This Simpsons fan theory would be the perfect way to end the show

It's been difficult to watch what's happened to The Simpsons over the past few years.

What was once the greatest show on television has become a sort of sad self parody, and with each passing episode our love for the first eight seasons (or 10, depending on who you ask) takes another knock.

Fans of the show have been calling for it to be put out of its misery for well over a decade now, as it has been tough to watch characters we once loved simply parrot back old catchphrases and the same tired jokes week after week.

But how do you end something that has been such an important part of popular culture for so long? It's been running for 27 seasons and has clocked up nearly 600 episodes. Whatever the ending, it's got to be spectacular.

We thought The Simpsons Movie might be the end of the line back in 2007, but nearly a decade on and it's still going.

You might say that they're just looking for the right ending, but that's not really a valid excuse. After all, it's been four years since someone on Reddit posited the perfect way to wrap things up in a neat little package. Really, we mean that. Sorry if it sounded sarcastic.

According to Redditor LittleMonkey69, the perfect ending goes like this. When watching TV as a family, it is announced that Itchy and Scratchy is coming to an end and that there will be a competition to allow a fan to write the finale.

All the Simpsons family members enter the contest, and Krusty falls in love with one of the ideas and decides to make it the winner, but on the day he accidentally announces the names of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie so that they all have won.

This is where it gets interesting:

'Flash forward a year later and Bart is in class describing his take on the Itchy and Scratchy finale to Milhouse, while showing us Itchy and Scratchy with Bart's voice-over. He finishes and the class is silent, Edna Krabappel is staring at him and says, "After-school detention". 'The scene then cuts to the power plant and Homer is describing his finale to Lenny and Carl. He finishes, a bell rings and he gets in a radiation suit. The scene cuts to a supermarket and Marge is describing her take to Helen Lovejoy, she finishes and strolls Maggie in the trolley to another aisle. 'Here, Maggie sees the unibrow baby and starts describing her take via waving and motioning. She finishes and the scene cuts to Lisa, she begins describing her take to Sherri and Terri. She finishes and picks up her saxophone to go to music practice. 'She walks in the music room sits down and then sees the time. She realises the show is going to be on in ten minutes. She plays the Itchy and Scratchy melody on her sax and bolts out. 'It cuts to Bart, he's writing on the black board: "I will not talk in class ever again" - he hears a bell, realises the time and runs out. Cut to Homer holding some plutonium at a conveyor belt when a bell rings at the plant and he too realises the time and runs off, dropping some plutonium. Cut to the supermarket and we see Marge and Maggie checking out and running through the exit doors. 'Cut to a bird's eye view of their home and we see everyone rushing to take a seat in the couch. They look at each other, they smile, the Itchy and Scratchy music plays, and it cuts to credits.'

Considering how drawn out and fantastical the series has become over the years, it would be fantastic to see such an understated, yet meaningful, end to one of the most celebrated shows on TV, allowing it all to come full circle.

Rather than going for a big shock by killing off the main characters or a disappointing "twist" that it was all a dream or something equally crap, this would be the perfect way to end the show.

And if the creators of The Simpsons do decide to take it, it even carries the extra meta level of letting a fan write the final episode of an iconic show which centres around the idea of the main characters writing the final episode of an iconic show.

Make it happen.