The Simpsons

This assignment is difficult to do because it's impossible for me to pick a favorite. There are so many good ones: "Treehouse of Horror V", "Homer the Great", "The Springfield Files", "El Viaje de Nuestro Jomer", etc.

I pretty much picked at random and I decided on The Twisted World of Marge Simpson. The plot is that Marge starts a pretzel business to feel like she's accomplished something, but she fails. So, Homer asks mobster Fat Tony to help her out and naturally there are bad consequences.

There so many great moments in this episode. There's a montage where the mob illegally promotes Marge's business: they force girl scouts out of town at gunpoint and when Prinicipal Skinner orders pretzels from her, he has a broken wrist and laser pointer aimed at his head. There's also this quote, where Marge talks to the pretzel franchise owner:

Marge: What's my territory?
Frank Ormand: Your territory? Well, let me put it this way: wherever a young mother is ignorant as to what to feed her baby, you'll be there. Wherever nacho penetration is less than total, you'll be there! Wherever a Bavarian is not quite full, you'll be there!
Marge: Don't forget fat people! They can't stop eating!
Homer: (passing by) Hey! Pretzels!

There's not a whole lot of irony or satire to speak of. I would say that Fat Tony's gang satirizes what we usually see in mafia movies. Whereas Michael Corleone is always assassinating his enemies in The Godfather, Fat Tony smashes pizzas and he's tricked by Homer of all people when asking for money. He also posts ads for his services in the church newsletter. According to Wikipedia there are parodies of the movies Goodfellas and Glengarry Glen Ross.

Anyway, this episode is a perfect example of classic Simpsons writing before they jumped the shark. Check it out.

Gwendolen's Diary Entry

Dear Diary,

I have learned so much recently, and in a single day no less! Ernest, the man with whom I have agreed to be married, was playing a trick on me. First, it has developed that he is in fact my cousin, but this is not the most important fact. He had lied to me by claiming the name of Ernest, but in a strange way that lie has turned out to be the truth.

I'm so happy about that, though I don't know why. The name Ernest is so exciting that I'm quite sure it is what makes me love him. But is this not odd? I don't know. Perhaps the truth is that I've met so many "Johns" and "Jacks", and I've been looking for someone new. But to be honest, he hardly seems all that different from the other gentlemen I've known... I'm wondering if I'm making a terrible mistake...

New Heart Device Allows Cheney To Experience Love

This is the latest headline article from the satirical site The Onion. I thought it was hilarious, so I figured I would post it.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/new_heart_device_allows_cheney_to

Was It Heaven? Or Hell?

The Mark Twain I read was titled “Was It Heaven? Or Hell?” The basic premise of the story was that there’s a housheld of four women - Margaret, her daughter Helen, and Margaret’s aunts, Hannah and Hester. All the women are very devout Christians and absolutle hate lies. The two aunts are shocked when a doctor that examines Margaret lies and tells her she’s doing well, but explains that everyone lies, without exception.

The aunts are unwilling to accept what he says, but when Margaret’s daughter also contracts the fever they start lying and telling Maragaret she’s perfectly healthy, although they feel extremely guilty. Both mother and daughter die, and then it gets really fucked up - an angel asks the aunts, Hannnah and Hester, to repent their lies. They both explain that they were deceptive to keep the dying woman happy. The angel returns and decrees whether they’ll go to Heaven or Hell, than the narrator asks: “Was it Heaven? Or Hell?” and it ends.

So yeah, pretty strange. The story is basically a parable by Twain, who seems to be saying that lying is natural, and that even if it is a sin, good can come out of it. All in all this is similar to “The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg” in that he’s pointing out the same kind of hypocrisy. “Was It Heaven? Or Was It Hell?” definitely belongs with the whole “angry and bat-shit crazy” portion of Mark Twain’s life. It’s somewhat amusing and I agree with his point, but overall I didn’t enjoy it because of the whole…. you know, bat-shit crazy thing.

Little Murders

The clips of this film we watched in class had me quite interested. Liked we talked about, the story of Little Murders touched on the theme of "urban craziness" or whatever you want to call it. The book Fight Club, and the movies Se7en and Taxi Driver, all express a similar sentiment: our modern, city-living mentality is so chaotic you have to be a little funny in the head just to survive. Being a comic book geek, it reminds me of something the Joker once said: "If I weren't crazy, I'd be insane!"

I want to watch the entire movie, because this particular theme really interests me. I'm not sure why, but if I had to guess I'd say because we're reminded of terrible things everyday: you can't turn on the TV or get on the internet without hearing about the latest clusterfuck of disease, war, or political bullshit. It's the reason so many people are apathetic. That's why humor is so important -- as they say, laughter is the best medicine!

On a general note, I think it would be best if we all added each other to our blog rolls so it will be easier to see what we're all writing. Not that I know how to do that, mind you.

Hey.