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Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:30 am
“How can Americans love The Simpsons yet vote for Bush?” asks Phillip Adams in a column stunning for its worthlessness, even by his standards:
Fundamentalist Christians see Los Angeles as both Sodom and Gomorrah, cities of Jews and liberals, whose salacious offerings are destroying the nation’s moral fibre.
Vicious Jew-hating Jesuslanders! They’re so bigoted. Unlike Phillip’s former radio partner.
But conservatives are on firmer ground when they instance the scurrilous and exuberant subversion of, yes, The Simpsons … The Simpsons provides the clearest of cases – with its own axis of evil dominated by a Phil Ruddock lookalike who, consumed with greed, owns his own malfunctioning nuclear power station.
Speaking of Simpsons lookalikes …
Among the most frequent targets of lethal satire are The Simpsons’ next-door-neighbours, archetypal Christian conservatives whose religiosity our hero, Homer, constantly derides.
Homer very rarely derides the Flanders’ “religiousity” (why would he? Homer attends church almost every Sunday).
Indeed, pretty much all the baddies in a Mike Moore movie can be seen in The Simpsons which, at its heart, is a never-ending version of Fahrenheit 9/11. Yes, it can be laughed off as a cartoon – but it’s a cartoon closely related to the cartooning of Gary Trudeau in Doonesbury.
Except that it’s funny.
The only significant TV series in which the lead characters would be pro-Bush is – The Sopranos. Their line on Muslims, the war in Iraq, let alone their ongoing prejudices against African/Americans, would put them firmly in the category of chest-thumping, white alpha males. Of course, at some levels, David Chase’s fascinating portrait of New Jersey criminality is a social satire. At others, it takes over where Coppola’s The Godfather left off – as a piece of symbolism of US capitalism.
The stretching involved here is the most exercise Phil has got since all those star-jumps to celebrate Whitlam’s election in ‘72.
UPDATE. What is with hefty bearded guys named Phillip Adams?
UPDATE II. Professor Bunyip also contemplates Phil’s vision of The Simpsons, “which he has apparently never seen.”
- The only significant TV series in which the lead characters would be pro-Bush is – The Sopranos.
I don’t watch a whole lot of prime time tv, but that might be true. Considering that Bush received 52% of the vote, that factoid says more about the lack of diversity in media than anything about Bush.
Posted by Brian O’Connell on 01/16 at 02:50 AM • #
- “…but it’s a cartoon closely related to the cartooning of Gary Trudeau in Doonesbury.”
In that it also has been telling the same joke for decades now…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 01/16 at 03:28 AM • #
- Seinfeld may seem utterly apolitical. Certainly its lead characters never mention politics or express an opinion that could be identified with Republican or Democrat.
Well, Elaine was ardently pro-coice, anti-fur, a best-man at a lesbian wedding and didn’t eat tuna because of the dolphin thing.
When asked by Jerry where her new boyfriend stood on the abortion question, Elaine replied that he must be pro-choice. Jerry asked her why she thought this was so, and she replied, with a hint of desperation “because he’s so good looking?” Turns out he was a pro-lifer. Very funny.
Yet they had baby boomer written all over them and, of course, engaged in or (in the cases of George and Kramer) dreamt about promiscuities
Now I know this guy has never seen (or paid attention to) the show. Kramer got laid all the time.
- Oh, come on. Here’e why Phillip Adams really likes the Simpsons…
http://www.doheth.co.uk/profiles/cbg.shtml
Posted by richard mcenroe on 01/16 at 04:29 AM • #
- Elaine also thought it was really cool to date a communist.Posted by Brian O’Connell on 01/16 at 04:38 AM • #
- What Phil overlooks is that, when push comes to shove, the Simpsons characters (with the few well-known exceptions, e.g. Burns, Chief Wiggum, the mayor whose name escapes me right now – and even they have their moments) by and large act like moral beings, rather than the amorality and often downright insanity that passes for acceptable behaviour among prominent lefties these days. Besides, it’s funny.
I could have missed all the scathing critiques of the Simpsons by well-known conservatives, of course, but without evidence to the contrary, I’d say Tim is right that Adams was really reaching here. Or, to be more blunt, bullshitting his way through another column of his, as he is wont to do.
Anyway, “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” alone should endear the Simpsons to conservatives for all time.
- Well, thhis won’t surprise anyone who has read “The Corner”, but Jonah Goldberg puts National Review squarely behind The Simpsons in “Homer Never Nods”: http://tinyurl.com/4acfw. What better conservative endorsement would you want?
- Not only has he clearly not watched “The Simpsons”, he hasn’t paid much attention to Ned Flanders. The Flanderses may be a (very funny) parody of fundamentalist Christians, but the reason they’re so funny is that they REALLY DO love their neighbor, turn the other cheek, love the sinner and hate the sin, and otherwise live up to their values to the hilt. Hapless Ned is one of the most sympathetic characters in the series despite the fact that he’s a parody- and that proportion of Christian conservatives with a functional sense of humor seem to love him. I think he even made the cover of some religious magazine or another at one point billed as “The most moral man in America”.
- Yeah, I’m a bit confused about Phil’s points. I don’t think he’s actually really watched the show. It takes the piss out of both sides.
Here’s some quotes from the show:
Bart: But Grandpa, didn’t you wonder why you were getting checks for doing absolutely nothing?
Grandpa: I figured it was ‘cause the Democrats were in power again.and
Sideshow Bob: You can’t keep the Democrats out of the Whitehouse forever…and then I’ll be back on the streets with all my criminal buddies.
and
Lisa:That’s a pretty lousy lesson.
Clinton: Hey, I’m a pretty lousy president.Posted by Quentin George on 01/16 at 08:57 AM • #
- Homer very rarely derides the Flanders’ “religiousity” (why would he? Homer attends church almost every Sunday).
Also the episode where Homer does stop going to church, he is eventually persuaded to return when Flanders saves him.
Posted by Quentin George on 01/16 at 09:07 AM • #
- Nevermind his complete inability to understand the satire of the Simpsons. (Which in itself provides a good deal of insight into how thoroughly detached from reality much of the left elite is.)
Has this guy ever met a Republican? A real one, I mean. Not the sort that has presented itself as a spectre to his fevered mind.
Posted by PatrickPrescott on 01/16 at 09:20 AM • #
- This article shows without question that Phil is in dire need of “counselling.
The ravages on the old hack’s enormous ego have taken their toll. Not satisfied the Holywood , the MSM and most universities are in tune with his lunacies , he must root out the last of the “right wing resistance like some Spanish Inquisitor . who can “smell out “ a heretic at a distance.
OH ARNIE . you had better watch out , you HAVE BEEN SNIFFED OUT , ready for attack.
Since most of the drama series are essentially left wing and approved according to gospels of St Phil, it is hoped this will now severly limit his output as he becomes a couch potato.
- Phil, who could easily do a cameo on the The Simpsons as the comic-book man (except the comic book man actually knows something about something, and has at least some kind of sense of humour, mostly sarcastic) has clearly never watched the show. What about all those Clinton jokes, or the time the head of the Springfield Communist Party got up to speak at the baseball, or the time Kang and Kodos ran for President? And I’m sorry to differ with Tim, but Homer does regularly deride Flanders’ religiousness (“He’s a regular Charley Church”), and his own faith is opportunistic, at best.
- I remember reading a Phillip Adams opinion piece where he bemoaned the fact that a lie about his wearing of a Mao cap would be thrown around like a frisbee by the rabid right.
It’s pleasing to know that in all probability Phillip will at some point be reading these “frisbee” comments.
If so, maybe he could in next weeks column make mention of the new insights he discovered about the Simpsons?
Reach out to your blogging political enemies Phil, start the dialouge, it’s the only thing that can breathe life into your repetitive polemic.
- Remember this;
“The Weekend Australian (9 October 2001), Phillip Adams wrote: “Let us not share the madness with a nation that, instead of understanding its history, believes its own publicity. Confusing itself with the sanitised representations in Disney theme parks, the US fails to see that it has always been among the most violent nations on earth.”
“If Australia is to be a true friend of the American people, we must try to rein them in, not urge them on. The US has to learn that its worst enemy is the US,” according to Phillip Adams.“In the case of Saddam Hussein�s Iraq, Phillip Adams wrote that the American insistence that sanctions against Iraq be continued has led, by reliable accounts, to the slow death of at least 500,000 children. “
Source: American War on Muslim Afghanistan ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2002
- If you listen to the commentary of the Simpsons, Matt Groening doesn’t hide his left leanings. But as you listen them talk about the Charcters. I know Matt would fire the first writer that try make Flanders a hypocrit. Self parody is important trait for success. Matt understand this point. Matt , on one commentary mention his support for Ted Kenndy. Yet Mayor Quimby is blantant faux Kenndy. Jace Richdale was in Greenpeace, but if you see Hippie/Greenpeace joke, like in Burn’s Heir, he was the one that add it in. John Swartzwelder the most prolific writer on the show. Was noted on one commentary as someone who hated all Politicians. I think that translate , from lib speak, he is a conservative but he is nice guy.Posted by Alien Grey on 01/16 at 11:52 AM • #
- at least phildo didnt write another ‘when i was a child I blah blah blahdidy blah’ stories…Posted by Deo Vindice on 01/16 at 12:19 PM • #
- Extensively fisked here yesterday. What always surprises me about Phillip Adams’s columns is just how loose he is with the facts, every time.
Rog: “everything that he has said over the years has been proved wrong.” – I think he said something about Bush being re-elected (after the election), and something about Howard being re-elected (after the election). Other than that, I think you’re right.
- #8212;“The only significant TV series in which the lead characters would be pro-Bush is – The Sopranos. Their line on Muslims, the war in Iraq, let alone their ongoing prejudices against African/Americans, would put them firmly in the category of chest-thumping, white alpha males.” —
Could Phillip Adams remind us all who Bush’s choice of Secretary for the Practice of Racial Discrimination is, again? Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice?
Posted by Richard_of_Oz on 01/16 at 12:54 PM • #
- Whoops… that link should be http://wheels128.blogspot.com/2005/01/fisking-phillip-adams.html, like it was in the preview (or at least I’m sure it was in the preview, and it’s still on my clipboard… how does that work?).
- HE GETS PAID FOR THIS PRATTLE!?
The last time I looked the plumb jobs in the Bush Administration went to minorities and a sizeable proportion of America’s minority population voted for Bush! Adams likes to live in a one-dimensional fantasy world where racism is as black and white as he is. Racism, as defined by dogmatic and dangerous idealogues like him, is ONLY EVER white perpetrators, black victims! It’s never Black against White, Black against Asian, Black against Jew, Arab against Asian…NEVER! That would interfere with his “chest-thumping white alpha male” obsession. It’s probably his obsession in more ways than one!
The link Tim provides to Margo’s ravings only proves a point I made on here the other day, about the political spectrum’s circular nature. At some point the far Left and far Right’s nutty conspiracy theories, paranoia, anti-Semitism and mindless mantras eventually merge into one another.
Adams too is represented in Springfield’s microcosm, portrayed perfectly by none other than the grossly over-weight, SNEERING, POMPOUS, GLUTTON we all know as the ‘comic book guy’.
How someone as obscenely fat as Adams can constantly get away with his repeated attacks on rich, white decadence is quite literally stunning!!!!
- There is a joke book with a selection of Jew jokes that could be seen as nasty, offensive and Jew-baiting. It is co-edited by Phillip Adams.Posted by Kevin Dunn on 01/16 at 01:23 PM • #
- The Simpsons both endears and satirises stereotypes across the political spectrum. If you think the Simpsons has a strong liberal slant then you are a moron.Posted by drscroogemcduck on 01/16 at 02:28 PM • #
- Fellow magic carpet flier and graduate from the school of uber creative writing Robert Fisk has just unleashed a new pack of ripping yarns
- I’m not sure that George Monbiot would be proud of Phatso this week. Even to George this article would have appeared weak when there is so much anti-US material at the moment. Alternatively, Adams could have taken another shot at Latham (Adams is at least inteligent enough to realise that Latham is incapable of winning Race 6 at Fleminton with a bet on every horse let alone an election). Phatso really must lift his game. His movement, FAG, are truly becoming irrelevent in today’s New Australia.
Where’s Margo at the moment? Not being able to read Marilyn Sheperd’s fruity left comments is a truely large hole in my day.
Posted by Karl Fidel Adams-Kingston on 01/16 at 10:31 PM • #
- I am guessing he has never seen King of the Hill either. I am rather doubting most of the main characters in that show vote Democrat.
I used to think the Simpsons was a bit left-leaning until I saw an episode or two where Lisa/Marge’s do-gooding got the entire town into major trouble. The funniest of which is Halloween special where she helps the Dolphins take over the world.
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge on 01/17 at 01:39 AM • #
- Phillip Adams is back. I thought he had franchised his column, it had become so bland and tedious, but clearly the genuine Adams has returned. And just in time to fight for the critical issues that this poor country must confront; Hansonism, the Republic, Multiculturalism and Rights for Refugees. And J**n H****d. I don�t know how that man became Prime Minister again, no one I have spoken to voted for him. Dumb voters!
Phillip, the ALP certainly needs your guidance, Mark Latham supports mandatory detention, the reckless racist. The bloody workers think they own the party, they want to discuss issues that are best left for us to decide. You would be a unifying influence on all factions, I�m sure your Beazley biology remarks are now long forgotten.
Australia desperately needs some one who is proud of their country, like you. I know you succeeded from the Commonwealth after the Republic referendum, and became a sort of Prince Phillip of Paddington. You�re back now, and once we�re back in power, the country will make an official apology to you.
Please don�t leave us again, your opinions inspire a nation.
Many conservatives read George Orwell, whose socialist ideas were so half-baked that not even many socialists follow them today, because he wrote outstandingly well, and was above all right about the dangers of Stalinism. And many conservatives admire the Simpsons despite the spurious poltical points they make. It’s mostly lefties who believe that art can’t have merit if it doesn’t preach the right sermon.
The character sketches just never get old. The deeply unhappy, squalid, neurotic children’s clown; the childless, ancient, billionaire with his fawning assistant; the lonely, misanthropic bartender; the son who’s always in trouble, etc. etc. – what outstanding satire! In fact, I think I’m just going to watch my Simpsons DVDs yet again right now.