Image Credit: FoxWe live in an era of hyper-referential humor. Shows as diverse as Glee, Community, and South Park all regularly feature “theme” episodes that riff on pop culture iconography — look at Glee‘s Christmas episode (in which Sue Sylvester re-enacted How the Grinch Stole Christmas), or Community‘s upcoming Pulp Fiction episode, or the episode of South Park that riffed on TRON (before TRON was briefly cool and then lame again). You can thank The Simpsons for all the nonstop pop culture references — Matt Groening’s iconic animated series turned hyper-referentiality into an art form, regularly packing in throwaway references to high and low culture right from the start.
Even after a decade of diminishing returns, the show’s place in the TV pantheon is secure… or is it? Salon‘s Matt Zoller Seitz has written an intriguing argument that shows built on pop culture nods — what he calls “footnote shows” — simply don’t age well. (He singles out an extended Hollywood Squares joke in an early-’90s Simpsons episode.) Considering how much of TV humor is now constructed on a foundation of referentiality, it’s definitely worth considering: Will we still consider “footnote shows” funny decades from now? READ FULL STORY »
