Posted 2/02/2005 05:23:00 PM by Douglas

Now this is funny. You just can't make up stuff like this.

A woman has pleaded guilty to selling on eBay three nonexistent cases of Duff brand beer -- the favorite of cartoon character Homer Simpson.

Tara Edith Woodford, 28, pleaded guilty in the Mackay Magistrates Court in northern Queensland state on Wednesday to three charges of dishonestly gaining money by false pretenses.

Now that's a little silly. Selling beer? Copyright infringement? What's the charge?

In the mid-1990s, two breweries released their own "Duff Beer" in Australia until legal action by the creators of "The Simpsons" and the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. took the beer off the market.

Fox has a policy of refusing to license "The Simpsons" merchandising for products that would be detrimental to children. [emphasis added, as I laugh my ass off]

Hands down, the funniest thing I've read in several years.

Fox is now worried about products that are detrimental to children? Did I wake up in the Twilight Zone today? Isn't Fox responsible for such notable cultural trainwrecks as Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?, Married by America, Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy, and my personal favourite, Mr. Personality, which was hosted by none other than Monica Lewinsky and featured a guy in a Mexican Wrestler's mask hitting on complete strangers. Yes, it's so blatantly obvious how beer is completely beneath the moral fabric of such an esteemed organization.

But why are they only interested in protecting children from the debauchery of malted hops and barley? Seems to me that without beer, there wouldn't even be half the kids in this country in the first place. And for some reason, they all watch Fox, and sadly, most of them vote, as well.