The simpsons was originally made in 4:3. Many people don't like watching with large black bars to the right and left, so they show a cropped 16:9 version. People complained because this is occasionally a problem and ruins a joke, so I believe you can opt into either.

A similar crime against taste as the pan-and-scan "fullscreen" DVDs of the early 2000s. If I want to pay to watch something, don't crop out a chunk of what the cinematographer wanted me to see...

David Simon talked about this for the HD release of The Wire:

https://davidsimon.com/the-wire-hd-with-videos/

It seems like the video examples are unfortunately now unavailable, but the discussion is still interesting and it's neat to see the creative trade-offs and constraints in the process. I think those nuances help evoke generosity in how one approaches re-releases or other versions or cuts of a piece of media.

There's a (much less severe) instance of that peeve with computer video player apps that have slightly rounded corners on the windows.

Pan and scan wasn't a DVD innovation. Most VHS releases were pan and scan too; DVDs at least commonly had widescreen available (many early discs came with widescreen on one side and full screen on the other... good luck guessing if widescreen on the hub indicates the side you're reading is widescren or if the otherside is widescreen so you should have the widescreen label facing up in your player.

I believe this is the best example of the problems that can be caused:

https://x.com/TristanACooper/status/1194298167824650240

Open both images and compare. The visual joke is completely ruined with the cropping.

There's an option to switch back to the original 4:3 ratio.