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S4E18&19 - So It's Come to This, A Simpsons Clip Show & The Front
104 Plays12 days ago
Jon, Michael and Matt watch The Simpsons episodes 'So It's Come to This, A Simpsons Clip Show' & 'The Front', and discuss what they say about society.
The article I talk about: https://www.watchingtogetheralone.com/p/everything-is-a-clip-show
Follow us on the Socials: @Molemanpod
Jon: @Meroka.bsky.social
Matt: @mattperspective.bsky.social
Michael: @buttonmashhorse.bsky.social
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Transcript
Introduction and The Simpsons Longevity
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, this is Mole Man in the Morning. Good Mole Man to you. Hello, welcome to Mole Man in the Morning! ah got nothing today. Just like the Simpsons. Oh, wow!
00:00:16
Speaker
I thought we had... we were on for three homers here, I thought these were bangers. I don't think that's true. i i don't think it's true either. that that I don't think you believe that. Well, you have to keep listening to find out.
00:00:31
Speaker
Oh, we're going to have to. We are More Matt in the Morning. We are a podcast about how The Simpsons has a lot to say about society. am your host, John, I am joined as ever by Matt.
00:00:43
Speaker
What's up? And Michael. I need catchphrase. i need a catch for We are pulling rapidly towards the end of season four. We are... We're getting into the dregs. That's crazy to me, though.
00:00:57
Speaker
That's crazy to me. What, that we got through four seasons of it? Yeah, that we're still doing this. Oh, never never underestimate underestimate my ability to stick with a stupid project that's long since outlived. It's entertainment.
00:01:11
Speaker
Oh, i no, I still enjoy doing it I'm just amazed because most amateur podcasts like this one just die a death. And i think I think because we all know that, we're all just like, nah, I'm not i'm not i'm not joining the crowd. We are finishing this bitch.
Clip Shows and TV Tropes
00:01:26
Speaker
I made YouTube videos to an audience of basically no one for 12 years. I'm in this for the long haul. Same. Let's do this. You've got another free clip show's coming. ah Is that how many they made?
00:01:41
Speaker
I know there's another workout. and I know there's at least two, I think. It's alright, Friends made like five. Yeah, we'll get into, so I guess, clip shows as a genre, but first, why don't we tell folks what we're drinking today?
00:01:58
Speaker
I bought booze. I was just going to drink more or Dunderhead because I'm like, that's fucking delicious. I really can't deal with ah But I went and bought a bottle of just random stuff. I got shepherd name, Bishop's Finger, which I think I've had on the show before. Okay.
00:02:17
Speaker
Hold on, there you go. You can hear it. Get it near the mic. Hang on, is this our first clip of the day? Matt reminiscing about the beers that he's had. You fucking interrupted the opening of the beer, so this is your fault.
00:02:30
Speaker
know. Alright, I'm gonna have it. Smells nice. That's lovely, that one. It smells like a pub. Do you know like pubs have a very specific smell? That very specific ale smell?
00:02:43
Speaker
It smells like that and I love it. I love that smell. I think it's so a pub once or twice in my life, yeah. Yeah, I think I've told the story before that my granddad used to be a pub landlord. um So I grew up around that smell and it's a nice smell. It's a very fun smell.
00:02:58
Speaker
But yeah, delicious. Very good. Michael? I am drinking the Hive Mind Oak Whiskey Barrel Age Traditional Mead that was a Christmas present from my good friend John.
00:03:10
Speaker
Oh, Hive Mind, that makes sense. Also, when you said, I'm drinking the Hive Mind and then Paul, I was like, oh no. I have been consumed into the Borg. I have no need for alcohol anymore. Resistance is futile. My cutus is here.
00:03:25
Speaker
i have not met Seven of Nine or Picard. This is disappointment. Dude, I'd high five Picard so hard. I would have done if it turned up to my graduation.
00:03:37
Speaker
Pretty sure I've told that story on this earth podcast too, so look through the annals for that one. don't know if you have, but I'm enjoying the mental image now of somebody listening to every episode going, where did he mention meeting Picard? Where was this? There's only 40 episodes. like How hard can it be to find this? Well, I'm expecting you to honour your promise to me, John, that every time we come up to a clip in this so upcoming episode, you're going to edit in the previous part of the podcast where we discussed it.
00:04:03
Speaker
no No, no, no, no, no. This is supposed to be an easy episode, an easy one. It's supposed to five minutes, yeah, it's Simpsons clips, and we're done. all right, let's start those five minutes. what was When was this aired?
00:04:16
Speaker
yeah You can ask me what I'm drinking. What are you drinking, John? I'm drinking Vocation Brewery's Double Tonka Frappe, Coffee Stout. What happened on the day? that where why When did this air? Smells delicious. there When did this air? When did when this episode air?
00:04:31
Speaker
April Fool's Day 1993, a fact which will become relevant very shortly. Yes, that makes sense. That is quite impressive. what is What, April Fool's Day? or an episode about April Fool's Day aired on April Fool's.
00:04:44
Speaker
Simpsons are not normally that concise with these attempts. It explains why it is a clip show episode more than anything. Yeah, so, Ed, Michael, you're supposed to tell us what happened.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, what happened. All right. Alan Bennett's play, The Madness of George III, premieres in London. Good for Alan Bennett. A lot of people died. What, at the play?
00:05:08
Speaker
No, no, just in general. but Yeah, I mean, that's true about every day. i mean, this this website isn't really giving me much of things that have happened on this day more. These people died.
00:05:20
Speaker
i mean, I think you pick any day in history. There's probably going to be a few of those around. Imagine a day in history. I wonder if there is one day in history.
April Fool's Day and Censorship in The Simpsons
00:05:30
Speaker
Just cause it because there probably is only one when no one died.
00:05:34
Speaker
That is... I mean, if you go back far enough, there's loads of them. Well, right Sorry, that's smart. as my my my my My funny bit's gone now. Never mind.
00:05:48
Speaker
What what but was on the charts? Since I'm clearly not wanted here. Okay, so... u i could have been... Sorry, I didn't get your funny bit and I tried to turn it into my funny bit. I that should have been more comforting now.
00:06:04
Speaker
nine so ah So, number one in the US was Informer by Snoke. I know Snow. I don't know Informer. Which shows you how well I know Snow.
00:06:16
Speaker
I know Snow. you mocking me? I'm making a joke joke. It didn't work. Never mind. Moving on. ah bit Well, then you're supposed to go, I know Snow. Yeah. Love it.
00:06:27
Speaker
Great. I choked rather than sniffed. See? I brought it back. We're fine. UK number one. Young at Heart. Bluebells.
00:06:39
Speaker
Again, I know those words.
00:06:44
Speaker
I've heard those in sentences before.
00:06:48
Speaker
Okay, so shall I just go straight into this? Alright, so it's come to this, a Simpsons clip show. Guess what this might happen. I just want to point out, though, that being self-aware about being shit doesn't make it not shit.
00:07:04
Speaker
want to point that out. is' like That is one of my notes. Alright, alright, alright. we You're being pessimistic here. I think this is going to be one of those classic things where when I go through the episode with you, you're going to change your mind and say, actually, you know what? It wasn't that bad.
00:07:18
Speaker
Oh, now that we think about it, it's actually quite funny. yeah One thing I will say about this episode is it contains one of my favourite jokes in all of Simpsons, ever. It has got one banger. I hope we're talking about the same one. Yeah, I'm fairly certain we are. But, you know...
00:07:35
Speaker
Beyond that, I have little to say, but let's let's continue. Okay. so Really keeping the listeners engaged here by saying i have I have nothing to say.
00:07:47
Speaker
worries, folks. This will be good. but We're going win him round. Don't worry. ah All right. Give us a couch gag or blackboard or whatever. Okay, the blackboard gag. No one is interested in my underpants.
00:07:59
Speaker
Presumably because Bart wasn't wearing his meundies. Why was this one formatted differently? Like, did you notice that it was written... but it was only written in single lines down the center of the board rather than repeated lines?
00:08:13
Speaker
It couldn't be ours doing it twice, I guess. It wasn't all left side. It was like done as if, you know, you were writing a paragraph. Oh, yeah. Like a poem, like down... It's really strange.
00:08:24
Speaker
Very odd. I don't know why that is. And i I have put way too much thought into it. They got a different intern to do it this time. Absolutely, yeah. So, the couch gag. They finally come onto to the couch, but their heads are on their own bodies.
00:08:37
Speaker
They quickly swap. I found this very amusing. i i I think I just love physical comedy and noises. So just like the constant, like... Hope that comes up on the mic.
00:08:48
Speaker
You know, the popping was just very amusing to me. First scene in, Marge gets a job. See, it's another clip. Oh, there you go. We'll get to the second character gagging a bit because think I might be off that of the train on that one.
00:09:03
Speaker
Okay, so the episode starts with Bart waking up and, oh no, he's gone blind. ah But turns out that's not the case. ah Homer has ah put solotape over his... not solotape, er, tape. No, no, duct tape, yeah, gaffer tape, man. Imagine how painful that is. Imagine. Getting your eyelashes waxed, basically. Yeah. And maybe eyebrows too. The rest of the episode should take place with Bart with a massive red mark across his eyes. Because that would suck major balls. So, Almaro rips off the duct tape and declares April Fool's on the stunned Bart. Did either of you have anyone in your lives that was, like, obsessed with April Fool's?
00:09:49
Speaker
I don't think so. no it's not ru I don't think it's a really a big UK thing, is it? No. Because a lot of american yeah a lot of cartoons that we had in America would you wouldt would have April Fool's episodes, you know, where basically it was a almost always a moral lesson of the prankster character learning that you can take pranks too far. That was... it it's just It's just an easy trope.
00:10:14
Speaker
but i'm not Yeah, I'm not saying that it's like... you know but unique or bad or anything like that I'm just saying that that's usually what it was so when I was a kid I was always like oh wow so April Fool's is like this big thing and then every year April Fool's would come around and no one gave a shit ah might I remember my dad definitely doing occasional small things.
00:10:34
Speaker
So small like i remember the specifics of them, but I remember my dad would usually make an effort to do something silly, but like... Did your father ever put a expired milk that he left next to the radiator in the fridge? Not exactly, no.
00:10:46
Speaker
Because that's what Homer does stuff out! What do you say, two months? Six weeks. yeah Which is longer than two months. so No, it's not.
Homer's Pranks and TV History
00:10:56
Speaker
No, wait. No, it isn't.
00:10:58
Speaker
Wait. Oh, wait. No. Four weeks and a... Yes, no. It's not for break. Oh, dear. That's a... Four weeks few months. That mead has hit my brain. So, Bart declares that he's going to get revenge on Homer and they trade ah insults about who's going to fool who and Homer says Bart couldn't fool his mother on it the foolish day of his life.
00:11:18
Speaker
This went on for a very long Yeah, low effort episode. You know, Kul Tamaad getting rid of the horrific milk. Oh, grim. And the noises, man. Yep.
00:11:29
Speaker
As Helmer says, God bless whoever came up with April Fool's Day and Lisa reveals it's the pagans, which leads to Helmer saying, God bless the pagans. which you i got but So we get a flashback of the story of April Fool's Day and we see the pagans are given a gift by Christian Ned Flanders.
00:11:48
Speaker
In the year 1022. Yeah. yeah It's ah ram's blood for their godless sacrifice, I believe is the word. Godless ceremony, yeah. They open the ram's blood up and, oh, would you know, it's the old snakes in the jar bit.
00:12:02
Speaker
but Yes, maybe because back way back in 1022 they had ah ah had springs. This is the Homer's imagination, come on. They didn't have plumbing, but they had springs.
00:12:14
Speaker
um i'm not im I'm not actually critiquing the the historical inaccuracy of this. I actually found it kind of interesting, and I'm genuinely curious if it's true. Not if they had springs back then, but the whole April Fool's story. The April Fool's origin thing, yeah.
00:12:28
Speaker
i I am interested in springs now. I want to know when springs were invented. Well, I know slinkies were invented by a naval engineer. we Yeah, we did this last time when when Ralph had a slinky.
00:12:39
Speaker
Alright, fuckface. We'll need to bring it up again. It's a clip show! It's clip show! Yeah, every time read it, Joe. Springs appeared in the early 15th century. They would not have had spring springs in 1022. Alright, well then, this show immediately gets... Historically inaccurate, marking it down. Yeah, they it gets away. Yeah, next you're gonna tell me Ned Flanders himself, wasn't it? Deducting a point from the score. stupid that Ned Flanders is everywhere, including our hearts.
00:13:07
Speaker
Ned Flanders says April Fools as Todd laughs and Flanders gets what he deserves as he's tied to the stake. Who's laughing now? Who's laughing now? We come back to the present day and Homer says that's the story of April Fools and Lisa has to chide in because she was actually telling the story.
00:13:22
Speaker
Can we all agree though that Maggie in in in her little tribal outfit is adorable? She pulled it off very well. Like the little bunny ears and everything. She was adorable. We then cut to the Flying Dutchman and Captain McAllister is watching his ah yeah delivery van being unloaded.
00:13:39
Speaker
And we see that he's being caught with the classic gag of there's a black ring round his eye from the telescope. Captain McAllister's not having this because it's mutinous dogs and everybody's now got to wear their hairnets, which really disappoints the crew.
00:13:52
Speaker
Yeah, that as somebody who does work in food the industry, that got a chuckle out for me. was like, oh, fuck's sake, hairnets suck. i's like yeah okay I just like the disappointed pirate noises. Yeah.
00:14:03
Speaker
Particularly from the one that's bald. we You still have to wear a hairnet if you're bald. Yeah. Fair enough. Because they're not really hair nets anymore. They're like a... They're like ah they kind of like face masks.
00:14:16
Speaker
Just for your head. Because dandruff and shit. You still get dandruff if you're bald. Then cut to Bart wondering how to get back Homer and he's trying to figure out what Homer's weakness is and Homer pulls out Abir the French and declines it to his weakness. Abir, my one weakness, Achilles heel.
00:14:31
Speaker
Bart wonders how to use it against Homer and Homer drops the can and because he picks it up, it's fizzed up so it sprays in his face and Homer says it was a good thing it wasn't Mars shaken because he would have looked quite the fool. An April fool, if you will.
00:14:43
Speaker
Homer might as well just stuck his head around the corner and said, hey Bart, this is what you should do to me. This is a great idea, Bart. We didn't go to Bart finding a... I don't know what the exact word of this machine is, but it's shaking that real good. It's can shaker.
00:14:56
Speaker
Is that literally what it's called? yeah Yeah, I think... well Yeah, I think it's designed for for mixing paint cans, isn't it? It just like... The paint shaker? Is that what it is? I worked in BQ, it's called a paint mixer.
00:15:07
Speaker
Fair enough, there you go. And never got to use one, but they are very, very loud. no Bart has now got a very shaky can of beer as he ah sticks it into the fridge. Just trembling and queer.
00:15:22
Speaker
So we come back to Homer and he's eating salty pretzels and he declines he's really thirsty but then says, hey, what are you going to do? I've had that though. We've all had that where you're just so comfy and you're just like, I am so hungry or I need the toilet or whatever and you're just like, what are going to do?
00:15:42
Speaker
Well, I'll tell you what Bart's going to He turns up the temperature. He kills the goldfish, the Leo Sayo man. Backwards melt. It's a disaster. Bart killed a fish for the sake of a prank, guys.
00:15:52
Speaker
In the midst of this thirst montage, there was also a public service announcement which I wanted to touch on. It was about excessive alcohol consumption which can cause liver damage and cancer of the rectum.
00:16:04
Speaker
I'm lifting my drink as you've said that. Yeah, sir, I did the same thing. That got pushback from the censors in like, just just a really weird way, honestly. There's a whole... but I'm just gonna read the paragraph off Wikipedia because I'm a hack, but also because it's just a wild fucking sentence. Would you like us to boo you while you do it?
00:16:26
Speaker
Just quietly? No. As long as it's quiet. Right, Michael. We'll get on it. The network censors initially... Did someone just R? The network censors initially refused to let the phrase beer causes rectal cancer into the show. The censors eventually relented when they found a medical textbook which stated the link between beer and cancer, but still asks them to go easy on beer in the future.
00:16:50
Speaker
i mean... I mean, Simpsons probably does drive beer sales, so...
00:16:57
Speaker
So this is enough to prompt Homer to get up off the sofa and he leaves a lovely little... The proper, like, gripping noise as he comes off the couch. Peeling himself off the sofa, yeah. Silhouette of Sweat.
00:17:10
Speaker
We then see Homer go to the... Ooh, that's my new band name. Silhouette Sweat. Silhouette of Sweat. Homer goes to the fridge as Bart is looking on Jeep joyfully as Homer grabs his beer. And i think now, before we move on, I think we have to give John some credit because, John.
00:17:26
Speaker
Hello. You used to work and you work in the drinks industry. I do. And you used to package alcohol into cans, didn't you? Still do. Yep. I did not know you were dicing with death on a daily basis because I didn't realize if you shook a can just slightly too much, it's a nuclear explosion.
00:17:42
Speaker
This is an accurate depiction of carbonation in beverages, yes? Yep, absolutely. The house roof comes from this explosion. LAUGHTER ah It's just everything about this is so fucking funny.
00:17:55
Speaker
April. Boom. It's, yeah, it's the comedic title. The way it's cut, it's like ah though those accounts that share like perfectly cut screams and stuff. It's like the same sort thing. Mid-sentence. April. Bargo's flying backwards from the past.
00:18:11
Speaker
Yeah. yeah so good It's so good. We don't go to the police and Lewis shot to see that there's been an explosion at the Simpsons house. The old Simpsons place.
00:18:22
Speaker
That's two blocks away. Wiggins not bored because it's two blocks away, but B.O. is coming out. Before we go to the Wiggins bit, I don't think you would refer to it as blocks in such a suburban area.
00:18:36
Speaker
Springfield is clearly not set out in blocks, so you wouldn't refer to them as blocks, but whatever. they Might be a US thing. Yeah, maybe. Lou points out there's beer coming out of the chimney, which is not possible because there isn't that much beer in the can and there is no chimney because the roof was... There's no chimney. this is Despite this, Wiggum gets out the car because he's now going to proceed on foot.
Relevance of Clip Shows Today
00:18:58
Speaker
I'm pursuing foot, calling a code 8.
00:19:00
Speaker
We need pretzels. I repeat, pretzels. Wiggum is literally running down the street with his tongue um trying to catch this in his mouth. It is a thing.
00:19:10
Speaker
And that's the end of Act 1 and there is no more good episode after this. yeah listenless There's another bit. We've got Dr. Hibbert in a minute. Dr. Hibbert in a minute. I'd listen to that.
00:19:22
Speaker
We see Dr. Hibbert's own hilarious April 4th where he tells Marge that Homer is dead. it's a logicals it's just It's just a joke but ah you may never walk again.
00:19:32
Speaker
And they leave enough of silence there for you to wait for him to say April Fool's again. And he doesn't, and you're just like, oh, no. They didn't see that Homer's in his wheelchair going, row, row your boat.
00:19:46
Speaker
she's face He's quite optimistic about the prognosis. He's just got a mop for no reason. So he goes so can row. yeah More fool me, I suppose.
00:19:57
Speaker
Marge comes into the room and the doctor that's looking over Homer's x-rays ah begins to give the briefing. He looks strangely familiar, but we'll to that in a second. He does, you know, where from, but, you know, maybe a convenient clip will explain it.
00:20:08
Speaker
Maybe. points out that Homer has several lesions on his head and, uh, what do you know? The clips begin. They sure do. But he says these dark spots are lesions on his brain.
00:20:21
Speaker
That is a x-ray of his skull. It is um not a CAT scan. He is not a human doctor, but you know. This is fair. This might be why he's so shit.
00:20:33
Speaker
So Homer gets hit by several baseballs across multiple episodes. um Gets hit with the circular saw. The quickie slams on his door while on his head while he's asleep. And they played the whole um Psycho reference clip. Yeah, they did. That's a long clip. The whole clip. Oh, God, yeah, it really is.
00:20:52
Speaker
Well, it's fine because we've got some more long clips coming as we see that Homer's brainwaves are a bit erratic and we go back to the... episode season uh series one has been long enough i'd kind of forgotten about that one yeah these were fun to be reminded of by the way if you have any interest in uh visiting what we have to say about these episodes if you could check us out on spotify or i don't know if it's on apple they are all the episodes are on apple these days they have actually made that happen Yep, so if you want to go back and check out what we had to say about these episodes at the time, please do feel free.
00:21:24
Speaker
Back when we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and Trump wasn't fucking president. You might want to skip the first three. We'll have to get into our groove. Just go straight to episode two when I get involved.
00:21:38
Speaker
They're not in episode two. I thought episode two was the one you skipped. yeah he's I thought I skipped episode one. and theater so wall yeah I think you skipped two. Episode one's the Christmas one.
00:21:50
Speaker
Oh, of course. i think We're reminiscing now. This is what this episode brings. up Is this reminiscing? I hate you guys.
00:21:59
Speaker
ah that As the doctor asks what could have caused this, Marge is still at a loss, but eventually thinks it may have something to do with Homer falling down the cliff. I kind of forgot how much Marge just, like...
00:22:10
Speaker
plays the whole, you know, embarrassed lie thing. Because what was it last episode that... Oh, the... Does Maggie use a pacifier? yeah. And I forgot that Marge does this all the time. of like She just doesn't want to admit how fucking moronic she and her husband both are.
00:22:30
Speaker
So we get both of Homer's trips down the gorge. Which is, I think we touched on this when we saw the episode, right? But like, this is an expanded version of the scene, right? That you just don't get in the original.
00:22:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's way less censored. It's the second one, isn't it, where they actually have in the... Show him going down the cliff in the stretcher or whatever. Considering stretcher in the head, I can sort of understand why they move. Oh, that's brutal, though, yeah. i was I was just amazed at how much blood there is that scene, man. it's That's probably why it got cut last time. That genuinely haunted me as a kid.
00:23:05
Speaker
like It genuinely unnerved me as a kid when I first saw it. Then see that Marge actually starts to recognise the Doctor and it's come back to the clip of him and the vets where he was failing to save the hamster. Yep.
00:23:16
Speaker
I'm fairly certain if you used a defibrilator defibrilator defibrilator defibril
00:23:25
Speaker
Keep that in. Let me look like an idiot. i'm I'm fairly certain if you used a defib on a hamster, it would burst. Oh, grim. And I'm fairly certain I said the same joke when we talked about it last time. It's like a clip show. It's like a clip show.
00:23:42
Speaker
Is it a joke? Or is it just factually accurate? i I want to Google it, but I'm not going to. That's probably wise.
00:23:52
Speaker
The depressing thought is that somebody probably has attempted this and put it on YouTube or something. No, that's fucking... Nah. i'd like so but I'd like to have the knowledge I would never watch.
00:24:04
Speaker
Somebody would watch. I would not, but somebody would. That's truly foul. So, Dalton Hibbert is horrified to learn that his fellow medical professional is a vet.
00:24:15
Speaker
And the vet offers to ah give Homer a tick bath and a spay for 70 bucks, and Bart's willing to take the deal because... $20. twenty dollars Oh, $20, ooh. Yeah. Bart's not just going to have a casual $70 just sitting in his pocket, man.
00:24:29
Speaker
I was amazed that he had 20 quid. $20, I guess. So we see that Homer's in his bed, and the family keep using prompting words like, you're a tough dad, like the time you stay got lost in the forest.
00:24:40
Speaker
And Marge says he's good in situations which cuts to Homer being abducted, which didn't quite understand. This isn't canon! Yeah, that was my note here. It's like, wait, does this make the Treehouse episode canon? Because it's implied that this genuinely happened. And it also has nothing to do with coping skills.
00:24:56
Speaker
It really doesn't. It's just like, you've got tractor beams. What they did is they wrote a line and then realised they had no fucking clips that fit that line.
00:25:08
Speaker
Okay, so something that's probably worth talking or thinking about is... Something that surprises me is how early into The Simpsons this is. like i I feel like you get more than three and a half seasons into a show before you get to, like, shit, we've run out of stuff, make a clip show kind of territory.
00:25:26
Speaker
Like, they haven't got really all that much, in the grand scheme of it, to work from. Yeah. Especially if we consider, like, they're not using season four, that's the current season, that would be insane to be using clips from the current season.
00:25:41
Speaker
What I'm thinking that the reason this is happening is because this is really at the, I'm not going to say the height, but at that like early peaking of Simpsons Mania, you know, so more money was coming in, which means ah more pressure.
00:26:03
Speaker
And thus they're like, for whatever reason, they're like, get this out. now, like, soon. Oh, undeniably, yeah, it's just an easy episode to make, yeah, yeah, it's 100% why It's hard to get the season out on time, they had to do this, you know, so, yeah.
00:26:16
Speaker
And who doesn't want to relive the amusing episode of our life of Itchy and Scratchy, where Scratchy's eyeballs are replaced with dynamite, indeed. What it what a sh... There are so many better Itchy and Scratchy clips, so you and they'll use that Well, the show's really gone downhill. if so They really need a new writer, I think.
00:26:33
Speaker
They need a new writer, and that's what it is. Well, we'll get No, no, just the guy! Anyway, um we cut to the next scene, and Homer is being visited by Mo and Barney. Mo's bought Homer a beer, and Homer doesn't want the beer because he's now traumatized. He brings pain. One flew over the cuckoo nest begins, and... yeah Random answer reference. And apologies to my psychology class back in 2005, of which I ruined this ending despite the fact that thought everybody knew what the hell happens in this film.
00:27:00
Speaker
So, sorry. But in case you didn't know, Barney murders home over a pillow, but throws a water cooler through the window and runs off into the distance. And all Mo can do is say, he really needs a girlfriend.
00:27:15
Speaker
Yeah, okay. but We see that Homer's worried now about to being in a wheelchair and thinks he'll be some sort of vegetable and his life's work will be unachieved and Marge says this will be society's loss.
00:27:28
Speaker
like I can't tell if Marge is placating Homer or actually does agree with him here because the way the voice actress delivers it it It could go either way, that she's either being like, it's no big loss, or it is a big loss.
00:27:44
Speaker
I mean, I was fully expecting yet another in the series of Homer's, oh, I'll never get to live out my livestream of doing X. Oh, but Homer, you did X last year. yeahru Yeah, true. Yeah.
00:27:56
Speaker
Marge says their marriage will survive anything, like the time Marge fought about wonking Jack, and we get the ah officer and the gentleman ending again. Oh, yeah. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
00:28:08
Speaker
They just put a lot of effort into that scene and they really liked it and wanted to reuse it. It's not that interesting or entertaining, it's just like a good bit of animation. Sorry, couldn't help myself.
00:28:19
Speaker
Yeah, we're just ignoring it, we're playing on. I... You know, admittedly, i I do like that gag. I'm going to the back seat of my car with the woman I love and I won't be back for ten minutes!
00:28:33
Speaker
It's a good joke. It's good bit. We go to the evening, which is the perfect time for physiotherapy, apparently, and Homer is not getting up on the chair, and the therapists give up. Homer then sees the candy machine, and if we go back to the land of chocolate. Oh, good lord, the land of chocolate, yes.
00:28:47
Speaker
Yes, and Homer's prance always gets me. Chocolate. Half price. Just such a dumb joke. But Homer gets out of the chair and he makes it to the vending machine. He doesn't even struggle, but he just basically gets up and walks slow. the so no There's no effort into the animation of this episode.
00:29:08
Speaker
So Homer's candy gets a stuck on the way down and Homer starts banging on the machine, which unfortunately falls on Homer. And we see that Homer starts getting chocolate falling in his mouth, which... Oh, these noises are just uncomfortable.
The Simpsons' Cultural Impact
00:29:21
Speaker
oh Homer manages to say, are nuts, before he passes out. And we're still here chewing as the screen goes. You just hear, oh, yeah.
00:29:33
Speaker
Son of rank. So we go back and Homer's in bed and Grandpa's looking over him saying that the world was too cruel for beauties such as his. Totally know that Homer's in a coma at this point. He's just like unconscious.
00:29:48
Speaker
Homer starts drooling and Grandpa's about to cave his skull in with a chair. But he's then pointed out to him he's in a coma Grandpa puts it off as not a big deal because he goes into comas all the... No one can replicate Abe Simpson's scream, but it's so good. i don't know. Every time I hear it, ah I find it really fine.
00:30:05
Speaker
Yep, like Abe Simpson, I've just come out of my coma. And Lisa says, there's a coma hurt, and Grandpa says no, but it's basically a clip show. Just in case wink, wink, nod, nod, that you weren't adamant out what was happening. Get it, guys? Guys, do you get it?
00:30:19
Speaker
It's funny if they're self-aware. it's It's funny if they make a joke about it. Funny. It's funny. It's so funny. As Bart wonders what Homer's thinking, we get the clip of a Homer going to sleep on the beds from the pony episode.
00:30:34
Speaker
they I remember, like again, if we're doing like talking about what we said at the time, I do remember saying that I was genuinely impressed with the level of effort for this scene. It is one of the more impressive scenes.
00:30:47
Speaker
They put fucking work into that. Yeah, like with The Officer and Gentleman, I think that a lot of these clips are just like, we put the effort in here, we're gonna get double usage out of these. It's like the ah the circus intro. They just really fucking like it. Anyway, we'll get there.
00:31:03
Speaker
yeah So, we see Burns suddenly storms in. He's upset that Homer's costing five grand a day in his health plan and says Homer needs to die with dignity. See, if they'd done a clip show of just Burns bits, I would have given this a Homer, man.
00:31:17
Speaker
Just, if we'd have just been able to once again hear Mr. Burns go, the boogeyman, I'd have been like, Homer, easy, done, solved, solved, solved. Well, we're not getting that because Dr. Hippett's a medical professional and he doesn't agree with Burns' his thing, so Burns brings in his second opinion, Dr. Nick. Hi, Dr. Nick.
00:31:35
Speaker
Dr. Nick hits Homer in the chest and Homer makes a grunt and Dr. Nick says, oh, there's no sign of life. don't know why. Okay, it's my last note on this episode, but I just put, because I found it very amusing. So, Dr. Nick recommends playing the plug, which Burns does, but Marge puts it back in and says, how can you be so heartless?
00:31:55
Speaker
Burns says that Marge has no idea what ah Homer has put him through. it But Burns doesn't know who Homer is. Yeah, exactly. Simpsons, eh? The clip is just Burns being mildly inconvenienced by Homer asking for more.
00:32:07
Speaker
Yeah. Homer has done far worse to this man. So many better clips of Homer causing trouble for Mr. Burns. I think it's kind of... That is intrinsically the gag there, is that the one very, very mild inconvenience was the... That's the one thing that Burns took away from their entire relationship. It's the only one he actually remembers.
00:32:27
Speaker
We then cut to Professor Brink, who wants to go into Homer's colon for reasons that's never quite close to it. Fantastic voyage. Yeah, why why do they, like... I think sometimes the writers just think what references they can get away with.
00:32:42
Speaker
and Which is odd. it's not even a like Start from the reference and work backwards. Yeah, none of this bit is even funny. it's just It's just, hey, have you seen this movie? It's like, no!
00:32:52
Speaker
no one's it No one has seen this movie. Remember Price of Frank? He's still in the series. He's still in the series. Yeah, I mean, like i i mean I've never actually seen the movie, but, like, people know about the movie. I know what The Fantastic Voyage is, even if I've never watched the movie. But, like, yeah, the gag is just, like, everybody, the family and other and volunteers elsewhere included, just being repulsed at the idea of being inserted into Homer's colon.
00:33:17
Speaker
Which, you know, fair. And that's probably why there have been a lack of volunteers. Yes. So we cut to Lisa but reminiscing of the good time she's had with Homer, which is when she was playing when the Saints were coming marching in for Homer.
00:33:30
Speaker
And Homer was having a whirl of her time. And Lisa starts playing the saxophone for the unconscious Homer. It's a nice moment, I suppose. Nice moment. Yeah, it's sweet.
00:33:41
Speaker
yeah That's the thing. I love their rare moments, but I love the moments where Homer and Lisa have like father-daughter moments. I think they're really cool. Mm-hmm.
00:33:52
Speaker
ah that you know They're just very sweet. you know It shows that the writers are capable of doing more than just funny ha-ha. Cut to Bart and Bart is apologising Homer for not being the perfect kid and we get the in Indiana Jones opening once more. Which Homer running in face first into that door is never not brutal.
00:34:10
Speaker
Yeah, full belly out and everything. And Bart starts talking about the life advice, and for some reason it's Bart in the trash can and learning to shave. Yeah, what?
00:34:22
Speaker
Well, the learning to shave was the advice, the trash can was, I got into trouble, wasn't it? I always get into trouble, and it's the Bart getting bullied episode. And then there's the 32 dough montage, which... Oh, yes, of course.
00:34:36
Speaker
that they use the They use the same doughs, like, multiple times. Yeah, i I don't know specifically... know specifically what the story is behind it, because Wikipedia does not go into a lot of detail, but ah David Silverman used it in some sort of college show, and I guess was reasonably proud, guess, of putting that together, so I guess they stuck that in there.
00:34:59
Speaker
Wow, well done. like Well done, Dave. Yep, you you just put a bunch of does together. You did it, bud. Eventually we get to the point where Bart teethly and Nick pretty up the... people insert themselves into Simpsons fandom that I refuse to remember the names of put more effort in than that.
00:35:16
Speaker
David B. Grelk. There he is. I remember now. David B. Grelk. Well, we haven't heard from him for a while, ah but we'll get to Nate Miters very shortly. Yeah, so but I bet... Good old Nate. Bart finally truthfully admits that he shook up the can of beer and as Bart is crying away, Alma suddenly starts to come out of his coma, full of rage.
00:35:36
Speaker
The heart line goes into Bart's head. Alma finally wakes up and starts choking Bart as happy, euphoric music is playing. yeah is play Lisa and Marge are hugging and Bart is being strangled.
00:35:48
Speaker
But next scene, Homer has made a complete recovery and says he's taking the family to Hawaii. But he's just kidding, because it's still April Fools. But it turns out that Homer's been in that coma for seven weeks. God damn.
00:36:00
Speaker
The family just start laughing about this and eventually Marge reveals to Homer he's lost 5% of his brain function.
Concluding Reflections on Media and The Simpsons
00:36:05
Speaker
Homer's response to this is, Me lose brain? oh. And the family laugh until Homer stops and goes, Why I laugh?
00:36:11
Speaker
Why laugh? Yep. That was a clip show. Fortunately, they'll love my never make one of them again. oh god thank God. I'm gonna be honest, the talking it back thing hasn't really worked out and changed my opinions of this. No. no I'm gonna... gonna take a bold stance here, guys, and I i feel like you'll agree with me.
00:36:33
Speaker
I don't think this episode gets a rating. It's a fucking clip show. Yes, there's a small amount of Simpsons. I'm not giving it an Out of Homer. It's a fucking clip show. Fair play, yeah. It was valid, I suppose. I did give it one, but that is a valid stance to take.
00:36:46
Speaker
What's your... What's your home, Out of Homer? I gave it a Simpsons-themed jigsaw out of Homer. Basically what it was, lots of bits put together. I gave it Cancer of the Rectum out of Homer. Oh, good lord! Jesus, man! I feel like that's worse than a When Flanders Failed.
00:37:02
Speaker
My final note on the episode was, let's never do this again.
00:37:08
Speaker
will. We will. we ah It did not say diddly fucking shit about society, I don't believe. I mean, i guess you could extrapolate to say that it says that sometimes writers are overworked and don't have time to write quote-unquote enough episodes to fill what their corporate overlords want.
00:37:28
Speaker
Like, you could analyse the existence of the episode for what it says about society. That is kind of where I wanted to go with it. Like, the clip shows as a phenomenon, it weirdly, I would say, it seems to have sort of died out just as a concept. Like, I don't know how often show is used in these days. i did a brief cursory bit of digging and i found Rick and Morty did one in 2015 and It's Always Sunny did one in 2018 and those seem to be, as far as I can make out, two of the most recent clip shows in... in... in television, I guess.
00:38:03
Speaker
and two shit shows. So of course I did clip shows. I think in this day and age of the streaming, you've kind of got to be a bit more precious about what you put out there on your show because it's a very volatile world where things get canceled. I don't think you can afford to throw away an episode. Yeah, that's So to speak. the the the landscape has changed, hasn't it? Streaming has become just like... It's a lot of very easily digestible content and you need to be able to binge things and you're not going to be like, ooh, what happened for... Let's reminisce on things that happened over the last four years.
00:38:35
Speaker
You're going to sit down and watch the whole fucking show at once. Yeah. but On the other hand, if you've got 77 episodes of a series you've already made, you can phone one in. Well, that's the thing as well, is it's like with the advent of streaming and modern um media culture...
00:38:49
Speaker
It's a lot less regimented of this needs to come out at this time by... It needs to be finished by this point so that it can hit a yearly release schedule. Oh, yeah. you have to, like, much to fit it into, like, yeah, the... Yeah, as you say, the schedule.
00:39:04
Speaker
Yeah. We don't need to get our big tentpole episode for sweeps or whatever. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, I did find an article that I meant to write down I didn't. I'm wondering if I can find it again because I meant to cite it. I'll try and credit him in the video version.
00:39:21
Speaker
um There's a writer who talked about how, like, both the clip show formats in its traditional form has died, but also the way media has changed means everything's a clip show now. Like, you think the way TV shows just get carved up into...
00:39:36
Speaker
Memes and GIFs and short video clips and served ad infinitum on your socials and shared and... Weirdly, episodes of stuff almost get designed around shareable moments to the point that... Yeah, clip shows are just a natural phenomenon that is created by the user at this point, rather than... Yeah, yeah, basically.
00:39:56
Speaker
Also, when you find the article, what we should do for the video and for audio is... So you pause the episode and then just have me read it out in like the most bland way, as in like 10 minutes later.
00:40:11
Speaker
Have, and I'll do that. So just send me, I'll send you a recording of me and like, Bob Weiss, clip shows in media. And then we can carry on the episode from there. That's my contribution.
00:40:23
Speaker
Sure. Okay. Well, I thought it was fucking funny. Fuck you guys.
00:40:29
Speaker
Uh, yeah. um Other takeaway on this is maybe maybe maybe TV shows don't need to be 23... Seasons need to be 23 episodes long. Oh, dare you, sir.
00:40:40
Speaker
but Maybe the British format of six bangers and you're done is a season. it works better than 23 episodes and it's mostly filler. Yeah, absolutely.
00:40:51
Speaker
Bring back Red Dwarf is all I'm saying. God, Red Dwarf. Not that it ever really went away. No, I watched an episode of it while I was on holiday in York, and i just got all nostalgic and was like, yeah.
00:41:05
Speaker
It's great. Love it. We still managed to fill 42 minutes of this shit. We sure did. Move on let's Let's move on, I think. Yes. Season four, episode 19, The which aired... What the fuck has this title got to do with the episode?
00:41:22
Speaker
because Because it's a front that Grandpa Simpson is pretending to be. Would you believe, would you ever believe the Simpsons writers made a reference, something they have never historically done before?
00:41:40
Speaker
It is a reference to The Front, a 1976 film about writers fronting for blacklisted writers in the nineteen fifty s That's not a reference, that's just using the same title.
00:41:52
Speaker
Oh yeah, guys, do you want to read my new book, Harry Potter? they Well, they also wanted to ah basically basically to lift the plot, quite frankly, from the film, but actually didn't in the end, so they've just lifted the title, and the only real connection there, I guess, is writers.
00:42:12
Speaker
Yeah, Sai is correct, I think. Yes, I think you're right on that one. It aired on April 15th, 1993. I have nothing. um Nothing Literally nothing.
00:42:25
Speaker
Madeline Martin's birthday. That's what it's giving me. It's pretty quiet, yeah. Alright. i And you'll be pleased to know that the US s and UK number ones are still the same.
00:42:35
Speaker
Very good. Good for those guys. This is an easy episode, can just move on. Okay, so the blackboard gag, I will not sell miracle cures. Yep, only... I guess. Yeah, hilarious.
00:42:46
Speaker
ah Okay, Simpsons. The circus gag, I've said this on this podcast, it's a work of art, it's great, but you've used it four times in this bloody season. Is it four now?
00:42:58
Speaker
it so i ga its I mean, I wrote down circus count three. I thought it was only three so far. Either way, it's too many. It is too many. It's pretty short. It keeps coming back. It comes back to a couple more.
00:43:12
Speaker
Oh, yeah. they you they'll i I guarantee they used the the circus one this season. ah Yeah. As in the latest season of Simpsons, they used it.
00:43:23
Speaker
No, no, surely not. No. I guarantee it. No. being it will have been used in like season 14 or some shit. Because because it's it's not HD unless they remastered it.
00:43:36
Speaker
They would have remastered it because i remember I remember watching Modern Simpsons and the the couch gags looking different. Really? They will have used it recently. i will I will put my hat on it.
00:43:49
Speaker
ah The couch gag was used for nearly 10 seasons, so I guess it's gonna be around till... I guess season 13, by the sounds of it? I mean, I'm not opposed to them using it, I just wanted to space it out.
00:44:03
Speaker
I'm opposed to them using it. I will also note that Simpsons Wiki observes that the most common appearances are on episodes that otherwise run short.
00:44:13
Speaker
Could we tell that this episode did need episode needed padding out a little bit? no A couple of giveaway clues that we'll get to. So, the episode begins and its we're cooking with Krusty and Krusty gets into an argument with Shepard about his Jewish heritage and... Yeah, it's weird.
00:44:31
Speaker
This was weird. this This war went over my head. home i Yeah, I don't know if it's meant to be making a joke about Jewish people in American media. Like, not in ah in an anti-Semitic way, but in that kind of joke of that the American media is anti-Semitic.
00:44:47
Speaker
But as far as I'm aware, it's like a lot of famous American comedians are Jews. so But then how publicly do they make their Jewish heritage part of their like public persona? I don't know.
00:45:00
Speaker
I genuinely don't know. Yeah, exactly. I don't know if it's just like, we're too young, which I don't think I've said in a while. but I don't get to say that very much anymore. Maybe we are too young for this bit.
00:45:12
Speaker
Maybe this is for someone who, like, watched a lot of American late-night television in their 80s kind vibes. Maybe, maybe. yeah much Lisa says it's a shame that Chrissy's ashamed of his roots, and we don't see Homer come into the frame plunger stuck to his head. Yeah, at least we get a good visual gag out of it. Like he says, Marge, it happened again. It happened again, yeah.
00:45:33
Speaker
Spoiler alerted what happened to Homer again. What was he doing that happened? Wouldn't you like to know? Yes, I would. The gag continues as Homer tries to pull the plunger off his head, but just takes the handle.
00:45:45
Speaker
Now, do you know what? I don't know if it was just because of like the connection, but because they mentioned Jews, I was just like, well, now he's got a yarmulke. like He's ready to hang out with Chrissy, I guess. He's got it he's got his yarmulke ready.
00:45:59
Speaker
I don't think that clever. No, I don't think it is a reference. It's just that's where my head went. This prompts Bart to ask Lisa what she's going to change her name to when she grows up and Lisa's got a nice, going to be Laura Sanborn and Bart is going to be Steve Bennett.
00:46:14
Speaker
So we then cut to at the itchy and scratchy cartoon and it is... And it's literally just itchy, hitting Scratchy in the head with a mallet. Lisa McCommon says it's lacklustre effort, and Bart says they're building to something. I fucking copium with Bart.
00:46:29
Speaker
Just like, nah, they're building to something. He is... It's it's like the Krusty's Coming levels of cop for Bart. You know, the Krusty camp. He's just like, no, this'll be good. I swear it will.
00:46:43
Speaker
Bart is right. They are building to something. That's to tell kids don't do drugs and... So i I was thinking about this, actually. um So, John, I know you didn't start watching television until, um you know, it was invented.
00:46:56
Speaker
But Michael might understand this, because I imagine Michael had a fun childhood and actually watched cartoons. um I think... I was a little young for most of the, like, just say no PSA kind of cartoons.
00:47:11
Speaker
It's very much a 1980s Nancy Reagan thing. Yeah, but I do remember some of them because I watched, like, the original Sonic cartoon. I watched a bit of He-Man and those kind of things. So, you know, they were still aired. So I still saw those PSAs.
00:47:26
Speaker
But the the the thing for me was they didn't feel out of place as a kid. You know, but we make jokes about it in modern media all the time about kids cartoons having like these totally random, quite serious say no to drugs messages. It's like, well, it only feels out of place as an adult.
00:47:41
Speaker
Like to me as a child, when Sonic the Hedgehog told me if someone touches you in a place you don't like, tell someone you trust or a police officer. I was like, okay, Sonic. I seem to remember it more in like live, like acted sort of shows for kids. Yeah, I think that was a bit more like the Blue Peter kind of vibes.
00:48:01
Speaker
There's a very infamous Saved by the Bell episode where... I love Saved by the Bell. Where one of the characters was supposed to develop an addiction to amethetamines, like speed, that sort of thing.
00:48:13
Speaker
No, yeah and you're thinking the one where, yeah, he's a radio host and he gets ah addicted to coffee. No, this is the one that gets addicted to caffeine pills instead. Yeah, what? Coffee? He doesn't get addicted to meth, Michael.
00:48:26
Speaker
No, but it was meant to be a more serious drug. Yeah, of course. This comedy moment of somebody going, you've got to stop this, you're just destroying a life for taking a couple of caffeine pills, which...
00:48:37
Speaker
Yeah, but I think, you know, that's that's what I'm saying is like I don't think they felt out of place as a as a child. You know, it's we make jokes about them as adults. And I just think, no, like to a kid, it's like totally normal. ah Because a great example at the moment, like if you're anything connected to the, right, we have extra time. So I'm going to go on my little fucking sidetracks and you can't stop me, Michael.
00:48:56
Speaker
um I'm not letting you segue. um So yeah I'm sure you've all seen the meme, or at least if you if you haven't. people complaining about like video games you know speaking of people complaining homo getting yeah video games people are complaining about you know like video games trying to promote diversity being nice to people of a different race all that kind of thing you know but there's a great meme of like a kid watching spider-man and spider-man says be nice to black people and he's like okay spider-man
00:49:27
Speaker
And then the next is is the same thing, but the same kid growing up getting irate. And I think that's really interesting because as kids, we did just we were just we just accepted it.
00:49:37
Speaker
But now we're all fucking politics up and miserable. It is the state of the world. It is the state of the world. All right, Michael, now you can continue. don't know where I was.
00:49:48
Speaker
Speaking of people getting eye right. Yeah, but Christy's not very happy because he could pull a better cartoon out of his head. Hey, wasn't that great, kids? Good save that, Christy. And then see that Lisa says the writers should be ashamed of themselves. And this confuses Bart because he didn't know cartoons had writers. And Lisa kind goes, sort of. Yeah.
00:50:09
Speaker
She has obviously an in-house joke there. Not a good one. Pfft, pfft. Bart ponders that they could probably write a better cartoon themselves and Lisa says, are you thinking what I'm thinking? And Bart says, probably not. And we see that Bart's actually thinking about robbing Santa.
00:50:22
Speaker
With like an AK. Yeah. Yeah. It's a very elaborate setup. I think that had some issues with the sensors, if if memory serves. A child wielding a gun? Can't an issue. pointing Yeah, an AK at Santa. was like, okay.
00:50:38
Speaker
Yeah, because, you know, it's it's it's not it's not the massive, horrific gun violence you should worry about. It's the portrayal of gun violence on television that you should worry Speaking of being worried about something, we see Marge going through the bills and it eventually ends with ah some geyser coming. Homer makes 80k a year, right?
00:50:58
Speaker
We'll move on, but Homer makes 80k a year. This should not be a debt. We'll touch on... we'll Again, we'll get to Homer's money later because this does come up in the episode as well. We then see that March has got an invitation to the high school reunion and comments that it's bit strange Homer doesn't have his.
00:51:14
Speaker
Homer's brain tells him that it's finally time to reveal his secret which is that Homer ate the fancy soap in the bathroom. March is absolutely horrified by this until Homer's brain tells him he needs to tell her the other secret which is... Yeah, your partner of 20 plus years told you they ate soap you bought, you'd be pretty horrified.
00:51:34
Speaker
Homer's other secret is that he didn't graduate from high school. Five says that doesn't explain why he ate the soap, but then stops and thinks about and goes, oh wait, yes, it kind of does. i also am fairly certain that at some point in these four seasons, Homer has used the word graduated high school.
00:51:49
Speaker
But he could have been lying. Homer reveals that he didn't pass remedial signs at 1A and Marge says that he's a nuclear technician and uh... Homer starts speaking in Latin to get Marge to not talk about that out loud. Pig Latin.
00:52:02
Speaker
Marge then asks him what the hell he's talking about and says he flunked Latin so he doesn't actually know. Why the ixnay on the......echnition tape? No one's here except Marge and Homer. This makes no fucking sense.
00:52:14
Speaker
Homer's afraid the house is bugged. He's a conspiracy theorist. Do you know what? Yeah, okay. I mean, we got Pig Latin from Krusty at the start Ixnay on the Ujje, which, like, I don't know... Weird that they used it twice. I know if it was meant to be a callback to two minutes ago, but... I guess. it was.
00:52:34
Speaker
We then see the ah kids are writing the cartoon and they're trying to think of a setting and outside Bork watches Homer inadvertently cut Margie's hair off and reattach it with a twig. I will note... I was just going to say a comedy the the Simpsons comedy without words of Homer just making noises and doing stupid shit is some of my favourite.
00:52:52
Speaker
ah Yeah, worth noting, like, count two on the very, very heavy-handed self-awareness here, because the book they're reading is How To Get Rich Writing Cartoons, written by John Schwarzwelder, a name we know and love.
00:53:09
Speaker
We don't see the kids come up with a scenario, and the first scenario is that Scratchy gets his head chopped off with a razor blade, and Ichi does a Mexican hat dance with a fountain, but it deems that too predictable. And instead to get flesh-eating ants and the cartoon writes itself after that and Scratty goes up through the TV of Elvis and Elvis decides to shoot it.
00:53:28
Speaker
Why the Elvis reference? Do not know. It's so stupid. The show ain't good. Well, that's what Elvis did before he died, I guess. Also, there will be another joke later on about a cat in a television, and I find that a weird quinky dink.
00:53:42
Speaker
200 channels, nothing
00:53:46
Speaker
but cats. That's a long way off. Yeah, I know, but it's fun. As the kids have an argument about whose name goes first, Bart poses a race around the world before they settle on rock, paper, and scissors. And then get them the kids in a monologue and Lisa's pitying Bart because he's going to pick a rock. And then we cut to Bart. Good old Rock. Nothing beats that.
00:54:05
Speaker
I have to say, I am here for an episode where Bart and Lisa race around the world in 80 days. Oh, absolutely. That must have been a treehouse of horror thing at some point. I'd watch that. Why not?
00:54:15
Speaker
that No one's shocked. Lisa wins. And we're down to cut to Roger Myers. Remember him from season two, I think. Yeah, I guess so. As he's bawling out his Harvard writers and as he fires one of them and his select two delivers Lisa and Bart's script and Myers isn't paying any attention to this because it's written by children.
00:54:37
Speaker
He throws it into the Harvard man's mouth when he gets him to sing his ah Harvard song. Someone on the writers team really fucking hated Harvard. the that That writer is based on Simpsons writer John Vitti.
00:54:51
Speaker
Does John Vitti regularly get hit in the head with somebody's name stamped? Do they not like John Vitti? I think all of the writers get some pretty rough treatment in this episode, to be fair.
00:55:02
Speaker
So we then see that the kids are dejected that the letter got so rejected, but Lisa correctly guesses it's because they're children. And then suggests they put an adult's name on and they decide to settle on grandpa because his credit card got used for an entire year.
00:55:15
Speaker
How did he interpret names? Like, I mean, the first time they're like, hey, we're kids, but like the second time, like, the name doesn't imply the age, was the fact that you told them you were kids. Yeah.
00:55:25
Speaker
I suppose at this point, though, they can't, like, they're saying put an adult's name on it because they can't use their names. i guess so. Because then he he knows the names, I guess. We cut to the retirement home and Grandpa is writing an angry letter to Modern Bride magazine because there's not enough wrinkly old women in it.
00:55:43
Speaker
I like the way that uses the word for shame. For shame. It's just, yeah, it's just a classic Simpsons, like, build up and then, you know, deliver the gag of and he's writing to Bride Monthly or whatever.
00:55:56
Speaker
Modern Bride magazine. Modern Bride magazine. The kid's come and asking him for his first name and Grandpa panicked and he's making his tombstone. You're making my tombstone! Yeah, I mean, again, it holds up all the Abe bits are just the best bits.
00:56:11
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. Although, did we not know he was Abe up until this moment? Is it the first time we get his name? I, do you know, i I want to say no, but I'm, I think that might just be because I've been referring to him as Abe Simpson yeah the entire time.
00:56:26
Speaker
I think he has just been Grandpa. Yeah. I think he's been called in the... No, wait, yeah, the episode when he... Had the girlfriend. Yeah, when he gets... Had the girlfriend. Yeah, because she must call him Abe. She don't call him Grandpa.
00:56:39
Speaker
Yeah, and a pretty sure Jasper calls him Abe a couple times too, so yeah i think we did know his name at this point. we know he's Abe. I guess that doesn't necessarily mean we know he's Abraham. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that probably makes sense. think just wanted to make the joke that the children don't know their own grandfather's name.
00:56:52
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so. They're about to find out because Grandpa has the answer. Sorry, again, since we have extra time. When did you guys learn your parents' names? Oh, I could not tell you.
00:57:02
Speaker
I mean, like, theses roughly. Come on I'm not asking for a precise date and what the weather was like. Although if you could give that, it's impressive. I genuinely think I was like conscious of my parents' name when I was like... It wasn't until I was like seven or eight.
00:57:19
Speaker
My parents were very good at like not using their names. Well, the kids are going to learn what Grandpa's name is because the answer is in his underwear, which Grandpa removes within a flash. This is that. That was the highlight of the episode, admittedly. Just him ripping his underpants out.
00:57:36
Speaker
Grandpa reveals his name is Abraham Simpson, and Lisa asks how the hell Grandpa removes his underpants without taking trousers I like that he says whenever he's confused, he checks his underpants because it holds all the answers. It's like, dude, what questions are you asking your pants, man?
00:57:51
Speaker
I'm leaving your wife. No. Whatever he needs to know. Whatever he needs to know, it's there. The only thing he doesn't know and what the underpads can't tell him is how he took them off without taking his trousers off first. don't know.
00:58:02
Speaker
it I just checked Bee episode, he does introduce himself as Abraham. Yeah, I thought so. Yeah. We then cut back and Roger Myers finally gets his hands on Little Barbershopper for us by Abraham Simpson, and he loves it.
00:58:17
Speaker
The Hartford man returns and he's upset that office is locked because he can't get his diploma and gets banged in the head again. ah Reusing the footage, yes. Yeah, it's the exact same footage. Yep.
00:58:27
Speaker
That joke is to come later. I guarantee the writers of this episode thought it was fucking hilarious. And I'm glad they had fun.
00:58:40
Speaker
<unk> That's the main takeaway from this episode. is well At least the writers were having fun with this one. It's like a parent whose child has made a pie out of mud. You know, I'm glad you had a good time. Grandpa then gets a phone call from Roger My Secretary and he has no idea what she's on about as he doesn't know what itch she is and she then reveals that she's got a substantial check in the grandpa is very keen. I the I did the Iggy.
00:59:03
Speaker
I do not know why, I cannot possibly for the life of me tell you, but for some reason that expression just appeared fully formed in my mind earlier the day before I watched this episode. As I just remembered the line, I did the Iggy.
00:59:17
Speaker
did the If you want, if you want to be weird, the, I was thinking earlier today, this morning, and I'm not making this up, about the Ned Flanders, uh, segment, and like and no I no idea. Oh, had forgotten that existed.
00:59:28
Speaker
Geese love ganders, everyone else loves Ned Flanders. Not me. Everyone who accounts loves Ned Flanders. Oh, you've ruined it now. I haven't, that's the fucking gag.
00:59:40
Speaker
That's the gag! Edit it out. It has to be in the appropriate spot. No, we can use it like a clip show. Hems love roosters, geese love ganders. It's in my head now.
00:59:54
Speaker
Anyway, do the Iggy. Anyway, after the Iggy, we see that Homer's looking over his high school book and comments on how many memories he's got as he reflects on the fact that he's he's got absolutely no accomplishments next to his name. i can't believe I ate the whole thing.
01:00:10
Speaker
Marge comes in and says, and Marge says it's time to go, and Homer says he's looking forward to reliving... Would either of you ever go to a high school reunion? Oh god, no. but No, I don't think so, no. Absolutely.
01:00:22
Speaker
I talked to literally no one from my high school. I ran... It was like two years ago now, I ran into someone that I went to high school with, and they were so excited to see me. And I was like, I'm happy to see you. Like, it's cool. Like, hey.
01:00:36
Speaker
Bye. A couple of folks have occasionally tried to reconnect with me on Facebook and like I frequently just like blank them completely. i was like If someone tried to reconnect, genuinely if someone like tried to reconnect with I'd be like, fine with it. i i'm i'm I'm a social person, you know this. i I am a very needy social person. I love to talk to people. So even if it's the even if it's the cast of Happy Days?
01:00:57
Speaker
If it was the cast of Happy Days, would fucking instantly connect with them. of like, yo, introduce me to everyone at Hollywood. I mean, the last guy who tried to connect with me, uh, I was kind of a bit of a shithead, and I did find out what had gone on in his in his life some years ago, uh, when he made a local news headline after being arrested for fraudulently pretending to be a charity fundraiser on the street in order to raise money to fund his training to become a Formula One driver.
01:01:24
Speaker
Pfft, what a f- That's a Florida man level. like It really is. was us At first I was like, nah, fuck that guy. Then I was like, nah man, he cool.
01:01:40
Speaker
Once again, more man in the morning. It advocates that ah fraud is not okay. Do not defraud charity. Do not defraud charity. not saying that. But if you're doing it to be a Formula One driver, you'll atly I'll at least find it amusing.
01:01:52
Speaker
There's got to be better ways to get money to do that. I don't think he's going to get enough money to do it. It's what I'm thinking. I don't think that's very profitable. no So, yep. That was funny.
01:02:06
Speaker
We then go to the actual high school reunion and Principal Donaling is outside. and not knowing He feels so specific like he's supposed to be a reference to something, but I don't know what it don't what the reference is, but it is a reference. I've heard it a couple times.
01:02:20
Speaker
He greets Marge very warmly, but thinks Homer is a ah some sort of beggar tells him that there's a little scraps left out. He then realises that it's Homer when Homer goes dough. And we then cut to the actual reunion and we get to Bobby Mindex, who apparently is going to do every catchphrase from the 70s for our amusement. Yeah, this was fucking stupid.
01:02:40
Speaker
Hey, did a nice Richard Nixon impression. What more do you want? No, he didn't. he he did He did a Richard Nixon impression. You know better. but I am not a crook.
01:02:50
Speaker
There you go That's a better Richard Nixon. And I will take no questions. Moving on. right Here comes Artie Ziff and he's rich. And he but he admits that he would trade it all for one night with Marge and Homer considers the I would.
01:03:04
Speaker
Spoiler alert, this actually becomes an episode. a Yeah. Wait, what? Yeah. though this This is legitimately, genuinely an episode. Jesus. All right, fair enough. There's no sex in there, I'm afraid to disappoint. her Why did you think that's why I was like, intrigued? Like, oh yeah, I'm gonna see Mads, bang. Dude, just Google that shit. There's a whole website dedicated to her feet.
01:03:25
Speaker
Would not be hard to fight. Rule 34 exists if you care that much. and Oh god, yeah, yeah it does. And a surprising amount of it gets advertised, and I don't know why. We go to ah Bobby now hosting the ceremonies and Homer is absolutely loving his impression of someone being high.
01:03:42
Speaker
I don't know the TV reference for it. I apologize. coin You might have to edit this because I've got to ask the question. um Can I tell a story about being stoned? Because we're in England. I don't know if that's... Should I just not tell that story? Is it illegal to talk about being stoned in England? We're on the internet. The internet's not England. It's your podcast.
01:04:03
Speaker
Did you do anything illegal in the story? I smoked weed. Has the statute of limitations expired? No, it was last night.
01:04:12
Speaker
I'm asking. It's not my show. I don't umt want to be rude. I don't mind you telling it. And I'm not going to edit it out if you want to. Unless you want to tell the story and I'll edit it out. Because you don't want it to go be aired. But that's up to you. But if you want it to be in, I'll leave it in. I wouldn't tell the story if I didn't mind it being aired. I'm asking you. I don't want the podcast to get in trouble.
01:04:31
Speaker
I do not think that's possible. Okay, ah so I'm going to tell a story about being stoned since we brought up a guy being high. I was so fucking stoned last night that genuinely I felt like I was experiencing every...
01:04:48
Speaker
memory I've ever had and ever will have at the same time simultaneously. thou And it was fucking wild. And I was still stoned this morning!
01:05:01
Speaker
I was that fucking high. I did not realize I'd smoked that much. But I was sat at the computer watching Eddie Izzard losing my goddamn mind.
01:05:17
Speaker
Right, I'm just typing the final night in, okay? You'll be getting a knock on your door fairly soon. You piece of sh- I knew he'd betray me! ah wife of type nine nine two Oh 992. Oh no.
01:05:27
Speaker
Whoops. You might get a pizza. Oh Michael, if you sent me a pizza, I'd be- I'd love you. Well, you're not getting one. Shit! no But you know what you might get?
01:05:40
Speaker
the The award for who gained the most weight. Oh wait, no you won't because that's going to Homer Simpson. he And Homer's asked how he did it. He says he discovered a meal between breakfast and lunch. He doesn't even name the meal.
01:05:52
Speaker
The second breakfast. Homer starts winning all sorts of awards. the Weird ass awards. This is such a stupid way to give Homer motivation.
01:06:03
Speaker
I think that's just the gag that is like, with the weirdly specific categories, just happen to be all the things Homer's done with his life. Yep, he's got the most improved owner. He's got the lowest paying job.
01:06:15
Speaker
Yeah, there again, with the that's the that money reference I meant earlier. Homer $80,000 year. thousand dollars a year Apparently, Homer really fucked up at salary negotiation stage.
01:06:26
Speaker
ah Bobby makes 81 for his Richard Nixon impression, I think. ah He's also most hair lost and oldest car. And least distance travelled to get here. Oh, yes.
01:06:38
Speaker
He is a nuclear kill technician. He is a nuclear technician. It doesn doesn't even matter if he's shit at his job. If I was a nuclear technician and I went to my high school reunion and anyone was bragging, I'd be like, I could cause
Homer's Reunion and Diploma Debacle
01:06:52
Speaker
a fucking genocide at the push of a button.
01:06:54
Speaker
I win. Fuck all of you. That's maybe not how I would pitch it, but yeah, okay. That is exactly how I pitch it. Okay. Okay. I could ruin the country.
01:07:07
Speaker
Fuck y'all. I win the reunion. Homer says it hasn't been easy staying in his own rut. Don DeLingham comes on stage and reveals that Homer has not passed the science class and he has to return his award. Why would he announce this? Everyone mocked him. Why would he announce this?
01:07:21
Speaker
I know it's Simpsons. I know it's a bit kooky and weird, but this is dumb even for Simpsons. You cannot let the most improved older trophy go to someone who did not graduate high school.
01:07:32
Speaker
That is unacceptable. I think you can. I think you can. i think it's okay. Homer says that he still has his pride as he's being mocked unmercilessly and says that he will go get his high school diploma and reclaim his awards.
01:07:45
Speaker
Marge looks horrified and embarrassed by this. We then cut back to Roger Myers meeting Grandpa and he declares that Grandpa is old and Grandpa says he wants his money and this is enough to convince Myers that he's a female writer.
01:07:57
Speaker
Grandpa wants another one. Yeah, people wanted to be paid for their work. That's that's so specific. Yeah, crazy. Grandpa wants to be paid and another check and Myers hires him and Grandpa says his chest hurts as he then goes off to the other writers. $800 a week is pretty good.
01:08:16
Speaker
Yeah, solid. take it. That's a living wage, if not more so. That's like what? Yeah, i mean, that's like... That's like 40 grand a year. Yeah, that's that's a good job.
01:08:27
Speaker
That's a good job. Especially for a fucking retiree. Yeah. Grandpa meets the other writers and Myers Blakesheld that Grandpa's better than them because he's got life experience and Grandpa's life experience is that he spent 40 years as a watchman at cranberry site.
01:08:43
Speaker
I loved how amazed the guy was. He was like, you know, he was so impressed by being a night watchman. Then cut to ah Christie and Christie's got a nicotine patch on and he says that this is going to cure him and we have an awkward moment of Christie looking at it awkwardly before he starts licking it. This was uncomfortable.
01:09:00
Speaker
Then cuts that the, well Lisa's cartoon is actually on the TV and but Lisa goes to turn the volume up, she inadvertently changes the channel to something about erosion. i I should probably note that the writers room when Abe was introduced, all those writers were the Simpsons writers, obviously. Of course they were. Of fucking course they were.
01:09:19
Speaker
The one on the left being our boy, John Schwarzwelder.
Nostalgia for TV and Celebrity Anecdotes
01:09:22
Speaker
They have never announced the names of the writers for Eiji and Scratchy before. Why are they doing it now? ah To pad their plot.
01:09:31
Speaker
Yeah, convenience. We also learned that Eiji and Scratchy has a nice little sign-off at the end of because... They fart and fit, fart and fit and fart, fart, fart, fart scratchy show ah Yeah, the bit, there's like a little animation of them sitting in a typewriter and throwing the paper into the air, which turns into the logo, which was a reference, you'll be so astonished to learn, to TV shows is produced by Stephen J. Cannell, who had a very similar thing at the end of his. And he why later... don't know. I guess he wrote bunch of stuff, I guess. And I guess his stuff was like...
01:10:09
Speaker
It was probably equivalent to like the Gracie films jingle is like iconic. yeah Like he his stuff would have been at the end of... I'm quickly scanning his works to find out what he... He was at the... a who People would have seen that at the end of the A-Team. Fair enough. That's fairly big. Yeah, yeah that's fairly big. Do you know um Mr. T didn't like the remake of the A-Team, the film version of the A-Team because it was too violent.
01:10:35
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah, genuinely. He said ah in ah in an interview, he said it wasn't that violent. We never killed nobody. I'm not trying to mock him. I think that's roughly what the quote is.
01:10:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think people just kind of flipped upside down and that's how the bad guys were most of the time. It's like the Batman thing where people, on the train, where he punches people off the train and they land conveniently in a tree kind of thing.
01:10:58
Speaker
Yeah, it just random fun fact. Mr. T didn't like the remake because people didn't die. Or people died. You just wouldn't think Mr. T would be that fucking wholesome. He's a very wholesome man.
01:11:09
Speaker
Apparently so. Go see his WWE Hall of Fame acceptance speech. He thanks his mother for 20 minutes. it's It's quite something. you should. My mum's great. i love I love somebody that you expect to be like, know, big, burly, hard, and they turn out to just be like a big old softy. Big teddy bears. Yeah. It's like, um what's his face? ah he's He plays Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy.
01:11:32
Speaker
Batista. Yeah, David Batista. He's like a proper, he's a big softy. And Arnold Schwarzenegger, we found out about him as well in... Is he a big softie? Well, yeah, we found out about him helping What's-A-Face with her homework in the filming of Commando.
01:11:46
Speaker
ah There's also a gay... There's also a gay... There is one gay person, guys. They're out there. was going to say game, and then I pivoted and said movie, because it's not a game, it's a movie. Who am I thinking of? ah Terry fucking Cruz. Terry fucking Cruz.
01:12:01
Speaker
Yeah, Terry Cruz is it's a very light... Massive dude who's just lovely. Do you know he came up with that signature pose of like jumping during a panic attack? Because it was his first time. You know, have you seen the pictures of him hit him on the the like, not runway, but the red carpet doing like the jump?
01:12:17
Speaker
but look I don't know if I have actually. Okay, well, if you just like search Terry Crews jumping. i am I am currently searching for that. Exactly that. If you, he said in interview. Oh shit, there's a bunch those. Yeah, because it's his signature now.
01:12:31
Speaker
But he, it was like his first time on the red carpet and he was like, he had it in his head that someone talking about how you need to, you know, make a name for yourself, you need to get a reputation, blah, blah, all those kind of things, you know, because he was new to the industry and he fucking panicked and said, hey everyone, look at this.
01:12:50
Speaker
And he then immediately was like, shit, what do I do now? So he just did that. Yeah. Okay, fair enough. And as someone who also has, like, social anxieties like that, respect.
01:13:01
Speaker
Yeah, can't fault it. Absolutely, absolutely. Strike a pose. do Just live, like, your life is an anime. Strike a pose.
Grandpa's Job and Absurd Scenarios
01:13:11
Speaker
Alma comes to tell the kids it is a shameful secret, and, well, first of all, shows him that ah he won't lose any respect for him. Alma then reveals he didn't graduate high school. Why would you tell your kids this? Just so they know, so they don't hear on the street, I guess.
01:13:24
Speaker
on the street from who? I fucking hate this episode. um Alma begins to strangle Bart and we see that the Grandpa has knocked on the door and Grandpa looks like a 1930s gangster.
01:13:34
Speaker
it's It's quite the luckiest They should have also played the the Godfather rip-off music for this bit as well, like from the last episode. Grandpa announces he's got a job and his job is that he tells the cat and mouse what to do. Homer gets the vision in his mind of Grandpa being dropped off at the insane asylum in the wheelbarrow.
01:13:56
Speaker
And Bart says they need to talk to Grandpa and Homer says if it gets funny, tase him or something. No, lure him into the basement.
01:14:05
Speaker
We then see that the kids explain to Grandpa what the score is and Bart asks him why he thought he was getting money and Grandpa says he thought the Democrats were back in power. Not for another four years, Grandpa. That got a giggle.
01:14:16
Speaker
That got a giggle. Wait, no, Bill Clinton's just been elected at this point in time, right? I meant to I was using real life. Oh, okay. Oh, no now I'm sad. Also, optimistic. I like it, I appreciate that. That's my secret, Cap.
01:14:32
Speaker
I'm always sad.
01:14:36
Speaker
I am just frantically trying to figure out what Abe's salary is equivalent to today, as just an academic process. 85 grand in today's money. Fuck me, man. Wow, he's Homer. Yeah, he's he's making more than Homer, and also, that's an astonishingly well-paid writer. no, no, no, he's... he he's he He would be making more than Homer did then, now.
01:14:59
Speaker
Homer now would make 130. Oh, okay, I couldn't remember whether... hope I could not remember whether Homer's was pre or post inflation. No, ah pre-inflation is is around 80 to 84 grand.
01:15:12
Speaker
Now, the same job Homer has would be about 130 to 140 grand. Okay. A year. And obviously, you're a nuclear technician, I imagine you get some pretty serious fucking benefits.
01:15:26
Speaker
so Lisa proposes that they keep the the scam going and they all write the cartoons for Grandpa and put his name on it. Grandpa says he needs to sleep on it and immediately goes to sleep. Lisa has to wake him up and Grandpa is upset because they ruined his dream about being Queen of the South. Look, I know I haven't done this in a while of Matt rewrites the joke because he thinks the joke is shit.
01:15:45
Speaker
I know it's an obvious joke, but the better joke, in my opinion, would have been the awkward silence of him sleeping, and then he just wakes up and goes, yeah, I'm That would have been better than this weird fucking bit about him being a transvestite in the Old West.
01:16:04
Speaker
I don't know. i died I thought that was mildly charming. I'm not saying it was terrible. I'm just saying my joke's better and I'm a genius. i don't I don't know if it is.
01:16:15
Speaker
if it's too obvious. Look, here's the thing. Grandpa agrees and goes back to sleep for his dream and we see that Grandpa is in his dress and he tells the two cowboys he's going to both of them. And they're delighted by this and the little love heart that goes on, Grandpa looking absolutely smitten.
01:16:29
Speaker
It is charming its own weird way. Also, probably worth noting that an important distinction between the actual joke and Matt's joke is that the actual joke was much longer Ah, We have to pad this out. We're getting cramped on the dress.
01:16:48
Speaker
Okay, so we don't go to the next scene and there's some more padding going on. There's Roger Myers offers to take the kids on a tour of the studio. Abe says he's not going to go on the tour because there's one stair. Yeah, I like that. Any stairs, one. there any stairs? Just the one. Fooey to you!
01:17:04
Speaker
They're going to the animation wing and at least the muse is that um it would be expensive to run
Animation Studio Tour and Cost-Saving Measures
01:17:10
Speaker
studios like this. And Maya says they can cut corners because they use the same backgrounds over and over. And as they're walking down this corridor, we just get the same two fucking shots.
01:17:17
Speaker
Take that, Hanna-Barbera. This goes on for like a good 10-15 seconds. Man, now you're reminding me of Hanna-Barbera cartoons and how much I wish I was watching Hanna-Barbera.
01:17:28
Speaker
You can see that Romenial Science begins. It's being taught by Don Doinger. He's teaching the class to get over the pain of his dead one. Is this going to be on the test? Omar asks him if this is on the test. It's such a fucking obvious joke, but it's so funny. And that's why my joke works.
01:17:48
Speaker
Because yes, it's obvious, but fucking hilarious. It doesn't take up enough time, though. It doesn't. It doesn't. That's true. I'm so sorry. I also don't i don't make enough esoteric references.
01:17:59
Speaker
No, you really don't. Just think of things you watched 30 years ago and then reference them and then build a joke around it. I made it... Right, okay. So I'm gonna ask a question. Do you guys know what weebles are?
01:18:10
Speaker
Yes. Weebles wobble, but they never fall down, right? Yes. Michael, please say you know what a weeble is. Oh, that's not my head. Are you f- Whatever. So I made a weeble's joke in front of John, other John, and I was so confident in it, because I was like, I'm like a weeble, you know, I wobble, but I never fall down.
01:18:29
Speaker
You know, so confident. And he was dead silent. I was like, and I waited, and he went, what the f- are you talking about? And I was like, so f-ing annoyed, because I was like, no, my hilarious joke didn't land.
01:18:42
Speaker
Because he's slightly younger than us, and he doesn't know what if fucking Weeble is. I am exactly and precisely of the Flash animation generation, Weeble and Bob was like... Weeble and Bob! Yeah, that was a core part of my identity in my teens. Yo, Weeble and Bob go... pie.
01:19:01
Speaker
Mahendi Kennen! Mahendi. Oh, Weeble and Bob, man. John, do you want to just hang out sometime and watch of Weeble and Bob? can yeah have the Has he converted them to like HTML5 or something? Like, can we can you still watch them? Yeah, I they think they exist they're on there somewhere. um I might be coming to Cardiff soon.
01:19:23
Speaker
So ah can come hang out. Watching Weeble and Bob. I'll bring weed and alcohol and we'll just chill and watch Weeble and Bob for a day.
01:19:34
Speaker
Deal. Although I say it a day, I blocked out a day to watch all of walking with dinosaurs with john again other john and we were so excited we got snacks we were prepared i forgot that walking with dinosaurs is about four hours long does anyone else remember walking with dinosaurs being like way longer vaguely yeah walking with dinosaurs was hype and then the david attenborough version was not as good walking with dinosaurs was i'm gonna watch walking with dinosaurs after this guys You have reminded me that somewhere there exists, probably in my parents' attic or something, I did at one point buy the Weevil and Bob DVD.
01:20:11
Speaker
Yo, really? did Weevil and Bob on DVD. That's so cool. I hate you. I want it.
01:20:19
Speaker
We got back to the Simpsons and Christy's absolutely covered in nicotine patches. He needs to have another one applied and that one's going on his butt. This is absolutely the dregs of what they wrote.
01:20:31
Speaker
It's fine, because it've got an Abraham Simpson cartoon coming, and it's a Scratchy gets his feet nailed to the escalator, failing to notice it until he gets sucked into the escalator. This was gruesome.
01:20:42
Speaker
It taps into a very primal fear that I think many people have of, like, why are there just big, spiky razor blades at the top of the escalator? What purpose do these serve? Am I good?
Cartoon Critiques and Humor Contexts
01:20:51
Speaker
Do I have to, like, even today, there's still a little bit of a, like, a jaunty leap over it at the end. I'm like, ooh, but the spikes and the blades. I can't go near it. I have to leap over the blades. One of my friends is scared of escalators, and it's really annoying when I go shopping with her because she won't use escalators.
01:21:08
Speaker
And I prefer to use stairs. Like, genuinely, I will almost always use stairs. But if I'm in a hurry, just want to get on the escalator, and she will stand and fucking stare at it and wait for her like perfect moment to get on it and i'm there waiting like can we just can we just get on you because i get socially anxious i'm like you're making people wait just get on the fucking escalator guys am i an asshole i think i'm learning that i'm an asshole there's some concerns about your empathy also what's that empathy
01:21:41
Speaker
Never heard of it. Is it like a weeble? Awesome. Okay. You're the kind of person that would go by scratchy skin and wear it as a scarf. I would. I mean, i i wear I wear leather. Like, I wear genuine leather.
01:21:55
Speaker
I love it. It's so warm. Scratchy takes his skin back and meets the protesters. I love how fucking annoyed he is. Like, it's just this flesh creature comes up and, like, essentially demands his own skin back.
01:22:08
Speaker
And then the pompous nature, the arrogant nature, or which he he, like, flips his own skin around his neck. There's something so fucking weird about it. The writers were high as balls writing it, she's scratching.
01:22:22
Speaker
The protesters are there to stop Scratchy and his pompous attitude as they stomp it out of him. Yeah, because they're like, fur is murder, and then they proceed to kick the shit out of someone for wearing fur. Meanwhile, Dondolinger is burning a donut to demonstrate calories, and Homer is absolutely horrified.
01:22:39
Speaker
It's a particularly sweet donut because of the blue flame, and Homer is having to be consoled by the person next to him. I taught my nephew about flames burning a different colour based on what burns. it And he was so fascinated. It was really cute. He's six years old, and I was telling him that you can make a green fire by burning copper.
01:22:55
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, it was it it there was there's no like you know hilarious story. i just thought it was really cool and cute how excited he was by it.
01:23:04
Speaker
While Grandpa is ah writing his thing and letters of the president and he wants three states eliminated. Not like Donald Trump was trying to add. There are too many states nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot. I appreciate the way he signs it That's makes it really good is him saying, I am not a crackpot. Because it has that same vibe, but in a funny way of, I'm not a racist, but...
01:23:29
Speaker
Miles comes in to tell Grandpa he's been nominated for an award and he's fired all the other writers and now the studio's profits rely solely on him.
Grandpa's Confession and Sitcom Spoofs
01:23:36
Speaker
Grandpa panically admits that he's a fraud and the studio is doomed.
01:23:39
Speaker
Unfortunately, Miles was not paying attention and he has to leave immediately before Grandpa can repeat it. We then cut back to the final exam and Dundalino reveals it's 50 questions, true or false. Homer then says true and Dundalino says no Homer, I'm just describing the test. Homer says true.
01:23:57
Speaker
Dundalino says if Homer does the test, he'll be fine. all Homer says false. Homer then makes a feel with his brain that they don't like each other, but if they get through this, they'll go back to killing it with beer and the brain agrees. You gotta deal. Homer's off to the race.
01:24:11
Speaker
We then see that Grandpa is preparing for awards night, and we see that the presenters are Christie and Brooke Shields. We then get the joke of the star of the Blue Lagoon. You missed the... ah Did the escorts... Did you call the girl from the escort service? They said their insurance wouldn't cover you.
01:24:28
Speaker
And you said that's an onion in the lotion. What a fucking phrase, man.
01:24:35
Speaker
You know how much Grandpa likes his onions. They are the style at the time. Yo, can we all agree? Onions, fire. Onions are great. Love an onion. Love an onion. Onion will improve most things. It will.
01:24:46
Speaker
Fucking hell. I know at least one person, I've heard of others, are just, like, absolutely repelled by onions. I'm like, how? how They're just, like, so fundamental to cooking. It's like salt. You can't. It's like salt. You know, it's just necessary.
01:24:59
Speaker
How you cook without an onion, honestly? how It's not a stew if it doesn't have onions in it. It's not many things without an onion. Yeah, absolutely. Onions are great. Love on an onion.
01:25:10
Speaker
So the award show, which ah the night after will sprayed for cockroaches. was the felt problem the time sign And Christie is presenting the award with Brook Shields, the star the Blue Lagoon and the green- The blue-haired goon.
01:25:23
Speaker
The blue-haired goon. Yeah, and I immediately predicted the gag, so I was like, wait, Christie's hair's green. course, he is not happy because his hair is green and he thinks that's a terrible joke as he storms off to take off his girdle.
01:25:34
Speaker
I like the whole his mic is still on kind of vibe. Oh, yeah. We don't go through what the nominees are and my particular favorite being how to buy an action figure.
01:25:47
Speaker
Yeah, complain until your mum buys it for you. I know that trick. And the He-Man ripoff, Strongdar, Master of Acon. I was genuinely thinking this was a Strongbad reference. I was like, wait, it can't be.
01:25:59
Speaker
So it was night two. Yeah, night likewise, yeah. Well, I mean, like because I didn't get the name, i thought yeah I thought she said Strong Dark, which rather than Strong Dar, like one word, like which it does sound like a Homestar Runner character.
01:26:12
Speaker
I see that the Ren and Stimpy season premiere is not there. Yeah, I don't know what this... the they i I do remember Ren and Stimpy having like a lot of problems, so I guess it's a reference to that.
01:26:25
Speaker
But again, it's like the second Ren and Stimpy reference in as many episodes. Really odd. Yeah, it is. I mean, i guess the the Ren and Stimpy creator had said that The Simpsons show succeeded despite the writing. So this was them, like, like firing back at them about their inability to meet deadlines.
01:26:47
Speaker
I'm sorry, Ren and Stimpy writer. Was there not enough abusing female co-workers for your taste? They should have made a joke about that. Yeah. That would be insane fucking drama in 92 Simpsons outing a guy as a sex pest.
01:27:04
Speaker
Before there was even public knowledge as well. Holy shit. Holy shit. There's an alternate universe where that happened, and the world is a better place for it. Then finally see the itchy and scratchy episode is shown, and Grandpa finally sees what he's supposed to Yeah, he sees what he supposedly wrote. It's so good. Mm-hmm.
01:27:23
Speaker
Grandpa actually wins the award, and in his an acceptance speech he says that he found it disgusting and violent, and says that all the writers should be ashamed of themselves. That's true. for Before shame comes back out as they pelt in the fruit. Before shame.
01:27:34
Speaker
The writers, two writers decide they're going to change their lives and write a movie about a robot. Which, weirdly predictive of Futurama? yeah yeah, I guess. sitcom about a sassy robot. Maybe, maybe Matt Grenning wanted to make Futurama a lot sooner than he actually ended up doing.
01:27:52
Speaker
I mean, I guess like, you know, writers sort of and all that and collaborative process, but like it's probably worth touching on the fact that the specifically the the credited writer for this episode ah was a guest writer.
01:28:06
Speaker
Like he's he's never been credited before or since in a Simpsons episode. It is Adam I. Lapidus. I'm sure he got lots of work off the back of this episode. Yeah, ah he his his his credits are relatively limited on his page. Oh, what a shame.
01:28:22
Speaker
Industry's loss, I suppose. Yeah, yeah. But, like, it's obscure and weird enough that, like, yeah people have speculated that he's not a real person, which ah Wikipedia notes his mum found in a discussion on Reddit.
01:28:37
Speaker
i Matt Grenning does not need to go by a fucking pseudonym. ah he Yeah, i mean, he was ah he was he was mimicking Simpsons writer James L. Brooks by, like, putting his middle initial in there. That's kind of what he was trying to do.
01:28:55
Speaker
Grandpa gives the award to the kids, and they all leave this thing the show quite the depressed. Bart declaring that he'll never watch an award show again unless Billy Crystal's in it, which means Bart watched a hell of a lot of ah the Academy Awards.
01:29:07
Speaker
Fair enough, I mean, Billy Crystal was alright. is that what was? Okay, right, yeah. Billy Crystal was the regular Oscars host. Right, okay, yeah. Matt's made numerous observations about Bart saying odd lines that seem out of place, and that felt like another one of those me. was very much so, like, did mention Billy Crystal? Yeah.
01:29:22
Speaker
That delightful Billy Crystal. It's like, Bart, you're a fucking ten-year-old. You don't watch the Oscars. Yeah. Just have literally anyone else make these weird-ass fucking jokes and it would make more sense.
01:29:37
Speaker
Homer comes back into the kitchen and reveals that he's actually passed and Marge is delighted and Homer says that their next high school reunion will have nothing to be ashamed of. If you want to feel old... Fast forward to 2024.
01:29:49
Speaker
Sure does. was last year, you're paying attention. There's their 50th reunion, implying that but that they they must be like 68 now?
01:30:01
Speaker
Yeah. Something like that. In a thing that's set in a futuristic sort of setting. think I hated this. then see that Homer greets Dondlinger, and Dondlinger points out that Homer has a plunger stuck to his head.
01:30:17
Speaker
Bringing it all the way back to the first episode. If Homer and Marge are pushing 70, how old is Dondelinger at this point? he's got to be 90 at least. He's, like, I mean, he he's their teacher, so you'd expect him to be, like, yeah, good. He old. don't know, yeah, maybe 10 years old, of them I guess. old. Could be a thing, but he he I feel like he's got to be, like, ninety s pushing 100 at that point.
01:30:41
Speaker
He had nothing in his life apart from the school and teaching. He was never going to retire. Yeah. Anyway, jarring shift to an entirely different cartoon. Yes, so it's not the end of the episode because it's time to begin a new episode. Because we have about 30 seconds of runtime that we haven't used and need to figure out what to do with. Hens love hooses, geese love gander. Everyone else loves Ned Flanders.
01:31:07
Speaker
Except Homer Brown. Everyone who counts loves Ned Flanders. We get this weird sitcom sort of thing, it even has its own title. I fucking loved this. Love that God, I think it was. Love that God!
01:31:21
Speaker
This is just literally, Ned Flanders comes to the room, says they're going to church, and the kids say, we're not going to church, and Ned Flanders demands to know why. He's told it's Saturday. And Flanders goes, oakily doakily do.
01:31:31
Speaker
And the jingle begins again. So dumb. i would Whatever you might think of this, we do have this to thank for being the inspiration between 22 short stories of about Springfield, and by extension, steamed hams.
01:31:46
Speaker
Steamed hams. Yeah, this felt very much like this. Fucking. Love this. i would I would watch the shit out of Everyone Loves Nerdwriters. This is just proto-steamed hams.
01:31:57
Speaker
So, that's your episode. What did we think? Better than the last one? It's a fun enough episode, there's a few good laughs here and there, but nothing special. Yeah, that's about the shape of it. And made less sense than usual. Did anyone else think this episode was kinda soulless?
01:32:14
Speaker
It's paced very weirdly. It just feels like there's just no heart in it at all. Yeah, I mean, i don't know I don't know how much of that is. Like, random guest writer submitted a script that they decided to go with, or what?
01:32:30
Speaker
But yeah, yeah, I get you. Not a great episode, ultimately. Yeah. I mean, like, it's is such a weird concept because, like, you've got a writer writing a script about pitching a script based on the fact that he'd seen a news story in the early 90s about two kids who wrote in pitching a script to a cartoon and it got turned into a cartoon. And he was like, oh, that's a good concept. Maybe I should make that as a script and pitch it to The Simpsons. And then they went with it.
01:32:56
Speaker
Fair enough. So, yeah, 13-year-old girls Renee Carter, Sarah Kreef, and Amy Crosby wrote a script for Tiny Toon Adventures, and it got made into made into an episode. Good for them.
01:33:08
Speaker
Good for them! i gave this, speaking of, a kids cartoon out of Homer. I'll watch it, if someone else wants to, I guess. right Fair enough.
01:33:19
Speaker
I gave this a Queen of the Self out of Homer because isn't that the dream? Absolutely. did they What? No, I'm not even gonna ask. John, what did you give it? I gave it a John Schwartz Welder out of Homer because of how self-satisfied it was.
01:33:33
Speaker
That's probably my favorite out of Homer you've ever given. That was good. That was good. Cool. Was there anything to say about society or do we want to dwell on Michael's Queen of the South? I definitely think they said more um about the writers themselves than society. Someone clearly didn't like people who are college educated in this episode.
01:33:56
Speaker
So I guess you could dive deeper into the anti-intellectualism that has slowly rotted away our society and is one of the biggest reasons why people like Trump and Elon are now destroying a country. But who wants to talk about depressing shit like that?
01:34:10
Speaker
I thought that's interesting. I didn't read that as like say explicitly anti-intellectualism. it's not. It's not. It's a pipeline. They're college educated. Ooh, get you.
01:34:22
Speaker
And that leads to anti-intellectualism. Because it's a symptom that leads to apps down that route. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And again, yeah just for the people that are probably going get butthurt me saying that, it's a joke.
01:34:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's clearly like... It's such inside baseball for people making the show. Like, everything about it is like, here's how we do our jobs that you, the viewers, know nothing about. what we care about.
01:34:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's not it's not something anybody ever thinks about. And I guess that's Lampshade did at the start as well, when they're like, wait, this has writers? Yeah, it's kind of... Yeah, it's not a bad episode by any metric. It is just a perfectly serviceable one.
01:35:08
Speaker
It is. And considering we've had a lot of like great episodes this season, this is not up there. yeah It really isn't. No, it's not. It's it's it's very much filler at this point. like Given the the quality that has come out of season four at this point, I have given...
01:35:27
Speaker
quite a few homers, I feel like, at this stage this season. Yeah. It's filler. if but as As season... Like, I think in other seasons, like, in much later Simpsons or even potentially much earlier Simpsons, like, it probably would have been a fairly standout episode as, like, being pretty good.
01:35:42
Speaker
But, you know, up against the backdrop of everything else that we've seen in season four, like, like the monorail for crying out loud, like, it's it's just fine. Yeah. Perfectly adequate.
01:35:53
Speaker
Perfectly adequate. I mean, there's nothing wrong with it, but you wouldn't seek it out. These episodes, I think I would have been much more enthusiastic about them if they'd been spaced out. Back to back, intolerable.
01:36:06
Speaker
but um that that that Those are some very strong words. Intolerable. I'm an angry man. Alright, okay. The next two aren't too bad.
01:36:17
Speaker
i grant you the next one. I do not remember anything about it particularly. It is a John Schwartzwelder episode, so make of that whatever you will. Margin Chains is noteworthy, but we will get to those next Oh, the where Margin was a prison? Yo, I love that episode.
01:36:33
Speaker
Yeah, Yeah, sick. Alright. So, anybody got anything to promote? Oh, I do! Any other observations? I do! What a coinkydink!
01:36:44
Speaker
I met my deadline! The new episode of All 4 Arnold is out right now. We talk about Commando. We are joined by the lovely Michael of the Moorman Morning podcast.
01:36:57
Speaker
ah It's a great episode. so It was a great film. Shut up, John. ah Really fun to talk about. you know I love talking about the Arnie films because they are such a change of pace from like The Simpsons. you know So they're a lot of fun.
01:37:10
Speaker
Next up is Raw Deal, which I'm just very interested in because it has such a low rating. And I've never seen it. I know nothing about it, but my dad's like... yo, you're going to like Raw Deal. I'm like, why do you think I'm going to like Raw Deal? So I'm either about to be very insulted what?
01:37:26
Speaker
I don't know. um Yeah, so go check out All for Arnold. It is on Spotify. The end. Cool, I will. And congratulations once again on meeting your deadline of the last time we recorded The Simpsons. Yep.
01:37:44
Speaker
but it's it It's not a passion. it's It's just a little passion project that I just chill with. You know, I i make episodes when I make them. Whatever. kind of ah Can I give you a horrifying number? It was horrifying to me. It might be horrifying to you. i hope it's horrifying to the listeners.
01:37:58
Speaker
Do you know how many episodes of All for Arnold came out 2024? Two. It was two. who it was two Yeah, think that's about right. Why is that horrifying? It's just... It's my podcast, I'm chill with it.
01:38:10
Speaker
ah Yeah, I mean, like, yeah, okay. That That's fine, but it's good. you wanna watch more Arnold films? I'm fine with watching more Arnold films. I don't have to edit them. All right. Well, we'll fucking record more then, you piece of shit.
01:38:23
Speaker
It's a good podcast, and I think the world needs more of it. So the idea of that there were two episodes in 2024 is like, really? We did more than that. we'll record next week then. Shit and fuck. Leave me alone. Fuck yeah.
01:38:37
Speaker
Get off my back.
01:38:39
Speaker
So that next episode is going to be out by July. Yeah, pretty much. say See kids peer pressure week. Yeah.
01:38:48
Speaker
Michael, show something. You can find me on BlueScarry at Budden Mashhorse. If you want to go back to the Twitterverse, I still have one. We'll be posting to it much. Be Mashhorse. That's about it. I think I mentioned I deleted my Twitter account now.
01:39:03
Speaker
Yeah, you said that last time, yeah. Yeah, I'm math perspective on Blue Sky, go check me out. I don't bloot much, but I like to make silly comments every now and then. I did make a bloot about advertisements, because YouTube has started not telling you how long ads are, but still giving you the option to skip.
01:39:22
Speaker
If they don't tell me how long the ad is, I will skip it. Doesn't matter. I mean, I'm... Maybe it's just me, but I will skip, as long as the option to skip is there. I don't mind if it's like 30 seconds, I'll leave it on. I don't care.
01:39:34
Speaker
I'm usually playing a game and I don't want to tab out. Ah, fair enough. Yeah. no John, promote thyself. Yeah. Follow the podcast at Mole Man Pod on Twitter. Actually, do I use that?
01:39:46
Speaker
Probably not anymore. Follow me. i like If you want to get podcast updates, follow me on Blue Sky. I haven't made a Mole Man Pod on Blue Sky yet. I probably should. ah But I'm Maroka on Blue Sky. Follow me on there.
01:39:58
Speaker
ah My Twitter presence is mostly for for Acorn purposes at this point. It's like every so often, like I'll be told, no, everybody has to retweet our post. I'm like, okay, fine, I'll go retweet it.
01:40:12
Speaker
But like, I have like... Everybody's left! Who am I retweeting this to? The Nazis? Like, come on. They don't Get a better platform. So, don't follow me on Twitter. Nobody cares about Twitter. Follow me on Blue Sky.
01:40:27
Speaker
YouTube channel still exists. YouTube.com forward slash button mash. I haven't posted anything in a long time, but the videos are still there. You can still watch them. They're good videos. Go watch them. Go listen to All for Arnold, this really good other podcast that i'm I sometimes appear in couple times a year.
01:40:44
Speaker
This is bullying now.
01:40:48
Speaker
Well, report it to HR. There isn't one. Just me. And me says you're mean.
01:40:57
Speaker
and Well, maybe if you met your quotas. I met my quota! Well, you're your HR, so you did meet your quotas. Yeah, met quota. My quota was two episodes.
01:41:08
Speaker
Leave me alone. All right, let's sign off. Goodbye. ah Laters. Bye. Bye, everybody. Bye.