The Simpsons' Rio De Janeiro Vacation Led To Upset Brazilians And A Legal Threat

For a family that was originally introduced as a struggling working-class household, the Simpsons sure do go on a lot of vacations. They've traveled to all seven continents, as well as heaven, hell, and a few alien planets in the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes. And while it's fun to watch them interact with all these environments, there's some awkwardness that comes whenever they go somewhere the show's writers don't know much about. How do you write an episode about another country that's funny to Americans while also staying respectful to the viewers who live there? Sometimes, the answer is: you don't.

"Bart vs Australia" remains the king of the show's disrespectful travel episodes, as the "Simpsons" writers made clear they did zero research on the country, nor did they have any concern over the feelings of their Australian fans. They casually portrayed Australians as a bunch of witless hick alcoholics, where the Prime Minister lounged around naked in the local lake and where the Simpsons got to laugh as invasive bullfrogs destroyed the country's entire ecosystem. Although this episode was not received well at the time, Australia has warmed up to it in recent years. There was even a popular petition in 2015 to change the Australian currency name to dollarydoos, going off a line from the episode.

But although "The Simpsons" may have angered Australians in 1995, that was nothing compared to the controversy in Brazil in 2002. "Blame It On Lisa," the season 13 episode that took the Simpsons to Rio de Janeiro, pissed off a lot of Brazilians and almost led to a lawsuit. Although the Australia episode is regarded as a classic (though not quite making it into our Best Episode list), the Brazilian episode is widely recognized as a bit of a flop. So, what went wrong?

The main issue with "Blame It On Lisa" is that, much like the Australian episode, this one isn't very flattering to Brazil. It portrays kidnappings and muggings as extremely common, and depicts Rio de Janeiro as being overrun with monkeys and rats. Bart is also casually gobbled up by a giant snake. "What really hurt was the idea of the monkeys — the image that Rio de Janeiro was a jungle," said one spokesman from the Rio tourism board at the time. "It's a completely unreal image of the city." The city's tourism board president apparently even asked the board's legal team to look into what action could be taken, although thankfully no lawsuit was put forth in earnest. 

The difference in response seems to come down to the sense that the Brazil episode, much more than the Australia episode, is punching down a bit. As the showrunners explained during the "Bart vs. Australia" backlash, they felt like Australia was America's peer. Both countries have similar backstories, with an anglophone culture and a strong sense of camaraderie. The Brazil episode, however, had a bit of a racist undertone; the sloppiness of the stereotypes felt crueler, made worse by how the show was firmly out of its Golden Age and was now leaning a bit too hard on edgier, blunter humor.

On the bright side, "The Simpsons" writers did enough research on Brazil this time around to remember the country spoke Portuguese, not Spanish, leading to a gag when Bart literally knocks all the Spanish out of his head. Some Latin American viewers have pointed out that Bart's Spanish isn't very good in that scene, but hey, give him a break — he learned it all in a single plane ride.

Making things worse for Brazil was the fact that "The Simpsons" was pretty popular and well-liked in the country at the time. Although the show is even more popular in the rest of Latin America — thanks to the uniquely strong Spanish dubbing of Homer by voice-acting legend Humberto Vélez — Brazilian viewers still loved "The Simpsons" enough that the mockery had an extra sting. Much like Homer being homophobic in that one season 8 episode, there's always something unsettling about when your favorite cartoon characters seemingly start holding you in contempt.

Luckily, the "Simpsons" writers have made amends. "We apologize to the lovely city and people of Rio de Janeiro," executive producer James L. Brooks said just a few weeks after the episode first aired. "And if that doesn't settle the issue, Homer Simpson offers to take on the president of Brazil on Fox's Celebrity Boxing." And as time's gone on, it seems like the citizens of Brazil have grown more fond of the episode, at least if the Brazilians in the comment section of YouTube clips from it are any indication:

The show would return to Brazil in season 26 with "You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee." The episode also featured some critiques of Brazil, this time around the bribery in football games, but those critiques actually seemed somewhat researched and well thought-out, so they didn't cause a whole wave of controversy. Brazil and "The Simpsons" seem to be on good terms these days, even if the show's not as popular as it was in the 2000s. The show's writers seemed to have realized that when it comes to travel episodes, the "Bart vs Australia" format isn't always for the best.