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S5E12&13 - Bart Gets Famous & Homer and Apu
69 Plays5 days ago
Jon, Michael, and Matt watch The Simpsons episodes 'Bart Gets Famous' & 'Homer and Apu', and discuss what they say about society, and also have a fairly in-depth discussion of the 2017 documentary "The Problem with Apu".
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Jon: @Meroka.bsky.social
Matt: @mattperspective.bsky.social
Michael: @buttonmashhorse.bsky.social
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Transcript
Introduction and Theme Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, this is Mole Man in the morning. Good Mole Man to you. Hello and welcome to Mole Man in the morning. Hey, hey, hey, good Mole Man to you!
00:00:11
Speaker
ah feel like that one's fairly obvious. Scared the hell out of me. so There's a Hans Mole Man who's been on on some good stuff, apparently. It was Krusty doing Man. know i was Krusty.
00:00:23
Speaker
Oh, Krusty doing Mole Man, okay. I thought it was Fat Albert. I thought...
00:00:30
Speaker
I thought you were going for more Man doing Krusty. Oh no, I don't think so. Some i think very powerful drugs to make that happen. don't think Mole Man doing Krusty would hurt him.
00:00:41
Speaker
Alrighty, we are Mole Man in the Morning. We are a podcast about how Simpsons has a lot to say about society. I am your host, John, and I am joined, as ever, by my two comedic co-hosts.
00:00:55
Speaker
What? Matt. Bing bong, everyone. bing bong. And Michael. Adley ho, podcasterino. There we go. I'm just waiting on these two comedic podcast hosts. come Yeah, when they arrive, I'd love to meet them. They sound great. I floundered for that one because i was like, shit, wait, what's the theme of this one?
00:01:16
Speaker
You did the clown thing, so I was like, comedic, because the the other option for today was my two racist co-hosts. ah You know, I mean, I'm Yorkshire. It's fair enough.
00:01:27
Speaker
Well, let's give it some time. Stick around, folks.
00:01:33
Speaker
As you may have inferred, we are going to be talking about a spicy episode. But before that, we've got Bart Gets Famous, which season five, episode 12. And we're then moving on to episode 13, which will be Homer and Apu.
00:01:45
Speaker
And we'll be talking about... Pretty lazy name. I just realised. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. really staying up all night thinking of these ones lately. um But yeah, that's, it's, it's the first real Apu episode and every time Apu has come up, we've kind of like kicked the can down the road and gone, ah, we'll talk about, like, that particular theme more in depth at a later to date and I think it's, we've reached the point where we can't
Episode Discussion: 'Bart Gets Famous'
00:02:11
Speaker
put that off any further. there is an episode to do it, it's this one.
00:02:14
Speaker
is, yeah. Because they literally go to India. Mm-hmm. They sure do. Stick around for white people's opinions. Yeah, that was one of the other things i was thinking about today.
00:02:25
Speaker
you want to tell them that we've done homework or do you want to save that for the actual episode? Let's save it. Let's so let's get let's go through episode one first. yeah Let's talk about Conan O'Brien before we get to that. Yes, yes. Big Conan.
00:02:39
Speaker
But before we talk about either of those episodes, there is one very important subject that we must broach and it is what are we drinking today? Oh yeah, brother, I'm drinking more of my rum that I've forgotten the name of that I was bought. I'm drinking it with lemonade because I'm a heathen.
00:02:55
Speaker
And that is a lovely combo. Lemonade always really brings out the sweetness of rum, like really, really. So if you if you like if you like spirits but don't like, you know, you think they're a bit too bitter sometimes, add lemonade instead like Coca-Cola. I think it adds a hefty layer of sugar.
00:03:12
Speaker
Very nice. I am drinking expired Peronis that I stole from work. um Well, you know, we'm all got to do what we've all got to do sometimes. I say stole, they were shafted upon me the to take these, because we can't give them out to the general public anymore.
00:03:31
Speaker
Alright. Right, fair enough. It still tastes fine, but if I have throw it away to be sick in about an hour, you know the reason why. I mean, like, if you want me to put my beer nerd hat on, like, there's nothing in beer that will make you ill. It might taste disgusting, but it won't actually make you ill. Like, hops and stuff. It still tastes like Peroni, so I'm reasonably happy at the moment.
00:03:55
Speaker
What are you drinking, John? I've got a normal beer for a change. I've got Buxton Brewery's Wyoming Sheep Ranch, which is a double IPA. Made of sheep. As we all know.
00:04:07
Speaker
Really taste the sheep. You can me really taste the sheep. A sheep has a very distinctive taste. Man, I love lamb. I think we can all get behind a lamb roast.
00:04:21
Speaker
A lamb beer sounds fantastic. I mean, ah lambic, maybe? But, um, beer jokes, hey. but A lamb IPA probably sounds like... i yeah Too much even for me. Meat beer.
00:04:36
Speaker
Meat beer, no. Don't give the craft brewing industry ideas. like Someone's tried it. Someone's tried it, I bet. Okay, you right, if you want to derail me... No! No, this is not the episode for derailment.
00:04:50
Speaker
We don't have the time! Once just once made a cheeseburger gin... you freak how did that come out poorly the second time round. The meat does not distill very well.
00:05:02
Speaker
the the the The only flavour you got from it was the pickles. It was just basically pickles. I thought the condiments would have been the stronger flavour of it, think. Yeah, the meat really just does nothing for it.
00:05:14
Speaker
Anyway, that's by the by. First up we have Bart Gets Famous, which aired on February 3rd, 1994. happened on that day? Well, will tell you. yeah stuff i will tell you President Bill Clinton lifts the US trade embargo against Vietnam.
00:05:31
Speaker
I don't know why I just assumed you were going to say President Bill Clinton and lifts a car. I'm like, all right. that would have been That would have been more interesting. he that's front ah Bruce Willis' daughter, Demi Moore, is born.
00:05:43
Speaker
Oh, cool. And then launched the space shuttle Discovery. Jean-Claude Van Damme got married in Bangkok. Good for Jean-Claude Van Damme.
00:05:54
Speaker
That's all I've got for you folks. Is that a legal marriage then in America? i assume so. I don't know.
00:06:04
Speaker
Why would it not be? I don't know. You get married to everyone, right? I don't know how law works. You married Darcy Lapier. So I'm assuming that's two Americans marrying. Not for anything.
00:06:14
Speaker
don't know who that Darcy is, so I apologise. Alright, our US number one is All For Love by Brian Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting. I feel like I should know what that is, but don't. Yeah, it sounds like it's something I should have heard about.
00:06:30
Speaker
UK number one is Things Can Only Get Better by D. Ream. Hell yeah! By D's nuts. Spoiler alert, it does has it not got better yet.
00:06:40
Speaker
but We still live in hope. But to Tony Blair told me it would in 1997. He lied. How could you, Tony?
00:06:51
Speaker
How could you? Why, Tony? Next he's going to tell me that there's weapons of mass destruction our ass. Silly.
00:07:02
Speaker
No one would say something so obviously untrue. It's a damn fault otherwise. i have no idea where this bit is going. Let's move on. Yeah, no, you've lost me on this one at this point. no. Shall we have chalkboard gag? Let's have a chalkboard gag, shall we?
00:07:17
Speaker
And the chalkboard gag for this episode is, my homework was not stolen by a one-armed man. It's not even trying, Yeah, that just seems like somebody just threw random words on clock. There's just one drunk guy in the corner and they just like hit him with sticks and just go, make the funny, funny man.
00:07:36
Speaker
I don't know. i have no idea what the deal is here. I'm not totally inclined to research, but the link to... On on Wikipedia, the the phrase in the chalkboard gag, one-armed man, is linked to the fail the TV series, in fact, The Fugitive in from 1963.
00:07:53
Speaker
where So the implication there is that this is a reference to that, but I'm not prepared to dig into the plot of Are you saying... That the Simpsons writers Made an obscure reference In an obscure part of the show That little people pay attention to That That is absurd That link does come with a citation Apparently this is noted in The Simpsons A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family First Edition Published in 1997 We much about The Simpsons guys So we'll read that in a bonus episode one day
00:08:30
Speaker
Couch gag, we get the blob morphing again. Yeah. that was one That was take three, wasn't it? of the Take one, take two. We'll get anyone's worth out of that. It's still funny.
00:08:41
Speaker
The episode begins with a family around the breakfast table and Omar laxes on about the... Oh, sorry. right There is one thing I realized from watching um that chalkboard gag.
00:08:52
Speaker
It dawned on me that Bart gets his hair from Abe Simpson. Because in that, in not the chalkboard gag, sorry, in the couch gag, Homer gets Bart's hair and it makes him look like Abe.
00:09:04
Speaker
Oh, okay. I just realised that Abe and Bart have the same hair. Just obviously Abe has less of it. yeah I'm a genius, is what I'm saying. Yeah, okay, yeah. Oh, I see it now. Yeah, I get that. ah You've noticed the little details.
00:09:20
Speaker
I'm great at We start the episode at the Simpsons breakfast table and Homer is reading his horoscope and says, reads it as, today will be a day like any other and Homer just says it keeps getting worse and worse. His reaction is great, but he's just like so heartbroken.
00:09:36
Speaker
My initial note before this immediate next bit is I can already see this episode being annoyingly self-referential. just Just to confirm that suspicion, Varg comes coming down the stairs, whistling the Simpson theme song.
00:09:51
Speaker
He sure does. And Marge tells him off for singing the annoying tune. Yep. Mm-hmm. Varg reveals that he it's time for a ah school trip, as Homer chides the part for being happy because everybody's got to go to school or work. The only one person as easy as Marge is Marge scrubbing the floor.
00:10:08
Speaker
Yeah. He also does have this weird like half fake-ish German line there where he says, Yo, mein Mommendant. Mommendant, yes, instead of Commandant.
00:10:19
Speaker
o But a very obedient little Nazi, I guess. don't like that.
00:10:27
Speaker
Bart talks Lisa for a moment that she's not going on a field trip and Lisa says she'd rather be in class. Lisa then goes into a fantasy about how she's incredibly successful. Having noble prizes and reuniting the cast the Facts of Life.
00:10:40
Speaker
I guess that's another reference for everyone. ah Yeah, that's, yeah. i I got the reference. I didn't, like, I'm i'm not American enough to find it funny. I think it's funny, though, that but just, as as they they always do this of, like, you know, in the future, Lisa becomes president or changes the world or whatever.
00:10:56
Speaker
Lisa gives me massive peaked in high school vibes. She has. mean, this her own fantasy of what she will achieve in life. Occasionally you get ones that are like flash forwards that like, ooh, is this showing us the future? This is just a fantasy. This is just her, yeah. We all do this. We all do this daydream of like, when I'm rich, you're all fucked.
00:11:16
Speaker
This is confirmed seconds later when Bart, who is working for Lisa, gets brutally murdered by Lisa. Impaled on my Nobel no Peace Prize. Nobel Peace Prize.
00:11:28
Speaker
Bart is trying to bring Lisa out of her fantasy, but Lisa says she'd prefer to actually stay in it. She's so happy here. Also, just likes this on a thing that we've observed before, like surprisingly little blood on the impaling. Yeah, it just goes to very cleanly. very clean impale.
00:11:42
Speaker
Yeah, but then in the next in the next episode there is blood, but it's only the in the aftermath. It's weird. It's weird. the it It's like it's the context in which you can show blood.
00:11:53
Speaker
Like blood exists and thus you can show it, but you cannot show blood erupting from someone's body because that's violence. That's too much. Yeah. I kind of wonder if there's just an element of, like, how and much effort the animators could be bothered to put in as well. it's probably more that than anything else. But when we talked about it with Itchy and Scratchy, I was, I think I mentioned, like, is there, like, a quota?
00:12:17
Speaker
You know and they can only show so much bloody violence. But yeah, I think it is just effort. ah it's more work than it needs to be for such a small gag we go we go to school classroom and the principal skinner is announcing where the class are going to go on a field trip then holds up a box and popple groans that they're off to the box factory again the whole class groans and martin's except martin who thinks it's going to be educational but decide to take a page out of lisa's book and decides he's going to fantasize of going somewhere else we don't go inside bart's fantasy and bart's instead of going to the box factory they're going to the box
00:12:47
Speaker
so Yeah. Damn TV for ruining my imagination and my ability to... Um... Bart just gives and starts watching television. Prelude to Bart having ADHD again. This was... i I don't know if it was just me, but I feel like they pushed this gag too far.
00:13:06
Speaker
Like with him pulling out the little remote control TV and... Not remote control. The small T... Pocket TV. Portable television. In portable telly, yeah. And then sitting there for... It felt like three or four seconds...
00:13:18
Speaker
laughing and I'm like, did you need to fill time guys? Because the gag has already happened and then, the I don't know, they just kind of spoiled the gag for me with that last bit. It just kind of went too far. We cut to the bus and Martin and Skinner are now singing 56 boxes of bottles of beer on the wall, which really rolls off the tongue.
00:13:36
Speaker
People wondered why I was such a violent teenager. It's because kids like that existed. What, who'd sing kid sing songs with the teacher? Yeah, they deserve it. But meanwhile, is so looking out the window with Mrs. Krabopoulot, the places they could have gone, which include the firework testing range, the slide factory.
00:13:54
Speaker
this the The firework testing range in daytime would suck balls. It would just be noisy. They must have a dark room. A dark room where they can set off fireworks and everyone in the room is just instantly fucking blinded.
00:14:08
Speaker
I mean, Mrs. K here unusually... she was very... Toy Town and the Slide Factory. She was very... I mean, I guess they're probably more interesting than the Box Factory, but also, come on, she is an adult. Excuse me, I mean, all three of us here are sat around talking about a cartoon from the fucking 90s, so i don't think we have... For academic purposes. Oh, clearly. We're not doing this for pleasure.
00:14:29
Speaker
I take no pleasure from producing this podcast. I actually do believe you. There is no joy in this. We did see that so the bus stops outside the dilapidated box factory and the Skinner and Martin literally run off the bus while everyone else trudges off.
00:14:45
Speaker
And we then cut to the actual box factory tour and it's very thrilling stuff about ah talking about how they took out the business loan and the forms they had to fill in. My note here, this accurately depicts manufacturing. It does. Yeah, pretty much.
00:15:00
Speaker
We then cut to the guy telling telling the kids um all the important, exciting things that got stuck into boxes, including candy. Milhouse asks if there is actually any candy and he says, nope, these boxes are here to ship nails.
00:15:12
Speaker
Yeah, these boxes only contain else. Also, bit of a um ah visual and script-based incongruity. they In the script, they say that they don't assemble the boxes. They get sent to Michigan to do that. but But you see earlier that the boxes get half-assembled, at least. So that they only half-assemble then send them to Michigan to get fully assembled.
00:15:34
Speaker
Yeah, it would appeal that would. Presumably. it's a very inefficient way to ship things. Like, usually these things flat pack for a good reason. what do they ship them in? Yeah. That's another million dollar question.
00:15:45
Speaker
they They ship the boxes to Michigan. They get assembled in Michigan. Then they ship back to Springfield, where they can then put the boxes that are un unassembled into those assembled boxes to send to Michigan to be assembled.
00:15:58
Speaker
Where they send them to Springfield to put them. send them to Springfield to then carry the... yeah You see what? Yeah. It's the box racket, baby. ah Capitalism is the most efficient means production. It's just two factories jerking each other off and they're both like, we're so smart.
00:16:16
Speaker
But asks if anyone's been mangled by the machinery, and the guy pretty much kills that fantasy very quickly. Then points out the most popular room in the tour, which is just like all the other rooms, because he took out whatever the interesting thing that was in the room. Yeah, they don't even tell you what the interesting thing is, so you're sat there thinking, what was the interesting thing?
00:16:34
Speaker
Because there's a plug socket, so you'd think maybe it was a vending machine. Yeah, that would be the logic thing. But he looks high up on the wall, so is he looking at, like... Because if you think about it, this guy's super boring, so he'd think, like, you know, ah safety sign was exciting.
00:16:51
Speaker
There's a pipe there. I think it's a water cooler. A water cooler. That's a good one. He then shows the glass, the room of his desk, which has the yellow line on and he invites them just follow the yellow line. follow this here, it will take you around my desk, find the filing cabinet, and back out again.
00:17:08
Speaker
But having previously seen the Christie <unk> Studios where we're out the window before he brutally shut the blinds. Yeah, I liked that. yeah non box Non-box related programs.
00:17:22
Speaker
Everyone's like looking outside. you He's just like, since that has nothing to do with the assembly of boxes, I'll just close these blinds. But decided that all easy he can stand is and he can stand no more. So he's going to make his escape, which involves jumping in the laundry basket.
00:17:35
Speaker
Why the box factory has a laundry basket, I'm not 100% sure. I was thinking that and then I thought maybe the uniforms, like yeah they have to wear if they have to wear dungarees or overalls or whatever.
00:17:46
Speaker
Just get a split second shot Bart in the laundry basket before realising nobody's going to pick it up and he just climbs out and walks out of the exit. Yeah, I like as well, because of the way the shot's framed, you then think he's going to jump down the laundry chute, but he doesn't walk through the exit
Bart's Adventure at Krusty Studios
00:17:59
Speaker
door. Which is a very good visual gag.
00:18:01
Speaker
visual gag I like that. yeah Bart walks to the studio and he's about to go into security barrier and the security guard stops and goes, do you work here, little boy? Bart says, yep. but And the guy goes, alright, go in.
00:18:12
Speaker
Dude salutes and everything. Love it. Everyone is looking for Bart in the box factory because he's gone missing and Skinner does his ultimatum which is he's going to give Bart to the counter for to come out.
00:18:23
Speaker
Then counts to three then says, well I've done all I can. continue How effective was that on you as a kid? The count to three thing? I can't remember. I was fucking terrified when my mum started counting.
00:18:36
Speaker
I was immediately like, nah shit no whatever I'm, nah it's serious now she started saying numbers.
00:18:43
Speaker
The faculty decided to call his parents and we cut to Marge in a towel running down from the shower, but doesn't get there in time. I did wonder where this bit was going. They didn't decide to call Homer and Homer was also in a towel running for the... You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel. That reminds me of people that turn down the radio to find a parking spot.
00:19:02
Speaker
Really? Yeah. It's a thing. Yeah. My mum used to do it all the time. There's also a line I've heard like out of context a lot. And also, like I don't think I got it for a long time. I thought thought it was just a very silly line. I thought i until someone it was. What's the character?
00:19:19
Speaker
Someone once explained it to me as normally if you'd washed your hair, you would wrap a towel around your head and somebody would have to speak up because you're wearing a towel. But Homer has completely misunderstood the meaning of wearing a towel. Yeah, he just thinks that wearing a towel means that he can't hear his head. That's good. That's clever.
00:19:37
Speaker
We then cut to a Bart wandering around the studios and he comes across Bumblebee Man Show and see Bumblebee Man's got a lobster on his arse going, ay, ay, ay. Then he breaks character and we find out that Bumblebee Man is not actually Spanish.
00:19:49
Speaker
He's very British. He's very well-spoken British guy. He's also a very British director to say that ah that it's very cliched. So they change it out for a giant mousetrap. I like that. Yeah, this was good. um You know, because we, again, with like the topic of what we're going talking about today, I won't like go super deep into it, but obviously we talked about when we first saw Bumblebee Man, we were like, is this problematic? And it turns out he's like a very specific reference to Mexican TV.
00:20:16
Speaker
He's a parody of a Mexican television character, isn't he? Exactly, yeah. He's like a very specific reference. It's not like lol Mexican. It's lol this one guy from the 70s. Mm-hmm.
00:20:28
Speaker
Yes, it was very interesting, but then obviously when they're like, oh, but it's a British man playing him, then I again had that thought of like, wait, well, isn't that inappropriate? Like, is is that is that weird now? We should also point out for the rest of The Simpsons run, he becomes Spanish again.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yes, would be saying that. Yeah, don't think ever comes up again. all Also, his skin tone does not look very British, which suggests that he's doing some sort of elaborate blackface-ish kind of thing.
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah. So Mousetrap gets put on Bumblebee's man's arse and he goes back into Spanish mode. I like this. I like that bit though. That was funny. We then go to the box factory and Homer's got Skinner by the throat saying, what do you mean is you've lost him?
00:21:09
Speaker
Homer worries he's falling into the machines and then realizes that there's a box with a lucky red hat on it. Homer's natural assumption is that Martha's turned into a box. When did Bart's hat get lost? Did it get lost in the lawn?
00:21:24
Speaker
When did he lose it? it it does I feel like we would have seen it, but I don't remember him wearing the hat at all in the factory. He was wearing the hat at the start of the episode.
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah. But and he was in the kitchen. But I don't recall actually wearing it while he was on the tour. I'm going through Frinkjag. He's wearing it at the start of the tour, but by the time they get to the lecture about interesting things that been put into boxes, he's lost it. I'm guessing it might have been a cookjag.
00:21:53
Speaker
He just disappears. I think it's just like a good bit of like visual storytelling that like you probably wouldn't notice, but like there is some attention to detail where he has at some point taken off this hat, put it down, lost it somehow. Between one scene and the next, it has disappeared.
00:22:10
Speaker
And... Hey, this is explained by it showing up later in the factory. Hey, it could just be a coincidence. Like I said, I'd air on the side that it's probably a cut gag. But they either just didn't think it was very funny or, you know, cut it for time.
00:22:24
Speaker
Possibly, possibly. Umber is now down on his knees, cursing the wall because, uh...
00:22:32
Speaker
We then see that Bart is still walking around and he's now eating a Danish and we see that that Danish actually belonged to Krusty. And Bart looks quite worried about the situation. We then cut to ah Kent Brockman preparing for his new cast and he's got a Danish on a plate.
00:22:46
Speaker
Kent Brockman is failing to pronounce the name of the place the tidal wave has hit. So eventually, yeah so he just changed it to France. Then he heard Bart say the word, yoink. Kent Brockman looks up going, yoink. And then he says, Danish is gone.
00:23:00
Speaker
Cut back to Krusty looking sad. I'm on Krusty and Kent Brockman's side. i would I would do a lot and I would refuse to work without Danish. If I regularly had Danish. Danish's are fucking hype, man. I love a good Danish.
00:23:16
Speaker
Oh, damn. as christy laments where he's going to get a christy laments where he's going to get a danish from but hands in one and uh he asks him where he got it from and he says oh i've kept him back when and christy goes he didn't touch it did he touch it did he i'm very i wonder what if there's like an intended like know when when because it's just a throwaway gag it's not meant to mean anything but you've got to wonder did the writers like just think ha ha ha this is funny Because in my mind, Kent Brockman scratches his bum.
00:23:46
Speaker
You know, they never intend to like make it a thing. But I'd be curious if the writers actually did have, you know, reasoning. Yeah, exactly. It'd be funny if they did. Bart tries to remind Krusty of who he is by telling him about all the things he did, including reuniting him with his estranged father and getting him out of jail.
00:24:02
Speaker
no Yeah, is Krusty Bart's Mr. Burns? It would appear that way. Yeah, I was thinking the same. like It also slightly disproves John's theory from last time about how everybody in The Simpsons knows The Simpsons, because clearly at least two people very definitely do not. Regularly forget The Simpsons, yeah.
00:24:21
Speaker
Christy asks Bart what he's done for him lately and Bart says, I got you that Danish. Christy shows him he'll never forget it. And as Bart walks away, Christy throws him his towel. Bart calls it a giant clown hanky and Christy tells him to wash it. It's a towel!
00:24:33
Speaker
Tells him that he's now making him his assistant. I think the towel throwing thing is a reference as well. It's a baseball reference. ah Fields of glory, I think.
00:24:44
Speaker
I might be going to a baseball game while I'm away. Yes. But then cut to Ken Brockman and Ken Brockman is stalking at his desk saying he's not going to read the news until he gets his Danish. does to Try and find a replacement. I just, I love the... hoop but up but but but but but home Bumblebee Man takes his moment and runs to push Get Roman out of the way. He goes straight into it. way He pushes him down immediately. It's like a tidal wave hit.
00:25:10
Speaker
I love it. it's so it's ah It's probably my favorite gag of the the episode, to be honest. So Bumblebee Man delivers these very serious news of the tidal wave killing 120 people, then immediately goes into his Bumblebee Man character and falls off his chair.
00:25:24
Speaker
Also, I'm fairly certain bumble might Bumblebee Man is Hank's area as well, right? I believe he might be, yes. ah Just irony. i We then go back to the Simpsons' living room and Homer's come home with the box with the hat on and he's got some horrible bone-chilling news.
00:25:39
Speaker
I like how he's ah he's like, what's going through Homer's mind? Does he think he's gonna like he's now just going to raise a box or what? As Marge is horrified by that description, bar comes in and Homer immediately sheepishly tries to hide the box.
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's like, I have horrible bone-chilling news. Oh no, what news? Nothing. Bart then notices his hat and then goes into all the details of what exact box that is. And Marge thinks, this Bart wants to go into the box-making business. And Bart says, that'll be the dream, but he then tells her about his job.
00:26:13
Speaker
This leads to Lisa revealing that she's got a weekend job too, because she helps the poor. And then Homer goes on to a rant about the poor. Yeah. Yeah, i like I like after Homer's rant, everyone's just staring at him in the same way you would kind of all just awkwardly stare at your dad when he goes on a rant about immigrants or something. You're all just kind of like... Yeah.
00:26:33
Speaker
Same energy, yeah. Anyway, Bart got a job. Homer says Bart should get a job because he remembers his job from back in the day. And we see that Homer's job was he was actually a one-man band.
00:26:47
Speaker
ah Archie, Bell, and the Gels. And but we see that Homer's music is quite interesting. It scares away all of the monkey. thought it was all right. It's not something I'd listen to personally, but I found it, you know, I didn't find it as annoying as they seem to find it.
00:27:01
Speaker
You've got song called Tighten Up, the music you tighten up with. ye The organ grinder is not happy and because Homer's chasing away his business. Homer tells Giuseppe to buzz off and Giuseppe sets the monkey on him. and Go for the face! so ah Speaking of racial stereotypes... Yeah!
00:27:17
Speaker
but Let's see Homer screaming as the monkey's mauling him and he's making... And he's still playing the guitar or something. We come back to the present day and Homer promises Bart he can get a guitar. And Bart says, I'm actually asking for a job. And Homer says, it's a gig, son.
00:27:32
Speaker
Yeah, so when you're in a band, a job is called a gig. Homer really is, like, ostracized in this episode. He's just, like, anything he says, everyone's like, please leave me alone.
00:27:44
Speaker
Yeah, this isn't his finest episode. This is not his episode. This is not his episode. There you go. Then see Bart talking to a teamster on the set and saying, it must be such a privilege to be working show business. this The teamster tells him he wishes he was dead. wish was dead.
00:28:00
Speaker
Christy says, this is a dream factory, then tells Bart he's got to clean the toilet. We then cut to Bart going to Christy's toilet and Christy going, oh, what was I thinking last night? This will take you a couple of hours. The angle as well is so unpleasant. What?
00:28:16
Speaker
But tries to convince ah his classmates that he is actually working on the Christie show. And we see he does the magic of pausing the videotape on a split screen. So you can't really see the name.
00:28:27
Speaker
God, I remember when, like, the BBC would do that, like, at the credits of a film and stuff, or the credits of whatever. And, yeah, they'd then... do that split screen thing it's so strange because now instead what they do is usually the um they put the credits in like the top left corner and like it but you know it stays it stays the correct aspect ratio just a different resolution and then every you know like the titles and stuff come this is me just going on a rant about how things used to be in yesteryear i'm sorry i'm old with
00:28:58
Speaker
We also sadly don't learn what the soft drink is that is found to be lethal. But so we do know that we've got ah spots and weather with funny sunny storm. So they look at the name and Milhouse actually says Brad Storch and Martin thinks it says Betty Simington.
00:29:15
Speaker
This leads to Nelson punching Barton and scolding him for taking credit for other people's work. Homer just in the background not caring about the fact that his son just got punched in the stomach in his own house.
00:29:27
Speaker
Homer instead's got some advice to dish out. He says, you're doing what you want to do with your life and nothing else matters. And Bart says, that's great advice. And Homer says, well, that's what got me to where I am today. And Bart laments this fact. and um Once again, Homer makes 80 grand a year. Yeah, he's not doing that bad.
00:29:45
Speaker
I think he's doing all right. We then cut to the Monstromart and Christy's supposed to be signing autographs, but he's actually just sitting on a stool smoking and sends the little girl to ask for his autographs. Did the Monstromart? Do you mean the Kwikimart? Monstromart?
00:29:58
Speaker
It wasn't the Kwikimart, it was the Monstromart. Was it? Was it? Yeah, it was. It was a Kwikimart. enough. Oh, it totally was, yeah. Holy shit. Wait, so this means there was continuity between the episodes. What?
00:30:10
Speaker
didn't even pick up on that detail. Simpsons, continuity, bullshit. Yeah. No, that doesn't happen. That's really weird, because the next episode is like, oh, there's the new Monstromart, and like, holy shit, they had a grand opening the previous episode. That's totally true. Yeah, that's kind of wild.
00:30:24
Speaker
What the f- That is what it really is. We don't see that ah Bart is actually signing the autographs and the little girl tells And no one cares! Like, it's so... Like, yeah I know it's meant to be the joke that, you know, when you get an autograph, it's very rarely the actual celebrity, but I mean, it's like... It's so strange that everyone's just like, yeah, okay, this boy's signing it. Look, I got my thing signed by Krusty. No, you fucking didn't, though.
00:30:49
Speaker
We then cut to Bart in class looking very haggard and he gets phoned by Christie who needs his finger fingerprints on a candlestick. meet Me being conservatory. Christie is obviously playing Pluto.
00:31:00
Speaker
Have any of you finished to actually finished a game of Pluto? Yeah, yeah. Bullshit. Pluto's decent. Yeah. Why? ah Actually, no. Knowing you, i would we should see if Pluto is on bloody tabletop for Saturdays.
00:31:14
Speaker
You know what? I've never actually played a game of Pluto. Not at all. No. It's fine. It's okay. I think Cluedo's fun. It's better than Monopoly. Lies. and Kicked in the balls is better than Monopoly. I love Monopoly.
00:31:27
Speaker
All I know is that Bart would rather be dead than play Cluedo. This is good. He wishes he was dead to it. Then see Bart is handing out food to the cast and Sajun Mell spits his out because it's got cheese in it and he's lactose intolerant.
00:31:39
Speaker
Well, I apologize. And Mel starts ranting about how sick he's going to be. And then we start seeing him gag. And he goes, come to the bathroom door because I'm going to yell at you. want to yell at you some more. I did think this was my favorite gag of it. It's a good gag. Continuing yelling through the toilet door whilst he's being sick.
00:31:54
Speaker
But he decides he's had enough of this and he's about to leave for the exit. But he's stopped by Christy who says he's got to use him in a sketch because Mel's now dead. Barty says to him, Barty. Christy updates this too. Or sick or something.
00:32:07
Speaker
Dale's Barty's only line is to say, I'm waiting for a bus to get hit with pies for five minutes. And Bart repeats the line and Christy him off. I think funny. We then see that the set is prepared and we see that Christy's got a ridiculous moustache on.
00:32:20
Speaker
And Bart starts walking through the set. Excuse excuse me. I think the word you're looking for is elegant. Bart is saying he's lying, but he then walks into one of the props and this causes him to knock down every single prop and the lighting ring all in one.
00:32:32
Speaker
All Bart can do is say, I didn't do I didn't it. the audience laughs. And Christy says, and we did okay to get through that and tells Bart he's never going on stage again because he does not
The Rise and Fall of 'I Didn't Do It'
00:32:40
Speaker
have it. As he's about to finish his point, he opens the door and we see that Bart's now sensational due to his line. Hey, kid!
00:32:46
Speaker
Christy immediately grabs hold of him says he owns all his subsidiary rights. Yeah, he's like, you can't have him, I own him, and all these subsidiary rights! I don't think I'd particularly appreciate whilst watching it and only looking at the Frinkiac transcript now, is that like this entire set up to Bart getting famous is like fully two thirds of the episode before like before he even gets famous. Man, it'd be it'd be wild if it's been a regular thing where the set up has taken way longer than it should.
00:33:15
Speaker
That'd be crazy. crazy Speaking of setup, we then see Christie setting up the very complicated gag of ah putting a Ming vase on top of a ladder behind the door.
00:33:27
Speaker
Which Bart knocks over, says his line, and everybody loves it. I like that Christie's shows still have like very old school title cards. We then see if we've got some ah I didn't do it dancers now, and it's a quite the thing. I don't know why that made me un uncomfortable. oh I don't know why it made me uncomfortable. Yeah, because it's a children's show, and they do very sexy dancers.
00:33:48
Speaker
Speaking of our man Apu, he's being robbed, and Snake warns him not to press the alarm, and Apu does press the alarm, and then says, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. And ah of course they all burst into laughter.
00:33:59
Speaker
At the same time, Mayor Quimby gets caught in bed with another woman and he also uses the I didn't do it defense and everybody's very happy. Quimby always in shock with his sash?
00:34:10
Speaker
I think so, probably. i No, actually, because I remember there is one when Marge, oh, what's it called now? The fucking Selma and Louise episode. when Marge is in the club and Merquimby's naked, his sash isn't present. yeah So yeah yeah ah yeah, I don't think he is.
00:34:25
Speaker
But it just feels like it's very, it seems to be a regular occurrence that he's always within like a few feet of his sash. We then cut to a burning building, which apparently was caused for a third time this month because somebody's smoking in bed.
00:34:35
Speaker
We then cut to Patty and Selma smoking going, and everyone laughs, including the man who was a I like how he still says, help me. While he's laughing. Help me. ah Also nitpicky, but the fireman says the building has burned down three times this month. Yeah, then it wouldn't be the same building.
00:34:53
Speaker
quite the contracting job going yeah that's impressive that well actually that's part that's also part of the the box shipping the but the box scam is you know they ah they use the funds to to make low quality buildings out of those boxes that then are also fire hazards which keeps the firemen in business see what i mean springfield's just a massive racket ever since burns built that casino you know it's really gone downtown We go to the breakfast table and never everyone is reading the I didn't do it, the Bart Simpson story, and Lisa points out the book isn't actually about it.
00:35:25
Speaker
It's actually about Ross Perot and the last two chapters from the Oliver North trial. How many celebrity bibliographies, autobiographies or biographies have you read? Zero. read two.
00:35:36
Speaker
Read a couple. I think I started reading Douglas Adams biography, but also like just did not get very far. as like Biographies are just like... Really dry. Or at least my impression of it from that one biography. Brian Cranston's is really good. I loved reading Brian Cranston's.
00:35:53
Speaker
Fully recommend it. think we've got to read the Oliver North one because Homer says he just poured himself into that uniform. Is that Homer saying that he's sexist? I think so, yes.
00:36:03
Speaker
I don't know who Oliver North is, so... Oliver North is a very infamous figure in US politics in that he sold missiles to Iran pretty blatantly and illegally and he got away with because he destroyed all the evidence.
00:36:19
Speaker
Oh, so like the Conservatives in England? Very much. Nice. Oh, and he's the president of the National Rifle Association. Aren't we all? And he was the host of Fox News for a very long time.
00:36:30
Speaker
Wait, Serial? What DID an Oliver North do? Does he have a brand of fucking Serial? There is an American Dad song entirely date dedicated to the Oliver North trial that explains him quite thoroughly.
00:36:44
Speaker
Yeah, no, he's got quite the Wikipedia article, huh? don't think we've got time to go into Oliver North. also he's Also, the secretary that destroyed the shutter is apparently quite attractive. Fair enough. That's a fair... We then cut to Bart is now in the recording studio and he's making a rap version of I Didn't Do It to the theme of MC Hammer Hammer Time.
00:37:04
Speaker
That's what he was. Jesus Christ. My brain just would not let me remember what song it was. Yeah, which I think, like, the Wikipedia ah may make correctly, or mappped perhaps infers, I don't know. Someone somewhere suggested that that song was specifically chosen because it itself was derivative, because it's sort of using Super Freak.
00:37:24
Speaker
Yeah. Which, ah to be fair, I didn't realise Super Freak came first, and i wasn't never really bothered to look into it, but I didn't realise MC Hammer's You Can't Touch This wasn't, like... incredibly original in the first place we we give you we give you credit because you know we know that you've never heard of music or fun so you know it's understandable that you wouldn't think my favorite thing about this is it's volume free the like bob yeah you three three it's like what was the first two i think it's i think it might be an in joke that it's the third iteration of this song ah that and but that would be very clever if that was true
00:37:58
Speaker
We also see that k Christie has now organised the See I Didn't Do It boy thing where Bart is just in a tent. And we see that Abe is in the line and he blames the Democrats but he has to pay to see his castle. Yeah, I liked the shot of Bart in the tent, like the silhouette. That gave me very, like, Kubrick vibes. I don't know why.
00:38:16
Speaker
Chris also reveals there's a chat line called Bot Chat and we see a girl call in and it's clearly Barney. It's always Barney, man. If they ever need anyone that needs that is doing us a so a sad little job, it's always Barney.
00:38:31
Speaker
No one person in this town works harder than Barney Gamble. It's a pity he gets the line wrong and I didn't do nothing. I didn't do nothing. and i I didn't do it. Yeah, whatever.
00:38:43
Speaker
And he burps. Oh, good fun. She's also got a Corey poster on the wall in the background. All we needed now was ah was a copy of a non what is it non non-threatening boys.
00:38:54
Speaker
yeah That's the one. We've got to Sue Bart and he's now being stared at by everybody in the class, including Mrs. Kraboppo. Bart says, shouldn't we be learning something? Garl says, say the line, Bart. I did not know that's where this episode came from, but I feel like I've said that about 12 times this series.
00:39:10
Speaker
Barth finally says, I didn't do it, and everyone cheers. Yeah, this is one of those bits that's very much taken a life of its own. Outside the episode, it's memed to death.
00:39:21
Speaker
Homer is trying to get Lisa to say something funny, and wooza-wazza. Remember that one for later. and yeah And Lisa says she doesn't want to become famous for some obnoxious fad, which depresses the hell out of Barth.
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah. Did you notice that then Lisa looks guilty? Like she was clearly like intending to be not gossipy, but you know like ah talking behind his back. But then when she realized that Bart had actually heard what she said, there is, they did actually animate her looking guilty, which I thought was very interesting.
00:39:54
Speaker
She normally sticks by what she says, but you know, that's the thing is, is Lisa as a character does tend to be like kind of bitchy behind people's backs. she read You know, she rarely confronts people that aren't bad.
00:40:06
Speaker
and I don't know. It's just interesting. i want You know, this isn't me being on a like fuck Lisa rant. I just thought it was genuinely interesting character work and animation. Elmo tries to reassure Bart that they used to say the same thing about Urkel, then he remembers how much he dislikes Urkel and promises he wants to beat up that kid.
00:40:22
Speaker
Yeah, people really dislike Urkel, man. I mean, yeah, i obviously obvious choice for this episode being a character that's, like, famous for Roka at Trey's, right? Did I do that?
00:40:33
Speaker
Actually, it's perfect, because did I do that? I didn't do it. Kind of genius. Yeah. yeah Get yourself some copyright loyalties there Urkel, you've been screwed Poor Urkel Then cut to Bart looking through many books because he's trying to get some intelligent stuff to say while he's on the Conan O'Brien show Hey, in reference there and Homer says Don't forget to say the line and Bart says, there's more to him And he says, make sure you watch the Conan O'Brien show, you'll see i do Yeah, i like I liked Homer's next line of like, after Leno, laughed out.
00:41:11
Speaker
I don't know why. i love when Homer just says these things to his children. I don't i don't know why it very much amuses me. Conan cuts to the Conan O'Brien show and Bart's trying to get an intelligent conversation going about the vain voice but Conan cuts him off and says just do the line. and Just say the line, Bart.
00:41:27
Speaker
Bart does say the line and Conan says they'll be right back. He begins dancing and Bart kind of joins and then Conan O'Brien tells him to perfectly still. Only I may dance.
00:41:38
Speaker
and Conan just goes back to dancing. He didn't sound like Conan, that's the weird thing. He sounded like some rando British dude. Very easy celebrity get for them, though, being as he is, you know, one of their former writers. Yeah, a little bit.
00:41:50
Speaker
We don't see that Bart is in bed we worrying about where his life's going to go, and we see that he would have been on the Match Game 2034 with Billy Crystal and Farrah Fawcett.
00:42:01
Speaker
um Farrah Fawcett will not be on that because she's unfortunately passed. I think Lonnie Anderson may have also passed. Spike Lee's still going strong, so he'll be there. ah Kitty Carlisle's head definitely will not make it because Bart inadvertently kills her. Does she hiss at him because she's called Kitty?
00:42:18
Speaker
Because she hisses at him and then Bart freaks out and knocks the... think she might just not like him. Yeah, but why'd she fucking hiss? It's just weird. Also vaguely foreshadowing some Futurama there with a head in the jar. Yeah.
00:42:32
Speaker
Experimenting with the concept. o Marge tries to tell Bart that it's time for the show and Bart blocks the door. Then we come to Krusty wondering where Bart is and it's got tension on his shoulder so he asks somebody to walk on his back.
00:42:44
Speaker
Then Krusty gets literally trampled and calls for no teamsters because, you know, they're fat. and uh marge tries to console bart and says she knows that he feels a bit silly saying same four words and she says you're making people happy and uh part finally comes out the room says it's his job to be repetitive because he's in television and just to underline this part but repeats uh several phrases including my job my job and repetitiveness is my job rapid goingitimizes repetition repetition repetition legitimizes
00:43:15
Speaker
And he's going to give the best performance of his life. And my wife goes, the best performance of your life? The best performance of my life. Repetition legitimizes. We don't see Krusty's wumbling around backstage wondering what that lousy little pisher is. And then he sees that part here.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah, they really lean into the fact that Krusty's Jewish after that episode. Every then, they're just like, we're not going to make Krusty a Jewish stereotype.
00:43:40
Speaker
We will regularly have him say, Jewish thing. Yiddish. Like Yiddish, yeah, sorry. right Yeah, yeah, yeah. like you just says yeahd Liberal sprinkling of Yiddish expressions in things, yeah.
00:43:52
Speaker
We don't see Christy give part his introduction, which is, now here's the thing that you've been salivating like dogs to see. Very specific.
00:44:01
Speaker
It's what I say if just before I take my clothes off. Bart goes out and says the line and gets a few light chuckles. He then repeats it and no one laughs this time. And Bart goes with woozle-wazzle.
00:44:13
Speaker
And everybody wonders what the hell he's talking about and immediately leaves. Bart walks off the stage and asks Christy what happened and Christy says, ah, he just finished. He then leads Bart to the exit and says, one day you're on top of the water, the next day you're a schmuck in the box factory.
00:44:27
Speaker
The guy from the box factory told you he shouts out the window. Bart points out that show business is cruel and Christy slams the door in his face just to reinforce the point. yep We then see Bart go on a sad walk through Springfield and he overhears the radio show announcers mocking him saying, oh, that bit got old fast and you've got to stay fresh.
00:44:45
Speaker
People just leaving their car radios and windows open in Springfield. Bart should have stolen that radio. Should've. I mean, the guy was in the car, he's just sort of sat waiting for a fair. Oh, was he? didn't... Yeah.
00:44:57
Speaker
there's There's a hand and a leg visible here. We then cut back to the Simpson home and Marge starts handing out all the I didn't do it paraphernalia and says she saved all this. So, Bart can always be reminded that he was the world's most special little guy.
00:45:12
Speaker
And Lisa reassures him that he can now go back to being himself instead of a one-dimensional character with a silly catchphrase. At that moment, Homer breaks a lamp and all hell breaks loose as we get about nine catchphrases in a row from several characters that have absolutely no reason to be there. Doe, Icarumba, mmm, ha ha, excellent, Hadley Ho, neighborino.
00:45:31
Speaker
Barney's burp. And Barney's burp. Why the hell are all these people in this house? What a stupid question. To say they catchphrases. For the bit. For the bit.
00:45:41
Speaker
They all look at Lisa expectedly, and Lisa just says, if you want me, I'm going to be in my room. Isn't this like the first time she says that? Because it becomes her catchphrase, but it's not her catchphrase at the time, is it?
00:45:52
Speaker
don't think so. I don't think of it being catchphrase. don't think I've ever heard her say it until after this episode. Lisa one looks off as i everyone stares at her. It's a screen goes to black you just get Homer's voice like, what kind of catchphrase is that?
00:46:04
Speaker
yeah i But yeah, exactly. I think that's the joke. That it isn't her catchphrase yet. Yeah. I wonder if they were intentionally knowingly going make it into a catchphrase when they did that. Or they just thought they could then conveniently make the joke and that that almost like...
00:46:23
Speaker
retroactively makes the joke funnier if you then re-watch Simpsons you're like wait a minute it's not her catchphrase yet oh ha ha ha ha ha ah behold my natural laughter ha ha ha I've been practicing I'm worried about you health sorry I'm worried about me too so what do we think of this one Speaking of repetition legitimizers, I'm beginning to think I'm beginning to sound like a broken record of my own.
00:46:51
Speaker
This episode was fine. It had a good laugh or two, sometimes that, but sometimes the highlight of an episode is just a random bit. But I can't seem to remember it right now because I'm wearing a towel out of home ah That seems like a very legitimate opinion.
00:47:06
Speaker
you know Again, we're all sound like a broken record. The episode was funnier to talk about. In a vacuum, a lot of bits are funnier. There are some like good bits in this. It is a good episode of Simpsons.
00:47:17
Speaker
um'm i'm I'm going to say it is a good episode. um'm not going to say it was bad. Yeah, I mean, i thought for me, it was just overly smug. Like, I think that took some of the enjoyment out of it. It's like the that right back to the start, the self-referential shit is like, oh God, I can already see what they're doing with this. It's just going to be like, hey, i don't look at all the things that we do. Let's poke fun at like our own sort of tropes and ideas and the way we do comedy.
00:47:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's it knows what it's doing and it's being really fucking smug about it. I can i can see that. I find that a little grating. Yeah, I can see that, totally. Yeah, I mean, my sort of ah final thoughts on it were that I am very glad that we seem to have, as a society, grown out of catchphrase comedy, because obviously it was pretty big in the 90s and yeah early noughties.
00:48:07
Speaker
I'm glad that that's not really a thing we do so much anymore. What you talking about, John?
00:48:14
Speaker
But I don't think The Simpsons having a bit of a snark for 20 minutes about it is what got us out of it. Oh, dynamite. Dynamite. i thought it was I thought it was... I love it when a plan comes together.
00:48:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's a lot better than I remember it. Yeah, it's fun episode. It's fine. I'm going to give it a secondhand Danish out of Homer. What does that even mean? It means... It means I'm very glad to have it, but I'm just a bit worried about who touched it.
00:48:39
Speaker
you just Yeah, you're just hoping that Ken Brockman didn't touch it. John? I gave it highly hope on Castorinos out of Homer. You stole my bed.
00:48:49
Speaker
You bastard. I was contemplating going with I need a catchphrase out of Homer. Hello and welcome to more man in the morning then. Out of Homer.
00:49:03
Speaker
In terms of like society and stuff, I think this had like plenty of obvious jokes about how we as society latch onto a lot of things and kind of forget that ah forget about them later. One hit wonders continue to be a thing. Which always kind of raffles It kind of explains it kind of explains the ah fleetingness of fads.
00:49:20
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. How quickly they can die out. It's a fairly obvious what is this trying to say But I will say as well The guys that did the theme tune to Friends Actually did some good songs which is weird So it's weird to me that they became a worthy wonder Their music is actually really good I think that's the problem sometimes When you have one really good song that's the one Yeah it's nothing else compares And they won't give anything else a chance Yeah no that's totally fair I am surprised that the writers Didn't take the chance to make any jabs at All the people that said Simpsons Would be like a fad
00:49:52
Speaker
and wouldn't last, you know, considering it had, like, plenty of doubters. I'm surprised they didn't even make at least one joke. I mean, they might have made a really, really, like, fucking vague joke that I just didn't notice, but that is something I'm surprised they didn't do.
00:50:08
Speaker
Yeah. Right, folks. Switch off if you don't want to be triggered. Ooh. Ooh, are you ready to for some edgy comedy? Let's get ready to rumble. Welcome for some no flakes.
00:50:21
Speaker
What's the next episode? We are into Homer and Apu, which aired on February 10th, 1994.
00:50:32
Speaker
Let's just get what happened on this day out of the way quickly before we go into the episode material. There isn't a great lot to go into. The 45th Berlin International Film Festival took place and, in the name of the father, won the Golden Bear.
00:50:47
Speaker
That legitimately all have. you're not familiar with the film festival or the award, I've never heard of a Golden Bear in my life. Well, you know, if if Michael went to a club and painted himself gold, you'd see one. How dare you bring my private life into this That was a compliment I know but Calling you a very handsome gay man Very hairy gay man apparently How dare you That's what a bear is, it's a hairy gay man Yeah it's a big hairy gay man Big hairy gay man, yeah I'm not getting enough tips I thought you said to not gain enough tits
00:51:25
Speaker
that's not Well, bad too, depending on a certain perspective.
00:51:35
Speaker
The US s number one is The Power of Love by Celine Dion. UK number one, Things Can Only Get Better is still rocking the number one spot. The theme of the 90s. Yeah.
00:51:48
Speaker
No, it's hard to play this. So, Homer and Apu is obviously a jumping off point for an interesting bit of discourse around...
00:52:00
Speaker
Is Apu offensive as a character? So as a little bit of background reading on this, something we'll probably get into a bit more at the end of it, but I'll give the context up front, I suppose.
00:52:14
Speaker
Yeah, I would say to the listeners, if you just want us if you just want to hear us talk about the episode like we normally would, that's totally fine. You know, but i like like John said, we'll probably get into the nitty gritty of it after the episode and have a talk about it there.
Apu's Storyline and Commentary
00:52:28
Speaker
But if you're just here for, you know, funny British men say funny British things, that's fine. But we do. There is a conversation to be had here. There is a conversation to be had here about Apu and and his effects. Because while, yes, we do like to sit here and say funny British things, like John has has said multiple times, The Simpsons has a lot to say about society.
00:52:48
Speaker
And has had an effect on society. You know, some of us were literally not alive when Simpsons started because Simpsons started in fucking 89 on the sketch comedy show.
00:53:00
Speaker
You know, I wasn't born until 93. So Simpsons has always existed while I've grown up and it has affected the world around us. and talking about Simpsons on this podcast has made me re-evaluate things that I have experienced in my life and things I thought were funny then and maybe don't find funny now.
00:53:17
Speaker
thought I you know think before we go into any forms of debate, I think it's important for but and of the context of this whole thing. you are getting the opinions of three white dudes, three individuals that have very similar, are the same race, have the same sorts of upbringings in terms of class and where we were brought up into.
00:53:40
Speaker
so Well, other than John, who was brought up with, you know, ah several did very varied races of servants and a golden spoon in their mouth and is regularly filled caviar.
00:53:51
Speaker
served caviar from the is that how you see me yes 100 that is how i see you I love you because like Bumblebee Man, come on. I love you, Jon, but you you you always have come across very posh to me. you could have You could have come up from the gutter and I wouldn't believe you. I mean, like, Michael is bang on, like, our backgrounds are pretty damn similar, I think. But, yeah yeah, no, I sound like Bumblebee Man when he's not in character, yes. little bit.
00:54:22
Speaker
I don't deny this. Anyway, sorry. Carry on, Michael. you were being You were being very smart. I don't think I was. I mean, it's just... ah You're not going to get point of reference or experience that people mostly affected by the consequences of a poo would Yeah, we do not have that first-hand lived experience of being affected by what this character has done to society. We can't speak with authority.
00:54:51
Speaker
We can only speak from... what we know as sort of quote unquote woke individuals and also from the homework that we did.
00:55:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah so I had everybody watch a documentary which came out 2017 called The Problem with Apu. This was created by an Indian comedian and he, yeah, explains like all the ways that Apu and the Simpsons representation of Indians and Indian culture impacted him and people like him growing up.
00:55:26
Speaker
So this is something we will delve into a little bit more at the end, I think. And I would recommend to anybody that's not seen it, actually do go check it out. it's only Yeah, it's actually really fascinating. It's only 49 minutes long and being brutally honest, it's very eye-opening in the way that I sort of viewed the situation because I will be kind of candidly honest.
00:55:50
Speaker
I was somewhat dismissive about it until I actually watched that. Same. No, absolutely. I'll i'll i'll like i'll admit that. ah Harry Condobulu is the ah the name of the comedian in question. That's your man, yes.
00:56:03
Speaker
Yeah. I didn't write it down in my notes and i was suddenly like, no, I forgot it. So I was dancing around it while I googled it again because I was oh crap, I can't remember the guy's name. But thank you for showing me up on that one.
00:56:14
Speaker
Well, this is what we're here for. This is we're So, yeah I mean, admittedly, it is extraordinarily hard to find at this documentary. You will have to go to some slightly dodgy websites because sir the documentary about Indian culture is unavailable on modern streaming platforms. heres It's been just wiped out because it was inconvenient and unprofitable, presumably.
00:56:36
Speaker
So it's out there, but you really got to look for it and um dance around with some malware, probably. If you don't care about your phone. But worth watching if you can find it. Anyway, ah where are we at? We are up to a couch gag, I suppose.
00:56:51
Speaker
Yeah, let's do the couch gag. Chalkboard, even. ah The chalkboard gag, which is, I will not go near the kindergarten turtle. What the fuck was Bo doing to that? yeah i mean What even is this? What is this? This is something I've learned very quickly about myself over the years. since is is just Even implied abuse of an animal is less funny to me than anything else.
00:57:15
Speaker
So this did this this got an anti-laugh from me. i didn't Obviously, I didn't like turn off the episode and call up Simpsons and be like, I want to complain about your... No, it's just not funny to me.
00:57:26
Speaker
It's just not funny to me. If some people can find humor in it, that's fine. But as soon as anyone ah implies that someone was violent or abusive to an animal, I immediately start disliking that character.
00:57:39
Speaker
That's just a thing with me. So, you know, it it was... that's my um That's my Rubicon. That's the thing I can't cross. I can't laugh at animals in distress or pain. I just can't.
00:57:51
Speaker
Which is ironic because love chicken. I love caves. give Give me burgers. Give me everything. I don't find it funny, but I you know i find it delicious. I am suddenly very tickled by the idea of somebody writing to Points of View to complain about a TV show from 1994, though.
00:58:05
Speaker
Absolutely. We'll get some pen and paper out for that. I'll get on it. So the couch gag is the heads peeking out from behind the sofa, except Maggie's which appears... I found this too funny. I don't know what. I am just very easily amused by visual. You love a couch gag. I love a couch gag. What can I say? I'm the couch gag guy. I find most of them very funny.
00:58:26
Speaker
we need to fight We need to find a chalkboard gag guy and get him get him on the podcast. Yeah, the one guy that finds... I feel like we'd be searching a long time. If there's a couch gag guy, there must be a chalkboard gag must be a chalkboard guy. That's, you know, there's the... Write in.
00:58:41
Speaker
We need the ying to my yang. Yeah, write in, get in touch. ah you Do you find all of the chalkboard gags hilarious? We want you on the pod. Come be our fourth mic. Tell us why the chalkboard gags are hilarious.
00:58:53
Speaker
the kind The monkey paw curls and it turns out they're a horrible racist. Oh, no. Maybe not then. Diving into the episode, we're at the Quickie Mart and we see that Apu is ah being slightly questionable of his charging, which includes charging $1.85 for stamp Mm-hmm.
00:59:13
Speaker
and two dollars worth of gas is actually four but twenty and a penny candy is surprisingly expensive Everybody goes off disgruntled, including one man who twists up a Twinkie.
00:59:24
Speaker
You cannot harm a Twinkie. but I did, I admittedly found that funny. Because it's true, Twinkies are indestructible. I did like him calling him a silly customer. Yeah, he's like, you he's so um servile that he won't actually insult a customer, but he will call them silly.
00:59:43
Speaker
I don't think I've ever had a Twinkie. I can't remember what recall having one. I think I've had one when they very briefly sold them in England. and believe it's just cake with cream, aren't they? Yeah, they are so astronomically fine that it is almost irritating how much people like them.
01:00:01
Speaker
On my occasional trips to the States, I've tried to so seek out, like, the iconic American treats. Yeah, like I do that. don't I ever came across a Twinkie. Yeah. I still love having a moon pie.
01:00:13
Speaker
Moon pie is the big one, yeah. Love a moon pie. You can give me a list of stuff you want me to try while I'm in the States for two months. Get yourself a Shaq iced tea. Alright. For God's sake.
01:00:27
Speaker
We don't see Apu realises that his ham is out of date by at least five years. Yep. Expired in 1989. And Apu decides instead of, you know, getting rid of the ham, he just scribbles out the date and puts in the bargain bin.
01:00:40
Speaker
Yeah, I like that he he, because of the way it's written, he just crosses it there, so then it says, ham, expired.
01:00:49
Speaker
Apov criticises himself saying that ah he's gone too far and no one will forfeit. At that moment, Homer runs in, grabs the cheap meat, and says, is it a bonus? It's already open. Yeah, what is it? It's so rank, man. Ooh, this one's open. Yeah, it's so wrong.
01:01:06
Speaker
We cut to Homer at home on his couch and but then hear his stomach start to make the noises as Homer laments the fact that his stomach is churning and his bowels are clenching. We see him fall out of frame and we just see him going, must finish.
01:01:17
Speaker
Have any of you been that dedicated to finishing something even though you're like in pain or whatever? Yes. i am me and Me and our podcast friend friend of the podcast, Blaney, we KFC was doing this deal where essentially if you ah basically, not literally, but if you ordered like a bucket of chicken, they would send you send you equivalent another bucket of chicken in other chicken related products. That was basically it.
01:01:42
Speaker
um So it was like spicy chicken, boneless chicken, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we were just like, holy shit, for 15 pounds, we can get more chicken than we've ever seen in our lives.
01:01:53
Speaker
So we ordered it, obviously. like And we're both sat there watching films. And both of us are red. I mean red with how much chicken we've eaten. And we're both there like, nope, I'm going to finish this chicken.
01:02:06
Speaker
And we ate so much chicken that by the end of it, neither of us could talk and we're sweating. But we're just like, nah, I'm not. like i My favorite thing is is is that Blaney genuinely said, I'm not letting this chicken beat me.
01:02:21
Speaker
It's just so real. You call it the food win. I love KFC, man. Holy shit. We get a shot of an ambulance and we see that Homer's now on a drip. And Dr. Hippert diagnoses Homer as either having eating a spoiled food or he's under some kind of voodoo curse.
01:02:36
Speaker
What a weird thing to say. We don't see Patty and Zoma are also in the room just poking pins into Homer's eyes. but He wasn't wrong. He was under a voodoo curse. He was under a voodoo curse. It was an accurate diagnosis.
01:02:50
Speaker
Hopper comes back to the quickie mark to yell out Apu for making his making him sick, and Apu has an apology off sin five pounds of frozen shrimp. Umar points out it's not actually frozen, and it smells funny, so Apu gives him another five pounds of it, and Umar is excited, and we immediately come back to the same shot of him. I've got to be honest, guys. I've got to be honest. Judge me all you want.
01:03:09
Speaker
That would win me over. Holy shit, do I love shrimp. 10 pounds of defrosted funny smelling shrimp. Yeah. Yeah, it'll cook off. It's fine. Throw it in the air fryer. Homer does get some very fast-acting food poisoning here. It's got to be said. Absolutely. I have gotten food fruit food poisoning twice in my life, and it's from the same thing, which is eating a mushroom straight out of the fridge.
01:03:35
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. Didn't wash them. Supposed to wash them. We got fresh mushrooms, so, you know, they had dirt on them. And I was just like, I love mushrooms, so I just ate a mushroom. I just ate a handful of mushrooms. I got food poisoning.
01:03:46
Speaker
I had it once as best I can ascertain from a Toby Carvery. Toby Carvery's fucking foul, man. ah do not I do not like buffets. Period.
01:03:57
Speaker
I do not like buffets. I got it from a takeaway pizza place. They're called Abracababra. Nice. that sounds like somewhere you would that That sounds like a place that sells food poisoning.
01:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's entirely on me, to be fair. Yeah, that's that's on you, but I mean, you know, it's fair. Friend of the pod, Al, told me he got food poisoning from trunk sushi once.
01:04:20
Speaker
Yeah, I imagine sushi is right. Yeah, and again, that so that's on him on That's on him. and the like no one No one can blame the guy selling sushi from his trunk. That's on the guy buying it.
01:04:32
Speaker
Was it ยฃ10 by the chance? Oh, okay. When you said trunk sushi, like i mean like I didn't quite like appreciate that you meant it was from the trunk of a car. I was just like, what, is that the name of a brand? No. Or that restaurant something? No. Oh, okay, no. jack a car Just some guy on the street. Hey, kid, want to buy some sushi?
01:04:49
Speaker
i think he was I think he was traveling. i've got five I've got five pounds of shrimp for you. Anyway, Simpson, I'm so sorry. Look up to a Homer lying on his couch while he's watching Kent Rockman's bite back.
01:05:03
Speaker
This bit got old real fast, guys. I think we can all agree on that. This was the point at which I realized that this this episode didn't have enough material to fill the runtime.
01:05:13
Speaker
Well, there's several clues as to this episode was having to kill some time, which includes um the dog barking at every single word and cutting away to brought you by. And then we just hear the dog barking off. and did it Did any of you actually watch Crime Watch? I only watched like a couple episodes a kid.
01:05:31
Speaker
It wasn't really something my parents watched, so it wasn't something I watched. I don't remember many specific details of it. I remember watching it. So you did watch it? I do remember Jill Dando's murder just because of how big that was when that happened.
01:05:43
Speaker
This has nothing to do with Simpsons, I'm just asking. Carry on. We then see that Ken Brockman is doing his intro and says that the update on last week's nursing home expos of geezers in freezers was it was the wrong footage.
01:05:55
Speaker
And we've been told to apologise for using the term geezer. And now, up next, the case of the catankerous old geezer. It'd have been great if they then showed a picture of Abe Simpson. I thought that's where this is going. Yeah, exactly.
01:06:10
Speaker
Instead, Homer's stomach starts to make noises and Homer wonders why he can't get any justice. Kate Brockman says, if you've got a consumer complaint, just call this number and Homer declares it's boring. And Lisa suggests that he could blow the whistle on the cookie bar and the dog starts barking again. Lisa be quiet, the dog's barking, which is just a weird sentence.
01:06:30
Speaker
We don't cut on Homer's in the Channel 6 studios and Kent Brockman wants him to go undercover and Homer... Why was this so weirdly lit? Like, it look it it gave backroom casting couch vibes.
01:06:41
Speaker
Very strange. I think they were going for, like, a detective vibe of Matthew, I think, is what they were obviously going for. and Because Homer goes... Like, noir. Noir. It is a reference. I think i think um some sarcasm suggests this particular line, and I guess the scene probably is JFK.
01:07:01
Speaker
Okay. I don't know. I haven't seen it. not of Not familiar, but... So, John, it's this thing called a movie, right? Okay, so so but you know what? You've seen the episodes of Simpsons, okay? Imagine one that's really, really long, but with real people in it.
01:07:15
Speaker
No, can't imagine it. Alright, no, that's fair, that's fair, that's fair. I get that, yeah. They're pretty rare, so it's not surprising. Carry on. So Homer puts on a whole production about how he's not going to be a patsy and he's not going to wear a wire.
01:07:28
Speaker
And Ken Brockman asks him, would you be willing to wear a hidden camera and a microphone? Homer goes, yeah, book it. love the idea that Homer just doesn't know what a wire is, but he knows he's supposed to say, I'll never wear a wire.
01:07:40
Speaker
then go to the next scene and Homer and Ken Brockman have got their base inside the van that's labelled Ordinary Van. i never noticed that was it i didn't i missed that detail ordinary van it pay no attention to the men inside the van it literally is isn't it that's incredible that's great so kebberman says he's got a tiny camera for homer which is in a giant oversized novelty cowboy texas hat and kebber tells him to go get the footage and to be out in 10 minutes or he'll suffer permanent neck damage and we cut to the horribly twisted man with the Nick obviously wore the hat for 10 minutes. Yeah, don't worry for 10 minutes. And he's like, he's not kidding or whatever he says.
01:08:17
Speaker
Is he employed by the news year news team or is he just there as a cautionary tale? I think they just hire him as a cautionary tale. They call him cautionary Ted. We then see Homer slowly walking to the cookie mart, and we get to see Apu plainly locking up the hat. He's staring through the door as he's wobbling in.
01:08:38
Speaker
Pay no attention to me, Apu. Just continue your day. Or whatever he says. Paul points out the hat is making a buzzing noise that there may be a bee in there. So fucking stupid.
01:08:53
Speaker
And I hope everyone's back into the house and Ken Brockman points out the hat has been in the station for 20 years and it had one day left of retirement. Fair enough. So the hat's on the floor, but still recording somehow, apparently.
01:09:06
Speaker
Yep. And we then see that Apu loading up his hot dogs. He drops one and goes, oh, it's encrusted in filth, but I'm going to sell it anyway. But this is between you and me, Mr. Hat. Yeah.
01:09:17
Speaker
It's so strange. Why is he talking to the hat, man? because it's there. Yeah, Brockman is excited because they finally got him and turns around to tell Homer and Homer's gone. We don't see he's actually ordering that hot dog.
01:09:29
Speaker
We don't see that the buyback is now on the television and then we see that Apu is being interviewed and Apu is not doing well. He's ah sweating like hell going, will you stop selling spoiled meat? Apu goes, no, I mean, yes. That's a brutal interview question. It's very much in the same genre as when did you stop beating your wife? Yeah.
01:09:48
Speaker
Yeah. Apu thinks he came out that looking very well as the kids run away from You monster. Then we see that the Quickie Mart HQ comes in and informs Apu that he has disgraced the Quickie Mart and Apu points out he was just following standard procedure.
01:10:02
Speaker
And the inspector goes, but it's also standard procedure to blame any problems on a scapegoat or a sacrificial lamb. Apu asks what happens if he can obtain these animals. Yeah, that was that was that was probably one of the main jokes for me in this episode that I thought, that's a bit...
01:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, they were trying to do something cultural with that and it doesn't feel great. And that was funny. thought i was a bit The inspector rips Apu's name tag off. He rips off his ah patch that tells everyone about fried pickles.
01:10:34
Speaker
He tells Apu's hand with his pricing guns and Apu's got these in like gun holsters. one One by his ankle. And Apu declares that he doesn't want to live anymore and he tries to eat one of the hot dogs and the inspector has to wrestle it out of his hands.
01:10:47
Speaker
Suicide by Wiener. I love watching two men fight over a Wiener.
01:10:52
Speaker
We then go to Apu looking sadly over a bridge and Apu thinks that the babbling brook sounds like it's mocking him. Turns out it's not. It's two buns tickling. Who needs money when we've got feathers?
01:11:05
Speaker
Apu then walks past a window, which is doing a laughing monkey sale. Now on sale, laughing monkeys. The monkeys all begin to laugh at him, and Apu walks back, and it begins to rain on him, and Apu realises this is all Homer's fault.
01:11:17
Speaker
He then looks and sees that Homer is in his house watching TV, and Homer is watching an evening at the improv where a black comedian is ah doing a routine about how people drive cars. Doing some racial humour, sure. okay And Homer um my finds it side-clicking to me because ah white people are lame.
01:11:35
Speaker
I thought it was pretty accurate though. Is this true? White people drive with their booties wiggling around like that, do they? Well, it's about my mum drives.
01:11:45
Speaker
Apu decides it's time to sell the score and knocks on the door. Homer answers it and Apu is just looking at him dead-eyed, his arms outstretched. And Homer begins to panic and you see that he screams. then We then have a blackout and then we come back and Homer is scared that so he did not know there was film in that camera and cries that he was unaware.
01:12:04
Speaker
Apu then points out that this is the typical apology pose of his his village. And then Apu then realizes that this pose might be slightly confusing and many have died needlessly because of it.
01:12:16
Speaker
Yeah, I thought that but that was very... Is it that then they do start strangling them or that they then kill the people that look like they're about to strangle them? I mean, I think this is solely set up for the bit outside the quickie mod later.
01:12:28
Speaker
That's fair. Apu says he's here to make amends because he was mad at Homer but realises it was his fault and he's here to sell Homer the concept of karmic realignment.
01:12:38
Speaker
I love Homer's response. Homer says, you can't sell like because karmic can only be being portioned out by the cosmos. He slams the door in. I will never not be entertained by Homer saying randomly intelligent shit.
01:12:51
Speaker
It is the funniest part of Simpsons most of the time. Homer slams the door in his face and Apu can only meekly say, well, he's got me there. Yes, he it's true. It's only be doled out by the cosmos. He's just like, damn, Homer.
01:13:04
Speaker
We don't see that Apu is now raking leaves and Homer comes down annoyed because that's Marge's job and he's worried that he's going to start doing Lisa's wood chopping. How often does Homer need someone to cut wood? How often does that need to happen?
01:13:17
Speaker
He needs firewood. ah All right, fair enough. Do they have a fire? Yes. recall ever seeing a boat. They do in the piano room that is simultaneously there and not there in the Simpsons house.
01:13:27
Speaker
Okay. Because as far as I'm aware, you go through the front door and then you turn left into the piano room and fireplace room. And then next to that is where the couch and TV are.
01:13:40
Speaker
Unless it it decides for the sake of the episode that that needs to then be next to, that the front door needs to be next to the couch and TV room. So it varies.
01:13:51
Speaker
Someone somewhere on the Simpsons Wiki, I assume, has done floor plan of the Simpsons House. Is the Simpsons House an SCP? is what where you know Is it an anomaly?
01:14:05
Speaker
Quite possibly. Do we need to call the Federal Bureau of Control? Shout out if you know that reference. I do not. I can make esoteric references as well. Lick my balls, viewers.
01:14:18
Speaker
don't cut and Apu is now making the family dinner and Marge declares it's quite exotic and Lisa is finding it too spicy because she can now see through time. I can see through time! Homer says they shouldn't be afraid to try new things because tonight for the first time he's using whatever this white thing is and Apu confirms it's a napkin and Homer declares this is outrageous.
01:14:38
Speaker
I love Homer, like whenever Homer does like posh man voice, it's so good. can i oh i Can I just, sorry, just to derail, I found the Article 4, 742 Evergreen Terrace, which lists no less than 20 rooms in this house.
01:14:59
Speaker
So, because I'm reading a transcript of this, this includes scene that we should probably be, Fangal Lucky Stars was not included in the episode because it's included in and episode much later.
01:15:10
Speaker
John will probably remember what it is. Let's just say lovely Johnny. Right. Sorry, so you lost me on this. I was looking at the 20 rooms. So there's an episode where later on, it's a couple of seasons down the line where there's deleted scenes from episodes of Simpsons and this episode had a particular one.
01:15:31
Speaker
I'm not going to go into it it's um because we'll obviously get there when we get there in our episode order, but involves a Bollywood film about the lovely Johnny. And doubtub well, we'll be having some more racial discussions after we watch that.
01:15:48
Speaker
hmm. Let's back to do the episode itself, and we see that Barney is going for another job as the manager of the Quickie Mart, and Barney gives quite a good interview, actually, because he says he likes people and he wants a place where he'll be out of the sun.
01:16:03
Speaker
but Yeah, why does he want to be out of the sun? That's so specific. That is unclear. Barney burps and the inspector says he's headed shoulders above everybody else, but there's one more applicant, and it's James Woods.
01:16:16
Speaker
So this is the actual James. Yeah, I had to like Google. was like, is this the actual James Wood? Because he sounds like, he kind of sounds like, oh, fuck, what's he called? I need more cowbell. Christopher Wacken.
01:16:28
Speaker
sounds like Christopher Wacken a little bit. And I was like, this is weird. and So this is the actual James Wood. Yeah, it actually is. He has a hell of a role in this. He shows up a bunch. And he goes ham on it. I love when like proper actors come on The Simpsons and act their fucking heart out.
01:16:45
Speaker
Willem Dafoe does it in his later episode, and it's great. Worth noticing they originally wanted Michael Caine for this role. All right. well That would have been a get. Yeah, I think yeah that was going to be a struggle no matter what.
01:16:58
Speaker
And at some point, ah not necessarily for that role, but they wanted David Bowie for the guest in this episode at one point. I would have loved to see David Bowie working at the Quickie Mart, man. That would been fucking hilarious. I don't think it would have been that role, but they wanted him as a guest. Listen here, you little bastard. You better buy these fucking hot dogs or I'm going fucking slam your head in the door.
01:17:15
Speaker
was probably my as my mind I think he was probably lined up ahead of the Quickie Mart, wasn't he? We then see that James Woods' previous job experience is just listing his films. and Yeah, he's just listing movies. It was great. Wait a minute. Those aren't convenience stores.
01:17:28
Speaker
The inspector finally works out. It's actually the James Woods. And when he's asked why he wants to work there, he says he's coming going to be playing a convenience store worker in the upcoming movie. And he's in he likes to research and really get into them.
01:17:41
Speaker
He also reveals that he worked in a law firm and also said that he had a cameo where he went back in time to the twenty s and then stops himself before he says too much more and he gets hired. So James Wood does time travel apparently.
01:17:54
Speaker
Well, yeah, obviously. They don't cut and Homer's having a shower. You can't fault Simpsons for reporting on real events. Duh. Homer's in the shower and Apu's there to greet him with a tell.
01:18:05
Speaker
Apu assures him that he's not got anything he hasn't seen. Apu stops and realises that there's a lollipop stuck to Homer's chest and Homer says he likes to have it there. Then he goes to Apu in the kitchen, he's stacking cans and Marge says, this isn't the way we starve, because ah they'll never move that way.
01:18:19
Speaker
We then see Lisa and Barton enthusiastically take some corn because they can see it. Haven't had that in a while. Marge asks Apu if he wants to go to the quickie mart and Apu knocks over all the cans and he can't go to the place of his spiritual depancing.
01:18:32
Speaker
I also want to point out that fucking sweet corn, hype as fuck. I'll eat a bowl of sweet corn. Hell yeah. That's my contribution. My interest is to go to the Monstromart and... The new Monstromart, which had a grand opening. The new Monstromart, which had grand opening last week. Although they've changed the signage. The sign is lot grander than it was last time.
01:18:52
Speaker
Well, yeah, they had their grand opening. Duh. The sign know sin also says, where shopping is a baffling ordeal. yeah This whole thing, I'm relatively confident, is just a jab at Costco, to be part of. I was going to yeah, how old is Costco?
01:19:10
Speaker
Good question. I feel like older than The Simpsons, right? second The second Googling of the... ah ah that I like how it directed me to my nearest Costco, not, you know... Founded 1983. 1983. Holy can't wait to go to a proper American Costco as well. I'm going to buy it so much crap.
01:19:32
Speaker
We see that everything is ah massive in Monstro, including the 12 pounds of nutmeg. Apu comments that it's great selection at rock bottom prices, but wonders where the love is. Over the loudspeaker, the man announces that he just wants to remind everyone that he loves each and every one of them, and the Apu is not impressed.
01:19:48
Speaker
I like the idea the the the notion that a guy that is the manager of a fucking chain, not even a corner shop, this is like a convenience shop, convenience store, is annoyed at the lack of personal touch.
01:20:05
Speaker
That's very amusing to me. We did see our friend Barney, and he's looking for the lampshades, and he unfortunately asks a giant woman-shaped bottle of syrup, which he accidentally knocks over.
01:20:16
Speaker
Barney panics because he's killed her, and it's happening again. It's Mrs. Butterworth's, you fucking heathen. Sorry, to go back to the where is the love bit, like... Where is the love? Where is the love?
01:20:28
Speaker
I'm not aware enough of Costco's practices to like know the ins and outs of this, but also like I know Idiocracy because i also riffed on the same kind of thing because they had the greeters in Costco and they go, welcome to Costco. I love you. Welcome to Costco. I love you. I've never seen it. That's great. That's fucking funny.
01:20:49
Speaker
funny and his attempts to get away from the murder scene it inevitably crashes into a stack of cranberry juice why don't they show this do know like they they they it's all implied she fought like the mrs butworth's bottle i put way too much rum in my drink uh the mrs butworth's bottle falls over and you hear the cap coming off and the syrup pouring out but you don't see any of it and it's like This isn't even, like, implied violence. It's a bottle of syrup leak. Like, it
01:21:24
Speaker
you know this is I guess, again, it's laziness. not no and I'm going to say laziness. These animators are worked to the absolute bone. I mean, you do see the syrup pour out, but it's very quickly done. it just very quickly you I did not on Disney+. Oh, okay. I'm scrolling through frame by frame on Frinkiac. It happens over a few frames. Can you send me a picture? Because ah genuinely, on my end, you cannot see anything above the shoulders on Disney+. plus What?
01:21:54
Speaker
no genuine Genuinely, this is this isn't me misremembering. You cannot see anything above the shoulders when she falls over. You do not see any syrup leave ah the... Yeah, you cannot see that.
01:22:06
Speaker
You cannot see that at all on Disney+. That's wild. got to be honest with you. Of all the things that thought this episode, this recording of the podcast and the directions it was going to go in, didn't think we were going to get derailed by but the conspiracy of whether not there was syrup on Disney+. play They don't. Genuinely, go watch it on Disney+. plus They do not show this.
01:22:29
Speaker
they They decided to censor this. That's crazy to me. That's insane. No. It's wild. Right. While we're talking, I'm going pull up Disney+. and I'm going to im trying to get a screenshot.
01:22:41
Speaker
but they They do not show you this. While Matt's looking that up, everybody is fleeing from the tsunami of cranberry sauce that Varnie has now created. Oh, this was so funny. I like this. It was very dumb joke, but it was very funny.
01:22:54
Speaker
The ah shop assistant starts screaming for help and then stops and goes, ooh, it's cran-tastic. Yeah, ooh, it's cran-tastic. Then see that Apu and Marge are at the express line and Apu points out that it's not going to be quick because Abe Simpson's at the front of the line and he's stalled for attention as he's telling a story behind his ah nickel that he got in 1957.
01:23:14
Speaker
There's a story behind this was nickel. Yeah, i thought I thought this was stories that go nowhere, but I guess he's already done that. This is just a different story that goes nowhere. And then in a personal attack against me, Apu points out that the easiest line to go to is did the pathetic single man line.
01:23:30
Speaker
I mean, he's not wrong because I do like to operate in only catching or chit chat. And yep, the line goes quickly and Marge is very happy. We cut to James Woods in his new role and gives Jimbo his change and calls him back and go asks him how he thought he did.
01:23:45
Speaker
Jimbo says he thought he was a bit labored. So James Woods now won't let him leave the store because he wants to rehearse the scene. He tells Jimbo, you're you, I'm me. And Jimbo goes, I'm me. And James Woods says, do not jerk me around, fella.
01:24:00
Speaker
Guys, I can't take a screenshot because as soon as she used to take you press the screenshot button, it blacks out Disney Plus, so going to genuinely have to take a picture of my fucking phone. What? Oh my god. Alright, I've taken it. This has become an exception.
01:24:14
Speaker
There is a whole website dedicated to screenshots of Simpsons episodes. Why would they not let you take a screenshot? That's insane. like those those are those They've lost all control of that a long time ago. Disney Plus are fucking wild, bros.
01:24:26
Speaker
I did like this scene, though. I will point out. We then cut to Marge complimenting Apu around the dinner table for helping them get out the line in Monstromart. And Lisa says he taught him how to play the Shinai.
01:24:39
Speaker
And Lisa plays it and Homer says that's worse than the album Grandpa released. Yeah, couldn't really be more on the nose about this is what Indians do. Hmm. Oh, right, oh. that That looks more like that's kind of cropped to fit an aspect ratio more than anything else, though.
01:24:54
Speaker
Mmm, don't know. It's like they've tried to squeeze it into 16.9 and just cut off the top and bottom to make that work. Maybe. What demonstrates that Hapu told him how to put his legs behind his head and says he got out of school because he convinced them that he was mangled in a car wreck.
01:25:10
Speaker
Homer points out that the vegetables that Hapu is serving him are clearing out his cholesterol. And we see Homer eat the vegetables and the cholesterol goes from his heart to his brain. This was so horrible. I hated watching this. It was iffy. It was...
01:25:23
Speaker
Most bits of Homer's internals are usually pretty icky. This is very fair. Yeah, that's very fair. And we don't see the effect it has on Homer. Homer goes, Apu, friend, me good. Apu, me friend, good.
01:25:37
Speaker
At least it tells Apu he's now a member of the family. And this leads to Apu deciding to go into his musical number, in which he nearly kills Grandpa right at the start by stealing his game. Yeah, what a dick. We don't get the Who Needs the Cookie Mart song.
01:25:50
Speaker
Who Needs the Cookie Mart? Which is, it's an Indian episode, we've got have a musical number because Bollywood. exactly. It's a Bollywood. But also it's a fucking banger, so, you know. I mean, I do love the fact that they found... mean, is it... I love the fact they found delightful fella with salmonella.
01:26:07
Speaker
It's actually normal to rhyme. Apu nearly kills Grandpa again by stealing his chair and then we get all the rhymes for Quickie Mort which include Sticky Mort, Sicky Mort, Rookie Mort and the Quickie Mort is real dope.
01:26:22
Speaker
And Apu can really hold his notes as he's singing. And Apu shows everybody that he does not need the quickie mart and he just casually walks off. And Homer says that everything's wrapped up much quicker than usual. as he check I like that little joke. That's great.
01:26:36
Speaker
I says it's great that they've all found happiness. And Homer says, yep, we've all found happiness, every single one of us. Then turns on the TV and we just hear some sobbing in and then go, what's that sound? And then Apu is now sat on the roof and see he's staring at the quickie mart and he along these things, he does need the quickie mart.
01:26:51
Speaker
Homer is livid because Apu is lighter than Fusong and he hates it when people do that. I hate when people do that. We then see that Apu is... Apu confirms that he can't light himself. He does need the cookie mart.
01:27:04
Speaker
And Lisa says, can you get your job back? And Apu says, he's got to go to the head office. And Homer says, he's going to come with him. And Lisa points out that that's it in India. And Lisa says, that's over 10,000 miles away. And Homer says, I'm aware of And then Lisa says, that's over 16,000 kilometers. And Homer is quite annoyed.
01:27:21
Speaker
Impressed that Homer's familiar with the metric system, being American as he is. We then go to a Lawrence of Arabia-style shot of Apu and Homer on camels, getting to Springfield Airport.
01:27:33
Speaker
And Apu apologizes because he spent all his money on the plane tickets. We then see them on the plane, and Homer's asking, are we India yet? And Apu's just going, no. And this repeats several times, Apu goes, oh, wait. Now we are.
01:27:45
Speaker
We then cut to James Woods complaining to his agent because the film has changed and now it's a jittery Eskimo firefighter and he wants it explained again. The agent actually explains it quite nicely, apparently. Yeah, i like I like those kind of off-screen gags where we don't get the other half of the conversation. It's it's clever.
01:28:02
Speaker
So he asks his agent to book him an igloo and get him out of the quickie mart and... What do you mean, have to give two weeks notice? We just got two James Woods getting more and more frustrated by the fact he can't get cheese out the microwave.
01:28:15
Speaker
I love the actual censoring. sense I don't know why, but bleeping out swear words makes it funnier. We then cut to the airport, which is shaped like the Taj Mahal. And we see that to some Christian conversions and we see some of the passengers go, oh, great Christians.
01:28:32
Speaker
Yeah, this was one of those jokes where I was like, is this is the joke supposed to be that Muslims do this at airports? Because I don't think they do. I think it's more just the joke that in other countries, Christians do this. Yeah, I think that's what they were going for.
01:28:44
Speaker
Yeah. i wouldn It wouldn't be Muslims. I think it'd be... I think they're going for Hare Krishna, aren't they? Yeah. And Hare Krishnas are at least to some extent noted for being mildly annoying and pushy about their conversions. yeah um So whether they do that in airports or not, I don't know.
01:29:01
Speaker
What I will say about Hare Krishna is I got attempted to be converted on a hike one day. Amazing. it was a I was out hiking and two Krishnas came by and like complimented me on my outfit and then i was oh, thanks. And then they were like, oh, and now you're in a conversation with us and let us sell you books. I have never, I i know nothing about Krishna.
01:29:23
Speaker
it it's a It's some sort of spin-off of Hindu, oh think. and I don't know much more about it than that, really. can see that a homeowner pool are now on the outside of a train with about 90 other individuals.
01:29:37
Speaker
And we see them all getting into the dining cart. Yeah. No stereotypes going on there. ah Well, I don't know if this is necessarily a stereotype. This is when, you know, they say it like trains in India are like famously overcrowded.
01:29:53
Speaker
I don't know if this is necessarily a stereotype. Yeah. yeah I mean... Yeah, it's just a logical extreme. it it is It is ultimately, yeah, kind of a thing that does sort of happen, so they are just sort riffing on it. yeah yeah I'm going to Poole go all on to the labor runners again until they get to the pathway to the world's first convenience store, which is on top of a mountain. This is not very convenient. And Poole complains that he's dumping on everything.
01:30:22
Speaker
They go up to this place and it's got sliding doors, which fantastic. Yeah, the world's first convenience store has sliding doors. We don't see that the convenience store is just a elderly Indian gentleman with a white beard as he's drinking a squishy.
01:30:35
Speaker
um Apu points out that this is the president and CEO of the Cookie Mart and in Ohio, the Stopper Mart. And he's the one Homer has to ask his job. The master responds, Apu, that he only gets three questions. Apu says he's only got one.
01:30:49
Speaker
Fortunately, Homer Butson at this point had asked him, are you really there at the Cookie Mart? Yes. Really? Yes. You? Yes. i thought I hope this was enlightening. like feel I feel like they got screwed on that. Surely they should get three questions each. Yeah, I was thinking that. like Why don't Apu just ask his questions?
01:31:05
Speaker
the The master dismisses them and as they're walking out... Also, just don't leave. No one else is there. Just don't leave and just keep asking your questions. He's an old man. Just fucking smack him.
01:31:19
Speaker
That's... um I get what I want.
01:31:24
Speaker
They walk out dejected and Homer asks if that really was the head of the cookie mart and Apu lifts his arms and Homer thinks this is just his apology again. Apu begins falling over and Homer says, Apu, it's okay, I forgive you. I accept your apology.
01:31:37
Speaker
They both then both fall off the side of a cliff. They've come back very... They're clearly fine, yep. Yeah, they're absolutely fine, yeah, nothing went wrong. bit disheveled, but they're fine. And Marge asks how it went and Homer says, Ah, it was a great success. Then Apu looks at him goes, Oh, okay, well, no, it wasn't.
01:31:54
Speaker
Thomas doesn't tell, it shows Apu that ah he's learned a lesson that ah life is a series of cruel and cruel bitter disappointments. Same. This leads Apu to go, I've got to go confirm confront my demons and I'm going to go to the cookie mart and Marge says, great, you can go pick up some lucky charms.
01:32:13
Speaker
Apu goes into the store and we see him start to reminisce about everything, which includes the squishy machine, the scum bucket, and a list of checks that you'll accept from people, which includes Homer's name in multiple spellings and... Homer J. Simpson, Homer S. Simpson, H.J. Simpson, Homer Simpson, and Homer J. Fong.
01:32:31
Speaker
James Woods gets excited when he sees Apu because he's a living legend. and the guy. He then asks if Apu did stay up for 96 hours straight and Apu says, he did and he thought he was a hummingbird of some kind. James Wood has a security tape and would you see that?
01:32:48
Speaker
It's so fucking strange, man. Apu then says he's about to drink nectar. and But at that point, a robber comes in and tells him not to be funny. And it's not snake.
01:33:00
Speaker
Yep. James Wood assures the robber that if he did some funny stuff, he'd be in hysterics. And the robber recognises him and then goes, your next song is going to be number one with a bullet. And James Wood goes, I'm not a singer.
01:33:11
Speaker
I don't do music. And the robber tells him to shut up. Apu sees what's going to happen, and Apu... Get down, President. Jumps in front of him takes the bullet. As James Wood screams, Apu, he goes, how are you doing? And Apu goes, oh, deceiving kiss of hot lead. I missed you.
01:33:26
Speaker
And then just declares that he's dying. I think I'm dying. We then cut to the hospital and Dr. Hibbert explains that Apu was lucky because the bullet ricocheted off another bullet that was already in his chest. And ah James Wood tells Apu that for saving his life he got him his job back.
01:33:40
Speaker
As Apu is about to thank him he tells him that he's off to go battle aliens on a faraway planet and I says that'll be a good movie and James Wood goes yes a movie. I believe that James Wood fights aliens in space. Well, he went back in time. He can go to space. Yeah.
01:33:54
Speaker
How about says, let's all hook a poo when they do to some happy, uplifting music. They all stop and there's a very awkward pause. There's still time. There's least 10 seconds left of runtime that we need to fill. Let's hook a poo again. And just roll on the stupid head.
01:34:10
Speaker
Yeah. They really enjoyed that first joke of making, of acknowledging that they're in a TV show. So like, let's do it again. um I genuinely feel like that was, honestly, like, ah it's ah a very knowing, but a knowing the padding the runtime nonetheless. Oh, it's bit of fun. Yeah, i didn't I didn't have a problem with it. It was a laugh.
01:34:30
Speaker
They've ended on worse than things. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. And that is Homer and Apu. What do we think? ah Definitely a weird and wacky episode. you know did It does have good laughs in it. you know obviously Obviously, through like a modern lens, it's hard to know what you're allowed to laugh at. again we were talk like The train gag is a great example. is like Is that offensive? Well, no, because that is a thing that happens.
01:34:54
Speaker
But then is that... offensive by pointing that out so you you kind of get lost in the sauce to some extent um so i will give it when we will and we will i will give it two men fighting over a wiener out of homer surprisingly entertaining despite the context
01:35:12
Speaker
I liked the episode for some of the absurdist moments that happened, because I do like what's absurdist. The fighting of a hot dog to commit suicide, and yeah the stupidity of Homer walking up a mountain to immediately just ask to ruin Apu's chances of getting his job back.
01:35:28
Speaker
And Apu doing the hummingbird.
01:35:32
Speaker
but that It's absolutely absurd, but I still find it very Yeah, it's very amusing.
01:35:40
Speaker
John, what did you think? Yeah, genuinely pretty entertaining. Like, yeah, there are few things that in a modern lens, you go, what are they doing with that? But like on the whole, like, yeah, yeah an entertaining enough episode. Yeah.
01:35:53
Speaker
I had that note in my notes of of like, it's hard to tell when a joke is simply it's Indian and that's the joke. And also if that's always a problem. You know what I mean? But i mean also, so so much of it is not even necessarily just it's Indian, but it's something a white guy made up that he thinks seems vaguely Indian. Yeah, I think, yeah, that's, again, from someone... This is, like, the point Michael made about people, you know, this is coming from people that might not be...
01:36:24
Speaker
qualified to comment comment on it. I don't know if the instrument that Lisa plays is Indian. I don't know the if yoga originated in india in India, those kind of things. you blah blah bla It's just, these are all assumptions that white guys, the writers of the show, have then made, and is that is that problematic?
01:36:44
Speaker
o I mean, I think the instrument probably was. oh yeah i Actually, I didn't check that one out, to be quite honest with you, but Shinnai is a woodwind instrument. Yeah.
01:37:00
Speaker
Yeah. little oboe-y kind of thing. Yeah. Well, before we get into the deep, deep, deep discussion about ah we what society has to say about this episode, i need to pee really badly. Tell me two seconds.
01:37:14
Speaker
Did we do our out of homers? We did not. Well, Matt did is, but... You want to do ours while we wait, then? Otherwise, what I going to give this?
01:37:26
Speaker
I'm going to give it a dog barking out of Homer because he can sell anything. Okay. What are you giving it? I gave it a Peter Sellers out of Homer because it's a white guy doing bits on what he thinks Indian culture is.
01:37:39
Speaker
That's a reference to the documentary, folks. ah is no It's a reference to Apu specifically because like the character of Apu or the voice of Apu, I guess more specifically, is Hank Azaria copying the voice that Peter Sellers did in the, I want to say 60s, maybe even further back. I forget the exact date, but an oldie timey bit where he was just doing, he was playing an Indian character appropriately in Apu.
01:38:06
Speaker
I keep wanting to say blackface. I guess it's brownface. I don't know if you distinguish specifically, but like he did an Indian guy. This is a very British thing that sort of happened. and And I suppose if you look at something like In In Half Hot Mom, one of the... They did have Indian characters in there, but they prominent the prominent lead Indian characters were brownface. It's such a shame because In Half Hot Mom is like a great show.
01:38:32
Speaker
Oh, you could hear us. Cool. Okay. Yeah, i had my headphones on. There we go. fair enough. And one of the things from the documentary that I kind of hadn't really considered when they were talking about stereotyping and obviously referencing other stereotypes that The Simpsons did with Bumblebee Man There wasn't really, and this is something I'd never considered, an Indian, South Asian sort of yeah role model type character for a lot of American Indians, which is what the documentary kind of references to.
01:39:08
Speaker
That was big thing for Which why it kind of defaultly became Yeah, that was the big thing for me was watching this watching this documentary and being like, because yeah, when I when i first like heard that there was an issue and stuff, I kind of was like, yeah, I don't see why it's like such a massive deal because Simpsons, like you know like the documentary points out, makes fun of everyone and that thing.
01:39:29
Speaker
But then yeah, if if that is the only major South Asian character that that is in that is in the media, then yeah, people are going to make assumptions.
01:39:41
Speaker
The one of the things that I was really worried about with like talking about this and stuff like that, other than obviously the whole three white dudes thing was for me personally, when I, you know, I didn't have like a major opinion on it. I kind of thought, you know, oh, they're retiring the character for these reasons. I thought, okay, I don't care about Simpsons.
01:39:59
Speaker
So whatever. And then I watched this documentary and I saw a bunch of ah Indian actors, ah celebrities, whatever, then say, I was bullied because of this character.
01:40:13
Speaker
So it is problematic. I just kind of went, all right, and accepted it. You know, that was that was it for me. And that was kind of the baffling. Like, obviously, I'm sure some of you, I'm sure John at least has looked at the reviews of this documentary.
01:40:26
Speaker
And it's just so many people just, you know, using the buzzwords of snowflake, woke, easy event, Yeah. And i it it it was kind of baffling to me that it's like, why can't you just accept that other people you know had a negative experience because of this character? you know this character If someone said to me, i was bullied because of the existence of this character, i would then go, oh, that's shitty.
01:40:53
Speaker
o I wouldn't invalidate their experience. like They were bullied. End of. Yeah.
Stereotypes and Representation in Media
01:41:00
Speaker
yeah I think it's talking about role models and stuff in the media. You've got to remember um when things like the golden age of television started in the nineteen fifty s and the 60s.
01:41:12
Speaker
We had just come out of a world war, so there was a lot of natural distrust of anyone that wasn't like you. Yeah, that's true. So those stereotypes were portrayed in lot of media still. And it wasn't only until like the late 60s, 70s, when migration and immigration people started moving into these places that that sort of changed.
01:41:36
Speaker
And you've got to remember that a lot the writers for things like The Simpsons and 90s sitcoms where this is mostly problematic. grew up in those times so yeah I think you can sort of see where the main thing from the documentary that I turned to took away was um when they did the interview with Whoopi Goldberg and she went through negro-bilia yeah Whoopi Goldberg has got a strange collection of racist toys and things from history like doodads and collectibles and whatever ah that she calls yeah quote unquote negro-bilia yeah
01:42:14
Speaker
Yeah, i I honestly took like slight umbrage with Wolfie Goldberg's perspective on the whole thing, but I don't want to like get into an analysis of of the documentary. I'd rather stick with Apu. The point where he asks us specifically is to talk about black and white minstrels.
01:42:29
Speaker
Yeah. He asks, do you consider Apu to be a minstrel? He kind of goes, well, he wasn't singing and dancing. And then he points out, oh, there is an episode sings and dances. Yeah. Then, well, he is. Yeah. I think that moment kind of...
01:42:40
Speaker
that moment kind of hits you a little bit. Yeah, that seems a bit like, oh, the defining characteristic of minstrelsy, I guess is what is. Is the singing? It's white dudes in blackface doing singing. think it's the blackface, really.
01:42:56
Speaker
But yeah, um so so one of the things I found really interesting, because it was one of the perspectives I saw online, is that Apu is meant to be a commentary on the hard-working people that do get stereotyped to some extent and have to do these kind of like very simple debating jobs in order to make a living and that kind of thing and they throw themselves into the work because you know they have they have to be extra nice they have to be extra servile in order to keep their job in favor of just a white dude who is under qualified thing and it's like okay cool
01:43:32
Speaker
that's what the writers might have intended for the character. I kind of call bullshit on that, but even if that is what the writers intended for the character, that is not how the general public took the character.
01:43:46
Speaker
And thus, when the writers saw how the general public was taking the character and continued to write the character thusly, they are then complicit in how the general public is taking the character.
01:43:58
Speaker
And it no longer becomes what you intended. You are now just participating in, as these people in the documentary said, racist stereotypes. who I mean, I think the documentary gave us some like interesting perspectives to analyse stuff yeah through as well. like I mean, Whoopi Goldberg's stance was that a lot of historic racism is... She found it just funny and like because it stems from a position of ignorance and you can't really take offence or get angry at ignorance. like
01:44:29
Speaker
That's just funny. imagine that's not a universally shared opinion on it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I mean Russell Peters had an interesting one it was like don't get caught up on colours or words get caught up on the intent of it which I thought was an interesting way to analyse it and from that particular lens I would say this episode is not racist because like he didn't set out this going ooh let's make a racist episode exactly that's why I was thinking that's why I was bringing up the whole like intent of the character kind of thing is like my my dad never intent is not my dad is not a racist person I do not think he is he is an ignorant person
01:45:07
Speaker
He does not intend to say mean and offensive things. That does not mean that what he says sometimes when he does the Ching Chong Chinaman, like, you know, voice, he's not, my dad is not saying that because he thinks Chinese people are lesser or anything like that. He just thinks that the voice is funny and, you know, the voice being the pertinent part of apu and stuff like that.
01:45:31
Speaker
you know, yeah, cool, they're not doing it because they think the, the the you know, the writers aren't doing, Hank Azari is not doing the voice because he thinks Indians are lesser, he's not doing the voice because he thinks it is something that needs to be mocked, he's thinking because the voice just sounds kind of funny, but then when, again, in the schoolyard, or the playground, as we call it,
01:45:54
Speaker
in the playground, if kids are using that as ammunition to bully a kid that looks different to them, you can't then say that it isn't a problem. and thats And again, this is a white dude, you know, preaching, whatever, I get that.
01:46:10
Speaker
But you know i mean? like it' yeah And Hank Azaria has come out and said that, that he real he realized years later, he is participating in something that isn't what he wanted it to be.
01:46:22
Speaker
I think this this is and this is one of those things about the documentary that I think we should probably stress but considering it was made in It had a very profound impact all on Hank Azaria.
01:46:36
Speaker
Not just him, but how TV cast, because Family Guy recast Cleveland from a white guy to a black actor. The Simpsons recast several characters from...
01:46:47
Speaker
white guys playing minority roles into the actual minorities of which those those were king of the hill has just done it with um a family film lios they've actually got lios actors playing those roles now yeah oh right okay yeah yeah another ones yeah so so sort of the documentary has had an impact somewhat helped helped with uh casting at the very least maybe not in the way certain characters are portrayed Yeah, because yeah the documentary goes into the whole, like, what a lot of the actors that he then talks to, the roles that they had to do just to survive in the industry kind of thing.
01:47:24
Speaker
Yeah, but I found that fascinating, because there's there's role there's there's there's films and things in there that I really enjoy. enjoy I know I have seen films sometimes. But, like, oh they got the guy who plays AJ in Office Space...
01:47:37
Speaker
I didn't know he was putting an accent in an art. Like, the whole time, like, was just like, yeah, that's his character. Yeah, there's a name for it, he's with a It's like Jalamping or something. Yeah, like like, he was hamming up the Indian accent because, like, the directors told him to do so because that's what they wanted an Indian character to sound like. And that's just not what the guy who is Indian sounds like. Yeah.
01:47:59
Speaker
Insane. Absolutely insane. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's it's it's a wild situation. one of the things I wanted to to talk about, obviously, because it's like the core thing of it, because my dad genuinely got annoyed when I told him... He doesn't watch The Simpsons, but he got annoyed when I told him Hank Azaria was stopping voicing Apu, because I remember talking about it at the time with them.
01:48:20
Speaker
And my brother got annoyed as well, but my brother is a different kettle of fish. um You know, because again, they were like, who's not offensive? You know, Apu's like a lovable character, blah, blah, blah. And I kind of thought...
01:48:33
Speaker
I personally don't think they needed to retire Apu. Just recast him. I agree. Recasting would have been a way forward, I mean, one of the guys on the actual documentary just says it's a... All it needed to be was Apu just talk in his normal voice.
01:48:48
Speaker
Yeah, that that that that would have been a funny bit to then suddenly have Apu be like, no, I was pretending. And that would have been a fun opportunity to talk about society. that that um Because i've I've watched a couple of interviews and stuff like that, that some African-American people and again, like Indians in like India, in England and things like that.
01:49:10
Speaker
they do feel the need to play into those stereotypes in order to not cause an issue because they also don't want to have the conversation of, oh, well, you don't sound Indian. It's like, who fucking gives a shit? That's how they talk. I don't meet John and go, oh, you don't sound Northern.
01:49:27
Speaker
You know what I mean? Why does it matter if ah a ah black dude talks quote unquote black? There are Indians with an Indian accent. accent and yeah could they could have yeah They could have just got i an Indian guy who has a thick accent to play yeah an Indian guy with a thick accent. And it would be like, okay, yeah, no, it's okay now.
01:49:49
Speaker
yeah They could just recast it. like i'm I'm just looking at the i'm i'm looking at his Wikipedia page. Or WikiSimpsons page, anyway. And like, it's it's just kind of wild to imagine that the last, at this point, eight seasons of The Simpsons have a poo. They haven't retired the character. He's still in it. He just doesn't have any lines.
01:50:09
Speaker
And it's like, but he's been like a character for 22 years at that point. Is that right? Yeah. No. 30. No. and just It just kind of carries a lot. It just kind of carries can carrie on the theme of they're not addressing the problem.
01:50:23
Speaker
Yeah, they're just, it's just putting it under the, bridge sweeping under the rug. o Yeah. like ah I mean, as you say, like plenty of people have recast things, so it would be trivial to recast Apu. And it's like the ah strange the she's ah the actor who plays Apu's nephew, who he said he wanted do this bit where he talks about the fact that Apu doesn't even sound like an Indian. He sounds like a white dude doing an impression of Apu.
01:50:51
Speaker
my grandfather or something. Yeah, he said which is literally it because it's yeah like a big as we say, like Apu as a character is Peter Sellers doing in brown face doing an impression of an Indian in the 60s. Yeah.
01:51:06
Speaker
And has shaped, you know, American and the Western English speaking world perception of what Indians are through this dominance form of media for like 30 years now? 30 some years? Yeah, I agree.
01:51:23
Speaker
Yeah, so they they... I agree with Michael that they just they didn't address the issue, they just kind of moved on from it. And it's it's this kind of thing that's happened with Simpsons, in my opinion, one of the reasons why it has failed to stay relevant, despite the fact that it continues to exist, is that it doesn't adapt.
01:51:45
Speaker
Simpsons doesn't adapt, it continues to be Simpsons. You know, whereas as much as I'm not a fan personally of South Park or Family Guy, I liked all the South Park, whatever we all did when we were kids, you know, a Family Guy, American Dad.
01:52:01
Speaker
They are very modern. You know, they do take the opportunity to make modern jokes, even if that joke is just Lois. This is the time that reminds me of Matt Grenning doing a bad cartoon, whatever.
01:52:12
Speaker
I'm not i can't do a Peter impression. You know, even if those jokes to me aren't funny, those jokes are adapting to the modern world. Those jokes are like American Dad is an incredibly political show.
01:52:27
Speaker
You know, that the whole point of the show is being political, you know. Again, not necessarily in ways that I am super enthused about, but it adapts. It changes. You know, Family Guy found its niche and adapted accordingly.
01:52:42
Speaker
Again, whether you continue to enjoy it is not the point. But Simpsons doesn't adapt. And when it's when it comes into problems with the fact that it is still a show from the ninety s in 2025 they just then quietly remove the character and move on who sorry i know that was kind of long-winded but Yeah, I mean, to go back to that point of, like, yeah, adaption and also... ah We mentioned in, it I think, season 22 or something, Apu's nephew shows up and they got and an Indian-American guy to play him, but were like, no, no, you do your own, but you don't need to do the accent. And he gets the line that's like, oh, you sound like a stereotype.
01:53:26
Speaker
In the documentary, they he talks about it and is like... He had a really good idea yeah for a bit that would have completely and totally resolved that in a very entertaining way, which is like at that point you cut to like live action real world Hank Azaria in the recording studio who turns slowly to stare at the camera. It's like, oh, that would have been such a good bit. Yeah, absolutely. Instead, they they do the Simpsons thing of, like, failing to move with the times and just going, oh, here's a cavalcade of soere various assorted racial stereotypes.
01:54:03
Speaker
It's okay. Don't worry. we We do it to everybody. We're not picking on anyone specifically. I think, yeah, they like, the Simpsons does it to everybody thing is something we've kind of, like... data bounced around but the thing with that is yeah people again one of the things that comes up in the reviews of the documentary is you need to be able to learn to laugh at yourself it's like okay cool yeah, cool, laugh at yourself, but that doesn't then give everyone incentive to laugh at you.
01:54:30
Speaker
You know, it's like, again, if there are kids using, or again, like, that actually happens in the documentary or one of his live shows, if people are using it as ammunition to mock you, because lol, that's what Indians are like, you don't have a leg to stand on in terms of of whether not you're a But yeah, sorry, this the thing about The Simpsons does it to everyone. It's like, okay, but Not everyone is a minority.
01:54:58
Speaker
Yeah, it goes back to that representation thing again. Like, yeah, you sure, poke fun at the British. ah They do. Yeah, absolutely. Guess what? There are British people on TV, like, that we are represented fairly. Like, you can poke fun at us and also, like, see us, like, being normal on the same screen.
01:55:16
Speaker
Whereas, like, for Indian Americans growing up in the 90s, name some Indian Americans that are on TV. It's Apu. That's it. yeah He's the one. Right? Yeah, absolutely. It's a thing of, like, yeah, cool.
01:55:28
Speaker
I kind of get tired of the British bad teeth joke. Like, you know, but I can go into the mirror, go look at the mirror, look at my teeth and go, I don't have bad teeth. I can look at my friends, see their teeth and be like, they don't have bad teeth. can look at my parents and see, they have bad teeth and be like, okay, cool. I can look at,
01:55:43
Speaker
people on TV that are very British. Well, the TV's the main thing. Yeah, I can look. You see British people on TV who aren't just a bad teeth stereotype. Yeah, exactly. You can see people on telly that are, you know, either very suave, intelligent people or very sturdy people, very reliant, very loyal.
01:56:01
Speaker
All of these good British stereotypes and you can see them on TV because they're there and they again, representation. But if the only thing anyone is seeing is thank you, come again,
01:56:13
Speaker
That's... It just is a problem. And I... That's the thing that baffles me about, like, the reviews and people complaining is just... Can you not put yourselves in someone else's shoes for, like, five minutes?
01:56:26
Speaker
I don't think it's that crazy to be like, if someone says, yeah, I got bullied at school because Apu. It's like yeah, cool. If you hear it once, you're like, oh, wow. I am i imagine as optimistic person that that is an outlier.
01:56:40
Speaker
But then several people will say, yeah, i also got bullied because of Apu into my adult life. And none of us like grew up together. We grew up in different parts of America. You then have to go, all right, yeah, there's an issue.
01:56:53
Speaker
And then also like seeing professional actors being like, oh yeah, everyone expected me to do the accent because that's just what they expect of Indians. was like, oh Jesus, this shaped so much. Yeah, absolutely.
01:57:04
Speaker
Yeah, it it was it just was a problem. One of the things i found I found interesting as well is the the Simpsons writer. they I think he interviewed two Simpsons writers, but it was the one with the glasses that dropped up a couple of times.
01:57:17
Speaker
um He seemed at first very amenable. to the fact that there might be an issue. It was very clear that he was like limited based on contracts. I think he still worked at Simpsons at the time or still does. yeah So he couldn't bad mouth Fox or company, whatever.
01:57:33
Speaker
That's fine. But he then tried to be like, mind if I get you on something? Do you think Mr. Burns is one dimensional? I'm like, dude, have you not been listening to the conversation? Mr. Burns is a rich white dude.
01:57:46
Speaker
It doesn't matter if he's one dimensional. There are plenty of wi rich white dudes that are positive figures. And even if they aren't, he's a rich white dude. That's called punching up.
01:57:58
Speaker
That is the entire point of comedy. Yeah, that that one felt a bit fell a bit flat for me. like I mean, i'm i'm just I don't strong even see why they included it. like Obviously, Harry had like you know the ability to edit this. like I think Harry was including it to show the hypocrisy there.
01:58:17
Speaker
Yeah, I guess he's showing the writer showing his own ass, I guess, I suppose, at that point. Because, like, he doesn't really come off good by making that comparison. No, exactly. It it was like, ah for that dude, I was like, oh, cool, this dude seems to be actually, like, listening whatever. And then he said that, and I'm like, nah, you just went immediately on the defensive there. And I thought, who yeah like, why are you so defensive? For one, about a character you did not create, do not voice,
01:58:43
Speaker
You know, and again, it was it was that kind of thing of like when actually, yeah, that's a great thing is that when one of the reasons I think people were so defensive about Apu is when you call a character in a show that people like problematic, not even race, it's just problematic.
01:59:01
Speaker
All the people that are watching it then think you are calling them racist by proxy. And it's like, that is not what anyone's trying to do. No one is trying to say that you're racist for finding Apu funny.
01:59:12
Speaker
I find Apu funny. it I still find Apu funny. I found Apu funny when I was a kid. Again, we've looked up, we've watched episodes of this show where we have then thought, I found this really funny as a kid. And now re-watching it, I'm a bit more like, meh.
01:59:26
Speaker
You know, we've had that happen. Again, we talked about the kind of thing in the Michael Jackson episode. I mean, even in this episode, he is still, like, so and an entertaining and likable character. Like, don't get me wrong, but, like, when someone says they they're problematic and he is problematic, that just means it's complex and there are issues that should probably be explored. i don't get offended by that. i don't I don't then think, oh, you're calling me racist because I found Apu funny. it and're like, no, I just stop and think, oh, damn, that, you know, this character had a problem and...
01:59:56
Speaker
You know, maybe we should think about that. I don't even think about myself in that scenario. I just think, oh, damn, these people had a shit time because Apu existed.
02:00:06
Speaker
That's a shame. I mean, it's something that definitely is addressed multiple times in the problem with Apu is that, like... It can still be funny. Like, nobody's saying, like, oh, if it's racist, that immediately negates any humor that's within it. Like, you can still make jokes and it can be, it can still be kind of racist at the same time.
02:00:26
Speaker
These things aren't mutually exclusive, you know? Like, you can still laugh at it and then go, ooh, but, like, oh, it's a bit, isn't it Yeah. And yeah, get um again, with the reviews of the of the documentary, people saying like humor is supposed to be edgy.
02:00:40
Speaker
And it's like, for one, no, it doesn't have to be edgy. No, no, it isn't. You know, everything. Again, like um I think there was it's an old adage of like all humor is based in suffering. And it's like, OK, I mean, maybe. yeah But edgy isn't suffering. Again, it's not edgy to make fun of a rich white dude.
02:00:59
Speaker
And it's not edgy to make fun of Indians. That's just racist. You know, edgy is this very nebulous term that people just kind of use as a catch-all term for getting away from... know, it's the Ricky Gervais term. It's the... it's I've said horrible, disgusting things, but no, I'm an edgy comedian. It's like, no, you're not. You're a dickhead.
02:01:17
Speaker
I mean, for some reason, the one example that is lodged in my brain with this, and I'm probably going to, like, diffuse it of all humour by explaining it, is some discussion that came up on Twitter some years back was talking about, like...
02:01:29
Speaker
Things that were absolutely hilarious without being like, you know, charged with anything racist or anything edgy in any way, shape form, something completely innocuous. And it was somebody had, there was like a customizable Toblerone promotion they had at some point.
02:01:47
Speaker
And they'd got completely fucking stoned and ordered ah their own customised Toblerone, which turned up with the words written down the side of it, which I i think was somewhere along the lines of Toblobnerone. Toblobnerone.
02:02:02
Speaker
Which is, it's kind of Tremampoline in its kind of humour, but... But also, like, just seeing a picture of, like, a legit, genuine manufactured Toblerone and sat on somebody's desk that says Toblerone or something. was, like, absolutely fucking slayed me at the time. I'm like, yeah, no, you can be fucking hilarious without it being, like, edgy at all. It's just silly fun.
02:02:27
Speaker
One of the things I wanted to bring up as well, because don't want to have this conversation and say that Simpsons have always been problematic, which I know neither of you has done. I'm not trying to say that you have. What I'm saying is that, yeah, 90% of the time, Apu isn't necessarily a problematic character.
02:02:46
Speaker
Because, like, a great example of how you do jokes about other cultures without the joke being lol other the culture... is like homer offering ganesh a peanut the joke isn't about the isn't about the fact that in the hindu religion they worship one of the gods they worship is a giant sexy elephant woman with uh a bunch of arms you know the joke isn't lol other religion it's the it's it's homer disres the joke is homer being disrespectful
02:03:17
Speaker
That's the joke, you know, and I think that's how you handle doing jokes about other culture. It doesn't have to be at a white guy's expense like it was with that joke with Homer, but you can make jokes about other cultures, about other religions, about all of these things.
02:03:32
Speaker
without having to, the butt of the joke, be lol other culture. you know And Simpsons, the Simpsons writers are brilliant writers. They're very capable they can they all of writing clever humour.
02:03:48
Speaker
But they are still people you know so when they were when uh the original character of apu known as clerk yeah and someone someone in the writer's room i think that the documentary implied that it was hanker's area but i don't think it was it was just a writer it was just one of the writers did a faux indian accent when reading the character i think the story was that like when they wrote it they said don't do an indian accent and then when they were just sort of like around the table doing a table read kind of thing hank just like naturally went in yeah was hank right he just kind of naturally went into that accent and everyone everyone went hey that's a funny accent we love that accent yeah so they yeah they all just kind of collectively but that's what i'm saying is like the simpsons writers just like anyone else is very susceptible to the biases of the times so they and you know when they fell into it
02:04:38
Speaker
But again, like that Simpsons writer getting defensive and being like, do you think Mr. Burns is one dimensional? It's like, dude, don't get on the defensive. Just stop, think and adapt. And again, Simpsons doesn't adapt.
02:04:50
Speaker
They just don't. and And if they did, the show would be better for it. Again, like, look, I've had this conversation with Blaney. I think I've had it with John before. The Simpsons would have ultimately been a better show if the characters aged.
02:05:04
Speaker
yeah if they If they aged and the world around them changed, you know I would not be that bothered if we're now that we're on season 30, Homer and Marge had passed away or were in retirement homes or whatever, and it's now about Bart and Lisa with their kids.
02:05:19
Speaker
o yeah you'd have to find Yeah, you'd have to find a contrivance for why Lisa, of all people, is still in Springfield, but... Why not? You know, again, adapt, change. I mean, even if it wasn't like, yeah mean I mean, think you'd have to be like very good about it to do that as like a gradual change. But like, yeah, i don't know. You could just so many shows would just be like, oh, it's sport it's Simpsons, The Next Generation or whatever, you know? what Why not?
02:05:44
Speaker
You know, that's the thing. yeah But the the Simpsons characters not aging is just a symptom of the major problem that Simpsons doesn't adapt. And Apu existing so far into Simpsons lifetime without changing and still being this kind of problematic, quote unquote, problematic character is again another symptom of the Simpsons writers and the Simpsons crew and and Simpsons itself just not adapting.
02:06:10
Speaker
Speaking of things adapting, I've heard very good things about the new King of the Hill, so I need to watch that at some point. I want to watch that, yeah. Because i know I know Al said that he would, if if we were doing a King of the Hill podcast, he would have been one of the hosts. he was I love King the Hill, man, I would have done that straight away.
02:06:26
Speaker
if Al's prepared to like host it and edit it and whatnot, I'll be on it, I will watch that shit. He's way too busy. Well, Michael, sorry, you've been quiet. do you have any other thoughts about, like, you know, Apu and his existence?
02:06:40
Speaker
No, I think we've kind of covered a lot of it, really, the way I felt. It's going to be one of those things where getting with the character completely was sort of the easy way has been taken out, and it's a shame that the people in charge won't engage with it at all.
02:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, they're engaged with it, just not as quite as well as anyone hoped. Yeah, exactly. They've at least acknowledged there was a problem, which they dragged their heels on for quite a while.
02:07:08
Speaker
I think ultimately, like, John kind of put it right by saying, like, that there's nothing wrong with laughing at these jokes, but then, you know, acknowledging that these jokes might be built on something that you didn't intend.
02:07:22
Speaker
You know, laughing at these jokes doesn't make you racist. It just makes you, at the very worst, like, slightly complicit, you know And like I said, just don't get defensive when someone says a character in a show you like is problematic because they're not calling you racist.
02:07:38
Speaker
They're saying they're not even talking about you. don't that's Yeah, that's the ultimate lesson from Apu. Don't make it about you. Yeah, i think yeah i think I think you're right when you mention, like, complicity.
02:07:49
Speaker
Like, in 2025, there's such a desire to make everything divisive. it's either It's either good or bad. Are you with the good guys or the bad guys? Are you woke or are you MAGA or whatever, you know?
02:08:01
Speaker
Like, which side are you on? And if it's racist and you're laughing at it, you must be the bad guy, right? Yeah. But like, it's fair to acknowledge that things can be complicated, you know?
02:08:15
Speaker
no one's perfect. Yeah. I mean, ultimately, my my big, big, big, big takeaway is the thing I've been banging the drum on for the last few years anyway, which is just fucking representation. Like the one main takeaway from this is that like there is not and has not been enough Indian representation on TV and in film over the last easy 20, 30 years. Yeah, that's fair. And way beyond, clearly.
02:08:42
Speaker
And yeah, like that that is absolutely changing. Like we saw plenty of people in the documentary who are now allowed to do shows without doing the accent.
02:08:53
Speaker
And even one guy who got a show of his own, even if every other person working on the show was white, which was an interesting one. But yeah, like, like things are changing and I think for the better and like what it is is representation. Like seeing underrepresented groups sort of normalizes them and gets people to accept them and not bully them in school as well, you know? Yeah. Like it makes makes it easier to like for those people to integrate in without being like just expected to be a stereotype, I suppose.
02:09:26
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Damn. We've covered some deep ground today, guys. Yeah. I'm proud. Anyway, if you want a video on representation, go to youtube.com forward slash button mash. any any Any further thoughts or should we wrap things up there? because No, I think I'm good.
02:09:45
Speaker
i think we've I think we've discussed it and enough. ah Again, as much as three white dudes can. Three white guys can, yeah. ah What did we give ah the problem with Apu out of Homer?
02:09:56
Speaker
I gave mine already, uh, two men fighting over a wiener out of Homer, surprisingly entertaining. I meant the problem with the i'm in the documentary, not the... I didn't know I supposed to do that. i For fun, I gave it an ironic that this show is impossible to find only eight years later out of Homer.
02:10:14
Speaker
That's good. That's good. I'm not good enough on the fly and I don't want to say something off colour. Yeah, don't worry, I wasn't actually expecting anyone to that. just wrote that one down because was like, hmm, it is an interesting note.
02:10:28
Speaker
also Also, further notes, noticing at the bottom of page, shout out to the video games Thirsty Suitors and Venba for really good South Asian representation. Go check those out. Those are really good video games.
02:10:40
Speaker
Fair enough. Oh, I know Thirsty Suites. Yeah, i've i've heard about the I've heard it's great. Venba's a very short bite-sized game about cooking Indian food, and makes me really hungry, but it's really cute and fun.
02:10:52
Speaker
Everything makes me hungry. All right, I guess we wrap it up, guys. Sure. Matt, what are advertising? I'm on Blue Sky. You can follow me there. I don't post much, but i I've been posting more, just my random thoughts. M-A-T-T-P-E-R-S-P-E-C-T-I-V-E, Matt Perspective. I stream basically every day over on twitch.com slash MrGablin.
02:11:13
Speaker
I am going to finally sit down and edit the next episode of All for Arnold and get back into it. Now that I picked my mic properly, that be coming out. And we'll be doing more of that because the next episode Predator. Yeah, i'm I'm so delighted to hear you say that because I was always very, very slightly disappointed. Like that like we we we sort of let it drop a little bit at the one thing you had been so excited for for so long. I'm very excited, yeah. I mean, you know, likes a it was more just like problems with the microphone and me not being happy with the audio and those kind of things. But, you know, I'm goingnna i'm going to struggle through editing ah hard ah something, whatever it was called.
02:11:52
Speaker
Whatever the hell it was. Whatever that movie was it was. I look forward to revisiting it in podcast form. It was not great. That movie was very strange. Yeah, but, well, that's fun. I might have a YouTube video coming out soon. We'll see. um But it is literally just like an edited version of a stream.
02:12:10
Speaker
Raw Deal, that was the one. Raw Deal. god what if Let's go back a few pages find that one. What a strange film. That's me. Michael, what's going on? You can follow me on BlueScarrier Bust and Mash Horse.
02:12:22
Speaker
If you would like to go through any of the past catalogue of our videos, we have accounts on Spotify and Apple if you would like to listen to those. They're slightly less racism-led, so topics are slightly lighter.
02:12:35
Speaker
I mean, like, hey, at least we got to talk about things that were said about society today, which, like, we have we have been a little light on lately. So, you know, I'm glad we a discussion today. We can only work with the source material provided. It's true.
02:12:48
Speaker
What have you got on, John? What have got on? um Nothing. I'm going on holiday. See you later. Yeah. No, I genuinely am. So like once again, this episode might be like a few weeks between recording and getting it out there.
02:13:03
Speaker
I'm going to try my damnedest to get this out before I get on holiday, but I can't promise that will actually happen. You got this. Yeah. If you see this at the start of September, yay, I finished it before I went on holiday. If you see this in the middle of September, boo, I didn't.
02:13:20
Speaker
um It's where I'm at on that one. Otherwise, if you do want to hear my musings, go to Blue Sky, where I'm at maroka.bsky.social.
02:13:31
Speaker
Older videos, including videos on the importance of representation in media, can be found at youtube.com forward slash button mash. And do I do anything else? Nothing worth shouting about at this point in time. Yeah, that's probably about me.
02:13:48
Speaker
Cool. Until next time, we shall see you later Bye. hi everybody.