The Simpsons, Banksy & the Culture Industry
To understand the culture industry, a difficult concept to define, we must also begin to unravel the term of popular culture, how it informs the culture industry, and the effects cultural production has in our society. Popular culture can be generally described as culture that is favoured or accepted by many people (Storey, 2014), thus allowing a positive notion of the culture industry at face value, however, critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer challenge this. They argue that culture is driven at an unrelenting speed by capitalism and has transformed pure artforms into a gimmick that is a response to consumerism; merely with a goal to entertain, and no longer to evoke truth and authenticity in artistic creation. (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1993). With Adorno and Horkheimer’s theories in mind, the purpose of the culture industry can be viewed as a capitalist process of mass production for production consumption which, nevertheless, remains the entertainment business (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1993).
An example of a mass-produced television show that is consumed by millions of people globally, is The Simpsons. The cartoon show first aired in 1987, and followed the lives of a dysfunctional, middle class American family (Alberti, 2004). Underneath the catchy comic style characters and colours which caught the attention of both adults and children alike, the show took satirical aim at the pieties of suburban American life (Alberti, 2004). Not only is it one of the most successful, mass-produced sitcom cartoons world-wide, but The Simpsons also represents the most daring cultural and political satire in the history of television (Alberti, 2004).
In 2010, UK street artist Banksy created an extended opening title sequence for The Simpsons. Along with its usual introduction for the first 35 seconds, except for few prominent “Banksy” tags on the buildings, the title sequence takes an unexpected turn and depicts Asian workers labouring over mass produced Simpsons merchandise (Stransky, 2010). Controversial as it is, the Banksy created title sequence, offers a specific ideological critique on the culture industry, the very industry that the show itself lives in.
Of course, the title sequence for the show begins as usual, with the familiar and distinguishable Simpsons soundtrack, and visually taking us through the middle of the town showcasing two rebellious children destroying the head off a town monument. This already portrays an idea that the younger generation are resistant to the current societal suppressions to which they will not conform to. The sequence then takes us through to the elementary school where Bart Simpson is in after school detention, writing all over the walls that he ‘will not write on the walls’; another example of a new generation rebelling against a society intent on control.
The sequence takes a turn unexpectedly when we are suddenly underground and participating in a tour of what seems to be a factory of materialistic production in an unknown Asian country. This particular part of the sequence includes predominately women who resemble nothing different to each other, apart from questionable injuries they each possess, as they mass produce an art piece of The Simpsons family sitting on their pink lounge; an image which is instantly recognisable to the consumers eyes. This part of this sequence supports Adorno and Horkheimer’s argument that culture today is corrupting everything with sameness and no authentic artistic truth (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1993).
Among many other publications, Entertainment Weekly assumes that the title sequence is a reaction to reports that the show outsources much of it’s animation and content to be produced, to an unknown sweatshop in South Korea (Stransky, 2010), however reflecting and tying it back to Adorno and Horkheimer’s argument of the culture industry, one could also view this as a capitalist process of producing media, not only depending on the hard labour of lesser third world countries citizens, purely as a means for the entertainment industry to say a dollar, but also hinting at the fact that capitalist production confines the consumers of the product, body and soul, as they are the workers and employees themselves (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1993). The images of inhumane and unsafe work environments, which include children, indirectly mirror the toxicity of a capitalist’s society and how people in first world nations are conditioned to accept such poor working environments and human rights conditions, or lack there of, particularly when it comes to outsourcing (Holmes, 2010). Argument aside, society still actively partakes in the consumption of such products, regardless.
Allowing Banksy, arguably the most controversial street artist in the world whose work itself has become a subculture in its own right, (Street Art Bio, 2022) to craft this title sequence, ties into the irony that the producers of the show desire to make a controversial statement of culture, even though they are in fact, contributing to the culture industry in more ways than one.
Evidently, The Simpsons title sequence directed by Banksy, provides a contemporary take on Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer critical theory of the culture industry.
References
Alberti, J. (2004). Leaving Springfield. Michigan, United States: Wayne State University Press.
Banksy Biography & Artwork | Artists | Street Art Bio. (2022). Retrieved 23 June 2022, from https://www.streetartbio.com/artists/banksy/
banksyfilm. (2010). Simpsons [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1iplQQJTo
Holmes, L. (2010). The Simpsons tries to get its edge back with a (kind of) daring opening [Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2010/10/12/130509380/the-simpsons-tries-to-get-its-edge-back-with-a-kind-of-daring-opening
Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T. (1993). The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In Dialectic of enlightenment (pp. 120–167). New York: Continuum.
Storey, J. (2014). Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (5th ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson Longman.
Stransky, T. (2010). ‘The Simpsons’ airs controversial opening sequence by Banksy. Retrieved from https://ew.com/article/2010/10/11/the-simpsons-banksy-opening-sequence/
