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S4E20&21 - Whacking Day & Marge in Chains
105 Plays17 days ago
Jon, Michael and Matt watch The Simpsons episodes 'Whacking Day' & 'Marge in Chains', and discuss what they say about society.
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Jon: @Meroka.bsky.social
Matt: @mattperspective.bsky.social
Michael: @buttonmashhorse.bsky.social
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Transcript
Introduction and Host Banter
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, this is Mole Man in the Morning. Good Mole Man to you. and welcome to Mole Man in the Morning. Mole Man.
00:00:13
Speaker
What was the k'chunk? That was the prison cell closing. Oh, okay. Around Moorman. thought you were going to do a Barry White impression, I was getting quite excited. I've got to be honest, I think of these in the moment.
00:00:27
Speaker
So that's why they're never particularly clever. Yeah, fair enough. yeah that's reasonable.
The Simpsons and Society Analysis
00:00:33
Speaker
Hello, we are Mole Man in the Morning. We are a podcast about how The Simpsons has a lot to say about society. i am your host, John, and I am joined as ever by two co-hosts, Matt.
00:00:45
Speaker
oh Hello. And Michael. Adley ho, podcasterino. I need a catchphrase. Today we are getting real, real close to the end of season four of The Simpsons. We're looking at episodes 20 and 21. Exciting times.
00:01:01
Speaker
Exciting times indeed. ah We've got episode 20, Whacking Day, and episode 21, Marge in Chains. Which I think you were quite excited for last time. Has it has that changed?
00:01:14
Speaker
Me? Yeah, you were like, ooh, Marge and Chains, that's a good one. It's not the one I thought it was. Oh, interesting. Okay. Because I'm fairly certain there's another one where Marge goes to prison. Oh, is there? Marge has gone to prison quite frequently in the history of the Simpsons. But the thing is, for me, with, like, Simpsons, I've noticed that a lot of episodes with, like, single bits that are kind of, like, related all get conflated into one episode that I then think has happened.
Host Drinks and British Humor
00:01:41
Speaker
Presumably there's a very real potential that anybody inclined could create some sort of supercut and make a better episode out of them. Super episode. Yeah. So, yeah, before we dive on into either of these, what are we drinking today, folks?
00:01:57
Speaker
I am drinking Mud Underhead because I have it and it needs to be drank. It doesn't need to be drank. You can savour it. You can appreciate it. You don't have to neck it. I've had... This is the second glass I've had it.
00:02:09
Speaker
So I'm savouring it. Fair enough. Fair enough. I have to drink it. Made it sound more urgent than that. You can also put the bottle cap back on. No. Once you've taken the cap off, it's got to be drank.
00:02:23
Speaker
Michael, what you got? but Once I'm going the non-alcoholic route, I have a lovely cup of tea in front of me. wow Oh. Busy day tomorrow. I think I have, uh, I'm literally down to my last teabag, so I need to go buy more tea.
00:02:37
Speaker
Oh no, that is a crisis. It is the true, like, British crisis, isn't it? Yeah. It's completely unacceptable. Not enough tea. Yorkshire teabags are literally the only thing keeping this country together at this point in time. if If those stop making it, like, out into the populace, like, we'll collapse overnight.
00:03:00
Speaker
old people problems compared to gen z problems not gen z whatever but fucking zoomers uh when i say i'm running out of tea and when zuma says they're on they're low on tea they mean to we mean two very different things i couldn't give a fuck about my t levels but my t levels
00:03:23
Speaker
What drinking, John? I have got Northern Monk's Watermelon Millions Session IPA. I thought you were just going to say watered down. It's 3.4%. It's pretty watered down. by My behaviour's got watermelon in it.
00:03:37
Speaker
Um, that is a good question. I will be honest, i doubt it has watermelon in it. Oh, that's false advertising. I doubt it has water in it. I think it's got some water in it.
00:03:48
Speaker
Uh, here, it, it, the ingredients list green and natural flavors. It is green. I was a little surprised when I poured it out to see that it was in fact green. Didn't expect the green beer. No, no. It's not just gone off.
00:04:04
Speaker
that tastes like fake watermelon flavoring. I don't know what I expected. They obviously did a collab with like, you know, millions like the sweets, the things that you get millions of.
00:04:16
Speaker
Yeah, yeah it's it's those guys. They've done a collab and made a very underwhelming beer out of it. Do you remember the prominent bar in Bradford that used to sell cocktails and stick pieces of Haribo into it?
00:04:31
Speaker
Oh god, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. That sounds like every bar these days. Yes, it's become a trend.
00:04:40
Speaker
very unwelcome one. Are you suggesting I should have garnished this beer with a handful of millions? No, I'll just say a couple of gummy bears in there and you could have made it a gummy roi. You should have had a glass of the beer and then like a little cocktail glass just filled with minions and just taking a swig of one and then a swig of the other.
00:04:59
Speaker
Watermelon beer with a millions chaser.
00:05:04
Speaker
this This is class, folks. yeah
00:05:09
Speaker
Alrighty.
Episode Air Date and Cultural Context
00:05:10
Speaker
Whacking day. Let's crack on with things. This aired May 6th, 1993. did anything happen on this day? I'm almost alive! Almost alive? Good lord. Have you got the right day, though?
00:05:23
Speaker
No I haven't. I've got got completely the wrong date. I'm looking at the wrong page. It is April 29th, 1993. Yes, correct. I'm not quite as alive! Yes, get back in the womb. I'm conceived.
00:05:35
Speaker
I have been conceived at this point. Okay. yeah So i'm I'm existing, technically. ah Okay, in terms of what happened this Matt was not born, and unfortunately... But Justin Thomas the golfer was born, and that is literally the only piece of information I'm being given here.
00:05:52
Speaker
it's Good old Justin Thomas. I mean, this is this was, you know, yeah and this was not 2025. You didn't have people overthrowing their own governments every single day. Like, it was quieter back in 1993. Overthrowing!
00:06:06
Speaker
ah Like they're doing fucking anything. Well, dismantling. Let's go with dismantling. Yeah, there you Dismantling democracy, that's definitely... mean, they are replace they will replace it with their own idiotic, you know, 19-year-old Nazi technocracy once they've done dismantling it, which is a kind of overthrowing.
00:06:26
Speaker
But, yeah you know, currently it's just a dismantling stage. Yeah, knock it off, Luxembourg. That was exactly her story, Matt. Got it. Well, back to the country that you were definitely not talking about, um the US.
00:06:40
Speaker
Number one was Freak Me by Silk. And in the UK, the number one was the Five Live EP by George Michael and Queen with Lisa Stansfield. I should know this, but I really don't. Yeah, I feel like I should know this, but it's not ringing a bell.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, the same again, yeah. This isn't, um, a live concert, I'm assuming. I think it, yeah, some something of the sort. This is, like, what, you've got George Michael Queen, and I don't confess I don't even know who Lisa Stansfield you've got big names collaborating to do something that sounds like it's a charity thing.
00:07:14
Speaker
Big, long names like Lisa. Yeah.
00:07:19
Speaker
That was my joke. but was That was it. Yeah, I know. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you. You can retire for the evening. All right. Goodbye, everybody. Shall we get on with it?
00:07:31
Speaker
Let's get on with it. Let's get
Humor and Chaos in Springfield
00:07:33
Speaker
with it. All right. The blackboard gag. I will return the seeing eye dog. Please do. I'd hope so. Yeah, I'd hope so. But it's a good thing to do.
00:07:43
Speaker
Yep, as we recover from those hysterics, we find out there's only a a couch gag is the single chair where the couch used to be and everybody sits on it. This will make me laugh. First scene in Mr. Plough.
00:07:54
Speaker
God damn, i have no memory for these. Every time I see it, I'm like, that's new. And then it's not new. No, they they don't have the budget make that many of them. They're just not new. They spent it all on the circus.
00:08:06
Speaker
They sure did. Fucking idiots. It's all right. We've only got, I think, one more circus coming up in the near future. And then we're we're free of the circus for a little while.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yay. Boy, it makes its big comeback. oh i there There are multiple more circuses to see, but only one in the near future. Yeah, they fucking love that gag, man. The episode begins with the school in disarray, as everyone is writing. Over the tannoy, we hear Principal Skinner saying that he's being tipped off as this a surprise visit from Superintendent Charmers and wants the school to go into cleanup mode.
00:08:41
Speaker
We cut to Bart's desk and a mountain of trash comes out of Bart's desk as two seagulls come and Mrs. Krabopple namely tries to get rid of them with a pool. Why do the seagulls have the voice of Scratchy?
00:08:54
Speaker
Because he had relatives that were seagulls. I have any seagull foley on hand, I guess. Yeah, I think they literally just used a scream from an itchy and scratchy episode as the foley.
00:09:06
Speaker
You gotta save money somehow. Also note, Marcia Wallace has no lines there. She appears a couple times, but has no lines, so they didn't pay for her today. Yeah, but she's there getting rid of those seagulls.
00:09:18
Speaker
Skinner then announces that some students have won some mountain bikes, and they are Bart, Jimbo, and Nelson. We cut to ah Nelson stuffing leafs down Milhouse's top and tells him to continue while he goes off to go get his mountain bike.
00:09:31
Speaker
Milhouse's does. ah That shows you how whipped Milhouse is. I like as well how it's clear that the... the like line and was written and recorded before they actually really animated it because he said crud he didn't say leaves he just said crud so they were like he could be stuffing anything in his shirt and then they were like all right leaves that works also as a i think continuity issue unless i'm missing something um'm in frinkiac here or something uh he only needs lists the three names right Jimbo... yeah but all Jimbo Nelson. ah Yeah, there's also Dolph and up. Dolph and Kearney have no lines in this, so that might be the reason why I think they just didn't want the... ah the bit to go on too long.
00:10:15
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, that's fair. We cut back to Skinner who calls them fools and begins to maniacally laugh before realising tunnel done. Skinner has like the evil laugh in the whole show, man. But wonders why Skinner said the fools comment. Nelson doesn't care, he just wants his mountain bike. And they go into the abandoned storage unit to realise is completely empty.
00:10:34
Speaker
Skinner rather athletically leaps down from a pipe. Cosplay Batman in his spare time. Oh, he picked that up in Narm, don't you worry about it. Yeah. Duh. And the Skinner reveals that this is an elaborate trap to get to the boys swept under the rug while Chalmers is visiting and then locks them in the room.
00:10:52
Speaker
We then see boys trying to get out of the room and Nelson is still wondering where his mountain bike is.
00:10:59
Speaker
We've got to Skinner talking to Willy and Skinner says, would society judge him if he threw away the key? Willy says no, but the PTA would. PTA would tell you a new arse. yeah Skinner calls it wise counsel, but then tells Willie that he loses points for the potty mouth Willie's response, this is under his breath to call Skinner an underpants wearing ah Lily hugger A bath taking underpants wearing Lily hugger Yeah, because the Scottish are dirty guys, hilarious Oh he said Lily hugger, I thought he said Willie hugger Oh no, no, no No, he said Lily hugger It would be weird if he said me hugger I did know to this point Willie was gunning for the best supporting character today
00:11:37
Speaker
hey Yeah, a little bit. He has a strong showing here. yeah We don't see that Chalmers finally arrives at the school and we see that Skinner welcomes him in the completely kissy, toady way that we would expect. Yeah, intense, like, just brown nosing.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah, quite apparently quite a lot of the interactions between Skinner and Chalmers were entirely ad-libbed. Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria doing the voice, they just ad-libbed it. Which, i i in retrospect, kind of kind of makes sense, because some of it feels just a little little stilted, like someone was trying to very quickly... Yeah, like the pauses between the lines and... Yeah, no, I totally get that. ah This is, as we see, is a geography being dropped from the curriculum and going back to the three R's. Well, two R's come October. but What are the three R's?
00:12:24
Speaker
Reading, writing, and arithmetic.
00:12:27
Speaker
Wait, but it's original. Yeah, it is. Just just is just just look the other way. It's fine. It's so confusing. It's an indictment on American education at all.
00:12:39
Speaker
Chalmers then calls the banners a transparent attempt to get his attention and Skinner says the children forced him to do it. It was the children's idea. It's always the children's fault, isn't it, Skinner's? Yep. Yes.
00:12:51
Speaker
yeah That's just like, yes, sir. yeah We go back to the bullies in the basement and ah Nelson it gets very upset at the thought of the kids using their lunch money for actual lunch and starts punching the wall.
00:13:04
Speaker
Bart then realises he can get through the ventilation shaft and has the police help him through and say that he's their only help. bo Nelson lugs a rock at his horse and declares that he got him. i My mind just went really dark and was like, man, it would have really sucked for all of them if Bart died.
00:13:20
Speaker
Yes, that would have been particularly problematic, as we see about other. a lot of reasons. For a lot of reasons. Talking about bits where we conflate this with another episode, I thought this was going to go into the bit where Willy has to climb into the vents to get him out, but that was the dog. Grease me up, woman.
00:13:35
Speaker
Yeah, grease me up, woman. That's the one. We've not when i had that episode yet. No, yeah, a good bit, though. like one. We cut to Chalmers getting some jello with a jelly and silly grape in the middle and Chalmers says he wouldn't like to seem like stonein and i'm not made of stone and the Skinner is very tickled by this.
00:13:55
Speaker
He's having a great time. It's funny because it's a brick and he's not made of stone. Yes!
00:14:02
Speaker
Which they help me explain. Thank you so much, Skinners. i wouldn't have I wouldn't have gotten it if you hadn't. I ah really appreciate it. Then cut to Willy tending to his tractor, and he says if it was legal, he would marry his tractor, and voice comments there. No, he said if it went against, if it didn't go in like against the will of God. It's a violation of God's law, I'd make you my wife.
00:14:26
Speaker
I don't think God gives a shit, man. You wanna marry your tractor? That's fine. I don't think there's anything in the bible about marrying tractors, I gotta be honest. don't think that comes up. Exactly. Nah, if it's not in there, it means it's okay. The fine intervention comes with a comely Scottish lass that wants to know where she can wash her hair.
00:14:44
Speaker
Well he says... Just hire actual Scottish people! Nope. I fucking hated this so much! What is- what even is this bit? It's just a- such a weird bit. just made me want to tear my hair around. think just to prove Willy's got a rose.
00:15:03
Speaker
But that was the thing for me, you can analyse it, but you know the joke is LOL Scottish. That's it. Yeah, it is. it is is. Well, he had to be away from his tractor to leave it unsupervised with an upcoming bit.
00:15:17
Speaker
A busty Scottish last game out of nowhere. Takes Willy off to go look at the rat in the pool that they killed and... Literally any gag you could have written could have been used to distract Willy. It didn't have to be the gag that they're Scottish.
00:15:32
Speaker
A new Scottish woman in town. Willy got got to score. Be happy for Willy. I'm overjoyed for Willy. Good for Willy.
00:15:43
Speaker
Love Willy. Then he cut back to Chalmers in Lisa's class and he's impressed that the flag actually has the correct number of stars on it. He then asks if if but the children seem smart and Skinner suggests that they ah quiz one of the students and randomly points to Lisa. Chalmers initially thinks he's pointed to Ralph and Skinner. Randomly. Skinner goes into full-on panic at this moment.
00:16:04
Speaker
He asks Lisa a question about Gettysburg and Lisa gets it right and Ralph's response this is to ask, what's a battle? And Skinner tries to get rid of this by saying, he has to say, what's that rattle? Did that bottle? Did that boy say, what's a battle?
00:16:17
Speaker
Oh, he said, what's that rattle? I distinctly thought he said battle. I like how then Skinner's excuse is that Skinner has a cold. So then... He's hearing bees as us. So that means that Chalmers is hearing... that means Skinner's is hearing ours as bees, but it's Chalmers that heard the word battle. Yeah, it makes no sense. So doesn't that mean that... yes Don't improv, guys. Hank Azaria, you're fucking hilarious.
00:16:47
Speaker
Don't improv. Don't do it. You seem really bad at it. Chalmers accepts it. Yeah, that's the problem. I think that's just the a beginning of all of a recurring bit is just Chalmers just takes and Skinner at his word every time. It's weird.
00:17:04
Speaker
It's so weird. It is weird. It's a weird episode through and through. Bart is free of the ventilation shaft and suddenly sees Willy's tractor. He then gets an imagined moment imagination moment where the tractor asks Bart to ride him.
00:17:16
Speaker
Bart initially declines and the tractor starts making chicken noises which insults Bart and the chicken that's standing next to him. yeah He's insulting both of us. I always love the fact that these animals always tend to be upper British class aristocrat type characters.
00:17:31
Speaker
I just think, yeah, but I can agree. That's funny. An animal, but with a posh voice. That's funny. It just is. Bar gets on the tractor and immediately loses control of said tractor.
00:17:44
Speaker
And at the same time, we see that Chalmers is very happy with his visit with the school as the sandbox has no urine in it. He tastes the sand with the knowledge that there's possibly urine.
00:17:57
Speaker
how How else would you check for it? You wouldn't! Anyway, Chalmers is happy and says that he's going to give the school a perfect score. but but That moment he notices there's 50p on the floor and as he bends down to pick it up.
00:18:12
Speaker
Fortunately, it's caught between two flowers and Chalmers can't resist the motion of wiggling his arse. He's got wiggling his booty, man. Well, guys, look what happened. Bart starts heading towards Jarma's awesome in the tractor. Skinner only has time to scream no, and we get the Batman-style pow, and cut to the scene of- He be fucking dead. He would be fucking dead, man. It's the Simpsons. Like, all of them in the fucking city would be dead by this point. Homer fell off a cliff twice. Yeah, that's fair.
00:18:43
Speaker
We don't cut to Chalmers in the nurse's office getting his arse taped up. And Chalmers says that he was going to give... He was hit by a tractor. Put on some medical tape. You'll be alright. Chalmers then says he was going to make Skinner the assistant superintendent, but decides he's going to give it to the alcoholic of a principal.
00:18:59
Speaker
And a pill popper. He then also inquires why lunch lady Doris is acting as the nurse and she replies she's getting two paychecks. get two paychecks this way. Skinner has finally had enough and expels Bart for the action.
00:19:11
Speaker
As Bart, carrying the corner, looks out the window, he sees the tractor laughing at him until it breaks. So fucking dumb. We cut back to i of Springfield, which is on, and we get the beginning segments, which are, where are the munchkins from The Wizard of Oz?
00:19:25
Speaker
The answer is dead. It just pans the grave. This girl has got fucking laugh out of me, man. I cackle. That was so funny. And also, a new speech for our animals.
00:19:37
Speaker
Sure. Okay. Yeah. We get to the main feature, which is on Whacking Day. And we get some nice film footage of the history of Whacking Day.
Whacking Day Tradition and Real-Life Comparisons
00:19:46
Speaker
It's Whacking Day! Which is basically all the snakes are driven into the center of town to be beat to death.
00:19:52
Speaker
We then get some nice footage of people beating these snakes to death, including Richard Nixon, who misses the snake entirely and starts to beat up one of his aides while asking if Whacking Day is over. Is this a reference to an actual holiday?
00:20:05
Speaker
ah kind Yeah, kind of. There are a number of towns in America that have similar festivals. Some of them are snakes. um I think there's other things elsewhere in the world that are not necessarily specifically snakes, but ah broadly, vaguely, yes, is the answer to that. Yeah.
00:20:23
Speaker
How horrifying. Yeah, yeah, I mean, think this this episode did at least do something to change attitudes towards those kind of festivals, and I think in a lot of instances, ah those kind of festivals, don't know what they're about, but like they they they still catch the animals, but tend to release them these days, if nothing else.
00:20:44
Speaker
Eastchester, New York has had a a ah genuine Whacking Day Festival since 1665. That one day every spring be chosen for the destroying of rattlesnakes.
00:20:55
Speaker
Why? They're harmless! Uh, North Queensland, Australia have got a toad day because toads are an invasive and destructive species, but more on that when we get to the Australia episode.
00:21:08
Speaker
Ah, yes. that That actually seems like that has some utility. Like, the snake one seems a bit weird. It's just that people like, uh, snakes. ah It's like in Australia you have carte blanche to shoot a camel if you see one.
00:21:22
Speaker
Do you? Yeah, they're an invasive species. Camels are an invasive species? What? No. They out- they out- they out-compete everything else there. They're not supposed to be there.
00:21:33
Speaker
They're not native, and they were brought over, and they're breeding like crazy. So you have carte blanche to shoot a camel. but That feels like it applies to literally everything in Australia. Like, Australia, like, has been so isolated from the rest of the world for so long that if you break- bring anything there now, it's just like, yep, we don't know how to handle this now.
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's why they have such strict rules. Rabbits, toads, camels. Yeah, ah the snake one, I think, is just a general human dislike of snakes that they were like, oh, we don't like them. Therefore, we're going to call them a pest.
00:22:01
Speaker
Therefore, let's exterminate them. And yeah, as say, like these days, it's just changed. It's more of a catch and release kind of thing. And let's talk about snakes and have a snake festival rather than a let's have a snake killing festival.
00:22:13
Speaker
but Snake festival! I think a snake festival sounds kind of cool. I'd go to a snake festival. You need to go to Eastchester, New York, ah amongst other places.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah, I'll be the one that starts clubbing them to death and then getting the wrong end of the stick.
00:22:30
Speaker
ah my other My other note on this, though, was that it's taken seven minutes into the episode before they've even, like, touched on the
Plot Pacing and Character Moments
00:22:38
Speaker
A-plot. This episode just feels really weirdly balanced and paced because one of my notes in this was, like,
00:22:46
Speaker
why is the B-plot the name of the episode? Because, like, they touch on the Wacking Day thing so little till, like, much of the episode. This Coke-fueled I think i think that's fair Yeah, I mean, there was a note on Wikipedia on the production section that, like, the A plot for this, they wrote almost nothing for the for the first act of the A plot. There was, like, roughly ten pages in length, and they had no ideas how to expand it and left it as it was.
00:23:17
Speaker
So, like, it just... It's just all... I don't know, is it even a B plot? It's kind of like a double A plot, it feels like to me, but yeah, they theyve the Bart Simpson... both have the same sort of significance and importance to the story, really. Yeah, exactly, that's it double plot. It's kind series of gags, really.
00:23:34
Speaker
Now, that's a fair way of phrasing it. Yeah, the Bart being expelled thing like has so much more prominence than Whacking Day until you get like well into the episode, it just feels weirdly balanced.
00:23:46
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, Wacken Day is happening now. yeah per So Helmer comes into the room and asks the kids how their day was. Lisa says she learns how many grams are in penny weight. And Bart says he was expelled. Helmer doesn't react to this immediately as he says, that's my boy, and sips his beer.
00:24:01
Speaker
Then ah gets horrified when he learns that Bart is expelled. Bart says it's going to be fine because he's going to become a chimney sweep. No, he's going to become a black boot. um Oh, a boot black. A boot black.
00:24:12
Speaker
Homer says that his son is not becoming a 19th century cockney and he's going to get... Homer inferred the other details there. It's another, like, explanation of the joke. It's just like, if you didn't know what a boot black is and you couldn't tell by the cockney accent that Bart did, here's Homer to explain the entire joke.
00:24:32
Speaker
Bart weirdly loves doing a cockney accent. i don't know why. Because I'm sure the actress thinks she's really good at it. Probably. We go to Bart and Bart is now in a Christian-themed school which puts the fun into fundamentalism.
00:24:44
Speaker
We put the fun into fundamentalist dogma. like I heard it in Troy McClure's voice, I've got to be honest. Bart asks Bart that, remember, it's a Christian school and he needs to behave himself. Bart shows her that he'll be fine.
00:25:01
Speaker
Unfortunately, the lesson and begins and the teacher asks Bart if he knows any psalms and Bart says he knows beans the musical fruit. I have watched this episode twice now. I thought he he said song, not psalm. I was only reading the transcript now. It's a psalm. was like, okay, right.
00:25:16
Speaker
Yeah. Beans, beans are magical fruit. At least at least it's a song. It's not stretching it to call it a psalm. Again, Coke filled episode. The teacher thought it had something to do with the Israelites, so he went along with it.
00:25:30
Speaker
Bart does the ah song and it goes about as well as you expect with Bart being thrown out of the ah Catholic school and being chased with a whacking paddle while they teacher the teacher declares he may change form. why Why was Marge just waiting in the car?
00:25:45
Speaker
She wanted to look pretty. She just knew. She just knew that Bart was going to get kicked out. Well, she's also putting makeup on, which, like, odd, but I guess just an excuse for her to be there. It's just kind of like, oh, well, she's putting her makeup after driving Bart to school. So, yeah, she's just still there. In time it took her to put her makeup Bart was kicked out school.
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's about the shape of it. Yeah, I guess so. She was going really easy, yuck. Ha, ha, ha, ha. She's proceeding! We then cut to the family table and Bart declares that ah there's no hope for him and says that he's going to become a person that tests beverages and we cut to Bart's vision of himself in the future trying a special so type of cola which turns him into a monster.
00:26:28
Speaker
Yep. This reminded me so much of the guy that tests vape pens in a factory in China. Have you guys ever seen this? No. It's literally a dude. It's like a a guy sat at a conveyor and he basically has, like, i don't know, 20 vape pens just in a big block in his hand and he just tests all of them, like, once.
00:26:49
Speaker
Just really puff, puff, puff, puff. And I thought, he is dead in five years. but He's not going to live that long, is he?
00:26:59
Speaker
Die doing what you love, kids. Yes, vaping. Marge says that she's going to teach Bart himself and Homer says, but Marge will just give up because Bart is 10 and he's a write-off at this point and they should just focus on Lisa and the other one.
00:27:11
Speaker
Yeah. I weirdly thought slash hoped this might have something to say about homeschooling. And I guess like there is something to maybe draw out of it by the end of it, but also... The fact that it's notoriously useless. Yeah.
00:27:24
Speaker
I'm inclined to agree with you on that one, but also just like just how weird America generally is about it. Statistically, it's shit. you ah Parents are not educated enough to and to educate their own children.
00:27:36
Speaker
There are enough statistics on this. if All right, fucking hell. What they're a nuclear physicist? The average parent is not educated enough to educate their child.
00:27:48
Speaker
There are statistics on this. There are studies on this. Homeschooling is dumb. Don't do it. Mm-hmm. But America does love it and is pushing in the direction of making it yeah more and more commonplace day by day. So I kind of thought The Simpsons might be like doing something with it. though No, they loved it. lower It happens. That's about it. worked out.
00:28:09
Speaker
Like it actively worked out. Yeah, yeah. Well, this is kind of it, because it does work out. That's... that's yeah as as As I say, if there's anything to tease out of it in terms of, like, commentary, it's like, The Simpsons is here going, yeah, homeschooling works. Like, he was actually smarter for being homeschooled than he was getting in the public schooling system. Like, if it if it says anything, is that homeschooling good?
00:28:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's what saying. They kind of took the wrong approach. o Homer asks Lisa why she's looking down, and Lisa reveals it's because Whacking Day's coming, in which delights Homer.
00:28:39
Speaker
As Lisa says, how can Homer support it? And Homer says, in every man is a battle between good and evil. We don't go inside Homer's mind and... I am evil Homer! I am evil Homer!
00:28:50
Speaker
I am evil Homer! I am evil Homer! Good Homer is in the ground and Homer is dancing over him with maracas and in a devil suit. One of apparently Matt Groening's favorite bits from the Simpsons.
00:29:01
Speaker
It's my favorite. Fair enough. Then cuts her next day and Bart is relaxing on the couch, mocking Lisa as she has to go to school. And Marge says that Bart needs to be in class in 10 minutes before the bell rings. Bart looks Lisa look at each other confused but before Marge reveals that she's bought a bell.
00:29:18
Speaker
Marge is adorable. Marge regrets immediately buying the bell because it scares the bejesus out of them. We then see that Marge does the old introduction of introducing herself and awkwardly as Bart groans.
00:29:32
Speaker
We then see that as Marge is in full flow teaching, Bart begins to in class, including throwing a paper airplane at her, which he ambitiously says it wasn't. I didn't do it. it We then see that, later on, that Marge has invited a guest to speak, and it's Grandpa.
00:29:45
Speaker
Hello, children! Grandpa is talking about World War II, and goes off onto his story, which is he got caught behind enemy lines and saw out the war posing as a cabaret singer.
00:29:56
Speaker
This spawned so many weird fetishes. Gah! I'd like to point out this is the second episode in a row Grandpa Simpson has been dressed as a woman. Yeah, it is. we're going through this.
00:30:07
Speaker
he's He's really into cross-dressing, I guess. Grandpa does his best slice of Manelli, and he's got an admirer in the audience who looks suspiciously like the Fuhrer. And Gampo tries to- That is not a boobie!
00:30:21
Speaker
Gampo goes on to Fervus and to Hitler until his breasts accidentally falls out and Hitler is displeased by such- by these tenor events. But- But Asks is- fucking love this bit! It's so fucking stupid! That is not a boobie is just such a good line!
00:30:42
Speaker
It's how outraged he looks at the stuff. questions whether or not this is true, and grandpa's only answer to this is that he wore a dress in the 40s and they had great designs back then.
00:30:57
Speaker
Who had such desires back then? At that moment, to the garage door opens and Homer nearly runs them all down with his car. Stopping just in time. Hey, attention, because you may see this again. yeah, well, we had to stretch out the episode.
00:31:12
Speaker
We then cut to back to Homer and Homer's got his new whacking stay stick out and and every time he swings her, Marge gets more more aroused as he's- Marge is straight up the horniest person on the planet.
00:31:23
Speaker
She really is. Her husband is just swinging around a fucking blackjack and she's getting hella moist. It's good way of putting it. But Marge now wants Bart to read a book and Bart is not into it until he learns that the Johnny Tremaine book is based about a boy who goes to war and gets his hand deformed an accent and Bart loves it.
00:31:45
Speaker
This but one moment is the actually only salient like pro for homeschooling because parents say all the time they're wrong but they say i know my children better than teachers and in reality they don't really but they do often know how to connect with their children more and that's how you connect with bart is is giving him something that he's interested in that he can then learn through vicariously and that is the only actual thing about homeschooling that can work
00:32:17
Speaker
But again, the average parent is not educated enough to teach their children. Well, it works in Bart's case, and we see that Bart is so engrossed in his book. He's not paying attention to Witchy and Scratchy, which was cast, directed by Roger Stone, and is just the Lee Harvey Oswald reenactment. Oliver Stone. Sorry.
00:32:34
Speaker
ah But yep, we'll just see that Scratchy get shot for killing JFK. Random facts of Oliver Stone, because I clicked on his Wikipedia page to find out who he was and why it was relevant. He's done a lot of political films, but also I did note that he was also, he also wrote the screenplay for Conan the Barbarian.
00:32:54
Speaker
Yo! Get in, Oliver Stone! If you want to know more about his work, see all the All for Arnold podcast. Hey, nice, nice. And if you like both and you want to learn more about colonial history, take up Marge's suggestion and go into the old Springfield town.
00:33:12
Speaker
Again, what doesn't Springfield have? It covers every basis. At the same time, Homer comes back into the garage and no, he kills Bart again. Yep. So, yep, that's a good time killer.
00:33:25
Speaker
Then, also see some more time killed with Lisa watching on as Homer does his best Bruce Lee impression and goes full ninja on the multiple. This got me again. But one of the things i was thinking about was, does this mean that Homer set up a spring wooden snake in his neighbor's yard?
00:33:41
Speaker
Yep. Yes, it does. Because that's Flanders garden, right? Yeah. That's Flanders. Because... Homer has never been one for respecting Flanders property. Also, I just realized this, that side of the fence, so like essentially if you're looking at the back of the house, the left side of the fence is the one that Flanders is always on.
00:33:58
Speaker
But by where Flanders house is, it should be on the right hand side, right? yeah But it flips back and forth. They use whichever fence is convenient. So again, what did we say that that Springfield is in Portugal?
00:34:13
Speaker
no No, no, It's in the null dimension. It's in non-Euclidean space, guys. Lisa once again appeals to Homer to abandon his ah lustful vengeance against snakes, but Homer says that everyone bottles up their anger and releases it in small periods of bursts, like the time he punched out the referee. I would say, i don't think Homer's the lustful one. That's Marge, but, you know, go it go on.
00:34:35
Speaker
Sorry, I thought... was trying to make it work. And cut to Old Springfield Town and we see that interviews for the village idiots are happening and an overqualified idiot is sent away.
00:34:46
Speaker
Rather sadly. I played panicky the idiot number two in the Poseidon adventure. I would love if that was real. I would love it if they actually got that voice actor for that. That would be best bit.
00:34:58
Speaker
That's a lot of effort for a wait-on. That would be... I could see them doing it, but it would be lot effort. Exactly, that's why I'm saying it, is because I could totally see Simpsons doing it.
00:35:09
Speaker
It's like, if you actually looked this guy up, he did play Panicky Idiot number three in the Poseidon Adventure. I am now, unfortunately, going to have to look at the IMDB page to see if there is a credit for Panicky Idiot number two.
00:35:23
Speaker
We also cut to seeing a Barney is passed out on the street and Marge thinks he's playing the town drunk, but instead he's actually playing the um the governor! but We then see one of the tour guides explaining about a standoff at the fort where they were told to give the captain up and everyone wanted to survive, and the tour guide confirms that they did this and the fort is called Fort Sensible.
00:35:43
Speaker
yeah thank you And how! That's why it's called Fort Sensible! We then see that there's another... presentation happening and they talk about Gerard Meyer Springfield being at Fort Tichondra and also he was founding Wacking Day at the same time.
00:35:57
Speaker
Fort points out that that is not possible and we see the panicked tour guide cut to the main communications area where they say kick him out before the... love the camera coming out of the little port just like...
00:36:09
Speaker
don't see them get kicked out, but told to go to the gift shop on the way out. Which always makes me laugh. We then cut back to our friend Apu, who says that he's hidden a snake in the store, and the first person to find it will get very squishy.
00:36:22
Speaker
This sees Apu get his shot. Anyone else they see this gag coming before Apu either started
00:36:29
Speaker
The star unsurprisingly gets smashed up and Apu says he should have put more thought into his promotion. Yes, you really should have done Apu. We see that the Springfield cops are shooting target practice at the paper snakes but don't have Homer's accuracy as they completely miss.
00:36:42
Speaker
yeah Just shoot the light bulb out, yeah. Just had to get a really quick like cops incompetent gag in as always which I appreciate. I'm fine with it. I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. Yeah, I support it.
00:36:53
Speaker
More of those, please. We also cut to Lisa now with Evelyn Choi, who's reading out a Bible passage about ah snakes being whacked and says, even God himself endorses whacking day. Lisa has to see the passage, but Evelyn Choi goes, no.
00:37:06
Speaker
No. We then come to Whacking Day itself actually getting underway and we begin with a nice little hymn going on. Yeah, Whacking Day's song to the tune of O'Tan and Baume.
00:37:19
Speaker
yeahp Yeah. Oh, Whacking Day, oh, Whacking Day. I was expecting to reuse the gag of the kid ah having his balls drop mid-song, to be honest. No, we can just get a very beautiful solo about how the snakes be polarised.
00:37:35
Speaker
Yep. Oh yeah, what is it? Their tainted hearts will pulverize. it's ah it's ah it's it's It's a great thing. It's not the not my favourite Simpsons song, but it's fine.
00:37:47
Speaker
We then cut to the fact that Mayor Quimby has brought some pre-prepared Have you brought the pre-wacked snakes? Oh, and Homer's charging for parking in there, and they're only charging by the axle.
00:37:59
Speaker
Then a car shows up with a half. The car has more axle than chassis. Did we skip Homer swinging his bat and Marge getting further aroused? No, that bit's... No. All right, okay. Homer's very excited about the many axles, and the guy in the car is also very excited about his car. Yeah, yippee! So why is he excited? I don't know.
00:38:23
Speaker
I think just that he found a parking spot. Maybe there just weren't any parking spots left in Springfield and he got the last one. That's fair considering he's got a... A fucking APC.
00:38:34
Speaker
Yep. We then also cut back to Barney's whacking at the ground saying that snakes are attacking him. This was so bleak, man. Yeah. When he asks him if he's practicing for whacking day and Barney's response to this is, what's whacking day?
00:38:47
Speaker
Nah, there was something about this. I don't know why, but this one gag just didn't land for me. I was just like, oh no, Barney! My baby! We don't go back to the erotic adventures of Homer and Marge. Oh, God, yeah. I am uncomfortable.
00:39:01
Speaker
am uncomfortable. uncomfortable. am uncomfortable. bus Homer asks Marge if he should go slow or fast. And Marge tells him to go slow then fast.
00:39:13
Speaker
ah Lisa once again appeals to Homer not to do it, and Homer says, you know, if I'm in the mob, I can influence the decisions before he goes off and gets his giant cowboy hat. Even part of the mob, I can help steer it in wise directions. And then goes off and gets his giant novelty hat and air horn.
00:39:29
Speaker
Just the picture of Homer grinning with the hat and air horn. This is great visually. It's wonderful. Yeah. We then cut to the Whacking Day ceremonies getting underway and the Grand Marshal is introduced as Larry White.
00:39:41
Speaker
This is, of course, the guest star Barry White who points out that he's actually called Barry and couldn't have a bit of an argument about but whether or not he knows his name. We'll see about that.
00:39:53
Speaker
so fucking dope. As Barry White begins introducing the ceremony then asks what it's about and as he's whisperedly told what it is, he's horrified and says, You people make me sick! Everyone cheers this and Barry White asks, Were they even listening to me? And Quimby's response to this is, Probably not, no.
00:40:08
Speaker
Probably not. And the whacking begins. We get a pretty brutal scene of the Springfield Legitimate Gentleman Society machine gunning a snake down. yeah Legitimate businessman society.
00:40:20
Speaker
then see the snakes crashing into each other as they try to escape. Mr Largo is flicking a bug off him and then is taken away by the snake heart. And we cut back to Lisa thinking if the snakes were just inside that they could protect them all. And this is where Bart shows up his superior intelligence now as he points out that... was In the middle of reading a book about Whacking Day and i but I guess by extension other facts about snakes.
00:40:43
Speaker
Yep. Yep. Says that if they can get some something with bass on the ground using speakers it'll cause vibrations in the ground which will bring the snakes to them. Lisa then goes through all the records and realizes she's got Tiny Tim and Alvin and the Chipmunks which will not fit the bill.
00:40:57
Speaker
Yeah, that was quite as that quite a charming bit. I quite like that. Going through the record collection, everything's just things that would be high-pitched. It's the chipmunks, Tiny Tim, the castrato Christmas. But fortunately for the plot, lo and behold, Barry White is just happens to be walking down the street, and Lisa immediately recruits him, and Barry White will do anything for a lady.
00:41:18
Speaker
I'm still uncomfortable! I'm still uncomfortable! why he He wanted to be in this episode. now why why Why was he okay with this line? He comes up... He has, like, three lines. Two of them make him seem like a real weird sex pest.
00:41:35
Speaker
Yeah. It then cuts and Barry White is going getting his love groove on because he goes... So we get a full-on version of I Can't Get Enough of Your Love and I wrote a banger of a tune.
00:41:46
Speaker
Yes, but he started off with lines about snakes and I really wanted them to rewrite the song to be about snakes. No, he just wanted you to know that the snakes needed to be left alone. Yeah, he says, leave the snakes alone, and then it just segues smoothly into can't get enough of your love. And it's like, okay, sure.
00:42:03
Speaker
hey He gets a hell of a lot of it out. I'm sure he got a couple of albums out of this. Presumably. The snakes are obviously seduced by Barry's tones and immediately go into the Simpson house.
00:42:15
Speaker
And as the angry mob arrives outside... one One of the snakes stops to wipe its... Body. Tail? Feet? Question mark? On the mat? On the welcome mat? It made sure it was clean before it came in. Flo-waker? I don't know.
00:42:27
Speaker
We don't know. As everyone wonders where the snakes went, we get to a shot of all the snakes in the Simpson house. One of them is about to bite Maggie, but Maggie puts a pacifier in his mouth. So many of the the bits with Maggie are just like the beginning version of this is fine.
00:42:44
Speaker
Like, if you've seen that meme, that is Maggie in basically all of The Simpsons. Just, this is fine. Yeah, it's fine. In her defense, it usually is. It usually is fine.
00:42:55
Speaker
Well, it finally reveals to the mob that Whacking Day is a sham and it was only an excuse to beat up the Irish. A random Irish man is there to confirm that that is the case, but it was all in good form. There is a note on Wikipedia that implies that... This feels like someone read too deeply into it, but it says, the fact that it was an excuse to beat up Irish immigrants implies that they are the snakes who were banished from Ireland. And it's like, what didn't make that connection? That's a stretch. Bit of a stretch. feels like a stretch, doesn't it? Yeah. Bit of a stretch. Gotta call Stretch Armstrong on that one.
00:43:28
Speaker
Lisa asks how why everybody can hate snakes and grandpa's response to this is he's an old man and he can hate anything. Except Madlub. Which is on now so he leaves. yeah I would have kind of liked all the old people leave That would have been a bit better in their joke, yeah.
00:43:43
Speaker
Yeah. Ooh, mad luck. Lisa starts giving examples of why people, of all the good that Snake have done, and I'll ask Barry White if he likes snakes. Barry White's response is slightly disturbing.
00:43:55
Speaker
Yeah, it is. And at that exact moment, the crowd is won over, and at that exact moment, Mayor Quimby turns up with his dead snakes and gets booed. He calls everybody mush heads, and they immediately agree with him. Give us hell, Quimby!
00:44:10
Speaker
The snakes are released and the the snakes go off into the sunset while as green as the grass grows. Born free! Apparently this is enough for Skinner to be impressed with ah everything that Bort has learned and says that he's going to bring him back to the school and he'll be reunited with Nelson and Jimbo and at that moment Skinner panics because he realizes he's left them in the basement.
00:44:32
Speaker
We then see that the boys are in the basement. Kearney has grown a beard and they've come to the realization they bully for attention and we see them hug him their counseling session. At the same time we see that Skinner and Willy are rapidly making their way to the school of a pile of mountain bikes.
00:44:48
Speaker
I didn't notice he'd grown the stubble. No. yeah I just like Skinner clinging onto the top of the mountain bikes. It's just so needlessly epic. Skinner says that if they give them the mountain bikes, no one gets sued.
00:45:01
Speaker
Willie asks what happens if they're dead, and Skinner says they'll ride the mountain bikes to Mexico. And freedom! Willie chuckles and agrees, but says he's going to turn Skinner in at the first toll booth. Mexican Simpsons play as they ride past the school with the plaques.
00:45:15
Speaker
And the final little gag I liked. Yeah, I was thinking that. i was like, surely they should have turned right by now. Nope, they're off to Mexico. Apparently so. What's the first toll booth, anyway?
00:45:26
Speaker
And that's your episode. It's a episode. Yeah, and say, very, very strange. I didn't know Barry White was that much of a sex pest, I'm going to be honest. Opinion of Barry White gone down. Didn't know who he was into snakes like that.
00:45:41
Speaker
look He's the walrus of love. Well, I mean, haven't you seen the slithery form of the snake? ah leave A lady snake. My darling. Can't get enough of your love, baby.
00:45:55
Speaker
It's a banger of a song and I found it it's a brilliant song. It is. it's a You're right. it's a very weird-paced episode. of The bits are funny. I'm not sure the whole thing comes together as smoothly as it should do.
00:46:07
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, the thing with the Barry White cameo is it just feels like a kind of like throwing money around. But now that I know that Barry White wanted to be in it, that's... Almost weirder.
00:46:18
Speaker
I imagine he got paid well for being on it. Oh yeah, absolutely. I think he he he wanted in, yeah Yeah, because at this time, yeah, doing a cameo on The Simpsons was something you... It was an honour, not something you paid for.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah, it was a big deal. and Michael Jackson was on it. Yeah! Didn't sing, though. no I love telling people that fact because they're all... the No one believes me and then they Google it and they're like, oh shit.
00:46:43
Speaker
So, yeah. what ah what What is our takeaway from this? I said, a you know, it like I said, it's fun episode. Lots of little gags here and there. It was just kind of like very cocaine-fuelled episode. There was no real... It was almost like a clip show that wasn't a clip show. It was just gag, gag, gag.
00:47:02
Speaker
Okay. So I gave it a horny marge out of Homer. Consistent. Oh, fair enough, yeah. Okay. It was, in fact, an episode of The Simpsons.
00:47:13
Speaker
I gave it a pleasing taste, but with some monsterism out of Homer. That's quite good. I gave it a sexy snake out of Homer. it's a It's not what I wanted. No, no, no, no, don but but no we don't explain. We know what you mean, Michael. We know what you mean. you we know you We know you have phone calls with Barry White. We know. It's all good. We get It's okay.
00:47:32
Speaker
You're in a safe place. Well he's been dead 25 years so that's gonna be a big challenge. I know, that's why it's really impressive. To be fair, if he's in the ground there might be some snakes. And they're still hanging out with him. po Finally Barry, we can be together.
00:47:47
Speaker
yeah. Can't get enough of your hugs baby. I apologize to the estate of Barry White. I think we've crossed some lines here. Please don't sue.
00:47:59
Speaker
And Nate Myers gave it four out of five. Four out of five is kind of bold, but, you know, it's it's a, you know, Nate Myers. Nate Myers definitely has better taste than the last guy.
00:48:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, he he's he's more on the money than David B. Grailkeber was. Did it have much to say about society? I don't think so, other than, like, you know, the fact that some people don't care about the origins of a holiday, they just want an excuse to be loud and excitable, kind of like St. Patrick's Day. It was it was ironic to me that, or coincidental, that there was an Irishman in the episode, because this did remind me so much of...
00:48:36
Speaker
St. Patrick's Day, a holiday that realistically, no Americans have any right to celebrate. They just do so that they can get drunk and have a day off work. Yeah, I think that's true of many places, but yeah.
00:48:47
Speaker
Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, folks. Is it really? Yes, it is. Wait, no. What? It is, yeah. It's St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. It's the 17th, isn't it? I mean, like i mean if if ah if I played my cards right and get this edited, I could get this out on St. Patrick's Day.
00:49:02
Speaker
which case, I will edit this out and you'll look incredibly correct. You should, it you should, well, you need to get it out before, the day before St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, well, yeah. Okay, so if you don't get that out there, I went a week, if I went a week early and I apologize. If not, hey, I'm psychic. If this bit is in, then that means he, that Maroka, John didn't get it out in time and he's let, and they've left this bit in.
00:49:26
Speaker
Well, maybe I'll just leave it all anyway. If you're not hearing this bit, then it is the day before St. Patrick's Day and what I'm saying, you're not hearing right now, so I could say anything. You smell. Ha ha!
00:49:38
Speaker
Got him. You're looking forward to editing this, aren't you, Jim? Great. It definitely had also bit of a thought on sort of mob mentality, like other people have observed that as like the the fickleness of crowds and with the, do they love snakes? Do they hate snakes? or All it takes is Barry White to tell them, ah, no, it's fine. don't Don't leave the snakes alone.
00:50:00
Speaker
And Homer thinking that he's, like, important enough to be able to steer mob mentality. Yeah, but that's just Homer. Yeah, I feel like there's other people like, well, you know, like, things won't get out of hand if I'm there. Like, I can make sure that people are sensible and rational in a mob. Ah, yeah. I'll listen to Barney.
00:50:19
Speaker
ah Yeah, and then obviously we've kind of touched on the homeschooling thing, obviously Bart... It plays out in a weird way, because Bart clearly does extremely well being homeschooled, but also then, because of how well he does, he goes back into public schooling.
00:50:35
Speaker
So that Simpsons can reset to one. I know know, but like, given the circumstance, surely he'd be like, surely we want him to stay in the in the environment where he's thriving. I agree, but TV?
00:50:48
Speaker
Yes. yeahp ye like I can't argue with that, but TV, yes. But TV! that's my That was my excuse for most of my high school years. Just accept defeat and move on to the next episode.
00:51:02
Speaker
Aye, I think maybe we should. Marge in Chains is episode 21 of season 4 and this one did in fact air on May 6th, 1993. How did you know?
00:51:13
Speaker
Well known. It aired 20 years ago and he's got the information. Fucking cheetah.
00:51:21
Speaker
I've outgrossed that by 20 years. It's actually 40 years. Well, no, no, no. What? No. 30. No, it's 30. Jesus, no. Like, if it was 40... I'm older than this episode. I'm not in my 40s.
00:51:35
Speaker
Yet. Yes, I should have applied logic there, haven't I? I should have done basic arithmetic. Well, they got rid of the ones that are, so what can I do? Yeah, it's gone.
00:51:45
Speaker
Doesn't matter. ah So let let's have some events. Anything going on? um STS-55 Columbia lands. That's the space shuttle, yeah? STS? Yes, I believe so, yes.
00:51:58
Speaker
I thought you were giving fucking golf scores or some shit then. You were just like, you just listed letters, numbers, and then said lands. I mean, if you just said STS-55 lands, I wouldn't know. It's only the fact that you said Columbia. It's like, oh, space shuttle Columbia, right?
00:52:12
Speaker
Yes. Okay, cool. The US number one is still Freak Me by Silk and the UK number one is still Five Live Eep by George Michael with Queen and you know i mean.
00:52:23
Speaker
Eep. Eep, yes, that's exactly what I mean. leap Releasing an Eep. Look, I'm trying to save time. I'm leaping right now. I'm not even denying you.
00:52:36
Speaker
ah did You said you had like a factoid about this thing today, right? It's coming. It's coming. with coming okay oh okay i get it Just like Barry White when he sees a snake. ah Now we're getting into Again, a state i apologize.
00:52:55
Speaker
I don't. That's fine. Hey, if he didn't want to be thought of as a snake sex pest, he maybe shouldn't have recorded that live. Was Barry White the first scaly?
00:53:05
Speaker
Is that what we're learning?
00:53:09
Speaker
Yeah. Google that. Especially do it. Especially Google it on DeviantArt. Do that. Go on. Totally nothing weird. Just go learn. we're in Marge Simpson-Rabbit. He is territory again, aren't we?
00:53:22
Speaker
it's Let me do the blackboard gag, shall I? I do not have diplomatic immunity. This is true. You have stated a fact, Bart. Well done, Bart. Actually, he does kind of have an immunity because he's a cartoon.
00:53:38
Speaker
yeah That's fair. And the couch gag is the mini family climbing up onto the normal sized couch. First scene in Homer's triple bypass. I did. I fuck fucking hell. But on both of these episodes, I have completely blanked one of them.
00:53:53
Speaker
Like I just blinked and didn't pay attention to the chalkboard gag of the last episode. And this one, I forgot they even did a couch gag. It's not like that memorable. I really, yeah i rarely never remember much of the either on them because they're just not that memorable.
00:54:09
Speaker
No, it has to be a very good couch gag for me to remember it. Yeah. We begin the episode with, I can't believe they invented it, the TV show, we see the miraculous inventions, which include the microwave Mabrito, which comes up on a sort of raft. My crepes are ready.
00:54:24
Speaker
SS microwave, yeah. mayor The chandelier in the car, which doesn't seem that great an invention. Movalier, the chandelier for your car. The guy crashes his car because keeps laying in the head with a chandelier.
00:54:38
Speaker
on I can't believe they invented it. You can see that it's presented by Troy McClure and he reminds us that he's the star of such films as P is for Psycho and The President's Neck is Missing.
00:54:49
Speaker
I never realised that Troy McClure enters onto the same set in the same way every time. It's probably because they keep using that same shot every one again. It just clicked with me this episode.
00:55:06
Speaker
We then cut to Troy McClure walking down the stage and begin squeezing an orange against his head. And after he successfully gets the juice out, declares, this is the only way to get juice out of an orange.
00:55:17
Speaker
We then go to Homer, who's doing exactly the same thing. This was the only way. We then go to Homer, who's doing the exact same thing at home, and then says, there's a better way. At any point, Troy brings out Dr. Nick and we get the hi, everybody.
00:55:30
Speaker
Hi, Hi, Dr. Nick. As Troy McClure wonders if the the only way to get proper orange juice is to pay outrageous grocery store prices for something the farmer spit in.
00:55:42
Speaker
Dr. Nick, frankly, has a solution, which is his own juice loosener. The juice loosener. It's just such a, like, simultaneously clever and vile name for a machine.
00:55:55
Speaker
We then see ah Troy McClure begin to... We then see that to Dr. Nick pours an entire bag of oranges in and... Well we hear an insane amount of racket out of it as er... Is it on? I can't hear a thing!
00:56:07
Speaker
It's whisper with bar quiet! quiet! We then see one drop of juice come out of the juice though and Troy McClure is absolutely shocked that he juice! all this from an entire bag of oranges? Dr. Nick says that er, if you buy this you'll get a Sun on the Run which is suntan lotion which also works as a laxative.
00:56:25
Speaker
Troy McClure unfortunately... Trevor McClaw, unfortunately, was applying this unless there was another stick. Yeah, just is the realisation on his face is so good. yeah Is it realisation or is it just incredibly fast acting? don't cut to Homer in a panic trying to order his juice loosener saying he orders it, he'll lose weight and...
00:56:49
Speaker
wasn't he get from dialing the phone? because that's what he's doing family so and saysous yeah i know but does wouldn't it have fit better if he'd said dialing like is that just me yeah am i being pedantic I mean, yes, always, but, you know, me alone.
00:57:14
Speaker
Would everybody like a fun fact? Absolutely. Yeah. So normally when we do these episodes, we're not very good at making the timing workouts. For example, we've done Halloween episodes in February, which ah but we're very poor at it.
00:57:28
Speaker
But today, on the day we are recording this, you will be pleased to learn that this is the five-year anniversary of the start of COVID. Oh, Jesus. but but That is so fucking weird.
00:57:40
Speaker
Wait for a second. so How are you defining the start of it? Because it's COVID-19. It was discovered in like the tail end of 2019. The first discovered case was like December, right? I think there's some other meaning. This is the day that the UK basically shut down.
00:57:55
Speaker
Okay, right. So it's the start of the UK lockdown. How was it? I thought it was later in March than that. Okay. I'm trusting the BBC on this. I thought they put it off way too late. Oh, fair enough. Yeah, okay.
00:58:06
Speaker
I don't remember. Yeah, pandemic was weird. Time was weird. It was fun time for all. Except, you know, everyone whose social life was destroyed and the people who died.
00:58:20
Speaker
Yeah, but loads of VTubers gained a career. i had moved to the other end of the country. Everybody suddenly wanted to hang out online all of a sudden. Like, my social life was better during the pandemic because suddenly everyone was like, hey, do you want to play Sea of Thieves? i was like, yeah, all right. Yeah, sure.
00:58:33
Speaker
We can't leave. yeah Yeah, but going back to The Simpsons, we see that we're in Osaka, Japan, and we get a poorly dubbed scene of two co-workers. We see the start of the COVID pandemic, yes. As the co-worker thanks assembly line worker for not telling the supervisor he had flu, and the other guy feels he has a shattered pelvis as they both laugh and then laugh off. I loved the bad dubbing, though. That was so good. The dubbing's great. yeah Then cut to six to eight weeks later and we see that Toma has his juice loosened and as he opens the box, a of green... He's literally attacked by the flu, man.
00:59:07
Speaker
Yep. At the same time, we see that ah the same fate is befalling ah Principal Skinner as he complains that it's going into every single off fifth orifice of his head. Get another special hug ready.
00:59:19
Speaker
I don't like Skinner and Skinner's relationship. It makes me uncomfortable. See Patty and Selma give each other a gift at the same time and both get attacked by the virus.
00:59:31
Speaker
We don't see that the virus has formed sentient form and can stop at traffic lights. Before it sneaks up on Chief Wiggum, see Chief Wiggum panic through his hot dog and start shooting at the virus. And then throw his gun at it after only firing two shots.
00:59:45
Speaker
before i do Well, the bullets weren't working. This is fair. Maybe the gun will. Yeah. We then see that he basically gets caught. And then we cut to Ken Brockman saying that the sack of flu has taken over Springfield, and we cut to Arnie Pie in the Sky, who obviously has the flu himself, and this leads to him being sick out of the helicopter.
01:00:04
Speaker
We then cut to the unfortunate Otto, who is beginning to- Alright, son! I thought he was talking about something going around and around and around. i thought he was just dizzy from watching something out there. thought that made him sick, rather than the flu.
01:00:17
Speaker
Yeah, thought that. He was sweating when he said it. they I think it's both, yeah. I think it's meant to be that he's kind of feverish from the flu and then saw cars going around and around and around and around and that kind of brought on a vom vom.
01:00:31
Speaker
Maybe, yeah. Fortunately, at this ex exact moment, Otto is sunning on the roof and we just see the shadow of the sick coming towards him. Give me what you got! Well, it does. We then cut to Bart's temperature is normal and Marge is about to send him off to school and Bart says try it one more time.
01:00:48
Speaker
We then cut inside Bart's body and we see that his defense immune system decides to just shut down and let the virus take over. Alright, time to make some puss.
01:01:00
Speaker
As puss making is happening, we see that Bart is... Bart is gone. I don't like that Michael said that, John. Well, it's a fact of life, deal with it. As puss making is happening, it sounds like something you'd hear in a documentary at school.
01:01:17
Speaker
We then see that a bot is watching the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon where Scratchy, deciding he wanted a free tonsillectomy for some reason, gets his entire organs out. Well, when it's free...
01:01:29
Speaker
He gets all his organs pulled out, he jumps out the window, eats the brick and his entire organs to get it back in before he falls on a cactus. Then just laughs on a fucking cactus. I will admit I laughed out loud when that happened.
01:01:40
Speaker
I laugh at most of the itch you'd scratchies, but that one proper got me because I was just like, I really was. like As he was like swollen, just like, okay, so where's it going to go from here? He's like, oh, cactus.
01:01:51
Speaker
Of course. Well, in my memory, I thought he hit the ground. That's why i remember cartoon going. When he landed on a cactus, I pissed that laughing. That's more funny. Because it as well, it's it's basically like two frames.
01:02:04
Speaker
He's falling, then impaled on the cactus. There's no like... He is just, ah, cactus. And I don't know why, there's something about the suddenness and abruptness of it that really got me.
01:02:16
Speaker
The cartoon is then interrupted by the mayor's office announcement and Quimby is telling us that he's ah cancelled his vacation to the Bahamas to stay in sp Springfield. Unfortunately, at that moment, we see the pan out of the fact that he is in the Bahamas and a steel drum comes across the screen. as Get that steel drum out of the um mayor's office. Mayor's office.
01:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, this is a yeah another... Like, there's a bunch of bits in this episode. This is another one those bits where people point to this episode as being weirdly prophetic. It's prescient. It's weird. Yeah. Like, the amount of politicians who just, like, did not obey pandemic rules.
01:02:49
Speaker
No, because the rules don't apply to them. Also, particularly more, even more noteworthy, I guess, is if you remember that time it snowed in Texas. Oh, yeah, and the governor just completely, Ted Cruz just fucked off. Yeah, he just fucked completely off, yeah.
01:03:05
Speaker
Oh, he had no choice. Yeah, well, quite. Then cut to Burns and Burns says he's going to show Smithers his germ-free, completely sealed chamber. He opens it up after multiple hidden doors and we see that Homer's just sat in the One of them with Mr. Burns' face on it.
01:03:23
Speaker
An outrage, Burns asks who the devil it is. Quickly, think of a lie. Homer's brain says, don't worry. My name Mr. Burns. Homer's brain says, come up with a good story. And Homer announces himself as Burns.
01:03:35
Speaker
but I don't know why this reminded me so much of my name is Mr. Burns. and I believe you have some letters for me. Yes. The same kind of energy. Yeah. I didn't remember. Like, I have seen this episode a lot. I should point out, like, this is one of those episodes I had on VHS. So I've seen this episode a lot.
01:03:53
Speaker
So a lot of it didn't really land as laugh out loud funny for me just because of the sheer repetition of it. But I did not remember Homer in the, like, with this and hermetic booth with the sandwich it's like i dad got that's that really got me when the door opens as homer just sat there eating a sandwich yeah because i was just expecting like a a sort of call back to the earlier bit like the door opens and then the flu comes out of the thing and attacks them like it has done with the boxes so because i was so expecting that just homer being in there was so good
01:04:27
Speaker
Then cut to Dr. Hibbert dealing with an angry mob. Fun fact, the building that he was in is actually named after him, which I did not know. Was it? I missed that. Oh yeah, the Hibbert Medical Clinic. God, they're demanding a cure and Dr. Hibbert says, yeah. Why would this be Springfield's responsibility?
01:04:44
Speaker
Like, this would be a government-level problem. Like, why why are they asking Dr. Hibbert to do anything? ah big Because it makes a good gag. And Mayor Quimby is in his office.
01:04:56
Speaker
Butt TV. Dr. Hibbert reveals that the only thing he can recommend is bed rest, unless he could give them some placebos. The crowd panic and say, what are the placebos? And just turn over random Maybe they're in that truck. The truck is filled with killer bees, which its attack the crowd. As you do.
01:05:10
Speaker
One guy eats the killer bee and says, hey, I'm cured, and realizes he isn't. I'm cured. I mean, Ow. And once again, there were Asian giant hornets in Washington in May 2020. And it was a big deal at the time, if you recall the giant hornet thing.
01:05:25
Speaker
ah Yeah. so once again What reality are we are we are in not the darkest timeline, just the fucking dumbest. What is our timeline?
01:05:36
Speaker
i mean I mean, not necessarily as prescient because, like, apparently there were, but like, there was a lot of media attention on killer bees in the late 80s and early ninety s Yeah. So, I don't know. This is just just current affairs for them. They weren't necessarily predicting ah pandemic pandemic insanity. No, but I know. Just the fact that there were Asian killer bees in Washington is dumb enough.
01:06:01
Speaker
We've got to be flying this house and... Rod points out that Todd seems to be speaking in tongues, and Ned reveals, nope, he's just delirious from fever. Oh, I like this. I pray for the day, or whatever he says. I pray for the day, but I'm afraid he's just delirious from fever. Like, the fact that Ned can just... He just speaks tongues, that's just a language that he understands. He's like, yeah, okay, yeah, he's... he's yeah now Unfortunately, no, it's not gonna happen, but I like what he's saying.
01:06:29
Speaker
like Okay, cool. It was great show.
01:06:37
Speaker
this is what but is whats brought on god's rap from and he says that the network slogan is true if you watch fox you're damned for all eternity
01:06:48
Speaker
having watched murderer children and a great show It was very fun, though. It's time.
Marge's Stress and Legal Troubles
01:06:54
Speaker
The Simpsons was on Fox at this point, right? Wasn't it? Yeah. I believe it was, yeah. So it's on the same network. Part of a grand old tradition of taking jabs at the network, yeah.
01:07:03
Speaker
We then cut to Marge looking hell stressed out as she's having to deal with the family's multiple... demands which includes Bart asking for Flimstone's tuple morphine which is not a thing. Loba wants her to come and change the channel for him. And pat his head.
01:07:18
Speaker
Because he might miss Sheriff Lobo. And Grandpa wants a bottle of bourbon which Marge says he can't have fluids after 3pm. And Grandpa just wants it smashed into his mush but he just wants it. Then see Marge again hella stressed in the quickie martyrs. We see that ah all the products are turning into ah family members heads, the demand making demands.
01:07:37
Speaker
Marge tries to buy some Aspen, but Apu charges 25 bucks for it. The tiniest mold. That was reduced. Because he had to lower the price because an escaped mental patient hampered with it.
01:07:49
Speaker
What does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean? What do you mean, what does it mean? I think it's pretty straightforward. What does it mean? It means that it would have cost a margin of more money if the infant patient had to tap up at the bottom.
01:08:03
Speaker
That's the joke. What are you not getting about it? What are you... what What does it mean? escaped mental patient tampered with the bottleff with the bottle? With the pills? With the recipe? With the fabric of reality?
01:08:18
Speaker
What does it mean, John? What does it mean? Why are we here? That is a subject for a different podcast. You'd eat some aspen. right, I'll go spend 25 querry. Well, it'll be 24-25.
01:08:33
Speaker
As Marge reluctantly pays and leaves the store, we see the a alarm go off and Apu very sarcastically goes, oh dear, it seems to be a mistake. Then ask Marge to stand next to the side of police height chart so he measures her at 8 foot 6 with her hair.
01:08:48
Speaker
He then asks Sanjay to help Marge with her bags and also says something in Hindi, which... i' I'm suspect. I don't want to make an assumption here. I'm fairly certain they speak gibberish.
01:09:00
Speaker
They do not. nots No. It's actual Hindi? It is actual Hindi. They got the Embassy of India in Washington to do the translation for them. The Embassy was not interested or happy in doing about doing it, but they still did it anyway.
01:09:12
Speaker
but That is a lot of effort. so Sanjay goes and helps Marge, but then he notices that ah there's a bottle of bourbon air coat which he throws to Apu. Apu is ah rightly horrible outraged by Marge's forgetting to pay for bottle. Mrs Simpson.
01:09:27
Speaker
And Marge reluctantly admits so, and then the police show But this is the weird thing is like Marge's whole reacts reaction implies that she actually did steal it. But why would Marge do that? Like, it's it's just odd. Like, she never even at any point says, I just put it in there by mistake.
01:09:46
Speaker
She just says, oh, yeah, Piers, I did. And he basically just admits to thievery. I mean, i but I think there's kind of the shame of setting off the alarm and probably an element The stress and everything....Christian question mark guilt over it. Like, the end of the day, she did put it in her pocket and she did walk out of the store with it in her pocket and didn't pay for it.
01:10:06
Speaker
I think ah the way she's rationalizing it shit, that was theft. Might not have intended to do it, but it was theft. I guess so. They then see that the police are arrived and Chief Wiggin wants Marge come out with her hands up and two cups of coffee and some air freshener. Basically, he wants some shopping done for him.
01:10:20
Speaker
And something with coconut on it. And something with coconut on it. Then he comes to the next scene and Omar and Marge are outside ah Lionel Hutz's office and Lionel Hutz is a confident... can't believe it's a law firm.
01:10:32
Speaker
yeah And Lionel Hutz says it's part of deal. He gives him a smoking monkey and Lionel Hutz is very touched by this... He's very excited about it, man. As Marge shows no interest in the monkey and it goes in the drawer with the others, which made me laugh.
01:10:47
Speaker
The drawer of monkeys all smoking is great. There's a... Lionel Hutz is confident until he sees the name of the judge, which is Judge Schneider. Marge asks if that's bad and Lionel Hutz says he accidentally ran over his dog and Marge then goes, really?
01:11:01
Speaker
And Lionel Hutz reveals that you have to replace the word accidentally with repeatedly and the word dog with son. This is just fucking dark, man. Holy shit. What's the joke?
01:11:13
Speaker
what's the joke ily I repeatedly, i e intentionally ran over his child. what What's the gag? Final thoughts, he's not a very good person. That's what the gag is. I guess. I think so, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
01:11:29
Speaker
um I might say he'll have a chat with Apu to see if we can get him to drop the charges and we cut to Apu and Sanjay having a full-on celebration. This isn't racist. It's just fucking weird. Like, I wouldn't watch this and say, this is racially insensitive.
01:11:43
Speaker
It's just fucking strange. Yeah, it is. I don't think you can point to anything specific about, like, race in that at all. No, that's not. It is, yeah, it's just weird. Omar asks Apu to drop the charges and Apu's response to this is he's going to put the bitch on ice.
01:11:57
Speaker
and state of yeah Yeah, interesting line. Yeah, okay. its Also, it's very strange for Apu. Apu is not a particularly vengeful person as far as I'm aware. not generally. He's in this episode.
01:12:09
Speaker
Apparently. As Homer points out he's Apu's best customer, Apu says it's the Kwikimart policy to charge people to the full extent of the law. No, no, no, no. He says it's the policy of the Kwikimart's parent corporation, Nordine Defence Dynamics, which I quite liked.
01:12:24
Speaker
Homer walks away dejected as the party celebration continues. Because why not? yeah So strange. But then it cuts to Chief Ligam in a ah sauna with Mayor Quimby saying, not to tell anyone, but Marge Simpson was arrested for shoplifting.
01:12:37
Speaker
but that immediately and He immediately tells everybody in it a like stadium. In a stadium, yeah. We then get a weird little bit where he says, some woman in a film was a man and then changes it to, man, was she hot?
01:12:51
Speaker
Yeah. Man, was that a good movie? In other news, the chick in the crying game is really a man. Everyone boos him he then says, man, is that a good movie? And everyone cheers. And I guess the crying game was, i think it was a couple of years old at this point, but a relatively recent movie.
01:13:06
Speaker
And there was, i think there was a trans woman in the movie or something. I'm not very familiar with the plot, but... If it's the film, we'll take Just weird. Just weird. but so This is two episodes back-to-back where most of it is just like, this is weird. This is weird. This is weird. We're just throwing bits in.
01:13:25
Speaker
They're just throwing bits, yeah. ah Running the clock out on the end of the season. Speaking of throwing in bits, we then go to the Flanders house and... Oh wait, no, it's not the planter's house. It's the Reverend Lovejoy's house, isn't it? Yeah. Where Reverend Lovejoy is just having a random poker night.
01:13:42
Speaker
with With miss Miss Hoover and Hibbert. Dr. Hibbert, who reveals that Marge has webbed feet, which horrifies everybody. Webbed toes. They're basically just gossiping about Marge.
01:13:55
Speaker
We then cut to the actual Flanders home and Ned says, Ned tells Marge, we all have our win-ins with the law. We then cut to Flanders' flashback, which is where he was mistaken. Are you Ed Flanders? No, I'm Ned Flanders.
01:14:07
Speaker
My mistake. This is prompted Flanders to start wearing a name tag which just says, <unk> hi I'm Ned. Marge goes to use the bathroom and Mod reassures Landers she will go spy Marge.
01:14:20
Speaker
Good lord. A creepy moment of Mod staring through two holes in the wall. There's got to be something in the bible about putting a fucking peephole in your bathroom. a little bit.
01:14:31
Speaker
little bit. ah Marge, after washing her hands, goes to straighten up a picture and we just hear Mod yell out the sign that says, God bless this house, say, just wash your hands and get out.
01:14:42
Speaker
Yeah, which, why? She adjusted a crooked foot or what? I almost feel like the intent... The implication was that she was going to steal the picture or something.
01:14:53
Speaker
No, I read it as Maud intentionally hung the picture crooked so she could see if Marge would meddle with it. Right, okay. I think it's the kind of point of, uh, it's not a very Christian thing to do, is it?
01:15:05
Speaker
No, no. ah Yeah, I guess. I don't know. Like, I don't think they thought this through at all. Then you see that the trial begins and we see that the trial... Would this go to trial? It's a fucking shoplifting case.
01:15:19
Speaker
Or like it wouldn't go to a trial with a jury. but it's It's TV. Everything goes to a trial with a jury. This is true. The mayor announced it at a press conference in a stadium. Of course, it's going to a trial.
01:15:31
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, yeah, this escalates. She does get accused of shooting JFK in the midst of the trial as well. We'll get that. You can see the blue-haired lawyers asking the jury who they find more attractive, Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson, because he's that confident about Marge's guilt.
01:15:46
Speaker
That he could waste his time rating the Hollywood hunks. Nancy Lionel Hutz is really impressed with this by going, ooh, he's gonna win. Ooh, he's gonna win. Then cut to Helen Lovejoy giving her testimony, and she basically accused Marge of being an alcoholic.
01:16:02
Speaker
She also says Marge's husband doesn't earn much. who I don't think the Simpsons writers ever thought about how much money Homer earns. You think?
01:16:14
Speaker
Maybe Helen Lovejoy doesn't think 80 grand is a lot of money to earn. maybe yeah Maybe, maybe, maybe. maybe yeah may Maybe collecting all those tithes every week pays great. but How dare you! How dare you!
01:16:29
Speaker
Reverend Lovejoy is pulling 100k a week over it. That sounds about right for religion. Blue hair lawyer makes it clear that Helen Lovejoy made the drinky drinky motion just in case anyone missed that.
01:16:40
Speaker
We then cut to Professor Fink giving his presentation on how Marge was the shooter on the grassy knoll. As you can see, a puff of blue hair and the behind the grassy knoll. We then cut to approing giving his testimony to Lionel Hutz and Lionel Hutz starts going on about the bourbon, which he becomes more more infatuated with. What's that?
01:17:00
Speaker
You want me to drink you? But I'm in the middle of a trial right now. This prompts Lionel Hutz to leave the trial and call David Crosby as his support. In a continuing run of weird bits. David Crosby gives him good advice of taking a day of time and Lionel Hutz declares he loves him.
01:17:15
Speaker
So we see him come back. No, he says, remember, remember to take it one day at a time and that I love you. You make it sound like Lionel Hudson is just like, bye, love you. This was supposedly something of an inside joke because, what's his name? um Phil Hartman apparently did one of Crosby, Stills & Nash album covers.
01:17:38
Speaker
Oh, right. Right. Yeah, that's weird connection there that, like, who the fuck is going to know that? Well, it makes slightly more sense. It's just like, this is a very weird reference. Yeah, it makes more sense than as is. Yeah, for sure. I know, it goes back into the trial and asks Apu if he's ever forgotten anything. And Apu says, nope, he remembers pi to the 40,000 digit, which is one.
01:18:00
Speaker
ah Also correct, they they got a scientist from NASA to double check that. they They contacted someone at NASA and said, can you give us the 40,000th digit of pi? He instead printed out pi to 40,000 digits and sent them the whole lot.
01:18:15
Speaker
So they can do that, but not figure out that a nuclear technician earns $88,000 a year. Correct. Yes. Fuck me. Lionel Hutz asks the Pooh to tell him what kind of tie he's wearing, the Pooh names it exactly right.
01:18:29
Speaker
We then see Lionel Hutz go into a complete struggle as he tries to get his tie off as he's buying for time. No, this is good, though. Wait, couldn't the jury see what Lionel Hux is doing? Because he turns away from Apu, so couldn't everyone else see what he's doing? I think that's the joke.
01:18:45
Speaker
Yes, yes. He turns around and reveals he's not wearing a tie at all, and Apu and the jury are suitably shot by this. We then see that the tie is clearly hanging out from Lionel Hux is asleep. What?
01:18:56
Speaker
the The impact that this weird little performance has almost feels like the way that's playing is playing out is that that's gonna get Marge acquitted, but no. We then see that Lionel Hutz is at The Simpsons for dinner, confident that he's going to get Marge off.
Courtroom Comedy and Marge's Absence
01:19:12
Speaker
It's barred to declare he wants to be a lawyer just like Lionel Hutz, and Lionel Hutz says that America needs more lawyers. Can you imagine a world without lawyers? And we go into Lionel Hutz's mind and we see... Everybody in the happy ring around the roses piece all nations and races. You will have seen this in a meme undeniably by this point, yes. This, of course, prompts Lionel Hutz to shudder.
01:19:32
Speaker
Then got back to the trial and Lionel Hutz is giving his closing statement and... It's then pointed out to him he's not actually wearing any pants and we see that he's butt ass naked. It's so fucking weird.
01:19:43
Speaker
David Crosby, who's at the trial, for some reason is incredibly disappointed. Yeah, they animated David Crosby there, but I guess didn't get him to do a second line for the episode. He didn't need to do one, he just needed to shake his head and be disappointed. ah Fair enough.
01:19:57
Speaker
I know Hurt tries to get a mistrial, but he can't actually pronounce my words. I vote for a wrong trial thingy. A bad court thingy. you mean a mistrial? and I love these, like, that these are lines that, like, I think have kind of made its way into my vocabulary. It's like, oh, like I'm the law talking guy. I'm the law talking guy.
01:20:18
Speaker
We don't see that the ah jury come back in and the verdict is passed to Schneider and Schneider points out that it's written on a cocktail title napkin. Still says guilty and guilty. Guilty spelled wrong.
01:20:30
Speaker
We don't see that Lionel Hurt is just hiding behind the desk and just goes...
01:20:35
Speaker
We then see that the real verdict is read out and it's guilty and Marge sentenced to 30 days in jail. We then see that the next case is the National Council of Churches versus Langhut and we see several religious figures looking to him. We then see Marge is bidding little farewell to the family and that Bart has plans to spring out and we get a Bart fantasy of him dressed as a woman seducing the warden. What the actual fuck is wrong with the Simpsons writers, guys? Seriously, why does this keep happening?
01:21:02
Speaker
Yeah. I think it's just sort of in the 90s cross-dressing is inherently funny. Also, wardens can't notice a 10-year-old child. He's 10!
01:21:13
Speaker
I don't think anyone's, again, I don't think anyone's necessarily specifically considering the age. It's just cross-dressing funny. I guess. It's just fucking weird. Mama then declares to Marge that he's going to miss her, and it's not just that he's going to miss the sex, it's also the food preparation.
01:21:29
Speaker
Before it does become a bit more sentimental. He says all these stupid-ass things before saying something very loving. It's very funny. that he'll miss how she makes him feel like the luckiest man in the world and then we see that Marge is taken away.
01:21:41
Speaker
Apu comments to Sanjay that the squeaky mark is now safe and secure. We then cut to Snake stealing the entire store. Oh my, I'm taking this thing to Mexico. I would argue Apu got to deserve this.
01:21:53
Speaker
Absolutely, fuck Apu. We then cut to Marge being taken to her cell and we see that so Springfield's women's prison, which is a prison for women, has the tagline. I like the tagline, yes. This is the most that can be said about Springfield Women's Prison. It is a prison for women.
01:22:09
Speaker
We then see that Marge introduces herself to a new cellmate and her name is Phillips because she killed her husband with a Phillips screwdriver. I think he deserved it. Yeah, probably. Marge is impressed that she doesn't have to cook her own meat meals and Phillips asks...
01:22:22
Speaker
if ah Homer never cooked for and We then get the flashback of Homer's attempts to cook, which were to serve a fish that was still alive before absolutely struggling with the lobsters. But to give him credit, he was trying.
01:22:34
Speaker
He's just an idiot. He yes yeah they should have killed the lobsters before trying to put them in the plot. That's the better way. We then see Tatoo Annie walk past and we get a very unsettling ah back tattoo reveal of it actually being a folding.
01:22:50
Speaker
Why worry? I fucking love Tatoo Annie's tattoos. Why me worry, guys? Why me worry? John, as someone that is currently getting tattoos, would you consider a folding? I don't think I can do that with my shoulder blades. but if I don't think anyone can do that with their back.
01:23:05
Speaker
I don't think they can. I think you just need to work out more. Take up some weight. john John, if you get Why Me Worry, I'll get Why Me Worry. No, you have to get the other one. How does that work then? One person gets the before and other one gets after. We bend space so that we can like merge to make the words or something.
01:23:26
Speaker
Yes, why you being unreasonable about this? No, you get half of it on your left butt cheek, I'll get the other half on my right butt cheek, and then we can stand cheek to cheek, and then it says, why me worry?
01:23:38
Speaker
That's a 90s sitcom, isn't it? Cheek to cheek. Yeah, i think so. Probably isn't. We are good to the family and Homer's trying to cut back on any form of cleaning, which is that the kids aren't going to use plates, they're just going to eat over the toilet and drink out the faucet.
01:23:53
Speaker
He also declares that Maggie will walk around naked and free so they don't have to use diapers. Nature will take its course, man. Lisa thinks that ah if they just work together, they can keep the house clean, and ten minutes later, the house is an absolute disaster.
01:24:07
Speaker
yeah Which includes an alligator now being in the house. Yep, why not, eh? Then see that the kids are complaining that they're running out of clean clothes, and Lisa wryly comments that she's been wearing the same red dress forever. Yeah, i get it. get it Homer says there's loads of clothes in the attic, and we then see him come down in Marge's wedding dress.
01:24:24
Speaker
That fits him. Actually, fit to be it would fit him, because she was pregnant. Oh shit, yeah. Oh yeah, yes that makes sense. I'm a genius. And then cuts back to Barter with his lunch at school, which is just a packet of sugar and a baseball card with peanut butter on it.
01:24:42
Speaker
Nelson comes over and goes, oh hi, your mum's a jailbird. Barter then points out that Nelson's mum is also a jailbird and they immediately bond and become friends. Let's play. Then cut to the kids visiting Marge and Marge notices that Homer's wearing an old Halloween costume and he's dressed as the devil. He's evil Homer. Evil Homer's back. It's the typical Homer shyness thing of like, Homer, is that an old Halloween costume?
01:25:05
Speaker
oh No. No. No, my cellar does not have any maracas. This is probably why the family's staring at him awkwardly for a second. Yeah. He's like, where are your maracas, you fucking idiot?
01:25:16
Speaker
Then cut to Bart giving Marge the update of the the alligator is stuck in the toilet so they don't have to feed it. Then cut to Grandpa trying to attack the gator with a plunger. yeah He's also mocking him while, unfortunately, his teeth fall out at that very moment and the gator gets the nibble on them. Then cut to the sex trailers.
01:25:35
Speaker
Marge Horny as ever. Horny Marge. That's a... Alma wants to go easy, they can just hold hands and talk, but Marge full on pounces him and knocks the channel. The trailer slams to the floor, it's very good, I love it. Marge is fucking feral, dude.
01:25:53
Speaker
Hey, Marge wants some. And then cuts to a bake sale taking place, and uh, but it falls flat when the customers realise that Marge's marshmallow treats aren't for sale, so take that, Helen Lovejoy, you bitch. Yeah, fuck you, Helen.
01:26:08
Speaker
They then see they're $15 short of the Lincoln statue. and So they have to go for the next best thing, which is a statue of... $15 on a town's fucking arts budget. Like, oh my God.
01:26:18
Speaker
We then see that we get the statue of Jimmy Carter. The crowd are not happy, declaring Jimmy Carter is history's greatest monster. What did Jimmy Carter do? He built houses for the people who needed them. That's all I really know about I don't know a lot about Jimmy Carter. I've got to be honest for you.
01:26:33
Speaker
Apparently his history was created. bit before time. Yeah, but only just recently died, R.A.P. Oh, yeah. um Yeah, because I remember the pictures now. Yeah, Trump was the only person who didn't put his hand on the heart at the funeral.
01:26:45
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I mean, I always felt he he he was president earlier than I tend to think of him as being, because, like, the fact that he died recently and America tends to mostly only elect, like, septuagenarians. I assumed he died a long time ago, and every time he pops up in, like, oh, here's all America's past presidents and Jimmy Carter's still around, I'm like, oh, okay, he must have been fairly recent, but na no, he's just... did lot like, humanitarian work after his...
01:27:11
Speaker
ah Even after his presidency and stuff. I remember someone saying like he wasn't perfect, like no president is. Pretty much all of them have committed war crimes. ah Well, I think in recent and recent times we can reflect that most presidents were probably better than we gave them credit for.
01:27:27
Speaker
Compared to the last like four, yeah.
Springfield's Riot and Absurdity
01:27:30
Speaker
ah famously also sold his peanut farm when he became president. I'm trying to say penis. I mean, will vote whichever president sells his penis upon upon bit of being inaugurated. But ah yeah, no, it's interesting that like he had standards and was like prepared to like avoid conflicts of interest. where Contrast with today.
01:27:55
Speaker
yeah but still history's greatest monster. Apparently. Absolutely. What a dick. Poor Riot breaks out, including using the Jimmy Carter statue to break into shops. then We then see that the the town is absolutely on fire and we then see Chief Wiggum say, release the dogs.
01:28:10
Speaker
Lou observes that they look quite mad and Chief Wiggum reveals this is because he's been taunting them all day and singing off key. What a dick! Unsurprisingly, the dogs immediately attack him. And Mardy, you judgmental prick, finally says, this would not have happened if Marge was here.
01:28:26
Speaker
I like that, just all the town going to complete shit because one of the main characters left for a bit. Yep. Karma, bitch. We then see that ah Marge has been released and the the she says goodbye to her cellmate. Her cellmate says men are pigs, but she's got a good feeling about a new one.
01:28:42
Speaker
We then cut to Bonnie outside and Billet reveals that he's introduced himself as Homer working at the nuclear power plant. Marge says nothing, which is probably for the best. It's not fault. Is that this weirdly animated, or not even animated, because it's just like a static image and Marge is still like making like concerned noises, but they just don't animate it. It's just a... yeah, weird. She makes the Marge noise.
01:29:07
Speaker
She makes the Marge noise, but like her face is just like unmoving. Then see Marge come home to a crowd of people waiting to greet her and Ellen Lovejoy says she will now use her gossip for good instead of evil.
01:29:19
Speaker
You are the Reverend's wife. You should not be doing anything for evil.
01:29:26
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's true. Yeah, it could be then reveals they've got Marge a gift, which is the Jimmy Carter statue, which now has Marge's hairstyle. And yeah, instead of malaise for... Malaise forever has been changed to Marge forever.
01:29:39
Speaker
Marge awkwardly says it's beautiful as everyone sleeps. Yeah, ah I mean, that on on the inscription, Jimmy Carter gave a famous speech. Famous speech?
01:29:49
Speaker
Speech. you Try saying words again. Famous speech. Yes. Thank you. He gave a famous famous speech ah known as the crisis confidence speech, but most people call it the malaise speech. So that's kind of what that is. I guess that's what people associate with Jimmy Carter is just malaise.
01:30:05
Speaker
Man, you be like a perfectly average, if not good president and you get mocked for life. You commit war crimes and everyone can just focus on the fact that you were the first black president. I mean, what the fuck is America, man? Yeah, true. we just The episode ends with ah Jimmy Carter having been turned into sort of like terrible thing. And we just see them get hit in the face terrible ball as the episode ends and as the American national anthem plays. how many How many of us here got hit in the face with a swing ball tennis ball?
01:30:33
Speaker
I don't recall it, no. I got hit in the back of the head. don't think I hit directly in the face, but don't hit it like in the side of the head and stuff. I've been hit by balls, but don't think been hit specifically by them. Mike, we don't need to talk about your personal life.
01:30:45
Speaker
Hey, you leave my Barry White living.
01:30:49
Speaker
Can't get enough of your balls, baby. That's a very different song. A better song is what it is. That's definitely a lawsuit. I apologize.
01:31:01
Speaker
i apologize What do we think of the episode? Great. Very strange, but great episode. Also weird. Yeah, another weird one.
01:31:11
Speaker
It's weird in context now. Things have happened since... Yeah. The... yeah. The pro prophetic nature of it is... is interesting. I don't think it is anything more than any kind of coincidence. It's a coincidence, but it's... Yeah, absolutely.
01:31:25
Speaker
ah it It definitely feels like a fever dream that was cooked up as they were writing it, but who gives a shit, you know right Because it... I really liked this episode. It's a great episode, but it was just so, like...
01:31:37
Speaker
There was no thought to this. They just kept, like, writing and yes-anding. this It almost feels like a creative writing episode. Like, they were just like, never erase anything. Just keep writing until you've got an episode, and that's what we'll publish.
01:31:53
Speaker
It was very strange. Yeah, I mean, for a for an episode that was ostensibly about prison, like i I felt like they dwelt on the whole prison part of it surprisingly lightly.
01:32:05
Speaker
We get two, three very, very brief scenes. We get Phillips head screwdriver, yeah didn't your husband cook for you, Tattoo Annie, ah the sex trailer, and then Marge is out. and That's it. that that That was prison for Marge. That's the entirety of it.
01:32:23
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, I guess there was originally more of it because apparently they did quite a lot of research into women's prisons and the original episode was supposed to be more realistic and they didn't like it being realistic, so they replaced a lot of
Surrealism and Obscure References in The Simpsons
01:32:35
Speaker
footage. They said they did a lot of research into women's prisons. What they did is read a lot of porn.
01:32:43
Speaker
sex in women's prisons. Jesus. And then totally said they definitely did research. Fine. We believe whatever you will, you're never gonna prove either way.
01:32:54
Speaker
Exactly. So morally, win. Fine. That was an argument. Was it? Was it? Or was it just me being weird?
01:33:06
Speaker
Well, no weirder than the episode. Ayy, I live to please. Yeah, I mean, i get again, I i say I had this on VHS, so a lot of it's like, yep, yep, yep, I know these plot points, I know these plot beats, I remember this, I know this, and obviously we we rehashed a lot of the events of this in 2020 as well, so, you know. We've lived this.
01:33:30
Speaker
Yeah, there's a comment on the, on the sort of, the predictions. Bill Oakley said it's mainly just coincidence that the episodes are so old that history repeats itself.
01:33:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's very true. Out of Homer's, gentlemen!
01:33:47
Speaker
wanna go first? I gave it a Tatoo Annie out of Homer. What a coincidence, because I gave it a Mad Magazine fold-in out of Homer. What me worry. I gave it a juice loosener out of Homer.
01:34:00
Speaker
and You got all of that out of a bank of oranges! Yeah, you got you got all of that out of a slightly questionable script. You got so much memorabilia. You got all that out of a week on cocaine? Wow!
01:34:15
Speaker
You got all that out of a research on women's prisons and the budget to hire David Crosby? On an in-joke that nobody will get. Because Simpsons, we all know, never makes weird references.
01:34:32
Speaker
Nate Myers gave it four and a half. It's a very good episode. It's a great episode. Yeah, absolutely. Definitely fun. One of the highlights for me of recent episodes. Was there anything whatsoever to say about society?
01:34:43
Speaker
People like a scandal, so everyone wants to jump in and be involved in whatever way they can, then it blows up in their faces. The end. Yeah. yeah Feels like they had opinions on Jimmy Carter.
01:34:55
Speaker
Weird ones, man. Leave him alone. Al Jean said he didn't like Jimmy Carter, but would still have voted for him over George W. Bush. Everyone should do that.
01:35:05
Speaker
Before that, this is ah George W. Bush Sr., not the one that we might be more familiar with. Yeah, wasn't George Prisina actually, like, not terrible?
01:35:16
Speaker
I don't actually know. i know very little about American politics. Now, George W. Bush would be junior because senior was George H. W. Bush, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to have to dig out the bloody quote. Yeah, yeah he said George W. Bush, as in, like, junior.
01:35:29
Speaker
and sort This was a commentary from a 2004 DVD, so because he he was talking about it in the context of W. was in the White House at the time when he said this. Oh, right, okay. i Sorry, I thought he meant who was opposed to Dubb. Like, who was he against, yeah.
01:35:45
Speaker
Which may have been George Bush. It may not have been. apologise. I don't know 70s American politics that one. Yeah, I'm, again, so once you get sort of back to my childhood, I'm a little rusty on the order of American presidents. I feel like Dubbier was... He was... He would have been 90s, right? He would have been... Because he he was referenced in some of the first seasons of The Simpsons.
01:36:07
Speaker
I have no clue. and Let's move on, shall we? Yeah, j George H.W. Bush was 89 to 93. Okay, fine. He has just left office to make way for ah ah Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton, that's you, man.
01:36:23
Speaker
Cool. ah ah I guess that's us. Are we done? Are we done? We are done. ah Sell some things. MeUndies. Matt, what you got? Yo, I am on a stream every Tuesday and Sundays with Alzerath. Go to twitch.tv slash Alzerath where we're currently playing Divinity Originals in 2 right now. It's really fun. It's one of my favorite games of all time and I'm on it and you should ah go follow he's probably my favorite streamer.
01:36:50
Speaker
ah We also do All for Arnold, which Michael was recently on. I promise I will do more than two episodes this year because John fucking made fun of me and made me feel really bad. So we'll get more done, I guess.
01:37:02
Speaker
Fucking hell. I've heard good things about Raw Deal from your dad specifically. Have you still not watched this? That sounded so weird. i'm gonna go to this you're dead yeah so we're gonna do this episode no no we haven't yeah yeah we do two episodes a year new episode all right so the new uh hopefully raw deal be coming out soon i will record it i swear i just i'm fucking tired all the time guys leave me alone but yeah go to spotify and check out all for arnold's podcast where we listen we watch all of
01:37:34
Speaker
Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies in order of release. It has been very, very fun. We had Michael on recently. The next episode probably just going to be me and John. And then it is the one, the only, The Predator, which I'm, it's not The Predator, it's just Predator, which I'm incredibly, incredibly excited to talk about.
01:37:51
Speaker
Sweet. Cool. Michael, got anything? Yep, you can find me at a Blue Sky or but a Buttermash Horse. I am on the X, but I won't bother plugging it because we're not that kind of podcast anymore.
01:38:03
Speaker
um If you want to go back to listen to any Mole Man in the Morning episodes, we are on YouTube. And if you want to go beyond the middle of Season 4, which is back to the old, old days of Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3, you can find us on Spotify and i believe on...
01:38:19
Speaker
Is it Apple? Yeah, we're on Apple Podcasts. Yeah, it's there. Apple Podcasts. Search more man in the morning. We should come up.
01:38:27
Speaker
oh You've done all the all the plugs I i was going to do. Do them again. Make sure they know. Okay. du Don't forget to like and subscribe on the YouTube. Follow us on the Spotify. Follow us on the Apple Podcasts. Follow me on Blue Sky. I am Maroka on Blue Sky. Maroka.bsky.social There is no podcast official account on Blue Sky yet.
01:38:50
Speaker
I might do one day. i don't know. I might my just promote it myself because like... Do I need to split people across two accounts? No, just follow me. I post i post things. Follow my posts. If you want the podcast post, you get my posts as well. That's the deal.
01:39:04
Speaker
Don't follow me. Leave me alone. Okay, fine. We are giving mixed messages here. No, just follow me. Leave me alone. and follow Follow John. My YouTube account still exists. YouTube.com forward slash button mash. There's still no new videos on it. There may never be new videos again, but ah go watch all the old ones. My last video on my fucking YouTube channel was me giving five alternative ah monsters that are better than Rajang in Monster Hunter. So there you go. If you're in a Monster Hunter, go watch that. It's hilarious. I think it's a great video.
01:39:36
Speaker
Cool. I'm not gonna tell you where to find it. Just hope, just guys. Just search YouTube for five monsters that are better than whatever he just said. Yeah, hang on. I don't know monster names.
01:39:51
Speaker
Cool. Well, all that remains is for us to thank you for joining us today for a relatively, relatively for us, a short and sweet episode, which I like. Makes my editing work easier.
01:40:02
Speaker
And we'll see you with the end. We're finally at the end of season four and the start of season five next time. We're we're going into season five. Excellent. Get hype for that. so I think at least one of them is a banger.
01:40:18
Speaker
Oh, great. Brilliant. I'm so glad I came on this podcast, guys.
01:40:24
Speaker
Oh, we've got Homer's Barbershop Quartet. We have got Homer's fucking Barbershop Quartet coming out. Come watch all of Simpsons, Matt. I'm sure there's at least one episode you'll like. You like Homer's Barbershop Quartet. I know you do. Yes, I do. It's great episode. There we go. There we go.
01:40:39
Speaker
Goodbye! Bye! everybody.