This Simpsons episode won a serious award in 2004. It still might be the show’s most underrated half hour

The Simpsons made animated punch lines double as courtroom arguments in Episode 22 of Season 15. The Simpsons slipped in a scene where Homer is drowned in one company's chain of news that felt fresher than law-review prose. Fans were amused, lawyers later admitted they nodded along, and the show, now many years beyond its rookie run, proved satire still carries weight.

Fraudcast News hit the airwaves in 2004 and, unusually for the series, went straight after the sticky subject of who actually owns the news we see. It dropped the familiar Springfield shenanigans into the lap of the town's eccentric billionaire, Mr. Burns. The plot was funny, yet beneath the gags sat a serious worry: When one set of hands holds every microphone, every voice stops being a surprise.

The narrative style attracted a lot of attention. The Paul Selvin Award goes to 'Fraudcast News,' which won the Writers Guild of America’s award for scripts that best express and protect free speech rights. It was unusual for a show known for its jokes and slapstick to be honored in this way; it attested to its social commentary abilities.

A cartoon’s surprisingly real commentary in The Simpsons

An on-air foul-up in 'Fraudcast News' wipes out a beloved roadside statue — the crew laughs it off as another goofy Tuesday. Out of sight and out of mind, Mr. Burns gestures grander than mere revenge. He scoops up the papers, the radio stations, even the cable, guided by blinking neon cameras. From his walnut-paneled bunker, he streams hometown bulletins that paint him as Springfield's greatest philanthropist-someone who would never hoard millions.

The Simpsons pokes fun at the creeping takeover of the news by a handful of megacorporations, owners whose names keep showing up on the same glossy IPO flyers. Laugh track aside, the scene leaves a queasy aftertaste: Put the megaphones in few enough hands, and what counts as opinion drifts to whatever the ledger sheets find profitable that morning.

The award that said it all

When the Paul Selvin Award landed in its lap, The Simpsons suddenly shared the same shelf as grim dramas and hard-nosed docs about war zones, civil-rights marches, and smoky back-room politics. A cartoon cozying up to titles such as The People vs. Larry Flynt or The Pentagon Papers is a bit jarring, and yet the prize says the show's point still hits. Fraudcast News-plus a quick Yelp from Krusty-poked at the very core of what newspapers, broadcasts, and Twitter threads claim they protect: A free press.

The closing scene sticks in your head because it pokes the show where it hurts. Burns half-seriously proposes that Rupert Murdoch ought to hold the reins to every last microphone and screen. The zinger rides that rare edge between silly parody and real-world grievance, leaving viewers to chew on another network's awkward appetite for power.

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