The Simpsons Brick Like Me – an exquisite, existential, circular fantasy

The Simpsons “Brick Like Me”, combining Lego and Bart, is a reminder of why this animated sitcom is, possibly, the most sophisticated show on TV.

Just how brilliant is “The Simpsons”?

The Simpsons Brick Like Me

Take a look at Series 25, Episode 20 (episode 550 in total), of the Simpsons “Brick Like Me“.  Homer, after enjoying playing with Lisa but then being rejected by her when she wants to spend time with older girls, wishes that he could play with her forever in a perfect world.

Homer then awakes in that world, where everything – himself and the family included – is made of Lego bricks.  At first, everything seems perfect.  Neither he nor Lisa nor Maggie will ever grow old; they can play forever; “where everything fits together and no-one gets hurt”.

Not selling out but co-branding?

Almost the whole episode is presented in the format of The Lego Movie – itself a surreal blend of movie-reference weirdness.  As Homer observes when he awakes as a Lego figure, “It’s not selling out, it’s co-branding!”

But then Homer understands that he will have to work for Mr Burns forever; that he and Marge will never grow old together; and that the reason playing with your children is so passionately wonderful is because they later will grow up.  He flees back to the “real” world to be reunited with his family.

The episode closes by panning out on the “real” Springfield to reveal that it, too, is made of Lego bricks; and as the camera pans further back, the globe, the solar system and the galaxy are revealed to be a jigsaw puzzle entitled “The Universe” for “Age 13 billion+” and comprising 10 to the power of 80 pieces, held in the Lego-like hands of what seems to be the supreme being.

Crammed with cross-references

The episode is crammed with references to other movies and series, from “Avatar” (when Bart pilots a giant mechanical warrior version of himself he has built out of “Star Wars”, “Batman”, “Hobbit” and “Sponge Bob” Lego sets) to “The Hunger Games” (which Lisa longs to see as it is rated 12+ – a sign of her growing up) and “The Lego Movie” itself – from which, as Lisa observes, the episode has borrowed key plot elements.

The Tunnel under the World

In fact, the episode seems to me based on the Frederik Pohl 1955 short story The Tunnel under the World, which begins with the memorable line: “On the morning of June 15th, Guy Burckhardt woke up screaming out of a dream.”  That story spookily explores the horrors which can be unleashed by unfettered capitalism.

I’d like to think that was what the writer of Brick Like Me was getting at.

You can read the The Tunnel under the World on-line.  Now I come to look at it again, I realise it’s what inspired The Matrix and The Truman Show.  But darker than either, with exquisite twists.  You’ll never forget Feckle Freezers or the Contro Chemical Plant (echoes of the nuclear plant in Springfield?).

Selling out?

Fact: Lego Simpsons figures went on sale the same year (2014) Brick Like Me was first shown.

The Simpsons: For: thoughtful, sophisticated, funny, reliable and consistent for a show now in its 28th year.

Against: it may be that it’s been going ages and we’re all getting older, but it feels to me – as in the later stages of the wonderful Friends, which also tailed off a bit – as if the golden age of The Simpsons was years ago.  So only 9/10.

For more on the Simpsons see my review of The Simpsons: Trash of the Titans.

P.S. If you would like to explore my other writing, take a look at my most recent books, such as “Palladium”, below.