Deconstructing the Simpsons: millions of teen viewers know the cartoon is about more than just typical sitcom laughs, but is it art on the level of Aristotle and Shakespeare?

• Author: Blair, Jayson
• Position: Arts - Television - Brief Article

BEN SERVISS, 16, IS A STUDENT AT JOHN H. GLENN High School in East Northport, N.Y. He's interested in schoolwork, jujitsu, and the mandolin. But one of his strongest passions is The Simpsons, which he started watching midway through its 13-season run. "The show is so great because of the fact that nothing seems stale about it," he says. "You never know what is coming, and it's funny."

Given those reasons, it's little surprise that no show, except Malcolm in the Middle, attracts more teen viewers--about 2.2 million a week. But The Simpsons is now attracting another sort of audience: scholars. With a surprising number of research projects focusing on the longest-running sitcom on TV, is The Simpsons actually worthy of academic study?

It appears so. When the Fox network first introduced the show on December 17, 1989, few could have imagined the impact that this lovably dysfunctional family would have on American culture. The Simpsons is much more than a cartoon. Beyond the laughs, scholars are digging into the clever writing and satirical commentary.

This year, the series has spawned The Simpsons and Philosophy, an essay collection from college professors and philosophers; The Gospel According to The Simpsons, a book by a religion journalist; and a speech at a Mathematical Association of America convention called "Engaging Students With Significant Mathematical Content From The Simpsons."

The works are high-minded, if often tongue-in-cheek. In The Simpsons and Philosophy, authors Gerald J. Erion and Joseph A. Zeccardi write, "In Marge, we see that Aristotle's moral virtues can be successfully applied not just in the abstract, ivory towers of academia, but in the real, workaday cartoon world." Contributor Mark T. Conrad adds, "Could Bart Simpson be, in the end, the Nietzschean ideal?"

Luckily, viewers who couldn't tell Aristotle and Nietzsche from Krusty the Clown, Mr. Burns, or Apu can make sense of the show. "The Simpsons tries to have two levels of comedy, always," says Paul A. Cantor, a University of Virginia professor who won a political science award for his essay "The Simpsons: Atomistic Politics and the Nuclear Family." "On...