The Impact of Postmodernism and Live Art on the Simpsons Essay

The Impact of Postmodernism and Live Art on the Simpsons - Essay Example The essay "The Impact of Postmodernism and Live Art on the Simpsons" investigates how postmodernism and live art influenced on "The Simpsons". In most Simpsons episodes, and certainly virtually all of them past a certain age within the franchise, the scene opens to Bart writing on the board, writing something new, then moves on through the rest of the family until the last part where the family sits down to watch the show. The couch sequence and the board-writing sequence are always different, but tend to follow a circumscribed pattern. The Banksy segment undermines this. The board-writing sequence has Bart writing outside of the lines, and distorting the perspective, writing on impossible areas. For example: The writing goes over the clock without warping. This undermines the reality of the animation. Baudrillard reminds us that everything, even live television, is a simulation: It is showing some parts of reality and clipping off others, and in so doing providing a selective treatm ent of reality. Kant might add that even our own senses are a simulation of the world's simulacra, a representation of reality formed by the eyes, nose, ears, tongue, body and brain. The brain constantly edits and makes choices. The reality we experience, the phenomena, are all rather distinct from the underlying ontological reality, if there even is one. The Banksy opening in this regard undermines our belief in the â€Å"reality† of the representation of the cartoon and thus problematizes our assumption.