Another Reason My Mom is Marge Simpson

Yesterday I watched an episode of the Simpsons in which Homer finds out he isn't cool anymore. He spends the rest of the episode trying to be cool again. At one point he goes to a record store only to be depressed that he doesn't recognize any of the band names on the wall and all his favorites—Styx, Grand Funk Railroad, Bread—have been put in the oldies bin. He laments this to Marge, who replies, "Record stores have always seemed crazy to me, but it doesn't upset me." Then she adds matter-of-factly: "Music is none of my business."


At the end of the episode the whole family is driving home after an adventure (involving the mashing Pumpkins), and this is what they say. I'm pretty sure I've had this very same conversation with my own parents.

Homer: So, I realized that being with my family is more important than being cool.
Bart: Dad, what you just said was powerfully uncool.
Homer: You know what the song says: “It’s hip to be square.”
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it’s…cool?
Bart and Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart and Lisa: No.
Marge: Good; I’m glad. And that’s what makes me cool: not caring, right?
Bart and Lisa: No.
Marge: Well how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we’ve tried everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you’re truly cool, you don’t need to be told you’re cool.
Bart: Sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?

And off they drive.