Simpsons..anti- irish??

minnie_mouse

Has anyone else found the simpsons to be anti i-rish, i can rember several parts of dialouge to show this...what do u think?

jhegarty

minnie_mouse wrote:

Has anyone else found the simpsons to be anti i-rish, i can rember several parts of dialouge to show this...what do u think?

the thing is the simpsons are anti everyone and everything.... (except beer)....

Zombienosh

aye theres been plenty of jokes about us, but its all in good fun.
i mean i remember all the times theyve made a joke about us, but id be lying if i said i didn't laugh.

Zapho

Yeah they have made jokes about the Irish, like the one about the leprichans (spelled right?) flying over to america in the wheel wells of aerlingus flights, or grandpa simpson ridding springfield of the Irish. It they were so funny I couldn't stop laughing!
Ah but they make fun of the English all the time too and the french and .....well.....everybody. They make fun of americans more than anyone!

seamus

The Simpsons has always used broad stereotypes to create jokes.

Take Groundskeeper Willie, Apu, Moe as but examples.

They've also done parody of British stereotypes, even worse than the Irish ones they've done ("Tis true - I took many a lump. But sure 'twas all in good fun!").

If you can't laugh at a non-malicious stereotype of your own countrymen, then you're taking life too seriously. Anything I've ever seen on the Simpsons has been either a mild stereotype, or actually very critical of American attitudes towards Irish people in the late 19th century. Certainly the above one about using whacking day as an excuse to beat up the Irish is a criticism of Americans, not a slur on Irish.
Also the Itchy and Scratchy founder episode ("Itchy runs afoul of an Irishman", "Look out Itchy - he's Irish!") takes a light-hearted look at the same attitude - it's nothing actually against the Irish.

If I had to pick the Simpsons as being anti-anything, I'd say it was anti-American (certainly since 1999).

garthv

Id have to agree with above,Simpsons just take the piss out of anything they can and i find the Irish slaggings to be the funniest,not offensive.

jonnybadd

I dont think there is any nation/people they havent takin the mick out of. The Irish do come up, as do english, and hippies to name a few, but the most people they regularily mock are themselves, as people in the 'industry'. They openly slag the network that gave them their big break, its just their style

Morgans

"I'm the potato man"

orangerooster

One that sticks out in my mind is the guys throwing a keg into the window of a chippers called "john bull" in the episode with the prohibition.Always makes me smile.

doh.ie

seamus wrote:

If you can't laugh at a non-malicious stereotype of your own countrymen, then you're taking life too seriously.

Yep. If you can't laugh at yourself... There isn't a culture the Simpsons hasn't lampooned, but it's true Irish jokes have cropped up a few times more than, say, the people of Uruguay.

Still, they're always funny, even when they're close to the bone - ep with the Loch Ness monster:

Burns: I'm going to show you something so rare it has never before been seen.
Homer: A sober Irishman?
Burns: Rarer.

We'd be right to be offended - maybe - if other cultures didn't get the same treatment. I wonder what the French make of their representation - even more stereotypical than the Irish jokes! Doubt the British mind the 'stiff-upper lip' treatment too much, though.

gimmick

Swar to god, everyone has become so PC its unreal. Has the entie world lost its sense of humour?

The Simpsons is not 'anti - Irish". Sure there are a few jokes at Irish drunkeness etc, but if you are to say that is anti irish, Bord fcuking Failte must be anti irsh as well, considering one of their main selling points of this Island is the "craic" to be had in our pubs.

Get over it and get out more.

Hairy Homer

doh.ie wrote:

Yep. If you can't laugh at yourself... There isn't a culture the Simpsons hasn't lampooned, but it's true Irish jokes have cropped up a few times more than, say, the people of Uruguay.

Still, they're always funny, even when they're close to the bone - ep with the Loch Ness monster:

Burns: I'm going to show you something so rare it has never before been seen.
Homer: A sober Irishman?
Burns: Rarer.

We'd be right to be offended - maybe - if other cultures didn't get the same treatment. I wonder what the French make of their representation - even more stereotypical than the Irish jokes! Doubt the British mind the 'stiff-upper lip' treatment too much, though.

If we're so worried about general differences being represented as negative stereotypes then maybe we should all strive to look sound and act exactly the same.

For people of such a sensitive disposition can I recommend that you watch 'The Swan' hosted by our own lovely Amanda Byram. It basically takes a bunch of ugly people and then through a crash course of hairdressing, dieting, a massive clothes budget and cosmetic surgery makes them all end up looking exactly the same.

Yeuchh!! Give me the variety of red Irish hair, big Jewish noses, fat American arses and pouty French lips any time.

bigfeller

doh.ie wrote:

the people of Uruguay.

<Homer spins globe, stabs it with his finger, stops on South America>

Homer: "Ha ha! Look at this country! ?You are gay!? Ha ha!"

toiletduck

burns: im going to find something that man has searched for since the dawn of time
homer: a sober irishman?
burns: even rarer...

seamus

"All this drinking, violence, destruction of property - Are these really the things we think of, when we think of the Irish?"
(Cut to float carrying "Drunken Irish Novelists of Springfield". All occupants jump off and proceed to fight with random passers-by)

Brilliant.

Blub2k4

One of the better Simpsons quotes was when Krusty discovered that without a Bar Mitzvah that he was not a Jew:
" I thought I was a self-hating Jew, it turns out I'm just a plain old anti-semite"

Hairy Homer

If you're talking about funny shows with a tendency to sail close to the wind with regard to national stereotypes what about the legendary Fawlty Towers?

Mr O'Reilly the builder wasn't a very positive Irish stereotype was he? Nor did Manuel paint a favourable picture of Spanish people.

And then there was the major talking about a young lady he once brought to see India at the Oval.
'And the funny thing was, she kept referring to the Indians as nig....s.

No! No! No! I said.

That's the West Indies.

These people are wogs!!'

And was there ever a more repulsive American stereotype than Bruce Boa demanding his Waldorf Salad?

Still. You could forgive Basil anything. Or at least I could.

Blub2k4

Hairy Homer wrote:

If you're talking about funny shows with a tendency to sail close to the wind with regard to national stereotypes what about the legendary Fawlty Towers?

Mr O'Reilly the builder wasn't a very positive Irish stereotype was he? Nor did Manuel paint a favourable picture of Spanish people.

And then there was the major talking about a young lady he once brought to see India at the Oval.
'And the funny thing was, she kept referring to the Indians as nig....s.

No! No! No! I said.

That's the West Indies.

These people are wogs!!'

And was there ever a more repulsive American stereotype than Bruce Boa demanding his Waldorf Salad?

Still. You could forgive Basil anything. Or at least I could.

Basil Fawlty a parody? English people do think and talk like that. Damned racial stereotypes

monkeyfudge

I´m in Brazil at the moment and alot of people here really hate the Simpsons because of the episode were they go to Brazil.

Brazil had speant a fortune on advertising their tourist industry on US television the same week that episode went out... they weren´t happy at all.

Personally I only wish Brazil was as much fun as how the Simpsons showed it to be...

Gotta love the part were Homer and Bart are walking along the beach and the lifeguard goes `Americans!´ and Homer says `How did you know?´ and the camera pans down onto Homer´s t-shirt which depicts Uncle Sam taking bite out of the globe with the slogan `Try and Stop Us!´

Chong

minnie_mouse wrote:

Has anyone else found the simpsons to be anti i-rish, i can rember several parts of dialouge to show this...what do u think?

Quit the whinging its a cartoon.

A.S.H.

And what about the brilliant Family Guy where they go to the museum of Irish (or Sumthin) and you see what an advanced civilisation we were before finding whiskey and then the animatronics of life in Ireland with the woman praying before the bed and then falling backwards before a baby pops out repeat

MG

"Watch out itchy he's irish"

I'm sure Grandpa Simpson mentions his ancestors coming over from Ireland

and doesn't Moe say something about Aer Lingus?

All in good fun. No offence taken, as none was intended.

Ever listen to the commentaries on the DVDs. Seems to me that the writers put it in if they think its funny, no matter who they offend e.g New Orleans

Another one I like for some reason:

Homer: Is this a Jewish thing?

Krusty: A Jewish clown thing, yes.

PcP

Willem D wrote:

Quit the whinging its a cartoon.

Either that or get hammered and go beat the crap outta the scriptwriters..

egan007

I can't put it any better than....

:rolleyes:

The Fitz

oh god yea

The Fitz

whacking day!

gaui3d0pnbz86o

its only a cartoon! and its not the first program ever to make fun of the irish, its funny as to a certain extent its true and if we cant laugh at ourselves then who can we laugh at

Zombienosh

Darwin Elegant Forklift wrote:

its only a cartoon! and its not the first program ever to make fun of the irish, its funny as to a certain extent its true and if we cant laugh at ourselves then who can we laugh at

we can laugh at you! :rolleyes:
*points and laughs*

minnie_mouse

"Quit the whinging its a cartoon" Willheim D I was just staing a fact

jor el

I don't think the racisim, if you can call it that, in the Simpsons is meant to be offensive to anyone. It's all good light hearted fun. Anyone who takes exception to a satirical show like this really needs to get out more.

In the immortal words of Diamond Joe Quimby 'I stand by my ethnic slur'.

fjon

seamus wrote:

"All this drinking, violence, destruction of property - Are these really the things we think of, when we think of the Irish?"
(Cut to float carrying "Drunken Irish Novelists of Springfield". All occupants jump off and proceed to fight with random passers-by)

Brilliant.

In the same episode (I think! This is the Paddy's Day parade one?) there is a bit left out of the syndicated version. During the parade where Bart gets drunk and staggers around, there is a shot of a very British pub, The Royal Arms or something, and you see it being blown up by some Irish Springfieldians. Might have been dodgy a decade or two ago, but was quite funny!