“And special awards go to the two students who obviously had no help from their parents, Lisa Simpson and Ralph Wiggum.” – Principal Skinner
Parental neglect is one of those things a lesser show would treat with respect, not The Simpsons. Half the plot of “$pringfield”, which would be a masterpiece for any other program but is instead just par for the course, is about Marge’s gambling induced inattention of her kids, specifically her elder daughter. In the hands of lesser storytellers, Marge would’ve had a big emotional moment with Lisa. Instead, Lisa’s worst nightmare, the thing she most dreads, comes to pass. She is basely humiliated at the geography pageant.
Rather than play this for sadness or poignancy, the show makes it a joke. Lisa’s embarrassment, while terrible for her, is funny to us on account of the school’s unintentional exacerbation of it through an institutional need to reward failure. The worst students, the ones who most need to be shielded and helped, are made to stand alone on stage in front of everyone. Not only does this scene help wrap up the plot, but it’s hilariously mean. Lisa doesn’t even need a line, putting her on the same level as the blissfully ignorant Ralph Wiggum does it all.
Dead Homer Society 
5 responses to “Sunday Afternoon Cartoons”
I’d love to see the new, poor art-style try to emulate this.
The scene where marge comes home and the door is riddled with shotgun holes and Homer and the kids emerge from under the mattress would be another challange for them in this episode. I still nearly pee my pants each time I see that scene.
No need to say how far the father-daughter neglect theme has gone today: take a look at Peter and Meg’s relationship in Family Guy. If you say this is rewarding and hilarious on the account that a father takes for granted his own daughter’s everyday life failure, you must be either a terrible parent, or never had the chance to be one at all.
The thing that makes it work so well is that you still feel an emotional connection to the characters. Their pain is REAL. Had this happened in a later season there would be an awkward sad oboe playing while Lisa sank her head. Don’t get me wrong, I love when the show is sweet and nice (Bart vs Thanksgiving) but it also knew how to play DARK well (Bart vs Thanksgiving.) I don’t feel like I’m laughing AT Lisa here… rather WITH her. This is because she plays a unique but totally real and amusing human emotion: stunned shame.
Now the characters are like evil ROBOTS trying to mimic human emotions and getting them all wrong.
I guess the only way the show can be funny now is for these robots to short out and burst into flame.