Jokes We Don't Get

[Moose of Doom!]

Art Carney- Played the sidekick on Honeymooners(?)

[squishee lady]

Bart Star?

[Moose of Doom!]

Dark Star (old Sci-fi by John Carpenter)

[brazilian812]

i thoguht there was a famous athlete named Starr, first name might have been Bart, i forget

[huh?]

Yeah, Bart Starr, he was the Quarterback of the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s.

[Roger Myers III]

posted by chiefdawn of the dead
Hansen's disease is just another name for leprosy. Of course, the disease wasn't named after the cream soda. I didn't find the joek funny. I won't say anymore, because I'm certain that Roger Myers will chime in with a paragraph-long explanation for you.

What a cheap cop out, CDotD. Don't blame me if you don't know more than that.

"Hansen's Disease" is not just another name for leprosy - its the official medical name - after the first 'Western' doctor to classify its causes. Its also the only 'acceptible' way to refer to it, in the opinion of those that suffer from it. ("Leper" is considered a slur.) "Hanson's" doesn't only make cream soda - its a brand-name for a line of "natural" beverages, sodas & juices. More organic, natural flavors, and not nearly as mass-marketed as Coke or Scwheppes drinks, etc. (I don't find their cream soda all that bad, actually.) The "joke", such that it is, is that Marge has slandered a very politically-correct company in her effort to be politically correct regarding leprosy. Yes - its a very esoteric and weak joke. (Sort of Dennis Miller-esque).

And there's your paragraph.

Charmy: At the time the episode aired, there wasn't a difference between your two propositions. Matt said outright, at the time, that the ep was inspired by Terry Rakolta, the midwestern housemom that spearheaded campaigns and write-in protests against "Married with Children" and Fox, and had expanded her hit list to include OFF. Most of the early blue-nose backlash was still coalescing while the second season was still in production.

VoxNerduli: Those are called "puns" - simple, even stupid, jokes base on what we humans call "rhymes". I hope I'm only being sarcastic.

re: Barting Over - Actually, "Starting Over", w/ Reynolds & Jill Clayburgh in the leads, was 1979, and it was Jim Brooks' first feature film script sold. (He wrote it - didn't direct - during his "Taxi" days, expanding on ideas addressed in the very first "Taxi" episode!)

That said, the title may or may not be a direct tip of the hat to that film, as "starting over" itself is a very well-known cliched expression (Brooks used the phrase, but he didn't invent it,) and the ep and the film's plots have nothing in common outside of the title. It entire depends upon whether the person that arrived at the title (not necessarily the credited writer,) was a youngster unconscious of the film or JLB's resume, or an older one who made the connection and tribute intentionally.

re: Bart Carney - Art Carney (still alive, iirc,) is known as a great comic film & tv actor, but he also won an OScar for a great dramatic lead role in "Harry & Tonto."

re: Bart Star - RetroMoose should now realize that the football-player reference is correct, not the sci-fi film.

[joe]

OK.. Lisa's Date with Density? I assume it is a play on "Back to the Future I" when George McFly goes to ask Lauraine out using the notes Marty gave him and he says, "I'm your density.................I mean, your destiny".

far fetched, but its the only way I have been able to justify the title of that episode...

[prince jafar allah]

nah, "Date with destiny" is an old cliche. it's just a pun.

[joe]

Originally posted by Mohammed Jafar
nah, "Date with destiny" is an old cliche. it's just a pun.

I know... but Date with Density is not an old clique... I really think this has something to do with BTTF... I will have a look in the capsul (snpp.com) tonight..

[Wezzo]

I thought it was a ref to Nelson being.. dense or something, as well as a parody of 'Date with destiny'

[Roger Myers III]

Lawnboy, what are you so uppity about? MJ is right - "a date with destiny" is an old cliche for someone's "decisive moment of greatness", looked at in retrospect. "Density" has a very common connotation of obtuseness - a stupid and stubborn refusal to learn or change. "Destiny" and "Density" are anagrams and mis-pronunciations of each other. The ep title is a pun on the olde cliche, in a manner that comments on Lisa 'dating' Nelson, who proves his density at the ep's end.

So what if George McFly slipped and said "density" instead of "destiny" in BTTF? That verbal joke had been around long before that movie - Bugs Bunny used it, fer cryin' out loud.

[joe]

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/4F01.html

first off, calm down...
It is Possible not to know everything...
I guess I'm not the only one who thought this:

+ "Back to the Future" {dga}
- mixing up "Density" and "Destiny," as in the title

[Roger Myers III]

"Calm down"? You're the one being insistent!

I don't think you understand the purpose of the "Movies (and other references)" section of the capsule reviews. They have long been a crazy-quilt, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink catch-all repository for every reference, commonality, and similarity that the episode contains with almost any type of previously-existing story (in almost any media) that the snpp contributors can come up with. They don't necessarily mean that the earlier reference informs the ep's feature, nor does it claim that they do. The section you referenced is illustrative of this:


+ "Back to the Future" {dga}
- mixing up "Density" and "Destiny," as in the title

Yes, they both contained this "mix-up" - but so do lots of previous cartoons & comedians.

+ M*A*S*H
- Colonel Potter said "balderdash" alot like Superintendent
Chalmers {hl}

Chalmers says "balderdash" once - Potter said it characteristically too, but he said a lot of anachronistic "homilies-in-place-of-curse-words", as that was his unique style of speech. Burns does this as well, but there's no need to point it out.

+ The old-as-the-Net "Make Money Fast!" scam
- although pyramidal schemes existed eons ago, this scheme was
probably the inspiration for Homer's "Happy Dude" scam

"Make Money Fast!" scams precede the 'net by centuries, unfortunately for this contributor. What's more, a "pyramid" sceme ('pyridimal' isn't a word,) is a very different entity than the cold-call auto-dialing telemarketing sceme that Homer undertakes, which has its roots in religious- and political-fundraising scammery.

+ Winston Churchill's radio address, on October 1st, 1939
- Churchill referred to Russia as "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma", just like Lisa described Nelson {ddg}

And Churchill was using a rference to a Holmes description of Moriarty - but the SNPP misses this. Does this make it unnecessary?

"Thunderball", James Bond movie {xn}
- raising his eyebrow, saying "Oh, REALLY?"

This makes me raise my eyebrow and go "oh, really?" This is hardly a reaction and phrase associated with Bond, with this movie, or particularly with anyone. (I can't even place the Thunderball moment. Skeptical Lisa? Connery raising an eyebrow? This is as great an example of a stretch as any.

"She Don't Use Jelly", song by Flaming Lips {ns}
- "She'll make you toast, but she don't use butter, [...] she uses vaseline"

As I've said before, it could be - if the contributor was a Lips fan, which is just as likely as not.

"Waterworld"
- a "Nuke the Whales" bumper sticker shown, like Nelson's poster {dp}

There's actual posters available, and long have been, of "Nuke the Whales." (The joke in the ep was Nelson's quick appraisal of the sentiment.) That there was also one posted up somewhere in "Waterworld" is an association or coincidence, but hardly a good claim that it was "referencing" Waterworld.

+ The Catcher in the Rye, book from J.D. Salinger {tma}
- someone is called a "crumb-bum"

The term is also used in Dickens. And?

+ Psycho
- the interior of Skinner's house {dh}

What's funny here is that the "Psycho" reference was made clear in the house's debut. In this ep, it isn't really referred to, and instead its portrayed an an actual bustling home with a very-live mother at home. Does every subsequent appearance of Skinner's home merit a 'reminder' of the original reference? In these capsules, it may.

+ "Rebel Without a Cause"
- Nelson's "tool" outfit
- the cops chasing Nelson, who Lisa thought was just
"misunderstood"
- the observatory in the background
- the picnic
- Lisa's red windbreaker {wj}

Finally, an honest-to-goodness legit reference, derived entirely from a movie (in this case) and informed by the reference as well.

***

Look, Lawnboy, I'm not knocking the SNPP capsules at all in the above. Their mission and raison d'etre is to be absolutely exhaustive. But its also, knowingly, at the expense of being definitive. And there are plenty that are just wrong. But Jouni is fully praised for providing the forum where every big fan can add his $.02. But lots of the contributions aren't even worth that much.

(Believe me, I would not steer a Deadhead wrong. And, if nothing else, your Ribwich is the best avatar of the NHC)

[spiritofstlouis]

In Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, Homer stands in front of the class and lists random words. The teacher then says 'sit down Simpson'.

Can anyone explain?

[joe]

Originally posted by spiritofstlouis
In Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire, Homer stands in front of the class and lists random words. The teacher then says 'sit down Simpson'.

Can anyone explain?

if I remember correctly, it's Homer trying to recite the names of Santa's deer... He is failing horribly.. Notice he says "Nixon". The teacher is frustrated and tells him to take his seat.

[Roger Myers III]

He got a few of them, and then tried random names that sound sort of like "Blitzen". He tried Nixon, and his last guess was Donna Dixon. (tall blond actress: tv/"Bosom Buddies", film/"Spies Like Us")

[prince jafar allah]

"Maggie's caught right in the middle of that Italian-American-Mexican standoff!"

Huh? Mexican?

[Miguel Sanchez]

A "Mexican stand-off" is when three people (or groups of people, in this case) are involved in, well, a stand-off like that in the episode. The same phrase would be used to describe the Good-Bad-Ugly stand-off at the end of a certain spaghetti western, or the Keitel-Roth-Penn stand-off in Res Dogs.

[Roger Myers III]

The term is rooted in the U.S. Civil War, when there were situations exactly like that between Yankees, Confederates, and Mexicans.

(Of course, we Americans assign the blame to the minority Mexicans in our idiom. I'm so proud.)

The other funny thing about the phrase is that it juxtaposes an ultra-p.c. term ("Italian-Americans" is the politest of all possible terms for the group,) with an ultra-un-p.c. term ("Mexican standoff"), and therefore renders the whole concept of p.c. terms rather silly.

[George Cauldron]

I don't get a joke in Pray Anything. After Homer drives people from his church, Moe appears, sporting a mustache (I think) and says that they can come along to his church, named St. Poorly Girls Cathedral. What does this mean? Is this a pun on St. Paul's Cathedral? What does the poorly girls have to do with it? Is it some sort of perverse act that only Moe would commit?

[Roger Myers III]

Moe says "Saint Pauli Girl's Cathedral." "St. Pauli" is a prominent brand of imported beer in the U.S.; the 'St. Pauli Girl', a big-busted bier-wench in a corset & liederhosen, painted on the front of the bottle's label hoisting a bunch of frothing steins, is their long-longtime "mascot". So...Moe was only trying to lure everyone to his bar, with a hastily-contrived Catholic-sounding name.

Which is not to say Moe wasn't still planning to commit some perverse act when they got there. (After all, he was born a snake-handler, and he'll die a snake-handler...)

[eddie]

In "Cape Feare," Jasper mentions that he's got Steven Edie tickets. Who's Steven Edie, RMIII?

[Roger Myers III]

It's actually "Steve & Eydie". Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme, who married in 1957, have been a fixture of the Las Vegas stage for a long time, where they often performed as the supporting act for Frank Sinatra. Lawrence is probably most recognizable as The Blues Brothers' booking agent Maury Sline. They broke into television as performers on Steve Allen's Tonight Show in the mid-'50s and were a fixture of various TV variety shows throughout the '60s, including The Carol Burnett Show. Lawrence also had a recurring role on the TV sitcom The Nanny.

[squishee lady]

In "The Cartridge Family" when Homer has the NRA meeting and moe brings the irregular oreos and says "I don't see whats wrong with this one" (or something like that) then he bites into it and say "oh". Is there supposed to be something specific about the cookie?

[kuje]

Yeah, he doesn't see any physical flaw with it, but it obviously tastes disgusting/wrong, that is why it is irregular!

[kane]

In "Moe Baby Blues" Fat Tony and mob are talking mob talk outside the Simpsons house. Fat Tony mentions killing or doing something bad to the "Castellaneta" family. Is this just a plain old joke including the members of one of The Simpsons cast or is there a purpose?

[Roger Myers III]

Uy. SPD Officer, this is not the thread for guesswork.

Virtually every manufacturing process produces "irregulars", which are products off the assembly line or "out of the oven" that, for whatever glitch in the procedure, don't come out as aesthetically perfect as the rest. Good manufacturers try to keep it to as little as 1% of a run. These items are barely "bad" (ie: a stitch out of place in clothing, or a misshapen food patty,) and they're not unsaleable or useless, but they're not up to exacting standards expected in reputable stores. These products are