When The Simpsons celebrated Fox’s 25th anniversary Sunday night by taking a swipe at Fox News, it was only the latest example of what has become a long tradition. Indeed, taking shots at Fox seems to be The Simpsons’ favorite way of celebrating all its milestones. For the show’s 20th anniversary episode, a Springfield billboard during the opening credits read “Fox Network: Still Sucking After 20 Years.” For their 400th episode, The Simpsons did a riff on media censorship, ending with the 400th episode itself getting censored.
But The Simpsons doesn’t limit its treasons just to milestones and anniversaries. Fox News has arguably become the show’s favorite satirical target in recent years. (The media feud has even been summed up by Next Media’s Taiwanese animation.) While the jabs are sometimes friendly—and while the resulting attention may benefit Fox more than it hurts the network—the criticism can become quite biting. In 2003 Simpsons creator Matt Groening said that one bit of satire—which included a faux Fox News ticker reporting items like “Pointless news crawls up 37 per cent” and “Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at foxnews.com...”—prompted Fox News to threaten a lawsuit. Groening says The Simpsons kept the gag anyway because they didn’t think Rupert Murdoch would pay for one part of his corporation to sue another.
On the occasion of Fox’s 25th anniversary—and The Simpsons’ latest dig—we thought it a good time to round up a few of The Simpons’ greatest jabs at Fox and its parent corporation.
“The Fox Network has sunk to a new low,” Season 5 (1993)
In this early spoof, The Simpsons’ Arnold Schwarzenegger stand-in hosts Up Late with McBain, the network’s new late-night talk show. Not only is the show not funny—McBain has never been good with comic delivery—it quickly devolves into a series of homophobic remarks, prompting Lisa to call it a new low for the network.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Friday, September 21st 2012 at 11:17PM
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