“So there were other problems,” says Hosny. “This guy Homer drinks beer all the time, but this is a sin to the Arabs. So I told them that he will drink she’er — which is a [non-alcoholic] malt drink, and close to beer in sound, so good for dubbing. But they refused this. They said we must make it ‘juice.’” And so on. Through a steady process of cross-cultural attrition — no bacon sandwiches, no Moe’s Tavern, church becomes masjid (mosque) — The Simpsons was whittled down to a shadow of itself. As for Smithers’s feelings for Mr. Burns? “I naturally tried to underemphasize that,” says Hosny."...
..."Four days after the end of Ramadan 2005, 34 episodes into its 52-episode run, Al Shamshoon was pulled from MBC 1. It is a lesson in cross-cultural adaptation, and a warning of how delicate a powerful piece of television art like The Simpsons actually is. But regardless of how specifically North American it may be, The Simpsons does have fans (like the blogger Noor) in cultures often very different from our own. Those Muslim fans may not drink beer (although many do), but they don’t begrudge Homer his six-pack of Duff. As the man himself would put it: “Mmmm. Sacrilicious.”"
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