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‘The Simpsons’ Fans Have Been Trolling News Sites, And It’s Hilarious

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 05:09 PST, Mar 19, 2016

The Simpsons has raised a generation of funny fans. This month, the animated sitcom’s fans around the world have been targeting news organizations with rather amusing pranks, according to Stuff.

The Simpsons fans have been trolling news organizations around the world by sharing on their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts fake news tips. An unnamed group of the show’s fans originally targeted Australia’s unsuspecting 7 News, but they passed the idea on to trolls around the world.

The prank is rather simple, yet hilarious; a fan describes the kind of scene from The Simpsons that would likely make headlines in the news, then waits for the response and when the news organization asks for photos or videos, the fan sends a screenshot of that newsworthy scene from the animated sitcom.

The social media staff of Australia’s 7 News got so annoyed with the ongoing prank that they reportedly complained about the incident to their Prime Minister, as reported by Stuff. And who would blame them? Imagine having to sit all day in the office and try to discern the difference between fake reports sent in by The Simpsons fans and genuine, authentic news tips that should be actioned.

After a few successful trollings, The Simpsons fans took screenshots of their hilarious social media conversations with news organizations and shared them on the Internet. And that’s when other fans of the show started trolling news organizations all over the world.

The frustration of all those news organizations is certainly understandable. The Simpsons fans may have just launched a brand new campaign that will last for years to come. Just think about how many scenes from different TV shows and movies can be described to pique the interest of news organizations.

For example, “Hey, I’m seeing a man with a gun in his hand and he has just killed a prisoner. And now he’s yelling ‘What’s in the box?'” Then, send a screenshot of Brad Pitt crying in the famous scene from Se7en.

And it all began with the widespread use of cellphone cameras, and news outlets worldwide encouraging everyday people to send in photos and videos from crime scenes as legitimate news tips for the news outlets to follow up on. But The Simpsons fans refused to take it seriously and have set a new trend of pranking.

One of The Simpsons fans offered 7 News footage of “a crazed maniac driving,” adding that it was “very unsafe for the public” and that the driver “drove right near a school bus.” When the Australian news organization replied, asking to send the video as well as the sender’s contact number, the fan sent a screenshot of Homer Simpson behind the wheel eating ice cream.

When some staff members realized that the whole thing was a prank, some staffers started to return the favor by making fun of The Simpsons fans. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, one of 7 News staff members replied to one of the fans, “Would you be willing to wear a large novelty hat and take videos from inside the store?” referring to the classic “Homer and Apu” episode.

The Simpsons has been recreating scenes from classic films since its very first episodes. In fact, it has recreated so many classic scenes from movies that the fans couldn’t even keep up with the pace.

But there is one true fan of the animated sitcom that could, according to NME. That fan has managed to put together more than 30 movies references from The Simpsons shot-by-shot with their original versions. And they all fit in a three-minute.gif image file.

The gif features classic scenes from such films as The Godfather, Psycho, E.T., Pulp Fiction, Terminator, Dr. Strange Love, Requiem For A Dream, Reservoir Dogs and many others. The Simpsons has been recreating classic scenes from movies for 26 years now.

[Photo by meunierd/Shutterstock.com]

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