“Can I play with it?” – Kindergartener
“No you can’t play with it!  You won’t enjoy it on as many levels as I do.” – Professor Frink

Denise Du Vernay and the awesomely named Karma Waltonen recently came out with a book about how you can use The Simpsons in the classroom.  We’ve mentioned it a few times around here but, since I haven’t read it, those mentions have been kinda brief (see: yesterday’s Reading Digest).  Well, I still haven’t read the book, but Du Vernay, subbing in at USA Today’s Pop Candy blog, published a Simpsons syllabus (via) she uses for a college composition course titled “The Simpsons: Satire and Postmodernism”. 

The syllabus contains a week by week schedule of the topics to be covered and the relevant episodes to watch.  Here’s a sample:

Week 3: The Simpsons & Politics: View: Much Apu About Nothing (1996, Season 7); Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington (1991, Season 3); Citizen Kang (1996, Season 8); Sideshow Bob Roberts (1994, Season 6). Have read: Aeon J. Skoble’s "Lisa and American Anti-Intellectualism." (Recommended Home Viewing: Bart-Mangled Banner (2004, Season 15); Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish (1989, Season 2)). Journals 3 & 4 due.

As you can see, there are two classes of episodes here, “View”, and the less imperative “Recommended Home Viewing”.  Over the ten weeks of the course, the students are required to view thirty-three episodes (plus the movie, shudder), and recommended to view twenty-seven episodes.  Complete list goes here:

You can tell just by scanning the list that there’s something noticeably missing from the “Required” column: Zombie Simpsons.  There are two episodes from Season 10, and nothing from Seasons 11+.  This is wise.  Of the sixty total episodes, just fourteen (23%) are from Zombie Simpsons, and all of them are optional (presumably because teachers are not supposed to abuse their students). 

We can now add accredited academics to the list of people who know that Zombie Simpsons is vapid, intellectually hollow tripe.  Or, to use one of their erudite, ivory tower book learnin’ words, Zombie Simpsons “sucks”. 

The book is out now, and I shamelessly stole this list of places you can buy it from the official website:

To order, visit amazon.com, McFarland Publishing, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million online, or ask your local bookstore to carry it.