“It makes me like the joke less…”
We’re not going to go down the same route as every other person who talks about modern episodes of The Simpsons, but we will say there was a time when practically every single line from every single episode of the show was 100% pure comedy gold.
For example, take episode 12 of the fifth season, titled Bart Gets Famous, in which Bart says “I didn’t do it” on the Krusty The Clown show and promptly gets his 15 minutes of fame.
It was in that episode that we got this iconic zinger from Homer:
Clip via SpankingDunk
We’re probably correct in saying that we all thought it was an incredible non-sequitur, Homer just saying something random, like when Bart blurts out “So anyway, I says to Mabel, I says…”
However, it turns out that was not that case, as The Simpsons writer Josh Weinstein pointed out.
Weinstein wrote some of the greatest episodes of The Simpsons, including Marge Gets A Job, Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy, Marge In Chains, Bart vs. Australia and Homer’s Enemy (the one with Frank Grimes), but he was also producer on The Principal and the Pauper, which many believe to be the exact point The Simpsons took a dive in quality.
When fantastic Twitter account Simpsons QOTD used the above joke as one of their posts this week, Weinstein replied with the following:
“I’m proud to say I’ve loved this joke and possibly misinterpreted it for nearly 30 years now.”
“For 25 years, I assumed (and loved it) that it was just a non sequitur but then someone explained it’s what people with long hair say when they have a towel over their wet hair (and ears) after a shower when they answer the phone. Makes 100% sense but also make me like joke less.”
For 25 years, I assumed (and loved it) that it was just a non-sequitor but then someone explained it's what people with long hair say when they have a towel over their wet hair (and ears) after a shower when they answer the phone. Makes 100% sense but also make me like joke less.
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) June 14, 2022
Upon tweeting this, fellow former Mike Scully replied: “Don’t let people ruin it for you. It’s the silly joke you think it is”, before admitting he can’t actually remember if he wrote the joke or not.
I want to say yes because it sounds like me, but not sure. Could've been David Cohen and my contribution was laughing
— Mike Scully (@scullymike) June 14, 2022
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