“Eat my shorts!” is one of Bart Simpson's trademark catchphrases. Bart uses it to express his rebellious attitude, usually towards authority figures. He pulls down his shorts, and shakes his butt at people, just to make them mad.
Bart first said it when he was in kindergarten to Principal Skinner, when his misbehaving was revealed in Lisa's Sax.[1]
On some occasions, the phrase was taken literally, such as when Bart was teasing a donkey and the donkey really did eat his shorts[2].
When Bart developed his own line of novelty T-shirts, he used the phrase on one of his shirts: "Stop World Hunger, Eat My Shorts!"[3]
Variations/Use by Other Characters
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- When the teachers and staff at Springfield Elementary School are eating students in a non-canonical Halloween episode, Principal Skinner tells Bart he's going to enjoy devouring him, and adds, "I believe I'll start as you've so often suggested, by eating your shorts."[4]
- In "The Lastest Gun in the West", Bart jams his storybook into the rabid dog's mouth, saying, "Eat my short stories!"
- Another instance of Principal Skinner using the phrase (this time canonically) was during the Do What You Feel Festival; perched upon a tree, Skinner pelts Bart with an acorn and proclaims "Eat my shorts, young man!"
- When Bart is cast as Mozart, he says "Eat my pantaloons!" just before he dies[5].
- One Chinese spy boy, being fake Bart Simpson, said, "Feast on my shorts, stupid 'father man'!"[6]
- Jenny used that phrase, and after that, slams the door on Bart in Moonshine River.[7]
Behind the Laughter
The real history behind the phrase is that Nancy Cartwright, Bart's voice actor, improvised the line during a table read. She first said it as a prank when she was in her high school marching band at Fairmont High School. The band was supposed to chant, "Fairmont West! Fairmont West!" Instead, she and the entire band chanted, "Eat my shorts! Eat my shorts!" Thus, an icon in popular culture was born.
The phrase has also been used outside of The Simpsons. For example, in the Futurama episode, "A Big Piece of Garbage," Fry sees a pile of talking Bart Simpson dolls, and Bender pulls the string on one that says, "Eat my shorts." Bender obliges, and then says, "Mmm... shorts."
More recently on the show, the phrase has been seldom used as many of the crew feel as if the many catchphrases have worn out. (This fact was parodied in the episode "Bart Gets Famous.")
There has been speculation that Matt Groening got this phrase from the stoner rebel John Bender in The Breakfast Club. In Futurama there is also a mischievous character by the name of Bender. The phrase "Don't have a cow" appears in another John Hughes film, Sixteen Candles. "Eat my shorts!" is also exclaimed by a main character in Stephen King's 1986 movie "Maximum Overdrive", coincidentally starring Yeardley Smith.
In The Simpsons Hit and Run, after Bart was talking gibberish after Bart had somehow managed to escape from Kang and Kodos and started talking gibberish, he said "Kiss my griss!" when Lisa told him to say his famous catchphrase, "Kiss my griss" was used in "The Front".
Appearances
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Episode – "Bart the Genius" 
Episode – "Moaning Lisa" (Arcade game)- Episode – "Lisa's Sax"
- THOH – "Treehouse of Horror V" (Variation)
- Episode – "The Lastest Gun in the West" (Varition)
- Episode – "Bart-Mangled Banner"
- Episode – "Margical History Tour" (Variation)
- Episode – "Fat Man and Little Boy"
- Episode – "The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer"
- Episode – "Moonshine River" (said by Jenny)
- Episode – "The Simpsons Guy"
- Bart vs the space mutants
- Bart escape from camp deadly
