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But sometimes not so easy when you're put on the spot.

Please define "cromulent"

Cromulent, adj. legitimate, valid.

The funny thing is that it probably has the potential to become so well known that people forget its roots, and then people wouldn't get the original joke in that Simpsons episode anymore.

Reality has a tendency to make works harder to understand out of context... My favourite "I-feel-old" case of words that have changed meaning is this:

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." (William Gibson, Neuromancer)

So, bright blue then... Changes the image quite a bit.

...and thus embiggen the dictionary itself.