The Simpsons effect on
English
A number of neologisms that started on The
Simpsons have entered common usage. The most famous of which is Homer's
saying: "D'oh!", which is referred to in scripts, as well as three episode
names, as "annoyed grunt". D'oh is now listed in the OED, but without the
apostrophe. "D'oh" is the accepted spelling, and is certainly the most common;
the closed captions for the program (at least in the U.S.), however, spell it
"D-OHH".
Groundskeeper Willy's phrase, "cheese-eating
surrender monkeys", used to describe the French, was picked up by U.S.
politicians and publications in 2003, after European and especially French
opposition to the proposed invasion of Iraq.
The expression "excellent" — drawn out as a
raspy "eeeexcelllent..." in the style of Montgomery Burns — has also entered
popular use, as have Homer's triumphant "Woohoo!" and Nelson Muntz's mocking
"HA-ha!".
On Slashdot and Fark, one particular meme: "I
for one welcome our new <Insert topic here> overlords" stems from a quote of
Kent Brockman from the episode "Deep Space Homer":
- Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the
picture, but, uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has
apparently been taken over — "conquered", if you will — by a master race of
giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they
will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for
certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one,
welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV
personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground
sugar caves.
The show's creators also take pride in having
passed on schoolyard rhymes to a new generation of children who otherwise may
not have heard them. |
