America’s already wildly unpredictable 2020 election campaign has taken a further bizarre twist after a top Donald Trump adviser got into a spat with Marge, one of the characters of the hit animated comedy show The Simpsons.
The fight began when Jenna Ellis, a senior Trump campaign adviser, sought to mock the California senator Kamala Harris after she was picked to become the Democratic party’s vice-presidential nominee. “Kamala sounds like Marge Simpson,” Ellis wrote on Twitter referring to the much beloved mom character on the long-running cartoon series.
From decades of being married to the hapless Homer Simpson, Marge (or her creator) has probably learned not to suffer fools gladly. So it was that the show’s official Twitter account struck back against Ellis by posting a short clip in which Marge took on the criticism with an implicit scolding.
Marge Simpson has something to say. pic.twitter.com/viux96bAPf
— TheSimpsons (@TheSimpsons) August 14, 2020
“As an ordinary suburban housewife, I’m starting to feel a little disrespected. I teach my children not to name-call, Jenna,” Marge said.
She added: “I was going to say I am pissed off but I’m afraid they’d bleep it.”
That did not end the fight. Ellis later tweeted in response: “Marge is probably going to vote Democrat … by mail.”
The Simpsons, one of the longest-running and most admired comedies in US television history, has a history of taking on politics and other surprising issues running the gamut from the climate crisis to Cornish nationalism.
The show has also taken swipes at Trump before, once having him look in a mirror at himself and saying: “You cheat at golf, you cheat at your taxes, you cheat on your wives … you’ve been acting like a narcissistic sociopath.”
