For over five hundred episodes the couch gag has undoubtedly become a much-loved staple of The Simpsons. Always short, sometimes stylised and usually slapstick, it draws the opening sequence to a close with a simple or suitably surreal sight gag. Mostly amusing but, given its remarkably short shelf life, forgotten in a flash. And then along came Banksy. When the controversial graffiti artist was commissioned by the show, he is said to have taken inspiration from the fact that most of its animation is done in South Korea. And so here he offers us a glimpse 'behind the scenes', a peek behind the curtain; how the show's merchandise is made and measured in human misery. With the entire sequence shot in a dull grey and soundtracked by the bleakest music you've ever heard, we trudge across the dirty, bone-strewn floor of an Asian sweatshop where, among other atrocities, kittens are shredded to provide the stuffing for Bart dolls, a severed dolphin head is used to fasten boxes and the horn of a frail unicorn- trembling and chained to the wall- is used to poke holes in DVDs. We then zoom out to reveal the factory is contained somewhere within the 20th Century Fox logo, which is now covered in barbed wire and spotted with searchlights. Has there ever been a more daring display of self-destruction from a television show? One minute of relentlessly searing satire and The Simpsons will never be quite the same again. Apparently, around 95% of Banksy's original concept made the final cut. God knows what kind of creature is crawling on that cutting room floor... Like this article? Are they any other Simpsons jokes that have troubled your sleep? Feel free to comment in the box below.
Yorkshireman (hence the surname). Often spotted sacrificing sleep and sanity for the annual Leeds International Film Festival. For a sample of (fairly) recent film reviews, please visit whatsnottoblog.wordpress.com.
