Gray (2003), "The Simpsons Go Global"

Gray (2003) suggests that “where the Americanization and cultural imperialism thesis at times comes close to positing the existence of a unitary and strictly managed vision of America beaming down from satellites above, this article will suggest that, in fact, there exist numerous competing Americas in the American global media, some of them satirically looking back at and attacking other Americas as presented in the more happy, glowing, and affirmative of American media products” (p. 131).

In other words, Gray (2003) uses interviews with various non-American consumers of The Simpsons to argue that American media does not cross borders without shifting its meanings. For the participants in Gray's (2003) study, The Simpsons was a text upon which to draw ideas about America. While some participants understood the show as satirical, others felt that the series was a reflection of American laziness and consumerism.