Morrissey's manager, mad that his client was called racist by The Simpsons, deems the show "the real, hurtful racist group"
TV Features Morrissey
The most recent Simpsons episode, “Panic on the Streets of Springfield,” featured a Benedict Cumberbatch-voiced character named Quilloughby. Lisa is inspired by Quilloughby, who previously fronted the fictional English post-punk band The Snuffs, until she’s disillusioned by attending a reunion concert where, as it turns out, he’s aged from a suavely brooding ‘80s icon into a bloated singer who has rejected veganism because he believes it was invented by foreigners. Morrissey, who bears more than a little resemblance to Quilloughby, doesn’t seem pleased with how the episode turned out if a Facebook post written by his agent is anything to go by.
Last night, Morrissey’s agent Peter Katsis issued a statement on the Morrissey Official Facebook group. He began by lamenting The Simpsons’ fall from “creating great insight into the modern cultural experience” to a show that’s “since degenerated to trying to capitalize on cheap controversy and expounding on vicious rumors.”
“[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) [it] makes you wonder who the real hurtful, racist group is here,” Katsis continued. “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.”
(We have to assume the only reason the show didn’t address “specific instances” of Morrisey’s racism—or his other… fascinating opinions—is because the show is ultimately only 20-odd minutes long.)
Katsis concludes by stating that Hank Azaria’s apology for voicing the character of Apu “says it all,” that The Simpsons “are the only ones who have stopped creating, and have instead turned unapologetically hurtful and racist,” and that, the show’s “viewership ratings have gone down… badly over recent years.”
As to what long-running TV comedies Morrissey’s Facebook account does approve of, well, apparently “shows like SNL still do a great job at finding ways to inspire great satire.” If, for whatever reason, you’d like to read the post in its entirety, it’s available here.
[via Consequence Of Sound]
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69 Comments
Is “Peter Katsis” really Morrissey posting under a different name?
He’s friends with “John” from theroommovie.com.
Ha, what a story, Gray Man!
He hired him from the same agency as “John Baron.”
Katsis concludes by stating that Hank Azaria’s apology for voicing the character of Apu “says it all,” that The Simpsons “are the only ones who have stopped creating, and have instead turned unapologetically hurtful and racist,”That’s … quite literally the opposite of being unapologetic?
It’s also the opposite of “turning” racist.
You’d think he’d be more upset at that nasty zinger that Superman and Lois gave him recently. It doesn’t get more painful than getting mocked on the CW.
And if you hadn’t mentioned it, no one would even know about it!
At least on the CW nobody sees it who’ll understand the reference.
It’s like a Monty Python bit. “Their apology for past racism clearly depicts their unapologetic decline from cultural commentary into racism.”
i urge you not to follow john cleese on twitter
He was always insufferable. He was the Python none of the other Pythons wanted to work with.
I loved Fawlty Towers and Holy Grail as a kid, so as an adult, realizing he was such a twat was very much disappointing.
I grew up on Python thanks to my sisters and discovered early on what a right bastard he was. It’s like learning about Tallulah Bankhead’s secret abattoir. You just don’t expect it.However, Michael Palin is a darling, darling man and let no one tell you differently!
That’s SILLY!
I thought Katsis was the Hunger Chick.
Please don’t ask me to choose between present day Simpsons and present day Morrisey. I’d much rather just leave them both to die painfully.
I’m sure the flack will inevitably be contradicted by Morrissey himself, who will end doubling down on some crazy foreign anti-Brexit conspiracy against Kevin Spacey or whatever.The funny, not toxic version of a flack getting contradicted by a client is the story of Jane Goodall and the Far Side cartoon depicting her as having an affair with an ape, with Goodall turning out to have a good take on it.
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2020/04/24/jane-goodall-and-the-primate-gary-larson/
The most controversial issue of the Far Side alongside Cow Tools.
Technically, it depicted a chimp’s mate as alleging the partner was fooling around with Goodall, so not even an actual relationship.Now there have always been actual rumors (and they are probably as sexist and baseless as the Catherine the Great horse rumors) about another female primate scientist (primatologist?) being intimate with her subjects.
Yeah. I think the absurdity of Goodall actually boinking an ape was the joke.It was funny that she accused him of it.
She didn’t. Her agent did and Goodall wasn’t even aware. It turned out that she’d loved the cartoon and was horrified that her agency has threatened Larson behind her back. IIRC she called them off and apologized to Larson, and he ended up giving her the original of the comic. Some dumb stories have nice endings!
The episode was great! The writing this season has been solid.
So sad to see something so beloved from my youth in such a sad, sorry state.
Please be more specific.
I leave the initial statement open to interpretation. Also, it can be two things.
Yeah, and also Morrissey has really let himself go.
“Slight?”
Who?
My wife, Eleanor.
“A PENGUIN! And he’s been DRINKING!”
Ah yes, the ol’ “I’m not racist! You’re racist! Shut up!” gambit.
He’s also not the first Morrisey who’s a Dick.
Christ, given a hefty chunk of the stuff Morrissey has said over the decades, I think he actually got off easy with the show’s parody of him. I actually wondered why Lisa would ever be a fan of someone like him after even a basic online search.
I thought so too. I was delighted by the episode, as a huge Smiths fan (and as a no-longer Morrissey fan, sadly.) I thought it was clearly written by someone who was, or had access to a background of Smiths love (and it was.)
I hate that Morrissey has become such a shitstain that right now we can’t even talk about the fact that modern day Simpsons is still a bad show and it should feel bad.
> harshly hateful tactics like showing the Morrissey character with his belly hanging out of his shirt I feel hated, too. Why do they hate us?
My main takeaway from this episode was Kevin Michael Richardson is a talented dude, but man, he cannot do Dr. Hibbert. Open up casting calls for that one again.
Alternate solution: Just end the series at the end of this season.
Or just bring in a new doctor character? We were all able to cope with Dr. Nick and Dr. Hibbert co-existing and plenty of plots have revolved around new people coming to town.
AV Club can’t decide between calling The Simpsons racist or defending it from charges of racism.
I tried for a very long time to separate the art from the artist when it comes to Morrissey. Eventually I just couldn’t bring myself to stomach it anymore. I still think he’s created a lot of amazing music, but I can’t listen to it anymore without thinking about all the baggage attached to it.
Most of that music was when he was with The Smiths.
I mean, he’s not wrong that the Simpsons sucks and has sucked for a while now, he just misunderstands the reasons why.
This is not a defence of Moz who has of course made it impossible to listen to his own tunes by being such a nuclear-grade ding dong, but is this what passes for relevancy over at Simpsons HQ now?
I kind of imagine a fair number of viewers probably wouldn’t even know it was meant to be Morrissey. The episode is far more about nostalgia for the 80’s and 90’s and how frequently those things don’t live up to reality in 2021. The idea of Morrissey was just a vehicle for Lisa discovering something/someone she’d never heard of and falling in love with that thing only to have it ruined in the present day.
Is this where we’re not-really defending Morrisey? That was an absolutely savage takedown from the Simpsons. And not South Park style where it’s so over the top that it stops hurting.The whole thing felt a little uncalled for. It was also one of the better episodes I’ve seen lately so I’m conflicted.
This is a little odd: how does portraying Morrissey (or a Morrissey-like character) with his belly hanging out make The Simpsons ‘the real racists’?
My previous job’s playlist had “Spent the Day in Bed” by Morrissey on it. Had to hear it 4-5 times a day, and the playlist went a couple years without being updated. I have never loathed a song so much in my life. Just awful.
“ 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)”He’s right, Morrissey has never looked like that. It’s almost as if they were trying to make their character legally distinct enough from Morrissey as to keep certain lawyers from suing them.
Although, they did get pretty close. Yes, it’s exaggerated, but:
Dude is in his 60s now.
I don’t disagree, but I have to say as someone who saw him perform a few years ago, this was definitely a caricature, but not one that was drastically far from some of his own behavior – I suspect if he did sue, the Simpsons would be covered easily by parody law while also being able to say “No, he has sort of dressed and looked and acted that way.”
Oh I agree, it does kinda look like him now. I was just getting annoyed at the number of people shitting on him for putting on weight and looking a little sloppy on stage. Just wanted to point out he’s a pretty old fart now (and supposedly had cancer a few years back) and all things considered he looks better than most 60-somethings I see.
Sooo… goes full on “I’m not the racist, you are! You’re real ones!”Complains about fake media.
Then goes on about their “low ratings”.Why… why does that sound so familiar? Coulda swore I knew a guy who used to do that but… it’s almost like he’s completely left my brain recently…
So that was clearly dictated by Morrissey, right?
Look, I don’t know much about Morissey or The Simpsons TBH, but can we all agree that a problem is the problem, not the people pointing out a problem.
Apparently we can’t.
That “Hamburger Holocaust” is a catchy tune.
With a voice like that – self-pity chic – Morissey has no right to voice his opinions.
He’s got a point, isn’t someone doing a fat joke the real racism?
You’re so vain I bet you think this show is about you, don’t you?
The episode almost predicted this reaction by having the aging Quilloughby mention that he lost his fortune “because I kept suing people for saying things about me, that were completely true.”He goes on to tell his fans to buy his new album, entitled “Refugees? Again?”
Stewart Lee has let himself go.
Have your star and enjoy it you wonderful bastard.
I feel like the agent kind of fell for a trap here. If you recognize your client from a hurtful parody when that parody makes no explicit mention of your client, then it’s probably at least sort of justified. This complaining kind of just validates the episode.
He is not wrong about the Simpson’s fall, though.
Just saw this episode and I agree…with Morrissey’s manager. It’s one thing to joke about his music or his whole Wildean man-out-of-time attitude but the “racist” stuff was cheap and unfounded. (I won’t even get started on the ageist/sizeist nature of the ep’s many unfunny potshots.) Any real fan can tell you most of his so-called racism is just a series of pro-Animal Rights comments about China that have been taken out of context and plastered all over the internet. I am usually the one defending The Simpsons but now I wonder if all the people who say the show should have ended years ago have a point
I discovered The Smiths in college (early 90s) and instantly fell in love.Also, hasn’t Morrissey kind of always been an asshole?“A rush and a push and the land that we stand on is ours…”Time to go revive that Smiths Spotify playlist!