The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family
Author(s): Paul A. Cantor
Source: Political Theory, Vol. 27, No. 6 (Dec., 1999), pp. 734-749
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/192244
Accessed: 03/11/2008 18:47
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sage.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the
scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that
promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Political Theory.
http://www.jstor.org
THE SIMPSONS
Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family
PAULA. CANTOR
Universityof Virginia
HEN SENATORCHARLES SCHUMER (D-N.Y.) visited a high
W
school in upstateNew Yorkin May 1999, he received an unexpectedcivics
lesson from an unexpectedsource. Speakingon the timely subjectof school
violence, SenatorSchumerpraisedthe BradyBill, which he helped sponsor,
for its role in preventingcrime. Rising to question the effectiveness of this
effortat gun control,a studentnamedKevinDavis cited an exampleno doubt
familiarto his classmatesbut unknownto the senatorfrom New York:
It remindsme of a Simpsonsepisode. Homerwantedto get a gun but he hadbeen in jail
twice and in a mentalinstitution.They label him as "potentiallydangerous."So Homer
asks what that means and the gun dealer says: "Itjust means you need an extra week
before you can get the gun."
Withoutgoing into the pros and cons of gun control legislation, one can
recognize in this incident how the Fox Network'scartoonseries The Simpsons shapesthe way Americansthink,particularlythe youngergeneration.It
may thereforebe worthwhiletaking a look at the television programto see
what sort of political lessons it is teaching. The Simpsons may seem like
mindlessentertainmentto many,butin fact,it offerssome of themost sophisticated comedy and satire ever to appearon Americantelevision. Over the
years,the show has takenon manyseriousissues: nuclearpowersafety,environmentalism,immigration,gay rights, women in the military,and so on.
Paradoxically,it is the farcicalnatureof the showthatallows it to be seriousin
ways that many othertelevision shows are not.2
I will not, however,dwell on the questionof the show's politics in the narrowly partisansense. The Simpsonssatirizesboth Republicansand Demo-
EDITOR'SNOTE:Thisessay won the awardfor bestpaper in thepolitics and literaturesection
qf the 1998 AnnualMeeting of the AmericanPolitical Science Association.
POLITICALTHEORY,Vol. 27 No. 6, December 1999 734-749
? 1999 Sage Publications,Inc.
734
Cantor/ THESIMPSONS
735
crats. The local politician who appearsmost frequentlyin the show, Mayor
Quimby, speaks with a heavy Kennedy accent3and generally acts like a
Democraticurban-machinepolitician. By the same token, the most sinister
politicalforce in the series,the cabalthatseems to runthe town of Springfield
frombehindthe scenes, is invariablyportrayedas Republican.On balance,it
is fairto say thatTheSimpsons,like most of whatcomes out of Hollywood, is
pro-Democratand anti-Republican.One whole episode was a gratuitously
vicious portraitof ex-PresidentBush,4whereas the show has been surprisingly slow to satirize PresidentClinton.5Nevertheless, perhapsthe single
funniestpolitical line in the historyof TheSimpsonscame at the expense of
the Democrats. When GrandpaAbrahamSimpson receives money in the
mail really meant for his grandchildren,Bart asks him, "Didn'tyou wonder
why you were gettingchecks for absolutelynothing?"Abe replies, "Ifigured
'cause the Democratswere in poweragain."6Unwilling to forego any opportunity for humor,the show's creatorshave been generally evenhandedover
the yearsin makingfun of bothparties,andof boththe Rightandthe Left.7
Setting aside the surfaceissue of political partisanship,I am interestedin
the deep politics of The Simpsons,what the show most fundamentallysuggests aboutpoliticallife in the UnitedStates.The show broachesthe question
of politics throughthe question of the family, and this in itself is a political
statement.By dealing centrallywith the family, The Simpsonstakes up real
human issues everybody can recognize and thus ends up in many respects
less "cartooonish"thanothertelevision programs.Its cartooncharactersare
more human,more fully rounded,thanthe supposedlyreal humanbeings in
manysituationcomedies. Above all, the show has createda believablehuman
community:Springfield,USA. The Simpsonsshows the family as partof a
largercommunityand in effect affirmsthe kind of communitythat can sustainthe family.Thatis at one andthe same time the secretof the show's popularitywith the Americanpublic andthe most interestingpolitical statementit
has to make.
TheSimpsonsindeed offers one of the most importantimages of the family in contemporaryAmerican culture and, in particular,an image of the
nuclear family. With the names taken from creatorMatt Groening's own
childhoodhome, TheSimpsonsportraysthe averageAmericanfamily:father
(Homer), mother (Marge),and 2.2 children(Bart,Lisa, and little Maggie).
Manycommentatorshave lamentedthe fact thatTheSimpsonsnow serves as
one of the representativeimages of Americanfamily life, claiming that the
show provideshorriblerole models for parentsand children.The popularity
of the show is often cited as evidence of the decline of family values in the
United States. But critics of The Simpsonsneed to take a closer look at the
show and view it in the context of television history. For all its slapstick
736
POLITICALTHEORY/ December 1999
natureandits mocking of certainaspectsof family life, TheSimpsonshas an
affirmativeside and ends up celebratingthe nuclearfamily as an institution.
For television, this is no minorachievement.For decades, Americantelevision has tendedto downplaythe importanceof the nuclearfamily and offer
variousone-parentfamilies or othernontraditionalarrangementsas alternatives to it. The one-parentsituationcomedy actuallydates backalmost to the
beginning of network television, at least as early as My Little Margie
(1952-1955). But the classic one-parentsituationcomedies, like The Andy
GriffithShow (1960-1968) or My ThreeSons (1960-1972), generallyfound
ways to reconstitutethe nuclearfamily in one formor another(often through
the presenceof an auntor uncle) andthusstill presentedit as the norm(sometimes the story line actually moved in the directionof the widower getting
remarried,as happenedto Steve Douglas, the FredMacMurraycharacter,in
My Three Sons).
But startingwith shows in the 1970s like Alice (1976-1985), American
television genuinelybeganto move awayfromthe nuclearfamilyas the norm
and suggest thatotherpatternsof child rearingmightbe equallyvalid or perhaps even superior.Televisionin the 1980s and 1990s experimentedwith all
sortsof permutationson the themeof the nonnuclearfamily,in shows such as
Love, Sidney (1981-1983), Punky Brewster (1984-1986), and My Two Dads
(1987-1990). This developmentpartlyresultedfromthe standardHollywood
procedureof generatingnew series by simply varyingsuccessful formulas.8
But the trendtowardnonnuclearfamilies also expressedthe ideological bent
of Hollywood and its impulse to call traditionalfamily values into question.
Above all, thoughtelevision shows usuallytracedthe absenceof one or more
parentsto deathsin the family,the trendaway fromthe nuclearfamily obviously reflectedthe realityof divorcein Americanlife (andespecially in Hollywood). Wantingto be progressive,television producersset out to endorse
contemporarysocial trendsawayfromthe stable,traditional,nuclearfamily.
Withthe typicalmomentumof the entertainmentindustry,Hollywood eventually took this developmentto its logical conclusion:the no-parentfamily.
AnotherpopularFox program,Partyof Five (1994- ), now shows a family of
childrengallantlyraisingthemselvesafterboththeirparentswere killed in an
automobileaccident.
Partyof Five cleverly conveys a message some television producersevidentlythinktheircontemporaryaudiencewantsto hear-that childrencan do
quitewell withoutone parentandpreferablywithoutboth.The childrenin the
audiencewantto hearthis message becauseit flatterstheirsense of independence. The parentswantto hearthismessage becauseit soothes theirsense of
guilt, eitheraboutabandoningtheirchildrencompletely (as sometimeshappens in cases of divorce)orjust not devotingenough "qualitytime"to them.
Cantor/ THESIMPSONS
737
Absent or negligent parentscan console themselves with the thought that
their childrenreally are betteroff withoutthem, "justlike those cool-and
incredibly good-looking-kids on Party of Five."In short, for roughly the
past two decades, much of Americantelevision has been suggesting thatthe
breakdownof the Americanfamilydoes notconstitutea social crisis oreven a
seriousproblem.In fact, it shouldbe regardedas a formof liberationfroman
image of the family thatmay have been good enough for the 1950s but is no
longer valid in the 1990s. It is against this historical backgroundthat the
statement The Simpsons has to make about the nuclear family has to be
appreciated.
Of coursetelevision nevercompletelyabandonedthe nuclearfamily,even
in the 1980s, as shown by the success of such shows as All in the Family
(1971-1983), Family Ties (1982-1989), and The Cosby Show (1984-1992).
And when The Simpsons debutedas a regularseries in 1989, it was by no
means uniquein its reaffirmationof the value of the nuclearfamily. Several
othershows took the samepathin the pastdecade,reflectinglargersocial and
political trendsin society, in particularthe reassertionof family values that
has by now been adoptedas a programby bothpoliticalpartiesin the United
States. Fox's own Married with Children (1987-1998) preceded The Simp-
sons in portrayingan amusinglydysfunctionalnuclearfamily.Anotherinteresting portrayalof the nuclearfamily can be foundin ABC's Home Improvement (1991-1999), which tries to recuperatetraditionalfamily values and
even genderroles withina postmoderntelevision context.But TheSimpsons
is in many respectsthe most interestingexample of this returnto the nuclear
family.Thoughit strikesmanypeople as tryingto subvertthe Americanfamily or to undermineits authority,in fact, it remindsus thatantiauthoritarianism is itself an Americantraditionandthatfamily authorityhas always been
problematicin democraticAmerica.Whatmakes TheSimpsonsso interesting is the way it combines traditionalismwith antitraditionalism.It continually makesfun of the traditionalAmericanfamily.But it continuallyoffers an
enduringimage of the nuclearfamily in the very act of satirizingit. Many of
the traditionalvalues of the Americanfamily survivethis satire,above all the
value of the nuclearfamily itself.
As I have suggested, one can understandthis point partlyin termsof television history.The Simpsonsis a hip, postmodern,self-awareshow.9But its
self-awareness focuses on the traditionalrepresentationof the American
family on television. It thereforepresents the paradox of an untraditional
show thatis deeply rootedin television tradition.TheSimpsonscan be traced
back to earliertelevision cartoonsthatdealt with families, such as TheFlintstones or TheJetsons. But these cartoonsmust themselves be tracedback to
the famousnuclear-familysitcoms of the 1950s:I LoveLucy,TheAdventures
738
POLITICALTHEORY/ December 1999
of Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, and Leave It to Beaver. The Simp-
sons is a postmodernre-creationof the first generationof family sitcoms on
television. Looking back on those shows, we easily see the transformations
anddiscontinuitiesTheSimpsonshas broughtabout.In TheSimpsons,father
emphaticallydoes not know best. And it clearlyis moredangerousto leave it
to Bart than to Beaver. Obviously, The Simpsons does not offer a simple
returnto the family shows of the 1950s. But even in the act of re-creationand
transformation,the show provides elements of continuity that make The
Simpsonsmore traditionalthanmay at first appear.
TheSimpsonshas indeedfoundits own oddway to defendthe nuclearfamily. In effect, the shows says, "Takethe worst-casescenario-the Simpsonsand even thatfamily is betterthanno family."In fact, the Simpson family is
not all thatbad. Some people areappalledat the idea of young boys imitating
Bart,in particularhis disrespectfor authorityandespecially for his teachers.
These critics of TheSimpsonsforgetthatBart'srebelliousnessconformsto a
venerableAmericanarchetypeand that this countrywas founded on disrespect for authorityand an act of rebellion. Bart is an American icon, an
updatedversion of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn rolled into one. For all his
troublemaking-precisely becauseof his troublemaking-Bart behavesjust
the way a young boy is supposedto in Americanmythology,fromDennis the
Menace comics to the Our Gang comedies."'
As for the motherand daughterin TheSimpsons,Margeand Lisa are not
bad role models at all. MargeSimpsonis very much the devotedmotherand
housekeeper;she also often displaysa feministstreak,particularlyin the episode in which she goes off on ajaunta la Thelmaand Louise.'1Indeed,she is
very modernin her attemptsto combine certainfeminist impulses with the
traditionalrole of a mother.Lisa is in manyways the ideal child in contemporaryterms. She is an overachieverin school, and as a feminist, a vegetarian,
and an environmentalist,she is politically correctacross the spectrum.
The real issue, then,is Homer.Manypeople have criticizedTheSimpsons
for its portrayalof the fatheras dumb, uneducated,weak in character,and
morally unprincipled.Homer is all those things, but at least he is there. He
fulfills the bareminimumof a father:he is presentfor his wife and above all
his children.To be sure,he lacks manyof the qualitieswe would like to see in
the ideal father.He is selfish, often puttinghis own interestabove thatof his
family.As we learnin one of the Halloweenepisodes, Homerwould sell his
soul to the devil for a donut(thoughfortunatelyit turnsoutthatMargealready
ownedhis soul andthereforeit was not Homer'sto sell).2 Homeris undeniably crass,vulgar,andincapableof appreciatingthe finerthingsin life. He has
a hardtime sharinginterestswith Lisa, except when she develops a remarkable knackfor predictingthe outcome of pro football games and allows her
Cantor/ THESIMPSONS
739
fatherto become a big winner in the bettingpool at Moe's Tavern."Moreover, Homer gets angryeasily and takes his angerout on his children,as his
many attemptsto strangleBart attest.
In all these respects,Homerfails as a father.But uponreflection,it is surprisingto realize how manydecent qualitieshe has. Firstand foremost,he is
attachedto his own-he loves his family becauseit is his. His mottobasically
is, "My family, right or wrong."This is hardlya philosophicposition, but it
may well provide the bedrockof the family as an institution,which is why
Plato'sRepublicmustsubvertthe powerof the family.HomerSimpsonis the
opposite of a philosopher-king;he is devotednot to whatis best butto whatis
his own. That position has its problems, but it does help explain how the
seemingly dysfunctionalSimpson family managesto function.
For example, Homeris willing to work to supporthis family, even in the
dangerousjob of nuclearpower plant safety supervisor,a job made all the
more dangerousby the fact thathe is the one doing it. In the episode in which
Lisa comes to wanta pony desperately,Homereven takesa secondjob working for Apu Nahasapeemapetilonat the Kwik-E-Martto earnthe money for
the pony's upkeep and nearlykills himself in the process.14In such actions,
Homer manifests his genuine concern for his family, and as he repeatedly
proves, he will defend them if necessary,sometimes at greatpersonalrisk.
Often, Homeris not effective in such actions, but thatmakes his devotionto
his family in some ways all the more touching.Homer is the distillationof
pure fatherhood.Takeaway all the qualitiesthatmake for a genuinely good
father-wisdom, compassion,even temper,selflessness-and whatyou have
left is HomerSimpsonwith his pure,mindless,dogged devotionto his family.
Thatis why for all his stupidity,bigotry,and self-centeredquality,we cannot
hate Homer.He continuallyfails at being a good father,buthe nevergives up
trying,andin some basic andimportantsense thatmakeshim a good father.
The most effective defense of the family in the series comes in the episode
in which the Simpsonsare actuallybrokenup as a unit.5 This episode pointedly begins with an image of Marge as a good mother,preparingbreakfast
and school lunches simultaneouslyfor her children.She even gives Bartand
Lisa careful instructionsabouttheir sandwiches:"Keepthe lettuce separate
until 11:30."But afterthis promisingparentalbeginning,a series of mishaps
occurs. Homer and Marge go off to the Mingled WatersHealth Spa for a
well-deserved afternoonof relaxation.In their haste, they leave their house
dirty,especially a pile of unwasheddishes in the kitchen sink. Meanwhile,
things are unfortunatelynot going well for the childrenat school. Bart has
accidentally picked up lice from the monkey of his best friend Milhouse,
promptingPrincipalSkinnerto ask, "Whatkindof parentswouldpermitsuch
a lapse in scalpal hygiene?" The evidence against the Simpson parents
740
POLITICALTHEORY/ December 1999
mountswhen Skinnersends for Bart'ssister.Withherprescriptionshoes stolen by her classmatesand her feet accordinglycoveredwith mud,Lisa looks
like some streeturchinstraightout of Dickens.
Faced with all this evidence of parentalneglect, the horrifiedprincipal
alertsthe Child WelfareBoard,who arethemselves shockedwhen they take
Bartand Lisa home andexplorethe premises.The officials completely misinterpretthe situation.Confrontedby a pile of old newspapers,they assume
thatMargeis a bad housekeeper,when in fact she had assembledthe documentsto help Lisa witha historyproject.Jumpingto conclusions,the bureaucrats decide that Marge and Homer are unfit parents and lodge specific
chargesthatthe Simpsonhouseholdis a "squalidhellhole andthe toilet paper
is hung in improperoverhandfashion."The authoritiesdeterminethat the
Simpsonchildrenmustbe given to fosterparents.Bart,Lisa, andMaggie are
accordinglyhandedoverto the family nextdoor,presidedoverby the patriarchal Ned Flanders.Throughoutthe series, the Flandersfamily serves as the
doppelgangerof the Simpsons.Flandersandhis broodarein fact the perfect
family accordingto old-style morality and religion. In markedcontrastto
Bart,the Flandersboys, Rod andTodd,arewell behavedandobedient.Above
all, the Flandersfamily is pious, devotedto activitieslike Bible reading,and
more zealous thaneven the local ReverendLovejoy.WhenNed offers to play
"bombardment"with Bart and Lisa, what he has in mind is bombardment
with questions aboutthe Bible. The Flandersfamily is shockedto learnthat
theirneighborsdo not know of the serpentof Rehoboam,not to mentionthe
Well of Zahassadaror the bridalfeast of Beth Chadruharazzeb.
Exploringthe questionof whetherthe Simpson family really is dysfunctional, the fosterparentepisode offers two alternativesto it: on one hand,the
old-style moral/religiousfamily; on the other,the therapeuticstate, what is
often now called the nannystate.Who is best able to raise the Simpson children? The civil authoritiesintervene,claiming that Homer and Marge are
unfit as parents.They must be reeducatedand are sent off to a "familyskills
class" based on the premise that expertsknow betterhow to raise children.
Child rearingis a matterof a certainkind of expertise,which can be taught.
This is the modern answer: the family is inadequateas an institutionand
hence the statemust interveneto make it function.At the same time, the episode offers the old-style moral/religiousanswer:what childrenneed is Godfearingparentsin orderto make them God-fearingthemselves. Indeed,Ned
Flandersdoes everythinghe can to get Bart and Lisa to reformand behave
with the piety of his own children.
But the answerthe show offers is thatthe Simpsonchildrenare betteroff
with their real parents-not because they are more intelligent or learnedin
child rearing,and not because they are superiorin moralityor piety, but sim-
Cantor/ THESIMPSONS
741
ply because Homer and Marge are the people most genuinely attachedto
Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, since the childrenare their own offspring.The episode worksparticularlywell to show the horrorof the supposedlyomniscient
and omnicompetent state intrudingin every aspect of family life. When
Homer desperatelytries to call up Bart and Lisa, he hears the official message: "Thenumberyou havedialedcan no longerbe reachedfromthis phone,
you negligent monster."
At the sametime, we see the defects of the old-stylereligion.The Flanders
may be righteous as parentsbut they are also self-righteous.Mrs. Flanders
says, "Idon'tjudge HomerandMarge;that'sfor a vengefulGod to do."Ned's
piety is so extreme that he eventuallyexasperateseven ReverendLovejoy,
who at one point asks him, "Haveyou thoughtof one of the othermajorreligions? They're all prettymuch the same."
In the end, Bart,Lisa, andMaggie arejoyously reunitedwith Homerand
Marge. Despite charges of being dysfunctional,the Simpson family functions quite well becausethe childrenareattachedto theirparentsandthe parents are attachedto theirchildren.The premiseof those who triedto takethe
Simpson childrenaway is that thereis a principleexternalto the family by
which it can be judged dysfunctional,whetherthe principleof contemporary
child-rearingtheoriesor thatof the old-style religion. The foster parentepisode suggests the contrary-that the family contains its own principle of
legitimacy.The family knows best. This episode thus illustratesthe strange
combinationof traditionalismand antitraditionalismin The Simpsons.Even
as the show rejects the idea of a simple returnto the traditionalmoral/religious idea of the family,it refuses to acceptcontemporarystatistattemptsto
subvertthe family completely andreassertsthe enduringvalue of the family
as an institution.
As the importanceof Ned Flandersin this episode reminds us, another
way in which the show is unusualis thatreligion plays a significantrole in
TheSimpsons.Religion is a regularpartof the life of the Simpsonfamily.We
often see them going to church, and several episodes revolve around
churchgoing, including one in which God even speaks directly to Homer.16
Moreover,religion is a regularpartof life in generalin Springfield.In addition to Ned Flanders,the ReverendLovejoy is featuredin several episodes,
including one in which no less thanMeryl Streepprovides the voice for his
daughter.
17
This attentionto religion is atypicalof Americantelevision in the 1990s.
Indeed,judging by most television programstoday, one would never guess
that Americansare by and large a religious and even a churchgoingpeople.
Televisiongenerallyacts as if religionplayedlittle or no role in the daily lives
of Americans,even thoughthe evidence points to exactly the opposite con-
742
POLITICALTHEORY/ December 1999
clusion. Manyreasonshavebeen offeredto explainwhy television generally
avoids the subjectof religion. Producersareafraidthatif they raise religious
issues, they will offend orthodoxviewers and soon be embroiledin controversy; television executives are particularlyworriedabouthaving the sponsors of their shows boycotted by powerfulreligious groups. Moreover,the
televisioncommunityitself is largelysecularin its outlookandthusgenerally
uninterestedin religiousquestions.Indeed,much of Hollywood is often outrightantireligious,andespecially opposedto anythinglabeledreligious fundamentalism(and it tends to label anythingto the right of Unitarianismas
"religiousfundamentalism").
Religion has, however,been makinga comebackon television in the past
decade, in part because producershave discovered that an audience niche
exists for shows like Touched by an Angel (1994- ).1 Still, the entertainment
communityhas a hardtime understandingwhat religion really means to the
American public, and it especially cannot deal with the idea that religion
could be an everyday,normalpartof Americanlife. Religious figuresin both
movies andtelevision tendto be miraculouslygood andpureor monstrously
evil andhypocritical.While thereareexceptionsto this rule,'9generallyHollywood religious figures must be either saints or sinners, either laboring
againstall odds and all reasonfor good or religious fanatics,full of bigotry,
warpedby sexualrepression,laboringto destroyinnocentlives in one way or
another.21
But TheSimpsonsacceptsreligion as a normalpartof life in Springfield,
USA. If the show makesfun of piety in the personof Ned Flanders,in Homer
Simpson it also suggests that one can go to churchand not be either a religious fanaticor a saint.One episode devotedto ReverendLovejoydeals realistically and rathersympatheticallywith the problemof pastoralburnout.2
The overburdenedministerhas just listened to too many problemsfrom his
parishionersand has to turn the job over to Marge Simpson as the "listen
lady."The treatmentof religion in TheSimpsonsis parallelto andconnected
with its treatmentof the family.TheSimpsonsis notproreligion-it is too hip,
cynical, andiconoclasticfor that.Indeed,on the surface,the show appearsto
be antireligious,with a good deal of its satiredirectedagainstNed Flanders
and otherpious characters.But once again, we see the principleat workthat
when The Simpsons satirizes something, it acknowledges its importance.
Even when it seems to be ridiculingreligion, it recognizes, as few othertelevision shows do, the genuine role thatreligion plays in Americanlife.
It is herethatthe treatmentof the family in TheSimpsonslinks up with its
treatmentof politics. Although the show focuses on the nuclear family, it
relates the family to largerinstitutionsin Americanlife, like the church,the
school, andeven politicalinstitutionsthemselves,like city government.In all
Cantor/ THESIMPSONS
743
these cases, The Simpsons satirizes these institutions, making them look
laughable and often even hollow. But at the same time, the show acknowledges their importanceand especially theirimportancefor the family. Over
the pastfew decades,televisionhas increasinglytendedto isolatethe familyto show it largely removedfrom any largerinstitutionalframeworkor context. This is anothertrendto which The Simpsonsruns counter,partly as a
result of its being a postmodernre-creationof 1950s sitcoms. Shows like
Father Knows Best or Leave It to Beaver tended to be set in small-town Amer-
ica, with all the intricateweb of institutionsinto which familylife was woven.
In re-creatingthis world, even while mocking it, The Simpsonscannothelp
re-creatingits ambience and even at times its ethos.
Springfieldis decidedlyan Americansmalltown. In severalepisodes, it is
contrastedwith Capitol City, a metropolisthe Simpsons approachwith fear
andtrepidation.Obviously,the show makesfun of small-townlife-it makes
fun of everything-but it simultaneouslycelebratesthe virtuesof the traditional Americansmall town. One of the principalreasons why the dysfunctional Simpsonsfamily functionsas well as it does is thatthey live in a traditional American small town. The institutionsthat govern their lives are not
remote from them or alien to them. The Simpsonchildrengo to a neighborhood school (thoughthey arebussedto it by the ex-hippiedriverOtto).Their
friendsin school are largely the same as theirfriendsin theirneighborhood.
The Simpsons are not confronted by an elaborate, unapproachable,and
uncaring educational bureaucracy.Principal Skinner and Mrs. Krabappel
may not be perfect educators,but when Homer and Marge need to talk to
them, they are readily accessible. The same is trueof the Springfieldpolice
force. Chief Wiggumis not a greatcrime fighter,but he is well knownto the
citizens of Springfield,as they areto him. The police in Springfieldstill have
neighborhoodbeats and have even been knownto sharea donut or two with
Homer.
Similarly,politics in Springfieldis largely a local matter,includingtown
meetings in which the citizens of Springfieldget to influence decisions on
importantmatters of local concern, such as whether gambling should be
legalized or a monorail built. As his Kennedy accent suggests, Mayor
Quimby is a demagogue, but at least he is Springfield'sown demagogue.
When he buys votes, he buysthemdirectlyfromthe citizens of Springfield.If
Quimby wants GrandpaSimpson to supporta freeway he wishes to build
throughtown, he must name the roadafterAbe's favoritetelevision character, Matlock. Everywhere one looks in Springfield, one sees a surprising
degree of local controland autonomy.The nuclearpowerplantis a source of
pollutionandconstantdanger,butat least it is locally ownedby Springfield's
own slave-drivingindustrialtyrantandtycoon, MontgomeryBurns,and not
744
POLITICALTHEORY/ December 1999
by some remote multinationalcorporation(indeed, in an exception that
provestherule,whenthe plantis sold to Germaninvestors,Burs soon buys it
back to restorehis ego).22
In sum, for all its postmodernhipness,TheSimpsonsis profoundlyanachronisticin the way it harksbackto an earlierage whenAmericansfelt morein
contactwith theirgoverninginstitutionsandfamily life was solidly anchored
in a largerbutstill local community.The federalgovernmentrarelymakesits
presence felt in The Simpsons,and when it does it generallytakes a quirky
formlike formerPresidentBushmovingnextdoorto Homer,an arrangement
thatdoes not workout. The long tentaclesof the IRS have occasionallycrept
their way into Springfield,but its strangleholdon Americais of course allpervasiveand inescapable.23Generallyspeaking,governmentis much more
likely to takelocal formsin the show.Whensinisterforces fromthe Republican Partyconspireto unseatMayorQuimbyby runningex-convictSideshow
Bob againsthim, it is local sinisterforces who do the conspiring,led by Mr.
Burnsand includingRainerWolfcastle(the Arnold Schwarzeneggerlookalike who plays McBainin themovies) anda RushLimbaughlookalikenamed
BurchBarlow.24
Here is one respectin which the portrayalof the local communityin The
Simpsonsis unrealistic.In Springfield,even the mediaforces arelocal. There
is of course nothingstrangeabouthavinga local television stationin Springfield. It is perfectlyplausible thatthe Simpsons get their news from a man,
KentBrockman,who actuallylives in theirmidst. It is also quite believable
thatthe kiddieshow on Springfieldtelevisionis local, andthatits host, Krusty
the Klown, not only lives in town butalso is availablefor local functionslike
supermarketopenings and birthdayparties. But what are authenticmovie
starslike RainerWolfcastledoing living in Springfield?And what aboutthe
fact thatthe world-famousItchy& Scratchycartoonsareproducedin Springfield? Indeed,the entireItchy& Scratchyempireis apparentlyheadquartered
in Springfield.This is not a trivialfact. It meansthatwhen Margecampaigns
againstcartoonviolence, she can picketItchy& Scratchyheadquarterswithout leaving her hometown.25The citizens of Springfieldare fortunateto be
able to have a directimpacton the forces thatshapetheirlives andespecially
their family lives. In short, TheSimpsonstakes the phenomenonthat has in
fact done more thananythingelse to subvertthe powerof the local in American politics andAmericanlife in general-namely, the media-and in effect
bringsit withinthe orbitof Springfield,therebyplacingthe force at least partially underlocal control.26
The unrealisticportrayalof the media as local helps highlightthe overall
tendencyof TheSimpsonsto presentSpringfieldas a kindof classicalpolis; it
is just aboutas self-containedand autonomousas a communitycan be in the
Cantor/ THESIMPSONS
745
modern world. This once again reflects the postmodernnostalgia of The
Simpsons;with its self-conscious re-creationof the 1950s sitcom, it ends up
weirdly celebratingthe old ideal of small-townAmerica.27Again, I do not
mean to deny thatthe firstimpulse of TheSimpsonsis to make fun of smalltown life. But in thatveryprocess,it remindsus of whatthe old ideal was and
what was so attractiveabout it, above all the fact that average Americans
somehow felt in touch with the forces thatinfluencedtheir lives and maybe
even in control of them. In a presentationbefore the American Society of
Newspaper Editors on April 12, 1991 (broadcaston C-SPAN), Matt Groening said that the subtext of The Simpsons is "the people in power don't
This is a view of politics thatcuts
always have yourbest interestsin mind."28
across the normaldistinctionsbetween Left and Right and explains why the
show can be relativelyevenhandedin its treatmentof both political parties
andhas somethingto offerto bothliberalsandconservatives.TheSimpsonsis
basedon distrustof powerandespeciallyof powerremotefromordinarypeople. The show celebratesgenuine community,a communityin which everybody more or less knows everybodyelse (even if they do not necessarilylike
each other).By re-creatingthis oldersense of community,the show manages
to generatea kindof warmthout of its postmoderncoolness, a warmththatis
largely responsible for its success with the Americanpublic. This view of
communitymay be the most profoundcommentThe Simpsonshas to make
on family life in particularandpolitics in generalin Americatoday.No matter how dysfunctionalit may seem, the nuclearfamily is an institutionworth
preserving.And the way to preserveit is not by the offices of a distant,supposedly expert,therapeuticstatebut by restoringits links to a series of local
institutionsthatreflect andfosterthe same principlethatmakes the Simpson
family itself work-the attachmentto one's own, the principlethat we best
care for something when it belongs to us.
The celebrationof the local in TheSimpsonswas confirmedin an episode
thatairedMay 9, 1999, which for once exploredin detail the possibility of a
utopianalternativeto politics as usualin Springfield.The episode begins with
Lisa disgusted by a gross-out contest sponsored by a local radio station,
which, among other things, results in the burningof a travellingvan Gogh
exhibition.Withthe indignationtypicalof youth,Lisa fires off an angryletter
to the Springfieldnewspaper,charging,"Todayourtown lost whatremained
of its fragilecivility."Outragedby the culturallimitationsof Springfield,Lisa
complains, "Wehave eight malls, but no symphony;thirty-twobars but no
alternativetheater."Lisa's spiritedoutburstcatches the attentionof the local
chapterof Mensa, and the few high-IQcitizens of Springfield(includingDr.
Hibbert,PrincipalSkinner,the Comic Book Guy,andProfessorFrink)invite
herto join the organization(once they havedeterminedthatshe has broughta
746
POLITICALTHEORY/ December 1999
pie and not a quiche to theirmeeting). Inspiredby Lisa's courageousspeaking out against the culturalparochialismof Springfield,Dr. Hibbertchallenges the city's way of life: "Whydo we live in a town where the smartest
have no power and the stupidest run everything?"Forming "a council of
learnedcitizens,"or whatreporterKentBrockmanlaterrefersto as an "intellectualjunta,"the Mensamembersset out to createthe cartoonequivalentof
Plato's Republic in Springfield. Naturally,they begin by ousting Mayor
Quimby,who in factleaves townratherabruptlyonce the littlematterof some
missing lottery funds comes up.
Takingadvantageof an obscureprovisionin the Springfieldcharter,the
Mensa members step into the power vacuumcreatedby Quimby's sudden
abdication.Lisa sees no limit to what the Platonic rule of the wise might
accomplish: "Withour superiorintellects, we could rebuild this city on a
foundationof reasonandenlightenment;we could turnSpringfieldinto a utopia." PrincipalSkinnerholds out hope for "a new Athens,"while another
Mensamemberthinksin termsof B. F. Skinner's"WaldenII."The new rulers
immediatelyset out to bring theirutopia into existence, redesigningtraffic
patternsandabolishingall sportsthatinvolveviolence. But in a variantof the
dialectic of enlightenment,the abstractrationalityandbenevolentuniversalism of the intellectualjunta soon prove to be a fraud.The Mensa members
begin to disagreeamongthemselves,andit becomes evidentthattheirclaim
to representthe publicinterestmasksa numberof privateagendas.At the climax of the episode, the Comic Book Guy comes forward to proclaim,
"Inspiredby the most logical racein the galaxy,the Vulcans,breedingwill be
permittedonce every seven years;for many of you this will mean much less
breeding;for me, much much more."This referenceto Star Trekappropriately elicits from GroundskeeperWillie a responsein his native accent that
calls to mindthe Enterprise'sChief EngineerScotty:"Youcannotdo that,sir,
you don't have the power."The Mensa regime's self-interestedattemptto
imitatethe Republicby regulatingbreedingin the city is just too muchfor the
ordinarycitizens of Springfieldto bear.
Withthe Platonicrevolutionin Springfielddegeneratinginto petty squabbling andviolence, a deus ex machinaarrivesin the formof physicistStephen
Hawking,proclaimedas "theworld'ssmartestman."When Hawkingvoices
his disappointmentwith the Mensaregime,he ends up in a fight with Principal Skinner.Seizing the opportunitycreatedby the divisionamongthe intelligentsia, Homerleads a counterrevolutionof the stupidwith the rallyingcry:
"C'monyou idiots, we're takingback this town."Thus, the attemptto bring
abouta rule of philosopher-kingsin Springfieldends ignominiously,leaving
Hawkingto pronounceits epitaph:"Sometimesthe smartestof us can be the
most childish."Theory fails when translatedinto practicein this episode of
Cantor/ THESIMPSONS
747
The Simpsons and must be relegated once more to the confines of the contemplative life. The episode ends with Hawking and Homer drinking beer
together in Moe's Tavern and discussing Homer's theory of a donut-shaped
universe.
The utopia episode offers an epitome of what The Simpsons does so well.
It can be enjoyed on two levels-as both broad farce and intellectual satire.
The episode contains some of the grossest humor in the long history of The
Simpsons (I have not even mentioned the subplot concerning Homer's
encounter with a pornographic photographer). But at the same time, it is
filled with subtle cultural allusions; for example, the Mensa members convene in what is obviously a Frank Lloyd Wright prairie house. In the end,
then, the utopia episode embodies the strange mixture of intellectualism and
anti-intellectualism characteristic of The Simpsons. In Lisa's challenge to
Springfield, the show calls attention to the cultural limitations of small-town
America, but it also reminds us that intellectual disdain for the common man
can be carried too far and that theory can all too easily lose touch with common sense. Ultimately, The Simpsons seems to offer a kind of intellectual
defense of the common man against intellectuals, which helps explain its
popularity and broad appeal. Very few people have found The Critique of
Pure Reason funny, but in The Gay Science, Nietzsche felt that he had put his
finger on Kant's joke:
Kant wanted to prove in a way that would puzzle all the world that all the world was
right-that was the privatejoke of this soul. He wroteagainstthe learnedon behalfof the
prejudiceof the commonpeople, butforthe learnedandnot forthe commonpeople.29
In Nietzsche's terms, The Simpsons goes The Critique of Pure Reason one
better: it defends the common man against the intellectual but in a way that
both the common man and the intellectual can understand and enjoy.
NOTES
1. As reportedin Ed Henry's"Heardon the Hill" columnin Roll Call, 44, no. 81 (May 13,
1999). His source was the Albany Times-Union.
2. This essay is a substantialrevision of a paperoriginallydeliveredat the AnnualMeeting
of the American Political Science Association in Boston, September1998. All Simpsonsepisodes are cited by title, number,and originalbroadcastdate, using the informationsupplied in
the invaluablereferencework TheSimpsons:A CompleteGuideto OurFavoriteFamily,ed. Ray
Richmond and Antonia Coffman (New York:HarperCollins,1997). I cite episodes that aired
subsequentto the publicationof this book simply by broadcastdate.
748
POLITICALTHEORY/ December 1999
3. The identificationis made complete when Quimbysays, "Ichbin ein Springfielder"in
"Burs Verkaufender Kraftwerk,"#8F09, 12/5/91.
4. "TwoBad Neighbors,"#3F09, 1/14/96.
5. Forthe reluctanceto go afterClinton,see the rathertame satireof the 1996 presidential
campaignin the "CitizenKang"segmentof the Halloweenepisode, "Treehouseof HorrorVII,"
#4F02, 10/27/96. Finallyin the 1998-1999 season, facedwith the mountingscandalsin the Clinton administration,the creatorsof TheSimpsonsdecidedto take off the kid gloves in theirtreatment of the president,especially in the February7, 1999, episode (in which Homer legally
changes his nameto Max Power).Hustledby Clintonat a party,MargeSimpsonis forcedto ask,
"Areyou sureit's a federallaw thatI haveto dancewith you?"ReassuringMargethatshe is good
enough for a man of his stature,Clintontells her, "Hell, I've done it with pigs-real no foolin'
pigs."
6. "TheFront,"#9616, 4/15/93.
7. An amusingdebatedevelopedin the WallStreetJournalover the politics of The Simpsons. Itbeganwith anOp-Edpiece by BenjaminStein titled"TVLand:FromMaoto Dow" (February5, 1997), in which he arguedthatthe show hasno politics.Thispiece was answeredby a letter from JohnMcGrewgiven the title "TheSimpsonsBash FamiliarValues"(March19, 1997),
in which he arguedthatthe show is politicalandconsistentlyleft-wing. On March12, 1997, letters by Deroy Murdockand H. B. JohnsonJr.arguedthatthe show attacksleft-wing targetsas
well and often supportstraditionalvalues. Johnson'sconclusion that the show is "politically
ambiguous"and thus appeals "to conservativesas well as to liberals"is supportedby the evidence of this debate itself.
8. Perhapsthe most famousexample is the creationof GreenAcres ( 1965-1971) by inverting TheBeverlyHillbillies ( 1962-1971)-if a familyof hicksmovingfromthe countryto the city
was funny,televisionexecutivesconcludedthata coupleof sophisticatesmovingfromthe city to
the countryshould be a hit as well. And it was.
9. On the self-reflexive characterof The Simpsons,see my essay "TheGreatestTV Show
Ever,"AmericanEnterprise,8, no. 5 (September/October1997), 34-37.
10. Oddlyenough,Bart'screator,MattGroening,has nowjoined the choruscondemningthe
Simpsonboy.Earlierthis year,a wire-servicereportquotedGroeningas sayingto those who call
Barta bad role model, "I now have a 7-year-oldboy and a 9-year-oldboy so all I can say is I
apologize. Now I know what you were talkingabout."
11. "Margeon the Lam,"#1F03, 11/4/93.
12. "TheDevil and HomerSimpson"in "Treehouseof HorrorIV,"#1F04, 10/30/93.
13. "Lisathe Greek,"#8F12, 1/23/92.
14. "Lisa's Pony,"#8F06, 11/7/91.
15. "HomeSweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily,"
#3F01, 10/1/95.
16. "Homerthe Heretic,"#9F01, 10/8/92.
17. "Bart'sGirlfriend,"#2F04, 11/6/94.
18. I would like to commenton this show, but it is scheduledat the same time as TheSimpsons, and I have never seen it.
19. Consider,for example, the ministerplayed by Tom Skerrittin RobertRedford'sfilm of
NormanMaclean'sA RiverRuns ThroughIt.
20. A good exampleof this stereotypingcan be foundin the film Contact,with its contrasting
religious figures played by MatthewMcConaughey(good) and JakeBusey (evil).
21. "InMargeWe Trust,"#4F18, 4/27/97.
22. "BurnsVerkaufender Kraftwerk,"#8F09, 12/5/91.
23. See, for example, "Bartthe Fink,"#3F12, 2/11/96.
24. "SideshowBob Roberts,"#2F02, 10/9/94.
Cantor/ THESIMPSONS
749
25. "Itchy& Scratchy& Marge,"#7F09, 12/20/90.
26. The episode called "RadioactiveMan"(#2517, 9/24/95) providesan amusingreversalof
the usual relationshipbetweenthe big-time mediaand small-townlife. A Hollywood film company comes to Springfieldto make a movie featuringthe comic book hero, RadioactiveMan.
The Springfieldlocals takeadvantageof the naivemoviemakers,raisingpricesall overtown and
imposing all sorts of new taxes on the film crew. Forced to returnto Californiapenniless, the
moviemakersare greeted like small-town heroes by their caring neighbors in the Hollywood
community.
27. In his reviewof TheSimpsons:A CompleteGuideto OurFavoriteFamily,MichaelDirda
aptly characterizesthe show as "a wickedly funnyyet oddly affectionatesatireof Americanlife
at the end of the 20th century.Imagine the unholy offspringof Mad magazine, Mel Brooks's
movies, and 'OurTown.'" See the WashingtonPost, Book World,January11, 1998, p. 5.
28. Oddly enough, this theme is also at the heartof Fox's othergreattelevision series, The
X-Files.
29. See DiefriJhlicheWissenschaft,sec. 193 (my translation)in FriedrichNietzsche, Samtliche Werke:KritischeStudienausgabe,ed. GiorgioColli and Mazzino Montinari,vol. 3 (Berlin:
de Gruyter,1967-1977), 504.
Paul A. Cantoris professor of Englishat the Universityof Virginiaand a memberof the
National Councilon the Humanities.He is the authorof Shakespeare'sRome, Creature
and Creator,and the Hamletvolume in the CambridgeLandmarksof WorldLiterature
series.