By the time The Simpsons Movie, was released, gone down drastically in quality since 2007, the film itself showed a massive return to form.
We’ve looked back at the 90-minute spectacular and found the ten quotes that made us laugh the most, whether they come from the core Simpson family or from some lesser-known characters.
“Giant Sucker...”
Unlike shows of a similar style and genre to The Simpsons, the show isn’t known for its overwhelming use of meta-jokes. It doesn’t avoid them completely, though, and they allowed The Simpsons Movie to open with one. Homer speaks directly to the audience and tells them how stupid they are for paying to watch a film when you could watch an episode of the show on TV for free: “I can't believe we're paying for something we can get on TV for free. If you ask me, everybody in this theater is a giant sucker, especially YOU!” Fair point, we suppose.
“I Like Men Now...”
Ralph Wiggum is one of the most disconnected-from-reality characters in all of television history. His sentences almost never make sense, and that’s probably the reason we love him so much. In the film, he makes one of his most straightforward claims ever.
After seeing Bart’s “doodle," Ralph exclaims, “I Like Men Now." It hasn’t been mentioned much since, but does this mean Ralph is canonically gay? Probably not, but, when it comes to The Simpsons, who really knows?
“Horrible Things...”
“Horrible! Horrible things are going to happen! And they're gonna happen to you! And you! And you! And you! People of Springfield! Heed this warning! Twisted tail! A thousand eyes! Trapped Forever!” This is the speech Abe Simpson gives in church which predicts basically the entire plot of the film. It’s not only funny, but it's one of the most important things we hear throughout the movie's runtime.
“Spider Pig...”
If there is one thing that has gone down in Simpsons history thanks to the feature-length film, it’s Spider-Pig: “Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig. Does whatever a Spider-Pig does. Can he swing, from a web? No, he can't; he's a pig. Look out! He is a Spider-Pig!"
We all know exactly what he is parodying there, we just really wish we had been given a Harry Potter parody when he changed his name to Harry Plopper.
“Chicken For Life...”
We guess Homer’s mocking of Bart before his infamous ‘nude scene’ is as close as we’ll get to a second parody song in The Simpsons Movie, even if it is a parody of Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March." “Then I hereby declare you chicken for life. Every morning, you’ll wake up to 'Good Morning, Chicken.' At your wedding, I'll sing bawk bawk bawk bawk bawk bawk bawk... bawk?”.
“Bountiful...”
At the conclusion of Bart’s naked skate to Krusty Burger, we see Ned, Rod and Todd thanking the lord for the sloppy, unhealthy food they’re about to eat. Unfortunately, at the exact time Ned is making his prayer, a naked Bart slaps up onto the window and leads of a chorus of “Bountiful penis... Amen." Short but sweet. The quote, that is...
“I Choose Number Three...”
Interestingly, The Simpsons have a regular character who is effectively a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger (Rainier Wolfcastle) who they chose to replace with a Harry Shearer-voiced version of the real thing for the film.
His insistence that “I Choose Number Three” comes back to bite him when the devilish decision is made for him later on in the film.
“Mad With Power...”
Russ Cargill was a character invented specifically for The Simpsons Movie after the idea of allowing the show’s greatest ever protagonist/antagonist hybrid, Hank Scorpio, to return was given up on. Maybe this was down to the fact that Scorpio was very loveable, while Cargill’s crazy rants certainly aren’t: “You ever tried going mad without power? It’s boring, no one listens to you."
“Tic Tac Toe...”
Cletus is a beacon of incredibly impressive stupidity in The Simpsons. He and his wife Brandine have 39 children—though one is a hot dog, and one is a sheep—yet manages to keep them all alive in a shack, so they can’t be as stupid as they seem. But, then again...
His revelation that “hey, I know how you feel. I was beat in tic tac toe by a chicken” just about sums up what is going through his mind at any given time.
“The Four States...”
The Simpsons always like to address the things that don’t quite make sense in the show’s continuity. One of those things is the actual location of Springfield, which, obviously, doesn’t exist in real life—well, at least not the Springfield depicted in the show. Ned explains that “you can see the four states that border Springfield: Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky!" Of course, none of those states are anywhere near each other, leaving the mystery of its location wide open.
