Loved it. I thought the animation was beautiful and the joke was hilarious. The fact that it was Banksy is just a bonus. As far as the length goes - they’ve done longer couch gags than this. And I think the joke is on Fox, not China. The show is animated in Korea and it’s not done by slaves.
Right, I agree the joke was on Fox and not China. Interestingly, they’ve poked fun at their Korean animation a couple times before, most notably in a Kent Brockman report (many, many years ago) about the slave labor conditions used to animate American cartoons (Korean animators hunched over their desks in long rows, being whipped by overseers, etc.). According to the DVD commentary for that episode, they got some significant push-back from the Korean animators for that, of the “Hey, animate this your-fucking-selves” type, though they eventually relented.
Also, I didn’t mention before that I loved the opening. It’s probably the most interesting and memorable *Simpsons *sequence in years.
It was in Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie (I had to look that up). According to some newspapers, Banksy is saying the Korean staff was upset about the couch gag and threatened to walk out. Al Jean denies it. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a grain of truth in there, but who knows. More recently the show did a similar gag about merchandise by showing that Krusty toys are made in a sweatshop in Asia (Homerazzi), complete with a gigantic Chairman Mao-style image of Krusty on the walls. But this version had more bite since the subject was Fox and not Krusty, who they always use to stand in for the worst excesses in showbusiness.
The first time I saw the sequence, I thought the unicorn died. It turns out he’s still moving, but Al Jean suggested the unicorn did die in Banksy’s version of the couch gag.
I don’t know why everyone is going crazy over this. As others pointed out, this isn’t the first time The Simpsons has made jokes about sweatshop labor or their haggard Korean animation team.
If anything, those jokes were better because they were more to the point, also worked as jokes and weren’t trying to “say something” in the most pretentious way possible.
D’OH! :smack:
Because of the use of a controversial artist (I’m impressed we’ve made it this far without yet another circular debate about graffiti) and the more explicit and extended criticisms of NewsCorp. as an offender rather than being more general jokes about the practices of outsourcing animation and sweatshop labor.
Why doesn’t the abuse of overly cute animals count as a joke? And as for “pretentiousness”… meh.
I liked the Clerks version. You know, “Bear is driving Car!”
The more subtle (and thus IMO better) joke is that they had crude graffitti tagging all over the first part of the episode that merely read “Banksy”. 
The joke being, of course, that Banksy is a graffitti artist.
It’s The Simpsons, they’ve been taking shots at News Corp. for decades. If this was just a standard couch gag made by the writers themselves, there wouldn’t be half as much amazement that it was shown. Because this is what The Simpsons writers have always done.
Obviously.
In other words, if this wasn’t what it is, it would be something else. 
I’m not amazed by this, I just think it was good satire and a good piece of art. Fox has approved satire by The Simpsons before and they will again. This one was a little more intense and it went on longer, but it’s not completely new. Nobody should be amazed it was put on the air.
You’re right. I think I was projecting what I read about the opening on various news sites (basically variations of "I can’t believe Fox showed this!) with the reaction here.
It’s nothing we haven’t seen before ( “we are slaves”), and certainly Simpsons and 30 Rock have made fun of their companies for years.
I think this particular bit successfully exploited the proven formula of taking an okay concept that becomes funnier because you’re dragging an unworthy bit on too long. See also: Family Guy Chicken Fight.
And I don’t care about Banksy at all
Woah…Bansky is a person?
Well look at that…
While it might seem very daring, I’m sure that Rupert Murdoch and the rest of Fox don’t care, as long as The Simpsons keep making them money. (BTW, any idea how much they’ve made off this show? It’s got to be over a billion. Even Matt Groening must have made over $100 million.)
Yesterday, Fox had this video pulled off of YouTube, but now for some reason it’s back. So if you haven’t seen it yet, try again. (And if I were you, I wouldn’t delay, in case it’s pulled again.)
I actually thought the absurdity built as the time went on. Don’t watch it as sincere criticism, but just as a joke (I mean, the animation is done in South Korea — not exactly Sweatshopland), and it becomes way more awesome.