Simpsons Treehouse of Horror VI question

[dead-ced-dead]

The first YouTube live stream is this Friday. The Simpsons Mess We're In. I have issued an open invitation to Albert Brooks too.

He may be too busy doing his Christmas shopping.

[dead-ced-dead]

Thinking about how the "viking" joke mystery was solved still makes me angry. I will always make me angry. Loved the joke. I loved Ralph getting say something funny and absurd instead of the durr durr I have a learning disability shit he was turning into it.

Literally like if Cleese went on Twitter to say "the joke was the parrot was clearly still alive and the customer was being unreasonable"

dumbfounded that it didn't end up with David Mirkin in stocks on the town square, covered in cartoon tomatoes. Fucking everything has to have a literal meaning and in the canon and lore. Write my buttocks up in TVTropes you joke ruining diseased minds.

Wait, what was solved about the Viking joke? Fill me in and I'll be your friend.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Wait, what was solved about the Viking joke? Fill me in and I'll be your friend.

There's a long standing debate about whether Ralph dreams he's literally a viking or whether he means he's great at sleeping.

I was in the room when it was pitched and laughed because I thought it meant he was great at sleeping

Simple: Ralph dreams he's a Viking. Ralph was never written with the ability to understand a complex & obscure metaphor like saying he is a Viking at something, meaning he is great at it. If I knew Scully had misunderstood a joke like that, I would have fired him instantly.

This is maddening to me because I can't even see the room for ambiguity let alone see why Ralph would dream about Vikings or what relevance that had to him being told to go to sleep. With "goodbye to a shoe" its an ambiguous line anyway, this however...

[jobotic]

How on earth is imagining a separate occasions in which Homer saw somebody said goodbye to a show funnier than Homer reminiscing about something that happened five seconds before. One is a wacky scenario and the other is character humour. There isn't anything wrong with the former, I just find the latter funnier.

I'm willing to go full Glinner on this. Don't care how many family or friends I lose.

I've never thought of your interpretation before. It is funny but it's funnier to think him remembering a situation where it had happened before.

If a stranger says "have we met?" you wouldn't say "yes, just now. You said "have we met, remember?"

Makes no sense.

[dead-ced-dead]

There's a long standing debate about whether Ralph dreams he's literally a viking or whether he means he's great at sleeping.

This is maddening to me because I can't even see the room for ambiguity let alone see why Ralph would dream about Vikings or what relevance that had to him being told to go to sleep. With "goodbye to a shoe" its an ambiguous line anyway, this however...

I hate that explanation too. You were right to be angry.

[madhair60]

Anyone who doesn't think the joke is Ralph dreaming of being a viking is genuinely a fucking idiot, I'm not even messing around, this isn't an exaggerated "bit". There are going to be some PMs I can assure you.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Anyone who doesn't think the joke is Ralph dreaming of being a viking is genuinely a fucking idiot, I'm not even messing around, this isn't an exaggerated "bit". There are going to be some PMs I can assure you.

I cracked my knuckles so loud the fire alarm went off. It's on.

[Cuellar]

How on earth is imagining a separate occasions in which Homer saw somebody said goodbye to a show funnier than Homer reminiscing about something that happened five seconds before. One is a wacky scenario and the other is character humour. There isn't anything wrong with the former, I just find the latter funnier.

I'm willing to go full Glinner on this. Don't care how many family or friends I lose.

It's funnier because Scorpio's question is clearly rhetorical and he's just making a point but Homer takes it face value AND he has actually seen someone say 'goodbye' to a shoe, an absurd and funny scenario (imagine what he must have been involved in to have seen someone say goodbye to a shoe! Crazy!!). It also serves to undercut Scorpio's eccentric boss persona - Homer's been aorund, he's seen someone chuck a shoe away before, no big deal.

The "Homer's referring to 5 seconds ago" theory is just flat to me. There's no depth to it. It's like saying "You just did aaahha" when someone says "Can I ask a question?".

[Old Nehamkin]

Why would "being a viking" be synonymous with being good at something? That's not an expression anybody's ever used in real life, is it?

Also Mike Scully presided over the period when the Simpsons went from being good to being shit so I don't value his opinion.

[checkoutgirl]

When Scorpio asks Homer if he has ever seen a man say goodbye to a shoe, Homer is reminiscing five seconds earlier when he saw Scorpio say goodbye to his shoes and not some separate occasion in which he saw another man say goodbye to a shoe.

I always interpreted that as Homer saw a man say goodbye to a shoe once, years ago on a rainy night in Soho or what have you. That being the less expected answer and therefore funnier. If he was just referring to what just happened a second ago he's just being a bit of a smart arse and that's much less funny.

As for Do Not Touch Willie. I've always seen that as do not touch penises in general, as in other men's penises. As in don't be a homosexual gay. So when Homer see the sign he sees "Don't Be Homosexual" he thinks yeah, that's correct and therefore good advice. I'm not sure off the top of my head how often if at all Homer was homophobic by season 4 but by season 8 there's an entire episode dedicated to it featuring John Waters so it's definitely more than feasible as an anti gay sentiment from Homer. Not touching Groundskeeper Willie makes no sense and those two interpretations are the only two I can think of given Homer's reading of the sign.

[selectivememory]

He's obviously saying he dreams about being a Viking. Baffling that anyone would have assumed otherwise.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

This is gangstalking!

[checkoutgirl]

Marge is cooing over "recipe related bumper cars". This is followed by a shot of Bart and Lisa looking at each other in excitement. The shot then lingers for a good second or two, it almost looks like the DVD has paused. Before abruptly cutting to them jumping on the bed shouting "YAYY" as if Homer and Marge have agreed to take them. But nothing of the sort has happened yet.

It's just Bart and Lisa realise in that moment that they have won the argument and that they're as good as going to Itchy and Scratchy Land. It's not verbally confirmed yet but they pick up on the body language of the parents, they know it's in the bag.

[madhair60]

The Simpsons joke I don't get and seemingly NOBODY gets is "I'm the first non-Brazilian person to travel backwards through time!"

[Video Game Fan 2000]

The Simpsons joke I don't get and seemingly NOBODY gets is "I'm the first non-Brazilian person to travel backwards through time!"

It means he's good at travelling through time.

[Cuellar]

There's a long standing debate about whether Ralph dreams he's literally a viking or whether he means he's great at sleeping.

This is maddening to me because I can't even see the room for ambiguity let alone see why Ralph would dream about Vikings or what relevance that had to him being told to go to sleep. With "goodbye to a shoe" its an ambiguous line anyway, this however...

So you think Ralph UNAMBIGUOUSLY means he's good at sleep, and 'to be a viking' means, 'to be good at something'? And that this is the only explanation for the line?

I've known that people have the wrong opinion about the shoe line, I've sort of accepted that. But I'd never heard of this 'viking' thing before and it's really making me ask some pretty fundamental questions of my own theory of mind.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Yes. I really can't hear it any other way.

The shoes thing I can go either way on. It just seems like Homer is saying "yes" because "ever seen a guy say goodbye to a shoe" is an absurd question and he's not following things, and the guy saying all that stuff is his new boss that he doesn't want to offend. But it's ambiguous. Viking isn't to me.

[BJBMK2]

The Simpsons joke I don't get and seemingly NOBODY gets is "I'm the first non-Brazilian person to travel backwards through time!"

According to those NEEERDS at the Simpsons Archive:

Mark Johnson's best guess is that Homer was referring to Carlos
    Castaneda, "a Brazilian who wrote about his chemical-induced
    `adventures' about twenty years ago.  A rather trendy (for the
    college crowd) set of books from the late-60's, early 70's."

[idunnosomename]

Arguments have been made both for and against Mr. Snrub being a disguise or a separate person. Guy Incognito is given as an example of how even though a person initially appeared to be Homer Simpson wearing a disguise, they turned out to be a separate person.

Guy Incognito appeared in "Fear of Flying", walking into Moe's Tavern for a drink shortly after Homer had been banned for playing a prank on Moe that Moe and the other bar patrons objected to. He had the same physical appearance as Homer but with a moustache of a style in between a "Dali" and an "English" moustache. Guy's voice was also the same as Homer's but with a pronounced or exaggerated English accent. The suit and top hat were different than what Homer might normally wear.

Moe immediately identified him as Homer and told him to leave. Despite saying he did not know who Homer was and giving his name, he did not convince them it was true. He was beaten up and tossed out the front door. A few seconds later, Homer walked by and spotted his look-alike lying unconscious on the sidewalk.

In the case of Mr. Snrub, it becomes clear it is Mr. Burns in disguise by the following:

At the beginning when he identifies himself and says "Hello, my name is Mr. Snrub", the "Snrub" is said with a little bit of difficulty, as if he is not used to saying it. A person born with the name would say it much more easily. This indicates the name was chosen on the spur of the moment and is simply "Burns" spelled backwards.
The hesitation before stating he came from "someplace far away", followed by shiftily telling himself, "Yes, that will do" also point to this being made up on the spot.
Likewise when Smithers approves of Snrub's suggestion, Smithers also has difficulty saying the name, even though he heard it said a few seconds before. The difficulty comes from having to call Mr. Burns by the new name instead of the one he is used to.
Further information supporting Mr. Snrub being a disguise comes from Smithers attending the meeting. He sits next to someone he supposedly hasn't met before, yet gives his approval to what this stranger recommends. A person behaving as Smither did is called a "shill" or a "plant".

Finally, the fact that Smithers had the grappling hook gun with him indicates he was prepared in case he and Mr. Burns needed to leave quickly. In order for Mr. Snrub to be a separate person and not Mr. Burns in disguise, the following would have needed to occur:

Smithers in the habit of carrying the grappling hook gun with him on a regular basis, or decided that carrying it to the meeting at the Town Hall would be necessary for some reason other than preparing for an escape.
Smithers would have had to make a split-second decision that the crowd becoming angry at this other man required that the man be rescued and they should both leave immediately.
A second split second decision would have been made that the best way both for them to leave was for Smithers to use the grappling hook gun he just happened to have with him, rather than helping the man leave by one of the doors.
When the behavior of Snrub and Smithers is added to to the unlikely situation of Smithers carrying a tool with him like the grappling hook gun for no apparent reason other than "just because", the information points to Snrub being a disguise for Mr. Burns.

[stonkers]

The joke is that Ralph dreams about being a Viking and he doesn't really understand the difference between dreams and reality. Speaking of Glinner it's basically a Dougal joke. This is the first I've heard of this "he's good at sleeping" interpretation but apparently it's quite widespread. Bewildering.

[BJBMK2]

Also, Ralph is barefoot in that scene, and if you look at the licence plate of the car, it reads 28 IFF...once you've watched it backwards of course.

[Captain Z]

Some people in this thread are vikings at getting things wrong.

[Jumblegraws]

There's a joke in a later episode - Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo - which obviously plays on the double meaning of 'Willie' as 'penis'.

There's also an example that's (imo) even more overt in the episode Skinner's Sense of Snow, "Okay Skinner. That's the last time you'll slap your Willie around. I quit!"
I lean towards the ToH gag being a double-entendre, however I actually find the idea of Homer thinking it means "Don't touch Groundskeeper Willie" funnier.

[Jumblegraws]

Do Americans generally know about "willy" as a slang term for genitals? I doubt Homer would read willy on a sign and think of a penis. Nor would Dan?

I can think of two examples from American films off the top of my head where "willy" is unequivocally used to mean penis: Robin Hood: Men in tights (albeit said by a character that's supposed to be British) and Shallow Hal. Both these willy-utterances took me by surprise precisely because I also thought Americans never used the word that way, hence why I have them committed to memory. Willy.

[ramsobot]

The Simpsons joke I don't get and seemingly NOBODY gets is "I'm the first non-Brazilian person to travel backwards through time!"

On the commentary track for that episode, Groening is dismayed that they changed it from the original line which was "non-fictional person" and David X. Cohen explains that they pitched on that joke in the room for several hours and they just arrived at a non sequitur that they thought was funny at the time. The writers sound just as confused as we all are on that one.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Willy Utterance came to my school once and did a talk about firework safety. We pelted him with Monster Munch while he was trying to sell us his new book of nonsense verse for kids and he ran off crying to his Vauxhall Corsa.

[kngen]

Arguments have been made both for and against Mr. Snrub being a disguise or a separate person.

I thought this might be a delicious satire, but it genuinely seems like some people (who regard themselves as fans of The Simpsons) have a complete inability to grasp the basics of humour. Fucking hell.

Edit: Not you, idunnosomename. I mean the people perpetuating that ridiculous theory.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

that ridiculous theory.

It was in December 17th 1989 when the world was introduced to the family known as The Simpsons. They are thought to reside in a town called Springfield which probably takes place in Oregon within The United States. They can be seen several times a week on almost any channel at almost any time. The series is presented as an animated sitcom that is a spin-off from The Tracey Ullman Show where they first appeared in April 19th 1987.

There are innumerable fansites that one can find loads of information of "America's Favourite Family". Such sites can provide information on those who provide the voices for the characters and on the animation of the series.

This is all a lie!

I intend to show that there is a big coverup concerning the people of Springfield and especially of the Simpson family. Fox Broadcasting, The Environmental Protection Agency, The Atomic Energy Commission, World Nuclear Association, US Department of Energy, Nuclear Energy Agency, American Nuclear Society, Nuclear Energy Institute, United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and even the federal government of the United States of America including the President, are all involved in this dastardly conspiracy of the largest civilian nuclear disaster of all time.

We have all heard of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. But no one has heard of the terrible tragedy of Springfield, USA. Why is that? Why is the lackluster management of C. Montgomery Burns allowed to have become so bad? Why is he not in jail for crimes against the environment and against the people of Springfield? And why is his portrayal on The Simpsons seen as a comical farce when it fact he is the greatest monster of all time!

And why the coverup? Why the conspiracy?

The governmental and non-governmental agencies are to protect the American public from the mismanagement of poorly constructed and poorly run nuclear power plants. Yet the people of American and even the world, must suffer from the poisons that spew from Springfield. Why has nothing been done about this? Is this one of those "Too Big To Fail" things? Could the exposure of Springfield's nuclear disaster cause too many people to be negatively affected and that their careers will be ruined?

The coverup is real. There are real lives affected here and people are suffering and have suffered needlessly.

And the best way to hide something is put it in plain sight. By showing The Simpsons as an "animated" sit-com and pretending that they are figments of the Matt Groening imagination, the lie that is The Simpsons can be hidden from the truth.

The truth is that this is not an animated series like we are led to believe. The truth is that it is a reality show featuring the lives of real people in a real town suffering from the effects of a real environmental disaster. The lies will be shown for what they are!

The main intention of this site is to show that the people of Springfield are real people. I intend to provide evidence of their possible deaths from radiation poisoning. I intend to show that the "first" season was in fact the final season of the Simpsons. I will show that all the events of this show have happened in a span of only one year. And I will prove to you that there are many many people who are trying to hide the truth of a huge disaster that has taken place in the United States of America. 

Date of Recording

There is appreciable speculation on when this series was first recorded and this is hampered by the lack of events or dates that are mentioned that can show specific times and dates within the series. There are clues, but those clues are few and far between. To start off, there must be some assumptions that must be made.

These assumptions include:

    That season one is the final season of the Simpsons and not the first as it is widely portrayed.
    That the Simpsons on The Simpson Shorts that are The Tracey Ullman Show are one in the fact the same.
    The cast of The Simpsons never appear to age.
    That the term "animation" that is used to describe The Simpsons is an intentional deception.
    That the different appearances of the Springfield residents that are seen in The Simpson Shorts and in season one of The Simpsons are not the result of the animators not settling on a certain style, but in fact evidence of widespread and drastic diseases that the people have contracted through radiation exposure and through other toxic environmental factors.
    That all the content ever recorded for The Simpsons was all done before April 1987, the date of when the Simpson family first appears on American television for the first time on the Tracey Ullman Show.
    That the use of "voice actors" like Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria and multitudes more is just a scheme to add layers to the Simpsons Conspiracy and make it difficult to expose the truth.

That the conspiracy is known to those in position and yet they choose to remain oblivious to this plight of the Springfield citizenry.

    Krusty has a heart attack in 1986 Tracey Ullman style Simpsons. It was on April 5th 1987 that 20th Century Fox Television that The Tracey Ullman Show made its debut on American TV. In this new series that premiered we are introduced to the Simpson family the in segments called The Simpson Shorts. The appearance of the Simpsons is compared to that of poorly drawn animation. Later in 1989, these Simpson people get their own television series named after them call The Simpsons. It becomes discernible that the appearance of this family is considerably different. Some say that a larger budget allows for better animation techniques. I say otherwise.

In Episode Twelve Krusty is arrested and in a news article that is featured a day before his trial, we see footage of a heartattack that Krusty experienced in 1986. This is proof apparent that the Springfieldians were around and relatively healthier than they would be in less than a year later. The footage seen may not have be captured by a Fox cameraman but it is still compelling evidence on the condition of the people in 1986 and then their condition as seen in The Simpson Shorts in 1987.
Environmental Destruction

As I have shown in Season One, these people are suffering from innumerable diseases. I can point easily to the source of this epidemic to the leaking radiation of Springfield Nuclear. It is this radiation that not only affects the people, but also effects the environment. Within several episodes in the first season alone, we see uncensored images of environmental damage. In Episode Two we see a plant that starts out as green and then is seen in a later scene as orange. It is in Episode Four there is a spooky orange sky during the daytime. This cannot be attributed to a sunset as it is still too early in the day for such and event. We are also shown a landscape raped with toxins that the soil is miscoloured and it burns constantly. Again in Episode Five, we see a skyscape that is out of the ordinary. Normal blue in one direction, an ominous red-orange color. Episode Seven shows off colour leaves as the Simpsons trek through the forest.

Radioactive materials released wantonly into the environment can do many strange and not so wonderful things. In order for Fox Broadcasting to explain the odd looking people and scenery, they came up with a story that was widely and easily accepted. Fox announced that this is an animated series. Are we to believe that some guy sat at a table and drew each and every frame of The Simpsons? I think not. These people we see on The Simpsons are evidently real flesh and blood people. An animator just cannot add so much detail to the show simply with a pencil. We see signs and symptoms of diseases and the subtle nuances of pollutions effect on the people and places of Springfield. Not even the most dedicated animator with an obsessive attention to detail can come up with this much information in every single frame of The Simpsons. This points to the reality of the series The Simpsons. These are real people who happen to live in a nuclear tainted location. To say that the suffering of their bodies is a comical farce of an animated cartoon is insulting. To say that it is just a animators style that explains the weird sky and odd land is a travesty. Yet most of world swallowed this hook, line and sinker!

Fox had to come up with something to explain the odd situation of Springfield. This was the first lie in the vast coverup of the people and places that are seen on The Simpsons. But why do this in the first place? If they said the truth that this is a real show with real people, then people would cause an outcry on the huge nuclear disaster that happened and is happening in Springfield and the surrounding communities. The lawsuits and criminal investigations would eat into the coffers of Fox and everyone else involved. Money is god to the greedy and losing their god is worse than losing their lives. So it is by human nature that these evil greedy people would find themselves starting to coverup the devastation of Springfield and its residents.
Widespread Disease

On the Season One page is a list of a myriad of diseases that the residents of Springfield have. Diseases that go untreated get worse with time and this is clearly perceptible in these afflicted citizens. It is easy to get an idea of the time sequence of The Simpsons by looking at the progression of their diseases. Since diseases always conclude with the death of the individual and their progression into a state of inferior health, we can see the timeline of the series recording in the people themselves. On The Tracey Ullman Show, the Simpsons are seen in their final days as cancer and other wasting diseases are taking their toll. In Season one of The Simpsons, we see throughout the season varies stages of decline in each and every episode. It is conclusive that the order of the episodes on season one are not shown in sequence. It is because of their extremely poor health on The Tracey Ullman Show and the news blurt of Krusty's heartattack in 1986 that we must conclude that the entire series was recorded in about a years time. In 1986 Krusty appears "normal". By the time he appears in The Tracey Ullman show, he and others are in a severely dire state of health. In later seasons, the Simpsons and other members of Springfield are only in the beginning stages of their decline in health. They suffer from on jaundice and goiter and it is this look that is dominate in seasons two and up. I will call this "normal" for lack of a better term.

This decreasing health of Springfield is the reason why The Simpson Shorts were aired before The Simpsons and why the last weeks of Springfield is called season one despite patent evidence to show that it is the end for them. Since it was determined beforehand to use the excuse of poor animation to coverup the state of health, simply showing the series would draw attention to the conspiracy that they are trying to hide. Who can they show a chronologically accurate timeline and hide the failing health of its cast? That is why Tracey Ullman came first. Using the excuse of poor animation (which it is not because this is a reality show with real people,, not hand drawn ones like we are led to believe) they covered up the disease issue. Then using the final weeks of Springfield, they created season one of The Simpsons. Season two appears to be a few weeks before season one and the rest of the seasons are shown in no particular order. So it is in fact that we are seeing the lives of the Simpsons and the lives of Springfield backwards. Season one is really the last season of The Simpsons.

Maggie is the never aging baby The smoking gun to this argument that all of this is recorded in a short period of time is the never aging baby Maggie Simpson. We also see Bart and Lisa and every other child in Springfield always remaining in the same grade and never appearing to grow at all. But it is Maggie's lack of physical development that needs explanation. It is easy to pass off Lisa and the others since they are older and development slows down a lot after age two. Maggie is under age two and yet she seems stagnant in growth. Even though the town is strife with disease and those diseases can stunt the growth of children, these children will still learn to talk and walk and still show some growth. Maggie shows almost none of that. In the two decades of watching Maggie, she has yet to say her first sentence. She has yet to walk competently. Add this with her siblings and we see that there is something amiss. The Simpsons had to be recorded in a time period of a year or less.

[Andy147]

According to those NEEERDS at the Simpsons Archive:

That's also the explanation given in "The Simpsons: A Complete Guide To Our Favourite Family": "Homer's reference to himself as the 'first non-Brazilian person to travel backwards through time' alludesto hallucinogen-inspired author Carlos Castanade".

[idunnosomename]

I thought this might be a delicious satire, but it genuinely seems like some people (who regard themselves as fans of The Simpsons) have a complete inability to grasp the basics of humour. Fucking hell.

Edit: Not you, idunnosomename. I mean the people perpetuating that ridiculous theory.

no dont worry. im making fun of the people who deconstruct every episode of the series as if it's a canonical sacred text too. there's some seriously mad stuff on the simpsons wikis that would be funny if it was satire, but some of it is just so over-the-top dissecting single line of dialogue it gets a bit scary. makes the usenet of old that Ian and Mike shit their pants over look like they have a wide variety of hobbies.