The style and humor of Matt Groening, author of The Simpsons and Futurama

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In honor of the release of Matt Groening's new series, Disappointment, Lifehacker recalls two of his major works and their cultural impact.

The Beginning and "Life in Hell"

Since his youth, Matt Groening loved to write and illustrate comics. He did not manage to do this professionally at once. At first, these were just ironic notes that he drew in his free time from the main work. Groening called them "Life in Hell" and periodically sent them to friends as a description of his life in Los Angeles.

"Life in Hell" - short notes about work, everyday life, love, death. In a word, about the most common. The main characters are a family of rabbits. Then other characters began to appear, even Matt Groening himself (he is also depicted there as a rabbit).

Groening did not give up comics, even when he became closely involved in television. True, “Life in Hell” gradually turned into very short notes, sometimes even from three or four pictures. But this comic lived right up to 2012. During this time, series such as "Love is Hell", "Work is Hell" and even "The Big Book of Hell" have been released. Still, the main creation of Graining was The Simpsons.

The Simpsons

How the series appeared

In the mid-1980s, famous television producer James Brooks became interested in Graining's work. At the time, he was working on The Tracey Ullman Show, a comedy show of sketches with musical inserts (in Russia this show is known as Tracy So Different). Brooks was looking for an author who could create short animation inserts for a couple of minutes.

It was originally planned that Groening would simply bring some of Life in Hell's plots onto the screen, but he feared the channel would take away his character rights after that. And then Matt Groening came up with the Simpsons - a typical American middle-class family.

In April 1987, the first two-minute sketch about the Simpsons family was released, entitled Good Night.

Groening depicted the characters in the same style as the characters in "Life in Hell", only decided to paint them in yellow, simply because no one had done that before. And all family members have four fingers on their hands.

Short humorous notes quickly fell in love with the audience and became almost the most popular part of the show. And then it was decided to make a separate animated series out of The Simpsons.

The author did not have to invent almost anything, he took all the images and even names from his life.

Matt Groening's father's name was Homer, grandfather's name was Abe, and his mother's name was Margaret (nee Wiggum, which later gave the surname to several minor characters). Matt Groening's sisters are named Lisa, Maggie and Patty. As for Bart, who, according to the original idea, was supposed to become the main character, this is just an anagram from the word brat - "offspring". And this image Groening copied from himself and his brother Mark. And the Simpson family lives in Evergreen Alley, where Groening himself once lived. True, in the cartoon, the action was moved to the fictional city of Springfield, the location of which fans still argue about.

In their own series, The Simpsons have become a kind of parody of a stereotypical American family: an alcoholic father, a housewife mother, a naughty son. Of course, Groening was not the first to bring up a similar theme in animation. Just remember the "Flintstones", where modern society was joked with the help of heroes from the Stone Age.

The analogies of the early seasons with the Flintstones are obvious. Homer is very much like Fred in character and behavior: he is narcissistic, rude and even fond of bowling. And the alcoholic Barney Gumble was originally shown as Homer's best friend. At The Flintstones, Fred had a "friend to death" Barney Rubble. But The Simpsons quickly surpassed its predecessors in popularity and is by far the longest running animated series in history.

Of course, Matt Groening hasn't done the show for all of the seasons. From a certain point on, he often acts as a creative consultant and sometimes even gets into serious disputes with other authors of The Simpsons and the Fox studio itself. Still, his creation is inseparable from Graining's style and humor, so when talking about the series, everyone inevitably remembers the original author.

Why The Simpsons Are Loved

First of all, for the liveliness of the characters with whom everyone can associate themselves. All members of the Simpsons family differ in character and behavior: stupid but kind Homer, busy Marge, correct Lisa, bully and restless Bart. They often quarrel, but still remain a close-knit family and constantly learn to live together.

In addition, in the city of Springfield there are a lot of other residents who will also seem familiar to many: the insecure headmaster Skinner, the correct religious neighbor Flanders, bosom friends Lenny and Karl, the dimwitted police chief Wiggum, the bribe-taking mayor Quimby and dozens of others. With such characters, any person constantly meets in life, and "The Simpsons" provide an opportunity to look at them closer, and sometimes from an unexpected angle.

Initially, more emphasis was placed on Bart; it was not for nothing that Groening associated himself with this hero. But the audience quickly fell in love with Homer. At first glance, he is a typical lazy person, but talented screenwriters often put all kinds of philosophical statements into his mouth, which quickly diverged into quotations.

Education won't help me. Every time I remember something, it takes place, pushing something else out of my brain. Like this time, when I went to wine-making courses and forgot how to drive a car.

Homer Simpson

The universal love for "The Simpsons" in the world has saved the series more than once. In some countries, they have repeatedly tried to ban it, finding in the stories the propaganda of violence and a bad example for children. But each time, thousands of viewers stood up to defend the series, explaining that the heroes, with all the difficulties and shortcomings, still remain kind and real.

What The Simpsons Says About

Most episodes are traditionally plotted along the same lines. The series begins with some simple story like Bart's prank, Homer's new idea, or the arrival of a new person in the city. And somewhere after the first third of the cartoon, the action switches to the main plot, often much more serious.

Authors take many topics straight from life, and they try to pick up something as relevant and topical as possible. In one of the episodes, Lisa opposes products containing GMOs, but then she herself is convinced that there is no harm in them. Another in Springfield allows same-sex marriage. The third reveals that the government is listening to all the telephone conversations of ordinary citizens. A recent episode even touched on the theme of classics that are now considered offensive. Here it turned out to be a simple old fairy tale, familiar to the heroes from childhood.

At the same time, sometimes the authors talk about the value and importance of the family or entertain the viewer with simple jokes. The humor in The Simpsons is often on the verge of absurdity. And a particularly striking example of this is the special Halloween episodes. There, the authors of the series often deviate from life humor and release just parody horror stories about vampires, witches and haunted houses. Three such stories usually fit into one episode.

What the show predicted

Throughout the years of the creation of the series, the main characters remain exactly the same age as before. But some episodes are dedicated to their future. Sometimes the heroes are carried there by scientists, sometimes it's just a flashforward - that is, an insert about what will happen. And in such series it is very interesting to observe how the authors imagine the future.

For more than 25 years of history, The Simpsons has used hundreds of plots, jokes and just fantasies. Of course, some of them turned out to be true over time. And although even the authors themselves say that this is just a coincidence, fans continue to look for facts that should come true.

Most of all, the series' prophecies were talked about after two events: the victory of Donald Trump in the elections and the purchase of Fox by Disney studio.

The first was mentioned back in 2000. In the Bart to the Future series, the events of the future are shown, where Lisa becomes the President of the United States and mentions that Donald Trump ruled the country before her. By the way, according to Lisa, he squandered the entire US budget.

And the Simpsons hinted at buying Fox back in 1998. In the episode When You Dish Upon A Star, the sign "20th Century Fox, a division of Walt Disney Co" can be seen in Hollywood.

After that, the fans began to diligently seek out all kinds of predictions. For example, that the Rolling Stones will perform on stage even in wheelchairs, and Brad Pitt will be arrested.

True, some of the predictions turn out to be simply far-fetched, and some - a trick: frames from the recently released episodes are passed off as classic episodes. But there are still enough interesting coincidences. In addition, you can fantasize about what else will come true.

Recognition, legacy and copies

Today, The Simpsons is an integral part of American culture. They are not perceived as cartoon characters, but as living celebrities. In 2005, Homer Simpson was named the Philosopher of the Decade by Men’s Health magazine. Rolling Stone magazine has repeatedly published copies of the legendary albums, redrawn for the characters of the animated series. And in 2009, Marge Simpson was awarded a "photo shoot" for Playboy magazine and even became a cover girl.

In addition, the Simpsons themselves regularly feature stars. Moreover, the images of celebrities do not just draw, they themselves voice their characters. Over the years the series was released, dozens of celebrities have already participated in it: from Lady Gaga to Stephen Hawking. For this, the animated series got into the Guinness Book of Records as the animated film with the largest number of invited celebrities.

Of course, copycats began to appear in the popular series. The most famous copy is "Family Guy" (original Family Guy). Comedian Seth MacFarlane decided to show a more grotesque version of the American family. But analogies are, of course, inevitable. Peter Griffin is even fatter than Homer. His son Chris is not a bully, but rather just stupid, and his daughter Meg is not a nerd, but rather just an outcast. The characters are distinguished only by the genius of the youngest child Stewie and the talking dog Brian.

While The Simpsons never released spin-offs or other projects about their characters, the Family Guy author launched a separate series about the Cleveland Show minor character, in which the new characters were very much like Family Guy. But after four seasons, the show flopped.

Also in McFarlane's piggy bank is "American Dad" - another copy of his own series, only about the family of a government agent. The behavior of the characters is again almost identical to "Family Guy", only Stewie was replaced by the alien Roger, and Brian was replaced by the talking fish Klaus.

The authors of "The Simpsons" often make fun of these series, accusing them of plagiarism, and "American Dad" was called plagiarism squared. All this looks very ironic, since cartoons are released on one channel. And in 2014, the long-awaited crossover series of two series appeared, where the Simpsons and Family Guy finally met.

But McFarlane isn't the only one copying ideas. King of the Hill was created by Mike Judge, who also worked on the first seasons of The Simpsons. His plots are very different from the original in the direction of realism, telling about the everyday life of an American family with little or no phantasmagoria. But the creators of "The Simpsons" still joked about analogies several times, showing the characters of the series at home and even copying the screensaver.

The most ironic thing with associations was dealt with in the series "South Park". In 2002, the series "It Was in The Simpsons" was released, where one of the characters realizes that he has already seen everything that happens in his life in the animated series. And gradually everyone around them begins to turn into the heroes of The Simpsons.

In the series finale, this is explained to him in very simple words: "The Simpsons have had everything for a long time." Indeed, the series has been out for almost 30 years, and if you wish, you can find analogies there with almost any life theme.

Futurama

How the series appeared

In 1999, Matt Groening decided to turn to lighter and more fantastic ideas and began working on the series Futurama. According to the plot, the main character Fry moonlights as a pizza delivery man. During one of the deliveries, he accidentally enters the laboratory and ends up in a cryogenic chamber, which freezes him for a thousand years. The further action of the animated series takes place in 3000, where it falls.

Fry meets new friends - earthlings, aliens and robots - and goes to work for the Interplanetary Express, a courier delivery in space. The transfer of the action to the distant future gave the author an opportunity to escape from reality and joke on fantastic topics, talking about interplanetary flights, contacts with aliens, "suicide booths" and even a robot devil.

Why they love "Futurama"

This animated series is often called the light version of The Simpsons, as it retains all of Groening's humor, but almost no social theme. More ridiculous and funny characters have appeared, such as the alien lobster Zoidberg, the robot Bender and the one-eyed Leela. And jokes are often built on some ridiculous laws of the future or strange behavior of aliens.

Most of the plots are connected with the delivery of some kind of cargo to an unusual planet, where something dangerous or funny happens to the heroes. Or with the new invention of Professor Hubert - the founder of the "Interplanetary Express" and a long-term descendant of Fry. In one of the episodes, he even invented the "What if …?" Machine, which can show an alternative version of the fate of anyone who correctly formulates a question. Thus, Bender briefly turned into a human.

The author managed to keep the characters alive. Futurama is more about friendship and love than family relationships. Perhaps this makes the show more attractive to young people. But at the same time, some of the episodes tell very personal and touching stories. First of all, Jurassic Bark about Fry's dog, left in our time, and The Luck of the Fryrish about the brother of the protagonist.

What are the similarities with "The Simpsons"

"Futurama" is visually very similar to "The Simpsons", the style of Matt Greinin in the depiction of the characters is not difficult to recognize. Unless here the earthlings have skin of the usual color. Many heroes are also similar to their predecessors. The silly Fry is somewhat reminiscent of the matured Bart, and the serious Leela is the smart Lisa. But first of all, the Bender robot is a clear analogue of Homer Simpson. He is also selfish, addicted to alcohol and unhealthy lifestyles, and often makes humorous but almost philosophical phrases.

My story is similar to yours, only more interesting, because the main character is a robot.

Robot Bender

Unlike copies of other authors, Groening himself does not hesitate to refer to his previous creation and has repeatedly hinted in Futurama at the world of The Simpsons. And in 2014, Interplanetary Express employees met the Simpsons family.

However, this already happened within the framework of "The Simpsons" after the end of "Futurama" itself. Unfortunately, she could not repeat the success of her predecessor. The series was tried several times to close and transferred from one channel to another. And in 2013, the last episode was released, which completed the story of Fry's adventures in the future.

Disappointment

In the new series, Matt Groening turned to fantasy, but again did it in his own style. "Disappointment" is reminiscent of "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" not only visually. Here you can see the same strange and sometimes absurd humor.

Events take place in the seedy kingdom of Dreamland. The main character is Princess Bean, who is prone to alcoholism. In all her adventures, she is accompanied by her personal demon Lucy and the grumpy elf Elfo. Together they travel the country and meet ogres, fairies, harpies, devils, trolls, sea monsters and just fools on their way.

Here Groening decided to move away from the traditional construction of episodes: the entire season is one coherent story. And he brought his trademark absurd humor to a new level. "Disappointment" has even been compared to "Monty Python" in terms of jokes about the Middle Ages. Whether he will be able to reach the level of popularity of the author's previous works is still unknown.

But even if someone does not like the new project of Matt Groening, you can always include some series of "Sipampsons" - there are already more than 600 of them, so everyone will find something for themselves in the great creation of the author.