29 on 4

At some point this autumn, Channel 4 will begin airing a new-to-terrestrial season of The Simpsons, first screened in the UK by Sky One around four years ago; the eighteenth season of the show they've premiered, and, in all probability, the fourteenth consecutive season to make its debut in the tried-and-true weekdays at 6pm timeslot. Based on the last few years' form, this will probably start early in November, but it could start at any point from September so it's good to get this in now: for the third year running, the blog's guide to potential censorship cuts for those watching along. As ever, keep an eye on Wesley Mead's UK schedules page to find out exactly when.

Before we get started, a general note: When these episodes were first aired by Sky One between December 2017 and May 2018, they were shown in a new, later-than-usual regular timeslot of 8pm on Fridays, which has stuck for every season since. This means that Sky's original broadcasts of these episodes were, with one notable exception, completely uncut, even the Treehouse of Horror; I cannot say the same for any repeats they made in earlier timeslots.

WABF17 The Serfsons

This is a Game of Thrones-inspired episode transplanting Our Favourite Family and their supporting cast to a medieval fantasy setting, so be on the lookout for numerous violence/gore-related cuts. It is possible this episode might even be relegated to a late-night slot, as has happened with the last few seasons' Treehouse of Horror episodes.

There is also another very odd thing concerning this episode, Sky's broadcast of it and the Gracie Films vanity plate, which you can read about here; it will be interesting to see what the deal is with C4's copy, as that may answer the question once and for all.

WABF16 Whistler's Father

This episode's subplot concerns Marge being hired by Fat Tony for a decorating job which turns out to be for a brothel. This episode may be subjected to some pretty heavy censorship, possibly even moved to a late-night slot as happened with the previous season's "Kamp Krusty" for reasons related to SEX.

WABF18 Treehouse of Horror XXVIII

Oh boy.

The last Treehouse of Horror episode to premiere at 6pm on Channel 4 was Season 25's; every one since then has been relegated to a late-night slot, sometimes in the same week as the rest of the season, but more usually up to a whole year later. There is objectionable content in all three segments here (to wit: Exorcist homage "The Exor-Sis"; Coraline homage "Coralisa"; and the one forever destined to be known as "The One Where Homer Eats Himself", as well as the provider of this article's astonishingly appropriate illustration, "Mmm... Homer"), and there's simply no way it's getting an early evening outing on C4. A shame, because it's probably one of the stronger Treehouses of the last few years.

On another note, "Mmm... Homer" features a plot-relevant appearance by Mario Batali. This episode was originally broadcast in America on 22 October 2017; just over seven weeks later, Batali was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, he was dropped from all his television series and his ranges were pulled from supermarket shelves. Despite this, it appears his scenes were still intact on the episode's one and only US network repeat on 18 February 2018, and they were also seen by UK viewers when Sky premiered the episode a few weeks earlier on 19 January. (Wesley pointed out at the time that Batali isn't hugely well-known in the UK, and whilst it would theoretically be possible to remove Batali's scenes you would end up with a version of the story where Homer makes some pretty questionable and unprompted decisions.)

Based on what has happened since then, I would not be surprised if C4 were a little more proactive and attempted to remove Batali in the edit (it wouldn't be the first time they've tried to creatively change the entire meaning of a scene) or even dropped the episode altogether; then again, they're only going to be airing it after 11pm anyway. So it will be interesting to see what happens with this one.

XABF01 Mr. Lisa's Opus

Here's an interesting one. There's a scene here calling back to the banned-from-streaming "Stark Raving Dad", where Leon Kompowsky returns on Lisa's 14th birthday with some new verses of "Lisa, It's Your Birthday":

I trust I don't need to explain why I think that might by cut by C4.

XABF08 Fears of a Clown

Remember when I said there was "one notable exception" to these episodes airing on Sky uncut?

Yeah.

XABF07 No Good Read Goes Unpunished

There is a profoundly odd and disturbing joke in this episode regarding guest star Daniel Radcliffe getting torn to pieces by fans... which would probably be pretty simple to cut if needs be, except it then has a call-back at the end of the episode. So another one where it's interesting to see what happens (there's no visible blood so it might be OK). Also watch out for Nelson accidentally getting burnt to death in the school furnace.

XABF14 Flanders' Ladder

The montage that ends the episode:

Homer's death is probably the only one that really poses a problem there, and even then there's no blood. And if you cut it you'd have to get rid of Wiggum's death a moment later too. (There's also some odd bits of violence/death earlier in the episode in Bart's dreams, but again I don't think there's any blood so they might get through.)

So, there are probably little things I've forgotten in other episodes too ("Singin' in the Lane" has the line "Here's $400, and screw you", which may well be cut down to "Here's $400"), but those are the big ones. Come back in December to see just how much I forgot about.