question about "lisa's rival"

Stonehenge isn't a mystery to me. It was built by the ancient Britons as a practical joke on us modern people. It served no oher purpose but to bewilder us.

Brad

In alt.tv.simpsons, on the "question about 'lisa's rival'" thread, dave h. wrote:

The key to this mystery is realizing the spitting Brit has nothing to do with what Homer is saying.

Earlier in this episode, we meet this same man trying to steal Homer's sugar. From the capsule for "Lisa's Rival (1F17)":

(Here, "Thief" is the name the capsule editor gave the British man.)
Marge: I want you to forget about guarding the stupid sugar!  You're
       being completely paranoid.
Homer: Oh, am I?  Am I really?  Ah ha!
       [Pulls a man from behind the pile]
Thief: [holds teacup and saucer] Hello.
Homer: All right, pal: where'd you get the sugar for that tea?
Thief: I nicked it when you let your guard down for that split second,
       and I'd do it again.  [sips tea] Goodbye.

Now, we've established that there's this Englishman who depends on raiding Homer's enormous mound of sugar to get his daily sweet tea fix. When the rain comes and melts Homer's sugar pile, it takes everyone in the scene by surprise. As a joke, the camera cuts to the Englishman who is horrified to see that his sugar supply is disappearing before his eyes. He does the spit-take, and we have our joke.

This joke has confused a surprising number of people. In retrospect, it might have been clearer if the spit-take happened before Homer said, "What a world!"

Benjamin Robinson wrote:

guh?

The joke was not that he was disappointed by the loss of sugar, hence his still ample tea supply at the moment. I believe he's just responding to Homer's ridiculous emotional response, and being the uppity Brit that he is, he's disgusted by Homer, and spits his tea out.

-- An XPeeple Production -- "As a child, I always wanted to bite his head off. This is my way of doing that... creatively." -Andy Dick as Marylin Manson "Most critics want to be authors, screenwriters and novelists, [but] they just suck." -Joe Rogan

"Benjamin Robinson" wrote in message news:[email]...

to

a

I dunno, it seemed funnier when I thought he WAS reacting to Homer, in a strange and nonsensical way.

And I was a lot happier before I knew Dame Edna was a man. A LOT HAPPIER!

Dr Music P.S. Parking was ample.

Who's doing what now?

"drmusic" wrote in message news:IU023.10204$[email]...

You shot who in the what now?

The ONE and ONLY, Brandon Foster-Gray

CAPT. TENNILLE: Simpson, you're like the son I never had. HOMER: And you're like the father I never visit. ---"Simpson Tide" episode, "The Simpsons," 1998

"drmusic" wrote in message news:IU023.10204$[email]...

Hee hee hee. "drmusic"'s gone nuts.

"drmusic" wrote in message news:IU023.10204$[email]...

M... "Murphy", you are... a elf uncontrollably, I think.

"The Rack" wrote in message news:RFhe7.9677$[email]...

My

Phew.... I'm sweating like Roger Ebert.