A not-so-recent episode of South Park contained a reference to Shirley Jackson’s amazing short story “The Lottery.” I spent the rest of that night scouring for other references; some new to me and some rekindled childhood memories. That initial discovery ultimately led me to create a category at my blog which would focus on literary references in cartoons. Why is this blog-worthy? I generally waste my internet hours refreshing my perpetually empty email inbox and crafting Facebook statuses to appear off-the-cuff and witty. I was suddenly struck by the inherent, and intended, contradiction: the idea of books—the icon of intelligence—existing within cartoons—the long-accepted symbol of stupidity—appealed to my sense of irony. Even more, if these mediums are so far removed, what gives cartoon makers the balls to assume an overlap in audience enough to appreciate the references? Something special had been happening in cartoons, and I was too busy laughing at the fart jokes to see it.
The Simpsons has a long history of literary allusions, and to a lesser degree, Family Guy and the aforementioned South Park. Why? Surely this meshing of worlds serves more than to tickle the cartoon creators’ personal farty bones (ha, fart joke). Do cartoons feel the need to legitimize themselves for a public that has for so long, and continues to, hold books to such high esteem?
Perhaps the book-nods reveal the cartoon creators’ own narrative acumen. Novels represent pure narrative, in that they are not supported in any way by outside effects, i.e, CGI, audio, and actor baggage (though it would be hard to argue that James Frey’s fame didn’t help the sales of his post-Oprah novel, Bright Shiny Morning). Interest in novels, enough to incorporate allusions into a cartoon, implies a lot about a creator’s passion for story. “Yes, that’s a fart joke,” might say a Matt Groening or a Seth McFarlane, “but it’s a fart joke with sophistication.” There’s a reason the aforementioned big three cartoons have lasted so long: intelligent humor. A viewer can only be impressed with bright colors and funny voices for so long before he needs substance. Books are the signposts, marking such substance.
What is even more interesting than the simple presence of these allusions is their often modesty and brevity. Rarely is the audience confronted directly with a source and rarely is the reference extended beyond a few frames for a sight gag (the exceptions to both rules would include The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror episodes and South Park’s Charles Dickens retelling. The cartoons aren’t trying to convert anyone. They are tapping into an audience that I think most people don’t realize exists: the literate cartoon viewer.
But to be truly legitimized, allusions need to go both ways. Are there examples of novels or short stories that contain cartoon references? Tell us in the comments.
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This is a gust post by Caleb J. Ross as part of his Stranger Will Tour for Strange blog tour. His goal is to post at a different blog every few days beginning with the release of his novel Stranger Will in March 2011 to the release of his second novel, I Didn’t Mean to Be Kevin in November 2011. If you have connections to a lit blog of any type, professional journal or personal site, please contact him. He would love to compromise your integrity for a day. To be a groupie and follow this tour, subscribe to the Caleb J. Ross blog RSS feed. Follow him on Twitter: @calebjross.com. Friend him on Facebook: Facebook.com/rosscaleb
Violence doesn’t turn me on. In fact, gore is the fastest way to make me run out of a movie theater crying like a little kid. There are lots of reasons why horror movies don’t do it for me – not the least of which is knowing some dude (because let’s face it, it’s mostly dudes) had to come up with those scenarios – but the long and short of it is, if someone’s getting cut up into little pieces, I’m probably not watching.
That is, until I stumbled upon AMC’s new series “The Walking Dead.”
I didn’t plan on watching it. Too many Facebook status updates happily describing how violent it was had me sure I would never see an episode. But then I got bored. And started writing something that teetered on the supernatural. And since iTunes was letting me download the first episode for so cheap, I decided that watching it on my computer would not only give me some creative ideas, but also allow me to switch to YouTube videos of laughing babies if stuff got too gross. Read more »
I don’t understand this anxiety about TV supplanting literature as the main cultural vessel for our stories. Why does it matter? To me, TV and literature are on the same team. It’s the stories themselves that matter: good stories are good stories, regardless of what medium they reach us through, and there are television shows on the air today that way down the line will be treated with the same level of legitimacy that the “classics” receive now. What’s really interesting is that I would bet that the few television shows that do endure will share the same basic themes as many of our most beloved and respected books. In fact, there have even been a couple of times that the most popular shows of our time have expressly borrowed or paid homage to “great” works of literature, adapting them for a modern audience. Here are a few of my favorite examples:
A little over a decade ago, I was sitting in my junior high homeroom – furiously trying to finish the algebra homework I had forgotten to do the night before. As if my absolute ineptitude for mathematics wasn’t enough, I was very distracted by the cluster of kids in the corner talking about the mysterious letters they had received from a production company asking to use their homes as sets for a new HBO show called The Sopranos.
Like most suburban towns, the New Jersey suburb that I did most of my growing up in was (and arguably is) one of the most boring places to come of age. None of us understood how a television show could be entertaining if we were to be their setting. Later on we learned that The Sopranos was about Italian mobsters which was not a reality in our town at all. Our mobsters were Russian… which of course reminded us all of the day our middle school’s backyard became a helicopter landing pad when authorities learned that the body of Russian Olympic boxer, Sergei Kobozev (missing for nearly a decade) was dug up when a couple tried to put a pool in their backyard.
When I really think about it, my boring little Jersey suburb did see quite a bit of excitement over the course of the thirteen years that I lived there. However, whatever excitement existed is still diluted by a higher ratio of “reality” or days where nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Successful narrative television such as The Sopranos know not to show you the days where Tony Soprano is just chilling with a copy of The Star-Ledger in his backyard and various other narrative dramas boil down the occurrences of thirteen years into a single season to keep things compelling.
Around the same time that The Sopranos had begun their narrative journey, I happened to be chilling in my backyard with a copy of The Star-Ledger and noticed that their TV listings had a new genre color code. Now, among the likes of comedy, drama, news magazines, game shows and talk shows was what many of us had believed to be a passing trend: Reality TV. Read more »
Have zombies taught us nothing? Resurrection is just… never a good idea (unless of course you’re that guy whose resurrection resulted in the celebration of Easter).
Case in point: the musical television drama. If you didn’t know such a genre existed, it’s for good reason – these shows have incredibly short life spans and it really takes a very special person to stomach a single episode. In fact, I had pushed everything I’ve viewed of this genre into the same dark little closet in my brain that I keep bad break-ups and embarrassing moments. It wasn’t until a recent conversation I had with Julia that I remembered such a genre existed. Julia has quite a taste for the cop show genre. She (like many others these days) is also really into Glee, Fox network’s musical comedy. As a business school alumna, Julia understands the value of her time and doing things efficiently, thus pitched the idea of a musical cop drama so she and others with similar taste could save time by watching these two genres in one place. To her shock/horror/dismay/amusement, I told her that like most things in TV – it’s been done before.
Cop Rock. Yes, Cop Rock. If you’ve never heard of it before – it’s exactly what the title suggests. Hailed as one of the worst television shows of all time, Cop Rock’s greenlight continues to baffle us nearly two decades later (unless of course, you’re Peter Bowker and erroneously thought resurrecting the genre with Hugh Jackman may mean a better shot at success).
When Julia and I parted ways that night, we left the conversation with a lot of unanswered questions. Below is our iChat transcript of our attempt to wrap our minds around the existence of Cop Rock (with embedded videos for your viewing pleasure) and if or how this genre could succeed today: Read more »
The Guardian‘s Vicky Frost thinks 3D television might not do well because the cardboard glasses you have to wear look goofy. And because strapping those red-and-blue suckers onto your face is a pain. And, yes, she’s right on both counts. But I think the main reason 3D TV won’t do well is because–even if we develop the technology to enjoy 3D TV without the glasses–it’s just not necessary.
These days, pretty much everything we can possibly imagine, we can create. So of course we’re going to try out new digital methods in storytelling, especially if there’s money to be made and there are television studio executives behind it. But just how much innovation is too much? At what point does technology stop giving us opportunities and instead start becoming a distraction?
"It takes a lot less time and most people won't notice the difference until it's too late"
Literary Lovers – I don’t expect you to know who Sandra Lee is because I would hope that most of you haven’t the half hour time slot to fit her into your lives. For the purposes of today’s article, however, let me take a moment to “enlighten” you. Sandra Lee is the host of The Food Network’s television show “Semi-Homemade.” She is also one of the many descending steps The Food Network took to get to the substandard hell it dwells in today. Before you call me out on my tendencies to overreact to things that don’t really affect my life and do not pertain to storytelling whatsoever, understand that my anger for her and that network is really anger at a bigger picture – she is the face of our society’s acceptance of mediocrity as the norm.
Sure, who the hell am I to say anything on the matter? I don’t even reread what I write here before I post it (please don’t fire me, Julia). I publish with the assumption that no one expects the respect of proper grammar and structure (although I confess I am so often tempted to correct grammatical and spelling errors on people’s Facebook statuses). We live in a society that doesn’t expect us to suit up for work and we buy electronics that we anticipate to break within the year. We are used to, accept, and fully expect things to be semi-acceptable and we’re totally okay with it. Things that used to require a written letter are done via Facebook comment. Announcements of important events are done via Twitter. Everything is casual. Things are good as long as they’re good for now. Formality is dead. Quality check is optional. Read more »
Peggy's Job + Joan's Wardrobe = Mad Men Daydream Happiness
I am the daughter of an Ad Man. Product loyalty to company clients dictated the brands of my youth (I still hesitate to buy Crest Toothpaste even if it’s on sale because it was Colgate’s biggest competitor back when it was my father’s client). While I recognize that we are two steps away from a world where our dreams are interrupted by commercial breaks, I have also developed a bit of taste for the innovative lengths companies have taken to make their brands known and remembered. Though we’re likely about a century and a human rights movement shy of having our subconscious being the latest vehicle for advertising, we’ve also come quite a long way from our simple magazine and television ads. If you do recall (and I am talking to you, David Simon), these mediums of entertainment were created solely to keep you seated between commercial breaks.
I’ve heard great things about The Wire. In fact, I’ve only heard great things about The Wire. And while I’ve heard nothing but great things, I don’t watch it because it requires me to pay beyond basic cable. That’s right. I’m not paying extra for HBO. Don’t get me wrong, HBO is fantastic – that sense of freedom both the creators and the viewers feel without the constraints of commercials? My God. Curse! Have sex! Throw a friend into a wood chipper! You can do it and you can do it graphically because there are no sponsors breathing down your neck about how their product will look popping up right after you’ve viewed a candid conversation about teabagging. Read more »
You may have heard about an innovative little company called “Twitter.” It’s no secret that the overnight(ish) sensation essentially has no business plan for generating revenue. There have been rumors going around for some time about Twitter introducing advertisements, or charging businesses for premium accounts…but a Twitter reality TV show? I think it’s safe to say this is something none of us ever expected. And let me emphasize that last part: ever. Read more »
A not-so-recent episode of South Park contained a reference to Shirley Jackson’s amazing short story “The Lottery.” I spent the rest of that night scouring for other references; some new to me and some rekindled childhood memories. That initial discovery ultimately led me to create a category at my blog which would focus on literary references in cartoons. Why is this blog-worthy? I generally waste my internet hours refreshing my perpetually empty email inbox and crafting Facebook statuses to appear off-the-cuff and witty. I was suddenly struck by the inherent, and intended, contradiction: the idea of books—the icon of intelligence—existing within cartoons—the long-accepted symbol of stupidity—appealed to my sense of irony. Even more, if these mediums are so far removed, what gives cartoon makers the balls to assume an overlap in audience enough to appreciate the references? Something special had been happening in cartoons, and I was too busy laughing at the fart jokes to see it.
Violence doesn’t turn me on. In fact, gore is the fastest way to make me run out of a movie theater crying like a little kid. There are lots of reasons why horror movies don’t do it for me – not the least of which is knowing some dude (because let’s face it, it’s mostly dudes) had to come up with those scenarios – but the long and short of it is, if someone’s getting cut up into little pieces, I’m probably not watching.
Have zombies taught us nothing? Resurrection is just… never a good idea (unless of course you’re that guy whose resurrection resulted in the celebration of Easter).
The Guardian‘s Vicky Frost thinks 
You may have heard about an innovative little company called “Twitter.” It’s no secret that the overnight(ish) sensation essentially has no business plan for generating revenue. There have been rumors going around for some time about Twitter introducing advertisements, or charging businesses for premium accounts…but a Twitter reality TV show? I think it’s safe to say this is something none of us ever expected. And let me emphasize that last part: ever. 
