10 Incredible Tiny Details Hidden In The Simpsons
3. Mr. Burns Shows His Age When He Picks Up The Telephone
Another of The Simpsons’ running jokes is the matter of Charles Montgomery Burns’ great age. The miserly owner of the nuclear plant is Springfield’s oldest resident, a fact that’s been mined for endless jokes about his frailty. Whether he’s wrestling Maggie and being effortlessly defeated by her or sinking in the bath under the weight of the washcloth on his forehead, Burns’ feeble nature knows no bounds.
How old is he, exactly? The show has flip-flopped on that one over the years, confirming him to be 81 in “Simpson and Delilah” and just over 100 in other episodes. That’s all part of his malevolent mystique, though. Some may assume the same of his trademark telephone greeting, ahoy-hoy. Is it just a Burns idiosyncrasy? No, it’s much more than that.
Interestingly, this was the greeting preferred by Alexander Graham Bell in the very early days of the telephone. Just think: this would be the way we’d all be answering our phones today if the phrase remained in common use. As it is, it’s just another clever joke at the expense of one of the Simpsons’ oldest characters.