The Simpsons: Family Matters

How does one begin when talking about The Simpsons? With about twenty years of material (including the original shorts from The Tracey Ullman show), there are so many things worth talking about and many things qualify as springboards. I could start by looking at the world of Springfield, USA or examine how the wacky stories serve as allegories and pop culture allusion. However, I will begin by looking at the titular family.

At the center of all the zany-yet-highbrow humor lies the Simpson family. Patriarch Homer is a man of below average intelligence and above average weight. Things almost never go his way unless someone can be hurt or inconvenienced by his good fortune (see Frank Grimes in the episode "Homer's Enemy"). The irony of Homer's life is that he tends to fall into duties that he is vastly unqualified for, leading to hilarity. He is generally unmotivated, lazy, and boorish, and these qualities tend to bite him in the ass after being thrust into these positions. And yet, when he actually tries to buckle down and get something done, he usually fails. When he does succeed, it is not because of anything he did. But we root for him anyway, since he is a constant source of dim-witted commentary on life ("You gave both dogs away?! You know how I feel about giving!"). His wife Marge is the quintessential housewife of early 90s sitcoms; she constantly has to put up with her husband's stupidity while simultaneously trying to prevent her children from killing each other. As the series progressed, she began to develop some flaws of her own, including addictions to gambling and adrenaline, but for the most part, she plays the role of the voice of reason in a home where reason is unwelcome.

Bart, the oldest Simpson child, started the show as the troublemaker. He made prank phone calls, told teachers to "Eat [his] shorts", vandalized pubilc property, and tormented his sister Lisa. Looking back, it is pretty amazing how tame Bart's behavior is by modern standards, a fact that South Park made sure to point out (let's not go into Bart's recent changes in persona that have rendered him much more of a wimp with a poor tough guy exterior). Bart is definitely his father's son; he is a terrible student and always chooses the path of least resistance. He is addicted to violent video games and sugar. Also like his father, Bart seems to be a stand-in for everything that people see as being "wrong" with today's youth.

Middle child Lisa serves as an archetype for the unappreciated intellectuals. At 8 years old, she is one of the smartest people in Springfield, and this serves as both a gift and a curse to her. She is often ostracized from the other children at school due to her brainyness, even though she also doesn't fit in with the school's nerd elite (Martin Prince and Database put her off). Lisa is not only smart, she can apply her intelligence in ways most adults on the show can't. When con man Lyle Lanley came to Springfield claiming he was a monorail salesman, only Lisa asked the tough questions that pointed out the sheer inefficiency of a monorail in Springfield (though Lanley preyed on her pride by smoothly telling her that she was so smart that the only people in the room who would understand the answer would be Lanley and Lisa, which effectively placated her). Lisa's intelligence is well balanced with her age; she wants to be a kid and play with dolls, for instance, but her age-appropriate habits tend to bring her into some very grown-up situations (such as the time she led a campaign against Malibu Stacey dolls when she realized that the new talking Stacey spouted mysogonistic phrases that would be pushing the boundaries of decency on Mad Men).

Finally, there's baby Maggie. Despite Maggie being a silent character, she gets some great gags; the best is probably the amazing Great Escape reenactment in "A Streetcar Named Marge", including a Steve McQueen-in-the-cooler impression. There isn't too much to say about Maggie, since most of her gags conform to the plot as opposed to an established character.

I guess the next question is, "Who cares about the Simpson family?" It may be easy to write off the show, since the characters never evolve or learn anything (or if they do, it's promptly forgotten by next episode). There are precious few examples of the status quo being permanently upset (one example includes the divorce of Milhouse's parents), and there often contradictions of established continuity (one episode attributed Homer and Bart's stupidity to the "Simpson gene", while in another, Dr. Hibbert discovered a crayon lodged in Homer's brain, and upon removal, he became an intellectual). But for about 10 years, the fact that the Simpsons never learned from their mistakes kept us laughing very hard. We watched a group of people with various flaws were thrust into bizarre situations, and the results were consistently entertaining.

Up next: Introducing the supporting players...