at the end of its film George of the Jungle ( 1997) by having George ascend
Pride Rock to present his newborn child to the animals, its goal is not to
provoke a response of "Boy, is that film convention stupid," so much as
"Hey, I recognize that!" The Lion King is reaffirmed, not punctured. It
helps sell more videos.

So although puncturing is still around, there's a lot of reaffirmation on
television and in the movies. Television has always been a haven for parody
since before Milton Berle and Texaco Star Theater, but the sort of parody
one sees now on television is more focused, less broad, and more subtly
referential, more respectful and even reverent toward its targets. One good
television example of postmodern reaffirmative pastiche is the animated
sitcom The Simpsons (Fox), which is difficult to appreciate or even follow
without specific knowledge of the source material it targets. In one episode,
Homer and Marge hire Sherry Bobbins, a British nanny whose name
prompts one character to say, "Don't you mean Mary Pop --?" before
being cut off. That truncated line of dialogue makes the reference clear
without miring Fox in a lawsuit with notoriously litigious Disney. In con-
trast to the restorative family therapy enacted by the eponymous character
in the film Mary Poppins ( 1964), Sherry Bobbins fails to improve the Simp-
son clan, causing a self-satisfied Homer Simpson to sing in a parody of a
Sherman and Sherman tune that

I'd rather drink a beer
Than win "Father of the Year."
I'm happy with things the way they are!

Another episode parodies the Superman character through the attempts of
a Hollywood studio to shoot a film called Radioactive Man in the Simp-
sons' hometown. The actor who plays Radioactive Man, a caricature of
Arnold Schwarzenegger called McBain, has an Austrian accent so thick that
he can't get the character's signature line right; despite extensive directorial
coaching, he keeps saying, "Up and at them!" instead of the important
catchphrase "Up and Atom!" In another episode, the science fiction film
The Planet of the Apes ( 1968) is affectionately sent up as "Planet of the
Apes -- The Musical!," which concludes with actor Troy McClure singing
a Lloyd Webber style, pull-out-the-stops finale called "You Really Made a
Monkey Out of Me!" in front of the ruins of the Statue of Liberty. There
is no derision or social criticism here, though -- it's only wistful affection,
as if the folks at Gracie Films wished that once in a while a Disney pro-
tagonist couldn't overcome adversity, or that there really was a superhero
sidekick called Fallout Boy or a simian spectacular up for a Tony. One
never gets the sense that the producers of The Simpsons have any feeling
but love for the pop culture icons they parody.

The very meticulousness with which some parody is crafted bespeaks the

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