Finally, a true Homerian epic

I was asked the other day if I was going to see the movie version of The Simpsons. I don’t think so, but that is not a criticism of the film version of a TV series that is better than 99 percent of all TV comedies (the other one percent I’ll give to The Office, if for sweet Pam if nothing else)

It’s just that, for reasons I’ve outlined here before, I don’t ‘do’ movies in movie houses. The last time I went to the movies was either Saving Private Ryan (that otherwise engaging if horrific Spielberg epic that seemed to indicate there were no ‘Allies’ at D-Day, such as Brits or Canadians, and that the US had handled the whole thing all by themselves), or Titanic. I was told we had to see Titanic on the big screen because the effects were tremendous. They were. It was very impressive cinematically. The plotline and most of the acting absolutely sucked (with the exception of Kate Winslet, whom I’d watch reading the telephone book), and it also made me hope somebody might someday put out a contract on Celine Dion, but that’s neither here nor there.

As for The Simpsons, well since I’m used to watching it on TV anyway, I’ll wait for the DVD. I am also wary about any half-hour vehicle being expanded to motion picture length. It never really works. But, according to critics, The Simpsons continues to ‘work’ until about three-quarters of the way through, so that ain’t bad.

I suggested at the beginning that I am a fan of The Simpsons. Indeed I am. I think it is often brilliant, and when it’s not brilliant, it is still pretty good. I wish somebody would encourage Jim Belushi to watch and then say: “Jim, this is what ‘funny’ looks like. Obviously an alien concept to you.”

The Simpsons have been almost consistently funny, irreverent, satirical, buffoonish, sometimes touching (but never enough to get treacly), and an all out blast that is the first thing that has been consistently hilarious since Get Smart went off the air. I say this, and I’m not even really an animation buff. But, all the elements of the finest anarchic comedy are there. The Simpsons are the Marx Brothers in cartoon format, but the difference even there being (and I am a big Marx fan) that the Simpsons are almost always funny. The Marxes sometimes, quite frankly, weren’t consistently amusing. They could actually get a bit tiresome. Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and even Maggie, along with that cast of 'thousands', never get tiresome.

The series was always good, though I’m not so enamored of the early episodes. They were a bit like the early forays into sex most of us had – a bit awkward, cumbersome and ill-defined. They hadn’t yet established their groove. The change came when the focus of the series was removed from Bart and transferred to Homer – that universal schmuck that almost every male (and female who lives with one) can relate to at times. We’ve all had our Homeresque moments. The only difference between Homer and the rest of us is that he feels only a fleeting shame, the rest of us continue to live in agony with our gaffes and awful misjudgements.

So, I raise a glass and toast all the good residents of Springfield (wherever it might be, everlasting tire-fire and all), and all the gang at Moe’s and Kwikee-Mart, may you long prosper. Society needs the likes of you to inject a bit of ‘sanity’ into a genuinely insane world.