Oh boy, ILX! That's where I'm a viking!..?

3xp oh yes I meant A sorry

you guys are denying the power of English to be a fun and creative language

and Cattle Grind I think your reading of this is entirely too superficial. You're not reading between the lines.

p.s. I am realizing that most of my contributions to this thread are coming off less "goofball" and more "insufferable prick". Sry :/

the lines of ham? ok fuk it i'm off to sleep i'm gonna have nightmares about this now!

it's okay it means you're a viking at ilx xp

This is bullshit. Surely we could have got a Tuomas joke up in this area (FINLAND!!), you guys are no longer trying. Bring back Momus, I say.

BTW I'm reloaded

seems the translators agree with me

So, I did some elementary research on the DVD while the board was down, and I am absolutely appalled to report that if the foreign translations are anything to go by, Mr. Nog and other "lateral-thinking motherfuckers" may be right.

French = "Dormir, c'est là que je suis le plus fort" ("Sleep, that's where I'm the best!")
Dutch = "Slapen, daar ben ik goed in" (I don't know any dutch, but I'm guessing that's "Sleep, now that's something I'm good at")
Portuguese = "Ena, pa, dormir! E nisso que sou um Viking" (any Portuguese-speaking people around? I'd have to ask my ladyfriend, but she's not around. Sounds like it's just the literal, equally ambiguous translation anyway)

This said, I'd like to point out that translators can be serious lateral-thinking motherfuckers, too. I should know: I'm one (a translator, that is). The case is therefore NOT closed.

also if you examine the quote in context

Ralph: Umm, Miss Hoover?
Hoover: Yes Ralph, what is it?
Ralph: My worm went in my mouth and then I ate it...can I have another
one?
Hoover: No Ralph, there aren't any more...[shaking her head] just try to
sleep while the other children are learning.
Ralph: Oh boy...sleep! That's where I'm a viking!

ralph has just failed at a task, and is now exuberant at being offered the chance to participate in a task in which he excels.

btw people itt who think that B is the only possible interpretation of the quote are akin to people who think that there wasn't a predator ship in ALIEN

^^^^ does find it amusing how smug and "OMG ONLY A MORON/DOOFUS/BUTTHOLE/IDJUT/FUKTARD WULD THINK IT WAS ANSWER A" the answer B people always are on these boards.

I hadn't ever seen the quote cuz I abandoned the Simpsons years ago, but my natural reaction was option A, just cuz Ralph's such an incompetent klutz that only he would be excited about sleep because it's the one place where he's awesome. Answer B isn't funny to me in the least.

another board in which the debate occurred: http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/forums/index.php?topic=8708.0

oh lord the pred ship in alien thing again. someone oughta visit that other board and provoke that one guy again.......

I have seen this episode approximately 10,000 times and I have never even thought of the concept of interpreting the line literally. This interpretation kind of horrifies me. The idea that Ralph is so amped up about his sleeping ability that he considers himself a viking of sleep is so much funnier than the idea that he wants to go to sleep so he can dream about being a viking.

hahahahahahahahahahahaha

I read the first few posts of this thread in mounting bafflement that this was actually an argument.

I love this board.

Some of dyao's arguments are actually swaying me a little. Admittedly, I haven't seen this episode since I was a teenager and don't even remember the scene in question very clearly.

will go on record and admit that answer b hadn't occured to me before opening this thread

starting to believe there's a small population of ILXors that interprets all jokes literally and is in constant fear of being eaten by the number seven

really the fact that there have been countless threads on a galaxy of other message boards about this is just deeply, deeply amazing/distressing to me, j0hn otm

wait, WAHT

oh humanity, hahahahahahaha

idgtt

wait, WAHT

oh humanity, hahahahahahaha

yeah it's a whole thing - the only reason anybody ever starts this thread is to have a big clusterfuck about it - it's really "hilarious"

clusterfucks, that's where I'm a Viking!

also massive uncontrollable lols at Cattle Grind's link

if the internet never happened option b absolutely never ever would have entered my mind

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=that%27s%20where%20I%27m%20a%20viking

hahahahaha

has Ralph ever said anything that wasn't meant 100% literally in the history of The Simpson, btw

more like have any characters ever acted 100% consistently in the history of The Simpsons

dyao is totally trolling itt

you must love this thread HI DERE, the "viking equals badass!" brigade will be quite happy to demonstrate for you many, many examples of ralph's sophisticated abstract thinking & cutting-edge use of figurative language

dyao is goofin, n/a appears to be ~trolling~

the "viking equals badass" subtext is implied, but really if that is actually what the writers intended the character Ralph Wiggum to mean, rather than it being a randomly weird remark to show how excited Ralph was to get to sleep after accidentally eating his worm again* I will eat a hat

* itt: a phrase that sounds dirty but isn't

You don't strike me as a hat kind of guy, tbh.

btw anyone who didn't vote for "I am a hermeneutic anarchist and am going to convince you of the validity of my own interpretation itt" is straight-up lying

Scandinavia! that's where I'm a viking!

the "viking equals badass" subtext is implied, but really if that is actually what the writers intended the character Ralph Wiggum to mean, rather than it being a randomly weird remark to show how excited Ralph was to get to sleep after accidentally eating his worm again* I will eat a hat

he is excited because IN SLEEP, HE IS A (METAPHORICAL) VIKING

also are you arguing that there is an unintended subtext that is obvious enough that apparently thousands of viewers have thought that it was the primary interpretation but this somehow "slipped by" the writers, editors, proofreaders, etc.?

I am not trolling, I am VIKING

h8 whiney so much for casually dropping that this "debate" exists and then sitting back and laughing

In dreams I am a metaphor.

I'm just not clear what's so obviously correct about the literalist interpretation that dudes feel like they can sit around being huffy and superior about it.

Although the literalist interpretation never occurred to me before all this, I don't necessarily think it's a "wrong" interpretation, it's just so much of a less funny interpretation that it makes me sad that that's what people have been going around thinking for years and years. Like their world must feel dreary and sepiatoned while mine is technicolor + dolby.

also are you arguing that there is an unintended subtext that is obvious enough that apparently thousands of viewers have thought that it was the primary interpretation but this somehow "slipped by" the writers, editors, proofreaders, etc.?

actually I'm arguing that someone noticed it and laughed at the ambiguity

so you're arguing it was intended

omg

I'm considering ending this argument by telling you to "go fly a kite," forcing you to literally go out, buy a kite, and fly it.

The idea that Ralph is so amped up about his sleeping ability that he considers himself a viking of sleep is so much funnier than the idea that he wants to go to sleep so he can dream about being a viking.

No, you see, what's funny about it is the fact that he interprets his dream-state not as the biological process of "dreaming" but as a literal place where he takes on alternate personae.

(But I'm with you: it's never occurred to me that there are multiple ways to interpret this line.)

Jaymc OTM re interpretation. (That does sound much more in keeping with Ralph's character, don't you think?)

I'll also note that translators often will substitute something that works in the 'new' language rather than translating directly.

omg n/a this is srsly threatening our relationship

tho I guess now I can write a boner jamz tune about bein a sleep viking so

we just got to work through it bro

http://i43.tinypic.com/1zlx4b6.jpg

ILX, that's where I'm a bottle opener!