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D'oh! The Simpsons bite Apple

"Mapple" comes to Springfield as the Simpsons skewer Steve Jobs, those white earbuds, and the pristine shopping environment that is an Apple retail store.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
Tom Krazit
Apple and Homer Simpson hooked up earlier this year at Macworld 2008. Daniel Terdiman/CNET News

The only thing they forgot was a desperate attempt by old Gil to sell an iPod Hi-Fi.

Springfield got its first Apple store during Sunday night's episode of The Simpsons, allowing the show's writers to devote a good chunk of the show to satirizing Apple (Mapple), CEO Steve Jobs (Mobs), and "myPods." The show makes several tongue-in-cheek references to Apple cultural touch-points like the Power Mac Cube, the "Braniac Bar," and the famous 1984 commercial in a scene featuring Comic Book Guy, who is definitely a Mac user.

You can find the episode on Fox.com and Hulu, but the Fox lawyers seem to have placed a call to the YouTube people already. It's not the funniest Simpsons parody ever, but that show lost its fastball a long time ago. Apple references have been popping up in The Simpsons for years; perhaps the most famous one came when one of Springfield Elementary's bullies tried to take a memo on his Apple Newton to "Beat up Martin," which the quirky handwriting recognition software translated to "Eat up Martha," prompting the bully to just chuck the thing at Martin.