The cartoon series The Simpsons is a US television series produced since 1989 for Fox Broadcasting Company. It was created by Matt Groening. Her main heroes are the members of the Simpson family: Homer, his wife Marge and her three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie.

In many episodes, music plays a major role: Lisa plays saxophone and guitar, Homer has played guitar in his youth and was part of a barbershop band, Bart dreamed of being guitarist, and baby Maggie is interested in music in the style of Raffi Cavoukian. Marge sings occasionally, though mostly badly. Also, bands are frequently appearing as guests in individual episodes; e.g., the RollingStones.

In the following, however, we will deal with the ukulele as it occurs in some episodes of the Simpsons.

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1: Season 3, episode 22

In this episode, which was first broadcast on April 23, 1992, Homer and Marge deal with the previously expressed desire of Bart to get a guitar. Marge is willing to buy him one, Homer however argues that this was a waste of money, because they already had a guitar in the house. He means Maggie's toy ukulele. Here, the Ukulele, in accordance with its long-standing image, appears as a children's toy which does not do justice to serious musical ambitions. In any case, the ukulele is shown as present in a US middle-class household.

2: Season 7, episode 18

In this episode of March 17, 1996, Bart Simpson meets an old man who claims to have invented the concept of violence in cartoon films (so admired by Bart). Before his time, the heroes appearing in the films would only have played the ukulele. It is true that there have been scenes with Ukulele-playing animals in the early Disney films (including Mickey Mouse). Such a scene is quoted in no. 9.

3: Season 8, episode 1

Bart Simpson wins the first prize in this episode of October 27, 1996, although his „universe“ is actually stolen from his sister Lisa. He defeats the model student Martin, who plays a ukulele made from a milk carton in a Hawaiian costume. The crafting of ukuleles from all kinds of materials, particularly cigar boxes, has been popular in the US for a long time. On the Internet, there are even building guides for milk carton ukuleles.

4: Season 10, episode 08

Grandfather Abe Simpson lies in hospital with a life-threatening illness. To his surprise, Krusty the Clown visits him; purportedly as part of a „last laugh“ program that should cheer patients up. This is reminiscent of the concept of Clown doctoring, which was 1986 in 1986 and the time of the broadcast (12/06/1998) had already won worldwide popularity. Krusty brings his ukulele as a musical instrument, stereotypical of musical clowns since the 1920s. However, he shortens his appearance drastically after he learns that Abe seems to be a hopeless case: He sings only the last line of You are so beautiful, that became popular since 1975 mainly through Joe Cocker.

5: Season 10, episode 21

In this short sequence, broadcast on 05.02.1999, Homer Simpson is in a department store, staring at television monitors on which a trained monkey plays the ukulele. Such a monkey belongs, e.g, to Krusty the Clown. Thus, once again the image of the ukulele as a novelty instrument is evoked.

6: Season 12, episode 03

For the third time in a row the ukulele is presented as a clown instrument in this episode of November 12, 2000. Krusty has lost the violin of his daughter and wants to give her an ukulele as a substitute. When his daughter complains, he calls the Ukulele „the thinking man's violin“ and begins to play My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii. This song was created in 1933 and has been considered a classic of Hawaiian pop music ever since.

7: Season 12, episode 21

In this episode of May 20, 2001, the Simpson family travels as blind passengers in a train and meets a hobo who, on his banjo ukulele – stereotypically the musical instrument of the American hobo –, plays a country ballad about the legendary woodcutter Paul Bunyan. Historically, however, this is nonsense, because the four-string banjo emerged as an instrument of Jazz.

8: Season 14, episode 19

Once again, the banjo ukulele appears in this episode from May 4, 2003: Bart Simpson and some of his classmates sit in Bart's tree house and sing a parody on the patriotic civil war Battle Hymn of the Republic, frequently quoted by its starting line Glory, glory, Halleluja. The parody is, in turn, widely known in the English-speaking world as a The Burning of the School. Wikipedia cites as a variant:

Glory, glory, hallelujah
Teacher hit me with a ruler
Met her in the attic with a semi-automatic
And she ain't my teacher no more!

Except for the third line, this is identical with the version Bart and his friends sing. The dramatic conclusion of the song, to an ukulele tremolo – „because she's dead“ – is however an addition of The Simpsons. The banjo actually accompanied American soldiers through the Civil War – but in its original, five-string version.

9: Season 15, episode 02

In this episode of November 9, 2003, Marge asks Homer to use his mind instead of his gut. Homer tries this, but instead of his own thoughts, he only sees images of Clarabelle Cow, a friend of Minnie Mouse, who first appeared in 1928 in the Disney cartoons. The scene in which she plays ukulele appears like a reference to no. 2 in which it was said in the early cartoon films animals could only play ukuleles. On the other hand, that Homer's head full of images which distract him from the actual problems he is facing, is a running gag of the series.