Then-President George Bush declared in 1992 at a conference of the National Religious Broadcasters that, "We are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons". So Bush took issue with the perceived immorality of The Simpsons, but what he didn't do is sue the show for it. In Russia, however, the father of a child who insulted his mother and who had "taken interest in drugs" did exactly that, suing the show for "moral degeneracy" in court. Igor Smykov apparently wanted 300,000 rubles (£6,000) of moral damage compensation because his six-year-old son asked what cocaine was and called his mother "a toad" after watching the show. Though a Russian court rejected the claims (after spending days watching the show, which must have made it one of the most entertaining trials Russia has ever seen), Russian MPs still asked for the show to be given an adults-only rating for "corrupting Russian school kids and degrading family values". A Russian daily newspaper responded by asking, "What would they say if they saw South Park or Beavis And Butthead?" What indeed.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
