Dumb Laws in Popular Culture
In "The Seven-Beer Snitch", an episode of The Simpsons, the police seek to send more people to jail on obscure laws because Mr. Burns is annoyed that a lack of inmates are costing him and the city a lot of revenues. They arrest Homer Simpson for violation of a dumb law on the books which states that in Springfield tin cans may not be kicked more than five times, as it would constitute "illegally transporting litter." Ironically, Homer was kicking the can out of frustration for being denied employment as a guard at the very same prison he was sent to for violating the law. Chief Wiggum also mentions a law that all men must be hatless during daylight hours, but when Smithers cannot remove his hat in time, Wiggum chuckles and says "If I didn't arrest you that night in the park, I'm not going to arrest you now."
The comic character Jughead Jones has had an occasional appearance as Professor Jughead, when he presents various weird laws.
On the TV series Parks and Recreation, the show regularly mentions the many archaic, forgotten, idiotic or downright bigoted laws that the town of Pawnee has passed during its long, pathetic history. In one case, Donna Retta is furious to learn that African Americans are banned from walking on town sidewalks; in another, Leslie Knope is disgusted when the town's election monitor reminds everyone that a tie vote in a City Council election between one male and one female candidate will result in the man being awarded the seat and the woman being put in jail.
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Famous quotes containing the words dumb, laws, popular and/or culture:
“Only very intelligent people don’t wish they were in politics, and I’m dumb enough to want to be in there.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)
“If woman alone had suffered under these mistaken traditions [of women’s subordination], if she could have borne the evil by herself, it would have been less pitiful, but her brother man, in the laws he created and ignorantly worshipped, has suffered with her. He has lost her highest help; he has crippled the intelligence he needed; he has belittled the very source of his own being and dwarfed the image of his Maker.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)
“The poet needs a ground in popular tradition on which he may work, and which, again, may restrain his art within the due temperance. It holds him to the people, supplies a foundation for his edifice; and, in furnishing so much work done to his hand, leaves him at leisure, and in full strength for the audacities of his imagination.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The highest end of government is the culture of men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)