The Simpons
It is just a cartoon show, or is it. The uninitiated still assume The Simpsons is a children’s comedy cartoon show, but in reality, it is appealing to both adults and children, to the “highbrow” and the “lowbrow”. The Simpsons is chosen for analysis because it is popular and ambivalent, filled with endless signifiers. Its popularity makes its potential effects significant in that it has been broadcast to a large audience across a number of countries and its knack for making viewers laugh intertwined with its intellectual rigor and satire, making it a personal favourite of mine.While The Simpsons is made and broadcast on mainstream media (by Fox TV which is owned by Rupert Murdoch) its content is alternative television, that is, it is radical in its content, mainly because of its insistence on telling the truth, about family life, about American culture and most of all about television itself. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, says he deliberately tried to create an alternative program to the “popular culture” which dominates the television market (Rampton 1996 p45). According to Ang I (1993 p. 407) popular culture which produces and practices in the “American way” is so often synonymous with “bad ma
The various characters of The Simpsons are less characters of personalities than they are characters of ideas. “They are caricatures of the ideologies they represent” (Tingleff 1998 par. 5). Unlike many sitcoms today, the show is not personality driven; it is about the conflict of ideas. If they were played by actors, it would not work. As animated characters they can be merely the ideas they represent. Lisa does not have a full personality; she is ‘rationality’ and regularly scrutinizes social institutions and traditions. The Simpsons, is a cleverly constructed comedy cartoon, filled with endless meanings and representations, which have attributed to its broad appeal in many countries. Each episode contains continual reference to history, literature, science, politics and philosophy. Its multilayered writing allows for popular culture to appear next to esoteric. Guest appearances by bands from NSync to Sonic Youth share screen time with literary and historical references such as Sideshow Bob, jailed for trying to kill Bart, wore the same prisoner number as Jean Val jean in Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables”. Dyer (1993 p.278) believes entertainment fails to address issues such as class, patriarchal and sex struggles. The Simpsons is perhaps an exception to this rule.
Some topics in this essay:
Burns Homer’s,
Lisa Maggie,
Davis Mules,
Flintstones Simpsons,
According Ang,
Whilst Simpsons,
Edgar Sedgwick,
United Nations,
Flanders Simpsons’,
,
middle class,
popular culture,
nuclear power,
nuclear power plant,
outside narrative,
power plant,
family life,
episode homer,
1994 p75,
homer marge,
worker safety,
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Approximate Word count = 2155
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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