Michael Butkovic 5 June 2012 MCS271 Final From relatively inauspicious beginnings, from the mind of creator Matt

Groening, on December 17th, 1989, the Simpsons premiered on the Fox television channel. The episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," had a seemingly benign plot, relatable to most, common American families-- Christmas shopping. The show, however, had a considerable amount of depth and adult content as the father character, Homer, was not able to pay for gifts for his family with his meager salary at the local nuclear power plant. In a last ditch effort to collect some cash, he heads to the dog-racing track where he places a bet on a dog that comes in last place. And just as all hope seems lost, he saves Christmas by bringing the dog home to the family. Since, much like a traditional sitcom, it conforms to a three-act structure and resolves on a "lighter" note, this particular episode of The Simpsons, now in its 23rd season, likely isn't the best indicator of quality of the show. What it is, nevertheless, is a landmark harbinger of a larger trend that would follow-- that of the "adult" animated sitcom. To this day, countless new animated sitcoms are developed and aired in this style, usually with quick-witted dialogue, plots and themes that are current to the times, and a cultural lexicon that would make any pop culture comedian jealous. The question remains, however, why do these types of shows continue to endure, even as some, such as Comedy Central's South Park or Fox's The Simpsons enter into their umpteenth season? The main answer put forth in this paper will be that, almost more than any other type of show, these in particular have classic post-modern qualities that make them

Butkovic 2 more enduring, more relevant and current, more provocative and give them a firmly established, broad sense of humor. Although there is debate to the term, its usage and meanings, Fredric Jameson, in his seminal essay entitled "Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism," from the book of the same name, remarks that "The last few years have been marked by an inverted millenarianism in which premonitions of the future, catastrophic or redemptive, have been replaced by senses of the end of this or that...what is increasingly called postmodernism." While this seemingly doesn't necessarily enumerate or define the term any more narrowly, he furthermore puts forth that, "What has happened is that aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production generally: the frantic economic urgency of producing fresh waves of ever more novel-seeming goods, at ever greater rates of turnover, now assigns an increasingly essential structural function and position to aesthetic innovation and experimentation." Ingrained into this idea of post-modernity in aesthetic production, meaning art, architecture, music or any other thing that could be considered "aesthetic" by nature, is the incorporation and integration of a wide variety of capitalist methods and materials. What this produces, therefore, is a new type of production with features such as a new depthlessness rooted in contemporary theory, a weakening of our relation to history and historical traditions, a new "schizophrenic" structure to the arts, a new type of emotional tone much more in line with older theories of the sublime from Kierkegaard and a new constitutive relationship new technology. In short, a new type of blending in the arts, which, in itself in theory and practice, will have a seemingly schizophrenic, fragmentary incorporation of disparate elements of other products, to create a new, substantive whole, which often times is highly ironic, cynical and self-aware.

Butkovic 3 In terms of television, media scholar Jim Collins believes that, "television is frequently referred to as the quintessence of postmodern culture," as he writes in his essay "Postmodernism and Television." He further articulates that, "There is no other medium in which the force of the 'already said' is quite so visible as in television, primarily because the already said is the 'still being said.'" (Collins, 378) Meaning, inherently contained in the medium itself is this process of recapitulation and rearticulating, two classic post-modern ideas, where ideas and ways of storytelling are constantly in flux, references to former programs and movies are constantly being made and remade, and programs from all eras are now airing at all times. Also contained in the medium of television, particularly of the modern variety, is intertextuality, another postmodern trademark. He writes, "These intertextual references (in television) are emblematic of the hyperconsciousness of postmodern popular culture: a hyperawareness on the part of the text itself of its cultural status, function, and history, as well as of the conditions of its circulation and reception." (Collins, 380) This means that now contained in the medium of television, along with the post-modern trademark of fragmentary incorporation, is this idea of hyperconsciousness-that television is now conscious of itself as media, art and entertainment. Furthermore, it is now conscious of the viewer as both a product, a person to be entertained, and, really, the shows raison dtre, so to speak. Another perspective on postmodernism and television comes from David Foster Wallace, in his essay entitled "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction." While most of the essay is spent tackling the problem of postmodern fiction post-television, and how young fiction writers aught to avoid the idea that television is supplanting for reality and real experiences, he hits on a couple of salient points on television and postmodernism-- mainly that television, somewhere around the summer of 1974, he posits, has become a completely self-conscious, ironic medium,

Butkovic 4 much in-line with the writings of Collins and Jameson. He writes, "...irony is important for understanding TV because "TV," now that it's gotten powerful enough to move from acronym to way of life, revolves off just the sorts of absurd contradictions ironys all bout exposing. It is ironic that television is a syncretic, homogenizing force that derives much of its power from diversity and various affirmations thereof. It is ironic that an extremely canny and unattractive self-consciousness is necessary to create TV performers' illusion of unconscious appeal. That products presented as helping you express individuality can afford to be advertised on television only because they sell to enormous numbers of people. And so on." (Wallace 35.) In short, television, as an entire medium and way of life, contains and, in fact, almost embodies many of the ironies that postmodern fictionists would later rip-off, but are nonetheless important to understanding how it functions within our present culture. The question remains, with all of that said, how do adult animated sitcoms, such as The Simpsons or South Park, firstly, use and encapsulate these ideas of post-modernism and postmodernist television? One such example in The Simpsons, as also pointed out in essay by Collins, is during the opening scene of "The Simpson's Thanksgiving Special" from 1990. During the scene, Bart, the son character, and Homer, the aforementioned father, watch the Thanksgiving parade on television, which already incorporates some post-modern ideas by portraying a scene of such sheer banality-- a very specific quality that The Simpsons uses to their advantage as they often cleverly twist these scenarios of their heads. Nevertheless, as Bart looks on, he comments that the parade should try adding cartoon characters made in more recent times, to which Homer replies that if, "you start building a balloon for every flash-in-the-pan cartoon character, you'll turn the parade into a farce." Just as that moment, however, a Bart Simpson balloon appears on the television as Bart looks on from the comfort of his living room. This type

Butkovic 5 of irony and cynicism is not only classically post-modernist, but it is also classically Simpsonsesque. By taking all of these familiar scenarios that have entered into this kind of pop cultural consciousness, The Simpsons, and many other adult animated sitcoms like it, are able to subvert these expectations of what a traditional cartoon can and should do, to create this kind of irreverent and often times schizophrenic type of humor, which can be mocking of the show itself, the network it is being broadcasted on, or even the viewers themselves. Another such example of the adult animated sitcoms adherence to post-modern qualities takes place in a recent episode of South Park, which, as whole has recently been commenting on modern issues outside of the television show in an extremely direct, yet sardonic and ironic manner. In the episode, entitled "Jewpacabra, just as the shows iconic title sequence finishes, we see one of the main characters, Kyle, get up and start to make breakfast. As he hears from the distance, however, his mother is talking to another one of his friends, Eric Cartman, a known anti-Semite, about the tradition of Passover. Just as Kyle convinces Eric to leave, Eric remarks that this is going to be a Passover to remember, which then leads into a second title sequence where the words "Cartman's Passover Holiday Special: Jewpacabra" show on the screen, announced by Eric himself. This title sequence, also harkening back to a previous time in which this may not have been uncommon for shows and movies, which could also be considered postmodern, has a similar effect to the "Bart watching Bart" scene of The Simpsons. That is to say, it is directly calls to the viewers attention the fact that they are watching a show, while the characters, or at least Eric in particular in this case, are simultaneously acknowledging this fact as well. The result, like The Simpsons, is a highly reflexive and hyperaware show, where not only are the viewers watching the show, by the show is designed around the fact that it is aware that it is being watched.

Butkovic 6 There is also a great deal of genre-blurring and intertextuality in adult animated sitcoms, often referred to the phenomenon of "channel-flipping" in the arts, or the feeling that the viewers are seeing a different program due to dramatic shifts in tone, content and presentation, even though they are still, in reality, watching the same show. An example of this is the myriad of song and dance numbers that South Park has shown on its 15 years on air. These, usually coming as some kind of punch line or climax to a scene or episode, are completely intertextual as they incorporate an element, mainly that of theatre or the musical, that never appears in a traditional animated show. Frequently, these also incorporate some kind of pop culture reference, such as a recent episode of South Park entitled "Butterballs," where a barbershop quartet sings about Stan, another character on the show, publicly masturbating on the streets of San Diego, parodying the recent events in which Invisible Children, an activist group, founder was caught doing the same thing, just one month earlier. Another such example of this would be the entirety of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the full-length movie based upon the television show. While the movie contains all of the characters viewers have come to expect, along with their irreverent, sophomoric humor, the movie itself is a feature length musical, with 14 songs appearing in the movie-- with one, "Blame Canada," being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. While it is clear from this, and their recent musical Broadway hit "The Book of Mormon," the South Park creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, probably genuinely enjoy musicals, the way in which it is incorporated into South Park is highly intertextual and often times ironic, as it works against the viewers previously established expectations of both musical and adult animated sitcoms. A further example of intertextuality or even hyperconsciousness are The Simpsons now classic couch gags at the end of the introduction sequence to the show. The gags themselves

Butkovic 7 show the family rushing to their couch in front of their television either in a round about manner, with such things as large Hollywood-style song and dance numbers, jetpacks or jumping over a shark on water-skis, something humorous happening to the family when they get there, such as them being killed by a comical representation of death or scared away by their aforementioned dog, or show them in some sort of new intertexual light. Just one example of the latter, as intertextuality and referencing things outside of the show has become such a norm, shows the family not running to the couch, but the entire in individual, discrete frames on the screen looking at each other, in a very obvious reference to the family sitcom The Brady Bunch. Another example that shows intertextuality, yet also underlying notions of cynicism in the couch gags, came in the shows 22nd season in an episode entitled "MoneyBart," with an introduction designed by famous street artist Banksy. At first, the intro just shows the family sitting on the couch as normal, similar to any "standard" intro for the show. However, the frame then cuts away to a sweatshop of workers in terrible conditions, creating animation cells, t-shirts, and toys modeled after the show. This gag, not only hinging upon the viewers understanding of who Bansky is, also calls to mind the entire corporate enterprise that The Simpsons and shows like it work under-- which can often be oppressive and unethical. This gag also brings to mind the fact that the idea of a family rushing to a couch in front of their television is entirely cynical, as it is showing a new, modern family transformed into a generation of watchers and seers--who experience vicariously and indirectly--, rather than the generation of political action and generational change that some of the older characters in the show were a part of. One thing that postmodern theory may not explain-- especially in something like The Simpsons, as opposed to South Park, which has recently changed quite dramatically in the last few seasons-- is the recent stagnancy that the show is seen to be going through, both by critics

Butkovic 8 and viewers. However, in a twist of events, The Simpsons was even able to turn these lower ratings and claims by critics into a joke itself in its 300th episode. In it, when Homer is skateboard dueling Tony Hawk, another intertextual reference that is frequent in the show-celebrity cameos, for the respect of his son, Bart, the mother character, Marge, asks Lisa, her daughter, how many times that Homer has gotten into a situation like this. Lisa responds by clicking number counter in her hand again and dryly saying, "300." However, I feel that this theory works well with my classmates findings on this type of show, with them analyzing in gender, race and class and feminism, respectively. In their findings, most said that shows like this and South Park, in particular, seek to normalize things like homosexuality, transgenderism, and can actually be seen as promoting things like feminism simply by way of the fact that animation gives the show a lot of leeway in satirizing the real life situations in which we find ourselves in as a culture, such as racial inequality or rampant sexism and misogyny. While I feel that these kinds of findings are particular to their own theories, postmodern theory or analysis explains how the creators are able to satirize and criticize so incisively and poignantly, and speak about such disparate things such as gender or racism or what have you in a single episode, let alone an entire season or series. As a whole, however, all of these post-modern elements makes the animated shows in question a more active and engaging experience, wherein they are forced to connect to mediums and references outside of the show, follow and engage with radial shifts in emotional range and tone, and often connect ideas to the show itself in a meta sort of manner. As a result, the shows end up giving more content and material, in a substantive manner of speaking, that any other show done in a modernist type of style. This also allows for a rapid evolution, as the content, emotional, humorous or otherwise, is constantly brought into question and flux, since it can

Butkovic 9 incorporate any sort of elements from any medium it chooses. This sort of power, if it could be considered such, gives it a broad, in palate and reference, sense of humor, as things that are often be considered ridiculous can be made sane and vice-versa, by nature of its incorporation.

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Bibliography Jameson, Fredric. "Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism."marxists.org. marxists.org, n.d. Web. 5 May 2012. <http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/jameson.htm>. Collins, Jim. "Postmodernism and Television." Media Studies: A Reader. Ed. Marris, Paul, Ed. Bassett, Caroline and Ed. Thornham, Sue. 2nd ed. New York: New York University Press, 2000. 375-384. Print. Wallace, David. "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction." A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again. Ed. Michael Pietsch. 1st ed. New York: Back Bay Books, 1997. 21-82. Print.