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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!