The Simpsons Dive into NFT Culture with Their Latest Episode
The latest Halloween episode of "The Simpsons" included a segment satirizing the world of NFTs, and the Web3 community received it with great humor and a flurry of memes.
This iconic cartoon, which first aired in December 1989, has a tradition of airing Halloween episodes with multiple mini-stories featuring up-to-the-minute references. This year's "Treehouse of Horrors XXXIV" featured a story titled "Wild Barts Can't be Token," where Bart embarks on a blockchain adventure. In this segment, Bart steps into a scanner designed to digitize Springfield's art collection.
As Bart's physical form gets converted into bits and bytes, he enters the blockchain and is immediately valued at a staggering $1.5 million, becoming the world's first NFT of an actual human being.
A horrified Marge sets out to obtain a cryptographic key from three celebrities and ventures into the blockchain herself. She navigates through the "block train," offering a humorous nod to "Snowpiercer," the acclaimed anti-capitalist film by director Bong Joon-ho.
Without giving away any spoilers, this segment is filled with references to beloved NFT collections, including Beeple's HUMAN ONE, Dmitri Cherniak's Goose, Bored Apes, Cryptokitties, Doodles, Punks, and Nyan Cat.
Surprisingly, the NFT community welcomed the episode, despite it poking fun at their world. In response, an artist named Rinaldo Russo released the "Springfield Punks" collection as a free mint, and it quickly gained popularity with a floor price of nearly 0.5 ETH.
The meme game in the NFT community has been robust, with members creating various Simpsons-themed memes. One notable example is a meme template where you can insert your favorite NFT, and it depicts Homer Simpson screaming at it.
NFT collectors are now speculating whether "The Simpsons" episode has caused a surge in NFT prices, with CryptoPunks exceeding a floor price of $90,000 on the same day. NFTbark, who previously handled PR for traditional firms, describes being featured on "The Simpsons" as a significant moment for the NFT community and its reputation.
In summary, "The Simpsons" aired an NFT-themed episode featuring popular collections and artworks like CryptoPunks, Ringers, XCOPY, and Beeple's Human One. On the same day, a collection of 3,405 NFTs titled "Springfield Punks" saw a remarkable surge in value, inspired by the episode's art presentation.
