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Quoting and referencing The Simpsons - a lot - is part and parcel of being a Simpsons fan. Since I'm an asshole, I love excellent or appropriate usage and loathe poor or inappropriate usage. (Though I'll admit that I'm frequently guilty of the latter.) Today during my daily perusing of the internet I came across this from The United Church Observer:
Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forty percent of all people know that.”
This is a citation that frequently gets screwed up. Can you spot the error? Let's try another example; this one is from a source which could not be more different than a 180 year old Canadian Jebus magazine, a comment thread up at the illogical, blasphemous and ultra-violent Kissing Suzy Kolber:
Otto Man Says:
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:30 pmListen, Stu, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that.
See the difference now? "Forty percent" "14%" Those are both common ways for that quote to be used and both are incorrect. The actual quote, and SNPP will back me up on this, is:
"Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Forfty percent of all people know that."
Forfty. Homer makes up a number. It is neither fourteen nor forty, it is "forfty". Selah.
(Note: KSK is a site wonderfully heavy with Simpsons references and Otto Man is one of their all-star commenters, so I offer the above in only the friendliest of ways. I am not a regular reader of The United Church Observer so I can't speak to their history with Simpsons quotes.)
I am pretty sure you could go back to school and write a doctoral dissertation on variations and effects of misquoting that particular statement. I often lose sleep thinking about it.
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