Aimee Walker
Quilloughby, who appears in The Simpsons episode, ‘Panic on the Streets of Springfield,’ has upset The Smiths’ singer, Morrissey. Let’s take a look at the drama and what the singer has said here…
Morrissey has hit back at The Simpsons and said it was ‘unapologetically hurtful and racist’ for airing a controversial episode featuring him, one week after Hank Azaria said ‘sorry‘ for voicing Apu.
In the episode, which was shown on Sunday, April 18, Benedict Cumberbatch voiced Morrissey as Lisa Simpson’s friend, Quilloughby.
Quilloughby: The Simpsons episode explained
Quilloughby, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, is a moody post-punk singer that Simpson finds on a streaming service called ‘Slapify’.
She discovers the artist by clicking on a prompt that reads: “If you hate everything, you might like this.” After clicking, Simpson is brought to Quilloughby’s band named ‘The Snuffs’.
Simpson quickly becomes fascinated by the Quilloughby band, who ‘dominated the ‘80s indie scene with their brand of literate, sardonic music that focused on Quilloughby’s obsessions, especially his militant vegetarianism’ in The Simpsons.
Morrissey took to Facebook to talk about how he felt in response to the episode. He said: “Surprising what a turn for the worst the writing for The Simpson’s TV show has taken in recent years.
“The Simpson’s show started out creating great insight into the modern cultural experience but has since degenerated to trying to capitalise on cheap controversy and expounding on vicious rumours.”
He added: “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.”
What have The Simpsons creators said?
Tim Long, who wrote The Simpsons episode ‘Panic on the Streets of Springfield,’ told Variety that the character was meant to represent various 80s musicians.
However, he reportedly added that Quilloughby is ‘definitely Morrissey-esque, with maybe a small dash of Robert Smith from the Cure, Ian Curtis from Joy Division, and a bunch of other people’.
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