Lisa, Marge, and Bart experience show-induced seizures while Homer imitates them.
Battling Seizure Robots (戦闘ロボットシージャー Sentou Robotto Shījā) is a Japanese TV show which the Simpsons see while they're vacationing in Japan.
Bart notices the show on TV and says, "Isn't this that cartoon that causes seizures?" Immediately afterwards, he is having a seizure. Soon, everyone but Homer is having a seizure. Homer doesn't know what's up with everyone rolling on the floor and babbling incoherently, but he figures he'll go along with it, so he starts rolling and babbling on purpose. When a commercial comes on, everyone's seizures stop. When the show resumes, so do the seizures, this time also genuinely affecting Homer.
The show seems to be about giant robots battling each other. The flashes from their weapons cause the seizures.
Behind the Laughter[]
- Battling Seizure Robots is a reference to an early Pokémon episode, "Denno Shenshi Porygon (Electric Soldier Porygon)." During its original airing in December 16, 1997, the episode caused 685 children in Japan to have seizures. Because of that, the Pokemon episode was banned from every country in the world.
- On a related note, the Battling Seizure Robots scene was one of many reasons why Japan doesn't air or release The Simpsons "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" (it was one of many scenes that mocked Japan in a way that came off as racist and culturally insensitive rather than satirical, yet respectful). In the DVD commentary for the episode, Mike Scully acknowledged that, at the very least, the scene in question prompted several angry letters being written to the episode's production staff as a result.
- This Japanese parody may have also been part of the reason South Korea, a country which Japan has long had a very bitter relationship with, banned the Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo from airing in Japan until sometime before 2007.
- The Battle Seizure Robot makes an appearance in the Nintendo DS version of Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game. It is summoned by Homer to finish off a Sparklemon.
- The Battling Seizure Robot also makes an appearance in The Simpsons: Tapped Out as a non-playable premium limited time character that was released during Act 2 of the Destination Springfield 2017 event. If players have the character, when they tap it, the robot will make the screen flash white three times with his flashing weapon, mimicking the seizure effect.
