On Sunday night, those of us that tuned in (or TiVo’d) Fox’s long-running animated sitcom “The Simpsons” got more than the usual collection of pop culture jabs and recycled plot mechanics: we got a genuine piece of art, a subversive and sad prologue conjured up by British street artist Banksy. In the bit, Korean workers labor under toxic conditions to animate the show, they then grind up cuddly animals to make the stuffing for Bart Simpson dolls, and use a decrepit unicorn to punch holes in ” The Simpsons” DVD sets. But the best part is the final reveal: a pull out from within the 20th Century Fox logo, now seen as a utilitarian prison, lined by barbed wire.
And it was all inspired by a super-genius documentary!
In separate interviews with The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, “Simpsons” executive producer Al Jean said that the idea for the sequence was inspired by “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” Banksy’s is-it-a-documentary? documentary about street art and the slippery slope of fame.
“I saw the film Banksy directed, ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop,’ and I thought, oh, we should see if he would do a main title for the show, a couch gag… We didn’t have any agenda. We said, ‘We’d like to see if you would do a couch gag.’ So he sent back boards for pretty much what you saw,” Jean told the Times. According to the BBC, who spoke to Banksy, “his storyboard led to delays, disputes over broadcast standards and a threatened walk out by the animation department.”
What we didn’t get to see remains something of a mystery, but considering Banksy was the artist who placed mannequins of Guantanamo Bay detainees in Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland, you can imagine shit was even bleaker. Jean would only tease, “I’ll just say, it was even a little sadder.”