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“Steven Bochco could kick Shakespeare’s ass”. The Simpsons’ attack on the Shakespeare myth

“…On the one hand, through this meta-literary wisecrack, Bart indirectly hints at a parallelism between today's television writing and Renaissance theatre writing. On the other hand, as it is often the case when Shakespeare is referred to in television (Lanier 2012), the English playwright is depicted as belonging to a world far from the popular one of television, that is to say the old-fashioned and static world of elitist culture. Shakespeare is indeed defined as being inferior to contemporary screenwriters, an author of old stories, which is characterized by the fact of being extremely boring.…”

“…21 On this point see Lanier 2012. funnily echoes the sempiternal battle between the upholders of the need to rewrite Shakespeare's plays and the upholders of the need to preserve them in their original form. The audience is with Bart and finds the play boring.…”