The Simpsons - Just a cartoon or an advocate for anti-war?

Though the Halloween special of The Simpsons that airs every year around this time has not aired yet, thanks to www.radaronline.com, you can get an inside scoop on what's to come.

Apparently the upcoming Halloween episode of The Simpsons is going to parody the war in Iraq with clever twists to make the episode a little less controversial. If you read the article by Jeff Bercovici of radaronline.com, he gives a few quotes that shed some light onto the kinds of anti-war sentiments that you might see. The main plot of the episode is that aliens from outer space have invaded the town of Springfield to prevent humanity from possessing "weapons of mass disintergration," sound familiar to anything war related that you've heard? Another reference to the war comes when one of the aliens says to the other "you said we would be greeted as liberators!" A not so subtle way of talking about their view of America's participation in the war.

Though this episode may be pushing some boundaries, I cannot wait to see how far they will take it. I personally am all for bashing our politics of war for the sake of truth and humor!

The Simpsons annual Halloween special will air November 5 so be sure to watch and write me back with what you thought, because I will definitely be writing again after I see it too... So long as I don't forget to watch. haha

Oh...and this post also relates to a previous post about the 3 most important shows, or rather adds to my reasoning.

This is how a president should be!

"Man of the Year," starring Robin Williams and Christopher Walken is a movie unlike any other. The acting is great and the validity of the movies ideas are exactly what any president should embrace.

Robin Williams plays a comedian, Tom Dobbs, who has his own show, similar to that of Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show." His political views and opinions become so popular with his audience that they elect him to run for the President of the United States. I don't want to spoil anything for those of you who haven't seen it and want to but he does win the election and becomes the President elect. Aside from the main plot of Dobbs becoming the President there is a second plot that places the movie into an action genre as well as a comedy. To be 100% honest, I really could have done without that second plot... when you see the movie you will know what I'm talking about.

The best part of this movie are all the facts and opinions that Robin Williams presents to his audience and political supporters. They are all so obviously correct about everything from oil drilling to the education system, and he presents them in some of the funniest ways. If there was ever a candidate in real life that modelled after this character he would definitely have my vote.

I highly recommend this movie, but I have to warn you, the secondary plot is your typical action movie. So you may get a little annoyed with it. Other than that this movie is filled with great political ideas and keeps you laughing throughout the movie.

Was Steve Irwin's Death A Freak Occurrence?

All over the news there was talk about the 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin's death and how it was such a freak accident for a stingray to attack and kill him. But was it that much of a freak occurrence?

Just yesterday, 81 year old James Bertakis was boating with his granddaughter and her friend when suddenly a 5 foot stingray jumped on board his boat and stabbed him in the chest. But even more random, the stinger almost pierced his chest. He is still undergoing surgery due to a closed chest wound and collapsed lung. There is no word what the outcome is yet.

"Ellen Pikitch, a professor of marine biology and fisheries at the University of Miami, who has been studying stingrays for decades, said the fish are generally docile creatures."

So what is making these "docile" creatures attack lately?

The Oilers Are Eh'holes!

I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT I SAW LAST NIGHT!!! The SJ Sharks had so much more talent and control over last night's hockey game in Edmonton and they somehow managed to lose it all. I blame Nabakov, they should have known he was going to choke just like he did last season. PUT TOSKALA BACK IN!!! ...and keep him in!!! It was obvious that we had a better team with an early lead of 4-2 and then way too many mistakes were made allowing the Oilers 4 more goals... 4 MORE GOALS!!! How does that happen? Sorry... this post is just me ranting about how disappointed I am about last night's game. There realy is no relevance in it, I just want you to know that we coming for Edmonton next time around!

But I do have to say it was a great game for Cheechoo with not only his first goal of the season, but his first hat trick of the season! Way to go Cheech!

"The King Of All Media"

Since June 19, 1984 one man has been in the nation's spotlight as one of the most influential shock jock radio personalities. Howard Stern has been shocking millions of people over the air waves for many years with his very controversial humor he uses sexually and racially. But he must be doing something right to be elected Time Magazine's "Time 100: The People who shape our world." Not only has Howard Stern dominated as a radio personality, but in many other forms of media such as television, publishing, feature films, and music. All of which have made him into the man that people consider to be one of the most influential celebrities in the world.

But with all these medias that Stern has ran so successfully, for the most part, what makes his radio show any good? Is it his crude comedy? His bashing of political persons?

I think that his show is both great and terrible. It is great in that he can make me laugh at some of the dumbest subjects imaginable. He can put any person in their place when they try to argue with him. He simply knows how to tell his listeners what it is that they want to hear... his blatant side of everything, whether it hurts them or not. And most of the time I think that he is spot on with his point of view. But then there are times that I have seen on his show where he is humiliating women, midgets and mentally handicapped people for pure amusement and entertainment, and I am definitely not ok with that. I personally have a brother who has become mentally handicapped about 3 years ago and if anyone, including Howard Stern, ever said even a small percentage of the things he says about people in my brother's position I would gladly knock their teeth in. Another thing he does is he has game shows while on the air with contestants who humiliate themselves for prizes that are, in my opinion, flawed gifts. What I mean by flawed gifts is, for example, a girl could win breast implants or an underage kid could win a prom date who is a porn star. These are just immoral things to be given as prizes in my point of view. But it keeps the listeners laughing and listening so he keeps on doing it. Making fun of Americans has made him millions and if people are dumb enough to keep going back for more, I say let them. Let the rich get richer off of your humiliation if that keeps you laughing.

What to Watch?

So many channels and so little interest. So how do you know which ones are any good and why do you consider them good or important? For me the content of the show has to either be humorous, entertaining, informative, have something to do with my other interests or hobbies, etc. There never is a show that is considered good or important by every single viewer, but they have to get enough of them to keep the show running. So what, in my opinion are the top three most important television shows? Easy... The Simpsons, Sesame Street, The Real World.

The Simpsons are the most well known and longest running cartoon show ever! They keep almost all ages entertained from the slapstick comedy that children love to the subtle views that they share about what is going on in America through the characters in the cartoon. For example, the Kwik-E-Mart owner and cashier, Apu, is a man of Indian ancestry and in one episode they have him pretending to be an all-American kind of a guy so that he does not face discrimination from the towns people, this mirrors the conflicts taking place after 9/11 with the discrimination of Indian people here in America. The Simpsons was also the pioneer for cartoons that not only interested younger viewers but adults as well. It is also a great display of a typical American family, it emphasizes the flaws and beneficial traits of each family member. This show paved the way for many other cartoon shows to follow such as King of the Hill and Family Guy.

Sesame Street was and is one of the best kids show of all time. As a once young viewer of the show myself, I learned many things that I would have never learned at that age on my own, such as counting to 10 in Spanish. They definitely were in the forefront of children's programming which was later followed by shows like Barney and Dora the Explorer. Everyday on Sesame Street there was always a new lesson to be learned in some fun and different way that kept the interest of its young viewers while teaching them.

As much as I dislike The Real World, it led to the hit style of television shows that are called "reality TV shows." The Real World took people from around the country and forced them to live in the same house and experience situations together which would either bring them closer together or tear them apart. The Real World was a leader in the "reality" style of TV shows by trying something new and succeeding in a huge way. And to my disapproval, this shows creation led to shows such as Survivor, Fear Factor and Flava Flav.

A Face in the Crowd Movie Review

"This whole country's just like my flock of sheep! Hillbillies, hausfraus - everybody that's got to jump when someone else blows a whistle! They're mine!" This quote taken from the mouth of main character "Lonesome" Rhodes mirrors the idea that many Americans have of our politicians and leaders when it comes to the mindset we feel they all share and is also the main theme of this movie. People need or have someone that tells them how to live their lives and how they should feel about certain topics of discussion. This is exactly how Lonesome sees Americans (sheep) and uses that to manipulate their emotions and thoughts as he increasingly hungers for more control and more power throughout the film.

This 1957 film A Face In The Crowd stars a well known actor by the name of Andy Griffith who plays Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a drunk hobo found sleeping in a jail cell with nothing but his guitar and a hangover. Through the story, Lonesome becomes a TV show success for his unorthodox methods of humor and his "telling it how it is" mentality. Some of the aspects of Lonesome's personality such as his ridiculing and mocking of corporate sponsors is believed to have been based on that of the 1950's CBS radio-TV star Arthur Godfrey who was synonymous for the same type of kidding of his shows sponsors.

To give you some background to the story, it begins with a radio journalist, Marcia Jeffries who visits a local jail to give what she calls the "A Face in the crowd" portion of her show where she interviews regular, everyday people to give her audience some true to life stories and situations. This jail cell is where she finds Larry Rhodes who is willing to play his guitar and sing on the show only if he is promised to get out of jail the following morning. His song becomes popular quickly among listeners and shortly after he is asked to be on the show again. His popularity grows so rapidly that pretty soon he find himself with a TV show simply telling it how it is in his own style. His acceptance and popularity quickly puts him on top of the charts and the surge of power goes to his head. He starts to want to control everything around him, including politicians. But does this power hungry man of television become too much for his country or does his own greed become too much for himself?

I think this movie was definitely "two thumbs up" for its time period, but not for the year 2006. It lags the necessary appeal to be highly ranked in the movies of today. Some of my biggest problems with the movie is the repetition that the characters have, for example, Lonesome's obnoxiously loud laugh that made me want to choke him from the second he started doing it. Another example would be the character Marcia Jeffries', played by Patricia Neal, inability to deal with situations, it got to the point where it actually frustrated me. Aside from the characters that troubled me, I found the movie itself was repetitive in that it seemed to continually move forward in the same manner. What I mean is, the plot would just keep with Lonesome wanting this and that so he would get it while hurting someone in the process, then that repeats again and again but in a slightly different manner each time. It just seemed like the movie did not have enough change in it to keep my interest. As a viewer in the year 2006 watching a movie made in 1957, the type of character that Lonesome Rhodes is is still very relatable. I personally believe that there are many figure heads and leaders that need and want the kind of power Rhodes got and love to pull the strings of the puppets that are the people. I thought the plot of the movie was great, but the film simply lacked the ability to keep my interest. The idea that a jobless, homeless drunk can become a super power among entertainment and politics is genius, showing how a man with nothing that needs nothing can become so greedy with power and fame, this encompasses the idea of why so many people of power are easily corrupted. I think that the movie should definitely be watched by many, but perhaps a remake of the movie would make it more of a movie of today's caliber and relevance would be for the best. I give the movie a two and a half out of five rating.