pzrite opened this issue on Jul 29, 2007 · 25 posts
tainted_heart posted Wed, 01 August 2007 at 7:13 PM
Quote - So I saw The Simpsons movie yesterday (very funny btw) and there was a sight gag about covering naked Bart's penis. But they showed it anyway. While it was very funny, and absolutely innocent, it made me wonder if that was against the law or not?
Has anyone else been curious about that or do I have too much time on my hands?
Yes you have way too much time on your hands
Quote - Quote - "is there anyone the Simpsons hasn't tried to offend?..;)"
Yeah, the Church of Scientology, which the voice of Bart is a member of. lol
Acutally that's not the case. The season 9 episode "The Joy of Sect" where the Simpson's join a cult called the Movementarians was a shot at cults, with specific references to Scientology.
The light blue shirt, dark blue pants, and dark ties worn by the cults recruiters were an echo of clothing worn by members of the Sea Organization, an "elite" group within Scientology.
The Simpson's are recruited into the cult through a free film. One of Scientology's "body-routing" tactics is to give people free passes to a nutball orientation movie at one of their missions.
Homer signs over all his money, the house, and even himself for a trillion years. Scientologists who become Sea Org members sign contracts that bind them to the church for one billion years, and members are routinely pressured to liquidate assets and take out loans to pay for Scientology courses.
There is a scene in which Movementarian recruits shout insults at Homer. This bears a striking resemblance to a Scientology practice called "bullbaiting". It is part of a "training routine" intended to teach Scientologists how to deal with verbal confrontations.
A UFO theme was central to the Movementarian belief system. While UFO elements are part of many cult mythologies, Scientology does contain several separate references to spaceships, invasions, and extra-planetary stations.
The Leader had a resemblance to L. Ron Hubbard, and the Movementarian claims that he invented morse code and other crap is similar to Scientology's biographical sketch of the man who started it all.
In the DVD commentary for the episode, it's mentioned that Scientology is one of the cults hat inspired the Movementarians.
So you see, even though Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart) is a Scientologist, that didn't stop the shows writers from including an irreverant poke at Scientology during their 20 years on television. :biggrin:
It's all fun and games...
Until the flying monkeys attack!!!