Professor Mary T. Conway, “‘Better Keep the Egghead:’ Pragmatism in The Simpsons”

Professor Mary T. Conway’s article,  “ ‘Better Keep the Egghead:’ Pragmatism in The Simpsons,” will appear in the anthology, COMMON SENSE: INTELLIGENCE AS PRESENTED ON POPULAR TELEVISION, edited by Lisa Holderman. Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield: Lanham, MD (March 2008).

From the author:

“Joblessness is no longer just for philosophy majors. Useful people are starting to feel the pinch.”–Newscaster Ken Brockman.

 

“Better keep the egghead. Just might come in handy.”–Mr. Burns.

 

     American culture loves to mock the intellectual. The television cartoon series The Simpsons adds a twist to this tradition. The series undermines the snobby, impractical and ego-driven intellectual, but it also mocks stupidity, champions practical knowledge, and demonizes capitalists. As such, the show only appears to be anti-intellectual: a closer reading shows that The Simpsons embraces Pragmatism, a distinctively home grown school of philosophy. Pragmatism enables the show to maintain these seemingly contradictory attitudes, and invites criticism of the American Dream. In its valuation of pragmatic intelligence, The Simpsons reveals an allegiance with meritocracy, even if it is a show that does not show class. Finally, the series skewers Pragmatism with its own limits, revealing the weaknesses in the philosophy, and the impossible contradictions that inhere in a system both meritocratic and democratic.  

     The longest running television show, The Simpsons has won countless awards and accolades. Entire college courses and a handful of academic books, most notably The Simpsons and Philosophy (Irwin, Conard & Skoble, 2001), take the series as their subject. There are devout fans of all stripes, but one common trait is as American as apple pie: the disdain for “eggheads” (Hofstader, 1963). Egghead bashing is even more remarkable because of the series’ reputation as smart: with Yale graduates writing inter-textual allusions to literature and film, the series is distinguished from most television.  Not surprisingly then, the egghead-scripted series has a tense and dense relation to privilege, intelligence, and merit.