Just days after Fox made a portfolio pitch to advertisers at its upfront showcasing Fox shows, including The Simpsons, and Fox News in the same breath, Matt Groenig & Co. shot back.
Sunday night’s season finale of The Simpsons called out Fox News and Facebook for spreading misinformation, stoking fear and, well, a fondness for dictators.
At one point, a Tucker Carlson-like character is shown saying, “Putin for president, next on Fox News.”
At another point the lyrics, “Facebook feeds our fright. They convince us things were great when gas was cheap and men were white” are heard as a Mark Zuckerberg-like character presses a red button that reads “death of democracy.”
There’s also an eight-minute song and dance in which a musically-gifted janitor — voiced by High Jackman — helps Bart tune in to the collapse of the U.S. middle class.
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“I’m saying you’ll definitely never get a job like your dad’s, and you’ll have a tough time finding something significantly worse,” sings the character.
He’s joined by Clinton-era U.S Labor Secretary Robert Reich — playing himself — who intones, “The decline of unions, rampant corporate greed, Wall Street malfeasance and the rise of shortsighted politics all contributed to increased economic inequality, widespread real unemployment, wage stagnation, and a lower standard of living for millions of Americans.”
Reich tweeted a preview of the bit last week.
Simpsons writer Tim Long tweeted that producers “recorded both @RealHughJackman and @RBReich last November. Jackman was a dream, doing take after take after take. At one point, he announced, “I love singing!” And it shows!”
He also revealed that the inspiration for the segment was a piece last year in the Atlantic titled, “The Life in ‘The Simpsons’ Is No Longer Obtainable.” That story details how the 1990s-era lifestyle of America’s favorite dysfunctional animated family is now “an almost dreamily secure existence.”
There have been other Fox creators who calling out the network’s connection to Fox News, most notably Family Guy impresario Seth MacFarlane, who has said on social that he is ashamed to be working for a network that is part of the same company as Fox News. In fact, he posted about Carlson, the recent Buffalo shooting and the so-called “great replacement theory” just last week.
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