Articles
Great article from the UC Berkeley magazine on how The Simpsons and its writing can be used towards exploring all kinds of interesting intellectual questions: https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/spring-2021/a-formula-for-funny/
A nice article from the San Francisco Chronicle about The Simpsons and Philosophy class at UC Berkeley. Sure wish I had a better haircut in that picture.
The Simpsons as Philosophy – A fascinating BBC article by Julian Baggini, discussing philosophy in general, pointillist painting, and “Homer the Heretic.”
Al Jean has an equivocal yet amusing comment on the class in this article from the Belfast Telegraph.
An interesting PBS interview by Jeffrey Browne with Matt Groening and James L. Brooks. Brooks calls The Simpsons class an example of “a mad world gone sane.” I have no problem with that.
Independent Online — “Learning from The Simpsons, 25 Years on” [Dec. 17, 2014]
The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History – Some reflections on The Simpsons and Philosophy at Berkeley [Oct. 2009]
Eureka Magazine – I really do not remember saying this, but the quote sounds smart so I won’t complain. I would really like to see the full article from this French magazine though … [March 2006]
UCLA – A nice article on UC Berkeley’s DECal (Democratic Education at Cal) program [Jan. 2004]
Some Interesting Talks and Links
Harry Shearer shared some excellent thoughts on the function of satire and our relationship to politics and current events. The article itself is from the University of Cambridge’s CAM magazine and is well worth reading piece on the history of satire: https://magazine.alumni.cam.ac.uk/a-history-of-satire/
Here’s a talk with the brilliant Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns, Flanders, Smithers, Otto, Waylon Smithers, God, many others) that we just love. Harry was kind enough to visit the Jesus College Intellectual Forum at the University of Cambridge for a fantastic talk on political satire:
Al Jean (Executive Producer and Showrunner) joined us virtually at the Intellectual Forum, University of Cambridge for this stellar talk on The Simpsons and politics. Al shared some wonderfully interesting insights from his decades of work on the show. Does The Simpsons really predict the future?