The Simpsons found back a purpose but not its glitter
The discourse on the current Simpsons has become somewhat positive. The Simpsons have entered a postmodern turn in which the focus is less about the character and humour and more on playing on the perception of the show. Aware of the show’s cult status, the writers are, along with the audience, asking a question: what purpose do The Simpsons serve in the 2020s?
The postmodern era
When discussing The Simpsons, the show’s history is split into different eras. The first eight seasons are known as the golden era, known for its unique blend of sentiment, societal satire and comedy. This era produced the show’s memorable moment, now immortalised in memes and GIFs across online discussions and content from British wrestling YouTubers.
The zombie Simpsons followed this era. The show lost its cleverness, and characters started becoming one-dimensional parodies of themselves, or Flanderization. The term jerkass Homer was also coined during this era to describe the new behaviour of the show’s character. Homer was always lazy and slow, but he was also well-meaning, always willing to do what’s best for his family and community.
The show lost its charm. It went from can’t-miss TV to background noise that could elicit a chuckle here and there, not everywhere. The show truly became unwatchable in its twentieth season. The change to HD made the show look plastic, and the quality of the gags followed, with the humour relying more on shock value and visual malformation.
The show can be interesting at times, but those are few and far between. Some episodes have been thought-provoking, like Bart’s birthday (season 36 ep 1) or Poorhouse Rock (season 33 episode 22).
The first is a meta commentary on Bart Simpson. Presented as a series finale, with many guests from over the years and hosted by former writer and occasional voice actor conan o brien.
In the episode, Bart is celebrating his 11th birthday—a taboo in the show. The family has celebrated many birthdays, such as the one that gave the terrible, terrible Lisa birthday song.
However, despite the characters celebrating birthdays, their age don’t change. Lisa had at least two birthdays, but she is forever eight.
The episode showed many characters moving away from their eternal status quo, most notably by showing that Homer has stopped strangling Bart, one of the show’s signature gags. It ends with Bart, desperate to get back to the status quo, getting Homer to strangle him, thus breaking the curse.
Poorhouse Rock is more of a societal commentary on the disappearance of the American middle class. Bart is visiting the power plant. While bored at first, his admiration for Homer grows when he realises the benefits of his job. The lifestyle of the Simpsons family might be one of the most archaic aspects of the show. It is unthinkable nowadays that a family with one working parent provides for three children, owns a house and two cars and can afford trips across the world. The show takes the form of a musical to explain the rise and fall of the middle class and Bart's decision to become a firefighter.
Both episodes make interesting points and entertainingly present them. However, to be truly considered great, the show should do two things.
First, it should produce those kinds of episodes more frequently.
Secondly, it should go back to the fundamentals. The writers have lost the plot regarding their characters.
Does anyone remember laughter?
The writers don’t remember what each character is supposed to depict. Marge is presented as too awesome to belong in this family and a mentor to Lisa‘s academic ambitions. One episode even reveals her as a former singer who always dreamed of being a Disney princess. Too many episodes need to find an explanation for how come marge married down with Homer. The problem is that this perception is only caused by the continued butchering of the characters.
Marge always knew Homer could be lazy, dim-witted, and somewhat selfish, but she could also see he was always devoted to her and his family.
When it comes to Lisa, she and Marge are nothing alike. Marge used to make fun of Lisa’s pretentiousness and doom-and-gloom view on life, but would come around to it.
Those conflicts are gone, and we’re left with vindictive caricatures that miss the mark of the essence of those characters.
Trying to make the viewers care about side characters who were irrelevant for decades is not the solution. Revealing Saar Wiggum’s past as a robber does not make the character interesting. If anything, it turns an irrelevant character into another annoying retcon.
The fact that The Simpsons have been here for so long doesn’t mean they can’t go back to their satirical and comedic roots. It has to accept its mainstream status while still being critical of the world around it and not just be another Disney-glazing product.
Deadpool & Wolverine are part of the Disney empire, yet still managed to make fun of the company’s despair to revive its Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Simpsons can’t be called great until they manage to consistently deliver laugh riots and stop relying on obscure guest stars or outdated cultural references.