Culturally significant words and phrases from The Simpsons: Difference between revisions

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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 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.

Boo-urns

What Smithers tells Burns the angry movie audience is saying after a screening of his film "A Burns for All Seasons".

During the episode "A Star is Burns", Mr. Burns asks his faithful assistant Waylon Smithers if the crowd is booing his blatantly egotistical motion picture. Smithers, ever the yes-man, replies that they are saying "boo-urns" (i.e. "Burns"), and not "boo". When Burns asks for clarification, the crowd replies that they are indeed saying "boo", and not "boo-urns". After the crowd replies, Hans Moleman says that, in fact, he was saying "boo-urns".

Recently, the expression Boo-Urns has been used by Australian Football fans, in particular, the supporters of Adelaide United FC when 'Boo-ing' an opposition player. ^{[citation needed]} Also During recent ANZAC Day Australian Rules Football Matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground fans could be heard chanting "Boo-urns" each time Collingwood player Scott Burns was in possesion of the ball.

Jon Stewart once used a variation of it after he failed badly on throwing the first pitch at a Mets game. He said they weren't saying "Boo" but "yoouuu-suck" ^{[citation needed]}

American indie-rock band Shinobu has a song entitled "Boo-urns".

Cromulent

A word meaning valid or acceptable, coined by David X. Cohen for the Simpsons episode "Lisa the Iconoclast".

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."

Based on the context in which Miss Hoover uses the word cromulent, we can interpret that she intends it to mean "legitimate", "applicable" or "appropriate." Principal Skinner seems to use it to mean "more than acceptable" or "more than adequate"; these usages would also (in an assumed lexical context) satisfy Miss Hoover's use of the word. Perhaps both characters intend it to mean "authentic", which would validate both uses of the word (e.g. "it's a perfectly authentic word" and "he embiggened that role with his authentic 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. The word has a sort of recursive irony about it: as a made-up word it possesses none of the qualities that it describes (see Grelling-Nelson paradox).

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.

In the 2005 Xbox game Jade Empire, the player meets a British-colonialist-styled outsider (voiced by John Cleese) 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".

D'oh!

An exclamation of annoyance often uttered by Homer.

In scripts and episode titles, D'oh is referred to as "annoyed grunt"¹.

It may be argued that "D'oh" is not a Simpsons neologism, as actor Dan Castellaneta based the phrase on Frank 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.

Don't have a cow, man!

An exclamation and catchphrase of Bart that implies that the subject should calm down, or not get worked up about something. It was brought into pop culture mainly by merchandise, as is evidenced by the fact that it is only uttered by Bart on the show a handful of times in the first season ("There's No Disgrace Like Home" and "Call of the Simpsons"), and therefore were not self-parodying uses.

In the third season's "Bart the Murderer", Eat My Shorts and Don't Have a Cow are horses in a race. It isn't used again by Bart until the eighth season. In "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", in response to Homer's cartoon debut, Lisa explains, "you can't be cool just by spouting off a bunch of worn-out buzzwords." Bart replies, "don't have a cow, Lis!" In "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase", Bart sings it along with "eat my shorts!" as part of his musical introduction in the variety show spin-off.

Occasionally, another character has uttered the line. In another self-parodying use, Apu, a vegetarian, shows off his t-shirt with the saying surrounding an actual cow in a no symbol in the seventh season's "Lisa the Vegetarian". In the seventh season's "Summer of 4 Ft. 2", After Bart's complaining that Lisa is acting like him to get friends, Lisa is overheard to say "Don't have a cow, man!" (and later "¡Ay, caramba!") to which Marge replies, "you haven't said that in four years. Let Lisa have it."

Embiggen

To make something better. The opposite of belittle.

From a famous saying by Jebediah Springfield/Hans Sprungfeld: "A Noble Spirit Embiggens the Smallest Man", evoking the manner in which its antonym, belittle, was coined by Thomas Jefferson. It is likely a creative conflation of big with the word embolden (to render bold; to hearten, to encourage). The quotation appears on the statue of Jebediah Springfield in front of City Hall.

Examples of use:

"He's embiggened that role."
"Patriots will embiggen America."

Jebus

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 is taking off, he cries, "Save me Jebus!"

There are several theories of earlier uses of this misspelling. The earliest says it was used by jazz performer Duke Ellington, in a throwback to his Catholic school days. He used it instead of Jesus so that the nuns couldn't beat him. He used it instead of Jesus for the rest of his life.^{[citation needed]}

In another animated show, Family Guy, Jebus appears as a typo on page 375 in The Bible.

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.

In popular usage on many discussion boards, such as Fark.com, it often seems to be deliberately used by posters as an implied "cut" or "chop" against Christians, particularly fundamentalist Christians from the Southern United States.

Jebus has often been the Papua New Guinean patois for Jesus.

Kwyjibo

Kwyjibo (Template:IPA2) 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." 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.

On fellow James L. Brooks-produced animated series The Critic, Duke Phillips also made up a fictional word in Scrabble: quyzbuk. Unlike Bart, Duke was able to immediately legitimize the word by contacting Noah Webster to have the word added to Webster's Dictionary, defining it to mean "a big problem". (Later in the episode, the word was used in a sentence by a scientist.) When he found out no one was using his other word "Dukelicious", he sadly called the situation a "Duketastrophe." This episode, as well as Bart The Genius were written by Jon Vitti, which would explain the similarities.

A similar scene took place in the Dilbert animated series during a Scrabble match between Dilbert and the powerful supercomputer Comp-U-Comp. Comp-U-Comp's first move was to lay down all its seven tiles randomly, spelling wipqozn; it then used its control of worldwide computer systems to immediately bring the word into circulation (in newscasts, for example). In meaning and usage, "wipqozn" seems roughly equivalent to "crap."

Okely Dokely

Ned Flanders' version of the phrase, "Okie Dokie."

Tomacco

A fictional hybrid fruit that is half tomato and half tobacco, from the episode "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)".

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. 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. [1]

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: Gank, The Yoink List.

References

1. The Simpsons: A Complete Guide To Our Favorite Family. New York: HarperCollins Publishers; 1997.

External links

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 During the episode "[[A Star is Burns]]", Mr. Burns asks his faithful assistant [[Waylon Smithers]] if the crowd is booing his blatantly egotistical motion picture. Smithers, ever the yes-man, replies that they are saying "'''boo-urns'''" (i.e. "Burns"), and not "boo". When Burns asks for clarification, the crowd replies that they are indeed saying "boo", and not "boo-urns". After the crowd replies, [[Hans Moleman]] says that, in fact, he ''was'' saying "boo-urns".
-Recently, the expression Boo-Urns has been used by Australian Football fans, in particular, the supporters of [[Adelaide United FC]] when 'Boo-ing' an opposition player. {{Fact}}
+Recently, the expression Boo-Urns has been used by Australian Football fans, in particular, the supporters of [[Adelaide United FC]] when 'Boo-ing' an opposition player. {{Fact}} Also During recent ANZAC Day [[Australian Rules Football]] Matches at the [[Melbourne Cricket Ground]] fans could be heard chanting "Boo-urns" each time Collingwood player Scott Burns was in possesion of the ball.
 [[Jon Stewart]] once used a variation of it after he failed badly on throwing the first pitch at a Mets game. He said they weren't saying "Boo" but "yoouuu-suck" {{fact}}