Simpsons

it has been a long long time since I have seen The Simpsons (except for the movie). I interned at Fox this summer and worked with a creepy simpsons superfan who looked a lot like Anthony Soprano Jr.. (only with a Mahmoud beard) The premiere took place a block away from my apartment (in LA), so I got to go to the Fox theatre where I saw the cast who normally are these faceless (I only really knew Hank Azaria). I'll post some pictures I took from the premiere. I feel really bad for the woman who voices Lisa. She was in all these 80's movies and now she only has the show. I only know who she was because I remember her from the Billy Crystal classic "City Slickers". She reminds me of the creepy little person psychic from Poltergeist. (is that the correct term, little person? I know midget is not PC)

Ok now I will actually talk about the Simpsons. I often watched it when I was younger and only a couple episodes have remained engraved on my brain. I remeber their was a block of episodes that my friends and I were watching and I remember certain scenes from that day only because becausei was laughing so hard I choked on cheesecorn.

I was trying to look up what episode had some great bits but I couldnt find it. I found episodes with the scenes of certain episodes, but for some reason I rememebr seeing all these scenes in one episode. I realized that it was the "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show". It is funny how even the Simpsons knows it can't escape the archetypal episodes that have been featured on shows such as Boy meets World and Friends. I remember homer is in the hospital (I thought it was because he ate the poisonous pufferfish but i was wrong) and he goes up to the vending machine while on drugs "chocolate......."and he remembers the chocolate land scene. He then chokes on the candybars and goes into a coma (at the same time I choked on cheesy popped corn). Another funny scene was when Barney tries to smother him with the pillow, and then throws a water fountain out a window and runs away (a great One flew over the Cuckoo's nest parody). This is my favorite episode because I remember most of the clips from it. I dont seem to remember many of the premises of episodes, yet I think everyone has a couple favorite clips that they will always remember. (How many fucking times have I used the word "remember" in this entry???)

It seems to me that the show almost seems blended together and only certain scenes stick out for me. The Be Sharps "Baby on board episode with the beatles references (Barney and a Yoko type asian girl, and the weird NUMBER 8 track jab). Ironically they break up much like the Beatles. And the episode where homer quits the powerplant and shines his head in the bowling ball cleaner, and his bowling jacket melts off when acid rain falls on him on his way to Mr. Burns house (he crawls through a air vent for people who want their jobs back. It is just a buildup for Mr. Burns to say "Ah Homer, I always knew you would come crawling back.")

It seems that sometimes The Simpsons tries to be subversively mocks American culture, yet is a major influence on american pop culture.

Also I found this article about the Simpsons and Consumer Culture
http://www.snpp.com/other/papers/st.paper.html