Blue Bombers get their Simpsons moment

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This article was published 03/01/2022 (1702 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You could say it’s the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ most D’oh-bious honour.

Fresh from its Grey Cup victory last month, the CFL team has been immortalized on long-running (currently in its 33rd season) animated Fox TV series The Simpsons.

The Jan. 2 episode (“The Longest Marge”) briefly showed a bus with Winnipeg Blue Bombers emblazoned on its side.

In response, the team tweeted out “C’mon down to Winnipeg @TheSimpsons,” along with the portion of the episode.

The video clip shows several football players walking towards the bus after a loss to the hometown Springfield Atoms. An announcer says: “In a never before seen move, the opposing defence is resigning en masse to try their luck in the Canadian Football League — good luck fellas.”

A spokesman for the Blue Bombers said Monday the club didn’t have anything more to say about the recognition.

A spokesperson for The Simpsons could not be reached for comment.

It’s not the first time the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have found the pop culture spotlight.

A few years ago, the team’s logos were spotted on sweatshirts and toques worn by characters in the comic strip Crankshaft (which runs in the Winnipeg Free Press).

Upon learning about the Blue Bombers reference on The Simpsons, the comic strip’s creator, Tom Batiuk, a fan of the team, said: “To the Simpsons — welcome on board. What took you so long?”

It’s not the first time Winnipeg has found its way to The Simpsons.

In a Season 16 episode, Homer Simpson and his father, Abe, began smuggling prescription drugs to the United States using fake Canadian health-care cards. “Midnight Rx” featured the Now Entering Winnipeg sign: “We were born here, what’s your excuse?”

Perhaps the most repeated clip — at least by Winnipeggers — was from Season 7 (“Bart on the Road”). Bart Simpson and others were on a road trip when another vehicle pulls alongside carrying with a dad threatening to turn the car around and go home if his children don’t behave.

One of Bart’s friends leans out of the vehicle and smacks the dad on the head; the man says, “That’s it, back to Winnipeg.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca