Talk:Bart Simpson

The following information has failed Wiktionary's deletion process.

It should not be re-entered without careful consideration.

---

Bart Simpson

due process--Perdedora (talk) 02:55, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Note there are four citations given, along the lines of "the Bart Simpson of (some sphere of activity)". Our current definition does not list any traits of Bart Simpson that would explain such uses. (My preference is to delete, though.) Equinox ◑ 10:18, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Delete, per the vote on disallowing names of individuals. No need to hold fictional people to a lower standard than real people. 'The Bart Simpson of' should be treated no differently to 'the Barack Obama of' or 'The Cristiano Ronaldo of'. Mglovesfun (talk) 11:53, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Delete as is. Compare Benedict Arnold, for which the term is used as an exact substitute for the word "traitor". Rather than saying "Joe was like Benedict Arnold", or "Joe was the Benedict Arnold of the group", writers say "Joe was a Benedict Arnold". I see nothing equivalent for Bart Simpson. bd2412 T 18:02, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

I may have found an actual use:

• 2001 August 20, Mark I. Pinsky, “Introduction: Epiphany on the Sofa”, in The Gospel According to The Simpsons, Westminster John Knox Press, →ISBN, →OL, page 5:

  A Baptist pastor, Dan Burrell, recorded an educational audiotape entitled “Raising Beaver Cleaver Kids in a Bart Simpson World,” instructing parents how to rear their children with “value and character.”

Apparently a few people also have a concept of Bart Simpsonization, meaning something like "delinquency":

• 1992 December 3, Dan Rodricks, “Hey, man my folks are just cable thieves”, in The Baltimore Sun‎^[1], →ISSN:

  Personally, I think it's evidence of the Bart Simpsonization of America.

• 2004 October 11, “Mutual Consolation of the Saints: In the Face of Doctrinal Differences”, in Minnesota South District Pastoral Conference‎^[2]:

  For many years I have grieved over what I have termed "the Bart Simpsonization" of the church.

• 2009 May 25, Clean Teen Reads, “What do you consider offensive language?”, in Clean Teen Reviews:

  I deplore what I call the Bart Simpsonization of America—the snappy (and rude) comeback, the child who's disrespectful to her parents, the constant put-downs.

~ Röbin Liönheart (talk) 18:51, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Haven't found any more, though. I say  Delete and replace with an {{only in}} pointing to the Wikipedia entry. ~ Röbin Liönheart (talk) 20:08, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

We would need something structurally more like:

• 2009, Paul Mason, Meltdown: the end of the age of greed, page 131:

  To fulfil its promise and maintain its ideological grip in a world full of Bart Simpsons, neoliberalism would now have to deliver one thing above all: relentless growth.

This would qualify if the author used the name, without explanation, to convey the characteristics of the people with which such a world was filled. However, in this case it looks more the author describes who Bart Simpson is and then speculates about this kind of world, which is the opposite of using the name as a word with presumed meaning. I agree with the idea of an "only in Wikipedia" signal. bd2412 T 22:23, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Compare Homer Simpson, by the way, where the definition refers not to a fictional character but to a particular kind of person. Equinox ◑ 13:34, 11 January 2013 (UTC)

It's had a few months to justify its existence. I'm calling this failed. Deleted and replaced with an {{only in}}. ~ Röbin Liönheart (talk) 18:49, 26 May 2013 (UTC)