Jokes We Don't Get

[mathias1979]

I don't think it's a specific movie reference. He just does it because he's ashamed of what he is and never intended Marge to see him like that.

It's similar to when in "Like Father Like Clown" when the Rabbi walks in on the young krusty using seltzer in the bathroom, Krusty kind of turns away and shouts "shut the door!"

[Roger Myers III]

Its a reference to Fritz Lang's "M". Clancy B. is quoting Peter Lorre's child-molester protagonist.

Which is really not the same thing at all as the clear masturbation allusion in the "young Krusty" joke in "LFLC".

[squishee lady]

What's up with the "Paper Moon" referance in "The Great Money Caper"? I'eve never seen that movie so I don't understand what it has to do with Homer trying to get Ned to pay for the Bible, and I don't understand why Bart and Homer were so terrified when they figured out the similarity.

[Roger Myers III]

In Bogdonovich's Paper Moon, the exact same selling-an-expensive-bible-to-a- bereaved-family-on-behalf-of-the-deceased's-last-wishes was perpetrated (at the film's opening) by Ryan , and daughter Tatum, O'Neal. When Homer learned Ned caught the reference, they panicked and fled the scene.

[Simpson Purist]

In Homer Alone, Bart is disgusted by the fact that he's holding a Blackhead Gun. What exactly is a Blackhead gun and why does it disgust Bart?

[Roger Myers III]

A blackhead gun is a device that women use to extract (with squeezing & suction,) blackheads from their faces (and other skin). Blackheads are tiny dark spots, consisting of dirt & oit welled-up in a pore of the skin - and are generally the precursors of pimples.

I'll assume that Simpson Purist is now as disgusted as Bart.

[Mr. Plow]

I just watched that episode today on DVD after awhile. I didn't get the joke a few years ago but I do know, and I can agree with Bart's disgust.

[kuje]

This bit from Stark Raving Dad:

Monroe: Well, Monty, it used to be that establishing a patient's sanity
took months. That's all changed, thanks to the Marvin Monroe
take-home personality test. Twenty simple questions that will
determine exactly how crazy or [makes quotation sign with fingers]
`meshuggeneh' someone is.

What is `meshuggeneh' all about?

[squishee lady]

I think it's just a goofy word for Crazy.

[Sex Cauldron]

I believe it's Yiddish for crazy.

[kuje]

Yiddish?

[Roger Myers III]

It is Yiddish for "crazy". (Yiddish is the vernacularlanguage of 19th and ealy 20th-century European Jews. Its a mixture of Hebrew and German.(

[Miss Springfield]

well what is it with mel brooks saying he hates carl reiner, and he wants to play police chief wiggam? and what does the ballet teacher say put on the ____ attire?

[George Cauldron]

It's in a comedy sketch that Mel Brooks did with Carl Reiner. I don't know much about that though. The ballet teacher asks Bart to put on a fuschiatard.

[huh?]

The comedy sketch that was involved in that scene was The 2000-Year Old Man sketch, a pretty famous bit in which Reiner interviews a caveman(played by Brooks).

[eddie]

From "Homer the Great":

Marge: "Remember when you were stalking Robert Curall because you thought he had dug up your garden?"
Homer: "Well, something did!"

Who was this guy?

[George Cauldron]

Originally posted by ComixFan
From "Homer the Great":

Marge: "Remember when you were stalking Robert Curall because you thought he had dug up your garden?"
Homer: "Well, something did!"

Who was this guy?

He was Charles Kuralt, an actor who won quite a few Emmy awards. He was born in 1934 and died in 1997.

[Garp]

I have seen today "Mr. Plow" and I don´t know who is Linda Ronstad.

[joe]

Famous, Very Famous country/Folk/Hispanic singer from the 70s.... a Hippie who hung out with people like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Crosby Stills & Nash...

I can't believe you don't know of her...

[eddie]

Knowing nothing about alcoholic drinks, I have a question from "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment":

Moe gets a bowling ball from Homer, he smells it and says--and I'm totally unsure of the spelling--"Who wants a bathtub mint jullab?" Then we see a bunch of old dudes in white suits? Anyone have an explanation...?

[Citizen Kang]

Mint Julep was a very popular drink in the South...Esp of rich southern men. The white Suited Men are a stereotypical view of affluent southerners...

[huh?]

Something that puzzled me in Selma's Choice: when Marge says that some actor(I forget the name) plays Zeus in the Erotic Adventures of Hercules movie, Homer goes, "Woohoo!"
What was the name of this actor and why was Homer excited about him being in the movie?

[Miss Springfield]

What is the joke with the ep where Marge becomes a cop and she gets the new issue of sponges magazine and says to the guy thanks benevel fastaschio or something like that...

[Firewalker]

Originally posted by huh?
Something that puzzled me in Selma's Choice: when Marge says that some actor(I forget the name) plays Zeus in the Erotic Adventures of Hercules movie, Homer goes, "Woohoo!"
What was the name of this actor and why was Homer excited about him being in the movie?

He's Norman Fell (1924-1998), best known for his role as the landord in "Three's Company." Why Homer likes him is beyond me, maybe he has a fascination for that show.

[Garp]

Originally posted by brooke2003
What is the joke with the ep where Marge becomes a cop and she gets the new issue of sponges magazine and says to the guy thanks benevel fastaschio or something like that...

Mmmmh...In the spanish version, she says "Thanks, Donovan Stangiano". I supose that DS is the guy´s name. I´ll check in SNPP. Maybe they changed something...

EDIT: Apparently, and according to snpp, the guy´s name is Benevenstanciano in the USA version.

[mr. broom]

Benevenstanciano is a pan-European sort of name, to indicate that the guy is just a generic European immigrant newsstand owner. He's probably called "Donovan Stangiano" in the Spanish version because 1) they misunderstood the English when translating or 2) the joke wouldn't really come across to a Spanish-speaking audience, as subtle as it is already in English.

[Miss Springfield]

what about when skinner says the kids have to learn about tek war at some stage?

[Firewalker]

William Shatner wrote a futuristic novel in 1989 called "TekWar." The public schools banned the book, but exactly why they did it isn't clear. I suppose it's because it deals with drugs, but that's only my guess.

[Roger Myers III]

(Boy, you stop visiting the site for a week, and look at the misinformation that spreads through this thread…)

1) Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks were writing partners on the 1940’s “Sid Caesar Hour” and Ceasar’s “Your Show of Shows”. They’ve partnered since, of and on, (“The 2000 Year Old Man” is probably their best-known routine – ‘premise,’ really – they last updated an edition in the late 1990’s on a comedy album,) and are great, great friends. The “absurd joke” of that Homer/Brooks exchange was “I hate Carl Reiner!”.

2) Charles Kuralt was not an actor at all. (George Cauldron, stop answering questions you don’t know! ) He was a lifelong CBS news correspondent, who, during his last 15-or-so years, became noted for his CBS Sunday morning segments, “On the Road with Charles Kuralt.” When he began these regular spots, the heavy, bald, avuncular correspondent bought a Mobile Home, and he regularly traveled across the U.S. looking for odd little “slice-of-life stories” about small-town people in America.

The funniest thing is, years after that line, Homer may have been right to be suspicious of the guy! It was discovered, after he died on the road, that Kuralt had been using his travels to effectively cover up a second family on the other side of the U.S., and keep one completely secret from the other, and CBS, and his fans. Life imitating OFF, once again.

3) Yes, Ronstadt is famous for being a country/folk singer from the 70’s. She is also well-known for giving us the Eagles (her first backing rock band,) dating George Lucas after he got divorced, dating Jerry Brown while he was governor of California, playing Sun City during apartheid despite the protests, and for being a back-up singer for Neil Young.

But that doesn’t explain the joke. The joke is that in 1989 or so, Ronstadt “rediscovered” her Mexican-American roots, and cut an album of traditional Mexican songs, in Spanish. She’s done maybe 2 more since then. They actually weren’t big sellers, and she mutated again soon, cutting 3 albums of big-band Nelson Riddle standards from the 1940’s.

4) The Mint Julep is still a traditional favorite in the US South, but its most famous for being the “Official Drink of the Kentucky Derby,” (The first leg of the horse-racing Triple Crown.) The 3 gents are dressed in the “Kentucky Gentleman” standard finery. (A la KFC’s “Colonel Sanders”).

Oh - and “Bathtub” drinks is a catch-all term for a drink that is made under dubious conditions (it is not “clean”- it may contain other alcoholic -or not- ingredients haphazardly.) The term comes from the “homemade” nature of the brew – folks would mix it up themselves in their bathtubs, which was likely the only household container that could accommodate the operation. This is exactly what Homer did – and it’s likely the reason that the Southern Gents were a little resistant to the offer. (Lawnboy – that should explain “Bathtub Gin” for you too!)

5) Long before “Three’s Company,” Norman Fell was a very-well-regarded character actor. (See “The Graduate”, “Point Blank”, or “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World,” or so many others in his IMDB listing.) There’s no reason in the world that Homer -or I- wouldn’t have wanted him to play “Zeus.” But the joke is that he was always a second-tier actor, but Homer’s excited by him.

6) “Benvenstanciano” was not a specific joke, but a general anachronistic riff on the “lower-east-side-immigrant-part-of-the-city” situation, in big-immigration cities in the 30s-50s (NY, Chicago, San Fran, etc.), in which everyone in the neighborhood, even the guy who runs the newsstand, knew each other by name (and in his case, a very long Italian one). Compare it to the “apartment” flashback scenes in “Lisa’s First Word,” iirc. I realize I’m being very vague, but it’s a very vague joke.

7) William Shatner’s "TekWar" novels were not in fact banned in schools anywhere. That is the joke - that any school board would take them seriously as “literature” or educational.

[Sam]

Roger myers III knows everything. Wow.

Anyway, this has probably been asked, but when lisa says "please, milhouse likes vaseline on toast" is it a flaming lips reference?

(Beep)