At least one episode of the longest running television show in America is not welcome in Turkey.
That nation’s Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTÜK) has slapped CNBC-E — CNBC Europe’s affiliate in Turkey — with a fine of 52,951 Turkish Liras, or nearly $30,000, for airing an episode of “The Simpsons” that poked fun at God, according to the Hürriyet Daily News.
RTÜK explained in a report that the fine was necessary because the episode was “making fun of God, encouraging the young people to exercise violence by showing the murders as God’s orders and encouraging them to start drinking alcohol on New Year’s Eve night.”
“One of the characters is abusing another one’s religious belief to make him commit murders. The bible is publicly burned in one scene and God and the Devil are shown in human bodies,” Hürriyet quoted from RTÜK’s report.
The episode also shows God serving the Devil coffee.
“The Simpsons,” created in the late eighties by Matt Groening, is the longest-running scripted television show in America, with more than 500 episodes already in its history.
‘The Simpsons’ episode earns Turkish television station hefty fine