Liver and Onions

About

Liver and Onions is a pop culture reference used in memes within The Simpsons community that involves referencing a scene from the episode "The Day the Violence Died" in which the character Chester Lampwick offers Bart to celebrate winning his lawsuit with a dish of liver and onions. The format involves editing the catchphrase into various unrelated scenes and superimposing the animation of Chester smacking his lips over characters in these scenes.

Origin

On March 17th, 1996, episode 18 "The Day the Violence Died" of season seven of The Simpsons premiered in the United States.^[1] In one scene of the episode, the character Chester Lampwick invites Bart, who helped him win a lawsuit against Itchy and Scratchy's production company and bankrupt it, to celebrate, suggesting having liver and onions and smacking his lips. On October 11th, 2012, YouTube^[2] user everydayslaughter uploaded the scene, with the upload gaining over 67,000 views in 11 years (shown below).

While the exact origin of "Liver and Onions" meme is unknown, it is assumed to have originated in the now-defunct Simpsons Shitposting Facebook community, known for having spawned several similar memes.

On August 12th, 2017, Tumblr^[3] user depsidase shared the earliest found Liver and Onions meme, referencing it in a two-panel meme based on a scene from the episode "Bart on the Road" by altering dialogue and editing Lampwick's beard and tongue onto all four characters (shown below). The post garnered over 60 likes and reblogs in six years.

Spread

The format achieved notable presence online in 2018 as it spread to the /r/simpsonsshitposting subreddit and to YouTube. For example, on April 17th, 2018, Redditor^[4] I_am_Carvallo posted a meme that received over 180 upvotes in six months (shown below).

On May 18th, 2018, YouTube^[5] user Juiceone posted a compilation video that accumulated over 267,000 views in six years (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References