The Best ‘Simpsons’ Jokes at Fox’s Expense
In all of TV history, no show has taken more shots at its own network than The Simpsons. And, if you ask the writers, no network has deserved it more.
In fact, it’s a well-known facet of Fox’s most enduring comedy series — in The Simpsons’ contract with the network, it’s stipulated that Fox cannot exert any degree of creative control over the series, even when it comes to the show’s choice of targets. As such, the actual creatives on The Simpsons have been flexing their status as Fox’s untouchable money maker for decades by breaking the network’s proverbial balls at every opportunity with delightfully meta digs. Making fun of Fox is a Simpsons running gag that’s almost as old and revered as the opening couch joke — which, coincidentally, is where they’ve made some of their best Fox burns.
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With so much to mock about Rupert Murdoch’s (and, later, Disney’s) much-criticized channel, Fox has taken a Kirk Van Houten level of L’s in Simpsons episodes through the years. Here are our favorite Fox jokes in Simpsons history, starting with…
Stomping on the Logo During the Couch Gag
Some Fox jokes in Simpsons episodes have been subtle — this isn’t one of them. To celebrate the 100th episode of The Simpsons, Season Five’s “Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song” opens with a meta chalkboard joke, reading, “I will not celebrate meaningless milestones,” before the family all pile onto the couch to watch TV. Homer catches the translucent Fox “screen bug” in the bottom right hand corner, tears it off the screen and the entire Simpsons clan stomps it into dust.
The “billionaire tyrant” of conservative media would make a handful of appearances on his channel’s most popular comedy, but this was easily his most servile depiction. After a reckless PBS pledge drive donation by Homer kicks off one of the more zany plotlines of the end of the Golden Age in Season 11’s “Missionary: Impossible,” the episode ends with a more meta moment in which Betty White hosts a Fox telethon featuring Bender, Hank Hill, a Family Guy dig, and, of course, the cranky Australian a-hole who falls for Bart's prank.
Ned Flanders Fears Fox-Induced Damnation
“Married: With Children” may not have sent the Flanders family to hell, but it did add an iconic slogan to the Simpsons canon: “Watch Fox and Be Damned for All Eternity.” When the flu ravages Springfield during the classic Season Four episode “Marge in Chains,” it doesn’t just drive Marge to madness after strenuously caring for her ungrateful family — it also hits the Flanders household like an act of God that strikes down Todd. This episode gave us the funniest label for President Jimmy Carter as well — or as they call him, “History’s Greatest Monster.” But the best fake slogan in Simpsons history has got to be…
“Fox News: Not Racist, But #1 With Racists”
Many Simpsons fans may disagree with the first part of the slogan that was affixed to the Fox News helicopter in the Season 22 episode “The Fool Monty.” Fox News blowhard Bill O’Reilly took issue with the attack on his audience, complaining on a following episode of The O'Reilly Report, “Continuing to bite the hand that feeds part of it, Fox broadcasting once again allows its cartoon characters to run wild.” Simpsons producers were so delighted by O’Reilly’s attempt to feud with them that they followed it up with another Fox News helicopter joke in the following episode, this time reading, “Fox News: Unsuitable for Viewers Under 75.”