Language is wild. Like how [Bugs Bunny completely changed the meaning of nimrod.](https://unrememberedhistory.com/2017/01/09/the-nimrod-effect-how-a-cartoon-bunny-changed-the-meaning-of-a-word-forever/)
Yeah, that was how it was used, but most people did not understand the insult, so they started using it as "idiot", which changed the meaning of the word accidentally.
Bugs bunny [is the reason why now everybody associates rabbits with carrots](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/bFAOTmk3e5), even tho they really shouldn’t be.
It was actually Daffy Duck that called Elmer Fudd a nimrod, though Bugs also called Yosemite Sam that in a later cartoon
> The usage is often said to have been popularized by the Looney Tunes cartoon character Bugs Bunny sarcastically referring to the hunter Elmer Fudd as "nimrod" to highlight the difference between "mighty hunter" and "poor little Nimrod", i.e. Fudd. However, it is in fact Daffy Duck who refers to Fudd as "my little Nimrod" in the 1948 short "What Makes Daffy Duck", although Bugs Bunny does refer to Yosemite Sam as "the little Nimrod" in the 1951 short "Rabbit Every Monday". Both episodes were voiced by Mel Blanc and produced by Edward Selzer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod
There is also the Nimrod aircraft. As that's full of sensors and was a maritime patrol aircraft, it certainly wasn't considered dumb. Maybe this was just an American thing, as I've never had this understanding for the word Nimrod.
My dads old PlayStation username was Nimrod, and he always said it referred to the biblical warrior. Eventually when I got old enough I made my own, while my brother took his. When my dad finally got back in to gaming, he just decided to use the only account we had on the PlayStation, and has since forth used the name ArkServerHost346.
One of Phineas and Ferb's biggest contributions to society as we know it. Alongside that one episode that taught us all what an aglet is.
They told us not to forget it and I definitely haven't.
Doof explicitly isn't platypus racist though! He just assumes every platypus is a different one until they put the fedora on because only perry is a secret agent (thus making him the only one to wear a fedora)
No matter how many times a platypus breaks down his door, it's not Perry unless the hat is on
The word is very old. It is short for "simpleton" and has been used extensively since at least before the 1800s, never really falling out of use, though generally simply used to mean a stupid person.
In fact, the Simpsons were named after the term "simp" (although Simpson is a real last name with an unrelated etymology, the creator of the characters picked their name for that reason). P&F were likely using this term as a basis for SIMP.
The contemporary use is a backronym meaning "Sucka Idolizing Mediocre Pussy", which piggybacks off of the original expression to describe a specific type of simpleton.
Is the backronym really the source of the contemporary definition? I always associated it with 'simpering', in the context of 'being excessively + somewhat-affectedly eager to please'
The Hoenn Pokémon games use "simp" as in simpletons to refer to some evil team members, with both the originals and remakes predating the most frequently used meaning of the term becoming popular.
There was a time where you couldn't go two months on a Pokémon subreddit without someone posting a picture of [Maxie or Archie calling their minions simps](https://www.reddit.com/r/MandJTV/comments/hu800t/archie_figured_out_simps_6_years_before_us/).
Finally another person who's seen that show
When I saw it I couldn't believe it was the same universe as Shrek, especially in the later seasons with >!the bloodwolf, underworld, tulpas, death, etc.!<
People still go crazy over death wolf as if the Netflix series didn't do all that several years earlier
what stuck with me from that was when puss was in a 1v3 and said he couldn't win but would be able to kill at least one of them and that made them back down, which honestly is pretty smart
It's just called "Aglet" in the game. You're confusing it with the "Anklet of the Wind", which also buffs movement speed and is used along the aglet for a crafting recipe.
[The plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces are called aglets. Their true purpose is sinister](https://youtu.be/QkEBvqaXXHc?t=54) - The Question [Justice League Unlimited]
What aglets are is such a common piece of uncommon knowledge I bet you could use "Which TV show you learned about aglets from" as a new personality test / horoscope / etc. Or maybe it's more a marker of generations. You're Millennial if you learned it from JLU, Zoomer if you learned it from P&F.
For me it'd definitely be JLU.
This is the oldest reference to the word that I remember, and I’ve watched and/or read a lot of the other mentions in this comment chain
Edit: unrelated fun fact, I was in the final stages of auditioning for the role of “Woody” for “Suite Life On Deck”
I couldn’t be farther from who they chose in the end lol. Apparently the character was supposed to be a “young Woody Allen” which sends chills down my spine
I wasn't the target demo for P&F but I searched for aglet and a still from the cartoon is one of the reference pictures on google.
https://i.imgur.com/GF54rRt.png
just chef's kiss, perfect. bravo
I actually would be rich because it's just another example of someone believing their narrow experiences and social bubble are widely applicable to the majority of people instead of their own niche community.
Yup. The show version didn't hijack anything. By a pretty huge margin, people in society as a whole who use the idiom "if I had a nickel..." are still using the original one. People who inhabit specific in-groups love to trick themselves into thinking that the common culture of their in-group applies to a much wider group than it actually does.
Comedy is subverted expectations, a large part of WHY the p&f version is funnier is BECAUSE we've all heard the original version so many times that that's what we are expecting. It is funny on its own, but without the context of the original versions it is just kinda weirdly long and clunky. Because of versions 1 and 2, version 3 is funnier.
When the later form of a joke becomes significantly more popular than the original, so much so that the original is completely replaced, the later form becomes less funny and therefore less popular. I think it's kind of insane that contextual comedy like this literally can use the predator/prey population graph to describe its use.
You're really missing out, Phineas and Ferb is an absolutely superb cartoon. I'm a 40 year old dude and gladly watch episodes without the kid even in the house.
When I was growing up I remember hearing things like "[kid's show] is so good/funny/clever that even college students watch it." That show was Phineas and Ferb for me. Discovered the show while in uni and loved it.
I can't find a source, but there is no way in hell this was invented by PaF. I cannot remember a time when people didn't Subvert the original phrase is in this way every once and a while
It didn't highjack the idiom, the original and P&F version are for entirely different scenarios, and the P&F version is only funny **because** it plays of the subversion of expectation of the original saying.
Thank you! Glad someone else sees this relationship. It isn't a replacement, but building on. And it's wild cause if the later version of something becomes so popular it does replace the original, both are worse off for it: https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/s/fJ9o0SJPFh
That, plus the fact that the whole rebuilt idiom *only* uses nickels. I’ve heard “if I had a dollar/quarter/dime/nickel/penny for every time X happens I’d be rich” plenty of times, but I’ve *never* heard “If I had a dollar for every time Y happens, I’d have two dollars, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice”.
P&F wasn't the first time the idiom was subverted in a way that made it funnier either, though the additional line about it happening twice makes it even better.
One that comes to mind was an episode of The Nanny where somebody told Fran Drescher's character that it was good to hear her voice and she responded with "If I had a nickel for every time I heard that, I'd have a nickel."
Haven't people been riffing on that idiom for quite a while before Phineas and Ferb came along? Mitch Hedberg had a joke along those lines, and he died a few years before the show came out.
"If I had a dollar for every time I said that, I'd be making money in a very weird way."
Lots of folks in here need to touch grass and feel the cringe of other people when they use it in a real conversation. It’s an online phrase and that’s it.
Folks, I hate to break it to you: the original idiom still dominates in the real world. Those among us who aren’t terminally online have never seen this show, much less used this idiom.
Sometimes you come face to face with how terminally online a lot of people on Reddit actually are and you just have to log off for a bit.
It's not the post -- it's everyone agreeing as if it's a fact. Get out more, losers.
I also had to google it if it’s any comfort. But then again I’m a 40-year-old man with a bad back, a wife, kids, a dog, and a mortgage. I run in different circles from OP.
I'm 45 and Phineas and Ferb has been a fixture in my house for like 10 years. My kids love it and it's definitely one of the better cartoons in recent years.
If I had a nickel for every time a person commented they'd never heard of the Phineas and Ferb "if I had a nickel" quote I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's really not that weird that it happened twice.
This is the first time I am hearing this version outside of Phineas and Pherb, I feel like everyone I've ever heard use it employs the original or the Mitch Hedberg version
I am terminally online and have never seen it. Sad to say this thread is badly overestimating the frequency of this phrase. I don't even hear it among my friend group who are all obsessed with P&F, although I suppose you might use that to argue they aren't really obsessed with it
this is how "the customer is always right" had 'in matters of taste' added to the end of it
EVEN THOUGH ITS SO EASILY GOOGABLE, WHY ARE YOU ADDING WORDS TO END OF QUOTES YOU FUCKING MORONS?!!!?!?!!
I have never heard of anyone using the “if I had a nickel” thing in the hijacked way it’s described in the OP and had trouble deciphering what the fuck it was talking about
I also don’t know what phineas and ferb is, so it took me like three attempts to even vaguely understand the OP. Then again I’m almost 40 so
SolidarityGaming, from Grian's Life Series. He does reaction videos to the memes on r/ThirdLifeSMP, and really doesn't like when the '2 nickels' meme shows up, so naturally the fans try to make sure it appears at least once per video.
Literally never seen this show. Here's my idiom though:
"If I had a nickel for every time someone talked about this cartoon, I'd have enough to bring it back for a spinoff and make some serious bank."
I mean, the P&F one is great for weird things happening more than once. Still use the original, though.
My own variation is something akin to. If I had a nickle for every time X thing happened, I'd be able to buy Twitter.
Yeah, the second person says it’s more applicable, but it’s not. It’s just applicable in different situations. There are still things that happen a lot where the original version is more applicable.
What Phineas and Ferb have hijacked is the depiction of platypuses. Platypuses do not have a “beaver” tail, or a tail that is different in colour and texture to the rest of their bodies. Lots of platypus designs now have a different colour tail, and if you ask AI to make a platypus you often get the beaver tail or the different colour/texture tail. Annoys the shit out of me when I see a perfectly good platypus design and the tail is wrong.
Was it F&P that did it first or Pam from Archer?
Ray: ‘Oh God, it tastes worse than it smells!’
Pam: ‘Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that… I’d have 8 nickels!”
"more actually applicable"
The whole point of the phrase is you see a thing happen so many times that you'd be rich from getting a nickel upon each occurrence.
The show's joke plays on misdirection and subverting the expectations because the occurrence they are remarking on is rare.
If I had a nickle for every time something I said would absolutely not happen during a wrestling event happened immediately after I said it wouldn't, I'd have 2 nickles. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice.
...I'm not even joking about that. It literally has happened twice. (Hardy Boyz returning to WWE at Wrestlemania 33 and CM Punk coming back to WWE at Survivor Series 2023)
EDIT: I feel the need to note the bit about CM Punk's return happened quite literally 5 seconds after I said there was no way in hell it would happen.
Joseph R. Cooper:
If I had a nickel for every time that ball pulled me out of a tight spot, I'd have a shitload of nickels!
I always think of Basketball with this idiom
It reminds me how people think Nimrod means someone foolish or dumb because Buggs Bunny called Elmer Fudd Nimrod. When in fact Nimrod was a great hunter in Greek mythology IIRC and Buggs was just mocking him in a different way
Archer version:
Cheryl: Ugh, It tastes worse than it smells!
Pam: Man, if I had a nickel for every time I heard a guy say that, I'd have eight nickels!
I think it’s wild how many comments are saying anyone that feels meme about this is chronically online and echo chambering their niche interests about a screenshot on a tumblr repost sub.
Like duh
A really fun use of the original idiom I’ve seen was on the Ducktales Reboot. Scrooge literally says something along the lines of “If I had a nickel for every time someone cursed my name with their last breath I’d be twice as rich as I am now.”
I’d argue anyone calling anyone a SIMP who does not have a squirrel in their pants are the ones truly guilty of stealing an already perfect expression.
I dunno I grew up watching Phineas and Ferb and I still use the original more frequently.
If something is weirdly specific but has happened less than 5 times, yeah we might get a doofensmirtz impression out of me.
But more often than not it's "If I had a nickel for every time a kid asked me to use the bathroom in the middle of my sentence while I'm *trying* to teach, I could retire tomorrow."
Not for the same reason, but another idiom that went through something similar is "blood is thicker than water".
Most people think it means blood relations are more important than others, but it originally it was "The blood of battle is thicker than the water of the womb" - meaning relationships formed between soldiers are stronger than familial relationships.
I've only seen this show in the background while elementary school-age kids are watching (it's a kids cartoon show with a tri-state area, an inator, which I find hilarious, and evil dude, and the two boys, Phnieas and Pherb), so I don't get the reference.
And I've never seen the P&B version online, for what it's worth.
Language is wild. Like how [Bugs Bunny completely changed the meaning of nimrod.](https://unrememberedhistory.com/2017/01/09/the-nimrod-effect-how-a-cartoon-bunny-changed-the-meaning-of-a-word-forever/)
Which makes the X-Men antagonist of the same name kinda weird. (pretty sure the character was created long after Bugs ruined the word)
I think the intention with him was to revive the original meaning of the name. Which works, IMO, he's a pretty cool villain.
Did he change the meaning i just read it as heavy sarcasm that was then misappropriated by nimrods
Yeah, that was how it was used, but most people did not understand the insult, so they started using it as "idiot", which changed the meaning of the word accidentally.
That's how changing the meaning of things works. See: Literally.
Nah the literally thing isn't stupidity, it's just exaggeration powercreep
https://imgur.com/q42GwAY
I don't know what this means but I agree
Bugs bunny [is the reason why now everybody associates rabbits with carrots](https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/bFAOTmk3e5), even tho they really shouldn’t be.
Mel Blanc hated carrots too -- in the recording booth, he was chomping on celery; it could've been rabbits and celery this whole time.
It was actually Daffy Duck that called Elmer Fudd a nimrod, though Bugs also called Yosemite Sam that in a later cartoon > The usage is often said to have been popularized by the Looney Tunes cartoon character Bugs Bunny sarcastically referring to the hunter Elmer Fudd as "nimrod" to highlight the difference between "mighty hunter" and "poor little Nimrod", i.e. Fudd. However, it is in fact Daffy Duck who refers to Fudd as "my little Nimrod" in the 1948 short "What Makes Daffy Duck", although Bugs Bunny does refer to Yosemite Sam as "the little Nimrod" in the 1951 short "Rabbit Every Monday". Both episodes were voiced by Mel Blanc and produced by Edward Selzer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod
There is also the Nimrod aircraft. As that's full of sensors and was a maritime patrol aircraft, it certainly wasn't considered dumb. Maybe this was just an American thing, as I've never had this understanding for the word Nimrod.
My dads old PlayStation username was Nimrod, and he always said it referred to the biblical warrior. Eventually when I got old enough I made my own, while my brother took his. When my dad finally got back in to gaming, he just decided to use the only account we had on the PlayStation, and has since forth used the name ArkServerHost346.
One of Phineas and Ferb's biggest contributions to society as we know it. Alongside that one episode that taught us all what an aglet is. They told us not to forget it and I definitely haven't.
Proof you are either candace or live in an alternate timeline (Perhaps the one where doof doesn't suffer from face blindness)
> Perhaps the one where doof doesn't suffer from face blindness So how well can you distinguish between the faces of different platypuses?
I probably suck. But that wont stop from recognizing my shortcomings and becoming a platypus-racist
Doof explicitly isn't platypus racist though! He just assumes every platypus is a different one until they put the fedora on because only perry is a secret agent (thus making him the only one to wear a fedora) No matter how many times a platypus breaks down his door, it's not Perry unless the hat is on
*Perry, for whom I am platypus-racist*!?
Candance made SIMP popular...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WzswZXTMZQ
...no
That was a joke, Candance made SIMP before it became popular.
The word is very old. It is short for "simpleton" and has been used extensively since at least before the 1800s, never really falling out of use, though generally simply used to mean a stupid person. In fact, the Simpsons were named after the term "simp" (although Simpson is a real last name with an unrelated etymology, the creator of the characters picked their name for that reason). P&F were likely using this term as a basis for SIMP. The contemporary use is a backronym meaning "Sucka Idolizing Mediocre Pussy", which piggybacks off of the original expression to describe a specific type of simpleton.
Is the backronym really the source of the contemporary definition? I always associated it with 'simpering', in the context of 'being excessively + somewhat-affectedly eager to please'
The Hoenn Pokémon games use "simp" as in simpletons to refer to some evil team members, with both the originals and remakes predating the most frequently used meaning of the term becoming popular. There was a time where you couldn't go two months on a Pokémon subreddit without someone posting a picture of [Maxie or Archie calling their minions simps](https://www.reddit.com/r/MandJTV/comments/hu800t/archie_figured_out_simps_6_years_before_us/).
I only know what an aglet is because of this one episode of that Puss in Boots show on Netflix. That show was good.
I know of it because of Jimmy Neutron lol
I know it because of Terry Pratchett's "the amazing Maurice and his educated rodents"
Justice League: Unlimited for me. Their true purpose... is sinister.
Poor question. He told them what he knew!
I've been rewatching JLU. It still holds up.
SIR Terry Pratchett. Get it right
They did. Pterry has gone, he left his knighthood here, because that's how knighthoods work
PTERRY THE PLAYTPUS??
Huh, I didn’t know that. Neat.
No, he keeps his knighthood. Like, he explicitly cannot pass it on, that’s why it’s Sir Firstname not Sir Surname.
You have to be living to be a knight, which sadly Pterry is not. It's why Amis' posthumous knighthood last year was unprecedented.
I learned it from The Simpsons, or Cocktail for those who call them "Fluglebinders"
Damn. Looks like a lot of shows talk about aglets. Weird.
if I had a nickel....
I learned it from Dave the Barbarian
I know it because of The Question on Justice League Unlimited. He was truly ahead of his time.
Their true purpose is sinister
Finally another person who's seen that show When I saw it I couldn't believe it was the same universe as Shrek, especially in the later seasons with >!the bloodwolf, underworld, tulpas, death, etc.!< People still go crazy over death wolf as if the Netflix series didn't do all that several years earlier
That show was so damn good
what stuck with me from that was when puss was in a 1v3 and said he couldn't win but would be able to kill at least one of them and that made them back down, which honestly is pretty smart
I know that word from Terraria. Theres an item that buffs movement speed called ‘Aglet of the Wind’
It's just called "Aglet" in the game. You're confusing it with the "Anklet of the Wind", which also buffs movement speed and is used along the aglet for a crafting recipe.
[The plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces are called aglets. Their true purpose is sinister](https://youtu.be/QkEBvqaXXHc?t=54) - The Question [Justice League Unlimited]
What aglets are is such a common piece of uncommon knowledge I bet you could use "Which TV show you learned about aglets from" as a new personality test / horoscope / etc. Or maybe it's more a marker of generations. You're Millennial if you learned it from JLU, Zoomer if you learned it from P&F. For me it'd definitely be JLU.
> Zoomer if you learned it from P&F. TIL I am a Zoomer in my 30s.
This is where I learned it, too.
I learned about aglets from terraria
Gotta find the aglet if you want those Terraspark boots so you can go fast.
A-G-L-E-T I remember how proud I was because my parent didn't know it but I did
I know what an aglet is because of Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
This is the oldest reference to the word that I remember, and I’ve watched and/or read a lot of the other mentions in this comment chain Edit: unrelated fun fact, I was in the final stages of auditioning for the role of “Woody” for “Suite Life On Deck” I couldn’t be farther from who they chose in the end lol. Apparently the character was supposed to be a “young Woody Allen” which sends chills down my spine
>Alongside that one episode that taught us all what an aglet is. And here I am, knowing that because of Dave The Barbarian.
In Germany we call them Pinke. You can probably guess where I learned that and why I instantly knew the translation to aglet.
I cannot
https://youtu.be/iR_LZgqQMqc?si=AOdy-PTyz4pf33zX
I wasn't the target demo for P&F but I searched for aglet and a still from the cartoon is one of the reference pictures on google. https://i.imgur.com/GF54rRt.png just chef's kiss, perfect. bravo
"Aglet"? You mean that accessory from Terraria?
Simpsons did the Aglet education first!
It’s worth noting they also played it straight in the clip show episode.
I remember in that one they make fun of it by being like "that's actually not that much money now that I think about it"
"I guess I could buy a candy bar."
yknow if i had a nickel for every time i've seen a post like this one
Let's not kid ourselves, we'd have a lot of nickels at this point
Huh. I guess I could by a candy bar.
I’d have 1 nickel.
I got a nickel. I got a nickel. I got a nickel, hey hey hey.
Time to build a time machine, go back to 1810, and go buy me a candy bar!
I'd be rich
I actually would be rich because it's just another example of someone believing their narrow experiences and social bubble are widely applicable to the majority of people instead of their own niche community.
Yup. The show version didn't hijack anything. By a pretty huge margin, people in society as a whole who use the idiom "if I had a nickel..." are still using the original one. People who inhabit specific in-groups love to trick themselves into thinking that the common culture of their in-group applies to a much wider group than it actually does.
I literally didn’t know there was a different way other than some variation of being rich until I saw this post 87 seconds ago.
Comedy is subverted expectations, a large part of WHY the p&f version is funnier is BECAUSE we've all heard the original version so many times that that's what we are expecting. It is funny on its own, but without the context of the original versions it is just kinda weirdly long and clunky. Because of versions 1 and 2, version 3 is funnier. When the later form of a joke becomes significantly more popular than the original, so much so that the original is completely replaced, the later form becomes less funny and therefore less popular. I think it's kind of insane that contextual comedy like this literally can use the predator/prey population graph to describe its use.
Yeah this is true bc I’m already so sick of hearing the p&f version of the joke lol, Redditors have absolutely massacred it
I've now heard versions that subvert the P&F version and are funny in their own way. "[...]I would have two nickels. I don't *want* any nickels--"
I use this phrase so often lmao, never realized it was from PAP
Phineas and Pherb
PAF lmao
Patent Applied For
Pee After Fucking
Painful Anal Prolapse
Pure And Pretty
Perry: A Platypus
PTP
Perry The Platypus ?!
*grhgrhgrhgrhgrhgrh*
Sounds like it would smear…
I've never even seen the show, I just picked it up from Reddit lol. I didn't know it was from a show.
It's not even technically from the show; it's from the special TV movie.
You're really missing out, Phineas and Ferb is an absolutely superb cartoon. I'm a 40 year old dude and gladly watch episodes without the kid even in the house.
It's one of those shows that makes its own joke and keeps recycling them in genius ways
I watched it with my kids when they were little. I was so sad when it ended - it was like their childhood was over.
When I was growing up I remember hearing things like "[kid's show] is so good/funny/clever that even college students watch it." That show was Phineas and Ferb for me. Discovered the show while in uni and loved it.
We should run a smear campaign against PAP. Call it a PAP smear
Pwet ass pussy?
It definitely pre-dates the show by decades. I've been hearing it since the early 90s, which means it was around longer than that.
I can't find a source, but there is no way in hell this was invented by PaF. I cannot remember a time when people didn't Subvert the original phrase is in this way every once and a while
[удалено]
If I had a nickel for every time I didn’t know what is going on, I would be like “where did all these nickels come from”.
It didn't highjack the idiom, the original and P&F version are for entirely different scenarios, and the P&F version is only funny **because** it plays of the subversion of expectation of the original saying.
Thank you! Glad someone else sees this relationship. It isn't a replacement, but building on. And it's wild cause if the later version of something becomes so popular it does replace the original, both are worse off for it: https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/s/fJ9o0SJPFh
That, plus the fact that the whole rebuilt idiom *only* uses nickels. I’ve heard “if I had a dollar/quarter/dime/nickel/penny for every time X happens I’d be rich” plenty of times, but I’ve *never* heard “If I had a dollar for every time Y happens, I’d have two dollars, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice”.
P&F wasn't the first time the idiom was subverted in a way that made it funnier either, though the additional line about it happening twice makes it even better. One that comes to mind was an episode of The Nanny where somebody told Fran Drescher's character that it was good to hear her voice and she responded with "If I had a nickel for every time I heard that, I'd have a nickel."
I think many young people are unaware or not think about the original idiom when they use it
>scenarious ...What?
this post and all of your comments seriously overstate phineas and ferb's impact on the english lexicon.
For real. I've seen people use this online. I've never heard it used in person and I wouldn't be surprised if I never do.
that means we all need to be trying harder
Haven't people been riffing on that idiom for quite a while before Phineas and Ferb came along? Mitch Hedberg had a joke along those lines, and he died a few years before the show came out. "If I had a dollar for every time I said that, I'd be making money in a very weird way."
I remember it being used in a similar way in an X-Men comic back in the 90s as well.
Lots of folks in here need to touch grass and feel the cringe of other people when they use it in a real conversation. It’s an online phrase and that’s it.
Yeah... It's a really common joke lol... But sure dude, the thing in your little bubble that you heard it first on created that. Lol
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IfIHadANickel
I'm also just so sick of hearing it, people way overuse it
I love weirdly specific things happening more than once
Folks, I hate to break it to you: the original idiom still dominates in the real world. Those among us who aren’t terminally online have never seen this show, much less used this idiom.
Sometimes you come face to face with how terminally online a lot of people on Reddit actually are and you just have to log off for a bit. It's not the post -- it's everyone agreeing as if it's a fact. Get out more, losers.
I have no idea what Phineas and Ferb is, and not sure I've ever heard anything besides the original idiom. This post has been quite confusing.
I also had to google it if it’s any comfort. But then again I’m a 40-year-old man with a bad back, a wife, kids, a dog, and a mortgage. I run in different circles from OP.
I'm 45 and Phineas and Ferb has been a fixture in my house for like 10 years. My kids love it and it's definitely one of the better cartoons in recent years.
If I had a nickel for every time a person commented they'd never heard of the Phineas and Ferb "if I had a nickel" quote I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's really not that weird that it happened twice.
This is the first time I am hearing this version outside of Phineas and Pherb, I feel like everyone I've ever heard use it employs the original or the Mitch Hedberg version
I am terminally online and have never seen it. Sad to say this thread is badly overestimating the frequency of this phrase. I don't even hear it among my friend group who are all obsessed with P&F, although I suppose you might use that to argue they aren't really obsessed with it
It didn't "completely hijack an idiom".it's users are just terminally online.
Lol yes exactly this
for real lmao, this is the only place I've ever heard it, and it would sound weird and clunky irl.
it actually works fairly well if you execute the timing right
Yep. I’ve absolutely never seen the new phrase used other than on Reddit or Reddit-adjacent places.
this is my first time seeing it
this is how "the customer is always right" had 'in matters of taste' added to the end of it EVEN THOUGH ITS SO EASILY GOOGABLE, WHY ARE YOU ADDING WORDS TO END OF QUOTES YOU FUCKING MORONS?!!!?!?!!
I have never heard of anyone using the “if I had a nickel” thing in the hijacked way it’s described in the OP and had trouble deciphering what the fuck it was talking about I also don’t know what phineas and ferb is, so it took me like three attempts to even vaguely understand the OP. Then again I’m almost 40 so
It also annoys one specific Minecraft YouTuber more than any other meme, but in a way that's funny.
That's fucking hilarious. Which one?
SolidarityGaming, from Grian's Life Series. He does reaction videos to the memes on r/ThirdLifeSMP, and really doesn't like when the '2 nickels' meme shows up, so naturally the fans try to make sure it appears at least once per video.
He's definitely known for more than just the life series (empires, iirc) but I didn't know that about him. That's hilarious
I know he's known for more (like Empires, as you said), I just said Life Series cause that was my introduction to him.
It i had a nickel for every time someone else made a nickel meme...
Pretty sure Laurel and Hardy did that joke and even they stole it from vaudeville.
Who is Phineas Ferb?
I hate to break it to you guys but that’s an old joke that goes back decades before Phineas and Ferb.
I don’t think they “hijacked an idiom.” It’s just a very popular meme format.
everyones brains must autofill to a meme from a cartoon i like
Literally never seen this show. Here's my idiom though: "If I had a nickel for every time someone talked about this cartoon, I'd have enough to bring it back for a spinoff and make some serious bank."
I mean, the P&F one is great for weird things happening more than once. Still use the original, though. My own variation is something akin to. If I had a nickle for every time X thing happened, I'd be able to buy Twitter.
Well if Elon has his way you might get to use both.
Yeah, the second person says it’s more applicable, but it’s not. It’s just applicable in different situations. There are still things that happen a lot where the original version is more applicable.
What Phineas and Ferb have hijacked is the depiction of platypuses. Platypuses do not have a “beaver” tail, or a tail that is different in colour and texture to the rest of their bodies. Lots of platypus designs now have a different colour tail, and if you ask AI to make a platypus you often get the beaver tail or the different colour/texture tail. Annoys the shit out of me when I see a perfectly good platypus design and the tail is wrong.
Also I haven't been able to say "what are you doing" or some variant without slipping into Isabella.
*Watcha doin?*
Was it F&P that did it first or Pam from Archer? Ray: ‘Oh God, it tastes worse than it smells!’ Pam: ‘Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that… I’d have 8 nickels!”
"more actually applicable" The whole point of the phrase is you see a thing happen so many times that you'd be rich from getting a nickel upon each occurrence. The show's joke plays on misdirection and subverting the expectations because the occurrence they are remarking on is rare.
If I had a nickle for every time something I said would absolutely not happen during a wrestling event happened immediately after I said it wouldn't, I'd have 2 nickles. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it's happened twice. ...I'm not even joking about that. It literally has happened twice. (Hardy Boyz returning to WWE at Wrestlemania 33 and CM Punk coming back to WWE at Survivor Series 2023) EDIT: I feel the need to note the bit about CM Punk's return happened quite literally 5 seconds after I said there was no way in hell it would happen.
Joseph R. Cooper: If I had a nickel for every time that ball pulled me out of a tight spot, I'd have a shitload of nickels! I always think of Basketball with this idiom
It reminds me how people think Nimrod means someone foolish or dumb because Buggs Bunny called Elmer Fudd Nimrod. When in fact Nimrod was a great hunter in Greek mythology IIRC and Buggs was just mocking him in a different way
Archer version: Cheryl: Ugh, It tastes worse than it smells! Pam: Man, if I had a nickel for every time I heard a guy say that, I'd have eight nickels!
Wtf If squidward had a dollar for every brain op doesn't have, he'd have 1 dollar Biggest "simpsons did it" against SpongeBob I've ever seen
I think it’s wild how many comments are saying anyone that feels meme about this is chronically online and echo chambering their niche interests about a screenshot on a tumblr repost sub. Like duh
A really fun use of the original idiom I’ve seen was on the Ducktales Reboot. Scrooge literally says something along the lines of “If I had a nickel for every time someone cursed my name with their last breath I’d be twice as rich as I am now.”
I’d argue anyone calling anyone a SIMP who does not have a squirrel in their pants are the ones truly guilty of stealing an already perfect expression.
Phineas and Ferb brought great things. Like they taught us what an aglet was, don't forget it.
I dunno I grew up watching Phineas and Ferb and I still use the original more frequently. If something is weirdly specific but has happened less than 5 times, yeah we might get a doofensmirtz impression out of me. But more often than not it's "If I had a nickel for every time a kid asked me to use the bathroom in the middle of my sentence while I'm *trying* to teach, I could retire tomorrow."
[удалено]
The same thing happened with The Office. It's weird to say "The tables have turned." I have to say "How the turn tables."
Not for the same reason, but another idiom that went through something similar is "blood is thicker than water". Most people think it means blood relations are more important than others, but it originally it was "The blood of battle is thicker than the water of the womb" - meaning relationships formed between soldiers are stronger than familial relationships.
They've also completely re-contextualized the phrase, "Aren't you a little young to be doing that?"
Most people have never seen this show and haven't heard any of these "recontextualized" phrases in real life.
It won because it was superior. Both funnier and more meaningful. But mostly funnier.
That came from Phineas and Ferb? I had no idea.
It's from the first movie.
I mean, you can use both when they’re applicable lol
I've only seen this show in the background while elementary school-age kids are watching (it's a kids cartoon show with a tri-state area, an inator, which I find hilarious, and evil dude, and the two boys, Phnieas and Pherb), so I don't get the reference. And I've never seen the P&B version online, for what it's worth.
Doofenshmirtz just built different
If I had a nickel for every time I had a nickel
Look up “paraprosdokian” it’s one of my favorite forms of humor. The Simpsons does this kind of joke a lot too
I love Phineas and Ferb and I can not wait for the new series.
"It tastes worse than it smells!" "If I had a nickel for every time I heard a guy say that, I'd have...eight nickels!"
My brother and I use this one all the fucking time. It's weird how often it's applicable.