In the 1990s, The Simpsons made a lot of jokes about the poor quality of American made goods and manufacturing. Was this a common perception? And was there any truth to it?

A couple of examples:

Marge picks up an oyster mallet in a fancy kitchen store, and then puts it back, saying “”Made in America”? No thank you!” (S08E06, 1996)
The US embassy in Australia has an electronically closing gate prominently labelled “Made in USA”. It fails halfway through closing. (S06E16, 1995)
Homer appears to be in a car with no driver, as Flanders is hiding. Lenny and Carl say he must be in a self driving car, and then when the car crashes they say “Oh, one of those American self-driving cars” (S05E16, 1994)

I’m pretty sure there are more but those are all I can think of for now.

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