This week, everybody was talking about The Simpsons again.
A month after FXX’s marathon of all 25 seasons of the show, Golden Age and slow decline alike, Season 26 of The Simpsons kicked off in the USA with an over-hyped season premiere. But while nobody cared that much about the death of Rabbi Krustofski, the internet kept talking – because of the couch gag.
Animated by surrealist genius Don Hertzfeldt, the two-minute opener threw Homer into a distant future where The Simpsons (or, rather, The Sampsans) has developed into an assembly of grotesque bodies shouting into the void. A viscid Bart perpetually chokes “DON’T HAVE COW, MAN”; Maggie, a ball of flesh and pacifier, morphs into a tubular mouth and commands the audience to “Make purchase of the merchandise”.
WATCH Hertzfeldt’s couch gag on YouTube:
Right after, in the 9pm slot, was the long-announced, barely-awaited Family Guy crossover. Written and handled by Family Guy staff, ‘The Simpsons Guy’ saw the Griffins stranded in Springfield after they fled Quahog after Peter got eviscerated for some misogynistic cartoons and their car got stolen and you know what don’t even bother. Peter and Homer try to find the car; meanwhile, Stewie tries to get in with Bart; Lisa helps Meg find her talent; Brian and Chris lose Santa’s Little Helper; and the show pretty much forgets about Marge and Lois.
America’s Sunday night, then was dominated by how other people see The Simpsons. It was a case study in the show’s powerful cultural influence. More than that, though, it was a lesson in homage.
On one side of the coin, Hertzfeldt’s couch gag. On the face of it, it seems hostile to The Simpsons; certainly a lot of the audience was hostile right back. With Maggie’s consumerist mantras and Homer’s ‘memories’, it plays like a compacted version of Hertzfeldt’s super-brilliant short Rejected!, about a creative meltdown. Where that short probed the thorny reality of commodifying one's art and artistic integrity, The Sampsans is a portrait of commodification and hyper-distilled brand recognition. In the future, hair and catchphrases hold down an extensive line of helmets, moon vests and mating gels.
The Sampsans Photo: YouTube
But The Sampsans isn’t all knives out. As the gag flicks through future episodes – the Simpsons as robots, protozoa, eldritch abominations – the show's heart remains constant. Marge pats Homer's head and tells him she loves him; the Simpsons chant “WE ARE HAPPY FAMILY”; a horrific Marge-beast growls “I will never forget you” in a foreign tongue.
The Sampsans is a critique of The Simpsons now, a marketing juggernaut that's often more disappointing than anything else. But The Sampsans, like The Simpsons, is a warm, humane show about good-natured screw-ups who will always pull together for their family. Hertzfeldt’s couch gag is ultimately about what makes the show great, what makes it an inspiration.
Then there’s the other side of the coin, ‘The Simpsons Guy’. There’s no doubt everyone behind Family Guy is deeply inspired by The Simpsons and owes a lot to it – but this is a Family Guy episode, and unlike The Simpsons and even The Sampsans, Family Guy's selling point is not its humanity.
I don’t mean to suggest The Simpsons is perfect. It's had homophobia and sexism and racism and pointless violence. But it’s never made a point of victimisation. ‘The Simpsons Guy’ does, and it does it for the explicit purpose of saying “Look at how you inspired us!!! Look what we’ve done with that inspiration!!!”
‘The Simpsons Guy’ constantly undermines the essential qualities of The Simpsons, like a fanfiction writer who posts graphic Sonic the Hedgehog murder-porn but crows about how it respects the canon
The episode opens with five minutes of Seth McFarlane moaning (through metaphor, obviously) about the ‘mean feminists’ who criticised his work as an Oscar host; the rest of the episode features a rape joke, torture, slut-shaming, child murder, graphic violence, gas pumps shoved up asses, and the ever-relentless degradation of Meg.
The episode allows the Simpson family some of their warmth and ability to connect: Lisa puts considerable effort into helping Meg build her self-confidence, and Homer makes a genuine attempt to apologise to Peter after taking down Peter’s workplace for fraud. But every time, without fail, the Griffins shut it down with violence and cruelty.
‘The Simpsons Guy’ constantly undermines the essential qualities of The Simpsons and calls it love, like a fanfiction writer who posts graphic Sonic the Hedgehog murder-porn but crows about how it respects the canon.
Both Hertzfeldt’s couch gag and the Family Guy crossover come from places of love. But the way that love is communicated is important, because it tells us what the people making the homage really value. Hertzfeldt loves The Simpsons like any of us, wishing it was still what it used to be but deeply affectionate for what it is at its core. He’s not gushing; he’s being honest, and his affection is more meaningful for it.
McFarlane and his writers love The Simpsons like a four-year-old loves a cat. They’re patting it really hard and stroking it really hard and telling everyone they love it, but they’re just too clueless to realise they’re hurting the poor thing.
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