Simpsons Shitposting and The Art of Quoting the Simpsons

Dental plan. Blurst of times. Steamed hams. Words that may mean nothing to most people, but for a generation of 90s kids who were glued to their TVs between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. every week night, they are telltale culture codes. It is an obnoxious vernacular known as “Quoting The Simpsons.”

Over the course of the show's nearly three decades-long run, Simpsons quotes have become a cultural cache in geekdom that is comparable in currency value to statistics in sports fandom; all you have to do is say the right words and they will give you an instant in. Find a fellow Simpsons fan or two at a social gathering, you're suddenly swimming in a wealth of conversation with cultured peers, aloft from the rest of normies who simply cannot follow or jump in.

But don’t get me wrong, quoting The Simpsons is annoying, off-putting and rude. The ultimate “A-to-B” conversation that we’d all like to “C” our way out of, talking to someone who only speaks in Simpsons quotes can easily become weird and awkward, not only because it is exclusionary, but because it adds up to little more than an exercise of passive fandom. Rather than discovering or learning something new, Simpsons quoting often leads to the path of forging bond through a game of fan trivia, a sense of community derived from the shared interest of consuming and regurgitating pop culture. The same way memorizing the answers on a test can get you an “A,” quoting the Simpsons can get you a friend with little to no effort--a nerdy friend, but a friend none the less.

While it has long been speculated that people, stereotypically men, drive their conversations through pop culture references because of poor communication skills, resorting to quotes from films or TV shows to channel their feelings they can't articulate on their own, clinical psychologist Dr. Mike Friedman says otherwise. In fact, it might be that the opposite is true, and quoting movies, or in this case The Simpsons, actually allows people to get on the same wavelength, an example of good communication. In the Psychology Today article, "The Secret Language of Movie Quotes," Dr. Mike Friedman writes:

"But recent research paints a very different picture. It turns out that when people are watching movies, their brain wave patterns are effectively “in sync” with one another. And research suggests that being in sync in this fashion is actually a sign of good communication.

Above all else, it is a quick and easy way to bring about a sense of tight-knitted community, which is what fans are always looking for (and perhaps, people in general). Community is what drives fandom, and of all the things that people on the internet get obsessed with, the Simpsons doesn’t inspire that much cosplay, shipping or even mpreg fan art of Milhouse. Most of The Simpsons fan community is passive in this sense because it’s mostly about expressing, “I have seen that thing a lot of times, maybe more than you have."

In the age of internet memes, that community is finally evolving.

Simpsons quoting has long been a popular choice of subject matter for circle-jerking on forums, but it really matured into an interactive game with the advent of the Frinkiac. Finally, Simpsons fans could create image macros, GIFs and memes of their favorite moments simply by typing in the quote they had in their head. Suddenly, the entirety of The Simpsons, and all the quotes there within, could be manipulated, photoshopped and remixed. And it was just the beginning of a new paradigm shift in Simpsons fandom.

But Frinkiac was just the beginning in a giant shift in Simpsons fandom. It allowed for a more interactive, and certainly more visual take on quoting The Simpsons. People could actually put any moment they want in any context, without having to worry about whether the scene was on YouTube or not. Suddenly, the entirety of The Simpsons, and all the quotes there within, could be manipulated, photoshopped and remixed. And that's what happened.

In March 2015, a Facebook user named Geddy Lean Johnson started a Facebook group that would change the dynamic of quoting The Simpsons. Named "Simpsons Shitposting," it started as a free-flowing group of Simpsons fans who take quotes, moments and video and smash them into each other.

Today, it's not just enough to reference the past, but to recontextualize it as a means of celebration. It's like fan fiction on a massive scale, where fans who grew up loving the thing are now in control of making the thing. Take a look at how Star Wars: The Force Awakens rejiggers the plot elements of the first Star Wars film, but populates it with characters that are obsessed with Star Wars--the most jarring being Kylo Renn, who loves him some Darth Vader. Like Simpsons Shitposting, it takes elements of the past and celebrates it.

The Facebook group essentially does the same thing for quoting the Simpsons. In the group, people can actively engage with the quote and create something new with it. These shitposts allow Simpsons fans to take singular moments and lines and crash them into each other and create something new. It's active participation that elicits a new reaction, a different laugh and a new level of appreciation for the participant.

These shitposts reward the knowledge that you have, but for creating something new with it. The more seamlessly integrated (or the stupider the integration) the more successful it is. However, rather than just a copypasta of "Damn sexy Flanders," the shitpost can turn something old into something wildly different and create a community in the process. The Simpsons Shitpost community prides itself on its own inside jokes, creating reference points, like "steamed hams" or "dental plan" and create new jokes out of them.

Simpsons Shitposting finally gives people some focus for quoting the Simpsons, a place to play with their favorite lines and turn them into something funny and new. No matter how stupid, weird and unsettling the shitpost, this page turns viewers into writers, and fans into creators. Quoting The Simpsons might be an example of good communication when you're at a party, but there's something new that happens with a successful shitpost. Fans connect with each other based on their ability to recontextualize Simpsons jokes, place them in new spaces. And for what it's worth, it's almost always funny.