The Simpsons have been making fun of everything and everyone since 1989. Naturally, this has led to various disputes with other parties. In 2003, a controversial joke was made about a network that would have shot itself in the foot with a lawsuit.
The Simpsons have been represented on television for over 30 years and from the very beginning, the television family made fun of everything: pop culture, celebrities, politicians, and sometimes even their own “controversial” network, Fox.
In 2003, a joke for the Fox network was apparently a bit too much. It allegedly caused a dispute between the network and the show. The big problem was: The Simpsons belonged to Fox at that time.
Fox against Fox?
What kind of gag is it about? In season 14, episode 14 (Krusty in Congress), the Simpsons have a big problem: Due to changed flight routes, they can no longer enjoy a quiet moment in their house. To solve the problem, Krusty the Clown is supposed to run as a Republican in Congress. To do this, he has to adapt to political games.
This leads to a gag at the expense of the conservative Fox News network. In the episode, there is a ticker at the bottom of the screen that uses exaggerated statements against Democrats: Do Democrats cause cancer?
In the interview, the Democrat is also shown with a Soviet flag and referred to as Comrade
.
This was apparently too much for Fox News, as Matt Groening told a radio station in 2003. Legal action was allegedly threatened (via independent.co.uk):
We did the ticker at the bottom of the screen. Fox said they would sue the show. And we decided to take the risk because we didn’t believe Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. We got away with it.
Since then, Fox is said to have had a rule that no more fake news tickers are made, as it could confuse the viewers. At that time, Fox also commented on the accusations. According to the Guardian, Fox denied the allegations and said: We are racking our brains here. We liked the cartoon. We thought it was great.
Fox News is considered to be a very conservative news channel, often expressing political bias. Especially under Rupert Murdoch, the network was seen as very manipulative. Such orientations obviously do not fit with relatively open and critical shows like The Simpsons, where views are expressed much more liberally and globally. Mr. Burns is a similarly critical figure in The Simpsons, but he would never fire Homer: Homer causes many accidents at the nuclear power plant in the TV show The Simpsons and is not fired because there is a deal with Mr. Burns
