THERE’S panic on the streets of Springfield thanks to a recent episode of The Simpsons which satirised Smiths singer Morrissey.
The vegan singer, 61, was outraged at the way he was treated by the show’s writers — and he’s not the first.
Morrissey was annoyed about an episode which features a character called Quilloughby who has a quiff and was once in an indie band called The Snuffs.
Quilloughby, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, turns out to be a figment of Lisa’s imagination who becomes an overweight, anti-immigrant carnivore.
“The hatred shown towards me from the creators of the Simpsons is obviously a taunting lawsuit, but one that requires more funding than I could possibly muster in order to make a challenge,” Morrissey wrote in a statement on his website.
He added: “You are especially despised if your music affects people in a strong and beautiful way, since music is no longer required to.”
Tim Long, the episode’s writer, previously told Variety that Quilloughby wasn’t just based on Morrissey, and also drew on others including Joy Division singer Ian Curtis.
Morrisey’s manager, Peter Katsis, accused The Simpsons’ crew of being “hurtful and racist”, making reference to one of the biggest scandals in the show’s history.
Racism row
Slamming The Simpsons’ writers for portraying Morrissey as a racist, Katsis wrote: “They should take that mirror and hold it up to themselves.
“Simpson’s actor Hank Azaria’s recent apology to the whole country of India for his role in upholding ‘structural racism’ says it all.”
The reference was to a decades-long row about the show’s character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, an Indian immigrant who runs Springfield’s Kwik-E-Mart.
Critics say Apu is a racist caricature of South Asians built from hurtful stereotypes.
The row came to a head with a 2017 documentary, The Problem With Apu, in which comedian Hari Kondabolu looked at how South Asian-American’s lives had been negatively affected by the character.
Questions were also asked as to why Hank Azaria, who is white, voiced Apu.
Last year, The Simpsons announced they would no longer have white actors voicing non-white characters.
And last week, Azaria himself apologised to “every single Indian person” for playing Apu while speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast.
Brazilian fury
The Simpsons has even attracted the ire of an entire country before.
In the episode Blame it on Lisa, the Simpsons travel to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil looking for an orphan who’s gone missing.
While in the city, Homer is kidnapped and only released when the family pay a $50,000 ransom.
The episode was met with outrage in Brazil, with the tourist board of Rio de Janeiro threatening to sue Fox for the show’s portrayal of the city as riddled with crime and rats.
And other critics in Brazil were annoyed by the inclusion of cultural inaccuracies, like dances such as the Conga and the Macarena, neither of which originated in the country.
“We apologise to the lovely city and people of Rio de Janeiro,” Simpsons executive producer James L. Brooks said in a statement.
“And if that doesn’t settle the issue, Homer Simpson offers to take on the president of Brazil on Fox’s Celebrity Boxing.”
Condemned in parliament
The Aussies weren’t too happy with the way they were sent up by The Simpsons either.
In the episode Bart Vs Australia, the family has to travel Down Under to sort out a legal row caused by Bart tricking an Australian child into accepting a collect call from the US which incurs a charge of “900 Dollarydoos”.
Critics thought the episode unfairly mocked Australia and some complained about the accents of the supposedly Australian characters.
“Whenever we have the Simpsons visit another country, that country gets furious, including Australia,” writer Mike Reiss told The Age.
“We were condemned in the Australian Parliament after the episode.”
Some did see the funny side, however, including the 70,000 people who signed a petition to get the Aussie government to adopt “Dollarydoos” as a new currency.
Gay marriage uproar
The Simpsons has also been controversial for its handling of LGBTQ+ issues.
One episode, Homer’s Phobia, revolves around Homer’s attempts to dissociate himself from a new family friend, John, after finding out that John is gay.
Concerned about the effect John’s influence will have on Bart, Homer attempts to affirm Bart’s heterosexuality by making him look at billboards of scantily clad women and taking him to a steel mill to be around “manly” men.
When it aired in 1997, the episode was praised for its satire of homophobic beliefs, like that homosexuality is somehow contagious.
But it’s since been criticised by modern audiences for Homer’s bigotry for most of the episode, and the fact that he only comes to see John in a new light after John saves Bart’s life.
Another row followed the episode There’s Something About Marrying in which Marge’s sister, Patty Bouvier, comes out as gay and announces her engagement to her girlfriend, Veronica.
Marge initially insists that Patty marries a man, before later accepting her as a lesbian.
It’s since been praised for its progressive message but some conservative groups denounced the episode at the time of its original broadcast in 2005.
“At a time when the public mood is overwhelmingly against gay marriage, any show that promotes gay marriage is deliberately bucking the public mood,” L. Brent Bozell III of the Parents Television Council told the New York Times.
“I’d rather them not do it at all. You’ve got a show watched by millions of children.
“Do children need to have gay marriage thrust in their faces as an issue? Why can’t we just entertain them?”
Michael Jackson ‘grooming’ claims
Morrissey isn’t the only pop star The Simpsons have caused controversy with.
In 1991, the episode Stark Raving Dad featured a guest appearance by Michael Jackson, who plays a man Homer meets in a mental facility who believes he is Michael Jackson.
While the programme was praised by many, and was one of The Simpsons’ writers’ favourites, they decided to pull it from circulation in 2019 after the documentary Leaving Neverland was released.
The Netflix series shows a series of men alleging that Jackson groomed and sexually abused them as boys.
Jackson denied any wrongdoing before his death in 2009.
Explaining why the episode was pulled, showrunner Al Jean told The Daily Beast he believed Jackson used his appearance on The Simpsons for a nefarious purpose.
“I think it was part of what he used to groom boys,” Jean said.
“I really don’t know, and I should be very careful because this is not something I know personally, but as far as what I think, that’s what I think.
“And that makes me very, very sad.”
Executive producer James L Brooks separately defended the decision.
“The documentary gave evidence of monstrous behaviour,” Brooks The Wall Street Journal.
“I’m against book burning of any kind. But this is our book, and we’re allowed to take out a chapter.”
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