French author. Name sounds like “ball sack” (scrotum). The “potty mouth” part is more the joke as Homer thinks Marge is just being profane. I hoped this helped.
I can’t hear Balzac without thinking of that scene from The Music Man where some old gossipy ladies are complaining about the librarian recommending books: [Baaalzaaac](https://youtu.be/U2ZVUvf6Pa0?feature=shared)
My favourite version of this joke is from a song called The Philosophical Zombie Slayer and goes "if you think he don't know Frenchmen you can suck on his Balzac"
The joke didn't work in Italian, so I wonder why the didn't change the reference... Especially weird considering the Italian dub pretty miche became its own show due to plenty of glorious creative liberties.
In case you’re actually asking, they’re two characters from The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle - Mr. Peabody and Sherman, who got up to time-traveling themselves (which is the joke here.)
hoo, boy...[you're not gonna like the real answer](https://www.cracked.com/article_31595_unpacking-the-simpsons-most-confusing-treehouse-of-horror-joke.html)
^((EDIT: keep scrolling past the first batch of ads/sign-up offers; h/t u*|*opackersgo)^)
Balzac was, among many other people in history, alive during a long period of time where air conditioning was non-existent. He was chosen for this scene only for Homer to mishear his name (Ball-sack, aka scrotum), and deliver his quip about Marge's potty mouth.
Edit: Further explanation
In Lard of the Dance Lisa says the other girls make her feel like a baby and Marge says a baby couldn't organize a dance unless it was one of those superbabies from Brazil
Probably another reference to The Boys From Brazil, but i would think they made the reference to some point in the 90s when the news focused a lot on delinquent kids and teenagers. The child services facilities were full of troubled kids and the images were of small scale prison riots and escapes. The law says anyone will be treated as adult after they get to the age of 18 and it is common to see, to this day, dudes who look 22 saying they are underage to avoid prison.
Edit: typo from writing too fast on cellphone
I just read this as a story whose ending is so unimportant that they didn't even bother to write it. They're just saying, if you insist on having an ending, let's say Moe did it.
Do you remember the time some group tried to award "James Earl Jones" something but when they gave him the plaque it said "James Earl Ray"? They tried to say it was an honest mistake but. . .lol.
James Earl Jones was the guest speaker at a Martin Luther King event and James Earl Ray was the person who assassinated MLK so they instead of thanking James Earl Jones for honoring Martin Luther King Jr they thanked the person who assassinated him. For keeping the dream alive. It was not perfectly cromulent!
Actress Kim Fields had the most success after the show ended, going from the childish sitcom Facts of Life to the mature Living Single. She had the least incentive to appear in a reunion special.
I only watched the show under protest but Tootie was the only black one, and very much used as a prop for "very special" episodes. I could see the actress being resentful.
Overthinking is why golden age Simpsons is golden. How many posts here are like "Wow I never got the reference, I just thought it was funny because it was so Random!"
Turns out Adlai Stephenson was a joke irl and also on television.
I always kinda thought that the ‘normal’ looking Oreo didn’t just taste bad, but it had something more sinister wrong with it - like there was something sharp in it. That’s why he just goes, “Oh.” and has a rather shocked look on his face (as opposed to a disgusted look).
I never have liked Oreos. I was allergic to chocolate til I was 12 years old. But also, why are they so darned black outside? Do they use octopus ink for food coloring? Seriously, I watch Japanese cooking shows and they sometimes use it to make black rice.
It sounds like a surrealist statement in the same style as a Rene Magritte painting, only in words. Or maybe it's just a baby's arm holding an apple. " The exquisite corpse will drink new wine". Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Cocteau ,whatever, brandy buzz..hey, ...Brandy Buzz could be my drag queen name; if I ever wanted to become a drag queen.
Makes sense, the character models were just so specific looking I figured they were referential but I've never been able to find anything to support that ... so you're probably right!
I just think that Homer had unrealistically huge expectations for the size of the beer, so when it came and it wasn’t like the size of him he was disappointed.
No. It's clearly an enormous beer. Anyone who had heard about the "giant beers" somewhere had and got this monster that the barkeep strains to lift would be satisfied. Not Homer. He was expecting something truly massive. He got one of the biggest beers anyone has seen but he's severely underwhelmed. He thought it was going to be a beerquarium or something.
Foster's used to sell 25 oz cans of beer (pretty much as a stunt to compensate for the low quality). The joke is, Homer assumes all beers from Australia are oversized. When the bartender breaks out an eight-gallon can, confirming this, Homer is still underwhelmed.
Is it not that he was expecting something not massive to be served, giving him an opportunity to taunt and mock...However, when it comes and it is even bigger than Homer expected, he has to concede, and fails to hide his disappointment about being one-upped?
“And if you say you’re a vampire, you get a free small soda!”
This was explained to me on this sub at another time as meaning something like, getting a free something if you indicate you’re active duty. Makes sense. Just thought I’d throw it out there and see if that’s the consensus.
Free small soda is a completely worthless add-on that lots of things would offer. it is basically nothing and so not a compelling reason to do something, but still everything tried it
Restaurants designed with a particular theme were very popular for a while and I’m sure still are in some places. So it’s just a joke about how impressed they are and an establishing line the audience knows what’s going on.
I believe they're referencing the part where Marge disappears out the ceiling, comes back through the door, and acts like it's her first time seeing the place.
Hey, Deng Xiaoping died!
Deng was the paramount leader of China in the 80s, died in the late 90s. Another of the world leaders that Homer is impressively aware of, like the Ayatollah, despite him being unaware of American leaders, like George HW Bush.
I have a land deed from my family with president Taylors signature on it. Only I thought his name was Zachary. Oh well, it must be that other president Taylor. JK!! Old rough & ready from Mexican American war. And president Taylor from down on copper line. I love that song. BTW, I also have a family land deed signed by James Monroe. The lands are physically connected. We don't have the lands anymore, but I have the deeds.
But Marge, it works on any Ayatollah! Ayatollah Nakhbadeh, Ayatollah Zahedi... Even as we speak, Ayatollah Razmara and his cadre of fanatics are consolidating their power!
In the European French version, Marge says Marie Curie. But that doesn't seem to mean anything...it's just true that Marie Curie lived without air conditioning. There's no joke or pun anymore.
I had to explain this to my colleagues in French once, including the word for ball sack, which is one of the proudest moments in my life
Same in the Brazilian Portuguese version. The joke would be the same if she swapped Balzac for Picasso. In addition to the famous painter, there is also a pun with "picaço", i.e., "big dick". "Pica" is slang for pen1s.
It’s in reference to the egg council lobbyists accused of “getting to Lenny,” a joke that someone promoting eggs must have been bribed or pressured into doing so. Just some fun absurdity.
That’s not really it…
The students are asked to determine the rate of change of the curve described by the equation “y = r^3 / 3” (a calculus problem). To do this, you take the derivative, which yields “dy/dr = r^2 ”.
Now, this is where their math gets a bit dodgy. You see, the “dy/dr” isn’t really a fraction, but a single term that means “the derivative of y with respect to r”, which *is* the rate of change that the teacher asked the students to solve for.
Nonetheless, they have re-arranged the equation to give “dy = r^2 dr” or “dy = r dr r”. The students find this funny because it sounds like “har de har har” which is an old-fashioned way of imitating laughter, often in a sardonic way.
The cartoon character Hardy Har Har is named for the same expression, but it is not the subject of the joke in the Simpsons.
I've got a drummer friend who laughs just like har de har har. He introduced me to Steve Marriott of Humble Pie and his bass player on their tour bus after my friends band opened for them at a small place in Cali.. I still remember him laughing as he had me get on the bus B4 him and they freaked out a little till good old BOB got on the bus and explained my presence. How's that for a sidetrack. I should have left bread crumbs.
When Homer has that talk show to replace Krusty, Marge goes "My husband's a power-mad star. Maybe now we can get that padding that goes under rugs." But her lips move differently to what she's saying, so I wondered if she was originally saying something else.
I've noticed a few weird animations when characters make a joke throughout the show, my guess was that they had to tweak the animation after rewriting a joke since the lip sync wouldn't line up with what they originally planned. Like the whole scene where Homer talks about his cousin who became Mother Shabubu, the lip sync is noticeably odd.
Getting into a house’s crawlspace is just a mischievous activity that a 10-year-old boy might find fun. For example, when I was that age I used to climb into the attic space above our garage even though it was musty and kind of dangerous up there. Parents tend not to like their kids exploring parts of the house that they’re not supposed to, and getting a kid out of a crawlspace who doesn’t want to come out would be a challenge, so all this joke is doing is alluding to a zany, frustrating situation that many parents might relate to.
I pulled up the YouTube clip to refresh my memory and one comment suggested that someone on the writing team probably had a kid that did this kind of thing. That would make sense, though it definitely comes off as a bit of a non-sequitur gag.
He dreams about being a viking. That's it. This is probably the single most overthought joke in the history of the show. It's just a throwaway line about Ralph dreaming about being a viking.
Literally nobody in the history of ever has said "I'm a viking" to describe being good at something.
At that point people might as well argue that Donald Sutherland's (RIP) line about microwave johnnycakes was a euphemism for having to take a shit.
Cornstarch! It's great for... keeping down the urges.
The only suggestion I have ever found implies that ned and/or maude masturbate with cornstarch. This doesn't seem in the spirit of the Flanders's and I refuse to believe that a christian family believes that jerking off with cornstarch is better than interacting with your spouse.
I always thought it was a reference to things like Cornflakes and other corn products being made to stop people from masturbating.
I imagine it would be awkward to jerk with a hand of cornstarch…
This is such a weird assumption to have made. Where else in the story has there ever been an implicit "this is how these characters masturbate" line?
The internet has ruined minds.
I’m not an expert, but: cornstarch is a rough starch, as in a substance that can be used to starch clothes. Starched clothes are stiff and scratchy, cornstarched clothes likely even more so. So I always interpreted it as “makes clothing stiff and scratchy = keep down the urges.”
Kind of like a light level hair shirt.
There is a place called Balzac immediately north of Calgary, Alberta. It has a large outlet mall with a Bass Pro Shops. I always give the name a chuckle when I pass through. I never knew what it was named for until I read this post.
I don't get what this scene is referencing
https://preview.redd.it/yj6gpepqob9d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41a4fc568c194be3b324f6b131cb98d53a6f5a1b
In Who killed Mr. Burns part 2, why does Homer walk bow-legged after not getting enough sunlight? I think I only ever watched the episode in German so maybe the joke got lost in translation.
In Bart's Comet, where Bart is cycling to meet Skinner at 5am and it's dark and he says to himself "still dark....better use the generator" then presses something on his bike. I don't understand that. I even listened to a podcast about that episode where they talked about it and I still don't get it.
Something to do with his bike being solar powered?
It's not solar powered. The generator was the thing he *flicked*, which presses against the wheel of the bike and generates energy as the wheel spins, like a gyro. The joke being that the generator was very stuff so it just made his journey harder.
The light on the front of his bike is hooked up to a generator like [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_dynamo), but when it's on it adds a lot of resistance to the wheel and makes it extremely hard for him to pedal.
French author. Name sounds like “ball sack” (scrotum). The “potty mouth” part is more the joke as Homer thinks Marge is just being profane. I hoped this helped.
You did it nibbles. Now chew through my Balzac.
https://i.redd.it/wk2sww19wz8d1.gif
This episode has a lot of dick and balls puns and jokes
Okay, Skinner. That's the last time you'll slap your Willie around.
Do not touch. Willie. Good advice
And all of our lives are better off for it.
I'm out
Imagine how much better of a writer he would have been with air conditioning though!
Camus can do (with air conditioning) but Sartre was smarter. Edit: Spelling
https://i.redd.it/euggf8tdrz8d1.gif
Scooby-Doo can doodoo, but Jimmy Carter was smarter.
Both probably had AC too…
(Camus)
-Wayne Gretzky
-Michael Scott
Robert Pinsky https://i.redd.it/jxh0jtaza29d1.gif
I’m also sure he’d be proud that his descendants had piping hot tap water and plenty of warm, dry underwear.
Hot tap water would make it easier to cook pasta. That would been an interesting plot twist for Pere Goriot, eh?
I can’t hear Balzac without thinking of that scene from The Music Man where some old gossipy ladies are complaining about the librarian recommending books: [Baaalzaaac](https://youtu.be/U2ZVUvf6Pa0?feature=shared)
It's also funny because ball sacks get really sweaty without air conditioning
My favourite version of this joke is from a song called The Philosophical Zombie Slayer and goes "if you think he don't know Frenchmen you can suck on his Balzac"
The joke didn't work in Italian, so I wonder why the didn't change the reference... Especially weird considering the Italian dub pretty miche became its own show due to plenty of glorious creative liberties.
Balzac was a writer, he lived with Allen Funt Mrs. Roberts doesn't like him, but that's 'cause she's a-
I'm the first non-Brazilian to travel back in time!
Correction, you're the second. That's right, Mr. Peabody!
Quiet, you!
That always cracked me up because where did that come from 😂
In case you’re actually asking, they’re two characters from The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle - Mr. Peabody and Sherman, who got up to time-traveling themselves (which is the joke here.)
I knew the characters but not that they were from R&B so thanks for that info – but I really meant the “quiet, you!” cuz it’s so random
hoo, boy...[you're not gonna like the real answer](https://www.cracked.com/article_31595_unpacking-the-simpsons-most-confusing-treehouse-of-horror-joke.html) ^((EDIT: keep scrolling past the first batch of ads/sign-up offers; h/t u*|*opackersgo)^)
Saved you a click: It was “a ‘total non-sequitur’ and ‘not a reference to anything, just a funny line.’”
Non sequiturs are like bicycles. They never bathe.
Fucking hell, thats a lot of shit sentences before you even get to the explanation.
This is what "News" is today.
Little brother, the news has never been "explaining 20 year old sitcom tv joke"
I don’t think Cracked falls into “news.”
RIP cracked, I used to be on that page everyday reading the new articles as they came out, now look at it….
I dunno, I like the real answer. It makes it funnier to me lol
So the cops knew that internal affairs were setting them up?
Balzac was, among many other people in history, alive during a long period of time where air conditioning was non-existent. He was chosen for this scene only for Homer to mishear his name (Ball-sack, aka scrotum), and deliver his quip about Marge's potty mouth. Edit: Further explanation
NEEEEEEEEERD!
https://i.redd.it/wx18her6xz8d1.gif
HOMER! Just tucking him in.
lol what episode is this?
Boy-Scoutz ‘n The Hood
In Lard of the Dance Lisa says the other girls make her feel like a baby and Marge says a baby couldn't organize a dance unless it was one of those superbabies from Brazil
I think it’s a reference to the tabloid stories of the time.
Probably another reference to The Boys From Brazil, but i would think they made the reference to some point in the 90s when the news focused a lot on delinquent kids and teenagers. The child services facilities were full of troubled kids and the images were of small scale prison riots and escapes. The law says anyone will be treated as adult after they get to the age of 18 and it is common to see, to this day, dudes who look 22 saying they are underage to avoid prison. Edit: typo from writing too fast on cellphone
I agree it's a Boys From Brasil reference. Buncha other words though. . .
Grover Cleveland spanked Abe Simpson on two non-consecutive occasions _because_ he was the only president who had served in two non-consecutive times.
It is weird to think there is a possibility that some future show could make the same joke about Trump.
I don't mean to alarm you but there may be a boogeyman or boogeyMEN in the house!
https://preview.redd.it/zzjqg4ijs09d1.jpeg?width=1256&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66ae3fe3e1c94766ed8c6419064d8a507955e476
One of my favorite lines in the entire series.
This is the most historically interesting fact about Grover Cleveland. Somehow I doubt it will be what Trump is remembered for (even if re-elected).
“And they were eventually saved, by, oh let’s say, Moe”
I just read this as a story whose ending is so unimportant that they didn't even bother to write it. They're just saying, if you insist on having an ending, let's say Moe did it.
Narrated by James Earl Jones
Do you remember the time some group tried to award "James Earl Jones" something but when they gave him the plaque it said "James Earl Ray"? They tried to say it was an honest mistake but. . .lol.
James Earl Jones was the guest speaker at a Martin Luther King event and James Earl Ray was the person who assassinated MLK so they instead of thanking James Earl Jones for honoring Martin Luther King Jr they thanked the person who assassinated him. For keeping the dream alive. It was not perfectly cromulent!
Plus the ending to Lord of the Flies, which the ep is based on, also kinda just happens right there in the last few pages with little fanfare, IIRC
The joke’s just that the narrator is making it up as he goes along
Lisa says she reunited the cast of the Facts of Life, "including longtime holdout Tootie"
Actress Kim Fields had the most success after the show ended, going from the childish sitcom Facts of Life to the mature Living Single. She had the least incentive to appear in a reunion special.
I only watched the show under protest but Tootie was the only black one, and very much used as a prop for "very special" episodes. I could see the actress being resentful.
I think she just had the most memorable name. And that line doesn’t work with “Jo.”
I think it was just a throwaway line. Man there is a lot of overthinking in this thread, please don’t take offense to that.
Overthinking is why golden age Simpsons is golden. How many posts here are like "Wow I never got the reference, I just thought it was funny because it was so Random!" Turns out Adlai Stephenson was a joke irl and also on television.
"I have a ham radio." I just assume it's the redundancy of the person saying that on a ham radio.
Yeah, I think you're right. It's just the fact that the only communication this guy is doing is self-referential to the activity.
Mmmm,....ham.
I still don’t understand the irregular Oreos gag.
I had trouble with that one too, but I think it's simply that it looks normal, but tastes bad.
I always kinda thought that the ‘normal’ looking Oreo didn’t just taste bad, but it had something more sinister wrong with it - like there was something sharp in it. That’s why he just goes, “Oh.” and has a rather shocked look on his face (as opposed to a disgusted look).
my thought was toothpaste gag oreo
They forgot to add the confectioners sugar to the whipped shortening.
The one that doesn’t look irregular TASTES bad, which is what MAKES it an irregular oreo
🤯👍🏼
Give this man a promotion!
Head Oreo Explainer
He went to Gudger.
He can't tell what is wrong with it visually, but he can taste what makes it irregular.
It contains a jagged metal Krusty-O.
Prepared by assistant puffer fish chef while the master was banging Crabapple.
i always assumed the normal looking one was a toothpaste gag oreo
I never have liked Oreos. I was allergic to chocolate til I was 12 years old. But also, why are they so darned black outside? Do they use octopus ink for food coloring? Seriously, I watch Japanese cooking shows and they sometimes use it to make black rice.
For years, I wondered what Gorbachev whispered to his driver, but then I found out it was Russian haha
“Now we see who the boss is around here.”
\*Russian Chortles\*
https://i.redd.it/dec6fsyudz8d1.gif
[The Apple Newton had poor handwriting recognition.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Newton#In_popular_culture)
BAH!
NEWT!
Is a plum served in perfume floating in a man's hat a reference to something?
I just thought it was meant to be absurd, and even more so because Moe served it right up.
Yeah Moe immediately having it was the best part of the joke
It’s supposed to be a joke on Yoko Ono’s avante garde art, and then Moe just happens to have her exact order ready.
Parody of Yoko Ono.
I knew that, just wondering if she ever had a plum in a man's hat or whatever
https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/27/13433304/yoko-ono-perfume-hat-art-exhibit She actually used it in one of her exhibits.
Awesome
*don't say Lennon* *don't say Lennon* *don't say Lennon* Uhh... John Lennon?
*d'oh!*
It sounds like a surrealist statement in the same style as a Rene Magritte painting, only in words. Or maybe it's just a baby's arm holding an apple. " The exquisite corpse will drink new wine". Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Cocteau ,whatever, brandy buzz..hey, ...Brandy Buzz could be my drag queen name; if I ever wanted to become a drag queen.
Armour Hotdogs was one i just googled because i realized i had no clue where that came from either lol
"It's An elephant isn't it" Well it is and it isn't... if you catch my meaning
Just a parody of the way some people haggle.
Flaming Moe's episode when Barney introduces his new friends Armondo and Raffi. I'm assuming it's a reference to something... but what!
Never thought it could be a reference to something, always just thought that the joke was that they have yuppie names
Makes sense, the character models were just so specific looking I figured they were referential but I've never been able to find anything to support that ... so you're probably right!
I think they’re just names picked to sound eccentric.
In the Australian episode why is Homer disappointed with the giant beer? Is it not big enough for him? Do Americans have beers that big already?
I just think that Homer had unrealistically huge expectations for the size of the beer, so when it came and it wasn’t like the size of him he was disappointed.
No. It's clearly an enormous beer. Anyone who had heard about the "giant beers" somewhere had and got this monster that the barkeep strains to lift would be satisfied. Not Homer. He was expecting something truly massive. He got one of the biggest beers anyone has seen but he's severely underwhelmed. He thought it was going to be a beerquarium or something.
Foster's used to sell 25 oz cans of beer (pretty much as a stunt to compensate for the low quality). The joke is, Homer assumes all beers from Australia are oversized. When the bartender breaks out an eight-gallon can, confirming this, Homer is still underwhelmed.
Is it not that he was expecting something not massive to be served, giving him an opportunity to taunt and mock...However, when it comes and it is even bigger than Homer expected, he has to concede, and fails to hide his disappointment about being one-upped?
This is always how I interpreted the joke myself
“And if you say you’re a vampire, you get a free small soda!” This was explained to me on this sub at another time as meaning something like, getting a free something if you indicate you’re active duty. Makes sense. Just thought I’d throw it out there and see if that’s the consensus.
Free small soda is a completely worthless add-on that lots of things would offer. it is basically nothing and so not a compelling reason to do something, but still everything tried it
Eugene and Rusty
I think they are just generic pervert characters. That's why they are so pasty and gross looking.
Wow, a 50s nostalgia cafe!
Restaurants designed with a particular theme were very popular for a while and I’m sure still are in some places. So it’s just a joke about how impressed they are and an establishing line the audience knows what’s going on.
I believe they're referencing the part where Marge disappears out the ceiling, comes back through the door, and acts like it's her first time seeing the place.
Oh, damn. If that’s the case then it’s just a gag implying Homer was so careless he threw Marge back in time.
Oh I get it, so she's the first non-Brazilian person to travel through time
I didn't get Sneed's Feed and Seed for a while
Formerly Chucks (suck and fuck)
It's a terribly overrated joke.
I prefer ‘you’ll have the power sauce-edge!’
Homer, those bars are just apple cores and chinese newspapers! Hey, that's how Ping(?) died!
Hey, Deng Xiaoping died! Deng was the paramount leader of China in the 80s, died in the late 90s. Another of the world leaders that Homer is impressively aware of, like the Ayatollah, despite him being unaware of American leaders, like George HW Bush.
He does have a comprehensive knowledge of Supreme Court justices though.
Like Warren Burger! Mmmm.... burger...
Oh, not Souter!
Can't he be both, like the late Earl Warren?
Earl Warren wasn't a stripper!
Now who's being naive?
He also seemed to be aware of President James Taylor's musical abilities.
*Former* President James Taylor
I have a land deed from my family with president Taylors signature on it. Only I thought his name was Zachary. Oh well, it must be that other president Taylor. JK!! Old rough & ready from Mexican American war. And president Taylor from down on copper line. I love that song. BTW, I also have a family land deed signed by James Monroe. The lands are physically connected. We don't have the lands anymore, but I have the deeds.
What's this about how Deng died though?
He had died recently, so the newspaper that would announce his death had recently been turned into a Powersauce bar.
Hey, he knew former President Gerald Ford!
But Marge, it works on any Ayatollah! Ayatollah Nakhbadeh, Ayatollah Zahedi... Even as we speak, Ayatollah Razmara and his cadre of fanatics are consolidating their power!
I never heard the "died" part clearly and didn't realize the first part was a name, thought Homer was just saying some phrase completely in Chinese.
I know Homer is in the background but it looks like Marge is massive next to tiny Homer
In the European French version, Marge says Marie Curie. But that doesn't seem to mean anything...it's just true that Marie Curie lived without air conditioning. There's no joke or pun anymore. I had to explain this to my colleagues in French once, including the word for ball sack, which is one of the proudest moments in my life
Same in the Brazilian Portuguese version. The joke would be the same if she swapped Balzac for Picasso. In addition to the famous painter, there is also a pun with "picaço", i.e., "big dick". "Pica" is slang for pen1s.
I still don’t get this one. https://preview.redd.it/nd9arihz959d1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb2452bbdc6af5d8ca38aa08e586b70813d2b132
It’s in reference to the egg council lobbyists accused of “getting to Lenny,” a joke that someone promoting eggs must have been bribed or pressured into doing so. Just some fun absurdity.
You’d better run, egg!
RDRR
https://preview.redd.it/szi4z5b4f39d1.png?width=470&format=png&auto=webp&s=cc1ac7d5e46fe7ecac73120b7faad16fd2b27ccc
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lippy_the_Lion_and_Hardy_Har_Har
That’s not really it… The students are asked to determine the rate of change of the curve described by the equation “y = r^3 / 3” (a calculus problem). To do this, you take the derivative, which yields “dy/dr = r^2 ”. Now, this is where their math gets a bit dodgy. You see, the “dy/dr” isn’t really a fraction, but a single term that means “the derivative of y with respect to r”, which *is* the rate of change that the teacher asked the students to solve for. Nonetheless, they have re-arranged the equation to give “dy = r^2 dr” or “dy = r dr r”. The students find this funny because it sounds like “har de har har” which is an old-fashioned way of imitating laughter, often in a sardonic way. The cartoon character Hardy Har Har is named for the same expression, but it is not the subject of the joke in the Simpsons.
https://i.redd.it/msf13bdwz19d1.gif
*Yoinks back my upvote from that guy to give you you instead*
"Yoink?!" Where the HELL is my Danish?
Great explanation!
I've got a drummer friend who laughs just like har de har har. He introduced me to Steve Marriott of Humble Pie and his bass player on their tour bus after my friends band opened for them at a small place in Cali.. I still remember him laughing as he had me get on the bus B4 him and they freaked out a little till good old BOB got on the bus and explained my presence. How's that for a sidetrack. I should have left bread crumbs.
When Homer has that talk show to replace Krusty, Marge goes "My husband's a power-mad star. Maybe now we can get that padding that goes under rugs." But her lips move differently to what she's saying, so I wondered if she was originally saying something else.
I've noticed a few weird animations when characters make a joke throughout the show, my guess was that they had to tweak the animation after rewriting a joke since the lip sync wouldn't line up with what they originally planned. Like the whole scene where Homer talks about his cousin who became Mother Shabubu, the lip sync is noticeably odd.
"Everybody at school picks on the 'Popli' kids; EVEN ME! I just hate them SO MUCH! 😡"
His first name was Harry!
Just because you can’t think of someone doesn’t mean you should be rude
Bart threatening to get into the crawlspace again if Marge keeps teaching, and then…just getting into the crawlspace.
Getting into a house’s crawlspace is just a mischievous activity that a 10-year-old boy might find fun. For example, when I was that age I used to climb into the attic space above our garage even though it was musty and kind of dangerous up there. Parents tend not to like their kids exploring parts of the house that they’re not supposed to, and getting a kid out of a crawlspace who doesn’t want to come out would be a challenge, so all this joke is doing is alluding to a zany, frustrating situation that many parents might relate to.
I pulled up the YouTube clip to refresh my memory and one comment suggested that someone on the writing team probably had a kid that did this kind of thing. That would make sense, though it definitely comes off as a bit of a non-sequitur gag.
watch the potty mouth hunny
Why is Ralph a Viking when he sleeps?
He dreams about being a viking. That's it. This is probably the single most overthought joke in the history of the show. It's just a throwaway line about Ralph dreaming about being a viking.
Literally nobody in the history of ever has said "I'm a viking" to describe being good at something. At that point people might as well argue that Donald Sutherland's (RIP) line about microwave johnnycakes was a euphemism for having to take a shit.
u/danthepianist, I'd like to buy your euphemism
Oh no not this again 😭
Dreamin'
I just got the Rashomon joke a few weeks ago
Cornstarch! It's great for... keeping down the urges. The only suggestion I have ever found implies that ned and/or maude masturbate with cornstarch. This doesn't seem in the spirit of the Flanders's and I refuse to believe that a christian family believes that jerking off with cornstarch is better than interacting with your spouse.
I always thought it was a reference to things like Cornflakes and other corn products being made to stop people from masturbating. I imagine it would be awkward to jerk with a hand of cornstarch…
nah i thought it was for PREVENTING masturbation or sex or something
This is such a weird assumption to have made. Where else in the story has there ever been an implicit "this is how these characters masturbate" line? The internet has ruined minds.
I’m not an expert, but: cornstarch is a rough starch, as in a substance that can be used to starch clothes. Starched clothes are stiff and scratchy, cornstarched clothes likely even more so. So I always interpreted it as “makes clothing stiff and scratchy = keep down the urges.” Kind of like a light level hair shirt.
I think its actually referencing that it makes things dry, and the less lubricated you are the less you want to fool around. I think.
Boy, I can't wait to take some of the starch out of that stuffed shirt!
This one broke my brain, growing up in Balzac Alberta
In a way, we all come from Balzac
😄 Now that's funny
Honore de Balzac. Excellent writer. Died of a caffeine overdose.
There is a place called Balzac immediately north of Calgary, Alberta. It has a large outlet mall with a Bass Pro Shops. I always give the name a chuckle when I pass through. I never knew what it was named for until I read this post.
I don't get what this scene is referencing https://preview.redd.it/yj6gpepqob9d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41a4fc568c194be3b324f6b131cb98d53a6f5a1b
Balzac is also the name of a decent Japanese punk band.
In Who killed Mr. Burns part 2, why does Homer walk bow-legged after not getting enough sunlight? I think I only ever watched the episode in German so maybe the joke got lost in translation.
Damn rickets https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickets
In Bart's Comet, where Bart is cycling to meet Skinner at 5am and it's dark and he says to himself "still dark....better use the generator" then presses something on his bike. I don't understand that. I even listened to a podcast about that episode where they talked about it and I still don't get it. Something to do with his bike being solar powered?
It's not solar powered. The generator was the thing he *flicked*, which presses against the wheel of the bike and generates energy as the wheel spins, like a gyro. The joke being that the generator was very stuff so it just made his journey harder.
The light on the front of his bike is hooked up to a generator like [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottle_dynamo), but when it's on it adds a lot of resistance to the wheel and makes it extremely hard for him to pedal.
Oh, so the generator is just for the lights. Makes sense. I’ve only ever had battery powered lights on a bike, so this just meant nothing to me.