There is a new threat to the people of Venezuela: Bart Simpson.

He is a garish shade of yellow, a menace to his teachers, a constant source of anguish for his family . . . and now deemed likely to corrupt the children of Venezuela, which has banished Bart Simpson and co from the airwaves.

“It had to be taken off,” a spokeswoman for Televen, a private television station, said of The Simpsons, after receiving an order from the National Telecommunications Commission. “They consider it to be a series that isn’t appropriate for that time, because it isn’t appropriate for children.”

Ok. So maybe some of the adult themes of this prime time Sunday American staple are indeed inappropriate for 11 A.M. viewing. I am sure that the Venezuelan government will ensure that quality family programming replaces America’s most celebrated underachiever:

In an effort to maintain ratings, it will broadcast Baywatch Hawaii, the 1990s show featuring a cast of swimsuit-clad women and muscle-bound lifeguards that a group of British mothers once condemned as soft porn.

Sex + family programming? What a brilliant concept! Write PBS! We need big-breasted women running in slow-motion on Sesame Street! Adult American male illiteracy will vanish!

Filed under: Pop! Goes the Culture, Profiles in Governance