War rages, orphanages overflow, and the topic de jour is climate change and carbon emissions. A bright spot of hope and laughter hovers over the collective horizon, however, as the planet eagerly anticipates the long-awaited Simpsons movie. I can hardly contain myself, thinking of a few precious hours of laughter and the endless summer days of café talk that will follow, a summer where patios will buzz into the night with analysis and festive gossip over the world’s favourite family ties.
The special gift of The Simpsons is that it lets us see ourselves better. No other postmodernist work comes even close, and certainly nothing compares to Simpsons’ trademark comic wit. While my well-meaning family once banned my kid bro from over-saturating his mind with “that television brat”, both Rob and I believe that no education is complete without The Simpsons. Rob continued to watch the show until Dad came around after watching a few episodes, and like everyone else, saw himself plain as day, poked fun at with affection and accuracy. Rob was only a kid when he assured me he would continue to watch the program. “The only reason they don’t like The Simpsons,” he stated with a keen childish wisdom, “is ‘cause this is the kind of family they’re making fun of.”
I’m not the only one who has hauled a highlighter and Chris Turner’s Planet Simpson off the shelf. Getting ready for the big movie event consists of rolling a stock of fatties, penciling in the ubiquitous DVD and potluck celebrations post-gala, and, well, a bit of academic preparation. Never studied for the Simpsons before? Think about how much The Simpsons have studied you, then gather your textbooks together for the most fun you’ve ever had cramming.
Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation, a 400-plus-paged tome, was a runaway hit after its 2004 release. Our very own Canadian Chris Turner created his own masterpiece with this enthralling and witty analysis of culture through Springfield’s lens. Though Kevin Jackson of the UK’s Times Online criticized the oeuvre for being easy on the brain, (“his prose style is not much above the fanzine level” and “his range of cultural reference is at best parochial”) most (including self-important intellectuals like myself) will find Turner’s style refreshing and humourous. “ …In quest of snappiness, he peppers his sentences with cutesy words such as “anyhoo” and “craptacular”,” Jackson moans, but I’m partial to any textbook that infuses information with the homey lingo of Springfield. I’m proud of the fact that the best-ever analysis of our favourite Americans just happens to be Canadian. Besides, Turner won four National Magazine Awards, including the President’s Medal for General Excellence for his pop-culture and technology reporting before spying on Homer and Marge, and his knowledge of his subject is rigorous and thorough.
Seamlessly weaving our own cultural evolution alongside the history, trivia and characters that populate the best show ever, Turner tours our habits and impulses with the practicality of an anthropologist and the oft-neglected wisdom of the everyman. Sidebars highlight episode details even the most devoted watchers may have missed. The cast of writers has boasted a motley crew of academic hipsters, an impressive array of scientists, mathematicians, computer geniuses and more. References are usually verifiably true, even easily ignored jokes about math or history can be researched and come up accurate. By unraveling the complex po-mo layers of the show’s myriad references to art, politics, religion, world events and mass culture, Turner succeeds at making The Simpsons even more enjoyable. There are few shows that get better and better the more you watch the rerun, and Turner cues you to the clues that make this happen.
Not all Simpsons exposés are as readable as Planet Simpson, but several are just as important. While Turner generalizes, other authors specialize, and you can go with them on excursions into Simpson psychology, science, philosophy and religion. There’s as much room for intellectual expansion and spiritual growth as there is for humour, and a few authors help us delve further into Simpsonic layers.
William Irwin et al got there first with The Simpsons and Philosophy: the D’oh! of Homer. This anthology of academic essays was part of a trendy stable of philosophic explorations of pop culture at the turn of the millennium (Seinfeld and Philosophy and Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix were other staples in the stable). Essays like Homer and Aristotle, Thus Spoke Bart, and A Marxist in Springfield provide useful fodder for late-night cappuccino discussions, though the Snows piece on Simpsonian Sexual Politics regurgitates unfounded worries that Marge and Lisa aren’t equal to the boys- more refreshing insight could argue that men aren’t portrayed sympathetically enough.
Mark I. Pinsky studies The Gospel According to the Simpsons: the Spiritual Life of the World’s Most Animated Family. Wordy but thorough, this delightful volume examines the Catholics, the Jews, the Hindus, the hypocrisy of the church and the reality of faith in modern civilization. The Simpsons are represented as your average, faulty but well-meaning Christians who are bored to death by church but still strive to maintain ‘family values’. The best part is that Ned Flanders, my favourite character (recall that I said my Dad saw himself in Springfield when he watched!) gets plenty of pew-time from Pinsky’s pen.
More recently, Dr. Alan Brown with Chris Logan served got onto the Simpson couch with The Psychology of The Simpsons. It’s a wonderful examination of various themes throughout the show, from gambling addiction to Pavlovian conditioning, a suitable icebreaker for psych practitioners and their patients as well as those who are simply fascinated by what makes us- and the Simpson family- tick.
And finally, don’t miss out on Paul Halpern’s What's Science Ever Done For Us: What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe. It would be Lisa’s favourite of the bunch, providing a guide to science themes in our favourite show. It illuminates objective realities that get lost in our subjective cultural analyses and teaches us about genetics (is Homer dimwitted by genes?), nuclear power, and the colonization of Mars.
By now you’re ready to lecture alongside professors at university bookstore functions, but I suggest instead it’s time to spark some cannabis with Homer or Otto and spend the rest of the month in hysterics watching the Comedy Network. Before you know it, we’ll be dissecting the summer’s hottest film, languishing at Moe’s Tavern with our neighbours and awaiting another season of Sunday night potlucks.
