tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261593624725230242.post670210284647969552..comments2023-08-24T08:32:30.460-07:00Comments on Scenes in the City: I Care About The Simpsons for the First Time in 10 Years.Leigh Hilehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17004781553297211393noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6261593624725230242.post-59925263146032004052010-10-17T18:22:42.931-07:002010-10-17T18:22:42.931-07:00The more I try to think of a way to frame my respo...The more I try to think of a way to frame my response to this, the more I struggle. I understand what I mean to say, but I am, as always recently, braindead. So, ok. I'll try to be succinct & apologize in advance if my point does not quite come across. <br /><br />The Simpsons has long been fond of jabbing at Fox whenever possible. Fox allows it because, even now that the Simpsons aren't funny anymore, they're still a major aspect of Fox's programming and, ironically, I can't think of any other television show so visibly tied to Fox. What I mean is, if someone runs up to you on the street and says, "hey, name the first tv show you can think of that Fox broadcasts," a lot of people would think first of the Simpsons. So, acrimonious or not, it's a business relationship that has worked well for both entities. <br /><br />You throw Banksy into the mix. A once anonymous street artist, his work is socially aware in a way that condemns not only what he perceives to be corrupting social forces--capitalism, police authority, and so forth--but also the will to conform that makes corruption by such forces possible. So my perception of the opening sequence is that he is condemning, yeah, third-world sweat shops, but in exaggerating the horrors of the sweat shop until they're killing kittens (I thought they were rats?) to make Bart dolls amongst the skeletons of children, he's also condemning how jaded the public is, at this point recognizing the various horrors of the corporate world but failing completely to take them seriously. The absurdity that Banksy's piece reaches by the end is much more ludicrous than what actually occurs, but ultimately no more horrific. <br /><br />Also, pretty sure that the Simpsons' staff's decision to have Banksy open the show is mainly just an attempt to stay "relevant" and "edgy" even though it really IS just kind of a phoned-in shade of what it used to be, but that may just be another dimension of the show's humor (which has always been self-deprecating, including itself in the world it's so bitterly satirized) rather than a marketing ploy.<br /><br />That's my take, anyway. <br /><br />Johanna<br /><br />ps: I will probably not make many comments on your blog, but I read every entry.Johannahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02278463325220565252noreply@blogger.com