“Ay Caramba!” A “Simpsons” fan uttered when he discovered a terrible secret about his favorite show. A missing and suppressed episode existed somewhere in the far reaches of the Internet.

After a lengthy investigation that involved a futile attempt to get the show producers to reveal details of this episode, the fan finally got a lead and discovered a website with a link to it. It was more than he anticipated.

The lost episode – better known as “Dead Bart” was unusual and creepy. It depicted the death of the rambunctious yellow-haired prankster and the prolonged lamenting of his family. It was not exactly the type of high-jinks fun the show was known for. Also, there was more to the episode, as the curious fan would discover to his horror. 

At the end of the episode, before the closing credits, a superimposed list of celebrity names flashed on the screen. This was no ordinary list, however. It had the names and dates of celebrities who would – and will – be guest voice-overs throughout the years. But to add one more notch to the creep level of this episode, it was accompanied by the dates of these celebrities’ untimely deaths.

Were the creators of the Simpsons soothsayers? Were they harbingers of death? Was the lost episode cursed? Before such questions can be answered, one must keep this in mind: This was a fine example of “creepypasta.” So, let’s not have a cow, man!

What is CreepyPasta?

Urban myths are stories or rumors perceived to be true and passed on from one person or another. Often the term, “from a friend of a friend of a friend” best describes how these perceived truths are dispersed to an unsuspecting or gullible public.

Creepypasta takes it a few steps further. It combines popular culture with Internet technology to tell a horror story. Often, the stories are based on beloved iconic cartoon characters such as Bart Simpson, Sponge Bob Square-Pants and others. The stories are usually the same; there’s a lost episode in which the characters die in a disturbing fashion, or they have a curse or omen attached to it.

Like the typical urban myth, creepypasta is passed on through word-of-mouth; however, that “word-of-mouth” is through blogs, Internet chat rooms and forums. In fact, the name of the genre is derived from a website that first posted these stories.

How Dead Bart came into Existence

“Dead Bart” was supposedly first aired on TV in 1988; however, many researchers have traced the earliest evidence of the episode to 2010 when it was mentioned on the notorious Internet forum, 4chan.

Much of the evidence is based on chatter from internet users. To date, there’s no verification of the actual episode’s existence in archives or on the Internet. Some sites reporting on the episode claim that the producers intentionally erased it after the first showing and replaced the show’s original production number with one focusing on Lisa Simpson, Bart’s cerebral sister.

Either way, the evidence for its existence is murky. Even the supposed eye-witness accounts from those who claimed to have seen it is inconsistent. Still, many of the accounts made about it have some similarities.

Those common traits are the following:

1. The story was created exclusively by one person, “The Simpson’s” original creator, Matt Groening.

2. The artwork is slightly altered. The characters have small alterations to their physical appearance, or the drawing of the characters and scenes are crude.

3. The producers will not talk about it. Several versions claimed that fans at a Simpson Convention attempted to accost the producers into dispensing details about the story. Often, they relented, ignored the plea, or became caustic.  

4. The listing of guest celebrities’ date on the show and their deaths.

5. The episode has been erased or hidden from the public, never to be aired on TV, again.

A synopsis

Possibly the most popular version of Dead Bart comes from Creepypasta-Wikia.com. In this version, Matt Groening, the creator of the show, decided to create this entire episode (the writing, illustration, and production) by himself.

This version stated Groening was acting strangely during this time. It indicated that he was “very quiet, seemed nervous and morbid.” His behavior disturbed others working on the series, forcing them to agree never to bring up the episode or his behavior to the public and to Groening.

The episode, known under production number 7G06, was televised once, but production made the hasty decision to never show it again. The production number was later used for another episode to hide the existence of “Dead Bart”.

Years later, rumors began to circulate about the episode, and a fan (the writer of the account, in this case) decided to confront producer David Silverman about it at a cartoon convention.

Although Silverman reportedly walked off the stage when somebody asked about this episode during a previous speaking engagement, this intrepid fan managed to get the producer to hand him a paper with a web link on it.

At home, the fan got onto the computer and typed in the website. The computer had a melt-down. At first, he believed that the link was to a virus. However, a moment later “Dead Bart” started playing.

Immediately, he knew everything was not “right” about the episode. The drawing was crude, the voices were slightly altered, and the characters – especially Bart - were slightly uncharacteristic. The fan wrote, “Homer seemed angrier, Marge seemed depressed, Lisa seemed anxious, Bart seemed to have genuine anger and hatred for his parents.”

In this episode, the Simpsons were on a plane trip. In typical Bart fashion, he was fooling around. However, he broke a window on the plane, was sucked out and fell to his death. At this point, the episode took a dark turn. The first act closed on a close-up of Bart’s barely recognizable corpse.

Act 2 opened with prolonged lamenting. The entire act showed Marge, Homer, and Lisa (oddly, Maggie was never mentioned throughout the account) crying uncontrollably at the kitchen table. As the act progressed, the animation decayed until the characters couldn’t be recognized.

The lamenting continued into the final act, and, as an insert indicated, the grieving had been going on for a year. Finally, after being emaciated, disheveled and – of course – grief-stricken, the family head to Bart’s grave site where they stood before it and continued to wail. Oddly, Bart’s body was on top of the grave, lying in front of his tombstone.

As the camera zoomed away, the infamous list appeared. In this version, the names and dates of celebrities’ appearance and death dates were written on the tombstone. Names such as Michael Jackson and George Harrison were among the most notable. 

In the final scene, according to this version, the Simpsons are shown seated on the couch – as they often do so in the show’s intros – drawn in “hyper realistic, lifeless style of Bart’s corpse (Creepypasta, 2012).”

The “Recreated” Video

Although the episode doesn’t exist (or hasn’t proven to have existed), Creepypasta-Wikia.com has a supposed recreation of “Dead Bart.” The four-minute, static, blurred, and nearly unwatchable version splices various scenes from the TV show including a Halloween special in which Bart dies in. It didn’t show a death list at the end, but viewing it will kill your vision – and your patience.

Alternate Version

There is another “alternate” version. This one is much shorter, and is equipped with another purported recreation of “Dead Bart”. However, this one ends with a warning: “I only hope that, by posting this, I can impress upon others the horror that is 7G06. If you ever have an opportunity to see the REAL Dead Bart; don’t!”