It's not so much that there are reactionary episodes, more that a lot of the humor and commentary is reactionary. Like when they have Abe say he doesn't want or need social security, but he'll raise hell if "they" miss one payment. Or that bit about driving an electric car making The Gays think you're A Gay too. Or when Willie says "talk to my union" when Skinner asks if he can clean the windows both well and quickly. Etc, etc.
In terms of full plotlines, that one about Marge giving up weightlifting because it's making her too "manly" and emasculating Homer comes to mind. Then there's two where Homer is divinely punished for choosing to ignore religion. Hell, the villain of the movie is an EPA agent.
There's also one where all the U.S. senators spring into action to punish one of their own for taking a bribe, just to restore Lisa's faith in the legal system. I don't know if that counts as reactionary? But it's definitely American Exceptionalism.
Okay, I see. But I think you’re misinterpreting a couple of those.
For the “ bit about driving an electric car making The Gays think you’re A Gay too”. The joke is the ride they’re on is sponsored by gasoline companies, who are trying to make electric cars look as bad as possible. So the bit is actually satirizing pro-fossil fuel propaganda. Link to video. I remember seeing that at the time it came out, though, and not picking up on the joke and thought they were just calling electric cars gay too, but I just wasn’t picking up on the subtleties of the joke.
Then as for restoring Lisa’s faith in America, that’s from Mr.Lisa Goes to Washington. I love that episode. It accurately depicts how corrupt American politics is, and Lisa’s speech of Washington being a ceasepool is far and away the post accurate criticism of the system I’ve seen on network television. The part you’re describing is this super exaggerated, idealized way the corruption is resolved in the episode. Almost like a depiction of how the writers wished the system worked. The awareness of the complete unrealism of it, though, is revealed by lines like the guy at the contest calling his Senator who doesn’t have time for the call but drops everything and immediately focuses on the issue when the guy calling (super over dramatically) says “But sir! A little girl has lost faith in democracy!!!”. Then there’s the part where then president George H W Bush says something like, “we’ll I don’t know if my bosses are gonna be happy about this”, to which someone asks “you have bosses?”, to which Bush responds “You betcha,all 300 million of them!”
It’s an incredibly outlandish series of events and the joke (as I see it) is how unlike reality it is. It’s playing out our school grade conceptions of how the political system works and in turn illustrates how ridiculous they are.
And about it being American exceptionalism, I don’t know about that. It’s more like a depiction of the system working squeaky cleanly without corruption. I think that can hardly be described as reactionary. It’s almost sad in how it’s pining for a system that works.
I would say the first 10 seasons are filled with good takes (I mean, Homer leads strikes/unions like 2 or 3 times at the power plant lol). But I have no doubt that later episodes are stupid and reactionary. I’m not familiar with the other examples you listed, but they sound dumb as hell.
It's not so much that there are reactionary episodes, more that a lot of the humor and commentary is reactionary. Like when they have Abe say he doesn't want or need social security, but he'll raise hell if "they" miss one payment. Or that bit about driving an electric car making The Gays think you're A Gay too. Or when Willie says "talk to my union" when Skinner asks if he can clean the windows both well and quickly. Etc, etc.
In terms of full plotlines, that one about Marge giving up weightlifting because it's making her too "manly" and emasculating Homer comes to mind. Then there's two where Homer is divinely punished for choosing to ignore religion. Hell, the villain of the movie is an EPA agent.
There's also one where all the U.S. senators spring into action to punish one of their own for taking a bribe, just to restore Lisa's faith in the legal system. I don't know if that counts as reactionary? But it's definitely American Exceptionalism.
Okay, I see. But I think you’re misinterpreting a couple of those.
For the “ bit about driving an electric car making The Gays think you’re A Gay too”. The joke is the ride they’re on is sponsored by gasoline companies, who are trying to make electric cars look as bad as possible. So the bit is actually satirizing pro-fossil fuel propaganda. Link to video. I remember seeing that at the time it came out, though, and not picking up on the joke and thought they were just calling electric cars gay too, but I just wasn’t picking up on the subtleties of the joke.
Then as for restoring Lisa’s faith in America, that’s from Mr.Lisa Goes to Washington. I love that episode. It accurately depicts how corrupt American politics is, and Lisa’s speech of Washington being a ceasepool is far and away the post accurate criticism of the system I’ve seen on network television. The part you’re describing is this super exaggerated, idealized way the corruption is resolved in the episode. Almost like a depiction of how the writers wished the system worked. The awareness of the complete unrealism of it, though, is revealed by lines like the guy at the contest calling his Senator who doesn’t have time for the call but drops everything and immediately focuses on the issue when the guy calling (super over dramatically) says “But sir! A little girl has lost faith in democracy!!!”. Then there’s the part where then president George H W Bush says something like, “we’ll I don’t know if my bosses are gonna be happy about this”, to which someone asks “you have bosses?”, to which Bush responds “You betcha,all 300 million of them!”
It’s an incredibly outlandish series of events and the joke (as I see it) is how unlike reality it is. It’s playing out our school grade conceptions of how the political system works and in turn illustrates how ridiculous they are.
And about it being American exceptionalism, I don’t know about that. It’s more like a depiction of the system working squeaky cleanly without corruption. I think that can hardly be described as reactionary. It’s almost sad in how it’s pining for a system that works.
I would say the first 10 seasons are filled with good takes (I mean, Homer leads strikes/unions like 2 or 3 times at the power plant lol). But I have no doubt that later episodes are stupid and reactionary. I’m not familiar with the other examples you listed, but they sound dumb as hell.