Australian ‘Simpsons’ Fans Tried to Convince Their Government to Rename Its Currency

Watching old episodes of The Simpsons isn’t typically the best way to learn about other cultures, as evidenced by that character who no longer speaks. And the Simpson family’s vacations aren’t always the most accurate depictions of foreign locales, hence why the city of Rio de Janeiro threatened to sue the show for suggesting that it was a rat-infested hellhole.

One of the show’s most beloved episodes, “Bart vs. Australia,” found the Simpsons journeying to the Land Down Under, after Bart makes a prank call, causing an international incident that turns out to be a “bootable offense.”

In addition to the fact that the episode gets the science of Australian toilets all wrong, there are a number of other inaccuracies that you would assume might tick off Australian viewers. But a recent Reddit thread, which asked Simpsons fans in Australia to weigh in on whether there was ever any controversy, suggests that nobody was too upset about the episode.

“From memory it was universally well received,” one Aussie fan replied. 

“Everyone saw it as a piss take and loved it,” another added. “We don’t take ourselves that seriously to not see the joke.” 

In fact, one fan’s biggest problem had nothing to do with bootings or nude Prime Ministers, but rather, beer. “I live in Australia and the biggest problem I have with this episode is that it makes it look like we drink Foster’s,” they clarified. “No one drinks Foster’s, I wouldn’t even know where to buy it.”

Not only are these folks totally cool with the episode, but back in 2015, one young Australian Simpsons fan launched a petition calling on the government to “rename the nation's currency from the Australian dollar to the Australian ‘dollarydoo,’” in reference to the moment in which Bruno is shocked at receiving a collect call bill for “900 dollarydoos.”

“This will make millions of people around the world want to get their hands on some Australian currency due to the real-life Simpsons reference, driving up the value of the Australian currency,” argued Thomas Probst on his Change.org petition. “If the leaders of this great nation have any common sense at all, they will introduce legislation to parliament to change the name of our currency as soon as possible.”

Since the Australian dollar really was in a “slump” at the time, Probst’s fellow citizens supported the idea “Out of all the stupid petitions that flood my Facebook everyday. This is the only one I want to support,” a Whakatane resident wrote. Another Australian supporter proclaimed that the plan was “in the best interests of our country.”

While the petition racked up nearly 70,000 signatures, sadly the plan didn’t come to pass. And seemingly nobody even tried to have the country’s official sport changed to Knifey-Spoony.