Season 17 episode 18 the wettest stories ever told starts out with the Simpson family going out to dinner at the frying Dutchman. When waiting for the food to come they decide to tell nautical stories.
Lisa tells a story about the Mayflower voyage. Marge portrays a widow, Lisa and Bart her children. Homer is a stowaway on the ship. The police are after him because he was questioning why the current time period Was called the Jacobean era instead of the James era because the kings name was James. (The era was called the Jacobean era because Jacobean derived from Jacobus is the Latin form of the English name James.)
Once The ship sets sail Homer meets Marge and she starts to like him. Mo, another passenger on the ship is jealous, so he tells Homer to go to the storage room that holds the beer and drink every time a wave hits the ship.
Later on, the captain finds Homer as well as other passengers drinking beer in the storage room. It is in fact forbidden to drink beer on board the ship and punishments were severe.
Before the captain could punish anyone a big storm hits. the captain ends up getting knocked unconscious. A very drunk and unqualified Homer is left to steer them out of the storm after he insists he knows how to steer the ship.
By some miracle homer successfully steers them out of the storm. They make it to Plymouth where they meet the Wampanoag tribe. They proceed to have the first Thanksgiving with the natives. under his breath the captain of the Mayflower apologizes for what they will do later to the natives, take their land and wipe there people out.
Although this story is all about fictional characters there is some truth behind it. In class we have been learning about the mayflower voyage that Lisa describes in this episode but her version of the story had some major flaws. Fist off, during the episode the characters are shown wandering freely through the ship when in reality they would be forced to stay in a small part of the ship in which a full grown adult would not be able to stand upright in.
Also, Lisa describes Homer saving them from this huge storm and still continuing on to Plymouth. The real pilgrims did face a big storm, but it ended with them having to go back to england before they could continue to america.
In class we learned how it took the native Wampanoag tribe a long time to talk to the english and even longer to make a peace agreement and have the first thanksgiving. In the show they made it seem as if thanksgiving was an instantaneous event happening right after their arrival. The very last scene of the show, shows the captain apologizing for killing their men and taking their land in the future. In class we learned that this would have happened in the form of king Philips war.
pictography:
Fins, Terry “Mayflower Madmen” Photograph. Simpsons Wiki. January 13, 2014. http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wettest_Stories
_Ever_Told. (January 13, 2014).
“Pilgrim Simpsons” Photograph. WTSOF. January 13, 2014. http://wtsof.tv/watch/S17E18-the-wettest-stories-ever-told. (January 13, 2014)
“Mayflower” Simpsons Wiki. January 13, 2014. http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki /File:Mayflower-tv3.jpg. (January 13, 2014)
“Mayflower Compact” Photograph. Us History. January 13, 2014. www.xtimeline.com. (January 13, 2014)
Its really funny that you can learn so much from some of these cartoon episodes! Althought the real perpouse of the Simpsons is to entertain people not to educate you can certanley learn alot from this episode. I really enjoyed your blog post!
ReplyDeleteThis was a really nice blog post! I noticed that the Simpsons make some very direct connections to History that not everyone would realize. Like the episode where Lisa creates Lutherans. I plan to keep my eye out for more connections now!
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteI loved your blog! I found it funny how much you can actually learn from a cartoon. I liked how you had many pictures because it broke up the piece and made it easier to read it's full length. I'm glad that you noticed this episode because I never would've been able to do so on my own.
I realized too that the Simpsons make a lot of references to history. I remember one episode when they go back in time to the Mayans, when they decided the date when the world is going to end. I really liked this blog because it was well written and I really liked your examples of the Simpsons teaching history.
ReplyDelete