Season 1 Episode 28b
This episode feels more important now than ever before, with the wave of local and state governments banning certain books from libraries and classrooms. Although this is a children’s book series that turns out to be harmless (and this ban came from a weird place to begin with, which we’ll get into), banning any books sets a bad precedent, whether it’s the 1619 Project, Maus, Catcher in the Rye or the Scare Your Pants Off Club. Or even the Arthur books, as one Florida school district is aiming to do, for no apparent reason other than that they can. As evidenced by Arthur wolfing down his breakfast at the start of the episode, kids want to read these books!
“Parents Against Weird Stories” definitely was inspired by a Season 2 episode of The Simpsons from 1990 where Marge tries (albeit unsuccessfully) to get The Itchy & Scratchy Show yanked off the air because of its goriness, which causes Maggie to hit Homer on the head with a mallet. Marge creates a group to protest the network, and is successful at first in making the cartoons less violent, but ultimately admits the hypocrisy of being against Itchy & Scratchy Show but in favor of Michelangelo’s David being exhibited in Springfield. As we find out, PAWS came about because Muffy was unable to sleep because she ate too much Haassen-Pfeffer ice cream her dad had bought, and she blamed it on the books.
But the other parallel to real life is how Muffy’s hypocrisy comes through, when Mrs. DePoe comes to the library and Muffy reveals that she owned all the Scare Your Pants Off Club books. Just like one Nebraska state representative who voted for an abortion and gender-affirming healthcare in his state, but then went to a Lizzo concert that same day in Omaha. The way Mrs. DePoe (or McWord) shames Mr. Crosswire into allowing the books to be put back in the library is very well written, but unfortunately most of the politicians in favor of book bans have no such shame. Moral of the story is that book banning is a slippery slope towards fascism, and eating large amounts of ice cream before bed is inevitably going to keep you awake at night.
By Guthrie Edson
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