D'oh! Simpsons Yanked for Baywatch Hawaii
Don't have a cow, Venezuela!
A Venezuelan TV channel has yanked The Simpsons because it's inappropriate for kids and replaced it with the presumably more wholesome Baywatch Hawaii
Chalk this up as another victory for global celebrity David Hasselhoff. But how could he and his army of beach bimbo lifeguards be more wholesome than Homer, Bart and company? Could this be just another scheme from Sideshow Bob?
A spokeswoman for the station says Venezuela's National Telecommunications Commission received many complains about the animated saga of the Springfield clan, including "messages that go against the whole education of boys, girls and adolescents."
Of course, that subversive Simpsons message drew huge ratings. Maybe if Baywatch fails, we can send in Krusty the Clown. Read more stories of hysterical prudishness.
Photo © Fox Home Video and (left) NBC (right)
Comments
Actually, y’know, this makes perfect sense to me. For all the bare skin (and outside of folks who live in extremely strict religious communities, who doesn’t see people in swimsuits, seriously?), Baywatch is much less subversive than The Simpsons. All of the lead characters are heroic, and stories basically uphold a Hays Code understanding of morality–the good guys win, the bad guys lose.
On The Simpsons, everybody comes across as ridiculous and social institutions get a stick in the eye. Both are good clean fun from where I sit, but if I were a censor and had to see one program or the other as dangerous to youth, it would be The Simpsons, no question.
It’s a government incentive for the kids to spend time on Venezuela’s beautiful beaches.
The funny thing is, when it comes to the FCC in this country, they get so much more hung up on partial nudity than really disturbing violence. A woman flashes her chest and America needs a week to recover. Most deeply disturbing depictions of death get no reaction whatsoever.
Meanwhile, CSI shows brain spatter every third week. We actually live in a country where people would rather look at brain spatter than a boob. What’s the deal?
Or is it even like that? Is it more that a few key vocal special interest groups would rather see brain spatter than a boob, and we’re only assuming that the country at large feels the same way?
Someone could do a dissertation on this…
It is a pretty sad statement about our culture that boobs are disturbing, yet brain splatter is normal. We all know that no one would have sex but for seeing some skin on Baywatch, right?
Law & Order is much better than CSI anyway