[lbo-talk] Simpsons on outsourcing unions

[Sean Johnson Andrews]

Did anyone catch the Simpsons sunday night?  The episode was about 
outsourcing--Mr. Burns decides to outsource the nuke plant to India.  Homer 
ends up being the sole employee sent abroad as a required union rep.  There 
are a few sketchy moments where Homer is ignorant of "Indian Culture" but 
the upshot of the episode is that Homer is revered as a god (scene is 
supposed to be a parody of Apocolpse Now) but not because of anything 
supernatural.  He teaches them about US worker rights--flex time, vacation, 
health care.  The Episode ends with Burns saying he'll have to move the 
plant to "somewhere with workers more desparate and ignorant--Springfield."

It was an interesting statement--a very focused episode relative to the 
usual narrative tangents.  It pretty much began and ended with the same 
trajectory (if you watch it regularly you know how rare this is).  The only 
sub-plot was a very random, throwaway one that only took up five minutes of 
the episode (Marge's sisters kidnapping MacGuyver).  Not sure if there has 
been any discussion of it, but I'd be interesting to hear what anyone on 
this list had to say about it--or to fill anyone in on details.

-s

PS There is a pretty strong seed on mininova for those inclined (ep17x17)