Category: Television

“Would you do it for a Scooby Snack?”

From: Scooby Doo

Genre: Cartoons, Television

Who said it?: Various people

The story behind the quote: Scooby Doo is an animated series that started way back in the late 60’s. Yet, the entire franchise manages to stay popular even after more than 40 years. It started out as a cartoon with a bunch of friends (Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake, Norville “Shaggy” Rogers and the titular character, Scooby Doo) go around the United States investigating supposed supernatular cases then exposing them as frauds.

The show got a total revamp, first from adding Scrappy Doo, Scooby Doo’s adventurous nephew, removing most of the cast (except for Shaggy and Scooby) and totally eliminating the crime solving gimmick. The show eventually became a slapstick comedy.

The show will then get another revamp with the ghosts and monsters actually being real (no person in a costume) and the heroes trying to fend them off. Even after that, there were more changes to the basic story, with the only real constants being Scooby and Shaggy staying as the stars and the pair’s love of eating.

Speaking of eating, another thing that has not changed from the start of the show is the Scooby Snack that Scooby loves. Although it’s supposed to be a dog biscuit, it is apparently super delicious and even Shaggy loves to eat them as well! In fact, the two of them can be bribed into dangerous situations, as long as they can help themselves to the treat.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a clip of the original show. But I did find one from A Pup Named Scooby Doo, which you can see below:

Geek wisdom: Everyone does have a price. It’s not really a bad thing. Think about it as there’s always something that will motivate you to do the things that you wouldn’t do normally. It’s more of a motivational tool.

If you’re stuck in a job you don’t like, but you do it for your family, you can grind right through it. Even in exercising, if you can dream of the results (great health, good body), you can power through it.

Anything is worth doing, as long as the proper motivation is there.

“Me fail English? That’s unpossible!”

From: The Simpsons

Genre: Cartoons, Television

Who said it?: Ralph Wiggum

The story behind the quote: GeekWisdom has been running for more than a year now and I’ve never posted a quote from one of the longest running series of all time. The Simpsons has been on air for over 24 seasons, had a feature-length film and has entered pop culture consciousness but this is the first time a quote is being posted here. One of the reasons is because I can’t embed most of the Simpsons video clips on YouTube. Another is, well, nothing really is super memorable from the main cast… but I forgot about Ralph Wiggum.

Ralph is the dim-witted son of the dim-witted Police Chief of Springfield, Clancy Wiggum. He tends to do incredibly odd things that are pretty stupid and he has the tendency to make unrelated comments with the situation he’s in. Unfortunately, it seems that he’s pretty much in the dark about his clue about how clueless he really is.

In the clip below, Principal Skinner is announcing the children who are failing in English. Ralph is overjoyed and actually thinks he won something. When Principal Skinner corrects Ralph, he smiles and expresses disbelief since he thinks he’s really great in speaking the language.

Geek wisdom: We can be extremely ignorant of our own… ignorance. We like to believe that we are so totally awesome and great. However, it’s totally possible that we’ve put ourselves on an extremely high pedestal and actually fail to see our own… well, failures.

It’s easy to be blind to our own weaknesses. We sometimes have to take a long, hard and impartial look at ourselves to really see who we are.

“Have a pancake!”

From: Wonderfalls

Genre: Television

Who said it?: A cow creamer?

The story behind the quote: Sometimes, even great and inventive television shows get cancelled. One of those shows would be the brainchild of Bryan Fuller. However, if you were thinking of Pushing Daisies, well, no. It’s not. It’s another show that actually stars Pushing Daisies’ Ned, Lee Pace. That show is Wonderfalls.

The general idea is that Jayne Tyler (played by Caroline Dhavernas) a smart and sarcastic underachiever who has her life turned upside down when various inanimate objects (such as the aforementioned cow creamer) tell her to do various things to help people. While these acts may seem extremely mundane and simple, like in the quote mentioned, these actions have far reaching implications, which she would never foresee.

You can actually see the first part of the episode where the quote is mentioned below:

Geek wisdom: Like in the show, the smallest decisions we make have bigger implications that we may not see. In fact, all of the actions you have done throughout your lifetime has made you the person you are today. All of those choices has brought you to this specific point in time.

While we may not really understand the implications of the minor choices we do, they do impact us, one way or another. Make sure you make the correct ones.

“These pretzels are making me thirsty!”

From: Seinfeld

Genre: Television

Who said it?: A lot of the the cast!

The story behind the quote: We’ve already noted in a previous post that Seinfeld has a lot of memorable quotes. So… here’s another one! The quote comes from the third season episode “The Alternate Side.”

Kramer goes to Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment to announce that he just got a line in the latest Woody Allen movie. George then busts in, severely rattled because of his new job of parking cars across the street (which is apparently not as easy as he thought it would be). Anyway, Elane asks Kramer what the line is and he tells everyone the line he’s going to say is “These pretzels are making me thirsty!” Elaine and Jerry then give their own way of saying the line. Then, George, who is still stressed from his job, gives the line in a very angry tone.

Everyone looks at him funny and George explains that they have no idea what the pretzel guy is feeling that day. Maybe the guy is angry because he took up a job parking cars for a living. He then rushes to the window and yells the line at the people waiting for George to park their cars.

Geek wisdom: We always tell people to use their words when they talk. However, the way they say it is also very important. You can’t just rely on the actual words; you have to listen to the way the words are being said. In fact, the way something is being said can actually be more important than the actual words.

Try to pay attention to the way things are being said and not just the actual thing being said.

“Did I do that?”

From: Family Matters

Genre: Television

Who said it?: Steve Urkel

The story behind the quote: Family Matters was a sitcom that initially started as show about the Winslow family and how they dealt with family issues. That all changed with the introduction of Steve Urkel. Steve Urkel (portrayed by Jaleel White) was the nerdy next door neighbor who wanted to win the heart of Laura, the teenage daughter of Carl and Harriet Winslow. Although Urkel was only supposed to be a guest character, viewers loved the character so much that he eventually became a regular character and, in fact, became the reason to watch the show since most (if not all) of the stories revolved around him.

A lot of the jokes was due to Urkel’s extreme clumsiness. These clumsy acts would usually cause a ton of damage to the Winslows property. Although he knows that he did destroy the items in question, he would still look around and ask if he was the one who did it. In fact, it happened so frequently, it became one of his catchphrases.

Here’s probably the most disastrous thing that Urkel has actually done:

Geek wisdom: We sometimes do stupid things or have accidents. While they may or may not be intentional, these actions are still ultimately our fault and our responsibility to rectify. A lot of us actually shrink away from taking ownership of the problems that we cause and try to pass it on as the fault of others.

Our life, our choices. We have to live with the repercussions of what we do, no matter if they were good or bad.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with that!”

From: Seinfeld

Genre: Television

Who said it?: A lot of the the cast!

The story behind the quote: There’s a reason why Seinfeld was the most popular television show in the 80’s and 90’s. It was funny. It took risks in their jokes and, the best thing of all, it was a show about nothing. There was no lesson to be learned. No moral about how you should behave. It was just about comedian Jerry Seinfeld, his best friend George Costanza, his ex-girlfriend Elaine Benez and the next door neighbor, Cozmo Kramer. However, the writers were intelligent enough to make sure that the stories to not really offend anyone but rather took a humorous look at life.

One example of this would be “The Outing” episode. Here, Elaine notices that two girls are listening to her conversation with Jerry and George. She then veers the conversation to make it look like Jerry and George are a gay couple, which the two eavesdroppers believe. It turns out that one of the eavesdroppers was a reporter and mistakenly “outs” them. Of course, Jerry and George realizes that a lot of people are going to think they’re gay and try to correct the reporter, but, they both don’t want to seem that being gay is a bad thing. So, they always mention that there is nothing wrong with being gay every time they deny that they’re homosexuals.

You can also watch a pretty good summary of the entire episode by going to this link.

Geek wisdom: We love geeky stuff, like comic books, video games and superheroes. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Other people may have problems with it but we have to know that they’re the ones with the problems, not us.

Even the people that care for us will say that they “worry about us” since we’re so involved with hanging out at Comic-con or staying up late to catch the midnight release of  the game that we’ve waited months for. They simply don’t realize that there is nothing wrong with us. We all have our quirks that makes us different from each other. Sometimes we have to remind people that there’s nothing wrong with the things that makes us who we are.

“More cowbell!”

From: Saturday Night Live

Genre: Television

Who said it?: Bruce Dickenson

The story behind the quote: The quote comes from a Saturday Night Live skit. In a supposed video recording of the actual creation of Blue Oyster Cult’s hit song “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper,” a legendary record producer named Bruce Dickenson (played by the guest host Christopher Walken) sits in the session. The band starts playing, but they are distracted by (fictional) band member Gene Frenkle’s (portrayed by Will Ferrel) playing the cowbell too loud. However, Bruce Dickenson disagrees and actually wants more cowbell to be played!

Bruce Dickenson then tells Gene to really play up the cowbell on the next try. The band now find the cowbell playing even more annoying but Bruce tells them that it was actually better because of the excited playing of Gene’s cowbell. Gene then volunteers to pull it back on the next take. However, he plays it in a passive-aggressive manner and explodes in anger. Bruce Dickenson steps in and says that the cowbell is really necessary to make (Don’t Fear) the Reaper a great song.

Gene Frenkle then gives a speech that it’s his duty to play the cowbell to the best of his ability, to which Bruce Dickenson agrees wholeheartedly. The band then agrees that they should work as a team and record the song to the best of their ability. The last shot of the skit shows that fictional Gene Frenkle died in 2000.

You can also watch the entire clip below:

Geek wisdom: The thing that you thinks as annoying or bad? Well, there are going to be some people who are going to like it. In fact, they may even love it! While the band members of Blue Oyster Cult found the cowbell annoying, Bruce Dickenson heard the same thing and actually wanted it to be more prominent in the track. This is because everyone is different.

If you think about the way we geeks talk about comics, toys and the like, we show a lot of passion and love for these things. But we do know that a lot of people cannot understand why we love these things and just find those topics silly and a waste of time.

This goes both ways as well. You may have a friend that likes something that you do not care for. Maybe it’s talking about  how their Fantasy NFL team is performing or maybe they have to rush home to watch the latest episode of Glee.

 

“More than meets the eye!”

From: The Transformers

Genre: Cartoons, Television

Who said it?: No one really… it’s part of the intro song

The story behind the quote: The Transformers is one of the most beloved cartoons of the 80’s. You probably know the story: Optimus Prime and the Autobots fight to save the Earth from the evil Decepticons led by Megatron. What made the characters incredibly memorable was the fact that they could (as the name suggests) transform into other things. Optimus Prime would transform into a gigantic trailer truck while Megatron would change into a gun. This led to a fantastic toyline. Never mind that people would complain that the cartoon was just a big commercial for the toys. It didn’t matter; the show was fantastic as well.

The quote actually comes from the theme song of each of the seasons of the regular (so-called) Generation 1 continuity (none of the Michael Bay movies or even the later cartoons). The title song lays it out: there is more than meets the eye for the series.

Geek wisdom: There is more to people than what we just see on the outside. Each and every one has different facets and you will not be able to determine them with just a simple look. You would have to go deeper than that.

We can shun people just because, from our initial impressions, we judge them instantly without really getting to know them. But everyone has something to offer so it’s best to really try to understand other people before we judge them. You never really know if your first impression should be your last impression of a person.

“My goal is not to wake up at 40 with the bitter realization that I’ve wasted my life in a job I hate because I was forced to decide on a career in my teens.”

From: Daria

Genre: Cartoons, Television

Who said it?: Daria Morgendorffer

The story behind the quote: Daria was an animated series from MTV that started during the late 90’s. It was a spin-off from another MTV series, Beavis and Butt-Head. However, while Beavis and Butt-head’s humor is usually derived from the duo’s stupidity, Daria was a bit more intellectual. Daria is a very smart teenager but with a very realistic, cynical   and anti-social view in life. She may come off as an underachiever but prefers to see things in her own point of view.

The quote comes from the Season 2 episode “Gifted.” Daria is invited to a school for gifted teens and, during the program, one of the counselors asks her what she wants to do. Daria comments that it’s a little too soon to be thinking of that simply because she hasn’t decided. The counselor pushes her to answer and that’s when she delivers the quote.

Geek wisdom: When we are young, all we see from our perspective is what we think we should be doing in order to be happy. We may like video games so we think that being a programmer and getting a job making video games will make us happy. However, what we don’t know is that, as we grow older, we gain and lose interest in different things. It’s a fact of life: as time moves on, we change in subtle and different ways.

It’s fun to dream as a child, but we should always leave room in our minds for the possibility that the dream may become a nightmare.