Surrealism vs Cartoonish Mainstream
Chris Pfeiler
thoughts about classic and modern surrealism in the show, visual gags,
cartoonish mainstream and evolution of style.
People sometimes think I´m completely against surreal and bizarre elements and
jokes in the show. That´s wrong. I think on the contrary that a certain kind of
visual gags and surrealism was necessary to keep the show alive - something
that reality and dialogue humour alone couldn´t do for so many years. But I see
big differences between intelligent visual surrealism and cartoonish filler
material.
When I talk about good surrealism in the show, I always mean a kind of
bizarrity which includes a deeper message, maybe some sort of "intelligent kind
of nonsense", something that is a little out of touch with reality but has an
aim or direction and contains a certain deeper meaning.
If they would have continued to make the show in the "very close to reality"
style of season 2 (let us consider season 2 as very close to reality, even if
there were some exceptions like Blinky or Homer falling into Springfield Gorge.
Most of that scenes were satirical absurdities) it would have meant a very
small range of possibilities for new stories and ideas, so it was somehow
necessary to "stretch" classic reality to a certain degree and to work with
more abstract and surreal concepts to keep the show alive for so long. Season 2
was a brilliant season but sticking to its "hardcore reality" would have led to
stagnation and to a lack of fresh ideas already in the early years.
Let´s have a look at seasons 7 and 8, where the "teamwork" between "evolved"
surreal abstraction and classic Simpson spirit was IMO at its very best (in
season 8 unfortunately with a slightly too parodistic tendency). Many episodes
from this time were to a certain degree bizarre and absurd but also had the
emotional and deeper content we knew from the earlier years.
I could name for example "Bart Sells His Soul" where the concept of a soul was
shown in a brilliant abstraction as simple sheet of paper (together with more
symbolic aspects) with more philosophical than religious concepts plus
emotional depth at the end (Bart and Lisa). In addition also the serious
"Homediddly" with the excellent surreal scenario when Maggie has to decide
between the Flanders on the sunny side of the river and the Simpsons on the
dark side (symbolism) and finally comes to Marge. Dark story => surreal
elements => classic symbolism => classic integrity of the family.
"Mother Simpson" is another episode, which uses rather surreal gags (e.g. the
Dragnet Cops) but which is very serious and deep at the end. Let´s not forget
the outstanding "The Day The Violence Died" which is on one hand about violence
in the media but on the other hand also about plagiarism in cartoons - every
good satire works on various levels - and which confronts Bart and Lisa at the
end with there own "existence" as plagiarized versions of their old selfs from
the Ullman show. IMO a brilliantly surreal ending. It´s bizarre but it´s also
intelligent.
"Summer of 4 Ft 2" on the other hand was a very real character episode without
surreal gags (except for the "Alice in Wonderland" sequence) which reflected
the character-oriented reality of season 2. We see here the excellent balance
of stories/realities in season 7. The season was partly conservative and close
to seriousness and classic ideas and partly surreal and slightly out of touch
with reality. That balance makes it at least for me the best of the middle
seasons. Season 8 continued with that style of aimed surrealism (take
"Mysterious Voyage") but became a little lighter and more parodistic than
season 7. I think I´ve written a couple of more detailled reviews about some
3F/4F episodes.
So what am I talking about? What I meant to say is, that there is an
intelligent kind of absurdity and of visual surrealism, namely the kind of
surrealism which has a deeper meaning and which doesn´t destroy reality and
characters but "extends" them. That´s what I´d call "evolution" of the show and
that´s what the modern seasons would need - classic spirit, dark sides and
intelligent surrealism. I didn´t mean to say that the show should stagnate on
the style level of season 7 (stagnation is always bad) but that season 7 showed
the right way of development and evolution - a development with a wider range
of surreal possibilities but still with classic values from the very first
years.
I think there is a difference between intelligent and focused surrealism (as
shortly described above) and simple visual and cartoonish gags which are used
as nothing but filler material in these days. Such visual nonsense has no aim
and no meaning, it´s just there to fill running time and plot holes with forced
crazyness in the background. The show started to go in that (IMO wrong)
direction in season 5 when the plots became faster and more and more dominated
by louder "funny" visual gags without much meaning and depth. That was IMO no
evolution in a good way (thus it was corrected in season 7 - alas for the last
time) but part of a way that led into cartoon mainstream. Such lighter visual
gags aren´t bad in moderate use but they should never dominate plots.
What we have today is nothing I´d call positive evolution. The roots are gone
and so is meaningful surrealism, only cheap visual gags and filler material
remains (often called surrealism but IMO way out of touch with the roots of
that style) together with loud obvious jokes about farts and boobs.
I agree that it was necessary for the show to become more abstract and surreal
to be fresh and alive for so many years (by that I mean seasons 1 to 8, maybe
9) but I don´t agree that the style of today is a positive kind of evolution
and I see big differences between aimed surrealism and cheap visual gags and
filler material. Comments are as usual welcome.
Chris
spud (secret potato utility developer)
always doing the warner brothers type of cartoon comedy that i try to prove
to my Peirs that the simpsons is not a true Cartoon, but an animated show
for older peole, like the Tick (When it was animated) Family guy, king of
the hill, the critic, and Futurama.
--
Spud (Stantard issue space men Pot and pan Under nasa Development)
"Chris Pfeiler" <chris...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020202055431...@mb-mo.aol.com...
Ian Boothby
fantasy sequences. I'm glad they stopped doing that and just made reality a
bit more flexible.
Donut Bandit
news:20020202055431...@mb-mo.aol.com:
there is good Simpsons.. there is bad Simpsons...
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... good Simpsons.....
bad Simpsons? D'OH!!!!
now be a good Chris and go read all the bad stuff about Linguo,
the Grammer Robot...
444
Much of what you write here is concomitant with my opinions on
so-called "random" humour, not just confined within The Simpsons, but
to much of the new generation of animated prime time series. In this
case, I have specifically in mind South Park, as opposed to some of
the more inspired moments from Simpsons.
As I see it, there are two kinds of randomness. One, typically
practiced by South Park gagwriters, is a cheap, lazy kind of
randomness that any body can come up within a given period of time.
IOW, a superficial sort of randomosity.
Contrast that to what I call "inspired lunacy," e.g. from "This Little
Wiggy," in which Marge is giving Bart a lecture in his bedroom and a
saw from below cuts a circle in the floor. Homer's head pops up, sees
that Marge is there, sez, "Uh oh," then disappears back down the hole.
Whether this routine has meaning or not is debatable, and the original
posting-guy may actually find fault with its possible
one-dimensionality, I believe this sort of humor is far superior to
the other kind. It is unimaginably chaotic, as it has, I must admit,
little primary meaning (i.e. what did Homer intend to do w/ this hole?
I never found out with biting, ask Mr. Owl). To me, it's precisely
this absolute absence of logic, which is hard to think up quickly IMO,
that makes this gag classic.
Of course, The Simpsons itself may have reduced itself to the lower
form of cheap randomness. And I didn't really talk about surreality.
But anyway:
<doffs University garb>