Groening took responsible risks to make these shows into popular TV shows. Groening made the first popular animated adult comedy (The Simpsons). He said “ The history of TV has traditionally been not to do anything that would scandalize Grandma or upset Junior. Our solution on The Simpsons is to do jokes that people who have an education, or some frame of reference, can get. And for the ones who don't, it doesn't matter, because we have Homer banging his head and saying, 'D'oh!'.” This became the concept around the Simpsons and Futurama. He also based the Simpsons on his real family (he didn’t in Futurama). His dad was named Homer, mom’s was Margaret (most called her Marge), and his little sisters were named Lisa and Maggie. He also had two
Vaudeville was very popular from the late 1800s to the early 1900s in North America. Vaudeville shows were made up of many random acts that were placed together in a common play bill. Some acts were, for example, plays, clowns, jugglers, comedians, etc. Once the radio was introduced, vaudeville’s started to become less popular as the radio’s popularity started to increase. The radio started out with maximum five programs but as the demand for radios increased so did the amount of programs, which went up to almost 500. Radios was the place families and friends gathered to hear the news, sporting events, music, entertainment, etc. One show millions of people listened to was The Burns and Allen Show, starring George Burns and Gracie Allen. Allen was the one who had all the punch lines and was very silly and Burns was the straight man, serious, and was the one who allowed Allen the opportunity to say her punch lines. Burns and Allen were one of the few people who succeeded in different medians and brought changes to the way entertainment was performed.
Father Knows Best In season six, episode one, Bud’s irritated family is always distracted by the commotion occurring above the family room. Relationship to Society Both shows have some sort of contribution to society such as: in Everybody Loves Raymond, they contribute to society by purchasing over $120 in Victoria Secret merchandise. His brother is also an officer for their local police department and they also eat pizza at their pizzeria about every other week. Finally, Raymond’s jealous brother finds a trophy for an article written about sports.
Groening, Matt, Ray Richmond, and Antonia Coffman. 1997. The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to our Favorite Family. 1st ed. London: HarperCollins.
Carlisle, Henry C., ed. American Satire in Prose and Verse. New York: Random House, 1962.
cower in fear and a thriller should keep you on the edge of your seat.
Sinclair Lewis used his writing to promote the enrichment of American society by attacking the weaknesses he perceived in his era. His most notable work, Babbitt, is a satire on the middle class lifestyle and attitude of the 1920s. Lewis' satirical style and voice is comparable to the modern television series The Simpsons, written by Matt Groening. Babbitt and The Simpsons contain numerous similarities in satirical writing, presentation and commentary. Matt Groening satirizes many modern situations with his style and characterization in The Simpsons that are similar to the conditions in Babbitt. The Simpsons represent the pinnacle of how Lewis' opinions are still alive in today's world.
The characters illustrated in these programs are formed by what writers believe. When a show is created, the writers take the basic features of a character and expand based on what they think viewers will enjoy. Yet these creations can be biased due to how hard the writer is willing to work. For example, the show Everybody Hates Chris portrays an African-American family living in Bed-Sty, Brooklyn. The family is shown living from paycheck to paycheck and trying to better their lives.
The Success of The Simpsons In recent years, a certain animated sitcom has caught the public’s attention, evoking reactions that are both favourable and unfavourable, but hardly ever apathetic. As a brilliant, socially aware satire, Matt Groening’s ‘The Simpson’s’ has effectively stirred different emotions from different factions of the culturally deadened American populace and for this alone, it should be recognised as quality programming. The Simpsons is a brutal satire of our society and our family structures yet it offers several redeeming qualities such as feminism, endurance and most of all humour. The American animation was created by Matt Groening as shorts for the Tracy Ullman Show and was bought by Fox Network, which began screening it as half hour shows in 1989. Initially its success was restricted to the 9-16 year old age group, but its success grew quickly and it is now popular in many countries with many different audiences.
“Do’h” has been a hallmark of American culture since 1989, when The Simpsons first aired. They have influenced our lives if we noticed it or not. I would create an honors seminar class focusing on the satire and cultural diffusion of The Simpsons. I would call this class The Simpsons: Mocking Our Lives Since 1989.
The stereotype for cartoons used to be simple. They are the shows children willingly wake up early for on saturdays, and usually involve a group of heroes defending the earth from an invading force. However, this stereotype hardly applies to cartoons in the modern age. Besides the end of saturday morning cartoons, they have matured with their original audience creating a renaissance for adult focused cartoons. Yet many adults sneer at the prospects of shows such as South Park and Rick and Morty even though they are aimed to entertain them, due to the perception of vulgarity, and childish behavior they contain. Although shows like South Park, and Rick and Morty, may seem at first glance as only a quick joke, they offer serious points of view,
It may not be politically correct and improperly depict pop culture events; nevertheless Family Guy is a valuable source for comedy and entertainment. Though it holds a top two ranking for all animated shows, it is often criticized and could be shut down once again. Until then, we should enjoy the freedom of speech which grants them the right to broadcast the comical satire and continue to express many of Americans societal problems to the world. As viewers we can enjoy the comedy by accepting one simple fact, all Family Guy is putting a mirror in front of our society and having us look into it, it shows discrimination and stereotypes, but in no way does it condone either. Family Guy is America’s comedy.
There are a number of shows that are based around families and one of those shows is Family Guy. It is an American adult animated sitcom which is based around a family known as the Griffins. This family consists of parents Peter and Lois along with their three children, Meg, Chris and Stewie. Both Meg and Chris are teenagers while Stewie is still a baby. The family also has a pet dog named Brian who happens to talk. The father is a blue collar worker and the wife is a stay at home mother who comes from a wealthy family. Their daughter Meg, is an awkward teenager who sometimes gets ridiculed and ignored by the family while the teenage son, Chris who is overweight and intelligent who is often viewed as a younger version of his father. The youngest is Stewie who is obsessed with violence and is quite intelligent. For instance, Stewie is always finding ways to kill his mother which could be because the grudge he holds against her for having him stay in her womb for 9 months. Some may say the dynamic of the Griffins family is strange and dysfunctional due to the way the family sometimes treat each other including putting each other down. Other times, the family is supportive of each other.
The Simpsons, the longest running cartoon of all time, is another cartoon that can affect children desire to participate in physical activities. Homer Simpson is another cartoon character who displays gluttony and inactivity. Homer Simpson is known for over-indulging food, such as doughnuts, burgers, pizza, ice-cream, candy, hot dogs, cupcakes, and beer; however, the main characteristic of Homer is his laziness. Homer is frequently seen asleep on a sofa or bed. Homer “laziness” can influence children that there is nothing wrong with sleeping “all day” and inactivity. Another way The Simpsons show can influences laziness to children is how The Simpsons themselves watch a lot of television. The whole family (Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie)
Homer Jay Simpson, the patriarch of the Simpson household on the Fox series “The Simpsons” is a childish, lazy man, whose hobbies include eating donuts, drinking Duff Beer, watching television, and sleeping. A victim of the “Simpsons gene” which allows for only Simpson women to possess the trait of intelligence, Homer is unfortunately as “dumb as a chimp” according to his father, Abe Simpson. However, it is mainly through the analysis of his simplistic thoughts and nature, that one can gain a real perspective on Homer’s complex personality.
Cartoons such as The Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-head rolled out into mainstream television and soon parents were in an uproar about the language and the message it sent to kids. Cartoons continued to explore the use of language as well as topics such as drugs and drinking. Cartoons appeared more for adults than for children. The violence once expressed through just hitting with various objects is now threatening each other with guns. Parents now feel uncomfortable watching these cartoons with their children because they feel as though cartoons have hidden messages and jokes for adults, but they are in cartoons that are meant for children. With all the controversy now with cartoons and T.V. shows in general, they now have what is referred to as a television rating system. Now children have to be age appropriate to watch cartoons in their age