The simpsons as postmodern

As postmodern Season 26 Episode 6 Simpsorama

Fereshta gafari

About The Simpsons About The Simpsons an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical

parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its dysfunctional family of the same name, which consists of Homer,

Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield and parodies American culture, society, television, and

many aspects of the human condition.

Season 26 Episode 6 Simpsorama

This specific episode The episode that I have chosen Is called simpsorama. In this episode The Simpsons meet the Planet Express crew from the tv show futurama who have come to Springfield in the present to stop them from destroying the future. This episode is clearly a crossover with futurama which is also produced by Matt Groaning, this reference to other media text is called intertextuality and is a commonly used in postmodern text.

Narrative The episode like most episodes of the Simpsons follows a non linear narrative creating confusion, the episode escalates very quickly and tends to exaggerate most situations,this is a very postmodern trait, and is quite typical of these sorts of comedy programs, for example Family Guy. They make the audience aware of this when one of the characters claims "ohh don't worry, it'll all be alright by the next episode". This is just one of the example of when the 4th wall is broken in the Simpsons.Postmodern fragmentation in The Simpsons is not limited to its subject matter but extends to its narrative form as well. The erratic structure of The Simpsons’ storylines results in a broken-down, fragmented narrative, another characteristic of postmodernism. The episodes are deliberately “all over the place” and non-linear

Intertextuality There is this one scene in the episode where there is intertextual

reference to comments made on the lack of creativity of drawing when, Lisa says that both homer and bender look alike and Bart agrees commenting “ yeah its like the guy who designed bender took a

drawing of dad and just stuck and antenna on him” and Lisa replies “ a little lazy if you ask me” this scene is referencing to comments fans

made on the similarities of the shows in s funny light by agreeing with it.

Controversial referencing The programme constantly makes fun of issues in the real world which is a decline of the meta-narrative, being a frequent theme throughout. Fun is poked at religion, the government, social issues and more, with

light consistently being made out of any situationThis is evident in this episode where Lisa makes a comment on a social issue of the time, American ‘space junk’ situation Bart makes a funny comment about America saying “ remember when this country didn’t

suck coz I don’t” this is poking fun at themselves.

Meaning If a message is to be found buried underneath the highly satirical

surface of The Simpsons it is opposition to authority, whether religious, political, academic or legal. A number of supporting characters in The Simpsons are figures traditionally associated with authority, such as

politicians, policemen, teachers, principles, doctors, lawyers and ministers. The characters used to represent these figures in The

Simpsons are depicted as either dangerously incompetent or criminally corrupt: Mayor Quimby, the most frequently featured politician on the show, seldom appears in a scene without taking bribes or lying to the public, and Springfield’s Chief of Police, Chief Wiggum, has the mental

ability of a young child