CCT300+Lab8

CCT300 Lab8 The Simpson’s recent “couch gag” intro has provoked quite some controversies among public. On October 10th, the show released a sweatshop -themed sequence that integrates environmental issues, child labor, animal abuse and workforce exploitation altogether under the commentary context of how The Simpsons animation series is created. Inspired from one of Britain’s most talented graffiti artist, Banksy, the sequence exemplifies a masterpiece of culture jamming: a tactic that subverts mainstream media and sometimes even goes as far as committing self-sabotage like the case with The Simpsons. Some people think it’s awful to layout these disturbing images in front of viewers. I think it is BRILIANT! I believe it’s the creator’s intention to make the intro as brutal as it seems and slap it right in front of the audience face and says “Here’s reality ”. I praise the producer of his courage to actually go with Banksy’s proposal and make it happen. The idea is to use The Simpsons as a vehicle to project a message that’s open to a wide variety of different interpretations: some view it as a general commentary on social problems played under The Simpson’s setting, some wonders whether the content is actually relevant to reality. What I like about the production team is its willingness to take on the risk to make The Simpsons the carrier of a strong message that can potentially quite damaging toward it’s reputation. Nevertheless, they went along with it, putting explorative attitude before fears. This intro sequence definitely broke the status quo and expanded the horizon on how far cultural jamming could reach.