Fox furious with The O.J. Simpsons
broadcaster wants online site to remove The Simpsons parody
(Source: www.broadcaster.com)
Over its 18-year lifespan, Fox TV show The Simpsons has parodied pop culture at every turn. However, Fox executives are objecting to being the subject of its own parody.
Video website Broadcaster.com recently put up 3 episodes of The O.J. Simpsons, a parody that puts former football star O.J. Simpson as the head of his own dysfunctional family.
On October 3, 1995, Orenthal James Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 double-murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, a highly-publicized case that was later called The Trial of the Century.
However, Simpson subsequently lost a 1997 wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the Brown and Goldman families, and many believe that Simpson had actually committed the murders. Simpson has since paid out very little of the $33 million the court claimed he owes the two families.
Each episode starts with a copy of the famous opening credits (along with similar music to Danny Elfman's score), O.J. driving home in his Ford Explorer being tailed by 3 police cruisers, running over a cat, and an individual gag to finish off the title credits, just like in The Simpsons.
For example: at the beginning of "Black and White Christmas," he's greeted by Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan sitting on his couch. He sees them, turns to the camera and grins, "Ho. Ho. Ho."
If I Did It sees OJ having to explain to his children the reasons why he wrote his notorious tell-all book about how he would have gone about murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman if he had actually done the deed.
"If I did kill Mom," the cartoon O.J. says, "where's the murder weapon? Where are all the bloody clothes? Tell me, where is this mountain of evidence?"
In response, the kids open the hall closet, which contains a bloody knife, baseball bat and DNA evidence. The episode ends with him being menaced by a Fred Goldman, looking very much like Ned Flanders.
War Zone shows O.J. taking his kids on vacation to Iraq, so that they can "bag some towel-heads." After nearly killing his son (a darker version of Bart Simpson), he tries to sign them up for the U.S. Army, and introduces one of his favourite catch-phrases: "Where are the white bitches at?"
In Black and White Christmas, O.J. and his family are joined by "Hollywood's latest train wrecks," Mel Gibson and Michael Richards. Richards sings a song about how he hopes all cellphone recorders are broken the next time he says, 'n****r," the Lisa character wonders why Christmas can't be a season of joy and peace, and Gibson ends the episode with the tender statement, "Aww, **** the Jews."
Fox is using its legal team to pressure the website to pull the offending clips. However, Broadcaster is standing firm, claiming that parodies come under the "fair use" loophole in copyright law.
"We respect the rights of content owners," says Broadcaster CEO Martin Wade III in response to Fox's request. "We are examining all the issues raised by the Fox request. Our goal is to be a respecter of content rights and at the same time find legal ways to bring our community members the content they enjoy."
At the end of each episode, Broadcaster shows a disclaimer saying, "The previous video is not affiliated or endorsed by Fox, (The Simpsons creator) Matt Groening, or anyone related to Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart or Maggie. In other words – IT'S NOT THE SIMPSONS, It's The O.J. SIMPSON'S (sic) - D'UH!"
Fox has been very aggressive about protecting its intellectual copyright. In January, the studio forced Google to remove uploaded episodes of The Simpsons and live-action show 24.
