Media is a recurring theme of satire in The Simpsons, an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show is known for its satire of American popular culture and especially television culture, but has since its inception covered all types of media such as animation, journalism, commercials, comic books, movies, internet, and music. The series centers on a family and their life in a typical American town but the town of Springfield acts as a complete universe. The town features a vast array of media channels—from kids' television programming to local news, which enables the producers to make jokes about themselves and the entertainment industry. Most of The Simpsons media satire focuses on television. This is mainly done through three characters: Krusty the Clown, Sideshow Bob, and until 1998 Troy McClure. The Itchy & Scratchy Show is a show within a show, used as a satire of animation and in some cases The Simpsons itself. Topics include censorship, plagiarism, unoriginal writing, live-action clip shows and documentaries. Kent Brockman, Springfield's principal news presenter illustrates the glibness, amplification, and sensationalism of broadcast journalism. His tabloidization methods include making people look guilty without trial, and invasion of privacy by setting up camp outside people's homes.
Background
The Simpsons is known for its satire of American popular culture and especially television culture. It uses the standard setup of a situation comedy, or sitcom, as its premise and centers on a family and their life in a typical American town. However, its animated nature gives the setting an unusually large scope. The town of Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The town has a vast array of media channels—from children's television series to local news, which enables the producers to make jokes about themselves and the entertainment industry. On the radio, the citizens of Springfield have fictional radio stations such as KBBL-AM, KBBL-FM, KUDD, WKOMA, KJAZZ, KFSL, and WOMB.
Using The Simpsons as an example of Media literacy education, Jonathan Gray discusses the role that television, and specifically television parody, might play in teaching the techniques and rhetoric of television to audiences.Jonathan Gray reveals his insights in a 2005 article called Television Teaching: Parody, The Simpsons, and Media Literacy Education.
Several characters have a role in this satire. Krusty the Clown is a hard-living entertainment veteran, who has his own show: The Krusty the Klown Show, which is aimed towards a children's audience and has many followers, including Bart Simpson. He is sometimes depicted as a jaded, burned out has-been, who has been down and out several times and remains addicted to gambling, cigarettes, alcohol, Percodan, Pepto-Bismol, and Xanax. He instantly becomes depressed as soon as the cameras stop rolling; In his book Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation, author Chris Turner describes Krusty as "the wizened veteran, the total pro" who lives the celebrity life but is miserable and needs his celebrity status. Krusty has been described as "the consummate showman who can't bear the possibility of not being on the air and not entertaining people". His television shows are of mixed quality and all of his merchandise is of low quality, to the point of being potentially dangerous.
While Krusty represents low culture, Sideshow Bob represents high culture. He began his career as the non-speaking sidekick on Krusty the Clown's television show. Frustrated by his early role as the target of "Krusty's cheap gags", Bob frames Krusty and takes over the show. He changes the content of that show to present readings of classic literature and segments examining the emotional lives of pre-teens. He believes that by exposing the kids to high culture he will improve their lives. Arnold writes that "Bob's own conscience and morality are clearly unaffected by the high culture he represents." He also tries to "manipulate the tastes of the masses" by becoming a criminal mastermind. In the book Leaving Springfield, David L. G. Arnold comments that Bart is a product of a "mass-culture upbringing" and thus is Bob's enemy. Turner writes that Bob is built into a highbrow snob and conservative Republican so that the writers can continually hit him with a rake and bring him down.
Troy McClure is a stereotypical Hollywood has-been. He was a star in the early 1970s, but his career went downhill due to rumors of a paraphilia involving fish. In most of his appearances in the show, he hosts short video clips that other characters watch on television or in a public place. He often presents educational videos and infomercials. Turner argues that "the smarmy Hollywood type...has been done to death, but Hartman's version breathed new life into it with each appearance. McClure has become the apotheosis of the stereotype, a gut-achingly funny reinterpretation whose trademark introduction...has become a shorthand way to describe any grossly artificial media figure." In addition to his in-story appearances, McClure appears as host of "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" and "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase".
Network notes Back when The Simpsons was developed as a half hour show, co-creator James L. Brooks negotiated an unusual provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. He was able to do that, because Fox back then was a minor fledgling network. Former showrunner Bill Oakley considered working on the show to be similar to working in a bubble due to the lack of interference from the Fox network's executives, as is commonplace on other shows. This allowed them to produce any episodes they wanted, as showrunner Josh Weinstein commented: "The great thing about The Simpsons is that we pretty much were able to get away with everything, so there weren't any episodes we really wanted to do that we couldn't do. Even the crazy high-concept ones like 'Two Bad Neighbors' and 'Homer's Enemy' we managed to put on the air because honestly there were no network execs there to stop us."
Network notes were parodied at the beginning of the episode "Day of the Jackanapes". Krusty is shown being pestered by network executives who comment on every choice he makes. He announces his departure of The Krusty the Klown Show after the executives give him notes during filming of a sketch. At the end of the episode, Mr. Teeny is uncertain of where he should throw the plastic explosives that Bart wore. When he sees the two executives discussing in a room, he throws it onto them. Instead of dying of the explosion however, the pieces of the executives reconstitute into what Jean describes as a "super-executive". These sequences were inspired by Jean's dissatisfaction with some network executives, who he felt took control over a television series he was working on before he returned to The Simpsons in 1999. "I had just worked on a show on another network [...] we had a show where there were a lot of notes from executives", Jean said of the inspiration for the scenes. In "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" The Simpsons writers mocks the notion of network executives forcing ideas onto a show. The interaction between the writers and the network executives in the episode underscore the differences between them. The writers understand the show's inner workings, but the network executives' approach improvements to the show from a business point-of-view. They try to incorporate what they see as a rebellious character into a failing television show with the comment "This is popular with the kids", but the viewers later reject the character.
The Fox network itself is often the target of jokes. In "Missionary: Impossible" the episode cuts away from the main story near the end to a telethon, populated by Bender (from Futurama), Thurgood Stubbs (from The PJs), Hank Hill (from King of the Hill), Luke Perry (Dylan in Beverly Hills, 90210), David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson (Mulder and Scully from The X-Files), and the owner of the Fox network Rupert Murdoch. The host, Betty White, tells the viewers "So if you don't want to see crude, lowbrow programming disappear from the airwaves ... please call now". In "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase," Troy McClure explains that the Fox network had approached the producers of The Simpsons to create "thirty-five new shows to fill a few holes in their programming line-up". He then shows the viewers a weekly programming schedule consisting of only The Simpsons, The X-files, and Melrose Place surrounded by question marks. Matt Groening notes in an interview that The Simpsons is in a unique place, and when former producers/writers move to different networks, they are told that "We would never have The Simpsons on our network". On this issue Robert Sloane concludes in Leaving Springfield that "In sum, the show seems to defy certain industry practices."
Television
Unoriginal writing The episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" was a satire over unoriginal, poor television writing and references and parodies many TV shows. The episode features three spin-off ideas for The Simpsons show, which also functions as a critique of spin-offs in general. Troy McClure introduces the three spin-offs as a host of the episode, something he had previously done in the episode "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular". Creator Matt Groening was uneasy about the idea, feeling that it could be mistranslated as actually poor sitcom writing. He also did not like the idea of breaking the fourth wall and the concept of saying that the Simpsons were just actors in a television show. The three segments were: Chief Wiggum, P.I. is a parody of police-dramas, such as Miami Vice, Magnum, P.I. and Starsky & Hutch. Seymour Skinner emulates Don Johnson from Miami Vice in order to look scruffier. The Love-matic Grampa is a parody of fantasy sitcoms such as Mister Ed, I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched as well as having similarities to My Mother the Car. The segment demanded a different approach to directing than a usual The Simpsons episode. Director Neil Affleck had to emulate a three-camera setup, as is normally used in sitcoms. The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour is a parody of the 1960s and 1970s live variety shows. Mainly it is a parody of The Brady Bunch Hour, a short-lived spin-off of the 1970s sitcom The Brady Bunch. The replacement of Lisa in the third segment with another girl reflects the recasting of Jan Brady in the Brady Bunch Hour when Eve Plumb refused to participate. The Simpson family is made to look like The Partridge Family. Also, the segment holds numerous references to Laugh-In, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
Catchphrase-based humor was mocked in the episode "Bart Gets Famous". The writers chose the phrase "I didn't do it" because they wanted a "lousy" phrase "to point out how really crummy things can become really popular". It was also an intentional call back to the first season episode "Krusty Gets Busted" where it was a catchphrase of Krusty the Clown. When people in the episode eventually got tired of the catchphrase "I didn't do it", Lisa tells Bart that now "you can go back to just being you, instead of a one-dimensional character with a silly catchphrase". The episode ends with a self-referential scene in which several characters say their catchphrases, including the Simpsons, Ned Flanders, Nelson Muntz, Mr. Burns and Barney Gumble.