The Flintstones did a spin-off series and created a different sitcom that was almost identical to the jokes and the theme, but it was set in the space age.
The only way that Flintstones and the Jetsons are different to the way in which the Simpsons works, is the type of humour used. The Simpsons humour is a lot more complex and has clever jokes; it satirises and makes a joke about political, literary, and cultural values of America and the rest of the world. Whereas the Flintstones and Jetsons just make a joke about the time which they are set in (stone age and space age) and the artefacts they use and twist them to be funny. For example in the Flintstones they use a lawn mower which is really a pterodactyl which cuts the grass and speaks. This is why the Simpsons is revolutionary, also because no cartoon sitcom has ever been done of just satirising the typical American family of the present world, unlike the two extremes of the stone and ice age.
Another media source that probably influenced The Simpsons was the Cosby Show. Which was an American sitcom of another family, but they were a “perfect family” with no problems, had plenty of money, jobs or children, which gives us the impression of a perfect family, the only difference being it was a black family. At the time this was quite revolutionary as America was then saying that Black people could be perfect to. The Simpsons contrasts this a lot because they are far from the perfect family and move away from the tradition of a perfect American family and put the idea into a cartoon. They also have many problems with money, their home and their children. This also makes us realise that just because we have problems doesn’t mean we aren’t normal.
We can easily compare Roseanne to the Simpsons which is a sitcom about a dysfunctional middle class American family, so it is quite easy to come to the conclusion that the Simpsons has drawn some of its inspiration from it. Like the Simpsons, it is more real life, it includes problems that occur everyday, and they all poke fun at each other. It is the typical Middle class American family, just not the ideal family. The difference with Roseanne and the Simpsons is that Roseanne is like a typical funny sitcom of everyday occurrences that go wrong, whereas the Simpsons is based around jokes and satirising the American culture.
Another media source that The Simpsons has drawn its inspiration from, is Tom and Jerry. This is very obvious, because like the popularity of Tom and Jerry with the children of our world, Itchy and Scratchy in the Simpsons are also a very popular for the likes of Bart and Lisa, the children of the Simpsons world. Itchy and Scratchy are shown in most episodes of the Simpsons, which involves a violent ongoing dispute between a cat and a mouse, similar to that of Tom and Jerry. Itchy and scratchy satirises this greatly and by taking the violence from Tom and Jerry one step further, the violence results to death, where Itchy the mouse kills Scratchy the cat. The result of this satire makes us question whether cartoons that include violence like in Tom and Jerry should actually be acceptable.
Walt Disney created the first cartoons with Mickey Mouse and Felix the cat. Walt Disney feeds the appetite the world has for cartoons. Whether Walt Disney has directly influenced the Simpsons or not, we can definitely say that the main feature of the cartoons are the result of Walt Disney and the typical cartoon setting, good defeats evil like in most episodes of the Simpsons but just not quite as Simple as that. For example in the film festival episode, Homer wants to pick “the football in the groin” film, and Krusty and the Mayor are bribed to vote for Mr Burn’s film (evil). In the end homer picks Barney’s film (good) and everything turns out how it should. Walt Disney has a huge marketing, a huge label, and has Disneyland over the world. The Simpsons pokes fun at Walt Disney going over the top, by creating their own Itchy and Scratchy Land, making it a disaster holiday. As Disney has taken over this world, Itchy and Scratchy have taken over the Simpsons.
As the Simpsons are revolutionary in itself, other media sources have taken inspiration from the Simpsons, for example, South Park. The animation is very basic, it is another sitcom and like the Simpsons, it stars special guests, and is also highly marketed. People wonder whether the Simpsons is acceptable for children anyway, but south Park takes this one step further, using crude swear words with inappropriate and violent behaviour, which makes it definitely unacceptable for children.
Like The Flintstones, doing a spin off series, being the Jetsons. The Simpsons has also done a spin off series being Futurama, It has the same producer, Matt Groning and the same animation, but it is set in out of space in the future. It is similar to the Simpsons in following its genre as it also has a satirical edge but just not as strong.
This is quite hypocritical of the Simpsons because in the Simpsons film festival episode Bart shouts out “oh no, not another Flintstones vs. the Jetsons cartoon spin off series!” this is quite ironic as they have made their own spin off series!
The Simpsons have a lot of references to authors like Eudora Welty, novels like Lord of the Flies (in one particular episode) and films (Silence of the Lambs, in Mr burns auditions for an actor) and actors like (Harvey Fierstein). It uses a lot of literarry references to build up storylines.
The programmes general satirical purpose it to satirise the typical American lower middle class family, Homer is overly stupid, Marge is overly perfect, Lisa is overly intelligent, and Bart is overly naughty. The lurid colours in the Simpsons, yellow faces and blue hair is admitting they aren’t real people and they have been purposely over exaggerated.
There are certain characters in the Simpsons that satirise a certain role of the society in America. Homer satirises a typical family man, being lazy, gullible, idle and a typical couch potato. He is part of the slobbish fat culture of America. He will try and find the quick way out of anything. But in the end he will always be there for his wife and kids. Like in the film festival, he makes the right choice for Marge’s sake.
Mr Burns is an evil ogre, a typical rich boss who doesn’t care about anybody but himself and his reputation. He exploits everything and everybody he can. He represents and satirises corporate America.
Barney Gumble satirises the defeated blue collar America, in that he has very little hop in life, because he is single, alcoholic, unemployed and a slob.
Ned Flanders represents the born again Christians of America, he is Homers friendly neighbour, and is squeaky clean, and too nice, and he is too perfect, he is highly-strung and moral, but he is not admirable, nor is he evil or bad. Homer exploits him a lot. This is a satire because we think we want the world to be a perfect place, but really if we think about Ned Flanders, he is perfect but we don’t want to be like him. So if the world were like the Flanders house, in retrospect, we wouldn’t really want the world to be perfect.
There are many different types of humour within the Simpsons, and especially in the episode, most types of humour were used. Bathos is used a few times in the Film festival episode, this is a deliberate anti climax, this is used when and Patty and Selma as him who in Hollywood is gay, and he says Harvey Fierstein, the twins reaction is shocked, but really we all know this because Harvey Fierstein is the most openly gay actor in Hollywood, and it is also funny that the twins are so naïve! Another example of this, is when homer feels inadequate compared to…. And he questions Marge about him saying, “yes he may be funny, he may be smart, he may be great, but can he sing the words to the Oscar Myer Wiener song?”. This is funny because the words to the song are really stupid and irrelevant, so stupid that probably only Homer would know because he watches so much TV and it makes him feel special knowing them, but he does know the words!
Incongruity comes up quite a lot in this episode, this is a form of humour where two ideas don’t match up. This is like when Barney got stuck in the girl guides meeting in his film entry, or when… said that only he and Eudora Welty can belch this loud, this is funny because Eudora Welty is a sweet old lady, and you could not imagine her belching that loud. Also the idea of the doctor wearing fishnets, as doctors are respected and it seems stupid if they go around dressing up. Another incongruity was the Japanese tourists thinking Moe was Drew Barrymore, this is funny because Moe is a grumpy Middle ages man, not a young sex icon!
Black humour
