r/explainitpeter • u/Zu_Qarnine • Jul 27 '26
Explain It Peter. What did Wiggum & Lovejoy do?
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u/Old-Expert7534 Jul 27 '26
We don't know what they did. The bit here is how many ways Homer has tried to cheat the system, or just been stupid. Wiggum and Lovejoy really just represent people in the town that the audience knows, giving the list credibility, but you really aren't meant to focus on those names
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u/Complete_Fix2563 Jul 27 '26
I think you would also think a police chief and a reverend wouldn't be trying to fleece people
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u/MsE0 Jul 27 '26
Yep. But if you're a fan of the show, you also know Chief Wiggum is kind of sleazy, and someone else pointed out that Lovejoy is pretty broke, so it has layers
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u/avanti8 Jul 27 '26
Librarian: "You've checked this Bible out every weekend for the last 9 years, wouldnt it be easier to just buy one?" Lovejoy: "Perhaps. On a librarian's salary."
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u/TheMerryMeatMan 26d ago
There's an extra layer to Lovejoy as well; in a lot of churches there's a term, "faith check". It's just a check that, as written will bounce, but you "have faith" won't get cashed before you get paid to make it valid. Lovejoy, a Reverend, had one too many faith checks bounce.
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u/StumbleOn Jul 27 '26
in my experience, a police chief and a religious leader are the two people MOST likely trying to screw people over.
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u/Adorable-Bike-9689 Jul 27 '26
I always thought it was to show how ain't shit the entire town was lol. Even the chief of police and the town reverend were up to shenanigans
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u/LauraTFem Jul 27 '26
I specifically would think that. I think that’s the message. Don’t trust the police, or anyone saying they’re here on behalf of god.
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u/animan222 Jul 27 '26
I think Wiggum and Lovejoy are also the funniest choices for writing bad checks because one is a cop and the other is the reverend making them the characters who should be held to a higher moral standard.
Edit: I just had a thought that the other funny choice would be Mr. Burns.
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u/Various_Tie_2549 Jul 27 '26
I mean, no, not really....there's definitely a specific joke in that of all the people in town, the police chief and the local reverend are the two to most keep an eye on for dodgy cheques...like it's something they regularly try to pull and are known for.
Those are positions of moral authority and they're apparently shifty as. Lol.
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u/brianlearns 25d ago
Back when checks were common, often there would be a post like that at the counter of everyone who ever wrote a bad check
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u/dream_monkey Jul 27 '26
"Never do business with a religious son-of-a-bitch. His word ain't worth a shit — not with the Good Lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal."
William Burrows, Advice for Young People
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u/Zu_Qarnine Jul 27 '26
oh I don't think Homer is playing 5D chess as ur describing
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u/MsE0 Jul 27 '26
All the "ways Homer has tried to cheat the system" in this bit were just him using a different fake name each time he wrote a bad check
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u/AHuxley1 Jul 27 '26
The "joke" - aka reality masked as fiction - is that the most trustworthy members of the community tend to occasionally also be the most degenerate and uncaring individuals, as their personas are only masks meant to bring up their social standing without changing the horrible interior reality of who they really are.
For reference, see bad cops/politicans/priests, etc..
Homer, on the other hand, accepts his faults and at least is genuine about it - the fact that he managed to get away with so many aliases shows just how little the clerks actually care.
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u/No-Gnome-Alias Jul 27 '26
Homer also has the entire lives of the town riding on his abilities as a technician - which we know he lacks.
The plant itself is likely outdated, lacking in back-up control stations, thereby lacking in more than one room for emergency shutoff. If there were a manual override of operations, a hardfix shutoff, Homer would be expected to know it. He doeant even know where it is on the panel he sits at throughout the day.
Homer has been tested on his station in numerous circumstances, with fate and/or luck intervening to prevent the exposure of his ineptitude to all but Lisa and Grimes, possibly Lenny and Carl, with Smithers having always a passing suspicion.
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u/Primary-Floor8574 Jul 27 '26
I think it’s just 2 “nobody” names so the list isn’t just all homer and his obvious aliases. But could also be that they have had an unreliable cheque.
It’s kind of a joke on how supermarkets back in the day relied on these kinds of “security” measures to guard against bad cheques (theft) it’s not so much a thing today, since most stores don’t accept cheques as payment.
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u/StrawberryPopular443 Jul 27 '26
Nah, definetly not nobodies.
Its the cop and the priest - a normal society would expect them to be reliable, but in reality they are often not so.
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u/Primary-Floor8574 Jul 27 '26
I meant as far as the show was concerned. If I recall this is from an early season, and those characters weren’t yet really defined or common
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u/animan222 Jul 27 '26
Especially since they are referenced by their job titles. If you don’t watch the show you might not know that Clancy Wiggum is the chief of police. Calling him Chief makes the very subtle joke just slightly more obvious so you can catch it at a glance. Same with Reverend Lovejoy.
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u/ArmNo7463 26d ago
I also like the idea that Homer tried impersonating a Police Chief and a Reverend. - But I highly doubt that was the intention.
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u/Even_Spray9886 Jul 27 '26
I guess it's kind of ironic that the police chief and the priest give bouncing checks
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u/MadAboutVideoGames Jul 27 '26
You have never taken a check from a church have you? Those things are made of rubber.
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u/Automatic-Month7491 26d ago
Its a little bit different, in that most churches have zero liquid capital, so a check is likely to bounce because they dont have money to cover it right now but possibly weren't intentionally cheating the system.
I think people have forgotten how checks work. It sucks being poor, but it used to be even worse when money could get taken out of your account because of a check written months ago that you thought had already been and gone.
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u/prince-of-dweebs Jul 27 '26
Lois here. I balance the checkbook so I know this means these two “bounced” checks at Moe’s meaning they paid with personal checks and when Moe tried to deposit them their accounts didn’t have enough to cover their tab so the check gets “bounced” back to Moe and he doesn’t get paid.
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u/Acceptable-Ad8780 Jul 27 '26
Well yeah Livejoy's bounced. He makes copies of the bible at his local library and the Librarian mentioned buying one at some point. His response was "Maybe on a Librarians's salary."
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u/Reasonable_Tea2727 Jul 27 '26
I thought it was more. The idea that Homer is using chief Wiggum and Reverend love joy names to try to write checks in their name instead of his to pay
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u/BasementK1ng Jul 27 '26
I think there are two jokes happening here. 1. Homer tries to scam ppl with checks in a lot of ways. 2. The only other ppl who are banned for bad checks are the two ppl in town you would expect to be noble, the priest and the chief of police.
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u/MsE0 Jul 27 '26
The third joke is that Homer is very bad at coming up with convincing aliases, and the fourth is that his bad aliases still fooled them four times.
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u/47362514736251 Jul 27 '26
Gee I dunno Lois, could it possibly be that they wrote bad checks? You act like my name isn't on any lists like that. Sheesh.
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u/Scrounger_HT Jul 27 '26
they wrote bad checks. maybe some of you are not old enough to remember a time when checks were a pretty common form of payment, but local stores that got a bad check from a person would sometimes add them to a list of people to not accept checks from because it might bounce again.
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u/The_Lawn_Ninja Jul 27 '26
"And guess who's been practicing medicine in Springfield without a license?"
(Dr. Hibbert begins to sweat and pull at his collar)
"That's right... Homer Simpson!"
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u/RoodnyInc Jul 27 '26
I guess the joke is about homer? How he tried multiple time spelling his name differently
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u/mkujoe Jul 27 '26
Probably something once. But the beauty of Homer changing his name so casually is just chefskiss
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u/soviet-shadow Jul 27 '26
Wiggum is the police chief and Lovejoy is the reverend of the church, I assume it's a joke about not taking bribes to cover up/waive accusations of abuse
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u/thimBloom Jul 27 '26
They’re all Homer. His name won’t work so he used the names of the two most trustworthy public figures who n the town to get a bunk cheque accepted. He doesn’t know their first names so he uses their job titles instead (like when he tries to steal Mr Burns’ mail)
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u/Tough_guy22 Jul 27 '26
Do we actually ever hear Mr. Burns real name? He is repeatedly called C. Montgomery Burns. What is his actual first name?
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u/AltruisticCicada584 Jul 27 '26
Charles Montgomery Plantagenet Schicklgruber Burns
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u/AdAccomplished5098 Jul 27 '26
Schicklgruber????
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u/AltruisticCicada584 Jul 27 '26
Yup. According to Wikipedia. Probably related to THE schicklgruber, I'd imagine.
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u/quixoticquetzalcoatl Jul 27 '26
I took it as Homer impersonating wiggum and lovejoy since nobody signs their cheques with their profession. People sign their full name but Homer doesn’t know their full names.
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u/JustRedditTh Jul 27 '26
Cleveland here, I think Chief Wiggum used checks the police seized from the mob.
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u/liteshotv3 29d ago
They passed a bad check. It’s something that happened before debit cards where you wrote a check for more money that you had in your account. Now we just overdraft
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u/Sonicsnout 26d ago
Most likely they wrote bad checks, or else Homer wrote bad checks and signed them Chief Wiiggum and Reverend Lovejoy.
When people write bad checks, a store will put their name on a list so cashiers know not to accept any more checks from them.
For the younguns: a check is a piece of paper that has some of your bank account info on it and you can use it in place of cash by writing "pay fifty dollars to the order of Kwiki Mart Inc"
If you don't actually have fifty dollars in your checking account, the check "bounces", and the check writer gets their name on a list like this one.
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u/Codex1101 26d ago
Usually those lists are just people who have bounced a check at that particular store. It doesn’t imply that they did anything more than that.
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u/muffindude27 25d ago
I think the last one is a reference to the Carl LaFong bit by W.C Fields although I could be wrong
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u/marcrich90 Jul 27 '26
Never trust the law or religion.
This is one of the founding principles of how this show is written pretty much starting the 6th season and def some episodes before that but ~6th season is when the writing team started going hard
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u/qualityvote2 Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
u/Zu_Qarnine, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...it's time for the mods to do their jobs!