Ay carumba! The Simpsons
I must say it takes a lot to surprise me but this was totally shocking. Actually I used to watch it until I found out they voted Republican.
Written by GussIt was a moral quagmire no 10-year-old should be tortured by: On Thursdays at 8 o’clock, I could either pedal up Canyon Road to my Awana Club meeting, memorizing Bible verses for the chance to fasten a new pin on my vest, or stay home and watch “The Simpsons.”
Most weeks I chose eternal damnation.
In 1990, “The Simpsons” — once crude drawings on the “The Tracey Ullman Show” and now rude heroes for the nation’s youth — were borderline heretical.
In 1992, at the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters association, former President George H.W. Bush famously vetoed the show: “We seek a nation that is closer to ‘The Waltons’ than to ‘The Simpsons.’”
When the show first debuted, the “moral majority” folks felt Fox was marketing bad manners to kids (“The Simpsons” reportedly sold 1 million T-shirts per week at the height of Bartmania). This was before “Adult Swim” and cartoons for grown-ups.
Nearly one-third of “The Simpsons’” adult audience describe themselves as conservative, according to the Simmons Research National Consumer Study conducted in fall 2006.
Of respondents who had viewed the show in the last week, about 34 percent said they were “any conservative,” compared to about 42 percent of average American adults who’d describe themselves the same way.
Conservative columnists have lauded Homer has a hero, and GOP strategists discovered that the show does well among young Republican male viewers. The experts say it’s because the longest-running sitcom in history paints every political gag with the same brush.
