A cartoon? What's in it for me?"
Chapter 3 : Impossible Laughter: An Appreciative Response to The
Simpsons
The reigning take on reality is one in which there's only so much joy to go around; in which the individual can only thrive at the expense of another. Life on The Simpsons entirely by-passes this presumed law and even mocks it. It never leaves unchecked or unmocked the lies with which we customarily stuff ourselves but holds in constant contempt the forces that milk peoples' souls dry. While it refuses to affirm the most-frequently-aired delusions of what we're told will make us complete, it does not aggressively dismiss, in a cynical fashion, all that proposes to fulfill. Instead, The Simpsons bears witness of a better way of abundance in which no economic class or people group has the monopoly on moral virtue or happiness. An effusive goodness and buoyant beauty turn up in the low places and among the least seemly characters. Self-deception and folly are rampant, but true words are spoken and real joy happens in an utterly undomesticated community where evil never has the last word and love covers a multitude of sins.