Culturally significant words and phrases from The Simpsons
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The Simpsons, an animated television series, has used and coined many words and phrases for humorous effect. The most famous example is Homer Simpson's signature annoyed grunt, "D'oh!" which has been listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, in addition to smaller references such as OUP's single-volume Oxford Dictionary of English (second edition).
The following phrases have found their way into popular use, to varying degrees. The route often passes through the considerable fan-base where use of these words carries the prestige of pop-culture literacy among those who catch the references, just as among other cultural groups a clever parallel to a well-known phrase from the literary or rhetorical canon would be acknowledged.
The following is presented as a glossary of words or phrases invented or popularized by the show which one or more characters use in regular speech, as though intended as real terms. This does not include names of invented characters, locations, or products.
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[edit] Cheese-eating surrender monkeys
In the sixth-season episode " 'Round Springfield", Groundskeeper Willie used the phrase "'Bonjourrr', you cheese-eating surrender monkeys", referring to the French.
The phrase "Surrender monkeys" was used on December 7, 2006 when the New York Post published a banner headline calling James Baker and Lee Hamilton "surrender monkeys" after the release of their Iraq Study Group report.
[edit] Can't sleep, clown(s) will eat me
"Can't sleep, clown(s) will eat me" is a stock phrase that has become popular as a joke-explanation for insomnia.
The phrase first appears in The Simpsons episode "Lisa's First Word".[1] During the episode, there is a flashback in which Homer Simpson and Bart are watching the Krusty the Clown show. During the show, Homer notices that Bart likes clowns and decides to build a new bed for him, shaped like a clown, rather than buying him a new bed. However, due to Homer's questionable handicraft skills, the clown bed has a highly menacing appearance, causing Bart to imagine the clown behaving terrifyingly. Instead of "laughing himself to sleep" as Homer intended, Bart stays awake in a fetal position, and the next morning repeatedly uttering the phrase "Can't sleep, clown'll eat me."
[edit] Appearances in other media
- Alice Cooper composed and performed a song called "Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me" which was inspired by the phrase.
- Melbourne band 'Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra' also wrote a song called "Clowns Will Eat Me", which has little to no relation to the Alice Cooper one.
- In the penultimate Queen of Wands strip, the main character Kestrel lies awake the night before a cross-country move musing "Can't sleep. Future will eat me".[2]
- The phrase appears on non-Simpsons-affiliated t-shirts and other products. [1] [2]
[edit] Cromulent and Embiggen
Cromulent means valid, acceptable, or possibly commonplace, coined by David X. Cohen for the Simpsons episode "Lisa the Iconoclast"; embiggen, more obviously, means to grow in size.
When schoolteacher Edna Krabappel hears the Springfield town motto, "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man," she comments she'd never heard of the word embiggens before moving to Springfield. Miss Hoover, another teacher, replies, "I don't know why; it's a perfectly cromulent word".
Later in the same episode, while talking about Homer's audition for the role of town crier, Principal Skinner states "He's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance." Lisa uses it later in that episode, when instead of telling the truth about Jebediah Springfield, she accepts that the myth and the made-up words have inspirational value.
Both "embiggen" and "cromulent" were quickly adopted and used by Simpsons fans. Cromulent has taken on an ironic meaning, to say that something is not at all legitimate and in fact spurious. Indeed the DVD commentary for "Lisa the Iconoclast" makes a point of reinforcing that "embiggen" and "cromulent" are completely made up by the writers and have since taken on a life of their own via the Internet and other media. "Embiggen" has since also found use in studies of D-branes from superstring theory.[3]
In the 2005 Xbox game Jade Empire, the player meets a character who uses made-up mispronounced words. When the player confronts the man with this, the man claims that one of the words he used was "cromulent".
"Cromulent" has since appeared in the Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English. (lookup via reference.com.) Some sources have misheard the word as "promulent".
The word has also been used by Nerdcore Hip-Hop artist MC Frontalot in his song "Nerdcore Rising" on the album of the same name. The line is "I know that 'possibleness' is not a cromulent word."
[edit] D'oh!
An exclamation of annoyance often uttered by Homer.
In scripts and episode titles, D'oh is referred to as "annoyed grunt".[4] When actor Dan Castellaneta first encountered the word, it was left up to him to create the verbal equivalent.
It may be argued that "D'oh" is not a Simpsons neologism, as Castellaneta based the phrase on Jimmy Finlayson's similar utterance in many Laurel & Hardy films; however, Finlayson did not exclaim the term as Castellaneta does, but used it as more of a muttered whine.
Apart from Homer, there are other people who say "d'oh" such as Bart Simpson, Lisa Simpson, Abraham Simpson, Mona Simpson, Marge Simpson, Homer's half-brother Herb Powell, and Gerald Ford.
[edit] Jebus
Homer's confusion of the name Jesus, as seen in the season eleven episode "Missionary: Impossible" (2000).
When asked to be a missionary, Homer replies, "I'm no missionary, I don't even believe in Jebus!". When the plane that is carrying Homer to do missionary work is taking off, he cries, "Save me Jebus!" When Homer is attempting to use a short wave radio; the Simpsons family hear Homer saying "Hello? Earth to Jebus!"
In another animated show, Family Guy, Jebus appears as a typo on page 375 in The Bible. This episode of Family Guy actually aired a few months before its first appearance in The Simpsons.
The Old Testament of the Bible mentions a people called the Jebusites, residing in Jebus, which was renamed Jerusalem after being conquered by the Israelites.
Jebus (spelled jeebus at times) is also prevalent in some webcomics, one of those being 8-Bit Theater by Brian Clevinger.
It is also the nickname of the Tommy Oliver character from Power Rangers in fan communities, referring to that character being more powerful than all other characters in the series combined.
While in popular usage for many years, it has emerged on many discussion boards, deliberately used by posters as an implied "cut" or put-down against Christian beliefs, particularly those of fundamentalist Christians from the Southern United States.
Jebus has often been the Papua New Guinean patois for Jesus.
Jebus is also the supposed name of the Jesus-like character in the Madness Combat flash series.
[edit] Kwyjibo
Kwyjibo (IPA: [ˈkwɪdʒiˌbo]) is a word made up by Bart Simpson during a game of Scrabble with his family. In the episode "Bart the Genius," Bart puts "kwyjibo" on the board, scoring 116 points (22 points plus Triple Word Score plus 50 points for using all seven of his letters.) When Homer demands Bart say what a kwyjibo is, Bart replies, "A big, dumb, balding North American ape… with no chin. (referring to Homer)" Marge adds in, "…and a short temper." At this point, Homer chases Bart away, causing him to exclaim, "Uh oh! Kwyjibo on the loose!"
'Kwyjibo' was used as one of the aliases of the creator of the Melissa worm, and is the name of a yo-yo string trick. 'Kweejibo' is a handmade clothing company in San Francisco.
Recently, Yahoo's online version of Scrabble was advertised on the Yahoo home page with a visual representation of letter tiles spelling out K-W-Y-J-I-B-O.
In the Simpsons version of Scrabble, certain words related to the Simpsons are allowed, Kwyjibo being one of them. There is also a card which allows the player to make up a word as long as they can define it.
[edit] Okely Dokely
Ned Flanders's version of the phrase "Okie Dokie," itself a variant on "OK."
In the first season episode "M.A.D." of Veronica Mars, Veronica responds to "Watch what you're doing." with "Okely Dokely."
[edit] Our new . . . Overlords
In "Deep Space Homer" (1994) news announcer Kent Brockman, seeing an ant in close-up on a video feed from the Space Shuttle, jumps to the absurd conclusion that the Earth would soon be invaded by giant space ants. He interrupts his news story to make a statement:
- One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. ...And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.[5]
This statement has seeped into popular culture to describe a number of events. Variants of Brockman's utterance are used to express mock submission, usually for the purpose of humor. It has also been recycled on the Simpsons, as when a party shift in Springfield politics prompted Brockman to say "I, for one, welcome our new Democratic overlords." It is also used by Doctor Breen in Half-Life 2, referring to the Combine.
This has become a long running joke on such sites as Fark and to a lesser extent Slashdot.
[edit] Yoink!
After appearing many times on The Simpsons, "Yoink" has gained widespread usage as a verbal exclamation made when removing or stealing an object from its owner or rightful place, or when performing a wedgie. It can also be used as a verb: "I yoinked it." First used by Homer in "Duffless", when he snatches the wad of money he saved, by not drinking for a month, from Marge. Coined by Simpsons writer George Meyer.[6]
Yoink was also used extensively in an episode portraying artist Jasper Johns. Johns, an American conceptual artist and painter, appropriates common symbols in his artwork. In the Simpsons episode he appears suddenly and "yoinks" things from people, then disappears.
Similar to "Goink, goink, goink!", first appearing on The Flintstones in the final episode of Season One, "Fred Flintstone - Before and After", which first aired April 7, 1961. It was used by Fred's "sponsor" from Food Anonymous, whenever he obnoxiously retrieved whatever unhealthy snack Fred was about to consume.
- See also: The Yoink List.
[edit] References
- Bahn, Christopher; Donna Bowman, Josh Modell, Noel Murray, Nathan Rabin, Tasha Robinson, Kyle Ryan, Scott Tobias (2006-04-26). Beyond "D'oh!": Simpsons Quotes For Everyday Use. The A.V. Club. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Simpsons: "Lisa's First Word" (Episode 10, Season 4). Airdate: December 3, 1992
- ^ http://www.queenofwands.net/d/20050221.html
- ^ Douglas, M.R. and Kachri, S. (2006). "Flux Compactification" (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-03-10.
- ^ The Simpsons: A Complete Guide To Our Favorite Family. New York: HarperCollins Publishers; 1997.
- ^ The Simpsons Archive. 1F13 "Deep Space Homer" episode guide - accessed January 16, 2007
- ^ http://www.snpp.com/other/interviews/meyer00.html
[edit] External links
- Homerisms: Figures of Speech in The Simpsons
- The Simpsons Archive: Episode Capsules
- The Simpsons Quotes: Collection of Simpsons Quotes
- Cromulent Shakespeare Company, a theater company in Minnesota employing "Simpsons" neologisms
- Language Log article discussing the "welcome our new overlords" meme
