What an Odd Thing to Say: How the Iconic Simpsons Scene Became a Meme

Meaning Behind “What An Odd Thing to Say” Simpsons Meme

Bart makes a comment meant for the audience. The viral Bart Simpson meme is taken from Season 5, Episode 7, titled "Bart's Inner Child,” which aired in 1993. In this specific scene from the show, Homer is driving the family to the Springfield Community Center to watch a lecture by fictional motivational speaker Brad Goodman. As they park, Homer restates what the audience just saw: “Well, here we are at the Brad Goodman lecture.” Lisa says, “We know, Dad,” but Homer needlessly elaborates further by saying, “I just thought we’d remind everybody. After all, we did agree to attend his self-help seminar.” Then, Bart casually chimes in with: “What an odd thing to say.” This line is in reference to Homer’s explanation and setup of the scene during which he also breaks the 4th wall by saying the word “we” when reminding “everybody.” The audience is “everybody.” The "fourth wall" is the invisible barrier between the fictional characters and the audience.

Meme Origin & Usage

People use the meme to show confusion, dislike, or sarcasm. The meme was created due to the popularity of the scene from The Simpsons, which was highlighted on a Simpsons subreddit in 2012. The meme didn’t resurface again until 2021, when X user @iresimpsonsfans used the meme to poke fun at a lyric sung by Bono in the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?” Many use the meme or GIF similarly when confronted with something confusing, rude, or offensive. Here are some examples to help you figure out when to hit “send” on this meme: If someone makes a seemingly irrelevant negative comment about you or your appearance. If you read a news update that doesn’t sound quite right, like this. If you read a comment on social media that is wild and/or out of pocket, like this.

“What An Odd Thing to Say” As a TikTok Sound

A similar sound byte from 2010’s Alice in Wonderland has become a viral sound on TikTok. A trending sound on TikTok with over 200k posts features the exact same phrase, “What an odd thing to say,” with the song “Army Dreamers” by Kate Bush playing in the background. However, this iteration of the line was not delivered by Bart Simpson, although it still retains some ties to Disney. The trending audio clip is actually an excerpt from a conversation between Alice and Lady Ascot in the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland. In this piece of dialogue from the film, Lady Ascot expresses disapproval at the fact that the gardeners planted white roses instead of Red. “You could always paint the roses red,” Alice replies. Lady Ascot then says, “What an odd thing to say.” The sound has been used by TikTokers to share personal anecdotes in which they’ve been asked an inappropriate or strange question, or been told something confusing or offensive. For example, Maya Kowalski (@mayakowalsk1) famously used the sound to shine a light on how insensitive some people are about her past trauma, even after watching the Netflix special about her life. Kowalski shared a clip of her mouthing the words on the audio clip with personalized text on the screen that read: Maya: “Yeah, my family and I went through something really traumatic.” Other person: “So cool that Netflix made a film about it!” Maya: “What an odd thing to say.”