sleep, that's where i'm a viking

[C of heartbreak]

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised the phrase hasn't caught on. Maybe I should start using it.

[hannah]

Yeah, I'm kind of surprised the phrase hasn't caught on. Maybe I should start using it.

"Everything is coming up viking"?

I'm in the dream camp, for what it's worth. Always have been, always will be.

[jebreject]

I really like Nog's interpretation, which is why it's too bad that it's wrong.

[El_Josharino]

I really like Nog's interpretation, which is why it's too bad that it's wrong.

What's really too bad is that I'm going to have to stab your face with the horns on my Viking helmet.

[Wally]

no, greg is still right

[Greg Nog]

So my roommate and I have lived together for about three years, been friends for thirteen.  I don't think there's anyone else alive whose thought-patterns are closer to my own.

I just asked him what his interpretation was, and he was like, "Ralph's dreaming that he's a Viking when he's asleep."

I told him my interpretation, and he was like, "NO, THAT IS HORRIBLY WRONG."

This is totally fascinating.

[Andrew_TSKS]

it really is. i never considered the fact that anyone could interpret it differently than i do, and i'm sure the same is true of everyone that interprets it the other way.

matt groening to thread.

[Wally]

Your heterosexual life partner has been drinking.

[dumbfish]

Clearly, what this thread needs is a poll.  Crystalcakes, which is more decisive for your bet-- the opinion of LPTJ en toto or the voice of Nog alone?  
Personally, I think it should be like the electoral college, with users' electoral votes being determined by number of episodes watched.  I realize this downweights my opinion in favor of Nog and dbd's, but fair is fair.

[Greg Nog]

Oh, god, it's hopeless for me, then.  Asking how many episodes of something dieblucas watched is like asking how many angels can stand on the head of a pin.

[Wally]

I vote for a miltary cuw (kew? queue? wtf?) either way I say Momma Erskine puts a gun to our heads and tells us her little boy is right.

[YojimboMonkey]

coup

[Wally]

ahhhh. Damn my stupid thinking machine!

[hannah]

anyway I think dreaming-about-being-a-viking is funny because vikings (like pirates and ninjas and to a certain extent matadors and sumo wrestlers) are inherently funny, but it's also funny to think about a second-grade doofus like Ralph Wiggum dreaming of being a Nordic swashbuckler, because he's about as far from that kind of blond physical ideal and gung-ho machismo as you can get, plus he eats paste and has a cat named Mittens and his Wookiee is bent. And to add to the above parenthesis, I think vikings are funnier than pirates and ninjas, partly because of the phonetics ("v" is funny, and it's funny that "viking" is not a gerund or anything, but you know a straight-up noun -- you can't "vike" to the best of my knowledge) and partly because pirates and ninjas are overplayed and work better visually anyway.

[hannah]

not that vikings are blond and physically ideal necessarily, that is -- i think they're often thought of as troll-like -- but trolls are also funny, and think the gamut of associations Americans have with Scandanavians (El_Josh-like, troll-like, blond-and-tall-like) certainly factors into just a word like "viking"

[hannah]

also vikings wear funny hats (no offense Yojimbo)

[hannah]

also what kind of viking would say "oh boy"?

hilarious, that's why it is hilarious

[FreddyKnuckles]

no you're wrong.  Greg is right

[dumbfish]

I started out in the dreaming camp, but you gotta admit that Freddy's argument is pretty convincing.

[jebreject]

I don't feel like Ralph has the mental faculty for Greg's theory to be correct.

But I mean, obviously, Ralph is excited about being a viking in his dreams, and I'm sure he subconsciously equates being a viking with having power, something he does not have in his real life, so that's similar to what Greg is saying, yeah?

But I've never heard someone use "viking" and "champion" interchangeably like that, and I really think you invented that idea with your interpretation.

[Wally]

Nah, the "viking" into "champion" change feels pretty natural to me. So, in the immortal words of the Knuck "you are wrong. Greg is right."

[jebreject]

I don't buy it!  It may feel natural, but Greg invented it!  I think it's a good idea, btw.  Just don't think it originated from Ralph.

[hannah]

ALSO, the obvious part of the joke that I neglected to cover is that RALPH DOESN'T KNOW WHAT DREAMS ARE.

Like, it's as if he thinks "sleep" is a place, and in that place he is a viking. He doesn't say, "Oh boy, sleep! Now I get to dream I'm a viking!" He says, "Oh boy, sleep! That's where I'm a viking."

[jebreject]

Right, exactly!

[hannah]

Right, exactly!

Jeb, let's go lie in a wet blanket together and pretend to be vikings