The Simpsons “Steal This”, an Episode about Copyright

On January 5th, Fox aired what many are calling the best Simpsons episode of the 25th season so far. The episode was called “Steal This”, and without a doubt, it proved to be one of the most entertaining and enlightening debates which demonstrated equally both sides of one of the most controversial subjects that we write and read about daily, copyright issues with pirated movies. If you hope to be able to see this episode on Hulu Plus or a repeat on Fox, you may want to skip to the last paragraph to avoid having this story being a spoiler for you.

Homer had wanted to see the movie Radioactive Man, and his co-workers were determined to keep making him hear spoilers about it which Homer wanted no part of. Homer then decides to give in and pay the high ticket price for the movie and goes to the theater for the 3-D screening. Homer’s movie theater experience becomes a nightmare of reality, and after being shushed in the theater, Homer stands up and tells it like it is, complaining about the horrible display of theater etiquette from the other patrons: people texting, sexting, using cell phones, and how dare a baby be at a 9pm movie. Homer got so fed up at the theater, he ended up snapping his 3-D glasses in half and caused such a scene complaining about the pre-show commercials that he got thrown out of the theater. After being so discouraged, with help from Bart (of course), Homer downloads a movie from the Bootleg Bay. Homer likes pirating movies so much that he sets up his own backyard movie theater for friends and neighbors, showing them a pirated screener movie so they don’t have to pay a high ticket price and put up with rudeness and commercials while watching the movie. Without Homer knowing, and in her usual character, Marge feels guilty and sends the Hollywood studio a check for the price of a ticket, and includes a note, which gets forwarded to the FBI as a tip about Homer’s activity. The FBI agents arrest Homer, but Homer manages to escape from the prison van when it crashes, and then returns home only to find out that Marge is the one who tipped them off. Homer tells Marge “but Marge, you promised to love me”, so Marge apologizes. Homer then flees to Sweden to avoid going to prison. The big court battle with the Hollywood “big shots” ensues, and Homer gives an excellent speech on why he feels he should not have to go to prison and manages to get his case dismissed by allowing the MPAA to make a movie out of his piracy. Homer contemplates pirating the movie to show his friends, but decides not to.


If you didn’t see this episode, the Simpsons Facebook page has three short video clips from it that you can view, and they are also available on YouTube. One is titled “Father-Son Bonding”, in which Bart teaches Homer how to use the Bootleg Bay to download, another is titled “Theater Etiquette” and shows part of Homer’s movie theater rant, and the other is titled “The Great Escape”, where Homer escapes from the prison van after it crashes.

For anyone that knows anything about copyright or file-sharing issues, the associated terminology used, related file-sharing site names, etc., the writers did an absolutely fabulous job of doing their research for this episode, and included everything possible to make this a perfect animated version of the great copyright debate on movie piracy. If you have the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend it. The Simpsons “Steal This” explains it all perfectly, in a way that nothing else can compare to. But then again, nothing else compares to the Simpsons, either