O.K., I know we can all come up with our share of quotes from the Simpsons; what’s more, I imagine a good many of us can pin point the exact episode in which it was uttered.
I’m talking about real life usages of quotes from our generations’ favorite animated series.
Here’s one.
I was watching a cooking show featuring, what I assume, was a relatively famous chef, and he was stressing the importance of the main dish. Specifically a meat one, he was saying that this is what obviously makes or breaks the whole restaurant experience. He then nonchalantly added, “You don’t win friends with salad.” I had to smile.
Saturday night I was at Pizza Luce in south Minneapolis with the cast and crew of Helpless Doorknobs. John had gotten up from our table and was chatting with some folks at another one. I called out, “John, your cheese bread is getting all cold and eaten!”
One of the waitresses fell over laughing, dropping several drinks. I felt guilty, but secretly proud.
Once while stepping out of a convenience store, I was hailed by a police officer who happens to be a friend of mine. With my other friend standing with me he decided to razz me and said “Hey, what were you doing in there?!”
I replied “Its a pornography store, officer. I was buying pornography.”
That one is real obscure, but at least two of us got it.
On a variation of Mr. Burns’ “re-cy-cling?” comment, one of my friends was asked, “Do you know what time the movie will start?” and they replied, “mo-vie?”
A friend of mine uses the term ‘sorting tiny screws’ to mean smoking marijuana.
My husband often goes by the handle ‘Knifie-Spoonie’.
to a guy: ‘You kissed a girl! That is so gay!’
greetings: (in Dr.Nick Voice) ‘Hi everybody!’ Hubby also refers to all doctors as ‘doctorbs’ (the ‘b’ is for bargain!)
farewells: (in Apu voice) ‘Thank you for coming! I’ll see you in hell!’
hubby again, in reference to my love of pagan gods: (in Apu voice) ‘Please do not feed my god a peanut.’
relationships: ‘sticking together’s what good waffles do!’
One of my favorites: whenever I can’t think of anything to say I use this one, especially good if someone else has just said something stunningly brilliant: ‘my cat’s breath smells like cat food!’
There’s probably a lot more I could think of; we use Simpson quotes so frequently I think we’ve forgotten some of them are Simpson quotes.
My brother frequently uses “Who shot who in the what now?” to ask what’s going on. My sisters and I have now adopted it. And “Go banana!” has pretty much replaced even “Woo-hoo!” to express excitement.
Oh, and “This elevator only goes to the basement – and somebody made an awful mess down there!” got a lot of play on our vacation, since we encountered a lot of rest stops without flushing toilets…
These I use sometimes as well, but in specific circumstances:
When I am very upset and feel like I’m losing my mind: “No [item] and no [other item] make Jeannie something something…” To which my husband always responds, “Go crazy?”
When we’re watching a movie or TV show and someone is confused and thinking that something happened differently than it did (i.e. “Hey, I thought the maid did it, not the butler!”): “That would have made more sense…” [insert eye rolling]
When shopping and they have those little license plates and stuff with kids names on them: “Hey, they’re out of ‘Bort’ license plates!” (Okay, that’s more of a reference than a quote).
When I’m assuring someone: “Nothing could possi-bly (long “i”) go wrong. Oh, that’s the first thing that’s ever gone wrong.”
Whenever my roommate starts getting into too much detail about her love life, I start singing “Bringing in the Sheaves” a la Rev. Lovejoy
(hijack: can anyone name three occurences of “Bringing in the Sheaves” in the Simpsons?) (there may or may not be more than three, I know of only three)
Sometimes, when I’m in a crowd and there’s an extended moment of silence, I shout out: “That’s it! You guys have stood in my way long enough. I’m going to clown college.”
My best friend is a big fan of lobster dinners, while I no longer eat fish. So whenever she’s relating the details of a lobster fest, one of us has to sniffle and point out that “Pinchy would have wanted it that way.”
I’m not so good at voices, but I find myself using “Excellent…” on AIM a lot, and as I type it I’m hearing Mr. Burns.
And I also find that there are Flandersisms slipping into my speech as well as my AIM conversations… Hidely ho, neighboroni!
