Hi，everyone and welcome back to America under the microscope.欢迎你回到闲话美国.Hello，James.

Hello，lulu.

So what are we going to talk about today？

Well I figured today we're going to talk about America's most famous family.

What like president's family or celebrities’ family?

God，no. The Simpsons.

Oh...the fact that you said The Simpsons. My mind immediately goes to the simpsons... and the music.

Yeah，I figured it would it's such an iconic show in America and it's a big part of American culture.I figured it would be a good topic of today's recording.

You said “iconic”.Actually，I was gonna ask you for your average Americans.The Simpsons辛普森一家.When you say this to them they would immediately think of all these characters like is that a household.

Yeah.It is a household name you talk about The Simpsons,immediately are the characters names are gonna jump into their head where they're from, the theme song.All these things will just entering their head.Because this the show has been on TV since 1989.

Well,it sounds like a soap opera.

Well,kinda.Only promise,they're all kind of more self contained episodes instead of long continuing story.

辛普森是从1989年就开始上映，now it's going into...32nd...

32 seasons so far with almost 700 episodes.

Well.So first of all，for those of you who have never watched The Simpsons or probably don't even know that much about The Simpsons...

I would recommend stop listening to us and go watch it now.

Let's give our listeners some of the basics. The Simpsons is called the simpsons is because that's their last name.

Right. It's the name of the family.

It's a family of five:two parents and three kids.But most importantly，they are a cartoon family.

Very much so a cartoon family. Why don't we go ahead and introduce who the family members are？

Yeah，sure.

So just go ahead and start with the father and going down.The father is Homer Jay Simpson.

Homer Jay Simpson.Immediately you think of donuts.

Yes，his favorite food is donuts.And his middle name is Jay as I was actually a mystery for a long time.What does the “J” stand for...

Homer Jay Simpson.He is a bold.

He's a bold，overweight，simple minded idiot. But he is a kind person and a lot of the episodes of Simpsons usually revolve around Homer doing something kind of stupid.But at the end of the day，learning a lesson and kind of making it better in the end.

Yeah，if you think about it，Homer is actually quite devoted to his family.Even though he does do stupid things.But by the end of the day，he loves his wife，he loves his kids.

Most of the time.

I think this is something that's why Homer is one of those fathers that you sort of make fun of him but still...you don't hate him. It's difficult to dislike him.

I would say a lot of Americans love simple minded homer.

So what about the wife？

Marge Simpson，his wife.So while Homer is kind of an overweight guy,Marge is thin,tall,blue hair that's pointed straight up.She has very iconic hair.

And also with it very iconic voice，very husky.

I can't do the voice.

No. Marge is a stay at home mom.

Marge is a stay at home mom and she is the more serious of the two parents. A lot of the humor from the episodes usually come from the silliness of Homer playing against the seriousness of Marge.

So it's kind of like a comedy due.就像相声的搭档一样

Absolutely.It's actually words most likely based from because it's a very old idea in comedy.

But in that sense it is a cartoon but it's a comic.

It is a comedy.It is purely a comedy.

Let's move on to the three kids.The oldest one.

let's start with the most famous Simpson character: Bart Simpson. When most people think of the Simpsons. They either think of Bart or Homer first. When it first came out when I was a kid，Bart Simpson was the most famous character.

Bart is this kid with the spiky hair.

He has spiky hair.He ride a skateboard，not very bright ,troublemaker.

I wouldn't say he's not very bright.I would just say he's not academic.

Okay，that would be good way to put it.He's not academically gifted.

When it comes to pranks.就是恶作剧的话He is definitely very bright.

And when I first watched the Simpsons long ago.When I was a kid，he had some catch phrases like “don't have a cow, man”.

“eat my shorts”.Not so much now.

No，I haven't heard him use it in a long time.The older episodes he will use it.

You have Bart who's always getting into trouble.And then you have Lisa，the middle child who's completely different.

Lisa is brilliant. She's a very smart child does well in school teacher's pet.She's also one who tends to try new things.She becomes vegetarian in the show.

Very liberal minded.

Very open minded and liberal minded.

But she is also somewhat the moral compass of the family.She's always telling the Simpson family. No，you cannot do this，you shouldn't be doing this.

She's like we need to do this thing. This leads to conflict usually with Barton and Homer.

She is what in English she would call a goody two shoes.

Very much.

总是想做好人好事那种人And then you have the baby.

Maggie.Maggie is a baby. That Maggie has been a baby since 1989.

Actually，this is one of the things they talk about.People who grew up watching the Simpsons.They are now middle aged and then the Simpson kids are still exactly the same. 就有点像柯南，永远都是小学生.And these kids there are always exactly the same age.Maggie is always a baby.

And Maggie never talks even in episodes where they pretend to be in the future and you see a grown up Maggie. Maggie never talks.

But she makes the sound.She sucks on the pacifier.吸奶嘴声音.It's very stereotypical for Maggie.

Yeah.

And in the family they also have pets.

Santos，little helper，which is a dog and snowball which is a cat.

They also have snowball number two.

That's because snowball number one died.

It's exactly the same cat.It's exactly the same cat.

After we met the Simpson's family.Now let's move on to the actual setting of the story.It's first of all，they are living in a town called Springfield，where exactly is Springfield? When I look at the American map，you can see a few Springfields.

There are lots of Springfields. Now that's actually a running joke in the show is Springfield is everywhere in America and nowhere in America.

Very philosophical.

It's supposed to represent a common middle American town. If you watch the cartoon，the town of Springfield has like suburbs，it has kind of city environments,it has mountains，it has ocean，it has all these different things.

It's an impossible place.

But it is representing that there are parts of America that are like this.

I suppose it makes the show more relatable to average viewers because they can find parts of themselves of their own life in the show.

Right. It's like my town's like that or I know I have neighbors like that. That's the idea.

And then another setting is where Homer works because Homer is the only one who's actually making money providing for the family.

Yeah，that's another joke in the Simpsons because Homer works at a nuclear power plant as a safety manager.

But he really is not skilled.

He doesn't know how to do his job and there are many episodes where he causes problems to the nuclear power plant.

That's the main setting.But apart from the family member，you have so many recurring characters.

I know they're just as famous as the family.I can sit here and name of all these famous characters.

For example，neighbor.

His neighbor，Mister Flanders.

That's your typical，really，really religious American.

Super friendly，super religious.It's like，here's a catchphrase:Okely Dokely.

You have the super corrupt.Mister Burns.

Billionaire power plant owner Mister Burns with his catchphrase: Excellent.

He's like the ultimate villain.And there's this joke about him being hundreds of years old.

Yeah. There's so many more classic characters in the show and we can't go through them all sadly.

No.But I think that's part of the charm of the Simpsons is not just about the simpsons family they paint quite a picture of an entire town and then basically they create all these fascinating characters，then you can find these characters in your everyday life.

They're all based off some real life person or at least a caricature of a real life person.

And they may not be perfect.None of them are perfect.They all have their own quirks，but I think that's what makes this show really come alive.

Because none of us are perfect.

Exactly.But brings me to one last question in our basic episode.This is a cartoon. But it's not really like a cartoon for kids.

No，it is more adult oriented.So it's not adult oriented and as like values lots of bad words，but it is more adult situations. I mean they deal with work，family life. It is like you would find in like sitcoms that we have in America like Big Bang Theory，they're not meant for children.Their comedies meant for adults and Simpsons is the same.It's just instead of in person，it's a cartoon.

Would you say that your general viewers for the Simpson series，they have a wide age range？

Yeah，so I watched it as a kid，my parents let us watch it. I watched it.When I was an adult，I haven't watched it much recently.

It's gone on...

It's gone on for so long.It's impossible to keep up with all of it.

But they also have some special episodes like many of the American TV shows they have their holiday specials.

There's holiday specials. They have specials for like when they hit like 100th episode，200th episode，500th episode and soon 700th episode.

Exactly. I'll tell you what.I think we're gonna wrap up here because the Simpsons we have a lot more to say in the advanced episode about how it really mirrors the American lifestyle. A lot of the elements in it and how it's related to the cultural bits.

Sounds good.

All right，so if you have ever watched the Simpsons，let us know if you haven't watched Simpsons like James said watch it now. We'll see you next time.

Bye bye everyone.