The Simpsons: 10 Biggest Scandals Ever
7. Insulting New Orleans
Season 4’s A Streetcar Named Marge is a classic Simpsons episode, with timeless humour and brilliant characterisation. However, the city of New Orleans probably wouldn’t agree.
The musical version of A Streetcar Named Desire starts with a song about New Orleans, claiming the city is ‘full of pirates, drunks and whores’. To be quite honest, the song isn’t one of the show’s better ones, with the melody making it a little tricky to understand the lyrics.
It’s no one’s take away from the episode, but New Orleans was still outraged that the show had chosen to mock it in such a fashion. It was supposed to be a Sweeney Todd style self-deprecation taken to extremes, but the subtlety was clearly lost on people.
At least 100 people, to be exact, as that’s how many complained to Fox.
Network president Jamie Kellner issued an apology and explanation the day after, which seemed to smooth things over.
In Season 29, the Simpsons actually headed to New Orleans, with Homer’s food tour of the city being copied by several different groups online. It seems then that whatever rift existed between the show and the city has well and truly healed.