Before we go on, we should make this clear: this is not an important debate. The EU Referendum? That's an important debate. This? Not so much. But if there's a debate to be settled, we're interested in settling it.
And, to be fair, this one is a full 20 years old so it's well overdue.
It relates to a specific moment in the classic 1996 Simpsons episode You Only Move Twice when supervillain Hank Scorpio introduces himself to Homer and the gang while he is in the middle of a fun run.
He tells Homer: “Hey, look at my feet. You like those moccasins? Look in your closet; there’s a pair for you. Don’t like them? Then neither do I! Get the hell outta here! Ever see a guy say goodbye to a shoe?”
Homer then chuckles to himself and responds with, "Yes, once."
Now, you'd think this is fairly innocuous, but it's been the subject of debate ever since - obviously, Hank is expecting Homer to say no, but by saying yes, he could be referring to some other strange, previous occasion - or he could be referring to having literally just seen it happen. Those are our two options, and no one has ever worked out which it is.
Until now, as Buzzfeed managed to contact Dan Castellaneta, the man who voices Homer, who actually responded.
“The line was improvised. Albert Brooks [Hank Scorpio] always improvised whenever he did the show. That line was a reflexive response to Albert’s improvised line about seeing a man say goodbye to a shoe. I probably thought it was a previous time, but it is funnier if it means he saw it at that moment.”
So, Castellaneta thinks he probably meant it to refer to a previous time - at the time - but he also thinks that the alternative interpretation is actually funnier.
That settles it then. Kinda...
