Whoever claims ‘The Simpsons’ is just not as edgy as it used to be, well, must have not had them tuned in last night when the opening sequence smacked it’s Corporate owner, HARD.
Banksy, a popular British Graffiti Artist was tapped to create the opening sequence, like many celebs have done before. The opening sequence, which is known for it’s variety, started out pretty much the same, but you can already see a few sinister signs from the beginning. A black crow looking ominous flies by with a dead rat in it’s beak; Banksy’s name grafitti’d across the Krusty sign and at the school when Bart leaves. Otherwise, it proceeds as usual, with Bart and his standards, Homer causing yet another accident at the plant, the cars pulling in the drive. It’s once the characters reach the sofa that it truly begins.
We are taken from a still shot of the family to the TV, ominous music begins to play, and we are transported to a sweatshop, somewhere in Asia apparently, (No doubt South Korea, where Fox has recently outsourced most of the show’s production) where starving kids are drawing the cells for the cartoon amid toxic sludge and rats. Human bones scatter the floor. We proceed down in the basement of the building to find kittens being shredded alive to procure the stuffing for the Bart dolls, pulled away by a giant panda, to a worker sealing the boxes for shipment using a dead dolphin’s head to “lick” the boxes shut. We then move into yet another room where a chained up and dying unicorn punches the holes in ‘The Simpsons’ DVDs. We then are zoomed out onto the building, 20th Century Fox with barbed wire all around.
We assume Fox themselves weren’t given a copy of this intro before it hit air. As of this writing, it had already been banned on YouTube, however is still available at various websites.
Executive Producer Al Jean, stated that of course they don’t exploit children in sweatshops, and that she did have to think about it a bit before allowing Banksy’s piece to air. Even the animators who worked on the piece threatened to walk. (They didn’t.) I myself am happy to see ‘The Simpsons” return to the edgy. It was what made this show great.
So, watch while you can folks! This probably will not be up much longer!
