Up to 1:36 Matt Groning credit
You are about to see the title sequence for The Simpsons episode 'MoneyBART' first broadcast in the UK on 21 October 2010 at 6pm on Channel 4.
The titles were storyboarded by celebrated British street artist
Banksy, who is renowned for
his controversial graffiti and whose identity remains a closely guarded secret. It was the first
time that an artist was involved in the opening credits of the show, one of the most successful
television brands of all time.
In general the titles begin in their usual way and then move into an extended sequence. This
sequence was apparently inspired by reports that
Twentieth Century Fox sends out some of
their animation for
The Simpsons to a company in South Korea. Outsourcing in this way would
mean that episodes could be mass produced more cheaply.
The Simpsons
has a reputation for being cheekily disrespectful to its parent company, Twentieth
Century Fox
, who initially pulled the title sequence from YouTube, claiming that it breached
copyright restrictions. Quickly going viral, the sequence later reappeared and within a few
weeks received over five million hits.
1 Media Forms
How does the opening of this title sequence use media language to draw the
audience into the programme?
(12 marks)
2 Media Representations
How does the extended sequence represent the workplace?
(12 marks)
3 Media Institutions
How does the extended sequence make fun of the commercial nature of media
institutions?
(12 marks)
4 Media Audiences
What features of the whole sequence made it so popular on YouTube? (12 marks)