Volume 191 - Issue 7
Smoking and The Simpsons
Author: Becky Freeman
Med J Aust 2009; 191 (7): 415-416. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02869.x
Published online: 5 October 2009
Published online: 5 October 2009
To the Editor: The article by Eslick and Eslick1 caught my attention, as the sophisticated parodying of the tobacco industry on The Simpsons has been a much discussed topic among my tobacco-control colleagues.
In the introduction to the article, the authors ask if the smoking and tobacco industry portrayals in this program are “just satire, or does the repetitive nature of characters smoking on The Simpsons have an influence on young children watching?” The study design employed cannot answer this question. I was surprised then that the authors concluded that the portrayals of smoking on The Simpsons negatively influence young children. The study results indicate that positive portrayals of smoking on the show are, in fact, extremely rare. It could equally be the case that the more numerous negative portrayals of smoking on this popular and subversive comedy reach young viewers in a way no government-sanctioned health promotion campaign can.
Health education messages presented through social satire may not be politically correct, but this does not mean they are ineffective in communicating antismoking sentiments.2 The two most prominent smokers in The Simpsons, Patty and Selma Bouvier, are not characters that any teenager would aspire to be like — disgruntled, middle-aged sisters who live together, work in depressing jobs at the local Department of Motor Vehicles, Selma constantly bemoaning her lack of a husband and fantasising about 1980s heart-throb MacGyver, and Patty best known for her utter joylessness and cynicism. Surely these grim stereotypes would cause most young people to turn away from smoking, and not towards it?
Tobacco-control policies themselves were recently lampooned in The Simpsons, with the Simpson family opening a pub in Ireland that illegally allowed patrons to smoke. Much mayhem ensues, and the Simpsons are eventually deported back to the United States for breaking the Irish antismoking laws.3 I am delighted that tobacco control has such universal momentum that it can be parodied on a pop-culture phenomenon like The Simpsons.
References
- Eslick GD, Eslick MG. Smoking and The Simpsons. Med J Aust 2009; 190: 637-639. 0_i1091843
- Freeman B, Chapman S. Tobacco promotion invades new media. Lancet Oncol 2007; 8: 973-974. 0_CBBCEBJG
- Wapedia. In the Name of the Grandfather. The Simpsons Season 20, Episode 14. 2009. http://wapedia.mobi/en/In_the_Name_of_the_Grandfather (accessed Jun 2009).