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`What the Hell is That?': The Representation of Professional Service Markets in The Simpsons

School of Management, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK, n.ellis{at}le.ac.uk

This paper makes productive connections between two forms of representation—formal scholarship on professional service workers and their depictions in The Simpsons cartoon series. In considering the show's representations of Attorney Lionel Hutz and Dr Nick Riviera, I ponder the ways in which the market-based behaviours of these `expert' individuals are so repeatedly targeted for satire. Through a detailed dissection of The Simpsons' scripts, I demonstrate how, on the one hand, the show to a large degree reflects critical thinking on the nature of the `professional project' yet, on the other, offers some rather more ambivalent, even sympathetic, notions of professional identity .

Key Words: fictional representation • markets • professional identity • satire

Organization, Vol. 15, No. 5, 705-723 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1350508408093649


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