Why The Simpsons Theme Just SOUNDS Funny

Danny Elfman's masterpiece has stood the test of time. Here's why.

Follow me!

[CharlesCornellStudios]

This was a fun rabbit hole to dive down. FUN FACT- John Phillip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" was known in the circus world as the "The Disaster March" and was used to signal to event staff that a disaster was unfolding. It could've been a fire or a loose animal, but it was played under no other circumstances than an impending disaster. Kind of a massive difference from how we know it today 😂

[KyleRDent]

I miss when Lisa occasionally did a weird little improv on her saxophone. I know it would've been hell to keep up for hundreds of episodes though.

[SamCoulson]

The key changes clearly represented the different characters, as that is what all the scenes are doing. All the kids are in C, Homer is B, Marge is E, everyone coming home is E flat, and the family all together is D flat.

[PolDlokay]

If you pay attention, the music also describes the characters.

Fast paced chaotic music portrays bart and homer to be unbalanced, abnormal people.

Slow tempo for marge because she is more orderly and calm.

Liza is the voice of reason, hence why the song goes back to the original key of C after all the key changes. Her solos also portray creativity.

Mix them all together and you have a chaotic family where nothing is normal.

[InventorZahran]

You can't talk about circus music's military origins without mentioning Julius Fucik's composition 'Entry of the Gladiators'. It was originally written as a march, but has since become the archetypal (and stereotypal) theme music for circuses and clowns. Many people nowadays only know it as "the clown theme".

[zorantaylor]

The theme from The Jetsons also takes the same interval and moves it around into different keys with different variations depending on which member of the family is being introduced. Even the underlying concept of "different variation for every part of the family ending its day to go be together again" is an echo of that opening credits sequence. The main difference is that The Jetsons are just STARTING their respective days.

[bryanhryciw]

Producer James L Brooks described the theme as music”

[Justaminhute]

Your breakdown of this song singlehandedly made me put down my phone, find the sheet music online and start learning it on the piano. I got to say, knowing more of the theory behind the piece made it so much fun to learn

[briansnow]

Don't forget... D Elfman also wrote the very ICONIC Batman Theme (1989).

[MrZimpoppel]

Danny Elfman is a tritone maniac. I heard Oingo Boingo in the early eighties and it quickly became one of my favourite bands of that time, and it already had this mad circus feel !

[xliquidflames]

12:32 I know why. It's changing keys as each character is introduced. Every character has their own key. So as the scenes change to show a new member of the family, a new key accompanies them in the music.

[e.c.winner]

In high school, our marching band did a compilation of the songs of Danny Elfman for competitons one year, and as the xylophone player, this one was so fun to play… but also extremely stressful. Good times.

[taitano]

I was in 6th grade when The Simpsons came out. My music teacher described staccato and syncopation as sounding like laughter. The key changes and instrument hand-off is like passing through the crowd and picking up on different people laughing. Listen to The Simpsons and Looney Tunes themes and circus music, and you can hear a crowd laughing in every one. From a generic moderate laugh of the piano intro to the loud guffaw of the trumpet to the playing-along-with-the-gag hekeling of Lisa's 🎷, you not only get the zany action of the cartoon in music form, but the laughter of the audience.

My 6th grade Music Teacher was in the Seattle Symphony and had a Master's Degree in Music Theory. She was AMAZING at explaining this stuff. All my other Music Teachers just taught us how to sound halfway decent on an instrument. She passed on a passion for music.

[thedemocraticfilipino]

Danny Elfman is just the goat for writing this.

[jasobres]

Creator Matt Groening gave Danny Elfman a mix tape of what he wanted the theme song to sound like that contained, among other things, the theme from The Jetsons and a "teach your parrot to talk" tape.

[jimsundstrom]

I had a professor in college for a Shakespeare course. He could dissect the Bard’s work and thoroughly explain what made those plays the works of art they are. But he also exuded an all out love and joy of WS’s work. It was infectious. You’d think that would be common, especially in any study and instruction of the arts. But it’s not. Charles Cornell has that in spades! And THIS video in particular struck a chord with me as a BIG Loony Tunes and Simpsons fan. Great stuff, Charles!

[spatz]

Awesome all around. As an early stage player, this not only is cool cause it's the Simpsons, but helps highlight different concepts like key changes and themes. All of which you make visual, applicable, and fun. Thanks for helping to glue some musical ideas/theory together in my brain as I go through this process.

[jaredwblack]

The constant key changes enhance the element of surprise, which is important in humor. Punch lines are usually a surprising, unexpected resolution to the setup, often with an off-kilter, twisted kind of logic. The constant surprises in the Simpson's song are like rapid-fire jokes that keep your mind from settling down; it's like an episode of Seinfeld or I Love Lucy where one ridiculous situation follows another continually through the entire episode without letting you fully recover from any of them in between.

[clarkeboss]

I can hear echoes of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in the Simpson's theme, particularly when the melody slows down and opens up. The frequent key changes in both pieces contribute to that sense of a bustling, dynamic city.

[hyattwarris]

My kids started binging the series recently, so i heard the theme over and over again. It really sunk in just how much is going on in that short amount of time. Controlled chaos.