On the eve of the last decade of the 20th century, we discovered immortality

‘The Simpsons’ is an American animated sitcom which released its first episode ‘Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire’ (a.k.a. ‘The Simpsons Christmas Special’) on December 17th, 1989. In 2024 it will celebrate the end of its 35th season. With a healthy 35 years of runtime ‘’The Simpsons’ retains the lead as the longest running animated TV show in the world. If you started watching ‘The Simpsons’ now, from its first season through to its most recent one, it would take you 15 days and 8 hours of continuous non-stop watching. It is the most well known example of immortal characters.

We have become inundated by immortal characters. We can find it across a variety of media. It is particularly evident in comic books. It can be found even in manga or long running book series. In the animated sitcom world, this phenomenon has been dubbed “Floating Time(line)” or “Sliding Timescale”.

Essentially, the time of the universe of the characters does not move linearly. The main characteristic of this phenomenon is that none of the characters age. Instead, their personal time remains static for themselves. Age is an illusion for the characters of the universe. Time only exists as a floating experience, sliding along the existing time of our reality.

What do they mean by this? Homer Simpson in 1989 was in his 20s in the late 1960s/early 1970s. But Homer Simpson in 2024 was in his 20s in the late 1990s/early 2000s. This concept applies not only to all of the characters but the world in which these characters inhabit. They do not age, but time moves on all the same. The universe of their reality matches the universe of our reality, yet their bodies remained static.

Why do I care so much about this though? What does it matter that the characters never age? Why does it matter that the timeline of the world of these sitcoms slides along with our real world? Why am I writing this essay?

In brief, because it is limiting the stories we can tell. If a character can’t age than they can’t grow. It is as simple as that.

Let me expand on that. Growing here does not refer to biological growth, but to character development. Let us take ‘Bob’s Burgers’ as an example.

I wrote a whole essay on why I think that show is special on its own merits. But here I want to criticize one aspect of that show, an aspect which I believe that if the show changed would raise it even higher than what it already is.

The show is about the Belcher family. There are three children in the show: Tina, Gene, and Louise. They haven’t aged since their first appearance.

The show has a tradition of each season having a Halloween episode, a Christmas episode, and a Thanksgiving episode. So far it has had at least 9 (maybe more, I haven’t counted them all) of these episodes each. If we accept that each episode about Christmas/Halloween/Thanksgiving is a separate day, then (at least) 9 years should have passed in the world of Bob’s Burgers.

Louise (the youngest) should have (at least) aged from 9 to 18 years old. Instead, she remains forever 9. The curse of immortality has frozen sitcom characters in a limbo state. They can never age.

I am not complaining about this from a logical perspective. I do not want them to age because they “should” age with our real time. Instead my criticism is a philosophical and thematic criticism.

If the characters don’t age they not only don’t grow, but it also misses out on telling an important part of our lives. By not aging the characters of sitcoms we are avoiding commenting on a fundamental aspect of human experience and existence: aging.

We all grow in real life. We might all be afraid of growing old. It is a natural part of who we are. It makes us human to be afraid of aging, and it is beautiful, while also being sad. When you see your parents grow white hair and form wrinkles on their face you can’t help but have complicated emotions.

You are scared, sad, and anxious. You don’t want to lose your parents, and you know eventually they will grow old and leave you. At the same time you also know that you too will grow old and this terrifies you. Age — and its sibling aging — is intrinsic to our experience as humans. Some might try to escape and avoid it, but so far no one has succeeded. We age and everyone needs to learn to come to terms with that.

Time isn’t a limbo where we will forever be nine years old. Time slips from our fingers faster than we can be aware of it. When sitcoms don’t age their characters they are not only lying to themselves, but they are also letting slip the chance at poignant storytelling.

Imagine how powerful it would be to see Louise go from a nine year old naïve chaotic child to a mature, still chaotic, and fierce young woman. The number of incredible stories that can be told with this are endless. Imagine re-watching Bob’s Burgers’ greatest episode ‘The Plight Before Christmas’ but with the context of knowing where Louise will be heading as she ages.

By not aging our sitcom characters we are lying to ourselves. Time and age catches up with us all. The only sitcoms that I can find that subvert the curse of immortality are ‘Community’ and ‘Bojack Horseman’, both in different ways. Both use the concept of time in an expert manner.

‘Bojack Horseman’ uses it to show the consequences of our choices in life, and how we can’t run away from who we were in the past. Sooner or later we need to face ourselves and overcome ourselves to become better people.

On the other hand, ‘Community’ uses it to show how connections — and community — grows over time. ‘Community’ uses time to show us how we are not the same people we always were, but also that our relationships change over time. We are different people at different points in time, and that is the beauty of life.

Humans weren’t made to be static. We were made to change. We live in the flux, in the flow. By cursing our characters with immortality, we are also cursing ourselves with stagnation, forced to live in a limbo. If our characters can’t age and grow, how can we expect ourselves in real life to age and grow?

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This essay was originally published on Medium. You can visit my Medium page to read more of my essays.