The Simpsons is so ambitious, intimate, classical, experimental, hip, corny, and altogether free in its conviction that the imagination should go where it wants, that to even begin to explain all the things The Simpsons is, and all the things it does, you would need an immense Venn diagram drawn on a football field, each circle representing different modes of comedy.
It went to more places—tonally and topically as well as geographically— tackled more issues, and told more jokes about more subjects than any comedy has before or since, and at its peak (roughly seasons 3–12) did it better than anyone else.
Those seasons happened right when I was a teenager in France, where the show aired too. It is just great memories of talking about that joke, that line, in the last episode during a break at school. What I remember being struck by was the amount of self-consciousness, how the writers would go on US culture and society. Could be hard or just poking fun at it but it was constant and surgical. France’s irreverence has always been pretty corny and basic, or its satire is super brutal going for hard themes and strong images. There, humor and criticism were happening through so many angles and layers, it was inventive and great. Balanced. I couldn’t get enough of that. Same with Futurama.
I just read that Matt Groening grew up on the west coast with his parents being both half-Europeans. Considering how strongly universal the Simpsons felt –despite being truly Americans- I am not surprised.
I thought that liberal, agnostic take on the US and the world would spread because it is so effective creatively. So many places to go.
It did not happen but we still have 596 episodes –and counting- of that sitcom.
The Simpsons, man. One of the only thing the US can be proud of univocally.