What did Marge Simpson mean when she said while googling her name
629,000 results. Wow. And all this time I thought that ‘googling’ yourself meant the other thing.
(S18 E17, April 22, 2007)
Source: WikiSimpsons
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(And it's actually 84 million results.)– Hot LicksAug 7, 2019 at 2:08
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2@HotLicks the quote is dated 2007, so it's very probable that the stat was accurate at that time.– Mari-Lou AAug 7, 2019 at 8:35
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2 Answers
Today it's common practice to google someone's name in order to do a little background check, or to discover why a certain person is a celebrity or in the news.
In 2007, the expression “Googling" was still in its infancy, and although Marge Simpson's character is often portrayed as a naive warm-hearted housewife and devoted mother, she probably guessed, incorrectly, that “googling yourself” was slang for fondling or pleasuring oneself.
Image taken from Gawker.com
The first recorded usage of google used as a gerund, thus supposing an intransitive verb, was on July 8, 1998, by Google co-founder Larry Page himself, who wrote on a mailing list: "Have fun and keep googling!". Its earliest known use (as a transitive verb) on American television was in the "Help" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (October 15, 2002), when Willow asked Buffy, "Have you googled her yet?"
answered Aug 7, 2019 at 9:04
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What's interesting is her use of "the other thing" as a euphemism. As an exemplar of modesty, Marge doesn't want to say or perhaps even think of the implied act. Had Edith Bunker been around in search engine times, she would have reacted similarly. End Man, October 2022– Zan700Apr 25, 2022 at 16:34
Who knows what was really intended? You are, after all, free to imagine whatever you like. It might have been goosing (pinching someone's bottom). If that sounds a bit tame, it is a children's programme, and Marge is a bit of a prude.
goose verb [ T ]
informal to press or take hold of someone's bottom
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