Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It is a schoolboy's all-purpose answer to any order or lecture, delivered with a straight face and a cheeky shake of the behind. It marked Bart as the show's rebel, and it was the sound of a cartoon child getting away with what real kids could not. T-shirt sales turned it into a national slogan, and the phrase now stands for the whole early-Simpsons moment.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for The SimpsonsShow the scene
Bart's defiant sign-off is a catchphrase rather than a single scene: he fires it at authority figures, usually Principal Skinner, as a rebellious brush-off, sometimes with a mock moon-and-shake of his shorts. According to the fan wiki, the line was an ad-lib by Nancy Cartwright at one of the original table readings, echoing something from her college days. It was also stamped on early merchandise: Bart's T-shirts of the period carried it, and the show itself rarely used it until the shirts had made it famous. The Season 9 episode "Lisa's Sax" shows young Bart saying it in kindergarten.
Sources (3)
- Simpsons Wiki: Bart SimpsonCharacter history and Trivia, catchphrase paragraphsReference checked
- Simpsons Wiki: Eat My Shorts!Catchphrase articleReference checked
- Wikipedia: Bart SimpsonTimeline and characterisationReference checked
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