What the hell is that?':: the representation of professional service markets in the simpsons

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.