The Simpsons is America's Household Television shows such as The Simpson's portray the deterioration of families in our society. From the outside they appear to be the typical nuclear family consisting of a mother, father, and three children that live in Springfield, which is basically Anytown, U.S.A., but as most families today The Simpson's have their own problems. Marge and Homer are the quintessential American couple. Homer is a blue-collared worker, who spends more time eating doughnuts than paying attention to being in charge of safety at the local nuclear power plant, and has been married to Marge since they graduated high school. He is notorious for spending his evenings at Moe's, a local tavern, consuming obscene amounts of beer and complaining about his life. When Homer is at home he spends the majority of the time watching television, drinking beer, and ignoring the needs of his family. As a husband, Homer is far from being ideal, when his wife wanted to act in a community play Homer did not understand why she would want to participate in something that didn't benefit him and was more concerned with who would make dinner for him every night. If being intoxicated ninety percent of the time isn't damaging enough to his children, then the horrible advice he dispenses to them is. He gives his children advice such as cheating is the only way to win and stealing is okay as long as you're not caught, while his intentions are usually in the right place, his mind is definitely not. The other half of the couple, Marge, is not as flawed, but has her faults, too. As a stereotypical housewife, Marge is much more supportive and nurturing than Homer, but is deluded into thinking she has a healthy marriage and perfect ... ... middle of paper ... ...your own sense of morals in an unethical society; or maybe we relate more to Bart, unable to function as a contributing member of society and focused on getting attention from those around us. Marge and Homer imitate the majority of American families, from the loving wife and insensitive husband cliché to their intimate moments in the bedroom. It may seem that this is a harsh view of a funny cartoon, but millions of viewers tune in every week to see themselves in some way. As we all watch the Simpson's go through economic difficulties, domestic conflicts, and dreadful family vacations we can all relate to it. Which makes you wonder whether these disturbing characters are what we want our society to be like or a wake-up call telling us we need to change. Shouldn't we strive to be better than a society of drunken fathers, obsessed mothers, and troubled children?
When you sit down to watch Television after a long day you never give a thought to the possible message or real world comparisons within the episode. After watching and analysing an original episode of The Simpsons my eyes were opened to the message that was buried within the cartoon. In Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment, the writer Matt Groening uses the Simpson family to display a natural struggle between the Id, Ego, and Superego. The episode features the internal conflict between pleasure and reality while expanding it to the world around the characters as well.
Racism is displayed through Homer even though in truth the things he believes Muslims do are, nothing like most Muslims and their values. Throughout the episode, Homer makes many comical and idiotic attempts to prove that the Bashir’s family is up to something. At one point in the episode, Homer goes to Bashir’s home and talks to his mum. In this scene, Homer says “I heard somewhere your people are hospitable.” Mina (Bashir’s mum) replies “That is true. You may come in.” Homer then exclaims “Praised be Oliver!” Then Mina corrects “That’s Allah.” Finally, Homer says “Well, look it up in the Corona.” This exchange shows that Homer in truth actually knows nothing about Muslims. That scene is an example of malapropism. This causes the viewer laugh at the jokes and think how they might be like Homer and consider how much they actually understand about other religions and their beliefs. The director of this episode is extremely successful in portraying Homer as the antagonist to Bart’s cause and a stereotypical racist
Move over Jetson there is a new beloved animated family in town, the Simpsons. The Simpson’s originally aired on December 17th, 1989 and has yet to make us stop laughing. The Simpson’s follow a not so typical American family from the fictional town of Springfield. The episode follow the satirical lives of Homer (Dad), Marge (mom), Bart (brother), Lisa (sister), and Maggie (little sister). Though this is a satirical TV show many episodes provide excellent points and example of material covered in a sociology class. The episode “Marge not be Proud” gives multiple examples of deviant behavior and this essay will discuss two of them.
care about his family and he only cares about beers and donuts. Marge is an ideal mother that
Their family may struggle to get through some problems and some of their gender roles do not meet the traditional way, but they always make it work the best they can (p.115). They are not judgmental, have values, and everyone love each other (p.34). I love that the characters do not always get along and everything is not perfect. When I am a little older, I want to adopt a few children and this show expresses to me a different perspective and objection of life growing up in the foster system with parents that are different (p.35). I have not seen anything on this show that is not relatable to a common family or someone I do not
Homer represents the men of the house because he works and earns money for the family. For example, he goes to school until three o'clock, then goes to work until midnight. Going to school and working is very hard but it needs to be done for the family to survive. In addition, Homer needs to be both a father and a big brother for Ulysses. Homer loves and cares for Ulysses, and he teaches Ulysses about life, and physical appearance. Finally, Homer said, 'Any work that has to be done around here, men can do. Girls belong in homes, taking care of men.'; (Pg. 157) Homer is rewarded for being the man of the house by getting love and shelter from his family. Love is needed from the family to keep Homer supporting the family. Homer becomes mature by working, but looses his one and only childhood.
The American Dream is something that defines the United States of America, where everyone has the right to pursue happiness in the land of opportunity. The American Dream is different for everyone because it is simply whatever one considers the happiest possible way of living. Although interpretations of the American Dream are different, there are usually common elements that exist, such as a house, a family, and being financially stable. Today, popular series like Duck Dynasty and Modern Family portray different versions of the American Dream and images of family life in the United States. Anyone who is even remotely familiar with these shows would agree that they could not be more different. Despite this claim, Duck Dynasty and Modern Family are becoming increasingly popular because they both display important family values and reflect struggles facing 21st century families, making them relatable to broad audiences.
Family Guy, an animated sitcom about a New England family and their everyday dilemmas, is a way for viewers to see the comedic side of a dysfunctional family. The Griffins consist of Peter and Lois, the patriarch and matriarch, and Meg, Chris, and Stewie are the children(Family Guy). Every character is different from the next character. They are also weird in their own way. The television show itself displays feminism, structuralism, and gay and lesbian criticism. Each character in the show also displays those criticisms in a certain fashion. Family Guy can be offensive to viewers with its satire, and the way the show delivers its message can make the family and the other characters in the show seem dysfunctional.
“The sitcom is a jumble of mixed metaphors: the repetition compulsion of eternal sameness conjoined to a desire to overturn the established order; a profound aesthetic conservatism bundled with an ingrained desire to shock. Every sitcom possess not just a routine that it perpetually seeks to overturn but also a particular style of fomenting that chaos.”
Drawing from scholarly academic research about what goes into the formula of creating these kinds of family-based sitcoms, production work, relevancy of each show’s topic and storyline in the era they’re aired, I will present the ultimate heart of my argument of seeing if there truly is a pattern or formula to family sitcoms and if there are parallels between the characters of both Full House and Modern Family that makes the shows as similar yet different to one
In the television show The Simpsons episode Marge Be Not Proud there are many instances of deviant behavior. There were two that stood out to me. The first example of deviance in this television show was in the store when the young boy, Gavin, is telling his mother he wants the new video game. When asked by
After twenty five seasons, The Simpsons continues to be an influential show. With animation as a medium, the writers use satire to point out the stereotypes the media generates. In some instances, they take a stereotype and push it to the extreme, like Apu and his eight children, and other times they go against the social norms, like Lisa being a strong independent woman. Through this the viewers are reminded just how much say the media has in their perception of others and how they are constantly making judgments of any entire group of people based on the characteristics of some. I do not think that stereotypes will ever cease to exist, but I do believe that it is important we, at the very least, are aware of what they are.
She made me angry and her accent made it worse. She was sweet as molasses, but poured on a rotten tomato. I most definitely was falling into some reckless stereotyping of this character. This was a much simpler pitfall for me to recognize. Poor innocent Homer finally got free of his obligations and able to see the world. Even after I realized I was stereotyping her as a ditzy southern bell who was bored and lonely, I looked deeper. As I did, I realized she actually was all those things. Her husband had gone off to war and she did not waste any time having sex with Homer. She did court him for a short time but she was going after him and she got what she wanted. She blamed her husband for leaving her even though he knew she got bored and lonely, as if to say it was somehow acceptable for her to cheat. In the scenes where she counseled Rose and cared for her afterwards, she demonstrated compassion and
The Simpsons have seemingly expressed and interpreted every aspect of feminism throughout the series. Henry describes feminism in his article Don’t Ask Me, I’m Just a Girl by mentioning that feminism in popular culture is flooded “with a great deal of confusion and contradiction”. He also focuses o...
(Sibling rivalry is commonly seen and heard about in T.V shows all the time; this is no different when it comes to The Simpsons. When it comes to Bart and Lisa Simpson the rivalry is always like a seesaw going back and forth; sometimes they love each other and other times they are at each other like cat’s and dog’s.)(Bart is a mischievous type of character always causing trouble and Lisa is the opposite, she is very smart, generous and she never does anything mischievous. However, when they see each other it’s almost like they become ravage animals; they start fighting with each other, but when push comes to shove they are always there for each other. An instance of this would be in the episode "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade" when Lisa gets advanced a grade for her excellent work and Bart gets dropped a grade. Lisa and Bart end up in the same class. When they go on a field trip they are stuck together and Bart does his best...