10 TV Shows Boycotted For Ridiculous Reasons

Without getting into an argument about what The Simpsons is now versus what it used to be, the fact is that when The Simpsons first came along no one had seen anything like it. This was before the days of Family Guy and South Park, and as such the yellow-skinned family on our TVs were basically spawns of the devil. After all, how dare a spiky haired boy on a skateboard tell adults “don’t have a cow, man.”

Back in the early 1990s, conservative groups encouraged by First Lady Barbra Bush's vendetta against the show were furious that the entire Simpsons clan was corrupting the wholesome families of America.

As these groups love to do, boycotts were started at the height of Simpsons Mania and Bart Simpson clothes, school supplies, and merchandise was banned in many parts of the US. School districts famously embraced the boycott too, with one LA-area superintendent saying "we want to spend some time reinforcing good behavior and self-esteem rather than looking at an anti-hero."

In fact, even then-President George H.W. Bush got in on The Simpsons hate, making a speech that promised “we are going to keep on trying... to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons."

Simply put, boycotters felt that The Simpsons was everything wrong with the world. And yes, this is the same Simpsons that went to church every Sunday, had a strong, independent mother-figure, constantly referenced some of the most complex literature and scientific facts of the time, and was nowhere near as controversial as anything that came after it.