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LOL: You'll never believe who is suing "The Simpsons"
Rio officials irked at "Simpsons" episode Sat Apr 6, 1:49 PM ET RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Rio is having a cow over The Simpsons (news - Y! TV). The city tourism board Riotur plans to sue Fox Cable International for an episode of "The Simpsons" that allegedly denigrates the city's image, Brazilian (news - web sites) media reported Saturday. The episode is entitled "Blame it on Lisa," a reference to the 1984 movie "Blame it on Rio." It shows the Simpson family flying to Brazil, after an orphan that Lisa has secretly been supporting disappears. In Rio, the orphanage is threatened by an invasion of monkeys. Homer gets kidnapped and Bart is swallowed by a boa constrictor. Police are portrayed as lazy and unhelpful, and slums as dirty and dangerous. The O Globo newspaper reported Saturday that Riotur's president, Jose Eduardo Guinle, had instructed lawyers to sue Fox for detriment to the city's image abroad. Riotur spent some dlrs 18 million last year in overseas promotion of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's main tourist gateway. Now this is just silly. The "lazy and unhelpful" police chief was a parody of Chief Wiggum. And since when are slums clean and friendly? |
And foreign media outlets never parody the US.
Why don't they sue Bill Clinton, instead, since he identified Hernando de Soto as a Brasilian, in a Gore-like effort to look smart. He is Peruvian. |
Perhaps we Torontonians can turn this into a class-action suit. Certainly if the Brazilians felt that "the use of cliches and stereotypes" was a problem then we have a case.
Get us a law-talkin' guy! |
[comic book guy] Worst Lawsuit Ever [/comic book guy]
My antropology professor once told us that before Carnival` the police go through Rio and sytematically kill all the homeless and beggers so that tourists will not be bothered. Not sure if its true, but this story reminded me of that lecture. "Your honor, I'm Lionel Hutts, I represent the country of Brazil. I'd like to make a motion for a case-thrown-out dealy." |
Hey wait a minute! I live in Knoxville, which the Simpsons made jokes about when Bart got an ID and he and Nelson, Milhouse, and Martin drove here. We should sue!!!!!
They made fun of the sunsphere, saying it ws full of wigs. Milhouse bought a talking Al Gore doll (pull the string and he says, "You are hearing me talk...")... They have made numerous little referaces to Knoxville's 1982 Worlds Fair. |
I'm guessing they don't know too much about American law.
This case would be laughed out of court. "Chow-da!" |
If anything they should be bringing as little attention to this episode as possible, being that many of the social aspects parodied in the episode are sad, but true.
How they think this is going to help tourism is beyond me. |
Remember when the city of New Orleans was horribly offended by the episode where they performed the musical version of Streetcar Named Desire??
They later had Bart writing something on the chalkboard about New Orleans - but I don't remember what he wrote. ". . . Sodom and Gommorah on the Mississip, New Orleans!!!" |
I'm guessing they don't know too much about American law. |
Well...if it was printed in The "O Globo" Newspaper, it's gotta be true.
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Originally posted by Fanboy Perhaps we Torontonians can turn this into a class-action suit. Certainly if the Brazilians felt that "the use of cliches and stereotypes" was a problem then we have a case. Get us a law-talkin' guy! |
These people are crazy. It's just a cartoon. Who in there right mind would cancel travel plans because of the Simpsons. And just what do they expect to get out of it?
I was proud as ever when my home town was mentioned on the Simpsons. I think it was in the "Curse of the flying Hellfish" episode. Millhouse's Dad is at the school looking out of the window at his RV. He tells the kids "We won that at a chili cookoff in Beaumont, TX." I think it is great to have my town forever rememberd on the Simpsons. |
Originally posted by Slumbering Fist Hey wait a minute! I live in Knoxville, which the Simpsons made jokes about when Bart got an ID and he and Nelson, Milhouse, and Martin drove here. We should sue!!!!! They made fun of the sunsphere, saying it ws full of wigs. Milhouse bought a talking Al Gore doll (pull the string and he says, "You are hearing me talk...")... They have made numerous little referaces to Knoxville's 1982 Worlds Fair. |
I was proud as ever when my home town was mentioned on the Simpsons. |
Am I the only one who read the article and thought:
"Yeah, I can see that happening in Brazil" |
Originally posted by Slumbering Fist Hey wait a minute! I live in Knoxville, which the Simpsons made jokes about when Bart got an ID and he and Nelson, Milhouse, and Martin drove here. We should sue!!!!! They made fun of the sunsphere, saying it ws full of wigs. Milhouse bought a talking Al Gore doll (pull the string and he says, "You are hearing me talk...")... They have made numerous little referaces to Knoxville's 1982 Worlds Fair. |
Originally posted by bhk Maybe they do, and that is why they are suing. They must have heard that suing can bring you publicity - but seriously, how are they going to prove that they lost business because of this one episode? Also, everyone knows that the Simpsons is satire - take a joke people! |
Monkey invasion?
[Bandoman cancels his planned vacation to Rio.] |
They must have heard that suing can bring you publicity - but seriously, how are they going to prove that they lost business because of this one episode? |
Originally posted by Eric F If anything they should be bringing as little attention to this episode as possible, being that many of the social aspects parodied in the episode are sad, but true. How they think this is going to help tourism is beyond me. Just look at this Brazilian site |
Only in America do you have a chance on winning a lawsuit like that. Remember the one where they sued McDonld's for serving the hot cup of coffee?
I wonder if other countries are like that? |
Originally posted by wm lopez Only in America do you have a chance on winning a lawsuit like that. Remember the one where they sued McDonld's for serving the hot cup of coffee? I wonder if other countries are like that? Also, the amount she got from the lawsuit was like 10 minutes worth of profits from McDonald's on coffee alone. A few hundred thousand means nothing to a multi-billion dollar company. |
Originally posted by The Bus That older woman got third degree burns from the coffee, if I recall correctly. That means bone was exposed. Also, the amount she got from the lawsuit was like 10 minutes worth of profits from McDonald's on coffee alone. A few hundred thousand means nothing to a multi-billion dollar company.
The jury awarded her punitive damages of $2.7 million as well as compensatory damages of $200,000. The damages were reduced later on, so she ended up getting $160,000 compensatory and $480,000 punitive. The $2.7 million punitive damages award was 2 days worth of coffee sales for McDonalds, so the $480,000 is like a third of a day's worth of coffee sales. |
Originally posted by CaptainMarvel Thank you. I'm tired of people citing that case as an example of how flawed our system is. There are plenty of GOOD examples of that, but the McDonald's-Coffee case isn't one of them. Anybody at all familiar with the facts of the case realizes that.
The jury awarded her punitive damages of $2.7 million as well as compensatory damages of $200,000. The damages were reduced later on, so she ended up getting $160,000 compensatory and $480,000 punitive. The $2.7 million punitive damages award was 2 days worth of coffee sales for McDonalds, so the $480,000 is like a third of a day's worth of coffee sales. |
Originally posted by CaptainMarvel Thank you. I'm tired of people citing that case as an example of how flawed our system is. There are plenty of GOOD examples of that, but the McDonald's-Coffee case isn't one of them. Anybody at all familiar with the facts of the case realizes that.
The jury awarded her punitive damages of $2.7 million as well as compensatory damages of $200,000. The damages were reduced later on, so she ended up getting $160,000 compensatory and $480,000 punitive. The $2.7 million punitive damages award was 2 days worth of coffee sales for McDonalds, so the $480,000 is like a third of a day's worth of coffee sales. |
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