The Simpsons: Up Close and Personal There is a fine line that exists in TV land that had never been crossed until The Simpsons graced the television sets of over one million Americans. This sitcom has become one of the most popular television programs in America. Is it because The Simpsons is a cartoon? My answer is yes! This show is able to sneak through the wormholes of TV land because it is a cartoon. People are overlooking the underlying issues conveyed through the characters because it’s only cartoons right? Wrong!The Simpsons is a satirical sitcom that makes fun of everyday issues that Americans in today’s society are faced with. In a way this is a fabulous idea. Most television shows mask the reality of life, making every conflict easy to solve and finding love is as simple as snapping fingers. These notions that are fed into the minds of Americans are false and unfair. The goal of most TV shows is to create a fantasy world where we can forget all of the hassles of life by escaping into our television sets for an hour. The Simpsons does the exact opposite. The show is designed to get Americans to confront the issues of life and take them for all they can offer, while making a joke out of issues that most Americans become overly stressed about. In the episode I viewed in class, Homer decides to illegally install cable television into his home. Without acknowledging the fact that it is actually stealing he rationalizes that it is only fair, because the Cable Company has plenty of money. It is ironic that a nuclear power plant employs Homer because nuclear energy makes it possible to provide homes with cable television. Homer is actually stealing from his place of employment. His job is to monitor energy use, and document it precisely so American’s are billed correctly for their energy use. He is working to prevent exactly what he is doing wrong at home by stealing cable television. Many Americas could have been ...
