There are people who have entire
seasons of
the Simpsons memorized line by line; people who somehow, without even trying, managed to embed into their brains a vast store of
Simpsons quotes, and
trained themselves to
recall any one of them on
a moment's notice. You know how
religious christians claim that they can take any
given situation, anything at all, and there is some quote somewhere within their
holy book that applies to it directly? Well, i can't comment on how well the
christian fanatics pull that off, but i do know that the
Simpsons fanatics pull off the same trick perfectly. Give them anything, and on the spur of the moment they can and will reach into their massive
reserves and pull out some relevant Simpsons quote.
If you spend enough time around people like that, a funny thing happens; eventually, you become able to quote the simpsons just as prolifically, even if you never watch the show. It's like second-hand smoke; hearing those quotes repeated so detailed so often for so long, they become embedded in your mind as your own personal little simpsons quote store, just as if you had seen the episodes yourself.
I don't watch the simpsons much. I've seen only a handful of episodes all the way through. But there are episodes that i have memorized all the way through, not because i've seen them or wanted to memorize them-- just that i happened to be in the room multiple times while one person or another was quoting those episodes full-length.
I may not have the slightest idea what the context is, nor really even care what the context is, but if i hear the quote "Water down the punch, Groundskeeper willie!" I can complete it with "She's as watered down as she can be already, Skinner! SHE CAN'T HOLD MUCH LONGER!" I don't know how i know this. I just know.