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

Ralph: I'm a brick!

Ralph: I'm happy and angry

Ralph: I look like cable TV!

Ralph: I'm a unitard!

Ralph: I'm Idaho!

Ralph is Idaho, or as its postal abbreviation state to the delight of bearded Viennese at the turn of the last century, the ID. Makes you think.

lol Abbott

under my government the right to give a Viking the business end of your rifle if he removes his helmet in a lady's presence will not be abridged

― brad whitford's guitar explorations (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Wednesday, April 28, 2010 7:45 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

XD

if you wait 2 hours or so between coming back to this thread, it becomes a kind of random topic generator

deej sounds literally insane and i worry about him

um I think that everyone who posted to this thread sounds pretty fucking insane tbh. I showed snippets to my friend and she was dumbfounded that somebody was trying to argue about Ralph Wiggum with postmotherfuckingmodernism. Seriously, guys. What the fuck.

stevie d, bad news--you are insane

This thread makes me regret the fact that later today I will be in NYC.

argument #4316 against A: if you're making the joke that Ralph excels at sleeping, you don't muck it up by piling on a joke that the majority of the audience will not even register about Ralph inventing slang.

#4317: the emphasis would be on *I'm* in Ralph's delivery of the line. but it ain't.

xxp dude I figured that out when I was like 9 and watching QVC as much as Nickelodeon.

I don't know the "bum / lips" thing though, so, y'know, English.

http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/UK_shipping_forecast_zones.png/400px-UK_shipping_forecast_zones.png

Maybe Ralph is referring to the Shipping Forecast, where, of course, 'Viking' is a metaphor for "moderate or good, occasionally poor".

omg you fucking ppl

and I mean that (mostly) with love, of course

This thread:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/2433/neverland3ko1.jpg

how many of Team A are trolling?

does ILX have 9/11 truthers too?

lol @ the backpatting abt how much smarter ilx is than other message boards bcuz so many of our loudest are "B" evangelicals

This thread makes me regret the fact that later today I will be in NYC.

― No, YOU'RE a disgusting savage (Scik Mouthy)

loooooool

lol @ the backpatting abt how much smarter ilx is than other message boards bcuz so many of our loudest are "B" evangelicals

― Gifted Unlimited Display Names Universal (deej), Thursday, April 29, 2010 4:00 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

No the backpatting is because we only have a handful of people who would ever troll/honestly defend A.

thats exactly what im saying? minus your backpatting

http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/52516825/544703

thats exactly what im saying? minus your backpatting

― Gifted Unlimited Display Names Universal (deej), Thursday, April 29, 2010 5:25 AM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark

Our two statements are totally different; are you high?

argument #4316 against A: if you're making the joke that Ralph excels at sleeping, you don't muck it up by piling on a joke that the majority of the audience will not even register about Ralph inventing slang.

But the joke is not just that he excels at sleep, it's also that he thinks a "Viking of sleep" is a proper way to describe oneself. The humor comes both from the form and the content. And The Simpsons isn't really famous for it's straightforward and pleasing-the-majority humor, is it? There are many Simpsons jokes that the "majority" probably doesn't get immediately. For example, when Mr. Burns first answered the telephone "A-hoy hoy!", I'm pretty sure the majority of viewers only thought he has a funny way of answering the phone, and didn't get that it was a historical joke.

Also, many people (including me) in this thread have noted that they immediately interpreted Ralph's line as "excelling in sleep". And in the poll linked to above, 35% of the answerers thought so too. So it's not like it was some super-complicated gag that only a handful of people got.

#4317: the emphasis would be on *I'm* in Ralph's delivery of the line. but it ain't.

No, the emphasis is on the word "Viking", but that doesn't prove it either way. When he says "That's where I'm a Viking!", it could be the same as saying "That's where I'm the best!". He just wants to emphasize the "best" part, it's perfectly common.

idgtt

There are many reasons to ephasize words in a sentence other than to indicate that you.think you're the best.

No the backpatting is because we only have a handful of people who would ever troll/honestly defend A.

Why is it that the Viking of Sleep people are willing to accept that the Viking in Sleep crew interpreted the line differently, but so many of the Viking in Sleep folks accuse us of being trolls? Makes you guys look kinda bad.

There are many reasons to ephasize words in a sentence other than to indicate that you.think you're the best.

Of course there are. But Granny Dainger's argument was that because Ralph put the emphasis on the word "Viking" and not the word "I'm", that would automatically be a proof against the "Viking of sleep" interpretation. And I just wanted to point out that it isn't necessarily so: there are many ways to interpret Ralph's emphasis.

Why is it that the Viking of Sleep people are willing to accept that the Viking in Sleep crew interpreted the line differently, but so many of the Viking in Sleep folks accuse us of being trolls? Makes you guys look kinda bad.

It's because there's a wrong answer to this, and it's your one.

Makes you guys look kinda bad.

We're all cool with that

sometimes it's better to be a little rude than wrong

always, it's always better

u jerk

And Wiggum doesn't care if he doesn't make the sense
He's got a worm in his mouth, he's doin' alright
He can raid Scotland like anything
Savin' it up for after lunch
With the Vikings...with the Vikings of Sleep

In sleep I will shew them
My thews are girt, my blade sharp
I shall be Wodin's own warrior.

This worm has turned.

When I first saw the episode years ago I just assumed it was option A, though I can see why the more literal-minded could just as easily see the joke as option B (which really isn't as nearly as funny). But when someone posted the youtube clip of the line itself even option A didn't seem completely adequate. The more I watched the clip the more it seemed like there was something hidden in this stupid joke. So I downloaded the clip and ran the audio backwards and a new message started to emerge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cazDvV0XKjQ

The first few syllables are untranslatable (perhaps they recite Ralph's viking name), but the meat of the message lies in the clearly discernible phrase "a(ff)irms the key was silver".

In his short story, The Silver Key, Lovecraft writes about a "silver key" which allows the protagonist to re-enter the fantastic world of dreams that he lost along the way when growing up. Wiki says that he believes:

his dreams to reveal truths missing from man's waking ideas, regarding the purpose of humans and the universe, primary among these being the truth of beauty as perceived and invented by humans in times past. As he ages, though, he finds that his daily waking exposure to the more "practical", scientific ideas of man, has eventually eroded his ability to dream as he once did, and has made him regretfully subscribe more and more to the mundane beliefs of everyday, waking "real life".

So whether or not Ralph becomes Leif Eriksson in his dreams is besides the point. What's important is that his state of arrested development allows him to really be a viking at sleep (since he'll never be able to rationalize away his Leprechaun fantasies, etc.) and see the greater truth in things. By the end of the short story the protagonist has found the silver key and used it to re-enter the world of dreams and the narrator writes:

that he expects to meet Randolph soon, in one of his own dreams, "in a certain dream-city we both used to haunt", reigning there as a new (vi)king, where the narrator may look at Randolph's key, whose symbols he hopes will tell him the mysteries of the cosmos.

I have the suspicion that Ralph (I know, he's only the "mouthpiece" of the writer, but in the world of fiction and dreams characters over time begin to adopt a spirit or animating force of their own) anticipated this endless quibbling over the significance of his emphasis/his possible dream-reality disconnect/etc. and he's trying to send us the message that all of this rationalizing and over-interpretation only brings us further from the world of dreams (important to note that as a fictional character, this is where Ralph has always existed), where the real answers to life lie. He's inviting us to join him in the magical world of dreams and perhaps there we will find the right answer to what he means by "viking", along with the answers to more important questions, like whether or not that was a Predator ship at the beginning of Aliens.

oh shit, I just noticed that Lovecraft's protagonist name= Ra(ndo)lph!

Sounds reasonable

intriguing post, Fetchboy. In particular I find the intentional obfuscation of Ralph's name - Randolph - to reveal even more hidden insights into the nature of the message. in Viking mythology, Odin was the central god who ruled over Asgard. when you restore Ralph's name by removing the obfuscation, the remaining letters are 'n' 'd' and 'o' - or, to spell it out, Odin's name spelled backwards. however, and this is crucial, the 'i' is missing - symbolic of the fact that when Ralph sleeps, he loses his self, his sense of 'being' and identity - in other words, or one word that is not even a word, his "I" - his savage excellence at sleeping completely and totally obliterates his Self, and the Self. the missing 'i' is also a pun on the fact that when Ralph sleeps, he closes, or literally loses, his "eyes". the name Odin derives from the Norse word ōðr, one of the meanings of which is 'mind' - the irony is that Ralph, as you mentioned, in his state of arrested development, can never completely occupy his own mind - and hence, we may believe, that the 'i' may as well be missing from his 'mind' as well, leaving him only with a 'mnd', and Ralph-cum-Odn as a perpetually unfulfilled and frustrated tragic figure.

I agree in principle with your Lovecraftian interpretation, but I don't think Ralph is saying anything about a Silver Key. In fact, I don't think he's speaking English at all, rather than the ancient, forgotten language Lovecraft sometimes cited in his stories, such as in the incantation "Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!". So Ralph's sdrawkcab sentence is not meant to be taken as a proclamation in English rather than a chant, an incantation. And this reminds me of another chant who's meaning has also been a subject of hot debate, that of Bob the One-Armed Man in Twin Peaks. Here's a quote from the Twin Peaks faq:

E25. What are the words to Mike (the one-armed man)'s poem?

According to the shooting script of episode 2, it is:

Through the darkness of future past
the magician longs to see
one chance out between two worlds
'Fire walk with me.'

However, the closed caption subtitles for the episode use
the word "chants" instead of "chance", igniting a
long-standing, never-resolved debate:

- "chance" implies there is only one way or method to escape
from "between two worlds".

- 'chants' is supported by both the Convenience Store scene
and Laura's dream/vision in FWWM, where recital of the
phrase is followed by passage to the Red Room.

Brad Smith (a07✧✧✧@gi✧✧✧.rs✧✧✧.b✧.c✧) attended the '93 Fan
Festival (see question P8 for the address for Fan Festival
info) and had the opportunity to ask Al Strobel (actor who
played Mike) about this:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

When I was at the TPFF 93, I asked Al Strobel about
chants/chance. He said that he got the poem from David
Lynch's handwritten notes and it was chants. This would
seem to indicate that DL's intention was chants.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This is further supported by an appearance of the poem,
using "chants", in David Lynch's photography book, "Images"
(see question P1).

However, because of the conflicting written versions, and
because both words help support peoples' different
interpretations of Lodge events, it is unlikely this will
ever be resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

Now, just like with Ralph's "Viking", it would be foolish to think that this puzzle exists in a way that only one solution is and can be correct. In fact, both solutions are part of the same spell. The magician "chants", and that gives him a "chance" to cross between the worlds, just as Ralph's "Viking" incantation crosses the bridge between
two worlds, the world we perceive as "real", and the "dream world" of Lovecraftian gods (of whom BOB is merely an earthly manifestation). Ralph is both a "Viking", in the sense that he excels in what he does, being able to bridge the two worlds with the sheer power of his will, concentrated in the magical chant, and a "Viking" in the sense that his incantation makes division between the real world and dream world irrelevant, therefore making him a literal Viking.

BS is SB backwards, just sayin

the missing 'i' is also a pun on the fact that when Ralph sleeps, he closes, or literally loses, his "eyes".

It's also worth noting that Odin sacrificed one of his eyes to Mimir's Spring in order to gain Wisdom. So Odin literally "lost an I".

the people who insist that A is way funnier, or that B isn't funny at all, and that's why it must be A, are the ones that really get to me.

Don't dwell on the dichotomy, we're already on our way past it, man.

Yeah, I like boys and girls, they're all great! There's really no difference is there, Mr. BBC?

It's also worth noting that Odin sacrificed one of his eyes to Mimir's Spring in order to gain Wisdom. So Odin literally "lost an I".

― Tuomas, Thursday, April 29, 2010 8:12 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

very interesting. this revelation sheds new light on Ralph - perhaps the interpretation of Ralph as being a perpetual state of arrested development is wrong - the penumbra cast by Ralph's (quite obviously staged) imbecility conceals Ralph's true nature as being in a state of transition, of metamorphosis. in support of this, I present another utterance of Ralph: "When I grow up I want to be a principal or a caterpillar." Ralph is aware, whether as Ralph-as-Ralph or Ralph-as-Odn, of the process of transformation - indeed, a reverse transformation, perhaps, as Wisdom destroys - set forth by his exchange of one form of knowledge - vision - for another in the form of the water of Mimir. we may then believe, that for Ralph, sleep is not a metaphysical reality where he may assume a different form, but rather a state of transformation whose final stage is still unknown to us, yet to be revealed by the scribe David Cohen. but of what consequence is Ralph's awareness of this state of events - does Ralph still retain any agency of his own, or is he merely a palimpsest upon which further truths remain yet to be written?

One more interesting thing about Odin. According to Wikipedia:

In stanza 34 of the poem Hávamál, Odin describes how he once sacrificed himself to himself by hanging on a tree. The stanza reads:

I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows
from where its roots run.[11]

In the stanza that follows, Odin describes how he had no food nor drink there, that he peered downward, and that "I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there."[11]

* * *

In Rúnatal, a section of the Hávamál, Odin is attributed with discovering the runes. He was hung from the world tree, Yggdrasil, while pierced by his own spear for nine days and nights, in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power in the nine worlds. Nine is a significant number in Norse magical practice (there were, for example, nine realms of existence), thereby learning nine (later eighteen) magical songs and eighteen magical runes.

Now, it is generally thought that, while hanging from the tree, Odin enters a sort of Shamanic trance state, in which he discovers Wisdom and the eighteen Runes (the foreign alphabet of the Older Gods?). In Marvel Comics' Thor series, this trance state is called "Odinsleep". So sleep is definitely a transformative state for Odin/Ralph/Mike.

In The Simpsons, Ralph is often seen "accidentally" poking his own eye with his pen. This is generally thought to be a sign of Ralph's dumbness, but I think it really means Ralph is just mimicking Odin's Original Sacrifice of his eye/I.

Why is it that the Viking of Sleep people are willing to accept that the Viking in Sleep crew interpreted the line differently

because the Viking of Sleep people have been proven wrong conclusively but are only willing to meet the people who did so halfway

Also, in "Lisa the Vegetarian", just before Ralph's Viking line, when the class is about to dissect some earthworms, this is what Ms. Hoover says to the class...

Ms. Hoover: "First, pin them down, so they don't fly up and hit you in the eye."

I think the Ralph/Odin connection is more than obvious here.