1 „The Simpsons“ : a description of the comic series and its main characters 8.30 p.m. in America. Primetime. Millions of Americans are watching TV, but not boring action films, some love story or unrealistic science-fiction thriller… They are watching “The Simpsons”, America’s most successful comic strip. Started in December 1989, it was the first animated prime-time series since the 1960’s and right from the beginning it was part of American culture. It was so successful because after similar comedy series like “Eine schrecklich nette Familie”, “Alle unter einem Dach” or “Bill Cosby” the Simpsons presented a revolutionary new combination of humoristic comic strips and direct social criticism of American society. Another reason for its success is that the Simpsons represent normal and average American society, everything in the series is ordinary. The author, Matt Groening, intended to criticise society by showing it how average it really is. Nothing in the series is invented, everything and everybody does exist. “Springfield”, for example, is the most used name for cities in America, it’s the usual name for “Anytown” (Das Springfield, in dem die Simpsons wohnen, existiert natürlich nicht wirklich. Aber bei dem Namen hat sich Matt Groening dennoch etwas gedacht: (...) Springfield [ist] einer der am meisten vorkommenden Städtenamen in den USA.) 1. Homer and Marge are the names of Matt Groening’s parents, the teachers in Springfield’s Elementary School have the same names as Matt’s former teachers, the coach driver and the neighbours are the same and so on. Everybody exists in reality, which does not mean that they have the same characters as in the series. Groening wanted to create a comic series which is as real as possible, and what is more realistic than reality itself? The Simpsons family consists of five people. The father is called Homer Simpson; he is characterized as the loveable, not terribly intelligent father who tries to please his family, his boss and his friends all the time, but with varying degrees of success. He works as a safety inspector in a nuclear power plant, a job which is meaningless for Homer. He does not really like it but accepts it, 1 See F.A.Q. on http://www.die-gelbe-familie-aus-springfield not least because of its security. The most important things for Homer are TV, Duff beer and doughnuts. His wife and mother of three children is Marge Simpson, a patient and quite intellectual housewife with tower-high blue hair. She embodies the stereotypical American mother, serving as a model of morality and good behaviour. Marge’s moral qualms are a frequent theme of the episodes and developing the personalities of the family members and townspeople through moral issues is a common occurrence. Bartholomew J. Simpson, called “Bart” (which is an anagram of “brat”) is ten years old and the Simpson’s eldest child. He is a cheeky young boy who only thinks of the next trick he can play on his parents, his sister, his teachers or Moe, the barkeeper. School is for Bart a necessary evil, his mind is only on skateboarding and his favourite comic, the “Radioactive Man”. When the show began, Bart was unquestionably the favourite. However, today Homer is more or less the star, he is the most emphasized character in any episode. His favourite saying is “Eat my shorts, man!”. The brain of the family is definitely Lisa Simpson, particularly marked by her impressive intellect. She is the cultured person in the show with a deep respect for Jazz – she plays the saxophone passionately - and loves art. Lisa seems to be the perfect child, she is honest, kind, talented and smart. Together with her mom she is the other moral person in the show. Last but not least there is Maggie Simpson, the youngest child, who is a baby. Since the show started Maggie has never spoken a word, she only sucks her pacifier all the time. 2 In the series Groening broaches many different themes and social problems like the power of the mass media, mostly criticised by the brutal comic strips of “Itchy & Scratchy” and the action films of “Rainier Wolfcastle”, the personified action hero like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Silvester Stallone. The author also criticizes industry and its attitude towards the environment, mainly represented by C. Montgomery Burns, the owner of the Nuclear Power Station. Burns is not very interested in the environment, the safety of his 2 Characterizations according to http://www.snpp.com/other/papers/dk.paper.html station is very bad – not at least because Homer is the safety inspector – and he does not care about the disposal of nuclear waste. A result of this thinking is Blinky, the genetically- mutated fish with three eyes. Another critical point for Groening is the security system in the U.S.A., no wonder that Springfield’s policemen are all corrupt and open to bribery. Similar to the police is the Mayor called Diamond Joe Quimby. He has always love affairs with his young secretaries – an allusion to the Clinton-Affair-, his holidays are always paid by the taxpayers and he is also open to bribery. These are only a few of the points of criticism Groening mentions in the series, others are, for example, illegal immigration, child-violence, the right to bear arms and many, many more. The variety of the people and of the topics makes “The Simpsons” worthwhile. 2 Social criticism in the comic series 2.1 Criticism of the mass media One of the big topics Groening criticises is the mass media. 2.1.1 The brutal comic strips of “Itchy & Scratchy” He chiefly criticises the violence in TV shows, mainly expressed by the comic strip “Itchy & Scratchy”, the favourite comic series of Springfield’s kids, especially of Bart and Lisa, which is presented during every show of Krusty, the Clown. Itchy, a small mouse, continuously fights against his opponent Scratchy, a cat. The mouse tries to kill its opponent always, but not always the same way. As the cat has to die differently each time. In a billboard advertising the first Itchy & Scratchy movie, “Steamboat Itchy”, which parodies the first Mickey Mouse movie “Steamboat Willie”, Itchy slams a movie camera into the back of Scrachty’s neck, causing his head to fall off and blood to spurt everywhere. The blood lands on a couple of newlyweds in a convertible. They look up, horrified, until they see the blood is from the billboard and laugh.3 In another episode Itchy plays the role of Pinocchio (in the episode he is called “Pinitchio”). He has to promise his creator – Scratchy – that he will never hurt him anymore, so Itchy promises that but lies. As in the well-known story his nose grows and pierces through Scratchy’s eye.4 But although Scratchy dies in an episode he is alive in the next one only to get killed yet again. 3 Episode 9F03 “Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie” 4 Siehe CD-ROM Video IS - Pinitchio The movies seem to be similar to cartoons like “Tom & Jerry”, the scheme is also the same. As in other animated cartoon-shows the violence and brutality of these fights are represented in a very funny way which does not correspond to reality. The concept of these shows targeted at what pleases children. So it is no wonder that the broadcasting time of these comic series is mostly during the afternoon, at a time when mainly children are watching TV. They are exposed to violence without the ability to distinguish between reality and fiction. Bart and Lisa laugh at the show all the time not realising how brutal it is. In one show Itchy kills Scratchy by a hammer. The little baby, Maggie, also watched this movie. After that she hits Homer with a real hammer in the belief it would be only funny but could never really hurt him5. Even the intelligent girl Lisa does not realise this. It is only when she becomes a vegetarian that she claims that “Itchy & Scratchy cartoons put over the idea that violence against animals is funny”6 , but rejects this opinion not much time later. The reason for this need for violence can be often a desire for diversion. „Grund für die Bevorzugung gewaltvoller Medieninhalte ist der Wunsch nach Ablenkung. Mit der häufigste Anlass dafür, Computer oder Fernseher anzustellen ist zweifelsohne Langeweile. Medienkonsum soll Zerstreuung bieten und gute Gefühle produzieren. Bei Computerspielen wird das zunächst durch spannende Geschichten und ausreichende Handlungsmöglichkeiten erreicht. Damit das mit Spielanfang erreichte Erregungsniveau nach einiger Zeit aber nicht absinkt, wird die Spielerin konstant durch virtuelle Gewalt bedroht. So bleibt das von der Spielerin als positiv empfundene "mittlere Erregungsniveau" erhalten. Ähnlich funktionieren Action- und Horrorfilme. Auch hier nutzen Produzenten/tinnen Gewalt, um "in einem relativ kurzen Zeitraum eine spannende Handlungssequenz aufzubauen und zu einem einsichtigen Abschluss zu bringen.““7 2.1.2 Action films with “Rainer Wolfcastle” Another genre of TV films Groening criticises are action films. In America millions of people watch this kind of film. Every year Hollywood produces many action films that cost millions of dollars – and they are popular! Nearly everybody knows “Action Heroes” like the Austrian, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played the main protagonist in films like “Terminator” etc. These kind of films must not have a real message, they just have to show a lot of action and gigantic special effects. And the violence and brutality is shown in an entertaining way for the viewer and not very realistic. 5 Episode 7F09 “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge“ 6 Episode 3F03 “Lisa the vegetarian“ 7 http://www.krinke.onlinehome.de/Amok/MedienUndGewalt/MedienTxt.html Scientists see a danger in these films.