Yeardley Smith, the actress who voices the iconic character Lisa Simpson, blasted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday for “co-opting” the cartoon to troll Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Smith took to Twitter after President Trump’s State of the Union to slam the Trump official for tweeting an image of Lisa Simpson tearfully ripping up a sheet of paper — an apparent dig at Pelosi after she tore a copy of the president’s speech at the end of the address Tuesday night.
“I might just add f— you @mikepompeo for co-opting my character to troll @SpeakerPelosi. Be a leader and fight you own fight! Oh, wait I forgot, you’re a follower,” Smith wrote.
The image Pompeo tweeted was from a Simpsons episode titled “Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington,” in which Lisa tears up her prize-winning essay about American values after witnessing a corrupt congressman accepting a bribe, shattering her faith in democracy
The comic actress, who has voiced Lisa on the animated sitcom “The Simpsons” since 1987, was responding to a tweet from Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.), who asked her to describe the scene.
“In this episode Lisa loses her faith in democracy after seeing a corrupt politician selling out American values and liberty. Like your boss. … Nice self-own though,” Pascrell tweeted.
Smith isn’t the only member of the Simpsons team to protest Pompeo’s use of the cartoon.
Bill Oakley, who was the executive producer and show-runner during the seventh and eighth seasons of the long-running animated sitcom, asked Pompeo to never use material from the show.
“Mr. Secretary of State please do not ever ever ever use Simpsons material in your twitter or watch the show or refer to it in any way,” Oakley wrote on Twitter.
Pompeo’s tweet from his personal account came after Pelosi tore up her copy of the State of the Union speech immediately after Trump finished addressing a joint session of Congress. Pelosi later told reporters it was “the courteous thing to do given the alternatives.”