series description: the simpsons is a satirical animated sitcom about the average American life within the average American family. its one of the longest running television programs of all time and has delighted stoners, sociologists, and families alike for 36 seasons and 700+ episodes now. if you're unfamiliar with the simpsons outside of knowing that its a show that exists I'll summarize: the show follows Homer, a self-proclaimed "ordinary, blue collar slob", and his family (I'll get into their personalities in a different section) and how their different personalities navigate life in their middle American society. its like an animated version of any other 80s/90's family sitcom but specifically made for satire/comedy purposes and not necessarily maintaining established social norms. the show has a 'floating timeline' so the characters and settings don't age or change because the show is always set in 'present day' (relative to the year when it aired). thats how some of the jokes on celebrities and culture made within the episodes can stick the landing decades later and some of them make you go '? Who or what are they referencing?' because its no longer relevant to today. the show is set in the town of Springfield, USA and the state location is kept intentionally vague so that "everyone will think of it as their Springfield"-Matt Groening, 2012 (show creator). for context, Springfield is an extremely common town name in the United States and theres a city/town/providence/village/some kind of municipality named Springfield in every state. in the show, Springfield is both a specific town in the continental United States and its own complete, self-contained universe. they also travel to different states and countries within the show, depending on whats happening in the episode. theres even an episode with a joke about my hometown (link to clip) which feels soooo random but makes me smile all the same the show satire is typically socio-political highlighting corruption and incompetence in US education, coroporate power and influence, mass media, police, and religion but it also tackles interpersonal relationships and issues that arise within them as well. (will add links to fave scenes). there are 36, 20 to 24 episode long seasons as of 2024 as I type this up. brief early history: the show has been on for so long that we would be here allll day if I went into the history of the show from the 1980's to the 2020's, so I'll keep it brief and just touch on the early beginnings and how the controversies at the start helped establish its pop culture legacy. the show started out as a series of short cartoons on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. can we pause and appreciate how many sketch comedy show skits produced really great and memorable shows? The Fairly OddParents, ChalkZone, and My Life as a Teenage Robot also started as a series of shorts on Oh Yeah! Cartoons in the 90's, isn't that neat? and after gaining popularity with various shorts for a few seasons, the Simpsons officially debuted as a stand-alone primetime program on Fox with an (incredibly charming) Christmas special in December 1989. season 1 started airing shortly after in 1990 and its hit the ground running from there. Every character has their own fans and resonance with certain audiences but kids, teens, and young adults all were just enamoured by Bart Simpson and thats a really big factor in the growth of the show. The Simpsons owes much of its popularity to 90s "Bartmania" as media dubbed it back then. if you've never watched the Simpsons, while Bart at his core has a poetic soul and big heart, he is a bit of a dickhead. crass, I know, but theres just no other way to phrase it - he enjoys troublemaking and being bad and makes no qualms about this in the entire series. the love of mischief is a core part of who he is and is his entire character motivation. this was extremely controversial at the time the show came out, because Bart is the antithesis of the typical 'sitcom son' tropes that we see on tv. parents banned children from watching the show, schools banned Simpsons clothes and quotes (ex: 'eat my shorts'), and the writers of the show actually had back-and-forth with the (then) President and First Lady of the United States about the debate on if the Simpson family is a disgrace to our country or a reflection of it.. I'm not exaggerating for the sake of the shrine either, it was literally that serious. why I like it personally: This is probably going to go in alotttt of different directions but there is a point to all this that I'm working toward so bare with me Former President Reagan (may he burn in hell) was a Hollywood star before he ever had any political aspirations. Movies, TV, media, Hollywood in and of itself serve an explicit political function whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. this is why sitcoms can sometimes feel like propaganda films for conservative family values - thats literally why they exist. I'm autistic and have learned so much from TV and sitcoms I LOVE POLITICAL SATIRE. I LOVE AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES. the American experiment in which we live fascinates me. perhaps its because I am a living decendent of slavery, perhaps its because I'm poor and grew up poor (which, goes back to the descendent of chattel slavery survivors thing), but I've always found it funny how satirical our own actual real lives in this country are in a 'you gotta laugh to keep from killing yourself' sort of way. its really beyond parody how we live in the US. I think this show is actually the best American political and cultural satire thats ever been made like its actually soooo harrowingly accurate while still being humourous enough to make you laugh. episodes from 30 years ago still have value in their criticisms on American society to this day and will probably never lose value. favorite characters: marge (lovveeee loooove love Marge so much. shes one of those characters that you love more as you watch the show as an adult - one of the funniest characters in a subtle way), lisa (another character very dear to my heart, I've always idolized the way she speaks her mind even if its what nobody wants to hear or asked for and I try to integrate that part of her personality into my own), lionel hutz (hes just funny as hell to me, you don't need a background of education in law to enjoy his jokes but it makes them like 40 times funnier if you do (no, money down! makes me crack up everytime I see it)), favorite episodes: funnily enough, although I love the political satire in the Simpsons thats not really a deciding factor in me liking an episode or not. this list is really just my own personal taste and what I like, theres not a specific reason why its these episodes versus other ones other than 'I liked it' blog posts about it: to come! scrollable pic section: