BOC: Simpsons reference (was: Re: BOC: "No-Zilla")

[Andy Gilham]

This is monumentally off-topic, so I'll not post on it again, but...

> Aww...come on folks...Simpsons is a great show. Intelligent probably
> isn't the word...wise-ass is  more like it. And I certainly
> don't think most of the gags are for geeks. Do those who caught
> Homer's 'Don't Fear the Reaper' reference agree?

I used to like it, but after a while, watching a scene and remarking, "oh,
that's just out of _North by Northwest_," gets a bit tired.  Once or twice
is clever, every episode is geeky.  I did put a smiley after the geeks jibe!
But it is a bit geeky to watch for "references".  I admit to occasional
geekiness!

> By the way, Andy...what exactly do you mean when you say it's a
> conservative show masquerading as subversive? Not that I ever really
> saw Simpsons as subversive, but I've never considered it
> conservative, either.

It has this image as being subversive, for reasons I never understood.
Everybody says the Simpsons are dysfunctional, but they're anything but!
_The Simpsons_ is *so* supportive of "family values" - e.g. when Marge gets
a job (outrageous!), by the end of the show she's realised it's a big
mistake and her place is at home in the kitchen.  And the one which really
took the biscuit was the one where Homer decided (radical!) not to go to
church on Sundays!  And by the end of the show he'd realised, of course, he
really should.  And everybody in the show, just about without exception,
who's not part of a stable family unit, is depicted as sad or bitter or
both - Marge's sisters, Principal Skinner, Mrs Kraboppel, Mr Burns, Moe,
Krusty, everybody.  And then there's the insulting racial stereotype of Apu
to top it all off.

_King of the Hill_ is worse, though. :)  I couldn't believe the one about
Hank and Bobby entering the father and son shooting contest!

- Andy

mailto:Andy.Gilham at btinternet.com; http://www.btinternet.com/~andy.gilham