Critical Analysis of Pop Culture

Can The Simpsons be nihilistic and satirical? To quote the wise man once known as “Rummy” during the Iraq Invasion, “There are known knowns…and there are unknown knowns…who knows.” After all, Wikipedia lists the animated family’s sitcom that stole our hearts--the same decade Seinfeld became a show about nothing--as a nineteen-nineties American satirical television series . However, the show goes far beyond pointing to the foibles of the human condition and in doing so no institution or treasured relationship is safe from becoming lampooned. So, in this regard, the show usually leaves the viewer with a feeling that could be described as nihilistic.  The author’s point to “Bart may be just part and parcel of the decadence and nihilism that pervades our era” [Irwin, p.77]. Moreover, Bart exudes a type of “just enough to get by or spirit of mediocrity that could be likened to what so many, including myself career-wise in the last decade of the previous century; why...

Applying Marxist Analysis to " Roseanne Calls It Quits" reinforces the premise of the theory. Viewing the episode a second time, it seems I missed some of the subtle nuances. From the on-set, Roseanne or the writers frame the class difference when referring to her food as “the veal is…” and requests to see the desert tray before she brings-up being required to return to work over their lunch hour. It may be a stretch to define Mr. Favor—a supervising manager of their production of plastic widgets--a member of the Bourgeoisie. Nevertheless, his references to Roseanne’s intelligence is soon followed by the proclamation, “I am not here to hold…I am here to supervise.” In the next scene, the crew are licking their “factory worker” wounds with the elixir of choice for this old often under-appreciated apartment maintenance-man [sic] when Dan enters the scene to announce, “A couple of cold ones for the tired working masses yearning to be free.” Not only do we have the ...