Cavemen vs. The Simpsons
For the record, I thought that some of the Geico caveman commercials were funny, but then again, I thought even in the commercial format, some of the later ones got a little lame. The most effective one, in my mind, was the airport stop, where the caveman is standing on a the flat escalator. There’s a bit of music in the background, and the caveman is looking at his plane ticket. For some reason, there’s a tennis racket stuffed into his carry-on luggage. He sees the Geico ad and a look of exhausted exasperation comes over his face. Contrast that with the ad where a bunch of caveman are at a party, talking about their troubles, and “selling out’ to Geico.com. Not as sophisticated or funny, but then again, the Cavemen television series was borne out of that. And the result, if we read watchingsitcoms.com, is not that good and not that funny.
In a way, it would be interesting to comparatively think of Cavemen and The Simpsons. On the surface, both do not have very much in common, but deeper, there’s a little bit there that’s interesting. Both shows were adapted from much shorter, successful mediums. The Cavemen were based upon those somewhat successful Geico commercials. The Simpsons, on the other hand, was originally based upon shorts Matt Groening had done for The Tracy Ullman Show. Cavemen sought to expand on funny concept, and The Simpsons not only did that, but did something else. Cavemen, as a show, wears thin quickly because the concept wears thin quickly. The Simpsons, however, while having funny characters, actually speaks to everyday life and American Culture through non-stop satire. Hence, The Simpsons has lasted an absurdly long (TV-wise) time. And as for the Cavemen, if that show hasn’t been cancelled yet, it likely won’t last the rest of the season.
Leave a Reply