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How Did The Simpsons Impact On Family Values

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The Simpsons Impact on Family Values

The Simpsons first came to life on April 19th, 1987. It was aired as a ‘filler’ in the commercial breaks of ‘The Tracey Ullman Show’ and was animated in 30 second mini-episodes. Matt Groening, the proud producer and creator of The Simpsons, made these 30 second episodes after being recognized for his ‘life is hell’ comic strip and asked by a fan, Pauly Platt, if he would be interested in coming up with ideas for an animation. Groening ceased the opportunity and now, 18 years on The Simpsons have become a global success and have been honored with: a Peabody award, over 20 Emmy awards, over 50 Emmy nominations, over 20 Annie awards, four Genesis awards a Golden …show more content…

The Simpsons are also so well loved because they have no specific target audience; they have such a wide variety of humour, from slapstick to academic references, which is sure to have all age groups, male or female, in stitches.

Family values are basically ‘social norms’ for describing a family and the ‘proper’ roles of its members. ‘Most often, the term connotes a conservative ideology that supports sexual morality and traditional gender roles, and that opposes homosexual relationships, same-sex marriage, and abortion. The term may also refer to endorsing censorship of phenomena in the media (such as many forms of nudity, profanity, sexuality, and violence) which children might view’ en.Wikipedia.org.

Many people feel ‘The Simpsons’ promote family values because basically every bizarre event that has happened in every episode has been as a result of 1or more member/s of the family trying to please the rest of the family. This is evident in ‘Blue-collar slob’ in which homer becomes an astronaut. He does this because he feels he has lost the respect of his family and friends, and assumes that astronauts receive great respect. Although this episode can be interpreted as simple comedy, putting a ‘blue-collar slob’ in outer space, there are also underlying messages that highlight the love that keeps the Simpson family together. It connotes that respect must be in a family

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