there's an episode of The Simpsons where Marge tries to get a violent cartoon pulled from the airwaves, only to discover that the people backing her aren't going to stop at just the art that she doesn't like, and that supporting artistic freedom means accepting discomfort.
It aired in 1990.
Oh we are fully reliving the Satanic Panic of the 80’s, complete with Gen Z conservatives unknowingly mimicking Phyllis Schlafly
Yes?
Art is only allowed to make me feel things until it is discomfort, of course. /s
congrats on going viral
This has happened in multiple shows, animated ones especially. It's kind of a basic theme at this point, and it's annoying how the people doing it just don't get it.
I recently re-watched South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut with my girlfriend, who had never seen it. Its anti-censorship message still rings true to this day
The same happens with deporting the immigrants that certain people don't like. It never stops with them.
Matt Groening is not a modern day Nostradamus, America has just always been a shitty country.
Most of the episodes in the first three seasons actually had a point
Jim Henson's Dinosaurs predicted it too, but like most history, nothing is new.
It's wild how things haven't changed things since then. From my book... www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alan-...
Family guy has a similar episode but with the fcc
Itchy & Scratchy & Marge, Season 2 episode 9 if anyone want's to watch it.
Yeah, in the middle of the "Explicit Lyrics" moral panic.
The tv shows fox has aired for decades stand in wildly stark and inexplicable contrast to fox news and what the owners really stand for.
And it's a really good episode.
And its Fox too...
One of my fav episode back then, I still remember it after all these years
#Alt4You Homer and Marge Simpson, facing back, look at the top half of a statue that may be Michelangelo's David.
A lot of the censorship discourse I researched was from last century. These people know what they're talking about.
Yeah that’s on point with what is going on currently that the Simpsons warned… also HIT POST HOLY SHIT
When I was a kid, I annoyed my older brother so much he imitated what he saw on the Simpsons. "Why you little--" It happens, but I'm still anti-censorship.
Go to HBO Max, watch all 6 Final Destination movies, take special note when tits disappeared from mere PG-13 popcorn flicks.
because 2 years in The Simpsons was already under attack from conservative lunatics, because that's what they do. I don't care to hear the opinions of people who's instant reaction to any creative expression is "this makes me uncomfortable and needs to be stopped".
jesus Red, 11k likes!
Red holy FUCK
The writers might be freakin' psychic. They're often times really smart. Plus Conan O'Brien was one.
You did it red, you got a hit post 👏👏👏
I love it how Marge is an advocate for artistic expression, even if she has fuddy-duddy tendencies. Not only did she fight for kids to see David, but she painted Mr. Burns in the nude. (Maybe she just likes dong, I guess.)
One of my absolute favorite episodes of anything.
Because conservative Christians have had the same playbook for hundreds of years.
Why did say trump because two things 1. Ronald Reagan 2. bill clinton
Why they did the episode the real world Marges try to get the show banned
In the end, Marge had to face the consequences of her actions.
Remember the episode of family guy where Lois teaches sex education and a bunch of people revolted because she was actually teaching sex education and replaced her with a Christian conservative
they’ve been baiting nagging insufferable mothers into this shit for generations
Ah yes the episode titled "Marge vs Itchy and Scratchy"
What's wrong, Marge?
Oh, Homie. The kids have a chance to see great art. But they're watching a cat and mouse disembowel each other.
Don't worry, Marge. Soon every kid in school is going to come and see this thing.
Really? Why?
They're forcing them!
This is correct. Its was correct then, its correct now and would be correct at any time.
Marge being an artist and enjoying art is something it feels like the writers forgot about
Yes cause that was during the whole we have to ban video games and violence in movies and tv it’s harming kids and the purtains got shut down when research started to prove them wrong
Yeah but money tho
Its not that they predicted it, its just that these moral panic types haven't gone away.
Early form of censorship
Tale as old as time.
Lemonade? Please.
Not Suprised. We are continuously regressing as a society. Some people are letting their sense of justice being taken advantage of unwillingly, and some people are taking notice at how powerful it is to do that same thing.
I really wish breeders would stop making them being too lazy to raise they kids they chose to keep all of our problem
My family and I have been watching The Simpsons from the beginning and it's wild how relevant episodes from over 20 years ago still are.
This episode is brilliant.
I mean, there's stuff like this going back to the 1960s at least, and I'd be surprised if not back to temperance and beyond.
The good ole days for sure
sadly marge would probably be a terf today
"If you could be told of what you can see or read
Then it follows that you can be told what to say or think"
Boards of Canada, 1998
Once again, I find myself singing "Chrome" by VNV Nation. From 2005.
One thing I utterly love about this episode is that they showed the statue’s penis
So many other forms of entertainment have shied away from it but they obviously knew that dancing around it would undermine the story
Philip K. Dick did something similar back in the 50s (?) with Eye in the Sky. Great book.
Oh pretty sure I've heard arguments that the nude statues need to have clothes put on them because good Christian men get uncomfortable.
Wow, this is doing numbers
I made the mistake of opening Twitter and I saw a Simpsons themed account post a screenshot of this post
Itchy and Scratchy at their hilarious best! 😄
Yeah, that episode alongside the one with Lisa's trip to Washington D.C. to see corrupt politicians firsthand are my favorite Season 2 episodes of The Simpsons.
And its still the same people trying to do it.
Slippery slopes don’t just go downhill in one direction
Although nowadays, the moms in these Watchout groups are very comfortable just censoring everything.
If it were up to them, the only book a kid would ever read in school would be the Bible.
They have zero scruples.
@gayracula.bsky.social lindo isso
And it could just as easily have aired in 1890. If, y'know, there was TV or radio. Or animation. :) Look, it's the principle that matters, not the technical correctness of the metaphor!
I'd like to submit this video I made on a similar topic. youtube.com/shorts/dLJ7H...
YouTube video by DABurgosART
Censorship is power. It's one thing to work through your discomforts. It's another when it's stoked by those hoping to control through an agenda.
Fuck I remember watching and getting so angry
This show was my Adolescence favourite!
I was born in the mid 90s, and I loved so much of this show.
The newer stuff is great though I think Greoning helped me understood uncomfortable truths when I was younger watching the older seasons.
So?
not the first time, it won't be the last time, the shitty part is that to be now, when we thought we were doing better and society was mature but moral panics always existed
www.livemint.com/news/trends/...
I literally rewatched it this evening, because I remembered the "Psycho" parody so fondly! And now that I am an adult, I can't fathom how much they criticized the world of entertainment, and how it feels even more accurate nowadays. From the influence of TV to censorship of art, it is spot on!
📌
I really miss The Simpsons I loved it so much
You must not have been around when Reagan, Helms, and the Moral Majority attacked the NEA in the 1980s. Google "Piss Christ"
This isn’t a predictive indicator- it was a direct response to congressional hearings
look up tipper gore & the PMRC
The reference to the pope who had the private bits of statues broken was a nice nod too.
Truly, today, the screwballs have spoken
the Simpsons really have done everything
"They came not to see the Mona Lisa, but to say they had seen the Mona Lisa."
-Robert Hughes, "Mona Lisa Curse"(forgive the indirect quote)
watchdocumentaries.com/the-mona-lis...
Art critic Robert Hughes investigates how the world's most iconic painting, the Mona Lisa, has influenced the world of art in this Grierson Award winning documentary.
More shows should do episodes tackling the concept of mass censorship, fr
Everything old is new again! (but in a bad way)
The Simpsons don’t predict the future, the past repeats itself….
Given the TX date, it was probably intended to satirise the PMRC.
Season 2, Episode 9
"I guess one person can make a difference, but most of the time they probably shouldn't"
The stupidest part of this is that it started because of her own fault for letting an unattended toddler watch something that wasn't even suited for her in the first place, like parents angry with Rockstar because their children are seeing naked adult women, in a game meant to be played by adults
I don't like The Simpsons at all, but I admit the writers are bigbrained af. Sad so much of this serie's clever messaging drowns in the minds of stupid people watching it for stupid jokes alone
yeah we've been warning the squares about this since the 60s but all they did is turn it into funkopops and NFT's. At this point I embrace the craven stupid reality that avoids self awareness like eating vegetables. Normal people want this, who am I to waste my time arguing?
yeah because that was happening in 1990. this isn’t new or a coincidence lol
Looks like it was the Mapplethorpe rhetoric.
VISA VIS something happening today?
Surely this wouldn’t happen today.
My favorite that lots of people forget because superficially it’s a “baseball movie” is Field of Dreams. Annie, rightfully, calls a woman fighting to ban books from the library a book burning Nazi cow and the author under discussion is core to the entire plot
Ooh, I got goosebumps.
No I don't.
Was it Itchy and Scratchy?
I hope not. I&S is kino.
I think it's more that we're a society of comforts and don't know how to handle difficult emotions. Even going back to the Lottery, people were sending letters to the Publisher to unsubscribe because they didn't like the story.
Well, there he is
Holy shit red you popped off sjsidjdjsjs
We were heading in a good direction and then Sept 11 screwed everything up
So we're not gonna ban AI art then, right? 🤔
a barely literate man had a good job, a house on a half-acre lot, 3 kids, and a wife who could afford to stay home.
This wasn't the satire of the show at the time.
1990 wasn't really that long ago. People have been anti-censorship for thousands of years.
She didn't like the cartoon because it after watching it, Maggie tried to kill Homer.
The episode was about moral panics vs evidence-based concerns for children's health, I believe, not about how you can't have Michelangelo's David without Itchy & Scratchy.
