Unit 6 Task 4 In my essay I will using The Simpsons as my primary example throughout. I will be analysing all aspects of The Simpsons and relating them to the points.
What is The Simpsons? The Simpsons debuted in December of 1989 and was the original creation by Matt Groening, since then The Simpsons has become an extremely popular “family” show. Being shown in front of millions of screens.
Genre Conventions: The Simpsons is an an American cartoon sitcom. The show is a comedy and has a wide range of humours in it, it's great for all ages. The show contains realistic storylines and plots in some cases, such as Homer dumping pig poop into a lake. Which has probably happened in the past in the real world. The next being the timing of the show, sitcoms are normally weekly. The Simpsons has a schedule that is normally followed with people knowing when the next show will be out. Stereotypes are followed and mocked in the show another important and large part of it. They are based around nearly every episode. Such as when the Simpsons visit Brazil and most nearly all the women are big busted and very beautiful. There is also a family which is another convention who are the central focus of every episode, with this they can really connect to their audience.
Narrative Structures: Todorov's Equilibrium Theory: This theory is very prominent in The Simpsons Movie, you can clearly see the theory play out.The theory itself suggests that every media piece has a flow of equilibrium, the inserted diagram below shows clearly the path that the equilibrium takes. Tzvetan Todorov first suggested his theory in 1969 after studying Russian folk stories. He found that they all followed a similar pattern.
How does the theory relate? At the beginning of the film life appeared normal, Lisa the second eldest of the family is trying to warn the town about pollution. This is the original state of equilibrium where everything is “normal”. Shortly after Homer dumps pig waste into the lake; furthermore polluting it. A dome is then placed around Springfield (The Simpsons residence) stopping anyone getting out or getting in.This is the disruption to the average equilibrium. The Simpsons then come to terms with what they have created and maggie finds a way out of the dome. The simpsons then escape and try to go to Alaska. This is the recognition stage, shown in the way that they want to escape the danger. The Simpsons then discover new facts and go back try and save Springfield, they then team up and stop NSA agents dropping a bomb into Springfield. This is their way of trying to ”repair” the damage. Springfield then comes together as a team and tries to fix all the damages.This is the new equilibrium.
Propp’s Character Theory: Propp’s theory suggests that there is always 7 “broad” characters in media.It was originally theorised in the 1920’s but was translated to English in the 50’s. The type of characters include: 1. The villain (struggles against the hero) 2. The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object) 3. The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest) 4. The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative) 5. The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil) 6. The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off) 7. The hero [AKA victim/seeker/paladin/winner, reacts to the donor, weds the princess] Propp built his theory through studying 100’s of fairytales. Propp was originally a russian critic but was extremely interested in folk tales. Using his wide knowledge developed his theory thoroughly into what we have today.
How does the theory relate? I believe i have found a character from the film that fits each requirement. 1. Villain‐ Arnold Schwarzenegger,this is the president. He picks a plan at random to stop pollution. In this case it was putting a dome around Springfield. 2. Donor‐ I believe Grandpa fits this best. Mainly because he was the first character to know of ‘EPA’. This therefore prepares the hero. 3. Magical helper‐Boob Lady, she helps Homer by giving him and epiphany. 4. Princess‐This could either be saw as Homer's family, as he needs to win them back.As they discover its Homer that caused the pollution. Or Springfield itself, as it is in desperate need of saving. 5. False Hero‐ The false hero would be Russ Cargill, as he convinced Springfiled that he was going to help them. 6. Dispatcher‐Maggie would be saw as the Dispatcher.Mainly because she finds a way out of the dome. 7. Hero‐ The family is the hero, as they work together and save springfield.
Binary Opposition Theory: Binary Opposition Theory was first theorised in the 1960’s by Claude Lévi‐Strauss. After he studied ancient mythology. In basic terms the theory says that all media pieces have opposite “forces” like an oxymoron. In most cases the theme is good vs evil e.g. the hero fighting the villain.
The above picture is a table of the most common binary oppositions.
How does the theory relate? In the film good vs evil is pronounced throughout. The evil being Arnold Schwarzenegger and Russ Cargill, as they want to trap all of Springfield into a dome. The Simpsons must fight against this and untrap Springfield. Although residents of Springfield are mad at the Simpsons for causing the dome and hinder their progress.Another theme would be environmentalists vs non environmentalists.This can be seen when Lisa tries to warn the town against the pollution, although they do make and attempt to stop pollution. Lisa’s own father dumps a silo full of poop into the lake. This is Lisa vs Homer.
Representation:
Age: In The Simpsons age is represented in a hilarious and nonchalant way. Grandpa for example is represented as no help, is constantly mocked. Grandpa also does and says very stereotypical things. A great example is The Simpsons movie in the scene where Grandpa starts ranting about “EPA”, everyone knocks it off and simply says he is crazy. But in the end his rants turn out to have included very true information. In an episode of The Simpsons named “Smart & Smarter” Maggie is found to have a very high intelligence rating, this is the creators twisting age representation. Just because she's a baby doesn't mean she's not bright!
Gender: In The Simpsons gender is presented in a comedic way. Males seem to get prestigious jobs, the prime minister, the mayor and the military. Also religious leaders, both judges are male. Its seems that the males are in fact above the females, by the fact they have all the important high up jobs. There also also more male characters in the show than females. A study of four episodes found a serious gap between male to female characters, clearly women are represented as a lesser gender. In the same study they looked into the adjectives the characters were described with and as, they found that a larger variety of descriptions were given to males whereas females are limited to 21, which are used repetitively. Although both men and women are equally represented negatively, this can be saw through the hegemonic representation of Patty & Selma. Both are shown to the audience as “Sluts”, smoking constantly and wearing skimpy outfits. The two are always looking for a partner, and are portrayed to always want “sex”.
Social Class: Social class can be saw in the comparison between Montgomery Burns and Cletus, Mr Burns is portrayed to be very snobby and above other people. He commands others to do what he wants, he lives in a very large house and is very creepy. Mr Burns is also very old, adding to the fact that he comes across snobby. Waylon Smithers is his “monkey”, he does whatever Monty wants. He seems to be below the intelligence of Monty, maybe because of his social class. This representation dates back thousands of years, where people of lower class are of lower intelligence. This is obvious when we look at cletus, a very low class and poor character. Cletus is saw as a very dumb character constantly mistaking facts and speaking very slowly, this is amplifying the thought that lower class people are dumber than higher class people. Generally Social Class in the Simpsons is warped and over‐exaggerated, mainly for the comedy factor. But some may take their jokes to heart and be offended by it.
Place/Location: The Simpsons are located in Springfield, a place in the USA. The town all conform to very American stereotypes. The men like to get drunk, a lot and like to drink beer. Most of the men also have beer bellies and are larger. The women are all hard working and tired. Its very much a typical American town with exaggerations. Even the police of the town conform to stereotypes, as we know American police aren't the best of people. In The Simpsons they are exaggerated to be donut eating and very bad at their job. They are also lazy and do not help very often.
Ethnicity/Nationality: Ethnicity is also portrayed for comedic value in The Simpsons, with the character Apu conforming to numerous stereotypes. For the first being his obsession and love of his corner store, named Quick‐E‐Mart. This stereotype is a very common one as Indians typically own corner shops. Apu also has a lot of children very common to their religion, with a quick google search i found this article:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8340679/Indian‐man‐wit h‐39‐wives‐94‐children‐and‐33‐grandchildren.html In which an Indian man has 94 children, a ridiculous amount but is very true to the stereotype. The Simpsons does not mean to mock and make fun of the religion and the race but to more shine light on the situation and make a joke out of it. They want to make a dark situation happy, but they arent helping the stereotype to be abolished.
References: http://www.wisegeek.com/whataregenreconventions.htm http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0462538/ https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=jcJMPiM0tCwC&pg=PA287&hl=en http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18492637 http://epubl.ltu.se/14021773/2009/287/LTUCUPP09287SE.pdf http://www.rhetcomp.gsu.edu/efolio/USERS/nicknewell/portfolio/originalsimpsons.do c http://www.slideshare.net/tessiemedia/sitcomcodesandconventions http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business31967374