S5E6&7 feat. Alzorath - Marge on the Lam & Bart's Inner Child

Transcript

Speaker: hello this is mule man in the morning good mole man to you hello welcome to moman in the morning

Speaker: because the episodes are long oh okay yeah it was a long more money two episode with two long episodes sure Hello and welcome, we are Mall Man in the Morning. We are podcast about how The Simpsons has a lot to say about society. I am your host, John.

Speaker: i am joined, as ever, by my co-host, Matt. Heidly ho, podcasterinos. Wait, that's not your catchphrase. Someone had to say it ah We are not joined as ever by my other co-host, Michael, who is, i assume, at this point in time, he's either dead or he's laid on the beach having cocktails poured into a funnel down his gullet by oiled twinks.

Speaker: Yeah, he does. ah yeah i I want to know, like, how? Like, how does he make this work? Probably all he spends his money on. Yeah, maybe. Slowly s sinking into debt.

Speaker: But i yeah, either way, I'm deeply envious amount of the amount of holidays that man takes. Yeah. Oh, well. At any rate, we get to enjoy a couple of episodes of The Simpsons.

Speaker: Standing in for him, we have got a returning champion, one the one and only Mr. Alzarath. A new challenger! But he's not new. Finish him.

Speaker: I just wanted to do the Smash Brothers voice. He's filling up the stamps on his Moorman in the Morning loyalty card. yeah At ten stamps, you get a pair of me undies. At ten stamps, you never have to come on again.

Speaker: mean, who doesn't like new undies? Oh, dude, I fucking... Me undies, please, just sponsor us. mean I don't want money. I just want free underwear.

Speaker: Genuinely, just for the rest of my life, every, like, six months, send me, like, four pairs of underwear. Boom. as we As we continue to grow to a size that I would describe as adequate, ah like, I keep wondering, like, how big do you have to be to get underwear? Because I keep thinking maybe we're moving in the right direction. Maybe.

Speaker: I don't know. need need need to investigat investigate further on that one, I think. Hey, if if you need any more motivation, if we get traction, I'll actually have an incentive and a desire a motivation to keep doing Arnold.

Speaker: There you go, fans. You want more Arnold? Make this show more popular. if you If you want a better podcast, you have to you have to support it by watching a worse podcast. This is definitely better than All for Arnold.

Speaker: I wholly disagree, but, you know, beg to differ. ah Anyway, we are here to talk about two episodes of The Simpsons, as we always are. We are up to episodes six and seven of season five currently. We are going to be looking Marge on the Lamb and Bart's inner child today.

Speaker: like Truly exciting. Truly, truly exciting episodes. I don't know why I went slightly Trumpian. that Truly exciting. Great episodes of Simpsons. going to love them. The best ever. The best ever, Simpsons.

Speaker: I mean, I think I can infer your opinions on them from this. I had a weird hunch you might like the second one. i have I have opinions. I'm not going to spoil them this time. I have been in the habit of the last few episodes of immediately, like right out the bat, giving my opinions.

Speaker: So tune in for five minutes from now to hear what I think about these episodes. I mean, I grew up on these episodes. I think they were fine. Just these two? You only watch these two over and over? Yeah, only these two.

Speaker: A very specific ah channel that you were subscribed to. Oh yeah, definitely. And you had to like watch like half an episode of M.A.S.H. on the VHS that your uncle recorded them on before you could actually watch The Simpsons and the intro was cut out.

Speaker: Yeah, it was it was a Simpsons hostage situation.

Speaker: and Drinking! Yeah, before we do that, let's talk about what we're drinking this week. Well, my friends, I thought since I've been such a grumpy puss the last few episodes, we needed something special.

Speaker: We needed something unique. We needed a returning guest. So I bought some dragon soup. Oh fuck, I knew you were gonna say that. The way you hyped it up, I knew going be. Hell yeah. This stuff tastes like sadness.

Speaker: Bottoms. I don't know if I bought... I genuinely can't remember what... I think I had raspberry last time, so this is raspberry. Oh, it tastes so bad!

Speaker: it's so awful! You were uncontrollable last time. It's so bad! why Why do people... Why? I'm gonna drink some more.

Speaker: ah yeah So bad, give me more! oh Just due to a very brief reference that I guess we'll get into in the second episode, I went down a Wikipedia hole of researching fortified wine today, so... surprised didn't rock up with a bottle of Buckfast. Uh, port is a type of fortified wine, right?

Speaker: It is. It is implied... Yeah, yeah. I think it was implied that... Troy McClure? Was it Troy McClure or... dr mclo Lionel Hutz, whichever one. One of the Phil Hartmans.

Speaker: Yeah, his I don't think he was drinking anything quite so fancy as port. No, that's true. And I don't think you could get, like, good port this time of year. Anywhere. can get port.

Speaker: Ports. Alright, sorry. In my town. ah I'm not going to Leeds just to get a nice bottle of for this podcast. This podcast isn't worth it to you?

Speaker: ah It would be if I was getting paid.

Speaker: Well, we will work on undies. I can't promise you money, but we'll work on undies. In only a few seasons, we are going to start going downhill, so...

Speaker: So then you're going to need the port. We weve run the risk of becoming the people we hate online, John. The people that are just incessantly whining and bitching about the things that they consume. And all you can think of is you don't have to watch it.

Speaker: And that's what we're going to be. This Yeah. I mean, I think The Simpsons is fine at the very least up until season 12. At that point, I don't know. haven't watched beyond that. it might There might be some okay episodes there. I said the other day that i've i I've watched like a couple episodes of Modern Simpsons just because they were on like the...

Speaker: I don't know how modern they were, because obviously there's a lot of what's considered modern Simpsons. But, like, the latest one I watched was the one where Bart gets a cow.

Speaker: ah Which I just kind of got the joke of don't have a cow, man. But I... Yeah, i saw that one. and It was funny. You know, it had some good bits in it. I thought...

Speaker: There was only, like, one joke in it I thought was, like, too referential. Because basically... Because... Fuck, I don't care. He's riding a... You know, one of those farming machines that, like, spits out the bales of hay kind of thing.

Speaker: A bailer. Whatever it's called. um But he was driving over a bunch of stuff and it would turn things into cubes, except for when he drove over a literal shit and it turned it into copies of Pirates of the Caribbean 3, which I just thought was like way too on the nose.

Speaker: And i it it's it's not that like, I mean, I like the third film. I think it's fine. ah But yeah, I just kind of was like... That felt a little family guy, in my opinion. Rather than Simpsons.

Speaker: yeah And then the other one was was one where... Homer and Krusty have to like break into a gang hideout. And there's one bit where they're like... hanging from a telephone wire to like, you know, climb, like to stealthily get into the house, but they're both fat. So the wire bends and they're like just above the heads of two guards. And both of the guards are like, I feel like looking up right now,

Speaker: I heard there's an eclipse. We should look up at the sky, like, right now. And I found that really funny. But, yeah, so it's fine. I'm sure it'll be fine. But, you know, there is definitely going to be the episode where a certain someone literally paid to be on it so he could be glazed for 30 minutes.

Speaker: I mean, I think once we get into Modern Simpsons, there's gonna be a lot of people that, like, just fucking hate. Turning up throughout. Yeah, I mean... just Just statistically. Yeah, I mean, I liked the joke that they had JK Rowling say.

Speaker: I don't know if I'll like it anymore. But I liked the gag. The gag was funny. It made Lisa entertaining. Which is rare.

Speaker: Fine. Al, what are you drinking? yeah I actually forgot to open this before stream, you're going to hear a crickle thing. i am i always open I always open live on stream. Well, I'm not drinking alcohol, but it's I have water.

Speaker: And I have a pineapple banana lava drink, I think. I think that's the third flavor that's supposed to be in here. It's got potassium. That sounds headache-inducingly sweet.

Speaker: It is. But, granted, now that I've been to America, all of your pop gives me head a headache, which was very disappointing. This even carbonated. Is it not?

Speaker: Oh, no. That sounds great. who That sounds way better. No, no, it doesn't. Oh, dude. Nah, fruit juice. Hell yeah, fruit juice all the way. is it Is it fruit juice or is it just flavored drink?

Speaker: Okay, that's not too bad. It's got actual fruit in it and stuff and potassium. ah That whole chunk. Speaking of, yeah. as a As a drinks industry person, we relatively recently made some flat drinks, and they were like, I don't know, and someone asked for them, someone asked us to make them, but they were bad. Flat drinks, bad.

Speaker: Flat alcohol. Generally agree. It wasn't alcohol, it was a flat soft drink. but Weirdly enough, dragon soup is relatively flat. Only alcohol that I like that isn't carbonated is, like, hard liquor kind of stuff.

Speaker: Yeah, well, you wouldn't be able to carbonate it, and it would be weird and silly to do so, yeah. Man, I love a good rum, though. whiskey. I'm just thinking about bubbly schnapps.

Speaker: That'd be horrifying. John, what are you drinking? And I am drinking Brooklyn Brewery's Sriracha Ace Saison Ale at 7.2%. I heard Sriracha. Is this a spicy one again?

Speaker: No, Sriracha's a type of hop. Oh, okay. The more you know. It just sounded nice. It's is's not a weird beer. Well, Saison's a bit of a divisive style of beer, but like I like them. I just got a beer that I like the sound of today.

Speaker: I always just imagine that whatever you're drinking, you're drinking it off the belly of a young Filipino boy you found. I mean, i thought that was implied. ah Yeah, and you know, the the the two others with the giant leaf bronze to fan you.

Speaker: It is pretty warm today. Fan fan fan harder. Come on. God's sake.

Speaker: Anyway, Marge on the Lamb. Let's do this quarter of an hour into this nonsense. Hell yeah. Aired on November 4th, 1993. this day, elton John got a lot of money from the Sunday Mirror for reporting lies about his diet.

Speaker: Oh. it would Did he have a McDonald's when he shouldn't have? but I don't know. it does not It does not elaborate on what the story about Elton John's diet was. Excellent. all he All it says is that he got a lot of money.

Speaker: Got like 518,000. Wait, he got money for telling lies about his diet? I think they lied about him and he sued them and got the money. I now understand what happened.

Speaker: Okay. Yeah. Canada got a new prime minister. Good on Canada. Do they get a new secondary minister? I don't know how Canada's politics works, so maybe, possibly, i don't know if that's a title they have. It's just Al being a prick.

Speaker: I assume so, but yeah, I don't know. Maybe. And in the music, we've got Meatloaf is back. Both of them. I don't think Meatloaf was dominating both the charts last time, but Meatloaf, I'd Do Anything for Love, but I won't do that, is number one in both the UK and the US. Damn. This week.

Speaker: A comeback. I think that's the first time we've had that. Is it a comeback? Did he leave? When did he leave? Yeah, because he was he was top of the charts in both a couple weeks ago and then wasn't in America and then came back.

Speaker: So, okay I think. Just very frantically searching. now he wasn' no He was number one in the UK last time. Okay, right. no But not in the US. Right.

Speaker: So he's just spreading his wings like a bat out of hell. Absolutely. My mum would love that joke. Well, tell us to listen to the podcast, which would appreciate it.

Speaker: Oh, God, no. The things I've said on this show.

Speaker: Matthew, I didn't think that was very appropriate for you to say on a recording.

Speaker: Yeah, but it's very entertaining. Matthew, is that what I sound like in your head? Yes. Appropriate and accurate are two different things. Well, we've got no chalkboard gag this week, of course. Yeah, straight into it. Yeah, long episodes. Like, the I mean, my, actually, my first note for this episode was, at this point, I'm starting to think the chalkboard gag writer's actually just been fired. I don't think we've had a chalkboard gag for weeks.

Speaker: I had a similar note. It just I said, ive recently, I've been dreading the long episodes because they rarely feel like they warrant the length. You know, and that's ah it's it's interesting that the longer episodes have been the ones that I've put the fewest notes in like both of these are long episodes and they have buried very little notes, you know, just there's just not a lot.

Speaker: I don't know. i You know, they're not as snappy, so I'm kind of half paying attention, I think, at that point. Like, when it's gag, gag, gag, you just kind of, you're, like, locked in, you know, when it's really tight and and succinct.

Speaker: But the longer the episode is, the more they have time to like, drag jokes on, and you just kind of don't... i Well, I say you. I'm i'm saying yeah me. Yeah. I'm not engaged as much because of the longer episodes, I think.

Speaker: o I mean, it's interesting to, like, make that distinction when we're arguing over, like, a minute of runtime. Yeah. It's like the difference between a 22 and a 23 minute episode. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. but and it And yet it does feel longer. Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah. Like, at a certain point, you're like, geez, this one is dragging on a bit. And I was like, it's it's a minute longer. That's it. And that yeah minute seems to be, like, dedicated to the opening joke.

Speaker: yeah Yeah. Oh god, this year. Both of these have like long openings. So our opener here is a, we we have a telethon with a guy who's a parody of some sort of comedian show host thing from ah while back in America. Al, Al, please help.

Speaker: Who is this guy? Do you know this guy? I do not know this guy, but I know the sort of like PBS fundraiser thing usually does have a guy like that that I'd never remember the name of.

Speaker: what, someone that's incredibly boring? I don't, I don't, like, I genuinely put that, is there a joke, or is the joke there is no joke? Because I don't, like, they... No, he is a parody of a character. He's a parody of a guy called Garrison Keillor, but, like, he's got a reasonably long Wikipedia article, which suggests that he's got a bit of a career, but, like, if if he's noteworthy, he's not noteworthy in the UK for doing anything, I don't think. I was hoping, by having an American on that, might remedy that.

Speaker: No, he didn't ring a bell for little me at the time and doesn't want doesn't ring one today for specifics. ah Fair enough. Yeah. I mean, I ah had a look through his Wikipedia article. I was going to check out his stuff, but also it turns out he's, as so many people are with long careers, a bit of a sex pest and yeah still going to this day. So if you check out his work, you're kind of almost like giving him eyeballs. I don't want give a sex pest eyeballs. We've talked about this. um we've This has weirdly come up so many times about separating the art from the artist and when you're able to do it and when you're not able to do it and and that kind of thing. And it's,

Speaker: I only wish it wasn't such a frequent topic of conversation. It is depressingly frequent, isn't People of the world, stop touching people in bad ways.

Speaker: Touch them through emotions with your powerful work, but keep your hands off I was watching a video um recently, or it was either us playing games, but it brought up Rolf Harris. and it was an Oh, boy. and Yeah, exactly.

Speaker: And it was an older it was like an older video. So i i kind of laughed because the joke was funny because it was just the whole, like, you tell what it is yet? It was just that joke, but that joke was funny. But then you immediately realize that the person you're watching it with...

Speaker: Has no idea who Rolf Paris is. And you have to then kind of bring the mood down to be like, oh, I shouldn't have laughed at that. He was a rapist. Yeah, it's so lame.

Speaker: Like, can we, can can can funny people stop being bad people? I used to like Louis CK. Why?

Speaker: As long as nothing comes out about Marc Maron, I'm all right. Well, it's okay, because Garrison Keillor isn't funny at all anyway. Oh, fucking hell. Well, I mean, not The Simpsons, but for some reason the audience are lapping it up. Yep.

Speaker: It is unclear why. he he his delivery He's reading out of a little book, and his delivery style is very dry and monotone. And, ah yeah, Homer doesn't get it.

Speaker: The audience laughing, cheering, whooping along. i i'm fascinat I'd be fascinated to know if this is what Garrison Keillor's style is actually like. Yeah, because there is dry comedy. there is like be the the The joke is that they're not fun You know, and that is a thing. Like, one of one of my favorite, like, comedians is Jay London, who is notoriously not funny.

Speaker: But that's kind of the joke. So like I can see it, but it's like, and they're probably just hamming it up for the sake of the episode. I know for a fact we're going to get another comment that's like, i can't believe they didn't get this reference. Oh my god, meh.

Speaker: I mean, there was, ah reading the Simpsons archive, there was a fair bit of spirited discussion about Garrison Keillor. So clearly some folks are familiar with his work, but like I don't think this is one that's... yeah As we've said, Simpsons writers write jokes for themselves.

Speaker: Sometimes that lands perfectly, sometimes it doesn't. I think he was probably more relevant in 1993, but i yeah in 2025, like, i as I say, he is somehow still going, but like I don't, yeah, i don't think he's well known.

Speaker: And really, it's the internet. There is going to be somebody who is going to be like, that is my favorite person. ah Well, I'm sorry, ah straw man commenter. Your favorite person is a weird sex pest now. yeah Deal with it.

Speaker: They are not worthy of our awareness. I really hope I'm not anyone's favorite content creator. Guys, there's better stuff out there. check You're my favorite content creator. Yeah, that's because you don't have any friends.

Speaker: The dragon soup's kicking in, guys. Oh, shit. Oh, no. Got another hour and 40 minutes for this. Continue. Anyway, Homer thinks maybe it's the TV's fault and starts pounding on it, telling it to be more funny.

Speaker: ah This does not work. So we cut back to the show. We see they've raised $23 on their telethon. Pledge Drive has space with leading zeros for figures in excess of a million. They're optimistic, clearly.

Speaker: So yeah, no. He turns it over to Troy McClure because he cannot keep up his blistering comedic pace forever. Mm-hmm. Troy McClure is here to tell us about his previous telethons. Out with Gout 88 and Let's Save Tony Orlando's House. How old is Troy McClure? you know like he ah Every time he mentions something, it feels like it's from further and further back.

Speaker: I mean, out with Gout 88 is implying that's like only five years ago at this time. so Like, five years earlier in his career, it's fine. Yeah, but he's doing telethons, so he can't be doing that great.

Speaker: Yeah, he he would have to be middle-aged by then. Oh, no. I mean, i think everything Troy McClure does it sort of implies that his career is not going that great. This is very true.

Speaker: So they're funding public television so they can bring you such shows as Edward the Penitent. I fucking loved this bit! I don't know why this was so fucking dumb.

Speaker: I'm really, really, really, really sorry. Sorry doesn't work for this, Pope. o It's so dumb!

Speaker: I guess prodding at... I guess public television did ah Edward the Confessor at some point, but I'm not familiar with the source material on that one, but yeah. Weird gag.

Speaker: But they do get a call on the Telethon. Homer has a chuckle because someone's act some idiot's actually calling in. it turns out it's Marge, if you didn't see that joke coming a mile away. yeah She doubles the pledge.

Speaker: She does, yeah. she she Yeah, more money than they've raised so far. She pledges, isn't it, $30. I like as well how she said, I'd like toled to pledge $30, and then seemingly hung up.

Speaker: Yeah, like, oh, thank you, and then hangs up. There's no conversation. I don't know the mechanics there, no. I would like to give you money. Bye. She's just gone.

Speaker: but All right. I know that's just that's just, you know, TV, but the whole vibe, I don't know why, that that seems very mad to me. It's just like, it's so it's like a thoughts and prayers thing.

Speaker: I'd like to give you money. Goodbye. Yeah. I'm not going to. I'd like to. I don't remember if in the 90s they could actually just charge your phone number. I think they can.

Speaker: i my Really? Because know like 900 numbers and stuff like that did. I suppose, yeah. Okay. Oh, maybe. yeah don't know. I've never i've never called a telethon.

Speaker: I suppose that's what the people answering the phones there are for, is to, like, sort of note down the number and the time you call so that then they can charge it. I'm pretty sure, at least during those times, you would just provide... Information.

Speaker: Yeah, but I suppose they could charge it through there. either Either way, like the episode is long enough without dwelling on Marge handing over her credit card number over the phone.

Speaker: So so we we skip over that bit, thankfully. Homer chides Marge because public TV doesn't have anything good. It's not worth supporting, but Marge thinks different. And at any rate, they gave her two tickets to the ballet. If only they knew about the future.

Speaker: but What? ah ah Public television. And how much fights there's been like just to keep it going over the years. Yeah. and Okay. It has gotten better, though. As far as quality.

Speaker: We live in Britain, so I feel like if they tried to take away the BBC from us, we're all so ingrained that the BBC is like part of being British that I think it would be first time that British people actually rioted.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Like, French riots. Yeah, like, I mean, I don't think, or i mean I guess BBC is public television, but I don't think of it in the same way as, because in the same way that it's always depicted on American media, because it's just like a very different structure.

Speaker: Yeah, it's just, they they shout at everybody until they pay them a hundred and whatever quid a year to fund it. Yeah. And then send threatening letters through your letterbox every month. That's American friends about public television.

Speaker: Oh, well, I'll forget.

Speaker: Anyway, Homer loves the ballet. Marge isn't sure about that this is correct. I do not know why I didn't see this coming. I do not know why I didn't see this coming. Because Homer is way too obstinate about it.

Speaker: Because what does he say? He says, um, I enjoy every taste of the cultural milieu or something. I enjoy all the meats of our cultural stew. Ah, yes. Much more Homer.

Speaker: Yes. Um... But yeah, he's so obstinate about it, and then he and then, yeah, of course he thinks the circus. Yeah, we get Homer's imagination. He's just watching ah a bear driving a tiny car in circles to... Yeah. do you don You could have stopped me and kept talking. but no no No, no, no. You went silent.

Speaker: It was like the fucking elevator bit again. I was just enjoying the music. I am just enjoying the mental image of the bear going in circles. Admittedly, yeah. If someone was like, look, look, i I don't like the idea of like old school circuses. They sound pretty horrific. But if someone did say to me, do you want to go see a bear drive a tiny car?

Speaker: I would consider it. Maybe that makes me not a perfect person. I also eat meat occasionally, very regularly. But I would consider going to see a bear drive a tiny car.

Speaker: Gotta be honest. The one bit of trivia that always makes me do a double take is when talking about, you know, the circus music, is that the title of that song is Entrance of the Gladiators, which is like... That's so good, right? That doesn't match the music at all.

Speaker: There's a great comedian that does a whole ah whole bit about it. A British comedian. He's so funny. I'll have to find him and send you his name because he's really, really funny. And then you can put it in the ah the show notes.

Speaker: Cool. Alright, we'll do it. what were you gonna say? Oh, I was just like, ah say imagining the gladiators walking into that. Yeah! yeah Oh my god, that should just be the entrance, the opening theme to gladiators. Just, can someone re-dub Zack Snyder's 300 with that music, please?

Speaker: You can do that for me, I'd be very pleased.

Speaker: Anyway, Homer's humming entrance of the gladiators. He's interrupted by with doorbell ringing. And it's Ruth Powers, whom we have not seen since... love still humming.

Speaker: Oh yeah, he's just in the background. He's still...

Speaker: ah Ruth Powers, who we've not seen since season question mark two, is Maybe? Yeah, it's been a while. It's been a hot minute. To say it's the Simpsons' next door neighbor on the other side from Ned, whom we see every damn week.

Speaker: Like, we never see her. Ruth Powers is such a, like, Marvel name as well. had to look her up while watching this, because, like, did she already show up this early? She literally is supposedly still in the series. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, she's she's appeared very like very, very infrequently, but she does exist. I mean, like her as a character, to so I wish they would make better use opera her. She's fun. Yeah, i think I think a lot of people might find her cloying.

Speaker: She's basically like very similar to you know the guy that makes the jokes all about his ex-wife kind of thing, and that gets annoying. So there's no reason to think that a woman doing it would be more funny.

Speaker: So I think that they tried to, they probably tried to use her sparingly and have now used her way too sparingly, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Cause I do think she's funny. I like, I like her like whole vibe, but... Well, she gets a good outing today. She's like, it definitely one the main characters of this episode. And it, yeah, and it's a good one for it, I think. I like to see a different character get some screen time.

Speaker: Absolutely. ah So yeah, she's coming to visit see if she can borrow a power sander. Marge asks Homer if he's got one. ah Why is he using as footrest and why is it on? And why wasn't he in the shot earlier?

Speaker: you never had a foot vibrator? Yeah, I guess that's what he's doing, isn't it? Foot massager thing, yeah. Oh, do you know, no, that kind of makes sense, but I hate it.

Speaker: I didn't know, it's... homer begrudgingly uh allows her take it but as say remember it's mine property of net close up shot yeah close up shot of ned's sticker on the side anytime homer claims something is his even if they don't show it you know it's ned's half of the stuff in the house is ned's yeah exactly wouldn't you be surprised if ned owns the house Yeah, they move they they just moved in one day, ah Ned was just too polite. Ned was like, oh, okay, yeah, fine, I guess that's okay. Too nice to deny them squatter rights. Yeah, he was planning to rent it out, but Homer was just like, this is ours now.

Speaker: And Ned's like, Oakley, Oakley, and then he just accepts it. That's a deeply plausible origin story. It's very plausible, isn't it?

Speaker: Anyway, we cut to Simpsons Kitchen, where Lisa is educating Homer as to what ballet actually is and what he's agreed to go to. That's what ballet is! We get a surprisingly proto-family guy bit where Marge says, don't back out like that time you went to volunteer for an army experiment to avoid dinner at her sister's.

Speaker: ah So we get a flashback of Homer, younger, with some hair, getting random injections in a military camp somewhere. I mean, would you take random injections or the sisters? Which one would you choose? Oh, definitely injections, man.

Speaker: I would so not want to hang out with Patty and Selma. Even at the cost of hair loss, gives in giddiness, and the loss of equilibrium? You've seen my hair. There's no, you couldn't pull that out.

Speaker: Well, you haven't had military jabs yet. like You haven't had a military jabs. That was so threatening. You haven't had military grade anti-rogane. Anti-rogane. The amount of reasons, like canonical reasons why Homer is the way he is is very funny to me.

Speaker: Yeah, I was goingnna i just going to note on the fact that we have multiple origin stories of Homer's hair, if nothing else. And yeah this is just one of many at this point. Because ah because I love... note Because I know it's not... it was I don't think it was ever planned, obviously. I think they just wanted Homer to be an idiot.

Speaker: But the notion to me that Homer is secretly a genius and he just needs to take the crayon out of his nose oh yeah makes makes everything so much funnier.

Speaker: you know, and again, but there's like so many, like obviously he got into drinking really young or um he was he was about to go to college, but there was ah Was it a pig?

Speaker: No, there's a dog a dog ah ah a dog with a piece of chicken or something. And he was like, no, that piece of chicken is mine. And he said it's so good.

Speaker: I love Homer. and Anyway, we see that the the vaccine did exactly what they said it would, and Homer, to this day, has no hair, ah bouts of giddiness, and falls on the floor randomly. So, again, it's so obvious, but some of the best jokes in Simpsons, in my opinion, the ones you see coming.

Speaker: a hundred miles away that him just say he what does he says like totally worth it and then it was worth it yeah yeah and he just flops and then giggles yeah but also i do think so some of the best stuff is just delivered entirely through just really good foley and just the third yeah it's just like really impactful here and the the brief it's it's just a long enough pause before he starts giggling Yeah. Falls on the floor and then giggles. Yeah. yeah

Speaker: Anyway, we we move we move to see Homer at work the following day. Same day, not sure. Anyway, next scene. Homer's at work. He's chatting to Lenny and Carl about whether they want to get a beer on the way on the way home. Homer says, no, I've got to go take my wife to the ballet.

Speaker: then fucking Lenny says, oh yeah, off to see the... the bear the car it's like wait a minute because because the way it's so passing that when they said it i i like stopped like wait a second you know what mean you like you like look to the side like is this a bit because it just it just took me off guard it was really it was really clever very good very good like again delivery and everything and nod to an earlier scene um Almost an implication that the circus turned up in Springfield at once advertising itself as ballet. As the ballet, of course. Yeah.

Speaker: The voice actor for Lenny doesn't get enough credit. Is that also Hank Azaria? It's not, is it? Don't know off the top of my head. I can probably find out fairly quickly. Voice credits. Lenny's Harry Shearer.

Speaker: Harry Shearer. All right, fair enough. ah Yeah, I didn't think it was Hank Azaria, but it was he has that voice where you're like... If you told me it was Hank Azaria... Hank Azaria has actually portrayed Lenny at one point in Homer's Night Out.

Speaker: Oh, really? Okay. But that one was like one of the early... That was while I was still figuring out the characters and didn't know who was who. Yeah, episode 10. Yeah, so... Yeah, if you'd said Lenny was Azaria, I would have believed you, basically.

Speaker: But he's not. Anyway, they pass a vending machine. It's advertising new crystal cola, crystal buzz cola, which is... Why does Homer think that means it's invisible? Because it's crystal. You can't see You can see it on the picture. That's not logic. They have a picture of an invisible cola. You can't see crystals, Matt, you fucking idiot. That's how the predator was invisible, was he just covered himself in diamonds.

Speaker: I mean, back in the day, this is a reference to Crystal Pepsi. Yes, yes. It was advertised as clear. Was it? Yes. Oh, I'm glad they didn't lie to me.

Speaker: It wasn't advertised invisible, though. No. But this is also one of those, they but the punchline of it is very visible early on. Yeah, absolutely. so much of this You see coming a mile off.

Speaker: Admittedly, I didn't see the second punchline coming, but that's exactly... Oh, really?

Speaker: Yeah, Homer decides ah he want he wants some free invisible coal. He's gonna jam his hand in and pull a can out. Carl advises against this because he says somebody lost an arm in there once.

Speaker: Homer thinks there's just no old wives tale and goes for it anyway. We see him reaching in. and We can see like the sort of the x-ray of the vending machine as he puts his hand through. And there is indeed a skeletal arm in there. This comes full circle. I just realized because the skeleton arm is still holding the can.

Speaker: Oh my God. yeah The writers are geniuses. i take back everything I've ever said. Every episode of Simpsons is perfect. Even um the B-sharps is great. I love that episode. It's all great. Never mind.

Speaker: take it all back. I'm trying to make sense of the fact that the skeletal hand is holding onto a can of Fresca. ah No, no. Specifically, why did they choose Fresca? Because that is a real brand that really exists and still exists today.

Speaker: worth dying for. Yeah. It's weird that they would use a real brand. But also, i in my research to try and figure that out apparently it's referenced in quite a lot of media. A lot of shows have had Fresca in it for not entirely clear reasons.

Speaker: I genuinely, because of it because of how often it is used in sitcoms, I thought it was like a was like an American term for pop. I didn't know it was a brand. It's genuinely yeah like a grapefruit soda that's been around for since like think like the 50s or something.

Speaker: Part of me wonders if the use of Fresca as a brand on a show... predates the actual release brand or not wait so you're saying that the brands named themselves after the joke or they could have been kind of comprised at the same time okay he' fresh was white also so um is fresca like an american word that a company would name their pop after i mean fresca is italian for fresh if i remember correctly

Speaker: Right, okay, right, okay, so I get what you're saying now. Yeah, so it was just kind of like a coincidental joke. Yeah. I mean, like, the official story is just that it's a short, memorable, distinctive word. It is exactly as corporate as yeah you'd expect, but... Yeah, pick pick ah pick a word that means, like, good, pick a different language, and then name your product after that.

Speaker: Yeah. It's very common. Yeah. Anyway Homer does grab hold of the can and does indeed get stuck exactly as Carl predicted. Why did they run away? They flee. Homer asks for help and they both just flee. He's done for let's get out of here.

Speaker: they They genuinely the writers just thought we need a reason for Lenny and Carl to not be here to help him. yeah Let's just have them leave. you know They just didn't care. They were just like nah let's just have them leave.

Speaker: Homer, in an admirable display of dedication to Marge and, by extension, to the ballet, decides he's going to just drag the entire vending machine with him. Homer always comes through.

Speaker: or tries to, at least. Yeah. He does get waylaid by an entirely different vending machine.

Speaker: ah he He decides to try the same thing again, if you didn't see that one coming. I didn't for some stupid reason.

Speaker: ah So he does. he does he He sticks his arm in and gets stuck in the second bending machine. It's very convenient that there was a phone nearby. and he managed to somehow get it. And that he's got a prehensile tongue or something.

Speaker: Yeah, he somehow managed to get the phone and dial it. and You don't dial the phone with your feet every time? No, I do with my nose. just got like yeah very hyper on a He's got, like, hypermobility, that's it, so isn't it?

Speaker: Homer has Eller Danlos, we're just gonna... That's the one, yeah. Maybe the plant knows that Homer is gonna need to call his wife so often that every phone in the building has Marge on speed dial.

Speaker: Yeah, quite possibly. ah Marge does get a call, ah yeah, and... She's not surprised that Homer... Marge, you may find this hard to believe. When I'm trapped inside two vending machines. It's so good.

Speaker: And Marge is just like complete... Just defeat. Yeah, and it's it's an interesting line, because I kind of back kind of was sort of expecting ah a bit of a reaction from Marge of, like, no, that's actually totally plausible, I totally believe you, but like this kind of it's just kind of sign, like, oh, you made an excuse kind of thing.

Speaker: Or you made the problem to avoid it. Yeah, it's kind of hard to tell if she thinks he's done this on purpose or if he's lying. o Anyway, Marge offers the tickets to her sisters, who happen to be there for convenient plot reasons.

Speaker: they They dismiss that as girl stuff. Yeah, why? It just... Oh, God's sake. You'd think they'd be there to make a joke at Homer's expense, because that's that's so far been Patty and Selma's only purpose in the show.

Speaker: Yeah, well, they didn't get the context or conversation about that. They just... Yeah, I don't know. No, they just wanted them to be there to reject Marge and... Yeah, that's it. I mean, it's only, like, a momentary gag. It's a passing gag. Also, like, feels completely superfluous to everything. Like, it just does not need to be there. Like, the episode would not be any more or less without it. I guess it's to further drive why Marge then asked... Yeah....to go is because she had no other option kind of thing, or...

Speaker: Yeah, Ruth Powers turns up to return the the power sander, makes some remarks about her ex-husband again. ah Marge realizes, hey, here's somebody else who can go to the ballet with me, and offers her the ballet ticket.

Speaker: So they do indeed go to it It's in it's in ah the gymnasium at Springfield High School? Springfield has a theatre. think so uh yeah yeah this is only in setup for one gag i'm not complaining about the gag i it was just my first thought was when they they got there i was like springfield has a theater right well the theater was occupied by the other ballet the doodoo ballet ah yes the circus the the the ballet was in town and marge and ruth decided uh marge and ruth decided to go see the circus instead at the springfield high school

Speaker: Yep. Also reminder, these this was like ballet tickets offered by like basically and NPR kind of thing. They're going to be great, I guess. Yeah. Wait, I just realized, don't don't Burns and Smithers have like booth?

Speaker: How is there a booth in the gymnasium? Oh yeah, they totally do. yeah I can miss that entirely. Wait, what? If you're rich enough, you can have a booth anywhere you want. Imagine bring their own booth with them.

Speaker: Imagine that. You're like, I will be attending your soiree, but I expect a booth. And everyone's just like, okay. If you pay enough money, we will install a booth. yeah.

Speaker: hell yeah That is, that's a good eye. That's a good detail I hadn't even noticed. It's literally just on. yeah It's just like, wait a second. Yeah, it's very clearly the gym because you've all the markings on the floor. Everyone's dancing over. Everyone's just sat in like, like the bleachers, I guess. Is that what call them?

Speaker: that Yeah, bleachers. Watching it. And yeah, in the back wall, there is recessed a booth with Burns and Smithers in. I love their conversation as well. Yeah.

Speaker: It's quite too much dancing, not nearly enough prancing. And then Smithers just being all like a little mincing would be nice. It's like... well Well-timed snobbery.

Speaker: Excellent. Excellent. Chef's kiss funny. Also felt like... Gay joke? Question mark? I, yeah i yeah you know, I was gonna, I wasn't gonna bring it because I thought I was gonna be the only person that thought that, but then I kind of stopped myself and thought, what am I thinking?

Speaker: Am I just thinking that because it's Smithers talking about ballet? It's Smithers and specifically the use of the word mincing. Mincing? Yeah. Like, that that's a word very associated with being gay in the 90s, definitely, at any as well. is prancing, admittedly.

Speaker: Maybe. I don't know. I'd say mincing feels more so to me. But men and ballet in general is kind of like a gay thing.

Speaker: No, I'm not saying that that's true. I'm saying in terms of association, because, I mean, when did um Billy Elliot come out? It's quite an old... I have no idea. It's like a theater. When was the original... i don't i don't Again, I think it's us making the association rather than actually being an intended joke here.

Speaker: Let's get an expert opinion on ballet. Al, ah as the PhD in ballet... Just because I took ballet classes doesn't mean I'm an expert.

Speaker: Dude, I took four years of dance. It's all good. As an expert in little bears driving big cars, ah is there a gay joke here? Considering when this came out, yes, it was probably an intentional gay joke.

Speaker: Yeah. I mean, again, yeah, because it's Smithers. Every joke with Smithers is like a sort of concealed burns sexual joke. That was the running gag at the time. Yeah. It was, I mean, last time we had a discussion about whether it was a burn sexual or a is Smithers gay joke, and it, uh, with these two, twice in succession, it's starting to feel like, are we moving in the direction of fleshing it, Smithers out, as a character who is now gay as opposed to specifically burn sexual?

Speaker: Yeah. Don't know, maybe. Let's file that one under maybe. Clunk. ah Anyway, yeah, this does build up to the, as you say, the finale of them doing a huge leap through the air and landing in the basketball ring and the buzzer going off.

Speaker: I loved everyone's gasp. Also, there was the thing that ah Ruth said, so-and-so's loins should be a crime or something. Oh yeah, yeah. I liked that because, again, it it was Marge laughing at it.

Speaker: It's just that reminder, Marge fucking horny, guys. Marge real horny. All the time, all Marge is thinking about is dick. You say that and yet, like, throughout this episode, Marge's interactions are, like, incredibly wholesome through most of this. True, true, true.

Speaker: Yeah. Which which is it is it's it's a fun, it's ah it's a fun through line and it's and endlessly amusing to me. But ah yeah, no, like the whole Marge Horny thing ah sort of shelved a little bit today to just be like, Marge is a freak in the bedroom.

Speaker: Yeah. Like once she's behind closed doors and which actually I never even realized that is probably a a very deliberate choice. Because Marge doesn't,

Speaker: I don't think very often very publicly flirt. Not the real kinky shit, you know. So it is probably a kind of on that. I don't know, Whacking Day, she was like... True, yeah. And they there are like multiple episode episode gags where they have sex in public.

Speaker: Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah, We'll get there at some point. Maybe Madge is just a straight-up freak. I mean, there's a reason there's a website dedicated to her feet. Not dedicated. She just has an article on Wikifeet, doesn't it? It's not MargesFeet.com.

Speaker: Well, when when I finish my purchase on GoDaddy, it will exist. God. It's just going to be a yellow website with yellow feet. Oh, yeah.

Speaker: Anyway, the ballet finishes. ah Marge makes leave. Ruth would like to stay out longer because it's 9.30. that's But no, Marge is serious.

Speaker: And this is a nod to a future joke as well. Yeah. It all comes full circle. They do that a lot in this episode in particular. Callbacks, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, a lot of callbacks. Homer is... we cut back to Homer. Homer's getting rescued ah from his vending machine. are he He's lamenting the thought that he might have to ah have these things on his arms forever.

Speaker: He imagines being at Maggie's wedding. ah Maggie walking down the aisle, still sucking on a dummy. ah Snacks and drinks for everyone!

Speaker: Convenient. Yep. Homer literally has the ability to dispense at will. ever Have you ever had that like kind of situation though, where something's happened to you either like, you know,

Speaker: you took a curb funny and hurt your ankle or, you know, something happened basically that you've now thought your brain is just spiraled to the point where you're thinking going have to live with this forever. Like when you get a really nasty cold and you just kind of, the dark part of your brain is like, I'm going have a cold forever. I guess I just have to start living with a cold.

Speaker: I guess I'll have to start buying more tissues. Maybe I could start my own tissue brand because then if I'm going to be using them, I want to get good quality one. Then your brain just keeps going like that. Or is it just me? might be you fuck i think i've only ever had you anything even remotely like that is whenever i crushed my foot i was like damn now i might have to buy a different size shoe for my left foot i feel like that's so much worse because that's so real just like do somewhat wonky with your foot you're like well that one's permanently smaller now

Speaker: Anyway, the guy who's come to rescue Homer um has to give him the bad news, which is that he's going to have to use a circular saw to cut his entire arms off. But they'll grow back, right?

Speaker: Yeah. Oh, phew! yeah Which seems like a dramatic solution to disassembling the vending machine, which might be an easy solution, but I'm not ah i'm not a rescue guy. What do I know?

Speaker: Yeah, you're clearly not qualified. You clearly haven't rescued people from this situation. Anyway, a more qualified guy wearing a lab coat and hard hat asked to... Homer's just holding onto the can.

Speaker: Your point being... Then cut to Homer walking out of the power plant. Literally being laughed out of the power plant. Pascades of laughter behind him. In spite of the fact that this being after hours and everybody has gone home, and we saw earlier that everybody has gone home, and we can hear Lenny and Carl in the background laughing as part of the gaggle.

Speaker: but Maybe they knew what was going on and just wanted to be there whenever he... Everyone came to Gawp. Yeah.

Speaker: ah Back to Ruth and Marge. They've gone for coffee. so you know, wild night out. I guess. They've gone to a late night diner or something.

Speaker: and Gone for coffee. And just chatting about Ruth's ex-husband. Again. For some reason, back when I first watched this, was... i was Preteen at the time.

Speaker: My first thought on it was this was going to turn into a romance arc between Marge and... yeah That was... When I was younger, that was my where my brain went. I knew where it was going when I watched it this time, but it does give that vibe.

Speaker: There are non-canon episodes where Marge has, like, kissed a woman. yeah o I mean, it is, like, for anyone unaware, this episode is based on Thelma and Louise, and they do kiss at the end of that, so, yeah, like, it wouldn't be unsurprising, given what they're riffing on, for that to happen, but it would be weird in 1993 for them to do that. any of you actually watched Thelma and Louise?

Speaker: No, I haven't. No, me neither. Al? Way, way back when, yeah. Right, John, this is a classic piece of media that neither of us has watched. We should both challenge us each other to watch it.

Speaker: Say by Sunday, we'll watch it. By Sunday? Okay. what what Bonus episode of Arnie, is that what you're saying? No. No, no, no, no. Let's not get crazy here. Let's not get dragon soup here, okay? I'm just saying let's challenge ourselves to be better and watch more media.

Speaker: Yeah. And do a podcast over the ones you watch. ah Genuinely, as so as a thing to the to that that one guy in the comments, I do think we our like repertoire is thin.

Speaker: i Mine more so than most, yeah. I've tried to challenge myself to watch more stuff like that. And I don't know why I've never watched Thelma and Louise. I will watch it. It's one of those things where everyone has blind spots.

Speaker: No one's going to have seen everything. yeah Yeah, but like there's blind spots and then there's mine which is like blind... You've heard of TV, right? Hectares. Yours needs a little stick with a red tip. ah Yeah, I mean to be fair, in recent months a friend of mine started a film club kind of thing, so like recently I've been watching like two movies a week which is like way up compared to what I've watched in the past. like i'm I'm experiencing culture lately.

Speaker: That's more than I watch per week. I think I've got to see it one every couple Guy, there's these things called credits. But actually, after watching this episode, I do kind of want to watch Thelma and Louise. So yeah, I'm very much down for watching that.

Speaker: Because it's heavily referenced in a lot of things. I mean, like a great example is fucking Wayne's World. It's literally referenced at one of the endings of Wayne's World.

Speaker: Anyway, yeah, Marge and Ruth in the cafe. ah Ruth's envious of Marge because all her husband ever did was eat, sleep and drink beer, which Marge not clear on what the point is there because, um well, yes.

Speaker: But also he's been stepping on child sport for four months. I do find it interesting they have one dish between them as well. kind of leading into that. Oh, yeah. I didn't really know. and heard yeah yeah Do we ever meet Ruth's daughter?

Speaker: Yes, because that she was a central core point of the episode in which we met Ruth. Oh, gosh. Bart has a massive crush on her, yeah. Yes, she's- Yes, of course! Yeah, that yeah, because she babysits and then she starts dating- In the end, she dates- Jimbo.

Speaker: Jimbo. Anyway, Marge says a lot of good men out there, as if to illustrate this. Barney walks by and- It's always Barney! It's always It's always Barney! This is so mean! he would He would like to know from the server, um could he could he throw up in the bathroom?

Speaker: He will buy something if he's allowed to do that. yes I think you're allowed to do that anyway if you buy something, so just go throw up and then buy something.

Speaker: Any of you guys thrown up in a public toilet? Nope. Nope, me neither. Probably? was a kid. I know. I've thrown up in a restaurant. I haven't thrown up in toilet, though.

Speaker: I don't know why you said that as if that's more normal. You just threw up in the middle of a restaurant. Yep. Were you a child? ah Yes. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, exactly. yeah we've all But I didn't feel it coming. It just it was a bad Parmesan, and my body just said no.

Speaker: Oh, boy. No, when you ask those questions, the ages of eight back don't count. That's like saying, have you ever a shit yourself? I think I was 10. Right, okay.

Speaker: Okay, so it does count I didn't go to Pizza Hut again for another six years.

Speaker: Man, want try American Pizza Hut. There's so many places I'm going to try when I visit. It's not as good as it used to be. Nah. Well, that's the thing. Domino's over here is way better than Pizza Hut, in my opinion.

Speaker: But ah over... ah every Most Americans I've talked to have said the opposite. Depends on where you live as well. um I think that's That's true of most franchise companies. like Yeah, absolutely. Anyway, Simpsons.

Speaker: Anyway, Simpsons.

Speaker: that That's too derailed, I'm sorry. that John is looking at the timeline going, oh, fuck. We're an hour in, we're not even halfway through the first episode. I'm sorry, we do need to pick up the pace. Come on, bang, bang, let's go, let's go.

Speaker: Marge comes home, Homer tries to explain the whole vending machine situation. i had the fireman write him a note, which says that while he was being rescued, a lumberyard burned down. it Lumber has so many uses.

Speaker: Anyway, Marge, although disappointed, says she's had a lovely time with Ruth Powers instead, and they're going to go out tomorrow night as well. Homer thinks she's spending far too much time with this woman.

Speaker: It's two times now. It's twice, yeah. Wait. They did lean into him being very jealous in the first several seasons. yeah we did That also kind of like weirdly highlights the sort of vague is this lesbianism is it not kind of thing of like Homer's jealous because Marge is spending time with another woman and kind of thing. but Obviously does nothing with it.

Speaker: I think it's in the similar vein to the Smithers jokes in the sense that they couldn't actually make joke. No, no. But they wanted to imply the joke.

Speaker: Anyway, Marge says it's hard for her to make friends and we get another sort of family guy-ish flashback to... it's hard for her to make friends because of Homer. Yeah, this is... Yes, very much so.

Speaker: um we see We see her having some sort of, like, coffee coffee gathering thing. ah Tea and cakes. tea tea party that's the word That's the word I'm looking for. Tea party. yeah A little tea party with three random women we've never seen before or since.

Speaker: ah Homer runs in waving a skunk wearing a No faty no Fat Chicks t-shirt. ah saying I want those shorts, man. The skunk has sprayed Homer and continues to spray Homer further. Oh, look, he's doing it again. And everyone runs off screaming.

Speaker: The line delivery from Homer in this scene was so strange. Like, it felt fake. i don't Obviously, I know it's fake because it's a fucking cartoon.

Speaker: do do you get Do you get what I mean? It's just like the way he delivered it was like he was reading a script. Right, yeah, yeah. Forced. Yeah, forced. It was odd. anyways Anyway, Homer doesn't want much to go out on Saturday. It's the special night. What's so special? Oh, well, it's a little show called Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.

Speaker: I'd watch that. This is an unsatisfactory explanation because we cut to Marge getting ready for a night out. Homer's got a million questions about it. Where are we going? Dunno. When will be home? Not sure. Where are you going?

Speaker: Well, you already asked that. Ah yes. A million questions. Well, one gets it one gets the impression he's been pestering her for a while, to be honest. It's Homer.

Speaker: It's just a so snapshot of the general life. Poor Homer. Anyway, Ruth rocks up and Marge is out and gives him a quick peck on the top lip, leaving her lipstick on it.

Speaker: It's a very oddly place. so If you think about like proportions, it feels weird to see that like on. Yeah, I'm looking at picture now. It is a little odd. yeah ah Homer chases her out saying she's deserting her children, the children are cheering her on.

Speaker: Rock the Casbah. Rock the Casbah. Again, like, what's the implication? Something ten-year-old would never say. yeah. yeah And also, what are we implying that Marge is getting up to again?

Speaker: Kids say the darndest things. Lesbianism. Yeah. ah ah Homer, indeed, goes to as a man's best friend. Yeah!

Speaker: I feel like Homer does see children on the same level as a family dog. Yeah. yeah Yeah. He doesn't ever really like there's instances where he does, but he does not humanize the children very often.

Speaker: No, I don't think he's capable of humanizing people. I think he's just that stupid. Touché. ah Yeah, Ruth rocks up in in a convertible, in a Ford Thunderbird, I want to say. Is that right?

Speaker: Somebody knows what cars? A car. it's It is. i i did look at what car it was, but also like... A four-wheeled car. I will not say this about cars very often. I know you think I know more about cars than I do, but like, it is quite a nice car.

Speaker: It looks like a nice car. I do not care for cars. It's quite a nice car. It's nice car. I like those kind of old school cars. Yeah, Marge is dressed up as you know, Marge, but nice night out. Ruth is at, you know, shades at night, it's smoking leather jacket, you know.

Speaker: fairly certain she's just dressed as one of, yeah, one of the Thelma and Louise characters. I assume so, yeah. I guess we'll find out soon. We will find out soon. Anyway, ah Marge says she looks nice.

Speaker: Ruth says, today's got nothing to do with nice. Today's all about. Puts the cassette in. And sunshine, lollipops, and rainbowt then rainbows. then and and and then and and and then then That's the wrong side of the tape. It's actually, welcome to the jungle.

Speaker: It is also worth noting that while it is a sweater around her neck for this, it's actually a reference to probably the scarf that she wears in Thelma and Louise as well. Yeah. Thelma and Louise was 91, so this would be very like topical.

Speaker: Oh, this would be like, yeah, two years. think that feels weirdly recent to be referencing quite so heavily. and Louise was directed by Ridley Scott? Yeah. The fuck? Yeah, I didn't know that one either. Ridley Scott just does whatever the fuck he wants.

Speaker: Clearly, absolutely, yeah. Anyway, ah they race off. Marge not prepared for the acceleration. and we cut back into the house to see ah Homer trying to deal with the kids on his own.

Speaker: We get part of, like, a whole bunch of weird emasculation jokes throughout this. Like, this whole episode is doing a lot of... Things with gender, I would say, yeah just broadly speaking.

Speaker: Like, ah I mean, I guess from what I've said read of Thelma and Louise, like it does similar and was criticized for similar, ah but like it's very women's empowerment and male disempowerment.

Speaker: And yeah, this episode does the same. Like most of the male characters either come off badly or are treated yeah, pathetic. Yeah. Yeah. So we've got Bart laid on the sofa saying, oh, Homer, we'll put your hair up in curlers, we'll give you a makeover. And he calls a homina.

Speaker: Yeah, those jokes fell off quick, man. yeah I mean, like one of the feet like... One of my favorite shows of all time is Scrubs, and I don't really want to go back and re-watch because I know there's so many, like, lol gay jokes in it, and I'm like, I don't know if I want to ruin my favorite show.

Speaker: The thing is, this doesn't even come across as gay. It's just simple emasculation. Yeah. Which, like, don't know. Like, it's fine, to be honest. i I can get behind this. That's funny to me.

Speaker: yeah. I think what I found more funny was Homer being excited for it and then... Yeah, he he takes some over. He's like, oh that would be a delight. And he's wait, hang on, no. the The emasculating jokes aren't funny to me, but men desperately trying to appear manly is funny.

Speaker: So like saying, oh, let's go, you know, ah do our hair and, you know, have ah have ah have a natter. And the guy being like, oh, that sounds great. Wait, nevermind. No, it sounds gay. You know, that's funny.

Speaker: But just being like, lol, girl's name is is not funny. No, i don't I don't mean the girl's name itself. like that's No, they told the lines. I'm saying I think they managed to do the joke pretty well.

Speaker: But we get a couple more of these in rapid succession because Homer wants to go for a night out of his own and he starts calling up folks. He calls up Lenny, who's... Who says he's watching the game, but Shaving his wife's legs?

Speaker: Good question. Wife? question i Last I checked, Lenny was deeply, pathetically, terminally single. Yeah, because he... don't know who this is that he's shaving the legs off, but he's shaving the legs off someone.

Speaker: Well, it could just be a woman he's seeing. You know, he's so desperate for love that he, you know, dates a woman that emasculates him kind of thing. Maybe, maybe, maybe. ah We see he calls Burns somehow, which I love this. is so I don't know, like, part of me, like, barely even registered this scene on first watch and then on sort of revisiting it, like, going through the script, I'm like, oh, wait, actually, you know, that's such a good bit and I love it. And I yeah i don't know why it didn't register. And I think it's just like, part of me in my head is like,

Speaker: If Burns wants to lay on a pink plush carpet in his dressing robe, legs waving in the air, eating chocolates and listening to records and talking on his pink telephone, like, he can do that. That's fine. That's a thing Burns can just do.

Speaker: He's allowed. I googled it as well. ah Lenny is apparently divorced. Oh, okay. they This could be there prior to that.

Speaker: Maybe. Lenny has not been well fleshed out as a character at this point, so that's entirely possible, yeah. Yeah. Do we ever really see very many very many more scenes with Burns being softer like this? or Yeah, it's a very common joke. I think it comes up again. Yeah, it feels familiar to me. Which is also maybe why it didn't register, because i was like, yeah, it's just a thing Burns does.

Speaker: Yeah. Because my nostalgia goggles, because I haven't been watching through all these as much as you guys. Yeah. But nostalgia goggles always remember it being more one-sided from Smithers towards Burns. Sometimes Burns would reciprocate slightly, and then it just is used for a gag to smack Smithers in the face.

Speaker: Well, think, yeah, because it's it's when Burns is in private that he does these kind of things. Like, a great example is the literally the episode we did last last time with Rosebud. of Mr. Burns being obsessed with a fucking teddy bear. You know, they have those moments of Mr. Burns in private, even away from Mr. Smithers.

Speaker: Yeah, he he has these like very weird, campy, kind of softy moments. Yeah, Homer's final choice in this is Ned, which I don't know, this one, like, got me good, because he just thinks like, how do you do, and then it just hangs up immediately, no conversation. Do you think if Ned had just answered the phone, hello, Homer would have actually gone through with it? It was just the fact that he answered it in such a Ned way.

Speaker: I don't think he would have. No, you see you think he he he would have realized his mistake and hung go that quickly? yeah i do I disagree, because I love to hang out with Ned.

Speaker: Sorry, carry on. I would love to hang out with Ned, too. Ned seems like Mr. Rogers, but psycho. sounds chill as fuck. As far as a weird thing that I've noticed in this, and I don't know if it's just...

Speaker: something that I pick up because I'm from that era. But it is weird that Ned is the only one with a touchtone phone. Everybody else has a rotary phone. Oh, interesting, right.

Speaker: I don't know if there's some implication in that or not, but... No idea. Well, yeah, you could consider it with, like, Mr. Burns, because Mr. Burns is old, but then... um Lenny having one is then kind weird.

Speaker: But Ned is is surprisingly modern. Like, Ned's always the character that's shown to have the latest gadgets. ah but I'm just looking at the screenshots. lent Lenny's is touchstone as well.

Speaker: Is his touchstone? Yeah. it's just the joke that Mr. Burns is old? Yeah, I think potentially. Well, even the call center at the very beginning of the episode uses a rotary phone.

Speaker: I think they're kind of probably perceived as being old-fashioned as well. Just And they swap between it during the yeah like episode to episode as well, i guess. and It's probably just an animator told to draw a phone, honestly, and it's whatever came to mind first.

Speaker: It's just like drawing the food for the tea party that we pass by. There's like that weird white stuff that just does... It looks like a scrumpled up napkin on the plate. Yeah, they go back and forth on food as to whether they put any effort in or not. Western animation food is always, like, so disgusting looking. And then you watch, like, a single anime.

Speaker: The anime is not even about food. It's just great. And you just watch it and you're just like, oh my fucking god, I'm so hungry. god The steak and freer in. Oh my god.

Speaker: Watch any Miyazaki film and just watch the the food in Ponyo. Holy shit. I would just like reach into the screen and steal it from those children.

Speaker: and anyway so You heard it here. Gablin will steal food from children. Fuck children. Screw them. They're stupid. The food is mine. They don't deserve it. They don't appreciate it. They just want their chicken nuggies.

Speaker: Well, Homer reckons he can go have a good night all by himself. Lisa, however, unfortunately reminds him that the law does require him to have a babysitter. ah Homer suggests that home alone is a good example to to adhere to. And yeah, if there's burglars, who just have it'll just be humorous and entertaining.

Speaker: Yeah, for the audience. Looks at camera. I do have ah like a technical question about this, because I'm kind of skimming through this as we're talking about it. Was this like a transition period whenever they were doing the animation on this? Because on some of the um the version that I watched, there's some scenes where there's you can almost tell the cell where it was drawn on. These episodes look like ass, both I will say that. Yeah, it but it feels like it's in the transition between methods.

Speaker: Oh, interesting. as You can actually see shadows sometimes. Yeah, ah I mean, I don't know if it's like necessarily a transition between things. i ah did note there was one scene, I think it's in the cafe, like apparently the the sky is like airbrushed in like separately before they even started moving to like actual like computer animation.

Speaker: um So yeah probably there there is a there's a little bit of sort of mix of styles, but I don't think we're like quite moving in that direction completely yet. Anyway, yeah, Bart's on Homer's side. They don't need a babysitter.

Speaker: But fortunately, Homer's got a little flashcard in his pocket that he carries around everywhere that says, do exactly the opposite of what Bart says. Damn that card. Don't give me the card.

Speaker: Here you go. No! Homer's just quick-witted enough. It's fucking... that dude's voice, man. It's so good. Anyway, Lionel Hutz just happens to be in the area, just going through his garbage. I just happened to be looking for your garbage, and I heard that you need a babysitter!

Speaker: His fee is $175 an hour. Homer pays $8 for the night. ah But he can have two popsicles out of the freezer. Three. Hutz tries negotiate to three, but Homer... yeah, bullies him back down to two.

Speaker: Fine, but I get to keep this old birdcage. He's still got it. He's got the birdcage. Still got it. What do you think he did with that birdcage? You don't want to know.

Speaker: Oh, God.

Speaker: Anyway, that that's that's our B-plot sufficiently set up. Oh, God, yeah. So, back to Marge. it's gone to They've gone to a bar which is SH, the light is burned out, t Kickers.

Speaker: um Which you get just a moment... heard much about shot kickers. Yeah, get just a moment to process the sign before Marge addresses it as shot kickers. Which is a good gag. actually really like the vehicle choices. For the front of that.

Speaker: They're very diverse. I didn't pay a lot of attention. think one of them might even be a reference to, trying to remember, I think it's Duke of Hazzard.

Speaker: Oh, yeah, there is it's got like the number painted on the side. I'm looking at it now. yeah Yeah, quite probably, yeah. And then you have the old, like, 60s, 70s truck. Mm-hmm. Well, trucks going on.

Speaker: Yeah. ah Yeah, it it it's ah it's very much a country kind of bar. We get a pan across the across scene when people folks play music. got willies hanging out. He's little confused as to why his chair is bucking wildly because he's sat on the rodeo bowl.

Speaker: Why is no one else's chair doing this?

Speaker: Those are harder than they look to do, by the way. I bet. I have never tried one. I think I lasted like four seconds. I will try one on Route 66 get back to you.

Speaker: A couple of biker types rock up to Marge and Ruth and start hitting on Marge. They feel like getting lucky. Marge recounts how how lucky she is. She's got a great husband and children Thanks him for reminding her of that fact.

Speaker: he He presses further. is that He says he always gets what he wants. Marge says, no, no. i said no. Oh, you said no? My apologies.

Speaker: Yeah, that was just great. I think this is sort of riffing on a scene that is kind of a setup to much of what happens in Thelma and Louise. But I think Thelma and Louise ends in slightly more murder than this. I don't think they could get away with Marge murdering someone this time around. So, yeah, we played off with that fun subversion of expectations.

Speaker: Homer, meanwhile, is off to Moe's, going for a night out on his own. Where else is he going to go? He's going to go to Moe's. I was thinking that the whole time, though, was just, why hasn't he just gone to Moe's?

Speaker: Because it's not a library. But he's just like, he's like calling people and everything. It's just like, surely he would just go straight to Moe's. I know, again, set up for the joke. That's all it is. Purely, when I say why to anything in Simpsons, set up for the joke. That's the answer.

Speaker: But why didn't go to Moe's? Why didn't you go straight to Moe's? Yeah, he wants to go where everybody knows your name. He bursts in. Nobody responds. nobody Nobody even acknowledges his name. One of the best Moe lines coming up as well.

Speaker: Homer wants the darts. Mo says they're phasing out the games because people drink less when they're having fun. It's so real, man. It was too real.

Speaker: We come back to Lionel Hutz doing the babysitting. They're watching some sort of so some sort of law procedural on TV. Lyle Hutz criticizing the the lawyers.

Speaker: um'm I'm going to criticize the food, though, on that scene. Oh, I didn't look at the food scene. What's the food look like in the scene? It was I mean, they've got like pork rinds light, which is haha pork rinds. How can you make that light?

Speaker: But the crusty popcorn, I think is what it's supposed to be. doesn't have a T in it. Oh, it totally doesn't. so Okay. Crusty. Crusty popcorn. It's still a thing if you look at it through a modern lens. Crusty popcorn.

Speaker: mean, we're all about that crusty on this podcast. We. That is unpleasant in my soul. i mean, someone was romancing ah April in MonsterCon, right? Someone did that.

Speaker: That was one of you guys. yeah You guys were calling that Clussy. Yeah, Clussy. We're all about that Clussy, baby. Oh, this is the R-rated one.

Speaker: Hell yeah. Lionel Hutz thinks the idea of a lawyer wearing a butt belt is all Hollywood. Yeah, sure, they have offices in Hightowers and have secretaries and look, he's wearing a belt.

Speaker: ah Marge's night out continues. They're off to an underground club. It's a change of scene here. What's this one? The Hate Box is what this one's called. Hate Box. Yeah. Who do we see in here? got Otto shows up.

Speaker: Should drink one of these smart drinks and he drinks it. Oh, I wasted my life. That's so grim, man. And then we get the mayor? but Yeah, Mayor Quimby shows up. Apparently he's he's here with his nephews, which Marge is like, oh, that's nice. No matter how don you read that line, it's creepy. He's either with his nephews, which is creepy, or he's with his nephews, which is creepy.

Speaker: Yeah, I'm not sure I really understand what they were going for with that one. absolutely not. I don't get it. I think it is just that Mayor Quimby is a hedonist. That is all you need to take from it. Wikipedia specifically says that this is a reference to the Kennedy family.

Speaker: ah Ah. That makes sense. Yeah, yeah. I'm here with my nephews. ah Homer's Night Out has taken him to to the Quickie Mart where he's just reading through a magazine called Jet with Bleeding Gums Murphy on the cover Hell yeah A poo throws him out because it is not a library For some reason I think yeah Jet Magazine was a thing Oh was it actually?

Speaker: Yeah it's an actual magazine Right Then he was kicked out of the library for treating it like a Quickie Mart Yep Where did he get the hot dog from? I don't know but you know he earned it they picked it up on the way just brought it in or maybe but maybe there's a library that serves hot dogs somewhere sign me up that sounds good great i would go out the library so often now here's the question is that a bottle of ketchup in his hand or is it a cup yes i think it looks like a cup if i'm honest you guys are looking at the actual frames i i i am actually yes

Speaker: they know how You know how I go, I go through Frinkiac when I'm doing these things, you know I do. Moving on. Anyway, yeah, Marge and Ruth's night out takes them out to... yeah Nowheresville. Ruth wants to show Marge something. It's a gun!

Speaker: Yep. ah You're not gonna hunt me for sport, are you? It makes me think of the Roger Rabbit gun for some reason. Yeah, kind of. Oh, really? All chunky-like.

Speaker: Yeah, it's a big, it's a thick gun. Hand cannon. Straight out of that Krussie. And then we get another, you know, my husband joke. She says... I'd never turn a gun on a human being. My husband on the other hand.

Speaker: ba Bang, bang, bang, bang. She shoots some cans off a wall, hands it to Marge, teaches her to shoot a gun. She fires multiple shots and one of them does hit a can. My cans, my antique cans.

Speaker: We get an old man running out who is a parody Walter Brennan, apparently. yeah he's concerned about his antique cans.

Speaker: Why'd leave them out on the fence? Like, excuse Mr. Simpson. That's where he displays them. That's his display fence. it They should have panned around and there was a sign that said, Antique Cans this way.

Speaker: Ten cents admission. Anyway, Ruth does say it's getting late, maybe they should call it a night. Marge says, it's only midnight. midnight Call back! And takes her to another place.

Speaker: Next location is the... to the place she used to go with Homer. It's yeah the Springfield Hollywood Springfield Hollywood sign, yes. yeah Um...

Speaker: But yeah, again, with the like weird undertones, she brings them to somewhere that is like significantly meaningful to her relationship with Homer. o Maybe we're reading too much into this, but again, with the mad Thelma and Louise vibes of this episode, I don't think we are.

Speaker: i think there is meant to be a sort of like silent gag here. But yeah. and yeah I do find it extremely neat. And this is a thing I know for sure is consistent.

Speaker: How they denote Marge's age by the length of her hair. yeah Yes, yeah. yeah So the implication has never been cut. Ever. Whenever they do the um flash forwards, to like when she's like super old, it's not longer, it's the same length, just grey.

Speaker: in But I think that might also be because she's you know she's hunched over because she's shorter. Yeah. We got the big panorama over Springfield, to which my note is, reminder, Springfield population 30,000. That is a much bigger city.

Speaker: My hometown has a population of 10,000. It's tiny. i was going to say, as far as the layout of this goes, it does not seem that far-fetched that it could be 30,000. You reckon? and I have lived in a town that was about 27,000.

Speaker: and But it was really spread out with single residents. They did not want apartment complexes, and it was kind of like that. Well, John says it all the time, simson Springfield is as big or small as it needs to be. Yeah, yeah that's true a lot of cartoons and shows. It's also located wherever in America it needs to be, or Peru, you know? It varies.

Speaker: i mean this the Yeah, um I mean, one of my notes, a couple notes down from here, is reassessing Springfield's location, but we'll get there.

Speaker: ah They do decide to call it a night when Marge notices quite a lot of black smoke coming from her chimney specifically. Good eye i I did not realize, like, when coming back to this to, like, do this podcast, how pathetic Lionel Hutz is.

Speaker: In my mind, he was always just a lawyer character. I didn't really remember the gag of Lionel Hutz. But the gag is that he's just a fucking pathetic individual. Yeah, but how far in did you start watching...

Speaker: When I was a kid, I don't remember. Some of these episodes I've seen before. So I have, you You've seen them on syndication. Yeah, exactly. so but So I never watched regularly. I just watched it when it was on TV because I was 90s kid raised in the north of England.

Speaker: I watched what my parents watched and I fucking liked it. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: that's true of 80s kids too i imagine yeah i imagine it's it's just a millennial thing in general especially like older millennials which i am not uh because john's older me i'm like a mid-90s i think are you an elder millennial I would consider myself an elder millennial, yeah. All right, so I'm like mid-range, mid to elder.

Speaker: Anyway. There are people in their 20s who still consider themselves millennials, and I'm pushing 40. I'm an elder millennial. Bullshit. Bullshit 20-year-old's millennial. No, said in their 20s, like 27-ish.

Speaker: 27 year olds are still like, yeah, I'm a millennial. I'm like, yeah, I'm on the cusp between Gen X and millennial. Blaney is the oldest, is the youngest millennial we know. Because he is a millennial, but barely.

Speaker: And he's 27. Yeah, that's the I think that's right on the cusp between where you define generations. No, he's not 27. He's nearly, he's 30 this year. Okay. Who's still on the younger end? Anyway, Simpsons. After you hit about 30, you stop remembering how old your friends are.

Speaker: Just a heads up. You just start waiting for them to die. my god. Yeah, so we we cut back to the Simpsons house. We get we cut back to the B-plot to find out why so much smoke is coming from the Simpsons household, and Lionel Hutz is burning a suitcase full of to everything. that There's clothing, there's what looks like money, ah a lot of paperwork. Yeah, it's all going up in smoke. He's throwing in the fireplace. The person known as Lionel Hutz no longer exists. You're now looking at, and then insert the... Miguel Sanchez.

Speaker: Miguel Sanchez. Thank you.

Speaker: So, Marge and Ruth decide that ah maybe they should head back now. Before it's time for the naked talk show. I do not know what that is a reference to other than maybe Howard Stern.

Speaker: Yo, I know, again, we're like on Tangent City today, but have any of you actually seen the... um it's that It was the original host of Big Brother in England, and she does a... It's like a... Not a game show, but literally they interview... Or you judge a person and if you want to date them based on the based on what they look like naked.

Speaker: I've genuinely forgot what it's called. I know what you're talking about. I don't i think it's called Naked Attraction. oh now Oh, that thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. i Yeah, it is. i watched that.

Speaker: um I don't think it even is the host of Big Brother. Whatever. But yeah, I watched that once at a hotel with my ex, and she woke up while I was watching. It's like, what the fuck? Are you watching porn? I was like, no, this was just on and I'm so fascinated. Yeah.

Speaker: It was so weird. Because the the woman was like looking at these dudes dicks and just being like, well, it's not really my side. I was like, I've never heard anyone be this honest on television. This is so weird.

Speaker: It's such a fucking trip. Anyway, Simpsons. he Anyway, Simpsons. Homer rocks up at the Springfield Hollywood sign immediately just as the women leave.

Speaker: ah ah He wants to bash the replacement weather station that's been changed since he broke the old one. But it's not same without Marge. No fun without Marge. ah Introducing Chief Wiggum, who's going to be with the rest the episode now. He's hanging out up here making moonshine, making it up by behind the sign. The most comically unnecessary explosion in Simpsons. so I love it. You you know i love a comical explosion. yeah Everyone loves a comical explosion.

Speaker: He's got his big XXX demijohn. just... Once he's caught, he hurls it behind the bush and it goes up and it's great. It feels like it's really there to, like, re just reestablish the tone of the episode for the ending, like, third.

Speaker: and It's to remind you that this is a comedy. Yes, yeah. Homer's moping. ah Wiggum says you should just get one of those inflatable women. and Make it's a woman, because say I could tell you her time. Yeah, once again, the sort punt punching at men sort of gags throughout is, yeah, Wiggum's experience is ordering the wrong thing.

Speaker: Yeah, it's... Wiggum gives Homer a very lascivious look in this seat, and I know was very like, I don't know where this joke is going. i didn't really go anywhere, because... No, exactly, they just let him peter out.

Speaker: Yeah, he gives Homer a ride home. I was lounging in the back of the cop car. Yeah, he proper he proper lounges. Hmm. By random chance, Wegam happens to follow Marge and Ruth and notes that their their left taillight's a little smaller than their right one. Better him he decides to pull him over.

Speaker: ah Ruth does not want to be pulled over because the car is stolen. Because she stole it from her ex-husband. Yep. Wiggum's got himself an old-fashioned car chase and decides we need some car chase music.

Speaker: Sun shines lollipops and rainbows every day. Yet another callback. But the fact that they leave it long enough before Wiggum starts singing, and then they keep it going to a point where you're like, where is this joke going? And then Homer joins in.

Speaker: I mean, it's it's also, just yeah, it's a really good subversion of it because you expect it to just be a callback to the previous gag where he goes, sunshine, like, but oh, wait, no, actually, here's the music. No, that's the music. That's actually just what Wiggum likes to do a car chase to. I would absolutely, I absolutely believe that, though.

Speaker: Absolutely believe that. It's on brand. It's on brand. Yeah, no, that that one lands really well. it's such a good joke, that one. Yeah. Wiggum is never not a highlight, though. Yeah, this also gets us to, like, a referential sign as well, right after that, Yeah, this very, like... This is very much just bang, bang, bang, bang.

Speaker: Yeah, this is literally just, if you didn't get what we were referencing, now we're referencing it really fucking... Overtly. which bit, sorry, are you talking about?

Speaker: Entering Badlands High Speed Chases Use Diamond Lane. Oh, yes, yeah, yeah It's like, we are hitting it on the nose for this Even Homer on the megaphone is a reference, from what I recall. Yes, I think so, yeah.

Speaker: Yep. So yeah, they are into the Badlands. Wiggum calls it in and says we're in pursuit of two female suspects, one wearing a green dress, pearls with a lot of blue hair. Homer imagines some sort of alien kind of thing.

Speaker: With a blue beard. The car bounces and that literally physically moves his imagination. Mm-hmm. That's how works. He realizes Marge.

Speaker: The crayon was jostled. Exactly. She's become a crazed criminal just because he didn't take her to the ballet. William says that's exactly how Dillinger got started. yeah

Speaker: ah Marge tries to talk Ruth down, but no, this is a matter of principle. Ruth ruth is not prepared to let the deadbeat win again, so we're on the chase. Marge wants to say something reassuring but noncommittal and sort of resigns herself to and the Marge noise.

Speaker: How very much. Ruth says she'll let Marge out next time that next time they lose the cops, but Marge doesn't think it'll be with it so easy to lose.

Speaker: Ruth turns the lights out. She turns lights out. It's a ghost car! There's so many ghost cars on this road. Hold me. Only if you hold me. Coyotes howling in the background.

Speaker: Very, again, like, more emasculating humor. Yeah, absolutely, yes. ah So they make it to ah they make it to a diner. Ruth says, can call a cab in there. Apologizes and, like, well, we did have some fun. Marsh says, everything before a high-speed chase was lovely.

Speaker: yeah I always loved Marge's use of language. like She didn't say it was a good time. She didn't bunch. She says lovely because she's like a grandma. So Marge goes in to make a call but once in the diner she sees ah quite a lot of Thelma and Louise's doing some Thelma and Louise shit inside. hate it when the waffles stick together. That's what good waffles do.

Speaker: Yeah, there's like three different groups of women all talking about sticking together, and the waffles are also sticking together. Amarj realizes that maybe maybe maybe sticking together is something she should do as well.

Speaker: Hell yeah. We hear a siren approaching and everybody in the diner flees. Marge heads out, hops back in the car, tells Ruth she's coming back along. It's an important part of friendship.

Speaker: ah Does not really have time to finish thought because they need to get going. We see the sirens are, in fact, just Kearney, who apparently... pulling some sort of repeat prank on this place where he cycles around wearing a siren on his head and scaring off his extremely Thelma and Louise-based clientele.

Speaker: You know, you've got to have a niche. Yeah, it's a very specific niche, but like he's got it. Everyone has their hobbies. shame Shame his clientele isn't exclusively driven away daily by a kid with a siren.

Speaker: There's a lot of Thelma and Louises out there. That's the real commentary on society. Back to Homer and Wiggum, they're cooking engine block eggs. yeah but Where did Wiggum get eggs from? i don't know. He's always got food on him.

Speaker: that that I'm surprised he doesn't have if he doesn't have like a fanny pack or something somewhere with food. He says, if we can keep these down, we'll be sitting pretty, which, like, is dialogue that sounds like they're just stranded in the desert and, like, not for a second. They just stopped in the desert. They didn't... Yeah, they could just keep driving.

Speaker: Could go somewhere. Gone home.

Speaker: gone oh I mean, also, whilst I mentioned desert and that reminds me, this is also like back to... where is Springfield? Because like, they're driving through like Monument Valley here, like, which is Arizona, right? Question mark, I think?

Speaker: Yeah, it's Arizona. get to the Grand Chasm later, which is also Arizona, if it's the Grand Canyon. Yeah. Who knows? not Peru today, anyway. if nothing Don't worry, it'll be filled with garbage eventually.

Speaker: That's true, yeah. Oh, God. The fact that that's a real consideration that he's trying to do is fucking terrifying.

Speaker: Isn't that scary? Wait, wait, wait, wait, what? don't tell me that's a thing Trump wants to do. Yeah, he genuinely put that forward of sectioning off a small part of it to throw rubbish in. He wants to use the Grand Canyon as landfill.

Speaker: Not all of it. Fuck me. I'm like, we talk about The Simpsons being prescient, but that's too much. That is too but I've not heard this one. I don't know if he's actually trying to push it, but he did mention it in passing kind of thing. He said but it's something we should consider.

Speaker: But he says a lot of things. there is There is a running theory I've heard floated a few times that Trump's beliefs are entirely predicated on the last thing he heard. And he must have just watched this episode recently.

Speaker: Well, I think we talked about it on one of the recent episodes that genuinely what they used to do is if Trump was working on something and would take a break to go eat something, which was very frequent, they would just then take it off his desk and he would forget about it.

Speaker: That was genuinely how we stopped his first term. believe I believe it. That was genuinely how we stopped his first term being like his second. Right. We just took the stuff off his desk so he wouldn't remember it.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Senility's a bitch. Anyway, back to our B-plot. Bart and Lisa have fallen asleep on the sofa. So has Lionel Hurtz.

Speaker: They're a little surprised that their parents are i haven't come home last night. But it's okay, Lionel Hutz is here to protect, he's here to take care of them. They wake him up and he tries to fucking knife whoever's stealing his stuff. He waves around says, hey, this isn't the YMCA.

Speaker: Cool, that's Lionel Hutz. back to Back to the car chase. Yeah, they show that on the news there's a car chase and Lisa says something so fucking Lisa that like even Bart was like, shut the fuck up, Lisa.

Speaker: is Is that this bit or does that come a little bit later on? I don't know. don't know. I think it comes up in a little bit. It is a little bit later on. Yeah, we we come straight back to the car chase. ah A bit that, like, made me think I'd tuned out a bit and I had to go back and rewatch this because I was like, wait, did I miss a scene?

Speaker: At this point, Homer and Wiggum are chasing Marge. They weren't doing that last time. They were cooking eggs on the engine and completely ignored Marge and Ruth the last time we saw them. Homer tried to tell Wiggum.

Speaker: ah yeah, that's true. Yeah, they go past. Homer goes, that's them. Wiggum says, quiet, I can't hear the eggs. Yeah, I can't hear the eggs. ah Yeah, a bit of filler from the B-plot, and then cut to car chase back on for question mark reasons.

Speaker: and and and and and and and and and and And now we have the special bulletin. Well, Wiggum's got to give his location in, which is on a road. Asphalt. There are trees.

Speaker: I'm underneath the ah earth sun now. That is particularly impressive and probably could be used to locate him quite accurately. it should be noted. But, um yeah.

Speaker: some some Some pointers from Wiggin there, yeah. Now we have a special bulletin, yeah. We just received word of a high-speed desert chase because, you know, police chases are always televised on the news.

Speaker: ah Half of Springfield is chasing and chasing them now. yeah but that Suspects identified as Ruth Powers and Marge Simpson of Springfield. Yep, that's when Lisa says her fucking wanky Lisa shit.

Speaker: ah Lisa says, I always knew someday Mom would violently rise up and cast off the shackles of our male oppressors. i Just fucking stomp on her head. I was more annoyed by Bart's response, which is just, all shut your yap, which is just like, oh you had to give marts Bart something to say, didn't you?

Speaker: Yep, he has to be that counter to it for some reason. In this moment, I'm on Bart's side. Fucking shut up, Lisa. No, his line is completely unnecessary here.

Speaker: but now And Hux is enjoying his popsicle. He yeah. He was allowed two popsicles. He's enjoying one. Hux is having his best life, man. not his best life. He's enjoying life.

Speaker: Someone else's life. It's the best he's had in a while. Probably. Anyway, Kent Brockman has opinions and is not afraid to share them on the news, as is, you know, anchorman's want.

Speaker: Yep, and then he they literally have a, like, ah intermission screen. Yeah, they they've got, like, a technical issues card, which is just Kent Brockman with, like, a cuckoo coming out of his head.

Speaker: wearing a straitjacket. Very well detailed, though. o It happens a lot. They've had to use that card a few times, yeah.

Speaker: Anyway, the chase is nearing the state line. They're only two miles away. If they can make it over the state line, they're gonna be okay. Unfortunately, coming the opposite way is every policeman in Springfield.

Speaker: That's it. ruth Ruth gives up here. A single mother can't win in a man's world. Marge, like, fucking yanks the wheel and then is like, sorry, I should have asked. Yeah, she's got other ideas.

Speaker: Yeah, she veers them off the road. I'm sorry, I should have asked first. I'm so sorry. I took away your moment. I do apologize. ah But now they really are going to make it.

Speaker: How does that mean they make it? why did did Why did Ruth not think of that? Don't worry about it. course Because there are like two minutes left in the episode and don't worry about And they just need move on and fill it with lines.

Speaker: Anyway, they are headed straight for the grand chasm. Homer says they're going to drive right into it just to teach those men a lesson. It's all his fault. I like that he mentions gravy baths, though.

Speaker: Yeah. I saw it when he starts apologizing to Marge, he says, I'm sorry, I tried to make gravy in the bathtub. Yeah, he's leaning out the the window of the car, shouting through the bullhorn. ah Fun, fun little bit of trivia on that particular line, or these lines.

Speaker: Dan Castellaneda did, in fact, record them through a bullhorn for authenticity. What a guy. Great.

Speaker: eight ah So he's sorry about a bunch of stuff, but ultimately he's just sorry for the whole marriage up to this point, really. Mudge realizes she is lucky to have him.

Speaker: He says, don't drive into chasm. They both realize they are about to drive into chasm. They hadn't realized this love that didn't realize. Chasm? Because obviously, that's again, it's like a subversion, because yes, I haven't seen it, but I know the fucking ending.

Speaker: yeah yeah They're deliberately doing That you know and like Melra and Lisa Deliberately making this choice Because again like Homer says They're driving into the chasm to Teach these men a lesson But yeah the the joke is That they didn't realise it which is funny Mm-hmm.

Speaker: While they slam on the brakes and come to a stop, Homer and Wiggum do not do quite quite so successfully. They just hurl themselves off into... Also, which while we're talking about Grand Chasm, just to divert things even more than I shouldn't, what happened to Springfield Gorge?

Speaker: Like, how many... Just reuse Springfield Gorge. How many holes in the ground does Springfield have? As many as the plot needs. and ground Springfield is as big or small as it needs to be.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I know we're doing Thelma and Louise, and Thelma and Louise is the Grand Canyon, so they're riffing on the Grand Canyon to do the Thelma and Louise thing. But you already had a gorge! Springfield Gorge is a reference to the Grand Canyon. I know, yeah, es out absolutely, yes, exactly. yes so they could have just used Springfield Gorge. They only, and this is, I do not think they thought of this, but the only reason you couldn't use Springfield Gorge is because it has a forest around it.

Speaker: Oh, maybe. That is the only could think of. anybody other than, like, us pick them up on that shit? No, I don't think so. I don't think they would. Anyway, Homer and Wiggum hurl themselves into the chasm, but are safely landed by a big, steaming, soft pile of landfill.

Speaker: Yay. And they were protesting it, stupid environmentalists. Homer's so overjoyed he could kiss the landfill. He does kiss the landfill repeatedly. No, I hate it so bad. No, don't do it.

Speaker: but the the He's repulsed by the first three kisses. The fourth one tastes like pizza, though. The first one he thinks it's been was pizza. Pizza sounds good. Yeah, it just makes me want pizza. I wonder if there would be a good string pull on it by then, though, the cheese pull.

Speaker: yeah Probably not by the time it's in landfill. Why do you do this? Why am I friends with you? Well, mean, there wouldn't wouldn't be much of a string pull so much as there was sort of biofilm pull, but, you know.

Speaker: It kind of drips afterwards. I'm gonna die now. You're gonna die now. Goodbye.

Speaker: Anyway, we cut to our outro, which is a parody of Dragnet. So all of the criminal suspects in this whole thing get their verdict. We get, I forget the name of the commentator. Who the fuck's the commentator on this?

Speaker: It's me. did it. George Fenneman, who is actually the commentator who did the outros on Dragnet. They literally just got the guy who did them to talk about. Ruth Powers had her charges dismissed because her ex-husband hired Lionel Hutz.

Speaker: Lionel Hutz, a.k.a. migual Miguel Sanchez, a.k.a. a a Korean name that I'm hesitant to try to pronounce, ah was paid $8 for his 32 hours of babysitting.

Speaker: He was glad to get it.

Speaker: Marge had to pay 50 cents to replace the cans she shot she shot and $2,000 in punitive damages. And Homer was remanded to... why why was homer Why was Homer here? But Homer was remanded to the custody of the United States Army for extensive testing. For the callback.

Speaker: Yeah, it's and then we get a rearrangement of the credits a new different simpsons theme which i guess is supposed to be dragnet i've never watched dragnet i don't watch things you know i don't but yeah it it it' it's it's good i like it i enjoy this version yeah And that is an episode. What did we think? a enough episode as well. I think it was good.

Speaker: Yeah, i've you know again, it's one of those episodes that enjoyed a lot more once I started talking about it. I think it's it is an above standard episode. It is fun. Wiggum is the standout, but he always is.

Speaker: I just don't know if the longer episodes have always been like deserving of their runtime, because there were a lot of bits in this episode that just kind of dragged a bit, like the jokes, which held on to a little longer than they needed to be.

Speaker: Like, you you could have cut a minute out of this. There was a minute of padding in this that didn't need to be here. 100%. Like, absolutely. Maybe they put the padding in because they didn't want to make a longer intro.

Speaker: Maybe. Maybe. As opposed the other way around. It's just in my theory that they fired the chalkboard gag guy is correct. yes Speaking which, we never did the i don't think we did the couch gag, which is the family war run through the wall and it just shatters and it's a painting of a couch. love Just to tie up. Setting up the Looney Tunes reference in the next episode.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally is. I enjoyed this episode. I had fun with this one. I thought this was a good one. Speaking of setting things up, I am disappointed they didn't reference back to this episode in the next episode.

Speaker: I don't necessarily know... I mean, hard to know the details specifically, but the order they're broadcast is not necessarily always order made Yeah, they're not made in succession. yeah Yeah, and ah yeah give it some scores out of Homer, maybe.

Speaker: i give it an Antique Cans out of Homer. I'd say 50 cents is about right value. and Okay. Al? I give it a Dragnet out of 10. It was good. Out of ten? You're measuring it out of ten?

Speaker: Damn. Yeah? Some fucking renegade here. gotta throw numbers in there sometimes. You can't always use amorphic philosophies and principles. How dare you try and tell me how to amorphic. I gave it a shot kicker out of home because it was just a straightforwardly good time.

Speaker: Yeah, that's fair. Did it have anything to say about society? yeah In terms of society, I think this is an episode that a lot of people love to think is really deep. I can imagine that like some of the more hardcore Simpsons fans really do think this is like a super deep episode.

Speaker: When in reality, i think I don't think the episode was trying to say anything about society. It was just riffing on things that were trying to say things about society, you know, Thelma and Louise, which isn't a bad thing because it inspires people to go and watch those deeper shows. You know, like it genuinely has made me want to finally watch Thelma and Louise. There wasn't a reason I didn't watch it.

Speaker: know, wasn't waiting for Simpsons to tell me to watch it, but it was just one of those things that I was just like, I've never, you know, I've never been in the situation where I needed to watch it. So...

Speaker: I think riffing on it has worked.

Speaker: No, I don't think anything to say about society is basically my point. No, no. I mean, I i thought it did definitely had some fun riffing on sort of like gender roles and things like we've got Marge and Ruth. So in the empowered female role and like, again, all the men are either pathetic or emasculated various orders. But is that not just Dalmer and Louise?

Speaker: It is, it is, all of that derives from Thelma and Louise in the first instance, yeah, like, yeah they're not doing that originally, that's not like the intent, it's just, yeah, it it is entirely... The intent wasn't to make a feminist episode of Simpsons.

Speaker: it's No. But I'm, but is it a bad thing that they did? i quite like that they did, I thought this was a cool episode. Yeah, yeah I think you think it's cool. It's kind of a thing where what came first, chicken or the egg in this situation? Because did they want to make a Thelma and Louise episode to make this social commentary? Or did they make this social commentary because it was a Thelma and Louise episode?

Speaker: You have to realize it was years before that Thelma and Louise released. so Only two years. Two years. Yeah. It is years, plural. Yeah, you are correct. Technically correct. The best kind of correct.

Speaker: I think i think a lot most of the Marge-centric episodes are some in some way kind of feminist. in In very loose ways. But it's never, again, i they're never doing it because they are trying to be feminist.

Speaker: They're doing it because they want to do a Marge-centric episode, which means they have to change the style of comedy because it's Marge-centric. And that style changing of style of comedy usually results in something that could be considered feminist.

Speaker: But I never think it is the writer's intention to be feminist. Not a bad thing. I just don't think this episode is going to is as deep as some people might think it is.

Speaker: That's all. Is what I'd say. No, no, that's totally fair. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we have talked for almost two hours, about 20 minutes or so of TV. We should probably move this along.

Speaker: Let's fucking blitz it, because this episode is very... This episode was I've got a lot less to say about this one. Yeah, I've got a lot less to say about this episode. Can I get away with saying that this one predicted Expedition 33?

Speaker: Because, like, during the opening credits, there's a 33 on some kind of weird white fluffy thing in the background. You can argue that case. I will not know what you're talking about, but... You can make that statement. I'll support you on it as well.

Speaker: It really isn't, but I did find it funny and it just kind of stood out to me as just being some kind of like weird, I noticed this because it's stupid shit. You're just 33 pilled right now. That's all it is.

Speaker: I can't take a screenshot of it because it's on ah Prime, damn it. Okay, so Bats in a Child is episode 7 of season 5 and aired on November 1993.

Speaker: ninety ninety three Yep. Pope John Paul II was hospitalized for two days for a fractured shoulder. Too much wanking. And Richard Nixon's White House chief of staff dies at age 67.

Speaker: Also too much wanking. And Meatloaf continues to dominate the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Definitely too much wanking. Yeah. Oh, do definitely. Yeah, Meatloaf. Yeah, definitely.

Speaker: His name is Meat Loaf. ask What do you think the meat is in Meat Loaf? What do think the loafing is? Duh. You gotta knead that dough. ah Is there dough in Meat- No, we can't do this. Let's Simpsons.

Speaker: Simpsons.

Speaker: Fuck you, Dragon Soup. This wasn't my fault! No, bullshit! This wasn't my fault! Fuck you! We can blame it on you, though. was blaming on Dragon Soup, not you.

Speaker: Couch gag is, there is a really, really comically fat man, even more comically fat than Homer on the sofa. This is a reference to someone, I just can't remember the name. I cannot place the name, but is a reference. It is a reference to a specific person. I just can't remember who.

Speaker: It is not noted on Wikipedia or Wiki Simpsons. If it is, I do not know. Okay, I may be wrong. It is often the case. Beats me. Anyway, yeah, they squeeze in next to you.

Speaker: It's next to the big guy. He's very polite. Yeah, there's just a big fat dude on the couch. And they're just like, mind if we just... Sorry, I just want to... I'm just getting right there. ah Okay, right. Cool, thanks. And it's quick too. As long as you're comfortable.

Speaker: We open all around the dining table, as so many Simpsons scenes are set. Bart's pulling faces at Lisa. Lisa's not amused by this. She asks the parents to do something, but Marge tells Homer to speak to Bart. Homer's doing the same thing. He's pulling faces at the animals.

Speaker: But yeah, the dog and the cat. They're entranced by it for some reason. Yep. No, I mean, like, as someone who's had... Dogs. they're light Animals just are entranced by what you're doing as a person. Especially if you're like looking at them.

Speaker: If you make eye contact with an animal, it's rare that the animal is the one that breaks eye contact. Because they're like, what the fuck is this guy doing? What is wrong, human? Yeah, pretty much...

Speaker: Anyway, Homer neglects his parenting to read the newspaper instead. He's easy is interested in the free section. Why are you reading the free section? There's never anything good in there. Oh my god!

Speaker: Tremampoline! Tremampoline! I'm fucking... I'm so happy we finally got to this bit. I i didn't know this was in this episode. Yeah. Trampampoline, man. Trampampoline.

Speaker: Trampampoline. One of those words that just lives in the psyche of a generation, I think. He said what now? Don't come home with any more crutches. Why is he coming home with fucking crutches, man?

Speaker: Because they were in the free section. That's fair. That's fair. I'd take free crutches if they were offered. I am sad that we didn't get to see his crutch collection, but... Hell yeah.

Speaker: Antiques, worth 50 cents. ah There are a lot of background visual gags in the Trebampoline advert there. Trebampoline.

Speaker: Let's see if I can find because Simpsons Archive has a pretty good extensive list of them. Elegant dining room set from Chippendale Antiques. Feather pillows, soft, light new.

Speaker: Flamethrower Vietnam era. Takes regular unleaded. Fat boy bomb, call Herman.

Speaker: Grateful Dead tickets, Capital City, Gravedigger's Lantern, Good News Bible, ask for Ned. but And something I missed, even like freeze-framing it, Simpsons Archive reckons it mentioned a Gilbert and Sullivan manuscript original draft of HMS Pinafore.

Speaker: Ah, callback. There's a callback. That's a proper callback. It's rare that you get the between-episode callbacks. o ah Noted in some of the other columns I guess were not free, someone is selling a Learjet for $20.

Speaker: that's yeah That's a good deal. That's pretty good deal. itchy and scratchy mug for $4,000. ah and yeah and um 20 gallons of iodine for $10.

Speaker: And I'm the one that's fucking delaying this episode. And like you can have a camel which can be sacrificed for $1,000 or you can trade it for a chandelier. i will What does that mean? I don't know. you don't get You don't get to decide what you do with this camel. You have two options.

Speaker: You get to choose. It's a Twitch poll. You get to choose one of those two options. Sacrifice it or chandelier. Duh. Chandelier always.

Speaker: and think you get the camera, you have to provide a chandelier. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Speaker: Anyway, homer Homer goes for the trebampoline. Trebampoline. Trebampoline. Runs out of the house, tires screeching, down the street, slams into another car, flipping it onto its side.

Speaker: Genuinely expected that to be Hans Molman. Sadly, was not. It was just a car. A trampoline is mine!

Speaker: I regularly say that to people when I'm in the hurry. Well, the tre trampoline is mine. Well, not to people, to myself in my head. But like, if someone's like in my way when I'm like speed walking through somewhere, in my head of like, that trampoline is mine!

Speaker: Anyway, Homer arrives at the address, ah rings the bell, and... just Gets sprayed with seltzer water. Yeah, just sprayed with yeah water in the face. ah little surprised by this, he tries it again to see if he gets so a different reaction and gets squirted again.

Speaker: ah This time, he goes goes through it again a bit more intentionally and just just holds the bell down and sprays his whole head. I love the line from Krusty that the seltzer ain't free. I love that, that like, Krusty is a clown, but he's a cheap clown.

Speaker: He's got a lot of shady stuff like that that he does, though, so it's really ran. Yeah. Continuity error. Christy lives in an apartment, not in a house, but this is Christy's house, yes.

Speaker: Maybe he has both. I imagine that Christy, on and off, has money, basically, and so he, on and off, has a house. I could see him renting the house out and being a slumlord.

Speaker: That fits his brand a lot because he's very about the money. He's a very much a piece of shit. Anyway, Homer wants to know what's up with the trampoline. ah The excuse is that he doesn't want anymore. he's He's phasing out the tumbling in his act for Dirty Limerick.

Speaker: There was um once a man from Weenus. Once was a man named Enus, yeah.

Speaker: For some reason, this like it this segment felt like it would have fit better as a lead-in to some kind of Halloween episode, like a cursed trampoline or something like that. Yeah, I mean, i mean like, it kind of... That is the vibe. That is what they do with the episode. Like, it is very much implied that this trampoline just injures everybody who uses it.

Speaker: But also, like, we we just do not deal with this at all. This is another episode where the intro slash B plot is more interesting than the A plot. The idea of a cursed trampoline Way funnier than what we get I mean it's not It doesn't even feel like a B plot so much as it is It's just one of those bait and switch setups To the whole thing that the Simpsons loves to do Yeah you remember the episode where Homer Oogles Maud's boobs In the intro This was like this was like season 2

Speaker: um And that felt like that was going to be the the the show. That was going to be the episode. But it isn't. It's it's just the intro to set up Marge's episode. And again, it was like that was funnier and more interesting than what we got. And and i feel like this, it's another one of those things. Again, we had a ah B plot with... ah Like the A plot is Lisa, I think. And then the B plot is just Homer doing something weird.

Speaker: I genuinely can't remember the specifics. But it was one of those like... It's happened a couple times where the side plots or the intro gag is just better than the episode.

Speaker: Anyway, we cut to Bart's bedroom where he's just petting Santa's little helper. Homer flies past the window. Hey, boy. Repeatedly. hi son. Hi, son. My dad would something like that.

Speaker: I know for a fact my dad would do something like that. You know what? I'm fairly certain my dad did do stuff like that when I was a kid.

Speaker: Bart rushes outside to find that Homer is bouncing up and down on a trampoline in the garden. Lisa says this one gesture almost makes up for years of shaky fathering. Shut up, Lisa. Hang on, let me check my notes, because I'm pretty sure incoming Auntie Lisa Matt comment was a line I wrote down there, yeah.

Speaker: Predictable.

Speaker: Although, to be fair, she has a point. He has had years of shaky fathering. Yes. and He always comes through. Sometimes through the wall. Oh, yeah.

Speaker: No, that would that was last couch gag.

Speaker: ah Anyway, we cut to them all having a bit good old bounce on the trampoline. Again, like with the with the not knowing where the episode was going, I thought the the next bit of this gag was that they then do convince Marge to join them on the trampoline.

Speaker: You know, because at first it's just Homer, and then it's the kids, and then Marge comes out and bees all Marge about it, and then they're like, come on, Marge, just live a little, and then it's all three all four of them on the trampoline. That's not where it goes. It's just Marge.

Speaker: complaining, kind of... Again, it's it's deliberately to set up what comes next, but she complains, then Homer says, I have a plan. I'm helping speed through this episode. Crazy. Thank you. that You know, Homer says he has a plan, and then he envisions a fucking theme park that is shit, and then we get another one of those ones that shared a lot, the clip of Milt House coming out of the...

Speaker: the the The mattress fort. Mattress fort, yeah. i you know I genuinely thought there was more to this bit, though, because Milhouse comes out and says, it smells weird in there. Homer just says, no, it doesn't.

Speaker: Then it ends. I don't know why. I thought there was, like, more more lines after that, but there isn't. So it just says, no, it doesn't. And then... I don't feel like I've ever seen that one shared out of context. so I wasn't as familiar with that one. It was another one of those ones that before we started the show, I was following the Simpsons clip okay account.

Speaker: But I like that this is a callback because this implies that Homer followed up on a different free advert from the newspaper because they're advertising free mattresses from the men's shelter. Free soiled mattresses from the men's shelter. And he's bought those or taken those yeah to make Adventure Fort or whatever it is.

Speaker: yep and Are we going to just skip over that he says that the trampoline will double the value of their house? Oh, yes, yes, he did. Like it's not a piece of thing. It's not something that you would just take with you.

Speaker: how long How long until we get the... have we We've already had the the outdoor pool episode, haven't we? Has that happened? that was a No, not yet. No, not yet? but Yeah, because that's another one of those ones that's like...

Speaker: why does Why is Homer obsessed with inviting loads of children to pay to be in his house? Of course it was 1993 and we... And we hadn't, like, experienced enough horrifying things that when you made this joke, your mind didn't just immediately go to somewhere dreadful.

Speaker: Yeah, when when when when when did Jimmy Savile news come to light? Yes. Probably a major turning point in society's approach between televised adult males and children. I remember my parents being genuinely heartbroken by that.

Speaker: Like, they were genuinely, like, so upset about it. Because, like, my mum grew up, like, being a fan of Jimmy Savile. And I was like, oh, wow. you know Because the thing is, I was surprised by Rolf Harris.

Speaker: When I saw Jimmy Savile, was like I'm not surprised in the least. I'm actually amazed that no one found out sooner. Like, look at him. Look at Jimmy Savile. Even in his heyday. Dude looks like a fucking nonce. I hope he died, Pint.

Speaker: hell 2011 apparently like the news night investigation was yeah that's so recent i thought it was further than that no i think that's why we i think that's why our generation has such a doomer attitude is because it it's surprising how quickly the world has gone to shit and how yeah readily available the information about things going to shit is. yeah well that Before, like, the eighty s it was like, yeah, you'd hear about it on the news sometimes, but you didn't have you weren't bombarded 24-7 just online, doom-scrolling into it.

Speaker: There's an essay you can read somewhere that is about the fact that, no, murders have actually gone down It's just we report on them way more. Yep. Yep. That's true for all. That's true.

Speaker: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but it's a thing. It's like because of the news, we think the world is in a worse state, but it isn't. ah Fucking Simpsons. That said, it has actually been spiking back up in the U.S.

Speaker: Of course it has the US as a fucking shit-on. You've got a criminal president. I know. Yeah, you have literally a felon rapist as a president. Simpsons! It's not me this time. Simpsons!

Speaker: Fuck me. ah Yeah, so everybody does, in fact, turn up to to have a go on the trampoline. To pay to hang out in Homer's Mr. Simpson's back garden. It's not just children. Otto's here as well.

Speaker: don't trust technically an adult. Technically. He fucking bails. I genuinely winced Otto hitting the side.

Speaker: I mean, it's all pretty grim. Like, i mean... look Trampolines are bad anyway. Trampolines are bad for injuring people at the best of times, but like yeah, it's some grim shit. Like Otto like dislocates his shoulder with some horrible noises. I don't like watching people fall over.

Speaker: I used to find it funny, but now I just, I like don't like watching people get hurt. It's not warninging to me anymore. Wendell does something his arm, Ralph bites his tongue, ah Rod and Todd... Yeah, Ralph gets off, like, really, like, not that bad. Is that kind of the joke that obviously Otto literally, like, basically breaks his back, Wendell cracks his, like, leg open kind of thing, and then all that happens to Ralph is he bites his tongue because he's an idiot?

Speaker: Yep. Yeah, I guess, yeah, I just kind of explained the joke to myself. Rod and Todd want the Lord to to catch them as they bounce back and forth until eventually... You can see it coming because they bounce like three times. It's proper cartoon like face plant, you know, like the legs go straight out in the arms.

Speaker: Straight each other, yeah. And then they top it off with what did we do to make God angry? You did it. You did it!

Speaker: Eventually we we we get to a point where Homer's telling them, if you get injured, you have to move aside and let someone else go. marzi Zero folks given. Zero folks given.

Speaker: ah We get a we get a a shot that is a parody of Gone with the Wind as a the camera pans across the suddenly extremely large Simpsons Garden and it's just like, ah it's a battlefield of dead soldiers.

Speaker: How many of us have seen Gone with the Wind? I have not. I have not. I have not. John, are we uncultured? I am deeply uncultured. um But like, you know think you're more uncultured than I am.

Speaker: Just not in films. I've seen less Arnold Schwarzenegger movies than you. This is true. Which, you know, that's the yardstick of culture, right? That's the yardstick culture. Do you know what? I genuinely want to buy that now and send it. I want to bring that to you when I come visit.

Speaker: It's just ah yeah the yardstick of culture, and then in the end, it's like a carving of Arnold Schwarzenegger. What? Simpsons! Anyway, Homer is finally convinced that he should get rid of the trampoline. He tries to take it back to Krusty. Krusty whips out a shotgun and tells him to keep You keep on driving.

Speaker: Why didn't he just try and, like... Why did he try to take it back to Krusty? Why didn't he just keep... Why didn't he just take it anywhere? Take it to a landfill? He got it... Giving it back to the guy he got it from. It's like returning a purchase. Yeah, they definitely... I definitely think that the writers wanted to write an episode about a cursed trampoline.

Speaker: m Probably, maybe they couldn't fit it in the Treehouse of Horrors because they thought the last ones they did were so good. Yeah, possibly. And they were just like, well, let's use some of the scripts that we had to do intro. Yeah, maybe, maybe.

Speaker: Because it feels too, like... This trampoline is clearly cursed. Like, that is the vibe, but they just don't... They never say explicitly, yeah. Yeah, they it it just isn't the plot, and it's very weird to me.

Speaker: I'm very animated. they say I'm proper gesticulating. You guys can't see it, but I'm going Dragon Soup. Dude, my eyes are so wide.

Speaker: Anyway, Homer decides he will get rid of the trampoline by throwing it down. Springfield Gorge slash the Grand Chasm on Clear Witch. It's set up in a very Looney Tunes fashion. It's definitely Wile E. Coyote.

Speaker: It's roadrunner. Wile E. Coyote. It's literally the same art style for the trampoline falling down. I'm fairly certain this is just a bit from Wile E. Coyote. I'm fairly certain the same thing has happened with the trampoline. Or gets a cursed trampoline.

Speaker: No, no, no. the The shot of the trampoline bouncing like bouncing on the rock and then flying back up, I'm... i'm willing to bet money, that happens in a Wile Coyote episode. and means they do within it anvil yeah but I mean, anvil.

Speaker: Yeah, but mean, there's a lot of shots of stuff falling down. It's always the same chasm, it's always the same shot of whatever it is falling, but i'm fairly certain they do it with a trampoline. I'm fairly certain.

Speaker: Anyway, the trampoline bounces back up, lands on Homer, pins him down into the ground, the force of the springiness just pushes him into the ground. If this a cartoon... the canyon would break the rock would break off right yeah it's weird combination of like subverting expectations whilst also lampshading the joke because it doesn't happen lampshading never heard that no i'm sure you said it and i've just i probably have and i i'm familiar enough with using it as a term but i can't for life me remember the origin of it like explain it but you know how to use it

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, it's like, it's like, there's some concept of like, oh, if you can't hide something in a scene, like, you play with it as a point of humor by calling attention to it, and like, the original was like, oh, you hang a lampshade on it, you're lampshading it.

Speaker: Ah, okay. Yeah, i like, and then yeah, obviously he sits there for ages and you're kind of wondering where the joke is going. He says, I'm hungry, snap. Yeah, it just cuts to night and the the wolves are howling in the background. Simpsons love bait and switch. They love the bait and switch of, we're not going to do the punchline.

Speaker: Pause for effect. Now going to do the punchline. They love that joke. They love it. And it's never not funny. Anyway, Homer's grisly demise at the bottom of a canyon is not dealt with at this point. He's back to the garden. He's about to take it apart with a circular saw.

Speaker: i I, again, because I think my head was in the the idea of a cursed trampoline, I generally thought he was going to get cut to ribbons. fight That's probably where the Halloween episode would have gone. I am almost certain the more we talk about it, this was a treehouse of horror that they just essentially didn't use in a treehouse of horror and then put it into an intro.

Speaker: o Anyway, ah he his cable is not long enough. He he runs at it with a circular saw, just ends up ripping a chunk out the wall. Again, subverting expectations, you expect the plug to come out. It doesn't. It just takes the wall out. Have you ever done something like that, though? Like, accidentally just done massive damage with kind of an innocuous action?

Speaker: yes yeah because i like i remember as a kid i was trying to like i like got a towel trapped under a chair and i thought oh well i'll just yank it that's not gonna cause any problems it literally broke the table it literally broke the entire table and i and i just kind of stood there and waited for my parents to like come down the stairs and give me a bollocking because i'm like well it's not like i can lie i mean you could have but i could have i mean i would have failed As a child, I lied all the time. Once I found out that lying was a thing that was possible, I lied all the time.

Speaker: You rolled a nat one on the persuasion check. I was a terrible child. i I feel for my parents. I was a terrible child. I was a piece of shit. Carry on.

Speaker: Anyway, Homer just gets the the the cable wrapped around. like the the the circular saw yanks the chunk out the wall and it wraps around it. It's a whole mess. and homemo It's going to rust. At this point, like the it has broken him. He just breaks down in hysterical laughter.

Speaker: but I love the gag with Bart here, though. that If you want something to get stolen, just put a bike lock on it. Yeah, yeah. Which is accurate if you've ever been to Jewsbury.

Speaker: ah Yeah, this does work. He chains it the fence and within five seconds, Snake has taken it and i love that he has got himself bed. was expecting um Jimbo in the gang, not Snake.

Speaker: But yeah, then Snake's, oh right, I got a bed. now Jimbo's in the next scene bouncing on Also, the guy in the comments that said my impersonation of smith of Mr. Burns wasn't good. Fuck you. My impersonation of Burns is great.

Speaker: So is my impersonation of Snake. I'm going to stop reading the comments. You should never read the comments. This is very true. no i love Commenters do have their Burns.

Speaker: Wait. No, but my impersonation of Burns is great. How dare you? But thank you for commenting. I love you. Do I need to do my impersonation of you? Oh, God, no. We don't have time. We don't have time.

Speaker: we don't have time Anyway, Homer and Marge are arguing in bed about whether the trampoline was a good idea. We've taken five minutes of six minutes of trampoline nonsense just to get to, like, an argument which kind of, like, starts setting things in motion a little bit.

Speaker: Yeah. ah The trampoline was completely fucking irrelevant. So, yeah, Homer's like, well, at least I'm trying new things. If it was up to Marge, all we'd ever do is work and go to church.

Speaker: Marge says, no, no, I do i do fun things. Weird, oddly specific, and maybe slightly strange note of mine is... Was Marge Ware to bed?

Speaker: Nothing. It varies on the episodes. It varies on the shot. Like, if she's shot from the front, you can see a collar. She's wearing a nightie. If she's shot from the back, she's butt-ass naked. No, in this one, she's not wearing anything.

Speaker: Because I was thinking... But there are... No, if you watch watch it, there are shots when where she's face-on when they're showing her speaking. Like, you can see a collar of a nightie. She is wearing something from the front. I thought that was just the blanket.

Speaker: but there were I think the collars in some of the flashbacks they show, i don't... Normally she wears like a pink nightie. Yeah, i like this idea you can say I think you can see the nightie in some of the shots when she's shown yeah in the front, but when she's facing Homer, when you... back yeah so During the one where they're bouncing on the hood of the car, she's not wearing anything.

Speaker: But, as soon as you get into the shots where she's kind of flashing back about... i Do I nag all the time? There's a few of her in bed where she has.

Speaker: Yes, yeah, she has she's wearing a nightie in those ones, yeah. I just like the gag that you said she was flashing back.

Speaker: She's literally just like all back on display. Dun dun dun dun dun. Wah! Anyway, the following day, Marge would like the kids to give her the truth about whether she's any fun or just a nagger.

Speaker: They are hesitant to give an answer, and I immediately am terrified that I've accidentally started watching a clip show. Yeah.

Speaker: Because we just get, like, a barrage of, like, five or so, like, clips from previous episodes Marge nagging. This na is how you do a sort of filler clip showy bit, is you don't make it an entire episode. You just use it as, like, a funny way to...

Speaker: almost remind people of the person's character is Marge is a nagger. Here's some examples of him nagging from the actual show. That's all you do. Don't do an entire fucking clip show episode. Yeah. no yeah It is just, honestly, yeah.

Speaker: In spite of it being a long episode, it is just a way to fill some yes just build some space without having to do extra animation work. It's like, oh, we've already got the footage. And it makes the joke funny that yeah if you if you think about it,

Speaker: All Mads does is nag. It works. She went on a high-speed chase last episode. She does fun things. I mean, in her in the earlier seasons, her personality was focused on being naggy, kind of like how Lisa's ruin-everything kind of theme going on.

Speaker: Yeah, because every character was built to be a traditional sitcom character, and then obviously Simpsons became its own thing. yeah I know we're two and a half hours in, but I want to defend Marge. She made a drunken buffoon of herself and went and tried to cheat on her husband in season one. Like, she wasn't that boring. I'm not saying that is... I'm just saying that, like, for the purpose of the episode, this was a very easy way to demonstrate... yeah. yeah No, I know what Marge's character is, but I think it's an unfair judgment on her. Agreed. gonna say, in the character-focused episodes, they usually do seem to break

Speaker: the stereotype that they've been placed in but they tend to like pull them back into that stereotype whenever it's not their episode everything resets to zero basically anyway marge is definitely absolutely totally not upset that people see her as nothing but a nagger she's going to assist just because she wants to go see them it's for no reason she just wants to go see them okay The door slams, we hear Cartier's squealing, She nearly kills Ned. Ned almost gets run down.

Speaker: i want to give Ned a hug. I feel like he needs it. ah Patty and Selma, they're running a weird suite of medical tests on Marge, they're doing her blood pressure, they're taking urine samples.

Speaker: I'm gonna say I like the lamp. The lamp? That's a cool lamp, yeah. It's a pyramid lamp with a camel... like oh the pyramid base, yeah. Well, they're they're single ladies. They've got the money to travel around, you know, see the world.

Speaker: They could have just put a generic lamp in there, but I like it that they went the extra detail. little bit of character, yeah. Anyway, they recommend ah Brad Goodman, who has an infomercial playing around the clock on Channel 77.

Speaker: Not suspect at all.

Speaker: ah So we cut to his show. Who voices Brad Goodman? It's very familiar, Goodman. it is albert brooks who was i think jack will be later on hank scorpio right okay yeah scorpio and russ cargill are his like main Yeah, he's he voices, I think, like, ten different characters over the years in The Simpsons. Like, always just, like, one-off kind of characters.

Speaker: Yeah, Brad Goodman comes back, of black but in the he he's only voiced by Albert Brooks once. Oh, right, okay. it When it's Radioactive Man, ah it's Harry Shearer.

Speaker: Hmm, okay. Anyway, yeah, he's he's giving us some of his celebrity testimonies, uh, and explains his theory of the personality disorder Feel Bad Rainbow. Yeah.

Speaker: It's just a comment on, like, buzzword terms to in order to grift a product. It's like the difference between a nutritionist and a dietician. Yes, yeah. I mean, he is based on and a genuine character, like, uh,

Speaker: john bradshaw thank you is who against yeah okay yeah i'm i'm not familiar with john bradshaw's work but like i mean i feel like i feel like a lot of this is just almost shots fired at the entire self-help oh yeah rather than a specific one brad goodman is yeah he's just infomercial grifters it's the i i would I would say more so than infomercial grifters, just the self-help industry. Look how many people like with no qualifications will just write a book on yeah how to improve your life.

Speaker: Yeah, no, that's fair. Even people who have utterly ruined and destroyed their life. Looking at you, Jordan Peterson.

Speaker: Anyway, yeah. He's got the depression rainbow. The the depression rainbow. the That's what I call my life. Yeah, ah his his rainbow of bad vibes. Depression, insomnia, motor mice, darting eyes, indecisiveness, decisiveness, bossiness, ah uncontrollable falling down.

Speaker: Homer could do with some help with that. geriatric profanity disorder and finally specifically relevant to this episode chronic nagging nagging nagging this echoes in marge's head until it's revealed that uh this is in fact just what the tv does sometimes it just needs a good clout if it's broadcasting to it the tv doing that bothers me uh don't worry about it

Speaker: Anyway, Marge comes home to Homer along with a Bradshaw tape that they're going to watch and it's going to change their lives. Yeah, I like that they slowly like start hugging.

Speaker: like they it It really does seem to like affect both of them. You'd think the normal gag would be Marge being like really interested and then Homer slowly like falling asleep. But no, they both really care about it.

Speaker: It is, well, it is pivotal too, this whole episode, so everybody's got to be on board with this, yeah. as As All Things in Simpsons, I is presented by Troy McClure, who you may remember from self-help videos such as Smoke Yourself Thin and Get Confident, Stupid.

Speaker: yeah I need to be told that sometimes. That can be my, like, biography title. get Get Confident, Stupid.

Speaker: Well, a few weeks ago he was a washed-up actor with a drinking problem, now he's got a job and a can of fortified wine. Ah, sweet liquor, you make the pain go away. Or whatever he says. I like the nod that he's down to one from 50. Yeah, Jesus. Yeah, Brad Goodman comes on and tells him about it. You're drinking 50 drinks a day? You're dead within like a couple weeks, man.

Speaker: Yeah, that's pretty rough about get through. I'm fairly certain if you drank 50 drinks in a day, you would just die. I know it's Simpsons. I'm not like actually arguing the logistics of Simpsons. I'm just saying that in real life, I'm fairly certain if you drank 50 cans of fortified wine in a day, you would die.

Speaker: You'd have 50 drinks. They're not all fortified wine, necessarily. i reckon Andre the Giant could have done it, if nothing else. Oh, well, if Andre the Giant could do it, then we could all do it.

Speaker: I mean, there are people here that will drink entire cases of beer a day. Yeah, that's a k it's not it's not ah case. case for a case that's 50. Yeah, but that's also cheap plonk.

Speaker: That's like Budweiser. It's like 2%.

Speaker: Who's to say his fortified wine isn't cheap? no i I'm just saying, I feel like if he's drinking 50 cans of so of something and he needs fortified wine to get through a day, then what he's drinking must be pretty high.

Speaker: Simpsons, fucking hell, this doesn't matter. Fortified wines are not usually low ABB, but anyway. Brad Goodman is often asked about his qualifications. Well, he may not have credentials or training, but he has a PhD in pain.

Speaker: Credentials or training as if they're not important things. Apparently, his he he draws a circle he draws a circle on the board, and ah apparently, like, this is actually a parody of John-what-his-name style. Like, he would just genuinely just draw very simple things on a board, and that's all he would explain it with.

Speaker: We cut to hours later. The circle that continues to be the only thing he's written on the board, but he has, in fact, solved all of Troy McClure's problems in his life, except for the fact that he's still drinking. But, you know, don't worry about that. The gag of him, like, drinking the glass of wine, and then like, with the finger...

Speaker: You solved all my problems, glug. ah So yeah, Homer and Marge get into quite an amusing bit of like, what do you call this? Therapy language kind of thing. You said it's amusing. I've heard this joke so many times in so many different sitcoms that even if Simpsons was like the first to do it, having seen it now, it was not funny.

Speaker: It was irritating. This joke has been so overplayed. And again, At the time, I'm sure Simpsons was like one of the first shows to do it. But at this point, I found it irritating.

Speaker: Yeah, they they do that they do a whole bunch of vaguely scarcely... I'm feeling shame right Well, I feel validated for your admittance of your shame. you know that's Barely English therapy speak kind of stuff. Yeah.

Speaker: We then cut to ah Marge popping in asking Homer if he ate a whole pan of brownies just to illustrate this. Bart says, Homer's in trouble now. And they continue with more more therapy speak to show what they've learned and how they're working through their issues. Yeah.

Speaker: That's that, that's all they do with that bit. It doesn't really pay off. Bart and Lisa are just a little bit confused by that. We cut back to the kitchen table where Homer's looking at the free section again, now he's now he's looking at surplus drums of mayonnaise from Operation Desert Storm, which... Would be two years old by now.

Speaker: but Yeah, but it's is' military grade and sealed drum. It's probably fine. Military grade mayonnaise. Yeah, absolutely. It's camo mayonnaise.

Speaker: Just mayonnaise MREs. Mayo de noche.

Speaker: Dehydrated mayonnaise. Like, yeah, m mr Steve MRE guy, like, eats stuff that's, like, decades old. It'll be fine. Anyway, Brad Goodman is coming to town. This is also noted in the newspaper, Homer doesn't think they need to go Who needs Brad Goodman? They're all fixed.

Speaker: However, Bart appears to be riding a chair in the garbage disposal in the sink, so... Maybe there are other people who could benefit from this as well. We get ah weird conversation, which is also weirdly lampshaded, where Homer drives them all to the lecture and explains to everybody that they're at the lecture and they agreed to attend a self-help seminar. an art But indeed, Lampshades this with, what an odd thing to say.

Speaker: Don't know what they were doing with it that that scene, really. but Not really. It sets things up, I guess. They are now at a seminar. There's a lot of low effort moments in this epilogue. So Brad Gubbin would like to know what everyone's issues in the audience are.

Speaker: Quimby can't commit to a relationship. Burns is too nice, which I like to think is is a reference to, like, Rosebud, where he committed to being nice and has changed his mind now.

Speaker: It's like, I will be nice in two episodes later. I'm too nice. a lot of their issues feel like this was just a bunch of things that they kind of sat around the writer's table spitballing and just Went with how it was said then.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, ah probably. ah So he's got a simple trick. There's no trick to it. It's just a simple trick. i yeah Yeah. Close their eyes and listen to their inner voice.

Speaker: Their inner child. Ned's inner child tells him he's doing super. Moe's inner child wonders why Moe doesn't use his Italian accent anymore. Apparently Moe's Italian.

Speaker: with a name like Moe Sislak. Definitely Italian.

Speaker: Skinner's invited you up onto stage to work out his rage on a dummy of his mother. I've remembered this bit being way more elaborate than it is, but it kind of isn't. It gets cut off before anything like dramatic happens.

Speaker: ah This is ah This then ah Contrasted with the fact that his mother is Sat in the audience watching him Work out his anger on a dummy of her Did the version you watch Actually have him do the like Carrying open of the model yeah Oh yeah he bites a chunk out of the dummy I just remember him ripping its head off I don't know why Yeah true man I did like the punchline Of you know we're still going antiquing right mother And funnily enough, on the version that I watched, right at, like, kind of towards the last frame, whenever he's, like, sending Skinner off stage, bright blue buttons for eyes actually go dark.

Speaker: Whenever he lets go of the... Oh, no. really? Oh, oh. Oh, my God. This really was a treehouse of horror episode. ah Anyway, ah Brad says that as soon as you're not a human being, you're a human doing.

Speaker: This prompts Bart to interrupt and say he's a human going and try to walk out. Brad loves this. He wants him to come up on stage. wants to know why Bart yelled out that remark. He just wants to express himself.

Speaker: Bart says he does what he feels like. This inspires him. Bart is the inner child that he's been talking about. Yeah, they build it up to like Lisa's gonna be a big part of this episode with her with her reaction to this, but then she literally just says like, what?

Speaker: As in, you know, like questioning it. And then it's basically not seen or heard of, heard from for the rest of the episode. Barring like couple small things. Yeah, she pops up a couple times, but it's there just to like, almost to be that foil to contrast. They didn't know what they wanted to do with this episode. Yeah.

Speaker: No, they kind of didn't. It's weird because a lot of people actually seem to really quite like this episode, but I'm not convinced I'm on board with that line of thought right now. It's okay. It's fine. It's not good. Anyway, he he invites Marge and Homer up on stage to talk about what a great job they did parenting.

Speaker: And he's a little surprised that to find that their parents are a man with an obvious eating disorder and a woman whose hairstyle is, he's sure, only worn for shock value. What is Homer eating in that scene?

Speaker: Candy apples. Candy apples, I think, yeah. Are they red on the inside? Because animation is difficult. Yeah, mostly that. I think that was an animation job. For some reason, like, when I first saw them, I was like, Ollipops?

Speaker: Nah, candy apples. I don't know why there's candy apples at this lecture, but there are. I'll hope brought them. just got them on deck. He's just like, hmm. just pulls it out of his pocket. Pull out some candy apples, yeah. Oh, God, no. A candy apple that's been in someone's pocket. Blech.

Speaker: Imagine the lint. I'm just saying it had wrapper on it. I don't think it just fuzzy in his pocket. Imagine the lint. Adds texture. think Homer would eat it even with the lint, though. Gets between your teeth.

Speaker: Who needs to floss afterwards?

Speaker: Anyway, he says, we can all learn a lot from this young man, this, and Bart declares his name to be Rudiger.

Speaker: Mudge corrects him says, his name is Bart, but his name is not important. Doesn't matter what his name is. his This lad has fully developed ego integrity with well-defined boundaries.

Speaker: I don't like when Americans say lad. don't like when Americans lad. It's weird. It's almost as bad as when Americans say twat. Twat. Nah, but you don't say that, do You don't say that. You say it wrong. you don't. You say it wrong.

Speaker: And I genuinely just think, just don't use the insult because you're using it wrong. It doesn't sound... It's meant to sound offensive. It doesn't sound offensive when Americans say it. It sounds adorable. It sounds fucking adorable.

Speaker: I mean, would they could start by pronouncing it right. Exactly. If they said it right, it might actually sound like an in insult.

Speaker: Have you ever... Anyway... ah sorry. Go ahead. I'm trying to move us along. Go on. sim so Have your derailment. I was just going to derail on the aftermath of the events outside of the we like Roy thing. but Oh, yeah.

Speaker: We love Roy. So brad Brad whips the crowd up into frenzy. They start chanting, be like boy, be like boy. ah The seniors at the back chant, we like Roy, we like Roy. Yeah, I like that he's like, and now only the women.

Speaker: And then the seniors in the back. what what do you do What are you doing? Sage presence. yeah he's he's just Yeah, he's just being a he's just being a showman. yeah yeah That's all he knows.

Speaker: Anyway, ah this prompts everybody to get into Brad Goodman frenzy, theyre buying all his merch. Lisa's not sold. She says he's just peddling a bunch of easy answers.

Speaker: Again, shots fired at the self-help industry. Yep. It's true. ah We cut to a news broadcast. We've got Kent Brockman talking about the new mood in the area in Springfield. And I think it's about fucking time.

Speaker: Yeah, one of their few censored swear words. Yeah. yeah And also, who has not done this with a freaking cool whip? Or what do you guys call it there?

Speaker: Squirty cream? squake yeah Squirty cream. Who has not done this? Ken Brockman whips out two cans of squirty cream and just starts downing them both in his mouth on the air.

Speaker: What a great day you get to do that. yeah What a great day. Bart feels like a god, but Lisa reminds him that he's sitting on an ice cream sandwich. Haven't we all?

Speaker: No, is the answer to that question. Santa's little helper starts licking it off his I hated that bit. It's weird. I think you hate anything that has dogs licking things off people, though. Yeah, that's weird, man.

Speaker: don't let Don't do that. Just clean yourself like a fucking adult. Just licking in general in lot of shows feels very, very awkward. Yeah. Doesn't have to be a dog.

Speaker: So we get into Springfield having Bart fever. Lovejoy is giving a twist on his boring old sermon. Mrs. Fisch is told to take five and he starts playing... bird what is it? Is that the one?

Speaker: I forget what it's called. The Entertainer? Yeah. Yeah, it's the Entertainer. Yeah. he He has three cracks of that and screws it up every time.

Speaker: is that This drags on a little. They're doing they're doing a bit of a rape gag with this one, if we're honest, in an episode that's running long, but okay. They do have a lot of filler in this one, just in general.

Speaker: Yeah, because then they have Mayor Quimby, is it? Got Ms. Grabapples class, where everyone's interrupting her with, everyone's everyone's got to be a comedian. Everyone's doing the bat jokes, basically. Everyone's got to do their one-liners and get in front of Maroka so he can't talk.

Speaker: Yep, that's the ones. Yep. Yeah, she wants to know what Guglielmo Marconi's first broadcast was. um um I just went, Guglielmo Marconi mentioned, because his broadcast was done from within walking distance of where I live, so it's kind of cool. I like Marconi.

Speaker: But yeah, everyone's gonna be a comedian, Bart's not impressed, so he wants to cheer himself up by going spitting off the overpass, because that's what he loves to do. Everybody's doing it. All of Springfield's turned out to spit off the overpass. It is causing pile-ups beneath, like there are cars honking, crashing.

Speaker: It's... the There's a body count associated with this. Yeah. Someone definitely died. ah So Bart returns to his room Very morose Lisa comes in And wants to know why it sucks That everyone in town is acting like him I have a kind of like side gripe About the version I watched on this Because I watch with subtitles Because my speakers suck But um I watched on Amazon Prime You want to know how they spelled Lisa On this scene In the subtitles L-I-S-E

Speaker: Yeah, he he calls it Lise. Oh, he calls it Lise? That does not look like Lise. It looks like Lice without the, like, spelled wrong. The spelling, yeah, L-I-S-E the same spelling on Frinkiac as well. Yeah, he calls it Lise.

Speaker: Oh, that's so weird looking. Hmm.

Speaker: bothers me. It's Free Kitchen. It bothers Anyway, Lisa's here to explain things, as Lisa does, in a way that I'm sure Nat loves. i don't remember. I mean, it was just Lisa saying techno jargon.

Speaker: Like, it wasn't it wasn't particularly annoying because it was just Lisa being Lisa. the only the The times I'm annoyed at Lisa is when it's not funny. When it's just... ah I mean, I wouldn't say this was particularly funny, it is just trying to do some explanation here, but... I guess so. In the absence of a repressive milieu... I mean, I can be annoyed at Lisa if you want. I can say the line, I can say the thing if you want.

Speaker: Barca apparently fallen through the cracks of our quick fix one hour photo instant oatmeal society. Shut up, Lisa! There we go. I've fulfilled my congressional obligation. She suggests develops a better identity, such as potentially a good-natured doormat.

Speaker: true Back to the news, Kent Brockman is is announcing Springfield's Do What You Feel Festival inspired by recent events. It's gonna be whenever you feel like showing up.

Speaker: Better than now than our previous Do What We Tell You Festival. but it Started by German settlers in 1946. Yeah, yeah like yes that was an intense ah that was an intense joke.

Speaker: really concentrated done ah You have to cut that. You can't say that. Anyway, the the festival's opening up. Willie has taken Quimby's podium because that's what he feels like doing. He says if he's elected mayor, the first act will be to kill the whole lotty and burn your town to cinders. That genuinely wasn't in the Disney Plus version.

Speaker: Really? No, I do not remember that at all. Someone tells him that yeah your mic's on. He's like, I know it's on. Yeah, genuinely. I have no idea what talking about. oh shit wow Oh, shit. Wow. No kidding.

Speaker: That surprises me some aspects. Unless I spaced. Unless I spaced, but I genuinely do not remember that at all. It's in the scene where they're putting up the banner for the event.

Speaker: They might have cut it. i'm I'm fairly certain it went straight to Mayor quimy mayor mayor Quimby announcing the opening of the festival and doing the whole My Wife thing. I mean, there's a few things at the opening of it before we get to Quimby. Like, the next scene is Otto directing cars into the car Yeah, yeah, I knew that Just parking anywhere.

Speaker: We get a pan across the festival, seeing people doing whatever they're doing. Generally having a good time for the most part, really. Nothing massively outlandish. Ned and Carla playing steel drum.

Speaker: Wiggum's just having a sing-along. And we also get to the scene where... but Burns is having iced cream. I'm really sad this didn't... write This is the part that I thought was really sad they did not reference the last episode.

Speaker: Because he's like... Oh, he tells him he loves him, and he says, oh... And then he backs out of it and all those other stuff. then he goes in and says... Who am I kidding? The boathouse was the time. If it would have referenced the ballet instead of the boathouse, I think it would have been fine. It is in the episode. I must have just spaced.

Speaker: Because i I just went and checked that it is in there. Okay. Yeah, burnser Burns is a free spirit enjoying this so-called iced cream. Yeah, like that. Even though we've seen in previous um episodes him having ice cream as a child.

Speaker: Yes? yeah Yeah. It's been a... and that was that was a long time ago, let's be honest. He's the guy, man. Paddy and Selma are riding on a horse butt naked through the town. Yep.

Speaker: Completely unshaven. You can see hairy legs in the works. Feminism. Yep. Captain McAllister is absolutely unfazed by this. In fact, he's quite enthusiastic about it takes a picture. This keep company on those cold nights on the sea.

Speaker: Arr. Yeah. Arr.

Speaker: Homer is dressed like from Homer the Heretic. Oh, yeah. i bear The bear slippers. And yeah, dressing gown, toothbrush in his pocket as well. Excellent.

Speaker: Just in case. Marge... Marge's fit for this festival is, i have to say... fucking love this. It is great, but I also think it's weirdly 2025 coded. Yeah, kind is, man. Isn't that her...

Speaker: isn't that her um I don't know if they've had the hippie episodes for Marge yet where she has her hair down. and No, they haven't yet. Yeah, because that's the same kind of outfit she wears then, except she has a different colored shirt.

Speaker: It's kind of similar to what she wore in high school. Like when yeah in the flashback episodes where her and Homer meet. Yeah, four for context, for the viewers, listeners, but she is she is wearing dungarees. Love a woman in dungarees.

Speaker: Hell yeah, more of that. On top of her hair, she's got a red baseball cap worn backwards. Hell yeah, more women in dungarees. That's the kind of feminism I want. Dungarees are in, which is where I was like, huh, that's weirdly modern. like This is like 30 years ahead of its time. Fashion is cyclical.

Speaker: yeah It is, yeah. It is a fashion is cyclical kind of thing. yeah I mean, I dress like I'm selling cocaine in the 80s in Miami, so fashion is definitely cyclical.

Speaker: Apu and his family go past on skateboards because they're copycats at Bart. Skinner firing slingshots at Bart. yeah Then we get to Quimby finally opening the ceremony. He's got a bimbo on his arm who is not his wife but he is sleeping with her and he's fully open about that. He's comfortable with his womanising.

Speaker: Everyone's pretty enthusiastic about that. McAllister's getting more photos for those lonely nights at sea. The animators loved drawing her Yeah, yeah.

Speaker: And to usher in a new era of Feeling Good, we've got James Brown to sing I Feel Good. I loved how the band was not animated until they fell. The band do not move until they fall.

Speaker: Mm-hmm. ah This is it's such a weird bit for me that made me almost... For me, I almost felt like this episode started with getting James Brown to sing I Feel Good and worked backwards from there.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And whatever they couldn't work backwards from, they just put filler in for. They just used an old Treehouse of Horror fucking cutting room floor bit.

Speaker: Yep. Yeah. Because keep in mind, all of this started with Homer picking up a free trampoline. Mm-hmm. That's where this episode started. I also think it's weird because they've done this before with musicians sometimes where they get a musician on and then just have them do one of the songs they're best known for. And it's like, why did you get the actor on? You could have just licensed... If you all you wanted was the song, you could have licensed the song. you didn't have to get the actor to do the song. because it's He gets a line in a minute, but it is... I think they're trying to... Blink and you'll miss it. It is Simpsons. It is like the studio trying to show off.

Speaker: To some extent. Could have another theory on that. That it could be for licensing issues for syndication. If they have the person acting the thing, it's a unique performance.

Speaker: So if the license expires, that episode doesn't go out of rotation. That's true. Because it's a unique performance. But then the question is then why didn't they get Michael Jackson to sing?

Speaker: Because Michael Jackson does not sing in his episode. I don't know. Remember, we talked about this. Michael Jackson acts in his episode, but it's not. Licensing is complicated, I think. is like Yes, probably. The simplest answer we can give at the approaching three-hour mark.

Speaker: Michael Jackson, paying Michael Jackson, but the voice actor, is different to paying Michael Jackson, the world-renowned singer. yeah Yeah. Moving on. The episode's almost done. Anyway, James Brown observes that the bandstand wasn't double bolted. Guy didn't feel like it. Guy didn't feel like it.

Speaker: Marge doesn't want to judge him too much, but she says he he should have done his job. he should have done his job Turns out that Willie didn't feel like oiling the Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel crashes.

Speaker: Everything goes wrong. Fights start breaking out. Chaos ensues. They blame Bart. Bart hops in. ah Parade float with Homer They drive very slowly Wind blow blows all of the As soon as he yeah he flows it makes 5 miles an hour Which is fast enough to blow all the They're very very slowly getting away Quickly they're going to the old mill No we're not Well let's go to the old mill anyway We clearly didn't know how to end this bit The bit ends Then they're back at home watching TV Then we wrap up with everybody trying to find ah Something to say about society

Speaker: Yes. ah Fucking nothing. um Self-improvement is better left to people who live in big cities. ah Self-improvement can be achieved, but not with a quick fix. Long, arduous journey.

Speaker: And Homer concludes that we're all fine the way we are. Yes, that's exactly the ah the takeaway we should always come from the end of Simpsons, is that we're all perfect. And they start watching some sort of crime drama about a guy called McGonagall, who is also played by Albert Brooks.

Speaker: Homer yells at the TV. My dad does that too. It's funny. I've never understood yelling at the TV. My dad does it all the fucking time. I do it, honestly. I yell at movies and stuff.

Speaker: but When I'm on my own, I try not to do it when I'm in company. I'll grumble at video games, but with shows, it's like, i you know, I can't change the outcome. Yeah. I can't be mad at it.

Speaker: I can just turn it off and leave it on. Yeah, I don't think he yells. My dad doesn't yell because he's like actively annoyed. he's just It's just how he engages with television. How he de-stresses. I mean, we spent three hours yelling at two episodes of The Simpsons now. Hell yeah. So I'm just to straight to my summary because we're almost at three hours. Another pretty standard episode of The Simpsons. Honestly, talking about it. i've actually It's one of the few times we've watched we've talked about an episode I've enjoyed it less.

Speaker: Than when I watched it it's It's fine I was really happy to see the Trambampoline bit Finally in it's native habitat ah But overall this episode Was like super overstuffed With just not bits It could have easily been trimmed down ah To get to the plot sooner either make I would rather see the Treehouse of Horror cursed trampoline episode.

Speaker: The rest of this episode was mediocre. It was long enough to have fit entirely into a treehouse yeah as well. why It was like six minutes long. It's like third of the episode is just trampoline. So I would give it a tree free trampoline out of Homer. It's all fun and laughter until you're on it for too long and you break your back.

Speaker: Okay. Yeah. You were wondering where I was going with that. i For what it's worth, I also gave it a Tremampoline out of promo because it has a lot of ups and downs. I know i knew you would. That's why I went with the Tremampoline.

Speaker: Ow. I'll give it a human doing out of a human being.

Speaker: They did a lot in this episode that was absolutely pointless. It should have been a Treehouse of Horror. Absolutely. 100%. Would rather see cursed Tremampoline. 100%. 100%. and so and Does it have anything to say about society? ah For me, Lisa kind of sums it up at the end, you know, self-improvement, you know, but there's obviously the observation that we as a society love creating messiahs. We love venerating people rather than actually working on ourselves. Why not? Oh, they literally, in the end skimming bits, they're like, they literally do that. There's literally a statue. And they pans to a gold statue of Brad Goodman, yeah. Why not just worship Dr. Phil and pretend that's akin to improving yourself rather than actually going through the difficult task of being a better person?

Speaker: It did have stuff to say about society. I genuinely do think they were trying to make a joke and like a commentary on the way mob mentality works. You know, so I... Oh, they do so much with mob mentality. yeah I'm not sure like they ever really get anywhere with that. like For me, like the this the self-help stuff and poking fun at the like yeah over-reliance on that and yeah dubious effectiveness of that is probably like the bigger takeaway. I feel like the intent of it was that mob mentality thing, but i think the more pertinent underlying thing was how we...

Speaker: basically amplify small problems into big problems and then offer cheap, easy fixes so we can profit off of them. yeah The American dream. Yep. Yay. Love it.

Speaker: Capitalism ruining ruining everything since... Ever. Whenever. Yeah. We haven't always had capitalism. This is true. Ruining everything since feudalism. At least you had job security then.

Speaker: At least you knew what you would be doing half of the year. Working. yeah And usually you were housed. And you were housed. Al, thank you very much for joining us. Please tell the good people where they can find you and what you're up to.

Speaker: Um, I do refuse. I do let's plays. I do streams all about gaming stuff. I am working on my own TTRPG. It will be finished in soon. Trademark.

Speaker: You know how that goes. Yeah. I mean, I've been a fan of Blizzard games for a very long time. I know what soon TM means.

Speaker: 20 years. It'll just pop out of nowhere. But yeah you can find me on YouTube and Twitch mostly and on blue sky. All at Al's wrath. if you can remember how to spell it.

Speaker: There'll be links in the description. Matt, what you got going on? I'm Matt, twitch.tv slash MrGablin. I stream every day at 3pm GMT. I took the day off today because was ill.

Speaker: But yeah, I'm currently streaming through Rogue Trader. It's been fantastic so far. Once I finish that, I'm going to do another run of Rogue Trader, but I'm also going to be doing a side run of Pathfinder, Wrath of the Righteous, because I'm just really enjoying Owlcat at the moment.

Speaker: Other than that, I'm on Blue Sky at Map Perspective. I just occasionally post about my shitty thoughts on reality, like the fact that I think I'm too young for Beyonce.

Speaker: Go to my Blue Sky to find out what the fuck that means. Other than that, suck my dick. Right. Well, there'll be a link to Sucking Matt's Deck in the description below.

Speaker: Hell yeah. That's why I come on podcasts.

Speaker: And as ever, don't forget to check out all the other versions of this podcast if this is not your preferred one. If you're listening in the audios, there's a video version. if you're on the video version, there are audio versions.

Speaker: Video version comes with bonus snarky remarks and fact checking from me occasionally if you want the extra content there. Yeah, and I make jokes about it, but I do genuinely appreciate everyone that comments with their thoughts and stuff. you know Because for one, engagement drives the algorithm. That's very important. So if you do have a thought, please do comment.

Speaker: I might make a joke, but that's just to let you know that I do read them. Even if you don't have a thought, leave a comment. Please let us know when you don't have thoughts. Every time you don't have a thought, comment on one of the Simpsons episodes.

Speaker: Randomly. Just when you're at work and you're not having a thought, when you get home, find a random All Man in the Morning episode, leave a comment. Or if you're like, what did I just hear? Leave a comment.

Speaker: Yeah. Which, if you're listening to me, should be a regular question.

Speaker: The fuck he just said? Follow me on Blue Sky, I'm at Maroka. My old YouTube content is Button Mash on YouTube. Still genuinely some of the best LGBT discussion videos on Maroka's channel. Genuinely, go watch. And kick-ass reviews. didn't make that much of it, but thank you.

Speaker: and i know I've genuinely watched your, um the discussion about LGBTQ stuff in gaming where you like talk about your transness and stuff. I've watched it like four times. No wait, thank you.

Speaker: Genuinely fantastic video. Go watch it, guys. Yay. ah But yeah, we're we're past the three hour mark according to my recording. So we are going to fuck off and do something else for a bit. I need to pee so bad.

Speaker: This is so long. Thanks. Bye. The dragon soup is in me. Bye. but