Episodes of The Simpsons pulled in light of Japan disaster

Following the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan earlier this month, a Canadian broadcaster has pulled episodes of The Simpsons from its rotation.

Koreen Ott, spokeswoman for OMNI Television, said the station, which airs reruns of The Simpsons every evening, has pulled any nuclear episodes from 'The Simpsons' from the air.

We're reviewing our inventory for any further sensitive episodes.

Ott could not specify which episodes were pulled but said that Fox, which airs The Simpsons in the United States, provided a list of questionable episodes.

OMNI Television is not the first station to pull episodes of the hit animated series.

Austria's ORF network pulled two episodes from its rotation. These two episodes are Marge Gets a Job which features scientists Marie and Pierre Curie turning into zombies after being exposed to radiation and On a Clear Day I Can't See My Sister. In this episode a number of jokes are made about nuclear meltdowns.

Al Jean, executive producer of the Simpsons told Ew.com that he understands why some episodes need to be pulled because they come off as insensitive to real-life events in Japan.

We have 480 episodes, and if there are a few that they don't want to air for a while in light of the terrible thing going on, I completely understand that, he said.

Episodes of The Simpsons have been pulled in the past in light of real-life situations. A television station in Australia pulled an episode that was supposed to air this month because it made fun of a tsunami.

In 2001, shortly after 9/11, an episode in which Homer goes to New York was pulled because it showed the World Trade Center.