In this episode of "The Simpsons" Lisa delves into the Simpson family history for a school assignment. She begins the assignment with high hopes, but soon discovers that the Simpson family tree is full of crooks and theives. In her quest to find a good Simpson, Lisa discovers the diary of Eliza Simpson, a young girl who helps a slave, Virgil, esacpe. Lisa is esatic that she found a good Simpson, a decides to present her findings to her school in order to help celebrate black history month. While presenting, Lisa discovers that Eliza was not the person she thought because when the slave owner came for Virgil, Eliza let her father give Virgil's hiding spot away. Seeing her daughter's disapointment, Marge encourages Lisa to continue looking into the Simpson past.When she does, Lisa discovers that Eliza's mother helped Virgil escape the slave owner. After pressing Grandpa, he finally tells Lisa the whole story. ELiza's mother, Mabel and Virgil escaped to Canada, and eventually fell in love. She divorced Eliza's father and married Virgil, having another child with him. Mabel and Virgil's son is the earliest decendent of the Simpson family. From this story Lisa discovers there is a good Simpson, and that she is 1/64 black.
I found the main plot of this episode to be very entertaining and a good way to encorporate black history month into the episode. It also represented how we all long to find good in our ancestry, and go to great lengths to find it.
Also, whenever I watch the Simpsons it is often that I find the little things the creators put into the episode that make it funny, often even more than the main plot. These aspects of the show are often the parts that the viewer can most sympathize with. For example, I found it very funny and realistic in the beginning of the episode when the teacher did not have anything planned, and simply looked out the window for an idea. I have been a teacher before and there are times when you have nothing planned, and do not have the care to really think of the lesson, so you just pull something out of nowhere. In my opinion, this little bit of satire on teachers was honest and funny. Another part that I found to be funny was when Lisa was trying to get into the attic. The door was too high and she got stuck trying to pull it down. The attic reminded me of my own attic, and the struggles I always have trying to get into it. Not to mention the dust and the dirt that I have to go through once I am up there.
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Natalie,
ReplyDeleteI like how you are finding the ties between the recent episodes and what's occurring in the real world. Good job.
Doc Rod
I really liked how you included that part about the little things that go on in the Simpsons. When I watched this episode I found it really funny that the teacher had pulled something out of nowhere but I kind of forgot about it by the end of the episode. I really liked that you included it in your blog though because I definitely think it's true that a lot of teachers will just have to come up with something at times.
ReplyDeleteAs history major, it always amuses me when shows that are very popular encompass historical plots. This episode is a great example of that. There are few people these days that care about their countries history, let alone their own family's history. I would like to think that shows, like the Simpsons, help remind people that we are sitting on a great national history and maybe episodes like this prompt the masses to look back into their own histories.
ReplyDeleteI also watched this episode & its definitely one of my favorites so far. I liked how you related this episode with whats going on in the real world. This episode was thoroughly entertaining both with the main plot line and with the extra little things that make each episode unique. Overall I really enjoyed reading your blog entry!
ReplyDeletePeace&Love