The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a parody of a middle class American lifestyle, focusing on a family who share the same name of the programme. The family consists of Homer (father figure), Marge (mother), Bart (son) Lisa (elder daughter) and Maggie (infant). The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield and parodies American culture, society, television and many aspects of the human condition, which is a prominent feature of it’s post modern condition.
The show led to a film being made ‘The Simpsons Movie’ which was released in theatres worldwide on July 26 and July 27, 2007, and grossed over $527 million.
The characters have proved to be largely influential, for example the father figure Homer's catchphrase "D'oh!" has been adopted into the English language, and the programme itself has influenced many adult-oriented animated sitcoms such as ‘Family Guy’.
Since its debut on December 17, 1989, the show has broadcast 495 episodes and the twenty-third season started airing on September 25, 2011. The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and in 2009 it surpassed as the longest-running American primetime, scripted television series. The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, wGunsmokeas released in theatres worldwide on July 26 and July 27, 2007, and grossed over $527 million. The Simpsons can be suggested as a postmodern comedy through the; Intertexuality, Hyperreality and Metanarratives.
The decline of the meta-narrative is a frequent theme in the programme , and there is examples of humouring towards religion, government, and well known social figures . Examples of this are, when Homer gives his soul to the devil for a doughnut, when he is killed by some broccoli and goes to the gates of heaven, and is told he cannot enter until he does a good deed. When he does St peter misses it because he was reading the newspaper. Another example is when homer tries to vote for Obama, but the vote goes to Mcain, suggesting that the votes were rigged. The video is available through the link below. The video also shows a specially made "Fat Booth" highlighting the rising problem of obesity in the united states, making light of pressing social issues.
Key Postmodern features include the non linear narrative containing an ambiguous time space/movement, every episode begins afresh and past episodes are forgotten/ unaffecting- this is similar to comedy ‘Family Guy’ This is references in one episode when Lisa says “ohh don't worry, it'll all be alright by the next episode".
The family have been created with an ambiguous age, location and era. Springfield is a made up place, all we know is that it is in America. The period or time setting is also unclear, all we do know is that it is within the postmodern era. In 17 years Maggie has not learned to walk or talk, and still uses her dummy., the entire family do not seem to age at all. It seems that this level of ambiguity has been used in order to broaden the audience relatibility, because in effect the family can represent a lot of different families in America.
The programme contains cultural diversity and acceptance of issues not typically considered the norm, especially in the sit-com genre. There is a level of Diversity regarding Ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and socio-economic status, which is a prominent post-modern feature. Hyperreality is shown through Jean Baudrillards theory in, Simulacra and Simuation. He suggests that what we are left with are not representations of reality in the literal sense but simulations of reality, which are essentially copies of copies. The mass media have such an influence on the public that the information it exchanges is based on copies of copies instead of the original referents.
The Simpson family is in many ways a symbol of the typical contemporary American family, The show’s opening sequence is itself illustrative of TV’s importance in the family’s existence all family members rush through their everyday lives, all the family members rush to the couch in front of their television set, showing how important watching TV is to them. The opening sequence sets the tone for the show’s continual depictions of TV as both a unifying force and an instigator of the family’s actions. TV is what brings these different age groups together as they watch the vast array of recurring TV shows broadcast in Springfield. Bart and Lisa are binary opposite, but these differences immediately dissolve when an episode of Itchy and Scratchy appears on the TV screen. Any conflicts between the siblings are abandoned in order to enjoy the stimulating cartoon world in Itchy and Scratchy together.
To conclude I think that the combination of typical postmodern features outlined in my essay alongside supporting theorists indicate that the Simpsons can be classified as ‘postmodern’. The narrative and characters themselves seem to lack progression, but in terms of the programmes acceptance and diversity towards various fields (gender,ethnicity,sexual orientation, status) , there has been a great deal of progression which is prominent in the postmodern condition. The show influences a large audience of children because it is broadcast weekly. It also links to baudrillard’s theory of reality, as it’s supposed to represent reality however the events that occur in the programme fail to represent an everyday family and the things that happen to them.
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