Talking Simpsons - Talk To The Audience?!? - April 2025

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

As Simpsons season 36 comes to a close, we're up to our necks in an incredible amount of news on this super-size episode of Talk to the Audience. Listen in as we discuss the Simpsons' four-season renewal, a new voice for Jimbo Jones, the potential loss of a historic writing room, and Nancy Cartwright's new video podcast. And, as always, we read and respond to your questions and comments from the most recent round of episodes. Plus: our extended thoughts on the Switch 2—it's the reason you're listening to a Simpsons podcast!

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Big renewals, cast member changes, five new episodes. We're only talking about four of them. I refuse to talk about all five. Wait until next month. But we are kind of making up for the last few months of us just trying to scrape the news barrel for the few news remnants that have been left. There was like the, it was one of those classic talk to the audience situations where

within days of the posting of the March 1, comes the beginning of the onslaught of news and new episodes and all of the stuff coming out happens right after, like including one that seemed entirely timed for the first episode of Talking Simpsons we put out in April Not intentionally. So let's go over some of the new stuff first the four new episodes that aired again We'll be talking about the fifth one next month

I did not want to clog up the beginning of this podcast with a discussion about five new episodes Because I watch these all back-to-back and I'm trying to keep all the facts straight in my head So the first one was the flan cheese of inner Simpson It was not a parody of the movie that has a similar title in any way because in this Bart becomes a DJ this leads to Flanders vowing to never speak to Homer again And Judge Constance harm makes an appearance in episode, and Rachel Bloom plays a couples counselor, and apparently they really like Rachel Bloom because this is her fourth appearance on the show as just a random character. Yeah.

So, oh sorry, go ahead. Oh no, yeah, she's done a ton of voicing on the show. They really like, they do really like her. I think too, I think her husband has like written stuff for Simpsons related things, but I mean, I might have that mixed up. stuff for Simpsons related things but I mean I might have that mixed up but and yeah and there's a fun mashup over the credits by the group the hood internet which is really fun although it's one of those things where I feel like often in these modern seasons they are relying too much on golden era references which feels a little desperate although this on its own is very fun but attached to a new episode it feels a little sweaty but this one was fine. It did not go in the direction. I assumed it would go

It feels like kind of playing off Homer loves Flanders a little bit that classic episode So I did enjoy this one Yeah, you know that mind palace thing where they they talked to each other like that It felt like the third time in this season, they have referenced Homer walking backwards into the bushes like that. I feel like they need to limit themselves to that self-referential one,

at least that one specific, once a season. Just do that once a season. They seem very fixated on that one old reference, and maybe it's because David Merkin still writes for the show and that was his joke, but I like them back away from that, no pun intended. So Flanshees of Inner Simpson, the next episode was... Wasn't it a little based on the Banshees of Inner Sheeran, at least with the old Irish lady who was telling them there was some curse or something. Yes. That, so you're right about that. There was a character from this

parody that was similar to what was in the original movie, but I think that was it and I think the joke was we don't know who this woman is and we don't know why she keeps showing up, but she's inessential to the plot. Okay they've seen it was this them just working backwards from a pun title. I wonder. Yeah I don't know and yet the DJ stuff felt, I don't know, a little dated. I know DJs have always been a thing, but I'm just thinking, is there new DJ humor to mine? I don't know.

Like the big joke in this one is Bart waited too long to drop the beat, and that caused a huge disaster, and I was like, have we done this joke before? It just feels like kind of dated. It felt like 50-year year old writers learning how much a professional DJ makes and then saying all they do is press play on something and then Bart can tell you, no, actually it's very hard to be a DJ.

Maybe it's because all of my old friends from back home, they all became DJs like in the late aughts, early 2010s. So I learned all of these things and learned all the jokes a very long time ago so it doesn't seem very fresh to me but maybe it was fresh to you. The next episode was The Last Man Expanding. This was their obligatory Ozempic episode and I have mixed feelings about this one because it's a little fat-shamy and it's also expressing a lot of skepticism about what the show feels is a quick fix drug. And yes, you should be skeptical about Big Pharma, obviously, and The Simpsons usually

takes those sort of stances. But it feels, the point of the show seems to be like, well, this is kind of cheating, and the people who cheat are going to experience these unseen side effects later in life because they're taking the easy way out. Yeah, you know, it really felt like a sequel to the Ritalin episode, the focus in one of just like there's a new drug out that deals with a problem that Simpsons writers can identify with like in the focus in episode, they were kids, they probably see themselves as the type of kids who would have been prescribed riddle in in their youth so

also for some of the heavier Simpsons writers they're like oh well I have been given Ozempic and is it just too easy a quick fix and do we not know all the side effects though like everybody I know who has admitted to using it like like talking Simpsons guest Mike Mitchell has been, he's using a, not Ozempic, the brand, but he's been open about it and he's saying it does work. It has helped him and it doesn't seem like there's much of any side effects to it. It just helps people.

I think my only issues with it is seems to be that which I don't think they really addressed in the show is like the price of it and that often insurance doesn't cover it as as as Mitch has talked about this there's there's one little joke about that but that does not seem to be what their criticism is really attacking in this episode and I guess the other kind of overplay joke is the whole ozempic face thing where? But I feel like that is not the result of the drug itself. It's the result of rapid weight loss It's just when you lose a lot of weights

You're you get loose skin as a result regardless of how fast you lose it But it becomes more evident if you lose weight very quickly, which is what ozempic seems to do and yes You're right. It does seem to work very well for people. I hope there's no horrible side effects later down the line, but whenever I go to a movie now, I see at least two commercials before the movie for these weight loss injections. And the episode also posits that when you stop taking it, it instantly begins again and then restarts. I mean, I wonder if this episode feels very algein to me. Like it feels like it is a bigger idea episode that ends with a big speech by

Homer about why he doesn't want to take it and why it actually they have to like steal Homer's fat. And I did like the Luigi line that he says like, no, the bit of people lying about it, how everybody's like, no, I don't take it, but it's great, but I don't take it. I did laugh at the attached shame that people feel about lying that they're not taking it, when we shouldn't want people to feel ashamed of it, they shouldn't be as ashamed, I think.

I really don't know a lot about the drug, but I have watched a lot of My 600-lb Life, that reality documentary show, and it seems like Ozempic is very good because the thing that gets in the way for most people losing weight is the cravings and the addiction, and the fact that this is an appetite suppressant is very, very important for the weight loss to begin. And I feel like that is a hurdle a lot of people cannot get over, so if it can be medically induced a loss of appetite, that's great. No, I mean, that has been my own,

I never have used it. I feel like I'm out of the zone of needing it now, but at my heavier weight, I would have welcomed it and would have definitely asked a doctor about it like five years ago when I was about 100 pounds heavier. I probably would have looked into it. That is the hardest part for me that I want to, I want to eat trash all of the time. And I've heard, I've, I've heard this, uh, the pro wrestler Mick Foley,

who's had his own weight struggles. He talked about this too of like, if you are an alcoholic, it does feel like you, you know, you can't live without drinking, but technically you don't, you can live your life without alcohol, but like, you have to eat. You have to eat. You can change what you eat, but you had chewing and swallowing food and tasting it. That is existence. And so like you, it, it, it is harder to live without that and control that better. And they had a special guest for this episode. I did look up how to pronounce

her name because it is, I believe is she from she is Danish so the guest is Cisa Babette Knudsen who is playing the Othinquik pen which Othinquik is the parody of Ozempic but they make a joke in the episode where Ozempic also exists in this world sort of like Legoland Blokkoland but right to quote Marge's mom I don't know who that is. Yeah, boy, I'm looking at this here. It comes to Cisa. I only, the only Western thing she's been in that I've heard of was that Westworld show,

but I didn't give that a watch. Yeah, this is a new person to me as well, though just right up there with Judge Freakin' Reinhold. Yeah, apparently S-I-D-S-E is pronounced Sisa according to the Wikipedia display of the phonetic alphabet, which I can read. A useless skill. You know, I like they had Fat Tony lose weight,

though he already was Fit Tony. I feel like they forgot this bit, that Fat Tony was once Fit Tony after the original Fat Tony died. That is true. Yeah, I think they forgot their own lore. Well, there should have been a third act where a skin removal surgery place takes over Springfield because now everybody wants to get their loose skin removed.

Yeah, I think instead they have to steal Homer's. They want Homer to be fat to steal, his fat to stick it, put it in their faces. Oh, and I liked the character design challenge that I think they did all right with of, so many Simpson Springfieldians are fat, and how do you redesign, you don't even think of Kent Brockman as a fat character, but then when they redesign him, you can tell. They all have the inverted light bulb body,

all of the adult men, so every every adult man is fat except for like Otto. Yes, he's the one skinny guy, he's the one guy who's young, who's within his 20s, and the one adult male who's not fat. So that was Last Man Expanding. We also have PSI Hate You. So Marge is blackmailed when her secret box of hate letters are stolen by an unknown third party This had a few special guests including Tim Meadows as himself in a kind of fun role at the end of the episode John Levitz and Beverly D'Angelo are voicing Artie Zip and Lerling Lumpkin But they just say one thing each and this is also the first appearance of a new voice for Jimbo which we'll cover later So this episode I think is good. It does explore Marge's

character. Why is she so nice? Well she writes all these evil nasty things and does not mail them. She just puts them in a box but then somebody steals the box. Although it is presenting the idea that Marge was a high school girl when Tim Meadows left SNL and I don't like that. Yep yeah that one hurts especially because they still, they're having, I feel like they're doing it intentionally to hurt us with that dissonance because she is 70s look Marge talking about like late 90s Tim, no, early 2000s Tim Meadows was him leaving SNL, right?

Yeah, I think he left in 2000. Yeah, geez, I mean, that again, it fits, recently I was chatting over lunch with somebody, too, about how Homer now is a guy who watched the Star Wars special editions in theaters. That's how he first saw Star Wars, not on a date with Marge. So that was PSI Hate You. And the last one we'll talk about was a Disney Plus

exclusive, Try to Find It. If you forget where they put these things, I was on Disney plus the day it came out I didn't see it getting promoted this yellow planet episode But to remind everybody out there when you're on Disney plus you have to scroll the seasons listing up Before season one to the I think extras or specials that it's labeled and you'll see this episode along with The Christmas one they did recently and the time travel one they did right after that So this one is called yellow planet and the question is what if the Simpsons were animals in a National Geographic style documentary? Well Futurama did this 15 years earlier was called nature ramen. It wasn't very good. This one isn't very good either

I thought it was very very corny But unfortunately this kind of mid episode mid-to-bad episode is the last performance of Pamela Hayden as Jimbo in Millhouse versions of animals. Yes, it's it felt I honestly felt kind of sad but also it almost felt fitting that what's her final appearance as a mill as as Millhouse was the Millhouse lizard who is ripped to pieces and dies on screen like pretty horribly like so like technically she plays millhouse when millhouse dies in her last scene it's what a way to go out but yeah this would have worked as a segment in a tree house of horror just

because there's so much death in this in this episode But I was getting kind of bored of the concept. It's the opposite of a Futurama episode we're gonna be covering soon, where in that Futurama episode, there are three acts, and each act is a Christmas special. And I'm just thinking, I want each of these acts to be their own episode. You're kind of wasting these ideas.

This, I think, this idea can only sustain seven minutes, and I wish it was seven minutes. Yeah, I think it felt like they didn't want it to be a just a pure trilogy format-wise. So instead they stretched out the whale one to make it longer than the other ones and then just cut them up differently. I liked the Lisa as a Bird one just because it was a series of ridiculous bird puns just shoved in your face. The best part about it was just seeing the designs,

but if you just presented me with a gallery of those, I would have been happy. And there are some very odd choices in this. So yeah, there's a story about Marge and Homer as different sea mammals, and of course, the Simpsons characters are playing different animal versions of themselves. But in this story, Marge's mom is Marge's mom as a, I believe, humpback whale or narwhal.

I think it's a narwhal. They're narwhals, yeah, yeah. But her dad is Rainier Wolf Castle as a narwhal. I'm like, why, of all characters, you chose him? I mean, I guess you had to choose someone if you needed a father, because Marge's dad is such an unknown character. It's entirely for one joke of he's anti-Semitic towards Homer's character.

Is he something that sounds like Jewish? And so they're like, well, let's give it to the Arnold Schwarzenegger style character. I see. I see. Another pretty old joke. But yeah, it's fine. I'm glad it's hidden from the world in the extra section and it does seem to me to be like branded content. I yeah I mean it definitely promoted to me that like on oh did you know on Disney Plus there's the the opening gag is nobody

clicks on the National Geographic tab on Disney Plus so it does feel like them promoting you should watch National Geographic tab on Disney Plus. So it does feel like them promoting you should watch National Geographic documentaries on Disney Plus. And yeah, there was another episode that aired just two days ago. We're recording this today. It goes up on Patreon, by the way.

So right at the last minute, it was called Abe League of their Mo. I love the title and how sweaty it is, but we'll cover it next month because we've already spent 20 minutes upfront talking about the newest four episodes. And there's only gonna be three more before the season ends. So we'll cover all next month because we've already spent 20 minutes up front talking about the newest four episodes and there's only going to be three more before the season ends. So we'll cover all those next month.

Yeah, you know, one more yellow planet thing I thought was I did like the narrator, the British dude, Hugh Bonneville, who Paddington's dad, though I didn't like, boy did it feel dated to have a March of the Penguins Morgan Freeman joke in there. Like when it goes to the Penguin documentary, a Morgan Freeman type of voice comes in and goes like, hey, I do the penguins. It's like, that is 20 years old, guys. Yeah, there are some references where I think, is this classic now or is this just incredibly dated? Has it crossed over into the classic era? I forgot to write it down, but there is some extended parody in one of these where it felt like they were doing West Side

Story again or something. It was just something that they would have done on the critic in the 90s, but I completely forget what it was. Well, and they did the free willy doesn't make the jump and kills a person joke. I was like, guys, you did this in season five. Yes. I don't like this new director's cut. Yeah, they did a free Willy gag in this. So yeah, just a few dated jokes popping up here and there. You'll have that when the writing staff is aging at a rapid rate, at incredible speed.

Well, yes, speaking of aging, right? Oh, yes, speaking of aging. So lordy, lordy, look who's 40. Why it's the Simpsons? Because soon they'll be reaching season 40 because in big renewal news, Fox renewed the Simpsons for four additional seasons, which means this will bring the total number of seasons up to 40 if the show ends there.

I bet it'll be renewed again, who knows what'll happen in the meantime, but as part of this renewal news, Fox is renewing a lot of animated shows, they're really building up their animation catalog so Family Guy and Bob's Burgers were also renewed for four more seasons and as we reported last month American Dad was renewed for four seasons so they're just buying up everything they own to build up their animation portfolio. American Dad unkillable and I watched the whole new season of American dad and it is great though also

It totally feels like Seth MacFarlane told them I will only do so much Stan Smith the season So write less for him and he there's way less of him But god fit all of those getting for once this it almost feels like them future proofing of like well four years from now We don't know what we're gonna renew. So let's just get all four at once right now And the big downside is if you like The Simpsons and we assume you do if you listen to that these new seasons will only Have 15 episodes each which is a pretty big step down from their normal orders of around 22 per season Although broadcast season 35 only had 18 episodes likely due to various strikes So it feels like the amount

has been winnowed down in these past few seasons. And I think broadcast 36 might only have 18 or 19 by the time they finish off the season. Yeah, I think with the, I look at it two ways for why they're doing it. One that I think economically, when they renew it for 40, for four more more seasons if they did it at 22 episodes then they're paying for 88 and if they get it to 15 then they're only paying for 60 so they are yeah they're only paying for 60 so technically even though this is a four season renewal it's more like they renewed it for three seasons like they've renewed one seasons less worth of episodes so it makes more money since that way and just some scary math here on the show this

will bring the episode count up to around 900 and if Harry Shearer makes it to the end of this run without retiring or retiring from life he will be 85 years old and getting even closer to mr. Burns final age of 104 I think he has already reached the 81 years old that mr. Burns claimed final age of 104. I think he has already reached the 81 years old that Mr. Burns claimed he was in Simpson and Delilah. Right, he's like, I'm only 81. Like, yeah, he's past that now. That's, I also think that 15 episode order

is because they're programming now. I kept saying they keep building up all these other shows that are bento box or Fox Studios that aren't owned by Disney. And I think they thought those would replace them. But now it does feel like they're going to do what they did this last year, which is we'll just show Simpsons instead of Simpsons Family Guy and Bob's Burgers taking up the three of the four slots all year long.

Instead it'll just be with fewer new episodes for a fourth of the year. It'll be Simpsons plus three new shows, then Family Guy plus the three new shows. It's still, I think, to make room for the newer shows and try to still give them a boost from the classics. And it seems like the Simpsons and all of these legacy shows are a lot more expensive than a new show would be so it feels like they're they're cutting these episode orders to spread money around like you said for to build up new programming that will hopefully take off more than things like Duncanville and other programs. Bless the hearts. Bless the hearts. Yeah, or the dog show that Scott Garner even wrote an episode for. House Broken?

Yeah, that's the one. Is that it? Yeah, yeah. So yes, and also we'll cover this on Talking of the Hill next month in June, but a lot of information about the new seasons has been leaked, and so we know writers, we know episode titles, we've learned a few things about who is voicing certain characters,

so we'll cover that on Talking of the Hill, but I just wanted to let everyone know we're aware of that news and I'm excited about it. Me too. And it seems like an official trailer will be coming like any day now. I feel like we're going to wake up and be like, okay, here we're finally with how much stuff is leaking out and like episode titles and episode counts and all that. I wonder wonder you know on that episode title list I do wonder if they're treating it like a full relaunch because the pilot is written by the new showrunner and Daniels and judge which feels like a repiloting

For like payment reasons they want to be the the pilot writer of it. I wonder yeah It does look like some writers. I love our back like norm his cock who is the head writer of kids in the hall He was a huge writer on king of the hill. I'm glad to see his name show up, too Well, hey speaking of shows returning yes Possibly returning so these smaller episode orders for the Simpsons may give Executive producers who've been on the show for 25 consecutive years much less to do and by that I mean Al Jean Because he was recently gauging interest online for a potential reboot of the Critic.

So via Twitter, Al Jean said this, quote, just curious, how many of you would like to see the Critic with at real John Lovett's return? And of course, this got a lot of retweets, a lot of responses, a lot of quote retweets, and even John Lovett was on board. He tweeted out, Critic fans, you keep telling me you want it back. I've been trying for years.

Well now creator Al Jean is on board. If you want it back, we need your help. Please like this post and spread the word so we can show the studio how many people want it. So John Lovitz also has a lot of time on his hands. This is not the 90s anymore. There are no John Lovitz projects in the works. So he has

apparently it sounds like he's been wanting the critic to come back for a very long time now and I feel with all of this legacy content getting soft reboots or just you know Just coming back as if nothing ever happened like Beavis and Butthead this could be a Potential show and if you look at the king of the hill the reboot where they're doing a time jump We can potentially see that for The critic as well with how film criticism has changed over the years Yeah, though, you know there they had so many original jokes that that would imply that J That J I always called him J love it's J Sherman would not live to the age of his like his 60s

They had so many jokes of like no he's gonna die choking on a sandwich at like 58 or something. I think was what they said. We don't know if he'll live to be the world's fattest man, but we're gonna find out hopefully. Right. Man, like I, you know, ten years ago, I think it was they were talking about, like Mike Reese, I think would always say, if we were to bring it back, not only are several of the actors now gone, If we were to bring it back, not only are several of the actors now gone, but also that Al Jean is just too busy with the Simpsons. Like, he can't, and they wouldn't want to do it without him. I also don't think Mike Reese doesn't, he loves traveling the world.

He doesn't want to work full time on a TV show again, which is what show running the critic would be for him. And I mean, notice how they're not adding Mike Reese in this in this stuff in it. I don't think he's going to these the meetings that Al Jean is probably trying to set up to pitch the critic reboot to Netflix and Hulu and all these places. Yeah, I wonder if this gets off the ground. Mike Reese usually spends one day in LA every week, or at least he did before the pandemic. He might be back to that now. Maybe he'll spend an hour of that day

pitching critic jokes to Al Jean, who knows. But I'd like to see this come back. Why not is my question. Who cares? Let's just see more of this. Let's see what they can do. If it's bad, it can't be worse than the webisodes. And we covered those on our Patreon.

I do think with those fewer episodes of Simpsons, that does mean that like Al Jean is working, he was already doing less on the Simpsons in the previous years. it seems like he has been fully moved over in the Simpsons land. Like, well I just came back from LA, and those are some of the rumblings I was hearing that Al Jean, Al Jean has some more free time these days

from Simpsons work. And we've been hearing other rumblings as well because the official news is that Disney is leaving the Fox lot in Century City when the lease expires in March of 2026. And by the way, this is where the Simpson staff have gathered to write the show since it began in 1989. And Henry, you heard unconfirmed reports

from anonymous sources that this seems likely. They're going to leave the often stinky writers room with the famous caramel glob on the ceiling that's been there since 37 years ago. I it's yes I have heard I just came back from Los Angeles and and yes we have you you hear things when you're there in La La Land and then one of those things is that like oh yeah this is definitely happening. The Simpsons are, these are things I'm hearing from unnamed sources that the Simpsons are leaving their offices sooner than later. Like they're not going to wait till it won't be next year when the lease runs out that the Simpsons will lose those offices. Though there's

no word on where it would be. I mean, I believe the situation always was that, you know, dating back to probably 1985 or something, Gracie films had offices there at the Century City Fox lot. And that natural extension from that, when they started doing the Tracy Oman show was producing Tracy Oman there and having the writers room. And then offshoot from that is, well, since you're on, since Gracie is here with their offices in the Century City lot of Fox, then this is where the Simpsons production will be.

And the writers will have their office there. And it's been that way since Sam Simon built the writers room in 89. And even before that, Matt Groening has been working on that lot since 87 to record the, I mean, he'd work at a Classy Chupo offices, the animation side and his own home office. But when he'd record with the actors, it would

be on this lot. Like this is Simpsons history, the Fox lot that they're leaving. That's where it, we muddled around there for a few hours even. And some of these writers have spent more than half of their lives reporting to this office to write The Simpsons. Yes, right. It's like, it has to be, just think of Al Jean alone, of just like, this has to be a major moment in his life, like to just be like, oh, I have to, this place I have lived more than any place I've ever been, it's older, I've been here, if I'm thinking like Al Jean,

I've been here longer than all my children who've been alive Than all of my marriages like I've this is the rock constant in my life And now thanks to Disney buying the Fox company and signing a lease for ten years that then once it runs out They're never gonna renew it now. It's over. It's just over. It's that that has to be rough for him I say make it a museum to the Simpsons. Preserve it in some way. I feel like instead it's going to get run. Yes, there needs to be a Fox Studio tour that's only for the Simpsons fans. And they will get people paying for it. Big time. But I don't think they're cool enough to do that at the Fox Studios.

Just put cardboard cutouts of all the writers circa 1992 in the room like John Swartzwalder's on the couch, Conan O'Brien is eating a big greasy bag of chicken. Get it get it sponsored by Butterfinger get the Mars Company or whoever owns Butterfinger to pay it'd be like yes so many Butterfingers were eaten here as well. We want to see it happen so yes we're gonna keep tabs on that news item. And I mentioned this earlier, but Jimbo Jones has a new voice. And that new voice is former Mad TV star Mo Collins. And not to be glib or weird about it, but if you're thinking of Mo Collins,

you know the white lady from Mad TV? No, not that one. The other one. That's Mo Collins. And if you see a picture of her, you'll be like, oh, I know who that is. But she has done a ton of voice acting in her career. So she is not just kind of stumbling into this role.

But she is about 25 years late to the party when it comes to mad TV players getting cast as regular characters on adult animated sitcoms that air on Fox. So we have Nicole Solomon, Alex Borstein, Dave Herman, Phil Namar. So many people just were slotted into these voice roles, but she wasn't.

It took her, yeah, you're right, she took a very roundabout way of getting there. It was also nuts how the headlines, or the first headline I saw was Jimbo Jones cast as our new Simpsons voice from his Parks and Rec star. And I was like, I mean, she's very funny on Parks and Rec star. And I was like, I mean, she is, she's very funny on Parks and Rec as the, you know, Cathy Kelly type talk show host on it,

but that's not who I first, but that's my age, I think of her as a mad TV actor. Oh yeah, absolutely. When I see her, I think of her playing like Stuart's mom, or one of her many characters on the show. But yeah, not trying to be dismissive of her up front, but Nicole Sullivan is clearly the one who stood out the most and got in earlier when it came to doing all of these

voice acting roles right after Man TV. Oh yeah, and now Dave Herman and Phil LaMarr, they're in like 800 cartoons every day. Like they're still very busy guys. It also was interesting in that article, and this was also rumblings I heard in LA, at the time like she she is only Jimbo and she won't be Millhouse Like it didn't they they weren't casting her for Millhouse by the sound of it even from the article Millhouse isn't gonna be Mo Collins. It'll be somebody else who's Millhouse. So

This is creating like Pamela Hayden's exit is creating, like, multiple new jobs for hackers. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be a problem as more of these folks step down that we're doing more than one voice. With someone like Rucy Taylor, it's like, oh, well, you were Martin and Udder. We could probably grab one person to do this. But with Pamela Hayden, Harry Shear, Hank Azaria,

as they step down or pass away, we're gonna find, like, oh, we're gonna hire a staff to take care of Hank Azaria's voices alone, or Harry Shear's voices alone. Yeah, oh, and're gonna hire a staff to take care of Hank Azaria's voices alone or Harry Shearer's voices alone. Yeah, okay. And God forbid when they lose, if they lose Dan at some point too, like, but great, you know, great, Elial has done a great job taking over most of the Roostie voices, I think, if not all of them.

I think she's definitely Martin and the twins, like those, those piggies. Definitely looking forward to the announcement of the new Millhouse voice and hearing it because Millhouse is a very essential character one of the top B-list characters on the show so I think they're being very careful with how they're recasting him and I want to see another Millhouse appearance very soon. I don't think we're gonna see one this season it feels like. Yeah you would think they would have locked in if there was gonna be another Millhouse moment this season you would think they would have locked in if there was going to be another mailhouse moment this season you would think they'd have locked him in but then again these things could be done at the very like they they could just have a temp voice up until the week before

it airs and then just find the the person they want and cover it so they they could be doing it that that uh by the skin of their teeth. We're gonna have to wait and see but our last news item is that Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart and many others, is officially stealing our bits by starting her own podcast, although I will say it's a video podcast, so it's a different field entirely.

We don't do video podcasts. Simply because we're so attractive, it would distract you from all of the great information and jokes that are coming out of our mouths. We don't wanna do that to our audience. But this is from Variety, so quote, on Simpsons Declassified, Cartwright promises to share untold stories from the animated series

over nearly four decades, including behind-the-scenes moments and personal anecdotes from inside the writer's room and behind the mic. Each episode will explore the show's most jaw-dropping predictions and long-running conspiracies, joined by guest stars, writers, directors, and celebrities who reveal their favorite fan theories, hot takes, and secrets from inside Springfield.

So this is gonna be interesting. I like seeing this more than I like just seeing some random celebrity have a podcast where they talk to friends. Not a fan of them, or Nancy, supporting the Simpsons conspiracy world, which I feel like has been reigned in over the years, but I'm sure she'll be having fun with it. But I'm hoping at least new stories about the production of the show will come out from

Nancy Cartwright and the folks she's talking to. Yeah. I hope that when she says writers and directors, I mean, I hope she is going to get her friend, like the people who worked on the show to do it. I mean, I do think she, she on the commentaries and those are decades old now, but she would bring in her original scripts and she had like specific memories of, you know, there are, I love hearing Julie Kavner on commentaries at times, but it seems like she has no memory of doing the episodes and didn't like it.

They weren't that big a deal to her, it seems like. Not that she didn't work hard or anything, but Cartwright, meanwhile, it does seem to be at least a fan of working on the stuff she liked working on. Yeah. I mean, Cavner was more of a serious actor, even though she was a sketch and comedic actor. She was appearing in Woody Allen movies and James L. Brooks movies. She did not make The Simpsons her life, although I'm sure she's having a great time. Yeah, yeah. And while meanwhile, Cartwright I think likes being a fan of the, though it's

funny that Yardley Smith, meanwhile, she could have done a similar thing like this, but her podcast that is very successful, she went in the true crime direction instead of the talking about the show direction. I am surprised it took this long for an office lady style show about The Simpsons because that was such a successful podcast. But let's see them put out a three hour episode, I dare them. Good luck to you, Nancy.

But I'm sure she's gonna have some fun stories, and especially if she can get graining on there, he so rarely does podcast appearances. He doesn't do too many stories on his podcast. There's not too many old stories I've heard from him, so maybe she can get him, that'd be fun. Well, he has two shows in production and enumerous small children to take care of, so a very, very busy guy these days.

Yeah, it's, or I'd love to hear her have on David Silverman and talk about their shared history. That's right. Going to college together. They go way back. But yeah, that is the last Simpsons News Item, a very busy news month, and I'm sure there'll be more news next month as production season 36,

or sorry, broadcast season 36 wraps up. Let's talk about us though. Let's talk about our schedule for next month. So our What a Cartoon slot for next month will be taking a bit of a diversion because I will say we have been attacked by self-imposed overwork when it comes to What a Cartoon because the last couple of months have been three hour episodes about new things that we haven't covered before. And that's completely on us. Those were our decisions to make. But because of putting all that work behind us, we wanted to take it a little bit easier this month. So instead of doing a What

a Cartoon, we are presenting a new episode of our Blab and Bow Batman, the animated series series. And it's going to be all about the cartoon, The the laughing fish and I just got it back from the editor it's like an hour 45 so it's not that short but it also completes our promised order of Batman the animated series podcast what we will be back to deliver more in the future yeah this one's gonna be free to everybody is in the what a cartoon feed but if you enjoy it definitely check out the over 20 previous blabbing about Batman the Animated Series episodes we did that are all great. This was, I love talking about The Laughing Fish.

It is one of my favorites from the whole series. Yeah, I didn't remember that much about it, but I had a great time revisiting it. So yes, look forward to a new episode about us covering Batman the Animated Series. And if you're on the free feed, you probably haven't heard a lot of these. So please look forward to a new episode about us covering Batman the animated series and if you're on the free feed you probably haven't Heard a lot of these so please look forward to that and so on the patreon at patreon.com Talking Simpsons at the $5 level we have our normal miniseries episodes so for talking Futurama We're covering the mutants are revolting which is the hundredth episode of Futurama technically because the movies are each four episodes blah blah blah blah blah but it's about kind of because the movies are each four episodes, blah blah blah blah blah. But it's about

kind of finishing off the mutant storylines to remove that depressing element of Futurama, the whole underclass thing that can't visit the surface. They resolve that in the episode and it's a fun one. Yeah, they have a lot of fun with finally addressing it. It feels like they did resolve a big thing for the hundredth episode and They did resolve a big thing for the 100th episode. And there's, I mean, yes, once they say, this is segregation in the episode, it's like, oh, this stopped being funny for a minute here. But it's a great 100th episode,

and we had a lot of fun talking about it. And they find a second equally funny way to parody the Titanic, so credit for that. Oh, yeah, honestly funnier than a flight to remember, I'd say. Yeah, I like it a little bit more. And for Talking of the Hill, we're covering a beer can named Desire, the season four episode in which Hank enters a contest where he has to throw the football through the giant Alamo can, and Bill enters some women for the first time in a very long time, because this is the episode where Bill actually gets a break.

The episode ends with the famous line, both of them. So look forward to that. Enter some wow. It's a great as the summer heats up, it's a great one to listen to while fanning yourself from the hot summer days. Give me the horribles. Yeah. The introduction of Jill Baer, the great character who does make a return much much later in the run. I believe someone was pointing that out on the patreon

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I it's blood and sauce is the episode. Yeah. Yeah, he's he's the only one who I Forgotten about that until later later after afterwards. So yeah, a really fun episode of King of the Hill I'd love to see Bill get a win and So yeah, a really fun episode of King of the Hill. I'd love to see Bill get a win and For what a cartoon movie we are kicking off what we're unofficially calling our odds naughty oddies Disney summer I don't know what we're calling it but it's all gonna kick off with not the best movie but a movie you probably want to hear us talk about and that is An extremely goofy movie because we covered a goofy movie back in 2019 a goofy movie just celebrated its 30th anniversary And now it's finally time to look into the okay sequel they made about five years later

to tap into all of the very early odds trends. And I will say there's a lot of very good animation, very good character animation in this movie. I've only seen it once so I'm looking forward to revisiting it for this podcast. Yeah me too it's been a good for as many times as I've seen a goofy movie and extremely goofy movie I have very rarely seen I've rented it back in the day and Maybe watched it one other time since while working at the video store But I'm excited to return to it as much like the Simpsons it Locks in the goofy was born in the 70s for that film

I'm like he it sounds like he graduated in 1974, just like Homer and Marge did. I feel like it is built on the success of that 70s show because so much of this movie is the 70s, right? Am I right, everybody? Afros, platform shoes, disco, it's all funny. As I remember, Goofy's dancing does look really great. It's like animated very well.

There's really cool dancing scenes, and if you're a furry, there's some hot babes in this movie, so look out. Hey, there's some good looking guys too. But yeah, you're right, guys, look forward to the rest. This is the start of our, we're doing a four episode long summer. So summer begins for us at the end of May.

So, and then the whole rest of the summer, look forward to more naughty, Audie's Disney stuff. You'll see what it is But yeah, there's some biggies We've decided on all of them But one and I think we've kind of half decided on one But if you look at the early odds Disney movies You can kind of guess what we're gonna be zeroing in on and some are good some are bad summer mid

It's gonna be fun now that we've escaped the 90s Renaissance We want to see where they went in their kind of lost period after that So look forward to a fun summer of us covering Disney movies on what a cartoon movie again the 90s Renaissance, we want to see where they went in their kind of lost period after that. So look forward to a fun summer of us covering Disney movies on What a Cartoon Movie again, that is available at the $10 level at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. And if you are on the $5 feed or below that, you'll get to hear the extended free preview of What a Cartoon Movie. So that is our schedule. Let's talk about our personal lives, what's going on there in terms of what we're doing.

That has nothing to do with the podcast. And for me, it was a lot of gaming because I kicked off the month of April by getting sick for about a week. So I had a lot of gaming time on my hands and a lot of movie watching time on my hands. So I'll just list the three games that I really got into during that time.

So first I wanna shout out Pacific Drive. It is a very fun video game, a very fun roguelike that I I really got into my pal Chris got it for me for my birthday last year and I put it on the back burner until I had a lot of time to kill and Folks when I get sick, I love playing video games. Nothing makes the time go by faster if I'm watching a movie I just get distracted by how bad I'm feeling So I like just fully immersing myself in a video game And this is a really good one I won't get into story spoilers or anything the story is very good It is a game in which you you basically drive a car out into these dangerous areas

Collect resources come back make your car stronger etc etc etc. It has this very very fun Gameplay loop that makes it extremely addictive. I played it for 40 hours. If you want to get the most out of it, it's been like a 20 hour game, but I don't play a lot of Rug Likes because they are very time consuming and they're very addictive. But playing this game that takes place in the Pacific Northwest, which we both live in,

so that was fun as well. I just found it very, very addictive and it really helped me get through a minor cold I had at the beginning of the month. So Pacific Drive, I think it's on everything and it's like a 20 or 30 dollar game. Okay, that sounds, that gameplay loop sounds really, I had not heard of this game. I, that's getting on my list. I really want, that sounds like just the type of game I want to play. And it's a roguelike game where you play as a car essentially. You can get out of the car and do stuff,

but I've never seen a roguelike with that kind of hook where you have to get resources to build new parts and do certain things that interact with the story. It's very, very neat. Had a good time with it. Now, this is going to be shocking to all of you, but I played one of the best games I played in a very long time. And it's something that not a lot of people have played. And it's a switch game. Now don't throw your switches away just yet, everybody. There's still games you haven't played, please. The game is Bayonetta Origins, something that I think mostly went ignored. And I played almost all Platinum games

except for Astral Drive, I think it's called the Switch game. This could be Platinum games best game period. Now it is a Bayonetta game only in name. There is a very Platinum-y battle system. So if you play Platinum games like Bayonetta, if you play Devil May Cry, there's sort of a lighter version of that baked into this. But essentially this is a game that takes place in essentially one giant interconnected Zelda dungeon. You control young Bayonetta with one side of the controller, you can control a Cheshire,

her cat, with the other side of the controller. And by using their combined abilities you solve puzzles, you fight enemies in certain ways, there are elemental powers the cat can eventually find and adopt that will allow you to fight enemies that have certain weaknesses and open certain doors and break down certain barriers. There's so much stuff going on in this game and it opens up so elegantly that all these new systems are just gently revealing themselves to you. And it is like a 15-hour game.

And I feel like I wish more people knew about this, because if you enjoy these kind of puzzle dungeon games, you will really, really like this. And you don't have to like Bayonetta, because the tone is different, the looks are different, and the vibe is completely different. And I wish Platinum could have just made this an original game, but we can't do that anymore.

So it is one of the hidden gems on the Switch and it really shows just how good Platinum is at developing video games. And in a way, it kind of feels like a spiritual sequel to Okami in the vibe, in the way the game has a neat, interesting battle system and fun puzzles and dungeons, except unlike Okami, this is not 70 hours long

It's very digestible and you're always making some kind of progress in the game I really really enjoyed it And if you are thinking about you know transitioning to switch to and forgetting about the old catalog Please go back and check this out because I am having a great time with it. I'm at the very end of the game right now I Saw our pal Maddie Kopp talking about it too. When Origins got announced, I had been playing, it was when Bayonetta 3 was still kind of new, like it had come out, and I wasn't ready for more Bayonetta, even though like you say, it's not really a Bayonetta game, or it doesn't need to be right, but I kind of just forgot

about it. Yeah, it reminds me a bit of the indie game Brothers, A Tale of Two Sons, which was just re-released. It just got a remaster in which one half of the controller is one brother, one half is the other brother. You control them in tandem. This is like taking that to the next level in terms of what else can we do with this idea while still making it playable.

But when you first play this game, it is the equivalent of like patting your head and rubbing your stomach. You're like, how can I control two characters at once? But eventually, you learn how to do what they want you to do and it's never too overbearing. But yeah, really, really enjoyed it. And yeah, Bayonetta 3 was my game of the year that year. That's another game that was really overlooked, I think,

because of fake scandals. Right, yes. Yeah, that sounded a lot more complicated after I've the more I looked into it on those scandals things. But it's one hand now. I'm really that reminds me that like this year Platinum is putting out the Ninja Gaiden four, which I'm really looking forward to them, them doing Ninja Gaiden like the cause the Ninja Gaiden games wanted to be as good as devil may Cry back in the aughts and now Like Devil May Cry veterans are gonna make a Ninja Gaiden game like so I I'm looking forward to that. That's great

I'm happy platinum is still kicking around because Thankfully, they feel like they're they're kind of unofficially a switch second party or Nintendo second party in some ways and that they make a lot of exclusives But I'm really I feel like their games just keep getting better and better and I hope they're able to weather Whatever changes happen in the future. So yeah that I'm oh and platinum lost a bunch of like Senior staff like commie is not there anymore In ABA, I think left to like they yeah big names left and they're still kicking There's a there was a big change up and a lot of the people who made

Bayonetta origins are kind of like fresher talent, but it feels like they have a lot of just generational knowledge within their organization because the game this like it's such a great polish game everything fits together So nicely it just it's so satisfying to play something that's so well made. I'm just enjoying it like so nicely. It's so satisfying to play something that's so well made. I'm just enjoying it like philosophically as like a creation and also I'm enjoying the actual play of the game too. But yeah, that's Bayonetta Origins for the Switch. Do not overlook it. And it's a gorgeous game for the Switch. I know the Switch, it was old tech eight years ago, but this is one of the best looking Switch games I've ever played and I don't mind playing it on a giant 4K TV.

It looks stunning. It's a really good looking game too. And I also finished Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. This is out for the PS5 now. Please do not ignore this game. This is the best Indiana Jones game. It totally nails the vibe. And what I like about this game is it really mixes up gameplay styles because there are

three very, very big levels that are immersive sim levels like You're in this level figure out what to do find all the side quests do everything you want interact with the game in novel ways But then there are levels that are all very Scripted linear levels that would be the kind of Indiana Jones game that anyone could develop just to show you we could do this Too and those are fun as well for a more streamlined experience where you can finish a setting very very quickly but I really enjoyed this game it was for me like a 30-hour game and I was surprised by how much game there was in this game if the game had ended after the big Vatican level I would have been satisfied but it keeps going and going and going and I talked about it last

month but Troy Baker King among men when it comes to doing this impression it is so good every time I think it's not good, I look up actual Harrison Ford footage, and I'm like, no, he absolutely nailed it. So, and now the studio's talking about, well, we see a future for this, so I'm hoping Machine Games makes more of these, because I'm impressed on every level with this game.

Just a completely satisfying, well-made experience, and it is a stunning game, and their depiction of Indiana Jones is perfect it I think when we talked about this last time one other bit I forgot to mention that I liked about the few hours I put into it was that You can't if you made an Indiana Jones game like a regular shooter where like he guns down like 80 guys a level It would not feel like Indiana Jones like Indiana Jones shoots people but he doesn't shoot that many people and it feels like in the level in the opening areas I played up to the Vatican you're not it doesn't want you to kill people

like shoot people with his gun all of the time right yeah yeah in fact I never killed anyone with a gun without being forced to by the game. There's like one scripted turret sequence where you have to shoot people with a gun, but outside of that I got none of the gun abilities. It just felt wrong. And when you use the gun, you're punished. When you use any of the weaponry outside of like blunt instruments, you're punished in the game.

So it feels like they want you to play as Indy. And Henry, I encourage you to play a little further because you'll see what the game is truly capable of when you get to the Vatican. Here is a huge area. Figure out what to do, use different costumes to sneak your way into different areas, find hidden treasures, underground labyrinths. It's like such a fun experience just to be given the freedom

to be able to explore on your own without the game trying to hold your hand or show you where you need to go. That's cool. I'll re-download it again and start back up my save. It's totally, totally worth it. Yeah, I really love that game. In terms of watching, I watch a lot of movies,

just wanna call out a few. I will call out The Legend of the Stardust Brothers, which is a very fun, how do I say this? It is sort of like a Japanese rocky horror show kind of deal, but I'm looking at my review on Letterboxd and I watched it quite a bit ago. So how did I describe that? Oh, my description is what if Troma made a hard day's night? That is what the Legend of the Stardust Brothers feels like to me. It's like 80s low budget schlock that's way over the top and crazy, but it's about a band and it's also it's

also Japanese and apparently the director was super influenced by Phantom of the Paradise which I watched the next week I will say I like this more it goes in crazier places and this will surprise you Henry the director is Osamu Tezuka's son what yes whoa nepo talent on He's a director. He's a film director. This is one of his first films that I did not. I didn't know any of that. Wow. That's, that's great. I need to check this out. That sounds, that sounds like a perfect movie to check out. I love Phantom of the Paradise. I only saw once, but it was, I mean, cause I love Paul Williams especially, but like to know that there's a Japanese cult film directed by Tezuka's

son that is inspired by it, like that sounds right on my alley. Yeah, it's great. It's available. You can run it on YouTube. It's just very fun. You've never seen anything like it. It's not like a fantastic movie. Like I said, get ready for trauma territory in terms of like guerrilla filmmaking and kind

of like shoddy techniques and things like that. But they go for it. It's like watching a series of very wacky 80s music videos, but I really love the vibe. I only gave it three stars, but I really recommend it because it was an experience I don't think I've had before. And I also watched Witness for the first time because I needed to dig into the Harrison Ford catalog,

see things other than Star Wars and Indiana Jones for young Harrison Ford, young meaning like 45 years old. So Witness, it wasn't what I thought it would be. I thought it would be Harrison Ford, of course, is protecting this, this Amish boy who saw a crime and he's gonna, you know, bond with him, etc, etc. It is really sort of like a fish out of water dramedy where after the events of the first act, Harrison Ford now has to live undercover as an Amish person. And it's grumpy Harrison Ford having to be Amish for about an hour of the movie before it turns into like a McBain style cop movie in the last act. But it kind of gives you three different movies throughout. And I really enjoyed it.

It has a really nasty synth soundtrack that I didn't like, but it's just fun seeing Harrison Ford be grumpy in a new setting That's that's another Harrison Ford 80s blind spot for me, too I've seen I seen his other big one from that time which working girl But it's been a long time since I've seen working girl and honestly Probably its satire flew over my head a little bit the last time I watched it, about over 20 years ago I think. So, time to, it's probably time for me to check out Working Girl, maybe I'll make a double feature out of it, Working Girl and Witness together. The two Harrison Ford W movies and the last movie I want to mention was a Netflix movie

I believe in 2016 that we watched because Melanie Linsky is in it and she is a great actor who is recently in Yellow Jackets. I'll talk more about that soon. But it's got a very complicated title I refuse to say more than once. The title is I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore. And it's not as self-serious as the title makes it sound. It is a black comedy, very Coney crime comedy with a good heart. It's about a regular woman who is just annoyed by how nasty people are to each other throughout her life. And it all culminates in her home being robbed. And she decides, I'm going to do something about this. The police won't help me, so I'm going to find the criminal.

Not to have a violent confrontation, but just to find out why are people so cruel to each other. And this leads to just a very wild third act with a lot of brutal comedic violence And Elijah wood is her like comedic partner in this movie and they're both in yellow jackets as well But this is where it all began for the two in terms of being in things together It sounds cool. It sounds like almost almost a like a parody of Death Wish Except like the Death Wish person just Charles Bronson wants to have a conversation. Basically, yeah, but only 90 minutes, basically.

It's just a really fun, very economical black comedy made for like a million dollars. And it's just got a lot of heart to it. It's not depressing or too cynical. And I really relate it to the characters in this who just are like, can we just, can people just be kind to each other? Can we be more thoughtful? That sounds good thoughtful and yeah it's definitely worth checking out especially

if you have a low opinion of Netflix movies like me because the ones that get the most spotlight are things like red notice and the gray man and fit like the basically the Russo Brothers money laundering machine how can how can that electric whatever movie cost like 300 million dollars it insane. And not only then it has to be fun for Netflix that like they spend all that money to make a real movie, what they call a real giant budget movie with the Russos. And then once the movie comes out, all their interviews that should be about electric state, that's the name of it, the Russo brothers are just asked, so when you make that next Avengers movie, what's this going to happen?

It's like, nobody wants to talk about their dumb movie. They wanna talk about their next Marvel thing. Yeah, but I guess Netflix still does put out little movies made for like 1 300th of the budget of the Russo Brothers film. So, worth looking into some of these that honestly just really flew past my radar. And in terms of TV, just a few brief mentions.

Finnish Yellow Jacket Season 3. Very good, once again, Henry, I insist that you watch it. It's like all of your friends from the 90s are now grown up and in a show together. I had heard from you before that it was a little rocky start, but then I hadn't heard your thoughts on the ending. I thought I had seen a couple, some people didn't like the end of Season 3,

but maybe I miss reading things online, but you liked it? Yes, yeah, I mean it for you. They were kind of pulling out of a tailspin I thought season two was a little stupid. We were getting into stupid city But by the end of season three It reaches a point that the series was always heading to and you really want to see what happens next The series has a very strong first season a second season where they're trying to figure out what to do with the premise by the third Season they know where they're headed and it feels like it's more on rails and there's more of a guiding hand behind it. So I feel like the entire experience is worth it.

And because this is a modern show, every episode, sorry, every season has like 10 episodes, so it's not hard to get through. Okay, I'll, again, the cast does sound really good. There are too many shows, but that does, know that there's a the third season is still good it. I I'll invest the time It's still good and an update for what a cartoon listeners I did watch I did watch a red dwarf series 7 and I liked it. I liked it the Subtracting Rimmer from it makes it a worse show obviously But I did not hate the Christine Katansky character.

The only thing I'll say about her is they turn her into kind of like a Lila, a pre-Lila Lila where it's like everyone gets to be dumb and fun, but she has to be like the scold and the mom of the ship and that kind of gives her a stereotypical role, but they're able to write more stories with a woman on the ship. And there are

some very, very fun sci-fi premises that I've seen other shows that I like do much later. There's an episode in which they have to get President Kennedy to assassinate himself via time travel, which I thought was very, very brilliant. I think that's the first episode of the season. And there's a later episode of the season that, much like Futurama, reveals that Fry, or sorry, Lister is his own father. Not his own grandfather, but his own father through a series of events. So I'm like, oh, I saw these later in other shows

and I liked them there and they're kind of here first. They finally paid off that Ouroboros box baby thing they did from the start of the, that was in the book at least. I wonder when it came in in the TV show. Yeah, I think the books are like planting seeds of things they wanted to do But yeah, I'm looking forward to series 8 and then going ahead in time 10 years see everybody much older But yeah

I'm sad that I put it off for this long because the writing is so good and I know rumor comes back and I really miss Rimmer and and the duo of Rimmer. Goodbye episodes like I remember really liking those one the the revelation they create about ace rimmer I really liked that and then the The rimmer farewell song. I also really loved it, too Yes, yes There are some good room our moments in series 7 and if you don't care about red dwarf you have no idea what I'm talking About but if you listen to our 3r episode, I'm just providing a follow-up on that

So yeah looking forward to getting through the rest of the series, which honestly there's not much more for me at this point. So yeah, not a lot of other stuff unlike Hollywood Henry Gilbert hobnobbing with the Hoyt Ploy. I have not gone anywhere this month except for Simpsons Tribune, which we've got second place in. And for my birthday I will be going to Montreal in Quebec, so I'm looking for suggestions as to what I should be doing there. But we're just excited to go to a place in Canada we've never been before and eat and drink and buy things and have a good time that does not involve working or housework

or anything like that. So that is just my life right now. You're going to have to switch over your Duolingo to French for a few weeks. I took French for five years. I can ask where the bathroom is and I can say, my name is Bob. Well, and also Nina Parlez-Vouss-Francais, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think she's fluent-ish in that, but I can say, where's the bibliotech?

You would get around much better than me, that's for sure. Well, hey, before I get to all of my trips though, I only played, well actually, one of my trips involves games I played. I did play like 70 hours of Assassin's Creed Shadows. I'm nearly done with it, though. Assassin's Creed games, because they're big, open, giant open world games with so much real estate,

even being done is not, they don't play the credits. The character goes like, well, you, I feel, a character actually goes like, I don't feel fulfilled. It seems like the end, but it's not. Well, why don't we go do these two new missions? And then it opens up like the epilogue missions is basically where I'm at. Well, that's what always scares me away from those games

because I've only done a few of them and I know what a time sync they can be. Yeah, it's why I skipped Valhalla. I heard the one right before this called Mirage is more of a like 20 hour or 30 hour Assassin's Creed experience, but this was the one I was waiting for the sprawling ones, which is feudal Nobunaga Oda era Japan with all of the like giant like here you are in Kyoto, Osaka and all of the smaller prefectures of them and it brings in the history that if you've played Koei Tecmo games you maybe know it a tiny bit or I don't know watch Rurouni Kenshin

before it was problematic like those things you'll know a little bit. Yeah I'm like vaguely familiar about that era based on media essentially, because they weren't teaching me about that in school. Though when Hattori Hanzo shows up in the game, like as one of the actual real historical figures, I only know him as like, oh, I know that Sonny Chiba played him in many different you timelines including in kill bill

Played they the like ancestor Hattori Hanzo. I know I know about jube musashi all the greats Yes, but it is here's a gameplay thing. I like about it Which is they wanted you to have a samurai game but also a ninja game and the samurai and the ninja do play very differently and the it's when before your assassin can do everything and it's like well if you're is playing in his assassin they still have to be like a good sword fighter but when you play as a ninja you know the ninja isn't going to be so great at a head on fight while meanwhile your your samurai can't sneak around on rooftops and stab people.

And it, it makes you have to choose. And I kind of like having the specialty and also the, the Yasuke story is very interesting. He is a, a, he is a slave of Portuguese Jesuits who come to Japan is freed by Oda trains as a samurai. And he is a historically he's a historical figure though as Nelson would say records from that time are spotty at best. Yeah it seems good I like what I'm hearing about it but I have other 100 hour games take

place in Japan to play and they're called Yakuza or Like a Dragon and I would rather jump into one of those first before this because I still have to play like half of that series. Yeah, you have you've got a lot of Ryu to Gagatoku. Yeah. I haven't even played eight. Uh it is infinite. Yeah. It is an infinite game. Um and then I one of my Los Angeles trips this year. This month, I went to play the Switch Two preview event. They had an LA and and it was really good. It was my husband did the public signup

for it and we got to go and we won like the lottery for it. It did feel a little like oh I'm now with the normies now I'm not media anymore. I felt like I had fallen from grace a little bit. Hey but if you were media you'd have to like immediately go to a hotel room and spend all night working on articles. We've done this Yes. Yeah, it was pretty nice to just play Donkey Kong Bonanza and not think about how I'd write about it Though I did feel a little like what I put down the demo and was thanking the guy Who presented it to me? I did start reflexively going in my head like okay So I lead with this and then say I was like no wait

No, I don't need to mention that we have to talk about the switch to Henry everybody wants to know because we're in games We've covered games I still have retronauts and I will say we were both able to get a pre-order on the switch to and it seems like everybody I know has been able to get a pre-order So if you have not been able to get one I feel like you will be able to because I tried in the hour they were available when all the websites are breaking and I kind of gave up because you know I could add it to my cart but then during checkout they would take it out of my cart. I tried checking out one

time my bank was like, well what is this transaction? We're not letting this go through. So I had all these problems and then thankfully Amazon Canada had a button that I could click that said, okay, we'll do a soft reserve for you. And when they're available, we'll give you 24 hours to place a full reserve. So I got mine that way. So then everybody I follow on Twitter is like, I got mine, I got mine, I got mine. So I feel like they are anticipating a huge demand. And I know it's upsetting and frustrating if you can't get it,

but I feel like there will be new waves released and I feel like you will get it in the first month if you were able To release a pre-order or sorry achieve a pre-order Yeah, I think they're gonna be pretty available to I I mean I I did just talk to our doughboys pals And they they had not gotten one either yet But I'm gonna I gave them some tips to hopefully secure, but yeah, I got I got one on Best Buy My husband got one on Walmart So we we were able to and this is despite the the American government's best attempts to prevent us from getting one, too I want to talk about the pricing. We're gonna turn this into a video game podcast

So fast forward five minutes if you don't want to hear this I want to talk about the pricing because I do not want to come off as anti-consumer. I love the consumer I'm a consumer myself, because I do not want to come off as anti-consumer. I love the consumer. I'm a consumer myself, and I love myself. But I feel that an $80 price tag for a video game has been a long time coming. I think we've been living on borrow time with these $50 and $60 games. And it's unfortunate, and I wish we all made a lot more. But it's one of those cases where I only can think from a macro perspective, yes, this

is probably what this is worth. I understand the amount of labor, institutional knowledge, and production that went into this, and Nintendo is a company that does not do massive layoffs every time they finish a game. So if anybody should overprice their games, it's Nintendo. But I was seeing people writing editorials that are saying things like,

oh, we're being priced out of games, and is this going too far? Will people be lost we lose gamers because of this and I feel that I have lived long enough That I feel like I have an okay perspective where I remember paying in the 90s 60 70 $80 then for video games, which is over $120 today So I feel like if anything games have gotten cheaper is over $120 today. So I feel like if anything, games have gotten cheaper. Everything you subscribe to

will give you free games every month. Epic Gaming Store gives you free games. Netflix gives you free games. There is no shortage of free games. There are very good free to play games. They've never been better. So I feel like if you were trying to game on the cheap, we are living in the best possible era.

But the $60 game being the standard for 20 years, to me that was a case of borrowed time because I was paying $60 For games in the early 90s And then if you wanted to buy a big RPG like Earthbound or Final Fantasy 6 you were paying $79.99 in 1994 which is a lot more today. I Had initial sticker shock at Mario Kart world. I was ready I was ready for $70 games and it being an $80 game I did have some sticker shock at first but yes thinking about it at least

with Mario Kart. Mario Kart 8 was such a big game that lasts forever and you know they're gonna support it. This one is so much bigger and it's them trying to like make it almost a Fortnite style like online. Now it's not a live service game, but they are live servicing it up more. And I do feel like 80 is more worth it. And like you said, Nintendo doesn't lay people off like they don't do mass layoffs at all. You never read those stories. Not to say like it's still a business. Like I'm not saying Nintendo is perfect. But on the other side though, I guess if you are a consumer who is used to Nintendo games, the sale price that you will ever have lowest on a Nintendo first party game is $40. Like that there's

that Assassin's Creed shadows game I mentioned, it came out at like $70. but you know, I know with Assassin's Creed games Eventually, it will be $10 that within two years. It'll be a $10 game But that's not not the case with part of me just being on board with the price. Well not like on board I wish the games were cheaper, but understanding the prices I know how Nintendo works and I know they never they never undersell their games There are still a lot of switch early games that I love to play and buy but they're all $60 still outside of like one to switch which nobody wants but yeah, I just felt like People were overreacting but by the time they were able to preorder a switch no one had any complaints

I have not since the pre-orders went live. Everyone's like no, we're fine. We're fine. Just give us a new thing, please also, if you buy the $500 version of switch to that comes with Also, if you buy the $500 version of switch to that comes with Mario Kart world then Mario Kart world is like a $50 game because it's a $50 difference. So that that also I think for me softened it. I yeah, I look I get that people I also think that it hate this is what I hate on the game price debate is when companies do it with non Nintendo games like why is EA charging now $70 for this game and somebody will say, well, oh, somebody doesn't want

to support these people. And it's like that EA will lay off 90% of the developers of every game, whether it sells zero copies or a hundred million copies, they will lay off everybody that the price doesn't secure jobs or bonuses for people, but that isn't that doesn't extend to Nintendo I feel comparative. Yeah, yeah. And if you still don't like the price of the switch to my non glib sarcastic response is try buying a steam deck. It is the same price as switch to and if you go onto the steam store, you will every weekend see a huge amount of games on sale like 100-hour RPGs for 10 bucks, things you've always wanted to

play for even cheaper. There is no shortage of cheap games on Steam which is why my Steam library has over 700 games. They're just I'm buying games left and right because they're like five ten dollars so if you want another option you won't be able to play Mario Kart of course but that is a very nice portable system that has really good graphics Has a lot of great options and has a catalog a vast vast catalog of games already available for very very cheap And the one other one I played in the switch to event I wanted to shout out was that well it was Metroid Prime 4 was just crazy to play. It's like oh this exists

Like this is a game that will actually come out and I'm playing it and it was it Was pretty good though. It was a very like cinematic opening level Metroid level It was not a real it didn't really feel like a pry level, you know Yeah I like the addition of the mouse and I was thinking about it because every new console is just a gaming PC now or it's Following that model where what is the new console? It's the old console but more's following that model. Where what is the new console? It's the old console, but more powerful. And all of your stuff runs.

Is the controller different? Nah, not really. So that's what's happening with the Switch 2 and I love that. And it's such a PC that it has a mouse. You can use the one controller as a mouse. Honestly, doing mouse look in Metroid Prime was breaking my brain

because I'm not used to being that accurate or quick in a prime game on On a nintendo system like it's it that was crazy. But also I really did like the Uh, the system tour thing though. That also is something people complain about price rise wise that they're charging for it I think it's a ten dollar game and it just feels like nintendo They built a thing that could have just been a free thing a free system showcase but they explicitly like they don't want it to be free they they put work into it and they want to charge for it and set

up that like you should pay for a thing we worked hard on. Maybe they'll make it free with a Switch Online subscription because I was looking at you know what I could get with mine and if you have the Switch Online in the expansion, you get the Switch 2 upgrades for both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for free. And I'm looking forward to that because Tears of the Kingdom came out as I was moving, and I played only 20 hours of a 200-hour game,

and now I get 60 frames per second, and it's gonna look amazing. I can't wait to play that version of Breath of the, sorry, of Tears of the Kingdom. I'm glad I waited for it. in the system tour was fun though the the ten minutes I played of it because it did feel like a It had a little personality to it, but it is more like It is a more mundane warrior wear, but that seems like I'm knocking it

But the the the minigame construction feels like clever the the the mini game construction feels like clever mini game setup in the WarioWare design sense except with not as funny but still fun to play. I guess you can hear our full thoughts on the switch to at the end of June when we do that talk to the audience. And then is for movies I'll just spotlight free that we're all theatrical experiences though. Yes me and Bob both are Letter do so much letterbox like follow me on letterbox at h e n e r e y g there That's I honestly I think I posted more on letterbox than blue sky this yeah I'm I'm on there as Bob servo, and that's where I do most of my writing although now I formally do the little capsule reviews of the games. I finish and I usually post those on my blue sky

But the film I saw that I like the most in theaters this month was Sinners. I really enjoyed Sinners. It felt like an event movie that was made to be seen in theaters like in an IMAX format. It's one of the multi formats where it changes for different scenes and it is a great like horror film like after and it absolutely feels like Ryan Coogler's response to having worked on big budget IP driven things like the Black Panther films and an executive producer on Space Jam Legacy and also working on the Creed movies. It felt like they're them responding to what it's like to come back from Hollywood

and try to make something different after all of that. Yeah, I'm glad it's doing well, especially because original IP movies have been floundering lately. I think the last real successful one apparently was Coco. Oh God, right. That is new. You're right. That is original IP, Coco.

Yeah. The only thing that's keeping me away from the theater is the two and a half hour one time, so I might end up renting this digitally when it hits the rental market, probably this summer. But I'm glad it's doing really well. Oh man, it is great to see an IMAX though, Bob. I gotta say, if you can see an IMAX-ish screening around there, I think it's worth it.

The cast is great, Delroy Lindo especially, like he's, it was just great to see him showcased in a role that was just meant to, like he is the, you know, senior in the film who's just, he's, he's the older voice of the, of the past. And it's, I mean, it has some real things to say about, about race in America. And, and it is a, it doesn't pull punches and and it I knew Ryan Coogler always Wants to say these things and it's like he Marvel movies and Black Panther movies are only gonna let him get so real and it was nice that in sinners he gets to get realer about it and and also just as a fan of Special effects there are some showoff these special effects things early in the movie

I'll just say that you probably it's in the trailers that Michael B Jordan plays twins. Well, their first scene, they do their version of the Pepsi handoff from Back to the Future Part 2, you know, where the two Michael J. Foxes pass, wasn't it a Pepsi? Or they pass across the dinner table to each other. Yeah, yeah, they pass something. to each other. Yeah, yeah, they passed something. Yeah, they do that in Sinners very early, just as like a wink to the audience of like, yeah, we're going to do the pass between these two characters. Sure, that's cool. Unfortunately, we have one new official IMAX theater here in Vancouver, within the city itself, but I think Sinners is being kicked out for the new Marvel thing, whatever that is. Thunderbolts. What the hell is this?

Honestly, it's the better reviewed one of Marvel movies in the last while. And by that, I mean three and a half stars better reviewed. Their marketing it is like the A24 of Marvel movies. What is a Thunderbolts? Oh, well, you got five minutes, Bob. Give me the 30 second pitch, because I don't even know what this is.

Is this related to a show they made? Sort of, yes. Tell grandpa Bob all about it. Basically, it's a bunch of like weirdo spy characters who are like gray area moral characters are now made to be an Avengers type team, except they don't get along with each other. And some of them used to be bad guys.

And it's honestly a little like Suicide Squad except a little more grounded and It it's setting up a future of Avengers things and they don't get along and it seems like they're gonna be a lot of joking around but it is what you go for it for is it's full of really good actors mainly David Harbour and Florence Pugh are both really great and they are like the grounding of it. Now as a nerd who bought Thunderbolts number one when it came out in 1995 and it's one of my favorite comics as a teen, I am annoyed at how much they don't care about original Thunderbolts in it, but that's a whole other story. Yeah I'm not against this I just I'm like should I know what this is? No I mean it's

it's really only for hardcore and even if you're a hardcore it's not the Thunderbolts you grew up on like it it's more of a take off of like the 2009 Thunderbolts comics. Okay so it sounds like Evil Avengers. It's made for no one, great got it. We'll see but I that one I will be seeing I skipped Brave New World but I do want to see Thunderbolts but another thing I saw of of good taste movies, and I say Sinners, if you're sick of Marvel stuff, Sinners is a great response to Marvel things. Wild at Heart, also I saw in theaters, which was a lot of fun to see. I had never seen it before. It's the the SIF Theater. It was my first time going to SIF Downtown, which is a an art house theater of the Cif. Cif has a few in Seattle, and

this one had a very full screening for Wild at Heart. And, Bob, you were worried, you'd warn me like there might be too many ironic laughers. Not too many. There was only a couple. Some people ironically laughed a bit at the Willem Dafoe character until we all realized what a disgusting person he is and people didn't want to laugh anymore. Bobby Peru. Yeah, God. Now Henry, what did you think about this movie?

Because I'm interested in your David Lynch thoughts because you're someone who doesn't watch horror ever really and you don't like movies that make you feel like gross or alienated, but you do like David Lynch. It's, yeah, it is weird. I'm getting more used to the David Lynch thing. They did used to put me on the outside, but now, and same, I just watched Mall Hall and Drive

for the first time recently too. And in both cases they do, for some reason his grossness now it doesn't affect me as much because it does feel like a dreamlike quality, like I'm on the outside looking at it, I'm not feeling as like viscerally invested in it, I guess. And I know your husband is on the David Lynch train with you, and I know it seems like your husband is even more averse to that kind of content,

because on the record he did not wanna watch the sad song in Muppet Christmas Carol, so I'm wondering what his reaction is to the David Lynch stuff, if you don't mind. Oh, and also he didn't want to see Sinners, because it was going to be a horror film with a lot of blood in it. I think, I do think the kitchiness factor

or something like there is like getting to, it's a David Lynch carve out, I think, really. It's just, it is, I think maybe it's a trust of David Lynch as a director of like, if he's going to show me something gross, I trust that he's doing it for a good reason. And it's, you know, buy the ticket, take the ride. Maybe, maybe it's that. I, I mean, for me, yeah, it's like, I don't like seeing like somebody's brains bleed out of their head for instance, and wild at heart. Like I don't go into wanting to see that,

but it is, uh, I, I'm just kind of used to it now as, as the David Lynch kind of language. And I know he's gonna make me Now the one as like the most skin-crawling things I've seen in David Lynch films Honestly are when things are pulled out from under fingernails. That's the one that makes me go like Neither yeah, I like this movie to me It reads as a comedy and I think people often forget that David Lynch is funny and likes humor This reads to me as a pitch-black Parody of a soap opera where everyone is playing completely straight, but just insane and disgusting things are happening left and right

And Laura Dern is especially good like right before Jurassic Park in this very young role and She is she is asked to do so much in that movie like and like and and a lot of like sex scenes that Would I mean back then? Especially you if you do too many sex scenes like you are treated as like dirty by hollywood And you can't like star in things or you're not a good girl anymore. And it was yeah, I loved I also Nick cage There's too much nick cage sometimes and he is his own worst enemy, I feel like, in many ways,

but I like Nick Cage in this movie. When he did a backflip out of the car, I was like, damn, this is a cool guy. I like this guy. This, his performance, so I think I mentioned this in my review, it reminds me of his tiny Elvis character from Saturday Night Live.

Yes, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, I think, but you're right, Bob to end your life. Yes. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, I think, but you're right, Bob. I think people, and me included, didn't get that, like, David Lynch is funny and is trying to be. He's not a weirdo who is accidentally funny. He is just like, oh, this weird guy doesn't know he's funny. Like, he is a funny man who intends to be funny and does that on purpose.

He was quite a goof. Hey, speaking of that. Not just a goof. Yes, a combo of things I saw. So there's the new documentary out for the 30th anniversary of a goofy movie called Not Just a Goof, which had, I said it, I think it had 10 minutes of stuff that we did not talk about in the history we did in that episode. But mostly it was things that were known and they skipped over some things that would have been negative. But it was funny to see the rest of the world hear the Jeffrey Katzenberg stories we know very well on the podcast.

With original arts of Katzenberg as a furry character, right? Yes, yeah. They had a Colombian animation studio for the documentary, did Disney-style character animation for retelling the stories, which was really great. My biggest negative on it is, on that documentary, is that it is video essay style of being grounded in the documentarian starts it of like, when I was a kid loved and I was just like I don't give a fuck about your childhood Buddy, like shut up. I didn't get I don't want to just like you move on. Yeah, I I

Do want to I am gonna see that for the Extremely goofy movie podcasts I'm producing but it's more feels like more of a gym watch to me Yeah, it's when it's more, it feels like more of a gym watch to me. Yeah, it's when it's good, it's really good. And what they did get was the, the co-director of it, who honestly should be the grounding eye of it, not the other guy, uh, is Kevin Lima's nephew. And that's what gave them access to director Kevin Lima and all of his background and archival stuff. Like it would not exist as a documentary without Kevin Lima.

So it's great for that I do think and I say this is just some white guy I do wish they had dealt more with the specifically black fandom of a goofy movie They touch on it only a little bit, but the two directors are whites and I don't think they really Understood like they barely mentioned the Atlanta episode that was a joke version, documentary about the making of a goofy movie. They talked to Bruce W Smith who didn't work on a goofy movie but was in the studio then and can give some viewpoints, but they could have talked to Carol Holliday who was a story

artist, a black woman story artist on the film and an animator and they didn't and she does interviews. I found them online so it's not like she doesn't do interviews. So I wish they had just engaged a little more with the black fandom. Yeah, it feels like missed opportunity. Well, we'll talk plenty about that on the Extremely Goofy Movie podcast. I assume there's no information about that sequel on the documentary, correct? Not at all. Not even a second. No. And I did get to see at the El Capitan Theater in Los Angeles, the 30th anniversary screening

of the goofy movie with Kevin Lima and Bill Farmer there and Don Hahn and afterwards Don Hahn stuck around and was shaking hands and I got to shake his hand and thank him and I said, hey, I did a six and a half hour Roger Rabbit podcast and we couldn't have done it without your many interviews about Roger Rabbit and he was like, oh well thanks. Like he appreciates the theater.

I was only there 25 years ago to see the Tarzan there when I was in LA. Oh that, you know it was great too that the audience, I thought they were gonna be talking through the whole movie or like repeating every line or singing along, barely did it all. A respectful audience that was there to enjoy a goofy movie. thought they were gonna be talking through the whole movie or like repeating every line or singing along barely did it all a Respectful audience that was there to enjoy a goofy movie full full of fans. I loved it So and like a just speedrunning a little bit more watched and or watched air devil. They're both alright

indoor is Is really good at talking about fascism in the Star Wars universe, which makes it a hard watch right now to be honest Yeah, yeah, I mean, maybe when they're, I assume when they're writing this, they're like, oh, that'll all be over, right? By the time this releases. They didn't imagine a Trump victory, I don't think, but so, in the first three episodes, it's like,

will, oh, the fascists are here looking for the immigrants' papers. Do they have the right to work here? And it's like, oh, oh, man. Maybe I'll watch that later, who knows? Or maybe I'll start and or which I have not done. It's good. If you're going to watch anything Star Wars, Bob, I would say that's what I, that's what people keep telling me. One of these days and the new season of daredevil. The only thing that mattered to me was how are they going to deal with

Punisher cops because they open the Pandora's box of, cops love the Punisher, what do we do with that? And I'll give them a B minus on how they dealt with it. I think they did, I liked it more than they didn't, but that would spoil the end of the season, but they did good. So lastly, big thing I want to talk about going to Los Angeles, I did so many cool things, hung out with tons of cool people. Hey, you might see me on Doughboy soon, listeners. I gotta say, we're going to change Henry's name to Hollywood Henry Gilbert because he went to LA twice this past month. He's wearing a black bandana, sunglasses,

he's got a platinum handlebar mustache. There's sex tape leaping, leaking from him. What's going on here, Henry? Yeah, I'm doing the podcast only wearing sunglasses now and wiping my nose a bit. No, well the Switch 2 event was one weekend and FanFest at Universal was two weekends later and my husband got tickets and we went with some friends.

My bunch of queer male pals who love theme parks, we went to that with them and let me, this is my big brag about it, Universal FanFest, by the way, if you're a back to the future freak and you're in Los Angeles, you have to do this. It is 75 bucks and the back to the future experience alone is incredible.

They've redressed the place they filmed Hill Valley as Hill Valley 1955 and you get to walk around it with people acting like the 1955 character. I just have to say, Henry, I saw everyone there posting about this except for you. I'm saving my posts. I'm saving my posts. But it was great. It was and the Dungeon Dragon thing was really cool too. And I got to meet Yoshi. But the coolest thing at FanFest was in my group was a man named Dave Cobb. And I just met Dave Cobb. He's really nice guy. He came to it wearing his,

a jacket that said, Back to the Future, the Ride production team. And it had the Institute of Future Technology logo on it. He worked on it. He worked on Back to the Future Ride and was a camera operator on Back to the Future Part Two. And so he wore it that night and was, he took

all my nerdy questions very nicely and he was there to be, like he wore it to be asked questions by fans at it and he showed me all these cool things and gave me tons of cool details. It was so awesome talking to you. I want to rewind a bit. By saying you met Yoshi, what does that mean? Oh, well, you know, it was a character meet and greet. Did you have to get in line to meet Yoshi? First, you had to find his six hidden eggs around Nintendo Land. Did you get to climb on this man in a costume? Is that what's going on here? No, no, you just stand to the side of a and it was Saiyan Yoshi, not just green

Yoshi, Saiyan. A rare Yoshi. Yeah. Yeah. So I stood in line to meet Yoshi and got to buy, I chose to buy a fancy Yoshi jacket, which was cool too. Fancy? Yeah, well, as in, it was a $90 jacket. Okay. And the Star Trek thing was alright, but I think it was too jokey. It was too jokey. And meanwhile, I don't know what happens in the Harry Potter world, because fuck her, but fuck JK Rowling. But there's Harry Potter things there, too. Who cares? But and and the hardest cores there were for one piece in Jujutsu Kaisen. And I think a universal underestimated the excitement people were the the weebs

who were going to show up for this because they needed to have more stuff for. Oh, I'm sure more people there cared about that than Back to the Future. And I love Back to the Future, it's my favorite thing. Sadly, yes, like you could tell the Back to the Future 40 and up people versus the, oh, you're under, you're 35 and under, you don't care about Back to the Future, you do care about One Piece. Though I was in the, my Venn diagram crosses over on that.

There were just more walkers and canes in the back to the future area yes there were there um oh you know and I did hang out with Drew Mackey and we went to Hollywood Forever Cemetery and checked out David Lynch's new headstone which was was it covered in things left by people it was it was. It actually was a funny, when we got there, we're like, oh, how are we gonna find it on the map? We bought a map and then we saw two very friendly goth girls in front of us and we kinda looked at each other like, I bet if we followed them, they're gonna end up,

they went straight to it. I was there once before in my life because I believe, they still do this, they screen movies there, like horror movies. And I think I- I've heard of that too, yeah, yeah. I've never seen young Frankenstein there, like in the early 2010s. It was cool.

I want to explore it more. We only had about an hour to walk around there. Vampyra and Kevin Curran, their headstones were very near David Lynch. Dana Gould had something to do with that. Like, we'll get you in Next to Vampyra, don't worry. You gotta think Dana Gould already has his plot Next to Vampyra set up, right?

I think he's tasked with polishing that headstone every week. And yeah, that was, oh, and the Paramount Studio Tour. It's a thumbs up for me. Don't do it before the Warner one, but it's good. But anyway, I've talked too much about my Los Angeles. I did too many things, but I had a lot of Los Angeles. Important note, Henry went to LA twice,

did not go to Disneyland either time. No, no, only Universal. Oh man, the Simpsons Land, it's showing its age. And also talking about insider things you hear from there, I will say folks, if you're thinking of waiting until 2027 to ride, go to Simpsons land, I wouldn't gamble on that folks. It might, you might win that gamble, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't take that risk. Well, I hope I've written that ride for the last time because it really hurt my back the last time I rode it. It was, it still hurt my back.

I still was like, you know, we can get on it with no wait, let's do it. And afterwards I was like, I regret this. I shouldn't have done this. It really, really messes you up. But that is what's happening in our lives. Now let's move on to our comments and questions. So first we have comments and questions for Talking Simpsons and our first episode that month was actually an episode of The Critic.

We recovered the pilot. Thank you all for the positive reception. We probably will jump back into The Critic, maybe quarterly, who knows? No set schedule. We're not going to go in order again. It's just fun to revisit these episodes with eight years of podcasting experience behind us and with some different voices on the show. So thank you for your positive reception to that. And Silky PJ says, and I cut out a bit of a longer comment about the three reasons media isn't as vicious about mocking celebrities, but this is the third reason

that Silky PJ gives, and that reason is, quote, there's less barriers between celebrities and everyday people thanks to something like Twitter where people can openly harass or stalk celebrities based on their own personal grudge or what their media sphere tells them. If you look at someone like Amber Heard or Blake Lively, their most violent fans can be stoked thanks to the media infrastructure and online personalities

to shift public opinion around them. I do think in this way comedians fear cancellation, but more in this vein of insane random fans versus powerful CEOs, since the threat of powerful CEOs not liking you based on a random whisper has never gone away." And yeah, I can see that. I can see that there was no direct channel to celebrities when people in media were meaner about them in general. But now it's like, well, if you wanna yell at Amber Heard,

you can just tweet at her. We don't need to make a joke about her. Right, or if you want to, back then it felt like you were just shouting into a void if you thought Sofia Coppola is an Epo baby and shouldn't be in Godfather Part 3 and you might love that the critic makes fun of that but then these days like you instantly know somebody's an Epo baby in any position and everybody can complain about it all the time you don't need a cartoon show to voice those criticisms. Yeah so I can I

can definitely see why this there's not the necessity anymore to make fun of celebrities. Does South Park still go after celebrities as hard as they used to? I've only watched a few lately. I feel like not so much anymore. I mean, honestly, they talk more about it's like their even handed weird approach as well. I mean on trans things, I think they're still just bad. But like when they did, I watched into the Panda verse and that one was more just complaining about they do complain about Kathleen Kennedy and overly woke things for no good reason.

But then they also wanted to take the side of, well, but if you actually did a good job of it, we welcome a good thing that like in the episode they meet a what if Cartman was a black woman, but by the end of it, they're like, you know what? She is still Cartman despite being a black woman. I actually appreciate this. I kind of like that twist. I'm not watching that. You covered that for what? Minion Death Cult? Yes. Yeah, I did. It was. All of the Kathleen Kennedy stuff sucked. Not funny at all. And I forget her name right

now but the actress they got to play, Cartman from the Painterverse, actually did a really good job as playing Cartman. I gotta give her credit. But yeah, I talked all about that on the Minion Death Cult. Also on the critic episode're all minnicker, we have Robert Flaxman saying they didn't do a direct parody of Philadelphia, but there's a Jerry Lewis stars in Schenectady bit at some point. It's funny to think that there was a point where people were like Tom Hanks, the comic actor in a dramatic role. Yes.

Bachelor parties, Tom Hanks. Yeah. Tom Hanks used to now, and now it more feels like, oh, Tom Hanks is going back to comedy or when he goes to SNL, it's like, oh, Tom Hanks is being funny again, instead of being America's, well, now he's America's grandpa for a while. He's America's dad. Now he's America's grandpa. I think he faced out of the dad stuff in the 2010s, but yeah, it's fun to see the phases

of his career that were just ending when the critics started, where there was like the Burbs bachelor party, Joe versus the Volcano, and Big, and that was like silly Tom Hanks, and they thought he was over, they thought he was going to be, oh, that's another Gutenberg, that's another Judge Reinhold, but then he re-immense himself as dramatic Tom Hanks in the 90s. And soon I'm looking forward to, I haven't watched Catch Me If You Can in a long time, and if you follow me on Letterboxd, you'll see when I log it, but we're approaching

the Catch Me If You Can episode of season 15, and I'm using that as an excuse to rewatch that Hanks film. And I can't wait to see it because I've never seen it, and I'm really a big Spielberg fan currently because of the Blank Check podcast. I watch like 15 of his movies because of that podcast mini-series. So I'm looking forward to looking into more of the back half of Spielberg's catalog. You're ready for Fableman's, Bob. Oh yeah, yeah.

I think that's coming up because I don't want to wait too long to watch Fableman's. So up next we have Milhouse Doesn't Live Here here anymore and Echo Cimarron says, the Paul Lind Halloween special was one of those legendary TV train wrecks kept alive for decades through tape trading. It's probably weird enough on its own to have kept making the rounds but much like the Star Wars holiday special a group of obsessive dorks kept circulating the tapes. The Kiss Army! Yes, in addition to appearances by Donnie Marie, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Pinky Tuscanero, this special has the first televised performance by Kiss. I highly recommend it.

I mean, it's terrible in every way, but it's a bizarre time capsule showcasing how bad and weird, mostly unintentionally funny, TV in the 70s could really be. And thank you, Echo Cimarron. Only familiar with parodies and whatever gayest episode ever has covered in terms of Paul Lind oddities Yeah, the I would guess it also was the inspiration for the the buddy Cole Christmas sketch The Chateau 2000 was at it the that feels like if not if not Paul in just cheesy variety shows in general But it I'm sure was pointed at Paul Land. I love that it's the kiss being on it is what saved it, that a variety show thing was saved

because of hardcore fans of one specific part of it. I always think of this with, I tried to find that, I wanted to find on YouTube the superhero variety show thing they did that Adam West and Burt Ward redid their Batman characters in the 70s for a pilot of like DC superheroes in a Sonny and Cher style variety show. I kept wanting to find it and the one upload I found on YouTube, I'll always remember this, it was uploaded by a person who was into the fetish of women who wear tall boots And there's multiple women in that special who wear very tall leather boots, and I was like well

You know what thank you fetishist for uploading this for me so I can see the Burt Ward and Adam West scenes around it That's like when we cover obscure stuff on what a cartoon usually the first place I'll see images is the inflation wiki inflation fet fetish wiki, I'll just Google image search the name of the show and the first three images will be, this is the episode where the character got blown up really big. Right. You're right, you can count on those wonderful perverts to be good archivists too.

Blake R. also said on that episode, I was someone who watched every episode of the Spaceballs animated series on G4 back when it was airing in my sophomore year of high school. I can't remember ever once laughing at it, but continued to watch out of some sense of fascination and commitment. Every episode was just a parody of some movie franchise,

but with Spaceballs characters. For anyone who found themselves in 2008 wondering, I wonder what Dark Helmet would have to say about Jurassic Park? Yeah, in case you're wondering why Blake R was commenting on the Spaceball show, it's because the freelance writers for this episode, Milos doesn't live here anymore, they were writers for the Spaceball show that was made later after this episode aired. That's uh, yeah, that honestly that sounds, I didn't watch it either and it made me sad and to skip it because it sounded so terrible because yes, like you Bob, we've talked about

this before. We both, we both watched Spaceball so much as little kids. Like it was taped off for me, it was taped off of HBO. I watched it far too many times and had tons of jokes about Teenage nose jobs and sex fly right over my head I got the development gum joke, but I didn't get the planet of the apes joke at the end Oh, yeah that that or or it's how I learned It's probably one of the first places I heard the word shit said is We ain't found shit said by the guys coming the desert Yeah, but that came far too late. That's just Spaceballs cartoon show.

And it seems like there has not been any rumblings about this since last year, but there was talks of Spaceballs 2 that's made by Josh Gad, but have not seen any updates since last summer, so maybe that's dead on the vine. And you know, Josh Gad plans a lot of things, but he did so many things in lockdown,

of like, he was doing a ton of lockdown content of his favorite stuff. It seemed like he was able to get meetings out of that, and Spaceballs was coming, but I think Gad over-promises these days. So up next we have Bart Gets Famous, and Nathaniel says, when you have the chance, please check out the history of In Living Color.

The show didn't suffer because Jim Carrey left, but rather Keenan Ivory Waynes and Damon Waynes refused to contribute to the show any further due to conflict with the network execs. And Tyler M also replied to this comment by the way, saying the book, Homey Don't Play That by David Peisner is a very good account of the history of In Living Color. That sounds great Aisha.

As somebody who loves Saturday Night Live histories and even ones written by our guest on Bargit's famous Alan Siegel, I should really check that out. I don't know enough about the production of such an important though short-lived sketch show as In Living Color. I'm adding that to my audible list. So thank you both Nathaniel and Tyler M.

for pointing that out. Also on the episode, Vance Jericho says, "'As far as the script dates, "'I'm only aware of the final one draft "'dated July 9th, 1993, "'pulled from the George Meier script files. "'It's interesting that Bart calls it the Conan O'Brien show kind of sounds like they were hedging their bets

on the show's name. I can see that it's it may be the name of the show was not final but it feels to me it's more of a case of they wanted to just say watch Conan O'Brien's show because people aren't really necessarily going to name them know the name of a new late night show, but they wanted to throw just Conan O'Brien up front in their plug. Yeah, I think they do have a title, Bart doesn't say that, yeah he does call it the Conan O'Brien show, but then they do have the title card for Late Night with Conan O'Brien,

but that, especially because it's a freeze frame or like a still title card, that could have been produced like the week of by an artist you know something tells me the Conan O'Brien footage was like a retake department thing because they have the look of the set and they possibly clearly couldn't have had that that late in production for this episode to air when it did and it's only like 20 seconds so I could see that being part of their retake budget for like a thing you do in the last two months of Production as opposed to like eight months ahead of time

Yeah so up next are some comments for what a cartoon episode about red dwarf for our live action month and Maverick says I enjoyed dark star but the beach ball alien scene was unbearable for me one of the few times I 100% opposed Bob. I really liked how one of the crew members wasn't even supposed to be there. He just put on the uniform and walked in. The practical effects were visually pleasing in that 70s retro charm way, even though you could spot the obvious miniatures. Overall, a solid film. It's one you want to watch again every decade." And yes, Maverick is bringing it up because Dark Star really influenced

Red Dwarf and it is like an 80 minute sci-fi comedy. Definitely worth checking out if you want to see how it informed things like Red Dwarf and Mystery Science Theater and so many other things and how it's like the beginning of the John Carpenter story. I need to give that a watch. I I've never seen it actually, I think, but I, it does remind me that after watching sinners, I saw the thing listed as, of Ryan Coogler's influences as well on it, and it made me crack open my 4K of The Thing. I hadn't seen The Thing in a few years, and yeah, it's like, it's perfect. I think They Live is still my favorite carpenter because it really speaks to my love of social justice, socialism, violence, and pro wrestling. But the thing is his best movie. It's like a perfect horror film.

I like, I like They Live, but I'm too busy nodding in agreement to even think about what I think of the movie. Yeah, I love, man, when that homeless guy who then becomes a sellout to the aliens, he goes like, why can't I get my share? Like everybody's out for themselves. Like his justification is so like perf. Oh God. I love it. I love it. Okay. But also on that episode, Citizen Man says, radio drama is still a thing in the UK, but it's dying sadly. That said, the guy who wrote this year's Oscar nominee Conclave made his start on BBC Radio.

And we're living through Conclave right now. Right? Is that nuts? If what happens at the end of Conclave happens in real life, I'll be happy. No spoilers. Watch Conclave. It's all right.

Well, we'll see which Con gets claved in real life. What color will the smoke be? Stay tuned. That is, it was pretty funny that JD Vance killed him. I can't lie, it's funny. Things can be funny in these horrible times. JD Vance killed him, then Trump fell asleep at his funeral. It's just the disgrace all around.

It's funny, look, everything's awful, but it's nice to laugh sometimes. You gotta laugh. You gotta. And our What a Cartoon movie for the month of March was an American tale, the Don Bluth film, and Blake R. says, Bob's Henry the Pigeon voice is an all-timer bit for me on this What a Cartoon movie.

Bluth is definitely a fascinating figure for animation. Disney had needed that kick in the pants to get out of its dark days, but I've always felt he was the wrong man for the right moment. His filmography of Thumbelina, Troll in Central Park, Rock-A-Doodle, The Pebble, and The Penguin back to back feels like a career suicide run few filmmakers ever experience. I definitely felt for the guy when he was having to make the rounds in nostalgia critic

reviews to promote his crowdfunding campaign for a Dragon's Lair movie that never materialized. I've always found An American Till itself to be too driftless and downbeat even as a child. Amplimation is a fascinating blip in Spielberg's career, but it's easy to see why he lost Materialized I've always found an American till itself to be too driftless and downbeat even as a child Implementation is a fascinating blip in Spielberg's career But it's easy to see why he lost interest once DreamWorks was beginning to materialize and will give him a much more lucrative sandbox supervise and yes Thank you Blake are I think wrong man for the right moment is the best way to describe Don Bluth Very good at animation not the right guy to lead the charge for a brand of

films that would rival Disney's. Yeah, the people, there would have been better people to get the money and the support that he got for releasing so many of those and it's too, especially like the Pebble and the Penguin. I think I just read that he doesn't, even he took his name off of directing that one. That was that much of a failure for him, I think I just read that he doesn't even he took his name off of directing that one like that was That that much of a failure for him. I think well I'll say he even had to debase himself by talking to me when he was running for that Kickstarter for Dragon Slayer And I I've told the story on the podcast before but in case you haven't heard it It's not that interesting

But I'm interviewing him for the Kickstarter for this Dragon Slayer project and he he's describing what he's trying to do with animation. And my Skype avatar is Chief Wiggum with a giant fist in his mouth, the famous drawing of that. And he's like, people don't want what I do anymore. People want that, that thing on your screen. He was referring to the drawing of Chief Wiggum. So he was kind of slamming The Simpsons

compared to his own work. Man, that's sad. And again, it's like, dude, the Simpsons is old now, man. Like, it's sad that it passed him by, but it's like, he blew it. Like, you can only have so much, like, sometimes the force is outside of it. I think, honestly, Don Bluth, the story of his career

is like a guy who needed to have more producers controlling him at times and he did better when he was under a Spielberg, a George Lucas, a Kathleen Kennedy, keeping him in line on things as opposed to getting more of a blank check, if you will. Well, The Simpsons is old, but he was also 52 years old when the first season aired. So Don Bluth is also old. Yes, he is mad he's not one of the nine old men, but if he quit Disney, man, that's what you get. Meanwhile, Trisha says on An American Tale, I'll admit I enjoy this movie more than you

guys, but I saw the flaws just as clearly watching as an adult. In some ways, nostalgia made me grade Bluth on a curve, but other ways I still appreciate him for the ways he broke the kid movie mold back then Something he kind of shared with Spielberg is that he had his main characters suffer only Bluth gave you a happy ending when Spielberg let you sit with the character and the trauma they experienced a You can't go home again kind of feeling I Mean us when you compare Empire of the Sun and An American Tale, as I kept doing on that podcast, that, like Jamie at the end, when he, his similar ending is

like, he's still broken. Like, he can't really go home again. He's not himself anymore. While meanwhile, when they embrace Fievel again, it's like, thank you, Papa, I am great. Fievel does not forget what his parents look like, unlike Jamie from Empire of the Sun. Yeah, he's not a completely different person who not even is himself anymore. And there's no, in Empire of the Sun, he throws away his suitcase of all of his shit.

Like he's like, I'm not that anymore. Fievel always keeps his hat, and he only grows into his hat. He does not give away his identity. And then the sequel, he gets a new big stupid hat. You know, I think they actually have him, give him the cartoonish ability that his hat can turn into a cowboy hat. Really, okay, well, maybe one day we'll cover the sequel.

I think the sequel might be more of a more structured traditional movie I might enjoy more. It's got Jimmy Stewart in one of his final films. I wanna hear that. So yeah, thanks for your comments on American Tales. Move on to Talking Futurama, lure reconcilable differences. Thanks to Chris Waite for being on this one.

And Wildland Blazer says, wow, this episode with Sergio Aragones Lurrrreconcilable nnnn differences. And Wildland Blazer says, Wow, this episode with Sergio Aragones premiered only 10 days before the Cartoon Network Mad series, airing right after the first episode of the regular show as well. That's either brilliant networking or dumb luck. This adaptation is a part of the mental fabric for the most demented of us elder zoomers, and it's how I was exposed to the Mad Empire. Despite being robot chicken

for kids and having loads of dated early 2010s cringe, I can still enjoy it as a mixed media sketch show. The artistic sensibilities of Mark Merrick truly shines in the animation, designs ranging from UPA knockoffs to bargain bin dreamworks parodies were captured perfectly by the artist. They even gave us the onscreen death of Lightning McQueen. Revisiting the series as an adult, now knowing that some of MAD's cartoonists such as Aragones contributed alongside indie animators has given me a new appreciation for the series. And yes thanks Wildland Blazer. I was vaguely familiar with this show and I was kind of like oh good for good for kids of today I like MAD this is their

version of MAD and in recent years I've seen clips from the show pop up on YouTube and Twitter and Blue Sky. So people are now remembering this episode. But yeah, I think it really was robot chicken for kids. I should have given it a chance then, especially to know that Aragonese and others worked on it. It gives me more cause to check it out. But yeah, that could be the last time children will be made aware of Mad Magazine, since they no longer make new content for it, right?

They do, but it's weird in that I think it might be quarterly now, but if you see a Mad issue on the shelves, it's going to be a lot of archival content, but with a few new things. Oh, well that's good, okay. But I don't think there are offices anymore, like the one that we visited back in 2018 or anything like that. I wonder where all that history is going to go or where it went.

God, I would guess David Zazalov personally burned it all to ash, I would guess. When we went there in 2018, it felt like they had not finished unpacking, but they had already been there for quite some time. So I feel like they knew, let's keep stuff in boxes. We know where this is headed. I mean, yeah, I think what it was,

like within five years of us seeing that was the end of Mad as well, which was too bad. But also Batmanboy11 on that episode says, I appreciate and enjoy this episode's depiction of Orson Welles as always with Maurice, but it of course makes me think about how people still think that everyone believed the War of the Worlds broadcast to be real and panicked about alien invasion.

As someone with a master's degree in communications and media studies and an interest in urban legends and folklore, this is not only something we specifically talk about throughout my time at university, but also the broader issues of extremely poor media literacy that people have and how people fall for bogus news stories all the time. It was annoying to me when I was a freshman at university in 2014 because I was a pedantic 18 year old, but needless to say it's only gotten worse and more dangerous in the 11 years since. Yes we covered it on that show but the effects of that broadcast

were really exaggerated. But when they tried it again in other countries, some people were killed because of it. So I believe there's like a really old radio lab about that from like the late aughts, early 2010s if you wanna hear about when there were violent consequences to people trying to do this stunt in other countries.

I believe like one of the DJs was lynched or something for doing this. Well hey, fortunately these days, there's not things where a lie travels faster than the truth in reality. Lies are slower than ever. You can pick them off as they wander by. And our last set of comments are all about

a Talking of the Hill, the episode I'll 8A, and Joe Hodgson says, I vaguely recall episodes of Roseanne and the Cosby Show that dealt with the subject matter, but they went over my head as a young boy. I lived in a house with women, so I had some idea about what a period was, but it wasn't something I asked questions about

or that anyone tried to teach me about. Recently, my son has started that phase of his education in school where puberty is taught, and it had me recalling the same for myself. I can recall a girl in my fifth grade class having special bathroom privileges, and the teacher did not go into any further detail about it plenty telling us that it was none of our business. Me being ignorant, Tanura

boy, just wanted the same and only recently when my son's own lesson of the subject arrived did I remember that and kind of felt embarrassed for myself 30 plus years later. Also I watched the video they showed my kids classroom and I was pleasantly surprised to see it's co-ed now. Boys should learn about what their female classmates are going through and vice versa. Removing the whole mystery about this stuff helps to destigmatize it, so future husbands and fathers don't have to feel awkward when they take a trip down aisle 8A. Thank you, Joe Hodgson. And Joe Hodgson, I'm not sure where you live, but I'm wondering how different sex education is now for people in more conservative states, etc. I wonder, gay, trans, LGBTQ plus stuff is off the table, but I wonder how much they

get into the nitty-gritty of your body and how it works. Yeah, I mean the headlines you hear about these days and as we just talked about that bogus news thing, these are probably like half truths that just travel around as a headline. But the things people that the conservatives complain about at PTA meetings seems to be, oh, there's tampons in the boys' room or whatever. Letter boxes in every bathroom. For the cat people. I do like hearing, at least in Hodgson's story, that it is co-ed because in my long ago childhood,

it was boys, you go watch this video, girls, you watch this video. And I mean, I could see, perhaps the less conservative view on that is like they didn't want the girls to feel embarrassed to have to watch this with the boys. Maybe there was that feeling. But I definitely think a co, now I feel a co-ed viewing probably brings less shame to it in general and doesn't make it, and demystifies it for both,

for all the kids in the class. I had heads up because I have an older sister and she took all the health classes ahead of me. So I kind of just like borrowed the book she already had in her room. So I walked into that class like I know everything. Well, see, you had read ahead in the book. One thing I forgot to mention was, again, having a teenage sister and I was like 10. In order to learn about women, I would read her 17 and YM magazines.

And like every one of these magazines had her letter section Where was all like embarrassing period stories? So I learned a lot about periods of the like literature for teenage girls when I was a very young boy Man see I again I missed out on as as having no sister and being the oldest I Experienced those things first in the health classes as well I mean, yeah, but I didn't I had to I had to go in the, the separate room and was very mystified about it. Like what did the girls watch?

I don't, but I was also scared to ask any of the girls who were, I was friendly with in those classes. Well, it sounds like at least for Joe's kid, things are pretty progressive now. And that's great to hear. And, uh, finally on that episode, uh, Trisha says, I don't know how true it is for shows airing right now, but I know for a hot minute in the late tens, there were period episodes in shows like Babysitter's Club and Anne with an E.

The latter feels especially groundbreaking for covering the subject in a period piece pun intended, says Trisha. Yeah, thanks to the people in the comments that are pointing out, here are some modern period episodes of Things, here are things you didn't mention. So I'm glad to see that it doesn't seem to be as rare anymore to discuss this topic on a sitcom,

on just a regular series, et cetera. Yeah, and in kids' media, which is the, like it's a difference between adult media and then stuff for tweens and teens too Yeah, I'm not sure if it was mentioned here, but like the series pepper and which was kind of like girl, Doug But better I remember watching half watching some of that as like a 15 year old I remember they did a period episode with her too, and I thought like wow I can't believe they're doing this on Saturday morning That's cool. I didn't remember. I sporadically watch pepper and I remember a training bra episode, but I did not remember the

Seeing the the menstruation one. So that's good. I'm glad they did that too. I think the Now I well, yeah in in the previous years. I'm glad they dealt with it I hope I hope more American North American produced kids Entertainment can deal with that in a mature way to not make it to demystify it more for for for kids now it would be great I'm trying to be optimistic in 2025 mm-hmm no I mean I again I I will say from my one last LA trip thing I did get I grabbed a meal with Ian Jones Cordy and Rebecca Sugar and definitely again give to the Trevor Project when Rebecca Sugar next does a charity concert for it or you can just

give to it now. I mean, I heard about how the many, this is so many organizations, but the trans lifeline that the Trevor project is part of and supports it is It's it's funding it it's It depends on some governmental funding that is in question now and a trans Lifeline is more important than ever now to to help especially at-risk trans youth especially so you know consider giving to the Trevor Project and Rebecca Sugar's Instagram there's definitely links to it but look it up

for yourself and give to that. There's so many charities that need help right now but I did really want to spotlight that one just now. Yeah I mean as every potential safety net is being taken away anything with government funding it's more important than ever to donate to these things and not to political parties who do nothing for you. Donate to projects who help and support people. Yeah, every time Nancy Pelosi asks you for $5, think about how much better that $5 would be spent at an actual helpful organization.

She wrote me a letter personally. It said, Bob, we need your help. Have you seen what President Trump has done lately? Trump has done, I still get those fucking things from the do nothing. I get texts too, it's great. Those useless pieces of shit. I'm being punished forever giving them money.

It's fantastic. Yes, and I blame Bernie Sanders for that. I gave Bernie NAOC money and they gave my fucking email to the assholes, boo, boo. Bernie's one flaw as a politician. Yes. No other. Yeah, I have to explain to people that like Bernie is the compromise for me now politically. Like that is my like you asked me to compromise the Democrats. I feel like no, Bernie Sanders is my compromise. Me too. And hey, this is a long episode. We can gripe about politics

on our own time. We know you know we're grumpy about what's happening right now. And again, Trevor Project, please give, again, just please give locally. Give to things that need your help locally if you can. They really appreciate it. Again, safety nets are being taken away from so many people who need them. So yes, keep them in your thoughts. And on that happy note,

thanks for listening to our fun Simpsons podcast, everybody. Yay, and flailing my arms. It's gonna be a fun month of May. Again, we're kicking off the month with an episode of Blab and Bout Batman the animated series. It's been all over a year since we've done it. We're happy to jump back in and talk about one of the great episodes and for patrons we have normal episodes of Talking of the Hill, Talking Futurama, End of the Month for $10 patrons, extremely goofy movie and we've already recorded all of May's Talking Simpsons, so a lot of great guests are coming up this month. Please look forward to it.

Yeah, we may have said the names of some of those guests in this episode even, as a little tease there of people who haven't, but it's a great line of guests we've had so many great guests and more to come in the months and weeks to come that we've been really loving what we've been doing on Talking Simpsons lately. And same with the Futurama. And I'm really looking forward to this summer of Disney odd-y, naughty odd-ys or whatever

we end up calling it. Yes, because I have not seen any of these films outside of an extremely goofy movie. So this is going to be a first time for me with all of these movies. It's going to be a good time. So yeah, no matter what we can complain about in the news. Hey, we got a lot of fun podcasts coming. We're still trying to have fun here. So, yes, thank you for listening, everybody.

We'll see you again next week for another episode of Talking Simpsons and next month for another episode of Talk to the Audience and CNN. Wow, infotainment. If you want to feel more connected to humanity and a little less alone, listen to Beautiful Anonymous. Each week I take a phone call from one random anonymous human being. There's over 400 episodes in our back catalog. You get to feel connected to all these different people all over the world. Recent episodes include one where a lady survived a murder attempt by her own son. But then the week before that, we just talked about Star Trek. It can be anything. It's unpredictable. It's raw. It's real. Get Beautiful