POP CULTURE SHORTS

Is China Censoring ‘The Simpsons’?

An episode has mysteriously vanished from streaming services

You might think “The Simpsons” couldn’t push its limits further than it did in an episode that mocked its network by showing a helicopter bearing the slogan “Fox News: Not Racist, But #1 With Racists.”

But the sitcom may have met its match in Chinese censors. This month parent company Disney removed an episode mentioning China’s “forced labor camps” from its streaming service in Hong Kong, the Associated Press reported. The semi-autonomous Chinese territory has been cracking down residents’ freedoms.

In the deleted “One Angry Lisa” episode of Season 34, Lisa is summoned for jury duty and furious when no one believes she’s an 8-year-old who doesn’t belong there.

But the offending incident involves Marge, who takes a Peloton-like spin that has a virtual background of the Great Wall of China. An instructor says, “Behold the wonders of China. Bitcoin mines, forced labor camps where children make smartphones.”

In 2021 Hong Kong passed a law that allows the authorities to ban films “contrary to national security interests,” the AP said. Bart Simpson might have responded with, “Eat my shorts!”

One of my recent stories has context for the apparent censorship: