Since the Simpsons Movie is coming out so soon I think that it’s kind of indisputable that the Simpsons are one of the most influential (and longest running) animated shows on television. Some might argue that the show is crude and they would be right, sometimes it is. That is part of the vast appeal of the Simpsons, it appeals to everyone on every level. Beyond Homer saying “d’oh!” and getting hurt and Bart’s bad boy antics is a much more intelligent level which is perhaps why the series has been so long running. I can prove it.
Let’s talk about the art in the Simpsons. Throughout the series both high and low references abound. I am thinking about one example in particular that really struck me but let’s make sure I’m not totally nuts here, I mean animation intelligent? What would Greenberg say?
Among the overt references one of my favorites is when Lisa gets lost going to the Springfield Museum to see the “Treasures of Isis” exhibit, which in itself sounds very much like the King Tut exhibit that has been touring the U.S. off and on for years. For anyone who wants to look it up it’s the ’98 episode “Lost Our Lisa.” The King Tut exhibit is not the point (though it is a good one in itself) rather: when Homer and Lisa decide to illegally enter the museum (something I don’t recommend!) they climb what looks like an Alexander Calder mobile. It’s a mobile with the characteristic yellow, red and blue shapes attached to the large wires that Homer and Lisa manipulate using their weight to ascend to the top floor. Once inside they explore the exhibit, discover its secret and in typical fashion the episode ends with Homer chased by a pack of ravenous dogs.
Another example and relevant to readers of this forum, is a brief blackboard scrawl by Bart. Each episode opens with a montage in which Bart is presumably serving detention by repetitively writing something on the blackboard, phrase different each episode. In the 1999 episode “Little Big Mom” Bart, the bad boy of the Simpsons is punished by repetitively writing, “I will not create art from dung.” 1999 was also the year that the art of Damien Hirst (subject of recent posts) and in particular Chris Ofili were exhibited in “Sensation” at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Ofili drew particular criticism for his image of the Virgin Mary that had elephant dung and rear ends on it. The Simpsons apparently also recognized him as the bad boy of art at the time through Bart Simpson, quite a tribute (though misplaced) in my opinion.
The most art focused episode came in season sixteen, 2005 when Frank Gehry, the designer of Millennium Park, Chicago, the Weissman Art Museum, Minneapolis (recently expanded), Guggenheim, Bilbao, guest stars as himself in an episode. If you can’t picture his buildings, perhaps this encounter between Gehry and a skateboarding Kearney will help. As Gehry chases Kearney and friends through the undulating steel clad building he is skateboarding on, Kearney teases, “Hey Frank Gehry, design curvilinear forms much?”
Prior to that had Gehry received a letter at his house that modeled it exactly after his own house in real life.
The letter is from Marge politely hoping he will design a Springfield Opera House. He is infuriated by the Snoopy stationary and angrily crumbles the letter throwing it to the ground. He does a double take, declares, “Gehry you genius!” and uses the wadded ball of paper as the basis for the Springfield Opera House.
However the impetus for writing tonight came from the episode guide for an even earlier season, eight. In “The Homer They Fall” the writers make a sly allusion. Homer has discovered an extra layer of fat in his head and logically becomes an amateur boxer. His strategy: let the opponent wear out and then push them over. A montage rolls as he defeats opponent after opponent. One scene briefly shows Homer standing victorious over his opponent. This image is most recognizable to those of that have season eight of the Simpsons since it is inset in the episode guide. The pose of Homer, legs wide apart, left arm over the chest, knocking his opponent out of the ring, with the referee as Moe standing over him pointing down is identical to George Bellows’ Dempsey and Firpo, 1923-24, in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Referring to one of the American Realists or “the Ashcan School,” who chose to depict everyday life in all its grittiness, the Simpsons cleverly alludes to one George Bellows’ iconic boxing images, replacing its characters with their own. The picture itself is a lithograph composed in the exact same manner that depicts the instant when Firpo stands triumphantly over Dempsey who is falling out of the ring and the crowd (supposedly including Bellows himself) is pushing him back in, or in the episode Lenny and Carl. The one lithograph is part of a larger series of boxing pictures in a variety of media that Bellows created throughout his life, the most famous probably being the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Stag at Sharkey’s, 1909, recently commemorated on a stamp. The obscure reference is quick, but it’s unmistakable.
These are just a few of the often subtle but always entertaining jokes that the Simpsons writers include with the usual slapstick and antics. This is doesn’t even take into account the vast amount of other musical (Tito Puente), historical (take your pick), scientific (Stephen Hawking) and literary references (Tom Wolfe) that are also included in the show. On July 27th the world will see if the series can translate its glory to success on the big screen.
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