There are dozens, if not hundreds, of The Simpsons lines that have crept into my everyday vocabulary. “Just because I don’t care doesn’t mean that I don’t understand” is useful for feigning interest, while “lousy Smarch weather” is a handy phase for when the weather is subpar, in Smarch or otherwise. I haven’t found the right opportunity to use “so then I says to Mabel, I says…” yet, but it’s always buzzing around my brain, unwilling to be pushed out every time I learn something new (there’s another one).
Bart’s “Mabel” story — which appears in the season eight classic “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer,” or “The Mysterious Voyage of Homer” — is a favorite line among many Simpsons fans, and even for people who wrote on the show. “Homer story in Chili ep was so full we had no room for kids B story. So when Homer asks them where Marge is, they have nothing going on. What they’re doing that moment had to be 100% freestanding. Hence, Mabel,” former co-showrunner Josh Weinstein tweeted.
He added, “And no, there were never any Mabel-related lines before or after ‘So anyway, I says to Mabel, I says…’ It was perfect. And to be clear, because people have asked about this often, the Mabel line does not reference anything, it never appeared in a book or movie or anything. As far as I know, it is totally freestanding in the human timeline.”
Weinstein also asked his followers to share their favorite “random” quotes.
Story behind “I says to Mabel”
Homer story in Chili ep was so full we had no room for kids B story
So when Homer asks them where Marge is, they have nothing going on. What they’re doing that moment had to be 100% freestanding
Hence, Mabel
What’s your fav random Simpsons line? pic.twitter.com/J5KDTG6YXj
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) February 19, 2023
This is great, but I’m going to need a 25-tweet thread on “time for chili” next.