Why an episode of The Simpsons has been censored in Hong Kong

Disney Plus continues to expand its service around the world, and one of those expansions has included Hong Kong, where the platform has recently arrived.

Subscribers in the special administrative region of China will be able to enjoy content such as The Mandalorian or all the news from Marvel, and ALMOST, of all the episodes of The Simpsons.

And it is that the Chinese censors have come to light when Disney Plus broadcasts the series of Matt Groening in Hong Kong, and they have claimed one of the episodes of the sixteenth season.

The chapter in question is the one entitled Gu Gu Gai Pan, the twelfth episode of the season. It is about the one in which Selma travels with The Simpsons to China to adopt a baby.

As usual in The Simpsons, the series drew its critical vein at many points in the episode, both with Chinese culture and with its political regime.

Allusions to the tiananmen massacre, where “nothing happened in 1989” nor to Mao Zedong, the first president of the People’s Republic of China.

Obviously, these kinds of allusions are not funny to the Chinese censors, who have made Disney withdraw the Disney Plus episode.

Episode 12 of Season 16 of The Simpsons is missing from the newly-launched Disney + streaming platform in Hong Kong. The episode references Chairman Mao and the Tiananmen Massacre. HKFP has reached out to Disney for comment. pic.twitter.com/ecXXiwae70

– Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) November 27, 2021

However, you don’t have to go to China (or its Hong Kong administrative region) to find censorship on The Simpsons.

A couple of years ago, the producers of The Simpsons decided to eliminate all possible traces of the first episode of the third season, Dad, crazy to tie, where it “appeared” Michael jackson.

The Simpsons has always stood out for its critical tone, both inside and outside the United States, but in countries where such criticisms are practically (and practically without) a crime against the State, it has been the case, as has been the case, to eliminate episodes.