Abraham 'Abe' Jedediah Simpson II, usually referred to as Grampa Simpson or simply Grampa, is the patriarch of the Simpson family, the father of Homer Simpson, Herbert Powell, and Abbey and the grandfather of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie Simpson. Abe is a World War II veteran later sent to the Springfield Retirement Castle by Homer. Abraham Jebediah 'Abe' Simpson II, better known as Grampa Simpson, is a main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He made his first appearance in the episode entitled 'Grampa and the Kids', a one-minute Simpsons short on The Tracey Ullman Show, before the debut of the television show in 1989. Simpson is an English/Scottish patronymic surname from the medieval masculine given name 'Simme'. The earliest public record of the name was in 1353 in Staffordshire, West Midlands region of England.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JoeSentMe

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Stock Phrase. Saying '(name) sent me' is the password by which the Bouncer will let people in to some exclusive nightclub, or for people looking for certain illicit goods or services. Compare The Password Is Always 'Swordfish' (for pass phrases even more obvious than this) and Spy Speak (for more complex ones).

Examples:

• An animated Raid commercial from the 60s featured a speakeasy for insects. One such insect approaches the door, knocks, and says 'Eh, Bugsy sent me.' (Could be a Mythology Gag in a way as the insect was voiced by Mel Blanc doing him in Bugs Bunny voice.)

• The Joker will announce himself this way even when it isn't called for, hoping that they'll then ask 'Joe who?' so he can answer 'Joe Kerr!' Most guards do this out of fear, because he will murder them if they don't.
  • In the Azzarello Bermejo Joker graphic novel, he goes through the regular routine, but when the guard asks 'Joe who?' he just puts his mouth up near the eye slot so they can see his distinctivesmile.◊

• Garfield: 'Iggy sent me.' 'Sorry, that was last week's password.'

• In Cat Tales, the password to the new nightclub Vault is supposed to be '[name of the person who told me about Vault] sent me'. Due to a mixup in the early stages, it becomes 'Catwoman sent me'.
• In Vikings fanfic Let Me Occupy Your Mind by lady_ragnell, Athelstan gets into a kind of BDSM club by showing the bouncer a card that has the words 'referral from Siggy' written on it.

• The password to get into the 'Ink and Paint Club' in Who Framed Roger Rabbit is 'Walt sent me.'
• The speakeasy in Some Like It Hot operates out of the back room of a funeral parlor, so naturally the password is saying you're attending the funeral of a particular fake person.
• Revenge of the Pink Panther. After his boss is apparently assassinated, Cato opens a brothel in their apartment with the codeword for entry being 'Inspector Clouseau'. Of course the real Clouseau turns up and Hilarity Ensues.

• Will uses a version of this when infiltrating an enemy camp in one of the Ranger's Apprentice books. Knowing people are less likely to bother him if he looks like he's doing something, he grabs a bucket of water, goes to the cookfires, and says 'John said to bring you this water', on the basis that, in a camp that size, there'd be about half a dozen 'John's and the cook wouldn't bother asking every one for confirmation.

• In one episode of Heartbeat, they tricked a porn dealer by name-dropping Claude Greengrass. 'That's not the kind of name you make up.'
• Lois tried this trope in Lois & Clark, along with 'The Eagle Has Landed' and 'Swordfish', all with no results. ('That Old Gang of Mine')
• The West Wing has a variation on this, where telling a Secret Service agent that 'you're here for the card game' will let you into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting for high-level politicians (up to the Vice President).

• 'Monster Mash':
  When you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you.
• The song 'Green Door' by Jim Lowe details the singer's efforts to get into a party behind the named door. When he tries the password 'Joe sent me', one of the partygoers laughs at him.

• 'Hernando's Hideaway' from The Pajama Game:
  Just knock three times, and whisper low
  That you and I were sent by Joe
• In Wonderful Town, Violet Shelton's clients use the password 'Marty sent me.' Unfortunately, some of them don't know her address has changed.

• In Mass Effect 2, you have to name-drop Jaruut to enter the VIP section of Afterlife.
  • One of the people stuck in line outside of Afterlife tries to say that Aria is expecting him — only to be told, flatly, that if Aria was expecting him, he would already be inside.
  • Then subverted in Kasumi's loyalty mission. The guard phones the person you name and learns you aren't actually authorized to enter, saying 'nice try'. To actually convince him to let you pass, you need to hack into the communications system so Kasumi can give the guard authorization from the other side.
• Subverted in Quest for Glory II. To meet Aziza, she will ask you who sent you to her. There are various good answers (Keapon Laffin or Rakeesh), but she will then ask you a question relating to that person to make sure you've actually met said person.
• In Flashback: The Quest For Identity to get false papers Conrad tells Jack that Ian sent him (he did).
• You can't get into a particular room in Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards until you give the password, 'Ken sent me.' The name 'Ken' is a reference to Ken Williams, founder of Sierra On-Line. In the original version of the game, some people tried substituting the name of another important guy who worked for Sierra, typing in 'Al sent me.' That also worked.
• In the NES Adventure GameNightshade, you can access the Pyramid Club by making friends with the food vendor nearby. His brother is a chef who oversees the back door.

• In one CatDog episode, 'CatDog Sent Me' is used for Cat's illegal cafe that serves a recalled brand of dog food.
• An animated Raid bug spray commercial from the 60s has a bug knocking on a nightclub door and saying 'Bugsy sent me.'
• The Pink Panther is a secret agent in the cartoon 'Pinkfinger.' An enemy spy enters a room after showing the spy inside the contents of a sheet of paper, which he discards. It says 'Tsalb Mih.' The Panther tries to gain entrance the same way and is shot in the face by the spy in the door. The narrator wants to look at the paper and laughs when he realizes it says 'Blast him.' The Panther is not amused.
• The Simpsons. Subverted in 'Bart the General'. Abe Simpson knocks on a door and a peep slit opens speakeasy style.
  Abe:Let me in, you idiot!

• An annual Roaring Twenties themed fundraiser at Salt Lake City's Catholic high school is called Joe Sent Me.
• Truth in Television in some clubs, if you happen to know the owner's name.

Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards

Larry gets into a room by saying 'Ken Sent Me' as the password to a man.

Original airdate: March 3, 2013

The premise: The Simpsons learn more about Abe’s past, when he was the prim and proper wrestling villain known as Gorgeous Godfrey. As his biggest fan back in the day, Mr. Burns convinces him to make a comeback and fuel his hate fire, but Homer and Marge grow concerned when an impressionable Bart begins to imitate his grandfather’s awful behavior.

The reaction: Boy, we’re learning a lot about Abe’s past this season, aren’t we? So Abe was a pretty boy wrestler? Like him being a songwriter at a jazz club, it just doesn’t make sense to me given what we know about Abe. Would the straight-laced man who booed at Woodstock and chastised Joe Namath’s luscious locks have been wearing his own gorgeous wig and showboating in the ring? Anyway, Mr. Burns randomly shows up to invite the Simpsons to his mansion, where he has an entire gigantic room devoted to Gorgeous Godfrey merchandise and paraphernalia. This also feels off to me; Burns being a wrestling superfan, who is surprised to learn that it’s actually fake? The point, I guess, is that Burns connecting to Godfrey’s character, a pompous jackass who reveled in the crowd’s hatred of him. Abe initially left the scene when the scorn became too great for him, but is wooed back into it thanks to Burns and a terrible song (more on that later). Despite being out of the game for decades, Abe seems just as fit and capable as ever. He’s fighting fellow seniors, but he’s in the ring doing spins and jumping up to tackle guys; look at that screenshot, he’s got nary a wrinkle on him. You’d think that would be the easiest source of comedy for this episode, but it’s not even regarded. The conflict arises in Bart’s hero worship of his grandfather, as he adopts his showboating routine to his little league game, and gets in trouble for it. Why would he be doing this though? We’ve seen Bart imitate things from TV before, but to do cool stuff for the adoration and amazement of others, like “Bart the Daredevil.” He revels in the attention, and the positive response of his classmates, as any kid would want. But to take pleasure in being outwardly hated, what sense does that make? And surely Bart is smart enough to realize that wrestling is all for show, and that the context is completely different. But I guess if Mr. Burns was surprised to learn that fact, I guess Bart wouldn’t have known either. The ending is so cloying, with shots of Abe worriedly watching Bart behave badly, and then giving up his persona because of it (“My grandson’s soul is at stake!”) The Burns/Abe/Bart dynamic reminded me of “Flying Hellfish” toward the second half, but I didn’t want to compare the two because it would be incredibly unfair. One of the greatest episodes ever, versus whatever this mess is.

Three items of note:
– We get a Harlem Shake video as our couch gag, and in a rare feat, they actually aired this when the meme was actually still relevant. I’m sure people were real pissed about it like the Ke$ha opening before it, but my annoyance comes more from the show just not trying to make a joke or a subversion or anything. It’s just them doing the Harlem Shake; just play into what’s currently trending so we can get some press, please! We need press!
– We open with some Storage Wars bullshit, which feels born of one of the writers lying on the couch marathoning the show and not having any other ideas. All the characters put on shades before the bidding war, which I guess is a thing they do on the show. I guess? Again, parodies on the show used to work and make sense even if you haven’t seen the source material. The storage locker the Simpsons win contains old wigs and boas, and when they see it belongs to Abe, they jump to the conclusion that he’s actually been a closeted gay man this whole time. There’s a running “joke” involving Marge wanting to be extra tolerant for her own self-satisfaction of seeming progressive, which feels very strange given her normally open and loving character, and also because she already has experience with an openly gay family member with Patty. When Abe’s true identity is revealed, Marge cries to Homer, “I so wanted him to be gay!” So weird.
– Mr. Burns woos Abe back to the wrestling life the only way he knows how: through song, about how good it is to be bad. This is the first big song we’ve seen from the show in a while, and boy is it terrible. It didn’t help that I had just recently listened to “See My Vest,” and the two could not be more different. “Vest” is a song all about Burns’ enthusiastic mirth about skinning helpless animals for their coats, but that it’s a catchy, upbeat number (amongst other things) is what makes it funny. Burns has always teetered toward being a self-aware villain who revels in being evil, but there is usually always some sort of reasoning or context to his dastardly deeds. In this song, it’s just Burns singing about how much he loves being hated. It’s his Card-Carrying Villain song; there’s no other joke to it other than “I am bad guy.” Then when they quickly run out of ideas for lyrics, they just have Burns listing off pop culture villains like Megatron, Eric Cartman and Voldemort, despite his cultural knowledge normally not extending past the 1910s. Harry Shearer’s performance feels so half-hearted, and I really can’t blame him.

Abe Simpson Quotes

One good line/moment: The Simpsons walk in on Abe carefully putting the finishing touches on his army tank in a bottle. Pretty clever for a quick joke.