6 thoughts on “a dirge

  1. That’s as good an explanation as any as to why content alone can never be revolutionary. (One needs to rewrite the infrastructure.)

    I had a media studies professor in college who liked to play the following game. He’d ask the class (these were 900-student auditorium classes), “Who here watches Friends?” A lot of students would raise their hands.

    Then he’d ask, “And who watches Star Trek?” A lot of (different) students would raise their hands.

    Then he’d ask, “And who watches The Simpsons?” A different group of kids would raise their hands, scoffing at anyone who didn’t.

    Then he’d say, “You’ve all been tricked into watching the same commercials.”

  2. This couch gag was really well done, I think, and, though “it’s very fanciful, far-fetched,” and “[n]one of the things [Banksy] depicts are true” (Al Jean, The New York Times Arts Beat [
    http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/the-simpsons-explains-its-button-pushing-banksy-opening/%5D), it’s probably quite accurate. It’s painful to say (as I love The Simpsons) but, for a show that’s been declining in quality for some time, it’s rare The Simpsons does anything good anymore. I’ve already forgotten what the actual episode last night was about. The only thing I do remember is the Banksy sequence…

  3. this is fantastic, and i know little about the actual conditions of the show’s production. al jean and co. should now open that up, so we might see whether this is hyperbole that covers more mundane conditions of distress.

  4. hmmm, i think the piece he added was blunt. a lot of his work is witty and makes you wonder–the simpsons sequence was a quick “ha, ha” and that’s it. seemed more like obviously, deliberately offensive than clever.

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