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The Simpsons Reviewed For Unsuitable Nuclear Jokes
Hugh Pickens writes "CNN reports that television networks in several European countries are reportedly reviewing episodes of 'The Simpsons' for any 'unsuitable' references to nuclear disaster, with an Austrian network apparently pulling two episodes: 1992's 'Marge Gets a Job' and 2005's 'On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister,' which include jokes about radiation poisoning and nuclear meltdowns. Al Jean, executive producer of the show, says that he can appreciate the concern. 'We have 480 episodes, and if there are a few that they don't want to air for awhile in light of the terrible thing going on, I completely understand that,' says Jean, citing the example of the 1997 episode 'The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson' that was pulled after 9/11 because it included key scenes at the World Trade Center. 'We would never make light of what's happening in Japan.'"
radical news: someone behaved in a mature and sensible way!
to make fun of it.
/b/, but it had a macabre humour to it: (to the tune of spongebob squarepants' theme) "who lives in their houses under the sea?" "japanese people"
This probably originated from
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
They are obviously not talking about ignoring the problem, but about not making fun of people that are actually suffering radiation exposure.
I hear what you're saying, but is it really "making fun" when the episode is filmed years before the disaster? I'm a New Yorker, the Trade Center episode not only doesn't bother me, I still find it hilarious to this day!
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If anything the Simpsons are a way of becoming more aware of the problem, not making fun of those who suffer for it.
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It seems somewhat over reactive, but I see the idea. It's not like they show bugs bunny nips the nips any more either.
On the flip side, they're allowed to show tits on TV in Austria, and the US has a meltdown when that happens.
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It is not ok to joke about nuclear things, but it is ok to take nuclear waste home.
why don't you go on and write six more of that?
It's not like a new episode was banned, is an episode up for repeat and some one decided to play it safe and show another on of the 20 years worth of possible reruns. Lighten up it not big brother censoring the news, or someone setting up a government comity to discuss all the pros and cons, its "hey, I would if this may upset some one? Ah what the heck I'll chuck one of these in instead" as they point to a mountain of VHS cassettes.
And S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Fallout are banned too.
You are aware of what country sumo wrestling comes from right?
He did say that he doubted anyone in Japan could do the job.
Although the logistics of bringing over a American or two. Damn thats a crazy idea.
You'd have to lash a few aircraft carriers together or something.
I appreciate the sympathy, however misplaced it is. I get a bit angry when everyone focuses on the nuclear stuff going on. The whole nuclear thing will affect some people in Fukushima prefecture (mostly economically) and maybe some of the neighboring prefectures. Still let's look at things in perspective: 3 hospitalized (they are fine apart from some 'sunburn') from the Fukushima plant issue; over 20,000 missing or dead from the tsunami plus a multitude more homeless and hospitalized. We aren't suffering from nuclear fallout, people, we are suffering from one of the worst natural disasters to hit Japan in over 20 years. Still that is the nature of the beast, 20,000 is just too large a number for people to internalize and sympathize with. However, we can all imagine our gruesome death at the hand of deadly radiation. We all know that these episodes aren't being censored out of sympathy. I just hope they don't replace the episodes with a tsunami episode.
This is ridiculous. The front page of my local newspaper (California, near the coast) is abuzz with "nyookulurr" concerns as well. Why don't they edit out the episodes having to do with, y'know, earthquakes and tsunamis, seeing as that's the brand of disaster Japan is facing right now. It seems to me that the situation with the power plants is being handled professionally and safely. If it wasn't for the public's irrational and uneducated fear of glowing green radioactivity, the nuclear power plants that we do have wouldn't be stuck at 1970's-level technology.
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It's not a meltdown. It's an unrequested fission surplus.
This is horrible! It's not like there are many other Simpsons reruns they could show instead.
Property is theft.
I dont see how this is more painful than the media people trying to make money out of the situation.
Are they also going back and wiping any reference to earthquakes and tsunamis? So far, tens of thousands have been confirmed to have died to those events, but we don't feel the need to be sensitive about that. But a nuclear accident that hasn't killed anyone is worth rewriting history of a comedy cartoon? It's not like the jokes were made at the expense of the current situation, being that they have existed for years.
I never did understand the removal of the twin towers from things either. Do we really want to show our respect to those that passed by trying to erase any mention or footage of the buildings?
I'm willing to bet that some retarded german politician will see a relation between "Duke Nukem Forever" and nuclear power and issue a ban on it before it's even released.
That's fine, but it would still have been insensitive and in bad taste to have aired that episode on 9/12. When bad things happen it's customary to be aware of the feelings of those who might have been impacted by it as a sign of respect. Stand-up comedians get away with it because they're supposed to be disrespectful and outrageous, but this is a TV station. If they're still banning the episodes next year at this time then I'd argue they're going to far.
This isn't "censorship" (a grossly misused term on this site). It's discretion.
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"Pepe, It's not nuclear, it's nucular." - Homer Simpson
I feel i need to even things out, so here is a Simpsons clip with the irradiated Curies destroying a Japanese looking city.
http://vimeo.com/21402842
Exactly. It's the owner's (Mr. Burns aka TEPCO) cavalier attitude towards safety that got them into trouble in the first place. Mr. Burns hides nuclear waste in trees, makes his employees eat the stuff(it's the TEPCO employees, not the managers, that are really going to suffer from this incident), bribes safety inspectors to look the other way etc, sort of like TEPCO did. If anything these episodes are needed more than ever to point out the flaws in the human side of safety management. Namely greed will often trump safety if there isn't real, impartial oversight.
Monstar L
So we have to wait the mandated 22.3 years (as established by South Park) before we may make jokes about nuclear disasters again? At that rate we may as well never be allowed to again, or at least only in a very small window of about 3 years between incidents.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Talking about it, what's the currently acceptable term for black people? Or cripples? Or old geezers? Or stupid people? You keep changing them faster than we can keep up over here in ol' Europe.
Pot, don't call the kettle a nigger...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If Fox ever decides to finish The Simpsons I can't think of a better way than destroying Springfield with an earthquake, a tsunami and a meltdown, all in one episode.
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I've found that most people that hate South Park probably have only viewed episodes from the first couple seasons, where it was strictly toilet humor. They likely haven't watched the newer episodes.
I recommend 'Smug Alert!'.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
Really? Look at "The City of New York vs Homer Simpson" -- it was off the air for several years, and was only allowed to return after an editing pass to cleanse it of offensive materials.
So, yeah....
Talking about it, what's the currently acceptable term for black people? Or cripples? Or old geezers? Or stupid people? You keep changing them faster than we can keep up over here in ol' Europe.
African American, Disabled, Elderly, Congressman
Becuase at the start he throws the nuclear fuel rod in to the street
I'm a little confused. The Simpsons episode with the World Trade Center shows Homer outside them, going to the top floor of one tower to use the bathroom only to find out it's out of order, then he goes to the top of the other tower to use the bathroom and see's his car get ticketed from the top. That's it. No terrorists. No mention of any violence.
Since 9/11 do we have to pretend the World Trade Center never existed? We can't have any pictures or cartoons of it on a TV show? What the hell?
Meanwhile, the news program that runs before it had no problem showing many replays of the towers getting destroyed (and still run them from time to time) and there are commercials that run during the show selling the World Trade Center attack commemerative coin.
Selling a worthless coin commemorating the WTC attack? Fine. Showing the video of the attack? Completely acceptable. Showing the WTC as a building not being attacked or threatened? Offensive.
This sentence no verb.
I'm surprised there is no reference to 1995's "King-Size Homer", in which Mr. Burns rewards Homer saying, "you turned a potential Chernobyl in to a mere Three Mile Island."
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
No, it's censorship. A powerful entity has determined what someone within their control can o can not see. It's censorship.
You do NOT need to be a government to censor. You just need to be a powerful enough group. Government, Church, Large Corporation.
The ignorant idea that only a government can censor is hurting you.
It's one of the worst kinds of censorship; whitewashing the past.
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When filling up my water bottles at a local water filtering place here in Cali, the guy mentioned that all the iodine tablets were sold out.
I was beside myself at how selfish and completely scared everyone is.
Japan is 10+ hours by flight away... and folks here are spending money on iodine tablets because of the "radiation cloud". W. T. F.
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