The Simpsons Under Fire for Seal-Clubbing Newfie Scene

The Simpsons is facing criticism on social media over a Canada-set episode, “D’oh Canada,” that sees one character exclaim “stupid Newfies” just before the dimwitted Ralph Wiggum proclaims himself a “Newfie” as he clubs the head of a stuffed baby seal.

“I’m sure you treat all peoples equally,” Lisa Simpson says before a group of teens holding curling brooms admit they do — everyone “except the Québécois” and “the Newfies,” before the three say in unison: “Stupid Newfies!”

“I’m a Newfie!” Ralph exclaims proudly as he bashes the stuffed seal, kicking its head around while singing a jingle: “Where the wind blows cold and there’s ice and snow, some days go on forever. But I’m warm in bed in a Newfoundlander’s bed, I’ll be an islander forever. I’ll be an islander forever.”

The episode is now fielding backlash for the joke that some argue went too far.

“I think regardless of the term Newfie the ‘stupid’ was offensive and mean spirited not even remotely funny,” wrote David MacRury on Twitter. “Clubbing the baby seal? Seriously. The Simpson’s humor is often very clever this was just crude.”

“I don’t begrudge Newfoundlanders using it as a badge of pride and can take a joke,” tweeted Melissa Royle. “But uses of it like on The Simpsons prove it still connotes an outdated, inaccurate description of us.”

Others are less stirred: a social media poll conducted by CBC showed of 767 voters, 43 percent voted “I don’t care” when asked if The Simpsons took the joke “too far.” 37 percent voted “no,” and only 20 percent voted “yes.”

Episode co-writer Tim Long, who grew up in Ontario, Canada, earlier told HuffPost Canada it made sense to view the episode through the lens of the Simpsons’ middle child, who is sent over Niagara Falls and winds up separated from her family in Canada, where the Simpson clan is surprised to learn Canada’s health-care system differs from America’s.

“She’s the one who’s had the most barbed critiques of the United States,” Long said.

“I thought Bart was sort of like America: brash, unreflective, much more sure of himself. And Lisa was sort of the intellectual, quiet, thoughtful, rational one. And I’ve always felt like that was sort of the relationship between America and Canada, too.”

Long added the episode had “a shocking number of Canadian things” that “95 percent of the American audience won’t get.”

“With the Canadian references, my instinct when I first started was not to make too many of them, because I wanted to fit in,” Long said. “But I find that the kind of American who writes for The Simpsons is fascinated by it.”

“So you’ll often find that the references on the show to Canada haven’t been written by Canadians, but they’ve been written by Americans looking across the table at a Canadian and thinking, ‘What the hell is with that guy?’”

In 2013, Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon visited Newfoundland and Labrador and fruitlessly offered sealers a $1 million prize to halt seal hunting.

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