With a Provocative Couch Gag, Banksy Tags Up on ‘The Simpsons’

From New York Times

We didn’t plan on returning to “The Simpsons” so soon after last week, but we couldn’t pass up a memorable sequence from Sunday night’s episode attributed to an art-world provocateur not necessarily known for his forays into animated comedy.

Typically, the “couch gag” in the opening credits of “The Simpsons” is a spot for its writers to slip in one more punchline before the cartoon family assembles to watch its own show. But on Sunday that running joke went to a very dark place: a sweatshop where workers were seen laboring on frames of “Simpsons” animation while vats of toxic chemicals emitted sinister fumes and rats gnawed on bones; where small furry animals were tossed into a machine that turned them into stuffing for Bart Simpson dolls; packages were sealed with the tongue of a dolphin’s decapitated head; and holes were punched in DVDs on the horn of a chained-up unicorn. The final shot was the Twentieth Century Fox logo, cast in an ominous light and surrounded by barbed wire – followed by the traditionally upbeat “Simpsons” fanfare and the credit for the show’s creators.