The Social Dominance of 'The Simpsons' Continues

By Andrew Sanford | TV | October 2, 2023 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | October 2, 2023 |

“D’oh” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 1998. That was huge for nine-year-old me. I’ve been watching The Simpsons for as long as I’ve been able to watch TV. Which, as far as my parents were concerned, was a year old. Maybe younger. I would stand so close to the television when Homer and Marge graced the screen that I would eventually need glasses. But this isn’t about how much The Simpsons dominated my young life or my parents letting me watch TV until my eyes went sour. This is about The Simpsons’ continued relevance!

“D’oh” being added to the dictionary makes sense. It’s Homer’s catchphrase! It’s on t-shirts and mugs. Even the most casual Simpsons fan would know that Homer likes to let out an annoyed grunt. They may not know that Jebediah Springfield, the founder of The Simpsons’ hometown, was a murderous pirate who once attacked George Washington. That is the main thrust of the seventh season episode “Lisa The Iconoclast.”

It is a magnificent episode with lots of great jokes! One joke involves two Springfield teachers, Edna Krabappel and Elizabeth Hoover. They are showing their students a film about the town’s founder when he uses the word “embiggen.” Krabappel reveals that she’d never heard the word before moving to town, to which Hoover replies that the word is “perfectly cromulent.” You can watch the joke below.

The joke is that both words were not real. That changed in 2018 when Merriam-Webster added “embiggen” to its dictionary. It was surprising but not unprecedented. The word had become commonly used by the popular Marvel character Kamala Khan. Once again, it extended beyond The Simpsons. I can understand how that happened. I can’t for the life of me figure out how “cromulent” has now joined those ranks.

“Cromulent” is now a word, according to Miss Hoover and Merriam-Webster. Defined as “acceptable or adequate,” the word is another step in the escalator to nowhere. The Simpsons rise so high above other pop culture fixtures that it’s impossible to see an end. It’s not just for people whose parents allowed them to ruin their peepers by absorbing Homer’s antics for most of their lives. Some creations can take on a life of their own that eclipses their humble origins, and The Simpsons is a perfectly cromulent example.