About

"Have the Rolling Stones Killed" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Mr. Burns after mistaking the American rock band The Ramones for the British rock bank the Rolling Stones on the American animated situational comedy The Simpsons. Online, people have edited a series of screenshots of Burns saying the like to joke about mistaken identity.

Origin

On October 21st, 1993, The Simpsons episode "Rosebud" aired in the United States.^[1] In the episode, the Ramones perform at Burns' birthday party. After their performance, Burns instructs his assistant Mr. Smithers to have "the Rolling Stones killed."

On November 30th, 2011, YouTuber The Journeymen posted a clip of the episode. Within eight years, the post received more than 30,000 views (shown below).

Spread

On October 5th, 2015, Redditor ^[2] EggCouncilCreeper posted an image of Mr. Burns saying the line in the /rTheSimpsons subreddit. Within four years, the post received more than 800 points (94% upvoted).

Three years later, on June 15th, 2018 Redditor^[3] spiderhombre posted the image in response to singer Robbie Williams World Cup performance, captioning the post "Have Morrisey killed." The post received more tahn 2,100 points (96% upvoted) and 65 comments (shown below, left).

The following year, Facebook ^[4] user Crash McLarson posted a variation in the Simpsons Shitposting Facebook group in which Mr. Burns mistakes the black metal band Mayhem for Burzum. The post received more than 130 reactions (shown below, center).

Following the post, others shared variations. For example, on May 31st, Facebook^[5] user Neal Schoonmaker posted one in which Mr. Burns mistakes Avatar: The Last Airbender for the 2019 science fiction film Avatar. The post received more than 1,000 reactions in four days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References