1. Stephen Marche's essay on Sideshow Bob, one of the greatest characters on The Simpsons, is worth expanding on:http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/the-simpsons-sideshow-bob?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_82883986 …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
2. I think Sideshow Bob is a great character because he cuts close to the experience of the show's writers: he's a distorted alter-ego.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. The Ivy League egghead who has to make his dough as a low brow clown: apt description of both Sideshow Bob & many Simpsons writers.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. Tragedy of Sideshow Bob is he tried to bring smart comedy to kids and was rejected. Glory of The Simpsons is they did same & succeeded.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. Sideshow Bob is what would've happened to the show's creators had they failed: the bitterness of the idealist in defeat.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. Sideshow Bob raises a fundamental question: what is the role of the cultural elitist in a mass democracy?
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. One answer is that the cultural elitist should simply turn his nose at the masses & become snob: the route of Mencken, Vidal, etc.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. The nobility of Sideshow Bob is he doesn't take the easy (and lazy) path of snobbery but sees it as his mission to uplift the masses.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. For the elitist to uplift the masses means entering into a complex love/hate relationship with them: which is what Bob has with Bart.
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10. Sideshow Bob wants to destroy Bart but also edify him: "to send Bart to heaven before he sent him to hell."
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Replying to @HeerJeet
11. The love/hate feelings Sideshow Bob has for Bart are surely shared on some level by the show's writers: Bart is their paycheck & a pain
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Replying to @HeerJeet
12. Sideshow Bob embodies something rarely celebrated in our culture: the creative power of negativity: scorn as life-affirmation.
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