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

the Most hilarious fanboy message board debate of all time

one of the all time classic ILX threads

people who are championing A are doing some severe cart-before-the-horse-ing in terms of how sayings get invented, imo

like, it is completely understandable, valid and funny to extrapolate from that scene that Ralph sucks at school and is good at sleeping and therefore turn "that's where I'm a Viking" into an idiom meaning "I am good at this", but the likelihood of that meaning actually being present in the scene, particularly given the history of the character and they way he's been portrayed before and since, is pretty fucking small

I am frequently talking out of my ass when I say things like this but in this particular case I feel relatively confident in saying that this is a great example of how postmodernism has ruined people's ability to interpret simple things; while it is true that pretty much anything can be interpreted a bazillion different ways, that doesn't change the fact that the simplest explanation is usually the most useful one (assuming you are too subjective to use the word "correct")

also the correct answer here is still C

i think the quote isn't done justice in writing, someone find the audio of this

oh god...i can't live this all again.

stop ppl for your own good.

i was a part of the "original" debate referenced on the bco thread.

step away.

Unitard is him mistaking one word for another, not a metaphor.

anyway the problem with this argument "ralph is incapable of using a metaphor" is that ralph doesn't need to be aware that he's using a metaphor in order to use a metaphor. he could have said "oh boy, sleeping! that's where I'm the tits!" and there wouldn't be any ambiguity and nobody would question him using a metaphor there would they BUT WAIT HE JUST USED A METAPHOR.

1. "the tits" is an established saying
2. they would never say "the tits" on The Simpsons, come on

Gotta admit: The longer this thread goes on, the more I've come to appreciate the absurdity of the idea of option (a) as the correct interpretation, even tho I don't believe it for a second. Eventually it'll reach a tipping point where after which I'll wish the wrong interpretation was the one intended

anyway being a viking at something meaning the same thing as being good at something has now been retconned into our culture

Xander: It happens that I'm good at a lot of things. I help out with all kinds of... stuff. I have skills and... stratagems... I'm very... help me out.
Anya: He's a Viking in the sack.

well aren't you just the bees knees xxp

at being asleep she means xp

lol did u just quote buffy the vampire slayer

yeah but I stole it from the metafilter thread :(

why don't we talk about how being a viking in the sack makes a hell of a lot more sense as an original coinage than being a viking at sleep

I think we're all gonna need some big hugs and reassurances that we all still respect one another, after this thread.

I blood eagle every girl I sleep with, tbh

xxp Because Vikings "sack" villages.

fwiw I was trained as a lit major in college and thus always look for the hermeneutic road less traveled and really cannot believe that people can get so dogmatically insistent over something as transient and mutable as language

(I've also believed in option A since first viewing this episode as a rerun on FOX in the mid 90s)

^damning post to your side

lol in reality it has only ever led to me making tons of totally inappropriate/non sequitor "that's what she said!" jokes in polite company

and is probably one of the reasons why I find myself in the predicament stated over in the not getting invited to things thread

Well, ok, I invite you to the Colonial Diner. BUT ONLY if you cut this Option A horse shit stat.

haha I'll take you up on that when I return for the summer (but I'm not making any promises)

btw guys "ILX" was originally meant to be "I Love Christ" and all you guys have been posting to a board for born-again Christians for the past 10 years

thing is, this isn't even about the mutability of language or anything literary. it's like if a doctor told a family member of yours "you have pancreatic cancer" and everyone else goes "oh shit, what are the ramifications, what can I do to help" etc, while you're like "wait wait! what if mayyyyybe the doctor was coining a new phrase and by saying 'you have pancreatic cancer' really meant 'you are a great patient'?????"

you are a great patient, granny dainger

(maybe you should go see a doctor)

state of sleep != dreaming first of all (I find it hard to conceive of sleep as a place, fantastical or otherwise)

Come on, is this really less plausible than the idea that Ralph is either a) inventing a metaphor or b) quoting something that was told to him in an implied-but-never-shown backstory?

ok I admit that b) is far-fetched (but not to me as a simpsons fan) but a) is totally more plausible given ralph's general ineptness with language, as in, he's inventing a metaphor unintentionally

HE MEANT IT LITERALLY
RALPH

MEANT WHAT HE SAID LITERALLY

RALPH SAYS RANDOM AND WEIRD STUFF ALL THE TIME IT IS WHAT HE DOES HE IS RALPH

HE IS RANDOM AND WEIRD
AND WHEN HE SLEEPS HE GETS TO PRETEND HES A VIKING HEH WHY CAUSE ITS FUNNY AND WEIRD AND RANDOM
LIKE RALPH

STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS

hahahaha dyao I thought you were referencing the original a) and b) in the poll options at first

lol or was I?

anyway time to go be a viking, I expect this thread to have broken 1000 when I wake up tmrw

sxp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92IkddsjtAA

i meant xxp

like, it is completely understandable, valid and funny to extrapolate from that scene that Ralph sucks at school and is good at sleeping and therefore turn "that's where I'm a Viking" into an idiom meaning "I am good at this", but the likelihood of that meaning actually being present in the scene, particularly given the history of the character and they way he's been portrayed before and since, is pretty fucking small

So how come MILLIONS of people apparently watched this episode and took away this reading? It's not like this is something one person made up and gradually converted others to after all.

Also, wtf sense does it make that Ralph would consistently and regularly dream about the same thing? Who does that? Dreams are different all the time. "Dream" theory just doesn't make sense.

So how come MILLIONS of people apparently watched this episode and took away this reading?

Because people can be stupidly over-analytical, particularly re: shows that have been branded as entertainment for smart people?

I assure you when I was twelve or whatever and first saw this episode I was not trying to "analyze" this cryptic comment, it just immediately read as the "viking = excels" joke and it was funny.

millons? really?

Viking was a random choice by Ralph based on a recent dream. Another day he would've said pirate, lawyer, board admin etc.

Also, wtf sense does it make that Ralph would consistently and regularly dream about the same thing? Who does that?

haha waht this happens all the time!

I assure you when I was twelve or whatever and first saw this episode I was not trying to "analyze" this cryptic comment, it just immediately read as the "viking = excels" joke and it was funny.

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, April 27, 2010 12:05 PM (50 seconds ago) Bookmark

well you just operate on a higher plane of consciousness than the general population then

haha waht this happens all the time!

does anyone actually have recurring dreams where good shit happens tho? mine are just the 'back at school or old job wtf this isn't cool but i'm too baffled by how this has happened to protest' ilk

Dreams are different all the time.

Yeah. Tell that to the many people who have ever worked in radio and have recurring dreams of screwing everything up. There's a whole Facebook page devoted to it.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2350714789&topic=8594

doesn't mean he always dreams he's a viking, but there's a chance he will and it's such an awesome dream that the possibility of it occuring again excites him.

at this point there are really only two options to resolve this discussion:
* attempt to marshal our resources and get a definitive answer from an authoritative source (ie a writer or producer of this episode)
* marvel at the fact that this is a joke that can be seen from two different perspectives, both of which are funny, like the picture of the old ugly lady that is also a picture of a young hot lady, and just sit and think about how wonderful and amazing that is

we could also continue fake-having this argument just to lol at the people who genuinely find it irritating

When I was a kid I frequently had a recurring dream where I had to fight sapient refrigerators and ovens in a giant, glowing pyramid that had pterodactyls flying over it.

did you draw a comic about this?

because that would be so incredible

Maybe I should...it would have to be in color, though.

waiting for granny dainger to come along and tell me that picture is CLEARLY ONLY of an old crone and if I see a young hot lady I must be some kind of IDIOT DOUCHEBAG

abbott i'd be willing to provide colour from my extensive post-production suite