Bibliography

Marx, C. (2010) Write your way into animation and games. Elsevier : Oxford

"Animation uses motion and misuses the laws of physics. Timing is important. The comedy is exaggerated, often taking reality one step beyond. It may be illogical."

"It's human nature to like to see slapstick things happen to people with power or authority, especially if they're pompous or misusing that authority."

"Experts believe that all comedy contains an impulse of aggression or fear. The fear may be combined with affection, as it is when we tease."

"Shock works well. Repression can contribute to a bigger laugh."

"Who is slipping on the ice? If it's the little old lady, the two frames of reference remain juxtaposed."

Mittell, J. (2004) Genre and television: from cop shows to cartoons in American culture. Taylor & Francis Books Inc : New York

“Not only have scholars followed linkage between parody and postmodernism regarding The Simpsons, but they have also looked at the show’s parody as a sign of the decline of the sitcom genre.”

“It is obvious to even the most novice television viewer that The Simpsons is, on some level, a mixture of domestic sitcom and animated cartoon.”

“Each program…focuses on a family marked by visual styles and characterization as bleak and miserable as those of former TV families has been handsome and cheerful.”

Davis, G. & Needham, G. (2009) Queer TV: theories, histories, politics. Routledge : Oxon

“What interests me about Family Guy is its insistent focus on familial and patriarchal dysfunction.”

“While I am not denying that there are other aspects of Family Guy which do lend themselves to radical and subversive readings, for example the adult-boy Stewie Griffin, I am maintaining a resistance to the possibility that such claims have anything to do with a counter-discourse against the television family as normative.”

Nelmes, J. (1996) An Introduction to Film Studies. Routledge : London

“The contemporary American family, however, is not stable and many families divorce and separate.”

Branston, G. & Stafford, R. (1996) The Media Student's Book. Routledge : Oxon

“Animation often represents worlds which differ from our own: as in the four-fingered, yellow-skinned inhabitants of The Simpsons, with their unlikely ‘local media’, babies that never grow up, far-flung storylines and pain-free violence.”

“Most viewers relish the exaggeration/difference, which partly allows the series its ‘double address’ to both child and adult viewers.”

“They also may enjoy the ways that characters and storylines do relate to ‘our’ world, with bitingly satirical comments on real-life political or cultural issues, relatively unlimited by budget contraints.”

Bignell, J. (2004) An Introduction to television studies. Routledge : Oxon

“While The Simpsons might be interesting and important, it testifies to the success of the Fox television network in producing and distributing a programme which fits the new cultural order of multinational capitalism.”

“The Simpsons is a very important piece of cultural work, at least as important as any contemporary novel, play or painting, because of its intertextual complexity, its self-awareness, its relevance to the fragmented media landscapes and audiences of the present.”

“Much of the comedy in The Simpsons comes from the reflexive parody of the conventions of, among others: other animated series, horror films, television news, children’s television.”

Feasey, R. (2008) Masculinity and Popular Television. Edinburgh University Press Ltd : Edinburgh

“Since the continued success of both The Simpsons and King of the Hill, we have seen the arrival of Family Guy, another animated series situated within the working-class situated comedy tradition.”

“Family Guy represents an outrageously irreverent commentary on all aspects of contemporary American culture, with particular emphasis on changing gender roles and the role of organised religion.”

“In the same way that Homer refuses to attend Bart’s little league games because he finds them too boring, so too, Peter is uninterested in his daughter’s school play because ‘Meg sucks, everything she does is so freaking terrible and depressing’”
“The bond between father and son is less sacred and more an easily overlooked inconvenience for the male.”

“It is not only Stewie that Peter lets down, but the whole Griffin clan; in fact this failed patriarchal routinely takes the family to the verge of financial and social disaster, and seems surprisingly proud of the moments when he, usually unwittingly, saves the day. Lois makes this point herself when she comments ‘Oh Peter I’m so proud of you, once again you brought our family to the edge of the abyss and at the very last minute you saved us all.’”

“One might suggest that those men who refuse to find gainful employment or take on the breadwinning role are simply aware of the danger of being diagnosed with coronary heart disease, or what the medical professions termed ‘the burden of responsibility.’”

“Nine out of ten fathers involved in divorce leave the family home to become non-resident and approximately 8 per cent of all birth certificates in Britain…do not reveal the identity of the father.”

Harris, R.J. (1989) A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc : New Jersey

“The basic message here, as true for The Simpsons or Family Guy in the early 21st century as it was for Leave It to Beaver decades earlier, is that one’s family is more important than money, power, greed, status, or career advancement.”

“When Homer Simpson lost his job, the whole family pitched in to help save money.”

“One may ask if such family solidarity is a realistic reflection of our society. It clearly is for many families and just as clearly is not for many others, whose troubled family dynamics would more typically be characterised by vicious backstabbing, betrayal, and generally putting oneself above other family members.”

“The conventional wisdom is that media have a negative influence [on the quality of family life], but that conclusion is by no means certain or simple.”

“A uses and gratifications approach to studying family TV use looks at motivations for watching, which may vary greatly depending on the program or the individuals’ moods.”

This book features a Psychological study into the differences between the reasons why men and women watch TV. It is called Morley (1988):
“In terms of uses and gratifications, women saw TV viewing as more of a social activity and we also more likely to be doing other activities (e.g., housework) concurrently, whereas men were more likely to devote full attention to the program. Men saw TV watching as ‘earned recreation’ whereas women saw it as a ‘guilty pleasure,’ a distraction from homemaking duties.”

Tueth, M. (2005) Laughter in the Living Room: Television comedy and the American home audience. Peter Lang Publishing Inc : New York

“The Simpsons and Family Guy have turned the television medium into a repository of cultural trivia and popular folklore. In the process they encourage an oppositional reading of much of the mediated messages.”

“The Simpsons family may represent skewed variations on the American middle class, but they are surrounded by members of minority groups or other relative outsiders.”

“The Simpsons offers a full display of inept and hypocritical wielders of power.”

“Meanwhile, the esthetic distance of the cartoon medium allows mainstream viewers to discount the grotesque if they so desire. As a consequence, the presentation of the family is ambivalent. In its animated incarnation the discourse is reassuringly comic for some viewers and boldly subversive for others.”

Casey, B. & Calvert, B (2008) Television studies: the key concepts. Routledge : Oxon

“The resulting product was The Flintstones – the first family-oriented animated sitcom, premiered by ABC in 1960. Based on the classic situation comedy structure, The Flinstones’ influence can be detected across a wide range of contemporary cartoons such as Daria, American Dad, Family Guy, The Simpsons and King of the Hill.”

“Given the prominence of intertextuality along with the use of irony, parody and pastiche, some theorists have cited animated sitcoms such as The Simpsons as exemplifying postmodernism in television programming.”

“Cartoons, it would seem, have ‘grown up’, both in terms of their content and in terms of audiences that they attract. In this respect, some theorists have drawn on the concept of double coding to explain the ways in which a text like The Simpsons appeals to both adults and children.”

Johnston, C.B. (2008) Screened out: How the Media control us and what we can do about it. M.E. Sharpe Inc : New York

[Family Guy]
“The cartoon humour is based on bigotry, hate, and total lack of respect for all people not conforming with the designated ‘majority’.”

“The argument for ‘The Family Guy’ cartoon was the argument that free speech should not be silenced. A difficult line to draw in our culture is the dividing point between free expression of diverse viewpoints and spreading hate that results in physical harm to people.”

'Other Media' [n.d. Online]. Wikipedia.
Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Guy [Accessed 23 December 2010]

'USA Obesity Rates Reach Epidemic Proportions' [n.d. Online]. Obesity Statistics.
Available: http://www.annecollins.com/obesity/statistics-obesity.htm [Accessed 23 December 2010]

'Mental Health Effects of Obesity' [n.d. Online]. Health Tree.
Available: http://www.healthtree.com/articles/obesity/effects/ [Accessed 23 December 2010]