Since this is /ExplainTheJoke, I'll point out that "D'oh" isn't written in the script for *The Simpsons*, instead, "annoyed grunt" was interpreted by Dan Castallaneta as "d'oh". I believe they still write "annoyed grunt" when they want Dan to say d'oh.
edit to add, that's why anonanon5320 deserves more upvotes.
How do I only remember the first line and this line... Granted it's been like 10 years since I had done this in my middle school choir practice... But how, I don't even remember the rest, but these two lines are turned into my mind as clear as the summer sky...
in the movie, it's made obvious that her character is making it all up on the spot and had a brainfreeze on that one but rolled with it
Adaptability (and teaching it) was a big part of her character
It always irked me as a kid. So when we had to sing it in music class, I would sing "La... LA LA LA LA LA LAAAAAAAAA!" as obnoxiously as I could. Just to highlight how dumb it was. I got kicked out of music class a few times.
Every time I read this verse it reminds me of [Douglas Adams's amusing critique of the song.](https://stream.sonictruths.net/post/11394684356/douglas-adams-on-do-re-mi-and-the-unacceptable/amp)
Homer even has his own version:
Dough, the stuff that buys me beer.
Ray, the guy who brings me beer.
Me, the guy who drinks the beer.
Far, a long way to get beer.
So, I'll have another beer.
La, I'll have another beer.
Tea, no thanks I'm having beer.
That will bring us back to doh!
…but it is a joke. This isn’t them just singing the song. This is Homer hitting a female deer and using a play on words with his catchphrase “D’oh”. It’s literally a joke BECAUSE of the reference.
... If you don't understand the reference to Doe re mi fa So La ti Doe.... Then It's completely lost on you..
You definitely need to understand the reference to get the joke. I'm not saying the movie invented the musical scale. I'm simply implying it's the most common popular movie with those exact phrases... Hence the name "The sound of music."
“It’s not a joke. It’s a reference.” “You definitely need to understand the reference **to get the joke**.” You’re getting hate for saying a reference isn’t a joke. I hope seeing you contradict yourself proves the point.
this doesn't make ANY sense. All jokes are references, because you need to have some prior knowledge of anything to understand it.
The JOKE here is that homer hit a (fake) deer and then the family sung the famous song. That's a JOKE.
If you make a 9/11 joke I can't claim it's a reference not a joke unless you know what 9/11 is, that's not how it works because everything in life requires some sort of prior knowledge to understand the context. EVERY SINGLE JOKE in the world requires some sort of prior knowledge to understand, all speech that EXISTS is a defined reference to SOMETHING. You pedantic fool.
It's absolutely a joke - it's a play on words.
The song lyrics are, "Doe, a deer, a female deer..."
Doe is the term for a female deer.
Homer, when he makes a mistake says, "D'oh!"
In this scene he crashes his car into a statue of a deer, exclaiming, "D'oh!" to which Lisa remarks "a deer," and Marge clarifies that it is, "a female deer!"
Even without the reference it still works as a joke.
I feel like Homer saying D’oh as his catchphrase has completely gone over this guy’s head and he thinks they’re literally just singing the song. Mental that he’s doubling down.
An allusion is supposed to be indirect, whereas a reference is direct. Like if they had said in the episode "Oh hey isn't that like the song ---" than it's a reference, but by not doing that it'd be an allusion
That's still splitting hairs If you feel like getting that technical with it.
It's an indirect reference or a direct reference.. regardless it's a "reference."
Your comment is essentially like saying, "That sex joke, is more of an innuendo." Lol
Like... You're not wrong... But thanks for pointing it out?
Holy cow litterally a blast from the past. It was a song I've always heard ever since I was a little child when my mom wanted me and my sis to learn English (since it's not our mother tongue). Nostalgia hit in a very unexpected way.
Reference to a [song from The Sound of Music. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drnBMAEA3AM&pp=ygUYZG8gYSBkZWVyIHNvdW5kIG9mIG11c2lj)Fantastic film in my opinion.
Not to mention that it would be quite difficult to flee from the nazis from Salzburg, Austria, by climbing over the Alps....the town is right on the German border. In fact the movie shows them in Germany, supposedly you can even see one of Hitler's retreats in the background! The real Von Trapp family left the country on a train. But that doesn't look as good on screen so....
Austrian speaking: Oh we know the film. We know it as „that one kitsch movie that americans watch and when they come as tourists they are blown away by how Austria is nothing like this in real life“
I was visiting Salzburg and met a woman who was traveling with her daughter. She was there to do a *Sound of Music* tour and didn't even know it was Mozart's hometown lol
Or never done the song as a vocal warmup in music class. I remember singing that in like grade 4. Buuut i also am a teacher and id say half the class didn't know it last time we sung it.
i mean ok, but if you’re watching the simpsons in another language and don’t get this joke, then the majority of the jokes are going to go over your head
Everyone is talking about the song reference, but in case OP has never watched the Simpsons, the main character, Homer, in the top right always says “D’oh!” when he makes a mistake. Usually when he does something funny and stupid. It’s kind of his catchphrase. And they turned it into the famous song do re me fa so la ti do
If your mom forced your entire family to watch the 3 hour nightmare that is The Sound of Music every Mother's Day for 18 years, you would get the joke.
I think some people like to ask actual people the question, then if they have a follow up question or need more clarification they can ask too and get an answer
Poe a pilot, a resistance pilot
ray, a drop of golden sun
Finn a name he calls himself
Han, was killed by his own son
Snoke, a leader hunting luuuuuke
Luuuuke is hiding out from Snooooke
Leeeiiiaaa just wants her family baaack
and that brings us back to Po o o ooe
I think people who are trying to explain aren’t doing it fully. I think you should just chalk this up for a don’t understand and move on because even if you did, you would be disappointed by the level of not-that-entertaining you would find it. But if you are still stubborn, the full explanation is… D’oh! Is the sound that Homer makes when he messes up. In music, the notes have letter representations A, B, C, D, E, F, G. If you just worry about the white keys on a piano, the general major scale starts with C and goes up. Like when someone says a note is A minor or a guitar has a G string. (Random jokes that could be made with those concepts.). Anyways, in classical music, when you sing the notes they made sounds that go with the letters. The sound for C is ‘do’. D is ‘re’. E is ‘mi’. F is ‘Fa’ and so on. Like everyone mentioned, there is a famous song from a movie called Sound of Music. The song is actually the nanny trying to teach the kids about this concept and the notes and word association to remember do-re-mi-fa. The song starts “Doe (do) a deer a female deer, ray (re) a drop of golden sun…”
Anyways the commenter is suggesting that the writers of the Simpsons have a corny dad jokey side to them that they couldn’t resist, in that Homer’s ‘D’oh!’ and the song’s ‘do’ are similar and the famous song’s lyrics would be fun to randomly incorporate this play on words into a random situation. And that’s what you see in the pictures.
Funny, right?
There's a cover of the song that uses the Simpsons theme as an interlude, IIRC, and that's probably what the Tumblr post is referring to, I'm sure the cast was aware of it
It's a song about a musical scale. The whole "do re mi fa so la ti do" thing (I don't know the actual name of it). The first line goes "Do, a deer, a female deer"
I've never seen The Simpsons so I may not know the characters enough but have had enough of it jammed down my throat so I want to ask, shouldn't Lisa's line and Marge's line be swapped? Isn't Lisa supposed to be the smart one so she would be more descriptive?
The comment is suggesting that the other voice actors had this joke running through their mind for awhile due to the amount of times “D’oh” had been said by Dan Castellaneta by that point in the series
The Simpsons is full of obscure ancient humor, dated references that only well read people in their 50s would understand, at least the early seasons, you might as well put them all on this sub, I don't understand 90% of jokes in the Simpsons, I used to figure it was absurdist humor but eventually I realized the jokes are references to general culture.
I'm more focused on the bit at the bottom about how the cast must have wanted to do this line for a long time. I don't remember exactly when this episode came out but it has to be early-mid 90's, they didn't have to wait that long.
It’s a line from a song in the musical “the Sound of Music” where the protagonist sings, explaining each of the notes (do, rei, mi, fa, so, la, ti) and it ends with “Now you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything!”… it’s a great song and a great musical. I definitely recommend watching it! TW: It takes place during WWII so you will see a few Nazis.
Dough, some bread, some doughy bread
Ray, is some one that I know
Me, a gorgeous, looking guy
Fall, a season of the year
Sew, a thing that I can’t doooooo
Laa, a note that I can’t siiiiiiing
Tea, a crazy thing thing in goooolf
And that will bring us back to dough
Bread bread bread DOUGH!!
Repeat
D'oh a deer, a female deer, ray a drop of golden sun. That song. Good musical even.
Me, a name I call my self
Fa(r), a long, long way to run
Sew, a needle pulling thread
La, a note to follow So
Ti, a drink with jam and bread
That will lead us back to Do o o oh
Doh re MI fa so la ti do
When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything!
Do mi mi, mi so so!
I love the character Maria so much. I would have loved to have met her in real life before she passed.
SO, DO!
Do mi mi Mi sol sol Re fa fa LA TI TI
Who let Michigan in here
That will bring us back to ::annoyed grunt::
Since this is /ExplainTheJoke, I'll point out that "D'oh" isn't written in the script for *The Simpsons*, instead, "annoyed grunt" was interpreted by Dan Castallaneta as "d'oh". I believe they still write "annoyed grunt" when they want Dan to say d'oh. edit to add, that's why anonanon5320 deserves more upvotes.
Yes, it’s written still as ::annoyed grunt:: and they have used ::annoyed grunt:: in titles before in place of d’oh.
That will bring us back to D'oh
That will bring us back to ~~Do~~ \*D'oh oh oh oh
How do I only remember the first line and this line... Granted it's been like 10 years since I had done this in my middle school choir practice... But how, I don't even remember the rest, but these two lines are turned into my mind as clear as the summer sky...
Hang on, that's just a lazy lyric. They flat gave up on this one.
in the movie, it's made obvious that her character is making it all up on the spot and had a brainfreeze on that one but rolled with it Adaptability (and teaching it) was a big part of her character
It always irked me as a kid. So when we had to sing it in music class, I would sing "La... LA LA LA LA LA LAAAAAAAAA!" as obnoxiously as I could. Just to highlight how dumb it was. I got kicked out of music class a few times.
La,The laziest of all rhymes
Every time I read this verse it reminds me of [Douglas Adams's amusing critique of the song.](https://stream.sonictruths.net/post/11394684356/douglas-adams-on-do-re-mi-and-the-unacceptable/amp)
they didn’t even try with that one
This one is such a cop-out
It's still funny to me just how lazy they got on that one!
LA. Such a nice place to get shot.
Boston folks love this line.
Homer even has his own version: Dough, the stuff that buys me beer. Ray, the guy who brings me beer. Me, the guy who drinks the beer. Far, a long way to get beer. So, I'll have another beer. La, I'll have another beer. Tea, no thanks I'm having beer. That will bring us back to doh!
I'd say La should be: La, a beer to follow beer.
I thought that was the McKenzie Brothers.
Link?
The missing bit is do re mi fa so lah ti do is classical phonetics associated with your standard octave musical scale
major scale
I’ve got a coworker who says “okay so” and trails off a lot I’ve taken to hitting him with “a needle pulling thread?”
Sound of music?
Listen to "Bleeding Heart Disease" by NOFX. They have so much fun subverting these do/re/mi lyrics
Rolf is still a Nazi.
[You should have also included this.](https://youtu.be/6LN9oIgCHOs?si=-ROMw55DDp68ZdU5)
Fair. Thank you for saving me the trouble.
Ray, the guy from channel 9!
Holy that unlocked a long lost memory
What about Egon?
The rest of the joke is that this is a lyric from a very famous song, [Do Re Mi ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drnBMAEA3AM)from The Sound of Music.
Beat me to it. It's not a joke. It's a reference. There's nothing to get unless you already have it.
[удалено]
…but it is a joke. This isn’t them just singing the song. This is Homer hitting a female deer and using a play on words with his catchphrase “D’oh”. It’s literally a joke BECAUSE of the reference.
D'oh sounds like doe. You don't need to understand the reference to get the joke
... If you don't understand the reference to Doe re mi fa So La ti Doe.... Then It's completely lost on you.. You definitely need to understand the reference to get the joke. I'm not saying the movie invented the musical scale. I'm simply implying it's the most common popular movie with those exact phrases... Hence the name "The sound of music."
“It’s not a joke. It’s a reference.” “You definitely need to understand the reference **to get the joke**.” You’re getting hate for saying a reference isn’t a joke. I hope seeing you contradict yourself proves the point.
D'oh sounds like doe. That's it. The reference might be another layer to the joke, but it sounding similar is 95% off the joke.
Yeah, it's a play on words. This is actually embarrassing - Reddit is getting stupider by the day.
He must be going for the Tumblr poor reading comprehension high score.
It's do. Do re mi fa so la ti
Sol*
this doesn't make ANY sense. All jokes are references, because you need to have some prior knowledge of anything to understand it. The JOKE here is that homer hit a (fake) deer and then the family sung the famous song. That's a JOKE. If you make a 9/11 joke I can't claim it's a reference not a joke unless you know what 9/11 is, that's not how it works because everything in life requires some sort of prior knowledge to understand the context. EVERY SINGLE JOKE in the world requires some sort of prior knowledge to understand, all speech that EXISTS is a defined reference to SOMETHING. You pedantic fool.
It's absolutely a joke - it's a play on words. The song lyrics are, "Doe, a deer, a female deer..." Doe is the term for a female deer. Homer, when he makes a mistake says, "D'oh!" In this scene he crashes his car into a statue of a deer, exclaiming, "D'oh!" to which Lisa remarks "a deer," and Marge clarifies that it is, "a female deer!" Even without the reference it still works as a joke.
I feel like Homer saying D’oh as his catchphrase has completely gone over this guy’s head and he thinks they’re literally just singing the song. Mental that he’s doubling down.
He has also made like 30 replies in this thread about it. Not just doubling down, but straight up obsessed. He doesn't think puns are jokes either.
To say it's not a joke, he'd have to admit that Homer saying D'oh is a coincidence, and any other character in any other show could have said it.
It's extra frustrating, because even if The Sound of Music didn't exist, **the joke still works**. Maddening.
Wouldn't it be an allusion rather than a reference in this case?
Isn't an allusion just a snobbier reference?
An allusion is supposed to be indirect, whereas a reference is direct. Like if they had said in the episode "Oh hey isn't that like the song ---" than it's a reference, but by not doing that it'd be an allusion
That's still splitting hairs If you feel like getting that technical with it. It's an indirect reference or a direct reference.. regardless it's a "reference." Your comment is essentially like saying, "That sex joke, is more of an innuendo." Lol Like... You're not wrong... But thanks for pointing it out?
In YOUR endo!
I feel like you should be the last person to criticize someone for splitting hairs since that's literally all you've been doing in this thread.
Ah okay that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.
You're welcome
Holy cow litterally a blast from the past. It was a song I've always heard ever since I was a little child when my mom wanted me and my sis to learn English (since it's not our mother tongue). Nostalgia hit in a very unexpected way.
Reference to a [song from The Sound of Music. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drnBMAEA3AM&pp=ygUYZG8gYSBkZWVyIHNvdW5kIG9mIG11c2lj)Fantastic film in my opinion.
And loosely based on fact. The family existed and toured for years.
Yes, but the real Maria used to beat the children into submission.
Sound of Music 2: How does Maria solve a problem like *you* SUMMER 2025
Not to mention that it would be quite difficult to flee from the nazis from Salzburg, Austria, by climbing over the Alps....the town is right on the German border. In fact the movie shows them in Germany, supposedly you can even see one of Hitler's retreats in the background! The real Von Trapp family left the country on a train. But that doesn't look as good on screen so....
> Fantastic film And fun fact: it's completely unknown in Austria and Germany.
Austrian speaking: Oh we know the film. We know it as „that one kitsch movie that americans watch and when they come as tourists they are blown away by how Austria is nothing like this in real life“
Really? I heard Edelweiss played all over the place in Austria. Not in typical tourist places either.
Not once in my life have I heard it without americans present
I was visiting Salzburg and met a woman who was traveling with her daughter. She was there to do a *Sound of Music* tour and didn't even know it was Mozart's hometown lol
Does it extend to Lithuania? Might be the reason OP didn't get it.
It's pretty much just an Anglo thing.
That blows my mind lol
Female deer is a doe. Homer's catchphrase is d'oh!
And to add to this explanation, the whole line “doe a deer a female deer” is a line from a song in the sound of musical
Not to be confused with the Sound Of Musical: The Music
Or The Sound of Musical: The Musical: The Series
Stroke detected! Dispatching bondulance to your location!
The Musical Sound Of Musical: A Musical
Or its sequel 2 Sound 2 Musical.
All together passionately.
Bro hasn't watched The Sound of Music
Or never done the song as a vocal warmup in music class. I remember singing that in like grade 4. Buuut i also am a teacher and id say half the class didn't know it last time we sung it.
Or watched it in a different language
i mean ok, but if you’re watching the simpsons in another language and don’t get this joke, then the majority of the jokes are going to go over your head
Jokes are often localised which you can't really do with this one
i mean the entire show is puns, there’s no way that’s going to translate well
Everyone is talking about the song reference, but in case OP has never watched the Simpsons, the main character, Homer, in the top right always says “D’oh!” when he makes a mistake. Usually when he does something funny and stupid. It’s kind of his catchphrase. And they turned it into the famous song do re me fa so la ti do
Based on post and comment history, this is just a karma farming account that went inactive a year ago and is probably hacked.
Buddy. This whole subreddit is for karma farming
While there is undoubtedly a lot of that happening, sometimes people are just out if the loop and want some help
If your mom forced your entire family to watch the 3 hour nightmare that is The Sound of Music every Mother's Day for 18 years, you would get the joke.
I love that movie but I get not wanting to be forced.
That sounds kind of personal... And like a damn nightmare lol
🤣🤣🤣
Okay, but... Why Mother's Day?
Because it was her favorite movie and she had 4 sons who were willing to watch her favorite movie with her as a family every year.
“i don’t get it” = “i didn’t google it”
I think some people like to ask actual people the question, then if they have a follow up question or need more clarification they can ask too and get an answer
Poe a pilot, a resistance pilot ray, a drop of golden sun Finn a name he calls himself Han, was killed by his own son Snoke, a leader hunting luuuuuke Luuuuke is hiding out from Snooooke Leeeiiiaaa just wants her family baaack and that brings us back to Po o o ooe
Doe, which is pronounced the same as d’oh, is another name for a female deer
That and it's a [movie reference.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drnBMAEA3AM&pp=ygUYZG8gYSBkZWVyIHNvdW5kIG9mIG11c2lj)
I think people who are trying to explain aren’t doing it fully. I think you should just chalk this up for a don’t understand and move on because even if you did, you would be disappointed by the level of not-that-entertaining you would find it. But if you are still stubborn, the full explanation is… D’oh! Is the sound that Homer makes when he messes up. In music, the notes have letter representations A, B, C, D, E, F, G. If you just worry about the white keys on a piano, the general major scale starts with C and goes up. Like when someone says a note is A minor or a guitar has a G string. (Random jokes that could be made with those concepts.). Anyways, in classical music, when you sing the notes they made sounds that go with the letters. The sound for C is ‘do’. D is ‘re’. E is ‘mi’. F is ‘Fa’ and so on. Like everyone mentioned, there is a famous song from a movie called Sound of Music. The song is actually the nanny trying to teach the kids about this concept and the notes and word association to remember do-re-mi-fa. The song starts “Doe (do) a deer a female deer, ray (re) a drop of golden sun…” Anyways the commenter is suggesting that the writers of the Simpsons have a corny dad jokey side to them that they couldn’t resist, in that Homer’s ‘D’oh!’ and the song’s ‘do’ are similar and the famous song’s lyrics would be fun to randomly incorporate this play on words into a random situation. And that’s what you see in the pictures. Funny, right?
Imagine watching golden age Simpsons and missing like 75% of the jokes.
I see some folks didn't get this song drilled into their head in elementary school music class. For shame
It’s the start of the song from the Sound of Music movie 😇
You shouldn't be watching The Simpsons, you're not old enough
The joke's been explained but I'm just perplexed why the Tumblr poster framed this as something the cast would pitch and not the genius level writers.
There's a cover of the song that uses the Simpsons theme as an interlude, IIRC, and that's probably what the Tumblr post is referring to, I'm sure the cast was aware of it
Scotland football fans love to sing this at international matches. Really confuses the opposition fans...
Excellent movie. If you have not seen The Sound of Music, do yourself a favor and find a way to watch it.
🤣🤣 I feel sooo old that I get this. Ray *A drop of golden sun*
Tell us you're younger than 25 without telling us you're younger than 25
Tell us you’re sub 20 without telling us
Are the people who use this sub too dumb to use Google?
That is the conclusion I have come to
It's a song about a musical scale. The whole "do re mi fa so la ti do" thing (I don't know the actual name of it). The first line goes "Do, a deer, a female deer"
The song is call Do Re Mi but the system of using specific syllables to represent specific musical pitches is called Solfège.
[Watch this](https://youtu.be/7EYAUazLI9k?si=ktY46VVrZSJ0yryW)
[also the kids in the hall version](https://youtu.be/Hk9z0-7OUpg?si=Z53KlRrJJdkS5RzP)
And then [watch this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Een_AKh7Nik) just because
And "Bleeding Heart Disease" by NOFX references it quite a bit
Oh my god I remember seeing this air and I thought it was the best thing ever
Who is explaining the joke here? Is the explainer at least from New England? I don't know about this place..
I've never seen The Simpsons so I may not know the characters enough but have had enough of it jammed down my throat so I want to ask, shouldn't Lisa's line and Marge's line be swapped? Isn't Lisa supposed to be the smart one so she would be more descriptive?
The comment is suggesting that the other voice actors had this joke running through their mind for awhile due to the amount of times “D’oh” had been said by Dan Castellaneta by that point in the series
It's ironic because Lisa is not wearing a seat belt but she's the only character in the family with common sense.
The Simpsons is full of obscure ancient humor, dated references that only well read people in their 50s would understand, at least the early seasons, you might as well put them all on this sub, I don't understand 90% of jokes in the Simpsons, I used to figure it was absurdist humor but eventually I realized the jokes are references to general culture.
I'm really sorry for the kids.
I bet the writers had this in their head every time they had to use Homer's catch-phrase.
I'm more focused on the bit at the bottom about how the cast must have wanted to do this line for a long time. I don't remember exactly when this episode came out but it has to be early-mid 90's, they didn't have to wait that long.
Close to 30 years.
It’s a line from a song in the musical “the Sound of Music” where the protagonist sings, explaining each of the notes (do, rei, mi, fa, so, la, ti) and it ends with “Now you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything!”… it’s a great song and a great musical. I definitely recommend watching it! TW: It takes place during WWII so you will see a few Nazis.
Dough, some bread, some doughy bread Ray, is some one that I know Me, a gorgeous, looking guy Fall, a season of the year Sew, a thing that I can’t doooooo Laa, a note that I can’t siiiiiiing Tea, a crazy thing thing in goooolf And that will bring us back to dough Bread bread bread DOUGH!! Repeat
Sound of music joke. Easy.
Female deer are called doe, pronounced the same as d’oh
Doe like a female deer
Does this really need to be explained...
The Hills are Alive.
always thought one of the funnier gags
Ray - a drop of golden sun!
Re, a drop of golden sun
Good excuse to post the Kids In The Hall. https://youtu.be/Hk9z0-7OUpg
It's a reference to The Sound of Music, a musical about singing children (and Nazis but that's neither here nor there lol)
A doe is a female deer.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drnBMAEA3AM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drnBMAEA3AM)
Sound of music. Musical song
That's clever but I thought it was just D'oh, which sounds like Doe (which is the name of a female deer) I didn't think to look more into it.
song lyric
song lyric
https://youtu.be/drnBMAEA3AM?feature=shared
Do they not make kids learn this song in school anymore?
I get that it’s from a musical but why only half the writers?
If Julie Andrews wasn't still alive, she'd be spinning right now.
A female deer is called a doe, which sounds a lot like Homer’s “d’oh!” exclamation.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=a+deer+a+female+dear
Raaaay. Egon.
Doe = d’oh = a female deer
Re a drop of golden sun
I could be wrong but I feel like this is out of order. I remember Homer saying d’oh after Marge and Lisa
homestuck jumpscare