A joke that went too far after a certain event, so it got changed before reruns.

On January 7 1996, 

the Season 7 episode TEAM HOMER aired on FOX.

The basic plot of the episode was pretty simple, actually two of them:

Homer forms a bowling team of his own to compete in a bowling tournament 

while BART's latest trend of MAD MAGAZINE apparel forces his school to enforce a strict uniform dress code.

Now here's something interesting:

Did you know they changed an animation cel in order to preserve a joke while at the same time, avoid unfortunate implications of a much more serious crime?

They did.

In the original broadcast, Homer despondently tells MARGE that MR. BURNS booting out OTTO from the team is sure to cost HOMER's team from winning the championship, therefore making his less than stellar effort to build a trophy case go to waste,

The Camera pans to his homemade rack and there it's revealed that he stole an OSCAR award.

And what does it say?

And yet, when the episode was rerun as well as be put on VHS, DVD, 4K Streaming, etc.,

This is what it now says:

So, what's going on here?

Well, it was relating to the real life HAING S. NGOR, actor

That OSCAR you saw earlier before the change was actually for the CAMBODIAN-AMERICAN Actor when he won that award for BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR for his portrayal of DITH PRAN in the 1984 film THE KILLING FIELDS.

And that was quite an amazing feet considering NGOR had no prior acting experience.

And even more of an amazing feet as it allowed NGOR to tell the world the atrocities of the KHMER ROUGE movement since like DITH PRAN, NGOR was a genocide survivor.

However on February 25 1996 which was a month after TEAM HOMER aired on TV, NGOR's house was broken into by 3 members of the ORIENTAL LAZY BOYZ street gang.

Although NGOR willingly handed over his ROLEX watch, he refused to hand over his Locket which contained a photo of his late wife MY-HUOY.

The story behind all this is very messy and convoluted but in essence, he was killed by these gang members.

When the time came for TEAM HOMER to re-air, the effects of NGOR's murder was felt not just on every AMERICAN's heart but also the writers.

They felt that the original scene, which was already in bad taste due to the writers being apathetic about NGOR's struggles in CAMBODIA, now was in even worse taste than before due to the murder because viewers could misinterpret the original scene as HOMER having murdered the man or paid the gang to murder NGOR just so he can have his OSCAR.

So rather than cut the scene, they reshot the scene but this time, the animation cel now read DON AMECHE

who won his OSCAR for his role in COCCOON(1985)

Why DON AMACHE?

Because AMECHE died of natural causes on December 1993 and because of that, it would imply Homer got AMECHE's OSCAR at an estate sale instead of NGOR's predicament. 

So, it was good on the part of the WRITERS and PRODUCERS to change an animation cel for an episode because you may never know when such a tragic event like this could happen.

Here are the comparisons between the two scenes.

And yes, the producers are serious about preserving the DON AMECHE joke on all reruns and home medio/streaming releases due to the original joke being in bad taste after the airing.

Kind of like how SETH MACFARLANE now regrets the JFK PEZ DISPENSER joke nowadays.

Hey, there are jokes that CARTOONISTS regret nowadays so it's valid to remark on their regrets as you may never know when a random event happens

Tough to imagine it's been 30 years since HAING NGOR's murder but justice for his upbringing must be addressed.