The Nation That Banned The Simpsons Film As a result of Of Its Colours

Matt Groening has been requested many occasions as to why he selected to make the Simpsons yellow, and he usually responds with some model of “I wished them to look distinctive.” For its first few seasons, “The Simpsons” have been thought-about very unusual and outré. Regardless of their reputation, they’d a subversive, cynical punk sensibility that got here to tell the artwork of the last decade that adopted. After sufficient time, although, the yellowness of the Simpsons turned a extensively accepted side of their design, and so they stopped trying fairly as placing. Simply as one would possibly cease noticing that Mickey Mouse wears gloves, or Donald Duck has no pants. 

The colour scheme of “The Simpsons” was at all times just a little odd. The partitions of the Simpsons’ home, for example, are pink, as is the Simpsons household automobile. Their TV is purple, and their carpets are a deep teal. Bart at all times wore teal shorts and a blood orange shirt, whereas Marge at all times wore a lime inexperienced costume to go together with her blue hair. Marge’s sisters had lavender hair, and Krusty the Clown sported a purple/teal shirt/hair combo. Lisa at all times wore pink, making her one of many extra plainly dressed characters on the present. It was this final aspect, nevertheless, that obtained “The Simpsons Film” in hassle again in 2007. 

“The Simpsons Film,” just like the TV sequence, sported a massively complicated story that started with a number of digressions earlier than attending to the purpose. The essential plot: Homer (Dan Castellaneta) instigates a wierd and disgusting environmental catastrophe involving a silo of pig waste, incurring the wrath of the Environmental Safety Company. In response, the EPA covers all the metropolis of Springfield with an enormous glass dome, a lot to everybody’s consternation.

“The Simpsons Film” was banned in Myanmar in 2007, however not due to its impolite humor or political messages. Plainly Myanmar’s army junta was wrestling with a progressive political occasion referred to as Nationwide League of Democracy. The motion’s flag was coloured pink and yellow. 

Myanmar banned ‘The Simpsons Film’ due to its red-yellow coloration scheme

The Nationwide League of Democracy was based in 1988, one 12 months earlier than the debut of “The Simpsons,” and rapidly rose to prominence in Myanmar, securing a majority of the votes in a 1990 election. The army junta in Myanmar, nevertheless, repressed the League often, even going as far as to place its leaders beneath home arrest. The NLD was well-liked, and inspired democracy, angering the repressive authorities. Within the early 2000s, lots of the motion’s extra outstanding members have been assassinated whereas they canvassed across the nation, gaining help. 

“The Simpsons” solely talked about Myanmar, also called Burma, in a couple of episodes. In “The Final Temptation of Homer” (December 9, 1993), Homer watched a documentary about Burmese Melon Flies. And in “The Previous Man and the ‘C’ Pupil” (April 25, 1999), the digicam pans previous the Olympic Committee constructing, and an indication exterior says “Now with Myanmar!” Clearly, the writers of “The Simpsons” weren’t concerned within the politics of Myanmar on the time, and by no means expressed help or censure for the NLD. 

However the sight of the yellow Lisa Simpson in a pink costume was sufficient to make the Myanmar authorities to take away it from sight. “The Simpsons Film” was thought to incite violence, so it was banned.

By 2015, the NLD could be elected into energy in a landslide victory. In 2020, they gained once more. Members of the junta, nevertheless, made claims of election fraud as a flimsy excuse to stage a coup. In 2021, the army re-seized energy, and jailed many members of the NLD. The battle was coated in a number of worldwide newspapers. It is unclear if the army squatters permit “The Simpsons” on TVs in 2024.

Keep in mind, youngsters: army juntas and repressive right-wing regimes hate enjoyable. 

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