Shepard Fairey Appears on ‘The Simpsons,’ Could Head to Jail Over Obama ‘Hope’ Poster

Shepard Fairey appeared on “The Simpsons” last night but it may be his last TV appearance in a while. The famous street artist, who created the Obama “Hope” poster, entered a guilty plea last week saying that he destroyed documents in order to hide the fact that he used a copyrighted Associated Press photo to create the iconic poster.

Fairey appeared alongside several other famous street artists, including Robbie Conal, Kenny Scharf and Ron English, in an episode titled “Exit Through the Kwik-E Mart.”

In the episode, Bart creates a street-art poster featuring Homer and the word “Dope.” Fairey is impressed with Bart’s work and invites him open his own gallery. But it turns out that Fairey is an undercover police agent and ends up arresting “El Barto.”

The episode comes a week after Shepard Fairey plead guilty to one count of criminal contempt for destroying documents.

College News reports that Fairey sued the Associated Press in 2009 after the news organization claimed that Fairey had stolen their picture. Fairey claimed that he had used a picture that was protected by fair-use laws.

Fairey later admitted that he was mistaken about the photo he used and actually did use an Associated Press photo. A criminal investigation was launched and last week Fairey plead guilty to destroying evidence about the original photo.

Fairey said:

“I was ashamed that I had done these things, and I knew I should have corrected my actions.”

Fairey will be sentenced on July 16th. He could face up to $5,000 in fines and six months in prison.

The president of the AP, Tom Curley, released a statement, saying:

“The A.P. hopes that some good may come of this, by alerting judges and parties to the possibility that fake evidence may exist.”

Do you think Shepard Fairey should go to jail for using the AP’s photo in his “Hope” poster?