Before The Simpsons, there was LIFE IN HELL.
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Thank you for publishing this. Mr Groening demonstrates the power of knowing oneself and persisting with faith until the world catches up. Way to go, Eric! Way to go Matt!
By Bartleby
My own exposure to Akbar and Jeff began in 1996, when someone at my college’s Writing Center pencil-sketched a giant spoof on the wall, something like: “Akbar and Jeff’s Writing Hut: Where the elite tread to have papers read.” As I learned, the entrepreneurial duo – when not busy vacillating between adulation and contempt for each other – skips around opening little huts, selling everything from reincarnation and liposuction to videos and tofu. Intrigued, I searched out the Life in Hell books and delighted (gaily, if you will) in the Akbar and Jeff cartoons.
Almost radical at the time they were introduced, when few gay couples were being portrayed, let alone in a positive light, Akbar and Jeff have continued to serve not as role models, per se, but as humorous meditations on gay coupledom and the banalities of daily life together. It’s almost an off-handed response to the still-lingering criticisms that gay male relationships are short-lived, marred by infidelity, or hard to understand. In one famous cartoon, Akbar and Jeff fret over visiting a gay bar, only to find upon arrival that all the patrons look exactly like them, donning fezzes and wearing similar shirts. The comic absurdity and ultimate likability of the pair is what has given them such longevity. They’re stuck together, they know it, and most of the time, they’re happy with it.
Akbar and Jeff aren’t political activists in their two-dimensional world, but Groening has acknowledged here and there that the couple faces some social hurdles. They are, on occasion, discriminated against for their identity. They have even commented on legal decisions affecting the gay community. And in one AIDS-themed cartoon that appeared over 15 years ago, Akbar and Jeff even discussed HIV tests. But despite the occasional tackling of “issues,” the real genius of Matt Groening’s duo is their ambivalent, curious, and enduring relationship.