Don't you hate pants?

The Simpsons animated TV show was first shown on the FOX network in 1989. I was 10 years old and in the 5th grade. This institutional American pop culture budding was completely lost on me until I reached the 6th grade. By that point, everyone had Bart Simpson t-shirts and I was left trying to scramble and figure out who this yellow cartoon character was. This 'behind the times' phenomena isn't unusual for me - I went through the same thing when New Kids on the Block came onto the scene in the late 80's and when Beverly Hills 90210 started in the early 90's. I am clearly not a trend-setter.

So naturally when all of my peers were wearing Bart Simpson t-shirts, I wanted one too. I pleaded to my parents, who saw the quotes on the t-shirts and told me that I would not be wearing anything like that. Some of those infamous early Bart t-shirt quotes that maybe aren't the most exciting to high-achieving parents:

Eat my shorts, man!

Underachiever, and proud of it man!

Bartman - Avenger of Evil - Watch it dude!

I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?

It took months for me to find a Bart Simpson t-shirt that my parents would approve of. It had a picture of Bart surfing upside down and exclaiming "Aye Carrumba!" Tame. Lame. And of course by the time I sported this shirt, everyone had moved on to the next pop culture evil and I was out of style. Again.

I digress. Now, 20 years later and a parent myself, I know they only wanted the best for me :) Once the Bart Simpson t-shirt craze died down, I kind of lost interest in The Simpsons. But I have been fortunate to surround myself with Simpsons afficionados over the past 20 years (and yes, The Simpsons is still on FOX these days with new episodes!).

So the other day, when Luke insisted on dressing a certain way, I was reminded of a Simpsons quote that one of my University of Rochester friends used to say all the time:

Don't you hate pants?

And if you want to check out the original airing of this famous Homer quote, check out the link below from YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbo-DxkBF2U