Blame It on Lisa

The satirical take on Rio de Janeiro in "Blame It on Lisa", in which the streets of the city are teeming with monkeys, rats, thieving orphans, kidnapping cabbies and oversexed children's show hosts dancing suggestively on Carnival floats, provoked a threatened lawsuit by the Rio board of tourism against the producers of the show. In response, executive producer James L. Brooks released a statement saying "we apologize to the lovely city and people of Rio de Janeiro," but added, "If that doesn't settle the issue, Homer Simpson offers to take on the President of Brazil on Fox Celebrity Boxing." Rio tourism board president Jose Eduardo Guinle proceeded with exploring legal action, but eventually got over it. The show's writers, however, did not. After board spokesman Sergio Cavalcanti told Reuters that Guinle was most offended by "the idea of the monkeys, the image that Rio de Janeiro was a jungle", the writers made a running gag of it. In addition to Homer's reference to "the monkey problem getting worse" in Rio in "The Regina Monologues", Krusty the Klown also reveals in "Mr Spritz Goes to Washington" that immigration officials are constantly hounding him because his monkey sidekick, Mr. Teeny, is from Brazil, adding, "His uncle was the Head Monkey on the Bureau of Tourism." Due to all this controversy this episode is rarely aired.

Homer is kidnapped and held captive in the Amazon jungle, which the storyline implies is near Rio de Janeiro. The two are in fact as far apart as New York and San Francisco.

Featured in Simpsonit: How the Test Was Won (2009)