If you were to walk into the lab in the College of Textiles, you would be able to find Apu , Bart, Duffman , Homer and Lisa, among other famous cartoon characters. However, these aren’t cartoons coming to life, but computers named after the characters from the animated television series, The Simpsons.
This is just one sign of the cultural impact the 23-year-old series has had on popular culture.
Fox aired episode 500 of The Simpsons Feb. 19. The episode, from the look back at hundreds of couch gags that opened the episode throughout the rest of the half-hour, focused on instilling a sense of nostalgia in the viewers.
For many, this may be one of the biggest strengths of The Simpsons. Albert Chu, a senior in computer science, grew up watching The Simpsons. Chu still has fond memories of the show, even though he no longer watches new episodes.
“I used to say a lot of Bart’s catch-phrases,” Chu said. “My parents would always shut me up because they were really rude, but I didn’t understand at that time.”
However, nostalgia isn’t the only strength of The Simpsons. In fact, even when the show first aired, The Simpsons was seen as holding the potential to change the nature of families on television.
“In the 80s , the family seemed, for a time, to be off-limits,” Devin Orgeron , a professor of film theory, said, “The Simpsons were a kind of antidote. Fox seemed radical, and The Simpsons was central to its image. Nothing else on television at the time attacked the hypocrisy of the American family with the spirit and intelligence of The Simpsons.”
This radical aspect has rippled out over the years, with numerous other animated shows, many of them also on Fox, centering on a dysfunctional family.
“You can see its influence everywhere, especially in other modern animation series,” Chu said. “With so many seasons, they’ve impacted every thing.”
Of course, The Simpsons’ success rested not only on its family dynamic, but also on the quality of the writing.
“The writing for The Simpsons is some of the best satirical, comedic writing that has ever been done for television,” Marsha Orgeron , director of film studies, said. “The writers are so engaged with pop culture, film history, current events, literature and so on. It makes for the kind of intelligent—and yet consistently hilarious—dialog that rarely happens on television.”
The quality of the series writing has also led to numerous memorable characters over the years, many of which have entered into the public conscious.
“[The characters] are animated in an unrealistic way, yet very human in their follies and aspirations,” Marsha Orgeron said. “Who doesn’t know a version of Homer Simpson, Moe, Ned Flanders or Mr. Burns?”
The popularity of The Simpsons has even expanded beyond national borders.
“I think the way that the show pokes fun at American shortcomings is a pretty valuable service the show has done for our international reputation,” Marsha Orgeron said.
With its 500th episode, The Simpsons has reached a milestone in American television few others have. Many fans are left wondering if the show will be able to continue much longer. Even the show itself has made numerous jokes over the years about its own longevity. Many, Devin Orgeron included, still see The Simpsons as a show that deserves its place in primetime.
“The Simpsons has managed to accomplish the nearly impossible,” Devin Orgeron said. “The show has been popular since the 1980s . The franchise is still going strong. [The film] sold well, and the ancillary merchandise continues to as well. This is evidence of a dominating presence, but it couldn’t happen to a better show.”
