There was a time when Bart Simpson was seen almost as a national threat to corrupting the youth. His catchphrases were jotted across all types of clothing, especially his “don’t have a cow, man” expression. Voice actor Nancy Cartwright, who has voiced Bart since his start on the Tracey Ullman shorts in the late 1980s, revealed that the origin for that particular phrase was tied to her marching band days in high school.
Answering fan questions and spouting fun facts on Twitter, Cartwright explained that the line was ad-libbed as she thought of something she used to do while playing her trumpet.
Where Bart’s catchphrase “Eat my shorts!” really came from!#eatmyshorts #bartsimpson #thesimpsons #simpsonsfan pic.twitter.com/7j41y9G2h8
— Nancy Cartwright (@nancycartwright) May 10, 2024
“It was high school. I was in the marching band. I was a squad leader. Trumpet player. And we were marching [and screaming] ‘eat my shorts! Eat my shorts!’,” she said. “[There were] 200 of us saying eat my shorts! Years later, at a reading for The Simpsons and this was just at the top of my head. It was an ad-lib that Bart called out, and everybody…it was like BAM! Locked it in. And that became the first catchphrase for Bart.”