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S6E8&9 feat. Fixxxer - Lisa on Ice & Homer Badman
92 Plays12 days ago
Jon, Michael, Matt and special guest Fixxxer watch The Simpsons episodes 'Lisa on Ice' & 'Homer Badman', and discuss what they say about society.
Follow us on the Socials:
Jon: @Meroka.bsky.social
Michael: @buttonmashhorse.bsky.social
Matt: @mattperspective.bsky.social
Fixxxer: https://www.youtube.com/@FixxxerTV
MRT Fundraiser: https://www.justgiving.com/page/jon-em-black-mountains
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
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. Good Mole Man, good Mole Man, good Mole Wow, it was themed.
00:00:14
Speaker
I try to theme them but i forget so sometimes. Mostly, yeah. Mostly. Hello and welcome back Mole Man in the morning. I don't think I said those words right, but nevermind, we'll go on anyway. We are a podcast about how The Simpsons has a lot to say about society.
00:00:31
Speaker
i am your host, John. I am joined as ever by my two co-hosts, Michael. And Matt. Sweet, sweet Venus.
00:00:44
Speaker
Oh, look who decided to come back.
00:00:48
Speaker
Well, you know, I had to, you know, I had things to do. And by that, I mean, I've already forgotten what I was doing. Oh, I was in York. That was it. Valhalla wasn't good enough for you. Fun question. Were you in Valhalla while we're recording? Because I said you probably were and I would potentially have put a small amount of money on it.
00:01:07
Speaker
Oh, no, we actually didn't ah go to any thumbs or anything while we were there this time. house Say goodbye to your thumbs, John. Oh, no. We are joined by our American sports correspondent once again. mr Fixer is back with us.
00:01:24
Speaker
Howdy, partners. How Dean did. We are gonna look at Lisa on Ice, so we needed somebody who knows a little bit about ice hockey, because I don't know much about ice hockey. I don't know if my usual co-hosts know much about ice hockey.
00:01:39
Speaker
Fuck all, man. You guys partake in ice hockey over there, don't you? my I was just going to mention that. Yeah, my brother... I've mentioned my brother is a tattoo artist, but I don't think I've mentioned that the guy he's, like, apprenticing under is a huge hockey fan.
00:01:54
Speaker
Like, genuinely, in the tattoo studio, he has a ah signed
Guest Appearance: Mr. Fixer on Ice Hockey
00:02:00
Speaker
hockey stick on the wall. Like, he loves hockey. Mm-hmm. Today I learned you can play hockey on ice.
00:02:07
Speaker
Oh my god. Damn. Yeah, I mean, like it's it's definitely a thing. We got we do have like a team of some note in Cardiff. who are the The Cardiff Devils are like reasonably popular.
00:02:21
Speaker
ah The kind of crowd I hang around with tends to watch the women's games because they're they're literally free to you. You just rock up and watch them. Cardiff Comets. Shout out to the Cardiff Comets. They're not very good. LAUGHTER I have never seen them win a game yet.
00:02:37
Speaker
Hey, but at least they've got enthusiasm. They they do. they do Go Comets. You will be such a glory supporter when they go on a run. ah Absolutely. Yeah, I've always always thought they were built for greatness, me.
00:02:51
Speaker
That's what Jon sounds like to me when when they talk. like the fact that Jon became very butch for that. Hey, welcome to Moor Manit Morning.
00:03:03
Speaker
Getting more Yorkshire by the minute Absolutely Although you're from East Riding so you're not really Yorkshire I'm from North Riding thought you were from East Riding ah North originally So you're from North Yorkshire um I'm from North, spent a lot of time in the West and Most recently lived in the East, never touched the South I thought you were from East Riding Alright so you are a Yorkshire Alright that's fine then It's an acceptable Yorkshire to do, is it? How do you say... well it's got York in it. I feel like I'd be... ah feel like it'd be wrong of me to say that the place that contains York isn't part of Yorkshire. How do you how do you say a non-binary Yorkshireman?
00:03:41
Speaker
Yorkshire them? I like Yorkshire them. I've never given this any consideration. Yeah, let's go with that, I suppose. I like Yorkshire them. Yorkshire them. Yeah, that trademark, Gladden. That's pretty great.
00:03:53
Speaker
I would love it, yeah, if like if that we had more proper Yorkshiremen that were
Drinks and Terminology Humor
00:04:00
Speaker
also very accepting, so they didn't care what was between. Don't care what's between your legs, just care if you'd like a pint of Guinness.
00:04:09
Speaker
Or Stella, I suppose. sure we can find better beer than that in Yorkshire, but go on. So it's quite a derailment. Yeah, you're welcome. It is. Before we derail it with more beer chat, also going to observe that we're also talking about Homer Badman today.
00:04:24
Speaker
um Right, that's that's the episodes introduced. Now let's talk about beer. What's everyone drinking today? I er went to the shop earlier this morning like for my usual shopping and was like, going to get some beer from Sainsbury's.
00:04:37
Speaker
Forgot. So I walked up to Tesco and bought myself an Asahi because i there's not a great selection at the Tesco Extra. So I'm drinking an Asahi. You are great true habit. You would have got a Guinness.
00:04:49
Speaker
I don't mind canned Guinness, but... No, I don't either. it's it's Guinness is a lot, especially after the meal I just had that I just scarfed down. I think drinking a Guinness would make me, like, die.
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that would be that would be a lot, yeah. Michael, got anything? I am having an eternal. Oh, northern monk, very nice. Yes, it's an old fateful horse. Oh, so you're back on the booze now, because know you've been off it for a while.
00:05:15
Speaker
Well, it's a coping mechanism at the moment. Oh, my God. Ah. Probably inadvisable, but as long as it fuels a good podcast, I'm not going to discourage it. I don't care if you're having problems or an addiction. I just want the podcast to be good. Yeah, exactly. You get it. We'll know if it works in about two hours or so.
00:05:36
Speaker
Yeah. What's our guest having? I do not consume alcohol, like, at all. Well, I shouldn't say at all because wow there are some food recipes that that call for some bourbon or some crap in it that i'll I'll drink, but I mostly partake in fresca.
00:05:54
Speaker
I don't think you guys have fresca over there, do you? No. I've managed to be in America for three months and not have a fresca, so I i will try my best to actually have one next time. They're not terribly common. It's basically a sparkling citrus water.
00:06:08
Speaker
Yeah, I hate sparkling water. And they're pretty awesome because they can they can hit your your pop or soda. You guys use soda over there, right? Soda? Not pop. Yeah, we had this conversation we had this conversation last time that I said pop. And you you were very excited about that.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's, you know, it it satisfies those pop slash soda cravings, but it comes with zero calories. So it's pretty awesome. I've actually had that recently myself because I like, because I spent, used to spend so much money on like Dr. Pepper and stuff and energy drinks. And if anyone that buys energy drinks on the regular knows, they're, They're expensive.
00:06:45
Speaker
ah So I started buying gamer soaps because i you hear so much about it if you watch YouTube, the especially gaming YouTube. So i was like, fuck it, I'll give gamer soaps a try. And I did. It's great. I drink one over the course of a day instead of like three cans of something.
Gaming Announcements and YouTube Channels
00:07:00
Speaker
And yeah, it satisfies those kind of like poppy, like sugary needs. And again, it has zero sugar and zero calories. This podcast is not sponsored, but it could be sponsored.
00:07:14
Speaker
I've never heard of it before. I guess I don't watch that much gaming YouTube anymore. You've of Game Thrones? I'm just not moving in gaming circles these days, huh? You don't, really. you do i I feel like you don't even play that many games anymore when I talk to you.
00:07:27
Speaker
i've I've started replaying discco Elysium. Ooh, nice. that That's the way I'm out in gaming. Have you tried that the one that's made by the some of some of the original developers, Esoteric Ebb, the D&D one?
00:07:42
Speaker
I have not. I've not come across that one. Yeah, it came out a month ago. I've heard it's good, but I have heard that it kind of loses the whole fail a role, but the story continues vibe. It's much more, oh, you died, just reload rather than you failed and thus you must continue on with your failure, which is a shame.
00:08:04
Speaker
Yeah, you got to own you failures. Absolutely. That's the whole point of Disco Elysium. Kind of is, yeah. Yeah. I've been failing a lot of things in my second run. It's like really disheartening. I'm like, oh God, I'm terrible at everything.
00:08:17
Speaker
What are you drinking, John? Me? I have got the last of my weird Vault City ones. It's Cloudy Lemonade. It is a sour, as you might guessed, lemonade-flavoured beer.
00:08:31
Speaker
That sounds awful. I thought you might say that. Yeah, it sounds awful.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yep, that's sour.
00:08:41
Speaker
That's silence. And and then the the Homer absorbing his own face sound. That's a good time, actually. Yeah, it's quite sour. u off approval Who could have thought
Simpsons Episode Discussion: Lisa on Ice
00:09:00
Speaker
a sour beer would taste sour?
00:09:01
Speaker
Fucking wild. Yep, well, I've got to own my failures now and drink that. Yep. Well, we had it the other the last time I was on with that ah whatever I was drinking last time, the pink elephant thing that wasn't great.
00:09:15
Speaker
yeah. Delirium. I'm drinking this out of a delirium glass. Oh, lovely. I'm drinking mine out of a York Dungeon glass. Because it's thematic and it's cool. Right, before we launch into episodes, I did say I wanted to get plugs up front this time because people had things worth talking about. So we're going to do that before everybody tunes out.
00:09:38
Speaker
Please don't tune out. End the last episode, I mentioned I would have a fundraiser for Mountain Rescue. That is up. That is live. Please go give money generously to that. I'm going to be hiking through the mountains at some point in May to raise money for the people who got me off the mountain last year. It is a good cause.
00:09:58
Speaker
Sorry. It's to raise money for the awesome people that saved my life. I'm going to risk my life again. Wait, what did I miss here? um so a long time ago, they got stuck on a mountain and had Mountain Rescue had to come and rescue them.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yes. What? Wait, where is this mountain located? Wales. It's not that mountain. It's really not that big. It's quite anticlimactic. Large rolling hill? It was a large rolling hill, yeah. yeah like It was a very wet, muddy, foggy, large rolling hill.
00:10:34
Speaker
Travelling through America has taught me one thing, though, that America is either flat or mountains. very like There are no hills in in America, it's so straight. It's either completely flat or the Grand Canyon.
00:10:48
Speaker
but that's That's mostly true, although although route the route you took, it did go through a lot of mountainous and flat terrain, so you picked, like, the right road to do it in. Yeah, I mean, oh yeah, like, um fucking Oklahoma is the flattest place! It's so boring! I'm not even sure that's a state anymore. no I don't think it's even a place. I think we we just crossed through a liminal space for, like, eight hours.
00:11:15
Speaker
Matt, tell the people about your cool project. I'm in a fucking video game! Sorry, that's probably peaked the shit out of the recording. mentioned this before, the but Spooky Tales Volume 1, the trailer is out. You can go see it on Steam or if you search YouTube.
00:11:33
Speaker
Spooky Tales Volume 1 teaser trailer. I am in it. I am the narrator. I am the host of a sort of essentially fictional TV show that talks about spooky tales.
00:11:45
Speaker
I am so unbelievably excited. i am in a video game that is going to be sold on Steam in October. Holy shit.
00:11:55
Speaker
This is so cool. I genuinely almost cried watching the trailer. This has been a long journey for me personally of actually doing something and being so proud of myself. I'm so happy, but I obviously as well, thank you to John and Michael as well. They've been very supportive for my like voice acting and stuff like that and words of support have been everything.
00:12:14
Speaker
But yeah, Spooky Tales Volume 1, go check out the trailer. It's hilarious and spooky and great. So check that stick a link in the double-deedoo. People can go check that out.
00:12:25
Speaker
Yeah. Fixer, do you want to promote your YouTube stuff or no? Oh, sure. FixerTV, that's three X's. F-I-X-X-X does not mean porn.
00:12:36
Speaker
No, it does not. It will when I come and visit. FixerTV, it's at YouTube. So, yeah, thank you. That's what you look like? Yep, that's me. I just Googled the channel.
00:12:49
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. I saw your face and was like, that's not what I was expecting. i don't think I know what Fix looks like. I don't even know the little robot guy. It's just very out of context, that. That's what you look like. I like to play indie games and and just strange games in general.
00:13:06
Speaker
Oh, you played Dispatch. Yeah, I loved Dispatch. Dispatch was brilliant. No, I did not play Dispatch. Are you going to someone else's channel? There is someone trying to be like me. There's someone fix a TV with two X's. Yeah. Oh, you're on the wrong fixer.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah, I gotta put a hit out on that guy. fucking Bunch of baloney. Oh yeah, so that isn't what you look like. Alright then. No, no, no, no. It's it's funny, you don not you do not have to be a large YouTuber for other people to use your name and and put channels up like yours and stuff like that.
00:13:36
Speaker
oh yeah, I'm sorry to say you are the third fixer with three Xs to show up in the search results. That is a bunch of crap, man! There needs to be a battle royale at some point. I've been around longer than all those bastards!
00:13:51
Speaker
Why did I not know you were a gaming YouTuber when you first came on? Did I just not pay attention? i don't know. We must have discussed it. I don't know. Maroc and I have done some stuff together in the past.
00:14:03
Speaker
Yeah, we go way back. Jesus Christ, we haven't even started talking about Simpsons yet. We're 15 minutes in. We don't know what happened on this day. This day being November 13th, 1994, which is the day Lisa on Ice aired. Anything happening on this day?
00:14:15
Speaker
ah Dale Earnhardt won the 44th Mascar Spring Cup. Good for him. A referendum was held in Sweden to join the European Union. 52.2% of the voters were in favour of joining.
00:14:28
Speaker
they wouldn't They weren't in the European Union that long ago. Wait, how how old is the European Union? Yeah, 70s. Wow, they for then. so they wow they held out for a while then that's Also note notably very Brexit margins on that voting though Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill famously collide on lap 35 of the season ending Australian Grand Prix Schumacher won his first Formula 1 title by one point Cool And that was because he fucking crashed into his competition Yep he did it blatantly and obviously Yeah
00:15:08
Speaker
It's still one of the best troll moves of all time. Welcome to the music. um US number one. Guess who's still making love to us? Yep, but that's Boyz II Men. I ain't going anywhere.
00:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, well, we'll get to the twist in the story in next one. And UK number one, Baby Comeback by Plato Banton.
00:15:30
Speaker
I believe that's a dance floor number. Was Boyz II Men big over there, you guys? A little bit, but not really. It was UK number one, it was not UK number one as long as it yeah was in the States. Yeah, they were number one for quite a while.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah, at the start of the season, I did kind of look at the upcoming number ones, and Boyz II Men are in number one in the US for most of this season of The Simpsons. Jesus.
00:15:57
Speaker
They put out a couple bangers in a row, ye yep. Yep, they were big in the ninetyties Hmm. Apparently so. Shall I finally talk about the episode? Yeah, let's talk about some Simpsons. How about we do that? 18 minutes in.
00:16:09
Speaker
Okay, our Charleball gag. I will not dissect things unless instructed. That's so dark. Yeah. Yeah, what is what I'm cutting up? put I don't really want to know, I'm honest.
00:16:20
Speaker
I mean, there was a joke in the previous episode that would possibly hint at it with the hamster, but that would that would really sour my opinion on but that. is That is super dark, yeah. yeah that The hamster was shown to be alive, so let's bear this in mind. Maybe it had a sibling.
00:16:35
Speaker
oh Emphasis on had. And the couch gag, which apparently this week we learned in Current Simpsons they're planning to get do away with completely, what is the Simpsons family sitting on the couch and bouncing into the ceiling.
00:16:50
Speaker
Pretty good. um Wait, so are they going to keep the chalkboard gags but get rid of the couch gags? I believe so, yes. That's fucking stupid. I think in Modern Simpsons, there's like a bunch of different gags in the intro as well these days, though, isn't there? Right. Yeah, it's a lot more it's a lot more happening these days than there is in the novel. I think they just got sick of coming up with stuff.
00:17:15
Speaker
Fair enough. I get and i guess it's a limited... Five more gags in? it's a yeah Well, it's limited format is the couch gag. It's amazing that they managed to get 20 years out of it.
00:17:27
Speaker
Yeah. It's impressive. The episode starts with the outside, it's snowing, and it's time for Channel 6 News. And Bart comments that are the action news is the last place an impressionable kid can go for TV violence.
00:17:41
Speaker
It begins with a a series of explosions taking place, just to make you know that it's action. And Ken Rotman literally leaps into his chair as he's embarrassed. I still love this. It was so good. i would love a news channel that was just this needlessly intense.
00:17:58
Speaker
just Leaping into the chair slightly out of breath because it's action! Hello, I'm Kent Brockman! So Kent Brockman reveals that there's been a tremendous explosion in the price of lumber, and that President Reagan has died his hair.
00:18:15
Speaker
See, this is normal news to me. You guys are saying that you wish you had this. I grew up on this. Yeah, I can imagine Fox News is kind of like this. you can imagine this is what Fox News is like, just in general. There wasn't there was no Fox News. Wait, wait, wait. When did this air? Was it 2003 news? Or 1993 or 92? 94. I don't think Fox existed yet.
00:18:38
Speaker
Oh, wow. I mean, this was broadcast on Fox, right? well yeah not Fox News specifically, do you mean? Yeah, yeah, I'm speaking Fox News specifically. okay yeah he didn't um oh god who owned uh rupert murdoch didn't he create it as like um account of the because he was annoyed with the way current news was presenting about am i just making this up by telling the truth looks like fox news started october 1996.
00:19:07
Speaker
Jesus, I did not realize that. I seem to have been around longer in that. Yeah, we've learned something today. and I'm getting really tired of how the news just reports facts and not my opinions that promote my president. Well, get yourself a billion dollars and you can do something about that.
00:19:23
Speaker
I'm working on it. Yep. But first, make sure your news has a decent weather department so you can check on the death count for the killer storm mowing down us like a shotgun full of snow.
00:19:34
Speaker
I love the the the like spinny thing and then it just goes to zero. that's um Yes, the death count is on zero, but it's about to shoot right up. It's ready to shoot right up.
00:19:46
Speaker
This probably kept Rotman to declare, oh my god, and start shaking his fist at the heavens and go, damn you, Snow. Damn Snow. Oh, it's great. I love Boyd is very happy about this and immediately burns his homework because he thinks there'll be no school tomorrow.
00:19:59
Speaker
He just yeets an entire book. Is this the same shot of the book landing in the fireplace they've used twice before? I think it out see hope so. He also points out that the weatherman might be wrong, but Bart says that man is a professional meteorologist. Meteorologist at that point ah does his own self-plug to say that he's got his own comedy show at the Laugh and Boo, and promises there's a 75% chance of hilarity.
00:20:22
Speaker
Homer likes those odds. I like those odds. We've got to the next morning, and Lisa throws a snowball into Bart's face and declares it's snowball fight time. Bart literally chases her down the stairs and says she's going to be going to eat a blizzard of... Then looks around and notices that it's... Unseasonably warm weather?
00:20:41
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Lisa then points out she made the snowball out of the freezer and all the kids in the neighborhood laugh at Bart. Jimbo torts Bart by saying asking if his mommy bought his PJs and Bart's response is of course she did, who else would have? That's very good. i that just one That was one of those bits that I'd been waiting for since we started the podcast was to see that bit because I didn't know what episode it's from.
00:21:01
Speaker
And yeah, i I love that bit. It's so good. Jimbo's response to this is just to look at the thumb plums for a second and go, you win this round. You win this round, Bart. We cut to the classroom and Mrs. Capabal says it's book report time and we'll start A through M. And Bart is very happy because he's of course he's a sister said Simpson.
00:21:20
Speaker
So there are no A's so we're going straight to B's. So that's Bart because she's going by first names. Bart tries to tentatively explain he hasn't done it, but then Skinner goes over to the PA to announce that he's his principal, Skinner, the principal, with message from the principal's office.
00:21:35
Speaker
What is he doing with this? Yeah, what was this bit? I thought it was going to be that he was just doing an absurdly long message that was so long the class would end. That must have been like a bet with the writers or something to see how many times we'll get the word principal in. Maybe, yeah, it just kept going.
00:21:51
Speaker
i think I think it's more of an awkwardness of a principal using the PA system, which which is pretty common. Did you, in in your American schools, have, did they have PA systems? Oh, yeah.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah they They would do the Pledge of Allegiance over the PA system and all that stuff. Oh, oh my God. Yeah, yeah. it's It's creepy looking back on it. The whole Pledge of Allegiance thing in general for like schools is wild to me.
00:22:18
Speaker
Yep, it is. But then again, it's the same time I went to a school where we sang religious songs in assembly every morning. like We sang like the He's Got the Whole World in His Hand and songs like that every morning. so Yeah, Church of England schools got their own weird stuff going on for sure. Yeah.
00:22:35
Speaker
Skinner asks the kids to go to the Butthead Memorial or Auditorium, at which point Skinner takes it off the mic and goes, I wish we hadn't let the students name that. That was some serious prediction of Boaty McBoatface right there.
00:22:48
Speaker
Is this just them picking a silly name, or is this specifically a reference to Beavis and Butthead? I'm not clear on that one. Oh, I don't know if it's...
00:22:58
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if it's a if it's a reference to that, I just think it's funny that, um again, like Simpsons being weirdly prescient, because yeah, when kids got to name a boat, it was named Boaty McBoatface, and that's brilliant.
00:23:12
Speaker
It looks like Beavis and Butthead came out a year later? A year later? Wait, really? But it didn't start out that way. Beavis and Butthead was a short on MTV first.
00:23:25
Speaker
on Liquid Television. because it used to introduce the next music video kind of thing. Oh, right. They had Liquid Television, which was like ah like a half-hour block of four-minute cartoons, and there was actually a lot of neat, creative stuff. That's where that's where they were born, I'm pretty sure.
00:23:44
Speaker
Yeah. It blows my mind that they're supposed to be like 13, 14. You look at Beavis and Boathead and he's like, those guys are 25. Minimum. I've never actually watched it, so like I don't really know a great deal about it.
00:24:02
Speaker
I never got the impression I was missing much either. i mean, I do normally like a lot of Mike Judge stuff, but also this seemed a bit lowbrow, even by Mike Judge's standards. It's no Hank Hill, I'll tell you.
00:24:13
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Hank Hill's great. Love Hank Hill. Dang it, Bobby. did you so so i don't want to I don't want to derail it too much, but I rather enjoyed the newest season of of that.
00:24:25
Speaker
I've heard good things about it. i do need to check that out. I've watched a couple of episodes it. I thought it was all right. Yeah, I was shocked how well they handled Bobby. I thought they were going to have Bobby as a complete mess, because was a complete mess. But Bobby ended up being like the adult in the room, and he was very... I don't know. I thought he was very well-developed. I was impressed.
00:24:45
Speaker
i've heard that as well, yeah. Yeah, I've not watched much King of the Hill in general, but it does seem like a very relaxed, irreverent show. You know, like, it it it manages to... It's similar to Simpsons in sense that it, like, parodies American culture and modern, at the time, politics, but in a very different way to Simpsons in the sense that it's much more laid back and chill.
00:25:09
Speaker
Except for pockets and... LAUGHTER Oh Pack it down! Skinner is in the auditorium and announces that he's going to be giving out academic alerts, which are just big yellow slips, that's all.
00:25:24
Speaker
They'll give it to to students with when their grades start to slip in a subject. This way, parents don't have to wait to punish them. good ah such is Such a Skinner idea. Apparently based on something that one of the writers, actually, that's what they did at his school. Oh, wow. It's not real one.
00:25:39
Speaker
Martin calls it innovative, and this prompts Kearney to ask Adolf put a memo in his new tune to beat up Martin. He does put it in, but it changes it the wording to eat up Martha. This prompts Kearney to throw the thing at to Martin's head.
00:25:51
Speaker
I really like old school sitcoms and shows making fun of, at the time, modern technology. I think that's brilliant because obviously we have jokes now about, you know, iPhones, MacBooks or computers in general and whatever.
00:26:07
Speaker
But they there was something so great about the joke in at least every sitcom at least once of modern technology not working. Like the thing, the Newton that he's using, the writing to text thing would just never work.
00:26:23
Speaker
Voice recognition would never work. And you don't have as many opportunities to do that kind of humor anymore because as much as it work modern yeah as as much as modern technology is infuriating, it does tend to do what it says it's going to do.
00:26:38
Speaker
where I mean, this gag specifically was very much an incentive for Apple when they were developing the iPhone to like do better about like making sure it actually accepted inputs correctly.
00:26:49
Speaker
Yeah, no, I'm not surprised. Thanks for that, Courtney. Yeah. The first kid called up is Ralph, who comes up go declaring that he won. But nope, he's failing English. Ralph's response to this is, me fail English? That's impossible. That's impossible.
00:27:02
Speaker
a Nelson's doing well in history. and Nelson's failing history, geography, and math, but he's doing all right in home ec, which of course embarrasses him. Yeah, keep down, man.
00:27:13
Speaker
So Skinner then calls the name Simpson, which makes Bart nervous and then it's revealed that actually Lisa. The whole auditorium is shocked as Lisa wonders, because grades are all that she has, what on earth could she be failing? Turns out she's failing Jim.
00:27:25
Speaker
She declares that's the stupidest thing that she's ever heard, balls up the card, tries to throw it and completely misses the gun. Many questions. Again, all of these are answered by For The Bit, but why is there a bin on the stage?
00:27:35
Speaker
Why is that bin full of stuff? but that That's for the plot. Yeah. The plot bin. The plot bin. Also, again, mentioning that this is sort like a running gag in multiple shows.
00:27:49
Speaker
So many shows, especially kids' cartoons, did the You're Failing Gym bit. Oh, yeah. It's a popular thing. It's it's very popular, yes yeah. And it's very relatable, I imagine, to kids that are, you know, sitting in watching cartoons instead of outside...
00:28:06
Speaker
playing but yeah yeah it's it's fun i i like that though i think it's interesting that so many old school tv shows would i'm not gonna say iterate but they would all have these similar gags and you it would be interesting to see how the simpsons would tackle uh failing jim as opposed to again like bobby failing jim in king of the hill and it didn't feel cheap it didn't feel like stealing jokes because everyone obviously had a very different like There isn't another cartoon where they were failing gym, so they decided to kick the shit out of their brother on the hockey field. Do know what mean? Whereas yeah modern... Admittedly, I don't watch a lot of modern sitcoms, but I don't feel like modern sitcoms do that quite as much. I don't think they riff on each other quite in the same way.
00:28:54
Speaker
This was 100% nerd bashing. that that That was big in the 80s and ninety s That was, yeah, the whole, you're bad at Jim, that was absolutely nerd bashing. Yeah.
00:29:05
Speaker
Well, nerds deserve it. We sure do. Says the guy voicing a character in a video game.
00:29:17
Speaker
Minor, completely irrelevant detail, but Lisa probably not very good at throwing there because she does use her non-dominant hand. And it's also paper. Wait, did you did you notice that?
00:29:28
Speaker
She throws with her left hand, but later she's shown using the hockey stick right-handed. Ah, oh well. Oh, that's crazy that you noticed that. I didn't, I've just done a lot of research into this episode since watching it.
00:29:42
Speaker
Other people have noticed it, I'm just stealing their valor. Alright, that makes sense. We go back to the kit Simpsons kitchen and Marge is adding the merit and asking Lisa to try harder. Homer signs all of Bart without any complaints and says he's proud of him for not forging his name.
00:29:55
Speaker
So asks me if he wants a present and Bart wants a new pair of hockey skates and Homer says done. Lisa asks why Bart's getting a present she's getting chewed out. Helmut's response is... The mysteries of life. mysteries of life! And then he just sits there! and It is interesting that this is another episode, like with Bart's girlfriend, where there's not really particularly anything in the way of a B-plot here, but like it doesn't feel like it's missing it the same way this time. yeah It's just kind of like, yeah, this this episode flows a bit better.
00:30:21
Speaker
So, Lisa meets a school teacher, and the school teacher tells her that she won't fail as long as she joins the peewee town. So, Lisa's response to this is, you may know leagues where parents push their kids into vicious competition to compensate for their own failed dreams of glory. Ooh, right on the nose.
00:30:36
Speaker
The teacher's response to this is, I don't need this. I inhaled my whistle this morning. Also, as far as I'm aware, first time we've seen this character, which is surprising. I think she's... I don't know if we'll ever see her again either, so... But that's my point. is like It's surprising that they didn't just use Ms. Honey... Whatever she's called. Honeyweather. What's she fucking called? Lisa's home room teacher. Ms. Hoover.
00:30:59
Speaker
Miss Hoover! There you go. What the hell did Rony bundle come from? I don't... Look, I don't think about what I say.
00:31:07
Speaker
so Lisa attends tryouts at the Springfield Youth Centre and she goes to the basketball tryouts and the other kids are dribbling the ball and Lisa's dribbling with her face. Hey, I mean, it's effective. So we come to the volleyball tryouts and the volleyball hits Lisa on the head and bursts on her hair. I was fucking howling.
00:31:26
Speaker
This was so fucking funny and simple. So the coach comes over and reveals that that was the only ball, so there'll no team this year. There's team this year. Oh, that was so good. That was so funny. I love that.
00:31:41
Speaker
Did you guys... So back then, and I'm sure it's probably not too different now, women's sports didn't get the same funding as men's sports. Like... and Not even close.
00:31:53
Speaker
So i was it the same way in England for you guys? and school my school, it was pretty even, but my school was a sports school.
00:32:05
Speaker
So they got a lot of funding anyway. So I think my school was more of an outlier, be honest. Like any any team we had, the school would then encourage...
00:32:16
Speaker
a girls version of the team or just a unisex team. So I think I'm an outlier, but I, i yeah, because I genuinely don't know about other schools. I mean, I feel like our school had different stuff for the boys and girls, but, like, i I feel like equal emphasis on both. Like, the boys played rugby, the girls played hockey kind of thing, but... I went to an all-boys high school, so it wasn't really... were the girls treated there?
00:32:43
Speaker
They were shot on sight. You're not allowed to be in here. You might give the boys thoughts. Yeah, that was pretty much is the idea. and We come back to Lisa, and Lisa's now sobbing because she thinks she's going get her first F, and Marge tries to cheer up by saying, well, this is a very small part of life.
00:32:58
Speaker
This prompts Homer to walk in chanting sports. I mean, it is kind of funny, isn't it? Yeah, it's like, outside of America... that joke probably wouldn't land quite as well because in America, even then, sports was fucking king. It is to some extent over here, but like in England, it's mostly just football is the like... I feel like only football is the one that gets the same level of enthusiasm as every sport in America.
00:33:27
Speaker
People go a bit mad at cricket when it's ashes time. Yeah, like for big championships, they like things. I mean, I'm in Wales, so rugby's like everywhere and constant. That that that is the Wales thing. but But no one goes to cricket for the sport. People go to cricket for the alcohol and they go to tennis for the strawberries and cream.
00:33:45
Speaker
Next, you're to tell me that's the same for darts. Oh, never. No, darts is the true man's sport. And I go to the Comets games to watch them lose every time. yeah Fixer, I think I asked this question last time you were on as well because we were talking about baseball people mostly go to baseball for the booze and hot dogs right?
00:34:06
Speaker
Yeah, um I went to the World Baseball Classic that just happened earlier this year. Why? And um I can attest, yes, they they very much enjoy the alcohol.
00:34:17
Speaker
my My girlfriend does not like hot dogs, but she loves baseball hot dogs. So they must make them different. and in fact bull hot dogs In fact, the game I went to, I had a hot dog and they had like a really unique hot dog. And then I recreated it at home. It's called a Crawford Dog.
00:34:36
Speaker
And it's two charbroiled hot dogs with bacon jam on it. And the bacon jams got like a... know You could put like a bourbon in it or something like that. Oh damn! that look Have you ever had bacon jam? No, but... No. never heard of bacon jam. Yeah!
00:34:52
Speaker
It's caramelized onions. Caramelized onions and and bacon. Oh my god that looks delicious. That looks like it kind of gives me chutney vibes. Yeah yeah I guess.
00:35:03
Speaker
They put it on their dogs with mustard and so I came home I looked up up some bacon jam recipes and I tried it out and oh my god it was delicious. Are you a bacon jam household now? You just make bacon jam all the time. Yes and and a patch of bacon jam could take a couple hours to make. It's a bit of a pain in the butt but it's delicious.
00:35:21
Speaker
I see someone's put it on an American biscuit in one of the Google images. And that could improve one of the worst fucking concoctions on the planet that is the American biscuit. I'm coming for you, Americans. I've had one. They're shit. ah They're fucking disgusting. I hate them. Really? the is is Imagine just taking a bite out of bread, but at the same time, as someone threw salt in your face.
00:35:46
Speaker
That's what eating a fucking American biscuit is like. It's just it's just fucking salty bread. It's unpleasant. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What's a biscuit? Like ah an American biscuit. that You know, I don't know. how um You guys call them a biscuit. Oh, you're talking about our biscuits, not your biscuits. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, American biscuit. Because we call biscuits something very... Like what we call a biscuit is very different to what you guys call a biscuit. Right. Right.
00:36:12
Speaker
Biscuits can be hit or miss for sure, but they we make good ones in some places. I had grits for the first time in America. Dude, a good batch of grits? It's delicious.
00:36:23
Speaker
Well, this wasn't a good batch to batch of grits. I've committed the cardinal sin of putting marmalade in it, and I mixed marmalade in it, and it was fucking delicious. Yeah, that was marmalade. Really? Yeah. Hell yeah, brother. I had it in Virginia.
00:36:38
Speaker
We stopped at this awesome little like breakfast place and my food came with a side of grits because I wanted to try grits. And then I was just like, this is awful. This is like snot. So I mixed in some marmalade and it was it was just like porridge with marmalade. It was fucking awesome.
00:36:57
Speaker
Marmalade's a little weird, but I can't judge. Grits is kind of like ah like a porridge in a way. Yeah, I've got i' go the Wikipedia page up for it. Yeah, it doesn't look appetizing. Yeah, corn porridge by the sounds of it. average, it's not very good, but I've been to a place where they've served amazing grits, so it can be hit and miss as well. I bet, yeah.
00:37:15
Speaker
I mean, that's the thing. I was having it a little like, you know, breakfast bistro-y place. they're not They're not going to be known for their grits. So I'm sure if I went to somewhere that made good grits, I wouldn't need to mix marmalade in it.
00:37:28
Speaker
Yeah, they're they're popular in the South, and i don't think you technically... Well, you skipped through Texas. They do grits in Texas. I had country fried steak in Texas, and that was wild.
00:37:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? ah Delicious, but weird. It's popular. It's not a mixing of flavors. It's not like, oh you it's steak enhanced by country fried breading.
00:37:54
Speaker
It is, you taste the country fry, which is basically like the skin off a fried chicken. You taste that, and then you taste steak. there is no There is no blending. That's an apt description.
00:38:07
Speaker
But it's delicious. Delicious. Fucking awesome. But I'm i' a fucking dustbin. I'll eat anything. I love food. Let's hear it for food, guys. Woo. Oh, yeah. Go food. Love food. nick what Almost said we need it for to live.
00:38:22
Speaker
Gotta be one of my favorite things to eat. Second is pennies. and That's ah the food review version of this podcast. I'm so sorry. Please carry on. no, I just, I like that the conclusion of that segment was, I like food. let's hear it for food. Let's hear for food, guys. Shout out in the comments if you like food.
00:38:43
Speaker
We are 40 minutes into the podcast and five minutes into the episode. Oh my god. Right, come on. Let's do this. I ourselves i want to learn more about grits. No, I refuse. Let's continue.
00:38:56
Speaker
Please do write in if you've had marmalade grits and if you're in America, tell Matt how much of a heave he is. Absolutely. Oh yeah, let's get some biscuit opinions in the comments.
00:39:08
Speaker
Tell us what could get good biscuits. We'll import them and make Matt eat them on the podcast. I will. I'll do it. Where the hell were we? Oh, okay, yeah. Homer came in chanting sports. Yep. Tells Marge that Bart's going to ride up front because he's good at sports. Marge then says that Lisa needs to feel a bit special and says, can she ride up front too? Homer looks at Bart just shakes his head and goes, I tried. I tried, yeah. I love that Bart's the deciding factor.
00:39:33
Speaker
No, she don't get to. So Lisa's in the backseat as they're driving, and Homer tells Bartu, have fun out there, and if he loses, he'll kill him. And everyone laughs because they think Homer's joking. They're going to come back to Homer, and Homer clenches his fist. The fist, yeah. And Bart's like, ugh! It was very funny. Fixer, did you ever did you have any of this kind of like pressure when you were a sprog for doing sport when you were when you were young?
00:39:57
Speaker
No, because I wasn't very good. okay. So they didn't expect they didn't expect great things from you. They were just like, just go out there and... No, i I was on the, seat I got pressured on the science team.
00:40:09
Speaker
And i yes, at the, at the end of, of ah high school, I got the science award and nobody told me. So I didn't show up to like the end of the year awards thing. Oh God. Apparently the science teacher was up there and they're like, you know, we're presenting the science award to fix her. And, and he started crying and talking about it. and And, then they're like, you know, we're waiting for him to come up. And I was not there. I not learn about to say i didn't learn about it until the next day.
00:40:37
Speaker
So no, I was bad at sports. I was good at science. Ah, We got to the f hockey rig and we see that Chief Wiggum is Bart's coach and the Mighty Pigs.
00:40:49
Speaker
Guess where they got that from? Oh, I wonder. And that they're playing the Quickie Mark Gouges. Quickie Mark Gouges was good. i liked that. See that Milhouse is in goal and he says he could have been the equipment manager, but no.
00:41:02
Speaker
But then full on flashes the puck into his face and everyone kind of winces. Except Apu and goes, who notices that the goalkeeper can't stand up and then goes, get some rope. Get some rope. And they just fucking, they hang draw and quarter him there.
00:41:17
Speaker
Yeah, he is proper lash to that God's frame. that one's they' that one's apparently parodying a story ah of the Springfield Indians owner, Eddie Shaw, tied allegedly tied his players to post to teach his goalies to stay in the crease.
00:41:33
Speaker
thought That doesn't teach you anything, though. You're just forced to be there. It is also just, I find it weird how much of this is inspired by both the Springfield Indians and the Springfield Kings team, which I think is the same team actually, to change their name, but like also... wonder why they had to change their name.
00:41:52
Speaker
ah It's just fascinating that that this all this hockey stuff comes from, like, Springfield, real Springfield-based hockey teams. There's two Springfields. I told you this. In America? on route sixty six but that yeah there's There's a lot more than two.
00:42:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I only saw signs for two on Route 66. Oh, 66. We stopped by the bookies the bookies. ah in the Springfield bookies in on Route 66 and then we saw a sign for another Springfield This is Springfield Massachusetts specifically the I don't think we passed through was kings Yeah they were the Indians and the Syracuse Warriors then the Indians again then but and then Kings then back to Indians and they've been a bunch of different names Did they ever determine what what state their Springfield is set in? i know they were wishy-washy about that I don't know if they ever determined I thought we established it was in Peru
00:42:46
Speaker
department we've got We've got a running joke on the podcast that it's Peru because there was a vulture in one episode and the the the specific species that could only be found in Peru. But yeah, no, they're very, very non-specific about the actual state. We did get a better idea because of Four Corners Monument.
00:43:03
Speaker
So in Springfield, at one point, they passed by the Five Corners Monument, which obviously doesn't exist. But the four corners is Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado. colorado yeah So we think it's meant to be maybe in that area.
00:43:23
Speaker
But beyond that, Matt Grenning has been very vehement that it is not based on any one state in America. It's a pretty generic city name. Yeah, that's probably why its chosen, yeah.
00:43:35
Speaker
it's It's, um, not to derail things too much, but it's kind of like Hot Fuzz being set in, is it Sanford? It's like the most common name in, like, rural England.
00:43:47
Speaker
Springfield Town in Springfield State, whose capital city is Capital City. Yep. Very good. There's an accurate description. ye You're welcome.
00:43:59
Speaker
Back at the hockey ring, everybody kind of gets into a pile-up and the puck slowly goes to towards Milhouse and tries to blow it away. just This annoys Apu that calls for defence. The defence doesn't work because it hopelessly slides through his legs and the referee blows his whistle.
00:44:14
Speaker
He could have tried harder. He still had his stick in his hand. He could have blocked that. I was thinking that. Oh, he could have followed Apu's advice and blown harder. That too, yeah. So, Team Fugum is celebrating because they won, but unfortunately he bet on the other team, so there's no pizza.
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah, I thought that was good. So, Hobb congratulates Bart for the game and keeps his side to do rage, which is to return Bart's turtle alive. God, that was dark.
00:44:38
Speaker
That was dark. It took me a second to understand what he actually meant. I thought he at first meant he just bought him a turtle, but no, he meant that he was going to kill his turtle. m So Bart asks Lisa for some adulation and Lisa sarcastically says she was impressed she gave Milhouse a concussion. This prompts Bart to start using his hockey stick to fire garbage at her because she stinks at sports.
00:44:58
Speaker
Lisa starts batting it away and Apu, after his untied Milhouse, notices Lisa's skill and he wonders if it can transfer to the hockey game. Apu decides that the best way to find this out is to launch puck at Lisa's full belt.
00:45:13
Speaker
Vix, did you know anyone that's been hit by a hockey puck? ah Oh, I got a nasty story. But before I go into that story, I also played hockey as a goalie. And the the quick reaction timing is like a different skill. And I was actually a decent goalie, but bad skating and whatnot.
00:45:34
Speaker
So I find it funny that the Lisa ended up being a goaltender. But yes, my uncle, has um he was playing hockey on a lake. on a frozen lake.
00:45:45
Speaker
Oh, of course it's frozen. He got hit with a It'd be impressive if it wasn't frozen, actually. He got hit with a stick right below his eye, and his eye popped out.
00:45:56
Speaker
Ooh! And he walked home. He walked home, and he's like, Mom, I lost my eye. of shouldn't laugh, but that's really fucking funny. Ha ha ha! Yep, so i don not a perk, but a stick.
00:46:15
Speaker
That's still, that's brutal, that. I do actually weirdly have a similar story. um I was not sports related, but I was walking home and I picked up a piece of an old ironing board that was on, like, the field that I walk i used to walk across to get home.
00:46:29
Speaker
And I just yeeted it because, you know, I was a young teenager. i was just like, oh, it's like throwing things. So picked and yeeted it and didn't think anything of it. And then when I started walking down my street,
00:46:41
Speaker
I noticed I felt funny and then I looked down and saw blood and then looked behind me and saw a trail of blood down the street where I was stood. I looked at my hand and I cut my entire hand open.
00:46:55
Speaker
So then I just put my hand in the air to stop the bleeding and just walked home and then bandaged myself up and never told my parents. god Because i'd like jesus I'd like right up the middle of my hand, sliced my hand open and was covered in coats. So I had plasters and bandages over my hands. And my parents were like, what happened? And I was just like, I fell. And that's how you got tetanus.
00:47:24
Speaker
Yeah, I was wondering about that. It is amazing that I still have my hands, to be honest. Well, speaking of hands, Lisa's worked perfectly as she's able to catch the puck. Apu declares her the goalkeeper of her dreams, but then says, we' just we'll just have a... yeah One more try, a hard one to test if it wasn't a fluke. A fluke. But then it's come back and Apu is firing pucks at Lisa full force and Lisa knocks him a away. Then we just hear the sound of someone being hit and the the sound of teeth coming out of someone's mouth and Milhouse goes, ah, my teeth. Apu's response is, yeah, that's it, Milhouse, keep up the chatter.
00:47:58
Speaker
Yeah. I have lore. Do you have lore? I have lore. i can I can chime in with lore on what's going on with Lisa here. And this was in 94, right? This era, you said in 94?
00:48:11
Speaker
Yeah. yeah So two years prior, so you already had the Mighty Ducks reference in there, right? Yeah. Two years prior in 1992, I was alive and well during this. I remember this happening.
00:48:24
Speaker
There was a a woman hockey player that played in the preseason for a pro team here in America. she her name was She was French. Her name was Manon Raume.
00:48:37
Speaker
She played for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the preseason. She only played... I don't even think she played a full game. it was like a one period or something like that. But it was the first time ever that a woman played men's major league hockey game.
00:48:51
Speaker
And it hasn't happened since either. But they... Some women have played in some of the minor leagues. And... most of them are goalies. Manon Rayom was a goalie.
00:49:04
Speaker
She is the first woman to ever have her name and face on a hockey card. That's cool. So that that was kind of fresh in everybody's minds when this episode happened.
00:49:17
Speaker
i don't Yeah, i think this was I think that was very much part of the inspiration behind this as well. there they um ah For research in this, Sports Illustrated have got like quite a long article on this episode of the simpsons and how it ties into ice hockey and it touched on that story so yeah that's wild that simpsons was ever so influential that it had like articles in sports and remember when simpsons was a fucking global phenomenon phenomenon that's fucking wild man this article was written in 2019 what jesus
00:49:50
Speaker
fuck me man jesus I guess at that point that would make this like the 25th anniversary of this episode when they wrote this. yeah Well, women's hockey, for the past five or six years, women's hockey is getting a lot more popular, especially here in the states.
00:50:06
Speaker
We got our own pro ah pro women's league and everything that started three years ago. Damn, nice. i So, Homer would not be a fan of that. Because it does actually... I appreciate the sidebar, I go It perfectly ties into it. yeah So, as Homer points out, too, that the Bible has taught us nothing, and it hasn't.
00:50:26
Speaker
girls should Girls should stick to girls' sports, such as hot oil wrestling and foxy boxing. Marge points out that sir women should be able to play any sport men can, but hockey is so violent and then points this out by showing off Milhouse's teeth.
00:50:39
Speaker
and Why does she have them, bro? yes Why does she have his teeth? But response is, please stop showing us. Lisa says she's got to join the team or she'll get an F that will haunt her for the rest of her life.
00:50:52
Speaker
We don't see future Lisa's about to be made president the United States before a reporter stops the inauguration with the ah failed F in gym class and Lisa is sentenced to a lifetime of horror on Monster Island, which is just a name. Unrealistic. This is great.
00:51:06
Speaker
No, I love this, but yeah. And then we come back and Lisa is being chased by said monsters. She points out that he said it was just a name. The guy next to her says, it actually meant that Monster Island is a facinia rather than an island. Monster Island is just a peninsula.
00:51:18
Speaker
<unk>s So good. I loved it. The fort is broken up by Milhouse knocking the door asking Munch has his teeth. I like how he brought the dentist with him. Like they the He needed to carry some authority with him. The dentist was the muscle. Yeah, absolutely.
00:51:33
Speaker
Munch, like a bitch, hides the teeth and goes, no. Yeah, why why though why? I know for the bit, we all know it, but why? Why, bro? Why does she keep his teeth? Marge is a freak.
00:51:44
Speaker
Marge is a freak. So we cut back to the stadium and Homer walks Lisa into the locker room and he says that ah he wants to clear some things up with the team and Lisa's embarrassed but Homer says he doesn't want anyone giving Lisa a hard time because she's different and no jokes.
00:51:59
Speaker
Then he spots Uta and starts laughing because Uta has bosoms. Homer then gets himself a wet towel and begins chasing around the locker room. Don't full of chocolate. If anyone wanted to know where that meme was from, it's this one.
00:52:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's mood to being full of chocolate to live with all all of us forever. I'm full of chocolate. I wish I was full of chocolate. I had chocolate earlier today. the I tried the Cadbury's Biscoff bar.
00:52:22
Speaker
was all right. it's good. Yeah. I love a Biscoff. You're back to the food. I just love talking about Biscoff, man. I'll talk about Biscoff any day. Carry on. Podcast not sponsored by Biscoff. But could be.
00:52:35
Speaker
but We are sponsored by Grits. Biscoff, hit us up. Send us some biscuits. Or how about American chocolate? ah ah American chocolate is fucking foul, man. It's awful. It's so bad. How no you eat it? Oh, you've set him off now. How do you eat it? No, I want Gamersupps to sponsor us. so then we Because Gamersupps love doing weird flavors, and I want them to make our flavor, which would be Greasy Little Piglet.
00:53:00
Speaker
like Isn't that just bacon jam and chocolate? That's an old callback. That's an old callback to like, episode four. Bacon soda.
00:53:11
Speaker
I mean, hang done it my next flavor I bought is anime girl thighs, and it's straw it's it's oranges and cream, so the the the names aren't related. I'm pretty sure that gets you put on a list if you order that to the UK.
00:53:24
Speaker
Yeah. As someone who works in making drinks, I've definitely made some weird flavours. We haven't got to bacon yet. Yet. youmate that You would have made my tobacco gin, you would be a millionaire.
00:53:35
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I don't think I'm allowed. i think i think that's frowned upon. Well, it's out of the day. I do cut to Lisa, and Lisa is not doing very well in the goal, being hit by pucks. Homer and Bart are just laughing hysterically about the whole thing.
00:53:50
Speaker
And Marge scolds them, saying, how can you be laughing while Lisa's out there scared to death? And Homer's response is, we're laughing with her. There's a big difference. Then we hear Lisa scream, i hand home and Homer and Bart both first start laughing. They fucking cackle, man.
00:54:03
Speaker
This is another one of those ones where Homer is, like, unreasonably douchey. He's a bit of a prick in this, man. Yeah, this episode is is homer is another example of Homer being just a bastard.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yeah, but also in the 90s, they thought people being mean was funny, so... I mean, they still think it now these days, some people. Married with children. mean, like, I... Yeah.
00:54:29
Speaker
I guess, I don't know, I still struggle with the idea that an episode like When Flanders Failed would land well these days. i'm I'm amazed that I've heard that When Flanders Failed is some people's favourite. That's wild to me. When Flanders Failed is genuinely probably still my least favourite Simpsons episode of all time. It is awful. It's really not good. It's just a shit episode.
00:54:53
Speaker
Anyway, Simpsons. Homer drives up and says, get car, little buddy. But he reveals that he's actually talking to his little girl, buddy. Lisa says it would be wrong to reward violent behavior. So she says she'll get up front with him if it's a fatherly gesture. And Homer goes, yeah, of course is. Once she gets in the car, goes, ah, it's competitive violence. That's why you're here.
00:55:11
Speaker
We then get a nice montage of Lisa being scared at first, and then we see her become more angry and more confident, and we see that Lisa becomes a great goalkeeper. Lots of growling. So we then cut to Apu, and he says having their best season ever, and he'd like say it's because of teamwork, and then goes, no, it's all because of Lisa.
00:55:27
Speaker
Which everyone cheers Lisa for. Mel asks and asks Bart if Lisa's something better at him than hockey. Does that mean he's going to become better at her at school? This was a good bit. This is a great bit. So Bart goes, yeah, maybe I will.
00:55:39
Speaker
But then get a montage with some really upbeat music of Bart putting his hand up to answer loads of questions. the Eventually ends with Whiskey's proper telling him off because he hasn't got a single cancer, right? That's such a good payoff. Because...
00:55:51
Speaker
You kind of see it coming, but they do it enough that you're like, wait, but what if he is? again What if this is the B-plot? And then, no, he is just shit. With Hank Cotter-Bot is being beat up by the bullies because he was wasting teacher's vibe. I know.
00:56:06
Speaker
My favorite times when Nelson like gets annoyed at Bart is when it's for stuff that Nelson wouldn't get annoyed at. and i yet like Like for besmirching a girl's honor whatever. Yeah, stuff like that. It's so funny.
00:56:19
Speaker
And yeah, just for wasting teachers' valuable time. I just like that Nelson just wants any excuse to kick the shit out of someone. Oh, absolutely. This prompts Lisa to intersect and she picks up the bullies and says tells them to leave them alone. And Jimbo says, it's lucky that you happen to be your sister's brother.
00:56:36
Speaker
Lisa then reassures Bart that a they won't bother him anymore. then we see everyone in the school laughing, including Skinner, because he hardly lets his mother fight for him anymore. I like hardly. Milhouse then tells Bart that he's going out with Lisa now for protection and to be seen.
00:56:51
Speaker
And this begins the sinister Bart look to the camera. Can we all agree that Milhouse... No, but like out of all of the characters in Simpsons is the one you would least want to know as an adult.
00:57:02
Speaker
Milhouse seems like he would grow into the biggest prick loser ever. He's funny in the show. and I'm just saying like as he as an adult, I feel like Milhouse would just be a complete mess.
00:57:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, like, the occasional... my recollection of the occasional portrayals of him in the future that we get in sort of flash-forwarding bits... And positive. Yeah, he's portrayed as, like, the guy who makes going to the gym his personality.
00:57:29
Speaker
Yeah. We'll then come back to the Simpson house and... Bart suggests that we go watch Cops together. They've missed the first two, but they if they hurry, they can catch the last three. That's a good bit. That's a joke of the scheduling.
00:57:41
Speaker
Palmer says he's off for gelato with Lisa. They'd ask Bart to come, but he just gives no answer, so just fucks off. Marge then says, I'll spend some time you, and Bart doesn't want to spend any time with his Mum, but she says, you've got a stereotypical view of me because I'm your mother, but we can play the basketball. This was another good, like, this was another good No Harvey Globetrotter, but it was great. I just, this was another one of those, like, oh, that's where this is from bits, and I loved It was great. yeah, yeah. So we cut outside, and Marge is dribbling the basketball, saying, look out for the Shaq attack. that She's two-handed dribbling as well. yeah that's up And she's bent over, you know? She's like, oh, no.
00:58:21
Speaker
So Bart is looking very dejected, then he gets hit in the face of the basketball. told you to watch out. She did, to be fair. We don't cut to Lisa in the goal, and Lisa is pretty much telling her team to get out there and be quite violent, which he ends with Ralph Wickham losing his Shingon, and Lisa going, Hack the bone! Hack the bone!
00:58:41
Speaker
And Homer calls her the eye of the tiger and the mouth of a teamster. then he turns Then he says, just look at all the time that I waste on you pointing to Bart. and he goes, well, not wasted. I love you.
00:58:53
Speaker
Then Bart is in Lisa's bedroom, and we can him Lisa is a getting some hugs off her Marge. Lisa then comes in and Bart says that a certain rivalries have come up and he thought they could talk it out like civilized people, but instead he's ripped the head off Mr. Honey Bunny, which is probably why you thought the teacher's name. Yeah, probably. It all ties back together. Oh, maybe, yeah.
00:59:13
Speaker
Lisa then points out that that was Bart's cherished childhood toy and Bart tries to repair... Yeah, what fuck? How did he make that mistake? Lisa tells him to leave and Bart says it's a free country.
00:59:26
Speaker
You get out. But Bart's response is I don't know, but what am I? Lisa tells him to get out Bart says okay, but as he's going to leave, he's going to windmill his arms and if you get hit, it's your own fault.
00:59:39
Speaker
This prompts Lisa to go okay, but I'm to start kicking air and if you get in the way, it's your fault. We then see them just walking towards with their eyes closed, Bart punching, Lisa kicking. Then we just hear them off screen ah at the inevitable collision.
00:59:51
Speaker
Mike says she's going to go upstairs to check it out, then turns Homer and goes, right, now don't eat this pie. Homer's response this is, yep, and then he looks at the pie and goes, all right, pie, I'm going to start air chomping, and if you get eaten, it's your own fault. We then see Homer walking slowly towards the pie air chomping. He walks into the extractor into the extractor fan. He proper dents it and all. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, he hits that high enough to buckle metal. That's stupid.
01:00:17
Speaker
So Homer sells his injury for all about two seconds before he goes, ah, to hell, this is a sassy. Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. Then see that Lisa and Bart are fighting upstairs and Marge does the classic thing of turning the lights on and off to break them up.
01:00:29
Speaker
Which it works, because Bart points out that's really annoying. It's really annoying. liked that. Marge gets up to stop fighting and says, we love you both and you're not in competition with each other. Repeat, you're not in competition with each other. this point, Homer comes upstairs and says, approve, just call them. And Bart's team is playing Lisa's team and they're direct competition with each other.
01:00:46
Speaker
And he tells them that not to go hes on each other because they're brother sister. And he wants to see them fighting for their brother's love. And he starts doing the life of himself and going, fight, fight, wait fight, fight. Fight, fight, fight, fight. We go to the prison and the Chief Wiggum tells the prisoners that he'll make a deal with them. He'll let them out to watch the ah hockey game if they return to themselves afterwards.
01:01:04
Speaker
Snake says, we can't make that promise. Chief Wiggum goes, Wiggum has a counteroffer. I'll let you and you'd have to come back, but don't commit any more crimes. Snake again doesn't agree to this, but Wiggum goes, yeah, sure, that's fine. I like how a Snake, while Snake is a criminal and a murderer,
01:01:21
Speaker
He's not a liar. He did pretty much that. We go to the kids playing in the garden. They have their own little song for Bart and Lisa who will win. The father's fat and the mother's chin.
01:01:32
Speaker
And Grandpa Simpson reeks of gym. Grandpa happens to be walking past at this moment and goes, hey, this is obsession for men. Why is he in the school playground? I mean, it does. it It makes sense that Abe Simpson would just accidentally wander into the school playground with his groceries. But yeah, why is it? But yeah, obsession for men.
01:01:51
Speaker
We see the family at the dinner and Homer asks for the ketchup, which Bart fires with his knife and Lisa catches it and says, he's got to do better than that. Bart then tries to hit the mustard at her, which he has to do, and Homer complains that he asks for ketchup because he's eating salad. Might just put it on the salad anyway. The idea of putting tomato sauce on a fucking salad, man, is vile.
01:02:13
Speaker
Yeah, they're both bad choices, but I feel like the mustard's worse. i and I don't know. Like, yeah I feel like I've seen more salads with like kinds of mustard. Yeah, Dijon. Dijon on the salad is good. Yeah. Yeah.
01:02:27
Speaker
Yeah. good But yeah, just straight up tomato sauce, way too sugary for a salad. Absolutely. feel like it's homo. I always put ketchup on everything. This is true. This is true. The March won't have aggressive condiment passing in the house, but for that moment, Mohawk. I like the specificity specific of that.
01:02:45
Speaker
Specificity? Specificity? Specificity. Specificity. Thank you. I'm asking Mo what he's doing in the house and Mo says, well, got a bar to the cart. Come in and say hello to his favourite customer. He then said tries to compliment Marge's hair and Marge's response to this is you've caught me a real bad time. He also calls a bitch.
01:03:00
Speaker
Yeah. The response is, I'm too tense to pretend I like you. That's so fucking real, Marge. I love that bit. That's Marge just like finally being done. That's so good.
01:03:12
Speaker
Mo asks how the kids are doing asks if they've got any disabling injuries that the gambling community might not know about. Let me have a look at those knees. Marge kicks the house and Mo tries to point out that he's 64 grand in the hole. What does he call her then? He calls like Deb or something?
01:03:26
Speaker
Blanche. Blanche. Then points out he's going to lose his thumbs and Marge slams the door into his face. I'm going cut off my thumbs. There's a reference to the Pope of Greenwich Village from 1984. So we cut back to the Springfield hockey rink, which has the sign for the game and underneath it do your own in damn entertainment.
01:03:47
Speaker
So Bart slides up to Lisa spraying with ice and and says, ah How easy is that to do, Fixer? Because you see it in like hockey media all the time. The whole like spraying someone with ice when you break in front of them.
01:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, very easy. Absolutely. It really? Yeah. i didn't i didn't I wouldn't have thought that it would, like, fluff up that much in that way like snow, but no, that's crazy.
01:04:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. um Yeah, you can. it It goes high, too. You can get people in the face with it. Yep. Damn. Well, as he but we'll try not to hurt her and Lisa tells him not to worry because she's wearing a lucky rabbit's head, which is, of course, Mr. Honey Bunny. That was great. Lisa and Martha get into a full-on punch-up, which is to get broken up in a poo as he pulls Lisa away goes, hey, hey, save your precious hatred for the game.
01:04:31
Speaker
Precious hatred. Valuable, valuable anger. So Homer's talking to Marge and tries to get to omit which kid she likes the best and Marge won't commit to anything. And he says, well, Maggie can't be your favourite because she's never done anything. Then see Maggie catch to be a beer bottle that was aimed straight for Homer's head.
01:04:48
Speaker
Marge points out that they can't root for the kids because he wouldn't like it if the kids played favourites with them. Then see Bart and Lisa both vying for Marge's attention and Homer just chuckles goes, hi kids. So the red carpet rolls out and Christie's here to sing the national anthem of which he clearly doesn't know the words. Should we turn down those cue cards?
01:05:07
Speaker
As the game begins and we then see Bart score the first goal and Helmuth declares that he loves Bart. And we see Lisa make a great save and Helmuth goes, no, wait, I love Lisa. Then Marge comes over with the beer and Helmuth goes, oh, beer, I love you, Marge.
01:05:21
Speaker
I loved ah Big Lush, ah say, beer brand or a cup name. Big Lush. That's great. Oh, I missed that, yeah. That was my glum toothpaste for the episode. I loved it. fucking Huge 44-ounce drink. 44-ounce, yeah. How much are you saying real numbers?
01:05:38
Speaker
like Someone quickly Google while I tell this story. I was ah a... Ooh, that's one and a quarter litres. That's a lot. I went to Bowling for That's beer. i went to see Bowling for Soup live, and the beers there were, yeah, two pints.
01:05:51
Speaker
And I had, like, two of them, and it was awesome. They're crazy.
01:05:57
Speaker
Carry on. Yeah, that story was very quick, for once. Sometimes I can tell quick stories. The game gets progressively more violent, as we see people being body-checked. and the crowd are getting proper into it, and Smallman falls down the stairs and everyone just laughs at him as well. There's a weirdly cut joke in there that like when Bart gets checked into the into the like the glass at the side, there's an iteration of the story where they had his face turned into Charlie Brown and he said, good grief.
01:06:26
Speaker
know why they cut that. Hmm. I mean, I know, because it's not very funny. one One of those random asides from the Sports Illustrated article, so I know a lot of weird trivia about this episode. It is very Charlie Brown-like, but Charlie Brown didn't do hockey. Maybe that's why they cut it.
01:06:41
Speaker
Yeah, maybe. Yeah, it could be. Saving it for the football episode. yeah Jimbo trips Bart and Marge has completely lost her head at this point because she demands vengeance. Yeah, even Marge getting into it.
01:06:54
Speaker
Sport is infectious though like that. Like I've been to, like I'm not ah a big like football watcher, but if I've been to a match, you get into it. It's weird. The crowd like infects you with their like excitement. Yeah.
Sibling Rivalry: Bart vs. Lisa in Sports
01:07:08
Speaker
Bart is taking the shot against Lisa and, uh, Mo is excited about this because it's four seconds left he says, the winner will be shouted with praise and the loser will be taunted with booze until his throat is sore. And we then see that Wigan tells Bart to kill her and Hapu tells ah Lisa to stop him dead.
01:07:24
Speaker
Then we see the crowd chanting, kill Bart, kill Bart. And the Lisa crowd are going, kill Bart, kill Bart. Just slightly different emphasis on different syllables.
01:07:34
Speaker
Well, yeah, one of them's got a comma in there. Yeah, comma lifts all way, yeah. One's going, kill Bart, and the other's going, kill Bart! So, yeah. The whole stadium is quite rowdy. This includes a Maggie Marge. Marge is fully gone at this point.
01:07:49
Speaker
And Bart and Lisa look at each other, and suddenly all the happy memories of their childhood come together. Why was Lisa wearing a pearl necklace as a baby? She's a fancy baby.
01:07:59
Speaker
All right, yeah, fair enough. I must power plant money. That is the power plant money. Yeah, you can buy jewellery for babies. Marge's got a whole ball of them winning at this. This is also true, yeah.
01:08:11
Speaker
So we see Lisa reaching into the cookie jar for Bart and Bart making shadow puppets and... This was admittedly very cute. the Lisa fixing Bard's knee and Bard giving Lisa his ice cream.
01:08:23
Speaker
And this eventually prompts both to ditch their hockey gear and skate into the middle of thing to hug and declare that they both had a great game. The buzzer goes and it's a tie game and the crowd are very annoyed by it.
01:08:34
Speaker
I think this is funny that they that the crowd has this intense reaction to the tie game. It would have been a tie if Lisa saved. That's how ties work. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Barch has never been so proud of them.
01:08:49
Speaker
Homer is weeping because both his kids are losers. Grandpa... So, Grandpa declines in a rip-off. Mormon, who hasn't gone up, by the way, goes, We've gained from blood. I mean, have you seen how old Moaman is? If he fell down, he probably wouldn't get up.
01:09:04
Speaker
He's 32! My apologies. I'm older than Hans Moaman? Fuck! yep Wiggum, the chief of police, declares they should tear the place apart. which point, Grandpa incites the riot.
01:09:17
Speaker
I love as well that, um, despite ah essentially escaping from prison, the prisoners did come to see the game. Yeah, they came for that.
01:09:28
Speaker
So Bart and Lisa start skating on the ice as everybody else at the point is just beating the shit out of each other. But it brings a tear to Snake's eye as he laments the fact that they didn't have peewee hockey when he was a lad.
01:09:39
Speaker
Oh, well. And then oh well, and starts crow-bawing the seats. And Lisa and Bart just continue skating and everybody is just punching each other and there's fire burning around. Madness. Weirdly, this whole bit was used to illustrate them at an award that the Simpsons won. um The American Cinema Foundation in 1996 gave them Best Comedy Series and they wanted a video clip. So they sent them this because they thought the contrast of Simpsons doing family shit and the town tearing the stadium apart was a funny contrast and very Simpsons-y.
Episode Review and Continuity Errors
01:10:12
Speaker
And then they edited and took out the riot. So it was just the Simpsons hugging and it was like, OK, you absolutely ruined the bit. Yeah, that destroys the bit.
01:10:20
Speaker
Like, yeah yeah, the showrunner like chewed them out on it when he went to accept the award. He's like, why have you edited the thing? but That's all i got in that one. That's fair. Carry on.
01:10:31
Speaker
Well, that's the episode, folks. Oh, fair enough. What do we think? think it's a fun episode. Pretty chill overall, but and it's like not amazing, not bad, but it was a fun, like relaxed episode of The Simpsons. I liked it.
01:10:45
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Solid one. It had a nice amount of memorable memes. Yes, very so. did have some memes in it. Yeah, sure did. liked this episode too. I thought it was good. Yeah. Very, very... um I was saying this to Blaney earlier, our ah ah fighter pilot correspondent.
01:11:02
Speaker
You have a fighter pilot correspondent? feel inadequate. you know Yeah, we've got we've got all sorts of correspondents these days. he's also the economic advise He's also the economic correspondent of Uganda.
01:11:15
Speaker
Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah. ah Yeah, I said this was like a pretty average episode of Simpsons, but when you take Simpsons in totality of the nearly 40 years it's been running, what is average Simpsons now is probably pretty low.
01:11:29
Speaker
But yeah, to me, this is like average Simpsons. This is like, this is what Simpsons is. It was good. i liked it. Yeah, no, this would this absolutely is, as ah as taken ah yeah in the context of TV as a whole, yeah, good TV.
01:11:43
Speaker
Taken in the context context of The Simpsons, just sure just decent episode of The Simpsons. Yeah, absolutely. I liked it. I, you know, not going into the the all they got wrong and the hockey game stuff, and and and not to mention continuity errors. I'm not sure they cared to much about continuity back then.
01:12:01
Speaker
ah please would like us to get into yeah Please give us a quicker rundown of the the hockey mistakes as possible. I know the big ones, but I was hoping you'd be able to elaborate better than I can, because I'm just cribbing from ah other people's research, obviously. Ah, yeah. i ah more I mean, it's all petty and dumb, but I guess some people like petty dumb. That's what this whole show is, bro.
01:12:23
Speaker
So Bart takes the face off at the red line in the middle. They got that part right. And suddenly, though, he is behind the blue line on his own team. So he teleported in the rink, apparently.
01:12:36
Speaker
okay. And then he raced forward, passing the blue line, passing the red line in the middle, and then passing and getting up to the blue line on Lisa's end of the rink.
01:12:47
Speaker
And then he goes and takes a slap shot, which would be a horrible move if you got a free shot, you know, all the way to the goal. I don't know why you're pulling up. It's ridiculous. Yeah. But the line changes colors depending on the the and the next scene.
01:13:02
Speaker
So that line goes from blue to red back to blue. It's petty, I told you. Those bastards. Yeah. Those it's bastards. Yeah. I say we buy it. by it It's stuff like that. like Like there was one scene where there was only five kids on one team, but no goalie. if when the and like them are on the shot and but But there were four kids on the other team.
01:13:23
Speaker
So they just got a lot of silly things like that off. I feel like you could count to five when you're drawing five little people on the ice. That's a little weird. and But they didn't. Yeah. They got that wrong. I did notice when somewhere they I saw they listed the members of the team. I don't think they did actually put as many people on one team as the other. Which genuinely was unbalanced for some reason.
01:13:46
Speaker
To be fair, that don why they did that it probably happened a lot more often in Pee Wee leagues. ah The big one is the penalty shot at the end, the finale.
01:13:57
Speaker
Basically, the clock is ticking down before Bart takes the shot, which apparently should not happen. No. Yeah, that's actually the thing most people care about. they he He wasn't happy with it. ah Mike Scully, that is, who, you know, wrote it. um He wasn't happy with that, but, like, kind of ultimately concluded, ah, nobody will notice, nobody will care that much. It is the one thing most people complain about this episode. He's heard more about that than anything else in the episode. That's so funny. Not to mention... Sorry, go ahead. Go on, sorry. i was yeah Also, apparently, like, it within, I guess, like, school leagues, you would typically wouldn't get a tie. You'd usually have, like, a sudden death. Yep, that's what I was about to even. So there was a period afterwards, yeah? Yep. Okay. It's possible with, like, really young leagues that they'll just end it at at at the stop of the game.
01:14:47
Speaker
So it's possible it could go either way, but generally they do go into overtime of some sort. m Yeah, the the the overtime and the penalty were the two main errors that generally I've seen pointed out about this one.
01:15:02
Speaker
There's a life lesson in there, kids. If there's something wrong with you, fix it. There you go. Yeah, good advice. Fix it. If you think wrong, fix it. but I'm talking about with three X's.
01:15:14
Speaker
Not porn. How do I say fixer with three X's? Fixer it. Emphasis on the X, yeah. Fixer it. Sounds fantastic.
01:15:27
Speaker
I thought so. Thank you. Cool. Shall we do our out of Homer scores? I gave it a tie game out of Homer. No one wins. Okay. Smack dab in the middle. I gave it a we paid for blood out of Homer.
01:15:41
Speaker
Ooh. Because we enjoyed the violence, but it wasn't quite the satisfying conclusion we needed. Fair enough. i feel like everyone's still very much on a similar page here by the sounds of it.
01:15:53
Speaker
I gave it Cardiff Comets out of Homer because it was fun to watch, but not a winner. ah That's so, like, that's so you. That's so Oh, I guess I got to come up with one. You got rating for Yeah, I'll give it a Manon Rayom out of Homer for being part of the very beginning of women's hockey becoming popular in the United States.
01:16:21
Speaker
Oh, and then Fixer saves it with just being an absolute lad. I could have shit on it, but I thought i thought I'd say something nice. Well, yeah, like said, it was, like, a very... It was a run-of-the-mill Simpsons, but that's a good thing, because think we've had a lot of, like... This has definitely been one of my, like...
01:16:39
Speaker
more enjoyed like one of my favorite episodes of like this season and what we've been reviewing late recently because yeah it was just it was just i don't think it did anything wrong other than obviously all the grievous hockey mistakes i don't think this episode put a foot wrong i just think it didn't do anything amazing but right now that's great for me because i Yeah, there really wasn't anything that annoyed me about this episode. are Are we at the point in The Simpsons where Homer is no longer that derpy but loving father slash husband and he's now just kind of a prick?
01:17:19
Speaker
is that Is that where we're at right now? no I hope not. Jesus. Because kind of feel like Homer just turned into a prick. I feel like the next episode kind of disagrees with that. don't know. I wouldn't say I was particularly aware of a point at which they did that.
Character Evolution: Has Homer Changed?
01:17:33
Speaker
Like, there are episodes, obviously, like When Flanders Failed, which is quite a lot earlier on, where they do lean heavily into a Homer being a prick for what they perceived as humour at the time we, in 2026, perceive somewhat less as humour, but that's that's by the by.
01:17:50
Speaker
I don't know that there was necessarily a point where they decided Homer was a prick. I feel like over time's gone on, i would have said, surely gets less of a prick because it's that kind of humor taste for prickishness, right?
01:18:03
Speaker
Oh, maybe. don't know. I don't know. and He just felt especially dickish today. or He was quite dickish today for Homer. I don't think he normally is this much. They dialed it up a bit. now I think the next episode is a good example of that not being the case at this point, I suppose. Yeah, yeah that's a good point.
01:18:23
Speaker
We'll see, though. He may become a huge bellend. So society... Yeah, did there's anything to say about society before we move on to this next episode? For me, I think it's pretty obvious. I think it speaks on the pressures that parents put on their children to be the best and use and they use sibling rivalries as an obvious fuel for the fire. I think that's obviously...
01:18:43
Speaker
I don't think they were hiding that influence there. It's also an obvious obvious commentary on how seriously Americans take sports, even from a young age, which is something I mentioned earlier. Although, admittedly, that has become more of and more of a problem in England as well.
01:19:01
Speaker
Like a dude got, like I think it was like two, three years ago, a guy got arrested for kicking the shit out of a referee at a primary school football game.
01:19:13
Speaker
crisis That's just ridiculous. no that's ridiculous because Because he didn't agree with the call, the referee, I thought, no, dude, like, if it genuinely, if that was me, you would just be banned from coming to sporting events with your your child. Your child is more than welcome to come.
01:19:29
Speaker
You're not. You know, fuck me, man. Other than obviously the whole... getting arrested thing. i would now that I would not encourage that. I would also like to see the man arrested, not just banned from sports. No, of course, but that's not that's not my decision.
01:19:45
Speaker
That's not my decision. I just run the school. It's sad that this is 94 and this was a problem that, you know, was big enough that it became a Simpsons joke and then we're looking and it's like probably a worse problem now.
Parental Pressures in Youth Sports
01:19:57
Speaker
Yeah. m Yeah. Yeah. No, it's wild. In terms of themes like that, I've read this Sports Illustrated article in which the writers and producers talked at great length about it. So like, I can tell you what they genuinely did. And yes, that message about putting pressure on your kids for performance in sports was definitely part of like two of the main sort takeaways they wanted you to include in this. They were basically the wanting to illustrate the darkness of parents around children's sports. The other side of this was
01:20:31
Speaker
The bit that you questioned, I wanted to say for this bit, which was Marge taking Milhouse's teeth. Right. Which was put in there as, to illustrate, basically, Marge has always lived in perpetual fear of, like, something bad happening to her children and, like, getting hold of Milhouse's teeth. Actually, it's kind of a dream come true for her because now that's the evidence that she has this, a way to illustrate that this is dangerous. I shouldn't Our kids shouldn't be doing this because I have proof. Here's this kid's teeth that got knocked out from doing it. If that was what they were going for, they did not illustrate it well, in my opinion. I do not think they illustrated that that's what Marge's attitude was because Marge seemed to be enjoying the fact that she had the teeth, not using it. That's what he says. It was her dream come true. She was excited to have this proof that this kid's activity was actually dangerous all along, which she believed. was like, look, I can prove it. This is cool, look, I can prove it. I think that's way overanalyzing it. I do not think that is what... I don't think that's what Simpsons were going for. I think you can interpret it that way.
01:21:38
Speaker
i i i I really would not. like Based on the way Marge talks, the way Marge is animated, the way she reacts to Milhouse asking for his teeth back, I do not think that's what they were trying to illustrate personally.
01:21:54
Speaker
Okay, well, that came from David Merkin, so take that up with David Merkin, not Who's David Merkin? The guy that wrote the article? No, the guy who made the episode. Oh, okay. Right, okay. I misunderstood who was in the article. No, if he said that's what he was doing. The article was, yeah, he was quoting one of the producers. Okay, my apologies. Yeah, no, if he genuinely said that, then What I will change my response to then is, I think you did a bad job of illustrating that point.
01:22:24
Speaker
I think they could have done better, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, i don' I don't think it was like a main point. I think it was just a thing he wanted to get in there, and that's how he did that. One of the things I think was cool, and Simpsons does it again later when Lisa starts playing football, is they didn't they didn't overdo the whole, oh, a girl playing sports kind of thing, because girls girls have played sports for a very long time.
01:22:52
Speaker
And yeah, cool, women women's sports isn't televised. You know, I was very excited when the Lionesses won the World Cup. That was awesome. And I think that was a great boon for women's professional sports. But girls have played sports for fucking forever.
01:23:09
Speaker
You know, so i i it just kind of bothers me when sitcoms and stuff are like, they make the whole episode, everyone making fun of the girl for wanting to play sports. It's like people don't actually really do that.
01:23:23
Speaker
Mm-hmm. You know, so i would it was just nice that that isn't, they didn't go for the low hanging fruit, basically. They went for a bit more of it. They had fun with it and it was a good, again, it was a genuinely good episode.
01:23:36
Speaker
Because, like, mentioning that when Lisa wants to play sports, they have that great bit where she's like, a girl wants to play football, and then they point out the three other girls on the football team, which is a fantastic bit.
01:23:49
Speaker
ah Yeah, so that was the other thing, just in terms of, like, saying about society that I thought I'd bring up. Nice. Anyone got any more points before we move on to Home of Bad Men?
Female Representation in Sports Episodes
01:24:00
Speaker
I'll throw in a random fact.
01:24:03
Speaker
Did you guys watch any of the hockey in the Olympics recently? Absolutely not. No. I watched all the the the men's and women's hockey.
01:24:15
Speaker
Fun fact, the entire men's team that was on the ice for the USA when they scored the goal to win and the woman who scored the goal in overtime to win for the women's team, all every single player on the ice for those two incidents came from my hometown.
01:24:32
Speaker
That's awesome. That's so cool. okay They're all from like Metro Detroit. So that was a pretty cool thing. That's very cool. Nice. i would i would I would needlessly take that stolen valor. I would be like, yep, that's my hometown. Hell yeah. That's hometown. but I mean, Detroit is hockey town. It's called hockey town for a reason. But yes, was pretty neat.
01:24:53
Speaker
Madonna bought her carpets from my hometown. You do know that she's from Detroit. I did not know that, but I liked that. I liked that well. What a weird coinkie thing. She's from a suburb, but yeah, she's from the area.
01:25:08
Speaker
That's hilarious. My hometown was like quite famous for making carpets. Yeah, for making carpets, for textiles. There's still a huge carpet factory there. It's one of the only factories that's like still open in that dying town.
01:25:21
Speaker
Yeah, and Madonna bought her carpets from there. That sounds like a Tom Scott video waiting to happen. A little bit. Yeah, possibly. I'm good. I'm done. i'm done Cool.
01:25:33
Speaker
Right. Homer Badman aired on November 27th, 1994. What happened on that day? I feel like the way that this has been listed on this page is a bit out of order importance.
01:25:46
Speaker
I haven't looked at this. Oh, has it done that? Because didn't we have that the other time where like in like tiny letters it was also like, oh by the way, there was a war? Yeah, it's looking like that. high purple See what see what sue you make of this. though The headline of the day. CFL Grey Cup, BC Place, Vancouver.
01:26:04
Speaker
BC Lions beat Baltimore FC 26-23. First ever championship in for football history featuring a US versus Canada lineup. Lions win on last second. Louis Pascale field goal.
01:26:15
Speaker
Okay, seems pretty important. Underneath, firing disco in Fuxing, North China, 233 kills. Oh my God. Oh my God. Yeah.
01:26:28
Speaker
Do you know, that kind of gives me the same vibes of like, when you look on an actor's Wikipedia these days, and it'll just in like a tiny paragraph, there'll be an entire para like entire Wikipedia article dedicated to them, and then a tiny paragraph that says, oh, and they also got accused of sexual harassment.
01:26:44
Speaker
It gives me that vibe. Uruguay elected a new president. Yeah, Giulio Maria San Guignetti. I'm going to ask a really stupid question and you're not allowed to laugh at me.
01:26:56
Speaker
right. where is he Does that apply to me too as a guest? No, you can laugh at me. Where is Uruguay? It's South America. okay. I thought it probably would be, but I'm genuinely fucking dog shit at geography. I did not know where Uruguay was.
01:27:11
Speaker
don't think it's a million miles away from Argentina. I might be completely wrong about that. but I couldn't point to it on a map. I know it's South America. pretty sure it's right next to Argentina, isn't it? Uruguay. My main context for anything to do with Uruguay is just Homer going, here look at this country. You are gay. Yeah, it's right next to Argentina. it is right It's right next to Argentina. It's on the east coast. It's just below Brazil.
01:27:35
Speaker
Yeah. United's greatest manager, Marcelo Bielsa, comes from there. Hey. League United won on penalties the other day. Yeah. We're in the f FA Cup semi-final. Go us. Just.
01:27:46
Speaker
Fucking just. We're like, what, 10th? okay I will take what I can get. op No, dude, I agree. I agree. As long as they're there. Oh, and it's a famous birthday, a Shrek the Sheep.
01:27:59
Speaker
ah jet I thought you were just going to say Shrek then and just leave it at that. Nope. I was frantically Googling Shrek to see how old Shrek is because that's an odd name to have in 1994. Yeah, I was about to say, 94? Shrek the Sheep was born.
01:28:12
Speaker
Shrek didn't come out until 2001. Look at the size of that sheep, man! Yep, so Shrek is a New Zealand sheep that held the world record for the biggest shorn fleece, and he was born on this day.
01:28:23
Speaker
He died in 2011. Wait, when was he named? 1994, I assume. Well, the the children's book is quite old, right? Because Shrek is based on a children's book.
01:28:34
Speaker
I have no idea. Yeah, it's based on a children's book, I just don't know how old it is. I did not know about it, yeah. Oh yeah. 1990. 1990. Yeah, the book came out four years. They must have named the sheep after the book Shrek.
01:28:47
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So Let Me Be Your Fantasy by Baby D is the UK number one. And boys to men are no longer making love to us. But the u US number one, they've now got quite committed because they're on bended knees, sir is this so... So the relationship's getting serious, guys. This is the to the men part.
01:29:10
Speaker
and They've stopped acting like boys now. Right, shall get into the episode sequence as well? Let's do it. We're over an hour and a half into this. Let us do a damn episode. It's a guest episode. This always happens.
01:29:22
Speaker
Yeah, this is true. Okay, so the Blackboard Gagai will not whittle whore passes out of soap. Is this a Great Escape reference? It feels like it. Didn't they whittle something out soap in the Great Escape?
01:29:34
Speaker
and don't remember. I don't know. I don't remember the scene. It is possible. Anyway. Well, I mean, there's whittling soap in lots of different things, but... I don't know if this would be a direct reference to The Great Escape.
01:29:47
Speaker
Well, you know, i mean, it's it's a bit of a reach for me because The Simpsons never makes really vague references that no one understands. They never do that. The couch gag, the family chase after the couch. I like this. I like this. It was weird. and It was just, I like the weird ones where they just kind of go, fuck it. And yeah, it they just chase the couch into the abyss.
01:30:08
Speaker
The episode begins with the Simpsons, with Bart pouring himself some cereal, and he curses the fda FDA because it can't all be marshmallows, and Bart starts putting the pieces is back. This was a good bit. Lisa's then like, don't don't put them back in the box, put them the bin. That was good. I liked that. Because again, it's it's just a nice bog-standard subversion of expectations. I liked that gag. It was a good gag. we cut to Homer, who tells him that he likes sweets, because he knows a place that's sweeter than sweetness itself.
01:30:35
Speaker
the earthly donuts are sour as poison and you'd spit them out, you would. Earthly donuts. I don't know why, just the use of the word earthly is just so, it's so good. I don't, I don't, I just really liked it.
01:30:50
Speaker
So, the kids wonder what he's on about and Homer pulls out the tickets to the candy industry trade show. Lisa asks how he got the tickets and Homer reveals that they were hidden in every million Krusty Bar and Krusty Almond Bar.
01:31:01
Speaker
We then come back to a flashback of Homer in the quickie bar, sitting on the floor, opening every single candy bottle of any tickets. Such a weird prize to put in. There actually is a sweets and snacks trade show.
01:31:13
Speaker
Of course, there's a trade show for damn near every any industry on the planet, of course there is, yeah. That does not surprise me. But, like, to put them as a prize inside, like, a chocolate bar is bit weird. Yeah, love that. I loved Apu.
01:31:26
Speaker
Yeah, so we go to Apu, and Apu says, he's already asked Homer not to mangle his merchandise. Homer's left him no choice but to ask him politely again. Mm-hmm. The kids beg to go and Homer says, you'd rather take Marge him.
01:31:40
Speaker
Marge says, it's nice, but take one of the kids. Homer says they can't carry enough candy because they've got puny and muscles, not bigger opium ones like Marge. Nice drive-by insult to Marge. Also, if this is the um the American ah NCA, the National confectioner Confectioners Association, which does actually have the National Candy Show,
01:32:02
Speaker
which is the closest like name to what Homer did. that's say in noche That's in Chicago. So they drove quite far if they're if they're in the if they're in roughly the area we thought they were. That's like a couple days journey.
01:32:16
Speaker
Oh, they've moved it to Indianapolis, though. Oh, right. Okay. Fair enough, then. I don't know if that helps. They only moved it in 2024. That's Costa Chicago. They've not gone very far. But serve the kids concede that Marge should go with her big ropey muscles because it's for the greater good.
01:32:33
Speaker
We then cut to Marge having a trench coat sewed onto her, and Marge wonders if all the pockets are necessary. Roma's response to this is if she'd been willing to sit in the hollowed-out wheelchair, it wouldn't be a problem. what part What part of a wheelchair isn't hollow? And also, where is there storage on a wheelchair? look at wheel Think of a wheelchair. hollow those part There's no storage! there's no storage Inside the tires. Inside the wheels.
01:32:56
Speaker
yeah The doorbell goes and Marge declares it's the babysitter and she points out no one will sit for the kids anymore. so She had to choose between a grad student a hobo. Bar goes to the door praying for the hobo but it is the graduate student who's called Ashley Grant.
01:33:11
Speaker
so Lisa recognizes her so and says that she gave a talk about women's issues and how women don't have to be second class citizens. This prompts Bar to go well how can you leave us with this maniac? And Homer drags Marge away because they need to get pictures taken with the two surviving musketeers.
01:33:27
Speaker
With Pops Marge, she like there's a baby upstairs something. And Bart tries to be a bit show-fadistic, saying, so you're one of those chicks that don't like being called a chick. And Lisa says he'll make her next few hours of living hell, but Ashley's got a plan for this because she's got disembowel of four.
01:33:41
Speaker
And she says she'll let Bart play on it for five minutes, and but Bart is too seduced by this. Ashley says, male's not hard at aim, they all follow their video games. She then forces Bart to walk into a door. they so That was funny, I liked that. That was a good bit.
01:33:54
Speaker
We then cut to the candy convention, and we then see Homer very excitedly walking the red carpet with Marge. I'm like a kid in some kind of store. Homer then prompts to steal all the samples as he's putting them in Margie's coat.
01:34:09
Speaker
And we cut to Professor Fink and giving his demonstration of his ah lemon sour candy that has to be contained in a magnetic field. thanks but that starts explaining what it's called and then realises the candy's missing us where the hell is it we then go to homer's face completely sucked in by sourness and he goes tastes like a cloudy lemonade beer is there is there a limit to sourness because you know like there's the scoville scoville rating for peppers and now we're getting to the point where we are like genetically engineering peppers that are hotter than any pepper ever
01:34:45
Speaker
That Scoville raving is a bunch of bullshit. They lie about that. Yeah, it's wank. It's just wank. Yeah. All right, ahead. So as someone who works in the food industry, I can weigh in on sourness to some degree. Mostly what you'll use for sourness in in in candy world anyway is malic acid. So like the the nuclear waste type, toxic waste, whatever type candies, it's usually just coated in malic acid that tastes so sour.
01:35:15
Speaker
I don't know if there are any like... practical limits to it beyond like at a certain point it is going to start dissolving your tooth and owl and people are going to start asking questions. but It is just fucking acid that you're eating. Yeah, you can't make it more sour than malic acid.
01:35:34
Speaker
There are other acids you probably would not put them in food. Malic is at at least, you know, you know edible, okay right? You could put stronger acids in, they would not be a good time. Wait, what food is that used in?
01:35:47
Speaker
What, malic acid? Yes. ah So in sweets, like, ah um I don't know whether you'd get them in America. Like, we have some super sour candies called toxic waste. I imagine there are probably similar type things. There's like, they come in little plastic tub that looks like a nuclear waste drum. And it's got like radioactive symbols on it And they're just like, they're just boiled sweets covered in malic acid. And they're like really, really sour.
01:36:11
Speaker
But like, we we use them in we use them in soft drinks as well. Just looking up a picture of of toxic waste made my mouth feel funny. Did it make you feel like homo? Yeah, a little bit. Immediately my whole mouth just went blah blah blah.
01:36:24
Speaker
But yeah, if you want if you are if you're making drinks and you want to like add some acidity to it, because acidity is how you preserve a lot of drinks, it's how you make it microbially stable, malic acid is certainly a way to do that. Do you have things do you have warheads in America, Fixer? because that's the one i We did at one point. I don't know if they still exist, but I do remember those, yeah.
01:36:46
Speaker
Yeah, does have malic acid in them. Gotcha. Helmer walks over to the wax licks exhibition which are apparently has a thousand uses. Helmer asks what the thousand uses are and but the man reveals the obvious one which is you must substitute for your own lips and Helmer goes keep going. So the man decides that oh I'm needed in the basement and he can't think of anything so he pretends to walk down the steps. I love that he pops back up to check and then pops back down.
01:37:14
Speaker
It's Bob's home to take entire bowl of wax lips and empty them into his pants. I like wax lips. I think they're nice. They're a good suite. I like them too. Yeah, they're a good suite. We'll see Marge her overfilled waistcoats here on her bench to pull out a piece of celery. The security guard says, you've got to sugar that You need to put some sugar on that or leave. That was so fucking good. I loved that.
01:37:37
Speaker
So we then go to the Gummy Bears exhibition and Homer's very excited about all the gummies which include bears, calves and jawbreakers. But then Homer sees the beautiful one which is the Gummy Venus de Milo.
01:37:51
Speaker
So Homer meets the expert behind it who seems to be a German and he goes through that. course it was German. as it was carved by gummy artisans who work exclusively in the medium of gummy. This annoys Marja says, could you stop saying the word gummy so much? Admittedly, after a while, it stopped sounding like a word.
01:38:11
Speaker
Gummy Venus de Milo winks at Homer, and Homer says he's got a heart. He's done it, I forgot it fucking winks at him. So, probably that tells Marge to distract the salesman and Marge says, you won't make a spectacle of herself anymore. At that moment, a pocket bursts and all the candy spills out Marge goes, how did that get there? I love the um the noise Marge makes in this moment. She makes it later on in the episode, but she just starts going, oh, it's like, what the fuck is that? She's just like astounded that her coat has exploded.
01:38:39
Speaker
oh ah As everyone's picking up the candy, Homer goes, this is going take all his skill. He then just punches the glass to take the Venus to Malone. Also, considering people's reaction to the fact that Marge is caught sequence, and they all just start picking it up to help Marge.
01:38:53
Speaker
It means that it they could have just brought a bucket and no one would have cared that they were taking sweets. Yeah, I mean, my thoughts throughout this is why are they being so flirted about this? This is a trade show. They're free samples. You're allowed to take them. It does it does remind me of when I was like walking up to the cinema with my dad and he'd just hand me a pack of Haribo and tell me to stuff it in my pockets. And I'd always wonder why on like the hottest day of the summer I was wearing my big puffy jacket to the cinema. Yeah. And it's so my dad could sneak in That's amazing.
01:39:27
Speaker
My dad also... I don't think any cinemas really care that much, though, do they? think they don pay they date They did when I was a kid. Yeah, when I was a kid, they cared, but yeah. Yeah. I remember as well, it instilled the same thing for me as well now, which is I will not i will fucking let my eyeballs float before I get up and go for a piss at the cinema for a film I've not seen before. Yeah. And that's because when I was young, my dad would make us go to the toilet before we went in and then would be annoyed if we had to get up. He would not buy us drinks. We weren't allowed drinks to go to the cinema.
01:40:00
Speaker
And I agree. Appreciate the films you watch. If you've paid for a film, fucking watch it. I remember seeing... they should Stop making films so damn long these days. Well, speaking of, yeah, I went to see Interstellar and I needed to pee 30 minutes in.
01:40:15
Speaker
Oh no. And I was fucking dying. But i I've never... i have never ran in a cinema before. But I ran to the top because i I was fully ready to piss myself because I... Oh, 169 minutes long. Yeah, yeah I fucking... I was in pain. I was in physical pain. It wasn't even a relief to finally pee. It was just more pain.
01:40:46
Speaker
It's about the length of this podcast, I think. little bit. Yeah. yeah I'll set a little alarm to go off once we beat the runtime of Interstellar.
01:40:57
Speaker
But, look, well I'm an old man, I'm a approaching 40. 169 minutes is a long time. Yep. If I want to miss a key point of the plot film, because I need to have a piss, I will do so. No, I'll just sit there and I'll just suffer.
01:41:14
Speaker
Well, when your kidneys explode, that's on you. Yep. Do you know what? I'll accept it, and I'll say it was worth it, so I make sure I see all of Paul Blart Mall Cop 7.
01:41:24
Speaker
Causes to die. Everyone's got to pick their battles. absolutely And mine is Bulbar! there Speaking of her picking your battles, Homer tells Marge to run and save the booty as ah they run away with the Easter Marlowe. Eventually, Homer decides to get to the exit that he's had enough of this Homer stops himself.
01:41:46
Speaker
Kung Fu kicks a vending machine in half to get one can of Bluscola out. He then pulls out packet of Pop Rocks and puts it on top of the Coke, shakes it up, launches it. And then says, see you in hell, Candy Boys, launches it. And John, you're the resident scientist of our group. that's what happens, yeah. This is what happens. The diehard explosion basically happens. Am I the only one who thought they were going to go with a Popeye reference there? I guess...
01:42:15
Speaker
I thought he was going to down it and then be, you know, regretful about it. think that would have been funnier. This is apparently based on every Bruce Willis movie ever made. That checks out, yeah. That's fair.
01:42:33
Speaker
that's that's fair You had the slow motion of Homer running away as the explosion goes off. It basically killed everyone. Everyone in that trade show is dead. Highest dent count in Simpsons episode ever.
01:42:46
Speaker
That's why no one's coming after him about the gummy de Milo is because they're all dead. No witnesses. No one knows. Everyone thinks it was destroyed in the explosion. We then go back to home and the kids are exploring Marge's trench coat and Marge is enjoying it. We see Maggie come out with the wax lips, which is a little trickle out of me. Marge's coat finally explodes. And she makes that same noise. who So strange.
01:43:12
Speaker
Helmer can't find his gummy to Milo and he says she can't have got four because she's got no arms. And Fudge tells him to take the babysitter home because she's been sitting in the car for 20 minutes and Helmer says there's plenty for her to do in there.
01:43:25
Speaker
Then he had the horn honking outside and go see she's having the time of life. over life So Homer's driving ah Ashley home and he asks the important questions of, how you can put someone on the moon but you can't make my shoes smell good.
01:43:38
Speaker
which I like she apologises. Then Homer goes, no one's blaming you. Then asks, you can take the wheel so he can scratch himself in two places. She tells him to just drop her off. And as she's getting the car, Homer sees that the Venus de Milo is unfortunately on the seat of Ashley's pants.
01:43:53
Speaker
Homer reaches for it and Ashley looks back see Homer pulling one hell of a lustful face. but You can kind of understand why... just beenus You can sort of understand why there's misunderstanding that happens, happens.
01:44:07
Speaker
Ashley runs off screaming as Homer goes, thank you. And he really just ah eats the Venus very quickly. No savouring going on here. Yeah, there's no savouring. I noticed that. That's... kind of weird It's just going to taste like a gummy. It's just a beautiful gummy. It's like if I ate the the actual Venus de Milo, it wouldn't taste any different from other marbles.
01:44:29
Speaker
Or the gummy. Or the gummy. He just wants the prestige of having eaten the Venus de Milo. I would love the prestige of eating the gummy Venus de Milo. So, we then see the kids coming downstairs, holding their stomachs, and... There's plenty candy left for breakfast, and the kids are just going... Marge then suggests they're giving away some needy children, and the kids are like... They start hugging it.
01:44:53
Speaker
Fucking of course you can buy a gummy Venus de Milo on Etsy. Of course you can. please Please put up a picture for people when for when this show when we see the show on um on YouTube. Because, yes, you can actually buy Gummy Venus de Milos for ยฃ15! Damn! Oh, okay. oh The one I found is ยฃ4.44.
01:45:18
Speaker
That's still too much for single gummy, but, like... Yo, this is impressive! It looks great! It does look great, doesn't it? Has it been made by the artists in gummies?
01:45:30
Speaker
Yes. I'm going say yes. We hear a commotion outside and Homer thinks that the candy conventioners have come to get But he looks out the window and you see that actually leading a mob saying that's the man that sexually harassed her. Homer breathes a sigh of relief because for a minute he thought he was in big trouble then realises actual situation.
01:45:50
Speaker
We then see that the crowd have begun their chant which is 2, 4, 6, 8. Homer's crime was very great. But then there's an awkward pause before it requires clarification. We use it in the pejorative sense.
01:46:02
Speaker
Homer then swears to Marge he didn't touch her and points out how bashful is because he can't even say the word titmouse without giggling and then giggles.
01:46:10
Speaker
Marge believes him but tells him to go outside to straighten out because some of those chants are quacky and memorable. Homer goes out and Asher says that he grabbed him in the car and Homer goes, no, I was just grabbing the Venus de Milo off your pants. And one woman goes, that's the oldest excuse in the book. What's the second oldest excuse in the book if that's the first, man?
01:46:28
Speaker
I fell. I fell. Oops. I thought you needed to support. Yes, buddy, awesome.
01:46:36
Speaker
So, as the crowd start booing him, Homer says he's a decent guy. Unfortunately, the wind blows up his bathrobe to reveal he wasn't wearing any underwear, which gets him even more disdain from the crowd. Yep, slow down.
01:46:47
Speaker
So, Val asks why anyone would want to touch a girl's butt, because that's where cooties come from. And Lisa doesn't quite understand what Homer's being accused of. Homer goes into the analogy of, ah remember the postcard grandpa sent us of that alligator biting that woman's butt?
01:47:00
Speaker
And Bart says, oh, that's brilliant. And Emma goes, we all thought it was hilarious, but it turns out that alligator was like sexually harassing that woman. And Bart asks about the Copatone and Emma goes, eh, it's a grey area. I had to look that one up. That's weird. I immediately felt like I was on a list.
01:47:19
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's a real weird ad. made me very uncomfortable. i'm I'm guessing for for YouTube viewers, you're going to have to Google it yourself. I do not think we could even put that on YouTube.
01:47:31
Speaker
Pfft. Yeah, yeah. Google Coppertone if you want to, like, see a picture. Yeah, if if you search, like, Coppertone dog ad, I think it's the first thing that comes up. is. I think you just search Coppertone, it appears. Oh, God.
01:47:42
Speaker
and didn't realize it was that easy. Lisa reassures Homer that she knows that she's innocent, but Marge says the building is shantied down. Potency the next day, and Homer's trying to drive out, and the person has to start pounding on his car, and Homer goes...
01:47:55
Speaker
They can do their worst because he's going to live his life. We then cut to the shot on him on the freeway while everyone's trying to knock his car over. But then we see Homer at his workstation and one of the protesters goes, we ain't crazy about nuclear power. even This pom smithers is going to go, you people are allowed in here. And Homer goes, it's all right. They're with me. And yeah, Homer just accepts it.
01:48:14
Speaker
Smithers just goes, all right. Smithers accepts this as well. Yeah, but it should mean that Homer's just like, yeah, it's fine. Just let them keep doing what they're doing. I deserve this. So Homer reveals that they were running his whole life as he talks to Marge in bed and says sir he's counting on her to say something or do something to make it better.
01:48:29
Speaker
And Homer's looking very anxious about what she's got to say. And Marge reveals she spoke to the indignation coordinator on the lawn. It was no good. But to apart from standing by him and supporting him, there isn't anything else you can do.
01:48:44
Speaker
Homer realizes he's on his own and starts weeping. and there He calls out for God to help him. He goes, help me, God. The phone then rings. though very tentatively answers it. Yeah. Hello. hello know The bit I love about this is, the voice of this guy is the voice that they use for content.
01:49:00
Speaker
that's great. Oh, is it really? It is. That's hilarious. Oh, really? Nice. This is God. the voice Free. Free Jones. So they talk about his he's representing the TV show Rock Bottom and want to help him. And Homer goes, oh, yes, I remember your thing with the Sasquatch.
01:49:18
Speaker
It was very fair and even-handed. Homer agrees to do it. Then we see Homer doing the interview and... He's explaining his side of the story, which he's talking about what actually happened. And then he starts thinking about the candy, unfortunately, which ah leads to his unfortunate to facial expressions. And Godfrey stops him and tells him that they've got everything needed. And Humble then asks if he can be introduced to Sasquatch.
01:49:39
Speaker
Which he says there's some awkward running away in the yes someone runs away. i thought that was really odd. I'm guessing this is all a reference to something. I'm guessing whoever that was might have been the Sasquatch. The rock bottom thing is a reference to a TV show called Hard Copy, which I don't if Fixer might be aware of this, certainly something I've never come across before in my life, but yeah, it the The program that is depicted here is like, I think very much their style of thing.
01:50:03
Speaker
Yeah, that was a very that's a very common type of joke. Yeah, i don't I don't think I've ever seen hard copy myself, but yeah, that was and was cut typical like ah bullshit type interviews.
01:50:14
Speaker
So Homer's excited on the sofa because the bouncing ball of justice. The bouncing ball of justice. So the Robbomb episode starts and they reveal they're going undercover at sex farm for sex hookers.
01:50:26
Speaker
And the farmer is interviewed says, he's just growing sorghum here. And the man they're asking where the hookers are. And he goes, brown back. And he goes, whoops. But then they cut to a photo of a Ashley at a graduation. And then we get the slow motion of Homer looking very sinister, reaching for his car keys. As he's described as a grossly overweighted pervert. As...
01:50:45
Speaker
who gave her a crash course in depravity, babysitter and the beast. Elmo has enough knowledge go, ah, crap. Yeah, so that doesn't sound good. We then get a very edited splice together photo of Elmo talking about... ah no we Sweet, sweet, man....and how he reached for a sweet can and...
01:51:04
Speaker
Eventually this goes to Godfrey Jones going, so you're admitting you grabbed a can? you have anything to say in your defence? And they pause it on the picture of Homer. I love the scan line as well. the clock. Did you know? Yeah, the clock in the background was moving back and forth constantly between shots. Yeah.
01:51:20
Speaker
Which is also weird because you saw the interview with them in the first place and clock did not change because it was just like a few sentences. Yeah, so it doesn't quite follow, but it's very fun. no We get into that shot of Homer on his lustful face and...
01:51:34
Speaker
Godfrey tells him that ah his silence is only incriminating him further, and then we cut back to the shot of our mind. Then Godfrey John starts panicking, and goes, no, don't take your anger out on me. No, Mr. Simpson, no. Have you also seen that in those shots, Godfrey is outside all of a sudden? so Oh, yeah. He's also, like, changed location during this interview.
01:51:54
Speaker
Then we get the disclaimer of dramaturgation may not have happened. Yeah, dramaturgation may not have happened. Homer turns off the TV and tells the kids everything is going be fine. They'll pack their bags because they're going to start a new life under the sea.
01:52:05
Speaker
We then get to this flash, this fans fantasy of Homer and the kids on the sea. The kids are playing the ah fish-like instruments and Homer starts singing the song of Under the Sea. There'll be no accusations, just friendly crustaceans, which is the best ride I've ever heard. And we don't see Homer just start to eat your all of the fish.
01:52:24
Speaker
And the ending shot just him with all the fish skeletons floating around him. Go back to the present day and March tells him that's his solution to everything, to go under the sea. It's not going to happen.
01:52:35
Speaker
I was responsible for this is not with that attitude. that's That's a line I use surprisingly often.
01:52:44
Speaker
I just said that the whole thing may blow over, but at which point helicopters arrive because the news crews have arrived. Homer then says he didn't blow over because nothing ever blows over for him. At that point, his car blows over. That was good.
01:52:56
Speaker
We then see Homer the next day getting out the shower and he's being filmed by a helicopter crew. He panics and falls over in the camera and the photo's taken of him. This is spun by the newsmen to say that Homer sleeps nude in an oxygen tank which gives him sexual powers. That's a half truth.
01:53:11
Speaker
That's a half truth. Which half? I just love the way the news reporter said it. Sexual powers. We then ah cut to Homer changing the channel and there's just a woman crying on a talk show saying she doesn't know Homer, she's never met him or had any contact with him, but she can't go on and the host goes, that's okay, your tears say more than any real evidence could.
01:53:33
Speaker
And then we cut to Ben. which is mothers and runaway daughters being reunited by their hatred of homes. So intense. And the the host comes out, which Ben is a bear with a helmet on his head with a microphone.
01:53:45
Speaker
And Bear starts taking some questions, which includes one woman saying that we need less Homer Simpson's and more money for public schools, which gets some applause. The woman tries to ask a question, but Bear goes straight over to the snack table.
01:53:57
Speaker
He knocks over his hand, like who tries to stop him, and... The animal control team, which are called Ben Control, come. Shooting with tranquilizers and Bear kind of stumbles around and is just but he's about to fall onto the audience. The screen goes black and we just get that screenshot of ah Ben holding that woman's hand. Classic Simpsons technical difficulties and cards. yeah We then cut to Fox Knight of the Movies, which is Homer S, Portrait of an Ass Grabber, starring Dennis Franz. Ooh, portrait. Sounds classy. That has to ask the family, doesn't it?
01:54:28
Speaker
I should also point out this point, Dennis Franz actually is himself in this. Oh, this is, yeah, this is literally Dennis Franz. That's great. It's a very dramatized film of Homer driving around very sinisterly and Ashley saying, don't run over the cat because it's a living creature. and i I don't care. We just hear the noise of the cat running.
01:54:46
Speaker
And then Homer goes, he's going to grab some sweet and we get the zoom in on Ashley's ostrich in case you wondered why it was romance. And she says it's sexual harassment until Yale for the whole country will yell.
01:54:56
Speaker
With the man in the White House? I don't think so. We get some very sinister laughter. This bombsome to change the channel, and we're on Kent Brockman doing hour 57 of the live, round-the-clock coverage of The Simpsons' house.
01:55:09
Speaker
And you can tune in at 8 for the highlights, which include when the garbage man came and when Marge put the cat out. Possibly because it was harassed. We don't know. Then the the infrared heat-sensitive camera comes on, and we can see, clearly, Homer and the family on the sofa despairing, but Kent Brotman instead focuses on on the oven because the technology is new to him.
01:55:29
Speaker
So he wonders why Homer's temperature has risen to 400 degrees as he's stewing his own juices. Rotating slowly. Slowly rotating. of So we then go to the phone-in poll, and 95% of people think he's guilty, and...
01:55:46
Speaker
Homer says that this is just a television poll, so it's not legally binding. Less proposition for your four passes. and We all pray it does. Homer is upset because he doesn't have a friend in the world, at which point all of Homer's friends show up and Homer thinks it's a miracle. But Mo and his friends are just there because they know the real Homer and they want to start being war to see if they can sell the information. It starts at 10 G's and Another good subversion of expectations kind of gag. It was great. i love this.
01:56:11
Speaker
Homer asks for a hug and everyone awkwardly hugs him. And Homer asks about the hesitation. And the kids say they do believe in But it's hard not to listen to the TV because it's spent so much more time racing him. Homer walks upstairs dejected and the kids hug the TV. We don't see Homer upstairs shouting, are you hugging the TV? My dad loves yelling that.
01:56:30
Speaker
Whenever he goes of the room. I go visit my dad. How often are you hugging the TV though? I plead the fifth. Come on. So we've got to Homer looking very de depressed in bed and David Letterman is ah saying that the number one reference that he's going to run into the ground is Homer Simpson. This prompts Homer to change the channel and we see that Bumblebee Man is sniffing a flower. He gets his arse pinched and declares it's Homer Simpson and he's been molestado.
01:56:54
Speaker
Molestado. There's the flower waltz and and says he likes it better when they're not making making fun of people that aren't him. He puts the evening on the improv on because they don't talk about anything beyond the 1980s.
01:57:04
Speaker
Case of point by the comedian talking about if Mr. T and E.T had a baby. They'd be like, appear the fool who called home. And everyone goes, ooh, I wouldn't like to be Mr. T right now. The kids run in and Marge says, they have a good idea to clear him.
01:57:18
Speaker
And Lisa points out that the media don't care about making a monster because it's all about entertainment. And he says, you've got to go in somewhere that doesn't even know the word of meaning of the word entertainment. Public access television. yeah Is this a thing in the States? I've never heard it over here.
01:57:32
Speaker
Oh yeah. This is the thing where you can just go and like make your own TV show broadcast it. that's what Wayne's World was based on. It was two people having a public access television show. Yeah, ah you you you can go to your local public access and talk to them about what you want to do and whatnot. It's not like an automatic thing, but let's just say their standards aren't very high. It's not just a booth that you walk into, like here.
01:57:54
Speaker
Yeah, okay. Yeah, cool. Interesting. I'm going to fix it all for me, but Mike says, but they'll dress it up with a fur and a folding chair, and the most decorative thing of all, the truth. Everyone just looks it like, what the hell?
01:58:06
Speaker
Yeah. we cut to the studio and Abe is putting a flag up and Marge points out there's only 49 stars and Abe says he'll be in the cold, cold ground before he recognizes Missora. I did count the stars, and what they said was on there was not on there. I was upset.
01:58:22
Speaker
oh How many stars were on that there? doors ah I think there was 43 or something like that. it wasn't even close. It wasn't even funnier actually. Yeah, they corrected it, but they got wrong too, which I'm sure was intentional, but laughed.
01:58:36
Speaker
Missouri's a very big state, okay? It counts for a lot of stars. Lisa begins the broadcast of the Innocence Report, and Homer says, I'm Homer Simpson, or as you wags have dubbed me, whore of a goose.
01:58:49
Speaker
Which, what, when, how, why? Homer starts explaining that ah he didn't do anything wrong, and he says he's done a lot of terrible things his life, but harassing women wasn't one them He starts talking about the time that ah he was watching this race with...
01:59:04
Speaker
stupid old-timey bikes with big wheels in front. they thought He talks about throwing a cinder block. A classic, Matt Classic, but Marge has to cut him off and he goes, oh, I've got to go. You say a Matt Classic? What if I harassed a biker?
01:59:18
Speaker
oh you Well, youre you were throwing irons. Oh, okay, I get you now. Fair enough. The family are proud of him and the squeaky voice teen says that the switchboards are lighting up.
01:59:31
Speaker
and That's the most calls we've ever had. which we It's revealed that that is actually two calls, one of which is that Janice doesn't live there, and is interested in long distance saving.
01:59:41
Speaker
Very interested. but I look to him by making frozen Prozac at home, because it's only comfort. Need more ice cream. doorbell rings and a man is on a penny-farthing bicycle. So you don't like old-timey bikes, eh?
01:59:56
Speaker
Kick. And just full-on kicks him in the face. That was my favourite bit in this episode. It's a great bit and it's the return of my favourite actor, Next Up Funsville.
02:00:07
Speaker
love Oh, wise guy. I love that guy. Next Up Funsville. I just love that voice. That voice is very entertaining for me. The doorbell rings again and the groundskeeper Willie is here.
02:00:18
Speaker
God Keeper Willie reveals that ah he loves filming amateur videos and Homer's is the most amateur he's ever seen. He then reveals that he likes so videotaping couples in a car and he can't come forward because in this country it makes him look like a pervert.
02:00:29
Speaker
Then reveals that every single Scottish person does it. does it! As a son of a man raised in Scotland, I can confirm it is true. Every Scotsman does that. So we cut to Willy showing the tape and he inadvertently shows me a couldn't be first and then we get the footage of Homer actually reaching for the Venus de Milo and Marge says this clears him completely and Marge says the cards might not work but as long as everyone is videotaping everyone else just this will be done.
02:00:56
Speaker
Which is just like fascinating given that like we are now in an era where everyone is videotaping everyone else with like either fucking video glasses and video doorbells and just attaching cameras to literally everything. And now the law doesn't mean anything.
02:01:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah it's yeah, it's just a real fascinating little line in in this year of Our Lord 2026. Ashley is showing the footage and Ashley says that she thought Homer was a mon an animal, but his daughter said he was a decent man.
02:01:28
Speaker
She then says, I guess you were right, and Homer's response is, you're both right.
02:01:33
Speaker
Then we come back to rock bottom and Godfrey Jones says that sometimes in the mad pursuit for a scoop, we make mistakes. He then has the following corrections. We get a long line of... I didn't i forgot to pause. i didn't quick I didn't reach over in time to pause. um Did anyone pause to see any the ones... You must have a life.
02:01:50
Speaker
Because when I paused, it paused on, if you're reading this, you have no life. Amazing. I know her there's a great one there's a great one in Bojack Horseman that does that, um where a guy is like holding up a t-shirt in the background, and if you pause, it says unpause and just watch the show, which is great. That's amazing. To fair I didn't, but like now that I'm going, because you can obviously get all this on Frinkiac, and I'm going through it and there's some of some very good ones in there. Like, are viewers not pathetic sexless food tunes?
02:02:21
Speaker
Fucking hell.
02:02:24
Speaker
Bullets do not bounce off of fat guys. False. Well, good to know. but So, Bart and Bart reads his own, which is V8 juices at 1A gasoline, and, uh, Elmer's shocked to learn that Ted Koppel is a robot.
02:02:37
Speaker
Elmer's own name is there, and the kids cheer. But to tomorrow night on the road bottom, we've got Willy, and Willy is dubbed Rowdy Roddy Peeper, which got a chuckle out of me.
02:02:48
Speaker
And Homer's response is, oh, that man is sick. Marge has to point out that he saved him, and Homer goes, listen to that, music is evil. Yeah, that's true, music is very effective. So Marge asks him if the experience hasn't told him anything, and Homer says, have not learned anything.
02:03:03
Speaker
nothing. the family walk off completely disgruntled and Helmer looks around and then hugs the TV and goes, let's never fight again. It's like he didn't even fight with the TV. so silly.
02:03:17
Speaker
The TV was broadcasting all the bad things about him. You know what? That's true. That's true. I apologize. So what did we think? Oh, this is great. This is a great episode. Absolutely fantastic.
02:03:28
Speaker
I really, really like this episode. but Simple, a lot of good jokes. It's very 90s. I think it needs a certain headspace like to enjoy in the modern era, ah but i think I think it's a very classic episode of Simpsons, in in in my opinion.
02:03:44
Speaker
yeah definitely Yeah, definitely a classic. um A lot of good gags. But yeah, it has... It has aged were a certain way. I think we'll get into it in the society bit. We will get into that, yes. yeah We have a space for that one.
02:04:02
Speaker
Fixer. pixer Yeah, I think I'm on the same wavelength as you guys. It is a very 90s episode and some stuff did not age well. So, yeah, I have a feeling we'll we'll talk a lot about that.
02:04:15
Speaker
end Michael, i know any specifics? ah I like this episode. It's the the candy convention stuff. Oh, really made me laugh. yeah this was Yeah, this was the first time in a while that we've had a Simpsons that's like opening skit, which which for one was quite long, but was really good, you know, because it's been a while since we've had a really, really good opening skit.
02:04:38
Speaker
But yeah the yeah. I mean, with like the... the o do you get Did you guys have Lucky Charms when you were little? Is that the serial? No, I just meant the whole the whole candy, because the candy thing isn't relevant to the plot.
02:04:51
Speaker
Right. beyond Beyond him acquiring the Venus de Milo. Yeah, there there is there is fully six minutes of candy before we get to any alleged sexual harassment. Which happens a lot in Simpsons. At the core of the plot. But like the whole Homer getting drunk at the house party and harassing Maud.
02:05:09
Speaker
isn't really relevant to the plot of that episode, but it's fucking hilarious. Yeah, it is something that I think of as being a very classically Simpsons style of having the first, like, quarter or so or more of the episodes be absolutely irrelevant to the actual plot they're trying to set up.
02:05:26
Speaker
And yeah, I don't feel like that has happened in a hot minute. Yeah. right, shall move on to our homers? Sure. I gave it a popros Pop Rocks Pop combo grenade out of Homer.
02:05:40
Speaker
Explosive. Okay.
02:05:44
Speaker
I gave it wax lips out of Homer because it had a thousand ways to abuse me. That's clever, that. I love that. That was great. i good Such as?
02:05:56
Speaker
i believe Michael's needed downstairs.
02:06:04
Speaker
I'm peeking over to see if you can. Nope, we're still here. and You can pop back down. So fucking stupid. Fixer, what's your out of I'm gonna give it one green Venus the Milo out of Homer's system because I am hovering my finger over this Add to Cart on Etsy right now and I'm oh i am trying not to do it.
02:06:26
Speaker
If you get it, please send pictures. if you get it, please send pictures. And then eat it. You've gotta eat it. You can't just eat it. What's the difference between a $27 one and a $15 one? I don't know.
02:06:40
Speaker
oo size Yeah, maybe. I'm going to have to analyze this after after this is done. I'll buy one if you buy one. Oh, God.
02:06:53
Speaker
It's now a Mexican standoff of Venus to Mylar. This will be a perfect present for my girlfriend, so im go i'm gonna I think I'm going to do it. excellent Incredible. Shit, that means I have to buy one now. Oh.
02:07:10
Speaker
Uh, I gave it a milk out of Homer because I thought it aged rather poorly. Ooh, interesting. But we will get there when we ask what it had to say about society.
02:07:23
Speaker
ah Yeah, so I've got my usual paragraphs here. I think this was definitely our like most analytical and satirical episode of Simpsons that we've had in a while. like It was very clearly trying to say something rather than a lot of episodes that we've you know we've managed to like extrapolate from the jokes they made. Whereas I think this was deliberately trying to make a commentary. Yeah.
02:07:46
Speaker
I think the the main thing it was going for at the time was the sensationalist news cycles and how quickly something can be blown out of proportion for views and ratings. But I don't think in the modern day a lot of people... In the modern day a lot of people will use this episode to suit their own agendas, which I don't think the modern interpretation of this of this episode is what...
02:08:13
Speaker
they were going for. I don't think this episode was as sinister as it comes across now. but i'll go into specifics no no i think they i think you're completely on the money with that it should be noted that like the original episode pitch was more of a feminism centric sort of theme behind it and you can kind of feel this from the episode but what it became was more of a critique of tabloid media we've seen the simpsons writers previously have plenty to say about their thoughts on the media uh this is this is more of that. It's tabloidis ah tabloidization.
02:08:50
Speaker
it Sensationalization. Yeah. Chasing ratings. I think that's still a thing. i don't know if it's done this way, but chasing ratings in the media is still definitely a thing. Well, that's yeah. I definitely think this episode is still relevant. Like what this episode is saying is still relevant, but I don't think that's what people take from it now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course.
02:09:14
Speaker
Yeah. So, I mean, ah Since, let's say, about 2017 the Too movement, it feels hard to read this episode as anything other than saying a lot of sexual harassment claims are overblown. Actually, it's a lot of a lot of lot of things that men do to women. That's exactly what I got. Yeah.
02:09:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's just, oh, you just took it the wrong way. ah it's just a mean harmless misunderstanding. And you blew it up in the media to ruin a man's life and a man's career. And I think that's a harmful takeaway, unfortunately. I don't. Yeah, that's what has not aged particularly well for me. That but i took the shine off an otherwise good episode.
02:09:58
Speaker
I think, yeah, that's why I mentioned i i brought up the headspace thing. is I think... Because we've brought this up before. I think, again, we talked about it a lot with the Apu thing as well, that we did kind of land on... It's it's a lot more complicated. You know, Apu was a lot more complicated than just...
02:10:16
Speaker
this was racist because it it it wasn't, but it doesn't mean it was okay. And I think this episode is very similar that I think there will be people now that look at this episode and go, yeah, that's why Me Too was bullshit.
02:10:31
Speaker
And if you believe that and listen to our show, don't. On both accounts. And I, yeah, I think it is is an episode that hasn't aged well unless you are media literate enough to watch this episode and understand that that was that was not what they were going for, you know.
02:10:55
Speaker
but There is some additional American context in this time in the early 90s. There were two really high profile sexual harassment cases in America.
02:11:07
Speaker
This was the the Anita Hill one, which was she was harassed by a Supreme Court justice. ah the one of our Supreme Court dresses in the early, yeah.
02:11:19
Speaker
ah Clarence Thomas versus Anita Hill. There was also the Woody Allen stuff happened in the early 90s. Oh, fuck Woody Allen, man. i used to love that guy, and he is a bastard. Right. And remember, a lot of people defended Woody Allen. Like a lot of people did.
02:11:36
Speaker
They still do. But back then, it wasn't like people believed Woody Allen, despite the fact that he's dating his daughter. That stuff aside, it was very big in the news back then.
02:11:48
Speaker
So I feel like that that may have played a role of of them tackling this. I, oh God, if that's true, that definitely changes my opinion. I think, and that's the thing is it is complicated, but yeah, if I'd be interested in the original pitch for the episode that you mentioned, John, like if there was any, if there's any details on that, I would be really, really fascinated to know them because I'd be interested to know what they were trying, if what feminist idea they were going for.
02:12:18
Speaker
But the the just the simple fact that there was a feminist pitch for this episode implies to me that it wasn't going to be a in-defence-of-Woody Allen, in-defence-of-the-Supreme-Court-Justice kind of epiz episode.
02:12:30
Speaker
But... i don't know you know the simpsons was a product of its time and sometimes that time was kind of sexist so you know hands in the air i don't know i mean details of that early draft are or understandably light because it's a draft yes yeah yeah never came to fruit fruition but i from what was listed on wikipedia at any rate from him quoting greg daniels the writer is that it was based around lisa and homer having opposing ideas on feminism Okay.
02:12:59
Speaker
But also, I'm sorry, I'm like, i ah just to go back just a sec. Fixer, you absolutely flash banged the absolute shit out to me when you said, oh, yeah, Clarence Thomas. I'm like, wait, what? The guy who's currently Supreme Court Justice? yeah i was like, yeah, no, that motherfucker's been in office since 1991. What the fuck? That thing should have term limits. What the fuck? Yeah, a lot of a lot of parts of the American government should have term limits.
02:13:22
Speaker
Yeah, he's he's yeah he's he's a problem these days. He is a problem these days. Apparently he's always been a problem. Apparently he's been a problem for since 1991? Yes. Well, I don't think it happened in 91. I think it came out because that's when he was nominated to be a judge.
02:13:42
Speaker
And that's when everybody's that's when everybody's skeletons come out of the closet, you know? Yeah. I don't remember exactly when it happened, but... Yeah, the date 1991 I'm just picking as assumed office for his current incumbent role yeah was October 1991. Yeah, that sounds about right.
02:13:58
Speaker
Michael, do you have any opinions on what this episode said about society? No, I think you've pretty much covered it all, really. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's definitely the episode but above all others of Simpsons so far that you have to be in the right headspace. I think other ones would be like the Michael Jackson episode that you've just got kind of put that stuff out of your mind while you watch it. Because Star Craving Dad is one of the best episodes of Simpsons, period.
02:14:27
Speaker
it It's just a shame who it has in it, you know? Yes. yeah Who's in it? I don't know. Michael Jackson. Oh. i'm So what I'm curious, after seeing this episode, I'm curious, part of the joke is Simpsons did
Modern Storylines and Sensitive Subjects
02:14:43
Speaker
it, right? For all media, it's like, Simpsons did it, Simpsons did it, because they have.
02:14:47
Speaker
Yeah. Surely, Simpsons themselves have done this as well. And I wonder how they would handle a similar storyline and something a little bit more modern.
02:15:01
Speaker
and ah In a more recent yeah ah season. I don't think a anything modern would tackle this subject matter for fear of being misinterpreted one way or the other. Yeah, you're right about that. there is There is still sensationalist news. It does happen.
02:15:21
Speaker
But they would tackle it in any other way than a sexual harassment. plot line because of that because there would be people on one side of the argument saying they're defending the harassers there would be people on the other end saying they're condemning them when in reality it has nothing to do with sexual harassment it is all about the news media so i don't think anything modern would even bother they would not touch it with a 10 foot pole you think simpsons wouldn't touch it no think you're probably right Now? Absolutely not. I don't think Simpsons tackles anything.
02:15:55
Speaker
I don't know, we've got another 31 seasons find out. I think Simpsons is the biggest fence sitter on the planet at this point. Well, they didn't do anything about Apu, did they? Yeah, they did. They got rid of him.
02:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, well, they didn't tackle it, did they? Oh, right. Yeah, exactly. Instead of like addressing the issue, they just got rid of him. Ah, didn't know that. Well, they of lampshaded in an episode somewhere. A little bit, yeah. But I guess we'll find that eventually. There's like his cousin comes in. I love that potential gag. I know we're already running late, but the gag that the guy that played his cousin or nephew suggested saying that when he says, you're like a white guy doing impression of an Indian and then cutting to actual Hank Azaria in the booth would have been the funniest fucking gag ever.
02:16:43
Speaker
Period. And it's been so good. And that's the thing is the guy that suggested that said that would have been all you needed to to really address the issue. And I think absolutely that would have been so fucking funny.
02:16:58
Speaker
That's a whiff. Yeah, I'm with you on that. 100%. I thought that would that was such a good idea. I'm guessing the idea of like cutting to any kind of live action shot is probably just... I imagine they might have objected on the basis of like that's not what we do. Yeah, ruining the outfits kind of thing. It is such a good gag, though. It's a great gag. If there was ever a time to cut to live action, it was that, you know?
02:17:21
Speaker
Yeah.
Simpsons and Talk Show Parody
02:17:23
Speaker
oh Well, also a a specific point that the writers have noted is that the the the bare, gentle Ben with the microphone its head it was lampooning talk shows because they believed that the talk shows basically were just a microphone and an audience and like literally anybody could do it. Yeah, pretty much.
02:17:42
Speaker
even a bear. That is kind of true. Go watch Loose Women. And that was in the fu Phil Donahue heyday back then too. m I'm not sure who that is I'm afraid. oh he He was like, he was probably our biggest talk show host where he's the one that kind of started like, oh you guys like crazy shit, I'm gonna give you some crazy shit.
02:18:04
Speaker
So he kind of like paved the way for that. Kind of like Dr. Phil kind of shit as well. Yeah, although Dr. Phil's worse. Dr. Phil's a dickhead. Yeah.
02:18:16
Speaker
Who also has ah sexual harassment allegations, as far as I'm aware, but take that with a pinch of salt. God damn it. Does anybody not have sexual harassment allegations anymore? Rick Moranis.
02:18:28
Speaker
Yay, we like mi ri Rick Moranis.
Sequels Debate and Criticism
02:18:30
Speaker
Rick Moranis came out of retirement to do fucking Spaceballs 2. That's so bananas to me. That's so bananas. Don't make Spaceballs 2. It's not going to be the same without John Candage. Don't do it, but it's too late now.
02:18:44
Speaker
Just like, not everything needs a sequel for fuck's sake. Even being self-... You looking forward to hologram John Candy. Oh, no, if they do anything AI with John Candy, I will burn the theater down. Oh, Josh Gad is obviously... Josh Gad, he's one of the... Do you know who Josh Gad is?
02:19:02
Speaker
I love Josh Gad. He's he's very, very funny. Oh, he's obviously going to be Barf's son, right? Yeah, absolutely. yeah yeah Yeah, that's what I think too. But it's that that even being self-aware with it or calling it the quest for more money. It's like, yeah, but it still it still just is a shameless cash grab.
02:19:20
Speaker
That doesn't make it not a shameless cash grab. It just makes you self-aware of being a dick. Anyway, we we should end this episode because now we're just hanging out. Yeah, perhaps. Anybody get any more thoughts about society or or speak now forever, hold your peace and whatnot?
02:19:38
Speaker
No, no. I think we really have covered it all and managed to not go that over time. Only somewhat. Only 25% over time. Right.
02:19:49
Speaker
ah We kind of did all the plugs up front, but anybody got anything bonus they want to...
Community Projects and Content Sharing
02:19:55
Speaker
burningly add before we depart or shall i hand over to michael to do the usual plugs for us uh if you are interested in more of my voice acting adventures uh feel free to follow me on bluesky at matt perspective uh yeah i that's mostly what i do on blue sky now is post about my any new projects that i'm in or Just random ass thoughts. I just as an example, i I posted today because I don't normally talk about my dreams. But last night I dreamed I was hanging out with Josh Strive Hayes and he told me about gamer soaps while doing sick yo-yo tricks.
02:20:31
Speaker
I don't dream very often. So when I do, it tends to be bizarre. And that was... You apparently have sponsored product placements in your dreams. In my dreams! but But the thing is... is a That's a Futurama gag. The reason I got GamerSupps was because Josh Streif Hayes advertises them all the time.
02:20:48
Speaker
So the dream was like relevant in that way. Like, so i I don't know. But yeah, um it was a weird dream. But yeah, i like I said, I also post about my voice acting stuff and my thoughts on the Absolute DC comic series because I have opinions.
02:21:06
Speaker
But beyond that, yeah, I mean, I stream with our friend Alzerath every Saturday and Sunday over on twitch.tv slash Alzerath. Currently, we're playing through Bald Skate 2. I swear that's the last thing I'm going to say. I'm done. Wait, is that the same Alzerath?
02:21:19
Speaker
Yeah. It is the same Alzerath. Oh, cool beans. Say hi to Al for me. I will. so Small world. I'm going to do it right now. i'm going to find Al and message him and say, Fixer says hi.
02:21:31
Speaker
Bam.
02:21:33
Speaker
Vixar, got anything else you want to share?
Women's Hockey and Streaming Promotions
02:21:37
Speaker
be that The PWHL, which is the pro women's hockey league in the United States, it is currently going on right now, and you can watch their games for free on YouTube.
02:21:49
Speaker
um It's good stuff. If the Lisa playing hockey thing did something for you, check it out. It's pretty good. Vixar, do you want to do like a tiny 10-minute video and we just watch them and then talk about them and then move on and never talk about it?
02:22:02
Speaker
What, PWHL? Yeah, we'll just watch all the games, do 10-minute reviews of them, and go, yep, that was cool, and then end it. I did that with American football with Talkus. Kind of.
02:22:16
Speaker
Cool. Well, there's a new project for you both. yeah cause i Because that's what I need, more projects.
02:22:24
Speaker
Yeah, go watch the Cardiff Comets. They play at the Vindico Arena. It's free. You can just rock up, sit down, watch some hockey. It's pretty cool, pretty chill.
02:22:36
Speaker
They never win. This episode's never gonna win. Michael, take
Podcast Availability and Closing Remarks
02:22:40
Speaker
us out. Oh dear. Thank you very much for listening. If you've somehow made it to the end of this podcast, well done. There may be some form of a reward.
02:22:48
Speaker
but Probably not, but... The reward is me. um
02:22:54
Speaker
As always, we are most of our stuff is on YouTube, but if you would like to listen to any of our older versions of our podcast, pre-season four, I think, we do have that available on Spotify and Apple as audio versions.
02:23:10
Speaker
John will one day give you video versions on YouTube when society allows it, or when he's not climbing mountains. Or buying a house, or you for life all the other shit that's going on in my life, yeah. please do consider following john's fundraiser it's for a very worthy cause please consider please check out matt's video game trailer and uh consider is supporting his work because it does mean an awful lot and it does look very cool and uh please do you give fixer a follow and check out his stuff as a thank you for coming and spending
02:23:44
Speaker
Almost close to three hours of his life with these idiots. He deserves some form of recognition for that. $27 for a green gummy Venus the Milo. I saw! That's the one I was looking at as well!
02:23:56
Speaker
I gotta have the pillow, man! Folks, he's bankrupted. Folks, he's bankrupted. Folks, he's bankrupted himself. go Go give him a hand.
02:24:07
Speaker
Oh, that's hilarious. Alan, you are both in this same server, so you could just talk to each other anyway. oh I just now noticed. Give Alzarath a follow too. think he's a on YouTube, right?
02:24:19
Speaker
Absolutely, yes. YouTube.com slash Alzarath, I think. It's just straight up it. But, don't know. He's been on the show before. Go find the episodes with Al on. They're good. He may also need money for expensive gummy bear shaped pillows. That's entirely possible.
02:24:33
Speaker
Very much. Alrighty. I think we're done here. Two and a half hours. I've got to edit this shit. I think we're done. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thanks for having me. Bye, everybody.