Can you believe that “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” took place in 1995? Kurt Cobain had only been gone from us for one year! (Now that I’ve been out of school for a while, rather than mark years as “grades” I find it’s useful to mark them as the number of years either before or after Kurt Cobain’s death.) From what I can remember, everyone was all about “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” back then. What a mystery! But wait — 1995 was also the year of the LAST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, UNDER BILL CLINTON! Oh my god. And now, just as another government shutdown rolls into action, the first in the 17 years since, we get ANOTHER Simpsons mystery? SOMEONE CALL RACHEL MADDOW, I LIKE HER AND I WANT TO SHARE THIS SCOOP WITH ONLY HER! From E!:

According to The Sun News, executive producer Al Jean is planning to kill off one star in the new season.
“I’ll give you a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won’t say who it is,” Jean shared in a conference call about the show’s 25th season.

With more than 25 Primetime Emmy Awards under the show’s belt, that hint isn’t the most helpful.

But with some research, we found out Princess Penelope (Anne Hathaway), Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) and Marge’s mom Jacqueline (Julie Kavner) are just some of the award-winning characters that could be on the chopping block.

IS IT BART? The House Republicans are probably working super hard on solving this mystery, but that just means that we have to work even harder. Unluckily for them, forcing government workers to stay home without pay, while they are still getting paid, just pushed a good chunk of the workforce hardcore into the SIMPSONS MYSTERY SOLVING BUSINESS. And the rest of us who are at our jobs and on this blog can just work on the Simpsons mystery like we normally would! Who is it? Bart? I feel like it’s Bart!