Commedia meets the Simpsons.
Commedia Dell Arte relies on stock characters. These characters are largely stereotypes that still exist today. The stock characters in Commedia still appear in our everyday shows. Most notably in “The Simpsons” for a example… Pantalone – the miserable old miser who cares most about his money and sex, now looking at Mr. Burns, the owner of the Springfield nuclear power plant, he loves his money and is really insecure about his money. Ill Dottore – has a position of authority, but is actually quite stupid and gluttonous where as Chief Wiggum from the Simpsons the incompetent chief of the Springfield police department, he is just like Ill Dottore he acts like he knows what he's doing but really he doesn't . Now looking at Arlechinno – an impish fool of low intelligence, unless it comes to pranking people, just like Bart Simpson, Springfield’s troublemaker, but a loveable prankster. Columbina – the intelligent and beautiful wise female who sorts out all the problems is played as Lisa Simpson in the show, she is the smartest young lady also Marge Simpsons (the mother and savior of the Simpsons family) personality is based on Columbina. The Zanni- lowest status of all, with no intelligence constantly compared to a child’s personality also is the poorest and is a servant is Homer Simpson the head of the Simpson family who is dumb. The commedia dell’arte was simply the Simpsons of its day – only it was played continuously for almost 200 years! Stock characters never get old.