By now, you're probably wondering where this quote came from. Or you're growing belligerent that the Ploughman is receiving such praise from this story. Either way, I will now explain the source of this very important quote. The original importance of the Ploughman was established in an old english text describing the importance of the various professions. As you can see, that's some considerable precedence for this quote! In this old text, the councillor was clarifying the roles of the different professions, and declared that the Ploughman was clearly the most important since he was the one who makes the food. A consequence of this praise was that the councillor ended up bashing every other profession, likely including his own. This caused a nearby blacksmith to become enraged. This stereotypically belligerent smith declared that his job was clearly the most important, since he crafted all the tools and the plough that this Ploughman would use.
Remarkably, one of my friends managed to base their roleplaying character enitrely on this blacksmith, who received only about one paragraph in this text on the professions. Needless to say, this smith was extremely belligerent and enraged by anyone who didn't admit the true importance of blacksmithing. He had also met the councillor, who had declared that the Ploughman had the most important profession of all. Naturally, this enraged the belligerent smith, and he vowed to someday prove his importance over this famous 'Ploughman'. In the end, the character actually met The Ploughman. Now, I view this Ploughman as a rather minor superhero who carried a plough and looked impossibly smug. Despite the fact that the smith and his companions had just saved the area from destruction, the Ploughman declared that he was still the most important. He verified this fact by using this week's quote, and declaring: "Who makes the food? The PLOUGHMAN!!" This statement was even more 'effective' when combined with some ridiculous and repetitive hand motions. Of course, these hand motions didn't protect the Ploughman from the punch that resulted from his interminable smugness. In the end, it turned out that silencing the Ploughman's obnoxious declarations was the most important job of all.
Note that the person in the picture doesn't really resemble The Ploughman referred to in this quote. But he kinda looks like a farmer, which is why I ended up selecting that picture. And he might be smug, although it's hard to tell for sure. This smugness is in fact the most important part of the Ploughman, aside from perhaps his plough. Of course, the picture isn't nearly as important as The Ploughman himself.
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