Nobel winner Yunus lands role in The Simpsons

Bangladesh-born Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus will join Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe on the next season of The Simpsons.

A special episode of the hit television series will focus on the work of Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank micro-credit schemes.

Yunus’s voice has already been recorded and the episode is ready to go on air, the country’s UNB news agency said, quoting the Yunus Centre. The episode will shine a light on the problems of the poor – and how these can be alleviated by the extension of very small loans to spur entrepreneurship.

The best-selling animated TV series, created by Matt Groening for Fox Broadcasting Company, is popular all over the world and is recognised as one of the world’s most enduring cultural icons. It celebrated its 450th episode and 20 years of broadcasting this January.
 
American actor Jon Hamm and comedy duo Cheech and Chong are also part of next season’s celebrity bill.

Yunus was asked to appear on the show following a visit by Yeardley Smith, who lends her voice to the character Lisa Simpson in the series. Smith is currently in Dhaka on a week-long visit to study the Grameen Bank model and other initiatives by Yunus. A long-time admirer of Prof Yunus, Emmy-award-winner Smith has visited and provided support to Grameen micro-credit programmes in Haiti and other countries.

The Simpsons is a satire of a working-class American lifestyle epitomised by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional city of Springfield, and lampoons American culture, society, television and many aspects of the human condition.