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S5E2&3 feat. Josh Boerman - Cape Feare & Homer Goes to College
90 Plays3 days ago
Jon, Michael, Matt, and special guest Josh Boerman (from The Worst of All Possible Worlds podcast) watch The Simpsons episodes 'Cape Feare' & 'Homer Goes to College', and discuss what they say about society.
Follow us on the Socials: @Molemanpod
Jon: @Meroka.bsky.social
Matt: @mattperspective.bsky.social
Michael: @buttonmashhorse.bsky.social
Josh: @bosh.worstpossible.world
The Worst of All Possible Worlds: https://www.worstpossible.world/
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, this is Mole Man in the Morning. Good Mole Man to you. Hello, welcome to Mole Man in the Morning. Good Mole Man to you!
00:00:11
Speaker
That was like the Homer version of... There was Homer going to college saying on his college campus radio, good Mole Man to you. Oh yeah.
00:00:22
Speaker
Oh, okay, cool. Yeah. Nailed it. Nailed it. I got that. i yeah i that You captured it perfectly. I thought so. Yeah, nailed it.
00:00:31
Speaker
ah We are Moorman
Discussion on 'Cape Fear' Episode
00:00:32
Speaker
in the Morning. we are a podcast about how The Simpsons have a lot to say about society. i am your host, John, and I am joined, as always, by my two charming co-hosts, Matt.
00:00:44
Speaker
Hello. And Michael. Adley ho, podcaster, know. ah need a catchphrase. We are also joined by a special guest this week.
00:00:55
Speaker
We've got the one, the only, Josh Bowman from The Worst of All Possible Worlds. Howdy! ah Excited to be here. Thanks for having me. This is ah When I saw that I had the opportunity to recap Cape Fear, I was like, let's go.
00:01:09
Speaker
i'm i'm I'm really, really excited for this one. Everyone's hyped for a Sideshow Bob episode. I think that's just a fact about Simpsons. Yeah, when I invited Josh on, I kind of led with Sideshow Bob mainly. I was like, do want to talk about Sideshow Bob? Well, in Cape Fear specifically, I mean, like it is well known, obviously, as one of the best regarded Simpsons episodes of all time.
00:01:30
Speaker
um But it is also the inspiration for one of my favorite plays, um which I don't know if any of you are familiar with Mr. Burns, a post-Electric play. know this was a thing and I now need to know more.
00:01:43
Speaker
So ah this ah it's a brilliant, brilliant play written by Anne Washburn. And basically the gist of the play is that it takes place. ah The first act is like pretty soon after a global apocalypse has occurred.
00:01:57
Speaker
And there are these traveling troops of performers ah who will basically perform. TV shows and other things that existed before the crash and complete scripts have become complete accurate scripts had become the hottest commodity imaginable if you can compile ah a complete script of anything that makes you you know the King Kahuna whatever and then the second act takes place a little bit after that and now elements of the real life of these people have sort of become incorporated into the retelling of the story of the episode Cape Fear.
00:02:35
Speaker
And then the third episode takes place, or the third act, I i mean, takes place after society has been fully reconstructed, basically. And episode uh, Cape Fear slash these guys performing, their story, which has now become combined together, has become a fundamental operetta that now is one of the defining texts of the new civilization.
00:02:58
Speaker
Amazing. Holy shit. That sounds fantastic. It's really Incredible concept. It's really, really good. Okay, well, if we ever get point where we're doing bonus episodes, there's there some fodder for us.
00:03:11
Speaker
We'll just have to do the podcast in the theater. Yep. Live! Live More Men in the Morning live show. Let's make it happen.
Exploration of 'The Simpsons' Season 5
00:03:21
Speaker
ah So yeah, if you hadn't guessed, we are doing Cape Fear. We are treading on into season five this week. We've got episodes two and three, which are Cape Fear and Homer Goes to College. Oh, they're better than the last ones.
00:03:35
Speaker
It's Cape Fear, come on. Yes, I know. It's not hard to be better than the last two. Yeah, so i haven't quite got over Matt Tate barbershop. It wasn't good. It was boring.
00:03:46
Speaker
Wrong. and both Oh my God. You are so wrong. What? It was so boring. did Not like the Barbershop episode. i I was amazed that they chose to end Season 4 with Krusty Gets Cancelled, which was so mediocre.
00:04:04
Speaker
And then open Season 5 with the Barbershop Quartet one, which was just, again, pretty mediocre. I mean, in an interesting twist, actually, Cape Fear was written, intended to be the closing episode of season four, and then the stuff got switched around. That'd be great.
00:04:25
Speaker
A great season finale. Mmm, wouldn't it? Before we get on into either of those episodes, let us talk, as we always do, about what we're drinking. Yay! Yay! Josh, as our guest, are you drinking anything interesting today? Yeah, I got myself a ah Dr. Brown's cream soda.
00:04:42
Speaker
um i don't know if any y'all are into cream sodas at all. Oh, love cream sodas. but let me Let's get the little... I'm about to open it. Here we go. I'll open it on mic. There we go. Man after my own heart, knowing knowing to open it on mic. That is some good shit. um and I'm also consuming ah sandwich. I got a large Italian hero, which is just fantastic. I'm doing my best to just take little bites so as not to throw off the vibe of the recording.
00:05:12
Speaker
Appreciate that. What are you drinking, Matt? I have committed a crime. So i have taken the amazing, wonderful Dunderhead that John got me as a wonderful gift that ah is delicious.
00:05:27
Speaker
And I have put it in some ah fucking Tango Apple sugar free for the fun of it. That does sound like a crime. let's ah Let's see if this tastes fucking awful. Let's find out.
00:05:39
Speaker
Oh, is this actually your first sip here? That's actually really nice. I mean, it's rum mixed with a sugar-free, fruity beverage. It's actually fucking delicious.
00:05:50
Speaker
so I've got a backup beer in my fridge too, for later on in case I need it, so. Noice. Michael, what you got I'm drinking a Thatcher's Blood Orange Cider, because I know it will annoy Matt's to no high end.
00:06:03
Speaker
A what? A what what? A blood orange cider. Oh, that sounds foul, man. No, orange in... orange in I mean, I don't like cider in general, so I can imagine an orange cider is like, alright, but orange in like beer and stuff is fucking foul.
00:06:18
Speaker
Although, when I was in America, I had a s'mores ah ale, and that was actually really good. It was just really like sugary and sweet, which I'm totally down for.
00:06:31
Speaker
I mean, I will say there is a fantastic sour ah that one of but the best sours I ever had was a raspberry beer that was brewed with coffee. And it sounds like something that shouldn't work.
00:06:42
Speaker
And it worked, baby. i mean, coffee doesn't work for me in general.
00:06:48
Speaker
Devil's water.
00:06:51
Speaker
It is Coffee's awful, man. I love the smell. I love like coffee candles and stuff, but nah. What are you drinking, John? I've got... I've actually got a normal beer for wants to not annoy Matt. Mostly just because I actually wanted it.
00:07:06
Speaker
Tembi Brewing Co., Local Brewery, Hammerhead, which is their West Coast IPA. It is entirely decent as a beer. I like Hammerhead, I like as well. Fine. That's nice. Curious about the British conception of a West Coast IPA.
00:07:19
Speaker
Um... Bitter and hoppy? but Okay, yeah. i do it I guess it is sort of like, yeah, we there will be an American attempt at like a Pilsner or something, and it's like, well, this isn't technically brewed in Pilsen, so makes sense.
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't think... but it's That dad doesn't have, like... It's not like champagne where it has to be in the region. It's just the style, di right You're going to get me going on Drinks Nerd. i I'm a drinks maker by trade, so you get me started on nerdery if we get into the nitty-gritty there.
Cultural Context of October 1993
00:07:53
Speaker
So maybe we should launch on into Cape Fear before I start. Cape Fear! Do you want to go through what happened? Let's have a look at what happened on October 7th, 1993 first. Well, that was the day it aired.
00:08:06
Speaker
Alright, so the cheery headline I'm starting with. Massive Muslim demonstration in Zixing, China, ends with 12 people killed. Yay. Grim. I am just more like, I don't know if this is just my little sheltered world. I'm just genuinely surprised there's Muslims in China.
00:08:23
Speaker
That's kind But religion's fucking everywhere. Like, everyone, every religion is demonstrated somewhere in everywhere. So I'm just more amazed. it's a massive religion and a massive country. Yeah, but I don't know.
00:08:35
Speaker
But, you know, with China and its whole, like, very traditional and... authoritarian vibes. You never know. They might just be like, no, there's only one religion. I don't know i know i i don't know enough about China, apparently.
00:08:49
Speaker
Well, China, I mean, the it's the mostly Xinjiang province and in the West, and that that's that's where the Uyghur minority is. And there have been stories about you know ah the Chinese government ah taking people there and you know putting them in re-education camps or whatever. i have no way of knowing how true that is versus how much of that is U.S. State Department propaganda.
00:09:12
Speaker
um i But it is, uh, there is a a history of, like, well, we're not here to talk about the ethnic tensions of China today, I suppose.
00:09:24
Speaker
In fact, I have a friend that wanted to smuggle Bibles into China. Oh, God. Odd man. It's your interesting hobby to have. Is your friend an asset of the United States intelligence community?
00:09:35
Speaker
We have absolutely no idea. All I know is that he was slapped in the face by someone I'm not going name on the pod, but he gave up the idea afterwards.
00:09:48
Speaker
ah Probably for the best. and Moving on to the lighter side. um The UK number one was Relight My Fire by Take That featuring Lulu. Relight my fire.
00:09:59
Speaker
And the US number one was Dream Lover by Mariah Carey. Nope. I've actually heard of both of those songs for once. How does that one go?
00:10:09
Speaker
Oh no, I'm... You won't put yourself on the spot there, Michael....one to be asked to sing something. I know, I've just realized I'm not thinking of the right Mariah Carey song. Yeah, I know Mariah Carey, I don't know Dream Lover. Yeah, no. I think I know it. The one I was thinking of was Fantasy, you know, the... but but but but but be The one that samples TomTom Club, but that's that's a different song entirely.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah, I've got Heartbreaker. We are all incredibly uneducated on music. Well, I apologize to the audience for my failings in Mariah Carey musical. I was six when this was in the charts.
00:10:40
Speaker
Well, you should know. She lived above a bar that I was a regular at for a while. And we'd see her every once in a blue moon. Yeah. Did you ever sing the Christmas song? Did I ever sing it? No, she did though.
00:10:53
Speaker
Famously.
00:10:57
Speaker
Oh, this is a shame. Chalkboard gag! Let's get into some gags here. Alright, so... Chalkboard gag. The chalkboard gag is, the cafeteria deep fryer is not a toy. Let's just sell life advice.
00:11:10
Speaker
is though, innit? It's a cooking toy. Absolutely. what What are kitchen appliances but cooking toys? That's why my parents gave me all those cooking sets as a kid, is is so I could learn to ah continue my future job as a fry cook.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah. And the couch gag, it's our old favourite, and It's back! The circus line gag! Hooray! I'm so glad I get to see it again! ah It's making its fourth appearance! and actually thought it more of a I thought it was a six.
00:11:42
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like it's been more. I think it shows up six or seven times total. This is its fourth outing. it should tip you off that there is some padding going on in this episode to make the runtime up.
00:11:54
Speaker
That's usually why the circus line is here is because they need to jam a few seconds into the runtime. But that's fine because I mean, like, I i would so much rather have that than a longer episode that is less tight, you know? Like, this is an episode that has just packed the gills with gags, and I was floored, because i last time I watched this episode was a few years ago, um but every single one of these gags hits, still. yeah It's incredible.
00:12:20
Speaker
It does. Yeah, that is to say, there are a few gags that run long in this, and they are done as padding. Yeah, they're right. But it feels intentional. Yeah, it does. think I know the gag you're referring to, like, the prime example of that.
00:12:35
Speaker
But it feels weirdly intentional, and you're kind of sat there like, and then it just keeps going. But you're like, it's still somehow funny. I feel like there are two big examples, but yeah, they like just how much they drag it out and adds to the humour, yeah.
00:12:50
Speaker
So, the episode starts with Up Late with McVeigh. Interesting. and I watched the shit out of this show! ah my initial My initial thought here, though, is why is he McBain? McBain is a character in a movie. He's not McBain. He's Rainier Wolfcastle. So they clearly haven't quite figured that bit out yet. In spite of him being Rainier Wolfcastle in the last episode we watched. Although this was season four. so There have been shows where actors have hosted in character.
00:13:18
Speaker
um Do you remember do you remember ah there was that gong show revival a few years back where Mike Myers was in character as another guy? but really? Yeah. i don't know about that one. Yeah, I mean, there was, let me see here. Because and i think it only ran for like a year, but it was this really, really bizarre thing where he was a character named...
00:13:43
Speaker
ah Tommy Maitland, he was he was a British character actually, and he but it was so bizarre the way that they had him him dressed up, and everyone was like, who the fuck is this guy? And then it took everybody like two minutes to be like, wait, that's Mike Myers? What is he doing?
00:13:59
Speaker
Right. Yeah, that would it would require me to watch modern Mike Myers, which I'm not really invested in doing.
Humor Analysis in 'Cape Fear'
00:14:08
Speaker
They just put him under the most disgusting load of prosthetics imaginable. It was it was very strange.
00:14:13
Speaker
Weird. Well, if he had adopted the name Corpo Oppo-Gubanheo-Wallcastle, he would have been more successful. This made laugh way too much. This made me laugh. Just long, silly name. I'm like, what am I, five?
00:14:25
Speaker
But it made me middle name was Führer. Yeah, exactly. And it I was already giggling and then they said Führer and I was just like sold. And then they showed him and it's even better. And he just like this this guy keeps getting better.
00:14:37
Speaker
The announcer is in a full Nazi outfit, which is amazing. And Buck Bane comes on stage and he thanks his musician, Scoey, and he then tells Scoey that his jacket makes him look like a homosexual. That outfit makes you look like a homosexual.
00:14:52
Speaker
Maybe you're all homosexuals. The audience boos and Bart comments that the Fox network has sunk to a new low by airing this. They're punching at Fox a lot lately. We've had so many jabs at Fox in the last few episodes. Also, if it's a late night show, why why are Bart and Lisa watching it in the middle of the day?
00:15:13
Speaker
Maybe it's a Revan. I just thought of that. They were just watching it in the middle of the day. Ding. Continuity error. Ding. Yeah. It happens. and Might be a few in this one.
00:15:24
Speaker
Simpsons not being consistent. Blimey. Marge comes in with the mail and Lisa gets a letter from her pen pal Anya and it starts with a nice little sweet little girl saying that she's very sad because the president's been overthrown and midway through the letter the voice changes to a to a man and is just explaining benevolent general cruel the letter is just praising cruel and signs it off as little girl from little girl I love the the the idea that Lisa is reading this in her pen pal's voice, but then knows when to switch voices.
00:15:59
Speaker
And I just like Lisa's little, oh, at the end. yeah She's just like, that well, guess they're fucked. The end. But then opens his letter and we see that it says, I'm going to kill you, written in this.
00:16:12
Speaker
The website says thick red ink, I'm pretty sure it was blood. Oh, it's his blood! it's Yes! And it, like, literally shows it in the in the next clip that it's blood. But now it cuts to said hand, and we clearly see that it's blood as it's signing another letter, and then it goes through its to-do list, which includes adding corn holders onto the list.
00:16:32
Speaker
Yeah, I said i just like the whole visual gag of writing this horrifying letter and then being like, oh, well, I've got the blood. I might as well do a to-do list while I'm here. I got the end card.
00:16:44
Speaker
Yeah, so we cut to an Itchia Scratchy cartoon and it's ah Scratchy being tricked to go into the animal hospital because he thinks he's going to get paid, but it actually says spay. We see that sparing consists of being tied to a table and a laser being fired at you, James Bond style.
00:17:00
Speaker
It says, we pay your pets. And I'm just like, what what do you what is what does he think he's going to get out of this? This is a fake cartoon for children in a cartoon for children. I wouldn't. We're overanalyzing. I'm coming at it with the analysis. It's happening.
00:17:20
Speaker
No, he's looking to get paid. He's looking to get damn money. That's awesome. he thinks he's going to get paid because he's a pet. Yeah. Not he's going to sell his pet. but He doesn't have a pet. Exactly, that's why I was confused why he walks in alone, because I was thinking that they would He is the pet, he wants to get paid, thought they were gonna buy his pet from him, and he didn't have one. He's looking to get some money, and instead he's going to have his generals removed.
00:17:43
Speaker
That's all. That's that's the joke. No, but Scratchy is not gonna have his generals removed because his tongue has special powers to extend those great lev to unplug the machine. The only flaw in the plan is that Ichi comes into the room to plug the machine back in, and Scratchy's generals are removed, along with everything else.
00:17:58
Speaker
That's right. Frankly, Sean Connery should have done this, but okay. I was quite surprised at how surprised I was that he died. I don't know why, like, he was like, oh, he saved himself, hooray! Are you familiar with each and Scratchy back there? And then Scratchy comes out and ruins it, and like, oh no, he died! was like, why are you surprised?
00:18:20
Speaker
The only surprise to me is that it was a bit less bloody than usual. Yes. Like, you get to see him chopped up, but I suppose because it's a laser, it's immediately cauterizing the wounds, yeah. It's light like a lightsaber.
00:18:33
Speaker
I mean, I imagine that because it is technically a cartoon, they have a limit on how much blood they can show per, like, season. And they're already using up a lot of the quotes around the handwriting.
00:18:45
Speaker
Yeah, lots of that, yeah. We don't see that Lisa's amused by this, but Bart looks worried. We go to the next scene and Homer opens a letter and he's horrified to learn that someone's trying to kill him as every single member of the family comes into the room, including the mouse that's in the floorboard. I've never noticed that detail before. Yeah, the mouse comes out. This was the first time I've ever actually noticed that. was like, whoops.
00:19:04
Speaker
But Homer's relieved to find it's actually addressed to Bart. Then we see that all the letters... Then he cuts the next scene and we see that multiple letters on the table. Except the one that actually is written edit in ink. And that was written by Homer.
00:19:16
Speaker
Because Bart put a wide load tattoo on his arse somehow. I would love if that remained canon forever. that Homer just had a wide load tattoo on his arse. The whole forever. Yeah, I mean, I sort of assumed it was like in Sharpie or something. But he does say tattoo. So that would be funny if he just kept it.
00:19:32
Speaker
Homer is also stupid. So he might think it's a tattoo. Surely he would wash his arse at some point in his life.
00:19:40
Speaker
It is Homer. We then cut to Bart saying who would want to hood him because he's this century's Dennis the Menace. but kind of I didn't like that. that That felt like another one of those like really... I've said it before. like When Bart just makes a really weird joke that a child wouldn't make. like You know when he makes jokes about like the Oscars and stuff?
00:19:59
Speaker
It felt like that again. And I was just like, nah, this wasn't. Nah, didn't land. For me, anyway. But you know I'm a miserable cunt. I feel that kind of intended as sort of a very knowing inside... this vaguely fourth wall breaking gag. was like the kid that always acts up kind of character. He knows what his character is, right? That's what most modern sitcoms and comedy is these days is looking at the camera and going, did you get that reference?
00:20:23
Speaker
And I actually, as much as I hate it I do respect Simpsons for doing its really, like, overly, overly complex references that no one will get, rather than Bart essentially looking into the camera and and making a joke about the Oscars.
00:20:37
Speaker
I think that at this point in The Simpsons run, it's moving, you know, the the the structure of the show itself is moving away from being kind of like a satirical ah take on the suburban American experience to being the gag factory.
00:20:57
Speaker
um And in in in most of those gags, of course, revolving around Homer and and generally being more visual in nature. But I think that it's also one of those things where there are just certain things that the writers themselves find to be amusing yeah because they themselves are cultural omnivores. They're you know just consuming everything all the time.
00:21:16
Speaker
um And so sometimes it hits, sometimes it misses, but it's again, it's it's down to the gag density. Whether you're talking about verbal or visual gags, the nice thing is they just keep stacking on top of each other. So if one doesn't hit for you, the next one will.
00:21:29
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. it's it's you know You're never waiting long for the next gag, especially in this episode. And that's one of the things that ultimately why Simpsons works is that it is written by the writers for the writers. And it just so happens that the writers are very funny.
00:21:44
Speaker
Whereas, again, like most like modern comedy is written by committee. you know It's it's like a perfectly crafted to appeal to the widest demographic and offend the fewest people.
00:21:56
Speaker
I did find a note on this episode that because it was at the end of season four and I think a few of the staff were looking to leave the show after that, there was kind of a ah little bit of attitude towards production of this of, ah, we can do whatever we want anyway, because like, what are they going to Fire us?
00:22:13
Speaker
I like that attitude. But what I think is so interesting about that, too, is that these are the things that end up becoming the hallmarks of the show. You know, yeah it's it's it's things that they were throwing out just for the sake of, well, fuck it.
00:22:28
Speaker
But then when you think about the things in The Simpsons that are the most iconic, a lot of those moments are in this very episode. Oh, they really are. I'm astonished there are as many bits as there are. But yeah, you're right.
00:22:40
Speaker
Yeah, they ah I used to follow the, um when I used to use Twitter, i used to follow the Simpsons clips thing, and two of those clips that like they use all the time are in this episode, and I was like, hell yeah.
00:22:53
Speaker
So, Karma suggests that it's probably the person that you least suspect, and Lisa's not impressed with that. Grandpa says we should call Matlock and starts going through all of Matlock's enemies, and Bar points out that Matlock's not real, and Grandpa then goes on to a spiel about how his teeth aren't, but he can still eat colonel cob if it's turned into paste.
00:23:09
Speaker
Did anyone else notice that Abe Simpson is like very poorly animated in this one yeah It's like um it wasn't brilliant this really bad dubbing, he barely moves. It's really weird considering... It's it's one of those things where like was the animation time spent on other things? Because if that's the case, it's very obvious in this episode because there are some like really well animated bits.
00:23:33
Speaker
I feel like it may also be like part of the padding again. is Like, oh shit, we need to jam a few seconds in here. Have Grandpa Simpson go on a bit of a rant. Say some extra shit. Yeah, make it something that's really simple and easy to animate. All we need to do is like move his mouth and that's about it.
00:23:47
Speaker
Yeah. We then cut
Marge's Protective Efforts & Comedy
00:23:49
Speaker
to Bart at the school and Milhouse has been doing the rounds and says that the kids are planning to call him fatty, fat, fat and Melissa's going pull his pants down but no one's going to kill him. Bart is relieved even though those two things immediately happened to him seconds later.
00:24:01
Speaker
I like the girls were planning this, this was orchestrated. This is a perfectly this is a perfectly executed gag, right? Because you you have the setup and you process it and you process what the thing is and you think that, well the joke is just, oh haha, like he these are the things that would normally happen, the bullying, etc.
00:24:20
Speaker
But then you get to see it happen yeah in a way that is coordinated. that That's what makes it work so brilliantly, is that you're basically making your brain catalogue each of these things that are going to happen, and then it pays it off immediately.
00:24:34
Speaker
and It's like getting the gag twice, like in ah in a clever way, it's really good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bart is next in bed, and a radio DJ comes on says that the song is dedicated to Bart, with the message, I'm going to kill you, slowly and painfully.
00:24:48
Speaker
But I'd see Bart look absolutely horrified as Wipeout plays in the background. Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. and It was such a weird choice of song. Let's suggest that potentially Sajabob requested that song to be played with it as well. Yeah, exactly.
00:25:03
Speaker
work This is a question that I have. I mean, i call-in shows like this, like Delilah being one of the most famous ones, very common in the United States. This idea that like you've got a message that you want to give somebody and you're going to dedicate a song to them, right? Is it the same way or was it the same way in Britain in the Yeah, it still happens all the time.
00:25:23
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, really, really common. ah Usually they yeah they pick something a bit more like ah applicable to the situation than Wipeout. yeah and I know how to Wipeout in ages. I was glad to hear it. No, me neither.
00:25:38
Speaker
I've hummed it a bajillion times whenever I do any kind of surfing motion in a video game. But ah no, i've never i I don't think I've ever actually listened to the song in a very long time. But then cut to Bart being an absolute nervous, panicked wreck, and as he comes to the kitchen, he sees that Marge is cutting up words with the scissors, saying she's going to get him, and Bart is terrified, until she says, some ice cream, because she's saving so much money on Diet Cola.
00:26:01
Speaker
yeah yeah again nice yeah nice Nice little visual gag here, that the first part, all you see is dye, but it turns out that dye is part of diet. And it's in red as well, so... Yeah, it's great. ya's great That's one of the smart things too, I think, about the that I noticed this time around, is that the gags keep building.
00:26:20
Speaker
You have the, for instance, that mentioned earlier the bit about Abe and how he talks about corn and how he's able to eat corn as long as it is mushed up or whatever, and that is actually partially paying off the joke earlier where ah Sideshow Bob wanted to purchase corn holders.
00:26:38
Speaker
It's not quite a full like joke joke, but it's these little things that make your brain light up and be like, hey, I remember they said this thing about that thing. I've heard of Korn. Yeah, exactly. So like even if they don't necessarily connect, even if they're not even fully fledged jokes, you have that, oh, I'm a good boy. I've been paying attention impulse. It gives you consistency. yeah yeah like It makes the the whole episode feel more cohesive, even though...
00:27:05
Speaker
It is just a mishmatch of weird gags, but they manage to like give it through line. We don't see Bart going walking down the street, and then Flanders jumps out of him with a sort of claws on the hand, saying that Bart needs to say his prayer.
00:27:20
Speaker
And as Bart is terrified again, Flanders clarifies that the schools can't force him to, and then we see that Flanders is just using them as shears to make his... Grand Angel. specifically Specifically what he says is because the the schools can't make you like they should, which I thought was so funny and very Flanders. Because again, you can't have anyone else in the show say that and it sound even remotely likable.
00:27:44
Speaker
Because the only other applicable character would be like Reverend Lovejoy. And if he said it, it would sound sinister or misanthropic or something like that.
Sideshow Bob's Parole & Antics
00:27:53
Speaker
But when Ned says it, you're just like, oh, Ned.
00:27:56
Speaker
Well, that's that's part of what's so brilliant about this point of The Simpsons is that the gags are still grounded in who the characters are. yeah um That with who Flanders is, he is incredibly annoying.
00:28:07
Speaker
um He is now incredibly Christian. And he somehow remains incredibly lovable in spite of those frustrating things about his character. And so it's ah kind of making commentary about society, but not really. It's mostly just a joke, you know?
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah. Important question, though. Are those things real and practical for such a purpose? Because obviously they're playing on the Freddy Krueger thing, but then it's like, well, are they an actual... I could imagine so. Presumably, obviously, that wasn't invented.
00:28:35
Speaker
They can't have been just invented for Freddy Krueger, were they? They must be, like... no a device that exists in the world, Freddy Krueger just had them, like, he made them. ah Freddy Krueger didn't even actually make them. he His spirit makes them in the dream realm, so it doesn't even... Like, they're not even a thing that he had when was alive. That still counts him making them.
00:28:56
Speaker
yeah but If you make something dream realm, that's not you then being like, I've come up with a new invention. It's you coming up with, I've i've thought of a way to scare the fuck out of teenagers so they don't have sex or go to sleep.
00:29:10
Speaker
I think you can invent things in dreams. I think that's a bad way to invent things. If you had the sense to pattern Betty Kuga might not turn to a life of crime. It's my least favorite thing in the world when I have a dream where I've made a brilliant invention and then I wake up and I realize that I don't have it anymore.
00:29:25
Speaker
Have you ever had that? I've invented sports that were real and then immediately realized. Yeah. So I like once invented football. Oh, good for you. Shit, that's real. like football football Football as in like soccer, Australian rules, football. ah I mean, football.
00:29:44
Speaker
We're British, so when we say football, football, football. ah Football, uh-huh, right. ah good AKA gridiron football. Real football. Yes, okay. I'm with you now. Very good. Hand egg.
00:29:55
Speaker
Hand egg. We then cut to Barter being very paranoid in the school as... ah Mrs. Krabappel tells him he's going to be her murder victim, but that's because he's going to be in the play of Lizzie Borden with Martin as starring as Lizzie.
00:30:09
Speaker
And we just see ah Martin dressed up as a little girl saying he's going to give Bart 40 whacks with a wet noodle. There's something about the way Martin says anything that just makes it immediately more funny.
00:30:23
Speaker
He was very into character, let's see how... He was! We don't go to Marge appealing to Chief Wiggum for help, and Chief Wiggum says that it's not a crime to send threatening mail. And Marge says, I'm pretty sure that it is.
00:30:36
Speaker
Wiggum's not having it until Lou has to point this out to him in the book. At the same time... Why is it Springfield Law, though? Why wouldn't it just be law? Because it's funnier! Come on, because it's funnier! When the...
00:30:50
Speaker
All of these gags are that way because they're funnier. But also, just to be a pedant, like, Springfield is a state as well as like as a town. It is? so I thought... I didn't... There's there is a state of Springfield?
00:31:01
Speaker
Yes. words it Springfield apostrophe S. Springfield's state is the state that Springfield is in. I actually didn't realize that. On the flag, it says, um, not just another state, which is great. We've had these discussions before. We've...
00:31:14
Speaker
We've narrowed down that Springfield is a state in Costa Rica. We're pretty confident. But it's mostly, i mean, like, just just just the fact that Springfield has something on the books preventing you from shoving squirrels down your pants for the purpose of gambling, and then we immediately see the cops doing that. What were they gambling on?
00:31:29
Speaker
Like, which squirrel came out first? Which nut got bit? Well, that's up to you. so That's up to your imagination. Yeah, you interpret that however you want. Look, if you have dream and think about this sport, you can make the rules, okay?
00:31:42
Speaker
I just love how much the dude is clearly like enjoying it as He's having a great time. He's loving it. He's not in it for the money. I will note that the police having to look up the law in a book is is very surprisingly accurate because in ah recent encounters with police in my recent activism work, they do we we did learn that they do frequently have to just look it up on an app.
00:32:07
Speaker
I can tell you the name of the app, it is called Pocket Sergeant. Oh, that's real funny.
00:32:15
Speaker
So Lisa comes to Bart soon and Lisa's been thinking and Lisa thinks that she knows who it is and who has Bart been crankcalling for years and Bart says Linda Lavin and Lisa supposes knows someone that deserved it.
00:32:26
Speaker
Fuck you Linda I guess. ah Yeah I don't know who that is. well That's a very American joke, but it's very funny. i mean, lin Linda Lavin is just one of America's great, like one of the greatest Broadway actors of all time.
00:32:42
Speaker
But like that that again, that is a joke that they put in there because it was funny for them. Um, yeah like Linda Lavin is the kind of lady who you're going to see on Broadway in a prestigious play, or at least she was rest in peace. She died ah in dis December.
00:32:56
Speaker
It's funny how we time these things. And, uh, Lisa eventually starts actually talking about Moe and Lisa calls Moe and tells him we're going to the cops if he doesn't knock it off. Moe says he'll take care of it. And we just cut to Moe in the back room with his associates. And Moe has a whole hot hatch of pandas, which is lucid to the light. They just keep going.
00:33:15
Speaker
The visual of him just releasing pandas into the wild in Springfield really tickles me. That's such a good bit. Just just just the visual of it. It's just wonderful. I don't know how many times this, like, gag format repeats, because I know there's the whale one later on.
00:33:30
Speaker
yeah, yeah. But it's great. And I just love the whole vibe of Mo. if if you The idea of calling someone saying, we know what you did, stop it. And they don't go, who the fuck is this? They just go, ah, shit, one of my schemes has been rumbled.
00:33:42
Speaker
Well, it's one of the things... The reason that it works so well from a writing perspective is that it's like, well, if this is true, then what else is true? Yeah, exactly. right Like if if if Moe has been smuggling pandas or whatever, that's going to be a pretty big, big, big problem, meaning he's naturally going to have a great deal of fear from anybody who who gets to the bottom of whatever his deal is, you know?
00:34:05
Speaker
Oh, yeah, he's got some stuff going on there. like He's got legitimate businessmen in the back room. Yeah. We then cut to Bart, despairing, at the winter's sake. He knows that the person after him is out there, but hoo, hoo.
00:34:18
Speaker
And we get the nice pan-out shot of the Hall of Springfield, ending up on Springfield Jail. And we zoom in, and it's Sideshow Bop! writing his diary in blood still writing in blood bob writes his next letter then immediately goes into another letter which he's writing to the life in these united states and then bob starts to paint because of his blood loss and uh snake tells him to just use it again just it's the same with snake just anything he says is automatically made funny because it's just a simple gag
00:34:50
Speaker
that were i think it's it's clever because we're all thinking it of just like why the fuck isn't he using a pen and then yeah snake just comes in and says it and because it's said by s snake you just like it just lands that little bit better We then cut to the next scene and the parole hearings are taking place and we see that the Snake is granted parole and as he's leaving, Bob tells him to... that He takes them to take care and then says he hopes they meet under fallacious circumstances. Felicitous.
00:35:16
Speaker
Yeah, i' sorry, I said something completely different. Completely different meaning, I apologize. was fake Snake doesn't understand and Bob just simplifies it to take care and bah. Could they only get the actor for Snake for one line and then just some mumbles?
00:35:32
Speaker
No, i obviously the the the gag there is just like the the yeah that is gap in intellect between the two of them, yeah. Wa-ba. We don't see that Bob's parole is underway and we see that Chief Wiggum says that Sightower Bob has no decency because he calls him Chief Biggum.
00:35:47
Speaker
Everyone in courtroom laughs and Chief Wiggum finally gets and laughs himself. Yeah, I forgot how Wiggum-centric this episode is. There's a lot there's a lot of Wiggum gags in a way that repeatedly hit on just how dumb he is, but that he's like he's kind of stupid in a specific way.
00:36:07
Speaker
He just like lacks situational awareness, basically. o And then later find out that he's not the defense! but feels that ah bob tried to kill him on the honeybid everyone nervousbis that well it's the f for this is how many people are thinking of killing her right now we see some tentative hands go behind her and then hes says be honest and the entire court room with the hand including soma's own sister patty and then we later find out that he's not the defense Yeah, I was just, well I was about to say, like, whose side is he arguing for in this court here? Or is he just generally just, just, just playing the field here? I don't know. think initially wrote this with Lionel Hutz in mind, but then couldn't get that actor for whatever reason? So they were just like, let's have one lawyer do the same thing.
00:36:50
Speaker
No, I took it as he was representing Bob throughout the whole thing, because even when he's interrogating him, he's doing it in a leading way of... I guess so. As we're going to this, he says, if if Bob was released, would he pose any he f threat to Bart Simpson? And Bob's response to this is, the spirited little scamp that twice spoiled my evil schemes and sent me to this dark urine-soaked hellhole as it gets slowly and slowly darker and more ominous on him as he's talking. Yeah.
00:37:14
Speaker
Objection, ah it should be... God, what's the... Weewee So Tack Hole. Weewee So Tack Hole. Yeah. We'll discuss, yeah. Yeah, but it's still cheerfully withdrawn. Cheerfully withdrawn.
00:37:26
Speaker
yeah The blue hair lawyer then asks about tattooing on his chest and perhaps would say to the on um unknown observant, die, Bart, die, but Bob's happy to clear that up that it's actually German for the the. the. And now look how everyone just kind is like, oh, yes, we're good. Anyone speaks German could be an evil man. I mean, and this is the sort of thing too where the line itself is funny enough, but there's something about that delivery that just sticks in your head.
00:37:53
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it is it is one of those lines that is sort of like, I think grown beyond the episode itself, like that is taken out of context and just delivered alone. I think it's because he says it so matter-of-factly, like it's obvious that it's the bar, the.
00:38:11
Speaker
Oh, I was meaning the evil man line, but yeah. That's it. Because as we don't know, german no German, one who speaks German can possibly be evil. And it's enough for Bob to get parole and we just see him walk out of the prison.
00:38:22
Speaker
We then go to the next scene and we're in the cinema and... Ernest goes somewhere cheap. I swear that's actually probably an Ernest movie. We don't pretty much get thing that's pretty much straight out of the movie, Cape Fear, and it's the classic person smoking the cigar in the ah cinema.
00:38:41
Speaker
Hey, remember when could smoke at the cinema? Yeah, Bob is taking full advantage it. No, it's which I need do, actually. Bob's taking full advantage of it as he's smoking a cigar and everyone's choking on the smoke, and Bob says he's being very inconsiderate, and we cut to Homer with an absolutely massive cigar.
00:38:57
Speaker
I do object to this, because what what they're what they're complaining about is someone laughing at a comedy film. yeah Well, he's doing it a really annoying way. ah Yeah, you were laughing. Yeah, but, like, laugh a lot. Everyone
Witness Protection Program Mishaps
00:39:08
Speaker
laughs. There's a lot of laughter at the gags and, like... I had... I think I mentioned this before. I don't think I've mentioned it on the podcast. i went to When I went to see the Barbie film, I had one of those moments where I was the only person that laughed at something, but I didn't just snicker.
00:39:23
Speaker
I fucking guffawed at the bit where, um... the one of the barbies when one of the barbies gets fucking unbrainwashed and says i feel like i was really invested in the snyder cut i fucking lost my mind and later on we ran into one of my ex's friends and she said someone really liked that snyder cut line and i just went i was just yeah this is so embarrassing
00:39:57
Speaker
Homer finally has enough of Bob laughing and tries to interrupt him. and But unfortunately, at that moment, Ernest does something comical with her toilet and Homer just, like Matt before him, loses complete control. Slapping Bob in the back and Bob ah objects and the kids are horrified to see Bob finally puts two and two together and realises that Bob was the one that wrote the letters.
00:40:15
Speaker
Marge tells him to stay away and Bob ominously says he will. Which Homer is horrified at. Stay away from your Forever. Homer's horrified and then Bob realises what he just said. That's a very good Kelsey Grammar.
00:40:26
Speaker
Thank you. I tried. Bob realizes that that line won't work and he walks away. But he comes running back once he's part of a bed. Marge won't, so Bob gives his first... No!
00:40:39
Speaker
so I think there's a great like subversion of expectations there because you do just kind of expect Marge to say it again. Yes. Because you're like, oh, well, we've got Kelsey Grammer. So they're going to have him say the the another better line.
00:40:52
Speaker
So again, having Marge then say no, you just, the audience is kind of, it's almost like blue balling an audience. It's just kind but, but, but set your bar. Yeah. if I feel like they're doing quite a lot of playing with subverting expectations this episode. Absolutely.
00:41:07
Speaker
Without cut to Bob a getting ready to kill Barton, we see that he's a training, he's pumping iron, he's doing the weights, he's doing his Jazzercise exercise video. Did anyone know anyone that actually used these VHSs?
00:41:20
Speaker
Nope. I think my mum actually had them. Yeah, exactly. I don't ever recall her using though. But I don't think and anyone ever used them. This is just a thing that everybody owned but nobody used. yeah The best bit of this gag is that because he has the three fingers rather than the four fingers, he has the the tattoos on these knuckles that say L-U-V for love, and then on the other knuckles, H-A-T for hate, but there is a long ah line over the A to let us know that it's a long A so that it says hate rather than hat.
00:41:49
Speaker
That's a fantastic joke. it's that That's a very good joke. That's glum toothpaste level of joke. I like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely, yeah. but don We don't cut to the back to Simpson household and elaborate trap wires have been set up all over the house.
00:42:05
Speaker
We can assure Homer that he now knows what Bob tries to break in and tells Homer that once a man breaks into your house, anything you do to him is nice and legal. Wink. Homer decides this is good and invites Flanders over and as Homer's waiting to pounce on Flanders behind the door we can point out it doesn't work if you invite them and Flanders arrives, Homer tells him to immediately leave and he cheerfully does I just like it exactly it's so good Flanders is just so accepting We then cut to Homer talking to a vigilante who says, don't worry, he can be very persuasive and we see him load a gun.
00:42:39
Speaker
We then cut to next scene and he's just... more a private eye, I think, isn't it? It's a kind of character than a vigilante. Come on! and We just see him very prophetically asking... Leave town!
00:42:50
Speaker
I'll be your friend! He's also at a bar we have seen before, it is The Aristocrats, which is where Homer went when he was thrown out of Moe's one time. ah Ah, clever. i Was was that the one with the... Can I have a clean glass?
00:43:03
Speaker
I think that was... Yes, I think it is the one where he asks for a clean glass, yeah. We see that Bob gets a bit more adventurous now, and we next see that he's in an ice cream truck and he's done the loudspeaker, and he's saying, the following people won't be murdered by me. He then names everyone in the neighbourhood, including that little baby Simpson.
00:43:20
Speaker
Yeah, but he names the Flanders, but not their children. So what does that say? Oh, he's going to murder and Todd. Yeah, that's true. I mean, they deserve it. Have you seen them?
00:43:31
Speaker
Hooray! then see Bart looking very forlorn about it and then we see Homer coming to the room telling Bart the good news. Have you heard the good news? Wait, never mind. so Homer just quietly backs out of the door.
00:43:45
Speaker
And then we finally see that the family are now going to go into witness protection and we see them ah meeting the agents and... Why don't they just arrest him if they're doing witness protection just arrest him at this point? No.
00:43:57
Speaker
No, just don't. Just plot the relentless match of the plot. Yeah. We don't see that a Homer wants a new identity of John Elway, and Homer has a fantasy about being John Elway, where he scores the last-minute touchdown, but he's already lost 56-7.
00:44:12
Speaker
But Homer's quite happy about it still. They really animated Homer's dance as well. They went for it. I mean, i my main thought on this was ah in regards to Homer's favourite football team, which I definitely have in my head as being...
00:44:29
Speaker
Is it the Denver Broncos or is it the Dallas Cowboys? it's the Dallas Cowboys. It's Dallas Cowboys, right? It's Dallas Cowboys, but he ends up with the Denver Broncos. He's not very happy about Well, that's just because he wants to be John Elway, that's all. Okay, fine, right.
00:44:41
Speaker
I don't know enough hand-egg players. Well, he wants to be a cockney once again, and we see him do the accent one more time, just to show that the accident yeah actor can do it. Yeah, this never gets old, guys. Please, keep doing this, Jace Gray. Nah, really, really... Does he even do the accent this time? He just says how much he wants to be a Cockney.
00:45:00
Speaker
No, he does do the accent. Does he? He does the whole cleanest-a-whistle thing. Yeah, he wants to be Gustav-lubble-chimmy-sweep. Bama just tells him to shut up. Just kind like, map that. Yeah, it's weird. They just kind of, I think they really did. Like, we want Bart to do the chimney sweep voice again, but we don't know how to like segue and move on from him doing it.
00:45:22
Speaker
So Homer's just going to tell him to shut up. I don't know, I like it. It is mildly amusing, just Homer's just perpetual annoyance at Bart wanting to be Cockney. It's like, no, just give it up.
00:45:34
Speaker
The agents start going through the list of places that the family can move to in peace and security, which would be Take Fear, Terror Lake, New Horror Field, Screamville. Homer thinks he meant Ice Creamville, but nope, he meant Screamville, which Homer screams at.
00:45:45
Speaker
And they eventually set on that it will now be Homer Thompson from Terra Lake, and the they decide to practice to get Homer into the swing of it, and the agent says, when I say, hello, Mr. Thompson, you say hi, and Homer says, yeah, I got it.
00:45:56
Speaker
Then says, hello, Mr. Thompson, Homer doesn't respond, and he reiterates the point, and Homer says he's got it, and Homer doesn't get it. And we just cut to later on, and the agents are looking very disheveled at this point.
00:46:07
Speaker
It's been a while. One agent tries to say, when I tap on your foot, this means that yeah you are Mr. Thompson. I think he's talking to you. Homer, he's not getting it. I mean, the thing that- That's good line love it. This is also, I think, one of the best examples of an iconic still.
00:46:24
Speaker
Like, this particular frame where they're standing at the desk and they're just beyond themselves is so- so it You know, that there are times where the the artists of The Simpsons really managed to capture an intuitive feeling, and this is one of them. And the fact that you're seeing this as pretty much a still directly after the setup, you get the sense for how much time has passed intuitively, and it just, it works like gangbusters.
00:46:51
Speaker
Just everything, like yeah, the the ties are down, they've had loads of cigarettes, everything about it, ah like Maggie's asleep and stuff. That's the other thing, yeah, the family being over there and they're also exhausted.
00:47:03
Speaker
I love his way, it's such a repeated gag throughout Simpsons of Homer saying he understands and he doesn't understand. And yet, it's funny every time because it's it's just so simple.
00:47:17
Speaker
We don't cut to their family leaving for their new life. They've got a convertible and the FBI ah recorded ah Gilbert and Sullivan collection. The FBI Light Opera Society. Fantastic. love that.
00:47:28
Speaker
The idea that they they the FBI have like ah FBI brand products kind of thing, including um yeah radio players. The family drive off singing Gilbert and Sullivan and Homer and Botha in their cat hats now. I don't know when that happened.
00:47:44
Speaker
it's ah And having a good thing of that singing and they're singing all in harmony. It's another really well animated bit. Considering it's just the family singing, it's really well animated. You can tell when there's like more frames in an episode, like in a gag of Simpsons. It's really obvious. And this is one of them. and I was just like, this is an odd. They were really proud that they had them all sing.
00:48:08
Speaker
They really liked this bit. Yeah, I mean, there's like, yeah, as he says, a lot of good scenes like this, which is why the scenes with the Abe earlier, I think, probably stand out as much as they do. But by yeah contrast with a lot of the rest of the episode, like it's it's just not there by by the standards.
00:48:25
Speaker
Then cut to the shot underneath and we see that Bob has strapped himself under the car and he's laughing evilly. Fortunately, this immediately comes back to by Bob as Homer starts driving over speed bumps and we just see Bob's head. How little of your head would be left after that?
00:48:36
Speaker
I know this is a cat, I'm not like actually criticizing Simpsons for Sideshow Bob's head not exploding. I am just, it just, it was my immediate thought was there would be nothing left.
00:48:49
Speaker
He's going to go through worse later. Yeah, it's going to get worse. Well, this is, this is, this is a great example of one of those jokes where they keep raising the stakes, right? The fact that they immediately then drive through the cactus patch and further immiserate Sideshow Bob.
00:49:04
Speaker
Don't see that Homer's coffee is too hot and he throws it over the side and we just hear a bit scotting Bob. too, yeah. Wait, my dude. I know it's a gag, but also like, like oh, my coffee's too hot. I'll throw it away.
00:49:18
Speaker
but don't see that Homer asks the kids if they want to drive through the cactus patch Barton leads to say yes and we just hear Bob's voice going no. Homer just assumes that it's Maggie and says two against one. And we just see Homer driving through the cactus patch and Kelsey Grammar's voice just kept making multiple noises of pain.
00:49:34
Speaker
We don't even see the starting titles to The Thompsons. The Thompsons. It proper got me. The best part about it, though, is, how again, how much better drawn the Thompsons logo is than The Simpsons, because they've been using the same one for years.
00:49:52
Speaker
yeah So they were like, now let's redraw the Thompsons logo, or draw the Thompsons logo, and it's better. And i it just immediately stood out to me, and i was like, that's weird. I don't know why it stood out so much.
00:50:03
Speaker
And we got a second second couch gag of the episode as well. Yep, we got our second couch gag, which is a load of fish falling on the family because they're by the lake now. Because it's a boat. We then see the family actually arrive and Homer notes that it's a houseboat and says, the great thing about it is if you hate your neighbours, you can just pull up and leave.
00:50:19
Speaker
And the family start laughing at every boat and the port just immediately leaves. Such a simple gag. we know Homer's outfit here? Because he's wearing all the Witness Relocation Program branded clothes. That was fan fantastic. Particularly just the idea that this is something that they give you as part of your standard relocation package.
00:50:39
Speaker
And that it's just so counterintuitive because like that's the one thing you wouldn't want anybody to know you're involved in. So like so the FBI can find you, not so the criminals can find you. Duh! they'll never find you again if you weren't wearing the right t-shirt. Exactly!
00:50:54
Speaker
We then see the disheveled Bob just fall out from under the car, and then we get a glorious thing of Bob steps on a rake. The rake scene. And makes his moan. And it's the same noise every time, and yet it is hilarious.
00:51:11
Speaker
we just We get that for about three or four times, and we get that zoom out, and we just see that Bob is absolutely surrounded rakes. Surrounded by rakes for fucking reason. And just like takes really long elated steps to get but to couple of them It keeps going and going. It goes a good minute.
00:51:30
Speaker
The startling thing about this too, I mean, is that this is something that is now just, this is, the idea of a rake gag is shorthand in comedy now. Like you see you you talk about a rake gag, you know what that means, which is a a bit that the entire purpose of the bit is that it keeps repeating itself for a little bit too long until it comes around and becomes funny again.
00:51:51
Speaker
yeah Thinking about the fact that there was no rake like no true rake gag before the rake gag is mind blowing to me. yeah Like imagine coming up with this with this bit and executing it in this way.
00:52:06
Speaker
It's phenomenal. it's just It's just fantastic. But not only that, this is one of those padding ones as well. Like, this is 27 seconds long, and it's just there to make the runtime longer. And it's become one of the most iconic jokes of The Simpsons history.
Episode Conclusion & Legacy
00:52:23
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Insane. Yeah, it's wild to think about. With one of the things you were saying, um was, like, the only equivalence we had to this kind of thing... and it kind of disappeared for a while that kind of comedy was like laurel and hardy abbott and costello those kind of things you know which were like classic comedy and i think that's why ah simpsons works so well is again it's like a great adaptation of modern and like classic kinds of comedy like we've said it before and you were talking about how simpsons and in now in these seasons is gag fest
00:52:56
Speaker
Well, like, because, like, the first two seasons, we talked about it a lot, or I talked about it a lot because I found it interesting, was that it was a sitcom. It was just a standard sitcom. Right. But it was a cartoon.
00:53:07
Speaker
And it is now over the course of, like, once we got into, like, the fourth season, it became The Simpsons. You and it's, yeah, it's so fascinating. And, yeah, The Simpsons is, like, such a case study that has never really been recreated.
00:53:22
Speaker
Probably also worth noting that Kelsey Grammer did not realize this gag was what it was either. As you say, really the the the groan is exactly the same each time because he only recorded it once. they Oh, interesting.
00:53:34
Speaker
And that was it. When he saw the episode, he didn't expect it to happen nine times. don't even back to the family and we just hear Bob stepping on a radio. Yeah, that's the icing on the cake. yes After you've seen it happen all those times, you get to hear it one last time.
00:53:49
Speaker
Still going on in the background. It's lovely. Yeah, it's great. I'll just where the dog is and Homer says he's tied up about back and we see the dog tied up to a pole and... think this is one of my favorite gags of the whole episode.
00:54:00
Speaker
I don't know why i was... I think because it's Simpsons, I was expecting a drowning dog. but Nope. Oh my god. He's fucking happy as Larry. it just just just it Just swimming around.
00:54:13
Speaker
And like that proper got me. And I love seeing a happy dog. Dogs are great. So seeing Santa's little helper just like swimming around. was just like, hell yeah. I don't know. But yeah, just because it was so quick. It's such a quick cut.
00:54:25
Speaker
It really got me. We then cut to Marge being rueful about the fact that they've left everything behind. Elmer reassures her that he's tied up all loose ends. We then cut to Grandpa Simpson feebly knocking on the door asking for the family that they have his pills. He then points out that he's cold and wolves are after him as the wolves start howling in the background. Yeah, it's cold out here and there's wolves after me.
00:54:46
Speaker
Oh, that is a line I've used out of context so many times in my life. It's also, it's it's funny too, because at first you're assuming that the wolves aren't real, and then the because it's like it's just the wolves in his imagination. No, there's there's real wolves out there in Springfield, and they're out to get him.
00:55:02
Speaker
Well, it's interesting to like ponder, like, are they out get him, or has he just heard wolves and gone, oh my god, the wolves are out? Yeah, he thinks that. I like that. We then see Bart walking down the street and then he hears Sajal Bob's voice. He turns around, but he sees that it's an old lady and it turns out that Bob's underneath the car.
00:55:17
Speaker
As Bob releases himself, he bangs his head off the ground again. And Bart asks what he wants and Bob says, this surely there's no harm for lying in a public street. Turns out there is, because marching band immediately crops up and walks over.
00:55:29
Speaker
yeah i suppose yeah That's not the worst moment because elephants start arriving. Not the elephants! Terror Link salutes Hannibal crossing the Alps. Good lord, this is a funny joke.
00:55:40
Speaker
Oh yeah man! This had me in bits. Spelled out with one word per elephant. yeah And as every elephant walks past, you just hear the squishing noise of Bob underneath until it cuts to the final elephant, which absolutely pulverizes his skull. I do think the the funniest bit of this of this portion is the elephant that just says the on it. Yeah, that one is amazing. The...
00:56:06
Speaker
yeahp You could have put the Alps on one elephant. Nope, they're separate elephants. But I'd see Homer's relaxing and then Bart runs in saying that Sajjel Bob is threatening to kill him and Bob Homer says, don't interrupt me. And Marge says, this is serious and enough. Oh, it isn't.
00:56:21
Speaker
Homer has become so acclimatized so fast to his new life. He's on a boat, like, wouldn't you? absolutely. He'd love to live on a boat.
00:56:32
Speaker
Then cut Bob writing some form of memoirs for himself that he's going to surprise Bart in bed and disembowel him. He decides he doesn't like the word bow, so changes it to gut. So he's going to disengut him?
00:56:43
Speaker
Yeah. He's going to gut him. No, he says he's taking out the bowel. He doesn't say he's going take out the disson. He's leaving the disson. He's going to disson gut Disson gut him. I would love it if they he'd then said it.
00:56:56
Speaker
If he'd then, later on in the episode, when he attacks Bart, said he's going to disson gut him. We then cut to Homer and Bart in bed and he can't sleep and we then hear the door start to come ajar and Homer comes running in with a butcher's knife and hot brownies and he shouts it frantically at Bart that he wants a brownie and Bart panics and... Bart, do you want some brownie before you go to bed? But it's basically delivered as like one word.
00:57:23
Speaker
this again This again is a bit that's already funny enough in concept, but it's Dan Castellaneta's delivery that really makes it. yeah Because it is like it it is what he's saying. he is Homer is just really excited about brownies that he's been.
00:57:38
Speaker
Yeah, he wants Bart have one while it's hot. He doesn't even give him one, though. He leaves without giving him a brownie. Because Bart doesn't want one before he goes to bed. He didn't say no. Bart says he would appreciate if Homer didn't come into his room vanishing a butcher's knife and Homer censors himself for not his thoughtfulness and says wishes Bart goodnight.
00:57:56
Speaker
He then immediately runs back into the room with a hockey mask in a chase.
00:58:02
Speaker
Bart even more terrified at this and Homer says, what am I thinking? When it panned out to the boat and the lights went off, I was, ah just like this the rake gag, i was expecting one more.
00:58:20
Speaker
And because it didn't happen, again, it's that almost blue balling of just like, eh, but, eh. Yeah, it subverts the rule threes there. Yes. Yes. Yeah. We then see once the lights go off, Bob enters the boat and his hair is absolutely covered in.
00:58:34
Speaker
Bob shakes himself dry like a dog then immediately steps on a rake and makes the grove. And I'd forgotten this one too. Yeah, it proper got me. Bart finally wakes up and this time it is Bob and Bart calls his family for help and Bob says they won't be able to help him.
00:58:49
Speaker
We then cut and see that the family have all been tied up. Homer's drooling and Lisa thinks he's being drugged and Marge's assured that hasn't. Marge is so annoyed in that moment. Well, he has gone to sleep in the middle of an attempted murder of her son. I don't think he's gone to sleep. I just don't think he ever woke up.
00:59:07
Speaker
That is also probably true. No, I choose to believe that he went slow. Like, the fact that Lisa says he's been drugged, it seems like he was awake at some point. Yeah, the idea that Homer's just like, well, I'm tied up, there's nothing I can do.
00:59:20
Speaker
I mean, that is pretty much Homer's logic. That's very Homer. That's very Homer. Then see, ah Bob tried to kill Bart, and Bart tries to flee, and as he's about to jump overboard, he sees there's a crocodile at the front of the boat, then runs to the back of the boat, and there's electric eels.
00:59:32
Speaker
This prompts him to run back to the front of the boat, and we see there's a crocodile there, Bart goes, oh yeah, that's there. Bob then asks Bart if he's got any last requests, and Bart sees the sign saying how far away Springfield is, and this puts an idea in his head, and He says, no, initially, then Bob persists, and Bart says he sings like an angel, and then asks me. I love the delivery of, no, really?
00:59:55
Speaker
as if it he really is like, no, no, it's fine, seriously, if you have a last correct request, fucking hit me. Bart wants him to sing the entire score of the HMS Pinafore, and Bob says he will do it, because he's going to send Bart to heaven him before he sends him to hell, and then he puts Bart a chair, and we then see Bob start, and it gets more and more elaborate as we get on, and I would watch the shit out of this.
01:00:14
Speaker
The Union Jack that comes down at the end, I'd forgotten about that too. It's so funny, man. It was a hell of a stage production. But at one point, Bart is eating popcorn. Bob's got props.
01:00:26
Speaker
And then we see him by the end, he's in a full English Admiral yeah uniform. Like, where did that come from? And the Union Jack flag falls down at the end. Bart's reading the playwright. Then see Bart is clapping. Bob gets handed flowers. Yeah.
01:00:42
Speaker
By the end, Bob starts to menacingly approach Bob in his admiral uniform, saying it's time for the final curtain. At that moment, the boat crashes, and Bob is taken in by the police in their pajamas.
01:00:53
Speaker
Bob curses to Lucifer's beard, and says, it's a good thing you passed this brothel. It's a good thing you passed this brothel! I will note on that scene, because you're racing through it at this point, but like there's it's another one of those very good callbacks to an earlier bit, like kind of with the corn, I guess, is like yeah they were listening to Gilbert and Sullivan on the way there.
01:01:13
Speaker
This is why Bart was thinking about Gilbert and Sullivan. and like You wouldn't be like, why would why would why would Bart request Gilbert and Sullivan? That's hardly the sort of thing Bart would be into. They listened to onal all the way to Terra Lake while they were driving there. They had Gilbert and Sullivan on. They were listening to it on the tapes.
01:01:28
Speaker
That's how Bart knew it would take that long. I also like as well that Bart's plan doesn't actually work because he intends to get to Springfield. he They don't. they get They just happen to pass by a brothel.
01:01:42
Speaker
The Springfield police department was in the brothel, so it must be fairly close to Springfield by that point. No, but saying, yeah, exactly. Bart's plan was just to get to Springfield because then he's safe in a child's mind, I guess.
01:01:54
Speaker
But yeah he just, by pure chance... All of the... Why would you go to a brothel as a group? As police officers. Because it's funny!
01:02:07
Speaker
Why? Police lads night out at the brothel. Yeah! Lads, lads, lads, lads. It's also... it lets us know a fair bit again about, like, who Chief Wiggum is in in a way that I think is really, really funny. I like how they're all in robes.
01:02:21
Speaker
yeah yeah Also Chief Wiggum is married Just a note true yeah But he's dedicated He might have spent money on that whore But the law The law is is far too important Beg him away, toys.
01:02:37
Speaker
Yeah. Beg him away, toys. We don't see that Bart explains what his plan was, and Homer says it was a plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies. Intricacies. Yeah, that was a good word there. Intricacies. That is ah a phrase that lives rent-free in my mind. a plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies, which I think, you know...
01:02:59
Speaker
is it is a fun sentences because it's ah It's a it's a subversion of expectations because like you wouldn't expect those words to come out of Homer's mouth. Whenever Homer says something smart, it's fine. It just is. I love the legitimate theatre.
01:03:12
Speaker
Yeah, we had a whole episode that was just Homer saying smart things and it was incredible just because I loved hearing Homer say smart things. Well, he is genius. Well, orders the police to take Bob away, and Chief Wiggum corrects him says, I'm the chief, and then says, bake him away, toys. Bake him away, toys. Lou goes, what did you say, Chief? And then you see Chief Wiggum annoyed to go, do what the kid says. We don't see the family come home, and they arrive home saying, I'm glad everything's back to normal, and then we see that ah Grandpa has turned into a woman.
01:03:42
Speaker
What the fuck? Yep. The pills were estrogen blockers? It would very much appear to be the case, yes. I don't know the way Grandpa just runs up and goes, look what happened without my pills. So easy is Abe Simpson Homer's mother?
01:04:00
Speaker
Oh no, we'll get to those episodes. ah it's It's a complicated relationship at the very least. Yeah, there there are implications from this scene. They're very trans-forward in Springfield though, and I appreciate that. it's It's one of those weird things where it's like, oh yeah, back then you would just make a joke that somebody is is like trans or or hiding that they are trans, and that's the joke.
01:04:24
Speaker
it's It's very strange. it As a gag, seeing Abe... the the The idea that somehow there has been something hormonally going on that is keeping Abe a man...
01:04:37
Speaker
I don't know, it's this is a fascinating thing that I know they didn't think very deeply about. like the bunny is. Yeah, they thought it would just, say well oh, this would be funny, let's make Abe a woman, right? But like,
01:04:50
Speaker
it's it's one of those things where it's just like, oh yeah, this is what it was like back then. This is what it was like in 1993 or when whenever this was, yeah. I think as well, just like to like analyze the joke again, because there are like a lot of examples of... Like we've talked about Simpsons making like off-color jokes. We've talked about jokes ah like the um Apu and his brother singing. We were like, is this racist?
01:05:15
Speaker
And we were kind of like, not really. It's just weird. And I think that for me, again, it's like a fucking cis white dude. i don't I don't see this joke as like ah um ah one of the most egregious examples because it's not...
01:05:30
Speaker
The, it's it's not the the the gag is lol, they're a woman. The gag is more the absurdity of that's why he needed his medicine.
01:05:42
Speaker
And I think it's that kind of like, it skirts the line, I think, of of of any more than that. And it would have been offensive, but I don't know.
01:05:54
Speaker
There are definitely some, like, actually crossing the line quite bad transphobic jokes in The Simpsons later to come. This is not one of them. This is just absurdity. Like, somehow Abe's hormones have suppressed his lipstick until now, apparently.
01:06:11
Speaker
yeah That's true, because also he's been outside this entire time. Yep. yeah those Maybe the wolf sounds like lipstick, we don't know. And that whilst his face shows up, like, it just just happens to be there in a full, like, dapper outfit.
01:06:25
Speaker
With flowers. Or barking off his paws, Jasper's there because he wants to cut. just famous And as we go into the ah into the credits, we then see that Abe says, there's something you should know about me, and I can't remember what tickets Jasper had.
01:06:38
Speaker
But that's enough for Abe, and we just hear the kissing. Yeah. Steven Eadie? Steven Eadie. Steven Eadie. That's another musical theatre joke.
01:06:49
Speaker
ah stephen gold and Steven Eadie, a famous Broadway couple who were in a number of Golden Age Broadway musicals. Steve and Edie. Steve and Edie. I thought it was Steve and Edie. Yeah, the way it's little bit, sounds like Stevie, yeah. Nope, Steve and Edie. If you're ever interested in seeing some real high camp from that era of Broadway, go look up the Tony Awards performance of a show called Golden Rainbow.
01:07:16
Speaker
It is one of the tackiest things I have ever seen in my life. Oh, yeah. And that was the show that Steve and Edie starred in. I will note, Josh, that there was an episode in season four that was about musical theater, and hadn't considered getting you on as a guest at that point. Oh, well, for Streetcar, right?
01:07:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I regret not having you on for that because I wanted you to talk about that. That's realized there was as much musical theater as there was in this. beyond It's because these writers love musicals.
01:07:47
Speaker
I'm glad I got you on for this. Steve Lawrence and Edie Gourmet is an insane pull, as is Linda Lavin. These are jokes that are only intelligible to people like me, ah which is to say people who know too much about theater.
01:07:59
Speaker
Okay. Fair enough. Well, I'm glad glad glad to have you for them. Simpsons very rarely does these kind of jokes where it's like overly deep and only
Cultural Specificity of Jokes
01:08:08
Speaker
they'd get the reference. It's actually very rare for them to do that. so I'm glad you were here on the off chance that they did it. I'm um um um'm very grateful.
01:08:15
Speaker
I think it's possible that they're making those jokes more than you realize and you just don't pick up on them because of how culturally specific they are. Nah, that can't be it. That can't it. There's plenty of things that get mentioned we all just like go, Lisa goes to Washington! Like, especially in season four. They really start doing this a lot.
01:08:34
Speaker
I fucking hate that episode.
01:08:38
Speaker
it's up What did you think of this episode? Oh, it's fucking Banger. Good, I'm so glad. like um but I was really worried you were not going to think this was Banger, because every time I say an episode's a Banger, you come in and go, nah, it was mid. You were hyping up fucking Barbershop Quartet for so long.
01:08:54
Speaker
Because it's good. it's It's a great episode. Nah, it's mid. It's mid. No, it's not. Totally mid. Nah, it's mid. Baby on board alone makes that episode S tier. I do not understand you, but you know what? We're not here to have a debate.
01:09:08
Speaker
we're here where we're We're here to discuss the ah the delights of this show, I suppose. No, but this, yeah, and this is an absolute banger. Absolutely flies by. Constant jokes, good laughs.
01:09:20
Speaker
Pure, like, Simpsons absurdity. That's brilliant. Yeah, i think I think this is almost like fair to say unequivocal banger, because like this makes people's top lists constantly.
Anne Washburn's Play & 'The Simpsons'
01:09:32
Speaker
Who asked people to name their top Simpsons episodes?
01:09:35
Speaker
This is almost always on there. Well, and I mentioned Mr. Burns sort of at the beginning of this episode, and the reason that Anne Washburn picked that specific episode for the play is that it's one of those ones that everybody remembers a little bit about at the very least, because so much of the beginning of that play is that they're trying to piece together an accurate reconstruction of what happens in Cape Fear, right?
01:09:59
Speaker
And they they mostly get it right, but then they accidentally bring in a few details from a few other episodes. And I think that if you were to ask your average Simpsons fan to ah you know describe what happened in Cape Fear, they would do something similar.
01:10:13
Speaker
It's so iconic. It is like the the ultimate example of the writers and animators and voice actors firing on all cylinders. But the specificity of it, which jokes are specific to this episode, other than the rakes and the elephants, you might not remember what they are.
01:10:28
Speaker
Yeah. We've had that a lot in the last few episodes, actually, where um both me and ah John have said, I didn't realize that bit was in this episode. Yeah, there's a lot of standalone gags that just like are great on their own and end up because of just the sort of the the meme and remix culture that we live in these days have kind of taken on a life of their own outside of The Simpsons. They're just clipped as gifs or short video clips and shared endlessly. And like they the context, the broader context the episode is is long since lost. And you just you just know the bit. Yeah, like any of the mo bits, like the whale bit I mentioned earlier, I don't know anything about the episode. I just remember that
Rating the Episode Humorously
01:11:07
Speaker
bit.
01:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, Have we got any scores out of Homer for this? I think it would be remiss of of me, Mr. Grumpy Pants, to not give my first Homer of Homer this early on in the in the season, but it is absolutely a Homer.
01:11:23
Speaker
This episode is fucking fantastic. Wonderful. Uh, Josh, would you like to give us a Homer out of Homer? You can give five, five Homers. five Five Homers? Five Five Homers and a Bart, yeah.
01:11:37
Speaker
Really? Give to Elisa we're in trouble.
01:11:44
Speaker
Michael? Oh, it's a homer. It's absolutely a homer. It's a homer for me as well. The rake bit alone and Bob's... Kelsey Grammer singing the entire HMS Pinafore makes it phenomenal.
01:11:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the the all the HMS Pinafore stuff, like, I think it has... It's a weird one because it has instilled in me a lifelong desire to see Gilbert and Sullivan. And yet at the ripe old age of 37, I have still not yet actually achieved ever watching any Gilbert and Sullivan. So I really need to rectify that.
01:12:15
Speaker
I think you've got to clarify it as you want to see Kelsey Grammer do it. You don't want to. I mean, don't know. I'll listen to Kelsey Grammer read the fucking phone book. I mean, look, i'm i'm I'm a theater guy. I think Gilbert and Sullivan is fine.
01:12:30
Speaker
If you're going to prioritize, ah you know, what theater you should be seeing, I personally would not put Gilbert and Sullivan toward the top of the list. Fair enough. i I have a lot of love for the Major General song. That's but that's my main thing.
01:12:42
Speaker
I did at one point learn it, and I probably could not attempt to do it again now, but at one point I did learn it. Fucking nerd. Yep, I am.
01:12:53
Speaker
ah Alrighty, did this episode have much to say about society? um i mean, I think there's the obvious joke about like how prison isn't meant to reform, simply punish and then make money. But it's never really like spoken about. It's just a joke.
01:13:06
Speaker
you know And again, like the the brothel joke with the police, like the ineffectiveness of the police, the police willing to skirt around the law. Those jokes are made, but the episode isn't about it, and I don't think it's trying to be.
01:13:19
Speaker
It is just... pure Simpsons gag fest and they haven't married the two yet of like doing Homer episode that is also really poignant. Yeah, I noticed about the police looking up stuff in a book which I think was more knowing than the writers themselves probably even knew that I think they were just doing lol Wiggum stupid but also like no shit that's literally actually what police do they they look shit up all the time because they don't know the law themselves.
01:13:48
Speaker
ah They ah failed to understand that the witness witness relocation program is actually a program of the U.S. Marshals, not the FBI. That doesn't mean anything. They don't know that. i actually They usually pay attention to that kind of detail, so I'm sort of surprised that they didn't in this case. Yeah.
01:14:05
Speaker
Not that it means anything. I really don't think it does. Did they mention it being FBI specifically? Yeah, multiple times. The FBI brand ah Gilbert and Sullivan. Of course it was. Because the FBI is in charge of, as their name would imply, investigations.
01:14:19
Speaker
The U.S. Marshal Service is in charge of actual law enforcement, and that includes you know prosecuting, like like taking the really ah serious criminals and putting them in jail. It involves protection of civilians and also witness relocation as part of that.
01:14:35
Speaker
Aha, okay. Well, today I learned. The more you know. Cool. Anything else to add, or shall we move on to Homer Ghost College? I'm surprised how good my drink tastes.
01:14:47
Speaker
Good, good. You're telling us. Alrighty, Homer Ghost College aired originally on October 14th, 1993. I alive! Anything on this day? You were alive last episode. you just going to shout this every single episode that you're alive on now? Yeah. i'm gonna um Every time we get around the September-October region, I'm going to remind everyone what age I am.
01:15:08
Speaker
Speaking of life, I have nothing of significance this day except a lot of people got murdered. Oh, excellent. Oh my God. But I was alive. The universe had to compensate for my existence. Yeah, one in, one out. Who got killed?
01:15:24
Speaker
Guy Malari, the Haitian lawyer, minister of justice, and Mustafa Abada, the Algerian TV director. 30 Clark died, but it doesn't say anything about him being murdered.
01:15:34
Speaker
He was a West Indian cricket. He was 75. I think that was just life ah Just a life thing. ah life Take that is still the UK number one and Mariah Carey is still the US number one.
01:15:46
Speaker
good for Good for them. You don't mean that. No, I don't. Right, so apologies if my Disney Plus screwed me over, but I don't have a chalkboard gag for you. There was neither. just goes straight into it.
01:16:01
Speaker
ah Yeah, now there is one. sometimes sometimes There is one. There's couch gag, but not a... Is there a chalkboard gag? Oh, sorry, I was thinking of the... I think there also is a chalkboard gag, actually.
01:16:12
Speaker
I have one of the old rips. I can go take a look real quick, but I'm pretty sure there is one. Wikipedia does not even a chalkboard maybe there isn't one then. I was thinking about the couch gag because they fucking do Monty Python. python Yeah, I was about to get to that. They do have a couch gag and it's the Monty Python foot couch gag.
01:16:28
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think basically the opposite problem of the circus gag problem is whenever they run a bit long, they just trim the titles down. Because the titles, as we've observed many occasions early on, they are long titles. So, like, if they need to trim the episode, a good place to lose some length is the title sequence.
Homer and the Nuclear Plant Antics
01:16:47
Speaker
So, yeah, the the the chalkboard gag was a casualty this time. We cooked to the start of the episode and we're at the Springfield nuclear plant and everybody is having good old nap. It's nap time! Homer's snoozing, Lenny's in a hammock.
01:17:00
Speaker
Homer inadvertently presses the self-destruct planet button, which just happens to be on his console. This is good, because you's like you think it's a Homer thing, it's like, oh, Homer's sleeping on the job, but no, they show the know the entire plant has a nap time. Including Mr. Burns, yeah.
01:17:13
Speaker
yeah yeah We should all embrace afternoon naps. I think we can all agree everyone should should have an afternoon nap. Siesta culture, yeah. Yeah, hell yeah. So the dog saves the power plant by pulling down the lever and the the voice itself actually thanks him. Where this dog come from, man?
01:17:28
Speaker
Convenient dog for gag. Why not just have Santa's little helper, though? You can't bring your own dog to work. Yeah, come on. This is the plant dog. and spoon This is old yellow. And the voice spanks the dog because after he averts the meltdown. Meltdown averted. Good boy.
01:17:47
Speaker
We then go to Mr. Burns sleeping, and we see that Smithers has killed up his feet and doing the twitch like he's a dog himself. yeah Unfortunately, at that moment, the nuclear inspection team comes, and we then see them knock on the door, and Burns is horrified to realize that nap time has been interrupted.
01:18:04
Speaker
How dare you! but Smithers sleeping at his foot like a little cat, by the way. Also a very good dog. Smith, he is Burns sexual. We started see the agent reveal that this is a surprise test of the workers' competency and Mr. Burns tries to but pretend that it's a cookie factory. As he begins to describe his good time extra cookie.
01:18:26
Speaker
We then see one of the inspectors show up and start with an axe. yeah ki what We don't see the tests going on outside and Mr. Burns calls the watchdog of public safety the lowest form of life and Spirits assures him that he's taken the less gifted employees and locked them in the basement.
01:18:41
Speaker
We don't quote immediately to Homer and two other gentlemen looking at a bee and Homer takes great pride in the fact that he's the head bee guy. Knocks it over. At that moment he immediately breaks it and the other guy is quite sad that they failed in their task and we don't We just see Homer running down the corridor chasing this bee.
01:19:02
Speaker
We don't see Homer's turn for the test and Spirits says, oh, he couldn't bee here. like Get the gag. No, I don't get it Can you explain? Because Homer was looking after a bee.
01:19:13
Speaker
Oh, right. Okay. I get it now. Right. Thanks. Burns uses his own excuse that Homer's having a conference in Geneva about nuclear safety and, Burns says, yep, that'll stick.
01:19:26
Speaker
At that exact moment, Homer unfortunately comes out to a manhole and reveals that the bee has stuck him on the bottom and now his bottom is big. The bee bit my bottom, now my bottom's big. They see that Homer's now in the nuclear inspector test and they say, don't worry, we'll just want to see how you get on.
01:19:41
Speaker
We don't see Homer is going into complete panic and they tell him, they reassure him that he can't do anything wrong because it's a simulation and Homer just decides to press buttons blindly until to let him go. At that moment, the van starts violently shuddering and the safety inspector is boat there was just like, no, this can't be happening.
01:19:57
Speaker
Yeah, the entire van starts glowing green, and this is great too, because as we soon learn, there is no nuclear material in this training simulator, but Homer somehow still managed to make it go radioactive.
01:20:10
Speaker
Fantastic. That bad at his job is great. Burns runs to the escape pod and smithers his bang, saying there's two seats, but Burns wants to put his feet up. but Yeah, I like to put my feet up.
01:20:22
Speaker
I didn't expect to see Burns' like, weird secret chamber again. didn't see the safety pod launch, but it immediately crashes and we just see it bouncing down the road. I think it's just made that much funnier as well with Burns repeatedly making like, pain noises.
01:20:39
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they're they're they're sort of picking up, this is this is picking up right where Sideshow Bob left off, the rakes. Like, there's just something inherently funny about hearing somebody continuously getting injured.
01:20:50
Speaker
Yeah, man. I think that one will come up in a very close coming episode of The Simpsons. ah We then see Homer climb out of the hole and he's glowing green like the Hulk as he says he's going to destroy mankind, then realizes it's lunch and immediately shakes the radiation off Where's my burrito?
01:21:08
Speaker
He has the superhuman ability to just shake off nuclear radiation. He's been there that long. He's been so yeah he's been exposed to it for so long that he can be in a nuclear meltdown.
01:21:19
Speaker
I mean, it makes sense when you think about it. He tosses a nuclear rod off of his back at the beginning of almost every episode. This guy has ah taken a lot of radioactive damage, or would have had he not somehow developed a natural tolerance for it.
01:21:33
Speaker
That is, I believe, how the immune system works. Like, you can just be immune to radiation. Yeah, work Marie Curie. Hang out around enough radiation, you will become immune. Try it, kids.
01:21:43
Speaker
Right. As the inspector wonders how Homer has caused the accident with no nuclear material in the van, Burns bluntly says, oh, it's time for your bribe. He then offers him washer and a bribe. Oh, he can trade it in for what's in the box. The inspector immediately wants the box.
01:21:57
Speaker
I wish they'd played music as well to like add to it. He's great guy. Smithers being the, like, presenting it, you know, like on the Price is Right. Fantastic.
01:22:09
Speaker
As described as where the lovely Smithers is standing. Yes! Great line. it's the tip As the other inspector, after the other inspector wants to choose the box, says... The box! The box!
01:22:22
Speaker
Says, Burns got by his way out this. may Mayor Quimby just shows up for no reason wearing a very expensive firm ink coat and says there'll be no investigation. Then immediately leaves. And I'm going to go away.
01:22:33
Speaker
It's still got the $5,000 price tag on it, just so that you know that he has been bribed with this fur coat. Yep. The original inspector says that they've got enough details to take legal action against the plan for the coma doesn't get his college training that he requires to do his job. And Ben says he thinks the feeling that they're going to drop the charges. He opens his trap door, but it opens in completely wrong area of the office. Turns out his desk was moved because the painters came back.
01:22:59
Speaker
Which as well, as a savvy, if you're a savvy like viewer, you would notice that his desk has been moved. Because his desk is normally in front of the window. So his desk has actually been moved. They don't just do the bare minimum of the gag.
01:23:15
Speaker
They do the full thing. Fantastic attention to detail by the animators.
01:23:22
Speaker
We then cut Homer being visited by Burns and his army of lawyers, which immediately gets Homer to scream. My lawyers and i were in the neighborhood. Yeah. Before we'd stop by. Marge then invites them in for tea in marshmallow squares, and the lawyers get into a huddle to discuss it. Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, we would. Yes, he would. as he Yes, he would. Yes, he would.
01:23:42
Speaker
I love that. We then see that Burns tells Homer that he's got to go to college and complete Nuclear Physics 101 to keep his job. He then also goes on to a spiel about how Homer needs to find the jade monkey before the next full moon. He's so weird!
01:23:55
Speaker
There was a line that Homer was like, do you want me to go to college? And Bart says, barber or clown. Barber or clown, yeah. oh While drinking coffee. Weirdly, yeah, yes, true. But also weirdly foreshadowing Homer going to clown college.
01:24:08
Speaker
Yes, true. Two crusties. Wait, four crusties. Mirrors of Shores Burns that they have found the J-Monkey because it was in the gloved compartment. Roadmaps and the ice scraper. Weird little bitch just goes and Burns says everything is falling into place.
01:24:22
Speaker
Never referenced again. Also, doesn't this mean that the plant needs to shut down for multiple years while Homer takes a degree? I mean, how much did Homer actually do at the nuclear plant anyway?
01:24:35
Speaker
mean, if he needs a physics degree, if he needs college edumacation, that's several years. They've got the dog? What more do you need? ah Then see that Homer's in bed and he tells her that ah he was thinking about... He always wanted to go to college, but fate stood on the way.
01:24:54
Speaker
We get the flashback to Homer about to sign the form, which would have basically took him to college, but he saw a dog outside the window with a ham. He had to go yeah go investigate the scene and we just see Homer in the background trying to get this ham off.
01:25:06
Speaker
I drank some very good beer. But he didn't eat some very good ham because they the dog was not letting that go. You wouldn't eat that ham, man. you should Or you shouldn't. Homer would have eaten that ham, let's be honest. Homer would have eaten the ham, but you shouldn't eat the ham.
01:25:19
Speaker
We didn't go to Homer trying to fill in his college applications and Lisa offers to help. And then she says, what's your favorite three books? And we didn't see Homer say TV Guide, Son of Singlet, Catherine Hepburn's me and Lisa's not having any of them. And Homer just declares that he sucks.
01:25:33
Speaker
Again, Catherine Hepburn. You can tell what the cultural milieu is of these writers. They love old queens and and and like just these these grand domes of the American theater.
01:25:46
Speaker
And cinema, I suppose. Also, just clicked on ah the link to Son of Sniglet on Wikipedia, which redirected me to Sniglet, which is a humorous word made up to describe something for which no word exists.
01:26:00
Speaker
So that's a surprisingly smart joke that I did not get. I'm going to cut to Homer actually writing his application, and starts with the lines, It was the most I ever thought, but it changed my life. love Bart praising him.
01:26:15
Speaker
Well, we then paste this photo, which is him cramming an entire birthday cake into his mouth. and with it With the camera red eye. Just got that on deck, in his pocket. Like, I need a photo of me. oh Here we go.
01:26:26
Speaker
Just in case, guys. Well, wonders if that's the best picture in Homer's essay. It won't make a difference. And then we see Homer's picture immediately blown apart. He looks insane. And a nice little ah subversion of expectations there, too, is that you think they're going to read his essay first, and then the photo is going to be the thing that makes them be like, oh, no, never mind.
01:26:45
Speaker
Here, they see the photo, and they're like, don't even worry about don't even worry about that essay. We don't want to let this guy in, or whatever the line is. Really good. And see that... Homer comes home and then tells Bart that he's got to watch a vital program about college and it turns out to be the movie School of
Parodies of American College Culture
01:27:02
Speaker
Hard Knockers. Can i mention the ad that was on before that?
01:27:06
Speaker
No. oh the Finally, the great taste of Worcestershire sauce in a soft drink. Yes! Mmm, steak! Steak it! I'm fascinated by Josh going, yes, yes, because my initial reaction was like, Jesus, do Americans know what Worcestershire sauce is? course we fucking know what Worcestershire sauce is. Yeah.
01:27:24
Speaker
Can't say it, though. Can't say it, yeah. I can say it numerous different ways. I can say Worcestershire. i can say Worcestershire.
01:27:35
Speaker
i can say Worcestershire. it's ah It's whatever you want, baby. I can say it as many ways as you want. i I always sort of assumed it was something that never left the borders of the country, if I'm honest. No, I would say it if it's in you worked man yeah i mean if you were to ask your average American about like brown sauces, right? Like, I don't think your average American has ever had HP sauce.
01:27:56
Speaker
and um But Worcestershire sauce, absolutely. it's It's commonly used in a number of drinks, too. Like you get a Bloody Mary. Oftentimes you're going to be putting a little bit of Worcestershire sauce in it. So, OK, I've never thought a Bloody Mary sounded appealing. And now it sounds less appealing. You ever had one?
01:28:13
Speaker
No. I was tempted to have one when I was in the States. You gotta. You gotta. Or go to Canada and have a Bloody Caesar, ah which is like a Bloody Mary, except rather than using like tomato juice, it's Clamato.
01:28:25
Speaker
Either way, fantastic stuff. boom I hate North America.
01:28:31
Speaker
The movie School of Hard Knockers, which is pretty much a every 80s film that was doing the rounds. Yeah. It follows a pretty simple thing of ah the President of the United States just coming for a random college inspection and the Dean says, no worry, he's got rid of Chuggalug House.
01:28:50
Speaker
Did anyone else think they should have just had Skinners and Chalmers voice these characters? Is it not um ah Harry Shearer? It might be, but they don't do Skinner's voice. think Dean... think the specific voice is there, right? Oh, the Dean was Harry Shearer, okay.
01:29:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think they should have had, ah yeah, the the actual voices of Principal Skinners and Superintendent Chalmers. Just for me, I think it would have been a fun parallel. and Right.
01:29:16
Speaker
Homer immediately decides he doesn't like the Dean and then cuts the jock and the nerd and we see that they release a bra bomb and the the Dean curses Corey and tries to assure the President but the President is too busy dancing in the bras and saying he's going to make that youngster part of his cabinet of getting down.
01:29:34
Speaker
Getting down! The Dean growls at the fingers of bra falls on his head and Homer takes great triumph in that. This is also such a specific cultural moment in American history, is these like crusty old Dean gets foiled by the nerds type movies. yeah um you do You don't really see that very often anymore, ah but there was a period in time where this kind of movie was all that Americans could ever... ah It's a very late film. Yes, yes.
01:30:02
Speaker
I mean, like i felt like this parody of it was surprisingly tame for that style of movie as well. i mean, it kind of has to be, you know. I get it. You can't put bare breasts out. Yeah, it's called School of Hard Knockers and there's no boober.
01:30:17
Speaker
School of Hard Knockers is a fantastic title, though.
01:30:23
Speaker
No casual borderline sexual assault on. There's no boober. Why not? Adult animation hadn't been invented yet. but Then see that term Marge brings Homer his college applications and we then see Homer go through all of them and it's just good series of does until he finds out he's got an ad for a hardware store.
01:30:42
Speaker
But unfortunately that's the end. Bart asks Homer what he's going to do and Homer says, it's something he should have done a long time ago and then Marge says, you don't know, do you? This was so funny. It's just, again, another like subversion joke of just, because you just, again, you're like, are you going to say, Homer, are you going to say something?
01:31:00
Speaker
and And then Marge is like, you don't know, do you? He doesn't need to worry because Burns has his chair at Springfield University and then we cut to Burns' very ominous chair. His large chair. His extremely large chair. That with a dog.
01:31:13
Speaker
Which has ah scores of the angels taking people drinking down to hell in the carvings. Yeah, I described this chair as Bowser-coded. ah
01:31:25
Speaker
I don't want to let Homer into the college, and Burns just starts to use an analogy about them having to work like a baseball team. Smirr's hands burns a bat, and...
01:31:36
Speaker
Burns says, it can't really work as long as everybody's on the same page and then starts trying to beat the hell out of the recruiters. Fortunately Burns has no force behind it so he's very lightly tapping him with the back. like the dude trying to talk back to and he's just like, stop that.
01:31:49
Speaker
Eventually they just basically said, if you want him that badly we'll take him and Burns collapses and then tells him to dismember the pop corpse. and send him Send his wife a corsage. Then come back to Homer, and Homer is delighted to be a college man, which prompts him to immediately burn his college diploma, and we just see the walls, his high school diploma, and then we said it's just see Homer start to dance, declaring he's so smart, after misspelling smart. S-M-R-T, and then he misspells it again.
01:32:17
Speaker
As the wall just immediately catches fire behind him. Also worth noting, this is another one those bits that's taken on a bit of a life itself outside the episode, because I know the line SMRT, but like, couldn't have... I don't think I could particularly pointed to which episode it came from at any point. But also, this is... This line was a blooper.
01:32:37
Speaker
They didn't intend to record this line. Really? Oh, that's amazing. This was Dan Castellaneda, like, misspelling smart, like, trying to deliver the line. And they were like oh, no, wait, that's better. i Leave that in. That's so homo. He's yeah just become homo. He's channeling it.
01:32:54
Speaker
I didn't see Homer being driven to college and the he says, it's his first day of college and he wishes his dad was alive to see us. This prompt's Abe to put up in the back seat and Homer asks how long he's been in the car. Three days!
01:33:07
Speaker
Homer immediately shouts nerd at a student walking past and Marge says, that's not nice and Homer goes into the logic of he's a jock and it's his duty to give nerds a hard time. I think that think that is one of those things that's like culturally leapt beyond the episode because that's when, don't know, just shouting nerd! at nerds. yeah um I think probably all been there at least once.
01:33:31
Speaker
No, I've never been made fun of my nerdy hobbies. i am, you know, clearly pure jock energy always. Well, let me give you one because I know you very well. Nerd. Thank you.
01:33:42
Speaker
Dream comes true. Just get hold that nerd. Excuse me? It's very stupid. It's a really simple, hit again, it's just one of those really simple jokes of just, yeah, you expect the dude to agree with Homer and then he's, good excuse me?
01:33:57
Speaker
We then see that the college freshman party is taking place and Homer decides he's going to spike the punch. At which point someone immediately tries to punch after him, goes onto the stage to announce that the punch has been spiked and said, told everybody, go, your parents are coming to collect you. parents have been called and they're coming to collect you. And everyone cheers! that Yes, yes This is the worst college ever.
01:34:17
Speaker
Everybody is a goody two-shoes. um of the How much science is going to blame Nadine for this because he's going to be a crusty, bitter old man? It turns out that the Dean Peterson is actually a quite young, trendy, hip person that's overly friendly and wants everybody to come to his office to play hacky sack and he used to be bass player for the pretenders. He'd play The Pretenders, again, like just these polls are so specific and there's something about it being the Pretenders specifically where it's like, yeah you know, you weren't just a part of like any band. You were part of like a really cool, you know, like British American new wave kind of outfit.
01:34:56
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, also the Pretenders have had like quite an astonishing number of band members over the years. exactly. Exactly. Could very easily have just slipped in there briefly at some point. about Yeah, I play bass for the Pretenders.
01:35:09
Speaker
Hobart then says he can't wait to take that starch out that stuffed shirt. Then we then see that Homer is in the lecture hall at the back and the lecturer is an old man and he makes a nucleus joke which everybody laughs Out with the old, in with the nucleus.
01:35:22
Speaker
Yeah, what a weird voice, but it works. He then inadvertently drops his notes and we just get a good 30 seconds of Homer laughing at his manner of... God, this goes on for so
Simpsons' References and Gags
01:35:32
Speaker
long! The professor then says that after every class he's going to hold a comprehensive review session and Homer says, do we have to stay? And he says no.
01:35:40
Speaker
Homer says that he can kiss his curvy button goodbye. We don't just see the professor look out of the window and Homer's now chasing squirrels with a stick. Just Homer's little giggle, hee hee hee he
01:35:54
Speaker
he's just so happy in his el with the squirrel but i court and the homer who's made a bookcase ah out of in the box to because this is what they're doing on campus and decorates the room with like very student e posters that are all kind of fitting for and a physicist student which is fun He's really sure more just not costing him anything because he swiped us in the box from a construction site.
01:36:19
Speaker
Then cut to the construction site and we said, see, it was the site of a children's hospital. The worker come up with the hat and his hands looking very full on saying, they can't build the hospital because six in the box are missing and the foreman just goes up to hell.
01:36:33
Speaker
this this is This is one of a number of jokes in this episode that feels in a way more like a Futurama joke to me. i don't know if that makes sense. i But like the i volumeo but it particularly ah just the college. say I also just wanted to say, like I think that the episode ah where Fry goes to college, is is it's one of my favorite episodes of Futurama.
01:36:55
Speaker
Oh, yeah. and It's an amazing episode. As much as I do enjoy this episode, I think it pales in comparison to the Futurama episode. You can't be the talking monkey, can you? No, you can't.
01:37:06
Speaker
You just can't. You can with a stick. Well, you shouldn't. You can, though. You're just manipulating me to falling off a cliff.
01:37:18
Speaker
We then see that the back of the professors demonstrating how proton acceleration works and Homer says that he's used that equipment for 10 years and the professor invites him to come down and show him which proves to be a bad thing we then see that the entire campus is now glowing green and Homer walks out glowing green again and tells the clean up that it's in there and they go and they thank him I love i love the idea that Homer causes this so often that the the like nuclear response crew know him by name. yeah right Thanks Homer.
01:37:49
Speaker
No guys, thanks Homer. I mean it might also just be his buddies at the plant who also go take care of other nuclear related matters, you know. I guess, I mean I definitely read it the nuclear response team knows Homer because he's caused so many issues. That makes sense, either way.
01:38:06
Speaker
The Dean tells Homer he doesn't blame him for the accent, but suggests that he go do some tutoring and gives him a list. Homer says that the Dean has ominously told himself that Dean's won this round, but the war isn't over. You are a butthead.
01:38:19
Speaker
The Dean's phone rings and he gets called a stupid head over the phone and he looks out the window and sees it's clearly Homer from a pay phone and we don't just see Homer. He does take him up on the list of tutoring advice, though, and, like, seeks out some nerds.
01:38:31
Speaker
Nerds. Hobo goes to his new tutors, and they see that they're answering him in ah robotic voices, and Hobo just goes on, he's supposed get a physics tutor, and they start doing the Monty Python nights that say knee bit, and Hobo goes, heh heh, knee.
01:38:48
Speaker
Which, again, a callback to our couch gag at the start. Yeah. Yeah, getting a lot of Python in this. Mm-hmm. Well, maybe they made the joke in the episode and then they thought, all right, well, they've mentioned Monty Python, so let's do a couch gag that's Monty Python because that's the easiest way to shoehorn in another Python gag. feel like it's quite likely, yeah yeah. Not a bad thing, obviously. I love that gag. I love the giant foot.
01:39:09
Speaker
ah Yeah, that's probably how it went. We then cut to Homer talking to the family about his new friends as he talks about playing Dungeons and Dragons and points out he was then slain by an elf. Bart then says that he's hanging out with nerds and Homer says, you take that back. But Marge then points out to him that they're very clearly nerds. Yeah, it's probably one of my favourite Marge lines in a while. It's just Marge saying that they're very clearly nerds.
01:39:33
Speaker
So good. Lisa then tells him not to fear nerds and she goes through list of people which includes the Supreme Court Justice David Souter and Homer's response is, oh no, not Souter. Yeah, it's so a long-running gag of Homer being surprisingly familiar with... He an encyclopedic knowledge of the u s Supreme Court. Yep, yep.
01:39:52
Speaker
We then see that Thomas not putting any effort into his studies and... Ned's a mocking him, and saying, you can't put the entire a periodic table into your hand. Including all known lanthanides and actonides?
01:40:05
Speaker
Good work. Fucking idiot. Homer then says that he's going to take the nerds out to the party and they tell them, no, we're going to put on a snow pants. We then see that Homer's loading the car full of beer and Lisa says he wants him to take Bart and Lisa.
01:40:20
Speaker
Homer says he doesn't want to because they're college guys and up for no good and then it turns out that Gary has spilled his ear medicine. Yeah, i'm guess I'm guessing this is meant to kind of harken to, again, those kind of those movies of that era of the guy trying to be cool to his new college friends and then his mum makes him take his like little brother and sister or something.
01:40:39
Speaker
But you know because because the way homer says but Marge really harkens back to but mom to me anyway Yeah, but then cut to the the peer-fueled mayhem has actually just turned out to be a trip to the petting zoo everyone is now wearing a hat Lisa's very psyched that they got to feed the baby ducks and one of the nerds says he had to go to the bathroom and Lisa's annoyed because they stopped five minutes ago But someone knocked on the door so he couldn't go.
01:41:03
Speaker
Yeah, we've all been there Have we though? Well, some of us may have. Nah, I'm a very comfortable pooper in PM and public qui public ah like restaurants, I'm chill.
01:41:14
Speaker
Oh, good to know. I mean, like, your mileage may vary, I guess, depending on, like, of the country, because this is this is America, and America, for some reason, puts massive gaps around the stall doors but so that everybody can just look in at you. Yeah, everyone can still see you.
01:41:29
Speaker
it's it It is. I don't know why. it in newer construction that I've seen, they don't do this as much. But older construction, it's it's not very private at all. I guess it's because they don't want people having sex in the stalls. I don't really know.
01:41:41
Speaker
is that Is that it? oh I don't know. It might be another anti-homelessness thing as well. i think it's in in probably also an anti-homosexuality thing now that I think about it. Also that too. They don't want dudes sucking each other off in the bathroom.
01:41:55
Speaker
Well, but we learned from last episode, you can tell by their outfit, though. So if they just paid attention to their outfits, they wouldn't come out.
01:42:04
Speaker
We'd see Homer is trying to suggest a prank to ah get the nerds' social lives up. And his first prank is just kidnapping Nadine, rolling up in a carpet front the bridge. Sounds a lot like murder if I'm honest But I'm sure you do you hammer Bart interjects and then says ah He's got his plan and his plan is that They kidnap the Springfield A&M mascots When Bart does the Chalkboard scratch And does the face Is that a reference to like A specific thing because that's a very specific Face I mean the Chalkboard scratch reminds me of Jaws Obviously
01:42:42
Speaker
and Is it meant to be Jaws? Yeah. yeah I mean, they tried, I guess. oh Oh, the pigs drawn on the chalkboard. ah And the shark was drawn on the chalkboard in Jaws. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. It's just, why the face though?
01:43:00
Speaker
He doesn't make that made a face. I didn't particularly note Bart's face. Because it looks funny? I guess. It's a gag. oh I feel like it, in general, when it comes to this era of Simpsons,
01:43:15
Speaker
if you get to the point where something is not an obvious reference, <unk>s and it's like, why did they do that? It's because they thought it would land well and just yeah intuitively make you laugh. Because again, I think it's things that that made them laugh.
01:43:27
Speaker
And in some cases, the things that make they that made them laugh are because of their specific frame of reference ah and media diet. And so it doesn't always land, but... This is also the thing that I really like about this era of Simpsons is that it's so very, very clear that if the joke doesn't land for you, they don't particularly care.
01:43:48
Speaker
No, absolutely not. Yeah, they they they they are very happy to just be in their own little circle. And again, that's what makes good comedy usually is if you find it funny, someone else will find it funny.
01:44:00
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I mean, you can look at other ah comedy stuff with this as well. Like, generally speaking, when Saturday Night Live is really cooking, it's because they thought an idea would be funny.
01:44:11
Speaker
And then when the bits that used to be funny start to get annoying, it's because they keep trotting them out over and over and over again because they know they're going to make the audience laugh. Well, then shows some photos of Sir Oink Slott, including the one where he was giving Richard Nixon a honorary degree. Remember that one?
01:44:29
Speaker
We mentioned a couple episodes back that they wanted to get former presidents on, and they so suddenly seem to be, like, not exactly getting them on, but, like, shoehorning a lot of gags in where they get to play with former presidents a bit. I mean, nick but and then another thing that would go on to be a great tradition in Futurama.
01:44:45
Speaker
Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We then see that Bart suggests that they kidnap the pig and Homer then says they should roll the pig up in the carpet or off the bridge. just loved everyone's horrified expression.
01:44:57
Speaker
We then see that they have managed to get successfully steal Sir Oinkalot and then Homer starts playing with his tail even though everyone says, I don't think he's enjoying that. at This was just uncomfortable and weird. The pig eventually bites Homer and Homer has to be restrained from harming him.
01:45:11
Speaker
Proper, like, cartoon sharp teeth as well. It's great. We then see they're keeping the pig in a supply closet. And I think the pig's acting a bit funny. And it's revealed that he and Homer split a case of mot liquor together. Genuinely thought they were going to kill the pig.
01:45:27
Speaker
Genuinely thought they were going to kill the pig. Pig collapses and Nadine immediately knows that that sounds like a pig. I feel like if any animal could handle drinking, I feel like it would be a pig. Yeah, but it's more liquor though. It's not a couple of, a six pack of beer maybe, but then see that the pig gets airlifted away and the Dean reveals that he's had to expel them because the pig had some powerful friends. And then we see Richard Nixon come in and say, oh, you're going to pay.
01:45:54
Speaker
I can't do a Richard Nixon impression before anyone asks. I mean, the Futurama Nixon is, IT'S ME, RICHARD NIXON! That's your man, yep. So fucking intense. Yep, that's the one.
01:46:09
Speaker
Then Tomo apologizes to the nerds for getting expelled, but the nerds are showing, eh, we can take after ourselves. At that moment, Snake comes up and says he's the Wallet Inspector the nerds. Wallet Inspector? Did The Simpsons invent the Wallet Inspector? I, like, I... People make references to the Wallet Inspector all the time, i didn't, like, realise it came from here. Probably. it did come from here.
01:46:27
Speaker
Oh, I guess it did, yeah! I just assumed that this was a reference to the long-running scam where somebody, you know, like, says, hey, let me check out your wallet real quick. But I guess this was what coined Wallet Inspector. That's crazy.
01:46:41
Speaker
No, it's out of the wallet, and Snake can't quite believe that worked. As he runs away, Homer says, hey, that's not the wallet inspector. I actually remember there was one time where a guy tried to do the wallet inspector scam on me. really? I was at some thing with a friend of mine, and this guy went up and was like, hey, do you want to play this game?
01:47:00
Speaker
The game's called the Crosstown Shuffle, and basically the way that it works is that you need to, like, if you just, like, give us, like, your wallet, we're going to take it, and then we're going to run, and you have to come catch us.
01:47:13
Speaker
like It's depressing how many people that probably caught up. We see that the nerds have moved into the Simpsons house because they've got nowhere else to go. sure as Marge said, the nerds will solve all their problems and elevate them to the status of kings on Earth.
01:47:26
Speaker
We then cut to the nerds who all immediately have nosebleeds at the same time. have We then see that Marge can't use the phone because of the modem. Remember that problem, folks? This is the first time the Simpsons acknowledged the existence of the internet, I think.
01:47:40
Speaker
Yep. And the nerds say that they're doing vital stuff, like talking about how Picard is better than Kirk, and the nerds don't agree. Yeah, that this kind of feels like a filler. This is like joke TK, and they couldn't quite figure out what they wanted to do, and this like, Kirk, Picard, eh, whatever.
01:47:57
Speaker
Then cuts to kids, and we're about to see the episode where Scratchy gets itchy. We then cut, and itchy is tied to a post, and... The absurdity begins with him getting dynamite shoved underneath his eyelids.
01:48:09
Speaker
Plastic explosive beard. ah missile launched him while TNT's around. and age youre Explosives on explosives on explosives. yeah Itch has got no answer to this. He's sweating nervously. Scratches off in a cab.
01:48:21
Speaker
Butthole's police's hand and says his entire life has been building up to this. I was so surprised at how I didn't see this coming. what's about to happen. i' I'm amazed that I didn't see it What, the nerds unplugging the TV, you mean?
01:48:34
Speaker
Yeah, I just thought it was just going to be another episode of Itchy and Scratchy. Well, you were mu you were much like Bart and Lisa in that regard. ah You were standing for the characters.
01:48:44
Speaker
Absolutely. i was there. I was shocked in the first episode that Scratchy died, so I don't know how you were. Look, I'm not a smart guy, okay There's no way it's gonna happen again.
01:48:57
Speaker
At that moment, the TV turns off because the rock tumbler needs to go on, and the kids beg for it to be plugged in, and the nerd asks the rock tumbler of the TV. They reiterate the TV and caught them. The episode is just that. Yeah. And Krusty coming back in here and be like, oh, they're never going to let us show that shit again.
01:49:15
Speaker
was like, yes. That's so funny, dude. Just adding adding that little bit of extra to the to the gag. It's really clever. Can ask, did they ever actually like do this? Because obviously it's a send up of Tom and Jerry. Did they ever do this with Tom Jerry? I have a weird vague notion somewhere in my head that like this did play out in ah in the same context. Where Tom gets Jerry.
01:49:37
Speaker
Yeah. they've had They've had a couple. I think there's a couple of episodes where Tom doesn't get Jerry. Doesn't kill him, but he wins the battle. Like wins the day as it were. Usually what happens is Tom then feels bad.
01:49:50
Speaker
As he should. We then cut to... No, fuck Jerry!
01:49:56
Speaker
We then cut to Bart and Bart's sharpening knife saying they're going to start digging some nerd holes. This is how ah quickly the situation has escalated. Arba says, it it's fine. don we We can all live in harmony. Marge says, nope, I want those geeks out of the house.
01:50:11
Speaker
Yeah, getting these lines from Marge is like rather good, actually. Yeah, it's really good. We then say that Homer has a plan to get the nerds back into college with an even zanier scheme. And the nerds say, do we have to use the word zanian?
01:50:24
Speaker
Homer's plan is that they're going to save the Dean's life. We then go to the next scene and Homer is driving his car like a maniac. And his plan is that the nerds are going to push... The Dean out of the had exactly... The problem is they the the nerds fail to calculate for wind resistance. that That's really the issue.
01:50:40
Speaker
Yeah, they should. So the nerds are waiting and they've got three seconds to push him out the but they didn't calculate for wind resistance. For nerd resistance! Well, as they're calculating it, we just see the Dean get absolutely poor for first time on this car.
01:50:53
Speaker
I... God, that was so f... Just seeing the Dean just go fucking ass over tea kettle was so good. We're going to cut to the hospital and Homer apologizes for the winning you over prank and then he goes, prank.
01:51:07
Speaker
Homer then reveals that all the pranks were his idea and he should take the blame. And Dean is touched by his honesty and says, maybe I was a bit of an ogre, even though he did absolutely nothing wrong in any of this twitch. Poor guy, I feel so bad for him.
01:51:20
Speaker
Which Homer then confirms, yes you were. Dean then says he'll reinstate the nerds and forget the whole thing ever happened. And then Dr. Hibbert walks in with his artificial hip, which he immediately breaks. going to have to go easy on it. we then see the nerds are back in their room and uh they check their answering machine which has zero messages and they sigh i like that oh thank god almost says he's happy that all loose ends have been tied up and then we could the next scene of the classroom where almost got learned that his final is tomorrow or then points out it's like a college nightmare then he looks down he's in his underwear everyone's had that nightmare
01:51:52
Speaker
Nope. I don't think I ever have, no, honestly. i I haven't had it that I'm in my nightmare, or I have not had it in my nightmare that I'm only in my underwear. I have had it that I'm nude. Oh, okay. And also, just in general lately, I've been getting more of these dreams that I haven't finished, like, my last requirement, my last essay, my
Nightmares & Dream Themes
01:52:13
Speaker
last homework, last whatever. Yeah, have those all the time. I wake up, like, in a panic. I'm like, oh, shit! And I go, well, have homework.
01:52:20
Speaker
I the stereotypical like nightmare that I have is that... that i'm not Not very often, but I've it couple of times, is like the the teeth falling out one. yeah, I have a son. Yeah, it's awful. Genuinely horrifying when you wake up and oh thank god I do have teeth.
01:52:35
Speaker
Thank god I still have my teeth. My friends occasionally murder me in my nightmares. Oh, okay. thought were just going to leave it it before nightmares, to be honest. My friends occasionally try to murder me.
01:52:47
Speaker
now Murder you e on a podcast. By a medium of humor. Hey-o!
01:52:55
Speaker
I'm now eyeing the door suspiciously. Homer has asked what he's going to do, and Homer says his plan is that he's going to hide under some coats in the exam and hope everything will work out. One of the nerds also offers that he can help him cram, and Homer says, oh, either way is good.
01:53:09
Speaker
We then get a montage of Homer's study, which includes taking out a wheelbarrow full of books, having his eyes tied open, punching another nerd in the face when he tries to wake him up. But eventually this leads to Homer doing his exam, putting it down and doing the nice clicking of the heels thing as he's leaving.
01:53:25
Speaker
He immediately gets an F. Yeah, subverting our expectations once again. But it also is it's it's almost an extra but bit of funny subversion because of course he got an F. It's yeah Homer.
01:53:38
Speaker
So you almost feel dumb for thinking that they were going to have impacts. For expecting the normal, stereotypical good ending of cramming works. Yeah, exactly. So, Homer is frantic because he's going to lose his job, and then the nerd says, we can change your grade on a computer, and Homer says, computers can do that, and they start going through the ethical questions the bit. It's the moral dilemma.
01:54:00
Speaker
We're now going to Homer kissing a computer and going, moral what? Then cuts the next scene and Homer's showing off his A and he says, maybe I got some help from a little friend. And Martin immediately knows what he's talking about.
01:54:15
Speaker
Homer then starts going through the morals of the story, which are he taught the nerds the value of college life and they say, no, you didn't. Then he says, well, I learned that the real value of college is to study. And Lisa points out that's also not what we did because he cheated.
01:54:28
Speaker
And Marge then says he's got to set a good example for Bart, so he's got to take the course all over again. Homer says, okay, it's back to college and I guess it's time to, what did I teach you? nerds go, party. And we just get the montage of Homer going, yes.
01:54:41
Speaker
Yeah, the freeze frame, like every good 80s movie should. I think more films need to end on a freeze frame, I've got to be honest. needs to happen more. We got a credits montage, yeah. Yeah! We got a montage we got a montage with the credits, ah as Louis Louis plays, and it's so much time in college.
01:54:58
Speaker
And this starts with a few bits we've seen, like Chasing the Squirrels, running over the Dean of the Car. I like to think you just did it all again. Yeah. Oh, right, he ran over the Dean a second time.
01:55:10
Speaker
I like that he pushed him he ended up flashing everybody at Convocation. That was cool. yep Yeah, I think they've used that gag a couple of times in 80s movies. to To go on my little... How I would rewrite Simpsons, because I'm clearly smarter, is if that you like with the whole 80s gag, I'm surprised that they didn't do freeze frame of each of the nerds and say what they went on to do.
01:55:34
Speaker
Mmm. You know, like, so-and-so became a blah blah. and I feel like that's a slightly different genre, though. yeah Like, that's that's the thing. They're doing a very specific genre send-up here of stuff like Animal House, and you don't get that in those movies.
01:55:49
Speaker
ah yeah Animal House is very so specifically what this episode is directly a send-up of, yeah. But yeah, I mean, there's also an element of like, as as it was winding to an end, I was like, but Homer still hasn't actually got his college degree that he needs to keep his job. and Like they they do need to like, you know, reset to zero because it's the Simpsons and you can't like not do that. So they just, they they tie up that loose end with the credits and they show, yeah, as you say, of him flashing at graduation with the implication that, well, he has at least graduated and therefore yeah got what he needs.
01:56:25
Speaker
The end. The end. Yeah. So what did we think? It's a fun episode. It goes on. Like, it's long. this so It does, yeah. This episode could have basically ended after the pig gag.
01:56:40
Speaker
It just kept going. It's got a lot of great bits. Like, it's got some really funny moments. But it is interspersed with a lot of boring things. Yeah, I mean, I'm not, like, counting acts, but, like, just the it was broken up into so many bits that it feels like it, like, extended beyond a traditional three-act structure. It kind of slightly just, like, yeah, as you say, kept going. It's like, okay oh, okay, are we wrapping it up now? Nope, there's more. But wait, there's more. But wait, there's more.
01:57:06
Speaker
It's leaning on parody for so much of its structure, and I think that's part of the issue here, ah is that in order to sort of hit all the big beats of, you know, getting that stuffy old Dean, there's a series of things that you have to do, but then they had a whole bunch of other stuff that they wanted to put in there as well, and so it simultaneously feels like overstuffed, but also underbaked, which isn't to say that it's not a funny episode. There's a lot of really good stuff in here. it is. yeah but But again, going back to, I think, that you one of the... I mean, there's also, like, the one, the the family guy where Peter goes back to college is also, I think, in in a lot of ways, a better structured episode than this. This is a classic thing to do in an animated show.
01:57:49
Speaker
And i think it just, it didn't quite get there in terms of really hitting the marks. But it's it's fun. I mean, it's it's a Simpsons episode. there's there During this era, you're not getting bad episodes out Simpsons.
01:58:00
Speaker
No, I mean, also in this specific context, you maybe have to contend with the fact that we are explicitly stacking it up against Cape Fear, which is one of the best episodes of all time.
01:58:12
Speaker
It's like nothing is realistically going to stack up like very well against that. Shall we give it some out of Homer's lads?
Final Episode Ratings
01:58:20
Speaker
Sure, let's do that. I give it a college party out of Homer.
01:58:25
Speaker
I mean, I had fun, so I guess it was worth going. Sure, fair enough. i thought i was Josh, go on. I give it two Moes. Two Moes. You know, you're gonna have a good time with it, then you're going to have a good time with it again, and then you're gonna be like, alright, it's probably time to get going. and
01:58:45
Speaker
Poor Moe.
01:58:48
Speaker
I'm gonna give it a washer and dryer out of Homer. You're going to elaborate? Yeah, it's a sensible choice. I enjoy it and I get to see the lovely Smithers. Fair. That's actually a really great way of describing this episode. It's a sensible choice. It's like, you could watch a risky episode or you could just watch this episode that is okay.
01:59:08
Speaker
I gave it learning nothing at all out of Homer. Nothing at all. Because I feel like it was a pretty standard episode of The Simpsons. yeah It was good. It was good. Like, we are in, like,
01:59:21
Speaker
yeah Simpsons at its peak. like it was not Not remotely to say it was a bad episode in any way, shape or form, but it was just just another episode of The Simpsons. Which, you know, punching above its weight compared to its contemporaries, but like standard for what it was.
01:59:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's fair. Cool. Did it have anything whatsoever to say about society? I mean, it's another episode that you might be able to squeeze some kind of analysis out of, but I genuinely really wanted to just go play Monster Hunter at this point, so leave me the fuck alone.
01:59:51
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, it's not. That's genuinely what i wrote in my notes. It's not a strong, it's not strong commentary one way or the other, nor nor is it trying to be. No, no, like they they've got a movie they want to riff on and they're spending their entire runtime riffing on one specific movie.
02:00:07
Speaker
but And I guess you could make you could make the argument that this is like, you know, sort of a deconstruction of of this kind of film, this genre, but it it it really isn't. They're not trying to take down Animal House. It's just that it provides the bones for something fun for them to explore.
02:00:24
Speaker
Yeah, Simpsons is isn't always trying to be clever. Sometimes they're just trying to be funny and that's fine. Absolutely. All right. Well, think that's probably going to just about do us for today.
02:00:34
Speaker
So we wrap up. Josh, where can people find more of what you do? Sure. Well, ah if you're interested in hearing more of me, I co-host a show called The Worst of All Possible Worlds. And every week we talk about a different piece of media.
02:00:50
Speaker
ah The tagline for the show is case studies in the pop culture of a dying empire, and that's exactly what we endeavor to do. We look at the narratives of this media. We see wow the really explicit stuff that you obviously would notice, as well as some of the stuff that you might have missed along the way. And it's our hope that by continuing to do this, we can chart a course out of the worst of all possible worlds, because that is the title of the show.
02:01:13
Speaker
Also, if you are interested in just following me around, I am on bluesky at bosch.worstpossible.world, you can go to my website, joshborn.com, where I have links to whatever it is that I am up to at any given time.
02:01:27
Speaker
cool Highly recommend listening to the Worst of All Possible Worlds episodes again on Christian radio dramas. Oh, God. That's true. we we We have a particular fascination with a show called Adventures in Odyssey, which we generally describe as evangelical Simpsons insofar as it has now been running for over three decades, and ah it has extremely complicated characters and lore and backstory.
02:01:55
Speaker
It's very good. Highly recommend. ah Matt, you got anything to promote? Nah, leave me the fuck alone, man. I'll get to All for Arnold eventually. I'm going to record it, I swear.
02:02:07
Speaker
ah other than that, I'm on Blue Sky mostly tweeting about Monster Hunter. That's all that's been on my mind, man. Monster Hunter Wilds, holy shit, is that simultaneously a great and mediocre game at the same time?
02:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, i look, I really know it's my fault that we haven't had another episode of All for Arnold, but at the same time, Leave me alone.
02:02:33
Speaker
Michael, what you got? You can follow me on the blue sky at Bud and Mash Horse. And that's about it. Cool. Follow me on BlueSky at maroka.bsky.social. Follow my other YouTube channel at youtube.com.com slash button mash for gaming videos.
02:02:53
Speaker
don't know why promote that. made anything in any case. Yeah, when you going to do another gaming video? Never. a podcaster these days. Come on, you haven't done anything. YouTube.
02:03:04
Speaker
The content grind never sleeps. That's the thing that we all need to take away from this at the end of the day. i sleep frequently. You may sleep. I sleep too, but the grind doesn't. My content grind is the podcast content grind these days, so... Like, if you want YouTube content, subscribe to youtube.com forward slash mallmanpod because that's the YouTube content you get from me these days. so Yeah. And if you're already watching on youtube.com forward slash mallmanpod, consider there are audio-only versions available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts as well, where you should go and review us and leave us five stars and a comment about how great we are, because the algorithm loves such things as these. Take us with you on your daily commute.
02:03:44
Speaker
And that, yes, also good for your commute. You have a commute that... If you have a commute that's two hours long, consider, we can fulfill that need. We can fulfill all your needs.
02:03:56
Speaker
i I mean, Matt might be able to fulfill all of your needs. I can't. EBB.
02:04:03
Speaker
Make me an offer, see what happens.
02:04:06
Speaker
Alrighty, I think all that remains is for us to thank Josh for joining us today. It's been absolute pleasure. been a delight to have you here. yes. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you very much for doing it. And to thank the listeners for listening or watching, if you're watching on the YouTube. but And we'll see you with, don't even know what episode's up next, Rosebud. We'll see you with Rosebud next time.
02:04:28
Speaker
wonder what film that's going to be talking about.
02:04:33
Speaker
All right. Bye, everyone. Bye. Farewell. Bye, everybody.