Eat my shorts!
- For the horse, see Eat My Shorts (Bart the Murderer).
Eat my shorts!
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Catchphrase Information
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"Eat My Shorts!" is Bart Simpson's trademark catchphrase. Bart uses it to express his rebellious attitude, usually to authority figures.
Bart first said it when he was in kindergarten, to Principal Skinner when he was misbehaving.[1]
On some occasions, the phrase was taken literally, such as when Bart was teasing a donkey and the donkey really did eat his shorts.[2]
When Bart developed his own line of novelty T-shirts, he used the phrase on one of his shirts: "Stop World Hunger, Eat My Shorts!"[3]
Contents
Variations / Use by Other Characters
- When Homer tells Mr. Burns to "eat my shorts", Burns comments that on Monday morning he will bring him into his office and "we'll see who eats whose shorts".[4]
- At the "Do What You Feel" Festival, Principal Skinner hits Bart with an acorn and tells him "eat my shorts, young man".[5]
- At the Noiseland Video Arcade one of the games that can be seen in the background is titled Eat My Shorts.[6]
- Jenny tells Bart to "Eat my shorts" because she doesn't like Bart anymore.[7]
Non-canon
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The contents of this article or section are considered to be non-canon and therefore may not have actually happened or existed. |
- When the teachers and staff at Springfield Elementary School are eating students, Principal Skinner tells Bart he's going to enjoy devouring him, and adds, "I believe I'll start as you've so often suggested, by eating your shorts."[8]
- When Bart is cast as Mozart, he says "Eat my pantaloons!" just before he dies.[9]
- While doing laundry, Marge comments that "if someone did eat Bart's shorts, they'd have a tummy full of pocket garbage".[10]
Behind the Laughter
The real history behind the phrase is that Nancy Cartwright, Bart's voice actor, improvised the line during a table read. She first said it as a prank when she was in her high school marching band at Fairmont High School. The band was supposed to chant, "Fairmont West! Fairmont West!" but instead she and the entire band chanted "Eat my shorts! Eat my shorts!".
The phrase has also been used outside of The Simpsons. For example, in the Futurama episode, "A Big Piece of Garbage," Fry sees a pile of talking Bart Simpson dolls, and Bender pulls the string on one that says, "Eat my shorts." Bender obliges, and then says, "Mmm... shorts." Ghost Rider says "Eat my flames" instead of shorts in the video game Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
More recently on the show, the phrase has been seldom used as many of the crew feel as if the many catchphrases have worn out. (This fact was parodied in the episode "Bart Gets Famous.")
There has been speculation that Matt Groening got this phrase from the stoner rebel John Bender in The Breakfast Club. The phrase "Don't have a cow" appears in another John Hughes film, Sixteen Candles.
Appearances
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This article or section is incomplete.
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Episode – "Bart the Genius" - Episode – "Moaning Lisa" (Arcade game)
- Episode – "Lisa's Sax"
THOH – "Treehouse of Horror V" (Variation)- Episode – "Bart-Mangled Banner"
- Episode – "Margical History Tour" (Variation)
- Episode – "Fat Man and Little Boy"
- Episode – "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer"
- Episode – "Moonshine River"
