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The Simpsons & Religion (1 Viewer)

0Jade0

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"Jesus, ALLAH, Buddha, I love you all" There is a reference to Islam
 

Abbeygale

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There's a critical analysis on this topic in the EE2 forum, in the showcase thread. Have you read that?

It's certainly the most theologically diverse. The religions present on the show are currently- ambiguous Christianity (the exact denomination of the Springfield church isn't divulged, but the presence of Mrs Lovejoy indicates its not Catholic), Hinduism for Apu and Manjula, Judaism though Krusty and his father, Buddhism (did Lisa end up converting back? I only half watch the Simpsons- it's turned to crap really.) and probably a few more.
However, they do make jokes about the Catholic Church and Jehovah's Witnesses.

The Islam question- I suppose it could be to do with the fact that the show is primarily satire. There is a perception that Muslims don't have a sense of humour about their religion, and it's better to leave them out than risk offending them seriously. All the religions on the show have jokes aimed in their direction occasionally- 'Jebus', Homer dressing up as religious figures (Ganesh, the Buddha), Krusty's bar mitzvah special. But to make fun of Islam might be more trouble than it's worth in today's political climate.
On the other hand, they might have a show featuring an Islamic character in production now. It takes six months to produce a Simpson's episode, not to mention the delay between airing in America and Aus- if they did decide to add one, it would be months before we heard about it.
And they didn't include Buddhism until last season, I believe. They could be working their way through slowly.
 

sof

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The simpsons is great but it is starting 2 get a little lame. It was good though in the middle seasons....and yeh it doesn't really talk about muslims but if u think about it many pple didn't really know who muslims were b4 the sept 11 attacks. Many pple were ignorant towards the religion (average pple) and so mayb that's y the muslim religion didn't really stand out as much as most other religions did for the creators 2 make jokes about it but now tht the whole world knows them well, there mayb jokes about the religion in future episodes.....who knows. Like when i was in primary skool like prob yr 5 or 6 i had a friend who was muslim and most other kids didn't even know what a muslim was......but i dunno times have changed
 

Abbeygale

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God I hate pop culture- we do it too.

Speaking of, I'd better go do my assignment.

And you're right, I did forget Sideshow Bob.
 

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