New book Shoots Cultural influence by ‘The Simpsons’ – Read an excerpt! (Exclusive)

After over 35 years in the air it is safe to say Simpsons has left impression on most Americans’ lives. Unless they have of course lived in a bubble (or a dome Covers the entire Springfield).

For those who are not known on all things Treehouse of horrorMonorails or that time George Harrison Rubbed shoulders with Homer Simpson on a Grammy’s after -party, author Alan Siegel’s new book should answer some questions. Calls Senior Staff Writer’s latest edition – Stupid TV, be more fun: how the golden era of “The Simpsons” changed TV – and America – forever Takes the readers “inside the creation of an American phenomenon during the most influential decade, 1990s,” according to the book’s synopsis.

On just over 300 pages, Siegel undoubtedly describes the most influencing ten years of the show’s driving after his debut in 1989, with interviews with creative who helped to live it. The book offers a “unmatched look inside the show”, as well as an exploration of its overall impact on popular culture.

Never miss a story – register for People’s free daily newsletters Keeping up to date on the best of what people have to offer, from celebrity news to compelling stories of human interest.

So crack a jar with Duff, order yourself a Krusty Burger and Embiggen your knowledge of the show’s cultural impact in an exclusive excerpt that is shared with people below.

It is difficult to briefly summarize the effect Simpsons have had on American culture. But to do that, I start with a story about an absurdly stupid joke and the people who love it. On October 2, 1994, Fox “Itchy & Scratchy Land” was broadcast, a Simpsons episode that lampser the Disney World experience. At one point Bart and Lisa stop in the fictional park’s gift shop. Intrigued by a display of news signs, the previous searches in vain for a souvenir with his name.

Bart: Look at all these amazing things, LIS. Cool! Personal plates! “Barclay,” “Barry”, “Bert”, “away”? Aw, come on. “Away”?

CHILDREN: Mom, Mom! Buy me a registration plate.

MOTHER: No. Come along.

MAN: Do you talk to me?

MOTHER: No, my son is also called away.

Throwaway Gag returns later, when an employee Manning Itchy & Scratchy Land’s underground control room says: “We need more” away “signs in the gift shop. I repeat, we are sold from” away “signs.” The joke is so insignificant that the section’s DVD comment panel – which includes Matt Groening, David Mirkin and director Wes Archer – does not care to mention it.

Three decades later, just saying the word “away”, unlocks Joy in the show’s most discerning fans. Why, two decades later, people continue to refer to “away”? For that is the kind of joke that only Simpsons could have done.

At its peak, the show had the ability to take something completely crazy and make it infinitely cited.

If you think this theory is bunk bed, visit the site for your state department for motor vehicles and try to order a “away” vanity registration plate. The chance is that some other Simpsons obsessive have hit you to the punch line.

Looking back on the golden age of SimpsonsIt is hard not to say that the show had a huge hand in the commodification of modern fandom. The animated series helped make Pop Culture Merch a multi -billion company. Today, every last corner in each movie and TV franchise is licensed and sold. Knowing an unclear Simpsons reference was previously a secret handshake. Now there is something you can buy and show off.

Now, Simpsons has permeated our culture to the point where words that the authors constitute during the show’s first decade enter the official lexicon. In March 2018, Merriam-Webster announced that it adds “Embiggen” to the dictionary, defined as “to make larger or more expansive.” Author Dan Greaney did so for the 1996 episode “Lisa the Iconoclast.” We first hear it in an educational film about the city’s founder Jebediah Springfield.

Jebediah Springfield: A noble spirit embeds the smallest man.

WIFE. Crab apple: EMGGENS? I’ve never heard that word before I moved to Springfield.

Miss Hoover: I don’t know why. It is a perfectly chromulent word.

In 2023, Merriam-Webster was “Cromulent” to the dictionary. That means “acceptable, satisfactory.” “There are plenty of television captures that have seeped into our lexical consciousness, but none of them have been as SLU as Cromulent,” reads Meriram-Webster-Posten.

“The joke was so neat and subtle that because” it is a perfectly chromulent word “was repeated, it was not necessarily clear to the hearing that it was a joke. It was a joke and now it’s a real word,” says Simpson’s writer Bill Oakley. “So there’s no joke there anymore.”

As the “embigge” has “cromulent” appeared in New York Times Crossword. “It seems that there are many people who spend their time communicating in Simpsons References or phrases from the show, “adds Oakley.” Then there is also something more specialized, which is all remix. “

In February 2018, for example at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, Kehinde Wiley’s officially portrait of Barack Obama was revealed. The painting, which contains the 44th US president sitting in front of lush green vines and colorful flowers, was not universally loved. Crusty art critics and right-wing trolls came together to base the work not to look exactly like any other lifeless oil-on-track depictions of an American president.

Simpsons Fans, on the other hand, loved the painting. They celebrated it in the only way they knew how: by publishing photos of the lush portrait side by side with pictures of Homer that went through Flander’s light green hedges. Both are works of art. Meme was the perfect companion to a single creation. The former is a tool used to understand the latter. That is why Simpsons‘Heyday is relevant today. It shaped how a whole generation of smart people processes the world.

We have now even reached a point where a large scare of the country believes in that Simpsons can tell the future.

That’s true: Simpsons has predicted a lot, from Washington who beat Buffalo in Super Bowl XXVI, to the spread of video phones, to Siegfried & RoyTigers attacking their masters, to the Walt Disney Company who buy 20th Century Fox. In a season 11 flash-ahead episode, which was broadcast in 2000, Lisa is the president of the United States. When she sits on Oval Office, she mentions the inheritance of “a budget crisis from President Trump. “

“It was just a kind of fill-in-the empty joke,” says then showrunner Mike Scully. “We had left Lisa and said,“ I have provided a large budget deficit from President Blank. “(Writer) Mike Reiss says,” Who would be the stupidest person we could have? “There were other names thrown out, but Trump, around that time, had thrown out the possibility that he could run for president one day.

The authors really did not think they made an actual prediction. And in retrospect, they do not see themselves as soothsayers. “It’s just about smart people being behind a desk,” says Simpson’s editor Brian Roberts. “I don’t think there is any precognitive thing there at all.”

People -app is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge worthy celebrity content, exclusive videos, astrological updates and more!

For author Jay Kogen, the show’s predictable force is a matter of pure volume. “We’ve made fun of everything,” he says. “If you make fun of everything and make impossibly stupid jokes about everything, it turns out 30 years later, some of them turn out to be true.”

Simpsons Has been around for so long and has covered so much land that it has become one of the world’s richest texts. Look at almost all sections from the 90s and you can identify a wide plot point or a specific sight that is prophetic. The series has become an animated Bible from the 21st century: it is tight enough to be interpreted in many ways. Regardless of your worldview, however, you can easily find something that seems to match your faith. Although your reading is completely wrong. Or at best slanted.

As fun and satisfying as “Simpson’s predicted” moments often are, the phenomenon is often much less meaningful than the fans do. To treat the series as a pure wealth cheap its actual vision. Simpsons Not only predicted singular events, it understood the world in a way that most other shows did not.

Excerpt from the book Stupid TV, was more fun by Alan Siegel. Copyright © 2025 by Alan Siegel. Reprinted with permission from Grand Central Publishing. All rights reserved.

Dumb tv, be more fun Is out now via Grand Central Publishing, wherever books are sold.