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| The most famous family in America |
Intertextuality is the main form of
comedy in the hit show The Simpsons. In the more than 20 seasons of the show
they have recreated many famous texts both new and old. The writers have made
references to stories as recent as Them, Robot using the film I, Robot as the
bases to classic texts such as Moore’s poem The Night before Christmas in their
episode of the same name.
The Simpsons is a great example of Intertextuality
because the show will not be funny if you do not understand the texts or events
the show is based upon. But if you do not know of the texts the episode is
based, you would just think that this family finds themselves in silly events. I have gone back and read the texts that a
specific episode has been referenced and gained a new respect for the writers of
the show. The scripts of these episodes show that the writers have a great
understanding of the text that they are recreating.
Since the show, which is currently
in its 23rd season, has so many episodes and references that it is
hard to pick just a few. One of the first episodes based off of a text is in
the first season titled The Night before Christmas based on Clement Clarke
Moore’s poem. In the episode, Bart follows the same rhyme as the narrator, yet
adapting it to his own version of their family Christmas. In the episode titled
Them, Robot based on the popular movie, Homer Simpson’s boss realizes that it
would be too expensive in the long run to keep all of the employees at the site
so he replaces them all with robots and places Homer in charge. The robots
follow the same three rules of robotics as in the movie and take away his Duff
beer stating that beer harms humans. Homer tries to reprogram them and they
become reprogrammed to kill him. All the laid off employees rally behind Homer
and destroy the robots. Another very
simple example is the episode based off of Shakespeare’s play A Midsummers
Night Dream called A Midsummers Nice dream where Homer goes to a Cheech and
Chong show and when Chong leaves, he takes the stage and recites the whole act
from memory and replaces Chong on tour. There is even an epilogue in this
episode given by Bart.
It is very easy to identify which
stories the Simpsons are recreating if you know the original story. If you
happen to not know it though, the episode will be confusing and not as funny of
a show that it actually is. The writers of this show are great showing that
they understand these texts enough to use the same plot yet make it their own.
I think this post is easy to relate to by most of our peers. Although I do not watch The Simpsons and cannot directly understand your references, several other comedies use this exact method of intertextuality. For example, Family Guy and South Park use intertextuality in this sense during almost every episode; a reference to Scientology in South Park automatically comes to mind. I agree that recognizing the reference makes these shows funnier, and the writers demonstrate an understanding of the literature in which they are drawing upon.
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