While the Simpson family visit a museum exhibit on Ancient Rome, Marge chastises a bored Homer for his lack of ambition when he admits to shirking chances for promotion.

In the thirty-first Treehouse of Horror episode: Guest star: Ben Mankiewicz as himself A beautiful English woman named Lily comes to Springfield.

Guest stars: Morgan Fairchild as Vivienne St. Charmaine, Christine Nangle as Tabitha Shingle and Stellan Skarsgård as himself Comic Book Guy attends the Comicalooza convention, planning to present the ultimate audience question with hopes he will be hired by Marvel Comics.

At the airport, when Skinner checks Chalmers' bag with his anxiety medicine, he has a panic attack, and they are forced to drive to Cincinnati.

Meanwhile, Mary forms an odd rapport with Principal Skinner after the two make a deal so that her film does not interfere with his Lettuce and Tomato Festival.

When she is forced to use the festival for the movie's finale, she and Skinner argue and end up trapped in a pile of fake snow.

Homer and Marge team up with Comic Book Guy and his wife Kumiko to win a trivia contest.

She gets Comic Book Guy to watch a movie with Bart and Lisa, and he enjoys it until he is unable to comfort them when they get upset.

They play a game of catch, and Comic Book Guy returns home and tells Kumiko he is ready for a family.

Bart and Milhouse discover Edna Krabappel's old diary after buying a bunch of books at Ned Flanders's yard sale to attempt a stunt.

With the help of Maggie, Lisa finds the diary at the treehouse and discovers that Mrs. Krabappel was actually referring to her cat, but only reveals this to Bart after he decides to enter the school's spelling bee.

A pizza palace visit awakens bad memories of Homer's youth working there, when the mechanical band he loved was taken from him.

Guest stars: J. J. Abrams as himself and Greg Grunberg as Bad Robot Head of Security During Christmas, Bart finds an ornament featuring Todd Flanders on it, prompting Homer and Marge to tell the kids the story.

Six years earlier, Homer promises not to drink at the power plant Christmas party but accidentally gets drunk, so Marge refuses to let him into the house.

After being humiliated in front of the whole school when she accidentally eats bacon, Lisa begins hallucinating Quilloughby as an imaginary friend.

Lisa steals Homer's credit card to attend a music festival where the real Quilloughby is performing.

Guest star: Benedict Cumberbatch as Quilloughby[26] At a magic store, the family is given tarot card readings that tell of a future disagreement between Lisa and Marge.

Guest stars: Werner Herzog as The Amazing Herzog, Nate Silver as himself and George Stephanopoulos as himself Homer meets a British secret agent named Terrance who has spent fifty years hunting a suspected Russian spy known as "The Grey Fox".

Because Moe broke the one rule of a secret society of bartenders, they plan to inject Homer and his friends with "Anti-Booze", a serum that stops them from drinking alcohol.

Notes David Harbour, Olivia Colman, Ben Platt, Hannibal Buress, and Michael Palin guest starred during the season.

[36][37] Executive producer Matt Selman was also the showrunner for several episodes, a role he performed since the twenty-third season.

[38] Commenting on the series reaching 700 episodes this season, Jean stated that the show needed to change with the times so that present-day issues could be addressed.

Executive producer James L. Brooks encouraged the staff to begin working from their homes in early March 2020, before California's stay-at-home order was declared.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in late March 2020, showrunner Al Jean stated, "Production hasn't skipped a day or lost a beat."

[39] The series had a panel at the 2020 San Diego Comic-Con, which was marketed as "Comic-Con@Home", to promote the season, with Jean, Matt Selman, David Silverman, Carolyn Omine, and Mike B. Anderson on the panel, with cast member Yeardley Smith serving as moderator.

[50] In the wake of protests following the murder of George Floyd, the series announced on June 26, 2020, that "Moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters.

"[51] This followed Mike Henry stating that he would no longer voice the African-American character Cleveland Brown on fellow Fox animated series Family Guy, and Jenny Slate and Kristen Bell's announcement that they would no longer voice mixed-race characters on Big Mouth and Central Park, respectively, in response to the race riots.

It also followed series regular Hank Azaria's January 2020 announcement that he would no longer voice the Indian character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on The Simpsons.

[52] Series regular Harry Shearer was not fully in agreement with the decision, stating that "the job of the actor is to play someone who they're not".

On February 22, 2021, it was announced that beginning with "Wad Goals", voice actor Kevin Michael Richardson, who joined the show since Season 21 as different minor characters, would replace Harry Shearer as Dr.