Just when you think America has run out of wild storylines, The Simpsons steps up to pitch a curveball that’s straight out of left field. With animated audacity, the longest-running sitcom in TV history has aimed at a real-life sports scandal involving MLB megastar Shohei Ohtani and his disgraced interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara—and they’ve wrapped it all in satire sharp enough to make even conspiracy theorists blush.
The Simpsons have been one of the most-watched series in Television history, and many of their episodes have led to conspiracy theories. Their latest episode is another one that has many people questioning what is happening in the MLB, and it involves none other than Ohtani.
The episode featuring the Los Angeles Dodgers star and his interpreter, Mizuhara, is scheduled to be aired this Sunday. Although their actual names were not used, Executive Producer Michael Price said that the whole scandal was the inspiration. He said, “Matt Selman did a bit in the room where he was pretending to be Ohtani’s interpreter, like misinterpreting everything Ohtani said to cover his own betting.”
This episode features Moe Szyslak pretending to be a Macedonian interpreter to recruit a fictional two-way star, Aeropos Walkov, to the Springfield Isotopes. It mainly critiques the MLB and the embracing of gambling and sports betting. Bart and Walkov spiral into gambling addiction, lured by flashing odds and false promises. Moe scrambles to hide the chaos, misinterpreting the truth until he’s the one left holding the blame.
The line between satire and reality has never been thinner, especially when Moe Szyslak is your moral compass. As MLB deepens its ties with sports betting, The Simpsons holds up a mirror with its signature mischief and mirth. When a cartoon bartender ends up more accountable than a billion-dollar league, maybe it’s time to ask who’s really interpreting the message. Or perhaps, as always, Springfield just gets it before the rest of us do.
The post Wild Conspiracy Theories Set to Consume America as ‘The Simpsons’ Leverage MLB’s Biggest Scandal Involving Shohei Ohtani appeared first on EssentiallySports.