Bart Simpson, Worst Nightmare

440 Words2 Pages
Popular Culture in contemporary society encourages children and adolescents to behave badly, due to the negative representations of acceptable behaviour as well as the immoral messages presented. Bart Simpson can only be described as a parent’s worst nightmare! Amongst his many qualities such as being rude, a class clown and having no respect for authority, he is now considered to be, alongside great names such as Albert Einstein and Ghandi, as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. I’m sorry to say that this is no mistake; the flamboyant Bart Simpson is setting the tone of how your children are to behave, not in a world of yellow people with four fingers, but right here, in the real world. The Simpsons is a Pop Culture phenomenon that has been influencing our lives for 20 years. It is histories longest running sitcom and its success is reflected in its ongoing popularity and the release of a movie in July of 2007. Its themes include religion, politics and the belief that ‘nothing is sacred’ which are presented through layers of satirical comedy and surrealistic sketches. This is perhaps what sets the Simpsons aside from other popular culture programmes such as ‘Friends’ and ‘Scrubs’ and has influenced other cartoons such as South Park and Family Guy. The Simpsons relates to everyone and that is one of the key reasons that it has been so openly welcomed into our hearts. It appeals to the masses because, as the executive producer L.J. Brooks once said, ‘(it depicts) the normal American Family in all its Beauty and its horror”. However, is it a good thing that the Simpsons have been so easily welcomed into our lives? Despite the many levels of moral messages that underpin the Simpsons, an adolescent child would only take note of the shallow subliminal messages portrayed through the cartoon. At a glance one would only see a father who

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