Quote of the Day

"Who chased the Irish out of Springfield village in aught four?  Me, that's who!" – Abe "Grandpa" Simpson

"And a fine job you did, too." – Irish Guy

Forfty

XKCD #386

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 pm

Listen, 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.)