A Former ‘Simpsons’ Writer Is Explaining The Show’s Most Confusing Jokes On Twitter
It’s been a while since a Twitter thread blew my mind with every other tweet. Josh Weinstein’s study of ambiguous Simpsons jokes did just that.
Strictly speaking, this isn’t a thread so much as a multi-pronged discussion between Weinstein and legion Simpsons fans. It began when Weinstein, a writer and showrunner on the series in 1992–97, invited people to point out gags and lines that confused them in past episodes; he would try to explain.
Weinstein began by bringing up the notorious “The Great Hank-Scorpio-“Yes Once”-Goodbye-To-A-Shoe Debate” — a throwaway (pun intended) gag from the episode “You Only Move Twice” that inspired a Buzzfeed article:
So, for years, there have been Simpsons jokes/lines people misunderstood or misheard, like The Great Hank-Scorpio-"Yes Once"-Goodbye-To-A-Shoe Debate and "Carhole".
What have you misunderstood or never got?
List them in this thread & I or other Simpsons folk'll try to answer. pic.twitter.com/O7T82SsQX4
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) December 21, 2020
For the record, this is Weinstein’s take on the matter:
To us it was obvious that by Homer saying "Yes, once" that Homer was referring to a previous instance where he saw a man say goodbye to a shoe but apparently a number of fans thought he was referring to having just seen Hank Scorpio throw his shoes (a case of overthinking a joke)
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) December 21, 2020
Fans swiftly took the chance to settle debates of their own. Time and again, my mind reeled as I learned that my own interpretation of a line was the “wrong” one — like here:
Yes, again, it's the simplest answer – Ralph dreams of being a Viking.
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) December 21, 2020
In some cases, questions from fans elicited some nice trivia:
Those were actually animated to throw people off the trail. Only a small number of people on the show besides the writers knew the actual culprit until late in the game. We were genuinely careful & paranoid about it all.
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) December 22, 2020
In other cases, Weinstein himself grew confused:
What?! Oh my god, IS it based on people wearing a towel over their ears?! Until this very moment, I had never even thought that and I loved this line as you did, just because it was absurd. This is now the one case so far that I actually don't know! & this is one of my fav lines!
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) December 21, 2020
Weinstein’s tweets contain nuggets of insight into how comedy is crafted: how writers think of their viewers, how chance and error are incorporated into writing, what ages well (or badly) and why, etc.
But apart from anything else, the discussion is really entertaining: each question-and-answer made me ponder the craft of the joke in question, and laugh all over again. So much for the old dictum that humor is ruined when it is explained.