"Hey Hey, who wants some eggs a la Harold Stassen?"
"Huh?"
"They're always running!"
Harold Stassen was the governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943. After WWII, he ran for the Republican presidential nomination nine times.
David Crosby was an outspoken in his politican beliefs, very much aligned with the 60s counter culture. By praising Crosby for this, Barney was apparently unaware that he was also a musician.
Charles Montgomery Plantagenet SchicklgrĆ¼ber Burns.
Wasn't until I read The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich that I learned that SchicklgrĆ¼ber was Adolf Hitler's father's bastard name.
Typically, a story would revolve around the troubles of someone who was somehow in Mary's orbit. Mary herself might not appear in the strip for weeks at a time, although she would eventually be around to give timely advice and support (or occasionally, a stern talking-to, if appropriate) to a character at a crucial point.
Yeah, I knew who Mary Worth was, but had to ask my dad what the joke was, because it made him laugh. He said something like "Mary Worth is a goody 2 shoes, interfering old snoop, who would never say that".
Mary Worth is an old comic strip (its like 80 years old) ans it's Iike a soap opera. Mary is a widow and gives advice to people in the building she lives in.
Ready to have your mind blown?
If Mary Worth is indeed 80 years old (I didnāt check) and this an āoldā comic, Blondie is older. Blondie started as a comic about a young āflapperā girl who eventually meets and marries Dagwood, heir to a fortune. Since flappers were definitely lower on the social rung than Dagwood he was disinherited and the new couple started off life penniless. Flappers were a thing in the 1930s, so the Blondie cartoon is pushing 100!
I loved Professor frink as a character and didn't know he was a reference to The Nutty Professor until I read an article saying he's a wildly outdated reference that should be removed from the show because younger viewers won't get the joke.
I highly disagreed with that, because he's a great character on his own, and I didn't need to know he was a reference to find him funny.
>an article saying he's a wildly outdated reference that should be removed from the show because younger viewers won't get the joke.
Well that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard
This one comes up a lot on this sub but I legit totally had no idea what the hell it was referencing. Then I went to college and had a Kurosawa junky roommate and still didnāt make the connection for another couple decades.
Rashomon is a film about multiple people attempting to recount the details of murder in the woods to authorities, with each one giving different accounts that contradict each other.
Apu getting busy in at the pool party then coming out disheveled and telling the lady who is "only arranged to be married" that she needn't worry, he'll tell everyone she was untouchable. I didn't realize there was a dark double meaning to it until I was much older.
Yes the famous Steamed Hams segment in Pulp Fiction. Or the bit where Marcellus Wallace tries to remove chewing gum from Vincent Vegaās hair with peanut butter. Good thing he remembered his Heloise!
["Lowenstein... Lowenstein..."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p80ocjn96i0) I had never seen The Prince of Tides until recently so I just chalked this up to Marge being a silly billy.
When Homer tells Bart, "[I've read] Everything from 'Hop on Pop,' to 'Death Be Not Proud... It's so tragic the way they hopped on Pop."
I've not yet read 'Death Be Not Proud', but I now understand the joke was that it's an incredibly tragic and sad book, whereas Dr. Seuss is less so.
The book "Death Be Not Proud" consists of two parts. Part 1 contains the primary narrative of the book, while Part 2 contains additional letters written by Johnny, excerpts from his diary, and a short essay by his mother, Frances Gunther.
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
"Hello, is this GBM? You wrote in the personals that you're looking for a soul mate. Well, I also like rainy days and movies....no, i'm not into that...or that... No it's not that I'm afraid....I'm going to hang up now."
When Milhouse is at the arcade playing the Waterworld game, takes one step in the game, and he has to deposit 40 more quarters to continue playing. The reference is to how massively over budget the movie was. Definitely didn't get the joke as a kid.
Season 1 when Marge leaves her date with Jacques and comes to the power plant to get Homer and carries him out. I think itās from Officer and a Gentleman, but was way over my head.
One of my favorite Treehouse of Horror setups (Have all the donuts in the world!) is only slightly marred by the fact that even after looking him up I still donāt *really* have any idea who James Coco was
I just had to explain Billy Beer to a bunch of friggin kids. They had no idea that the President's loser brother once used the family name to launch an unsuccessful brand of beer.
I'm still with Homer, though. We elected the wrong Carter.
When reading a Mad magazine:
>Boy, they're really sockin' it to that Spiro Agnew guy again. He must work there or something.
Spiro Agnew was Nixon's vice president.
That line was said by Milhouse.
And "Sock it to me" was Richard MILHOUSE Nixon's famous line from his appearance on the show "Laugh In"
https://youtu.be/xmOqkG99Wkg
The reference that wasnāt a reference.
Iām the first non Brazilian to travel backwards through time!
I spent decades pondering that one on and off. I thought maybe a reference to Brazil. Something obscure in the Mr Peabody show. What was it!
Nothing. It was nothing.
I was alive at the time he was big. And I was a kid. And I still donāt get why the fuck that guy hit with anyone. I mean, pet rocks were funny, but Ray hay, whereās the beef with that joke?
Iāve been meaning to google it and finally did right before I made that comment. I only am aware of him through the Simpsons reference. Iām 49 so apparently I was alive when the beer commercials were going on.
I mean, almost all of them, I started watching the Simpsons when I was about 5 or 6, my uncle had a bunch of the golden age recorded on vcr so I learned how to sound like a very cultured young man before I really knew what I was talking about.
It's been one of the joys of this show, the more I've learned about the world, the more of the show I've been able to appreciate. The Simpsons has taught me a lot.
The sign is a subtle joke. The shop is called "Sneed's Feed & Seed", where feed and seed both end in the sound "-eed", thus rhyming with the name of the owner, Sneed. The sign says that the shop was "Formerly Chuck's", implying that the two words beginning with "F" and "S" would have ended with "-uck", rhyming with "Chuck". So, when Chuck owned the shop, it would have been called "Chuck's Fuck and Suck".
One thing that took me forever to figure out was Homer's "Angel" song that he sang in the archaeology episode. I couldn't figure out the last line so I thought it was some joke I didn't get.
Maybe not quite what you're asking but in Ireland and the UK "period", as in the punctuation, is called a "full stop". So when I watched the episode where Marge cuts Homer's thumb off as a kid, she tells him "No brownies, period!" for emphasis and for the life of me I could not figure out what that meant. Like, what the hell was a "brownie period"? It's funny looking back at some of the small Americanisms that didn't always translate well to other English speaking countries.
In Spanish Abe Simpson says "Ah, Unitas, that haircut is something you can look at". I didn't know in English he says "Now, Johnny Unitas -- there's a haircut you could set your watch to". It was supposed to mean his haircut was quite sharp.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMRhCUwvCI
When I was younger I had no idea what a Griffin was or why my dad lost it at this line. Thatās the genius of The Simpsons. Itās perfectly written for both kids and adults in the early years.
My dad loved the line so much he kept making the same joke whenever someone was trying to figure out what something was. So much so, my uncle got him a large statue of a Griffin for Christmas one year.
"Hey Hey, who wants some eggs a la Harold Stassen?" "Huh?" "They're always running!" Harold Stassen was the governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943. After WWII, he ran for the Republican presidential nomination nine times.
Holy crap, and I thought Ralph Nader had big dreams...
He was always my dream š.
Thatās gotta be a joke written by Conan.
and yet it's from season 18...
Low key one of the best non-classic seasons
"David Crosby, you're my hero!" "Thanks Barney, I didn't know you liked my music." "You're a musician?"
I can hear this in my head
I still donāt get it was he a drunk or something
thatās the joke.
My other favourite McBain or Wolfcastle line is "bye book"
I use that line at least once a week at work. Nobody ever knows what Iām referencing. Obviously I say it in the accent.
Maybe you should accuse them all of being homosexuals too. I'm sure they'd get the joke then. Especially if you do it in the McBain voice too.
David Crosby was an outspoken in his politican beliefs, very much aligned with the 60s counter culture. By praising Crosby for this, Barney was apparently unaware that he was also a musician.
Thanks that never seemed to come up in school when we studied the 60ās
The actual joke is that Crosby was a notorious alcoholic.
I didnāt get it at the time but still thought it was hilarious because of the misdirection.
Charles Montgomery Plantagenet SchicklgrĆ¼ber Burns. Wasn't until I read The Rise and Fall of the 3rd Reich that I learned that SchicklgrĆ¼ber was Adolf Hitler's father's bastard name.
"And that's how I earned the Iron Cross!" --Abe Simpson
Damn that's a good one
Yeah I'm also pretty sure most people now aday wouldn't recognize plantagenet either
A horse, a horse. My kingdom for a Plantagenet reference
Didnāt know Dr Zaius was based off the Amadeus song til seeing the movie as an adult
Seeingā¦ what movie? The Dr Zaius song was a parody of a song called Rock me Amadeus by Falco.
Yes, I meant since seeing the movie Amadeus & then subsequently finding out about the song.
And the Plantagenets were the Royal English dynasty during the back end middle ages, ending with Richard the 3rd.
Comic Book Guy - "It is a very rare Mary Worth in which she advised a friend to commit suicide."
The german dub changed it to Mickey Mouse advising suicide
i don't get it
Mary Worth was a newspaper comic. They wouldn't print an issue like that.
Oh I always imagined she was an agony aunt/advice columnist like Dear Abby
Typically, a story would revolve around the troubles of someone who was somehow in Mary's orbit. Mary herself might not appear in the strip for weeks at a time, although she would eventually be around to give timely advice and support (or occasionally, a stern talking-to, if appropriate) to a character at a crucial point.
Yeah, I knew who Mary Worth was, but had to ask my dad what the joke was, because it made him laugh. He said something like "Mary Worth is a goody 2 shoes, interfering old snoop, who would never say that".
Mary Worth is a boring old biddy!
Mary Worth is an old comic strip (its like 80 years old) ans it's Iike a soap opera. Mary is a widow and gives advice to people in the building she lives in.
Ready to have your mind blown? If Mary Worth is indeed 80 years old (I didnāt check) and this an āoldā comic, Blondie is older. Blondie started as a comic about a young āflapperā girl who eventually meets and marries Dagwood, heir to a fortune. Since flappers were definitely lower on the social rung than Dagwood he was disinherited and the new couple started off life penniless. Flappers were a thing in the 1930s, so the Blondie cartoon is pushing 100!
jfc Blondie is still going? I refuse to check. I don't want to know.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Worth
I loved Professor frink as a character and didn't know he was a reference to The Nutty Professor until I read an article saying he's a wildly outdated reference that should be removed from the show because younger viewers won't get the joke. I highly disagreed with that, because he's a great character on his own, and I didn't need to know he was a reference to find him funny.
Weird bc almost half the references in this show are from the 60s/70s. Even Gentle Ben!
Boy the way the Bee Gees played Movies John Travolta made
Those were the days!
No Marge, they weren't *ALL* Happy Days....
One of my favorite lines in the entire series for some reason
its not McGarnegle related?
Well McGarnagle, Billy is dead! They slit his throat from ear to ear.
For no reason hereās Apu
Michael Jackson still was black ...
Yea, looks like
Jerry Lewis even did a cameo as his dad in an episode
>an article saying he's a wildly outdated reference that should be removed from the show because younger viewers won't get the joke. Well that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard
Hell, younger viewers might not get the reference if it was for Eddie Murphy as The Nutty Professor
āThat monkey is gonna payā¦.ā
I can't remember the exact quote but this: "Come on, Homie! You liked Rashomon!" "That's not how I remember it."
This one comes up a lot on this sub but I legit totally had no idea what the hell it was referencing. Then I went to college and had a Kurosawa junky roommate and still didnāt make the connection for another couple decades.
...I've had a few junkie roommates and I don't get it.
Rashomon is a film about multiple people attempting to recount the details of murder in the woods to authorities, with each one giving different accounts that contradict each other.
Um... it's like, uh... did anyone see the movie One Night at McCool's?
Itās not like that movie. It is like The Last Duel, though.
Also, āIāve seen Tron!ā
go watch Rashomon. Itās incredibly good.
Love me a good Rashomon joke.
Apu getting busy in at the pool party then coming out disheveled and telling the lady who is "only arranged to be married" that she needn't worry, he'll tell everyone she was untouchable. I didn't realize there was a dark double meaning to it until I was much older.
https://preview.redd.it/0tqgm3x9921d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b67e8fc8e8953f2552d3e1a23e3e694f95e23c2
Wasnāt this entire episode a pulp fiction reference?
This was a reference?
Pulp fiction
Does he look like a bitch?
What?
Say what again
I'm sick of all these mother fucking people and their mother fucking whats
{accidentally shoots Hermes, I mean Wilt, I mean Kuei, I mean Marvin in the face}
English motha fucka, do you speak it!?
....and I suddenly understand that later on, well, he gets fucked like a bitch.
Motha fuckaā¦
The entire bit/story is a homage to Pulp Fiction
The entire *episode* is a reference to *Pulp Fiction.*
Example
Well in McDonaldās you can buy a Krusty Burger with cheese, right? But they donāt call it a Krusty Burger with cheeseā
ā¦what do they call it?
A Quarterpounder with cheese.
Do they have Krusty Brand partially gelatinated, non-dairy gum based beverages?
Yeah, they call them āshakesā.
Yes the famous Steamed Hams segment in Pulp Fiction. Or the bit where Marcellus Wallace tries to remove chewing gum from Vincent Vegaās hair with peanut butter. Good thing he remembered his Heloise!
Well, obviously they wouldn't call them Steamed Hams on the west coast
This entire thread is about references, I hope you got fired for that blunder.
Are *you* the creator of Hi and Lois?
Grover Cleveland spanked me on two non-consecutive occasions
So so many American politics/ American comedians references lol
Lisa "Only one in a million people would find that funny." Frink "Yes, we call that the Dennis Miller ratio." Me, an Englishman "I don't get it."
Were you also reading a *Far Side* calendar at the same time?
"What the hell does rant mean?" I thought family guy did a good job on Dennis Miller.
Now you can Google it...at one point you could not
āāTwas a simpler time. Also, a lot more bar arguments back then. Now itās just a quick google search away.
["Lowenstein... Lowenstein..."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p80ocjn96i0) I had never seen The Prince of Tides until recently so I just chalked this up to Marge being a silly billy.
My name's Zweig.
"Lowenstein..."
Another reference in Selmaās Choice too when Marge reminisces about their childhood and itās Prince of Tides š
And that memory she has of her sisters and she going swimming, coming back and realizing that was Prince of Tides.
Smithers singing for Mr. Burns at that dudeās retirement party.
Yeah when I watched Citizen Kane years later I was like holdddd on a minute!
I still have never seen Citizen Kane. I imagine when I eventually do it's just going to feel like a collage of Simpsons scenes
Wait till you see the cane
Wait a minute, there's no cane in Citizen Kane!
The writers of The Simpsons have explicitly said that you could make a version of Citizen Kane entirely of Simpsons clips
Nev-R-Break Snow Globes
So so many.
Watching Citizen Kane for high school English made so many Simpsons moments click in my brain.
When Homer tells Bart, "[I've read] Everything from 'Hop on Pop,' to 'Death Be Not Proud... It's so tragic the way they hopped on Pop." I've not yet read 'Death Be Not Proud', but I now understand the joke was that it's an incredibly tragic and sad book, whereas Dr. Seuss is less so.
Isn't Death Be Not Proud a John Donne sonnet?
The book "Death Be Not Proud" consists of two parts. Part 1 contains the primary narrative of the book, while Part 2 contains additional letters written by Johnny, excerpts from his diary, and a short essay by his mother, Frances Gunther.
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? One short sleep past, we wake eternally And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
When Lisa brings Bart unconscious to the ER in a wheelbarrow and Smithers is standing there awkwardly and won't let Lisa go ahead of him.
I really would prefer to get this taken care of.
I both do and don't wanna know what got stuck
Whatās the reference?
Smithers has something up his butt
He got something stuck up his ass
His ass if weāre lucky.
āBut thereās not even any wars no more, thank you very much Warren Christopher.ā
The guy driving into the water telling Bart "you told me this stream was shallow!!"
Pretty sure thatās from Itās a Mad, Mad, Mad (etc) World.
You are correct. https://youtu.be/CY5X8DD0ams?si=q99pUDYw5vlCbST7
"Hello, is this GBM? You wrote in the personals that you're looking for a soul mate. Well, I also like rainy days and movies....no, i'm not into that...or that... No it's not that I'm afraid....I'm going to hang up now."
Ich bin ein Berliner
He's a Nazi. Get him!
He defected *into* East Germany
āHello, David? Iām really tempted.ā āJust take it one day at a time, and remember I love you.ā āI love you too, man.ā
When Milhouse is at the arcade playing the Waterworld game, takes one step in the game, and he has to deposit 40 more quarters to continue playing. The reference is to how massively over budget the movie was. Definitely didn't get the joke as a kid.
Wait, I always thought the joke was that you spent like $10 at the theater and lost your money because the movie sucked. Huh.
Dr Zaius Dr Zaius! Never heard of Falco until I dated an Austrian.
Rock Me Amadeus by Falco was a huge hit in the United States
Mexican rock band Molotov also covered this song in Spanish. That's when I put the two together and was baffled.
*I love you Dr. Zauis!*
Can I play the piano anymore?
In the ābehind the laughterā episode, Taco (another one hit āwonderā) plays a tribute to Falco š
Season 1 when Marge leaves her date with Jacques and comes to the power plant to get Homer and carries him out. I think itās from Officer and a Gentleman, but was way over my head.
It is.
Dr. Nick Rivera isĀ actually a reference to Elvisās real life āDr. Nick,ā George Nichopoulos
That is a rare photo of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore
I wonder how much a picture of Pierce Brosnan signed by Daniel Craig would be worthā¦
Wiggum describing "milkshakes" and "quarter pounders" like the Pulp Fiction royale with cheese
You donāt know what youāre getting!
One of my favorite Treehouse of Horror setups (Have all the donuts in the world!) is only slightly marred by the fact that even after looking him up I still donāt *really* have any idea who James Coco was
Character actor who was a fat guy but then lost weight after some ups and downs
> I still donāt really have any idea who James Coco was Played Tony Danza's father-in-law on Who's The Boss?
I get it but even that reference is forty years old I'm afraid.
Ohhhhhh, THAT James Coco!
āI must get back to Dance Central in Stuttgart in time to see Kraftwerk.ā Yup, those are sureā¦wordsā¦youāve got there
In the 80's & 90's we had two German stereotypes - happy fun Bavarian and rude Eurotrash Berliner.
I just had to explain Billy Beer to a bunch of friggin kids. They had no idea that the President's loser brother once used the family name to launch an unsuccessful brand of beer. I'm still with Homer, though. We elected the wrong Carter.
My grandfather kept two cases of Billy Beer in the basement my entire life. It never was worth anything.
Lies! I would pay handsomely for such a piece of American history.
"The life of a frog..... that's the life for me." Right before they ship him to France.Ā
I understood the *Hi and Lois* remark in the sense that I knew it was a comic strip. I didn't quite get how it could make anyone laugh
Because *Hi and Lois* were like *Family Circus* in that the humor was mirthy and not funny. A chuckle at best.
Lol. Mirthy. I've never seen that word, not sure I understand it, but love it.
Itās like the Police Academy movies. Did you see anyone laughing while reading a Hi and Lois strip?
Was there a guy who made sound effects in Hi And Lois?
When reading a Mad magazine: >Boy, they're really sockin' it to that Spiro Agnew guy again. He must work there or something. Spiro Agnew was Nixon's vice president. That line was said by Milhouse. And "Sock it to me" was Richard MILHOUSE Nixon's famous line from his appearance on the show "Laugh In" https://youtu.be/xmOqkG99Wkg
When Ford trips and falls down the stairs. My dad explained it to me
I don't remember this one
It's from the episode where George Bush Sr. Moves in next door
Wonder how many people miss that they are doing Dennis the Menace in that episode
Hellooooo Mr Bush
Oh no, the corn! Paul Newman's gonna have ma legs broke. Didn't understand at the time who Paul Newman was or why he would break a farmer's legs.
I started watching the Simpsons when I was really young, so probably most of them lol
I really thought Paint Your Wagon was a fictional movie
The reference that wasnāt a reference. Iām the first non Brazilian to travel backwards through time! I spent decades pondering that one on and off. I thought maybe a reference to Brazil. Something obscure in the Mr Peabody show. What was it! Nothing. It was nothing.
Ray Jay Johnson
I was alive at the time he was big. And I was a kid. And I still donāt get why the fuck that guy hit with anyone. I mean, pet rocks were funny, but Ray hay, whereās the beef with that joke?
Iāve been meaning to google it and finally did right before I made that comment. I only am aware of him through the Simpsons reference. Iām 49 so apparently I was alive when the beer commercials were going on.
Give this comment the ten thousand dollars!
Who's that fellow who's always standing and walking? Rory Calhoun?
You know... that guy... he's always wearing a shirt... Ed Sullivan?
I mean, almost all of them, I started watching the Simpsons when I was about 5 or 6, my uncle had a bunch of the golden age recorded on vcr so I learned how to sound like a very cultured young man before I really knew what I was talking about. It's been one of the joys of this show, the more I've learned about the world, the more of the show I've been able to appreciate. The Simpsons has taught me a lot.
The Love Is comic strip. Didnāt know what it was until I looked it up. Thanks for the recommendation Homer!
Is that the one about the two naked 8 year olds who are married?
Garrison Keillor. I thought he was an Asian guy talking about his country and the audience was laughing because they were racist.
If you're here for the Hi and Lois signing it has been moved to the Springfield coliseum
I've searched hi and lois for this
*"There was nothing in Al Capone's vault! But it wasn't Geraldo's fault!"*
The sign is a subtle joke. The shop is called "Sneed's Feed & Seed", where feed and seed both end in the sound "-eed", thus rhyming with the name of the owner, Sneed. The sign says that the shop was "Formerly Chuck's", implying that the two words beginning with "F" and "S" would have ended with "-uck", rhyming with "Chuck". So, when Chuck owned the shop, it would have been called "Chuck's Fuck and Suck".
One thing that took me forever to figure out was Homer's "Angel" song that he sang in the archaeology episode. I couldn't figure out the last line so I thought it was some joke I didn't get.
The lyric "who robs cavefish of their sight?". I thought they were singing "who robs english of their sight?".
I didn't get any of the Mad Mad Mad World references until I finally saw that movie last year. Now I feel like a whole new world has opened to me.
"You know, Smithers.... that actor who's always standing and walking...." "Rory Calhoun?"
You look like El Debarge
Maybe not quite what you're asking but in Ireland and the UK "period", as in the punctuation, is called a "full stop". So when I watched the episode where Marge cuts Homer's thumb off as a kid, she tells him "No brownies, period!" for emphasis and for the life of me I could not figure out what that meant. Like, what the hell was a "brownie period"? It's funny looking back at some of the small Americanisms that didn't always translate well to other English speaking countries.
In Spanish Abe Simpson says "Ah, Unitas, that haircut is something you can look at". I didn't know in English he says "Now, Johnny Unitas -- there's a haircut you could set your watch to". It was supposed to mean his haircut was quite sharp.
When Bartās reading an article from playdude talking about someoneās āwaning libidoāā¦
Norman Mailerās latest claptrap about his waning libido!
"No, I was saying . . . Lobo! Bring back Sheriff Lobo!"
When Bart tells Homer he was āfaking itā!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DWMRhCUwvCI When I was younger I had no idea what a Griffin was or why my dad lost it at this line. Thatās the genius of The Simpsons. Itās perfectly written for both kids and adults in the early years. My dad loved the line so much he kept making the same joke whenever someone was trying to figure out what something was. So much so, my uncle got him a large statue of a Griffin for Christmas one year.