A ~garage~? Well ooh lah di dah Mr French Man

October 18, 2021 7:58 AM

Does Moe Szyslak call it a car hole or a car hold?

I have seen this and various other backs and forths on the internet but would rather have facts than some random redditors' opinions. Anyone got a script handy? (I've seen incorrect quotes on imdb before...)

I've always thought it was "car hold" and loath as I am to accept the possibility I've been wrong for 25 years, I would much rather know the truth.

posted by phunniemee to Grab Bag (13 answers total)

I've always heard it (and repeated it) as "car hole." Never occurred to me that it was anything else.
posted by mskyle at 8:03 AM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Car hole, from the man himself.
posted by xenization at 8:04 AM on October 18, 2021 [16 favorites]

Best answer: Josh Weinstein, who was in the Simpsons writer's room that season, says car hole.
posted by goingonit at 8:05 AM on October 18, 2021 [5 favorites]

I always thought it was 'caw hole'...
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 8:23 AM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

- in our house, since this episode, anywhere to put anything is a something-hole


cupboard = food hole
bank/atm = money hole
shoe/boot = foot hole
toaster = warm bread hole

etc.
posted by lalochezia at 8:30 AM on October 18, 2021 [3 favorites]

Better answers above, but also I'm pretty sure we all decided that Frinkiac is canon.
posted by General Malaise at 8:50 AM on October 18, 2021

Best answer: I also have always heard it as "hold", and am now questioning everything. EVERYTHING.
posted by hwyengr at 9:21 AM on October 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

Would you go so far to say that questioning everything is where you're a viking?
posted by zamboni at 11:03 AM on October 18, 2021 [4 favorites]

Here is what is happening. Moe is saying car hole, but [l] and [d] are both articulated with the tongue behind the alveolar ridge. While normally air should escape during the entire articulatory period of [l], here the voice actor has cut off air entirely at the end of the word hole (maybe because he came to the end of his phrase), creating a closure, and thus stopping air flow, and creating a sort of ghost [d] sound that wasn't intentional but could definitely be heard that way.
posted by os tuberoes at 11:34 AM on October 18, 2021 [3 favorites]

I always heard "car hold" but I reasoned that "car hole" is a lot more funny, so I decided it was probably supposed to be that.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 11:36 AM on October 18, 2021

"Car hold" sounds like a fancier term than garage. Therefore, Moe must have said "car hole." Ipso fatso.
posted by crLLC at 12:02 PM on October 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

Here is what is happening. Moe is saying car hole, but [l] and [d] are both articulated with the tongue behind the alveolar ridge. While normally air should escape during the entire articulatory period of [l], here the voice actor has cut off air entirely at the end of the word hole (maybe because he came to the end of his phrase), creating a closure, and thus stopping air flow, and creating a sort of ghost [d] sound that wasn't intentional but could definitely be heard that way.

too fancy - is it a problem with the face hole or the word hole?
posted by lalochezia at 2:04 PM on October 18, 2021 [2 favorites]

Every noun is funnier if you append it with "hole."
posted by bendy at 6:51 PM on October 18, 2021