Dead Bart

2010creepypastaclassic

Dead Bart is a 2010 creepypasta that claims a lost Simpsons episode exists in which Bart Simpson dies after being sucked out of an airplane. The story was posted anonymously on GameFAQs and became one of the most recognized Simpsons-themed internet horror tales, spawning YouTube recreations and explainer videos.

creepypasta memessimpsonshoax memeshorror memeslost media memes

Overview

Dead Bart is a creepypasta framed as a first-person account of watching a lost episode of The Simpsons in which Bart Simpson dies1. The narrator claims Matt Groening handed them the tape personally and grew visibly nervous when the episode was mentioned, a setup borrowed from the earlier Suicide Mouse lost-media format2.

What sets Dead Bart apart from other Simpsons hoaxes is a specific chilling detail at the end of the supposed episode: a tombstone sequence listing real Simpsons guest stars, with accurate death dates for those who had already passed away and a single shared future date for the ones still alive3. That gimmick, part predictive-death list and part cursed-object trope, became the piece of the story fans quoted most often when Mashable and other outlets later cataloged the tale as a hoax4.

How It Spread

After the GameFAQs post, Dead Bart migrated onto the Creepypasta wiki and got its own entry on TV Tropes, giving it a permanent home outside the original forum thread3. A YouTube user called creepypaste uploaded a recreation on December 2, 2012 that pitched itself as leaked evidence and pulled in more than 62,000 views1.

Explainer videos did most of the work carrying the story to a wider audience. ScareTheater's breakdown, posted May 21, 2015, gathered over 282,000 views, and ChannelFrederator's July 20, 2017 explainer passed 700,000 views6. Mainstream press covered the piece too: Mashable grouped it into a 2014 roundup of Simpsons fan theories and called it an absurd fan theory4, while SyFy ran a piece asking whether a real long-lost episode where Bart dies could exist and concluded it could not5.

The creepypasta was debunked repeatedly but stayed in circulation as one of the better-known Simpsons lost-episode hoaxes, alongside Squidward's Suicide and Suicide Mouse in the informal canon of animation creepypastas3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Dead Bart

2010creepypastaclassic

Dead Bart is a 2010 creepypasta that claims a lost Simpsons episode exists in which Bart Simpson dies after being sucked out of an airplane. The story was posted anonymously on GameFAQs and became one of the most recognized Simpsons-themed internet horror tales, spawning YouTube recreations and explainer videos.

creepypasta memes simpsons hoax memes horror memes lost media memes

Overview

Dead Bart is a creepypasta framed as a first-person account of watching a lost episode of The Simpsons in which Bart Simpson dies1. The narrator claims Matt Groening handed them the tape personally and grew visibly nervous when the episode was mentioned, a setup borrowed from the earlier Suicide Mouse lost-media format2.

What sets Dead Bart apart from other Simpsons hoaxes is a specific chilling detail at the end of the supposed episode: a tombstone sequence listing real Simpsons guest stars, with accurate death dates for those who had already passed away and a single shared future date for the ones still alive3. That gimmick, part predictive-death list and part cursed-object trope, became the piece of the story fans quoted most often when Mashable and other outlets later cataloged the tale as a hoax4.

How It Spread

After the GameFAQs post, Dead Bart migrated onto the Creepypasta wiki and got its own entry on TV Tropes, giving it a permanent home outside the original forum thread3. A YouTube user called creepypaste uploaded a recreation on December 2, 2012 that pitched itself as leaked evidence and pulled in more than 62,000 views1.

Explainer videos did most of the work carrying the story to a wider audience. ScareTheater's breakdown, posted May 21, 2015, gathered over 282,000 views, and ChannelFrederator's July 20, 2017 explainer passed 700,000 views6. Mainstream press covered the piece too: Mashable grouped it into a 2014 roundup of Simpsons fan theories and called it an absurd fan theory4, while SyFy ran a piece asking whether a real long-lost episode where Bart dies could exist and concluded it could not5.

The creepypasta was debunked repeatedly but stayed in circulation as one of the better-known Simpsons lost-episode hoaxes, alongside Squidward's Suicide and Suicide Mouse in the informal canon of animation creepypastas3.

Frequently Asked Questions