Simpsons Web Sites

The Simpsons appeared at roughly the same time that the internet began to burst slip into the public consciousness. As such, the show probably has had more fan sites come and go and stick around than any other single show. The Star Trek franchise probably has more sites in total, we're talking about five different shows there.

The Simpsons web sites have had to wage a running war with Fox execs who have been particularly diligent about cracking down on copyright infringement. Countless Simpsons web sites have come up and gone back down after losing the battle with the deep pocketed Fox suits who hired lawyers not unlike the blue-haired shyster who works for Mr. Burns and other big capitalist conglomerates dedicated to destroying the foundation of capitalism: competition.

A simple search for Simpsons web sites will bring up countless fan sites in just about every language known to man, or even that gorilla that supposedly knows sign language. Most of them feature sound clips, some of them even feature Homer saying "D'oh!" but you've got to dig down really deep to find those special sites. Many of them feature clipart, wallpaper, and even-shh!-screen captures. In addition, you can find icons, fonts and other goodies like trivia games. In other words, most of them are pretty much indistinguishable from each other.

Which brings us to focus of this article. Why a Saussurean interpretation of semiotics is inappropriate for analyzing postmodern textual readings, er, I mean which Simpsons web sites are essential.

It would really be impossible to visit every Simpsons web site on the internet to determine which are the best. But it is quite easy to come up with two that are going to be on everybody's essential list. Last Exit to Springfield, named after one of the all time great Simpsons episodes, is certainly a must-see. Located at www.lardlad.com, this site features all those must-haves mentioned earlier such as wallpaper and icons and images galore. But it also features so much more.