like him? Homer: Pffft. I have to warn you Marge, I think the poor young thing has the hots for Yours Truly! The same episode jumps to six months later, when Homer is explaining about ``a little get-together with the boys at work. Eugene Fisk is marrying some girl in valve maintenance." Marge: Mmmhmmm. Eugene Fisk, isn't he your assistant? Homer: No! My... supervisor. Marge: Didn't he used to be your assistant? Homer: Hey, what is this! The Spanish Exposition? Marge: Sorry, Homer... It is unlikely that younger viewers will notice or understand this sort of humour. Other more subtle jokes include some of the signs on streets and buildings, like the one on the Springfield Hall of Records that says "Not The Good Kind Of Records - Historical Ones". There is a form of highbrow humour in The Simpsons that will account for its appeal to the educated and academics. This is a level that I call educated reference humour. It is made up mostly of literary and academic references. They are usually references to art, politics, philosophy or literature. (Sometimes they are cultural and as such will be dealt with in more detail later on.) Some examples of this higher level of humour are when Sideshow Bob refers to the documentation of his political corruption as Machiavellian art. A particularly good example is the Ayn Rand School for Tots. Ayn Rand was a founder of the strict philosophy of objectivism. There is much irony and humour in having a kindergarten based of Rand's philosophies, and Ms. Sinclair, who runs it, explains "`Our aim here is to develop the bottle within.'' Hence the humour in the posters inside the kindergarten: "A is A" and "Helping is Futile". Other highbrow references include the TV show Rock Bottom's correction that "Women aren't from Venus, men aren't from Mars" and a boy's references to the work of photographers Helmut Newton and Diane Arbus when the children look at a photograph of Homer and a belly dancer. The subtlest humo...
