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Tag Archives: Mr. Burns
The Simpsons and the Journalistic Battle between a Billionaire and an Eight-Year-Old in “Fraudcast News”
At heart, The Simpsons has always been part media satire. Usually the show would point its satirical lens at television as its medium of choice. The series, simply by existing, took the stuffing out of more typical sitcoms where families were nicer (not to mention richer), and most problems could be solved in an easy and heart-warming fashion. But as I discussed on The Simpsons Show Podcast, the show reserved just as much comic ire for the tired antics of Krusty the Clown, the ultraviolence of Itchy & Scratchy and, of course, the sensationalizing dispatches from Channel 6 news anchor, Kent Brockman.
So it’s natural that The Simpsons would eventually take aim at the broader media landscape, questioning who might take the reins of our sources of information and decide what kind of self-serving spin to add. It’s just as natural for the show to explore the counterreaction to that — the lone voices in the wilderness forging a real connection and trying to be heard above the din. And it’s the peak of both approaches to personify the former in the guise of Mr. Burns and the latter as li’l Lisa Simpson.
What The Simpsons Taught Us About Standing Up to Billionaires
In the opening of “Last Exit to Springfield”, one of The Simpsons’ most celebrated episodes, Homer and Bart watch a scene from the latest McBain shoot-em-up. It ends with McBain’s dastardly antagonist Mendoza laughing maniacally, having felled his adversary with a poisoned salmon puff. Bart is aghast at such villainy, but Homer reassures his son that “there’s nobody that evil in real life.” Then, in one of the show’s trademark subversions, the episode immediately cuts to Mr. Burns, who is laughing exactly as maniacally at an imperiled window washer who’s dangling just outside his office.
The lesson is clear. As much as we may wish our most fearsome of foes were confined to celluloid and pixels, sometimes the art that holds a mirror up to nature can reflect our reality with a disquieting accuracy. More to the point, given that long ago The Simpsons itself had already depicted a wealthy businessman running for office against an experienced civil servant while railing against the establishment; since it had already shown a former TV star and political outsider (with awful, awful hair) defeating an incumbent through his use of media-friendly bombast; and considering the show even went so far as to posit a future where a newly elected Lisa Simpson would inherit a budget crunch from President Trump, perhaps we should start paying closer attention to its predictions.
But The Simpsons doesn’t just provide, as Kent Brockman puts it, “a chilling vision of things to come.” It also offers guidance. While no one should aim to look, think, or act like Homer Simpson, episodes like “Last Exit to Springfield” shine a light on the way regular people can find themselves emboldened by circumstance and demonstrates how we unwashed masses can stand up to the plutocratic figureheads who might threaten to take away the things we need and hold dear.
Posted in Television, The Simpsons
Tagged Homer Simpson, Mr. Burns, Politics, The Simpsons Season 4
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