Gracie Blogging: Battle of the Gaimans

So we’re another week into November. Which means more NaNoWriMo writing (I’m doing alright with my writing if anyone is interested). I’m kinda doing a follow up to last post, which I talked about my favorite authors Neil Gaiman and Christopher Moore. Well there’s something else Gaiman has over Moore;

He’s also been in episodes of two very nerdy shows.

PBS’s Arthur

And The Simpsons

Now probably everyone is wondering why I consider Arthur nerdy? Well, yes it’s a show that’s mostly for grade school kids that are too old for Sesame Street and too young for Downton Abbey.

But what makes it nerdy? I present to you this;

What kid who watches Barney is gonna possibly get this reference?

So yea, Arthur is Nerdy. Anyway onto the episodes in question. Both these episodes share a guest star, and since I haven’t seen many episodes of Arthur or of “Glory Days” Simpsons, I will not factor past episodes into my arguments.

Let’s organize this by category!

 Introduction of Guest

Arthur

One would think a guy like Neil wouldn’t need any introduction, but Arthur is mainly geared towards elementary schoolers who may not know who he is. An intro is needed for him here. And surprisingly it doesn’t talk down to the audience in question. The audience can see who Neil is just by looking at the background of the opening. Neil is surrounded by his books, which makes sense since he’s at a book signing. Sue-Ellen does mention some of his credentials, but it’s not bludgeoned onto our heads.

The Simpsons

Simpsons on the other hand does the classic, “Author of Sandman Neil Gaiman? What are you doing here?” type of introduction. I know I said I wouldn’t reference any other Simpsons, but I can’t let this go. Why does The Simpsons think this way of introducing people is funny?

Ugh! Winner: Arthur

Use of Neil

In the Arthur episode they keep Neil around to become Sue-Ellen’s pocket sized inspirational sprout-er, that only she can see. He encourages her to continue her graphic novel about triangles fighting an epic war with circles.

The best part of this is the fact that it gives Neil so many opportunities to say many of his great writing quotes. Is it effective, I think it is because these writing quotes can be used for more than just graphic novels, kids (and me) can use these quotes to push ourselves to continue writing our books.

In the Simpsons one, Neil is part of the Heist to make money off of children’s literature, but is mostly a background joke. It does help build up to the final joke at the end, but as a fan I wish I could have heard more of Neil.

Winner: Arthur (if only because it inspired me to create my own mini-Neil)

So yes, Arthur is the clear winner of this. It’s a better written episode all around and is definitely worth a look. But why does The Simpsons episode not work for me? Well it’s simple, one thing I love about Neil Gaiman (his children’s books in particular) is that he doesn’t talk down to his audience. Yet The Simpsons is always talking down to their audience of teenagers and adults.

It fascinates me that the show meant for little kids, and the one that could get away with talking down to their audience, Arthur, doesn’t at all. Yet the one aimed at my actual age demo, The Simpsons, is constantly talking down to me.

Just goes to show that with the right writers and right inspiration, things meant for the youngest of kids can inspire the oldest as well.