An Egg Yolk Omelet, Special Salad Dressing and a Negroni Sbagliato, Please!, at the New York Public Library in March. Credit: Sarah Leenheer
After watching the first two episodes of The Simpsons—with my husband Dave and his son Adam—I was worried it would be all a bunch of hokey, kooky, and kooky.
But that’s not the case.
The Simpsons has a sense of humor that is a bit closer to the real world than most sitcoms—you know, just a little bit, not very often.
And there are many ways to approach a TV show with so much humor, so much insight and so much heart within that structure. Here are some of them.
1. Use the show to make a point.
I’m a big believer in the “show what you want to see” philosophy, which is exactly what The Simpsons does.
In the first episode, Bart asks for a heart transplant because his heart stopped. The episode ends with Bart’s wife Lisa and Homer driving to a hospital in the Simpsons’ yellow and blue van.
It’s a simple, yet powerful image. This is what people will see when they watch The Simpsons. It will make them laugh, feel as if they will understand, and if they don’t, they may even be offended.
If you don’t want to watch the show, that’s fine. But you’ll miss out on something good if you don’t see them use it on the airwaves.
2. Write your own.
In the second episode, Homer discovers that the secret ingredient in his cooking is not salt or pepper but rather egg yolk. Homer makes a point of telling Bart, who reacts very angrily by saying that he should have been able to deduce, after seeing a recipe, that anything can be substituted by a food product.
The moral of this episode is that one’s values should never be dictated by a box of ingredients. Homer learns his lesson, and Bart learns his.
3. Use the show to make good points.
Another Simpsons episode, titled “Lazy and Broke,” reveals the story behind a $3 trillion dollar savings bond that was the subject of a TV ad featuring the show’s