"Perfectly Cromulent": Another Simpsons Vocabulary List

Here is another list showing how "The Simpsons" uses vocabulary in the service of humor. Sometimes it helps to know what the word means in order to get the joke, but more often the joke illustrates the definition of the word from a skewed perspective. If you're trying to remember what "repercussion" means, nothing beats the image of Homer taking a flamethrower to his snowy windshield. Lisa and Bart 's discussion of irony is a classic, and it's accurate too, no small achievement when the concept has been so sorely abused throughout pop culture.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. onslaught
    an offensive against an enemy
    Patty: Oh nothing, dear. I'm just trashing your father.
    Lisa: Well, I wish that you wouldn't. Because, aside from the fact that he has the same frailties as all human beings, he's the only father I have. Therefore, he is my model of manhood, and my estimation of him will govern the prospects of my adult relationships. So I hope you bear in mind that any knock at him is a knock at me. And I am far too young to defend myself against such onslaughts.
  2. hodgepodge
    a motley assortment of things
    Lisa: Dad, I think this paper is a flimsy hodgepodge of high-brass factoids and Larry King.
    Homer: Hey, this is the only paper in America that's not afraid to tell the truth. That everything is just fine.
  3. pagan
    a person following a polytheistic or pre-Christian religion
    Lisa: Like Halloween and Christmas, April Fools Day traces its origins to pagan ritual.
    Homer: God bless those pagans.
  4. pious
    having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity
    Lisa: What are they doing to the church?
    Lindsey Naegle: We're rebranding it. The old church was skewing pious.
    Lisa: I feel like I want to throw up.
    Lindsey Naegle: Then my work is done.
  5. rhetorical
    emphasizing style at the expense of thought
    Homer: Do I know what rhetorical means?
  6. sarcastic
    expressing or expressive of ridicule that wounds
    Homer: Ooh, look at me! I'm making people happy! I'm the magical man from Happyland, in a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane! Oh, by the way: I was being sarcastic.
  7. repercussion
    a remote or indirect consequence of some action
    Homer: You may think it's easier to de-ice your windshield with a flamethrower, but there are repercussions. Serious repercussions.
  8. ample
    more than enough in size or scope or capacity
    Homer: I love going to aquatic parks. Sure, they have worse rides than amusement parks, less fish than aquariums, but the parking is ample!
  9. innocuous
    not injurious to physical or mental health
    Homer: Marge, I thought this was an inocuous lunch, but it's become terribly ocuous!
  10. surplus
    a quantity much larger than is needed
    Mr. Burns: Oh, “meltdown”. It’s one of those annoying buzzwords. We prefer to call it an “unrequested fission surplus”.
  11. ironic
    displaying incongruity between what is expected and what is
    Lisa: I think it’s ironic that Dad saved the day while a thinner man would have fallen to his death.
    Bart: And I think it’s ironic that for once Dad’s butt actually prevented the release of toxic ga—
    Marge: Bart!
    Homer, who has gained weight so he can work at home, has proved the hero by falling into a pipe that would have released toxic gas and plugging it up with his extra girth.
  12. pejorative
    expressing disapproval
    Protestors: Two, four, six, eight, Homer Simpson’s crime was great!
    Great meaning large or immense; we used it in the pejorative sense!
  13. forge
    create by hammering
    Groundskeeper Willie: I warned ya! Didn’t I warn ya? That colored chalk was forged by Lucifer himself!
  14. specter
    a ghostly appearing figure
    Grandpa Simpson: Why are you people avoiding me? Does my withered face remind you of the grim specter of death?
Created on Thu May 15 19:43:01 EDT 2014 (updated Thu May 15 21:38:20 EDT 2014)

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