Duff Beer

"Can't get enough of that wonderful Duff!"

- the Duff Beer slogan

Duff Beer is the most popular brand of beer in Springfield. It is Homer Simpson's favorite drink and is enthusiastically promoted by Duffman, the company mascot.

Duff was endorsed during the Kennedy/Nixon debates by Kennedy, an idea that was then stolen by Nixon when he also tried to declare his support for 'that particular beer'.

Variations On Duff
Duff's equivalent in Shelbyville is Fudd Beer.

Moe Szyslak once tried to sell a can of Swedish Duff, or Düff. He also offered Malaysian Duff, which was made of soy sauce.

When Bart, Lisa and Selma visit Duff Gardens there are many different types of Duff. They include:


 * Duff Dry
 * Duff Lite
 * Duff Dark
 * Duff Extra Cold
 * Raspberry Duff
 * Tartar Control Duff
 * Lady Duff
 * Duff Stout
 * Duff Blue
 * Duff Zero, an alcohol free variant
 * Duff Ice
 * Duff Red
 * Duff Special Reserve
 * Duff Draft
 * Duff Malt
 * Duff Lager
 * Duff Christmas Ale
 * Duff Amber Fire, which is only sold in Canada.
 * Duff Peanut Butter Lager

Other non drinkable Duff products include a Duff Beer Suitcase, Duff Gummy Beers, Duff Beer Calendars and beer goggles that let you see and hear everything like a drunk.

Behind the Laughter
It has become one of the trademarks of the show appearing in merchandise, popular culture and adverts.

Possible inspiration
The word "duff" is common English slang for "useless" or "broken" (it can also mean pregnant, in the phrase "up the duff"). Like many other countries, discerning beer-drinkers often characterize popular domestic brews in a pejorative way (American criticize Budweiser, Australians discount Fosters, Victoria Bitter et cetera) as being mass-market swill. Clearly, the character of Homer represents the typical mindless drone who would drink whatever beer was marketed most heavily, regardless of quality, as satire of undiscriminating beer drinkers who routinely purchase "popular" (read: heavily advertised) beer.

The idea for the name of the beer possibly could have come from the play "Landscape" written by Nobel prize-winner Harold Pinter. Landscape is a one act play where the leading characters, Beth and Duff a middle aged couple, sit and talk at a kitchen table. One of the leading topics that is discussed by Duff is his job at the local brewery known for their keg beer. The play itself is a social commentary analyzing the difficulty at which a married couples communicate. In this sense, "Landscape" could also be a possible inspiration for the characterization of Marge and Homer as well.

Another inspiration may have come from former Guns N' Roses/current Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan who in the early days of Guns N' Roses was known as Duff "The King Of Beers" McKagan. McKagen's nickname predates the Simpsons, with it being used at least as early as 1988 in an MTV live concert.\

The Shelbyville equivalent to Duff, Fudd is notably Duff with the letters in reverse order, and the third letter repeated once.

Similarities to Budweiser
Duff has been likened to Budweiser beer.


 * Budweiser has used a cartoon spokesperson named "Budman", who is similar to Duff's Duffman.
 * Budweiser used a real dog called Spuds MacKenzie as a mascot to promote Bud Light. In the episode "Old Yeller-Belly", the Simpson's dog, Santa's Little Helper becomes Duff's mascot under the name Suds McDuff.
 * Like Duff's, the Budweiser logo has violet diagonal areas above the product's name.
 * Duff is the corporate sponsor to a stadium and an amusement park which parallels Budweiser's corporate parent, Anheuser-Busch with Busch Stadium in St. Louis and Busch Gardens.
 * During the Super Bowl in the episode "Lisa the Greek", Duff has an advertisement where Duff Lite and Duff Dry play in the Duff Bowl, which is analogous to Budweiser's Bud Bowl.

Real Duff beers
In the late 1990s, the Lion Nathan brewery in Australia produced an unrelated beer called "Duff Beer". 20th Century Fox brought legal action against the company. The product was ordered to be pulled off of store shelves and destroyed, becoming a collectors item in the process.

Daleside Brewery in England makes a Duff beer - Duff being Gaelic for dark, this is a 5% abv dark beer.

In 2007 a Duff energy drink was made which looked just like the beer on The Simpsons.

In 2005 in Guadalajara Jalisco Mexico a young business man opened his own duff beer

Duff Scam
As reported on the T.V. show Inside Edition, there was a scam in 2004 where an Australian woman was sold a Duff beer similar to the one on The Simpsons (in which the can had the same logo as the can on the show). She went to court to sue the person who sold it to her but the case was thrown out by the judge a few days later.