I used to like Garrison Keillor and "Lake Woebegone" and all that, until the day I saw "Marge on the Lam." At the precise moment they made fun of Keillor during the PBS fundraiser, I realized that I didn't like his humor at all. In fact, I wonder if I had ever liked him, given that his style of humor grates my nerves.
Has anyone else ever had a moment like this where the show changed their entire attitude to something?
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PBS Man: Well, sir, it has been an uneventful week in Badger Falls... where the women are robust, the men are pink-cheeked, and the children are pink-cheeked and robust.
Homer: What the hell's so funny?
PBS Man: At the Apple Biscuit cafe, where the smiles are free, don't you know, Sven Inqvist studied the menu, and finally he ordered the same thing he has every day.
It's funny you say that because Keillor's brand of humor is one of the main themes of "The Simpsons".
In a research paper i wrote a few years ago i explored this topic and i found that the two are closely related in their takes on family life and American society.
One of the conclusions I came to in my research was that Lake Woebegone is a literary forerunner to the Simpsons phenomenon. That and "The Bob Newhart Show" are the main influences on such main stay writers as Matt Groening and John Schwartzman . (Schwartzman alone has put his name on more than fifty episodes.) Of course this is only a TV show--It is a group effort and there is a large staff of writers and producers involved who may or may not be as faithful to this philosophy as the inner circle of creators but nonetheless in a few but defining episodes this theme is articulated as follows:
*The family ties are the most important relationship a person can have. And even when family members let each other down they pay back with love and contrition what they lost by way of selfishness. "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" is important in that this was the episode where the relationships between the Simpson family were laid out. In a tip to "Married...with Children", this episode saw Homer working as a Santa at the mall after Marge spent their Christmas money to remove a tattoo on Bart. Homer was not resentful of Marge because she made him waste his Christmas time because he understood that families should stand in for each other in a time of crisis, shoulder the burden, and make a sacrifice from themselves to keep the unit together.
*That family ties trump over all other personal attachments. In "You Only Move Twice" Homer is offered an exciting new job at the Globex corporation by a super villain who is intent on taking over the world. The only catch is that the Simpson family has to move to a new town where the excessive comfort and satisfaction they find in a paternal atmosphere will threaten to break them apart. When Homer is confronted with a choice then between continuing to work for Scorpio, the supervillain, in his pursuit for conquest and keeping together his family, he chooses the latter. "Homer, I'm disappointed", says Scorpio,"but you have to do what's best for your family. It's the little things that make up life."
If anything, Homer's denunciation of Keillor must have been intended not as an insult but as an amusing side note--a literary allusion. Or they may be the doing of Mike Scully, the exec in charge, who is a very confused man to say the least.