by Dean Traylor

Created on: December 13, 2012   Last Updated: December 14, 2012

“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

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