Barney Gumble is every man you see lying in the doorway of Poundland on Saturday in a tie short of a suit. He is your everyday middle-aged man during the day, but when lunchtime appears barney becomes a drunken slob, living at Moes Tavern shying away from natural light.
Mrs Krabappel is a classic show of irony and stereotype. Her name is Krabappel (Crab apple) one of the most sour and disliked fruited until put in extreme heat meaning nobody likes her and they won’t do until she is cremated. Mrs Krabappel is a very unenthusiastic teacher and is not very tactful. She knows that the children have no future and doesn’t hide this very well, especially with her sharp
“HA” at a comment of naivety, high hope or young innocence. Mrs Krabappel is supposed to be someone for the children to look up to and idolise whereas Mrs Krabappel smokes at the back of the class and just plays movies to occupy the children. The next generation of children is being taught and influenced by alcoholic, nicotine addicted, unenthusiastic women who don’t care. This is funny because it shows truth; this happens at schools everywhere.
Satire or parody is used frequently in The Simpsons for Films TV shows and even celebrities.
There was an episode where Homer obtains a new job with Globex Corporation which turns out to be a world domination scheme and has a super spy [James Bond] (this shows the Simpsons use of other media for satire and the likes) who Homer stops as he tries to make an escape.
The Simpsons often make a send up of prime time television shows like “Talk to the Hand” and “Alf” like they are advertising them and The Simpsons’ disgust at the mention of them.
Celebrities regularly appear on The Simpsons and greatly exaggerate trademark actions and phrase to produce a mirthful effect. David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer (also star in Frasier) play Side Show Bob and his brother, Cecil Terwilliger, as the accents sound comical from those particular bodies and the girlish fights in prison. The English are found massively funny to Americans so to put the sophisticated English accent in The Simpsons was a big hit for the ratings.
The Simpsons creators make good use of the people’s knowledge of the religions around them and other common knowledge such as other cultures, foreign foods and occupations.
In the episode “Bart sells his Soul” by Greg Daniels, the scene opens with a typical suburban Sunday morning with blue sky and a happy family holding hands walking to church.
We can see in the mise-en-scene a sign in the front of the camera that would usually contain information about today’s service, but this has been replaced with the words: “No shirt, No shoes, No salvation”
This contradicts the Christian faith, because it means have to wear the right clothes to go to heaven. This is discrimination and dictation as you have to do what the church says to benefit, not the bible.
The camera then switches to a box of hymns up close suggesting mischievous intentions, which are vastly amplified when the camera pans out to let the viewer see Bart holding the box. Bart is calling out some catchy but very risqué phrases to the church comer to encourage them to pick up their hymn sheets. Bart controls the mise-en-scene as you only hear his voice and the camera is at his level/height.
The next shot is reverend Lovejoy standing on the church podium, but the switch between views is very rapid and the contrast between voices is very obvious, Bart’s cheery sharp voice that is quite high and impish then Rev. Lovejoy’s droning, unenthusiastic, monotonous and dry voice.
The Reverend hesitates before he reads the name of the opening hymn to suggest he doesn’t organise the service, he simply follows the plan.
The organ player begins playing and Bart’s master plan comes into effect, people begin to sing his rock and roll song and Homer comments on how he and Marge used to make out to this “hymn” proving Homer really is not very bright.
Rev. Lovejoy does eventually point out that the “hymn” sounds like “Rock and/or Roll,” receives a beach ball to his head showing the church was being treated a festival or concert, but does nothing about it until the end of the service.
At the end of the service the reverend uses hellfire-and-brimstone-like preaching to scare the children into telling on the wayward Bart. The child that actually tells on Bart is Milhouse, Bart’s best friend, because the children were reciting a Catholic-like verse:
“Where my tongue will be torn out by ravenous birds,” at which point Milhouse sees a raven on a branch that turns it’s head a sickening angle to face Milhouse, which scares Milhouse into screaming “it was Bart”
That mise-en-scene used satire and parody of media input [“Omen”]. Satire in that there were protestant children reciting what Catholicism is famous for: Hellfire and brimstone and the fact these recitals scared Milhouse so much. The media input was well placed, as the raven in “Omen” was the symbol that someone was to die, it was Lucifer in an earthly form. This scared Milhouse to a point where here burst out a confession in fright of an eternity in hell.
When Bart and Milhouse get taken away to clean the organ Milhouse attempts to describe to Bart what a soul is and conjures up many childish explanations that really don’t make sense and make the soul seem like a transformer robot:
“It even has wheels in case you die in the desert and it has to drive to the cemetery.” Bart then tries to explain to Milhouse that the soul is something made up to scared children like the bogeyman or Michael Jackson, making people see that children actually find Michael Jackson really scary. After much conflict Bart sells his soul and feels he has the better end of the bargain showing Bart is a very short term thinker, he is in the here and now.
The Simpsons merchandising range is far extended between foods like spaghetti hoops to toys
and board games like chess and talking Barts.
I obtained this list from a few catalogue websites:
Fridge Magnets,
Posters,
Postcards,
Bendable toys,
Key chains,
DVD’s,
Books,
Videos,
Video games,
Action figures,
Calendar,
Filo-faxes,
Comics,
Board games,
Music CD’s (!?!)
Clothes,
Talking bottle openers,
Charm links,
Vegetable seeds,
Basketballs,
Footballs,
Pez,
The Simpsons Newsletter.
The sale of this merchandise is solely dependent on the spiralling rating of the television show. As soon as the ratings fall the sales fall in proportion.
The moral message is achieved in The Simpsons by making it obvious but in the way of a lecture or lesson. The Simpsons make the moral message come to you in a simple way. A family member will come out with a short moral/comment which you forget about within 5 minutes, for example: Lisa helps Bart find his conscience after he broke her centrepiece on Thanksgiving and the final mise-en-scene is Bart and Lisa hugging on the roof in apology”
The moral message is sometimes a simple and small projection, a comment at the end portraying why you should not do something or the famous “I’ll never drink again.”
It is a small part of The Simpsons’ purpose. The Simpsons were originally created as a 1-2 minute animation for the Tracy Ullman show in the late 1980’s and had a small moral message in each.
The end of a Tracy Ullman Show Animation of the Simpsons:
L: That's it! A combination of our previous techniques, followed by the scare treatment. It can't miss.
%
% In the kitchen, Maggie pulls Bart's head back as Lisa pours
% the elixir down his throat.
%
% Back in the living room, the girls spin Bart (Maggie falls %again), and while Bart is spinning, Maggie produces a %photo of Homer. Lisa stops the chair, and Bart screams in %fright when he sees the picture.
L: I pronounce this patient... cured!
% Bart oozes to the floor and hiccups.
The moral message their would be something in the area of don’t listen to simple persons i.e. Maggie.
Moral messages are small yet important aspect of The Simpsons as Lisa’s purpose in the show is the moral and behavioural conscience for Homer and Bart who are easily led astray. This also applies to Marge, she enforces the moral and ethics of the proper family by taking the family to church every week and frowning on Homers mad ideas which involve scams, cheating, drinking, lying, stalking and insurance fraud.