Analysis of The Simpsons "Fear of Flying" episode

This was a homework I had. I didn't get top grade on it, but I got the second best.

The Simpsons is an animated American sitcom. It was made by Matt Groening. “Fear of Flying” is the eleventh episode of the sixth season. It was released December 18th, 1994. The Simpsons is an animated TV show (sitcom) and therefore presented in a visual medium.

Setting

The Simpsons takes place in a town called Springfield. As modern technology like planes and cars are included, we can say that this episode takes place in the 90s. Another fact that supports this statement is the movie titles that are mentioned in the episode (Hero, Fearless, Alive). These movies were released in 1992-93.

Construction

This episode of The Simpsons is told both chronologically and retrospectively. The story is seen by an outside observer.

Style/Tone

The story is comical throughout the episode, but there are parts where it is also sad. E.g. When Homer is kicked out of the bar. The tone is joyful when Homer gets the free tickets and when Marge gets through therapy. Marge’s tone is in a worried fashion when Homer tells her about the free tickets.
The bottom line is that the tone varies very much throughout the episode.

Characters

The Simpsons is about a family called, not surprisingly, the Simpsons, who live in a town called Springfield. The family consists of Homer (the dad), Marge (the mum), Bart (the son), Lisa (the daughter) and Maggie (the second daughter).
- Homer Jay Simpson is 34, 36 or/and 38 years old. Homer’s skin is yellow (as most of the characters in The Simpsons are) and he has two strands of hair on his head. You usually see him with a white t-shirt, blue pants and black shoes. Homer works at a nuclear power plant. He can be described as stupid, clumsy and thoughtless.
- Marjorie “Marge” Simpson is the same age as Homer. She has blue hair which stands straight up and she usually wears a green dress, red shoes and an orange pearl necklace. Marge is a housewife. Even though Homer does incompetent things, she always tries to help him out of the problem.
- Bartholomew “Bart” Jojo Simpson is ten years old and is in the 4th Grade. He is usually seen with an orange t-shirt, blue shorts and blue shoes. His hair is blond though you don’t really see his hair. Bart is known as the typical troublemaker and does everything to annoy people through mischief.
- Lisa Marie Simpson is eight years old and goes in 2nd Grade. She is usually seen with an orange dress, orange shoes and a white necklace. Her hair is blond. She is the typical smart kid and is very intelligent. She tries to help out her family as long as she thinks it is for the right reason.
- Margaret “Maggie” Simpson is a baby and is supposedly 1 year old.
Conflict
Marge is fighting her fear of flying which is within herself. She has suppressed it for so long and now it finally comes out. She agrees to attend therapy to find out what has caused this fear.

Plot

In this episode Homer gets kicked out of “Moe’s”, the bar he usually drinks at because of some stupid joke where he loosened the sugar jar, so that it got emptied all over the counter. Homer is disappointed and starts a search for a new bar. On his search, he is mistaken for a pilot and ends up in the pilot seat of a plane. Homer’s stupidity destroys the plane. To make Homer keep silent about this security flaw, the owner of the airlines gives him free tickets to anywhere he wants to go in the United States, except Alaska and Hawaii (which he calls “the freak states”). Marge doesn’t really want to fly anywhere, but agrees in the end. On the plane, just before take-off, she reveals her fear of flying. They get off the plane and Marge goes into therapy. They find out that the fear came from a childhood incident when Marge found out that her father was a steward (flight attendant). Marge is cured of her fear.

Theme and Message

The episode is about fear. Marge had suppressed her fear of flying deep down inside her instead of dealing with it. That didn’t turn out well. The message is that we shouldn’t suppress our fears. We should deal with them, so that we can avoid complications and situations which Marge met. Another theme is that things we go through in our childhood can affect our adult lives.

Intertextualities

There are several intertextual elements in the episode:
- The second bar Homer visits after being kicked out from “Moe’s” refers to the TV show Cheers.
- Homer’s favorite song is “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls.
- The line Homer says to Marge when trying to convince her to fly (“I wanna shake off the dust of this one-horse town”) is from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life.
- The part where Abe screams on the plane refers to the movie Home Alone.
- The movies Homer rent involve plane crashes.
- Marge’s dream refers to the TV series Lost in Space.
- The scene with Marge and her mum on a cornfield is from the movie: North by Northwest.
- Lowenstein is the psychiatrist from the movie The Prince of Tides.
- The last scene with Homer and Marge on the plain is like a scene in the movie “Say anything…”
- The Mount Lushmore caricature of Homer refers to the mascot for the the magazine: The New Yorker.
- The part where Marge tears up a paper on a plane is from Stephen King’s The Langoliers
- Marge’s childhood trauma is when she sees her father as a steward on a plane. This refers to the novel Marnie.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sources:
Wikipedia

- Zlash