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

part of the joke is that ralph is so dumb/naive that he doesn't even notice the teacher's dismay and instead is just excited that he gets to go to sleep and be a viking again

in which case you would expect the emphasis to be just on the "I'M", not on the "VIking" too. (xp)

Why? It's the same as saying "That's where I'M the BEST!". That doesn't sound like a particularly weird way of emphasizing words.

it's less usual.

But no so unusual that it would make "Viking of Sleep" interpretation ridiculous - if it would really be that unusual, I don't think 35% of people in the poll above would've interpreted the line as excelling in sleep.

When the argument has gone on this long, everybody is wrong.

But seriously, B is the actual answer, and A is just something enough people have misunderstood as a possibility that it's picked up momentum.

If the statement was "Oh boy, sleep! That's how I get to be a viking!" the Dreamers would have a much better case.

seriously? if you were in the writer's room and someone else pitched the line (with the dream meaning) you would suggest that change? smh

part of the joke is that ralph is so dumb/naive that he doesn't even notice the teacher's dismay and instead is just excited that he gets to go to sleep and be a viking again

― Wir fahren fahren fahren auf der Autoban (Curt1s Stephens), Friday, April 30, 2010 5:04 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah to me this has always been the part of it that's actually funny, and his obliviousness I think is reflected in his intonation and facial expressions.

Also, remember that the teacher has just criticized Ralph for being incompetent, so his line, and the emphasis, is in response for that. He might suck at cutting worms, but at least sleeping is something where HE'S good at.

― Tuomas, 30 April 2010 09:02 (20 minutes

The more obvious and simple link & line is that being a viking is something Ralph enjoys, btw, as opposed to being bad at everything IRL.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/Denied2.gif

^ This too, for all of us. thread is a sinkhole of despair.

i can rescue it, check this out

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/aniPartyTime.gif

that is my summary of this thread so far

still waiting for that to start moving tbh.

Also, remember that the teacher has just criticized Ralph for being incompetent, so his line, and the emphasis, is in response for that. He might suck at cutting worms, but at least sleeping is something where HE'S good at.

― Tuomas, 30 April 2010 09:02 (20 minutes

The more obvious and simple link & line is that being a viking is something Ralph enjoys, btw, as opposed to being bad at everything IRL.

I think Ralph saying he is good at something would be much more directly opposed to the teacher saying he's bad at something. Ralph's line is a direct response to teacher's comment, he even repeats the word "sleep" after she says it. If, like you say, what Ralph means is that he enjoys being a Viking in his dreams, that would not be a direct response to Ms. Hoover's line - enjoying of being a Viking has nothing to do with Ms. Hoover's criticism.

Not a direct response, because the point is that there really is no direct response to somebody telling you to go to sleep.

just wanted to talk about the word emphasis after watching it on youtube

ralph says "SLEEP! Thats where I'M a VIking" - I used to hear this pattern all the time with my kids, it indicates that they think they are, or at least are pretending to be something ( I'M a RObot, I'M a COOL girl, I'M a MONster ): equal emphasis on I'm and Viking, implying equivalence.

compare that to the metaphorical use, which would usually be "i'm a MONSTER", "i'm a VIKING", ie all the emphasis on the metaphor.

― tomofthenest, Friday, April 30, 2010 8:47 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

But Ralph's voice isn't done by a real kid rather than an adult.

― Tuomas, Friday, April 30, 2010 8:58 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

brb, committing suicide

we are now basing our theses on the foundations of ralph speaking in norse metaphors, and the voice actor being just the right type of incompetent.

We are?

no what we're doing is checking the pilot light

Anyway, like I said above "That's where I'M the BEST!" is really not a super uncommon way of emphasizing words. As for the comment about the voice actor: all I wanted to say is that just because Tomofthenest has observed his kids saying things in a certain way doesn't meant the actress playing Ralph would say it the same way - it's not like kids in Simpsons always speak like real kids. More importantly, Tomofthenest's examples are not equivalent to what Ralph says. Like I already explained above, the reason he puts emphasis on the "I'M" is because he is answering to Ms. Hoover's criticism.

(x-post)

I thought you died.

Next week- An analysis of the development of the phrase 'Oh My God- They killed Kenny!' through the years, and the effect it has had on national debt.

When Archie tells Edith to stifle herself, why doesn't he just say "shh?" It would take less time and have the same neat meaning & result.

Fonzie's "aaaay": elongated "hey" or primal utterance?

second one

oh hell no son

Multiple xps to dyao re USA public schol.grammar instruction: it's likely that the Simpsons' writing team went through.the same system!

that's unpossible

eh kkvg the simpsons writers were all at least in their 20s when the wrote the episode - I think the decline in the teaching of formal grammar is a pretty recent pedagogical thing? at least that's the impression that I get

I mean, when they went to school, grammar was still probably being taught. and there's no telling how many of them went to private schools either, as it's usually ivy league grads who do the writing for those shows.

anyway who cares what the writers intended when they wrote it - authorial intent is a false north star

it isn't when the question is "what is meant by this joke?"

like the idea that because texts are elusive, what the teller of a joke means by the joke isn't relevant, this is some waste of a critical theory class or two right there

noone knows what the writer of the joke meant! it's not a given

language is a cracked pot upon which we bang out tunes for bears to dance to when we wish to conjure pity from the stars imo

agree with dyao there, but we really should have a discussion about why joeks are funny itt

noone knows what the writer of the joke meant! it's not a given

no it's not a given but when the writer of a joke says "this is what I meant by it" it has considerably more force than when the writer of a short story/novel/poem says "this is the meaning of the text"

authorial absence is considerably & reliably more overstated than authorial intent

btw you asked for this so no complaints

also, the meaning of the joke is that ralph dreams that he is a viking

point to where the writer of the joke says "this is what I meant"

it's in the joke, when he says that sleep is where he's a viking

this is turning into that ILM thread where xuxhk was all "if I mishear a lyric it's perfectly fine for me to talk about that in the review as if those are the real words, it's not irresponsible or misleading at all to only give the reader my take"

discussed upthread, writer on staff answered question, that's close enough, everybody knows "viking at sleep" is ridiculous, barthesian jouissance in lit doesn't enter into this shit, the question is stupid

also I'm not sure how either of your propositions are automatic gimmes, but whatever

"but what if the joke was being read out by a line-actor who can read phonetically but doesn't actually understand the words?" I guess is next

I think that this is what the writer of the joke meant. This here. Us agruing. We're the joke. Look in the mirror - how many days have you put off shaving to post on this thread? We have met the viking, and it is us.

Look in the mirror - how many days have you put off shaving to post on this thread?

rubbed chin w/knuckles and sadly lol'd tbh

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v13/CrazyDiamond/blog/Picture3.png

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