In classic Simpsons style the program has satirised its own network and industry with a dark introductory sequence storyboarded by famous graffiti artist Banksy. It’s the first time an artist has been invited to storyboard part of the show and was apparently inspired by reports that the show outsources the bulk of their animation to a company in South Korea. Banksy is notorious for his anti-establishment artwork and whilst some have questioned his decision to work for 20th Century Fox the sequence in no way panders to the network, raising a few uneasy giggles.

The sequence begins travelling through Springfield with billboards and buildings emblazoned with the artists tag and Bart Simpson chalks the lines ‘I must not write all over the walls’ over the blackboard and walls of his classroom. Once the family is assembled on the sofa, as per the usual sequence, the music changes to a more sinister tone and the screen pans out to reveal Asian workers sat row upon row in a dark factory painting the animation cels for The Simpsons.

A young boy dips the celluloid in a radioactive barrel before the animation follows a trickle of the barrel’s fluid beneath the sweatshop, into a cave. Here the parody becomes ever grimmer and more absurd. Boxes are sealed with the tongue of a dolphin whose decapitated head is manipulated through aid of a stick, Kittens are thrown into a shredder and their fur used to stuff Bart dolls which then are wheeled away in a cart dragged by a fatigued panda, DVD’s have their centre hole popped out using the horn of an emaciated unicorn, chained to a wall. Skulls, rats and bones litter the scene but the bright theme music cuts back in as soon as the sequence is over, serving as a fantastic counterpoint

The sequence is a sharp satire of the manner in which the entertainment industry and its produced merchandise is sustained by a rather darker underbelly of outsourcing and cheap labour. The Simpsons has never shied away from taking a swipe at its own network, Rupert Murdoch once appearing as a ‘billionaire tyrant’. The show regularly mocks the American culture and lifestyle that it both depicts and is a product of.

The episode, called MoneyBart, will be shown in the UK on 21st October.