When The Simpsons reference your country or town, what was it like for you?

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Obviously if you're in the US, it's pretty much all the time The Simpsons are based there, so there will be so many things that are no doubt accurate along with the team being US based, they're going to know what it's like there. However I know different places in the US can be different so when they go to other countries/places they obviously do a lot of research and try to get things done so well.

I was really impressed when they did the Regina Monologues, I thought from the first time I saw it that they got so many great details right and the things they put into the episode was really great and unexpected, things like mentioning Ryan Giggs and Manchester United, the way they did the buses and the whole area's were great, Mr Bean being referenced (I know his film has done well in the US) and so many really that I thought was great with the little details, I felt that they really worked hard on this with their research and it showed the first time I saw the episode.

Of course the accents are over exaggerated, the whole tea thing we have etc... but it's part of what we represent (not forgetting Fish & Chips lol) and I thought it was done really well, specially in a show where things are meant to be exaggerated for sitcom and the team did so well in regards to covering that episode.

Tony Blair was great, JK Rowling, it was a great well written and funny episode and I enjoyed it, specially the part where Marge got stuck on the roundabout as they're so rare in US.

The Simpsons have done episodes in so many places, France, Australia etc.. so I was wondering what it felt like for you while watching this.

If you're in the US, apply the same thing to when they've visited your town or had an episode based there (IE The city of New York Vs Homer Simpson).
 
That would be Bart vs. Australia for me.

I've never met anyone who didn't enjoy that episode. I guess there was a vocal minority of people who were outraged, but I doubt many of them are or were hardcore Simpsons fans (though that's not to say none of them were). Nothing in the episode is worth getting upset about; in fact, they're the kind of jokes we'd probably make about ourselves. There are a lot of stereotypes, but given that we often play up those stereotypes for tourism and whatnot, we're not in a position to take offense.

It's fun to reference "chazzwazzers" and "knifey-spooney". The "cart yer arse on in" sign is a pretty good read on Australian attitudes; I'll admit to never seeing a sign like that on anything, yet at the same time, it feels completely plausible. There are even websites that sell the booting flags!

A memorable episode with lots of funny moments. No grumbling here.
 
Yeah, I really liked that episode too. I agree with you in regards to the whole jokes and things, I have no problem with people ribbing the Brits, I see it as a complete compliment and love to see it, the more the merrier. Of course I'd never tell anyone to not be offended by things, however for me personally I think it's great when they do gags in regards to us, like I say, it's a huge compliment.

Did you feel that the team had done their homework when watching that episode? Like I say, when I was watching The Regina Monologues the attention to detail they did I remember really impressed me when I first ever saw it, all that really stood out cause they were referencing and mentioning things I wouldn't have thought they would have even had a clue about (little things) yet they managed to cover so much, I thought it was really well done.
 
Not really, but mostly because it was meant to be a stereotypical portrayal, and it wasn't set in a specific place. Well, it was meant to Canberra I suppose, since they were meeting with the Prime Minister, but a fictional one at that. Also, Fosters isn't popular in Australia (or at least, hasn't been for a long time), but again, they were going for stereotypes, not accuracy.
 
Yeah, that's the thing ain't it, it's like here we're known for drinking tea, eating fish and chips, posh voices and things like that but although we do drink tea it's not like how it's made out, we definitely don't talk posh with that old English accent (I don't know anyone anyway lol) and Fish & Chips, ok yeah we do cause they're really nice ha, but it's the same thing with Australia ain't it like people think of surfing, barbecue's, kangaroo's and Fosters .. oh and Neighbours too lol .. but we know it's stereotype and it's all fun really :)

I don't mind and I love it when I see us being mimicked lol
 
Absolutely. With "The Regina Monologues" though, they were obviously going for some accuracy with the references, and of course, some guest stars as themselves. That wasn't the case with "Bart vs. Australia", so there was no need for in-depth research. I do think they captured Australian attitudes fairly well in some respects, though.
 
As a boy I dreamed that The Simpsons visit my country. But now I understand that I would not like, and I pray that they never visit my country. Generally, the episodes where a trip abroad takes place, what an American would do in that country, and It fills with stereotypes to the country that is visited. I would not mind that, but I do not think there is potential for a good episode, beyond which I can enjoy it.
 
References to my neck of the woods have been minor, but I've appreciated all of them. Oakland, my hometown, is mentioned once or twice. I know it's mentioned in The Bart-Mangled Banner, when the Simpsons escape Alcatraz and decide to swim toward San Francisco, to which Homer replies "I'm not made of money; we'll swim to Oakland". Though Oakland is more affordable than SF, the rent there has gone up so high as to make the joke sound a little dated now. But I liked the reference :)

Northern California itself is referenced (also in Season 15) when the Simpsons go to Wine Country. There was a joke made about the highway being so close to the vineyards (which is true for some of them, though it's not a big freeway or anything), though if they were implying the George Lucas' compound is right in Wine Country, that's not exactly accurate; his place is in Marin, about 20 miles from Napa.

And finally there's a scene where they're speaking to Artie Ziff in Silicon Valley and you can see a large white "SILICON VALLEY" sign on the hillside à la the Hollywood sign. No such sign exists, though it would be cool if it did. :)
 
Oh boy, Catch 'Em If You Can. I was going to college in Indiana at the time, watching that episode with friends in the dorm. And when Marge announced they're going to DAYTON OHIO (!!!), all my friends looked at me, like I was the one who put it in the show.

I really liked the reference because they basically shit on how boring Dayton is in general. It's a pretty fair characterization, Dayton is a pretty sleepy metro area. Although I don't think we have a zipper museum? Just an Air Force museum. They were right about the tornado thing, we are technically the ending point of Tornado Alley (although they are somewhat rare). I don't know why they picked Dayton for the episode (who really thinks about Dayton ever?)... I suspect it is because Nancy Cartwright is from the area.

They made a joke in Homer and Apu about there being no Kwik-E-Marts in Ohio, a nice reference to the lack of 7-11 in the state back then. For some reason this company called United Dairy Farmers seemed to be everywhere in the state, it is weird. The only 7-11 I can think of in Ohio was in Columbus.
 

also Homer did show up in Winnipeg in Midnight RX

I don't know how they reacted about the name drop in Bart on the Road because we had our own problems to deal with because we were losing our NHL team at the time the episode aired

I do remember when Homer did show up in Midnight RX and well we all kind of flipped. Of course we would flip whenever the city was name dropped on a tv show or movie. The last time we got that was in the 2 part series finale of Hot In Cleveland (Bob Newhart's character said "And I thought Winnipeg was Sin City...oh he must have had fun at Club Regent or McPhilips Street casino)
 
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From memory I can just recall Frink going to the Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Sweden, and the family going to a Swedish consulate to protect Homer from getting arrested for piracy.

It... Doesn't really feel like anything.
 
I remember there being a naked lady traffix police in Stockholm in an episode where Frink gets the nobel prize awards or something, which well... traffic polices in Sweden don't stand in the middle of the road with a whistle! Do your research! Also for the record Lisa's Swedish is incomprehensible.
 
St. Louis is the closest major city to me, and it’s only been mentioned a couple times. God asked if St. Louis still had a football team, and Homer said they moved to Phoenix, which can now easily be substituted with Los Angeles. :sigh:

It was also the setting to Thicker than Waters in Homer the Father (thanks Wikisimpsons; there’s no way I would’ve remembered that).
 
As a boy I dreamed that The Simpsons visit my country. But now I understand that I would not like, and I pray that they never visit my country. Generally, the episodes where a trip abroad takes place, what an American would do in that country, and It fills with stereotypes to the country that is visited. I would not mind that, but I do not think there is potential for a good episode, beyond which I can enjoy it.

I forgot to mention that the few references that were made in my country were, for the most part, really offensive, as our representative in the UN says that the Malvinas Islands are English (Treehouse of Horror II), or that Juan Domingo Perón was a dictator ( E. Pluribus Wiggum) which did not bother me, but to many others yes, coming to censor the episode for almost a decade. There are issues that should be touched with delicacy, and The Simpsons could not do it when this relates to my country. I do not want to imagine the offenses that they would generate in an episode set here.
 
it was an aggresively over-exaggerated stereotyped load of season 15 shit, i genuinley can't think of any redeeming features except from tony blaie being called mr bean, although that's being kind on the cretin
 
The main event with the Simpsons and where I'm from (Ireland) is their trip to Ireland in the episode In the Name of The Grandfather.

I think I'll go through the episode, and note down all the Ireland references.

[You can skip through to the end to see my thoughts on The Simpsons referencing Ireland]

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No exaggeration: We have an airline that looks exactly like this. It’s called Aer Lingus (you might've seen it before).

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Fairly stereotypical Irish name if a town. Place names are generally not translated from Irish into English, but rather are spelled in such a way that the same sound of the name in Irish can be pronounced closely enough in English. For example: The county "Cork" comes from "Corcaigh" (pronounced "Cork-ee"), which basically means "marshy" (yep, we were imaginative back then). Also, the town Downpatrick (where St Patrick is buried) comes from the Irish “Dún Pádraig” (pronounced “doon Paw-drig"). The word "Dún" means "Fort" in Irish, and other English adaptations include Dun, like in the made-up town. Other common prefixes in Irish place names include "Kil" or "Kill," which comes from the Irish "Cill" (pronounced the same. Fun fact: There is no "K" in the Irish alphabet), and it means "Church." The other common prefix they put in the town name here is "Derry," which comes from the Irish "Doire" (pronounced "Dur-ah"), and it means "Oak Grove."

So "Dunkillderry," means "Fort Church Oak Grove." Okey-dokey then. This gets a laugh out of me anyway.

Also the use of kilometres shows that they're in the Republic Of Ireland. Also the accents. I can't place them for sure, but maybe they're in County Cork somewhere, plus the Cork accent is generally the stereotypical Irish accent that people think of.

Grandpa: "Filled with... unending troubles."
If that's a reference to the The Troubles, then that's supposed to be in Northern Ireland Grandpa.

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We don't all have freckles, but this was funny nonetheless.

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This was funny, but U2 are pretty much American now. I‘m sure the caption is a U2 reference I don’t know as well.

Lisa mentions Ireland being at “The forefront of the tech boom.”
I don’t know too much about this, but I know that a lot of companies like Microsoft have set up shop in Dublin. Personally I think they’re in Ireland because the weather’s cold enough here for their computers to run properly, as opposed to in Silicon Valley.

And that’s the other thing: The weather in Ireland is rarely this nice (we can get all four seasons in the space of one day). Where’s the rain, coldness, and grey, overcast skies? Ah well, I guess constant rain would have been harder to animate.

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Oh ha ha. Taco Belfast = Taco Bell. Very punny.

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Irish pubs are a lot more cramped and dark than this. Also at the tables there’s never enough seats, so everyone ends up sitting uncomfortably on 1ft high stools, squashed between your friends at the tiny table (where all the drinks get mixed up if you’re not watching it constantly), and also pinned in by everyone at the tables next to you.

Also, all the old advertisements, pictures, and maps crammed into the wall space in the background of the bar is a fairly accurate look of an Irish Bar. And I love the ads for Guinness in which they have the picture of a puffin (it’s quite a famous ad from years ago), as well as the ad for Barry’s Tea: Gold Blend. It’s basically the tea that everyone in Ireland drinks. Also there’s an ad for “Paddy: Old Irish Whiskey,” that one’s a real company, they’re not made up.

I like the Irish names you see in the background, like “Flynn,” “Colleen,” etc. It’s a nice touch. Also, the name of the Pub is “O’ Flanagan’s pub.” Funny for me, because my surname is Flanigan (mine is an unusual spelling, so obviously some ancestor spelled it wrong at some stage, and here I am), so there’s a bit of a laugh for me there.
Side note: Irish surnames with the prefix “O’” means “descendant of” in Irish. Also the prefix “Mac-” (sometimes abbreviated to “Mc-” in some surnames) means “son of.” So it’s why you can get surnames with or without “Mc-” or “O.’”

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So, this is a proper Irish drink when the bartender spits in it out of hate? It’s probably universal in bars around the world. But, Bushmill’s whiskey (note the correct way to spell “Whiskey”), and Guinness (known affectionately as ‘the black stuff’). Pretty much spot on.

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This is way up in county Antrim in Northern Ireland. If they’re travelling from Cork, that’s like a five-hour car drive. I’m also surprised they didn’t go for the Irish legend to as to how the causeway was formed (it’s called “The Giant’s Causeway” after all), but I guess that would have taken too much time.

Speaking of car drives, Random fact: Decades ago (I think this might’ve been the forties, fifties and maybe early sixties) in the ROI, you didn’t need to do any kind of driving test whatsoever. You just walked into the post office or whatever when you were 18 or so, asked for a drivers licence and they gave you one. So there’s an entire generation of people who have never done a driving test in their lives. My grandfather for example has never done a driving test, and he still drives.

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You can’t really see it, but this is pretty much a picture of the gates into the Guinness distillery in Dublin (again, roughly a two hour drive from Cork or Antim). They were pretty much spot on with this picture. The “Ireland’s most cried-into beer” is a nice touch. I think they mean “famous” by that. Also 1759 is the correct year for when it was founded.

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This is... probably not how they make Guinness. But good guess.

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Kissing the Blarney stone is supposed to give you the gift of eloquence (this attraction’s in Cork by the way). Bart’s prank was quite funny, but he should have said “póg mó thóinn.” This means “kiss my ass” in Irish, and while most people in Ireland don’t know any Irish (I know very little myself), pretty much every citizen knows this line for some reason.

Fun fact: You know the London-Irish band The Pogues from years ago? Well that phrase is where they got their name from. Apparently when the BBC figured that out, they refused to show The Pogues on their shows.

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Crafty Irish bastard... ah, who said that? :)

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The south of Ireland deals in euros. There are no green euro notes.
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That’s better.

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What the hell is a London bus doing in Ireland? They don’t even have them in London anymore! :)

Homer: “It’s terrible! The Irish have become hard-working and sober!”
That’s quite a funny line actually. In reality, yes we are hard-working, but sober on a Friday night? Umm...

“Da” to mean “dad” doesn’t sound right when said without an Irish accent. Homer saying this was weird to hear.

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This is southern Ireland, so that should say “Garda” instead.

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They were probably going for the mascot of Tayto Crisps but they weren’t allowed. It’s another very Irish product.
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Judge: “It got a lot nicer since we sent all our incompetent half-wits to America.”
Random fact: The population of Ireland is really low: Only about 4.8 million people (6.6 if you include Northern Ireland) live in Ireland, so it’s pretty sparsely populated (in comparison the population of London alone is like 12 million). Around the 1840s, the population was about 8 million, but then the Irish Potato famine hit, and between people dying of starvation and emigrating to America, the population reduced drastically in the space of a few years.

I’ve never felt offended by any reference the The Simpsons to Ireland. I mean The Simpsons is based on stereotypes, and they’ve gone straight to the stereotypes, which is always a bit of a laugh for us I think (just look at any episode of Father Ted. Lots of stereotypes about priests etc in that Irish sitcom, and everyone loves that show). So I really like it when they do a reference to Ireland. Also it looks like they did their research for this episode, but I think you’ll need to have at least visited Ireland to fully enjoy this episode to be honest.

The only people who I can see getting offended are maybe American SJWs, who think that they’re Irish-American, hearing a line from the St Patrick’s day scene in Springfield where everyone is drunk and having one massive punch-up, and Kent Brockman says “All this drinking, violence, and destruction of property: Are these the things we think about, when we think of the Irish?” And then you get idiots overreacting saying something like “You can’t stereotype Irish people like this,” Or “Where’s the meaning of St. Patrick’s Day?”

While there is some significance to St. Patrick’s day, and deep down all the Irish respect it a lot: I’m sorry, but if any of those kinds of people spent any time in Ireland for St. Patrick’s day, they will find that it’s just one massive excuse for the population to get absolutely blocked. Destruction of property usually follows too.

But I’ve never heard of anyone being offended by the Ireland episode, or the St Patrick’s day scenes - so it’s all good!

Also:
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Have The Simpsons been to Scotland as a family? They should definitely go. It’s very much like Ireland, only colder.
 
Some really great responses on this so thanks guys for such a great input, I want to read them properly and reply to them in a bit as I'm a bit tired at the moment, but the responses here have been great and I will go through them properly soon :)

Edit, Just to add [MENTION=76670]Mícheál[/MENTION] there's a little reference in Whacking Day also for Ireland when Bart says "People of Springfield, Whacking Day is a sham, it was started in 1924 as an excuse to beat up the Irish" and then like a leprechaun guy comes out and has a rant lol
 
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Bart vs Australia for me too. It was back in the days before the internet was common place, so the first I heard of it was through the news, in that The Simpsons had done the an episode on us. It would have been at least 6 months before the episode actaully screened here.

As for the episode itself, it's one of my favourites. Sure it is taking every opportunity to take the piss out of us, but I know that they go as hard on their own country.

They obviously tried to make Canberra more like than an outback town than a city (although it is known as the Bush Capital). And the accent is a little off key, but once again they were taking the piss.

And I think the Walambaloo Dirt Monument, if it existed, would be one of Canberra's top tourist attractions.
 
They implied the UK surrendered during World War 2, so I wasn't very happy considering my Grandfather fought in that war. But hey, anything to praise America, right?
 
there's some season 17 episode (I think it's the amnesia one) where a maillady mentions sending "these steaks right back to Omaha," it's not the greatest but I was kind of glad to see a reference to a local company (even if I went to school with the heiress to that fortune and...yeesh)
 
Bart vs Australia for me too. It was back in the days before the internet was common place, so the first I heard of it was through the news, in that The Simpsons had done the an episode on us. It would have been at least 6 months before the episode actaully screened here.

As for the episode itself, it's one of my favourites. Sure it is taking every opportunity to take the piss out of us, but I know that they go as hard on their own country.

They obviously tried to make Canberra more like than an outback town than a city (although it is known as the Bush Capital). And the accent is a little off key, but once again they were taking the piss.

And I think the Walambaloo Dirt Monument, if it existed, would be one of Canberra's top tourist attractions.

Yeah, that's the thing ain't it, it's like they do this to themselves more than anything and it is what the show is about, it's light hearted humour to make you laugh at these kinda things and it works, obviously as the show has been going for so long.

The accents is probably just part of the exaggeration thing again, they were like that with the UK episode too, I really like this episode too.



Of course, I'm not from France but I thought this was a great episode when they did the French thing :)
 
This thread made me realize that despite the fact that The Simpsons is produced in Los Angeles, the references to the city are actually quite limited. I'm currently re-watching the series from the beginning (I'm at the end of season 6 now(, and I realize any L.A. jokes or references are limited to takes on Hollywood more than L.A. itself. Again, I stopped watching the show around season 18, and I've heard the show has satirized/referenced L.A. more since.

It's a bit disappointing that the classic episodes lack any deep references to Los Angeles for two reasons:
1) The show is made there
2) Life in Hell was one of the greatest takes on the underbelly of Los Angeles that wasn't noir of any kind.

Anyways, because I'm a lapsed fan, I googled 'Los Angeles Simpsons references' and found one truly satisfying image:

<a href="https://imgur.com/03ApqNe"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/03ApqNe.jpg" title="source: imgur.com" /></a>

The majority of these places on the list are mundane places that only people who have lived in the greater Los Angeles area would get. While I appreciate these deeper cuts, I will continue turning to my Nathan for You, The Big Lebowski, and Charles Bukowski for the real deal.
 
I've never really noticed the LA thing but I wonder if they've tried to do that on purpose to avoid confusing writing from where they are as opposed to them being based in Springfield if you get what I mean :)
 
I've never really noticed the LA thing but I wonder if they've tried to do that on purpose to avoid confusing writing from where they are as opposed to them being based in Springfield if you get what I mean :)

That's an interesting observation, but I doubt it was deliberate. I think they just wanted to focus on a place with a more little city vibe, but they ended up sending the family to D.C., NYC, Australia, etc, before they every made it to L.A.
 
Yeah possibly, I've never been to LA though would love to, however I do get the impression it can be a little more laid back than New York for example which seems constantly busy.
 
I guess they haven't had a good enough reason to send the family to LA, or enough stereotypes to make light of compared to other places, domestically and abroad.
 
Springfield always had some LA references (the sign, Krustylu studios, the Springfield Bowl), but over the seasons it's moved from Anytown, USA to an LA suburb

Granted, many animated shows do this. Somewhere around Season 7 South Park moved about 100 miles closer to Denver.
 
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