Grapes and crepes: a parody based on architextuality

Abstract

This article analyzes the Simpsons' reframing of the book The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck. Parody is discussed as an effect of language and the article also raises questions about animation as a means to redefine, subvert and challenge orthodox views of the human experience in different cultures and, in this case, especially applied to the North American culture. This Simpsons episode, which aims to parody the lifestyle of a North American middle class family, satirizes aspects of that society through subtle jokes and puns. In the referred episode, The Crepes of Wrath, there is an intertextual relationship with a novel by John Steinbeck and then it is possible to ask: How is such intertextual relationship constructed?