Cartoons can be the most subversive of genres. The Simpsons has been serving acerbic social commentary from deep within the bowels of the reactionary Fox network for over 10 years, yet they manage to stay fresh when other, more edgy shows like Family Guys struggle for relevance.

One of the main characters in Futurama, Matt Groening’s other animated show, is named Turanga Leela, a transparent reference to Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphonie. The number of people who have even heard of this fairly esoteric work is quite limited, and those who actually like it (as opposed to professing admiration for it out of conformity) can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. Thus we have established that Groening or his staff are intimately familiar with 20th century classical music.

Last week’s episode of The Simpsons featured the US Army showing a recruitment commercial at the Simpson kids’ school. It starts with a rousing martial score. I have extracted a 4MB clip of the scene (Quicktime 7 required) for those who missed it.

The piece in question is from Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky cantata. The music was composed for the epnymous anti-german propaganda movie by Eisenstein (although, in a little known consequence of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Stalin made Eisenstein produce Wagner’s Die Walküre for the Bolshoi in atonement for the newly inconvenient Nevsky). The lyrics heard can be translated in English as follows:

Arise, ye Russian people,
to glorious battle, to a battle to the death:
arise, ye free people,
to defend our beloved country!
All honour to the warriors who live,
and eternal glory to those slain!
For our native home, our Russian land,
arise, ye Russian people!

Needless to day, the delicious irony is unlikely to be mere coincidence.