How The Simpsons Made Smithers Into a Three-Dimensional Gay Character
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After 33 seasons on the iconic animated series The Simpsons, Smithers finally has a boyfriend!
The character, who was the butt of many jokes over the years, only came out as gay in 2016. He's been stag ever since – until now.
According to Out, Smithers is "swept off his feet and taken around the world on a whirlwind romance by billionaire fashion mogul Michael De Graaf (voiced by the veteran actor Victor Garber)."
To make the dialogue truly authentic, writer Rob Lazebnik enlisted the help of his gay son, Johnny, to get the lingo just right. On an episode of Gayest Episode Ever, Johnny reveals to co-hosts Drew Mackie and Glen Lakin his dad had to ask the basic mechanics of THAT dating app.
"That text is one of the funniest things I've ever received, period," he said. "I think every gay man's dream is for their father to text them that out of the blue asking how Grindr works. … I think my dad’s specific question was like, 'Do you swipe on Grindr?' And I was like, 'Absolutely not, you don’t.' And that is the kind of thing that a straight person would throw in as a joke, something like 'Oh, He swiped me on Grindr,' and then a gay person watching it would be like, 'I feel so alienated by this content because you clearly don’t know what you're talking about.' So I was really happy to be included and really grateful that I was able to lend a little more authenticity to the world of gay that they were creating."
The quadruplet also discussed the evolution of Smithers’ character over the decades and atoning for some of the homophobic sins of its past. Earlier this year, Gayest Episode Ever shared a supercut of all the LGBTQ+ moments on the show – and it doesn't paint the writers in the best light.
But now, Rob feels like The Simpsons is on the road to righting some of those wrongs. "What’s unusual is to be on a show that's been on for 33 years. It’s like us and 60 Minutes. How do we let's reach back and look at Morley Safer’s shows from 1961? So it’s an unusual situation, for sure. I think with an episode like this, it’s very cool to be part of the evolution of the show."
As someone who truly grew up immersed in the series, Johnny agrees and even dipped into that history. "Something that I was really excited about was being able to reference old gay stuff from The Simpsons. One of my favorite things is in the background, Smithers has a poster for Sold Separately, the Malibu Stacey musical. That musical is one of my favorite bits ever and actually, it’s really special because it was in my dad’s first full episode of the show. Smithers and our family have this weird storied history at this point. My dad wrote Smithers’ 'coming out' episode and now this episode with me, and it’s really cool to part of this evolution of Smithers into a three-dimensional gay character."
Today, Rob believes the show and Smithers' love story is "reflective of the country’s growth," he said. "Over time, television has been really a part of that evolution."
