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An early parody of the phrase appears in Matt Groening's Life in Hell cartoon strip. Groening draws a looming shadow of the rabbit named Binky, towering over his one-eared son, Bongo, who has clearly made a total mess of the house. Bongo uselessly says: "Mistakes were made."
10 paź 2012 · Life in Hell was often linguistically interesting — the “Mistakes were made” strip (with its notable passive) got picked up on Language Log, here — and The Simpsons has produced so many lexical innovations and catch-phrases that people collect them on websites. Topics for a future posting.
29 maj 2021 · “Mistakes were made” is an expression that is commonly used as a rhetorical device, whereby a speaker acknowledges that a situation was handled poorly or inappropriately but seeks to evade any direct admission or accusation of responsibility by not specifying the person who made the mistakes.
Several of Bongo's excuses parodied those of politicians, such as "Mistakes were made". Occasionally there would also be a shadow Akbar & Jeff looming over Bongo and their nephews, or Binky looming over Bongo, Jeff, and Akbar, whom are pointing fingers at each other.
13 mar 2007 · My first memory of this phrase was a Matt Groening cartoon from the "Life in Hell" series. A big rabbit looms over a little rabbit, who's standing amid a scene of utter domestic destruction. Little bunny then says, deadpan, "Mistakes were made." (Unhelpful, sorry, but it's still a great cartoon.)
18 mar 2009 · The phrase "mistakes were made" is simple enough to be common — especially if minor variants like "mistakes have been made" are counted — and evasive enough to be be salt in the wounds of angry people eager for contrition and even revenge.
Life in Hell was Groening’s alone. After graduating from Evergreen State and moving to Los Angeles in 1977, he started self-publishing it as a comic book, selling the early issues alongside the punk zines at Licorice Pizza, the Sunset Boulevard record store where he clerked.
