Reggae Music in Cartoons
Did you know that reggae music has been featured in many popular cartoons? Check out this blog post to learn more about this interesting connection!
The Simpsons
Reggae music has been featured in The Simpsons on several occasions. In the episode “Radioactive Man”, the Simpson family travels to Jamaica and Homer Simpson becomes a fan of reggae music. He even briefly becomes a DJ at a local reggae radio station. In the episode “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”, reggae music is played at a party that Mr. Burns attends.
Episode: “Bart’s Girlfriend”
In the episode “Bart’s Girlfriend”, aired in 1995, Bart falls in love with a girl named Jessica Lovejoy, the daughter of Reverend Lovejoy. However, he soon discovers that she is a bad influence, and after she tricks him into stealing money from the church collection plate, he breaks up with her.
Later in the episode, Jessica comes to Bart’s house to apologize, and the two make up. They spend the day together, during which time Jessica introduces Bart to reggae music. The two eventually go to a concert by Jamaican singer Jimmy Cliff, and Bart is seen dancing and enjoying the music.
This episode is notable for being one of the first instances of reggae music being featured in a mainstream cartoon series. It is also one of the few episodes of The Simpsons that has been generally well-received by both critics and fans alike.
Reggae in The Simpsons
In The Simpsons’ Season Four premiere “Krusty Gets Kancelled”, Bart and Lisa try to cheer up their depressed father by forming a band. After a few failed attempts, they finally succeed when they play some reggae music. The episode ends with the family playing together on stage in front of a cheering crowd.
Reggae music has been featured in several other episodes of The Simpsons. In “Whacking Day”, Homer is seen dancing to reggae music while he is supposed to be working. In “Bart’s Girlfriend”, Bart tries to impress his girlfriend by playing the reggae song “I Shot the Sheriff” on his saxophone.
The Simpsons isn’t the only cartoon to feature reggae music. In the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Band Geeks”, Squidward forms a band and they play a reggae cover of the song “Sweet Victory” at the Bubble Bowl. In the Adventure Time episode “Ricardio the Heart Guy”, Finn and Jake meet a living heart who loves reggae music.
Family Guy
In the long-running animated sitcom Family Guy, the Griffin family patriarch Peter is occasionally seen listening to and playing reggae music. In the episode “Seahorse Seashell Party” (season 11, episode 4), for example, he is shown lying on his back in the yard, blissfully strumming a guitar and singing along to the Bob Marley song “Three Little Birds” as his wife Lois sunbathes nearby.
Episode: “The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire”
“The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire” is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series Family Guy. The episode originally aired on Fox in the United States on November 13, 2005. In the episode, after Loretta (guest star Norm Macdonald) asks Cleveland (guest star Mike Henry) for a divorce, he falls into a depression and starts drinking heavily. After Peter (Seth MacFarlane) and his friends get him drunk, they take him to a strip club where he meets Joy (guest star Jennifer Tilly), a stripper who looks very similar to his ex-wife. When Cleveland wakes up the next morning, he finds that he has married Joy. The episode was written by Chris Sheridan and directed by Pete Michels.
Since airing, the episode has received mixed reviews from critics. FOX released “The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire” along with ten other episodes from Family Guy’s fourth season in a two-disc DVD set on April 15, 2008. The set includes deleted scenes from each episode as well as commentaries from various cast and crew members for every episode but “The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire”.
Reggae in Family Guy
In the episode “Ready, Willing and Disabled”, Peter and Cleveland open a Jamaican restaurant called island Fresh. In one scene, the two can be seen dancing to reggae music in the kitchen.
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is an iconic cartoon character that has been entertaining children and adults for over 20 years. The show is set in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom and follows the adventures of SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward. Reggae music is often used as the background soundtrack for SpongeBob and his friends’ wacky hijinks.
Episode: “Jellyfishing”
“Jellyfishing” is the ninth episode of the first season of SpongeBob SquarePants. In this episode, SpongeBob and Patrick go jellyfishing.
“Jellyfishing” was written by Sam Henderson and directed by Peter Burns. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on July 17, 1999.
The episode features the reggae song “Jamming” by Bob Marley & The Wailers.
Reggae in SpongeBob SquarePants
Reggae music has been featured in SpongeBob SquarePants, an American animated television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg, since its debut on May 1, 1999. Numerous episodes contain reggae songs performed by the characters of the show as well as guest appearances by Jamaican artists. The show’s main character, SpongeBob, is a big fan of reggae and is often seen singing and dancing to it.
The show has been praised for its inclusion of reggae, with some critics calling it one of the most significant examples of the genre in mainstream Western animation. Reggae music has helped to introduce the genre to younger audiences who may not have been exposed to it otherwise. In addition, the use of reggae in SpongeBob SquarePants has helped to dispel negative stereotypes about Jamaicans and reggae music that are often found in mainstream Western media.
American Dad!
American Dad! is an American adult animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker, and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Smith family, which consists of Stan, Francine, Hayley, Steve, Roger, and Klaus. The series has been renewed for a fifteenth season. Reggae music has been featured in the show a few times, most notably in the episode titled “May the Best Stan Win” from season 6.
Episode: “The One That Got Away”
When Stan signs Steve up for the school’s “Big Brother” program, he is paired with a reggae-loving teen named Marcus. In an attempt to get Marcus to straighten up and behave like a normal American teenager, Stan takes him to a Reggae music festival. However, when Stan sees how happy Marcus is at the festival, he decides to let him enjoy himself and live his life the way he wants to.
Reggae in American Dad!
In the AmericanDad! episode “The Most Adequate Christmas Ever” (season 3, episode 10), theSmith family sings a reggae-influenced version of “Deck the Halls”. The version is based on Banana Boat Song (Day-O) by Harry Belafonte.
Futurama
In “Futurama”, the year is 3000 and the planet Express crew get into all sorts of adventures, often accompanied by reggae music. The show’s creator, Matt Groening, is a big fan of reggae music and has said that he wanted to include it in the show to add to the show’s “exotic” feel.
Episode: “I Dated A Robot”
“I Dated A Robot” is the seventeenth episode of Futurama, the eleventh of the second production season and the twenty-seventh episode overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 5, 2000. The episode was written by Eric Kaplan and directed by Bret Haaland. In the episode, Fry wins a free download of Lucy Liu as his perfect girlfriend from Nappster.com. When he becomes fed up with her clinginess, he returns her to the website, only to discover that she is a robot designed to love him unconditionally. This presents a problem when Bender falls in love with her as well.”
The episode features several songs by reggae artist Collie Buddz, including “Come Around”, “Blind to You”, and “Gimme Love”.
Reggae in Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late-20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J. Fry, who, after being unwittingly cryogenically frozen for one thousand years, finds employment at Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company in the 31st century.
The show includes several musical references and parodies, particularly of popular music genres such as classical and rock. In one episode, “A Fishful of Dollars”, the character Dr. Zoidberg is seen jamming to what he calls “jungle music” (actually reggae), which fry calls “reggae” in a later episode.
