Upstate New York is getting a lot of attention on social media, but perhaps for the wrong reason.
The region was the subject of a parody song on "The Simpsons" on Sunday night.
It wasn’t exactly the image a lot of communities in the region may have been looking for, everything from the implosion of a Kodak plant, with people taking selfies in front of it, to declining population in Utica, and empty stands at a Buffalo Bills game.
The premise was that Homer was taking the family to Niagara Falls to spend some credit card points.
Despite the negative references to Rochester and other communities, Don Jeffries, who heads up Visit Rochester, the local tourism organization, says he isn’t too bothered by the sendup of upstate New York, noting we have a lot going on, especially in the Rochester area.
“You know, we’ve got 'Hamilton' in town, we go right into the Lilac Festival with half-a-million people, then right into the Senior PGA, so they picked a funny time to mock us,” Jeffries said.
A spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, says there’s always work to be done, but he says jobs are up, unemployment is down, and millennials are coming back.
His boss was asked about the episode at a news conference in Sodus Point, and Cuomo said that he doesn’t watch the show.
Lifetime Pass Holders….just saying
— New York State Fair (@NYSFair) April 29, 2019
(We’re not implying any endorsement by @TheSimpsons , though we think Lisa really gets us.) #nysfair pic.twitter.com/FU2sy50aBl
The New York State Fair issued a statement saying that it will be inviting the writing staff of "The Simpsons" to attend this year’s fair as invited guests, as well as a basket of food and beverage products produced in New York state.
Fair director Tony Waffner said that, “We know it’s just a TV show, we can certainly take a joke and we love The Simpsons, but there’s so much that’s great about the region. We’re attracting high-tech industries to upstate, Utica is the home of the half moon cookie and tomato pie, the star pitcher Patrick Corbin attended Mohawk Valley Community College, and Buffalo has some of the best architecture of any major city in the northeast. We’ll show them a great time.”
