Explain a Simpsons joke.

[treis]

Bart and Lisa win the race to the front of the plane and get upgraded to first class.

Lisa: Bart, they're going to pamper us!
Bart: *Gasps in horror*
Lisa: *rolls her eyes* Not literally!

I don't get the joke :(

[IAmNotSpartacus]

put in diapers?

[Nunavut Boy]

I agree with diapers. I don't know where you are, but here in North America, Pampers is a brand of diapers.

[Harmonious Discord]

Pampers is one of those that were first to hit the American market. It's a very well known brand.

[Indistinguishable]

Um, maybe? The diaper thing seems a stretch. I think maybe you guys are misinterpreting it. To "pamper" is literally to overfeed, to cram with food, perhaps beyond the point of comfort and health. That seems a little odd too, but I dunno. Maybe some more context would help?

[Bryan Ekers]

Um, maybe? The diaper thing seems a stretch. I think maybe you guys are misinterpreting it. To "pamper" is literally to overfeed, perhaps beyond the point of comfort and health.
If you think that's what has Bart concerned, you're the one misinterpreting.

[Indistinguishable]

Yeah, actually, on second thought, I retract what I said. The diaper thing is probably right. At least, Internet searches for the quote indicate a lot of people taking it that way.

[treis]

I don't really buy the diaper thing. When was the last time you heard someone use the phrase "to pamper" and mean that they are going to put diapers on something?

[treis]

Um, maybe? The diaper thing seems a stretch. I think maybe you guys are misinterpreting it. To "pamper" is literally to overfeed, to cram with food, perhaps beyond the point of comfort and health. That seems a little odd too, but I dunno. Maybe some more context would help?

No more context is available. The Flight Attendant comes on the PA and says that due to overbooking two seats are available in first class. She goes on to say that according to regulation the first two people to the front get the seats. Bart and Lisa win the race, and the FA says "O.K., you two". Then the lines in the OP are said.

[aldiboronti]

I don't really buy the diaper thing. When was the last time you heard someone use the phrase "to pamper" and mean that they are going to put diapers on something?

Sure, the joke is a stretch but the diaper explanation is the only show in town, it's the only explanation that makes sense. (Taking to pamper literally, ie showering Bart with attention to the point of discomfort, is an even bigger stretch).

[GuanoLad]

I don't really buy the diaper thing. When was the last time you heard someone use the phrase "to pamper" and mean that they are going to put diapers on something?
Never, but Bart doesn't know that. He hears the word "pamper" and associates it only with what he knows: diapers.

[aldiboronti]

GuanoLad nailed it. Put that way, the gag isn't even a stretch.

[ZipperJJ]

I concur with the diaper thing. When I was a kid my mom said stuff like "poopy pampers" and "put the pamper on the baby" all the time.

Pampering, to some, is pretty much the same as "xeroxing" or "googling."

[robby]

Definitely diapers.

[Mangetout]

Never, but Bart doesn't know that. He hears the word "pamper" and associates it only with what he knows: diapers.
That's the subtle twist in the joke, I think - he thinks the 'literal' meaning of pamper is something to do with diapers (implying, perhaps, that he would consider the real meaning to be a derivative of the product name).

[Rube E. Tewesday]

I concur with the diaper thing. When I was a kid my mom said stuff like "poopy pampers" and "put the pamper on the baby" all the time.

Pampering, to some, is pretty much the same as "xeroxing" or "googling."

Yeah, watch a show like The First 48 and you'll hear things like "He was a good daddy, he always kept our baby in pampers". It's a synonym for "diapers", although one that probably doesn't please the people who police the "Pampers" trademark.

[Wee Bairn]

Bart definitely knows what Pampers are from this exchange from Boy Scouts N the Hood:

Nelson: What's in the bag, wuss? [grabs it from Bart]
Oh, look: [contemptuously] Campers' Pampers. Heh.

[Wee Bairn]

Isn't there a term for former brand names that become generic terms- aspirin and xerox for other examples?

[Philster]

Eponyms?

Or more specifically, 'proprietary eponyms'.

[AskNott]

Yeah, watch a show like The First 48 and you'll hear things like "He was a good daddy, he always kept our baby in pampers". It's a synonym for "diapers", although one that probably doesn't please the people who police the "Pampers" trademark.
The trend in today's television is product placement, because many viewers record shows and zip past the real ads. In other words, if a character said Pampers®, then Pampers paid for the mention.

[Colibri]

Since this is about a TV show, I'm it moving to Cafe Society.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

[acsenray]

Sometimes they are labeled as victims of "genericide," but there's no special term for them. A generic term is a generic term. A trademark owner might dispute that it is generic, but that's a different issue.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

The trend in today's television is product placement, because many viewers record shows and zip past the real ads. In other words, if a character said Pampers®, then Pampers paid for the mention.

I take it you don't watch The First 48. It's a documentary series, with real homicide cops talking to real witnesses with 48 hours of the crime. The Pampers people would really have to be on the ball to get in there and set up a product placement deal.

[Harmonious Discord]

The Simpson's is one double play on words after another. You should always assume that if a double meaning is possible, they mean the sacastic one, not the dictionary definition.

[Troy McClure SF]

Did anyone else expect this thread to be about "Sneed's Seed & Feed?"

[Thudlow Boink]

Um, maybe? The diaper thing seems a stretch. I think maybe you guys are misinterpreting it.Nope, it's the diaper thing. I swear, that's always the first place my mind goes whenever I hear the word.

[Blaster Master]

IME, Pampers is used, often in preference, to diapers. This is very much the same way that a lot of people will say Kleenix instead of tissue or Xerox instead of photocopy. I concur with the diaper interpretation, more specifically, what GuanoLad said. That is, we assume that he associates pampers with diapers and thus "to be pampered" to mean "to be put in diapers".

As for product placement, I REALLY don't think that's the case here. In fact, I recall Cecil doing a column a few months ago about copyright, patents, and trademarks in which he cited cases where trademarks were difficult to enforce because the product name had begun to replace the generic name

[bufftabby]

Can I tack on my own Simpsons reference question?

Homer just got a pimp ice cream truck, courtesy of Otto. He then says something to the effect of, "now I'm going to get dressed in a very unusual fashion". Spotlight on Homer, and all his clothes come hurtling at him piece by piece. I imagine it's from some sort of action movie I haven't seen? I dunno.

[«Ðëëp¤F®ïêd»™]

Can I tack on my own Simpsons reference question?

Homer just got a pimp ice cream truck, courtesy of Otto. He then says something to the effect of, "now I'm going to get dressed in a very unusual fashion". Spotlight on Homer, and all his clothes come hurtling at him piece by piece. I imagine it's from some sort of action movie I haven't seen? I dunno.

It is the openning sequency to "Da Ali G show".

[«Ðëëp¤F®ïêd»™]

..

[«Ðëëp¤F®ïêd»™]

Well, I thought I was editing the first post, but it turns out to be a double post. Then i try and delete the double post and that doesn't work either, so here I am on my third try.

It is a reference to the openning scene to "Da Ali G Show" starring Sascha Baron Cohen, whom you probably best recognize as Borat.

[«Ðëëp¤F®ïêd»™]

And to complete the hijack:

linky (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367274/)

[WotNot]

Did anyone else expect this thread to be about "Sneed's Seed & Feed?"
Why, yes… yes, I did.

[Chronos]

Furthermore, remember that Bart is young, and most Americans learn the "diapers" meaning long before they learn the original meaning. It's not outside the realm of possibility that Bart just doesn't know the word has some other meaning. The erudite Lisa, of course, is another story.

[alphaboi867]

I take it you don't watch The First 48. It's a documentary series, with real homicide cops talking to real witnesses with 48 hours of the crime. The Pampers people would really have to be on the ball to get in there and set up a product placement deal.

And even if they did they wouldn't want their product name used as a synonym for diapers.

[Rhythmdvl]

At the end of the Lord of the Flies-like episode, Jame Earl Jones (?) intones that the kids are rescued by "oh, say, Moe" or something like that. Is that just a quirk or is there some allusion that I'm missing?

[Marley23]

I think that's just an anti-ending, which is something they did way too much for my taste as the show got older. It feels like they're not doing it quite as much now, though.

However, they've hinted a few times that Moe is nicer than he lets on, like when he cries while reading Little Women to the men at the homeless shelter, or his friendship with Maggie, or his adventures after the end of Homer's boxing career.

[treis]

Furthermore, remember that Bart is young, and most Americans learn the "diapers" meaning long before they learn the original meaning. It's not outside the realm of possibility that Bart just doesn't know the word has some other meaning. The erudite Lisa, of course, is another story.

But how does "Not literally" explain anything then?

[treis]

Ok, the plot thickens:

Pamper:
1archaic : to cram with rich food

Now that makes sense! Bart's worried that they will literally cram him full of food.

[Indistinguishable]

That's exactly what I posited and then retracted, up in posts #5 and 7 (and, uh, which you quoted, in #9). Given the large number of people who interpret it as being about diapers (both here and elsewhere on the Internet), and the utter lack of anyone else who felt it had to do with being crammed with food, I'm sticking with the retraction.

[Marley23]

Now that makes sense! Bart's worried that they will literally cram him full of food.
Where is Bart going to hear the archaic definition of a word like that? And he wouldn't be upset at free food - he's no Homer, but he can be a glutton himself. Sorry, treis, but you're overthinking this. He's worried they're going to put him in diapers. This is the Bart who confuses stoats with corn. [Okay, okay, that's many seasons later.]

[treis]

The Simpsons is full of jokes where a character knows something they shouldn't.

[hawthorne]

Now that makes sense! Bart's worried that they will literally cram him full of food.Yeah, it's from the old Norse.

[Bryan Ekers]

The Simpsons is full of jokes where a character knows something they shouldn't.
And this could one of those times but for the inconvenient and troublesome fact that it's not funny that way.

[TWDuke]

But how does "Not literally" explain anything then?

Lisa's vocabulary is better than Bart's, but her word choice is not always perfect (she's only 8, after all). She once described Krusty's third nipple as superfluous (http://nohomers.net/archive/index.php/t-37622-p-15.html) , when she should have called it supernumerary (http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic735.htm) .

[Raygun99]

cause really, aren't all nipples on men superfluous?

[TWDuke]

cause really, aren't all nipples on men superfluous?

That was my thought, but I didn't want to trigger an Intelligent Design debate.

They can be fun, though. Nipples, I mean.

[Thudlow Boink]

But how does "Not literally" explain anything then?Because "pampering" someone, in the sense of babying them or giving them special treatment, is a metaphor derived from the original sense of "Pampering" meaning to put Pampers on.

Okay, not really, but I can imagine a kid like Lisa thinking this.

[Bryan Ekers]

Because "pampering" someone, in the sense of babying them or giving them special treatment, is a metaphor derived from the original sense of "Pampering" meaning to put Pampers on.

Okay, not really, but I can imagine a kid like Lisa thinking this.

You can? I just figured Lisa meant "pamper" as you described ("special treatment") and the company that makes Pampers had a similar thought umpteen years ago and named their product accordingly. Bart, having a smaller vocabulary (though he is familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda), thought only of the diaper name and not the original verb.

[Elendil's Heir]

C'mon, it's Bart. Even when he isn't, he wants to be thought of as cool. No way would he ever race to the front of the airplane if the prize was being put in diapers. Remember how mortified he was when his parents were looking at his baby pictures.

[Scheidt-Hoch]

they've hinted a few times that Moe is nicer than he lets on, like when he cries while reading Little Women to the men at the homeless shelter, or his friendship with Maggie, or his adventures after the end of Homer's boxing career.

On the other hand, they've also hinted once or twice that he's a lot nastier than he lets on, such as when he delights in the female panda (which is really Homer) being raped "Heh, you're going nowhea sweetie". Others may feel differently but one of the things that I love about the Simpsons is that the writers feel free to completely change someone's character to suit whatever point they're making at the time.

[Marley23]

On the other hand, they've also hinted once or twice that he's a lot nastier than he lets on, such as when he delights in the female panda (which is really Homer) being raped "Heh, you're going nowhea sweetie".
Hey, he's honest about being ugly and hate-filled. ;)
That does fit with their habit of characters getting more extreme over the years. His relationships and feelings about women have also gotten pretty twisted. He's a mess. Even his regular customers notice sometimes:

Homer: Geez Moe, you've been a real crank lately.
Moe: [pointing a shotgun at Homer] You take that back!
Homer: You're always pointing that shotgun at us.
Lenny: And calling us dumbasses!
Carl: Which we're so not.

Others may feel differently but one of the things that I love about the Simpsons is that the writers feel free to completely change someone's character to suit whatever point they're making at the time.
It's got its pluses and minuses. I think people get too hung up on the minor stuff sometimes, but I like a certain basic level of consistency in the characters.

[mobo85]

Moe is a nice guy sometimes, but we can tell he obvious takes part in some of the more sinful pleasures in life, such as when he assumes Alice in Wonderland is a spoof of a porno called Alice in Underpants, rather than the other way around. Then there's his Deer Hunter-style Russian roulette ring, his panda-smuggling ring, his killer whale-smuggling ring, and whatever other illegal rings he has.

[Bryan Ekers]

And him being banned from the church, and all.

[Frostillicus]

Did anyone else expect this thread to be about "Sneed's Seed & Feed?"


"Formerly Chuck's" :D

[chrisk]

At the end of the Lord of the Flies-like episode, Jame Earl Jones (?) intones that the kids are rescued by "oh, say, Moe" or something like that. Is that just a quirk or is there some allusion that I'm missing?

I've heard that it's a reference to the somewhat jarring end of 'Lord of the Flies', where this naval officer shows up to interrupt the final confrontation between the kids and rescue them, a character that none of them had ever heard of before.

With a usual Simpsons twist a'course!