9 ms·
'The Simpsons' Explains Its Provocative Banksy Opening
- pavel_lishin 16y agoProvocative, but not very subtle.
- jackowayed 16y agoBecause the Simpsons is know for subtlety ...
- SkyMarshal 16y agoIn a way it is. I'm not a regular Simpsons watcher, but at least in some episode there are multiple layers and meanings going on at the same time. It can be almost Shakespearean sometimes.
- anigbrowl 16y agoCartoonish, even. oops, hit reply instead of paste - didn't mean for that to look like snark Not mentioned in many of the articles - most of which breathlessly informed viewers that animation of The Simpsons is done in South Korea, in case they had never bothered to read the credits - is the fact that animation is one of North Korea's few successful exports (legal ones, anyway). Although The Simpsons isn't prepared under the watchful eye of the Dear Leader, the head of the SK studio that produces it is the prime mover behind NK's animation industry, which I understand was set up during a less frosty period of north-south economic cooperation. Less well-known again is the fact that North Korea also exports development services, and Fox parent News Corporation recently came under scrutiny for its ownership (following a takeover) of a firm that has developed mobile game spinoffs of a few Fox movies using NK labor. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IC14Dg03.html http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/IC14Dg03.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-06/kim-jong-il-bowls-for-murdoch-dollars-with-video-games-made-in-north-korea.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-06/kim-jong-il-bowls-f...
- okaramian 16y agoBanksy never really been subtle, but I thought it was pretty clever.
- rikthevik 16y agoMy favorite is when he painted "FUCK PIGS" on the side of a pig. There's something so completely hilarious about that.
- mechanical_fish 16y agoUnsubtle, agreed, but provocative? It's too unsubtle to be provocative. You would have to be pretty humorless not to see the whole thing as a joke. And presumably the Simpsons writers stopped listening to the humorless people twenty seasons ago.
- philwelch 16y agoIf there was any question whether it was a joke while you were watching it, the unicorn at the end just gave it away.
- joeld42 16y agoI think it's more subtle than it lets on. The message wasn't "the simpsons is produced by sweatshop labor" which of course isn't true. Because if it was, this intro never would have aired. By joking openly, "we use sweatshop labor", they're really reiterating that they don't. The real message is "think about where your consumer goods come from". Which of course isn't the most original or controversial statement in the world, but the context makes you pay attention, much more so than if it had been direct, like a documentary. I thought it was a clever, self-deprecating way to bring up the subject, and a great use of context.
- pavel_lishin 16y agoStill not very subtle.
- Jun8 16y agoExactly! The more you think about it the more brilliant it gets. Like the Babel Fish argument against the existence of God in the Hitchhiker's Guide: The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." "But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED" "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
- bradly 16y agoIt must have been weird for the workers in Korea to produce this opening.
- mechanical_fish 16y agoI wouldn't know, but I would imagine that they might find it hilarious. It's always nice to make a cameo appearance, even in extreme caricature. (Which is generally the only way one gets to make a cameo appearance on The Simpsons.)
- sliverstorm 16y agoI imagine they would only find it hilarious assuming it IS an extreme caricature ;)
- whatever_dude 16y agoFunny, that's all I could think of when watching it.
- borism 16y agowell, if they are allowed to watch the end result that is (if the reports that it was done in DPRK are true)
- chris_l 16y agoI think the opening is a statement about how the art is taken out of the modern simpsons by the way they are produced. The links in the opening are the asian workers and the sadness in their depiction. This fits with banksys regular theme about the value of art and its opposition to commerce. Subtle enough?
- Tyrannosaurs 16y agoI'd be more bought into Banksy's opposition to commerce if he wasn't regularly selling work for five and six figures, not to mention the five books he's published. Fight the system yeah?
- chris_l 16y agoHe doesn't stoop down to such slogans. I'd venture it's not commerce but commercialisation he's opposed to.
- Tyrannosaurs 16y agoYou don't think five books of your work commercialises it? That's not exactly being in it for the love of it is it?
- steveklabnik 16y agoHaving anarchist sympathies, this is something I've given a lot of thought to. But basically, there's a difference between 'surviving' and 'selling out.' Banksy's gotta live, too. As long as he doesn't feel that he's had to compromise on his vision to release them, then I don't see any particular clash between being anti-commercial and selling some work. There's always a tension between the purity of the message and how many people actually hear it. Banksy could stay totally anti-commercial, do no shows, publish no works... and just stay on the streets of London. Or, he could sell some works for 5 figures, do his art around the world, and have a larger number of people hear his message.
- gaius 16y agoGood to see Banksy going legit, maybe he can contribute to cleaning up the vandalism now.
- Tyrannosaurs 16y agoYou are kidding right? The average Banksy piece can be sold for way more than the clean up costs (and have been sold in the past on the stipulation that the buyer "removes" it). Moaning about a Banksy piece on the side of your building would be like moaning about someone coming up and sticking gold to it.
- doyoulikeworms 16y agoYou're right and all, and I more or less agree, but it's still private property we're talking about, isn't it? If I don't want someone to stick gold onto my property, I shouldn't have to put up with it. It just so happens that most people are OK with free money, though. That said, I was under the impression that he asked permission first, at least recently?
- Tyrannosaurs 16y agoIt would make sense that he would, both commercially and criminally, though there are still pieces around London just sat there on walls. Kind of gives the lie to his whole counter culture personality, though I think that status has been questionable for some time now.
- 27182818284 16y agoMore often than not it seems to popup in interstitial spaces and public areas. For example, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4748063.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4748063.stm
- estel 16y agoI think he asks permission when it suits him. Given his profile as an artist, I'd imagine he mostly wants to work on projects of the sort of scale that require permission from an organisation of some sort. I don't think he has an objection to tagging the streets of London still, but his most high-profile works now would be impossible without permission. I'm still impressed he managed to do stuff like his Bristol exhibition with the knowledge of only three staff members at the Museum http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8097000/8097022.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/art...
- ojbyrne 16y agoThe embedded video has been taken down because of a copyright claim (at least for me). Not sure what to think about that, except that it seems misguided.
- skymt 16y agoThis other NYT post has a working embedded video from Hulu: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/with-a-provocative-couch-gag-banksy-tags-up-on-the-simpsons/ http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/11/with-a-provocat...
- jonasvp 16y agoNot for us outside the US...
- barrkel 16y agoThis kind of stuff - not just Hulu, but occasionally even Youtube, and other random failures - prompted me to rent a cheap US-hosted VPS (36 USD/year) just so I could ssh -D into it.
- blhack 16y ago36/yr? Who?
- barrkel 16y agohttp://www.lowendbox.com/ http://www.lowendbox.com/ has a lot of listings, many cheaper than 36/year, depending on whether you prefer Xen or OpenVZ. I'm not hosting a site on it; I don't need much.
- rue 16y agoThose plans do not come with a whole lot of bandwidth, given it is about 250MiB for an "hour" (~50min of a typical TV show).
- swombat 16y agoIs there a version of the video viewable from the other 95% of the world?
- shrikant 16y agoI [heart] Sidereel: http://beta.sidereel.com/tv/the-simpsons/season-22/episode-3/search http://beta.sidereel.com/tv/the-simpsons/season-22/episode-3...
- Bootvis 16y agoYou can watch it here: http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/1151381/d293ebcd/simpsons_bankgrap.html http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/1151381/d293ebcd/simpsons_ba...
- nutjob123 16y agoIts kind of crazy how big Banksy has gotten
- jonursenbach 16y agoIt kills that after immediately showing this they go right back to the blaring trumpet, thus making the viewing even more awkward.
- risotto 16y agoAt least that part made me laugh...
- lotusleaf1987 16y agoI thought the this was an awesome opening (couch gag) I am surprised that it made it past Fox though. I recommend seeing 'Exit Through the Gift Shop' to anyone who is even slightly interested in Banksy, street art, art in general, or documentaries.
- adulau 16y ago'Exit Through the Gift Shop' is indeed an interesting piece of art work from Banksy. The video is not really about him but just a way to divert the media attention to a "creation of his own". In the video, he created a fake/pseudo artist (Thierry Guetta) to show the "media" or the art market or even to see us being lost in his maze.
- 27182818284 16y agoHas it even been settled who Banksy is at this point? I hope not. I very much enjoyed the idea that was thrown around that Banksy was never a single person.
- lotusleaf1987 16y agoThere are pictures of a person who is possibly Banksy, but nothing concrete. I think the mystery/anonymity makes him even more intriguing and mysterious because you're left speculating without any definitive answers.
- ilovecomputers 16y agoI won't be surprised if he turns out to be the Chav that he is described here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/jul/17/art.artsfeatures http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2003/jul/17/art.artsf...
- mars 16y agoi'm wouldn't be sure about this. banksy and thierry did _not_ comment this in public. all speculation. although if it's true it would be genious... great movie btw.
- joshbert 16y agoAs a very old fan of The Simpsons (including the newer seasons) I couldn't be more pleased. The recent Zuckerberg cameo was brilliant as well: http://www.thedailybeast.com/video/item/mark-zuckerberg-on-the-simpsons http://www.thedailybeast.com/video/item/mark-zuckerberg-on-t...
- Sukotto 16y agoWow... 5 commercials, just to watch that clip. :-(