The word unblowupable is thrown around a lot these days.

April 5, 2005 11:26 AM

HeiDeas' “Beyond embiggens and cromulent” explores the linguistic humour that appear in The Simpsons.
posted by riffola (32 comments total)

This is great.

Sometimes the show just slays me. I don't tend to like the Treehouse of Horrors, but last night when the dolphins took over Springfield and Mayor Quimby said: "We're all frightened and horny, but we can't let some killer dolphins keep us from living and scoring," it almost made me plotz! I'm still giggling today. Almost as good as breezeway's cat picture.
posted by OmieWise at 11:38 AM on April 5, 2005

Moe says, "You know what I blame this on the breakdown of? Society!"
posted by found missing at 11:41 AM on April 5, 2005

Me fail English? That's unpossible!
posted by Robot Johnny at 11:41 AM on April 5, 2005

Whoa, slow down, Egghead!
posted by gwint at 11:50 AM on April 5, 2005

This is an outstanding link. I'm enjoying it as a linguistics geek and as a Simpsons fan.

Thanks!
posted by Kimberly at 11:50 AM on April 5, 2005

Simpsons = Linguistics Humor, whereas Futurama = Mathematicians Humor?
posted by milov at 11:51 AM on April 5, 2005

Imagine, for a moment, life without The Simpsons.

It would totally suck.
posted by fenriq at 11:52 AM on April 5, 2005

I laughed at Homer's use of the word "cactii" (and I recall Burns once giving out "bonii" to his employees). I stopped using the word "virii" after that.
posted by bobo123 at 12:03 PM on April 5, 2005

A really, truly sad thought:

We are approaching a point where there will be as many bad seasons of the Simpsons as there were good ones.
posted by ORthey at 12:03 PM on April 5, 2005

Planet Simpson is a good read for Simpsons wonks.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 12:04 PM on April 5, 2005

Futurama had its share of language humor, too.

"From now on, I'm gonna bend what I want, when I want, who I want!"
posted by aaronetc at 12:07 PM on April 5, 2005

I award this post the Second Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence!
posted by brownpau at 12:11 PM on April 5, 2005

Moe: "The GARAGE" Hey, fellas, "the GARAGE". Well, oh-la-di-da, Mr. Frenchman.
Homer: What do you call it?
Moe: A carhole.
posted by Verdant at 12:15 PM on April 5, 2005

Dr. Nick: Inflammable means flammable? What a country!
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 12:18 PM on April 5, 2005

The spectrograms on Marge's disapproving growl are over the top. It is apparently a possibly creaky-voiced bilabial nasal with a very narrow somethingo-pharyngeal secondary articulation and falling tone.
posted by painquale at 12:22 PM on April 5, 2005 [1 favorite]

A really, truly sad thought:

We are approaching a point where 50% of everything everyone says will be either direct quotes from The Simpsons or takeoffs thereof.
posted by Stonewall Jackson at 12:27 PM on April 5, 2005

I didn't do it
posted by slapshot57 at 12:32 PM on April 5, 2005

Network Exec: Lisa, Bart's got something you can't learn in school...ZAZ!
Lisa: What is Zaz?
Network Exec: Zing, Zork, Kapowza, call it what you want, in any language it spells Mazooma in the bank!
Lisa: Zork!? What is Zork!?
Network Exec: I didn't say Zork.
posted by emptybowl at 12:42 PM on April 5, 2005

This is fun, if only for the chance to read these clever jokes again - but am I the only one put off by the constant "character x says something like" to introduce the actual quotes that are supposedly the whole point of the whole pseudo-pedantic exercise? They seem pretty close to exact, but I feel like, jeez, could you have bothered to look up that script on the Internet before posting this?
posted by soyjoy at 1:11 PM on April 5, 2005

A really, truly sad thought:

We are approaching a point where 50% of everything everyone says will be either direct quotes from The Simpsons or takeoffs thereof.

See, I think this isn't sad. I think it's awesome.
posted by ORthey at 1:12 PM on April 5, 2005

In a way, you're both winners. In another, more accurate way, Barney's the winner.
posted by gompa at 1:14 PM on April 5, 2005

soyjoy: but I feel like, jeez, could you have bothered to look up that script on the Internet before posting this?

I tried googling for a script of the episode she mentions in which Lisa builds a grammar robot. I would think every episode would be online? No?
posted by nobody at 1:29 PM on April 5, 2005

Dr. Hibbert: You have twenty-four hours to live.

Homer: Twenty-four hours!

Dr. Hibbert: Well, twenty-two. I'm sorry I kept you waiting so long.
posted by petebest at 1:29 PM on April 5, 2005

nobody: There's a skeleton script of that episode at The Simpsons Archive, which is the internet's largest repository of Simpsons info. They have these skeleton scripts for every episode up to midway through Season 13. I suspect they keep 'em skeletal to maintain a detente with Fox's lawyers (damn their oily hides!).

Also, in my completely unbiased opinion, Armitage Shanks is absolutely right about Planet Simpson. It is a simply brilliant work of pop-cultural reportage.
posted by gompa at 1:56 PM on April 5, 2005

Futurama had its share of language humor, too.


"Hey look! It's that guy you are!"
posted by barjo at 2:27 PM on April 5, 2005

I, for one, welcome our new overlord-welcoming overlords.
posted by jonp72 at 4:23 PM on April 5, 2005

The drug name Focusin always gives me a chuckle.

And the time when the exchange student(?) Pepe(?) praised Homer about being so "learned"... and then Homer wrongly corrects his pronunciation of "learned".



Sorry, "wrongly corrects". I meant to say "unameliorates".
posted by uncanny hengeman at 5:09 PM on April 5, 2005

Futurama also provides regional idiom humor:

Fry: "Good old Coney Island College! Go Whitefish!"
posted by nicwolff at 5:24 PM on April 5, 2005

> See, I think this isn't sad. I think it's awesome.

Don't get me wrong. I love the Simpsons, and have since the shorts on the Tracey Ullman Show. I am that show's bitch until the sad day it finally goes off the air. BUT...sometimes I get the feeling that people are using the show as a crutch rather than actually thinking for themselves in conversation (i.e. Can't think of anything to say? Quote The Simpsons!). Y'know?
posted by Stonewall Jackson at 5:45 AM on April 6, 2005

A random quote from The Simpsons or even Futurama or The Family Guy is still better than what most people actually have to say.

Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't *nothing*?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:11 AM on April 6, 2005

Don't get me wrong. I love the Simpsons, and have since the shorts on the Tracey Ullman Show. I am that show's bitch until the sad day it finally goes off the air. BUT...sometimes I get the feeling that people are using the show as a crutch rather than actually thinking for themselves in conversation...

???

[pause] [condescending] Yes, Stonewall. Daddy's a teacher.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 5:00 PM on April 6, 2005

Citations like "productive derivational morphology" get tedious after a while, and "back-formation and productive derivational morphology with -ahol(ic)" is just pushing it, but I speak as a non-linguist. It's a great list nonetheless.

Another site, Subtly Simpsons, showcases some of the more obscure references and sly social commentary.

Bart and Lisa sitting together on bus. Lisa is reading a children's book titled "Love in the time of Coloring Books". Reference to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love in the time of Cholera". Mocking the unrealistic literary awareness Lisa is empowered with.
Episode: Bart and Lisa get lost.

Troy McLure: Coming up this hour on the Impulse Buying Network, your chance to own a piece of Itchy and Scratchy, the toontown twosome beloved by everyone -- even cynical members of Generation X!
Gen Xer: [watching at home] Pfft, yeah. "Groovy". [Uses his fingers to make the quotation marks signs]
Beautifully mocks how we (Generation X-ers) make everything "ironic" (and thus "cool") by putting everything in quotation marks. Also, note the Java Lamp in the background of the Gen X-er's room. And the whole episode, it is worth noting, is a spoof on The Graduate
Episode: 1F21, Lady Bouvier's Lover, when Grandpa and Marge's mother date

Carl [To the MENSA members]: Lets make litter of the literati!
Lenny: That was too clever! You're one of them! [punches him]
Episode: AABF18, They Saved Lisa's Brain

:D
posted by Lush at 8:35 PM on April 6, 2005