Wednesday, December 7, 2016

"The Simpsons," Satire, And "The Odyssey?"

Compare The Odyssey video excerpt from the Simpsons with Homer's epic poem The Odyssey Books 9,10,12,21,22,23. What does the Simpson's version satirize? What does it make you think about regarding the poem's characters, theme, relationships, and episodes? Please respond with specific support (i.e.-quotations) for your argument. Complete this blog response by 2:30p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9th.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Simpsons version of The Odyssey makes fun of the actual story by exaggerating some of the characters in ways that make them funny. It was more simple than the actual story and only took versions of the plot to go over. They added a funny dialog to make it funny rather than have the serious one of the book. The overall story was the same because it took a long time to get home while he kept being steered in the wrong direction. The personality of each character that the Simpsons created made it interesting to see a simple version of the more complicated story.

Anonymous said...

The Simoson's relates to The Odyssey because Poisedon wrecks their ship, and Penelope has to start by choosing a new suitor, Odysseus has to go through Hades, and he finds his wife again. But he does not run into any Cyclops, lotus eaters, and he didn't fight silica.

Anonymous said...

The Simpsons excerpt tells the story of "The Odyssey" but while also throwing in jokes that don't change the story. The siren song is played while the men on the ship say something that wasn't in the book but the story plays out the same. It does leave out details like how they got sidetracked and forced to Circe's island. The Simpson's characters are used to play the characters in "The Odyssey". The video makes some of the characters like Zeus seem less important in how they are nonchalant about their business.

Anonymous said...

In the Simpsons episode the Simpsons family mocks the idea of the Odysseus and his journey. In the part of the episode where Circe's Cauldron it portrays that it means something bad. This connects to the Odyssey just like how the men in the Odyssey should have not fallen for the wine and should've known that it was going to effect them. Eventually this leads to the men being pigs and them Odysseus eats the pigs and doesn't know that they were his men turned into pigs. In all, the Simpsons version is completely different than the actual stories.

Anonymous said...

While watching the Simpsons parody i was able to see the sarcasm and difference between the book and the film. The short film was very quick in summing up Odysseus's trip and there weren't any cyclopes on his trip but it did show some different experiences that he had. I feel like in the book the mood is more gloomy and serious, while in the film there was a more sarcastic and joking mood.

Anonymous said...

Not everything is covered, such as the cyclops. Some things are different such as Odysseus eating his men in the form of pigs. They messed up the part with the sirens.It poked fun at it in they way that odysses got fatter when he was gone from when he left. It had a similar theme of Odysseus trying to get home. It was similar in the sense that poseidon, the god of the seas, the son of zuice kept them from reaching their home.

Anonymous said...

The Simpsons definitely turn this in their direction especially with the sirens and Circe. The Simpsons visit troy, the island of the sirens, and the island of Circe.

Anonymous said...

The Simpson's version of The Odyssey leaves out some of the events that happened like the lotus eater and the cyclops. It also makes fun of the original story by making his journey less heroic than it actually is.

Anonymous said...

In the Odyssey, Odysseus has to fight a cyclops and the lotus-eaters, but in the Simpsons episode, there are not. The Simpsons has Odysseus eat his men who turned into pigs, while it did not happen in The Odyssey. The Simpsons's version also leaves out how Odysseus met Penelopiea, and how he disguised himself as a beggar and strung the bow, and shot an arrow through several holes of axes to reach a target.

Anonymous said...

The simpsons version is a more exaggerated and funny version of The Odyssey. The book went into detail about everything but the clip was a less serious, simple version of it. The stories and the clip were the same personality wise but they altered some things to make it entertaining.

Anonymous said...

The Simpsons version of the Odyssey satirizes the serious part of te circumstances Odysseus gets himself in by replacing the characters with people from the actual show. This puts a less serious note on the entire journey by giving it a lighthearted feel. They slide in some cultural references and innuendos and long- running jokes from the show. Such as them portraying the "seductive" sirens as Marge's sisters instead of beautiful women. This definitely ties with the book's theme as he runs into STYX, Circe and the sirens, like in the actual book.

Anonymous said...

This episode from The Simpsons displays the Odyssey very well and they joke about the gods destroying Atlantis and that their ship actually went toward the sirens. This makes the characters personality really shine through. It is a very quick outline of these stories, but it does give you the main idea of what happened in these stories. This makes me think about the poem and how jokingly some of the situations were. They got so close to home so many times but just like in the episode the gods just kept "flicking" their ship away. This episode of the Simpsons really does display the Odyssey in a very comedic fashion.

Anonymous said...

The Simpsons makes fun of the way the gods act, the Sirens Song, how they were not home for a long time, Circe the Sorceress, and going through Hades. They made fun of how unrealistic the poem is. The Simpsons make Odysseus look unintelligent even though he was favored by the goddess Athena. They downplayed the theme of the Odyssey, a grand adventure with many obstacles, and made the journey seem ridiculous. It made me realize that the poem may have very different stories and details than we are used to today, but the theme is very similar to many popular stories from present times.

Anonymous said...

The Odyssey video excerpt from the Simpsons was making fun of the trip Odysseus took. The film makes it seem funny and less serious then it is in the book. Although it was displayed in a joking manner, it also shows that the trip was poorly planned and Odysseus wasn't the best leader. The film version didn't show as many of the hardship the group had to go through and was exaggerating many of the character to make it seem less important and funny. The mood was definitely different then how it is in the book.

Anonymous said...

This makes fun of the story by the way of the outcome of the pigs, the travel through the underworld and the getting ride of the suitors in the house that wanted his wife. Homer ate his friends who had been turned into pigs, listened to horrible music through the underworld and impaled all of the suitors at once in his house. And after shortly talking to his wife he left to go drink. this compared to the original story is completely untrue and is full of humorous outcomes, with the Greek gods personalities and the end of the episode. But in the original story Odysseus had gone through many more troubling and difficult challenges.

Anonymous said...

The Simpson's episode humorously summarises The Odyssey, largely condensing the story and portraying all the characters as somewhat foolish people and fusing them with the classic Simpson's character while retaining traits of the heroes in The Odyssey. The gods depicted were Zeus, Dionysus, and Poseidon causing trouble for Odysseus Simpson and his men trying to get home. The sirens were not beautiful in this portrayal, and Odysseus eats his men when they had gotten turned into pigs, unlike the actual book, which emphasises the satire and humour.