Rude, mischievous and irresponsible.
The Simpsons have been destroying children's lives for years. Suppose to be a role model? Children are mimicking episodes and think that it is the right thing to do. Should this be happening? Episode after episode some sort of violence is occurring; killing, beating, mugging, stealing or foul language, and the ridiculous thing is, is that it is meant to be funny! Children shouldn't be brought up in this way or they will not know right from wrong. We are the ones who can stop children ruing their lives by ending up imprison, so we should make a move now.The Simpsons was first created by cartoonist Matt Groening, and was first screened on 14th January 1990.
It has become one of the worlds most watched and talked about programmes. Its first year on air overtook the most popular sitcom on television the Cosby Show, capturing 24 million viewers each week. The Simpsons is based on and named after Matt Groening's family. Matt first published a comic strip called 'Life in Hell' which later inspired the Simpsons. The opening sequence of the Simpsons starts the same on every episode, apart from when Bart is doing line on the blackboard.When Bart writes on the board as a punishment, they show what he is writing such as "I will use Google before asking dumb questions".
This may give children ideas to copy what Bart and will not give children any confidence when asking questions. It may also give children the idea to ask silly questions that are not related to the topics in school. Another thing that is different in the opening sequence is at the end of the starting, when the family all sit together on the sofa. This is also a bad influence on young children because the Simpson family go straight to the sofa and watch television as soon as they have gotten into the house.
When seeing this, children may also do the same and watch television the moment they get home, rather then playing outside or eating dinner. However some people may feel that this is a positive role model because it shows the family as a whole all sitting together spending some time as a family. Some families these days do not spend enough time as a family, so by showing the family all sitting together at the sofa, may influence other families to also do the same. The character, Homer has the most negative influence on the audience. In every episode, Homer is always strangling Bart if Bart makes him angry.
Homer shows aggression and promotes violence by using it to resolve his problems. This would then encourage children to also use violent behaviour if something does not go their way or someone makes them angry. In the episode 'Lisa's first word' Homer is very rude towards people that he dislikes or has a problem with. When another character annoyed Homer and proved him wrong Homer tells him to "kiss my hairy yellow ass".
Homer resolved this very immaturely instead of handling like an adult by rationally talking and saying his point of view.By being rude this would encourage children to also resolve their problems by talking rudely, which may offend people, rather than telling someone what has happened, or even ignoring what they have said because they might be trying to provoke them to get the reaction they want. In another episode, 'the Springfield files', Homer was walking home when he thinks he hears something. As he was walking his dad appears coming out from a bush, he is very scared and confused because he doesn't know how to get home.When Homer sees him he tells him that there is "no time for you old man! " This is also very rude behaviour as Homer shows no respect for his dad.
When his father needs help from him, Home just simply pushes him away when he should be helping him. This is meant to amuse the audience, and the makers are successful as they do make the viewers laugh. When children and teenagers see this they may mimic this since they find it amusing. Children and teenagers will therefore show no respect for their elders, and this would be down to the Simpsons.
On the other hand some people may argue that the Simpsons have some characters that have a positive influence on the viewers watching such as Ned Flanders. Ned is a very holy man and attends church with his family every Sunday. Ned is a polite and well mannered person who always shows respect to everyone. We always see Ned feeling sympathetic toward Homer when something goes wrong, and Flanders always offers to help, even though Homer throws it back in his face every time. Some people may feel that the character Ned Flanders helps to encourage children to never use violence and to always sort things out in an orderly matter.Flanders may also help to influence young children to be polite, respect everyone and to love and take care of their family.
In conclusion I feel that the Simpsons have a negative effect on the viewers. I believe that most of the characters are immature, rude and aggressive. This sort of behaviour has major consequences as young children, who do not know right from wrong, will imitate what they see. The reason why people copy the Simpsons is because they portray the actions of the characters as being comical, and they do not show the penalty of doing these actions.Children will then copy this, not knowing what will happen after, not realising that it is very serious.
The Simpsons also demonstrates a lot of bullying. I feel this type of behaviour is unacceptable as children do get bullied in real life, so programmes should be showing resolutions to this, rather than promote and encourage it to the bullies. This can lead to serious effects as people can get brutally beaten or abused. The Simpsons hugely effects the behaviour of people especially children, and I think this is wrong.
