The Simpsons Christmas Special's Best Joke Is Straight Out Of Family Guy

"The Simpsons" is a cultural institution, a show that has changed both TV and animation since it began airing in 1989. Since then, "The Simpsons" has told stories as heartfelt and emotional as "And Maggie Makes Three" highlighting the sacrifices Homer makes for his family, or as silly and bonkers as the non-canonical crime parody "A Serious Flanders" and the very violent deaths of some of our favorite characters.

In 35 years of the show, "The Simpsons" has earned a reputation of making accurate predictions about our real world. In tackling so many different topics and making fun of so many targets, some of the jokes or plots end up becoming true weeks or even years after the episode airs — including absurd predictions like prescient presidential election results, to Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox, and faulty voting machines.

Not only has this happened with "The Simpsons" predicting actual events, but the fact that the show has gone on for so long and told so many stories across hundreds of episodes mean other shows eventually struggle to come up with new things to do that haven't been covered by the series, which resulted in "South Park" parodying this very issue in "Simpsons Already Did It."

It turns out, after 35 years, sometimes another show actually did it first. In the case of "O C'mon All Ye Faithful," the new "Simpsons" Christmas special on Disney+, there is a fantastic joke that was already covered years prior — by "Family Guy."

In "O C'mon All Ye Faithful," famed British mentalist Darren Brown comes to Springfield to use some psychological magic tricks to raise the town's spirit of Christmas, yet ends up accidentally hypnotizing Homer into believing he is Santa Claus — a clever twist on the very first Christmas special the show did back in 1989.

Homer, who previously thought he was horrible at giving good gifts, becomes so good at it now that he thinks he's Santa. He gives Smithers a thimble, and while Smithers seems perplexed and doesn't think of it as a thoughtful gift, Mr. Burns walks in the room and thinks the thimble is Smithers' gift for him. Recalling how his favorite childhood toy was also a thimble, Mr. Burns becomes so overwhelmed with joy that his face turns into a smiling Grinch, and his heart grows three sizes. Except, rather than this being a happy occasion, it causes him to be taken to the hospital for "emergency cardiac reduction."

It's a funny joke that's a highlight of the special, from the smash cut to the animation on Burns' face twisting as the famed Christmas-hating green creature. And yet, as funny as it is, this is not the first time a cartoon that airs on Fox used this exact gag. Back in 2020, a season 19 episode of "Family Guy" titled "The First No L" also has Lois' heart grow three sizes when her family proves their love to her, and she is rushed to the hospital because of it. It was finally time for "The Simpsons" to encounter what other shows have the past couple of decades. But the rest of the special is pretty original — at least for Springfield.