affiliations.
The liberal reaction is the last of the five biggest unanswered questions.
Here’s the list:
ONE: When did Biden first learn he had cancer? Numerous medical experts have speculated that it’s unlikely this was a recent discovery:
WATCH THIS: RENOWNED PROSTATE CANCER DOC @drdavidsamadi SAYS THE STATEMENT ON BIDEN’S CANCER HAS A ‘TELL’ THAT HE’S BEEN GETTING TREATMENT FOR MUCH LONGER THAN ONE WEEK. pic.twitter.com/KeMGsOKlZL
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 19, 2025
If Biden was diagnosed years ago, it’s puzzling why he never cited it as an excuse when he dropped out of the presidential race and handed the keys to Kamala Harris. Blaming his abandonment of a second term on cancer would’ve been far more face-saving than getting tossed to the curb by Pelosi and Schumer.
TWO: Did White House doctors commit malpractice and miss Biden’s cancer? Or have they been misleading the public all along, beginning with his mental decline? Basically, what did the doctors know and when did they know it? The doctors at Walter Reed have an excellent reputation, so something here isn’t adding up.
Perhaps Biden had private doctors treating one set of conditions and then hid these ailments from the doctors at Walter Reed. It might explain why the Bidens opted to forego a cognitive test in early 2024.
THREE: What was the extent of Biden’s infirmities, for how long was our president disabled, and who was actually running the country? (Okay, that’s a three-in-one question.) Look, if a busy president needed to use an autopen to sign a few documents, that’s fine. But if a president’s mind is missing and his aids are sticking his name on legislation he doesn’t even know about, that’s constitutionally problematic.
Nobody voted for “President Autopen.”
FOUR: How many “enablers” knew the truth about Biden’s condition and still lied to the public about Biden being “as sharp as a tack”? We’re now hearing whispers that Biden’s senility was an open secret in Democratic circles — that he’d call people like Chuck Schumer on the phone and forget why he called.
This question will grow in importance in liberal minds, because they’re juuuuuust beginning to realize that THEY were victimized by Biden’s enablers more than anyone else — and if there’s one thing liberal voters sympathize with, it’s the victim class.
Today, that’s them!
[L]iberals were victimized by the Biden cover-up more than conservatives: They were cheated out of a fair and honest Democratic primary. They didn’t get to select the candidate they wanted.
They were disenfranchised from the entire process!
And as an end-result, they got Donald Freaking Trump — the most evil man in the history of the world! — back in the White House. For liberals, this was the stuff of nightmares.
Meanwhile, all the party leaders who lied to ‘em are acting like it’s no big deal.
Liberal anger is growing.
FIVE: Which Democrat will be the first to recognize the political benefit of holding the party accountable? The Democratic D-Listers have already begun to blast the Democratic Party for their deception: Wannabes like Beto O’Rourke and CNN talking head Vance Jones have demanded accountability, but for this to become a full-blown Democratic civil war, we’ll need someone higher up on the food chain.
Doesn’t have to be a Clinton or an Obama. They’re gonna try to stay above the fray for as long as they can. (Especially the Clintons, who’ve been beneficiaries of DNC corruption since the 1990s.) But if you’re a Democrat with presidential ambitions, blasting a party that only 27% of the public views favorably is a winning tactic — especially if Biden cronies and cabinet members like Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg are your likely opponents.
As liberal anger grows, so does the political utility of exploiting it.
Related: David Axelrod: Since Biden Has Cancer, His Senility Must Be ‘Set Aside for Now’
So be patient, boys and girls. This is a developing story. We’re nowhere near the end of it. To paraphrase Churchill, “This is not the end, this is not the beginning of the end — nor have we reached the end of the beginning.” This scandal is still in its infancy.
These kinds of things begin with the D-List. But that’s not where it ends.
As far as I can tell, this story is progressing exactly as we predicted.
