The Simpsons supposedly just retired their iconic Duffman character—the mascot for the fictional Duff Beer—after nearly three decades on the show. The character first appeared in 1997 and has shown up in dozens of episodes since then. Voiced by Hank Azaria, Duffman was known for thrusting his hips and shouting his popular catchphrase, “Oh, yeah!” (in addition to sporting a fancy belt made of beer cans). Whether or not the character is actually gone for good remains to be seen, but this isn’t the first time that series creator Matt Groening has made an effort to put an end to something Duff Beer-related.
The success of The Simpsons has inspired a number of people to try to bring Duff to the market as a real beer in the past. In 1995, the South Australian Brewing Company and Lion Nathan Australia released their own version of Duff in Australia without 20th Century Fox’s approval. They were then taken to court, and production was halted shortly thereafter. The unsold cases became collector’s items and sold for thousands of dollars online as a result.
Fox also successfully blocked an attempt to trademark the Duff name in Europe and had 60,000 bottles of Duff-brand beer seized from a company in Chile in 2013. They seemed to have had a change of heart the following year, though, granting Woolworths a license to sell Duff, complete with the show’s logo and all, but only in Australian stores. The deal didn’t last long due to a complaint from the Alcohol Policy Coalition. Woolworths discontinued its stock to avoid the possibility that the brand might appeal to underage fans of The Simpsons.
That would appear to echo Groening’s thoughts on the subject as well, as it was during this time that the ABAC adjudication panel cited a letter from the Simpsons creator, offering some insight into why Duff might not have been officially licensed on a larger scale before. While upholding the complaint made against Woolworths, the panel pointed out Groening’s concern that if an actual beer based on Duff were to be made available, it “might encourage children to drink alcohol.” Groening making such a statement in opposition to a product that Fox approved of is an indication that he may not have been made aware of the deal.
It’s also possible that he doesn’t have much say in the matter, despite reports that he’s declined or even refused to license the Duff trademark to people over the years. While Groening might oppose the idea, it hasn’t stopped Universal Studios from offering officially licensed Duff Beer to visitors in the Springfield sections of their parks more recently. At the same time, it has yet to be made available in the United States outside those two locations (legally, anyway), so maybe Groening really has been sticking to his guns behind the scenes to some extent.
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