Writer Bill Oakley, who worked as the executive producer and showrunner during the seventh and eighth seasons of “The Simpsons,” took to Twitter on Wednesday after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used a scene from the show in an attempt to attack House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for ripping up Donald Trump’s speech after the State of the Union address.
Oakley lambasted the secretary of state, telling him, “please do not ever ever ever use Simpsons material in your twitter or watch the show or refer to it in any way.”
Mr. Secretary of State please do not ever ever ever use Simpsons material in your twitter or watch the show or refer to it in any way pic.twitter.com/hY0EKfEbua
— BILL OAKLEY (@thatbilloakley) February 5, 2020
The image is from a Simpsons episode titled “Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington,” in which Lisa tears up her prize-winning essay about American values after witnessing a corrupt congressman accepting a bribe, shattering her faith in democracy.
While Oakley did not write this specific episode, he did clarify on Twitter that his comments come as a fan and not as a writer.
(To be clear this episode aired before @Joshstrangehill and I even worked on the show and was written by the genius George Meyer and I say this to Mr. Pomepo as a FAN of this episode, not someone who worked on it. If he starts using Steamed Hams, then this will become personal.)
— BILL OAKLEY (@thatbilloakley) February 5, 2020
Pompeo’s tweet from his personal account came after Pelosi tore up her copy of the State of the Union speech immediately after Trump finished addressing a joint session of Congress. Pelosi later told reporters it was “the courteous thing to do given the alternatives.”
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