I was chatting with a friend of mine today as we sat around a bunch of fellow nerds, and he asked me about my summer employment – I told him I was working for the assistant dean at Osgoode (which I am), and naturally his response was to start making “crusty old Dean” quotes from the episode of The Simpsons where Homer goes to college. Naturally I jumped in (“yeah, and she played bass for the Pretenders”) because, you know, nerd.
But here is the horrifying bit: the younger nerds around us did not recognize the quoting, and when we told them it was The Simpsons they were amazed because to them, that’s not what they immediately identify with The Simpsons.
So, in conclusion? Be forewarned that if you recognize references to fifth-season Simpsons episodes, you may well in fact be an old person in addition to being a nerd. Consider this a warning. You are welcome.
Top comment: I for one appreciate this reminder that for all your impressive Canadian blogging awards and talk about law school, you are still just another nerd making fifteen-year-old Simpsons references. – Jim Smith
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It’s like when SNL was in any way quotable, circa 1975! In the ’90s we thought it was passable, and ran around citing Toonces and Church Lady. Folks our age wouldn’t recgnize Bill Murrayisms without clip shows.
And yet… wouldn’t syndication make Good Simpsons far more accessible to today’s jaded youth?
Lemme put it this way: M*A*S*H was on all the fucking time in reruns when I was a kid. I couldn’t have quoted five lines from it at any time because it was Old People TV.
No kidding. It’s almost as bad as the “I loved the first Zelda game! It was the first 3D RPG I played!” kids.
Somehow I thought I’d turn twenty before becoming a geezer. Ah, well; back to the home before they declare me legally dead and collect my insurance.
Considering the kids these days like Family Guy, i’d rather be old.
I for one appreciate this reminder that for all your impressive Canadian blogging awards and talk about law school, you are still just another nerd making fifteen-year-old Simpsons references.
I took psych 101 my senior year to grab my last minute general recs and our teacher had a very nice party at the end of the semester. Now, if the fact that I felt obliged to help her out in the kitchen and chatted with her husband about the economy didn’t mark me as the geezer among freshmen, I damn well sealed the deal when I made a Mac Hall reference.
Dear god, you could hear the pin drop…
Youth is no excuse for ignorance of the first nine seasons of the Simpsons, I recognize Monty Python references from 12 years before I was born. 3d6 lashes for all of them, or 2d4 if they make a dexterity saving throw.
UHHHHHHHHHH………. way to forget the character of the week?
Thursday Who’s Who is on hiatus for April, for reasons which should be fairly obvious.
Don’t they teach the Simpsons in school these days?
I used to be “with it!” Then they changed what “it” was! Now what I’m with isn’t “it,” and what’s “it” is weird and scary!
IT’LL HAPPEN TO *YOU!*
While knowing quotes from the first decade of The Simpsons marks me as an ancient nerd its better than being marked as someone who recognizes lines from the second decade of episodes…
People watch the second decade of The Simpsons? Like, at all?
I’m 21, and most of the people I know quote the Family Guy. Which is sad, for any number of reasons. Primarily that Family Guy is best watched on Youtube, because God Save You if anyone watched an entire twenty minutes of that tripe.
Seasons five and six should be mandatory viewing for all.
I work with teenagers and made the mistake of referring to “Marky Mark” the other day. It never occurred to me that there would ever be be a generation of people who didn’t know that Mark Walberg started off as a rapper. Their jaws nearly hit the floor when I told them about the Funky Bunch.
Kids today. They don’t know what good Simpsons are anymore!
So are you going to be Secretary of PARTYING DOWN?!
And now is the perfect time to get Nerdlinger to build that bra-bomb.
Ok, speaking as a young nerd, I grew up in a world that never didn’t have the simpsons. My parents loved it so I grew up watching the show. I quoted the show a lot (bonus: my friends weren’t allowed to watch the show, so I was the funny one without actually having to be witty)
Anyways, given all that, I’m not sure I could recognize a Simpsons Quote. Its been a long time since I regularly watched it, since the chances of seeing on of the newer mediocre ones in syndication are that much higher.
Wait… wouldn’t this mean that these kids don’t recognize Troy McClure or Lionel Hutz??
Damn punk kids!
There’s a list of references that gets released by an American University on a fairly regular basis. I can’t remember for the life of me any more details about it, but I know it exists. It’s a simple list that’s intended to help professors understand the worldview of the latest crop of undergrads. Simple, helpful things like “Stop refering to breadboxes. Nobody has seen or used a breadbox in 25 f***ing years.”
OK, it’s more polite than that, but you get the point. Things like “There’s no such thing as a rotary phone,” or, “There has always been an internet.”
This year, I do believe we get to add to that list “The Simpsons have always been on TV”. As long as these 18-year-olds have been alive, Homer & Co. have been doing their thing.
Think on that, ye mid-20′s, and despair.
We used to have a rotary phone when I was a kid. I used to enjoy using it because it was weird and old.
“Lemme put it this way: M*A*S*H was on all the fucking time in reruns when I was a kid. I couldn’t have quoted five lines from it at any time because it was Old People TV.”
Seems like a bad analogy since old Simpsons is still the same show. It’s not like there’s a code word for old people television embedded in those old Simpsons episodes.
“Lemme put it this way: M*A*S*H was on all the fucking time in reruns when I was a kid. I couldn’t have quoted five lines from it at any time because it was Old People TV.”
You missed a lot. M*A*S*H is great. And I’m someone who’s only seen it in reruns
Dr. Strange is 83% Rex the Wonder Dog and cool enough for four weeks.
Samy, seasons three through six are the Canon, and seven through eight, the Apocrypha. Nine and after are sort of the “Left Behind” equivalent.
The list Z cites is the Beloit College Mindset list, based on the age of the incoming freshman class. Witness, if you dare:
“15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
…
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
…
56. Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.”
http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2012.php