‘Writing for The Simpsons evidently requires only complete ignorance’, stated Morrissey in response to The Simpsons’ episode ‘Panic on the Streets of Springfield’, aired on April 19th. The episode introduced Lisa Simpson’s new imaginary friend, Quilloughby, a sad indie singer, frontman of the 80s British band The Snuffs.

The reference to Morrissey is pretty clear, as the cartoon character is described as ‘a militant vegetarian’ with his band falling of ‘their brand of literate, sardonic music’. When Lisa attends their reunion concert, she notices how the singer has transformed into an overweight, racist man with a hamburger in his hands. Both Morrissey’s manager Peter Katisis and the singer himself released statements commenting on this parody.

Indeed, the manager shared his opinion through a Facebook post on the artist’s official Facebook page: ‘Truly they are the only ones who have stopped creating, and have instead turned unapologetically hurtful and racist’, he writes. Morrissey, on the other hand, wrote a full statement – which you can read here – on his official website. ‘The hatred shown towards me from the creators of The Simpsons is obviously a taunting lawsuit, but one that requires more funding than I could possibly muster in order to make a challenge.’

He continued: ‘You are especially despised if your music affects people in a strong and beautiful way, since music is no longer required to. In fact, the worst thing you can do in 2021 is to lend a bit of strength to the lives of others.’ He also took the opportunity to talk about modern music, stating that it has ‘no place… for anyone with strong emotions’ and how ‘limitations have been placed on art, and no label will sign an artist who might answer back.

‘Poking fun at subjects is one thing … but when a show stoops so low to use harshly hateful tactics like showing the Morrissey character with his belly hanging out of his shirt (when he has never looked like that at any point in his career) makes you wonder who the real hurtful, racist group is here.’ He explains. ‘Even worse, calling the Morrissey character out for being a racist, without pointing out any specific instances, offers nothing. It only serves to insult the artist.’