“The Simpsons” Producer Responds to Some of the Show’s Craziest FCC Complaints

Via <a href="http://www.thesimpsons.com/_ugc/images/wallpapers/1280x1024_Family.jpg">20th Century Fox</a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Last week, GovernmentAttic.org posted a series of informal complaints sent to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding The Simpsons, the beloved Fox animated series that premiered in 1989. The complaints, obtained via Freedom of Information Act request, were received by the FCC between 2010 and 2013. Viewers objected to the sitcom’s depiction of Satan, groin-kicking, whale explosion, and “sexual agony,” among other supposedly indecent presentations.

Gawker‘s Adrian Chen highlighted some of the funniest complaints. Here are a few of them:

From St. Maries, Idaho:

The Simpsons FCC complaint

 

Tulsa, Oklahoma:

Simpsons FCC complaints

Huntsville, Alabama:

FCC complaint The Simpsons FOIA

…and Norco, California:

FCC complaint The Simpsons

Text, (via Gawker): I was shocked to see sexual violence when a cartoon character of an Israeli girl was using her knee to repeatedly strike a boy’s (Bart Simpson) groin. It is amazing we would encourage our children during family hour to do such a terrible thing. Imagine if bart was kicking the girl’s groin! I implore you to protect our young kids from such psychological damage that may very wile lead to physical damage and seriously punish the guilty please.

On Monday, Mother Jones asked Al Jean, a longtime Simpsons executive producer, what he thought about this archive of complaints against his show. Jean sent along the following statement:

Well, at least they weren’t complaining about us being on too long.

(This is a common criticism of the long-running series, which entered its 25th season last month.)

You can read the trove of FCC complaints here:

 

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate