#TheSimpsons30
courtesy: The Newsweek
Julian Gough :
“A comparison between The Simpsons and a soap opera is
instructive. A soap opera is trapped inside the rules of the format; all soaps
resemble each other (like psychologically plausible realist novels). What the
makers of The Simpsons did was take a soap opera and put a frame around it:
"this is a cartoon about a soap opera." This freed them from the need
to map its event-rate on to real life: they could map its event-rate on to
cartoon life. A fast event-rate is inherently comic, so the tone is, of necessity,
comic. But that is not to say it isn't serious. The Simpsons is profoundly
serious. And profoundly comic. Like Aristophanes, debating the war between
Athens and Sparta by writing about a sex strike by the women of Athens and
beyond.
With its cartoon event-rate, a classic series of The
Simpsons has more ideas over a broader cultural range than any novel written
the same year. The speed, the density of information, the range of reference;
the quantity, quality and rich humanity of the jokes—they make almost all
contemporary novels seem slow, dour, monotonous and almost empty of ideas.”
Louis Bayard:
"No matter how many times you're reminded, you will
always forget you're watching an animated show. Mr. Burns and Waylon Smithers,
Principal Skinner and Groundskeeper Willie, Barney and Apu and Moe and Ned
Flanders and Krusty the Clown (with his superb initial "K") will seem
more real than any flesh-and-blood television family. More real, maybe, than
your own family because life can't distill us quite so succinctly into our
essences. For that, we need art. Which "The Simpsons" manifestly
is."
A O Scott:
“I have long been of the opinion that the entire history of
American popular culture — maybe even of Western civilization — amounts to
little more than a long prelude to "The Simpsons"..."
