D'oh! 'The Simpsons' Roasts Patriots, Belichick in Sports Cheating Satire
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and the animated Fox television series "The Simpsons" may have one thing in common: an increasing number of television viewers are wondering how each is still gracing their screens on Sundays in 2023.
Foxborough and Springfield unexpectedly collided on Sunday: Belichick was one of several targets of "The Simpsons'" wrath, as the latest episode (the series' 760th overall) lampooned several accused "cheaters" of professional sports and beyond.
The episode in question, entitled "Do the Wrong Thing" (parodying the 1989 Spike Lee film "Do the Right Thing"), features Homer and Bart engaging in father-and-son bonding through rigging obscure sports events (i.e. stone skipping and face slapping) to win prizes.
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Family matriarch Marge disapproves but later engages in the practice to help daughter Lisa get into the "University of Springfield Camp" ... otherwise known as "USC." When confronted by the fake USC about her altered application, Lisa is horrified to learn that the dean (voiced by guest star Ken Marino) and the institution have happily embraced cheating. The point is driven home when Lisa declares "Say it isn't so, Dean Belichick!"
The real Belichick's time at the helm of the Patriots has been dogged by several accusations of cheating, including "SpyGate" and "DeflateGate." The former alleged that the Patriots' staff was taping opposing coaches' signals and later yielded a $500,000 fine for Belichick, the largest in league history. New England was later charged with a $1 million fine in the wake of "DeflateGate," which also yielded a four-game suspension for quarterback Tom Brady after the Indianapolis Colts accused the Patriots of deflating football during the 2015 AFC title game.
In sports terms, the USC reference could refer to the NCAA rules violations that affected several athletic squads at the University of Southern California, ones that required star running back Reggie Bush to return his Heisman Trophy and for the Trojans' football program to vacate several victories, including a national championship triumph from 2004. The prescience of a USC rowing coach courting Lisa could also draw parallels to the "Varsity Blues" scandal, in which actress Lori Loughlin posed he daughters on rowing machines in an attempt to earn admission through the Trojans' crew program.
Other alleged cheaters from the sports world and beyond roasted by the episode include Lance Armstrong, Sam Bankman-Fried, and the Houston Astros. The episode ends with Bart teaching USC students at the "Jim Harbaugh Center for Competitive Imbalance," a nod to the current sign-stealing scandals following the University of Michigan's head football coach.
Well-known for racking up historic honors and accolades in their respective heydays, both Belichick and "The Simpsons" have fallen on hard times. Belichick's Patriots (4-11) are at the cusp of their first dozen-loss season since 1992 while Homer and co. have seen diminishing returns in their 35th season on the air: none of the 10 episodes to date have earned a rating better than 7.0 from IMDb users but that hasn't stopped Fox from re-upping, as a 36th season was greenlit in January. New episodes continue to air on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
Belichick's future is far less certain but he'll be back on the sidelines come Sunday when New England plays its penultimate game of the season on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills (1 p.m. ET, CBS).
