get to the fireworks factory

English

Etymology

From the 1997 Simpsons episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", which shows an episode of the fictional Itchy & Scratchy Show in which the characters' journey to a fireworks factory is interrupted by the anticlimactic arrival of a new character, Poochie; while watching the episode, Milhouse Van Houten wails, "When are they going to get to the fireworks factory?!".

Verb

get to the fireworks factory (third-person singular simple present gets to the fireworks factory, present participle getting to the fireworks factory, simple past got to the fireworks factory, past participle (UK) got to the fireworks factory or (US) gotten to the fireworks factory)

(fandom slang, idiomatic) To reach the most interesting, eventful or important part of a storyline.
- 2004 April 9, Johan Gustafsson, “[TAN] Once more, with Passion...”, in rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan‎^[1] (Usenet):
  Jesus falls again, and now some woman brings him a drink. I'm getting so tired of this whole sequence. When are they going to get to the fireworks factory!?
- 2005 November 5, Poot Rootbeer, “Poot's post on TNA iMPACT! primetime, 11/3/05”, in rec.sport.pro-wrestling‎^[2] (Usenet):
  Is Raven ever going to wrestle on TV? Or at least get to the fireworks factory?
- 2006 September 22, James Kibo Parry, “Re: Further research into the word "braintanning"”, in alt.religion.kibology‎^[3] (Usenet):
  No, that's a different crazy Egyptian tycoon, and that's assuming he even is crazy, which is a pretty safe assumption because once Diana Spencer marries into your family all her new relatives are automatically crazy, especially if any of them produced the terrible Spielberg movie "Hook" in which Robin Williams takes forever to get to the fireworks factory.
- 2014 May 17, Forrest Wickman, “When Should You Show the Monster? The Rules of “Cinematic Foreplay.””, in Slate‎^[4]:
  The narrative going around about the new Godzilla, which waits about an hour before it finally gets to the fireworks factory, is that it’s a radical return to this kind of old-fashioned creature-feature restraint.
- 2024 April 9, David E. Low, Transgressive Humor in Classrooms: Punching Up, Punching Down, and Critical Literacy Practices, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 1986:
  Punching up and punching down. I've flirted with these terms a bit already, without adequately exploring their trajectories. Here, in Chapter 3, we finally get to the fireworks factory.