Tag: Mom and Pop Art

“Dad, chew with your mouth closed.  You’re losing your mystique.” – Lisa Simpson “Lisa, all great artists love free food.  Check out Jasper Johns.” – Homer Simpson “You squeal on me, I’ll kill you.” – Jasper Johns Zombie Simpsons’ remarkable inability to parody things beyond changing around a few letters has been brought up around here before.  Ditto their lame celebrity guest policy of having people voice themselves in what usually amount to barely concealed brag statements about how awesome they are in real life.  With “Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart”, Zombie Simpsons managed to pull both of those tired old rabbits out of their threadbare bag of tricks. “Swapper Jack’s”, the latest in the long line of renamed brands that Zombie Simpsons mistook for satire, is so unbelievably lazy that I feel like a bit of a rube for even giving it this much consideration.  I’ll give them credit for some decent sign gags on the outside of the store, though.  “Grass-Fed Lettuce” is kinda funny, as is the idea of meat so pampered that’s its sung to sleep.  But those are generalities, there’s nothing about them that’s inherently linked to Trader Joe’s/Swapper Jack’s.  There are, after all, a lot of stores that cater to foodies with disposable income. Not bad, Zombie Simpsons.  Too bad you had to go inside the store. Once they walk through the doors though, any attempt at broad satire is instantly dropped in favor of bland, semi-complimentary one liners for this particular store.  Like “Cinnabun” a couple of months ago, “Swapper Jack’s” isn’t so much a parody as it is an advertisement.  Little tweaks to the decor and having jelly that even Lisa hasn’t heard of are the kind of half-clever, self-congratulatory ideas you’d normally expect to find in a company newsletter. Contrast that gentle fluffing with the unlimited contempt poured into the Monstromart in “Homer and Apu”.  The establishing shot lets us know that this place, partly Costco, partly Wal-Mart, partly the rest of those giant warehouse stores, is not going to come out of this well. It looks like the headquarters of some Eastern European secret police agency. The entire time Marge and Apu are at the store, hilarious and terrible things are happening.  The place only sells nutmeg in sizes that would last for years, and their mania for bulk allows Barney to accidentally trigger a cranberry juice tidal wave by asking a giant syrup container where the lampshades are.  Then there’s the wonderfully disingenuous (and successful) declaration of corporate love via loudspeaker, the kind of cheap, commercial chicanery The Simpsons lived to mock.  Nothing about the place, from the “1000 Items or Less” express aisle to the parade of “pathetic, single men”, would ever make you want to shop there or any place like it.  Monstromart wasn’t born out of a love of big box stores the way “Swapper Jack’s” was born out of someone wandering into their favorite Trader Joe’s and taking notes.  Monstromart is mean. But their love of…