I was just watching a syndicated episode of the Simpsons today, and it left me wondering what Matt Groening has against bag boys. It was the Simpsons Safari Episode where a bag boy strike inadvertently leads the Simpsons to Africa. At the end there is a caption that says, “Dedicated to the hardworking bag boys of America …whose ineptness and greed were the inspiration for the episode.” What is that for? Did something happen in the bag boy world that I didn’t hear about (not that I should; I’m not a bag boy)?
Naw, it’s just plain fun, like the dedication to the Steelworkers of America that carried on the conceit that they were by-and-large gay, in that episode with John Waters.
Bag-boys, obviously, wouldn’t have a seperate union. That’d be silly.
The Simpsons folks just have a habit of carrying a joke past the end of the episode.
Oh, that Steelworkers dedication, by the way, was “Dedicated to the Steelworkers of America – Keep reaching for that rainbow!”
Also, if you want to impress your friends, or merely convince them that you need to get out more, you can casually mention that this sort of thing is called paratextuality – a spilling over of a diagetic world of a work of fiction into areas directly associated with it, but not actually part of the story-- like if you had an H.P. Lovecraft book with a jacket-design which suggested it came off the shelves of Miskatonic University…
It wasn’t Matt Groening; it was the person who wrote the show (Groening isn’t involved in that except in a general way).
Are you a bag boy, gitfiddle?
Umm… what’s a bag boy?
Bag person? Doesn’t sound right.
The boy who bags your groceries at the market.
Way to read that OP all the way to the end, Beastal.
stuyguy, a bag boy is the person at the grocery store who puts your purchases into a bag. Preference in hiring is given to those who have absolutely no concept of weight distribution, stress tolerance of bagging materials, and spatial orientation.
Groening can insult bag boys all he wants, but once he slights bag men, he’s in for a world of hurt.
And if he gets rough with bag ladies, we may never head from him again.
(Isn’t English a bizarre language? :D)
i head you, derleth!
Should this not be in ** Le Cafe du Societies?**
Off you go (waitamminute! I’m not a moderator!)
[sub]D’oh![/sub]