YOU DON’T EXPECT to hear a TD quoting The Simpsons in the Dáil, much less when talking about a serious subject like the Budget.
But that’s exactly what Eamon Ryan did.
In his Budget statement yesterday, the Green Party leader used a rather unusual word to express his dissatisfaction with the whole thing.
Ryan was upset that the Budget contained a number of small measures, but no massive changes to how Irish society is run.
I asked a colleague earlier this morning and he said it was “cromulent”. I asked what that meant and he said it does not mean anything. That is the sense from this budget. There are lots of small measures, lots of different changes, but nothing that is really changing the direction of this State or this society.
‘Cromulent’? What in the name of God is he on about?
Well, even the most casual of Simpsons fans (which Ryan apparently is not) will recognise it as a bit of Springfieldese:
The word is used by Springfieldianites as a synonym for acceptable or usable.
It is used in reference to the Springfield town slogan:
“A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.”
Which means to fans, ‘cromulent’ is a perfectly cromulent word.
A Green Party spokesperson told TheJournal.ie that Ryan knew what he was talking about:
“He did indeed – the word came up during our internal discussions on the Budget, and Eamon picked it up as a tongue-in-cheek description of the budget proposals.”
The ever eagle-eyed members of the Ireland’s Simpsons Fans Facebook page spotted the reference, and have declared Ryan a hero.
The quote is from the episode Lisa The Iconoclast if you want to educate yourself (or learn a few references to drop in the Dáil).
Written by Valerie Loftus and posted on DailyEdge.ie
[image alt="" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/10/img2-thejournal-656.png" width="600" height="115" credit-url="" credit-source="" credit-via="" credit-via-url="" wp-id="wp-image-3640926" class="alignnone" /end]
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say