“Don’t quote me boy; I ain’t said shit.” — Eazy-E
“Oh, Marge, cartoons don’t have any deep meaning. They’re just stupid drawings that give you a cheap laugh.” — Homer Simpson
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I’ve spent most of my life talking in Simpsons quotes. When you stop to think about it, that’s really odd. First, it’s odd that Simpsons quotes form an integral part of my lexicon. I’ve often prided myself on my ability to find the appropriate quote to fit any given situation, but why should an animated television show that debuted in 1989 and peaked in the mid 1990s remain a vital part of the way I express myself in 2012? Moreover, is quoting The Simpsons like quoting Shakespeare, or is it something else entirely?
First, there’s the ubiquity of Simpsons quotes in modern American culture. At least 25%* of new web sites are named after a Simpsons quote (including this one), and it’s pretty rare to read a piece by anyone under 35 and not pull at least one Simpsons quote out of it.
*Statistic may not be true, but then again “You can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that.”
Of course, quoting from popular works has been in vogue going back at least as far as the Bible. I suspect if you were to dig up the right Sumerian cuneiform you might even find a choice Gilgamesh quote or two. That said, it’s my contention that quoting from The Simpsons (and, by proxy, other major sources of quotes like Star Wars and South Park) serves an entirely different function than quoting from canonical literature or scripture.
At one point, Shakespeare was popular culture, not classic literature. In the early 1600s, it’s possible that dropping a choice Othello quote was an excellent way to show just how in touch with the cultural zeitgeist you were. Now, however, quoting from Shakespeare, or almost any written text, serves an entirely different function. In one of my favorite books, The Story of B, a character is introduced and almost instantly drops a complicated and barely comprehensible King Lear reference, which mostly serves to illustrate him as a brilliant but isolated thinker.
In general, if you’re the kind of person who enjoys leavening her speech or writing with literary quotes, you’re going to be viewed as pompous, elitist, or just plain out of touch. Such is the strength of anti-intellectualism in modern American culture, but it also speaks to the truth that a quote is only useful if you can reasonably assume that the person reading or hearing the quote will understand the allusion. Sure, most of us had to read a Shakespeare play or two when we were in high school and/or college, but few of us remember any quotes beyond the most famous. The same applies to newer literature that might eventually take on the same stature: how many of you can quote Steinbeck, Hemingway, or Pynchon at will? The inclusion of a quote from any of those sources serves more to show how well-read the writer or speaker is, not to clearly convey meaning.
Pop culture references, on the other hand, have a number of possible purposes, some of which are indeed elitist, but in an entirely different way. If the reference is to a fairly obscure part of pop culture, quoting it serves to denote the quoter as “in the know.” Alternately, quoting from a certain pop culture source (think Star Wars) serves to identify the quoter as a member of a specific cultural phenomenon or movement. Each of these rely on the quote being impenetrable to some or most of the people who will hear or read it, because it’s only through exclusivity that the desired consequence is achieved.
Simpsons quotes don’t fall into either category. The show is far too popular and long-lasting for anyone to gain credibility or achieve authenticity by watching the show. Similarly, what kind of person comes to mind when you think of a stereotypical Simpsons fan? You might assume someone under the age of 40, and possibly a male, but the show reaches across many different demographics. Think about it: many of its original fans are old enough to have children graduating from college this year.
It might have been a niche show two decades ago, when it was held up as evidence of America’s moral decay, but at this point, it’s almost charmingly mainstream. You might argue that quoting The Simpsons establishes one as a person with good taste, but given that the show is the most successful and popular sitcom of all time, how much “good taste” can one claim for enjoying a show that more people enjoyed than any other show on earth?
So, if quoting The Simpsons doesn’t serve the same purpose as quoting classic literature, nor does it identify the quoter as a member of some smaller community, nor does it indicate good taste, why do we do it so much? Why did David choose to call this blog “Creamy Middles”?* Why do my peers and I have entire conversations which consist solely of Simpsons quotes?**
*Which, by the way, is both a great and horrible name. Be honest, when you typed the URL into your browser, or saw it in a hyperlink, you were at a little afraid of what might actually show up.
**I once spent an entire hike swapping quotes with my cousin, which was a good way to get through a difficult afternoon, but also an excellent way to aggravate my father.
I’m not sure I know, but I’ll try to explain it plainly.* My theory is that Simpsons quotes serve as a potent shorthand. While a Simpsons quote won’t set the speaker, writer, listener, or reader apart as a member of a small subgroup, it serves to form a sort of shared identity. Even if it doesn’t mean much to say that we both watched The Simpsons, since most Americans of a certain age have, it still creates a sense of a smaller community within a wider and indifferent culture. I imagine it serves the kind of function that identifying as a Beatles fan in the mid-to-late 1960s served: it established that you were at least marginally connected to pop culture. As a result, swapping Simpsons quotes is like anteing up in poker: it’s the minimum one must prove to sit at the table, where the table is something like “the consumption of and discussion about contemporary pop culture.” In other words, it’s a litmus test. One that most of us pass all the damn time.
*Trying is the first step towards failure.
(Image cc-licensed: "Nancy_Dorset_12082007_11" by audinary_music)
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