Are The Simpsons Finally Part of the Establishment?

After twenty years, are The Simpsons finally becoming like that which they've mercilessly lampooned: Disney?

"Homer Vs. Mickey," an article on The Economist's More Intelligent Life website, traces the development of The Simpsons from counter-cultural gadflies to entertainment icons. A lot of the Simpsons aesthetic was consciously built in opposition to that of the Disney "look" and "feel" – but 20 years (and massive stardom and licensing) later, is the Simpsons brand really that different?

At the same time, the article points out, many of Disney's own properties have developed a self-reflective sense of humor about themselves that rivals even The Simpsons' own gags:

"In 2007 Disney made fun of its own saccharine tradition of animated princesses with the brilliant “Enchanted”, whose heroine enlists the help of a swarm of cockroaches, rats and pigeons to clean a New York apartment. This was a much funnier take on Disney woodland animals than the sequence in “The Simpsons Movie” where Disney-ish animals watch, appalled, as Marge and Homer have sex."

Moreover, while even the classic Disney animated features tackle tough subject matter such as dying parents and the struggles of growing up, the characters on The Simpsons have stayed exactly the same:

"There’s something comforting about the way no one in Springfield ever changes or ages. Disney loves to tangle with the travails of growing up: Mowgli, Hercules and Tarzan are all like the heroes of earnest bildungsromans, forging the difficult path to manhood. The Simpsons have no such struggles. No matter how many dramas happen to them–kidnap, imprisonment, nuclear meltdown–Bart is always ten, Lisa eight and Maggie a baby."

What do you think? Is The Simpsons a shade of its former rebellious self? Do you prefer Marge or Mrs. Incredible? Do you have more Disney or Simpsons collectables in your house? Or have you simply given up on all of it and stick with The Venture Bros.?

Feeling Kind Of Misty-Eyed...

...that's Punisher MAX: Butterfly,
Final Order Cut-Off Date 2/11/10,
On Sale 3/3/10!

Please note (according to this issue of Marvel Previews):
There is a strict no overprint policy on all MAX titles. Please check your orders and place them by the FOC. (translation: you could totally miss this awesome opportunity to own one of these comics for your very own if you don't order one from your comic book dealer right now!) (or you could wait for the trade. but God knows when that will happen. I mean, I'm sure it will eventually, but do you really want to wait that long? better off getting it now, I say.) (seriously, this is a really good book.)

Should There Be a Third Star Wars Trilogy?

IGN ponders the possibility of George Lucas making a third Star Wars trilogy:

"So let's say that Lucas decided to finally make these three films. How cool would it be to see Luke not only finally back in action, but also in true Jedi form, albeit as an aged, Ben Kenobi type? Certainly Mark Hamill would be up for the role, and since Lucas controls his own destiny, so to speak, when making his films, he wouldn't be required by any studio to jettison Hamill for a more box-office ready star. Of course, if Lucas could draw Harrison Ford back -- and judging by the state of Ford's career lately, he just might be able to -- that problem would be solved anyway (as long as Ford lost the grump factor for a spell). Carrie Fisher, though… well, she just doesn't fit the Princess Leia role anymore, does she? More Penny Marshall now than Leia, she's become sort of twisted if not evil."

While the Leia being Penny Marshall thing threw me, the article brings up some interesting points.

Would you be up for another go at the franchise?

On "The Simpsons," God Has Five Fingers

In order to solve the mystery of why God has five fingers in "The Simpsons," we must look back to the ancient art of numerology.

The standard person in the Simpsons universe has four fingers. Traditionally, Four is the sacred Egyptian number representing Time, the divine quaternity. For example, Horus the Falcon-headed god has four sons. There are four canoptic jars placed around the dead, and four pillars supporting the vault of heaven.

Horus

Now, let's jump ahead in time to Christianity, and its four arch-angels, four fathers of the church, and four horses of the Apocalypse. As we all know, the central religious figure of Springfield is the Reverend Lovejoy. He has four fingers. He has also appeared on "The Simpsons" a total of 301 times. 3 + 0 + 1 = 4. Reverend Lovejoy is God's intermediary, close to the divine but not yet complete.

Now, how does this lead into the Five Fingers Of The Simpsons Jehovah? Five represents the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. When God approaches Homer Simpson, he laments the character's great and devastating fail. This symbolizes the disappointment of God in each and every one of us, Homer Simpson representing The Common Man. Thus, God has five fingers, and the other Simpsons characters only have four.

Homer: Great and Devastating Fail, Fall of Man

Of course, this explanation is all bullshit. No, not even bullshit that actually means I'm right in some passive-aggressive self-righteous insecure way. This is just complete and utter bullshit.

But you know what isn't bullshit? Remember that scene in "Charlie Brown Christmas" where Lucy gives Linus "five good reasons" why he should listen to her, and counts out five fingers? Normally, the members of the Charlie Brownverse only have four fingers. Which means: Lucy, like God, must possess some sort of uncanny divine abilities. In fact, if we do the requisite mythological/theological research, we find out that Lucy is short for...you guessed it, Lucifer. But that's a post for another day.

Lucy-fer sacrifices pumpkin to the Dark Gods while Linus swoons.

"2010" The Movie Explained

"2010" – the sequel to the classic Stanley Kubrick film "2001" – is a long boring movie. I'm not saying it's a bad movie. But it's like if you took the snail's pace of the Kubrick film but minused Kubrick's genius.

Still, since it shares our New Year date, you might hear the movie being referenced now and again. So here is my CliffsNotes version of "2010."

Spoilers!

The movie starts with a long boring talk between Dr. Floyd (played by Roy Scheider) and some Russian scientist. The gist is, the Russians want to find the ship that disappeared in "2001," and reactivate HAL. The ship/HAL is moored somewhere around Jupiter. The Russian scientist blames America for not sharing the Monolith with the rest of the world. Scheider's taut facial skin grimaces in sympathy.

Roy Scheider maintains this expression through the entire movie.

The film was made in 1984, so you can expect a fair amount of Cold War tension in "2010"; remember, this is the year "Red Dawn" came out. In fact, the film seems to be way more concerned with American/Russian relations than the Monolith, HAL, Dave Bowman, or space exploration. Throughout the film, you can almost hear Sting sing "Russians."

Can you guess who the "world leaders" are on this magazine cover?

Meanwhile, the scientist who created HAL, Dr. Chandra, talks to his new computer, SAL, about bringing HAL back. SAL is voiced by Candice Bergen (sort of doing her version of Charlie McCarthy) and seems to share HAL's passive-aggressive tendencies. Bob Balaban plays Dr. Chandra as a small nervous quiet man who successfully contains a great deal of unexpressed inner rage, which is a real stretch for him.

Now Dr. Floyd, Dr. Chandra, and a very low-key but still quite neurotic John Lithgow join a Russian team of scientists on a mission to Jupiter. The leader of the Russian mission is played by Helen Mirren, back when she was young and not an unusually sexy 60-year-old. The Russians don't trust the Americans and act robotic. It's up to the plucky Americans to get the Russians to smile.

Will Helen Mirren smile? Stay tuned!

At this point of the film, you might be wondering where the hell is HAL, Dave Bowman, the Monolith, the apes with their tools, the Starchild, and everything else. Instead, we are treated to verrrrry slow scenes onboard the ship going over procedure or the whole Americans trying to make the Russians smile thing. In one scene, you actually root for Lithgow's character to die, just for something exciting to happen.

Zzzzzz...

But lo! Dave Bowman mysteriously appears on his former wife's TV screen and brushes his mother's hair as a ghost. He talks of an exciting new thing happening that will change the world forever. Then: back to more space ship procedure and making the Russians smile. Mirren's character finally smiles. Yay.


Suddenly, Russia and America are at war. Dr. Floyd's team is recalled from the Russian ship. Then Dr. Floyd is contacted by the mysterious Dave Bowman via the reactivated HAL. We discover that the real reason HAL went crazy in the first movie is Because It's All The American Government's Fault. Bowman's appearance is the best scene in the entire film, because you are so lulled into a semi-comatose state by this point that seeing Bowman as The Old Guy and The Really Old Guy and the Starchild really wakes you up. Dr Floyd is told by Bowman to clear out in two days, because something really awesome is going to happen.

A whole bunch of Monoliths fly to Jupiter and the planet starts to eat itself. The Russian spaceship hightails it out of there, and HAL tragically sacrifices himself to save everyone. Jupiter turns into a small sun. A message beams out to all the people of Earth:

"ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE. USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE."

Jupiter's moon Europa, meanwhile, is benefiting from the new heat source and is seen rapidly developing a lush rainforest-like landscape.

Now Earth has two suns, and its inhabitants are joined together in peace. The Russians have learned how to smile. The End.

Some points to absorb that might or might not have relevance:

The Aliens are here to bring about a New Age of peace...right?

1. The film features the classic "Alien Saviors" plotline. Aliens contact earth and offer world peace. Sometimes they engineer some sort of "crisis" or grand event to get our attention and realize that we are all citizens on planet earth. Right before I watched "2010," I viewed the old "To Serve Man" episode of "Twilight Zone." Similar plot, very different outcome. Are the aliens here to truly offer world peace and facilitate our evolution, or do they in the end want to simply eat us? Many science-fiction films struggle with this question.

There are many similarities between "2010" and "Star Trek III"

2. Europa turns into some sort of "Genesis" planet, a new Eden: much like the "Genesis" planet featured in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock" the same year. In both films, the war/tension between two groups/cultures (Russian/American, Klingon/Federation) is a main theme. In both films, there is a central iconic character who seemingly died in the previous movie but might be resurrected (Dave Bowman/Spock). Both films feature a New Eden planet artificially created to jumpstart life (Europa/Genesis). Both films feature the destruction of the famous ship from the previous/initial film (Discovery/Enterprise) – this destruction proceeds despite/to spite government officials back home. Lastly, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was very influenced by the work of "2001"/"2010" novel scribe Arthur C. Clarke.

3. The theme of "two suns" is also featured in "Star Wars" (the two suns of Tattoine).

"Star Wars"

"2010"

4. To relate some of these themes with "real life":

• The names of both the "2001"/"2010" ships (Discovery) and Star Trek's ship (Enterprise) were used as that of actual space shuttles. The Space Shuttle Discovery was launched the same year "2010" was released (1984).
• Scientists believe that with the oxygen in its atmosphere and likely underground cache of liquid water, Europa is a very good candidate for containing/sustaining extraterrestrial life.
  
• Scientists say that other Earth-like planets with two suns are likely.
• There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the emergence of a second sun in our solar system, 2012, "The End of the World," Jupiter igniting and turning into a sun, the Mayans, the aliens, kitchen sink, etc. It would take more research on my end to determine whether those theories are directly/indirectly inspired by the movie "2010," have pre-existed "2010," or whether there are common streams that both the conspiracy theorists and Arthur C. Clarke have been influenced by.
• There are also conspiracy theories floating around that this year (2010) will be the one where we are officially told that alien contact has been made with Earth ("disclosure"). This theory is linked with the movie's tagline "The Year We Make Contact."
  

No Gay Sherlock Holmes Movies, Writer's Estate Sez

The controller of the remaining U.S. copyrights for the Sherlock Holmes stories freaks out after Robert Downey Jr. hints at homoerotic subtext to the new movie adaptation:

"I hope this is just an example of Mr Downey's black sense of humour. It would be drastic, but I would withdraw permission for more films to be made if they feel that is a theme they wish to bring out in the future. I am not hostile to homosexuals, but I am to anyone who is not true to the spirit of the books."

Also, the thought of homosexuality makes her uncomfortable and offends her.

Holmes's cocaine habit still a-OK, though!

Jim Carrey: Pop-Culture Shaman

Subject: Jim Carrey
Portrays mostly:

• Innocents/Idiots/Fools
• The Insane, especially those with Split-Personalities and Alter-Egos (Unstable Sense of Identity)
• The Displaced (Unstable Sense of Reality)
• Chosen Ones (Communication with/Manipulation by/Powers Received from Higher Forces)

As we will see, Jim Carrey has portrayed an inordinate amount of characters fitting one or more of the aforementioned categories. These categories also relate to each other, and are the characteristics of the Shaman (or, if you prefer: Magician, Artist, Holy Man, etc).


Jim Carrey, a Partial Filmography:

Ace Ventura Pet Detective (1994): Innocent/Idiot/Fool with Power of communication with animals. Like the Fool of the Rider-Waite Tarot, is accompanied by dog.


The Mask (1994): Innocent/Idiot/Fool with Split-Personality and Alter-Ego (Unstable Sense of Identity), Manipulated by and receives Power from Higher Force. Like the Fool of the Rider-Waite Tarot, is accompanied by dog. Alter-Ego is Insane.

Dumb & Dumber (1994): Innocent/Idiot/Fool. Rides in vehicle in the form of a dog.

Batman Forever (1995): Innocent/Idiot/Fool with Split-Personality and Alter-Ego (Unstable Sense of Identity), Manipulated by and Receives Power from Higher Force. Alter-Ego is Insane. Holds wand like Tarot's Magician. Assumes Criminal Alter Ego.

The Cable Guy (1996): Innocent/Idiot/Fool with Split-Personality and Alter-Ego (Unstable Sense of Identity). Alter-Ego is Insane. Assumes Criminal Alter Ego. Like Tarot's Magician, wields wand/conductor of energy (cable/electricity).


Liar Liar (1997): Innocent/Idiot/Fool Manipulated by Higher Force.

The Truman Show (1998): Innocent/Idiot/Fool Manipulated by Higher Force and Displaced (Unstable Sense of Reality).

Man on the Moon (1999): Innocent/Idiot/Fool (Latka character) Manipulated by Higher Force (genius). "Insane," with Split-Personality/Alter-Ego (Unstable Sense of Identity) Tony Clifton. Manipulator of Reality. See: Tarot card The Moon (indicating split personality of dog/Fool/Latka and Wolf/Tony Clifton.


Me, Myself & Irene (2000): Innocent/Idiot/Fool with Split-Personality and Alter-Ego (Unstable Sense of Identity). Alter-Ego is Insane. Assumes Criminal Alter Ego.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000): Assumes Alter-Ego (Santa Claus). Assumes Criminal Alter Ego (robs Whos). Like the Fool of the Rider-Waite Tarot, is accompanied by dog.

The Majestic (2001): Innocent/Idiot/Fool with Split-Personality and Alter-Ego (Unstable Sense of Identity). Displaced (Unstable Sense of Reality).

Bruce Almighty (2003): Innocent/Idiot/Fool Manipulated by and Receives Power from Higher Force.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004): Innocent/Idiot/Fool who is Displaced (Unstable Sense of Reality).


Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events (2004): Actor who assumes Alter-Egos.

Fun With Dick And Jane (2005): Displaced, assumes Criminal Alter Ego.

The Number 23 (2007): Innocent/Idiot/Fool in Communication with Higher Force and is Displaced (Unstable Sense of Reality). Alter-Ego is Insane. Assumes/Resumes Criminal Alter Ego.

Horton Hears A Who (2008): Innocent/Idiot/Fool in Communication with "Higher Force" (the invisible Whos).

Yes Man (2008): Innocent/Idiot/Fool Manipulated by Higher Force.


I Love You Philip Morris (2009): Innocent/Idiot/Fool with Split-Personality and Alter-Ego (Unstable Sense of Identity). Assumes Criminal Alter Ego.

A Christmas Carol (2009): Displaced, in Communication with & Manipulated by Higher Forces.

Jim Carrey has played similar, interrelated characters for most of his career. On one hand, he is far from pigeon-holed as an actor. Take his performances in the wacky comedy Ace Ventura and the thoughtful drama Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. On the other hand, the overwhelming majority of his roles concern unstable identities, unstable realities, and contact with Higher Forces (whether it be the Judeo-Christian God, Loki, microscopic Whos, or a self-help guru).

Perhaps every actor and actress is, in essence, a shaman, temporarily taking on another identity and leading the audience into a mass catharsis/exorcism through his or her performance. But never was this so literal and striking as in the case of Jim Carrey, who seems to play nothing but people with Shaman characteristics.

The Shaman...

...communicates with animal spirits:


...is initially thought insane by his/her tribe for talking to invisible beings:


...can access other worlds/dimensions:


...is often initially thought of as the village idiot:


...is often initially thought to be mentally ill:


...is often the village outcast:


...talks to spirit-guides:

...talks to "God":


...can be "possessed" during ritual:


...can wear a mask during ritual:


...can have special abilities:


...can be compelled to say out-of-place words by the gods:


...has his/her life turned upside-down by contact with the gods:


...can bring catharsis/exorcism to the village:


...returns from vision quest and brings the village valuable new information on the true nature of reality:


Carrey also resonates with the archetypal figure known as the Green Man:


As well as a figure related to the Green Man & Shamans, The Trickster:

Carrey's Riddler in "Batman Forever"...

...is very reminiscent Mark Hamill's
Trickster in the Flash TV series...

...but they all come from the same mythic place.

You have to wonder what effect playing characters with the same "energy" over and over and over again has on Mr. Carrey. Is he fully aware that he serves as the Shaman/Fool/Green Man/Trickster for our pop-culture? – our pop-culture serving as the current era's mythic generator/repository.

The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part.

--Miguel de Cervantes