Homer Simpson Explains our Postmodern Identity crisis, Whether we Like it or not: Media Literacy after “The Simpsons” (original) (raw)

Through the Screen, into the School: Education, subversion, ourselves in The Simpsons

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 2007

There is little question that popular television shows influence the shaping of social norms, identities, and the ways we navigate daily life. High profile shows are also a common magnet for critical attention. No primetime television show has provoked as wide a range of reactions as Fox's The Simpsons. From shock radio to public broadcasting pundits pour condemnations, accolades, and adulations for this unique cartoon sitcom. From the masses to the literary elite, the world's most famous animated family touch one and all, from the raw funny bone to the higher intellect. In a parallel vein, there is no lack of strong and varied opinion regarding education in the USA, and few venues do a more effective job at representing its core controversies than this weekly cartoon. Here I angle a mirror at the primetime television screen and suggest some ways this animated series reflects inner, outer, and systemic relationships with education. The beauty of The Simpsons in this regard is that the translucent motility of an ostensibly average nuclear family in the anywhere USA town of Springfield buffers the gaze just enough to allow us room to laugh, however uneasily.

The Simpsons: A Cultural History

2019

This book looks at The Simpsons' place in the pop culture firmament, from inspirations like Mad magazine to its critical role in the renaissance of animated television. The author recounts the birth of the show, discusses its remarkable merchandising success, and examines the show’s popularity as the longest running episodic program in TV history.

Civic Education with The Simpsons

JSSE - Journal of Social Science Education, 2009

Impudent, disrespectful and packed with slapstick comedy-this is the most prominent and most controversial cartoon family in TV history: The Simpsons. Critics complain about the decay of manners and the offensive humor of the show. There is considerable potential for civic education in the yellow universe of The Simpsons, however. On the basis of three Simpsons-episodes this article analyzes the depiction of elections and electoral races in a media democracy. This analysis aims at extracting critical positions from the satiric presentation of debates, media events and political rhetoric and connecting them to real campaigns in Germany and the USA. The examples are supposed to illustrate that The Simpsons do provide critical access to understanding campaigns in media societies-despite all satiric exaggeration of real events. Furthermore, the article shows that the series does not only comment critically on almost any event of social relevance, but also, more importantly, how we can make these comments work in civic education. Contents 1. What Is All the Fuzz About, Anyway? 2. The Simpsons as a TV Phenomenon 3. Politics and The Simpsons 4. Election Campaigns in Springfield and other Media Democracies 5. The Simpsons in Civic Education-Methods and Exercises Conclusion References

The Simpsons as a Parody of the American Way of Life

The Simpsons is a popular animated television show suitable for all audiences. The peculiarity of this programme apart from its longevity and the physical peculiarities of its characters is how parody is presented in each episode from beginning to end. Thus the aim of this series is to criticise the American way of life by making use of satire and sarcasm in every day situations. Taking The Simpsons as reference and using scenes of selected episodes to exemplify the arguments, firstly the importance of parody as a tool to criticise serious social situations will be analysed. Secondly, this paper will deal with how these cartoons reflect aspects of the American culture that also affect many other countries by examining current social topics such as class struggle, the role of women in society and religion. Finally, it will be demonstrated how these three topics reflect the true American society even though the method used is the parody through cartoons, which are not usually taken seriously. In addition, through this essay the relationship between these three topics will be examined as they share the research of integration in different social groups.

Converting Bart to Badr : Reviving Cultural Imperialism in The Simpsons

2013

This study concerns the Arabized version of The Simpsons in the context of the debate on Cultural Imperialism. Renamed Al Shamshoon, the satirical comedy was translated and given an Islamic flavor to attract its Arab audience. Despite efforts to localize the cartoon, Al Shamshoon flopped. Concurrently, despite coming under fire in the 90s, scholars such as Gray (2007), Harindranath (2003), and Tomlinson (2003) have called for reestablishing Cultural Imperialism. The legitimacy of Cultural Imperialism decreased due to developments of the Active Audience Theory, which challenged Cultural Imperialism’s argument that local audiences internalize western ideologies that the global media disseminate. Gray (2007), Harindranath (2003), and Tomlinson (2003) argue that this theory remains significant because it does not only critique the global media effects on local cultures, but also the political and economic disparities between developed and developing nations. This is because, developed n...