In this episode, Homer finds community when looking for a missing zoo tortoise, but the group begins to postulate more extreme ideas.
Determined to solve the mystery and to prove his intelligence, Homer reviews pictures from the trip and finds dolly tracks near Leonard's habitat, suspecting that he was stolen.
The topic of conspiracy theories had previously been addressed in the twelfth season episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes."
[5][6][7] Von Niederhäusern and Wiget first came to the producers' attention after they created a live-action shot-by-shot remake of the eating montage from the twenty-ninth season episode "Lisa Gets the Blues.
[11] Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars, stating "Every line is witty, and the setup is ridiculously brilliant in its skewering of the communities which cycle around fake news and ad hoc conjecture.
"[9] Marcus Gibson of Bubbleblabber gave the episode a 7.5 out of 10 stating, "It's no conspiracy that 'Habeus Tortoise' is a decently enjoyable start to the show's 34th season.
Still, the season premiere offers a humorous trip down the Conspiracy Hole that exposes the dangers of providing false theories and pokes fun at them.