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"Queenieacoustic/Blame It on Lisa SANDBOX"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.Season 13
Directed bySteven Dean Moore
Written byBob Bendetson
Original air dateMarch 31, 2002
Episode features
Couch gagThe Simpsons are marionettes. The camera pans up to reveal Matt Groening as the puppet master.
CommentaryMatt Groening
Al Jean
Matt Selman
Tim Long
John Frink
Don Payne
Joel H. Cohen
Steven Dean Moore
Matt Warburton
David Silverman
Mike B. Anderson
Episode chronology
The Simpsons season 13
List of episodes

"Blame It on Lisa" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons' thirteenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 31, 2002. In the episode, the family goes to Brazil in search of a Brazilian orphan named Ronaldo whom Lisa has been sponsoring. Writer Bob Bendetson received a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for the episode.

Plot

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While Homer and Bart are watching Itchy & Scratchy, Marge tells Homer that someone has been calling Brazil and she does not want to pay the phone bill. Homer and Marge then visit the phone company and are amused to find it staffed by fembots modeled after 1930s telephone operators. There's Mr. Moviefone too, who is going out on a date. Then they met Lindsey Naegle who cuts off their phone service. Later, Lisa tries to call her friend Janey, but cannot. Homer tries to fix the phone line, but succeeds only in getting shocked several times.

Lisa then reveals she was making phone calls to Brazil to support an orphan named Ronaldo. She had been donating money to the orphanage where he lives, but after a few months Ronaldo went missing and Lisa has been trying to find out what happened. The Simpsons decide to travel to Brazil to solve the mystery, leaving Maggie with Patty and Selma.

When they arrive in Rio de Janeiro, Bart watches a Xuxa-esque show called Teleboobies, that Marge disapproves because of its sexual undertones. Lisa plans the search at a restaurant, but their early efforts prove fruitless. During the search, Homer gets kidnapped. The family does not have enough money to pay the ransom, so they go looking for him. On the way they run into a parade featuring a Teleboobies float and Lisa is surprised to find out Ronaldo has become the show's flamingo because the shoes Lisa gave him made him good at dancing. Ronaldo then gives the Simpsons the money to save Homer. The exchange is made on two cablecars of the Sugarloaf Mountain. Homer is saved.

Production

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"Blame It on Lisa" is one of many The Simpsons episodes that poke fun at countries the Simpson family visit.[1][2] These countries include Australia, Canada, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom.[3] The title of the episode refers to the 1984 film Blame it on Rio, which also takes place in Brazil.[4]

Release

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In its original broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on March 31, 2002, "Blame It on Lisa" received a 6.3 Nielsen rating and was seen by approximately eleven million people.[5][6] The episode finished forty-third in the ratings for the week of March 25–31, 2002, tying with a new episode of the comedy series George Lopez and the news program 48 Hours. In addition, it became the highest-rated program on Fox that week.[5] On August 24, 2010, "Blame It on Lisa" was released on DVD and Blu-ray as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Thirteenth Season.[7] Staff members Matt Groening, Al Jean, Matt Selman, Tim Long, John Frink, Don Payne, Joel H. Cohen, Steven Dean Moore, Matt Warburton, David Silverman and Mike B. Anderson participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode.[8]

Controversy

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Although "Blame It on Lisa" did not air in Brazil until October 2002,[9] parts of it were met with negative reception in the country shortly after its broadcast in the United States.[10] According to The Washington Post, "an immediate media frenzy was born" as the episode started receiveing coverage in local newspapers and news programs on Brazilian television.[10] An article published in the Houston Chronicle on April 8, 2002 stated that critics in the country were upset by the inclusion of typical clichés and stereotypes, such as Brazilians having Spanish accents and wearing mustaches, and that their culture was mixed up with surrounding Latin American ones.[11] Alex Bellos, The Guardian's correspondent in Brazil, commented that one of the things the Brazilians were upset about was the many inaccuracies featured in the episode, such as the conga and the macarena being popular dances in Brazil; the conga is in actuality a Caribbean dance, and the macarena does not come from Brazil nor is it frequently performed there.[12]

A Brazilian tourist board planned on suing the Fox network for damaging the image of Rio de Janeiro (pictured) with the episode.

On April 6, 2002, it was reported by the Brazilian media that Riotur, the tourist board of Rio de Janeiro, was planning on suing Fox for damaging the international image of the city.[4] Riotur stated that Rio de Janeiro was portrayed in "Blame It on Lisa" as having rampant street crime, kidnappings, slums, and a rat infestation,[13] and it was thought that this would discourage foreigners from visiting the city.[14] The decision to sue was made before the board saw the episode, and the tourism officials based their accusations on detailed reports they had received from Brazilian reporters in the United States, as well as on snippets of the episode they had downloaded from the Internet.[15] Over a period of three years up to the airing of "Blame It on Lisa" in the United States, Riotur had spent US$18,000,000 on a campaign to attract tourists to Rio de Janeiro.[16] The tourist board now saw this as a waste of money since they believed the campaign was undermined by the portrayal of the city in the episode.[16] Riotur's planned lawsuit was supported by the Brazilian government,[17] with president Fernando Henrique Cardoso stating that the episode "brought a distorted vision of Brazilian reality".[14] Just a few months earlier, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro sued a local weather forecaster for indirectly discouraging people from visiting the city's festival on New Year's Eve by predicting bad weather.[18]

Sergio Cavalcanti, a spokesperson for Riotur, commented that "What really hurt was the idea of the monkeys, the image that Rio de Janeiro was a jungle. ... It's a completely unreal image of the city."[16] Several journalists have, however, stated that parts of the episode gave a somewhat truthful image of Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian correspondent Anthony Faiola of The Washington Post wrote that the scenes showing wild monkeys in the Rio de Janeiro borough Copacabana "struck many Cariocas as a low-blow reference to their status in the developing world. Some officials even took it as a racial slur against the city's Afro-Brazilian population. Yet Rio is indeed home to the globe's largest urban green space, with more than 80,000 acres of lush jungle whose creatures cohabit with cosmopolitan life. Spotting wild monkeys here is not exactly rare."[10] Faila also commented that "the most self-critical Cariocas admit that the strong reaction came, in part, because the show hit awfully close to home. Crime, unabashed sexuality and severe poverty are indeed part of the fabric of life in Rio, and actually in most of Brazil."[10]

Bellos, claimed in in his article that while some of issues depicted in the episode, such as "severe social problems and high levels of violence," may be true for certain restricted areas of Rio de Janeiro, most of the city does not have these problems. He commented that "Attacks on tourists are rare and no one has ever been attacked by a monkey on Copacabana."[12] On the other hand, a writer for The Scotsman noted that Rio de Janeiro "is plagued by rising poverty. Its violent crime rate is notoriously high. While kidnappings for ransom and armed robberies are common, the city’s tourist authorities say that crimes against tourists are rare. Such violence is usually restricted to areas near the favelas (shanties) or to the poorer outskirts, where tourists rarely go. However, the tourism authorities are mainly worried about losing foreign visitors at a time when the city’s economy is increasingly dependent on the tourist trade."[17] Martin Kaste, the National Public Radio's South America correspondent, commented that "the taxis [in Rio de Janeiro] are actually pretty safe. Homer's a lot more likely to get kidnapped if he goes to San Paolo [sic] where they're having a rash of kidnappings right now. But there is a lot of crime here. And if the Rio Tour Agency is complaining about that part of the portrayal, then they don't have a very strong case."[15]

On April 9, Kaste commented that since their announcement that they were going to sue Fox, the Riotur officials had been told by their lawyers in the United States that it would be difficult to sue the episode there because of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which protects parodies. According to Kaste, "now they're trying to take the moral high ground instead and sort of guilt the Fox Network into perhaps donating the profits from the episode to Brazilian orphans or something like that."[15] In Bellos article, published on April 9, Rio de Janeiro tourist secretary Jose Eduardo Guinle was quoted as having said: "If Fox is so worried about Brazilian orphans and the poverty of our children, it should donate the profits of the episode to the city's social work programme."[12] Guinle also asked for an apology from the producers of the show in return for dropping the suit; James L. Brooks soon issued a statement saying that "We apologize to the lovely city and people of Rio de Janeiro. And if that doesn't settle the issue, Homer Simpson offers to take on the president of Brazil on Fox's Celebrity Boxing."[6][10][14][18] Spokespersons for Fox told the press that they had not received nearly as much criticism with previous episodes that poked fun at other nations.[10] Showrunner Al Jean has said in an interview that "Every other place has had a good sense of humor. Brazil caught us by surprise."[19]

Reviews and awards

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Bendetson was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award in the animation category for his work on "Blame It on Lisa", but lost to Ken Keeler, the writer of the Futurama episode "Godfellas".[20][21] Critical reception of "Blame It on Lisa" outside of Brazil has been mixed. Casey Broadwater of Blu-ray.com cited it as the best episode of the season.[22] DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson argued that "the whining" by Riotur was unwarranted, "as the show only pokes minor fun at Brazil; other nations have gotten much uglier treatment. And funnier treatment as well."[1] Jacobson elaborated that the episode "musters the occasional laugh, and like much of [season thirteen], it’s not a bad show, but it’s not a memorable one either. The controversy means it gets a little more attention than it’d otherwise merit, but it’s only an average show."[1] DVD Verdict's Jennifer Malkowski cited the scrapbook Homer made of his kidnapping memories as the highlight of the episode.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Jacobson, Colin (2010-09-02). "The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season (Blu-Ray) (2001)". DVD Movie Guide. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
  2. ^ a b Malkowski, Jennifer (2010-09-06). "The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season (Blu-Ray)". DVD Verdict. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
  3. ^ Dillinger04-08, Katherine (2002-04-08). "'Simpsons' no laughing matter, Brazilians say". Austin American-Statesman.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b "'Simpsons' draws flak in Rio". The Orlando Sentinel. 2002-04-07.
  5. ^ a b Associated Press (2002-04-04). "CBS scores a ratings win with NCAA finals". Sun-Sentinel. Tribune Company. p. 4E.
  6. ^ a b Deans, Jason (2002-04-15). "Simpsons say sorry for 'doh-plomatic' disaster". The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  7. ^ "The Simpsons - Season 13 Press Release & Early Release News". TVShowsOnDVD.com. 2010-07-06. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
  8. ^ Commentary for "Blame It on Lisa", in The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season (2010) [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  9. ^ "Brazilians miffed by TV show". The News-Times. 2002-04-29.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Faiola, Anthony (2002-04-16). "Simpsons' Brasil episode stirring controversy". The Washington Post. p. C01.
  11. ^ Knight Ridder (2002-04-08). "Rio blames tourism lag on Lisa Simpson". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
  12. ^ a b c Bellos, Alex (2002-04-09). "Doh! Rio blames it on The Simpsons". The Guardian. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  13. ^ Turner, Chris (2004). Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Toronto: Random House Canada. p. 326. ISBN 0-679-31318-4.
  14. ^ a b c "Simpsons apologise to Rio". BBC News. 2002-04-15. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  15. ^ a b c Ydstie, John (2002-04-09). "Analysis: Brazilian officials talk about lawsuit in regards to an episode of 'The Simpsons'". All Things Considered. National Public Radio.
  16. ^ a b c "Rio may sue over episode of 'Simpsons'". The Seattle Times. 2002-04-09.
  17. ^ a b "D'oh! Simpsons' holiday in Rio backfires on Fox". The Scotsman. 2002-04-10. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  18. ^ a b O'Doherty, Ian (2004-04-18). "Why Brazil is nuts about footie, not The Simpsons". Irish Independent. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
  19. ^ Wills, Adam (2010-03-23). "Holy Homer! Sacha Baron Cohen guides Simpsons through Jerusalem in March 28 episode". The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  20. ^ "55th Annual Writers Guild Awards Nominees Announced for Television and Radio". Writers Guild of America, West. 2003-02-06. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
  21. ^ Baisley, Sarah (2003-03-13). "Futurama Wins First WGA Animation Award". Animation World Network. Retrieved 2011-12-02.
  22. ^ Broadwater, Casey (2010-09-05). "The Simpsons: The Thirteenth Season Blu-ray Review". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved 2011-12-04.
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