Jokes We Don't Get

[prince jafar allah]

nd "Peanuts" used to use these lines whenever Snoopy would 'start writing his mystery novel'.

(TYPING) Chapter 1 : It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed. Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up. A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day. At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital was making an important discovery. The mysterious patient in Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly.
SNOOPY : "In Chapter 2, I tie all of this together."

[Roger Myers III]

That's probably the funniest example; Snoopy had a number of strips like this, in which he began his "great novel" with these same lines. (Great find, MJ!)

[mr. broom]

"It was a dark and stormy night" was first penned by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, in fact. He was a writer of fiction that's been considered among the most awful ever, so much that there's an annual Bulwer-Lytton award for Worst Fiction of the Year. Really. www.bulwer-lytton.com
The above line became synonymous with bad writing because of him, and Charles Schultz used it for Snoopy. The Simpsons episode is referencing Snoopy and not Lytton, of course, but I thought I'd expand some knowledge, since no one else had mentioned it yet.

[vox]

What does the "Regina" in "The Regina Monologues" mean? I know that the title is a spoof of the title of the play "The Vagina Monologues", but what's Regina?

[George Cauldron]

Our Queen's official name is Elizabeth Regina, as was Elizabeth I's. Elizabeth Regina is also what E.R. stands for. That should do.

[Roger Myers III]

Close, Cauldron, very close...

"Regina" is Latin for "queen; princess; lady , mistress, or female sovereign." "Elizabeth Regina" is an old (church-rooted) honorific meaning simply "Queen Elizabeth". Homer had 2 monologues (solo speeches) in Her Majesty's presence.

Bonus: Its the same Latin root prefix that means "Royalty" ("reg-") as "regicide" ("You have indicated 'regicide,' repeat, 'regicide'...")

[vox]

Originally posted by Roger Myers III
Close, Cauldron, very close...

"Regina" is Latin for "queen; princess; lady , mistress, or female sovereign." "Elizabeth Regina" is an old (church-rooted) honorific meaning simply "Queen Elizabeth". Homer had 2 monologues (solo speeches) in Her Majesty's presence.

Bonus: Its the same Latin root prefix that means "Royalty" ("reg-") as "regicide" ("You have indicated 'regicide,' repeat, 'regicide'...")

And her real last name is...Windsor?

[George Cauldron]

Well, in a way. It used to be Saxe-Coburg until George V changed it, denouncing all German ties around the time of World War I.

[nickmeister]

How does Roger Myers know that. I know that, but I should. Are you lot all American?

[George Cauldron]

No, I'm British. Most people here are American, as you would guess.

[Crotis Jivefunk]

In Little Girl in the Big Ten, what exactly is the purpose of the Kennedy dream?

[prince jafar allah]

is there anything behind the "James Coco's ski boots" line in Moe Baby Blues? I know who James Coco is, just don't get where the joke comes from.

[Roger Myers III]

Ski boots get very hot & sweaty, and consequently stanky. James Coco (a 'dated' reference to the '70s comic actor) is known as overweight and sweaty, so his ski boots would smell, well, worse than manure. Its a stupid, hacky joke, but that's the point - its a schticky, Borscht-belt bad Krusty ad-lib.

[Miss Springfield]

Ok, this is the one where we find out Homer doesn't graduate from highschool and in the reunion the class clown gets up and says Is Jeff there? Jeffs not here mannnn.... and Homer laughs hysterically, and then he says later Homer's not here mannn.. why does Homer find it so funny and whats the deal with that joke?

[Roger Myers III]

The line is "Dave's not here, man." He is doing Cheech (Marin) & (Tommy) Chong's most famous routine, in which Cheech is a guy named Dave, who's trying to get back in his apartment. His friend (Chong) is so stoned and paranoid that, not recognizing Dave's voice though the door, he thinks someone is trying to get in to see Dave, so all he can offer is "Dave's not here, man." (This is exactly what Homer was over-explaining to Marge during the routine by "He's so high, he doesn't know his name is Dave!" apparently getting the joke wrong too.)

[whisman]

Ok I got a couple of questions-

1. What is the significance of Barts line "So I says to Mable, I says..."

2. In Flaming Moes, Bart walks by the TV and says "Woah, TNA" I think. What does this mean?

3. And is Bart impersonating someone when he says "Guvna" to Milhouse occasionally?

[George Cauldron]

"So I says to Mabel" is apparently a line from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

According to snpp.com - But the mystery of the actual reference has been revealed at last - or at least it seems - by a reader named Funkychuck: "It's actually from [the book] The Great Gatsby. The main character meets these two women who are already deep in conversation and the one says 'so I says to Mabel, I says' as he walks in. They have a short, pointless back and forth, the main character leaves, and the lady resumes the conversation with the same line over again. I'm not 100% on this, but I had just read the book when that episode aired and I remember feeling quite smart at having caught such an obscure reference. Unless I'm completely wrong, in which case I can resume feeling stupid. Hope this helps!"

[kelly]

That's what I always thought it was

[Roger Myers III]

1. The "Mabel" line was plucked from "Gatsby" by Tex Avery, who used it in a few of his 'toons as a shorthand signifier of such pointless conversation.

2. Bart says "Whoa - T&A!", which stands for "tits & ass", which is a euphemism for "nudity" or "sex".

3. Bart's just doing his random, spontaneous "Cockney"/Dickensian accent at these times.

[squishee lady]

Originally posted by Roger Myers III


2. Bart says "Whoa - T&A!", which stands for "tits & ass", which is a euphemism for "nudity" or "sex".

.

I believed that expression was originated in "A Chorus Line", no?

[Roger Myers III]

Much, much older. But good call - that may be where most have heard it.

[joe]

In the episode where Burns rebuilds the church after Homre and Bart's rocket destroys it, what is the line, "Why don't we ask David Bowie?"- Marge "No, he's already done enough for this church." Lovejoy

What is the joke?

[Roger Myers III]

Originally posted by Strong Sad
In Little Girl in the Big Ten, what exactly is the purpose of the Kennedy dream?

Sorry, SS - hadn't seen your question.

The Kennedy daydream was primarily intended to inspire "Liser" to take seriously the challenge of athletic achievement, instead of just doing it "for the grade requirement". He referred to the fact that he, as President, created the "Council on Physical Fitness", which is a gov-funded effort to get the US's children to be in better physical shape. (Its simply a non-enforable educational effort, not like a department or anything, and its Chairman, a completely ceremonial title, is usually a famous athlete and/or Olympian who is a well-regarded mouthpiece. The job, btw, was Arnold Schwarzeneggar's sole 'political' role previous to being elected Governor - he was selected by Bush I - so I guess I can't say that its completely without political clout.)

But the 'other' aspect of the daydream - the clear implication that JFK is damned in Hell for all eternity - is probably what you mean. Its meant to completely undermine the "saintly" reputation that JFK has always enjoyed in the US (and it wickedly uses the very Catholic afterlife characterizations for our first-Catholic President). Without taking a stand at all myself on the matter, lets just say that, while JFK did begin some great things and inspired so many Americans during his Presidency, with time the prespective gets a little more objective. His election has always been somewhat controvesial, because of his father's 'dabbling' in Chicago electoral politics. He got us into Vietnam. He got a nervous nation through the nuclear-fear-soaked Cuban Missile Crisis, but this was begun by his CIA's idiotic Bay of Pigs fiasco. He was very ill with Grave's disease, possibly more, and he was a serial adulterer, and all of these facts were kept out of the public's knowledge by a complicit, clubby press. He was young and inspirational, but his legacy is also largely based in unknowable promise unfulfilled, because he was tragically killed only 2 years into his administration. Justly-praised Saint or Secret Sinner - OFF simply gives us a very rarely-seen unconventional portrayal of the guy.

[What I do find very disconcerting about the daydream is that it doesn't really work as "lisa's" vision. Usually, ("Summer of 4'2" at the library, "George Washington" in "Iconoclast," Bart polishing her many awards ("Lisa the Simpson", and "Kennedy Center" come to mind,) her dreams are tinged with and defined by her own concious and subconcious desires and perspectives. Here, I don't think it really is, and it doesn't really work.]

Originally posted by nickmeister
How does Roger Myers know that. I know that, but I should. Are you lot all American?

I don't understand the question.
Just because the House of Windsor likes to keep it quiet that they derive all of their claim to "royalty" by virtue of its marriage into the Hapsburg dynasty of Germany, doesn't mean that we newer countries don't know the "secret" - its public information. Why "should" you know this and not the rest of us? And "Regina" is Latin - its our root language too.

Lawnboy: Its a very strange reference, no doubt. It probably refers to Bowie's huge financial windfall about 4 years ago, after he (the first to do so) bought the rights back to his entire musical catalogue, and began selling stock in its "future earnings potential" on the open stock market as a commodity. This has enabled Bowie to become somewhat of a philanthropist, but he's primairly endowed the arts, not religious efforts or churches. It was already a dated and obscure reference, though, when "She of Little Faith" aired, so it may have been simply intended as "weird".

[Charmy]

Just watched Mr. Plow. In said episode, Homer pretends to be 'Tony Plow from Leave it to Beaver' to avoid talking to the Repo guys, which is the set-up for a nice joke. While this is completely irrelevent to the joke, it's been bugging me: Was there really a Tony Plow involved with Leave it to Beaver? I'm betting there wasn't, but still...

[Roger Myers III]

The real person was actor Tony Dow, who played big brother Wally.

(Bonus trivia of no use to anyone at all: My own mother was Dow's junior prom date in high school.)

[Tibor]

Having never actually seen Leave it to Beaver, what was the relevance to "Yeah, they were gay"?

[Roger Myers III]

I don't think anyone in the cast was actually or even rumored to be gay, or that that the show contained any "common mispecreptions" or subtexts to any of the relationships either. It was probably a question posed to "Tony Plow" in the same manner as Homer's curiosity about celebrities' sexual preferences was expressed in "Three Gays of the Condo", or the townsfolk's general interest in Troy's bent in "Fish Called Selma." Its "dish, dish, dish!"

[Destro]

My question is from the episode A Star is Burns. After Jay Sherman wins the belching contest with Homer, Lisa asks 'Wow, How many Pulitzer Prize winners can do that?!'. Jay replies just me and Eudora Welty. Her belching is also referenced later with Krusty

I never understood the joke though. Why would they associate her with belching? Is it just a random joke?

[Andy]

Not as much random as it is ironic. Would you expect someone like this to have a belch that resounding?



And for those who are interested, here is Welty's bio. She died in 2001.

[whisman]

Uh no I would not?

I got a question from A Star Is Born Again, on Homers line:

Homer: Who the hell is Mr. Flanders? Oooh, Flanders.

Was this supposed to be a joke? If so, I missed something.