10 Ways The Simpsons Changed The World

10. The Simpsons Added New Words To The Dictionary

From Mr Burns' sinister "excellent" to Flanders "hi-diddly-ho", every major resident in Springfield has a catchphrase. Perhaps the most important is Homer's "d'oh".

This "annoyed grunt" became one of the show's strongest reoccurring lines (or, perhaps, noises) very quickly. Whilst the likes of "don't have a cow" and "eat my shorts" may have been great in their own right, Homer's "d'oh" was entirely special because it was at once a relatable sound of irritation and technically a brand new word. In 2001, it entered the Oxford English Dictionary with its definition as an interjection of frustration.

It was the first of a slew of dictionary contributions from the show.

In fact, "d'oh" isn't even the only noise that The Simpsons is responsible for. The uncaring oral shrug of your shoulders that is "meh" is attributed to rising to popularity through the show and was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013.

When it comes to words, the episode Lisa the Iconoclast actually introduced the world to two at once as part of a challenge set for the writers by the showrunners to make up a couple of believable words. Both "embiggen" (to enlarge) and "cromulent" (perfectly adequate or acceptable) were added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2018.

Using them in a sentence, The Simpsons embiggened our vocabulary with perfectly cromulent new words.