At what age should children be allowed to watch The Simpsons?

I've managed to allow my almost 8-year old daughter to become addicted to The Simpsons. Too soon?

For reference, I bought my first Steve Martin album (the recent release Comedy Is Not Pretty, at the Barrington Square K-Mart) when I was 8, and soon was checking Cheech and Chong albums out from the library, and nobody tried to stop me.

I wouldn't let her slide down the slope to Family Guy anytime soon, but imo the Sipmsons is one of those shows where anything too mature is obtuse enough to go over kids' heads. I'm thinking of the episode where Bart reaches for cupcakes a la Alex reaching for breasts in A Clockwork Orange. Only way that's bad is if she's seen ACO, in which case, dude.

I don't allow myself to watch the Family Guy.

I started on The Simpsons at seven, and I'm fine. Cheech and Chong well before 10. And I am and have always been straightedge.

I think that your main concern should be keeping her away from the last fifteen or so years of the show. That shit'll rot minds.

yancy wrote: I'm thinking of the episode where Bart reaches for cupcakes a la Alex reaching for breasts in A Clockwork Orange.

Whoa I never got that reference before either. I guess I've still got some maturin' to do.

I started at age 10 and turned out just fine. I think I saw the Tracey Ullman shorts at about your daughter's age.

I've never been a Simpsons maniac, but what I've seen in the 21st century has been mostly okay, sporadically hilarious, and occasionally groan-inducing.
Not entirely unlike SNL, which I think should be funnier, but still has gotten a bad "used to be great" rap for as long as I can remember.

I wonder if that Mad Magazine cartoon show is any good.

the list of subversive, adult material in the children's shows i watched that went completely over my head as a kid is too long to post.

i think violence is probably the main thing that affects kids because its so visceral. an eight year old can't really understand comedy. or maybe i'm not giving my eight year old self enough credit.

Growing up I knew kids whose parents didn't allow them to watch shit like the Rugrats or SpongeBob. It pissed me off then and pisses me off now. Fuck those kind of parents.

Nothing wrong with the Simpsons. I'd probably second the Family Guy consideration, mostly because that show sucks. And I'd be kind of disturbed walking into my home to find my 8-year-old child watching Episode 420 of Family Guy.

Seasons 2-8 are pretty much perfect. My only fear about my theoretical kid watching it these days is that he'd be too stupid to latch onto just how great the Simpsons is on all levels vs the instant stupid gratification offered by Family Guy.

my parents bought me and my bro a telly so we wouldn't bug dad to put Terrahawks on whilst he was watching rugby

but it backfired when i watched Rosemary's Baby on it and had a nightmare and isnisted on sleeping in their bed every night for about a week

my folks should be moderators of the Opposite of Run-of-the-Mill Parenting Forum

What do I know, I grew up watching non professional football players kick each other in the shins (in person)

This TV program is full of truth and beauty.

Scared the shit out of me when I was alive in the early '90s and seeing episodes like the one where Homer goes to clown college. Shit was dark like the Get A Life episode where Chris Elliott has to watch over some old lady's house and he starts hallucinating that the walls and furniture and pizza man are trying to kill him. Or the Seinfeld episode where George is crying while watching Home Alone on TV.

If you are three then that stuff is freaky and traumatizing. But I got really into the show when I was in third grade, so yeah, I was about eight or nine and already pretty down with cursing and of course the sheer immensity of fandom that The Simpsons makes possible for anyone who wants to venture down that path.

As far as late '90s/millennial "adult" animated programs are concerned, this was the only one that my mom could get behind. Obviously Nickelodeon + Cartoon Network were straight retarded and South Park was over the line and Futurama was too weird and the appeal of King of the Hill was too confounding and The PJs is about black people in the projects so that's a big no no.

Posts in this thread are on point, certainly. Your daughter is old enough. You'd be going the extra mile if you made sure she's primarily immersed in episodes from the '90s but that's up to you, obviously. And since you're laying down the law with limiting the Family Guy time, you obviously know what you're doing as a parent and human being.

Paves wrote:I was about eight or nine and already pretty down with cursing and of course the sheer immensity of fandom that The Simpsons makes possible for anyone who wants to venture down that path.

This is something that I always forget about. How powerful you feel at that age when you start to curse around your friends. It's such a funny ass thing to do. For me I was too tepid to just go right into it so I started by saying bleep and bleeping in place of actually saying the words. Eventually someone made fun of me for doing that and I came back by saying, "Fuck you asshole!"

I vividly remember being mocked for thinking they were known as 'square words'.

So this is paying off handsomely.

Recent lol irls:

Me (walking into house where chicken and potatoes with garlic were baking): It smells good in here.
Daughter: That's because I farted.

and

Daughter: Someone hand me the remote. I can't reach it, I'm too drunk.

I'm sure this is the effect of the Simpsons influence.

i was like 4-5 when i started watching the simpsons. had a bart simpson doll and everything. i turned out fine.

i remember all the adult shit just whizzed past my head

back then bart was the main character kinda so it was a lil different.

Paves wrote:the Get A Life episode where Chris Elliott has to watch over some old lady's house and he starts hallucinating that the walls and furniture and pizza man are trying to kill him.

Man, where the fuck was I during this part of America?

So how many of you have actually kept up with this show?
I would love to get my hands on a list of worthwhile simpsons episodes after season 10, but don't see myself ever trudging through all of those years.
God, I miss Phil Hartman.

I watched the most recent Treehouse of Horrors. It had a segment of wall-to-wall Kubrick references untethered to any jokes.