Disney Urged to Save Beloved Quebecois Version of ‘The Simpsons’
The Simpsons may be set in Springfield, U.S.A., but the show is watched by fans all over the world. And many international versions have been dubbed into other languages, including Spanish, Arabic and Japanese. Sadly, there is no Australian dub for viewers down under who don’t understand the concept of “coffee.”
But one popular regional dub of America’s favorite cartoon family is currently in jeopardy.
A Quebecois French-dubbed version of The Simpsons has been airing on the Télétoon channel for the past two decades. But, as reported by CTV, the station’s parent company, Corus Canada, hasn’t renewed its deal with Disney, and plans to dub the most recent season of the show are “on hold.”
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In response to the news, Quebec fans have launched a petition urging Disney to try and save the show, and it’s received nearly 22,000 signatures so far. “For decades, the Quebec version of The Simpsons has been an integral part of our collective imagination,” the petition reads. “It has allowed entire generations to embrace the series thanks to its high-quality dubbing, rooted in our language and culture.”
The fan who launched the petition argued that the French dub created for France isn’t remotely the same because “we have so many expressions that are different from French from France. We Quebecers, we recognize ourselves with the Quebec version of The Simpsons.”
In a viral social media thread from 2019, Simpsons fan Matt English pointed out that “fans of the Quebec dub hate the European dub, and vice versa.” While non-French speakers may not notice the differences, there are many, including the fact that the Simpson family, in the version that plays in France, speak with “Parisian accents.” But in the Quebec dub, they speak “with a thick working-class dialect of Montreal French.”
And unlike some other international dubs, the Quebec version changes certain jokes to appeal to regional audiences. For example, in Season Eight’s “You Only Live Once,” Hank Scorpio gives Homer the Montreal Alouettes football team, instead of the Denver Broncos. And the “Steamed Hams” scene was updated to include references to Quebec locales, rather than American ones.
As Saturday Night reported in a 2000 article, a French-Canadian linguist pointed out that the Quebec dub also underscores Springfield’s class divide by having more educated characters — like Principal Skinner, Reverend Lovejoy, Doctor Hibbert and Sideshow Bob — speak “international” French. But working-class characters — such as Homer, Chief Wiggum, Lenny, Krusty and Moe — “speak in the non-standard Québécois style, sometimes dipping into the coarse, highly idiomatic vernacular called joual.”
Far more unfortunately, Carl’s voice was reportedly a “Québécois stereotype” of a “Black immigrant” and the French-Canadian version of Reverend Lovejoy once dropped a shocking reference to the Holocaust while burning Krusty the Clown merchandise.
Now the future of Les Simpson is very much in doubt. According to the CBC, one big behind-the-scenes issue is the fact that Disney “outsources the Quebec dubbing of The Simpsons to Corus,” but uses the dubs on Disney+, which the Canadian company feels creates “unfair competition for Télétoon.”
If Quebecers are forced to watch the European versions in the future, perhaps they should expect much of Groundskeeper Willie’s dialogue to be censored.