‘The Simpsons’ writer and showrunner Josh Weinstein has revealed the one joke from the show that’s been misinterpreted by audiences for almost three decades.
Taking to Twitter yesterday, Weinstein reposted a screenshot of the joke in question – a still from season five in which Homer answers the phone with the dialogue “Y’ello? You’ll have to speak up, I’m wearing a towel.” Referencing the joke, which fans had assumed to be simply a nonsensical Homer-ism (since towels don’t impact hearing), Weinstein told his 54,000 followers that its true meaning has been “possibly misinterpreted for nearly 30 years now.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HEuKKs-0ic
I’m proud to say I’ve loved this joke and possibly misinterpreted it for nearly 30 years now. https://t.co/TlkGLoVYko
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) June 14, 2022
Further elaborating on the Twitter thread, Weinstein said that he’d thought the joke from the early run of the adult animation was a non-sequitur, meaning a conclusion that doesn’t follow logically from the statements before it (ie, ‘I can’t brush my teeth because I don’t eat meat).
However, Weinstein said he’d discovered some decades later that the towel reference was actually based in logic, since “it’s what people with long hair say when they have a towel over their wet hair (and ears) after a shower when they answer the phone.” Given that explaining a joke is a sure fire way to ensure it remains un-funny, Weinstein concluded that his discovery “makes [him] like [the] joke less.”
For 25 years, I assumed (and loved it) that it was just a non-sequitor but then someone explained it’s what people with long hair say when they have a towel over their wet hair (and ears) after a shower when they answer the phone. Makes 100% sense but also make me like joke less.
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) June 14, 2022
After admitting that the joke’s true intent “loses some of it’s pure enjoyability,” Weinstein concluded that he prefers his original interpretation of the towel humour, and said he’s “a huge advocate of enjoying a joke for whatever reason your brain chooses! I don’t care about writer’s intent and I’m a writer.”
I agree! It loses some of its pure enjoyability to me but I think that was the original intent. That’s why I am a huge advocate of enjoying a joke for whatever reason your brain chooses! I don’t care about writer’s intent and I’m a writer.
— Josh Weinstein (@Joshstrangehill) June 14, 2022
