'Bart Simpson' records Scientology ad; producer responds

Scientologist Nancy Cartwright, who does the voice of Bart Simpson on "The Simpsons," has recorded a message in the voice of the iconic animated character promoting the controversial quasi-religious organization. 

Cartwright recorded the pitch (audio below) for a robocall to boost turn-out for a Scientology event at the organization's Hollywood center. Though she takes care to identify herself by her real name and not her character, she uses the Bart voice at a few points in the recording.

“This is not authorized by us," said "Simpsons" executive producer Al Jean. "'The Simpsons' does not, and never has, endorsed any religion, philosophy or system of beliefs any more profound than Butterfinger bars." (Okay, it's not Jean's wittiest line).

The move is not only unauthorized, of course, but almost certainly violates Cartwright's contract. Though Fox is remaining mum on the subject, and their legal department is very much looking into the matter, the "Simpsons" characters are owned by Fox. Sure, Scientology is a non-profit group (ahem), but it doesn't matter (a Fox vs. the Church of Scientology lawsuit over the misuse of Bart Simpson? Oh-please, oh-please, oh-please...).

Publicity wise, coming right after the John Travolta fiasco, Cartwright could have probably recorded the message for, say, Hamas, and received less public blowback.

Comments

[JOhn Mason]

You have GOT to be kidding me why would anyone with a single brain cell promote that CULT? I just dont get it.

RT
www.total-privacy.us.tc

[Photo Sharing]

LOL Scientology is garbage.
She deserves whatever happens to her for this, for being a weak scifag

[lol]

HAH HAH HAH HAH HA! Can't wait for the lawsuit.

[Dick]

Hey Bart, how do you spell Scientology? C-U-L-T !

[peep]

@ John Mason:

It's a CULT, brain cells an intelligence have nothing to do with it.

[Kevin]

I hope they end Bart's character the same way they ended Poochy's

[Jason]

The only difference between a religion and a cult is numbers. People used to think Catholicism was a cult.

That being said, Scientology is a crazy cult

[Peter Jones]

Something tells me Lisa McPherson, Kyle Brennan and so many others who died as a result of Scientology's lies would disagree.

www.whyaretheydead.net

[Anthony Ceaser]

I love it, fuck off

[jane]

You must be one of them to be so sure of yourself.

I'll humour you. What makes scientology so great?

[Anthony Ceaser]

And I hate South Park for making fun of it. Lord Xenu really is coming for us, just wait...

[Anthony Ceaser]

Yeah, that's a reasonable arguement. Scientology kills people now, you are real bright, asshole.

[Reynard Fox]

Think you will find anyone "grown up" knows full well it is a cult. Your silly attempt to defend it shows you for what you are, a victim of a cult. (BTW, everyone understands it, it's nothing more than a sci-fi kooks imagination fabricated into a truth, thanks be to South Park!)

[Anthony Ceaser]

Your wrong, get over it.

[jane]

your troll fu is weak.

quit while you're...wait, you're not ahead. just quit.

[Reynard Fox]

Lol, mmm "your wrong, get over it" Nice piece of defence right there, arguement over, the cultist has declared it so. WRONG. Hubbard was a demented kook, intrested in your money not your mind. That is even more true today with Scientology, the largest cash racket in world. Think of a giant vacuum cleaner made for sucking money, and printed on the side is the words "Sucker 3000", a picture of Ron .L. Hubbard grinning like a tool next to it and however many scientology cultists bending over allowing themselves to be reemed. Ron L Hubbard was known and will forever be known as a not very good sci-fi writer, but an excellent snake oil salesman.

[Matt]

Thank you. Well said.

[Melinda]

HAAAhahahaahahaha....

[anthony ceaser sucks]

your a dumbass. i hate you

[foomanchu]

Have you studied any Scientology? Can you give 3 items it stands for? Cult or no? Good or bad?

It's easy to parrot what others are saying. About 99% of what I read in these comments is just that.

I've studied it. I was skeptical. It helped though. It actually was useful, and still is. It does take actually
LEARNING something to apply it. But that's true for anything that's actually useful.

[Scott]

Scientology - I just don't get it. I think its not just the "cult" thing, but the whole "Tom Cruise Thinks He is Better Than Everyone Else" thing.

[mojojojo]

foomanchu is right guys: You need to study something before you bash it. I've also studied it and also found it to be helpful. There ARE many parallels between scientology and other religions. It really does help to do your own research and understand...

However, Jason is also right:
"That being said, Scientology is a crazy cult"

[adsf]

Scientology is a piece of shit that only idiots believe in...then again, all "religions" are.

[marvel-fan-for-life]

i poo on the floor each day, and this place is my home!!!!

[tcp]

Actually, yes, I've learned quite a bit about it -- including L. Ron Hubbard's difficulties difficulties with mental health issues and how instead of actually getting help, he turned his anger into a crusade against psychology and psychiatry. I've learned about how the cult of scientology harasses and litigates and even allegedly kills to silence its critics.

That's no group I would want to be a part of... nor is it something I want in modern America, thank you.

[Capn]

How can anyone see actual quotes from their religion's founder, saying "I'd like to start a religion. That's where the money is" and still buy it? At least with other religions it was so long ago there is no evidence of the potential scheme at hand, but the dude was a science fiction writer in the 20th century, I mean come on...

[DEL]

Back in 2005 I was selling a collections company product door to door to businesses in San Jose California. I was 19. I got in the scientology building down 1st ave, not knowing what this was all about.

I asked for a manager to speak to, desperately hoping for my first sale. ( avg of $500/sale ). This hot chick comes in and instead of me selling her my product which was very legit, she sold me on how big was the company and that there is a possibility that I could earn their business if I first got to know them.
She basically pitched a DVD; I fell for it. $16 I spent at a time of dire need of money. I saw the DVD halfway, then said screw this. Googled it, and This is not self improvement as she pitched it, it's a fING religion/cult.

Problem is that they kept sending me these follow up letters that kept coming even after three separate changes of address.

Who falls for this SHAT, Shallow people depleted of values who live in over materialistic metropolitan areas, such as LA.

Fpuck Scien-Fpucking-Tology

PS: somebody should sue them for using that name which suggests that they "study of science"

[Matt]

As a Simpson's fan I would hate to see them replace the voice of Bart, however if I'm the Simpsons producers or fox there needs to be some accountability here. I hope she gets what's coming to her.

What is "the John Travolta fiasco" mentioned above?

[Bob]

Theres no point forcing an opinion on the internet, because everyone who has something to say, thinks that they are right.
Fanatical people cling to religion because they have nothing else. All religions were created by man as a way for coping with death. Not all people want to die, but belief in some sort of afterlife with virgins or spaceships comforts people and makes the transition into the ground a little easier.

[DEL]

Sounds like you have something to say as well.

I believe in GOD, the originator of the Big Bang, the creator of the ever evolving Universe. the one who created many creatures millions of years before he decided to create the humans from the earth and water.

Out of millions of species that ever existed on this earth, only one gets to speak, think, and have quasi-full control of its environment.

Our species can treat the environment well or it can Harm it.
As god commanded us(In the scripture I follow) not to mess with the Balance(of things in general, the environment in particular), that was a warning of the earth we might end up living in.

I BELIEVE that if he was able to create all these things and us, he can put the flesh on the buried bone and bring the body back to life.

The rest, only ALLAH knows.

[Locke]

She DID say they don't promote anything more profound than a Butterfinger bar...

[Hank Reardon]

I fail to discern the difference between the 'ridiculous' cult of Scientology and the mainstream cults of Catholisim, Protestantism, Judeism, and Islam. At base, each is about power, money, influence and control of the faithful and removing as many dollars from their pockets. Each is adept at exploiting human frailty with the promise of a better life. Why condemn one and not all of them.

[d00d]

Most Scientology kids aren't exposed to the space alien connection, or are told it's an internet lie. What they are exposed to, is a barrage of "learning technology" junk science. It's crap. All of it. Just look through official Scientology literature and work books on their site. It's the worst bunch of pseudo-science warrrggahhhrble ever created.

If they are told about thetans and/or Xenu, and believe it, well they're just fools who deserve to have their money taken.

[Heradite]

Scientology is simply wrong. It does lack common sense, and I don't see how people are stupid enough to buy into this scam.

But they have the right to buy into this lie. Under the Freedom of Religion clause...and sadly this cult is considered a religion.

[DEL]

"removing as many dollars from their pockets" in Islam Alms giving is voluntary, in fact you are not supposed to boast it, otherwise its benefit to you could turn into harm.

there is a yearly tax on money that sat around for a year, it is 2.5%, that is donated to the needy.
no tax on income that hasn't matured over a year.
talk about 35% on your income in the U.S.

you can see that Islam promotes the moving of money to benefit society. it also prohibits Interest. which is how the rich Jews historically got so much power. their money grows through Usury while they make decisions high up.

See Islam Banking and its introduction in the West

For christians and catholics I know that they donate a lot of money to the church if they are able to, I know a house by the University campus that is financed by the church and is "open" to unsuspecting international students so that they can come and hang out and learn about Jesus.

All these 1000s and 1000s of dollars to promote their religion in humongous congregations, I would see why you fail to see the difference.

In the End, Islam is the world's largest and fastest growing religion. And it sure does not have the US Dollar backing it to promote it.

Truth speaks for itself!

[Swa]

That's kind of anthropocentric. Cetaceans have been around for way longer than we have, and they have a social structure and a form of intelligence and communication that we barely understand in all of our years of studying them. We're only now starting to realize how intelligent birds are. Sure, if you define the pinnacle of perfection as "like a human being", then yeah there's no other species on earth that quite compares.

And yeah, God bringing my cremated alcoholic grandpa physically back from the dead is just as irrevocably improbable as Xenu dumping souls into a volcano, based on the evidence.

[galv]

Na na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na na, leader!

[Ima Nonymous]

Spoken like a true Scientologist.

As was I, once. As I once thought it helped me, too. Towards a better world, a world free of insanity, criminality, and war.

But as time wore on, the gorgeous veneer painted on reality by "Source" grew weary and thin. I noticed things: OEC/FEBC trained OT VIIs and VIIIs WHO BLEW THEIR POST AFTER COMMITTING TERRIBLE CRIMES.

These are people at the top of both the training and auditing charts. Their credentials are almost off the scale. Yet I can rattle off quite a few people in this camp. Think about it... can't you?

I noticed incredibly neurotic Scientology children who were barely capable of writing their name at 12 years old. I noticed that staff retention (in the Sea Org) was probably about 50% per year, and that every org world wide was struggling to make ends meet after paying their staff $20/week.

Does this sound like an "ideal civilization" in the making? How can Scientology claim to end criminality and war when the people most trained and most audited in Scientology so often blow, commit crimes, and do these terrible things? (as per SP declares, which I've since found out are often 100% BOGUS)

Finally, these questions ran too deep, and I left. Doubt is not a crime - it's a sign that you need to revisit your assumptions. I've since gone on and created a wonderful life with a passionate wife, children, and a dream career helping thousands of people each and every day to improve their lives in ways that are clear, documentable, and effective.

Which, in and of itself is a cause for doubt: What about the policy that anybody who leaves is a "degraded being" doomed to a life of failure?

Scientology is a sham. Start getting over it now, and enjoy what life you have left!

[haha]

airitarians anyone?

[joe]

Bart Simpson is dead