Banksy took over an episode of The Simpsons and slated the commercialisation of the hit US show and in particular, the outsourcing of Simpsons animation to South Korea.
The episode, called MoneyBart, aired in the US last night and will be shown in the UK on 21 October.
The intro sees Banksy’s tag scrawled over Springfield and closes with sweatshop workers making Simpson’s merchandise and creating cartoon cells. The now-pretty-commercial-himself street artist is thought to be referencing reports that the show outsources the bulk of their animation to a company in South Korea.
Scenes in the sweatshop see kittens thrown into a wood chipper so their fur can be used to stuff Bart Simpson dolls, a panda pulling crates of merchandise and a chained unicorn used to punch holes in Simpsons DVDs.
According to Banksy, his controversial storyboard led to delays, disputes over broadcast standards and a threatened walk out by the animation department.
“This is what you get when you outsource,” joked The Simpsons executive producer Al Jean.
The Banksy episode also has a dig at Rupert Murdoch’s 20th Century Fox, which owns The Simpsons. The show has never been afraid to make fun of Fox and features regular jokes about the quality of programming on the company’s US TV network.
Rupert Murdoch even appeared in The Simpsons as an ‘evil billionaire tyrant’.
Watch Banksy’s Simpsons trailer here.