Biting the network that airs it

The much-discussed -- or much-hyped -- recent episode of “The Simpsons,” in which the town of Springfield became a cash-hungry mecca for gay weddings, was certainly in keeping with the show’s love of throwing candy-colored Nerf balls in the culture wars. But the episode also gave us a taste of the show’s favorite radical trick: its constant play-fighting against its own network. It’s this bratty behavior that makes it impossible to take “The Simpsons” off our TiVos: Though it’s been through rough times over the years, the idea of divorcing “The Simpsons” is possibly worse than ditching our real-life families.

Any “Simpsons” fan knows that dozens of in-house back stabbings of Fox litter the show’s 16 seasons -- the fan site www.snpp.com even gives them their very own archive page. One of the better jokes in the gay marriage episode involved Homer calling the network and hearing this voice mail message: “You’ve reached Fox. If you’re pitching a show where gold-digging skanks get what’s coming to them, press 1. If you’re pitching a rip-off of another network’s reality show, press 2. Please stay on the line, your half-baked ideas are all we’ve got.”

Back in 1998, an episode featured an appearance by Fox’s “X-Files” stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in their series characters, yet still managed to work in a slap at the network as Homer and Bart pledge to find an alien and, if not, “fake it and sell it to the Fox Network,” though Homer jokes “they do a lot of quality programming too.”

It’s not just a game, it’s real creative tension: “The Simpsons” exists to lampoon a world in which the values of Fox are ascendant -- and the show’s makers should know, because their paychecks are signed by Rupert Murdoch himself. This is the sweeps-hungry network that, recently, aired a prime-time special called “Stars Without Makeup,” sad for the obvious reasons and because by now it’s old hat to anyone who secretly flips through found copies of Us Weekly at the carwash. And the dirty star of Fox’s Saturday night lineup is “Cops”: with its tough-talking cops chasing pantsless men around trailer parks, it’s now and forever one of television’s lowest moments.

Granted, the tension has been known to erupt, particularly when “The Simpsons” crossed the line to take on Fox News. In 2003, Fox News Network made noise about legal action against the show over a parody of their breathless news style -- the animated take began, “Welcome to Fox News: your voice for evil” and went way over the top from there.

Though these days the show doesn’t always rise to its old heights, its current sparkle certainly has something to do with keeping a good frenemy. Like all relevant comedy, “The Simpsons” needs something to push against, and the show’s staying power may well be linked to the good health of certain forces in society, of which Fox is a handy symbol. Without braying fat cats, lowest-common-denominator entertainment and the worldwide corporate octopus, what would a smart show have to make sport of?

The voice actors are booked -- with their new healthy pay increases -- for years to come, and the show is, thank God, in good shape. A long-rumored “Simpsons” movie won’t be made until perhaps the end of the decade, if at all. But when the show is finally wrested from the cold dead fingers of its last Nielsen family, it’ll mean that the mean old Fox network has finally lost its No. 1 playmate -- and its eternal soul.