The opening sequence of The Simpsons, arguably the most famous TV intro of all time, has been given a controversial one-time makeover by the acclaimed graffiti artist Banksy.
The episode, called MoneyBart, broadcast in the United States last night, apparently sparked a row in the show's animation department after the British artist storyboarded the extended opening credits.
The sequence shows Banksy's familiar calling card sprayed on several of the buildings in the show's fictional town of Springfield.
It also features a masked Bart writing the blackboard lines “I must not write all over the walls” all over the walls of his classroom.
After the characters take their familiar positions on the family couch, the scene changes to a cavernous Asian sweatshop with dozens of workers labouriously animating sketches of the family and making merchandise for the show.
The scene shows kittens being put into a grinder to make stuffing for Bart Simpson dolls, a yoked panda pulling a cart of merchandise and a chained unicorn used to punch holes in DVDs.
It ends with the familiar logo of the show's parent company, 20th Century Fox, imprisoned behind a fence with barbed wired and prison spotlights.
The sequence was said to be inspired by reports that the show’s producers had outsourced its animation and a merchandising to a company in South Korea.
It is said to have led to a major row about broadcast standards in the show’s animation department.
It's not the first time the show has poked fun at its owners, Fox, as it regularly jokes about the quality of its programming, and once depicted the network's owner, Rupert Murdoch, as an evil tyrant.
The controversial episode, which follows Lisa as she coaches Bart's little league baseball team, will be shown on UK television in two weeks' time.
