'The Simpsons' and History

Article by Alex Martin. Edited by Liam Geoghegan. 

Simpson’s stats and Facts 

In the future The Simpsons will be studied as Shakespeare is. Their Wikiquote entry is one of the largest with 53,697 words (that’s 154 pages of A4). The show has created dictionary entries such as “yoink”, “d’oh” and “meh”, now totalling more neologisms than any other person or book (including Shakespeare and the Bible). Its Wikipedia page has 214 footnotes, the family have had their own set of stamps made after them and The Simpsons Movie made over half a billion dollars. Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo and Operation are all available with a Simpsons twist. There is a game called What would Homer do? The show has quarrelled with American presidents, Brazil, Australia (disparaging the boot is a bootable offence), ‘cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys’ and religion. The city of Springfield has been called the ‘model for understanding both the opportunities of, and the obstacles to, political participation and civic engagement.’ The Simpsons is now the longest running animated series, the longest running situation comedy, and the longest running prime time show in American television history. In its 20 year run, 34 of the 43 men who have served as America’s president have made appearances (either as characters or in reference) on the show. And, to be honest with you, I could quote the show for the rest of this article, but I’ll do my best to refrain. 

The Simpsons and History 

Whilst all this is obviously impressive, you may be asking: what does The Simpsons have to do with History? Well, if you’re reading this you probably have some vested interest in History, or at the very least believe it’s important. In the future, when the period that we live in becomes an object of study for historians, they will drown in the amount of evidence left for them. The internet has made it possible for people to more easily leave their fingerprints on the world.  Unfortunately most of it is piddle, if you don’t believe me read the comments beneath a video on YouTube or read a really bad blog, there are a lot out there and they are easy to find. But when some future historian turns his gaze upon The Simpsons, what it means, what it reveals about the way we lived, what we found funny, how we spent our spare time and so much more, s/he will be able to get so much out of this one TV show. But this isn’t to say that academics haven’t already started. 

The Simpsons and The present 

The show is already an object of study for ‘Philosophy Political Theory Psychology Religion Sociology Linguistics’ and many others, if you’re interested look up the following references: Murad S. Hussain and Ellen Langer ‘A Cost of Pretending’, Journal of Adult Development (2003); Renee Hobbs, ‘The Simpsons Meet Mark Twain: Analyzing Popular Media Texts in the Classroom’, English Journal (1998); Carl Rhodes, ‘D’Oh: The Simpsons, Popular Culture, and the Organizational Carnival’, Non-Traditional Research (2001); Paul Cantor ‘The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family’, Political Theory (1999); and Michael J. Kieffer and Nonie K. Lesaux, ‘Morphing into Adolescents’, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (1999). My particular favourite is Paul Cantor’s piece on how viewing politics through the eyes of the family is not only a little revolutionary, but very useful. 

Lisa the iconoclast 

However, for the historian studying or working today, it is ‘Lisa the Iconoclast’, the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons‘ seventh season, that is not only funny but essential viewing: as much a satire of American life as historical practices. As Springfield’s bicentennial approaches, Lisa’s class are assigned essays. Lisa goes to the historical society ‘where the past comes back to life (metaphorically)’ to research Springfield’s founder Jebediah Springfield. While playing Jebediah Springfield’s fife, she makes the discovery that the town’s founder was actually a pirate and an enemy of George Washington. Lisa conducts further research about Jebediah Springfield, and finds out that he was actually Hans Sprungfeld who, having lost his tongue, had replaced it with a prosthetic silver one. The town does not agree with Lisa’s revelations, while Ms. Hoover deems her essay worthy of an F. Lisa tries to convince the town her claims are true, but the only person who believes her is Homer. However, she convinces the municipal government to disinter Mr. Springfield’s body to search for evidence of a legendary silver tongue. This scene was inspired by the real life disinterment of President Zachary Taylor in 1991. When the coffin is opened, there is no silver tongue. 

After looking at the incomplete portrait of George Washington in her classroom, Lisa soon figures out that the piece of paper upon which the confession is written is the bottom half of the portrait. She confronts town historian, Hollis Hurlbut, with this piece of evidence. Hurlbut confesses that he stole the tongue to protect his career and the myth of Jebediah Springfield. After realising the mistake, the two decide to go public with their discovery. Just as Lisa is about to expose the ‘real Jebediah’ to the townspeople, she realizes that Jebediah Springfield’s good image means too much to the town, and decides to keep the truth a secret, knowing the town will lose hope and morale if the truth is revealed. She says she was mistaken in her research of Jebediah Springfield and that he was actually a great man, no matter who said it ‘a noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.’ But that ending has never been particularly cromulent with me. Hollis Hubert is the historian gone awry after obsessing too much over one of his personal heroes (like Jefferson the slaveholder, Churchill the Mussolini-praising-racist or Sir Francis Drake the murderous Sprungfeld-esque pirate), but at least he has the courage to insist he is ‘an antiquarian, dammit!’, rather than Lisa who chooses to abandon the perilous pursuit of the truth because a lie makes people happier. If you think this is a bit of an obsessive analysis of something that’s just a cartoon, you wouldn’t be completely wrong. I would however have preferred Lisa preserve the truth rather than the myth. 

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