Here's how 'The Simpsons' still stays timely after 26 years

"The Simpsons" is about to return for its 27th season, a feat that's very rare in the TV industry, even for an animated series.

On its way to 625 episodes - more than "Family Guy" and "South Park" combined - "Simpsons" executive producer Al Jean told Variety that she thinks the show stays fresh by keeping up with current events, letting the real world serve up the story ideas.

We just had this thing a year ago where we did a World Cup parody. We were reading about the corruption in Greece. We had a FIFA executive get arrested, and now this week it's gone online and gotten half a million views. There are things that happen in the world. We can't do daily humor like "The Daily Show," but there's always insane stuff going in the world that you can't imagine. I still think back, the Vice President shot a guy in the face - and the guy apologized. That happened! If we put it in a show people would go, "That's ridiculous!"

Speaking of current events, Jean is thrilled that family patriarch Homer Simpson has another crack at voting in a presidential election.

"We're definitely going to have Homer vote in 2016," Jean told Variety. "One aspect of the pickup that made me happy is that Homer can vote again. He voted for Romney in 2012 because he invented Obamacare. He tried to vote for Obama in 2008 but all his votes went to McCain."He added, "We're not sure who the candidates are yet, but whatever he wants it's not going to happen.""The Simpsons" airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on Fox.

NOW WATCH: 11 Really Bad Movies Based On Cartoons Everyone Loves

Please enable Javascript to watch this video