My Goodness Why Didn't I Think of That

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About

"My Goodness Why Didn't I Think of That" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Hank Scorpio on the American animated television comedy The Simpsons. Screenshots of Scorpio saying the line have been used online to facetiously praise another's idea.

Origin

On November 3rd, 1996, the episode of The Simpsons "You Only Move Twice" aired in the United States.^[1] In the episode, the character Homer Simpson (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) suggests his boss Hank Scorpio (voiced by Albert Brooks) provide his tired employees with hammocks (clip below). Scorpio responds, "Hammocks? My goodness, what an idea? Hammocks! Why didn't I think of that?"

Spread

On June 3rd, 2014, the Tumblr ^[2] account mmmsimpsons published a series of images from the scene, including one of Scorpio saying the line. The post received more than 1,100 notes in five years (shown below, left).

The following year, Redditor ^[3] IonTichy posted the image as a reaction to a post about alarm clocks (shown below, center).

On December 28th, 2017, Instagram ^[4] user @x__antisocial_butterfly__x posted the image with the caption, "When you suffer from depression and somebody tells you to just cheer up." The post received more than 62,000 likes in less than two years (shown below, right).

About a year later, a similar depression-themed variation was posted in the /r/memes subreddit.^[5] The post received more than 9,000 points (97% upvoted) and 85 comments (shown below).