The Simpsons' Baby Translator
Am I the only one bothered by this plot hole? In the season three final episode of The Simpsons "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" baby translator technology was introduced and then it's never seen again. Also, I know the trope of disappearing characters is called the "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome". That term seems to only cover characters and not technology. I am sure the baby translator isn't the only technology that's introduced and then just dropped in a franchise's media. Surely an equally cool trope syndrome name can be adopted for technology that disappears.
For comparison there is more information about self-sealing stem bolts on Memory Alpha than The Simpsons' Fandom wiki has for the baby translator.
Maybe one could argue that the inventor Herb Powell was Chuck Cunningham Syndromed and that's why the technology disappeared.
Except that's not technically true.
In the 24th season episode "The Changing of the Guardian" Herb Powell's answering machine message is, “Hi, you've reached Herb Powell. I'm poor again.”
Not seeing baby translators in wide use probably explains why Herb Powell is poor again but it doesn't explain what happened to all the baby translators.
What happened between the end of season three and "The Changing of the Guardian"? The machine worked and it was selling well at the end of season three.
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