itt i am sharing simpsons shitposts that i made based entirely off of a five second long alvin and the chipmunks parody

[Thad]

Seth Meyers' joke about how Trump claiming he never said "lock her up" is like Bart Simpson claiming he never said "cowabunga" is the specific type of wrong that annoys the specific type of person that it has to be deliberate trolling, right?

Like, what's likelier -- that they're grinning and going "Oh this one's really going to make the Simpsons nerds mad", or that not one single person in a writers' room full of Gen Xers and Millennials knows the difference between The Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

[beatbandito]

I mean, that sounds like a bad joke because Seth Meyers' writers are bad. But Bart did say Cowabunga and they put it on shirts and stuff. It's not a good choice, but late night writers aren't gonna pull out a "say the line, Bart" reference.

[Mongrel]

Don't have a cowabunga, man.

[beatbandito]

Don't have Aye Cawambanga, man.

[beatbandito]

I have unfortunately kept thinking about this and the best possible version of the joke for both actual humor (any, at all) and accurate refernce:

"Trump saying he never wanted to lock Hillary up is like Bart Simpson saying he did want you to lay a finger on his butterfinger."

[Thad]

I mean, that sounds like a bad joke because Seth Meyers' writers are bad.

I think A Closer Look consistently manages some of the best political comedy on TV.

But Bart did say Cowabunga

A quick glance at Frinkiac indicates that he said it twice, once in "The Telltale Head" and again in "Bart Gets an F".

Most subsequent appearances of "cowabunga" are somebody else (Homer, Milhouse, Moleman, Apu, etc.) imitating Bart. It appears much more frequently as a running gag about people thinking it's something that Bart says than Bart actually saying it.

and they put it on shirts and stuff.

"They" being people making bootleg Simpsons T-shirts that had Bart saying the wrong catchphrase, yes.

[KingRoyal]

Was it exclusively bootleg? There were definitely Cowabunga shirts with Bart when I was in elementary school, back when most of the merch and focus was on Bart before Homer took over. Though it's possible I'm Mandela Effecting myself with a surfing shirt that says "Aye Carumba".

Here's a sticker from 1990 that looks official and has Bart saying "Cowabunga" while surfing. There are lots of images from the 90s of Bart surfing despite that never being a thing he ever did in the show, afaik

Searching for this is difficult because all internet searches are garbage these days because of a mixture of more modern bootleg Simpsons stuff, peppered with things like a 1997 Chicago Tribune article attributing "Cowabunga" to the Simpsons and 1999 Simpsons Archive interview with Matt Groening of indeterminate origin

Overall, "Cowabunga" is definitely one of those things Bart did say that became a "catchphrase" despite him only saying it once, like "Don't have a cow" or "Eat my shorts*". This is most likely because of a combination of a bunch of media reporting it as his catchphrase, and all of us who grew up in the 90s absorbing it because we probably grew up around a lot of TMNT and Simpsons merch at the same time

[Büge]

"They" being people making bootleg Simpsons T-shirts that had Bart saying the wrong catchphrase, yes.

[Mongrel]

The best horribly-dated 90's catchphrase is still "Sh'yeah, and monkeys might fly outta my butt!"

[Thad]

late night writers aren't gonna pull out a "say the line, Bart" reference.

also, it is amazing that out of 67,000 possible Simpsons episodes to choose from, your reference is the one where Bart goes on Late Night with Conan O'Brien

[beatbandito]

Wow, who could have guessed Conan O'Brien would have a connection to early Simpsons.

[Mongrel]

I finally found one completely randomly in the wild.

[Niku]

also an absolute dankmus banger

[Mongrel]

And I agree.

[nosimpleway]

[Friday]

annnnnd my favorite from that same dump

[Niku]

one of my coworkers has started doing silly monday-meeting trivia contests with just random no-theme trivia questions so i got some sour patch kids today because the tie breaker question was "What is Homer Simpsons' middle name?"

[nosimpleway]

Isn't it just... J? Or does it actually stand for something?

[JD]

Jay

[Büge]