¡Ay, caramba! Mr Virgil Abloh taps Springfield’s first family for his latest partnership .

Do you remember when The Simpsons was good? Not just good, but great – in fact, the best thing on TV. Perhaps even, before the dawn of the present golden age of TV, the reason to own a television in the first place – or a satellite dish, certainly, as the programme maker Fox used the series as the USP to hawk its network. Mr Virgil Abloh certainly does, judging by this latest batch of clothing to land on site via his Off-White line. The designer, who admits he finds it hard to turn down an interesting collaboration, follows his recent MR PORTER partnership with a clutch of T-shirts and sweatshirts depicting the Springfield family that put the fun into dysfunctional.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of The Simpsons’ first broadcast, making it the longest-running sitcom in US history. This also means it has outlived another 1990s cultural icon, Mr Kurt Cobain – and that Homer and Marge’s marriage has endured longer than that of that other cartoonish American TV power couple, the Jenners. This in itself should be an excuse to celebrate the show. However, these are trying times for The Simpsons; more trying, even, than a “Treehouse of Horror” episode. Not only is its quality regularly called into question (IMDb ratings suggest the show peaked around season six, some two decades ago, and has since slipped into decline, although we’d argue that it holds its own well into seasons nine and 10), but its sloppy adoption of lazy stereotypes, especially racial ones, has been exposed as wider culture has moved forward. Once seen as a progressive force for good, the show still hasn’t found a way to explain how a white man of Spanish and Jewish ancestry can successfully voice an Indian-American without resorting to cheap gags at their expense. One of the golden rules of comedy is that it should punch up, not down. Or, to quote Grandpa Simpson: “I used to be with it. But then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t it, and what’s it seems scary and weird. It’ll happen to you.”

Handily, for those hoping to wallow in the nostalgia of what is perceived as more innocent times, Off-White’s wares dip deftly into The Simpsons’ very first seasons, back when President George HW Bush was still using the family as a cautionary tale, before the show really got into its stride. During what cultural anthropologists may (or may not) refer to as the “Do The Bartman” era, Bart, the delinquent son, rather than Homer, his dim-witted everyman paternal figure, was the star of the show. The drawings were cruder, as was the script, which relied heavily on catchphrases suffixed with the word “man”. But in focusing on Bart, the initial run of the show captured the spirit of youthful rebellion, as indeed do these clothes.

In our view, the only thing this collection is missing is shorts, which we would customarily invite you to eat.

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