The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony Analysis

The article of Carl Matheson, "The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony, and the Meaning of Life", has a profound and detailed discussion about the Quotationalism and Hyper-irony that frequently used in popular animation series The Simpsons. The concept of quotationalism and hyper- irony as interpreting by Carl Matheson means "referring to or quoting other works of popular culture" and "the flavor of humor that is colder and share less sense of humanity"(Carl, para.2). To introduced the ideas of Quatationalism and Hyper-irony as methods of creating jokes in comedies, Carl Matheson has shared with us the history of comedies since the origin of quotationalism, and what lead people's favor of such cruel and cold sense of humor like Hyper-irony. Moreover, the most important information that Carl try to convey is that those two methods of comedy promote The Simpsons both in contents and comic effect. Firstly, the Carl have demonstrated that quotationalism is used in comedy for a long time but distinct from the form of allusion

This story seems to be a typical family value story and being sarcastic to the higher class, whereas the details of the show have shown the Marge neglect the feeling of her family and people in the country club as they trying to embody their family. This episode is a standard example of hyper-ironism in which both sides of the moral agenda is undercutting. The fundamental purpose of the Simpsons is to make laughs. Therefore, the cruelty is indispensable as the humor must construct on others foolishness or misfortune. Nonetheless, the Simpsons still have some degree of family values as it must follow the constraint of TV shows and absolute cruelty would cause it lose the function of comedy and making audience embarrassing as people watching it is at every