While most of the gags that the Simpsons have made towards FOX have all been in good fun, this one was a bit more serious in intention. As Homer is waiting on the couch in excitement for the midseason line up he is disappointed to learn that it is predominantly all crap. There is one show that stands out though its called The Laughter Family which funnily enough happens to be animated. Now its pretty obvious what The Laughter Family is a proxy for right? The appearance on this strikingly similar sounding show in the line-up leads to an amusing conversation where Homer states that the networks like animation because they dont have to pay the actors squat, which is then quickly followed by Ned Flanders popping his head in the window and stating plus, they can replace them, and no one can tell the diddley-ifference. Of course it wasnt Flanders however, it was another actor entirely. While this gag can just look like another throwaway meta-joke the Simpsons has specialised in over the years, the truth was that the actors on the Simpsons were in a pay dispute at the time with FOX, and this was a way for them to get revenge over a network that they were primarily responsible for the success of, that in return was trying to pin them down on wage increases. Being that this was over fifteen years ago now and the Simpsons is still being produced, it seems safe to say that the actors won here.
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