Staying in for the 2025 New Year's Eve celebrations? Don't worry, for we got you covered! We're celebrating ourselves by rewatching a few New Year-themed episodes starring The Simpsons, Family Guy, and more! And what makes these pieces so delightful is that they're out of the norm for New Year's. Or maybe the patterns are normal in the animated universe and not so much for us.
So, get the champagne ready and the snacks, as we reveal our 2025 New Year suggestions!
Celebrate the 2025 New Year withThe Simpsons, Family Guy, Bluey, and more!
2025 is upon us in less than a week, and I don't know about you, but I prefer to celebrate New Year's Eve in the comfort and safety of my home. Plus, I can see the Ball Drop much better on the big-screen TV, as I won't be among a sea of people struggling to see the Drop.
Before I'll be tuning in to Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2025 on ABC, I'll be rewatching some of my favorite NYE episodes in animation. They hold the chaos and the feeling of the holiday, while ringing in the antics they hold.
See what we picked!
The Simpsons: "The Trouble With Trillions" (season 9)
Another prediction came true in "The Trouble With Trillions" when Homer stated, "Will this horrible year ever end?" Many people repeated that exact quote in 2020. It was the COVID-19 pandemic, and several events were canceled, which let people down.
As for Ned Flanders, he might not be a Party Animal like his best friend Homer, but he is fiscally responsible and a "friend" of the IRS, as he filed his taxes on January 1st, months ahead of the April 15h deadline. I love his no-nonsense approach on the matter, as it'll come in handy when we have to report our W-2s.
Unfortunately for Homer, he got in trouble with the IRS, which is something no one wants. To get cleared, he works as an informant to find the missing trillion dollar bill, but he soon changes sides.
Where to watch: Disney+
Family Guy: "Da Boom" (season 2)
Nearly all of the world felt the Y2K Bug, fearing it would lead to a digital and technical apocalypse. As a teen of that rather "confusing" era, I didn't fall under the media's circus of it all, as it felt too illogical. However, I did enjoy how pop culture took the Bug into its own hands to create their visions of what could've happened.
For example, in the case of Family Guy, Peter is the only one in the Griffin household who knows that Doomsday will happen. Nonetheless, he bamboozles again after finding the rumored Twinkie Factory in Natick, Mass, and the civilization of New Quahog.
Not the brightest crayon in the box, but at least he tried.
Where to watch: Hulu
Futurama: "Space Pilot 3000)" (season 1)
Philip J. Fry, or just Fry, as he prefers to be known, was lucky to have survived the Y2K Bug Holocaust, but he was also time-sped to the year 3000 after falling asleep for a thousand years in a crypto chamber. The mistake also gave Fry an advantage and that's that he knew life back in the late 20th century.
In the 31st century, Fry meets his multi-numbered great-grandnephew, Professor Farnsworth, his fiancé Leela, his best friend Bender the Robot, Dr. Zoidberg, who happens to be a crustacean species, the fashionable Amy Wong, and Hermes, a limbo king from Jamaica. These characters are fantastically written, possessing several layers to them. They all work together at the Planet Express on futuristic Earth, but despite the updated technological advantages, life doesn't change all that much for Fry.
Or maybe it did, seeing that he didn't have a partner in the 20th century. As a bonus, Matt Groening created Futurama, and you might know him from The Simpsons.
Where to watch: Hulu
King of the Hill: "Hillenium" (season 4)
Everyone in Arlan, Texas, gets bit by the Y2K Bug scare and is busy preparing for the outcome. Everyone, except Hank, I'll tell you what. He's shopping for a new computer for his wife Peggy as a Christmas gift that's "Y2K Compliant." It's a computer, and unless you program it to "explode" or shut down at midnight on January 1st, 2000, you'll be okay.
Hank too soon gets wrapped up with the Y2K conspiracy, thanks to Dale and swaps the computer for an unproblematic Grandfather Clock. While the clock might make a fine heirloom one day, it's not as purposeful as a computer, where a clock is automatically featured in. I'm not going spoil the ending in case you haven't seen "Hillenium," but Peggy was happy with the final gift.
As I love tech, especially the aesthetics of older tech and electronics, I was intrigued by the computer in this episode. Hank selected an eMachines eOne desktop computer, which was dropped in 1999, in "Blueberry." Now, Apple, one of the "computer kings," sued eMachines for allegedly copying their iMac product in its design and color scheme. Apple won the case, and eMachines wasn't the same after that. My research on the topic led me to the YouTube Channel Computer Clan, where the host provided a more in-depth explanation of both the eOne and iMac models.
Where to watch: Hulu
Bluey "Sleepover"
You might ask, "What's Bluey doing on Duff and Donuts when the brand is focused on adult animation?" To answer your question, while the Australian animation is geared toward kids, it has plenty of adult innuendo jokes and material woven into the core storylines. The jokes naturally go over the kids' heads while we adults connect with them, and one day, once the kids are grown, they'll understand them, too.
As we trek on, while "Sleepytime" isn't an official NYE episode, it does share the realities of staying up past our bedtimes and as a result, experience its turmoils. In Muffin's case, who happens to be the three-year-old cousin of Bluey and her younger sister, Bingo, skips her afternoon nap, and goes chaotic that night. It's the typical behavior of a three-year-old when they're growing out of that growth and development nap. In adults when we don't get our body's scheduled sleep patterns, our mind and behaviors could change the net day. This greatly happens after we were out celebrating New Year's and crashing to be at 4-5 in the morning.
Another plus to Bluey, is if you want to watch something with your kids on New Year's Eve, you can do so with Bluey. Adults love it as much as the kids, perhaps even more. By the way, there's a full-length Bluey movie on the way in 2027!
Woo-hoo!