Living with “The Simpsons”
A Qualitative Analysis of Prime-Time Programming
|
Cartoons have received much criticism for their excessive violence. The top-rated Fox series The Simpsons has not escaped this onslaught. However, this does not constitute the only area where The Simpsons’ troubles lie. Many critics have also cited the program as a cause of “Bart-like clones” consisting of disobedience to parents, lack of interest in school, and overall mischievousness. They also cite Bart’s glorification of being an underachieving juvenile delinquent as well as poor family relations.
Much debate occurs and remains for the future in contemplation of the question of whether TV viewing affects one’s actions/thoughts or not. Even more specifically, researchers still ponder the question of the correlation between violent TV viewing and subsequent aggressive acts in the real world. Although these questions remain, the research must go on.
This paper has a three-fold purpose in regard to The Simpsons. (1) It will analyze the violence on the program. The question here seems to be whether the violence is believable (i.e. like reality). The number of violent acts (according to the definition for the class project) per episode will be tallied as well as the content of each act. (2) It will analyze the general themes in each episode. Former President George Bush exclaimed that he wanted to see an America a “lot more like The Waltons and a lot less like The Simpsons.” So this paper will attempt to discover if The Simpsons are bad for America. (3) The program will be scanned for any interesting occurrences that may arise.
Six episodes of The Simpsons were viewed from the months of February to April of 1993. This paper will examine what kind of violent acts The Simpsons (perhaps reflective of other cartoons) contains and whether George Bush needs to worry about The Simpsons corrupting America’s morals.
Five prevalent ideas come out of The Simpsons in almost every episode that was viewed: (1) the program does contain a lot of violence, (2) the program also contains a lot of depictions of drinking, (3) Homer Simpson (the father) and Bart Simpson (the son) are the major focus of the series, (4) Homer plays a very stupid character and Bart plays a very mischievous character, and (5) a happy ending of some sort always prevails.
Firstly, The Simpsons appear to support the argument that cartoons are the most violent type of program. The Simpsons average 12 acts of violence per episode, with the least violent episode containing seven acts and the most 15. The lack of violence in the episode with the least amount can be explained in that Lisa Simpson (the older daughter) was the major focus of the episode. In most episodes, Homer or Bart is the major focus and they also are the two characters involved in the most violence. The finding that Homer and Bart are involved in 38% of the total violence, while the rest of the family only accounts for 3% supports this conclusion. Homer and Bart’s violence probably breeds other violence as well; consequently, more violence is prevalent when they are the major focus.
The type of violence in The Simpsons is always comical but for the most part gratuitous. The violence in The Simpsons does not seem as though it could be harmful for viewers because it is always of a humorous nature. Although the argument may be based on the fact that young children watch the program, it seems that either (1) they are reasonable enough to realize it is only comical or (2) they are too young to understand the show in this or in any sense.
Some of the typical violent acts consist of: Homer running over protestors with a plow by order of President Bush, church “bouncers” removing Homer from the pulpit, people immediately begin looting when the power goes out in their city (Springfield), Bart falls out of the house because one side is sinking, Mr. Burns (Homer’s boss) hits Marge Simpson (the mother) in the head with a camera because he zooms it in too far, employees of a restaurant must drag Homer out because he wants to take full advantage of the “all-you-can-eat” special and stay past closing, Bart and his friend, Milhouse, fight in a school play while acting as Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth, and Bart pulls a gun on Santa Clause and drives away with his sleigh. The many other violent acts in the program are just as ridiculous and absurd.
Two things which signal automatic violence in The Simpsons are two programs which the Simpsons themselves like to watch. One is a “Terminator/Rambo” type character named McBain who involves himself in one man versus an army type fights – the one episode which appeared in this sample displayed McBain with a machine gun opening fire on and killing about 30 people.
The other program is a clever twist on the Tom & Jerry cartoon titled the Itchy & Scratchy show. This show involves absurdly violent escapades between a cat and mouse such as: Itchy (the mouse) rips out Scratchy’s (the cat) heart in order to give it to him for a Valentine’s Day gift, Itchy pours barbecue sauce on Scratchy’s head and then puts flesh-eating ants on him, and Scratchy gets beat up by anti-fur protestors while wearing his own fur after it had been skinned off by Itchy. The ludicrous, gratuitous violence of McBain and Itchy & Scratchy suggest a joke by the writers poking fun at the two “equivalent” shows.
Violence in The Simpsons, along with that of most other cartoons exists for laughs. Violence is never the major focus of the program nor is it ever of a long duration. Violence, whether it be Homer choking Bart, the kids’ favorite show’s host, Krusty the Klown, being attacked by tigers in his appearance on the “Circus of the Stars,” or the doughnut delivery man at Homer’s work place fending off employees with a chain, the acts of violence are both of a short duration and humorous.
There may be a lot of violence in The Simpsons, but it is of a strictly humorous nature. It may be viewed as gratuitous, but that assumes one finds laughter in a sitcom gratuitous also.
Another interesting aspect of The Simpsons is the number of depictions of drinking. In the sample, there was an average of four depictions of drinking in each episode. This certainly appears to be a contrary attribute of most cartoons, where it is relatively non-existent.
Homer accounts for 68% of this drinking of which 24% of it is done at his favorite bar, Moe’s Tavern. Homer often has a beer (usually “Duff”) while sitting in front of the TV, which may not be too far from reality. A positive correlation evidently exists between Homer’s drinking and/or drinking in the episode and Homer as the main focus of the episode.
Likewise to violence, drinking often appears in a comical manner such as: Homer and his fellow employees enjoy a keg of beer during their union meeting compliments of their boss, Mr. Burns, the school janitor shares whiskey with a wolf after their fight, Barney, Homer’s bar pal, drinks beer directly from the keg at Moe’s Tavern, and Homer’s comparison of a beer to a woman in order to explain the “birds and the bees” to Bart.
Drinking in The Simpsons only appears as either (1) a comical event or (2) an incidental activity (e.g. Homer drinking a beer in front of the TV). Drinking is often glorified by Homer (e.g. Homer describes how much he likes beer and that after one, he always wants another). It is also presented as an escape from reality/relaxer (e.g. the Simpsons’ lawyer drinks some Scotch to celebrate taking their case and to prepare for it). Incidents such as these still only exist for mere laughs which it succeeds at well.
The two main characters of The Simpsons, Homer and Bart, are easily classified due to their extremely linear roles. Homer plays a very stupid character and Bart plays a very mischievous/“bad” character.
Again, Homer’s characterization is an attempt for laughs which the writers have no problems in attaining. Events listed among Homer’s follies include: he runs into his own car, he tries to eat the golden City Key because he thought it was chocolate wrapped in foil, he drives on an old, broken-down, wooden bridge while a “normal” bridge in excellent condition resides next to it, he drinks dish washing liquid called “Lemon-Time,” he wants to sue a restaurant because they did not give him all he could eat as their special specified (the restaurant was closing), he takes his next door neighbor’s (Ned Flanders) old toothbrush out of the garbage, he gets a plunger stuck on his head, and he confesses to Marge that he ate the little, bath soaps. These acts are so ridiculously stupid, any connection to the real world seems nearly and hopefully impossible.
Something that may be slightly nearer to reality is the mischievousness of Bart. His antics include the likes of: he tells children in a dentist office that teeth are pulled out to put the “rattle” sound in spray paint cans, he pretends he is sick three times in order to avoid a test, he performs his routine calls to Moe’s Tavern looking for “Amanda Hugandkiss” and “Ivanna Tickle,” and he prints crude remarks on Valentine candy hearts and distributes them at school. These antics do not present too much of a problem because they are at the extreme end of being bad.
However, some of Bart’s other activities might fall under severe criticism such as: Bart laughs at Homer for not graduating high school, he refers to Homer as “‘Cueball,’ the creature of the slanty shanty” in an episode, he has a tendency to call Homer by his first name, and his use of words like “damn” and “hell.” This should be considered in the respect that it is done for the comedy aspect of the program and not to instill disobedience in young viewers.
The roles Homer and Bart play never change and one comes to look forward to how absurdly funny the next one can be. Whether it be the stupidity of Homer and his activities or the mischievousness of Bart and his antics, the major focus of this series rests upon Homer and Bart and all the other characters revolve around them. Without Homer and Bart, there would be no Simpsons.
Lastly, a view of The Simpsons’ themes seems in order. Like many programs, The Simpsons have the “there’s always a happy ending” syndrome which plagues so many sitcoms. A short summary of each episode viewed should demonstrate this satisfactorily. “Episode one” dealt with the intense competition between Homer and his friend Barney over plowing peoples’ snow but in the end Homer saves Barney from an avalanche that trapped him and they were best friends again and decided to work together. “Episode two” featured Homer’s rise to union president in which he saves the dental plan and provides Lisa with nice-looking braces versus the before hideous ones she had. “Episode three” had the Simpsons’ house sinking and Marge took a job at the nuclear power plant (where Homer works) to help pay for it, while Mr. Burns, the boss, came on to Marge but in the end recognized Homer’s love for her and provided them with an evening of dinner and Marge’s favorite singer, Tom Jones. “Episode four” revolves around Bart falling in love with his new next-door neighbor, Laura, and he causes her to break-up with her boyfriend, Jimbo Jones, and then she tells Bart that she would go out with him if he was older; but nonetheless, they still remain good friends. “Episode five” finds a boy in school, Ralph, falling in love with Lisa, but one day she finally has had enough of his pursuits and she tells him she never liked him, but in the end they are in a school play together as George and Martha Washington and they reunite as friends. “Episode six” concerns Bart and Lisa writing Itchy & Scratchy cartoons and they end up winning an award via their Grandpa, whose name they used; and Homer finally completes his last course in order to obtain his high school diploma.
One thing appears blatantly obvious in all these stories which is that in the end, nothing goes wrong for the Simpsons. The themes revolve around the family and the relationships between the members in it which is not unlike many other sitcoms. Although the Simpsons are a somewhat dysfunctional family with their means/functions quite different from a picture-perfect family such as The Cosbys, their end result is not that different (i.e. happiness).
The most interesting finding is the amount of drinking The Simpsons portray. It is not too common for a cartoon to be so fixed on drinking. Another interesting discovery is the very specific roles that Homer and Bart play. Their typical attributes are supported and built on in each episode and it is these familiar qualities which make for so many of the laughs in The Simpsons. The not so surprising conclusion that The Simpsons contains a large amount of violence supports the presupposition suggesting that cartoons are the most violent type of TV programming.
Overall, The Simpsons is a delightful program full of fast-moving stories and clever in-jokes which leave many “real-life” sitcoms to the wayside. The Simpsons has a tendency (not unlike Roseanne) of allowing one to see the “dark side” that exists in every family and making viewers laugh at it. In addition, The Simpsons’ comedy aspect (not unlike Cheers) is complete with jokes that require some intelligence in order to get the humor. The Simpsons is a definite flight of steps above the last reigning cartoon series, The Flintstones.
The writers of The Simpsons have a knack for mixing a sitcom with an animated series. They use the cartoon to their advantage for comic purposes by doing things with the characters which are simply impossible with their “flesh-and-blood” sitcom counterparts. Who else could get former President George Bush, President Bill Clinton, Tom Jones, Brooke Shields and Aerosmith for guest appearances on their show? Where else would parodies of Studs and The Three Stooges and scenes from The Grinch That Stole Christmas and Raiders of the Lost Ark attain such hilarity except in a cartoon?
Quite the contrary to George Bush’s remark about The Simpsons, it seems that if more families were able to accomplish and survive what they do, it would warrant praise. Seriously, there is no cause for alarm, this family is only having fun and they want viewers to have fun with them. Chalk one up for cartoons, not to mention sitcoms. And “Don’t have a cow, man!,” after all, they are only cartoons.
|
Written in April of 1993. |
|
 |
||||||||||||