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Home  News News Simpsons' Episode Assailing Patriot Act To Be A Classic
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Simpsons' Episode Assailing Patriot Act To Be A Classic |
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Written by bigpig
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Sunday, 06 June 2004 |
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Page 1 of 2 FMeekins sent us this: "The Simpsons is a series at its wittiest when it pokes fun at issues with broader social implications. Classic episodes that come to mind include the ones spoofing the Masons, the UFO cult, and Homer’s Drudge-style webpage. Joining these will no doubt be the one alluding to the Patriot Act." Read the rest.
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FMeekins sent us this:
The Simpsons is a series at its wittiest when it pokes fun at issues with broader social implications. Classic episodes that come to mind include the ones spoofing the Masons, the UFO cult, and Homer’s Drudge-style webpage. Joining these will no doubt be the one alluding to the Patriot Act.
The episode begins with the Simpson kids off to get their inoculations. Bart unexpectedly goes deaf from his and Homer inadvertently signs a waiver forbidding him from holding Dr. Hibert legally responsible. From there, the Simpsons become town pariahs as it is assumed a deaf Bart deliberately mooned the flag after a donkey ate his gym shorts.
Things get considerably more hilarious when ATF-style shocktroops raid the church and arrest the Simpsons for violating the Government Knows Best Act. The Simpson gang is sent packing to a prison camp euphemistically referred to as a “reeducation center”.
Though a poignant, timely episode in light of the danger posed to American liberties by certain governmental provisions claiming to fight the war on terror such as the Patriot Act and various executive orders making toilet paper of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, the episode’s primary drawback stemmed from the fact that those interned were depicted as leftists of various stripes when in reality there are probably even more Conservatives and Libertarians opposed to such systematic infringements of our civil liberties. Yet even this skewered presentation was not without humor.
One inmate whined all he did was drive a truckload of explosives over the Canadian border. One old coot claimed he was the last registered Democrat. He then blathered, “Tax and spend. Tax and spend”, a clear indication he was out of his mind.
The Simpsons escape and are rescued by a French freighter whose captain remarks upon the irony of the French hatred of America despite being saved by the United States in two world wars. After living in Paris for a while, the Simpsons return to the U.S., observing that if there’s one group America will let in its immigrants without identification.
For years, Conservative interest groups have castigated The Simpsons as inappropriately subversive. Instead, Conservatives ought to look to the show as a source of satire occasionally allied with their movement exposing in a humorous manner the folly and stupidity regularly gaining an upper hand throughout society as a result of misguided policies and faulty assumptions inherent to the liberal way of life.
Copyright 2004 by Frederick B. Meekins
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