I’m genuinely not trying to pick a fight, but… what in the hell are you talking about?
Seriously. Because what you wrote makes absolutely zero sense to me. Totally incoherent.
Really? Because I’m sick of everything about immigration being on the anti-side, or the rare pro-side things you see having at least some anti elements. I thought it was refreshing to see a message of love thy neighbor portrayed.
Was that Nancy’s voice?? I’ve never heard her regular voice so I wouldn’t have picked it as hers. Huh. I don’t even know which other voices Nancy does – I get confused as to the performers who do Martin, Ralph, Kearney, Dolph, and Jim.
They were both great, but I agree Largo accompanying himself on the xylophone as he tiptoed out was genius.
To answer my own question, in case anyone’s interested:
Mr. Williams should be gratified that I mistook him for Edvard Grieg! The piece is actually Death of Aase, from the fabulous Peer Gynt Suite, which I really should’ve identified on my own, as I’ve known it since kindergarten.
How amazing is it that the music director (Alf Clausen, who himself is Norwegian I believe) chose a Norwegian composition for this section? And one so evocative, too. Well done, sir.
I’m just guessing based on what I know of past episodes. And I can’t keep a lot of the kids straight either.
Wikiwikipedia… says
Nancy Cartwright is Nelson, Ralph, Kearney, and also Nelson, Todd Flanders, and Database, among others. Martin is Russi Taylor and Jimbo is… Pamela (“Milhouse”) Hayden. The other women who do the heavy lifting on the show are Tress MacNeille and Maggie Roswell. One of the things I’ve come to admire about the Simpsons is how much of an all-star voice cast they have. Once you recognize the voices of the actors, you hear them all over the place.
Just saw the episode.
I thought it showed promise, but ultimately was poor.
They didn’t have any real development or exploration of the issue at hand; I think as a ‘current event’ episode it failed to really capture any of the issue at all, or any of the absurdity of it.
The ending was an epic fail. They built a wall, and instantaneously the Springfieldians miss the Ogdanvillers, invite them back through, and roll credits, all in about 30 seconds worth of time. Very poor.
Unless I’m mistaken, she’s Nelson too. 
Heavy handed, but nonetheless amusing.
Well, who doesn’t?
Sure, it was a sermon, and a pretty cartoonish (heh) one at that. Let’s shoot some fish in a barrel:
* The personal service jobs performed by the Ogdenvillians were ones for which there had been zero market before their arrival. So it follows that their presence creates no unemployment. How the Springfielders suddenly become rich enough to afford to pay these Ogdenvillians grocery money, let alone a living wage, is not explained.
* The Ogdenvillians generate no negative externalities. Being Swedish Lutherans, they commit no crimes, which make them completely irrelevant to our actual minority population.
* Magically, Springfield Elementary manages to double its student body without overcrowding.
* Magically, the population of Springfield manages to double without causing a spike in housing prices, a subprime fueled construction bubble, and a collapse of the banking system. Actually, the show doesn't even address where the newcomers are expected to live.
* The hospital ER does overcrowd, but that's okay: Marge knows how to reset Bart's dislocated shoulder at home. Somehow, the Ogdenvillians pay for their medical care, since the hospital doesn't go bankrupt providing it for free.
* When the town decides to "close the border" with Ogdenville, Chief Wiggum proves as effective at policing it as he is at policing everything else. So the Springfielders form a volunteer border patrol that goes on an alcohol-fueled shooting spree. The show explicitly compares this group to -- you guessed it -- Klansmen and Nazis.
As you can see, the episode completely takes a dive on the economics of immigration. It invents some lamely contrived social friction for which the Ogdenvillians are portrayed as completely innocent. And the Springfielders are complete boobs for resisting (eventually) the newcomers.
I should add that I do not necessarily believe that immigrants are criminal/uneducated/whatever; I think we need a non-negligible level of immigration though there is a maximal assimilation rate. But these are legitimate concerns and it would have been nice for the writers to have given even one of them a fair hearing, rather than writing a cartoonish morality play that pushes the solution they already decided was right.
The school is already so overcrowded that it probably wouldn’t matter. 
Springfielders are stupid, often violent and terrible at everything, so the fact that a border patrol lead by Homer turns into “an alcohol-fueled shooting spree” ain’t exactly a surprise. And the names were suggested by Cletus, of all people.
Plus it’s a serious issue and they made jokes about it! What is this, a comedy?
Next time you meet a Norwegian, call him a Swede to his face. You just might observe an assault and battery…firsthand.
As opposed to you, who’s not pushing things you already decided were right, huh? :rolleyes: I guess being a hispanic Catholic makes you a criminal? And you seem to think comparisons of the minutmen to nazis and klansmen are invalid. Don’t know much about them, then?
Not denying the omissions of the episode, athelas, I think a better way to look at it is this: the show used the immigration controversy as a jumping off point for the episode, as opposed to commenting on how the issue really ought to be handled. The barleyjacks were practically perfect in every way and I don’t see the intention to make them realistic in the first place. I do think adding some more nuance would’ve made for a funnier episode, though. Which highlights the fact that Much Apu About Nothing tackled this controversy long ago and did it better.
Was there a grown man crying over a baby and a chicken? That’s how I identify comedy.
The SImpsons hardly deals with these issues as it pertains to their own population, why single out the new immigrants?
It basically says that on top of the Alexander Rybak commotion and the celebration of the constitution day, Norway also got some unexpected attention in America, in the Simpsons episode “Coming to Homerica”. Then it goes on revealing some of the situations in which Norwegians are referred to, and it also mentions an episode of “Pushing Daisies” where three Norwegians are portrayed as crime scene investigators.
Norwegian press publish fast when Norway is portrayed in the great, big world known as USA. It’s actually kind of sweet, thinking Norway matter in the big picture. Very patriotic. Other articles involve an eleven year old girl (Nora) singing on the Oprah Show, and of course, our very own Alexander Rybak from the Eurovision Song Contest. The ironic part is that Rybak is from Belarus, and moved to Norway with his parents when he was five.
As for the Swedish comment, Biffy the Elephant Shrew is quite right, Norwegians hate being mixed up with Swedes. You could say it’s like mixing a citizen of the United States with a Canadian. I’m actually a little surprised and offended that a lot of people think Norway is the capitol of Sweden. On an episode of CSI, a skull of Norwegian descent gets blue eyes and blonde hair, because that’s supposedly the way all Norwegians look. No wonder Hitler wanted the Norwegians - we are a supreme example of the Aryan race. Another episode, on a show which I can’t remember right now, Norwegians are jodling - which is actually done in the Alpes, more than 200 miles away. Well, what can I do but laugh of the ignorance?
Believe it or not the same is true even here in the USA about our own country. When I first moved to California and told someone I was from Indiana they’d promptly forget it and the next time it would come up they’d say “you’re from like Illinois or Ohio or something, right?” I’d say “Close, Indiana, those are actually bordering states.” and they’d say “whatever.” (Not whatever!) and then the NEXT time they’d be like “This is my friend Betsy, she’s from Iowa…” (NO! Iowa is like 1000 miles away from Indiana! Not even close! “Whatever, same thing!” NO! NOT THE SAME!)
The surreal thing is Northern California people and Southern California people have an almost “Civil War” attitude about which part of the state is best so you’d think they’d understand about other states wanting to maintain their specific identities but they’re kind of tied up with the “me me me” thing.
And in the interest of keeping this a Simpsons-related thread I loved the part where Apu said “Now no-one will know I’m not a full-blown red-blooded American!” and then did that hilarious Bollywood dance. ROFL!