Sometimes, when life imitates art, an otherwise lamentable situation can be transformed into something incongruously hilarious.
Case in point: A man named Bart Simpson, accused of carrying a prohibited firearm, was recently called to appear before a U.K. judge named Mr. Burns.
Simpson (full name Barton Simpson) was caught in possession of a revolver at Birmingham Airport last year, according to an earlier report by the Solihull Observer. The 56-year-old company director, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, stood trial this week in front of Judge Recorder Burns. No other details of the ongoing trial have been revealed.
"It's a bizarre coincidence that Bart Simpson is actually on trial in front of Mr Burns but it'll proceed as any other criminal case would," a court worker told the South West News Service. "There were some eyebrows raised when the court list was published."
Bart Simpson, for the uninitiated, is better known as the troublemaking star in the animated FOX sitcom "The Simpsons." In the show, Bart's character is quite the rascal and has, on a number of occasions, ticked off his father's boss, the curmudgeonly Mr. Montgomery Burns.
This is not the first time that a person with a famous namesake has made the news for all the wrong reasons.
In February, England's Nottingham Post reported that a 48-year-old man named Winston Churchill (not to be confused with the late British prime minister of the same name) had been banned from all stores in Nottingham's city center after being caught shoplifting on numerous occasions.
Last year, Al.com revealed that an Alabama man named Walter White had topped the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's "Most Wanted" list after he violated his probation in a case involving the manufacturing and trafficking of methamphetamine. As "Breaking Bad" fans know, Walter White is also the name of the TV series' main character, a struggling high school chemistry teacher who turns to -- what else? -- meth production to make a living.