Homer Simpsons example essay topic

The Simpsons has been around for several years and is now a very popular television show in America, Australia and The United Kingdom. The main reason for its success in the TV rating wars is the fact that it appeals to people of all ages and cultures. The setting and visual look for example attract both adults (due to the bold and striking colours standing out when they are channel hopping) and children (who are intrigued and stimulated by the bright animated characters and setting). Another reason people like the Simpsons is because of its structure. The episodes are split into three main scenes where by scene one sets the story line, scene two introduces a problem and then scene three ends the show on a positive note with some kind of message or moral. These three scenes feature into twenty-two minute blocks which makes them quick, convenient, enjoyable and bite sized to keep the viewers on their toes.

The sound effects also play an important role in making The Simpsons appealing. Because it is non-digectic it means that music and a variety of sound effects can be added later to create a specific theme. An example of this is in the Halloween series when spooky music is added to establish a horror genre so that the viewers can really tune into the atmosphere. There is a wide spread of characters in The Simpsons all standing for different principles and therefore cater for a large target audience. Take Homer Simpsons for insist, he mixes the roles of husband, father, safety inspector at Springfield nuclear power plant, bowler and beer drinker and yet he hardly does any work. He is pr " excised on a number of different levels.

The majority of people however see him as lazy; a typical stereotype of a man from America's ever growing obese population. Despite his often ignorant out look Homer is in fact ironically quite clever without knowing it. This quality is shown in several episodes including the one when a con man tries to sell The Simpson family home security. The sales man says "Surly you can't put a price on your families lives?" and then Homer very quickly replies without even having to think "Well I wouldn't have thought so either, but here we are". This shows that he is very good at handling and seeing through cons which some of us would find difficult. The main reason Homer is most people's favourite character though is because we can all see a little piece of our own failing in him.

Another important character is Police Chief Wiggum. A lot of English people see him as a good, but humorous example of the police officers in America today. This is because all he does is eat doughnuts all day. America probably sees him as a insult to their authority figures, since they like to think theirs are very efficient and reliable. Present George W Bush also must have thought this when making the following statement: "I want fellow Americans to be less like The Simpsons and more like The Waltons". People who are really clued up on The Simpsons will of course be able to understand that Police Chief Wiggum have a very difficult childhood and adolescence battling acne and asthma and will take this into consideration when judging his character.

The stories in the Simpsons are often parodies as they take a storyline from a well-known movie and adapt it to suit the town of Springfield. One example of this is in the episode "The Springfield files" where Homer thinks he has scene a UFO. The next day the story is printed in the Springfield shopper and some how finds its way to Washington and the offices of the FBI. Once there "X-files" agents Scully and Mulder read it. In this episode there are also references to: Water World (When (Mil house puts 90 quarters into "Kevin costner's water world" video game. The price of it demonstrates the over budgeting fiasco of Water World.

), Psycho (When Homer sees a bus of violin players go past they are all playing the music from the shower scene in Psycho. ), Close encounters Of The Third Kind (Ken Brook man uses the headline "Close encounters The blurred Kind), The Shining and E.T. The scripts for the show are very well written. They manage to humor people without being stupid. The way they are written also means that some of the best jokes are sometimes hidden and missed by people who view the Simpsons only to pick up the main story line.

Self referential - The Simpsons are part of our society. They even tried to involve us in their show. This occurs in the Halloween specials where they try to persuade us to turn off the TV rather than complain. Politically speaking all of the authority figures in the Simpson, including Mr Burns are created so that we doubt their opinion, basically an exaggerated out look of real life today. As a result of the Simpsons success many other sub verse cartoons such as "Ren and Stimpy", "Beavis and Butthead" and "South Park" have been developed. Although not as popular as The Simpsons they have still been known well enough for the producers to form merchandise based on the characters Overall in my opinion The Simpsons is a funny, clearly put together cartoon, which mixes real life issues with made up ones.

It should not be taken too seriously, but some of the episodes do have a silent moral in them. I personal enjoy coming home and watching an episode every night and I hope that Mat Groening goes on to produce some more series. Joanne Laity.