'Simpsons' sweatshop satire Sunday stirs controversy

"The Simpsons" courted controversy Sunday night with a particularly pointed satirical jab in the show's weekly "couch gag" portion of its opening-credits sequence.

Storyboarded by the celebrated British graffiti artist Banksy, the one-minute segment depicts a hellish Asian sweatshop of soul-deadened animators, child workers coating animation cells in radioactive waste, kittens tossed into a wood chipper to make stuffing for Simpsons dolls, and various indignities heaped upon dolphins, pandas and a unicorn. It ended with the 20th Century Fox logo behind a barbed-wire fence.

"This is what you get when you outsource," the BBC quoted "Simpsons" executive producer Al Jean joking. While the U.S. company Film Roman does the show's episodic storyboards, character designs, painted backgrounds and layouts, "The Simpsons," like many U.S. animated series, has the bulk of its drawing done by several studios in South Korea.

Jean told The Associated Press Monday that he'd invited the well-known street artist after having seen this year's Banksy-directed mockumentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop."

While the BBC report paraphrased the highly self-promotional Banksy as claiming his storyboard "led to delays, disputes over broadcast standards and a threatened walk out by the animation department," a Fox spokeswoman told Newsday, "That is just not correct." Jean told the AP that while the segment was "toned down a little" for airing, "there was nothing unusual from the network in terms of notes or delays. Fox has a remarkable ability to make fun of itself and be gracious."

Banksy's work was attributed in the episode's end credits. The 35-second standard opening before the couch gag included the word "Banksy" spray-painted onto a wall of Bart Simpson's school and across a billboard advertising that Krusty the Clown "Now Does Funerals."

The clip, which had been available on YouTube and several media outlets Monday morning, was subsequently removed from many sites.