10 Ways The Simpsons Changed The World
5. ...Which People Could Exploit For Their Own Gain
Of course, if something is a legitimate success there will always be people looking to profit off that success. So, it stands to reason, that as big as The Simpsons got, its bootleg merchandising grew exponentially with it.
The Simpsons was so big that Fox could put out all the memorabilia they wanted and there was still market space for weird, wonderful and of course discounted bootlegs.
Bartmania, which instantly followed the show's success, saw just as much fake merchandise if not more so than the legitimate kind. Usually, most of it was of poor quality, which is in fact why it was infamous in its own right.
From misspellings and weird crossovers, to the common occurrence of a black Bart Simpson - they were hard to miss. In fact, so many people experienced bootleg Bart and Simpsons memorabilia that today there's a nostalgia for such things and a community around it.
Simpsons creator Matt Groening, it appears, has no real issue with bootleggers. After all, if you chase one you're going to have to chase them all and that would take a hundred lifetimes at this point.
Still, the phenomenon of bootleg Simpsons merch kicked off a new era. The consumerism and change in technology during the 90s led to other new franchises, like Pokemon and South Park, suffering similar fates.