An Old SIMPSONS Joke About WATERWORLD Is Now an Actual Game

Back in the ’90s, Waterworld was one of Hollywood’s most notorious flops. (Although it was only kind of a flop, but we’ll get to that.) The post-apocalyptic 1995 action movie starred Kevin Costner and Dennis Hopper and was the butt of jokes for years. And one of these jokes was a 20-second gag on an episode of The Simpsons back in 1998.

In the episode, we saw Bart’s buddy Milhouse drop 40 quarters into a Waterworld arcade game. He played as Kevin Costner’s character, took one step, and then the game ends right there. Implying, of course, that everything Waterworld touched was an instant fail. But now, according to Kotaku, someone has taken that gag and made it into an actual game.

An indie game developer and Twitch streamer going by the name  Macaw45 put together  a free game inspired by that 20-second joke. And so far, fans of are digging it. Macaw45 has, of course, expanded upon the game in a big way. They added bosses, several new areas to explore, and some buried secrets to chance upon. And just like poor Milhouse, you’ll need to load in 40 quarters too. Well, figuratively speaking of course. Speaking of Milhouse, it seems one actually gets to play as Milhouse. I guess that means everyone who plays is a predetermined loser.

The Simpsons-themed Waterworld game
Macaw45

As much fun as it is and was to mock Waterworld (which we admit is not all that great), it wasn’t that big of a flop really. Yes, it cost a then-staggering $175 million to produce. Which is the standard amount any big tentpole costs these days. But it made $264 million at the box office. And the added revenue of VHS rentals, which were a big part of a movie’s money-earning potential then, meant Waterworld eventually was in the black. But we admit, it’s still so much fun to make fun of, even all these years later. Even if making fun of it is a sometimes frustrating game based on an old joke.

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