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

I mean I can definitely see where you B types are coming from but I just don't think it's as cut and dry as ya'll are making it out to be. state of sleep != dreaming first of all (I find it hard to conceive of sleep as a place, fantastical or otherwise) and second the phrase "that's where I'm (x)" is more ambiguous than ya'll are giving it credit for being. if ralph had said "that's where I become a viking" I admit we wouldn't be having this argument.

you people are blowing my mind.

like.

i did not think this was a real debate at first.

what a bunch of Ralphs

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)

the insistence isn't about the language as such. it's the insistence that option B makes sense in the context of the character whereas A doesn't at all.

do I really need to start posting youtube clips of "Kids say the darndest things!" itt

http://www.metafilter.com/61946/Sleep-is-where-Ralph-is-a-Viking

A doesn't make sense.

Ralph is not a kid he is the voice of scriptwriters writing gags for a character with an identifiable persona!

http://content.ytmnd.com/content/e/0/e/e0e0fb9640c3227b23f0f7074d925dc6.jpg

IS RALPH WIGGUM LITERALLY SUGGESTING THAT HE IS IN FACT A TIGHT-FITTING ONE-PIECE GARMENT OF STRETCHABLE FABRIC COVERING THE BODY FROM THE NECT TO THE FEET

Ralph Wiggum: I look like cable TV!

IS RALPH WIGGUM IN FACT A CATHODE RAY EMITTING TUBE UNDER THE CONTROL OF NEFARIOUS CONTENT-TRANSMISSION COMPANIES

jokes are where i'm a viking and can tell you it is B so lock thread.

sometimes i have arguments where the other person is so convinced of their rightness that an element of doubt creeps in, perhaps i am making a colossal mistake.

this is not one of those times.

i'm kind of annoyed that "B" is the second option and not the first option

i honestly wonder what it means that ILX is so united about this. BCO pretty much had a civil war over it

Unitard is him mistaking one word for another, not a metaphor. No one is arguing that language is static and inflexible; it's just that in the context of Ralph's character, it seems like he'd be more likely to be getting all excited about the opportunity to go to sleep and dream of being a viking than it does for him to be using the word "viking" as "v good at".

But we are chasing our tails here at this point.

it means we the best xpost

i honestly wonder what it means that ILX is so united about this. BCO pretty much had a civil war over it

the fact that ilx is pretty united on this issue makes sense cause people here are generally less retarded than on other msg boards and you would have to be pretty retarded to not understand such a simple joke (+ stay in denial after someone explains it to you)

all language is metaphoric, btw

can't it be BOTH a and b, all schrodinger's ralph style?

yah I'm not arguing for the exclusivity of a just the validity of a, so that's why I don't understand all these b-pred ship denyers

"don't you see, PREDATOR wasn't a movie at the time ALIEN was made. THEREFORE IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN A PREDATOR SHIP."

are you retconning this gag

i don't understand this predator/alien thing you keep referring to

I have never heard this pred ship thing. Is there a way to ask what it is w/o people exploding?

wimsatt and beardley have given me express permission to do so xxp

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)