The Simpsons and the 2008 Election: A Sign of Things to Come

The Simpsons have always been political. As many of you out there know, the writers of the show have a knack for dissecting American Politics, in a humorous yet oftentimes extremely cynical way. Who can forget the 1996 episode Treehouse of Horror VII in which the aliens Kang and Kodos kidnap Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, placing them in suspended animation tubes, and then impersonating them in order to win the 1996 Presidential Elections (and thus enslave humanity for their alien race). This speech by Alien Dole sums up American Politics so very nicely:

And let us not forget, this is also the episode where the earthlings threaten to vote third party when they discover what has happened, and Kang tells them to go ahead and throw away their votes (confounding Ross Perot)!

There have also been numerous Presidential appearances. Here are a few examples:




Yet, as FOX has moved more to the right, the show has begun to criticize the media and mock the right wing notion of the so-called liberal media, flying in the face of its parent network. This has been matched by calls on the right of a liberal bias, and yet if you listen to the DVD commentary Matt Groening makes it clear that although there are people on the writing staff who are extremely liberal, there are many conservatives, including the main writer of episodes, John Swartzwelder.

Why do I bring all of this up? Well...news has broken that on November 2, the Simpsons episode that airs will have Homer going to his polling place to try and cast a vote for Barack Obama. And here is the madness that ensues:

Pretty scary, huh?! It hits a little too close to home with all of the dirty tricks Republicans are already pulling, from caging lists to using foreclosures to bar voters. This is why people need to turn out in record numbers to vote for Obama...there will be many who experience what Homer does here, and those that get their votes through need to outnumber the Homers of the USA.