“The Simpsons, like Monty Python, is an Anglo-Saxon comedic take on the existentialism which in France takes on a more tragic hue. Albert Camus’s absurd is defied not by will, but mocking laughter… The satirical cartoon world is essentially a philosophical one because to work, it needs to reflect reality accurately by abstracting it, distilling it and then presenting it back to us, illuminating it more brightly than realist fiction can.
"That’s why it’s no coincidence that the most insightful and philosophical cultural product of our time is a comic cartoon, and why its creator, Matt Groening, is the true heir of Plato, Aristotle and Kant.”
PHILOSOPHER JULIAN BAGGINI
Bristol Festival of Ideas
Link courtesy of Private Eye Magazine
I personally feel that The Simpsons have evolved from a clever and caustic parody of The Flintstones to something akin to the Earwicker family in Joyce's Finnegans Wake, especially during the special epsiodes where the Simpsons family and various minor characters are cast in famous roles. Their parody of The Odyssey, for example, casts Homer as Odysseus, Marge as Penelope and Bart as Telemachus. They can be re-cast into anything cultural so long as there are corresponding matches to the characters. Like the Earwickers in FW, we can imagine and re-imagine the Simpsons family in any number of situations, parodying an infinite number of books, movies and historical events, symbolizing the different polarities that exist in the rich mythology of mankind.
Have a nice weekend...
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