Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Welcome to another edition of From the Mouths of Addicts, where YOU get to sound off on anything and everything in the world of Tapped Out! This week’s post comes to us from one of our frequent commenters, Bugman!
Bugman sent me in this true story via email, of how The Simpsons can imitate life, even when you think “that would never happen!”.
Enjoy it my friends! Here’s Bugman… -Alissa
One of the funny things about The Simpsons is the over-the-top ineptitude of everyone in Springfield. People say or do things that are so outrageous that you might be tempted sometimes to laugh and think “Nobody in real life would ever do that!” Of course, if you’ve been around long enough, you realize that oh yes, no matter how dumb a thing is, someone, somewhere most certainly would.
Act II brought us a number of items from the episode “Lost Our Lisa,” in which Lisa tricks Homer into letting her ride the bus to go to the museum. Not knowing where to get off (Hint: Crackton,) she stays on the bus until it reaches the end of the line, at which point the driver forces her to leave the vehicle. To many, this might be one of those moments where Springfield-style incompetence might stretch credibility; surely no adult would be so thick-headed as to dump an 8-year-old child, alone, lost, and penniless, in the middle of nowhere to fend for herself!
Well, that’s almost exactly what happened to me one afternoon when I was much younger. It was a blazing hot summer day, and there was no shade where I had to make a connection on my way home from school. It would pass on the opposite side of the street, go up a long hill, and then after quite a while it would return on my side of the street, and continue on towards my home. Because of the infernal heat, I got the brilliant idea of crossing over and getting on on the other side, in order to get into some conditioned air (assuming the AC was working) that much sooner. The bus came, I paid my fair, and sat down in the wonderful coolness, congratulating myself on my success. The bus headed on up the hill.
When it got to the top, the driver informed me that we’d reached the end of the line, and that I needed to leave. Confused, I said that I had only just gotten on, and I had a good 9 miles or so to go. Didn’t matter: End of the line, so pay for another trip or get off. Never mind the heat, never mind that I had no money for a new fare, never mind that I was a long way from home and had no way of getting there (this was the Time Before Cellphones, mind you,) never mind, even, that we’d only traveled one stop (the one I’d used was the last one before the end) and that I’d not realized what I was doing when I got on there, those were the rules and he wouldn’t budge. I don’t remember what all I said to try and change the driver’s mind, and I don’t remember what he said that finally made me leave, but that was that. I got off, angry and a little worried, but at least I knew where I was. After a miserable hike, I reached a payphone (remember those?) and was able to call home by calling collect (remember that?) Mum was furious, and was able to raise merry hell with the transit company. The dispatcher told the driver of the next bus to waive my fare (and hurry up,) and in the end I was only about 2 hours late coming home. I got some vouchers and a written apology for my troubles. I don’t have any idea what happened to the driver, but I didn’t see them again.
Have you had a time when your life imitated The Simpsons? Or The Simpsons imitated your life?
-Bugman
Thanks Bugman for sharing your IRL story with us! Always important to have those moms that will raise holy heck with people who mess with their kids! As always we love hearing from you guys…so if you have an opinion or take on something going on in the game (or something that should be going on in the game), please send it along to us TSTOAddictsblog@gmail.com…
“Have you had a time when your life imitated The Simpsons? “. There was one time when everyone was singing Monorail, and suddenly they all stopped without warning me. Now everyone knows that i really cant sing in tune
Seems like an early case of the cursed “Zero Tolerance”, where common sense (not so common, as we all know,) is forbidden. Good judgement is against the rules, we’re just going to kick this young boy off the bus miles from home. I’m glad to say our local bus drivers are able to use their own judgement, at least to some degree. Not that you might not run into this driver or his ilk… 😕
Yeah, “Zero Tolerance” really means “we don’t want to have to put any thought into this,” as far as I can see, but there’s a lot of CYA in it as well.
Great story, Bugman!
Thanks! Although I didn’t think so at the time…
Don’t make me tap the sign!
🇬🇧😁
:tap-tap-tap:
One of the funny things about The Simpsons is the over-the-top ineptitude of everyone in Springfield. People say or do things that are so outrageous that you might be tempted sometimes to laugh and think “Nobody in real life would ever do that!” Of course, if you’ve been around long enough, you realize that oh yes, no matter how dumb a thing is, someone, somewhere most certainly would.
I LOVE this 🙂
Your bus driver was fired from his job, but finally got to embrace his true calling: writing. He worked his way into a few comedy sketches, until he found himself a solid job in The Simpsons writing room. He is famous for his ridiculous contributions to episodes like “Lost Our Lisa.”
That explains so much…
Generally a well oiled company needs to follow its rules and regulations to a T so that things could run efficiently and effectively. For example, things that happened frequently are buses that start to leave the bus stop when someone is running behind trying to catch it. Or if someone missed a stop, the driver cannot just stop in between stops. In the story, I can only say that the driver was just following rules and regulations. He may not want to shell out money to let the boy take a new ride as the company may not pay him back. But I agree he could have done better.
Believe me, I get that. And sometimes you can’t win: If you stop and wait for the person running, you cause delay and half of your passengers get mad, but if you keep driving the other half (or more) gets mad.
When this happened, there were no video cameras or fare-tracking systems, and I was the only person on the bus. There was absolutely no way that anyone would have known if he’d simply turned the bus around with me still on it.
Aww Bugman. Did you look up to the sky and say “I know I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there, save me Superman”?
Oops, just looked up the quote. Slightly misquoted:
“I’m normally not a praying man, but if you’re up there, please save me, Superman.”