The Simpsons, you see, is now a university subject.

Every week at Columbia College, Chicago, students are jamming themselves into lecturer Deb Foote's classroom to study "The Simpsons as Satirical Authors". Her class has proven a hit with US college students.

For a lecturer who is an expert in 15th- and 16th-century Spanish literature, it seems a little unusual that Foote is the one deconstructing Homer, Bart and Lisa. But in a recent interview with The Chicago Tribune, Foote said she realised The Simpsons was a "text" her students already had a working knowledge of. "Students entering the university would not have known life without The Simpsons. And some of the things I can talk about the Renaissance society are in The Simpsons."

Go figure.

According to the course outline, classes delve into the postmodern satirical commentary that The Simpsons has made, and continues to make, through its use of the humanities. Students examine how the show raises and comments on civic, cultural, gender, global and political issues using traditional humanities studies including artistic, film, literary, philosophical and religious critiques. Special focus is on how The Simpsons satirises both itself and its characters as an operative principle and strategy.

The Simpsons and soap operas function as relentless propaganda for the middle-class family portraying stereotypical ideas about gender and sex while, at the same time, subverting and challenging these notions. That's important to analyse, in a time when there appear to be so many semantic shifts in gender and sexual understanding, too.

So, let's cut to the chase. Despite what our parents said, is Simpsonology proof there is value in watching commercial TV?

That depends on how you watch it. The value of studying popular TV shows lies in the fact that they are 'popular'. That is, they strike a chord with a majority of people at any one time in society, meaning they have something to say about who and how we are in the world - the politics of identity.

Discovering just why that is, and what it is they are saying becomes an exercise is social psychology. It's important to realise that just because these TV shows are entertaining doesn't lessen their impact. On the contrary, it increases it, because they are often, through humour and drama, able to disguise their ideological purpose; which, quite simply, is to reflect and reinforce the status quo.