Last week’s Simpsons episode featured Krusty the Clown in a heartfelt fairytale-like romance that, surprisingly, ended with happily never after.
Here is a quick summary of the episode:
The studio that produces Krusty’s show hires actress “Princess Penelope” as a regular on The Krusty the Clown Show. Princess Penelope’s routine (complete with unicorns, flowers, rainbows, singing, etc.) is the complete opposite of Krusty’s usual crass and slapstick humor. Although he is furious with the drastic changes to his show, he falls in love with Penelope, who has coincidentally been in love with him since she was a young girl. They begin singing and dancing together in subsequent episodes, and Krusty proposes to her on air.
Lisa is thrilled with the show’s changes, but Bart and Millhouse are disgusted by the new Krusty and attempt to sabotage the marriage by revealing to Penelope all of Krusty’s past failed marriages. She still wants to marry him, and it is at that point that Krusty realizes that he is not good enough for her. The heartbroken Penelope moves to Paris.
In a magical moment under the moonlight over a bridge, Penelope sees that Krusty has come to apologize for leaving her. She accepts his apology, jumps into the Seine with him and they float downstream declaring their love. The camera pans up to a unicorn flying across the midnight sky (a horse with a cone on its head being pulled by a rope) as dreamy music gives way to the ending credits and the words “Thanks for twenty great years. The best is yet to come” glittering across the screen.
The show uses a fairytale storyline to celebrate its 450th episode. Elements of popular fairytale are present: two opposite characters (one of them a ‘princess’) falling in love, additional characters attempting to sabotage the couple’s love on their wedding day, and the couple overcoming these obstacles at the end of the story. But in true Simpsons fashion, the episode pokes fun at the popularly known elements of fairytale. Using Bart and Millhouse as critics, the episode highlights the “girly” aspects of fairytale, including princesses, glitter, sparkles, handmaidens, pink colors, unicorns, and happy singing. Bart is horrified that Krusty has succumbed to the forces of love, whereas Lisa becomes enamored with the show’s idyllic world of unicorns and magic. I believe that this is a satire on women’s high hopes of a fairytale romance and men’s disgust of such a romance. The best example of this is when Lisa begins cooing over a unicorn on the show as Bart points out, “that is so fake! You can see the strap on its horn!”. Lisa quickly retorts by whispering, “just give me this!”.
I highly recommended watching the episode here:http://www.hulu.com/watch/118515/the-simpsons-once-upon-a-time-in-springfield
You bring up a very interesting point about the "girlyness" of the fairytales, as presented. Why should particular colors (pink, blue) or creatures (unicorns, ogres, etc.) be gendered? And, if we look at the older fairy tales we've read in class, do we see those "girly" elements of glitter and sparkles - or are they modern additions?
ReplyDeleteI think that at first glance, especially after having read Jack Zipes’ “Breaking the Disney Spell,” it would seem all too easy to try and blame modern times, and Walt Disney, for introducing the 'girly' elements that Jean talks about into the fairy tale genre. Yet I ask, can we really lay the blame at Walt’s feet? Admittedly, the Disney brand does highly promote the ‘girly’ and glittering aspects of its female characters, on both ideally and literally. Disney princesses, especially the older characters, are easily seen as ideal representations of what a good ‘princess’ should be if she wishes to find her prince. And on a more literal scale, items featuring the princesses often actually contain glitter, such as the birthday card I recently bought for a six year old cousin, which caused my hands to sparkle the minute I picked it up to purchase it.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, it is not Disney who introduced the idea of the sparkly into the fairy tale genre. As much as we may like to blame modern fairy tale issues on Disney, the fact remains that the idea and image of the sparkle was present in fairy tales long before Walt took a turn at re-interpreting them. One need only look at the various versions of Cinderella to see that sparkling objects have long been a presence in fairy tales. In Perrault’s version the carriage that is created from the pumpkin is described as being “gilded all over with gold,” her footmen are wearing clothes “bedaubed with silver and gold,” and her own clothes are made of “cloth of silver and gold, all beset with jewels.” Although the glitter may not be the same in this tale, and others like it, as it is in the modern stories, the fact remains that silver, gold, and jewels are all precious, and in light they sparkle. The ‘sparkle’ cannot be dismissed as a characteristic of Perrault either, for in the version of Snow White put forth by the Brother Grimm the stepmother is able to poison Snow White because of her attraction to the shiny nature of the items with which the stepmother tempts her.
The examples found in these two tales, as well as in other versions and other tales, make it clear that we cannot simply write off the sparkly nature of modern fairytales as being purely a modern convention. Contrary to Jack Zipes’ believe, not everything that is criticized in modern fairy tales can be blamed on Walt Disney.