a simpsons academic study

[Luke672]

Hi, my name is Luke and I am new to the board. I thought I would tell you all about a Simpsons study I am conducting. I have done 4 years of university (criminology) and plan on doing further study. Last year while writing my thesis on representations of crime on fictional crime shows and soap operas it got me thinking, although there have been academic studies looking at crime on soap operas, there have been none looking at crime on sitcoms. I am a big simpsons fan, and while I was watching some episodes it made me realize that there is a lot of crime on the show.

At the moment I will be analysing the first 7 seasons (by using the dvd box sets). So far I have watched and recorded the crimes for seasons 1, 2 and 7. Once the study has been completed I will be writing it up as a journal article and submitting it to a journal.

What do you all think of the idea? I thought it would be good as it merges two of my loves together, criminology and the simpsons. Also, a lot of crime does occur on the show, and it would be interesting to look at what crime occurs the most, which characters commit the crimes, etc.

[Desperado]

It's an interesting idea. I don't think characters commit crime for a reason though, it's usually just for a story. If you do your paper on this, it would definitely be a very good read.

[coltonwiggum]

When your finished, be sure to show us the article, or tell us where we can find it. This will be fun to read!

[George]

it sounds like an interesting study, and this pickle you're offering only sweetens the deal.

[moed'oh]

yeh maybe you could post the article. cool idea, especially since many of the scenes featuring wiggum are satire of other television police.

[Luke672]

I thought I would drop by and post an update. I have watched Seasons 1 - 5 and 7. One more season to go! I have noticed theft, criminal damage, and assault occur a lot. It will be interesting to see what crime does occur the most.

Here are a few interesting things to think about. Feedback would be appreciated.

- In one episode Burns drops an employee (who is outside) from a great height, in Mr Plow Homer has a dream where he runs over everybody in his plow truck, in Krusty gets Cancelled Bette Middler throws a can at a car which explodes, In Burns Heir Burns pushes Lenny into the bottomless pit and Bart does the same to Burns. Would you consider these situations murder?

- We all know what happens in Who Shot Mr. Burns, would you consider it assault/attempted murder? Ie do you think Maggie intended to harm Mr. Burns or was it an accident?

The thing is with cartoons, is that they have no boundaries. These situations would unlikely happen in a crime show.

Luke

[DotheBartman]

This might be useful to you: all the theft on The Simpsons (through season 14 at least)

http://www.snpp.com/guides/theft.html

[Stratman]

Sounds interesting.

[moed'oh]

the simpsons even have a kind of catchphrase when they steal something (often said by homer) "Yoink!"

[Luke672]

I have nearly finished the article but something has been bugging me for a while.

As well as discussing the crimes that occur I have also included a section which discusses crimes that were alleged to occur but it is discovered in the end that no crime occured (for example in Bart the Murderer bart being accussed of murdering Skinner Bart of Darkness it being implied that Ned murdered his wife, and in The boy who knew too much it being implied that the butler was asssaulted). However, I am stumped on if to include Mr. Burns shooting as a crime or an alleged crime. Did Maggie actually pull the trigger or did the trigger go off as a result of the gun landing in her lap. I"d really value all your thoughts!

[Joe Dumbass]

A list of episodes featuring crime:

All Sideshow Bob Episodes: Attempted Murder (Exept SSBob Roberts: Electoral Fraud)

Alone Again:Manslaughter

Many Episodes: Child Abuse

Homer The Smithers: Assult

The Principal And The Pauper: Fraud

Homer Badman: Slander and Libel

Lisa The Tree Hugger: Fraud (Lisa faking her death)

[Kiyosuki]

I have nearly finished the article but something has been bugging me for a while.

As well as discussing the crimes that occur I have also included a section which discusses crimes that were alleged to occur but it is discovered in the end that no crime occured (for example in Bart the Murderer bart being accussed of murdering Skinner Bart of Darkness it being implied that Ned murdered his wife, and in The boy who knew too much it being implied that the butler was asssaulted). However, I am stumped on if to include Mr. Burns shooting as a crime or an alleged crime. Did Maggie actually pull the trigger or did the trigger go off as a result of the gun landing in her lap. I"d really value all your thoughts!

Technically it just goes off because it falls. But well...thats really actually up to you actually whether she meant it or not.

I mean...she is just a baby. But she's a Simpson too. She's a pretty "aware" little girl.

I think the end of Who Shot Mr. Burns wanted to sort of throw you off for a kick, whether or not she meant to do it or not. They made fun of that in a later episode where Maggie snipes a bunch of mob thugs to save her dad without anyone watching. So really...you never do know. :LOL:

But for the sake of this, like Wiggum said...no state is going to convict a baby (except Texas). So if you wanna get technical its probably more just an accident than any crime really.

[Luke672]

I am analysing the first 7 seasons as this was what was availible on DVD when I first started.

In regards to it being impossible for Maggie to commit the crime in real life, I have not let this stop me. There have been other incidents that I have recorded where Maggie has committed a crime, for example underage driving in Itchy and Scratchy The Movie and murder in one of the treehouse of horror episodes where she axes Willie in the back.

Many crimes have occured. I have included a section where I have ranked the importance of each crime. About 30 or so of the crimes listed were a major storyline for the episode. These crimes had episodes centered around them. If these crimes were excluded, you would have no episode! Examples include

- marge stealing bourbon
- mr burns running over bart
- bart chopping off the head of jebidiah springfield
- the sideshow bob crimes etc..)
- Bart being mistreated in France/Albanian committing treason.

30 had some importance but were not a major storyline. These crimes although they have some importance to the episode, they were not the central storyline. They were still needed for various reasons. Examples of these crimes include

- an armed robber attempting to shoot james woods which resulted in Apu getting his job back,
- herman and the counterfeit jeans operation
- two police ,officers falsely arresting a baseball player
- Ruth and Marge driving a stolen car etc

Around 180 of the crimes listed had no importance at all and were very brief. These are the crimes that if they were removed the episode would still survive. Usually they occur and you don't hear about them again. Examples include

- a bunch of armed robberies snake committed
- a bunch of assaults and thefts the bullies committed that were rather brief.

I have excluded crimes that occur on TV in the show as well as crimes not committed by humans.