Duff Beer: Difference between revisions

Duff

Mexican Simpsons-style Duff beer, sold in Europe
Type	Beer
Manufacturer	Duff Breweries
Country of origin	Springfield, United States
Color	Brown
Variants	Regular/Duff Light/Duff Dry (identical), Lady Duff, Raspberry Duff, Tartar Control Duff, Beer Gummies, Henry K. Duff's Private Reserve, Duff Stout, Duff Zero (non-alcoholic, retired,) Duff Adequate
Website	www.duffbeer.co.uk

Duff Beer is a brand of beer that originally started as a fictional beverage on the animated series The Simpsons, since then it has become a real brand of beer in a number of countries without permission or consent from its original creator, Matt Groening and has resulted in legal battles with varying results. It is also sold as an energy drink in the gift shop of The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios.

It is Homer Simpson's beer of choice. It is a parody of stereotypical commercial beer: cheap, poor-quality, and advertised everywhere. The beer's official spokesperson is Duffman. While Duff Beer comes in several varieties, it is revealed on a Duff Brewery tour in "Duffless" that regular Duff, Duff Light, and Duff Dry are the same beer, although Homer and Barney apparently remain oblivious to the fact. A tasting room also contains several varieties that Barney stated they had not tried yet, including Raspberry Duff, Lady Duff and Tartar Control Duff.^[1] In "Homer's Odyssey", Duff is described as "The beer that makes the days fly by". In "A Tree Grows in Springfield," Homer asks for Moe's best beer, so Moe gives him a Duff Adequate.^[2] Fudd, a competitor to Duff, appears in the episodes "Colonel Homer" and "Lemon of Troy", the latter showing it being enjoyed by residents of Shelbyville, rival town to the Simpsons' home of Springfield. Consumption of Fudd however is alleged by bartender Moe Szyslak to have made hillbillies go blind.

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", spectacles that mimic what drunks see: they make Aunt Selma appear young, feminine, and beautiful to Bart - and also, somehow, alter her voice. Later, they see the mascots of Duff Beer, the Seven Duffs.

In the same episode, 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 as animatronic children sing "Duff beer for me, Duff beer for you, I'll have a Duff, You have one, too," over and over again. Lisa drinks the liquid in the ride on a dare from Bart, and she freaks out from its hallucinogenic properties.this is a verry tasty cumbitter (tasty) and can get you drunk easy

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.

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. The Seven Duffs are named Sleazy, Queasy, Surly, Edgy, Tipsy, Dizzy, and Remorseful.

Some have speculated that the name was inspired by one-syllable beer names in the United States (such as "Bud"), and The Simpsons' writers had found the name humorous.^[3] However, longtime Simpsons animator, producer, and director David Silverman has stated that Groening named the beer "Duff" simply for the convenient rhyme in the slogan "Can't Get Enough of that Wonderful Duff".^[4]

In an excerpt from his autobiography, former Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan claimed that the beer was named after him as the writers were fans of the band and he was known for his extreme alcohol consumption.^[5] This is a claim Simpsons creator Matt Groening has called "absurd". ^[6]

Matt Groening has stated that he will not license the Duff trademark to brew an actual beer, over concern that it would encourage children to drink.^[7] However, there have been a few notable cases of individual companies and persons who have used the term "Duff Beer" with varying success.

Duff's Famous Wings in Buffalo, NY sells their own form of Duff's beer on tap.^{[citation needed]} They also sell Duff Beer not as a beer, but as an energy drink.

Bilbo's pizza and brewery in Kalamazoo, MI also brewed their own form of Duff beer, which had a Homer Simpson tap handle to complete the reference.

In Germany the Eschweger Klosterbrauerei, a brewery in Hessen, brews a Duff Beer under the German Reinheitsgebot, under contract for Duff Beer UG.^[8][9] It is distributed in many European countries,^[10] and in Australia from 2011.^[11]

Duff Beer UG applied for an EU Community Trade Mark (CTM) in 2009, which was opposed by Twentieth Century Fox.^[12] In 2011 OHIM decided in favour of Fox, and in 2012 Duff Beer UG appealed to the European Court of Justice.^[13]

Twentieth Century Fox had itself been granted a CTM for the logo "Duff BEER" for use in several categories of non-beer merchandise.^[14] Fox had applied for the CTM in 1999, but opposition from the makers of "Mac Duff's"-branded wine and spirits delayed the grant till 2006.^[14] Fox's CTM was cancelled by the OHIM in 2011,^[14] following a 2010 ruling by the Brussels Commercial Court that a "Beer" logo applied exclusively to non-beer merchandise was misleading.^[15]

Daleside Brewery in England makes a beer called Duff.^[16] Duff sounds like 'dubh', Irish for black; this is a 5% abv dark beer.

Duff Beer UG's beer is distributed in the United Kingdom as "The Legendary Duff Beer".^[17] While news reports of its 2011 introduction mentioned The Simpsons,^[18] its own website does not, although it refers to its "iconic packaging" and states "The product has certainly fulfilled [sic] its namesake in becoming a modern day legend".^[17]

In the mid 1990s, the Lion Nathan brewery in Australia produced a beer called Duff. 20th Century Fox brought legal action against the company.^[3] The product was ordered to be pulled from store shelves and destroyed, because of the likely association in public mind between the Simpsons brand and characters and Lion Nathan's product, though the manufacturer did not use any Simpsons characters or the Simpsons Duff Beer design.^[11] The beer became a collectors' item in the process, with one case selling for US$13,000.^[19]

Duff Beer UG's beer was introduced in Australia in 2011.^[11]

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.^[20]

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.^[21]

Since its inception, the mexican brand Duff has spread to other countries in Latin-America like Brazil,^[22] Chile, Colombia, among others.^[23] In some countries, the legal implications and intellectual property is being questioned by Fox representatives, but no court decision has been met yet.

Duff Beer UG's beer was introduced into France in 2011, though with limited success.^[24] Since French television has a strict prohibition on advertising and product placement of alcohol, subsequent broadcasts of The Simpsons have blurred the Duff logo on screen.^[24] The name is not censored on the soundtrack, but Duffman was redubbed "Uffman".^[24]

Duff Brewery in Dunedin New Zealand brewed Duff Beer many years before The Simpsons, but due to threatened legal action by Fox they changed their name to McDuff. Duff Brewery were unable to afford to defend the law suit due to being a small brewery.^{[citation needed]}

The gift shop of The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios sells a canned energy drink designed to look like a Duff Beer can. It is also sold at a limited number of other locations, including Hot Topic.^[19] It is also available in the UK at American import stores such as Cybercandy.

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