Analysis of the Television Show The Simpsons

Analysis of the Television Show The Simpsons

The specific children’s series that I will be discussing is entitled “The Simpson’s”. The main characters consist of Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie Simpson. They reside in a town called Springfield, one that is typical of an American suburb. Some other characters which appear on a regular basis are Mr. Burns, the owner of the Springfield chemical plant, his assistant Weiland Smithers, the Flanders family, which resides right next door to the Simpson’s, and principal Skinner. He is the head administrator of the elementary school that Bart and Lisa attend. The episode that I would like to evaluate is one, which consists of two parts.

This episode’s main focus is the accidental discovery of oil, by the elementary school’s groundskeeper Wily. He came upon it when burying a dead rat that was a classroom pet. At first the school administrators were going to use their newfound wealth to promote educational programs for their students. They held a “suggestions” seminar and carefully listened to some students who were trying to promote some of their ideas on how the schools money should be spent, including the Lisa Simpson. She wanted to have jazz lessons implemented. This episodes main educational goal was to promote the idea of children expanding their knowledge. It actually seemed as though the television program was highly in favor of teaching viewers the value of a good education. I believe that the makers of the program were not trying to target an audience of children under twelve years of age, but viewers attending high school as well. The episodes first part was clearly devoted to promoting the fact that schools should utilize “extra” money to start new types of courses, that should take into consideration a students opinion in order for these new types programs to go over well with those attending the school in question.

However, this positive aspect of the episode quickly disappeared and introduced such negative concepts as greed, aggression and hate. Mr. Burns, the chemical plant owner, caused this. He found a devious way of connecting a mile long tube from his new plant called “Slant drilling” to the elementary school. This tube was placed acute angle, which allowed him to steal the schools newly found wealth. At this point, I believe that the episode held the audience’s attention by allo...

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... part of one’s life, their behavior drastically changes, which in effect allows their level of distress to become reduced (Sdorow, 624). The characters in the aforementioned program all seemed to want to justify violence; this was coined deindiviluation by psychologists. The group members become less aware of their individual behavior and even less concerned about social evaluation (Sdorow, 645).

This episode, in my opinion, can be integrated into psychology as well as sociology courses. It is a great example of how people forget about the basic good of humanity when agitated and backed by others who share the same opinion. ON an elementary school level, teachers can have students act out better solutions among schoolmates. There can be a cast of Simpson’s characters being played by elementary school children, and an actual play can be shown, entitled “The Remaking of Part 2”. (The “real” ending to the Simpson’s episode? The shooter ended up being Bart and Lisa’s baby sister, Maggie. Maybe In the “remaking” they should have her sucking on a lollypop, and not pointing a gun.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sdorow, Lester M. Psychology. 3rd ed. Madison: Brown and Benchmark, 1995