Ealuate The Simpsons' interpretation of Hamlet. Are there too many inaccuracies? Does this 5 minute clip have any value? Are The Simpsons' simply doing what they always do? Please post your reaction to this clip.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- Megan Lafayette
- This is my first year as Assistant Principal at Norton High School. After six years as an English teacher here, I know I will miss the classroom, but I am ready for a new challenge as an administrator.
Gracie Dog and Rodney
Grace is my dog and Rodney is her b.f.
Blogs I Read
- Freshmen Advisory
- Ms. Rodrigues
- Ms. Marzelli
- NHS Track and Field Blog
- NHS Cross Country Blog
- Ms. Stanton
- Mrs. Vargas
- Ms. Godfrey
- Mrs. Taylor
- Ms. Polak
- Tri-M
- School to Career
- Ms. Mikels
- Mr. Lib
- NHS Football
- Wellness
- Ms. Miranda
- Class of 2010
- Class 2011
- The NHS Library
- Mr. Paulus
- Mr. Grasso
- Mr. Kefor
- NHS Student Council
- Ms. Malone
- Mr. Barth's Blog
- Mr. Dewar's Blog
This Day in History
11 comments:
Hahahaha. Oh, how I love The Simpsons.
Anyway. Honestly, a lot of times The Simpsons try and redo literature and it's funny, but not so accurate. This, however, wasn't very far off. Obviously, they changed the way some characters died to make it funnier, and the dialouge isn't Shakespeare, but in general, I feel like they actually did well with this one. By the end of it, you still know that Claudious betrayed big and little Hamlet, and you saw each character die that was supposed to. They just did it with more humor.
I actually really liked this, which is to be expected because I think that The Simpsons will always be amazing, but this was still pretty decent on accuracy. It was almost like Hamlet for Dummy?
-Lauren
This video does have some of the important parts of the play but one thing I noticed was that they had Ophilia go crazy even before her father dies. Laertes was also there when his father was murdered which in the play he was in Paris until after the burial of his father. Some of it was out of order and the way some charaters had died like the Queen who died of drinking posionous wine, where in this she had hit herself as the last person to die. When Hamlet sees Hamlet SR. he was outside with the guards where they have seen him.The play was put on by Hamlet and Hamlet wrote the play out for them.Then the king ended up stoping the play and walking out.
Jess F
I liked it; it got the main points across, but was much funnier than the play. Though I don't think that is the purpose of a tragedy, but still, it was very funny.
-Julianne
Ahaha, that was great.
I have to say, I really enjoyed that interpretation, and I'm not a big fan of the Simpsons. I loved Lisa's rendition of Ophelia.
I think that the clip does have educational value. It teaches you what a soliloquy is more effectively than if you were to study it in class. Also, it does the characters in the play justice.
Although the characters stuck to the original personalities etc, I feel like even though the plot was ultimately very similar (and obviously condensed), the ending was kind of shameful. Granted, the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern death was funny and acceptable; their death wasn't that big of a deal, but the deaths of Gertrude and Hamlet were kind of disappointing. It made it seem like most of the deaths were from suicide when that simply was not the case.
People can get a general feeling for what Hamlet is about by watching this clip, however I feel like the audience that will REALLY appreciate it will be those who have actually read the play and understand what they're exaggerating on, and fact vs. fiction.
The Simpsons are doing what they always do, pointing out a classic and making it funny that way people who aren't familiar with them can at least appreciate them, and those who are can be reminded of them and the variety of humor used to embellish them.
Granted, I don't have many episodes to base this on. The only other literary parody I've seen was The Raven..and they actually kept that quite accurate.
Anywho, I'd show this one to the kids.
*shrugs* It's better than watching the movie.
xo.
PS-Kudos to Ghostbusters ending.
Well, it was definitely goofy, but I think I liked it. I'm not a big fan of the Simpsons and I didn't expect much from this--especially since Hamlet is so well known and acredited, but I thought that it was pretty good. There were definitely some inaccuracies, but only small typical ones (which I preferred)and besides the dialogue, the message of the story was clear and accurate (kind of).
This was a good take on Hamlet, interesting and funny. If only the actual play could be told in five minutes.
--Katie
See I have seen probably like 2 episodes of the simpsons in my life so I am not used to the humor of the simpsons or how the episodes usually are. So coming from someone who has never seen it i think that they should have followed what the actual play was a lot more. I dont think there was one part where there was the same thing that happened in the real thing.
-Pat Hannon
And for some reason it would not let me post a comment on the other one so i just wanna add somethin here about that...
So i thought the kid was really good. He knew all of his lines and never messed up which to me seems extremely hard. I thought u did a little to much talking with his hands and it got distracting, though overall really good on his part.
I think we should defenitly do somethin like that for a project.
-Pat Hannon
"No one outcrazies Ophelia. Oooh nani nani..." -Hilarious.
There were very few inaccuracies, which I was happy with, because they ended up doing it very well. Arguably, people who watch the Simpsons aren't looking for 100% historical accuracy. So in this way, it pleases usual Simpson watchers, and people who don't watch the Simpsons often and like the story of Hamlet.
For those reading, if you didn't see it in Mr. Taylor's English class and liked this interpretation of Hamlet: there's a Simpsons interpretation of The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe that is also pretty good.
-Allison
Wow, that was weird, and unnecessary. It doesn't really have any value. I guess it was kind of funny, a little. Laertes was kind of funny. I don't understand why we had to comment on this. As for if this was typical of the Simpsons, I don't know, because I have never seen it.
Emily E.
Ok so I honestly forgot if we had to comment thsi one or not so I'm just covering my..self by doing it anyways. The Simpsons can be funny at times and this one had some moments that made me chuckle. It covers very basic story plot, although I believe that most of Shakespeare's value lies in his writing as opposed to his actual story. This is pretty much what I expected to get from any Simpson's episode, but I do love parodies, and thefore i found this video to be entertaining.
The Simpsons are amazing. I actually think it was rather good. The order of events was way off, but atleast it made Hamlet funny. I enjoyed it, especially when Claudius messes up Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's names.hahaha
-Julia J
The Simpsons never impressed me much, but I will say that they have some very creative writers behind the scenes of that show. The Simpsons do humorous parodies better than most, but I suppose they will just never be my kind of humor.
-Courtney
Post a Comment