Fox Threatened to Sue Itself After ‘The Simpsons’ Made Fun of Fox News

The Simpsons has a long history of dunking on its corporate overlords by repeatedly ridiculing the Fox network’s lowest common denominator programming. For example, if Lisa’s vision of the future is to be believed, Fox will eventually transform into a hardcore sex channel so gradually that no one will even notice. 

And one Treehouse of Horror episode literally opened with a Fox censor being repeatedly stabbed by a murderous ratings icon. 

The long-running cartoon has also taken satirical aim at the company’s cable news division more than once. But in retrospect, having Fox News pundits rant about how liberal NASA is allowing astronauts to “abort” space missions probably seemed a lot more laughably absurd when it aired, back when their hosts weren’t publicly bemoaning the lack of sexy female M&M's and suggesting that straws are a threat to modern masculinity.

But while Fox typically shrugged off these jabs (and profited from the show’s perceived anti-establishment edginess), one joke allegedly went way too far for the network. 

Season 14’s “Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington” found Krusty running for congress on the GOP ticket. During a scene in which Krusty appears on Fox News (“your voice for evil”), the news ticker at the bottom of the screen included a number of joke headlines such as: “Do Democrats cause cancer? Find out at foxnews.com,” “Oil slicks found to keep seals young, supple” and “JFK posthumously joins Republican Party,” which, come to think of it, is weirdly close to one of the central tenets of QAnonism. 

According to Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Fox was so upset about this scene that they threatened to take legal action against the show that they owned. “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,” Groening explained in a 2003 interview. “We got away with it.”

But as a result of the controversy, the network mandated that the show was no longer allowed to parody cable news tickers because, per Groening, “it might confuse the viewers into thinking it’s real news.” 

Fox, on the other hand, denied Groening’s story about legal threats. One spokesperson stated, “We are scratching our heads over here. We liked the cartoon. We thought it was great.”

Despite the brief behind the scenes drama, The Simpsons continued to ridicule Fox News, even making headlines for a biting gag involving a Fox News helicopter outfitted with the channel’s new slogan: “Not racist, but No. 1 with racists.” Future disgraced host Bill O’Reilly even complained that Fox was letting its cartoon characters “run wild,” calling them “pinheads.” 

O’Reilly’s segment prompted Groening to hastily insert another Fox News helicopter into the following episode, this time featuring the slogan: “Unsuitable for Viewers Under 75.” This time, Fox News didn’t take the bait, probably because they were busy working on a “WAR ON ST. PATRICK’S DAY” segment or something.

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