--- title: The Simpsons Confirms Michael Jackson Made Cameo description: The Simpsons creator Matt Groening has confirmed that King of Pop Michael Jackson did in fact voice a character in the show. canonical: https://time.com/5382656/the-simpsons-michael-jackson-episode/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-30T14:49:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:36.492Z og:title: The Simpsons Confirms One of Its Most Popular Fan Theories og:description: Just ask creator Matt Groening og:url: https://time.com/5382656/the-simpsons-michael-jackson-episode/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f256ccc413aac15/6988c34d0b72e32edb6ed639/michael-jackson-simpsons.jpg?branch=production&width=1044&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1044 og:image:height: 587 og:image:alt: michael-jackson-simpsons og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Simpsons Confirms One of Its Most Popular Fan Theories twitter:description: Just ask creator Matt Groening twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f256ccc413aac15/6988c34d0b72e32edb6ed639/michael-jackson-simpsons.jpg?branch=production&width=1044&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _The Simpsons_ Just Confirmed One of Its Most Popular Fan Theories > Sponsored content. 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Michael Jackson: The pop star, credited as John Jay Smith, voiced the character Leon Kompowsky in the 1991 episode "Stark Raving Dad," in which Homer encounters Leon (a patient with Jackson-like tendencies) after he is committed to a mental institution. FOX  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Aug 30, 2018 2:49 PM UTC After nearly 26 years of speculation over whether [Michael Jackson](http://time.com/money/5373055/michael-jackson-thriller-the-eagles/) made a cameo in [_The Simpsons_](http://time.com/4667462/simpsons-predictions-donald-trump-lady-gaga/), creator Matt Groening has confirmed that the [King of Pop](http://time.com/money/5002349/michael-jackson-net-worth-2017/) did in fact voice a character. During an appearance on _The Weekly_ on Wednesday—what would’ve been Jackson’s 60th birthday—Groening validated a long-running fan theory that it really was Jackson who voiced the balding patient that Homer meets in a psychiatric ward in the 1991 episode “Stark Raving Dad.” “You don’t have to put it in quotes,” Groening told host Charlie Pickering. “We really did have him.” > [](https://twitter.com/theweeklytv/status/1034754959227535363) However, Jackson wasn’t the one who serenaded Lisa for her birthday. “He didn’t want credit for, or there was some kind of deal with his record company or whatever, so when it came time to sing the songs, he had a sound-alike singer,” Groening explained. “He stood there and watched the guy, who was so nervous, who had to sound like Michael Jackson, and then he giggled.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5382656/the-simpsons-michael-jackson-episode/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5382656/the-simpsons-michael-jackson-episode/"},"headline":"The Simpsons Just Confirmed One of Its Most Popular Fan Theories","datePublished":"2018-08-30T14:49:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:36.492Z","description":"Just ask creator Matt Groening","url":"https://time.com/5382656/the-simpsons-michael-jackson-episode/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","TV","The Simpsons"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f256ccc413aac15/6988c34d0b72e32edb6ed639/michael-jackson-simpsons.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8f256ccc413aac15/6988c34d0b72e32edb6ed639/michael-jackson-simpsons.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"michael-jackson-simpsons","caption":"Michael Jackson: The pop star, credited as John Jay Smith, voiced the character Leon Kompowsky in the 1991 episode “Stark Raving Dad,” in which Homer encounters Leon (a patient with Jackson-like tendencies) after he is committed to a mental institution.","creditText":"FOX","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5382656/the-simpsons-michael-jackson-episode/","name":"The Simpsons Just Confirmed One of Its Most Popular Fan Theories"}}]}] ```