‘The Simpsons’ pulls classic episode with Michael Jackson voicing character after ‘Leaving Neverland’ abuse claims
- Simpsons executive producer James L. Brooks: ‘It feels clearly the only choice to make’
An episode of The Simpsons featuring Michael Jackson’s voice will no longer be shown following a bombshell HBO documentary that put child sex assault accusations against the late pop star back in the spotlight.
The 1991 episode, called “Stark Raving Dad”, will be pulled from circulation, a Fox Broadcasting spokesman confirmed.
The instalment, which was the Season 3 premiere, features flawed patriarch Homer Simpson in a mental institution. His cellmate is a man who thinks he’s Jackson, and the real life musician voices the character.
Homer was locked up after a laundry mishap turned all his white shirts pink and he wore one to work, and when his job sent him home with a psychiatric quiz as a result, his son Bart filled it out and a psychotherapist determines he’s crazy.
While in their cell, the wannabe Jackson tells Homer, “You seem like a nice guy, why’d they put you in here?”
“Cause I wore a pink shirt,” Homer answers.
“I understand,” faux-Jackson says.
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“People thought I was crazy for the way I dressed … One white glove, covered with rhinestones.”
When Homer is sprung from the institution, he invites the faux-Jackson to stay at his home since he was at the facility voluntarily, and the guy eventually reveals that he was a bricklayer who started talking in Jackson’s voice because it made people happy.
The show’s executive producer James L. Brooks told The Wall Street Journal that he and the other creatives behind the long-running animated sitcom, Matt Groening and Al Jean, decided to pull the plug on the episode after viewing the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, which first aired on the cable network in two parts on Sunday and Monday.
“It feels clearly the only choice to make,” Brooks was quoted as saying.
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The film features interviews with two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who allege they were sexually abused by the singer as kids.
Radio stations in Australia, Canada and New Zealand are also refusing to play Jackson’s music in the wake of fresh allegations against him of child sex abuse
Jackson, who died in 2009 of acute propofol intoxication, denied sexual abusing children.
Jackson’s estate has filed a US$100 million lawsuit against HBO.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
