Excellent, Smithers - Release the Hounds!!

I got my hands on some Simpsons episodes with English subtitles recently. I decided to do a test run on my second year transportation students to see if they could get it. I showed them a small part of the episode where Homer gets committed to a mental institution cos Mr. Burns thought he was an anarchist for wearing a pink shirt to work (which was pink cos Bart’s lucky red hat got mixed up with Homer’s white shirts in the washing). Remember?

They did manage to get most of what was going on, which pleased me cos I don’t think that there is anything about American culture/society that can’t be answered/demonstrated by an episode of the Simpsons! Some comments were “my family is not like that” and “do all people have to wear a uniform in American factories”. I will have to teach them the words “sarcasm”, “irony”, “exaggeration” and “pinch of salt” when watching the Simpsons! I don’t expect them to get most of the jokes as they are pretty much mostly cultural references. But it would be great to open their eyes to something approaching normality, compared to the usual stuff they watch like Friends and Forrest Gump!!