Duff Beer

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Mexican Simpsons-style Duff beer, sold in Europe

Duff Beer is a fictional brand of beer in the animated series The Simpsons. It is Homer Simpson's beer of choice. It is a parody of stereotypical commercial beer: moderately priced, poor-quality, and advertised everywhere.

The beer's official spokesperson is Duffman.

While Duff Beer comes in several varieties, it is revealed while Homer and Barney are touring the Duff Brewery that regular Duff, Duff Light, and Duff Dry are the same beer, though the two apparently remain oblivious to the fact. In "Homer's Odyssey" Duff is described as "The beer that makes the days fly by".

[edit] Duff Gardens

In the episode entitled "Selma's Choice", Bart and Lisa Simpson travel with their aunt Selma to Duff Gardens, a parody of the Busch Gardens amusement park, but also containing elements of Disneyland. In the gift shop, Bart spots "beer goggles", a sort of glasses that mimicks what drunks see. Aunt Selma appears young, feminine, and beautiful to Bart and also somehow, alters her voice. Later, they see the mascots of Duff Beer, the Seven Duffs: Sleazy, Queasy, Edgy, Surly, Tipsy, Remorseful, and Dizzy. Surly is often seen in other episodes such as when Moe's is closing down, Surly pours some of his liquid onto the street in front of it.

There is also a direct parody of the "It's a Small World" attraction at Disney parks. In the cartoon, the boats float on a brown liquid, with hallucinogenic properties, which Lisa drinks on a dare from Bart.

Other Duff Gardens attractions include the Beeramid, the Beerquarium ("Home of the world's happiest fish"), the Beer Hall of Presidents, the Washing Machine ride, the Whiplash rollercoaster, singing group Hooray for Everything (who sing a politically correct version of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" and are based on Up with People), and a direct parody of Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade.

[edit] The Seven Duffs

The Seven Duffs are characters at the Duff Gardens theme park. The "Duffs" are a reference to Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, although Duff Gardens is an obvious parody of Busch Gardens. The Seven Duffs are named Tipsy, Queasy, Surly, Sleazy, Edgy, Dizzy, and Remorseful. The only one that has spoken so far is Surly: "Hey, Surly only looks out for one guy...Surly!", "Shut Up" and "Take a picture, it'll last longer. Get outta here!" While waving to people at the Duff Dayz Beer Festival, "Drink Duff (covers mouth with hand) responsibly." All seven can be seen on a rotating poster in Moe's Tavern in The Simpsons Hit & Run.

[edit] Creation

The name was inspired by one syllable Beer names in the United States, and the Simpsons writers had found the name humorous.^[1] The show's creators appear to have designed the Duff Beer label for the making of the May 1990 episode." Some Enchanted Evening". The notes "MAKE UP BEER LABEL DUFF BEER?" can be found on p.16 of the first draft of the episode's script.^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Real Duff beers

Duff Energy Drink

An advertisement for Duff Beer in Barcelona.

• Daleside Brewery in England makes a Duff beer^[2] - Duff sounds like 'dubh', Irish for black; this is a 5% abv dark beer.

• The gift shop of The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios sells a canned energy drink designed to look like a Duff Beer can. The energy drink is also available on Amazon.com. There is a CaffeineGuru Review with an accompanying image and links to buy online.

[edit] Other notable uses of the name

Matt Groening has stated that he will not license the Duff trademark to brew an actual beer, over concern that it would encourage kids to drink.^[3] However, there have been a few notable cases of individual companies and persons who have used the term "Duff Beer" with varying success.

[edit] Australia

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.^[1] The product was ordered to be pulled from store shelves and destroyed because of the likely association in public mind between the Simpsons brand, characters, and "Duff" beer, even though the manufacturer did not use any Simpsons characters and made the can look very different. A shop in Melbourne, 'Minotaur' is one of the only known makers of a 'Duff' style drink. It is sold in a can with the Duff logo on the front, although it is not a beer, rather an energy drink.^[4] The beer became a collectors' item in the process with one case selling for US$13,000.^[4]

[edit] Mexico

Since 2006, Rodrigo Contreras, from Guadalajara, Mexico is setting up a business with the purpose of selling Duff beer. He managed to register the "Duff" trademark in Mexico, as well as the domain name DuffDeMexico.com. Contreras designed the bottle to be identical to the one portrayed on The Simpsons. The bottle can be seen at his website. The beer is currently available at a few bars, but Contreras has stated his intention of selling it at convenience stores and even exporting it to the United States.^[5]

This case has been featured on several Mexican newspapers and magazines, but most of them focus on the novelty the beer represents, rather than the legal implications of it. The "Duff" trademark was not registered in Mexico before Contreras registered it; however, Mexican intellectual property law recognizes the concept of "brand notoriety", which states that if any brand is well-known by a specific section of the consumers or the industry due to the commercial activities and/or advertisement done by its owners, they have the right to claim the ownership of the trademark.^[6] What seems to be a pirated Duff beer produced by Contreras is about to be released in Colombia. According to its website, he may already have a local trademark over "Duff", since it claims that another Duff pirate was jailed in Bogotá. ^[7]

[edit] References