It's a classic Mom-ism (up there with things like "Think of the starving children in Africa" when you aren't eating your peas). I don't know if there's one specific media appearance that popularised it, but it's definitely older than The Simpsons.
I remember being at my grandparents' house playing a board game called Taboo, in which the object is to get your teammates to say a secret word by giving them clues. My grandmother gave the clue "We never have these", and I said "Nice things!" and everybody cracked up. I was probably twelve or thirteen, and even if I'd been watching The Simpsons that young (it was on TV, just barely), I know my older relatives wouldn't have been.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-12-07 01:56 pm (UTC)I remember being at my grandparents' house playing a board game called Taboo, in which the object is to get your teammates to say a secret word by giving them clues. My grandmother gave the clue "We never have these", and I said "Nice things!" and everybody cracked up. I was probably twelve or thirteen, and even if I'd been watching The Simpsons that young (it was on TV, just barely), I know my older relatives wouldn't have been.