Homer steadies his hand as he aims the hammer to drive the nail. He slowly goes through the motion of hammering without touching the nail mumbling “steady, steady...”. Spastically he drives the hammer down, missing the nail and smashing his hand. D’oh Homer yells in pain, Bart begins to laugh and mock his father. Homer turns his pain into rage and yells “I’ll teach you to laugh at something funny” and begins to throttle Bart by the neck. Like many before my generation the Simpsons has a vivid place in my subconscious. I have never been the biggest fan of the Simpsons but scenes like this from The Simpsons television show are ingrained in my memory, as I grew up watching many shows on television. The dysfunctional yellow family that is the Simpsons created timeless slapstick comedy thats humour is appealing to all ages, but the Simpsons is more than just slapstick comedy.

As a child I enjoyed watching the simply dumb antics of Homer and the rest of the citizens who inhabit Springfield. However, as I got older, I began to laugh at a “new layer” to the Simpsons that is lightly embedded in characters and events from the show; political comedy. Characters like Apu and Krusty the Klown became more relative and entertaining to me as I learned about social stereotypes and irony. I did not simply choose this topic because the Simpsons is debatably a great show, I chose this topic because it occurred to me that I have given little to no thought on the meaning and motives the creator of the show has expressed as political commentary.

    While talking to my art director, Jeff Robin, I was introduced to the idea that there's a deeper meaning to the Simpsons and was reminded of my Senior year english class. We read The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway and I found myself appreciating a deeper understanding of literature from the use of symbols, metaphors and motifs. However, when I began to read this book I did not have this perspective and therefore read the book with only the information that was presented inside of the book. I thought the plot was very dull and straightforward until I began to connect the book’s story with the context of the time period. The Sun Also Rises is a critique on “The Lost Generation” and explores major changes in gender roles, post World War One. The Simpsons, like Hemingway’s novel, contains many critiques on modern society, especially in the form of satire, and without the knowledge of social and political context the show is simply, dumb antics.

    With this said, I am curious to see what meaning I will take with me after the duration of this project. With a new perspective towards the the twenty-six season long series that is the Simpsons, there's no doubt a recurring theme will emerge. I look forward to immersing myself into the philosophy of Springfield.