The Simpsons: New episode claims Marge was still in high school in 2000

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A new episode of The Simpsons has claimed that Marge was still in high school in 2000, and even appeared in a school play about the Millennium Bug.

The show’s 33rd season will begin in September in the US, with a flashback episode in which Marge is seen as an 18-year-old high school student in 2000.

“Marge has amazing memories of being the stage manager of her high school musical, Y2K: The Millennium Bug, and decides to restage it with everyone 20 years later for one last show,” executive producer Matt Selman told Entertainment Weekly.

The plot appears to further contradict the show’s history, which always depicted Marge and husband Homer as high schoolers in the Seventies.

Marge’s shifting age follows a similar controversy in March, in which a season 32 episode depicted Homer in high school in the Nineties. Backlash over the episode led to Selman defending the show’s fluctuating timeline.

“The Simpsons is a 32-year-old series where the characters do not age, so the ‘canon’ must be elastic / contradictory / silly,” he tweeted. “This does not mean other beloved classic Simpsons flashback shows didn’t happen. None of this happened. It’s all made up. Every episode is its own Groundhog Day that only has [to] make sense for that story (if that).”

The new Simpsons episode, which is described as featuring “wall-to-wall music”, will see Kristen Bell sing Marge’s lines rather than actor Julie Kavner, who has voiced the character (and sung for her, when required) since 1989.