Posted on 10/01/2025 7:22:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
An old episode of The Simpsons that portrayed Jane Goodall in a poor light has reemerged online after her tragic death at 91.
The episode, from Season 12, showed a character resembling Goodall being accused of exploiting chimpanzees. The storyline quickly escalated into a parody that depicted her as greedy and unstable.
"How could you exploit your beloved chimps like this?" Lisa, who once predicted the 2024 election, asks in the episode. Bart chimes in, "I think we should look at her research before we condemn her entirely." Lisa adds,"These are just pictures of monkeys from famous movies. This is disgraceful, doctor."
The animated version of Goodall responds, "All right, so I snapped. You don’t understand the crushing loneliness and greed."
Moments later, the parody shifts into surreal comedy.
"Don’t put me away. I’ll give you diamonds. Everybody wants diamonds. Diamonds will make everything all better. Diamonds. Diamonds," the character pleads before Homer says, "What a nice lady. Very nice."
When the show originally aired, the portrayal sparked some criticism for taking aim at Goodall, who was widely respected for her decades of field research on chimpanzees in Tanzania. At the time, producers issued a tongue-in-cheek apology in a later post.
On the official Simpsons Instagram account, a 2022 upload of the scene included the caption, "Our apologies to Jane Goodall."
The Jane Goodall Institute confirmed she died of natural causes while in California on a speaking tour.
"Her discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science, and she was a tireless advocate for the protection and restoration of our natural world," the organization said in a statement.
Goodall was only 26 when she traveled to Tanzania’s Gombe National Park in 1960.
"Their behavior, with their gestures, kissing, embracing, holding hands and patting on the back," she told ABC News in 2020, "the fact that they can actually be violent and brutal and have a kind of war, but also loving and altruistic."
Her passion for animals began in childhood in London and Bournemouth. At the age of 10, after reading Doctor Dolittle and Tarzan, she dreamed of living among African wildlife.
"It was what I always dreamed of," she recalled in a later interview.
Goodall later earned a PhD in ethology at Cambridge University, writing her thesis on the first five years of her observations.
In 1977, she co-founded the Jane Goodall Institute, which today operates in more than two dozen cities worldwide.
I’ve hated ‘The Simpsons’ for at least 30 yrs and counting, so I never watch.
Why?
“It was a very insensitive and self-centred thing to say at such a time for a supposed intelligent woman.”
true. Though her intelligence is for studying animals. She didn’t display understanding of HUMAN interactions, but more a dispassionate observer.
Intelligence is in different ways - come on, some people think W. Goldberg has a sensible political view......
I didn’t know that she was still alive.
Aren’t all deaths tragic? Asking for a friend.
Because she hadn’t died? Are we supposed to euthanize people, once they reach a certain age?
Sorry, I misread your post. Never mind.
Tragic death?
“Goodall died of natural causes in Los Angeles, California, on 1 October 2025, at the age of 91, while on a speaking tour in the United States.”
On a talking vacation doesn’t sound too tragic to me.
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