I just read that Matt Groening’s preferred spelling is “doh”, but I remember seeing him writing it as “d’oh” in a Life In Hell comic from around 1996-7. I can picture the strip with the father rabbit talking to Binky and saying “D’oh” with a note referring to Homer Simpson. Does anyone else remember this? Is the strip available anywhere?
According to the Wikipedia page, there are Simpsons episode titles that use “D’oh” as the spelling. That is also the spelling the OED uses, I believe.
Here I am, ready to link to Urban Dictionary.
I thought the official term as used in their scripts was “(Annoyed Grunt)”?
I think the OED went without the " ’ "
http://abcnews.go.com/US/t/story?id=93098&page=1
I can’t see the actual OED without logging in but according to wiki “d’oh” is the variant spelling of headword “doh”.
“Life in Hell” from 1993 (“Return of the Dinosaur Pop-Up Book”) has father Groening saying “D’ohh.” with an arrow pointing to it and reading “In the manner of Homer Simpson”.
Can’t link since it’s from my paper copy of “Will & Abe’s Guide to the Universe”
It is, and there’s been at least one episode with that used as a joke in the title.
Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiali(annoyed grunt)cious.
But if you spell it without the apostrophe, how do you tell it from the “Doh” in “Play Doh”?
Wait a minute, how could anyone stretch out an H? Multiple O, sure, no problem. D’ooooh! But D’ohh? How could you pronounce that?
This is a pet peeve with mediocre internet erotica, where the writer tries to convey groans of pleasure by holding down the keys. “Mmmmmm!” and “yeeeeess!” are fine, but how could anyone actually say “yyyyyyeeeeeeessssss?” without sounding like the Sub-Genius salute?
The earlier episodes all did this, but later episodes used “D’oh”.
That’s how it’s written in the scripts.
They haven’t been consistent about it- probably because they’re doing whatever they think looks funnier. Examples include “Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious” (1997), “G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)” (2006), “D’oh-in in the Wind” (1998), “We’re on the Road to D’ohwhere” (2006), and “The D’oh-cial Network” (2012).
That’s awesome! Thanks Jophiel.
My memory wasn’t perfect, but not bad for something I saw 20 years ago. Now if I could just remember where I put my keys.
I was annoyed when the OED left out the apostrophe, and I felt vindicated when, sometime later, I saw the Simpsons episode set in Japan with English subtitles, and Homer’s exclamation was represented as “D’oh!”
I remember it as D’oh from the Life in Hell days too.
It appears as d’oh (well, “D’OH!”) at 10 seconds in this clip, and I take that as canon.
I picture Frank Nelson in all my mediocre internet erotica.
There’s also “I, (Annoyed Grunt)bot.” (2004)
There are a couple of others, too. I was just saying they didn’t make a clean switch between (Annoyed Grunt) and D’oh in the titles even though they’d used D’oh lately.