Simpsons Ke$ha Tik Tok Intro: Stupid

So, I want to claim that there was a time, back in the early 90s, when The Simpsons created popular culture, when The Simpsons was an originary source of novelty from which came not only new jokes, but also new ways of referencing previously existing bits of culture. While The Simpsons is known to reference other bits of popular culture I want to claim that this intro is a qualitatively different sort of thing from that which The Simpsons has previously done.

I can accept that The Simpsons often referenced popular culture. The Greatest Episode of The Simpsons, ever contained a significant number of popular culture references. Moreover, most Treehouse of Horror or other such episodes are Simpson-ized retellings of stories from popular culture. So, The Simpsons has always referenced other things, but the manner in which the references occurred were different. Or, at least, that is what I want to argue.

At the moment I am thinking of the first Treehouse of Horror episode's retelling of The Raven. The structure of the segment is the original text of The Raven, read by James Earl Jones, over which characters from The Simpsons are placed. This is similar to the Tik-Tok intro, wherein the structure is the song over which characters are placed in a music video-esque style.

The difference I would indicate is that The Raven combines an interplay of both the narrative of The Raven and new jokes. For example, Bart's comment "You know what would have been scarier than nothing? ANYTHING!" While the segment is primarily a retelling of The Raven, the poem is interrupted by comments and jokes by the characters. The segment is not only The Raven with characters overlaid, but rather is a mixture of both The Raven and new, novel jokes which comment upon the narrative of The Raven being told.

The difference, I want to say, is that the Tik-Tok intro is simply a Simpsons music video of the Tik-Tok song; the primary component of the video is the unmodified song over which are placed Simpsons characters the actions of which are beholden to the lyrics and style of the song.

While Bart does have two lines during the song, his lines are lyrics already existing within the song. So there is no point at which the song, Tik Tok, is interrupted or commented upon but rather the song is preserved without interruption or comment. So, the intro is nothing more than the song, Tik Tok, over which characters are placed with their actions and lines always beholden to the lyrics of the song.

This intro is not a "reference" but rather is simply the song, Tik Tok, with video of Simpsons characters overlaid. This is no different, in style, than an anime AMV such as:



It could be argued that the novelty is found in how the characters are portrayed with reference to the song. One could argue that creativity can be found in, say, Groundskeeper Willy brushing his teeth with Jack Daniels when the song makes reference to a similar act occuring.

My point would be that what drives the structure of the intro is the song, Tik Tok, and its lyrics. Any references which are made are secondary to the lyrics of the song. There is no point where the song, Tik Tok, is interrupted or commented upon within the Intro. So it does not matter how ideally or adeptly characters are matched to particular lyrics given that the characters are always beholden to the song and its lyrics. If we had to create a heirarchy of power for this intro the fundament would be the song, Tik Tok, and its lyrics over which are placed Simpsons characters. This is not The Simpsons with Ke$ha, but rather is Ke$ha over which are placed characters from The Simpsons.

That's the difference: The Simpsons characters are beholden to the song, Tik Tok, and its lyrics without ever breaking away or enacting moments of novelty whereas in other such references, such as The Raven, the Simpsons characters are capable of breaking away from the referent to comment upon it, or act in a manner contrary to the original structure of that which is being referenced.

Also, Ke$ha is a fucking stupid, talentless amalgamation of Shakira, Lauren Conrad, and Snooki.