Soon after, a day wouldn't go by where you wouldn't come across some kid on the street wearing a "Don't Have A Cow, Man" or "Eat My Shorts" t-shirt or some overweight balding man yell "Doh!" But that was ok. The show still managed to keep its originality all throughout the marketing phase of its life.
But now I fear the show that was once very original and creative has fallen into a hole it has dug for itself, leaving plenty of room for overused jokes, unfunny references and situations you sworn you've seen them in once before. I remember when it was cool when The Simpsons had guest voice actors, but now basically every week they get someone to donate their voice for the good of the show, so instead of becoming something only privilaged few have done, its something almost every actor has done, sometimes more than once.
The problem? Its simply become too popular, too mainstream. The show was good when it had an edge. Now every show is modeling itself after The Simpsons in one form or another. Its just not funny anymore.
Occasionally you will see a cartoon sitcom that dares to break the rules, but they usually fall flat within a season or two. The Simpsons had the perfect ingredients to make a hit series and make it last so many years, such is the fact that no other cartoon sitcom that has come out since could ever stand a chance of entering the lives of the people who watch it like The Simpsons has.
Its downfall, sadly, is one that many artistic projects and endeavors have fallen victim to. Popularity. Remember when Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were the "alternative" bands? Now everyone models their guitar playing and singing after them. Just another example of how Americans can take something so great, splash it onto t-shirts and billboards across America and destroy something sacred.
Hmm. Perhaps the problem is actually that the mainstream has become too Simpsons?
To this effect I cite the past couple seasons. Unless you've just been watching the show in syndication, you will notice that the show has just been getting plain weird. Really plain weird. To cite a few examples, last season the show revealed that jockeys are really elves who live underground (in the same episode, incidentally, the show actually makes fun of its own repetition of motifs and those that harp on them when comic-book-guy points out the fact that Lisa, who gets a horse in this episode, had had a horse before, and homer had been forced to take a second job, "with hilareous consequences".) And THIS season has really cut the mold open from the first episode, where in the first five minutes they throw so many bizzare jokes and oddities at you that you stop wondering whether the writers were on drugs and start wondering if you are. Skinner's Sense of Snow was also incredibly odd (and again played the show continuity error card when Flanders asks Homer whatever happened to his plow and Homer, wearing the Mr. Plow jacket and humming the Mr. Plow song ("call Mr. Plow. That's my name. that name again is Mr. Plow denies ever having had a snow plow.) Taking the cake however, and amazing me was The Computer Wore Menace Shoes. The entire episode was a tribute to the late 60's television show The Prisoner, which is not exactly mainstream and is more than a little odd. And yet The Simpsons, a show with undeniable mass appeal and watched by many, managed to make a show that would amuse the hell out of maybe ten percent of its viewership, and leave the rest dumbfounded, but satisfied.
Even if The Simpsons reflects popular culture a little too well, that's not necessarily a bad thing; the best art SHOULD resonate with its time and its audience. The Simpsons is undoubtedly both a reflection and an agent in the world in which it lives, and we should be grateful rather than disgusted that it has managed to reach so many despite its intelligence and odd humor.
printable version chaos
Everything2 Help
