Full Description
First aired in 1989, The Simpsons has become America's most beloved animated show. It changed the world of television, bringing to the screen a cartoon for adults, a sitcom without a laugh track, an imperfect lower class family, a mixture of high and low comedy and satire for the masses. This collection of new essays explores the many ways in which The Simpsons reflects everyday life through its exploration of gender roles, music, death, food politics, science and religion, anxiety, friendship and more.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Putting the Spring in Springfield (Karma Waltonen and Denise Du Vernay)
The Simpsons Timeline (Forever Incomplete) (Karma Waltonen and Denise Du Vernay)
This Town Is a Part of Them (and Us) All (Denise Du Vernay )15
The Simpsons, Gender Roles and Witchcraft: The Witch in Modern Popular Culture (Sarah Antinora)
"Owning Your Okayness": The Simpsons as "Good Enough"
delete delete Parents (Summer Block)
Be Sharp: The Simpsons and Music (Durrell Bowman)
RIP in Springfield: Rhetorics of Death (Jennifer Richardson Burg)
The Grotesque and the Beautiful: The Bodies of Springfield (Brent Walter Cline and Matthew Nelson Hill)
"Will you take us to Mt. Splashmore?": Commercials and Consumerism (Brian N. Duchaney)
"I'll repress the rage I'm feeling!": Food Politics (Timothy L. Glenn)
This Is Not a Library! This Is Not a Kwik-E-Mart!: The Satire of Libraries, Librarians and Reference Desk Air-Hockey Tables (Casey D. Hoeve)
Just a Little Kick in the Bum: The Simpsons vs. the Nations of the World (Travis Holland)
"So you're calling God a liar!": An Unbiased Comparison of Science and Religion (Wm. Curtis Holtzen)
"Animation is built on plagiarism": The Simpsons and Hitchcock, Parody and Pastiche (Zachary Ingle)
Is Yellow the New Green? The Banal Environmentalism of The Simpsons (David Krantz)
Fear of a Yellow Planet: The Eight-Fingered, Cartoon Version of Anxiety (Seth Madej)
In Search of Another Story: Satire and The Simpsons (Duncan Reyburn)
"It's not selling out; it's co-branding!": Watching and Consuming The Simpsons in a Digital Age (Tyler Shores)
Aristotle in Springfield: On Friendship (Zachary Tavlin)
Homer as Homework: The Simpsons in the College Classroom (Lisa Whalen)
What We All Came Here to See—Sex (Karma Waltonen)
About the Contributors
Index
