2016/07/26 by Michael A. Katovich, Sarah Rosenthal Vaughan · 1 citation
Psychology · Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Humor Studies and Applications #Theater, Performance, and Music History #Media, Gender, and Advertising #Symbolic interactionism #Interactionism #The Symbolic #Sociology #Psychoanalysis #Aesthetics #Psychology #Art #Anthropology #Social science
paper · doi:10.1108/s0163-239620160000046030
openalex publication_date 2016/07/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Abstract This chapter examines four episodes of The Simpsons, paying particular interest to one, The Days of Wine and D’oh’ses to connect the notion of pastiche with a symbolic interactionist view of media representation. We use The Simpsons and episodes pertinent to alcoholism and alcoholic imbibing to show that pastiche, which does not deny the resolute qualities of a serious social issue, nevertheless provides ironic and fantastic imagery to merge the serious and even tragic with the comedic. We use the four episodes to depict alcoholism as a disease but also as focal point for humor, making the contrast between The Days of Wine and D’oh’ses and its classic alcoholism-film counterpart, The Days of Wine and Roses, central to the tragic-comedic connection. We further draw upon Denzin’s notions of the comedic drunk and the alcoholism alibi to discuss how pastiche both inspires attention to alcoholism as a serious medical disease and disease of the self and to alcoholism as pivotal to comedic character development and the emergence of pragmatic and creative selves.