ABSTRACT
Behind parody, motoring its comedy and semiotics at a basic, fundamental level, is intertextuality. Thus, any attempt to explain the theoretical, comic, or political powers of The Simpsons specifically, or of parody more generally, must be preceded by adequate theorization of how intertextuality works. Before closely examining The Simpsons and its parody, as I will in Part II, then, we must first establish how one text can comment on and talk to another. Hence, this chapter will detail what intertextuality is, how texts interact, and why television and media studies scholarship could benefit from more use of an intertextual mode of practice.
