Duff Beer

For the company which made the real Duff Beer, see Daleside Brewery.

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, average-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 and Duff Light are the exact same beer, though the two apparently remain oblivious to the fact.

The chief competitor of Duff Beer is Fudd Beer. Homer became aware of Fudd Beer while patronizing a "redneck bar" in nearby Spittle County (in the episode "Colonel Homer"). It was later revealed to be considered very popular in Springfield's rival town of Shelbyville. Moe said he thought it had been banned "after all those hillbillies went blind".Chief Wiggums favourite type of Duff is "Coffee beer"

Similarities to Budweiser

Duff has been likened to Budweiser beer.

• Budweiser has used a cartoon spokesperson named "Budman".
• Budweiser used a real dog called Spuds MacKenzie as a mascot to promote Bud Light. In the episode "Old Yeller Belly", the Simpson's dog, Santa's Little Helper becomes Duff's mascot under the name Suds McDuff.
• Like Duff's, the Budweiser logo has violet diagonal areas above the product's name.
• Duff is the corporate sponsor to a stadium and an amusement park which parallels Budweiser's corporate parent, Anheuser-Busch with Busch Stadium in St. Louis and Busch Gardens.
• During the Super Bowl in the episode "Lisa the Greek", Duff has an advertisement where Duff Lite and Duff Dry play in the Duff Bowl, which is analogous to Budweiser's Bud Bowl.

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.

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.

Creation

The name was inspired by one syllable Beer names in the United States, and the Simpsons writers had found the name humorous. 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.

Real Duff beers

• Daleside Brewery in England makes a Duff beer - Duff being Gaelic for dark, this is a 5% abv dark beer.

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

• Real Duff Beer: http://www.duffsudamerica.com/

Duff beer scams

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. However, there have been a few notable cases of individuals who have attempted to cash in on Duff's popularity by pirating it.

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. The product was ordered to be pulled off of 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 slightly different. The beer became a collectors' item in the process with one case selling for US$13,000.

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 on a few bars, but Contreras has stated his intention of selling it at convenience stores and even exporting it to the United States.

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 notoriousness", 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. 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.

In other media

• The video game Duke Nukem 3D featured a Duff Beer blimp above the stadium in the final level.
• Although the can looks different, the Punisher character Barracuda can be seen with cans of Duff twice during a story arc in the books sixth volume.
• In the Stargate Atlantis episode "Search and Rescue", John Sheppard asks the people digging him and Ronon out which beer they like - Duff Beer or Oprah Ale, to which they answer Duff, proving that they don't watch The Simpsons or drink beer, and so are probably the bad guys.