#simpsons studies

[broimgae]

I agree to manifest this post

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

[racefortheironthrone]

There was a classic Simpsons episode where Springfield Elementary teachers went on strike, and the PTA responded by bringing in residents (including Marge Simpson) as replacement teachers. Would this count as union busting or crossing the picket line? If yes, I wonder why it was depicted as largely benevolent considering that Simpsons writers and plots tend to lean liberal.

Let's not mince words, it's 100% scabbing. It's not just crossing a picket line as a customer, it's crossing a picket line in order to work as non-union temporary labor, with the intent to crush the strike.

I don't agree that it's depicted as benevolent behavior - the whole gag of the middle portion of the episode is that the scabs are terrible fucking teachers. Frink is completely wasted in preschool and doesn't let the kids play with toys, Jasper is a physically abusive idiot who gets his beard stuck in a pencil sharpener, and Moe and the like are total pushovers when it comes to Bart's pranks. The only one who can manage a classroom at all is Marge, and even then she's incredibly embarrassing and unprofessional with Bart. (Notable difference compared to how she does in "Whacking Day.")

Also, it's not necessarily the case that Simpsons writers are always left-leaning. John Swartzwelder is notoriously incredibly conservative and his scripts tended to push his libertarian views pretty strongly.

[springfieldnerv]

Character study: nerds who love their bosses

[m00ngbin]

I'm doomed I keep forgetting the difference between the Simpson Index and the Lincoln Index. I am in so much distress right now it's not even funny

[lux--nova]

I encountered the funniest phrase I've ever read in a scholarly article yesterday and I had to share it with yall. I will now quote scholarly sources when assessing whether something is tiny, teeny, or teeny-weeny, thank you.

[hole34]

it will all be worth it once i can make funny lionel hutz references...

[lugiaabsol]

10 years old……

[phantom-of-the-memes]

Made my own personal version of this on the wall next to my desk.

To remind me who I’m working for!

[ericaportfolio]

So I've been silent for a while. That's because I'm working on a Redbubble Design that I plan to get out soon and this. This was a background study inspired by Steam Hams and Hello Puppets for a bigger side project. However, I still thought to release this because I was happy with how this background study turned out. Glad that I made this in color first. Have fun speculating what I'm doing currently.

[butchbarneygumble]

hey

[ronastudies]

Lots of thoughts on productivity recently, what it means to be productive, who determines and sets the bar, how productiviy differs in differents fields and professions and how one relates to the other. (Burn-out in the academic world and young academics working themselves into the ground vs. the image of laziness and uselessness in the eye of a big part of the public and especially those with a blue-collar background)

Source of picture: Simpson, David (1995): The Academic Postmodern and the Rule of Literature. A Report on Half-Knowledge. Chicago, London, p. 6.

[seallbay]

Not my university textbook quoting Homer Simpson- help???

[angabby-zzz]

Allergic to not ending paragraphs with worst jokes / lines known to man

Edit idk how i forgot this one its like my favorite one

[archivyrep]

"The Ghost and Molly McGee" employs archives stereotypes with basement archive [Part 1]

Entering the archives which is…behind a heavy steel door, of course

Recently, I was watching one of my favorite animated series, The Ghost and Molly McGee. When I saw the two protagonists, Molly McGee and Scratch, go to the local library to learn the truth behind a town legend, it seemed like standard fare in animated series. Usually, the story goes like this: characters to go a library or archives to learn about something, they find the answers somehow, and ta-da, problem resolves itself. This episode appeared to follow that same pattern, reminding me a little of The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Iconoclast," which Sam Cross analyzed on her blog. However, I was intrigued when I saw Libby, Molly's friend, hilariously dressed in a trench coat, tells Molly and Scratch that "you have no idea how deep this rabbit hole goes. You need to visit...the archives." Warning that there will be some spoilers for this episode ("Monumental Disaster") discussed in this post so I can analyze it here.

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on Nov. 18, 2021.

My concern grew when it was clear that in the episode, the archives clearly has a lot of mystique around it. For one, it is only accessible when Libby pulled out a book of a shelf aptly named Secret Levers 4 Secret Doors, causing a huge metal door to open. In the archives itself, it is portrayed as spooky, dusty, and dirty, with cobwebs on the ground, even with eerie music playing. This portrayal is not unique, although some shows have archives above-ground, not in a "dank dungeon of a basement surrounded by cobwebs and dust. For example, in an episode of Phineas & Ferb, another Disney show, Heinz Doofenshmirtz travels to the secret vault, in the basement of city hall, filled with documents, lit by torches, and having cobweb, to find the deed he is looking for. In Amphibia, also a Disney series, Anne Boonchuy and the Plantars travel to the town archives, happens to also be underground and is described by one character as "dustier than Dusty's dustbin."

Like the basement archives in Phineas & Ferb and Amphibia, no archivist is seen and archives almost seem abandoned. On the other hand, the archives appears to be well-organized, despite some papers strewn on the ground, almost like the basement newspaper archives in a few episodes of Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters, one of the first series I wrote about on this blog in August of last year. It is implied that some people may care for the archives as Libby mentions, earlier in the episode, that the archives is sponsored by the Brighton Women's Historical Society which believes history should be "no mystery."

Despite these negatives, Molly does get the information she looking for, with Libby dramatically opening a box which has the "answers" she seeks. Molly pulls out a book entitled The True History of Brighton. Libby plays a vinyl recording of the book being read/sung. As a result, Molly, is like Lisa Simpson in the previously mentioned episode of The Simpsons, realizing that the town legend is wrong, with the heroine of the town being Sally Tugbottom, rather than her brother, Ezekiel "Tug" Tugbottom. Molly then recognizes that Tug, who the legend is centered around, wrote the history (almost akin to Buddy Buddwick in Steven Universe) which everyone accepts. As a result, she vows to right this injustice. Ultimately, she is successful, as Tug's attempts to cause destruction cause him to destroy a statue made in his honor.

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[emcads]

small author's note regarding gender in the girl gang: while it's aimed at girls (the original idea was to foster more interaction between female muses who get less attention), the ship is not one that operates under or enforces a strict binary. if your muse feels wronged by patriarchy / heteronormativity / primogeniture / etc, wants to support women kicking ass and taking names, or simply feels that a "girl gang" is a place where they belong, they (and you) are welcome. the last thing i want is to create an exclusionary space: if you want to play, but don't feel that your muse belongs, hit me up and we'll find a role that fits.

[umbrasdoodles]

Did some style studies using my OC Steve as a guinea pig! I tried to go for particularly distinctive styles for this and it was fun to do! Consider these among Steve's many experiments at a convincing human form.