Book Reviews of The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer

This is an anthology of 18 articles that relate frequent themes in the animated sitcom to the big thinkers and big ideas of philosophy. Given the large number of pieces in 300 pages, there's variation in quality of writing and persuasiveness of claims but the same episodes keep coming up, such as Lisa the Vegetarian. Very convincing are "The Simpsons and Allusion," a good overview of how it is used effectively on the show and "Thus Spake Bart" which related his badness to the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche. Another plus is numerous articles aren't reluctant to label the show as "morally empty,"� an example of snotty know-nothingism TV is infamous for and part of the problem of Pop Goes the Culture.

This series is entertaining, but I'm not the hugest fan. But for the Simpsons fantatic in your life...knock 'em dead!

Simpsons and scholars.

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