Bart Bares All

Many TV and movie enthusiasts have been up in arms over the 2007 release of The Simpsons Movie. After viewing the screening, they are asking the question, �Have the producers taken their writers’ licence to the extreme, with a nothing is sacred approach to the storyline?’ What fans weren’t counting on was the full frontal nudity of young 10 year old Bart. Have Fox finally crossed the line and gone too far or is this their right as the producers of the fictional animated production? These are important questions that we all should be asking the movie and T.V. rating panels.

Many fictional animated, pop culture texts that we experience today, such as The Simpsons, allow the producers to fuse the realms of fantasy and reality, often creating this nothing is sacred type approach mentioned above, to their storylines. Should the producers of these fictional animated productions have such flexibility in regards to human morals and behavioural expectations or should there be more stringent guidelines and laws for them to abide by? 

Many people including the producers of these shows don’t realise how much of an impact these fictional, animated, pop cultural texts actually have on society. In particular, the up and coming younger generation are influenced quite heavily.

According to the T.V. senses, it is a fact now that The Simpsons in America rates as the number one television program for viewers that are under eighteen years of age. Just because these shows are fictional, seems to render them harmless and the writers stretch the boundaries at times to the absolute extreme. It is quite a common occurrence today for individuals from a multi-generational cross-section, to adopt behavioural mannerisms from these shows, which are at times humorous and quite harmless. At other times these mannerisms are not favourable and may be quite offensive, such as Barney Gumble and his acute alcoholism and compulsive burping while at Moe’s Tavern. Many verbal expressions have also become a common part of society’s vocabulary, such as Homer’s famous “Doh”. This now infamous expression has made its way into the Oxford English Dictionary, and other characters' catch phrases have caught on as well. Homer's boss, Mr. Burns has a special way of saying "excellent", we all love Bart's "don't have a cow, man" or "cowabungah!", which are humorous and quite harmless, but the neighbourhood bully Nelson's cruel "Ha ha" could inspire young enthusiasts to adopt his personality.

Its hard to escape the intense brainwashing of �Simpsonism’ marketing with the bombardment from multiple channels, television adds, print media, fast food outlets and convenient stores. Some examples of this are the American company, 7-Eleven, redesigned a dozen of their stores to look like Kwik-E-Marts, which is Springfield’s, favourite convenience store owned by the father of octuplets, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.