10 Ways ‘The Simpsons’ Changed The World

What’s  the phrase you first think of when someone mentions The Simpsons to you? It’s Homer screaming “D’oh!” right? In 2001, that iconic phrase, which is essentially a prime time stand in for cursing, was added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Once a word is added to the OED, it’s an official word of the English language. However, that’s far from the only word or phrase we’ve taken from this cartoon. The words “Cromulent” and “Embiggen,” which were first used in “Lisa the Iconoclast,” have since appeared on Dictionary.com, and The Guardian surprisingly brought the phrase “cheese-eating surrender monkeys” into journalistic light in a 2003 article about France’s opposition to invading Iraq.

What’s that, you say? All of that is kind of interesting but it doesn’t really relate to your day-to-day vocab? Let me re-introduce you to the word “Meh.” That dismissive term that you probably used in your last text chain about where you should eat is largely believed to have gained mainstream popularity by The Simpsons.

The Simpsons had a very clear predecessor, both in legacy and character creation — Hanna-Barbera’s The Flintstones. For a long time, The Flintstones held the record when it came to the longest-running animated show on prime time, but there was a big gap in mainstream animation from the The Flintstones’ ending in 1966 and The Simpsons’ beginning in 1989. The Simpsons was part of an animation trend in the early ’90s that focused more on catering to adults, and it was the first show to catch that audience.

Just from a timeline perspective, it makes sense that The Simpsons would be the predecessor to the Fox animation block and Adult Swim, but the connection runs deeper than that. Because The Simpsons established an audience for adult-focused animation, more controversial shows such as South Park (1997 premiere) and Family Guy (1999 premiere) were given a shot. Moving into more modern examples, the success of the central family relationship in The Simpsons — a nuclear, working class family that drifts between heartfelt moments and slapstick antics — allowed for your favorite shows to play with the formula. Whether you’re looking at Bob’s Burgers’ sweetness or the disturbing dynamic of Rick and Morty, they’re different incarnations of the same wildly successful, family-centric premise.

And for that we thank it. Many animated shows of the ‘90s made the decision to do away with the laugh track, and several live action shows followed suit. The first live action show to depart from the seas of canned laughter was Malcolm in the Middle. It’s unclear whether this decision was made because of The Simpsons, but the cartoon has been recognized as a big influence on the series.

There’s a reason there’s a statue of Bart Simpson outside of News Corp’s New York City office — The Simpsons helped put Fox on the map. Fox Broadcasting Network was founded in 1985, and The Simpsons came onto the air in 1989. One year later is when Bartmania hit, raising Fox’s fame. Likewise, a marathon of the series had the same overwhelming positive effect for FXX. There’s a reason why this show has been inseparable from Fox.

In a BBC article, The Simpsons was referred to as “one of the very first postmodern TV shows developed for mainstream U.S. TV,” and there are few better ways to describe this series. One of the most popular gags of the show is Homer chocking Bart, but a second later, The Simpsons can drop a joke about an obscure 1950s film. Remember, this is a show that came from the minds of a writing team that developed a mathematical theorem for a single episode of Futurama. Sure, there are fun and dumb slapstick elements to this show, but The Simpsons is a series that is artfully packed with jokes for every brand of nerd around without ever feeling pretentious.

Between the onslaught of Marvel movies, superhero shows, zombies, Star Wars, and the ever-present popularity of The Big Bang Theory, we’re in the middle of a pop culture nerd-a-thon. However, few shows and movies better walk the line between honoring their geeky roots and laughing at them than Groening’s shows. In other shows, this balance typically comes of as too inaccessible to mainstream audiences (please someone help me understand all things Marvel) or pandering and borderline mean (*cough* Big Bang *cough*). But with characters like Comic Book Guy, who is simultaneously a character we can laugh at and a mouthpiece for the writers’ nerdier controversial opinions, The Simpsons perfected this tightrope walk long ago.

In today’s TV, it’s rare to see a family that works in a traditional manner, let alone composed of members who like each other. The Simpsons’ love hate relationship certainly isn’t the grandfather of the complicated onscreen family dynamic, but, thanks to one of our past presidents, it certainly became the poster child for this trend. In January 1992 during a campaign stop, George H. W. Bush said that American families need to become “a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons.” This statement nicely wraps up the family-focused backlash shows like The Simpsons and South Park experienced during the ’90s and early 2000s. Seeing as how the picturesque Waltons were on for nine seasons and The Simpsons have been on for 27, I feel safe pointing to which family dynamic America preferred.

In recent years, The Simpsons has been criticized for its lack of bite. The slack certainly and understandably exists, or should I say existed in the early and mid 2000s. If you’re on air for almost three decades, it’s going to be hard to stay relevant. However, one of the coolest and smartest ways The Simpsons has stayed important is by recruiting some amazing guest animators. Everyone from Ren & Stimpy’s John Kricfalusi and the iconic Guillermo del Toro to the elusive Banksy and the Oscar-nominated French director and animator Sylvain Chomet has animated for the show. Additionally, the series has acted as a sort of launching pad for other animated sitcoms, such as Fox’s Bob’s Burgers and Rick and Morty.

I’ll admit, I’m only a casual Simpsons watcher. I’ve seen most of the key episodes, but when I find myself in a room with diehard fans, I smartly choose to keep my mouth shut. However, I have a deep appreciation for how the series continues to expand the medium to this day, which brings me to the live action segment from this season. In the May 15 episode “Simprovised,” Homer did a live Q-and-A for both East Coast and West Coast audiences. Taken by itself, the segment was fairly funny but forgettable. But as a part of cartoon history? It’s one of the most ambitious and projects to ever be tried. Essentially, the three-minute stunt looked at the main flaw of animation — that it takes too long to respond to events in real time — and worked around it. It’s a segment that was more than clever. It proved that, yes, The Simpsons are still relevant, and they will continue to make history.

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Photos: Everett Collection, FOX