I’ve lived my life with one all-encompassing mantra: All the things essential that you must know in life could be present in The Lion King, Star Wars, or The Simpsons. If you consider it, it is bloody good, if I’ll so humbly say myself. Beating your self up a couple of unhealthy determination you made years in the past? “It does not matter. It is prior to now,” as Rafiki (Robert Guillaume) tells Simba (Matthew Broderick), motivating him to cease operating and return dwelling. Making an attempt to get one thing carried out? To hell with that. As Yoda (Frank Oz) says in his iconic The Empire Strikes Back quote, “Do… or don’t. There isn’t a attempt.” Eager to know learn how to win pals and affect folks? You might spend as much as $63.98 on the Dale Carnegie book, or keep in mind this one simple (and free) truth from The Simpsons: “You do not make pals with salad.” Actually, the best lesson I’ve realized comes from Dan Castellaneta’s Homer Simpson: “If at first you do not succeed, surrender.”
This Quote From ‘The Simpsons’ Is a Composite
Now I’ll exit on a limb and assume that not certainly one of you expensive Collider readers is pondering, “Effectively, sure, I can see how that could be life-transforming,” so bear with me. However earlier than we get there, the quote itself. Regardless of numerous web sites attributing “If at first you do not succeed, surrender” to Homer, he is by no means really used these actual phrases. Or if he has, Google and my reminiscence have severely let me down, and as a lot as I like the present, rewatching 35 seasons price of episodes — and one film — to discover a needle in a haystack is not actually possible. That mentioned, the quote is a composite of the various, many, (far too many) occasions Homer has said one thing comparable.
In Season 9’s “Actuality Bites,” Homer says, “Making an attempt is step one in the direction of failure,” explaining why he is so hesitant to place any effort into something that he is sure goes to go improper anyway. Homer’s assuring Bart (Nancy Cartwright) he is not mad after Bart provides up making an attempt to study guitar in “The Otto Present” is parenting at its best: “If one thing’s onerous to do, then it is not price doing. You simply stick that guitar within the closet subsequent to your short-wave radio, your karate outfit, and your unicycle, and we’ll go inside and watch TV” (which we all know is the reply to life’s issues, as said in Season 1’s “There’s No Shame Like Residence”). His phrases of knowledge to Bart and Lisa (Yeardley Smith) from “Burns’ Inheritor” in Season 5 — “Children, you tried your greatest and also you failed miserably. The lesson isn’t attempt” — are so profound that the quote made its way into The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations in August 2007. One may actually discover comparable quotes not less than as soon as in every season of The Simpsons.
“If At First You Do not Succeed, Give Up” Is Extra Than It Sounds
So how do the defeatist and pessimistic words of a lowly nuclear plant worker, one whose grasp on being S-M-R-T is non-existent, train any type of lesson, not to mention a life-changing one? In my case, the reply is two-fold. Initially, Homer’s dismissal of making an attempt something gave me definition. When issues come straightforward, they don’t seem to be onerous to embrace, and ever since I used to be a toddler, issues got here simply, or not less than typically sufficient that “common” was all the time on the desk. Spelling was straightforward. Math was straightforward. I taught myself learn how to play drums. But the reverse was additionally very true. If it did not come simply, it would not get tried once more. One failed snowboarding try and that was it for snowboarding. Falling on my butt studying to skate one time, and I’ve by no means tried once more (not straightforward once you’re Canadian). Failed auditions, as soon as for a junior-high manufacturing and one other to advance within the college’s drama program, had been sufficient to close the door on every other makes an attempt. And like Bart, my closet is filled with issues I meant to attempt however gave up on. It wasn’t laziness, nevertheless it definitely wasn’t effort. It was one thing indefinable… till Homer Simpson discovered the phrases to outline it.
I understood myself higher than I ever had earlier than, and it was releasing. However on the similar time, that definition impressed me to dwell past it. Like George on Seinfeld, I got here to the belief that if all the things I had carried out led to my circumstances on the time, by doing the precise reverse, these circumstances would change. I took an opportunity and requested a stupendous girl out, which has led to 26 years of being collectively, and counting. I self-published a ebook of puns, putting confidence in my abilities that I might by no means have dreamed of earlier than. I sought assist for my psychological well being, a transfer that I’ll by no means remorse (and strongly encourage you, pals, to do the identical in case you’re not in a great place).
A random advert showing on Fb searching for candidates to write down for Collider caught my eye, and as a substitute of assuming that there was no level, I utilized, and was rewarded with what I name “the enjoyable job.” And absolutely there’s extra fascinating issues within the close to future I am unable to discuss but as a result of they have not occurred, all because of merely making an attempt. In the long run, maybe the best lesson from The Simpsons is not that composite quote from Homer in any respect, however slightly this one from “Misplaced Our Lisa”: “Silly dangers are what makes life price residing.”
The Simpsons is accessible to stream within the U.S. on Disney+
