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Turkey fines 'blasphemous' Simpsons for poking fun at God • God offers coffee to the devil in one of the cartoon's episodes (ANSAmed) - ANKARA - Just about everything that could be said and written about the super-popular cartoon 'The Simpsons' had been, except that it was blasphemous. Now even that ''milestone'' has been reached, thanks to the watchdogs of Turkey's television stations under the Islamic-leaning government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to the newspaper Hurriyet, Ankara's Council of Radio and Television (RTUK) has handed down a TRY 52,951 fine (about 23,000 euros) to the private broadcaster CNBC-E...

I used to love this show. As a young adult in 1990, when I first heard about the show, I scoffed at it, figuring it was some lame effort at crude humor aimed at the lowest elements. But when I watched it, I saw it had a brilliant take on society, and every show had a positive message overall. Sure they had political spoofs. But I thought they were fair and even handed. Then around 2000, the show went downhill rapidly. The writing became crap, and the show slowly started turning MSNBC. The end of of my watching this show...

Here are 6 irrefutable reasons 1. Unemployment 2. Economic Armageddon 3. Natural Disasters 4. For your loved ones and those who depend on you 5. You’re not sixteen anymore 6. Don’t worry. You won’t look stupid

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- To put it as the devout Ned Flanders would, the Vatican's newspaper thinks "The Simpsons" are an okely dokely bunch. L'Osservatore Romano on Tuesday congratulated the show on its 20th anniversary, praising its philosophical leanings as well as its stinging and often irreverent take on religion. Without Homer Simpson and the other yellow-skinned characters "many today wouldn't know how to laugh," said the article titled "Aristotle's Virtues and Homer's Doughnut." The paper credited "The Simpsons" - the longest-running American animated program - with opening up cartoons to an adult audience. The Fox show is based on...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Wednesday called on American Muslims to thank the Fox television network and the creator of "The Simpsons" for a recent episode that used comedy to challenge Islamophobia. The episode, which aired Sunday evening and is titled "Mypods and Boomsticks," highlights anti-Muslim sentiment by featuring a young Muslim character named Bashir and his family who face prejudice after moving to Springfield. In the program, Homer Simpson wrongly suspects that Bashir's family is involved in a terrorist plot. Bart Simpson befriends Bashir and defends him from bullies. CAIR's Greater Los Angeles Area office (CAIR-LA) sent...

Doh.... LOS ANGELES, Dec 03, 2008 -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called on American Muslims and other people of conscience to thank the Fox television network and the creator of "The Simpsons" for a recent episode that used comedy to challenge Islamophobia. The episode, which aired Sunday evening and is titled "Mypods and Boomsticks," highlights anti-Muslim sentiment by featuring a young Muslim character named Bashir and his family who face prejudice after moving to Springfield. In the program, Homer Simpson wrongly suspects that Bashir's family is involved in a terror plot. Bart Simpson befriends Bashir and defends...

For you students who have been fans of the Simpsons since way back in your Pogs days, you know it goes without saying that Homer Simpson screws up… a lot. But for once, in this clip, Homer’s blunder is not his fault at all. He did the right thing, he voted for Obama! Alas, the machine wouldn’t let him… instead it changes his vote to McCain every time. It’d be funny if it didn’t seem eerily plausible. (And just plain eerie, seriously, listen to the opening music.) As Simpson says, “This doesn’t happen in America, maybe Ohio, but not in...

In an episode of 'The Simpsons' slated to run November 2, Homer Simpson will vote for Barack Obama. As Homer tries to vote for Obama, a machine changes the vote to McCain and proceeds to kill him.

Nancy Cartwright, the voice behind Bart Simpson, has been awarded Scientology's Patron Laureate Award after she donated $10 million in 2007. Cartwright's gift -- almost two times her annual salary from "The Simpsons" -- puts her top of a list of celebrity benefactors. She gave even more than Tom Cruise who has donated $5 million in the last four years. Kirstie Alley gave $5 million last year. John Travolta and Kelly Preston gave $1 million, while Priscilla Presley was handed the Patron Award for a donation of $50,000. The prizes were handed out at a top-secret ceremony in Florida.

Janine Butler, a 28-year-old New Jersey teacher, knows something about out-of-control students. One girl threw objects, threatened Butler with knives and tried to bite her. Another boy was "just rude, rude, rude," pulling down his pants and swearing at her. The final straw came when another student scratched and hit her. Butler's students were barely out of diapers — 3- and 4-year-olds — and their public preschool in Trenton was not allowed to expel them. "No one would do anything," said Butler, who eventually quit. "I felt alone." Tantrums, aggression, biting and kicking are becoming increasingly common in preschool, according...

Tonight's episode is about politics. It's pretty funny so far.

We are just days away from the presidential primary season (Thank God!) and there seems to be a late entry into the race for the White House. No, it's not Michael Bloomberg (although they say he wants to), Al Gore (although they really want him to) or Rosie O'Donnell (they really say nothing about her). It's actually nose-picking, glue-eating, bed-wetting, slightly mis-educated Ralph Wiggum. Gosh, he'll fit right in, won't he? Ralph will announce his candidacy on the January 6th episode of The Simpsons. Actually, he isn't the one who announces it; rather, the voters of Springfield, who reject all...

Homer: D’oh.Ralph: Me fail English? That’s unpossible. Lionel Hutz: This is the greatest case of false advertising I’ve seen since I sued the movie “The Never Ending Story.� Sideshow Bob: No children have ever meddled with the Republican Party and lived to tell about it.Troy McClure: Don’t kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he’d eat you and everyone you care about!Comic Book Guy: The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity…Homer: Oh, so they have Internet on computers now!Ned Flanders: I’ve done everything the Bible says — even the stuff that contradicts...

LONDON (Reuters) - The upcoming Simpsons movie takes a typically irreverent dig at religion and environmentalists, and features a nude scene involving 'toon teen Bart that had the audience at a preview show applauding. A 10-minute clip from "The Simpsons Movie," the first time Homer, Marge, their family and friends have made it to the big screen, was shown in London late on Wednesday ahead of its release worldwide later in July. The clip offered several clues as to the plot, suggesting that the environment and religion would me a major themes. Rock band Green Day is booed and pelted...

EAGLE POINT — A first-grader was suspended Tuesday for drawing a stick figure shooting another in the head with a gun and allegedly threatening students. Little Butte School officials sent 6-year-old Ryan Weathers home after receiving complaints from parents saying he threatened their children, said Douglas Weathers, the boy's father. "He's not a violent kid," Weathers said. "He did not mean any harm." School district officials declined to comment. State law bars them from discussing disciplinary actions against specific students. The disciplinary report given to Weathers stated the reason for the suspension was the boy "threatened to shoot two girls...

The Simpsons have been on TV for eighteen years—the second-longest running primetime program behind 60 Minutes. So unless you've been in the Peace Corps for a good chunk of that time or simply don't watch any television, you probably already have an opinion about America's favorite animated family. The show's creators know this, and, in a stroke of genius, use it to their advantage in the uproariously funny self-aware opening to The Simpsons Movie. Let's face it. Most television shows don't translate well to the big screen, and that's especially true for 15- or 30-minute cartoons that don't have the...

July 30 – Homer Simpson is a real person. I know this from personal experience. With the movie out now, it’s a good time to tell this story. In 2002, my friend Peter invited me to be his guest at the taping of Bravo’s Inside the Actors Studio on the campus of New York University in the Village. James Lipton presided as always, and it was not the first time I had been to a taping. But this evening is aurally seared into my memory. That night, a first for the show, Lipton interviewed not one person, but an entire...

05:54:36 pm, Categories: Physics, Science and the Arts, Mathematics, 1207 words How a fake word from The Simpsons ended up in a perfectly cromulent string theory paper The Simpsons Movie debuted this weekend to higher-than-expected sales, bearing testament to the show's enduring popularity. If you needed any convincing that after 18 years on the air The Simpsons has thoroughly penetrated the popular consciousness, consider the following usage of the word "embiggen," one of the many fine references with which one Simpsons fan can detect another. The term comes from the 1996 episode Lisa the Iconoclast, in which we learn that...

Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times D. G. Sthar, a manager of the 7-Eleven on 42nd Street, and Yuka Sugahara, 22, of Emerson, N.J., with a cutout of Apu from “The Simpsons.” In Times Square, ...visitors to 345 West 42nd Street are reveling... In “The Simpsons,”...Kwik-E-Mart is a barely disguised 7-Eleven whose Indian owner changes the expiration dates on spoiled food, worships at a shrine for the elephant god Ganesha and is under constant siege by armed robbers. Far from shrinking from the image, 7-Eleven has embraced its inner Kwik-E-Mart... Andy Chaudhari (pronounced CHOW-dree), the 7-Eleven franchise owner on 42nd...

Very possibly the most importent political tool of our time. See what you would look like as a Simpsons cast member!

Woo-hoo! "The Simpsons Movie" has won its name back on the Internet. A UN agency has ruled that ownership of the domain name thesimpsonsmovie.com must be handed to News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, which owns the rights to the film and the popular TV series. Twentieth Century Fox complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization over the use of the film's name in the Internet address of a site registered by Keith Malley of New York. Fox lawyers claimed Malley was using the address to divert Internet users to a website that included sexually explicit depictions of several characters from...

A recent article by writer Manish Vij, The Apu travesty in The Guardian has stirred up something of a hornets nest of controversy as was chronicled here in NewsBusters. Vij took a strictly PC approach and condemned the portrayal of Apu from "The Simpsons" as being racist. However, his opinion is far from universal among people of ethnic Indian background. Journalist Saptarshi Ray who is based in the Washington, D.C. bureau of The Guardian has a very different view of the Apu character in his response, The wonder of Apu: Apu may run the local shop, he may indulge in some jiggery-pokery with...

CERNE ABBAS, England, July 19 (UPI) -- A 180-foot-long drawing of Homer Simpson next to an enormous, sacred carving in Dorset, England, has angered pagans, Sky News reported Wednesday. The group has vowed to do a little "rain magic" to wash away the cartoon character, which was rendered with biodegradable paint on a hillside next to the famous 17th Century fertility symbol, the Cerne Abbas giant. The picture of Homer Simpson eating a doughnut was etched alongside the chalk outline of the naked, club-wielding giant as a publicity stunt to promote the upcoming release of "The Simpsons Movie."

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Peter DeFazio sent an angry letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, calling for an investigation. These days, that's not a rare move for a Democratic congressman. But the Springfield Democrat's complaint is, uh, different. Let's just say he probably won't be seeking public office in Vermont any time soon. The full text of the letter is after the jump. -- Jeff Kosseff Alberto R. Gonzalez Attorney General Office of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Building 950 Pennsylvania, N.W. Washington D.C. 20530-2000 Heidely Ho Attorney General Gonzales: I write to you to express the outrage that I, and...

Dear Maceman, I'm writing today to ask for your vote -- and this time it's to bring the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie" to Springfield, Massachusetts! The famous TV series is set in a city called Springfield, and celebrated its 400th episode this year. The creators of "The Simpsons" are releasing a major movie version on July 27th, and they're holding a nationwide vote on the USA Today website to see which of our nation's Springfields will win the honor of hosting the premiere. Voting begins today and runs through July 9th, and the winner will be announced soon after...

DALLAS (AP) -- Over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of "The Simpsons" fame, in the latest example of marketers making life imitate art. Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees. It's all part of a campaign to hype next month's opening of "The Simpsons Movie," the big-screen debut for the long-running television cartoon, which loves to lampoon 7-Eleven as a store that sells all...

When cartoons lampooning religion can make even Bart Simpson look like a saint, you know you’re dealing with some racy material. Tune into Comedy Central's "South Park" and you'll find Jesus boxing Satan, while over on Fox's "Family Guy," you'll find God as a white-robed, bearded creator setting off the world's big bang by passing gas. Writers for Fox's "The Simpsons" long ago tapped into religion as a source of gentle jokes and story lines. In doing so, the show opened the way for hip, animated comedies like "South Park" and "Family Guy" to up the ante in joking about...

To make it on the big screen, you have to give people something spectacular. Something extraordinary. Something like Bart Simpson—full frontal. It happens early in "The Simpsons Movie," when the animated 10-year-old takes a dare from his goofball father, Homer, to skateboard naked through the streets of Springfield. Hidden by plants and picket fences, he whizzes along, past kids, down hills, through traffic lights, until, in one shocking moment, little Bart flashes his little part to the entire world.

Cartoon fans know the score. Two years ago, "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said the meanest thing fans can do is utter "Family Guy" in the same breath as their show. Then for two episodes of "South Park" last season, Cartman tried to get "Family Guy" canceled. "I am NOTHING like Family Guy!" Cartman screamed. "When I make jokes, they are inherent to a story! Deep, situational and emotional jokes based on what is relevant and has a POINT! Not just one interchangeable joke after another!" "The day after that episode aired, we got flowers from 'The...

Anyone else watching the Simpson's right now? I can't count the number of anti-Army, anti-war in Iraq comments they've made. Absolutely disgusting.

Joe Simpson has slammed "Jackass" star Bam Margera for claiming he had sex with his daughter Jessica, insisting he wants to "beat the crap" out of him. Margera appeared on the raunchy Howard Stern radio show on September 19 and confirmed rumors he slept with Simpson when she was still married to Nick Lachey. The 27-year-old star of "Jackass Number 2" said on the night of April 11, 2005, then-married Simpson took him back to her parents' home in Los Angeles' Encino area.

Jessica Simpson was banned from singing solos in her church when she was younger, because her breasts were too big. Simpson and her sister Ashlee have recently been attacked by religious groups for blatantly using their beauty and their bodies to promote their careers. The Public Affair star reveals her first attempts at a gospel career were derailed because of her sexuality. She tells Allure magazine, "I was always criticised for my looks in the Christian world. They said I was too sexy to sing Christian music. "Judgemental is the absolute worst thing about Christianity, I believe." Simpson claims her...

Pop sister Jessica and Ashlee Simpson have been attacked by a Christian minister for using sex to sell their CDs reports NW magazine. Reverend Bob Harrington has singled the girls out for criticism because their father and manager, Joe, was once a Baptist preacher himself "They don't represent American standards and certainly not Christian standards," cries the Texan minister. "Their father has replaced his faith in the Lord with the love of money, which is the root of all evil. He has replaced holiness with horniness. "[Jessica and Ashlee] will reap the dismal crops they are sowing. Their breasts will...

"The Simpsons" claimed U.S. television's highest honor for a prime-time cartoon on Saturday as Emmy voters shied away from giving the prize to "South Park" for an episode lampooning Scientology and Tom Cruise...

Fat Matt Amorello is a big fan of “The Simpsons.” That’s where he got his idea for a monorail to Springfield. And now we find that he lives by the “three little sentences” that Homer Simpson told Bart will get him through life. No. 1, Cover for me! No. 2, Oh, good idea, Boss! Those first two served him well in his initial 15-plus years in the hackerama. But now he falls back on the third of Homer Simpson’s maxims: “It was like that when I got here!” That’s his excuse. For $223,000 a year, he has no control over...

Russian Censors Fuming Over The Simpsons November 4, 2005 10:00 p.m. EST Ayinde O. Chase - All Headline News Staff Writer Moscow, Russia (AHN) - Russian MPs have issued a final threat to TV stations to scale back on violent shows like The Simpsons if they want to avoid censorship. State Duma deputies overwhelmingly voted for a motion warning television channels to cut down on the amount of violence they show. First Deputy Speaker Lyubov Sliska said it was a "yellow card" for the channels. A 417-1 landslide vote approved the resolution, initiated by Sliska and fellow United Russia member...

Golden Globe winner Ricky Gervais has revealed that writing an episode of The Simpsons has seen one of his biggest ambitions realised. Gervais was invited to write and star in an episode of the US cartoon, which will be screened in the US in March. "When I first got into comedy it was my ambition to get a joke on The Simpsons," he said. "Now I've got a whole episode. I can just imagine waking up one day and finding out it's all been a dream." Gervais' character in The Simpsons is based on David Brent from The Office sitcom.He...

On a story about "The Simpsons" upcoming episode on Gay Marriage in Springfield the Free Republic was shown as a thread about the show was being scrolled on screen. The Web Site was not directly attributed except to say that a 'Blog' was debating about the espisode.What was shown, IMO, was a thread obvioulsy from the Free Republic.

Coming out in Springfield Which of 'The Simpsons' regulars is gay -- and will get married when their town legalizes same-sex weddings? By Stephen Kiehl Sun Staff James Dobson has his work cut out for him. Last week, the conservative flame-thrower denounced SpongeBob SquarePants - the harmless cartoon sponge who holds hands with his friends and lives in an underwater pineapple - for appearing in a "pro-homosexual video." Next month, a regular character on The Simpsons will come out and be married in a same-sex wedding. Simpsons producers haven't revealed which character turns out to be gay, but that hasn't...

MEXICO CITY - Marge Simpson is near tears, and the normally menacing Mr. Burns is full of warmth and gratitude. The union actors who dub "The Simpsons" into Spanish are asking their Mexican audience for help as they fight for their livelihoods in a labor dispute that could silence the original Spanish voices from the 15-year-old animated comedy.

Video.. check it out..

The Simpsons has announced plans to feature a same sex "marriage." I think we can all agree that showing this kind of stuff to kids only encourages a lifestyle that is most unhealthy. Showing any sexuality to kids promotes promiscuity in grade school children and this goes a step further. Children should receive their moral education from parents, not from Hollywood. Young minds are extremely impressionable and putting this stuff in a cartoon show targets children by seeking to change their understanding of normal and healthy, something which needs to be left to parents. What's even more dangerous is that...

SOMEONE on "The Simpsons" is coming out of the closet and could get married. "Simpson" producers, including creator Matt Groening, let the news slip out at the San Diego Comic Conven tion over the weekend. But they did not say who it would be. The way-too obvious choice would be Waylon Smithers, evil nuclear-power tycoon Montgomery Burns' timid toady — who for years has harbored a not-so-secret love for his fragile, scheming century- old boss...

The Springfield Effect is the effect by which every place named Springfield is, in fact, a link to the same place. There is, in reality, only one place in the universe named Springfield, although many places connect to it. The Springfield Paradox arises from the following observation: there are many springfields (springfield with a small S shall refer to an external contact point to Springfield, or an observable Springfield) connected to one Springfield; thus they must connect at different angles. (These angles are assumed to be in n-dimensional space for some n>3, as the observed Springfield looks fully three-dimensional from...

HE WEIGHS in at somewhere in excess of 17 stone, has suffered several heart attacks and undergone triple heart bypass surgery. With his protruding belly, addiction to doughnuts and Duff beer and his fear of any form of physical exercise, Homer Simpson is nobody’s idea of a figure of good health. Unfortunately, the message appears to have gone over the heads of the health police. They want him to change, cut down on the fatty snacks and eat some pasta. It’s not going to go down well with the Atkins people, but they appear to be serious. A team of...

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will make his debut in US animated comedy The Simpsons on Sunday. Mr Blair, who is said to be a big fan of the show, recorded his dialogue in April for an episode in which Homer Simpson meets him in London. Actor Sir Ian McKellen and Harry Potter author JK Rowling appear alongside in the show, called The Regina Monologues. British viewers will get their first chance to see the show when it airs on Sky One at the beginning of January. The episode reportedly sees Homer crash a Mini Cooper through the gates of...

Ok, I know that I am extremely late to the party...but I have to admit it...I have become a hardened fan of (bite lip and hope for the best) - "The Simpsons". I had never watched on a regular basis for the majority of the time that they had been on the air. Then I interviewed the author of "The Gospel According to the Simpsons" last year. The interview was ok as interviews go but in the author's telling of HOW the episode is put together each week fascinated me. Each epsiode take possibly up to 3 years to put...

Tomacco Becomes A Reality! October 29 » Posted By Adam » Source: KPTV Rob Baur, a huge Simpsons fan, grafted a tomato plant to a tobacco plant, grew it, and tonight he has proof from the lab that it worked. "What we found was nicotine in the leaves". said scientist Ray Grimsbo. The plant grew off the tobacco roots and sucked up the nicotine, just like Tomacco on The Simpsons. The lab hasn't tested if the actual tomato has nicotine in it yet, but they say it probably does. "Generally in the fruit there is more material concentrated because that's...

Doh! "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening may have crossed the line with his comment last week to National Public Radio's Terry Gross that Fox media empire almost sued itself. (Now that takes some talent!) The story goes that Fox News Channel execs were none too thrilled last year when the wildly popular cartoon, which is on Fox Broadcasting, featured a fake news ticker mocking the station's conservative rep. The headlines included gems such as: "Do Democrats Cause Cancer? . . . Study: 92 percent of Democrats are gay . . . JFK posthumously joins Republican Party . . ." ***snip****...

Fox News Channel threatened to sue the producers of The Simpsons following an episode that poked fun of the "crawl" items that are superimposed over the channel's newscasts, Simpsons creator Matt Groening said during an interview on National Public Radio Tuesday. The Simpsons airs on the Fox television network, a corporate sibling of FNC. "Fox said they would sue the show. And we called their bluff because we didn't think Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. We got away with it," Groening said. (Among the items on the crawl: "Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at foxnews.com...