Simpsons' Nuclear Episodes Pulled From European Networks

Episodes of the cartoon that poke fun of nuclear meltdowns have been temporarily banned in several countries.

With the world anxiously watching Japan’s nuclear crisis unfold, and with Europeans’ fears of a similar disaster the highest they’ve been in decades, at least three networks have decided to pull episodes of the Simpsons that make light of nuclear catastrophes. Germany’s ProSieben, Switzerland’s SF, and Austria’s ORF have temporarily banned two episodes that prominently feature jokes about nuclear meltdowns, although nuclear-themed jibes are sprinkled throughout the program’s 482 episodes. The show’s fictional power plant frequently serves as a metaphor for the dangers of big business controlling the power of life and death, and it’s probably no coincidence that nuclear energy has been such a prominent theme in a show that debuted in 1987, a year after the Chernobyl disaster.