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The Simpson's BANKSY opening... what do u guys make of it?
I'm curious as to what you guys think of this. It shows the type of exploited workers that are the backbone of such big franchise like the Simpsons.. from the animators, factory workers and others.. on a mainstream capitalist TV station and by them.. Are the viewers so disconnected that it just passes as "cool art for" are we so comfortable with the idea of exploitation in this system that its no big deal to sort of patronize it???
http://www.hulu.com/watch/184819/the...banksy-opening
we need more revolutions and less "isms"
I... uh, what did I just...
what
Seriously, I would never have expected to see something like that on the Simpsons. I never watch it, and from what I understand it's usually centrist liberal in political outlook, but seriously, what's the story behind that opening? Was it a stunt, or did Fox really allow them to let the show essentially brand them as slave drivers?
YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00035996.html
there is a disconnect at every level, subhuman slavery is immaterial as long as the images keep flickering across our screens. i'm sure this move is cynically calculated- make a joke about these conditions, while causing controversy and hopefully producing a viral video that will strengthen the brand.
'heavens above, how awful it is to live outside the law - one is always expecting what one rightly deserves.'
petronius, the satyricon
Yeah, upon further thought, that's pretty much the conclusion I came to. It's a stunt, plain and simple. The Simpsons has the privilege of being pretty much entirely independent from meddling by Fox network executives due to how strong the brand is, so they can put pretty much anything they want in the show, even things that ridicule and insult Fox, its networks, and even Murdoch himself, something they've done several times in the past.
Reading some comments about it on another site, someone gave another interesting interpretation of the opening: it's meant to lampoon "exaggerated far-left" accusations of companies using hyper-exploited labor in East Asia, regardless of whether it's true or not. While it is true The Simpsons is animated in South Korea, apparently, someone claimed the animators threatened to walk out over their depiction in the opening.
So yeah, I don't think the opening is making an actual, if exaggerated, criticism of the way Fox does business so much as it's making a joke out of companies who actually do exploit workers this way, while at the same time produce some kind of shock value that will get people talking. In other words, it's just fucking business as usual.
YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS
The Simpson's have made reference to this before - I think it was through the "Krusty Show" rather than the more direct reference to the show itself. Animators talk about this fact of the industry all the time, but I'm not sure how much public consciousness there is about this. In all professional animation, the only American animators are the ones that draw the story-boards, and key-frames - the coloring and inbetweening is all done by contractors oversees - often South Korea.
Before I was radical, I met one of the writers for the Simpsons and he brought this up too and how the writers always talk about the sweatshops that are central to the production of the show and their unease about it.
At any rate, I really liked the opening and - despite some political qualms - I like Banksy a lot and I have also really liked the Simpsons although it is widely uneven (in humor and politics) but when it hits the social-satire just right, it can be brilliant*. Some of the 1990s episodes are probably the best pieces and observations about class politics to come out of the mainstream, not done by Michael Moore, of the whole decade. And Mr. Burns is the best representation of modern capitalism out there and in the 1990s when representations working class people were disappearing from TV (other than "Rosanne" and - unfortunately - COPS), the Simpsons actually touched on many of the developments faced by the working class at that time.
I think the reason the Simpsons producers allowed this is because they can and they thought it would get them some attention. Fox allowed it because they frequently allow The Simpsons to mock them because the show is popular and can get away with it and more cynically because it is good PR for the company and creates the illusion that there is freedom of criticism just like having Colms or some other liberal on FoxNews makes them "fair and balanced".
I think it's more interesting that Banksy decided to do this. If Diego Rivera had storyboarded a Simpsons intro, I think it might have turned out a little like that. Actually I think it would have been more political had it been less over the top and absurd (although I love the panda and unicorn) - it would have been a great statement about the labor that is hidden and ignored but central to everything in our society if it had just been rows of people inking-in the animation cells like they really do.
*Like the Halloween episode 2 or 3 years ago when the two Alien characters occupy Springfield but are faced with an roadside bomb detonating insurgency from the population they were told by their superiors that they were liberating.
interview with al jean that goes into a little more depth about the opening
'heavens above, how awful it is to live outside the law - one is always expecting what one rightly deserves.'
petronius, the satyricon
I thought this stuff was done digitally nowadays?
Obviously another ' brave, defiant joke ' from the creators of the series.
More of an insult to the situation they portray, which *is* true in some places in the world.
None of it is personal. Nothing depicted is true. Fox approved it all.
Statements by Al Jean make me want to puke and makes me wonder about Banksy now.
The Simpsons is a ruined show. It like to poke fun at Fox and Rupert Murdoch but it does so in a shallow way. It doesn't care about the state of the world, it's just out to make a buck and cash in on the sentimental value of appearing anti-establishment.
The Simpsons suck!
Save your fire for Saturday Night Live who have cashed in with an "edgy" reputation while also introducing such edgy comedians as Dennis Miller (The jester for the imperial court of George W. Bush according to David Cross) and birther Victoria Jackson and a freaking Democratic Senator now, Al Franken (how anti-establishment!).
Sure the Simpsons isn't Brecht, but I think when you consider that it is a popular program (in the 1990s it was regularly the most popular show among Latinos in the US, if I remember correctly, and one of the most popular shows for working class blacks and whites) produced through mainstream channels, I think the satire can be pretty good. Like I said they recently had an episode comparing the US occupation in Iraq with an alien invasion of earth... that's probably as pro-insurgents and anti-empire a comment that has come out of pop culture in the last decade.
some of the knee-jerk anticommunism in the show makes me sigh. like the one where they went to china. the one with the albanian kid would probably piss me off a little too, except I haven't seen it since I was six and I don't remember the plot.
this intro was good though. kind of... shocked me. you don't expect this shit from the simpsons. i didn't laugh until half way through the episode until it wore off and i consider myself pretty desensitized.
It's a pretty interesting opening, but really in the end it doesn't mean anything. Its too exaggerated for most people to really take seriously.
