‘Fortnite’ Fans Question Lisa’s Vegetarianism After Crossover Takes a Dark Turn

The Simpsons franchise obviously has a long history of collaborating with the video game industry, going all the way back to 1991 when their very first 8-bit adventure ended with Homer and company beating Mr. Burns to death.

Now the long-running show has collaborated with Fortnite for a new season of the game that allows fans to explore the world of Springfield (as long as they don’t get randomly murdered by Marge Simpson first).

Thanks to corporate synergy, this past Sunday’s Simpsons episode, “Bad Boys... For Life?” began with a couch gag in which the Simpson family stumbles upon Fortnite characters in their living room. The Springfieldians then pull out an assortment of weapons scaring the intruders away – all except for Peely, the anthropomorphic banana character.

Peely attempts to flee, but slips and falls, likely because his feet are made out of banana peel. The Simpsons then decide to cram the poor creature into a large bowl, cut open his sides and fill him with ice cream, thus turning his half-dead body into one giant banana split.

Perhaps not surprisingly a lot of Fortnite fans were horrified by the intro’s dark turn, and took to social media to lament poor Peely’s sad fate. 

And you can see why they would be upset. After all, it’s not like any ‘90s episodes of The Simpsons began with Marge disembowelling Sonic the Hedgehog or Bart feasting on Crash Bandicoot’s innards. 

Some folks on social media questioned Lisa Simpson’s actions specifically, seeing as how she famously became a vegetarian back in season seven’s “Lisa the Vegetarian” (and she remained one due to the demands of Sir Paul McCartney).

Would Lisa really be okay with chowing down on Peely, a sentient creature? “What are the vegetarian ethics surrounding eating an anthropomorphic banana?” one fan on social media questioned. “Asking for Lisa Simpson.”

Some suggested that, since Peely is technically a fruit, Lisa devouring his flesh is merely an example of “opportunistic vegetarianism,” and therefore, she didn’t actually violate her ethics. Others pushed back on this line of reasoning, since Peely “has a skeleton and internal organs,” meaning that he’s arguably “more animal than plant.”

To be fair, the couch gags are the non-canonical part of the already largely non-canonical show, hence why the writers were never forced to explain how the Simpsons survived being crushed by a giant, Monty Python-esque foot.