Nancy Cartwright AMA Goes Into Uncharted Water After 'Simpsons' Fans Press Star About Scientology

Nancy Cartwright is, of course, the actress behind Bart Simpson. But she’s also responsible for voicing characters like Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum and that Who Framed Roger Rabbit shoe that traumatized an entire generation of kids.

Cartwright, who recently launched the podcast Simpsons Declassified, popped into the Simpsons subreddit for an AMA yesterday afternoon. She was clearly happy to answer most fan questions about her work on the show, including queries about favorite episodes, the upcoming Simpsons Movie sequel and some of Bart’s iconic catchphrases. That being said, the event didn’t exactly live up to that second “A.”

According to users on r/SubredditDrama, moderators promptly deleted every question and comment in Cartwright’s AMA that related to the Church of Scientology, presumably sending the offending posts back to their home planet, Poochie-style.

Some Simpsons fans compared the crackdown to the pandering questions that the Lisa Simpson was forced to ask Mr. Burns in Season Two’s “Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish.”

Cartwright has been a member of the controversial thetan-busting religion since 1991. Astoundingly, she apparently remained a member even after Battlefield Earth came out; in 2023 Cartwright was honored by the church for her “cumulative donations of over $20m.”

While the mods haven’t commented on the controversy specifically, an update at the top of the page notes that “MANY MANY New Questions have been placed in a QUEUE for review,” and that approved questions “will continue to be answered at Ms. (Cartwright’s) convenience.”

Cartwright’s devotion to Scientology isn’t entirely irrelevant to the history of the show. In 2009, the actress sparked controversy for recording a robocall message to “boost turn-out for a Scientology event at the organization's Hollywood center” using the Bart Simpson voice.  

"This is not authorized by us," executive producer Al Jean stated at the time. “The Simpsons does not, and never has, endorsed any religion, philosophy or system of beliefs any more profound than Butterfinger bars.”

And The Simpsons did tackle Scientology to some extent in season nine’s “The Joy of Sect.” While it could be argued that the episode was a broad spoof of a number of different cults, the look of the Movementarian’s Leader appears to have been lifted from Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

And the show came surprisingly close to producing a more explicit parody with the proposed episode “Lisa the Scientopteran,” which, per Comic Book Resources, would have found Lisa joining a thinly-veiled Scientology parody. Simpsons writer Bill Oakley once stated that an unnamed episode, which was likely “Lisa the Scientopteran,” was scrapped so that certain staff members wouldn’t feel “personally attacked.”

But to be fair, Cartwright’s awkward attempt at fan engagement was still far from the worst Reddit AMA.