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It has been suggested that this article be merged into The Simpsons. (Discuss) Proposed since May 2012.

There are many Recurring jokes in The Simpsons, many of which have been retired during the series or implemented later on in the run. The show's humor turns on cultural references that cover a wide spectrum of society so that viewers from all generations can enjoy the show. Such references, for example, come from movies, television, music, literature, science, and history. Whenever possible, the animators also put jokes or sight gags into the show's background via humorous or incongruous bits of text in signs, newspapers, and elsewhere. The audience may often not notice the visual jokes in a single viewing. Some are so fleeting that they become apparent only by pausing a video recording of the show.

Catchphrases

The Simpsons has perhaps most entered the public consciousness in the form of the numerous catchphrases that are repeated by characters of the show. Homer, when frustrated or making an obvious blunder, shouts out the famous catch phrase "D'oh!", which has achieved such mainstream usage as to be featured in the Oxford English Dictionary. TV Land had it on their list of the 100 greatest catchphrases on TV. Bart's trademark "¡Ay, caramba!," "Don't have a cow, man!," "Get bent," and "Eat my shorts" were also featured on t-shirts in the early days of the show's run.

In the episode "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily", Reverend Lovejoy makes reference to the fact the characters have numerous catchphrases. While mourning Maude Flanders's death, he states: "In many ways, Maude Flanders was a supporting player in our lives. She didn't grab our attention with memorable catchphrases, or comical accents." At the same time, the Sea Captain, Professor Frink, and others looked disappointed and saying their various catchphrases such as "Yarr.." and "Glavin!". Also, in "Bart Gets Famous", Bart becomes a celebrity by saying the phrase "I didn't do it" , but loses his celebrity status after it is no longer funny. Lisa tells him it's better to not be known as "a one-dimensional character with a silly catchphrase", which is followed by many other characters saying their respective catchphrases. When they all look expectantly at Lisa, she dryly replies she will be in her room, leaving Homer to question who would have such a terrible catch-phrase.

Many main characters have catchphrases that serve to illuminate the nature of the speaker's character. This is sometimes shown explicitly, as the characters' thoughts are broadcast for the audience to hear. Homer Simpson's "Mmmm... " shows his weakness for pleasure, while Marge Simpson's disapproving groan displays her innate uncertainty and nervous nature. Bart Simpson's "Eat my shorts!" displays his rebellious nature.

Numerous catchphrases and sounds also exist for other characters, including:

• Homer Simpson's "D'oh!" (officially written as "Annoyed Grunt", as in "G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)") and "Mmmm...". Also, when Homer does something right or good, he often shouts out a loud "Whoo-Hoo!". He also occasionally emits a long, drawn-out groan when something bad happens. One such incident is in Regarding Margie when amnesia-stricken Marge remembers Flanders' cat's birthday before Homer. When Lisa tries to inform him that he is doing something stupid or misunderstanding something, he often responds "Not now, Lisa, Daddy is ."
• Marge Simpson's disapproving groan.
• Bart Simpson's "¡Ay, caramba!", "Don't have a cow, man!", "I didn't do it!", "D'oh!" and "Eat my shorts!".
• Apu Nahasapeemapetilon's "Thank you, come again!" when someone is leaving the Kwik-E-Mart.
• Barney Gumble's belch.
• Ned Flanders's nonsense words such as "Okily Dokily" and "Howdily Doodily".
• Comic Book Guy commonly says "Worst (noun) Ever!". This catchphrase is referenced in the title of "Worst Episode Ever". There are also some occasions where he says "BEST (noun) Ever!"
• Dr. Julius Hibbert's jovial laughs, often in the most inappropriate situations.
• Dr. Nick Riviera always announces his entrances with "Hi, everybody!" to which everybody in the room responds "Hi, Dr. Nick!". In The Simpsons Movie however, he is crushed by a huge piece of glass and weakly says "Bye everybody!"
• Duff Man often says "Duff Man", then a pause, then, like Disco Stu, says something by referring to himself in third person. His other catchphrase is "Oh yeah!".
• Edna Krabappel's loud laugh has been the equivalent of a catchphrase: "Hah!"
• Krusty the Clown often starts his TV shows with a cry of "Hey-hey, kids!" and a distinctive laugh.
• Mr. Burns's "Excellent..." , or "Release the hounds." As well as "Smithers, who is that man?" (referring to Homer Simpson; Mr. Burns is rarely shown to remember Homer's name) Smithers replies with something along the lines of "Oh, that's Homer Simpson, sir. He's one of your drones from Sector 7-G." Burns responds with "Simpson, eh?".
• Nelson Muntz's "Ha-ha!" directed towards those with misfortunes (and sometimes just for the sake of doing it).
• Professor Frink's monotonous gibberish, "Mm Glavin!"
• Superintendent Chalmers shouts "SKINN-ER!" whenever he is referring to Seymour Skinner, usually because Chalmers is frustrated with him. Skinner usually gasps and says "Superintendent Chalmers!" Occasionally, when referring to Skinner in this way, Chalmers will have something nice to say to him; Chalmers becomes offended when Skinner assumes Chalmers is mad at him.
• The Sea Captain's stereo-typical "sea captain" catchphrase, "Yarr!"
• Troy McClure always introduces himself with the phrase "Hi, I'm Troy McClure, you may remember me from such (film/commercial/self-help video/etc.) as (insert cheesy-sounding titles) and (another cheesy-sounding title)".
• Yes Guy bellows "Yeeeeeeeeeesss?!" rather obnoxiously, leading Homer to refer to him as "that jerk who always goes 'Yes'" (shown in the episode "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens and Gays"). The explanation for this bellow is given in "Mayored to the Mob": "I had a stroke!"

Recurring Gags

Strangling Bart

Homer's extreme strangling of Bart first originated in the Tracey Ullman Short "Family Portrait". Often before strangling Bart, Homer will yell "Why you little...", to which he then puts his hands around Bart's neck. In The Simpsons Movie, Lisa takes the spot as the strangler.

Springfield's riots

The people of Springfield are always represented as a bunch of ignorant and violent people and are constantly starting riots in the city for almost any reason. In "Bart After Dark", Springfield gets into a riot to close a burlesque house (only to end the riot after a "convincing song"). In "Marge in Chains", this happens twice, first when the city is passing through a flu epidemic, Dr. Hibbert says all he can give would be a placebo and an angry crowd overturns a truck in search of these "placebos", releasing killer bees; and second when a statue of Jimmy Carter was made instead of Abraham Lincoln. In "Papa's Got a Brand New Badge", after Lenny and Carl both crash their cars in a vitrine of a store because they could not see anything during the blackout, they decide to loot the store, which sets off a huge riot and looting in Springfield, leaving the city devastated. This violent behavior of the Springfieldians also occurs in smaller crowds, as in "They Saved Lisa's Brain"; Lenny accuses Carl of being "too clever" (only because of a pun between "literate" and "litter" made by Carl) and the small crowd begins to fight, destroying the gazebo and nearly injuring Lisa, who was saved just in time by Stephen Hawking. In "The Cartridge Family" a massive city-wide riot occurs when the residents of Springfield are bored at a soccer game. A copy of the Springfield Shopper is included in the DVD release of The Simpsons Movie with the front page headline reading "Springfield Celebrates Its Angriest Mob Ever!" accompanied by a picture of the majority of Springfield's citizens holding torches and various weapons, as they were when they were chasing Homer in the movie. Mayor Quimby comments on the townspeople's volatility in "Mayored to the Mob" when he says "Oh, can't this town go one day without a riot?".

Floorboard gag

Throughout the series, this particular gag occurs occasionally in the Simpsons home. This occurs whenever any member of the Simpsons family is upstairs, and the camera slowly pans down through the floor (or vice versa). Within this short stint, it shows ludicrous objects within the floor. It once showed a watch that Homer had said he lost, cash, asbestos, blueprints of a house, pirate gold, a tape recorder, dinosaurs, the cat, and, in "The Otto Show", gold and jewels. In "Large Marge", there were reptiles hatching from eggs (a possible reference to "Bart the Mother"). Variations of this gag occurred in "Bart vs. Australia" on a larger scale, in "Radio Bart" as the camera follows the tunnel that barely misses things such as treasure and an alien spaceship, and in Springfield Elementary School. In the most recent floorboard gag, "Kill Gil: Vols. 1 & 2", it shows a group of dancing white mice in the floorboards. This gag has now been used for many other programs, showing dinosaur bones and money as the most popular and stereotypical.

Bart's prank calls

In the early seasons, Bart occasionally makes prank calls to Moe's Tavern, asking for non-existent patrons such as "I.P. Freely" (I pee freely) in Homer's Odyssey Moe falls for the trap every time and, when he realizes that the joke is at his expense, shouts threats back at Bart. This is a reference to the infamous Tube Bar prank calls pulled on grumpy New Jersey bar owner Louis "Red" Deutsch in the late 1960s by John Davidson and Jim Elmo, which follow an almost identical pattern (with much more profanity).

In the episode Flaming Moe's, Bart asks for "Hugh Jass" ("huge ass"), but the prank call backfires, as there actually is a man named Hugh Jass in the bar, whom Bart is forced to chat with. Bart confesses to the gentleman that the call is a prank, and that he'd like to bail out, to which he is wished "better luck next time" by the man, and Moe is never told. Also, in "Homer the Smithers", Mr. Burns rings the bar, looking for a "Mr. Smithers, first name Waylon." Moe believes it to be Bart making a prank call, and shouts back his usual threats, frightening Mr. Burns.

Some episodes also involve Homer making a prank call. In Bart on the Road, Homer requested to speak to "Eura Snotball" ("You're a Snotball") and when Moe repeated the name, Homer replied "How dare you!" and shouted threats at Moe. In Homer the Moe, Bart called for "Ollie Tabooger" ("I'll eat a booger") to which Homer answered, "I don't get it" causing Bart to give up his prank.

During the season 18 episode "24 Minutes", Bart is shown intercepting a phone call from Kiefer Sutherland's 24 character Jack Bauer, and claims to be 'Ahmed Adoudi' (I made a doodie). Bauer falls for it before Chloe O'Brian tells him it is a gag name (later in the episode, Bauer returns for vengeance). In The Simpsons Movie, Bart makes a similar joke, causing Russ Cargill to ask about someone named "Irma Wiener". In "The Regina Monologues" Moe asks how much it would cost to have Bart prank call him. Bart also prank calls bars around the world in the episode "Lost Verizon". Jokes include "Maya Normousbutt" ("My enormous butt") in a bar in Hawaii, "Drew P. Wiener" ("Droopy weiner") in a bar in Australia, and "Olaf Myfriendsaregay" ("All of my friends are gay") in Sweden.

Comical establishments

Many commercial establishments on the Simpsons have comically farcical names (that are puns) such as "Try-N'Save," (a discount store) "A Bug's Death," (an extermination service) "I Can't Believe It's a Law Firm", (Lionel Hutz's law office at The Springfield Mall), "Nuts Landing" (a pet sterilization clinic), "Stoner's Pot Palace" (a kitchenware store, which Otto hates because the name was "flagrant false advertising"), "Sit N' Weep" (a therapist's office), "The Grateful Gelding" (a stable), Painless Dentistry (formerly Painful Dentistry) which is a dentist office, "Shoe Inn" (shoe store), "When You Wash Upon A Car" (car wash), "Valley of the Dolls" (the girls' toy section at the local toy store), "Age of Aquariums" (a pet store), "Something Wicker This Way Comes" (a furniture store), Eye Carumba (an eye specialist) and "Bloodbath and Beyond" (a gun shop). One store name seen on the screen briefly was "Sneed's Feed and Seed " (implying that the store had an obscene name before being changed). In "Helter Shelter", Homer mentions that he hires service providers based on how funny the logo is, explaining his decision to hire "A Bug's Death" and, in "Homer the Great", "Stern Lecture Plumbing" ("I told you not to flush that.") regardless of their ineffectiveness. In the movie, the family stays at the "Red Rash Inn", and, in Alaska, Homer plays "Grand Theft Walrus" in "Eski-Moe's". A funeral home briefly seen in one episode is titled "The Lucky Stiff Funeral Home" whose slogan is "We put the fun in funerals." The corporation owning the Malibu Stacey Doll is also named as "Petrochem Petrochemical Corp" and hence making fun of toy manufacturers.

Location of Springfield

In later episodes, meta-references have become a theme in running gags. For example, for many years, the show refused to reveal the location of Springfield. In finally breaking this rule, the writers maintained the confusion by stating two alternate locations in the original and syndicated version of the episode "Behind the Laughter". Adding to the confusion, a part of the The Simpsons Movie shows a scene in which Ned points out the four states that border Springfield, namely Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky, all of which are too far apart geographically to be considered jointly "bordering" anywhere, save for Kentucky and Ohio.

Jokes on Fox

The Simpsons is produced and broadcast by Fox Broadcasting Company. The show takes frequent advantage of a non-interference clause in the production contract to make negative jokes about Fox (for example, "We can't watch FOX, because they own those chemical weapon plants in Syria")., and in one couch gag, a translucent Fox logo of the time appears in the corner, Homer gets angry when he sees it, takes it, throws it on the carpet, and he and the family stomp on it. At the end of "The Joy of Sect" episode where the Simpson family becomes brainwashed by movenmentarianism, a Fox News logo appears on the TV screen and causes the family to stare mindlessly at it, instants after Homer said "Its nice to have our minds back to ourselves again".

Homer's lifelong dreams

Homer Simpson has achieved many lifelong dreams. Among these dreams are streaking onto the field during a baseball game, eating the world's biggest hoagie, owning the Dallas Cowboys (although this dream was never fulfilled as he had to settle for the Denver Broncos), being a contestant on the Gong Show (and getting more gongs than the breakdancing robot that caught on fire), bowling a 300 game, becoming a blackjack dealer, becoming an astronaut, and working in a bowling alley. Most of these times, Marge will remind him of his previous lifelong dream, which he has already achieved, often referring to a conveniently placed picture nearby. He best sums up this tendency when he declares "All my life, I've had one dream: to achieve my many goals." He also wants to die choking on food. In "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder", in a checklist of things he wants to do before dying, Homer states seeing Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks naked (which he did three times).

Mr. Burns and Homer's name

When Mr. Burns sees Homer (usually by a security camera), he usually does not know his name. Smithers routinely reminds him that he is an employee from Sector 7-G but before that he always inserts a disparaging epithet such as, "one of your organ banks", to which Burns remarks "Simpson, ay?". This is most famously noted in the two-part episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" in which Homer vandalizes his office and sends him a box of chocolates with a family photo at the bottom, but the box is thrown away with the one piece of candy covering Homer's face (a quince log) still in it, and Mr. Burns still does not remember his name. Another example is when Homer is flashing back to 1980 when he first receives his job at the plant (Mr. Burns says he will "remember that name"). When Homer changes his name to Max Power in the episode "Homer to the Max", Mr. Burns has no problem remembering his name, and even congratulates him on his hard work. When Homer supposedly falls to his death in one episode, Mr. Burns asks Smithers, "Who was that falling corpse?" to which Smithers replies, "That was Homer Simpson, sir, the greatest man to ever grace Sector 7-G."

References

1. ^ Turner, Chris. Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation. Random House of Canada. pp. 63–65. ISBN 0-679-31318-4.
2. ^ Turner p. 62
3. Unnamed author (2001-06-14). "It's in the dictionary, d'oh!". BBC News. Retrieved 2006-12-24. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. Unnamed author (2006-11-28). "Dyn-O-Mite! TV Land lists catchphrases". BBC News. Retrieved 2007-02-05. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. Mike Walsh, The Legendary Tube Bar Recording at MissionCreep.com
6. Oliver Burkeman. "Embiggening the smallest man | Media | The Guardian". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-10-06.

• Articles to be merged from May 2012
• The Simpsons
• Running gags