I hate that this meme makes it sound like “can you believe we’ve been talking about the same thing since 1990?!” completely ignoring the Moral Majority movement of the 80s and even all censorship efforts in the decades prior to that.
Yeah, there’s nothing new under the sun. These conversations are likely as old as humanity. It’s an ongoing and living discussion about societal boundaries. I don’t see it being “resolved” any time soon either.
What a shame that the efforts of Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snyder are all but forgotten.
Dee Snider’s speech at the Senate Hearing is a fucking banger.
Or, you know… the Nazis.
Kind of a dumb reason to hate it. Because it doesn’t include the entire breadth of this issue?
I guess that’s one way to read it, but the Simpsons is still in living memory for most people since it’s still running so it’s more relatable thread for people
This was a common trope in TV and comedy going back to at least the 1970s. And it echoed the long and storied tradition of US efforts at censorship even in the face of constitutional protections. These disputes had reverberations, with the censorship encouraging illicit consumption and the protests helping define what future censors focus in on.
George Carlin had a famous act - 7 Words You Can’t Say On TV. Curiously enough, this resulted in Rep. Doug Ose (R-California) introducing H.R. 3687, the “Clean Airwaves Act”, in 2003 that sought to codify a derivative list of Carlin’s Dirty Words as legally designated “Profane” by US code.
“The Filthy Fifteen” was a list of 15 songs compiled by Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), a project lead by Tennessee Senator and future US Vice President Al Gore’s wife Tipper, which the organization demanded be banned from the airwaves back in 1985. This kicked off an extended back-and-forth between artists and congresscritters, as they argued over what constituted infringements on speech.
“Banned in Boston” is a phrase that was employed from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, to describe a literary work, song, motion picture, or play which had been prohibited from distribution or exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts. During this period, Boston officials had wide authority to ban works featuring “objectionable” content, and often banned works with sexual content or foul language. This even extended to the $5 bill from the 1896 “Educational” series of banknotes featuring allegorical figures that were partially nude.
One could go so far as to describe it as a kind-of Hegelian dialectic cycle
So you’re telling me it didn’t completely change society immediately after airing?
I still have that nagging impression that we’re going backwards, that we were already further ahead a few years ago than we are now. The 90s and early 00s weren’t perfect, but they felt more like good things are possible.
1990 was 35 years ago. How exactly do you define “immediate”?
1990+1
Censorship isn’t recent. It’s been with us since the dawn of civilization.
Socrates, while defying attempts by the Athenian state to censor his philosophical teachings, was brought charges that led to his death. The conviction is recorded by Plato: in 399 BC, Socrates went on trial[8] and was subsequently found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety (asebeia,[9] “not believing in the gods of the state”),[10] and was sentenced to hemlock.
Censorship is another way to wield power, and all of civilization is about power.
Agree with your thesis. We don’t live in some society disconnected from the ancient past. We aren’t any smarter, self aware or capable of better discernment. Everything is about power and always will be.
I remember that one, because for what I remember it was a really shitty episode because like the crux was that the statue had to be naked if you’d let “everyone” have their way. And that is of course disgusting or something you just cannot accept (I’m from Europe so the whole anti naked craziness from the USA is completely stupid for me). So not funny just moralizing pro USA christianity.
Or so I recall, it was some time ago 😁
I think you might have missed the intended message!
Marge wants to censor Itchy and Scratchy. She builds up enough support to successfully do so.
Her followers then want to censor Michelangelo’s David, which has come to Springfield on a tour. She disagrees, saying it’s a masterpiece and goes on TV to urge people to go to see it.
On the show Marge is then asked how can she be in favour of freedom for one form of artistic expression (David) but not another (Itchy and Scratchy). She concedes that she can’t, and that censoring Itchy and Scratchy was wrong, despite hating the show.
The nudity issue was shown as an extreme position - it was so extreme as to make Marge realise that she was wrong to campaign to censor Itchy and Scratchy.
It was also a meta or self-referential joke about what was going on with The Simpsons itself, at the time.
Bush 1, Herbert, had actually specifically attacked the Simpsons in a speech he gave about American moral values.
All the people that wanted to ban Magic cards, DnD, Pokemon, Harry Potter?
They also wanted to ban the Simpsons, and of course later, South Park.
1990?
The Simpsons was only on season 2, this is the 9th episode of the 2nd season.
This is back when The Simpsons were a radical departure from the standard family show, was a vicious critique of much of the bullshit fake nonsense image that America pretended it was, before the show uh, Flanderized itself into basically meaningless pablum.
…
These hardcore moralists, dominionists, theofascists… they never went away!
They just held their tongue a bit more, untill Trump told them it was ok to stop doing so.
People who didn’t grow up in and then escape a strongly right wing upbringing just don’t get it, and its why so many people are surprised that such a rapid shift to facism can and is occuring.
These people have nothing other than their malformed superiority complexes and out of date traditions.
Of course they would and will always jump at any chance to impose their idiot will by force and double think.
Its all they know.
Fellow escapee here - no one’s believed me yet how unhinged they are. Hugs!
Thanks, I could use some hugs right now.
Yeah, at this rate, its looking like I’m going to need to escape the entire fucking country… spent most of my life trying to warn people about this, got degrees in econ and polisci, can make the arguments and cite the data correctly…
… and almost no one listened untill it was far beyond too late, most people called me a hysterical lunatic while I was recognizing and describing the signs of a mass political movement largely acting and thinking like an extremist religious cult.
I hate it here, the American ‘experiment’ has failed.
Thanks, I just remember the statue wearing jeans in the end. 😁
There was a big kerfuffle in the US at the time, one particular senator - Jesse Helms - went on a special crusade to revoke funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and restrict obscene works, generally. Maybe triggered by, certainly exasperated by Piss Christ. US obscenity law at the time was basically, “I know it when I see it,” and Simpsons itself was occasionally threatened for its ‘obscenity.’
To be fair to Marge, she only cared about violence being a bad thing after Maggie (the baby) got influenced and beat up Homer.
So it was less that she just doesn’t like it, but it actually affected her negatively, which is still on point.
Episode name ?
It was “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge”, S2E9
You’re right! Here I was thinking it was the season 15, Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens and Gays
Ty
And the horse I rode in on?!?!
I’m committing to Godwin’s Law:
Godwin’s Law stopped applying when the internet became overrun with literal Nazis. Don’t let them use that shit as cover.
Mike Godwin: “By all means, compare these shitheads to the Nazis”
But also, the qualification of certain types of art as “degenerate” is a symptom of second feature of Ur-Fascism, “traditionalism.”
Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism. Both Fascists and Nazis worshiped technology, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject it as a negation of traditional spiritual values. However, even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon Blood and Earth (Blut und Boden). The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life, but it mainly concerned the rejection of the Spirit of 1789 (and of 1776, of course). The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.
Umberto Eco, Ur-Fascism
Itchy, Itchy, Itchy, Scratchy, Scratchy, Scratchy! The Itchy and Scratchy Show!!!
