# Simpsons jokes you didn't understand. Hopefully explained! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 4, 2003, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980 "2003-08-04T22:00:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mammock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@mammock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mammock)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/41 "2003-08-06T15:02:40Z")
They had one on Futurama last week - Someone pulls at her disheveled robot son and says “No more hanging wires!” This echos the line in _Mommy Dearest_ of Faye Dunaway: “No more wire hangers!” ---
**Author:** ![rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rabbit)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/42 "2003-08-06T15:30:59Z")
nitpick. Carlos Castaneda wasn’t brazilian. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/43 "2003-08-06T15:44:45Z")
Well, Casteneda claimed to be from Brazil. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/44 "2003-08-06T15:46:29Z")
Cast **a** neda. And “I’m the first non-Brazilian to travel backwards in time!” immediately suggests him, even if the details are incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/45 "2003-08-06T15:52:50Z")
I thought Castaneda was born in Peru. Then became an American citizen. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/46 "2003-08-06T16:13:43Z")
He was, but he claimed to be from Brazil on several occasions. > [@](#): > > [He immigrated to the United States in 1951. He was born in Sao Paolo, Brazil, or Cajamarca, Peru, depending on which version of his autobiographical accounts can be believed. His ex-wife, Margaret Runyan Castaneda, wrote in a 1997 memoir: “Much of the Castaneda mystique is based on the fact that even his closest friends aren’t sure who he is.”](http://www.volny.cz/castaneda/en/interviews/24.html) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/47 "2003-08-06T17:52:35Z")
> [@](#): > > In the Halloween episode, “Time and Punishment”, Homer shouts “I’m the first non-Brazilian to travel backwards in time!” I don’t get it. > > I’ve asked this before and been told it’s just a random throwaway line. I’m half-resigned to this possibility, but a nagging little voice tells me it has to refer to something. > > And Carlos Castenada and Don Juan were North American, so it ain’t them. I think the _Simpsons Forever_ episode guide suggests the joke was about Castaneda, but apparently it’s not. Homer’s original line was “I’m the first cartoon character to travel backwards in time!” and then Mr. Peabody and Sherman appear. Get it? Well, the writers didn’t think it was funny enough, so they changed it to non-Brazillian. I’m trying to find a cite for this; I’ve seen other fans mention it around here. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/48 "2003-08-06T18:10:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pravnik \* > Ayn Rand was a pretty severe and austere gal, who never had any children of her own (her own mother’s description of motherhood as “a hateful duty” may had something to do with it). Maybe more importantly, her books are creepily 100% devoid of children; all characters good and evil alike are childless, themselves apparently having sprung fully grown from Zeus’s forehead or some such. Not entirely true. Two children appear in _Atlas Shrugged_, the sons of Ragnar Danneskjöld and Kay Ludlow. They are described as being as fearless as kittens (?) because no-one has tried to destroy their human spirit, or some such. Actually, the _Simpsons_ episode incorrectly uses the bottle example (i.e. a baby is saying “I am a leech”), as far as Ayn Rand is concerned. During the somewhat interminable speech by John Galt in the closing chapters of _Atlas Shrugged_, he gives as an example giving a bottle to your baby as _not_ a sacrifice (being instead a moral duty). Giving the bottle to your neighbor’s baby and letting your baby starve, however, _is_ a sacrifice, and a society that demands such from its citizens is evil. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/49 "2003-08-06T18:26:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mullinator \* > \*\*Huh? Is it a bad book? Was it self-serving with many glarin omissions? What am I missing here? I normally catch the jokes, but this one leaves me scratching my head more than a poorly thought out Far Side cartoon. \*\* I read a few snippits of the book “Me.” “me” is just about the longest word she uses in the book. I swear it read like a 5 year old wrote it, it’s like she never heard of complex sentence structure. “It was Prohibition. Dad refused to buy scotch. Mother was desperate.” Truly a painful book to read. I’m sure fans overlook it because of the interesting stories, but it was in serious need of a ghostwriter. You can check out some sample pages on [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/50 "2003-08-06T18:37:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bryan Ekers \* > \*\*The “flying a kite at night is so unwholesome” bit threw me until a buddy pointed out it’s from _Children of the Corn_. > \*\* Huh? From the movie or the story? Where? Still waiting for someone to explain Homer’s longwinded (yeat amusing, natch) rant about his fast-paced, sugar-related lifestyle. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/51 "2003-08-06T19:20:29Z")
Catfight, I think it has been determined that that line is not a reference to anything, but merely a sugar-crazed Homer spouting non-sense. Maybe it was there for the sheer purpose of _making_ us think it is from something, thus driving us Simpsons fans further to the brink of insanity. No where on [snpp.com](http://snpp.com) (THE definitice source) does it seem to mention this as a reference to anything. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/52 "2003-08-06T19:26:44Z")
I don’t think that rant is a parody of anything in specific, just a parody of the generic “unconventional guy takes on the Establishment” speech found in countless works of fiction. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/53 "2003-08-06T19:53:43Z")
It has the sound of a play from the turn of the century as an unconventionaly loer class character rails against those who would look down upon him. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/54 "2003-08-07T03:36:58Z")
OK, I have one, from the episode where Homer starts SpringShield security force and makes a commercial featuring a monster breaking into an old woman’s bedroom. After they grab it, it says “friend?” in a very distinctive voice, before they all start punching it. It feels like a reference, but I have no idea to what. This would be very useful information, since I spend a lot of time saying “Friend?” in the same voice to Mrs. Giraffe. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/55 "2003-08-07T03:44:30Z")
Pretty sure that’s an _E.T._ reference, **Giraffe**. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/56 "2003-08-07T03:58:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cheesesteak \* > \*\*“Me” is just about the longest word she uses in the book. I swear it read like a 5 year old wrote it, it’s like she never heard of complex sentence structure. > > “It was Prohibition. Dad refused to buy scotch. Mother was desperate.” > \*\* So, Ernest Hemingway wrote it. What’s wrong with that? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/57 "2003-08-07T04:06:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Miller \* > \*\*Pretty sure that’s an _E.T._ reference, **Giraffe**. \*\* I don’t know – the tone of voice seems all wrong for that. I could be out to lunch, though. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/58 "2003-08-07T04:15:23Z")
Could be me. Haven’t seen E.T. in… Christ, twenty years? So my memory of the film is more than a little spotty. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/59 "2003-08-07T07:29:42Z")
The Eight commandment episode, where Homer informs Lisa she didn’t pay for her clothes or her breakfast. Homer thinks his point is proven and says ‘So run to the hills Ma Baker, before I call the feds’ Ma Baker? ---
**Author:** ![BraheSilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/simpsons-jokes-you-didnt-understand-hopefully-explained/192980/60 "2003-08-07T07:36:04Z")
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