Up and At Them!

It's probably best we start off with the Boring and Redundant in our celebration (it only makes sense, plus I have a 3-hour head start on the rest of the WDR crew). What makes this post especially Boring and Redundant? Well, the fact that I'm going to take the funniest thing ever created in the last 20 years and attempt to reflect on its impact--something that is being done simultaneously by millions of other would-be writers (and other no-talent asshats in general). Killing two birds with one stone, folks.

I'll start with a personal story. For years I was not allowed to watch any TV at all during the week. Of course I compensated for this by generally spending 98% of my waking hours between Friday afternoon and Monday morning enraptured by the wondrous glow of the television, but the fact still remains that I went sans TV for a good part of my childhood. Not that I complain--it probably made me ten times the student that I would have been otherwise. It wasn't until years later that I was conceded one hour of TV watching per night.



Of course there was no question as to how I would spend that precious hour--I would use it up completely watching the daily reruns of The Simpsons. What's even more amazing was that I had banned from watching that program for years due to its "inappropriate content". It was only because my mom one day caught a glimpse of the brilliant satire--the line went something like "America has the best health care in the world!...behind Canada, France, England, Costa Rica, Russia, Guatemala..."

The Simpsons then would become an integral part of my persona. Yes, that looks awfully pathetic now that I see it writing, but its the truth. Its style of humor shaped my own sense of humor, as it did for countless others of our generation. We appreciated its irony, its absurdity, and its candor. It was the complete package. It would provide the perfect answer to anything that happened in your life. Raining outside? "Lousy Smarch weather". Something is disappointing you? "Worst. Episode. Ever." Make a grammatical error? "Me fail English? That's unpossible." Confronted with a ridiculous proposition? "Marge, I agree with you--in theory. In theory, Communism works. In theory." You've just triumphed over a space coyote? "In your face, Space Coyote!"



The Simpsons touch on everything from government ("I'll say it once, and I'll say it again--democracy simply doesn't work!") to religion ("I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me Superman!") to our education system ("That’s why I love elementary school, Edna. The children believe anything you tell them"). They've covered everything so thoroughly, that South Park made an entire episode about it--The Simpsons Did It! (a completely unoriginal point, but still true). When people look back to and study our culture hundreds of years from now, they could save themselves a lot of time and watch a good portion of the Simpsons's run. Plus anyone who's read this post has to love it when Homer taunts a group of Turks with "Come back here, you Cyprus-splitting jerks!"

So this is why we're giddy with anticipation over this movie. Sure, they've insulted my alma mater on multiple occasions ("Trick Pouring, which can be taken for credit at Dartmouth College!" and "I'll be drinking like a Dartmouth Boy"--not too bad at all, considering the digs they get in at Brown and Princeton (Otto nearly got tenure there and being a "clown college", respectively)). Sure, they've passed their creative peak, but we're still guaranteed a good laugh. Sometimes pointless nostalgia can have a point.



Now that I've said my piece, I'm going to go watch the hour of Simpsons reruns on TV now and drink. Because alcohol is the cause of--and solution--to many of life's problems!