Comments on: Discursive Disintegration

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:08:48 +0000

by “generic” I mean satire of genre, not humdrum, btw

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:08:14 +0000

It’s definitely cutting-edge, or capable of it, and I’ll defend that tooth and nail, yes, but it’s social and generic, not so much party political and timely.

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:06:47 +0000

I find it unlikely that after 20 years of doing their thing, The Simpsons will start cowering. They’re also the most lucrative entity the network has ever owned: American Idol earns chump change by comparison. So I think they’re entirely comfy in their skins, but more to the point, there’s no way FOX would cancel them because they made a political statement (remember, they were just as much on the edge of cancellation in 2006, when they made their boldest political move in the history of the show and ended a Halloween ep about the war in Iraq with a castigation of American policy. It’s still the only ep I know of that doesn’t end on a happy note).

By: Jeffrey Jones

Jeffrey Jones — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:21:30 +0000

Plus, if we believe hegemony is real (not just some theory), then none of this should be surprising, no?

By: Jeffrey Jones

Jeffrey Jones — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:19:55 +0000

I’m with Jonathan here. Plus, Fox broadcast has let political stuff go on the air that Rupert would disagree with happen before–perhaps most notably Michael Moore’s TV Nation in 1995, with much more in the way of direct criticisms of the stuff central to Rupert’s world than Israeli politics.

By: Matt Sienkiewicz

Matt Sienkiewicz — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:31:30 +0000

The no-notes rule makes sense for the current season, but moving forward the show has to please the Powers that Be no? Next season is always one network decision from not happening. Granted, they’re mostly interested in the bottom line, but it doesn’t follow that because there’s no direct note-giving there’s no motivation to please the boss, does it?

By: Jeffrey Jones

Jeffrey Jones — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:14:09 +0000

Well, rarely will you hear me say that network television produces anything in the way of cutting-edge satiric comedy, so I’m not exactly going to rise to the show’s defense. That’s your job, no? ;-).

By: Matt Sienkiewicz

Matt Sienkiewicz — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 19:38:45 +0000

Yeah, that’s very much my point. This seems like the kind of thing you’re either committed to or you don’t bother with. And more than anything, I’m saying that it looks like they’re aiming for topicality but don’t have the firepower to actually hit the target. If I’m blaming the writers it’s for their failure to play to their format’s strengths and as a result coming up with some really lumpy satire. The targets are all over the place (religion, politics, tourism) but none of it feels all that relevant. Again, topicality perhaps isn’t something they have the tools to excel at, which makes this a bad choice for an episode to my mind.

By: Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:03:49 +0000

at the same time, Jeff, if they don’t want to touch the topic with a ten foot pole, then why give it a prod, no? They could’ve had that little comment in a dream sequence or something like that in an otherwise non-Israel episode, but they chose to go there, so why not go there?

By: Jeffrey Jones

Jeffrey Jones — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:10:20 +0000

I don’t know, man. I’m going to cut the writers slack on this one because as we have all seen way too often, wading into the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is NEVER a civil affair. Pick whatever side you want to blame for that (perhaps both), but as you recently and perhaps routinely experience(d), the ability to have a conversation about that has been shut down in the United States. So a seemingly innocuous statement to you–“Welcome to Israel, Your American Tax Dollars at Work”–most likely produced an outpouring of criticisms and letter writing to Fox for its anti-Israeli “policies”. Ugh. I am happy that the writers have the kahunas enough to do simply that in this environment. In short, you seem to want to blame the writers, whereas I think the overall cultural climate is more to blame.