Disney+ Reportedly Censors The Simpsons Episodes In China

By Aaron Perine


The Simpsons is getting censored in China because of a few random episodes. The 12th entry in Season 16 got the chop because of a nod to Tiananmen Square. Recently, the movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings also caused an uproar over some perceived link between a bus driver's uniform number and the date of the historical event. A lot has been made of other movies being edited for content in the past year and change. Studios are always conscious of incidents that could cause a stir in territories outside of the United States. (It could even be argued that this is true for audiences in America as well…) But still, it's striking that a single sight gag could result in this swift action. But, that's just the reality of the situation in China at this point. The government has begun to keep a very watchful eye on entertainment that makes its way into the country since the beginning of the pandemic. Check out the post in question down below:

Last year, The Hollywood Reporter talked to Bill Oakley about the series' uncanny ability to predict the future. He didn't exactly agree with that assessment, but acknowledges the writers did have a knack for just hitting on weird events.

"I don't like it being used for nefarious purposes," Oakley explained. "The idea that anyone misappropriates it to make coronavirus seem like an Asian plot is terrible. In terms of trying to place blame on Asia — I think that is gross. I believe the most antecedent to (Osaka Flu) was the Hong Kong flu of 1968. It was just supposed to be a quick joke about how the flu got here."

"It was meant to be absurd that someone could cough into box and the virus would survive for six to eight weeks in the box," he continued. "It is cartoonish. We intentionally made it cartoonish because we wanted it to be silly and not scary, and not carry any of these bad associations along with it, which is why the virus itself was acting like a cartoon character and behaving in extremely unrealistic ways."

"There are very few cases where The Simpsons predicted something," Oakley said. "It's mainly just coincidence because the episodes are so old that history repeats itself. Most of these episodes are based on things that happened in the 60s, 70s or 80s that we knew about."

Were you aware the episode got pulled? Let us know down in the comments!

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