What a Time to Be Alive

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Part of a series on The Simpsons. [View Related Entries]

About

"What a Time to be Alive" is a memorable quote from the animated television series The Simpsons which can be used to sarcastically express awe at a very minor technological advance, or alternatively, disapprove something that is without a precedence, similar to the use of the phrase "I don't want to live on this planet anymore".

Origin

In Season 9 Episode 17 of The Simpsons, originally aired on March 8th, 1998, Abe Simpson's best friend Jasper places himself in a grocery store freezer in a misunderstood attempt at cryogenic hibernation spanning over several decades. Thawed shortly after entering the freezer, Jasper mistakenly thinks he successfully traveled in time after discovering a moon pie snack food. On April 21st, 2011, YouTuber ichibanjin uploaded a clip of the scene, gaining over 245,000 views and 320 comments in the first three years (shown below).

"Moon pie. What a time to be alive."

Spread

On December 6th, 2011, a Facebook^[1] page titled "Moon Pie – What a Time to Be Alive" was launched. On December 19th, 2012, Redditor Pointland32 submitted a photograph of a grocery store freezer with a Jasper decal titled "Moon pie… what a time to be alive!" to the /r/TheSimpsons^[2] subreddit, where it gathered more than 2,000 up votes and 30 comments prior to being archived (shown below).

On June 16th, 2013, Tumblr^[6] user the-pietriarchy posted several photographs of Internet meme tattoos with the caption "what a time to be alive," accumulating over 32,600 notes in the following nine months (shown below, left). On July 24th, 9gag^[3] highlighted a photograph of a Triple Double Oreo cookie package in a post titled “What a time to be alive,” garnering upwards of 17,800 up votes in the next eight months (shown below, right).

On September 9th, Cheezburger^[4] highlighted a screenshot of a Facebook status update in a FAILBlog^[4] post titled “What a Time to be Alive,” which joked about the irony of people being carefree about unprotected sex when they use protective cases for their smartphones (shown below, left). In six months, the post received more than 1,300 up votes. On November 1st, Redditor horneymonkey123 submitted an advertisement for a child safety doorknob cover titled "What a time to be alive" to the /r/tumblr^[5] subreddit, where it gained over 1,600 up votes and 20 comments in the first four months (shown below, right).