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Talking
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The Simpsons
“I feel like a chicken already, I just made an egg in my pants!” - Bart Simpson.
Why do I like the Simpsons? Could it be that it has featured the music of my favourite band, Blue Oyster Cult, twice? Most notably in the 2001 Season Premiere, Homer displays a medallion with the BOC logo on it and “Don't Fear the Reaper”’ was played over the closing credits. The truth is, I like the Simpsons because the witty dialogue and the hilarious animations frequently cause me to laugh out aloud.
“D-oh! why do things that happen to stupid people keep happening to me?” – Homer
The Simpsons is an animated American sitcom. It is a satirical parody of "Middle America” epitomised by its dysfunctional title family. The show is set in the fictional town of Springfield, and lampoons many aspects of the human condition, American culture, society as a whole and even television itself.
Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant - a position at odds with his careless, buffoonish personality. He is married to Marge Simpson, a stereotypical American housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart (an anagram of brat) a ten-year-old troublemaker; Lisa, a precocious eight-year-old activist; and Maggie, a baby who rarely speaks, but communicates by sucking on a dummy. The family owns a dog, Santa’s Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball II. Despite the passing of yearly milestones such as holidays or birthdays, the Simpsons do not physically age.
“Since when are public figures fair game for satire?” – Mr Burns
The Simpsons debuted on 17 December 1989 and it has aired 404 episodes over 18 seasons (as of 20 March 2006). The 19th season aired in American at the end of 2007. The Simpsons movie, a feature-length film, was released worldwide on 26 July last year.
The show has been dubbed into several languages, including Japanese, German, Spanish, and Swedish. The Simpsons has been broadcast in Arabic, but due to Islamic customs, numerous aspects of the show have been changed. For example, Homer drinks soda instead of “Duff” beer and eats Egyptian beef sausages instead of hot dogs. The Simpsons movie appeared in Finland both in the original language and dubbed.
“Stupid Flanders you’re a genius!” - Homer
Thanks to its huge following, Mark Liberman, the director of the American Linguistic Data Consortium, commented that "The Simpsons has apparently taken over from Shakespeare and the Bible as our culture's greatest source of idioms, catchphrases and sundry other textual allusions." The most famous is Homer's annoyed grunt: "D'oh!" So ubiquitous is the catchphrase that it is now listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, but without the apostrophe (dooh: a way of saying, ‘god you're so dumb!’).
“How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?” - Homer
The show was controversial from its beginning. The rebellious lead character at the time, Bart, frequently received no punishment for his misbehaviour, which led some parents and American conservatives to characterize him as a poor role model for children.
The Simpsons writing team consists of sixteen writers who propose episode ideas at the beginning of each December. One of the best-known former writers is Conan O’Brien, who contributed to several episodes in the early 1990s before moving to the Late Night show.
The Simpsons has six main cast members but episodes will quite often feature guest voices from a wide range of professions, including actors, athletes, authors, bands, musicians and scientists. In the earlier seasons, most of the guest stars voiced characters, but eventually more started appearing as themselves. The Simpsons holds the world record for "Most Guest Stars Featured in a Television Series". Famous guest voices include, Britney Spears, Mel Gibson, Jerry Springer, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, James Brown, Sting, Sir Ian McKellen, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair, JK Rowling and Mike Bangle (just kidding). However, footballer David Beckham missed out on being on the show as produces thought he was not famous enough!
“To Marge and all the blissful years I’ve spent hiding from her in this bar.” - Homer
Mike Bangle is the owner of Talking English language consultancy and can be contacted at mike.bangle(at)phnet.fi
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