A Simpsons repeat was on tonight where Lisa and Homer play ‘truth or dare’ and she tells him she is in love with a boy named Langdon Auger. I remembered this episode from previous airings, and it always struck me as some sort of inside joke. Before answering the question, Lisa looks away from Homer and pauses as though she is trying to make up a lie and looking for something that might give her an idea for a fake name. She then says, “his name is Langdon Auger”, and adds “he’s quiet and he enjoys puzzles”. The comment makes no sense in the context of the scene - it’s not funny and has nothing to do with the plot of the episode; It just seems like a throw-away line, which leads me to believe it’s an inside joke and ‘quiet’ and ‘enjoys puzzles’ are clues to the real meaning of this name, or that the name itself is a puzzle. Given the level of attention Simpsons fans generally give to stuff like this, I’m guessing someone has figured it out.
A newsgroup search didn’t help me - lots of references to the puzzle, but I didn’t find the answer. The name is alternately spelled as Langden Olger, Landen Auger, etc… One suggestion was that it’s an anagram, but how do you solve an anagram if you’re not sure how the name is spelled in the first place?
Anybody know the answer? I apologize if this was covered before - I tried to do a search but it didn’t work very well.
I never thought it was supposed to be an inside joke. The episode capsule over at the Simpsons Archive lists some famous people named Langdon and Alger (the capsule uses the spelling “Alger,” which I always thought it was, too). There’s always the possibility the writers were stuck for a name and got it out of the phone book or a person they actually knew- the staff has commented on DVD audio commentaries that names such as “Don Brodka” were taken from the phone book, and Armin Tamzarian was a lawyer who represented the show. I’ll have to see if there’s any reference to the naming of Langdon on the commentary for that episode.
I think you’re reading too much into it, lowbrass; I doubt the name has any significance. He’s Lisa’s crush, so it makes sense that she knows a little about him - and with that name and description, he sounds nerdy, like her.
The name came up again later in the episode when Homer had to order a new console to get Bart home. He ordered it under the name Langdon Alger, with a wink to Lisa. I’m pretty sure that was the extent of it.
It wasn’t the name itself that made me think it was an inside joke; it was the way Lisa said it, the pause, and the cryptic-sounding remarks. Why would she just out of the blue say, “He enjoys puzzles”? It’s generally a well-written show, which is why bizzarre lines tend to get my ‘inside joke’ radar up. Like the episode where Homer gives his AOL screen name a little too conspicuously, and sure enough, when you went and checked on your computer, they had created a fake AOL profile for Homer. They have given ‘clues’ to websites they created as well.
I could be reading too much into it, but my intuition tells me they had some other intention there.
But that was a joke too, on how ridiculous we sometimes sound when giving out our email addresses or IM userids: “All one word, with an underscore (no, the underline thing—shift-dash), and the number ‘4’ instead of F-O-U-R, …”.
I hate to hijack, but in The Episode Itchy and Scrathcy and Poochy, Poochy is created by a panel of artists and writers… are these caricatures of actual Simpsons writers?
As for Langdon Alger, I always thought it was just written as being a name that Homer would never of heard of, or even think was a real name!
I thought they had a few episodes, especially The Haw-Hawed Couple, where Bart was a fairly realistic 10-year-old. Kids on TV only act their age when it’s convenient anyway.
Those were the days, huh? I was more the billionaire-shooting type. And the shooting-Dad-with-a-nailgun type. Oh and the mobster-shooting type. Dad kept a lot of weapons around.