The Simpsons - a tired old corporate earner

The show [The Simpsons] makes merciless fun of right-wing Christian Americans. That's brave, considering it's owned by one. The fact that the show has always been on Rupert Murdoch's Fox Network - indeed, it helped to make the network a success - is just one of the enigmas.

(review from Sydney Morning Herald)

Is it really? As Michael Moore once said (in the documentary The Corporation), the corporates would sell you a piece of rope to hang them with if there was a buck in it.

Just saw The Simspons movie, having not watched the show for a few years. I've always enjoyed but hadn't seen it for a while owing to a general lack of interest and time to watch television. The movie was funny but really just felt like two Christmas specials strung together and the dilemmas the characters went through were far from original. Yes there were some tasty controversial moments but after the South Park Movie they felt somewhat trite. Perhaps I'm a wet nose but I couldn't help thinking that at the end of the day, no matter how pointed or biting the social commentaries underlying the film (of which there weren't really all that many), the proceeds were going to one of the most ruthless, fascist individuals on the planet. The same man behind Fox News and blanket support for Bush, the Iraq slaughter and Israel.

I could've looked past all of that if the movie had been more devastatingly, controversially funny. But I guess their accountants calculated that they could have made a relatively 'safe' film and still make a tidy profit.