The Simpsons: 10 Biggest Scandals Ever
5. X Almost Being Sued By Brazil
Whenever the Simpson family goes to another country, they take their satirical, parody heavy style of comedy with them. China, Britain, Denmark, Kenya, Canada, Australia... the list goes on and on of all the places they’ve spoofed down the years. Discounting Antarctica, they’ve visited every continent.
Even closer to home, the likes of Florida, New York and Boston have found themselves under The Simpsons’ lens. They’re no strangers to geography episodes, basically. However, when they went to Brazil in Season 13, they clearly missed the mark.
The tourist board of Rio de Janeiro (Riotur) had planned to sue Fox, before an official apology from producer James L. Brooks just about smoothed things over.
The episode was originally cut from the season in Brazil, before eventually being reinstated eight months after its scheduled date with the apology and an additional Fox disclaimer at the beginning.
As well as the rampant crime, poverty, hyper sexualisation and rat infestation, Brazilians were unhappy that the show had them all as mustachioed caricatures with Spanish or Mexican accents, and that both the conga and the macarena dances (neither popular in nor originating from Brazil) featured heavily.
Homer returned to Brazil 12 years later for the World Cup, without incident.