THE GUILFORDIAN
APRIL 23, 1 999
Groeningtips sacred cows
By Ted Anthony
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Los Angeles (AP) At first
glance, he's living an unexcep
tional Chamber of Commerce ex
istence: league bowling on the
weekends, singing in a barber
shop quartet and operating the
best-known convenience store in
metropolitan Springfield, USA.
But Apu Nahasapeem
apetilon has a darker side: the
chutney Squishees he once tried
to force upon an unsuspecting
populace. His role in the off-off
off-off-off-Broadway production
of "Streetcar!" (liberally adapted
from Tennessee Williams). The
flash-frozen senior citizen who
once inhabited his dairy case.
You know Apu. He's a lot like
you and me —his successes
pinned proudly to his polyester
Kwik-E Mart frock, his failures
stashed furtively under the
counter behind the food-service
cans of Reagan-era nacho cheese.
Except Apu exists only in a
cosmos of pen and ink, of bright
yellows and popping eyes. He's a
member of an unusual animated
flock, sprung from the mind of an
even more unusual genius: the
man whose brain produced "The
Simpsons"—and the new sci-fi
cartoon "Futurama" —the man
whose pointed humor has, for
more than a decade, made lots of
people laugh and lots of people
uncomfortable.
"We don't have a particular
ax to grind," he insists.
So instead, with smiles and
jabs and idealism and sarcasm.
Matt Groening grinds them all.
One day, somewhere in the
middle of the baby boom, a young
1999 Senior Thesis
Art Exhibition
M I
SUSAN MULLALIY CLARK I
Opening Reception: Friday, May 30th
7:00-9:00 p.m., Founders Hall
Exhibition on view: April 30th- May 9th I
boy in a sandbox looked around
at his playmates. Suddenly, he
saw their futures: lawyers, invest
ment bankers, grown-ups in
grown-up suits. And Matt
Groening realized being a kid
wasn't such a bad gig.
"I knew that other kids were
going to get serious and go on and
be professionals," says Groening
(rhymes with "I never
wanted to go to an office and carry
a briefcase. I said, That's no fun.
I want to play. I want to make up
stories."'
Four decades later, at 45, he
still does.
He made up "Life in Hell," a
weekly comic strip that
chronicles the travails of a rabbit
named Binky and a nihilistic gay
couple in fez hats named Akbar
and Jeff. He created "The
Simpsons," the delightfully as
tute late 20th-century family
sitcom and a winner of 12
Emmys. Now he has hatched
"Futurama," an equally offbeat
cartoon that blends "The
Simpsons" with "The Jetsons,"
"The Three Stooges" and a hodge
podge of sci-fi imagery.
Groening's vision, rounded
out by a team of animators and
writers from across the political
spectrum, evokes many descrip
tions: absurdist theater; crackling
cultural commentary; a vast col
lage of American pop and high
culture; the rapid-fire dialogue of
Marx Brothers movies and the
lunacy of Warner Bros, cartoons.
Hardly Saturday-morning
"Josie & the Pussycats" or
"Smurfs" fare. View an episode of
"The Simpsons" and watch the
background. Little treats abound
rewards, Groening says, for
Arts
Laing winners
announced
COURTESY THE ART DEPARTMENT
Jessica Robertson and Josh Lynch
Last week, the winners of
the 1999 Laing Award were an
nounced by the Guilford College
Art Department.
Cam Ingram took first
place for sculpture, Jessica Rob
erts, second place for photogra
phy, and Josh Lynch came away
with third place for pottery.
The Laing Award is a prize
juried by the Art Department
paying attention. Hidden in plain
view are indictments of consum
erism, jabs at bureaucracy and
pokes at pretension. It is, quite
simply, adult.
Consider these recent nug
gets: an art museum named "Lou
vre —American Style" ("No shirt,
no shoes, no Chardonnay"); an
unrepentantly carnivorous
steakhouse with a slab of beef
called "Sir Loinalot" and a
Heimlich machine in case of
emergency; a sign that says,
"Welcome to Atlanta Home of
Ted Turner's mood swings."
Groening and his writers
(his official title is executive pro
ducer, but he retains great cre
ative control) push to the edge of
hilarity but never complete im
plausibility.
"A lot of television shows ...
don't deal with the things people
are ashamed to admit. We can do
that," says Dan Castellaneta, who
voices Homer Simpson and an ar
ray of other characters, including
belching barfly Barney Gumble
and flame-bearded, Scottish
brogued Groundskeeper Willie.
By Daniel Snyder
STAFF WRITER
for returning Art majors.
Participants are allowed
to submit up to five pieces of
work.
"This award serves as rec
ognition for outstanding artis
tic work," said Adele Wayman.
The winners will divide
the cash award which goes to
ward next year's tuition.
"Its the one prize the Art
Department has to give," said
Susie Clark. "It's a really big
deal."
"It's the first television show
that has an underground comic
sensibility," Castellaneta says in
a decidedly un-Homeric voice.
"Very rarely do people talk about
major corporations and compa
nies taking away people's rights.
In 'The Simpsons,' it just sneaks
in there."
Even Groening's own net
work isn't safe. One episode fea
tured Homer and Bart watching
"Nonstop Fox," featuring "When
Buildings Collapse" and "World's
Funniest Tornados."
"I think what we all share is
laughing at the Elmer Fudds of
the world authorities who
don't like to be laughed at."
Gi >ening says of his writers.
i'his notion that no cow is
red renders the Simpsons
a!' tionately benign. Sure, Apu
is broad parody of an Indian con
venience-store owner, but Homer
is an equally broad parody of a
.-econd-rate suburban white
American father. In the end,
everybody's good, everybody's
bad and everybody's a bit ridicu
lous sort of like real life.
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