Talking Simpsons - Talk to the Audience?!? - July 2025

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

We've reached the end of the month, which means it's once again time for another installment of our community podcast! Join us as we mourn Simpsons composer Alf Clausen, check in on broadcast season 37, discuss the latest Simpsons-related Comic-Con news, and remind everyone that Marge isn't actually dead. And, as always, we read and respond to your questions and comments from the most recent round of episodes. So listen in, and celebrate the beginning of our eleventh year with a little podcast about YOU. Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to talk to the audience where this is always death. I'm one of your host, Bob Mackey, and I believe the 11th year of a show is when things really start to get good. And who is here with me today, as always. Currently morning, Marge Simpson. It's Henry Gilbert. Yes, RIP to Marge. rest in power. And yes, this is our community podcast on this podcast. It comes out at the end of the

month on Patreon, the beginning of the month on the free feed. And in this podcast, we talk about what's happening in the Simpsons world and in our world. And then we spent some time responding to your questions and comments from the most recent round of episodes. And things are happening in the Simpsons world, but we're kind of slowing down between the end of season 36 and the beginning of 37. Do I have those numbers correct? Yes, yeah. Season 37 is the one that is going to premiere. Actually, there still isn't a premiere date that's in part of the news. I thought we'd have this month. But yeah. Well, last month, we took off, not really. We didn't do a talk to the audience. Instead, we did a three-hour anniversary special for our 10th anniversary. So I assumed a lot

more news would build up over the last two months. And Henry's producer on this one, and I was surprised to see not a whole lot's going on. Of course, there were some monumental things happening in the last two months, but not a lot of Simpson's news to speak of in general. Yeah, I mean, no new episodes like there hasn't been anything since the late may finale that we talked about and then like the biggest news i'd say that was planned like good news was at like two days ago when we're recording this at san diego comic con there really has not been a ton since then but we can start off with the downer of this episode and it's something that i think it just kind of came and went and i really think it speaks to people not fully understanding the impact of this gentleman of course i'm

talking about legendary composer alf clausen who passed away on june second at the age of 84 so if you need to know more about alf clossin we've talked about him so much over the past 10 years but he was major higher in season two he won two emies for the show for his work on the show he also wrote the alf theme song he did music for the critic han zimmer did the opening theme alf closson did the music throughout the show and he was let go in season 28 over an alleged decline in quality although there was a lawsuit filed by Alf Klossin. It was in age and disability discrimination case, but that was tossed out of court or settled, I believe, in February 2020. Was it settled or was it just stricken from the record? Yeah, you know, you're out of order, Elf. You actually are old.

No, I thought it was just dismissed. I had forgotten the next step of it, but in his obituary, they mentioned that it was initially dismissed on some grounds, but not all of them. And they were going to proceed the Alf Claus inside and then February of 2020 is when Fox Disney ultimately just settled with him for an undisclosed amount. I see.

And yes, Alph Cawson, very important to the show. I think his, just what he added to the show, I don't think we're at a point to fully understand just how important Alph Clause him was, but there's a certain texture to the Simpsons. We've talked about this a lot since Alf left the show. And his

music was part of that texture. Just the way the show hits you the way it sounds and looks in fields Al Closson was just like 30% of the entire Simpsons experience and now that is gone it's been gone for a while and I really wish that they found someone to at least emulate his style

but they went in a different direction and while they can still put together good songs for the show I feel like the background music has really suffered to the point where it's often distractingly bad or just distractingly not there and that's when I miss Alclosson the most Yeah, no, I think they've, since they let him go, one, they rely a lot more on library music, or they just use the Hans Zimmer factory, which, you know, Jim Brooks loves Hans Zimmer, and he's done a lot of good work for Gracie films and TV shows, but Han Zimmer doesn't, it's the Hans Zimmer company that's doing these things. It's not, they're not getting his full attention, nor do they have the budget to have full orchestration anymore. It's been a long time since that, really.

Yeah. That really sinks to see that go because that was another part of the Simpsons texture, the Simpsons just experience. You get the orchestrated music. It's a huge part of what made the show special. And of course, we're going to hear this later in the episode. Disney, they're just, the moths are flying out of their wallets. In fact, the entire studio is just so full of moths from all the open wallets that are just have no money in them. They have to shut things down and kill all the moths. Then they can open up. It's like that's they, that's why they had to move off the fox lot. It's because it was full of moths. That's why. Nothing Disney makes is making money currently. I mean, look at how poorly Lilo and stitched it. Oh, wait, that just crossed the billion dollar mark. Never mind. They have a lot of money.

They just don't want to spend it on these kind of things. Yeah, and Alph Claus in his part was part of that too, I think. Though it also did seem slightly personal on the, there definitely was like just bad blood, which is very, you know, when the breakup happened, Al Clossin was an old man. And like, it was just sad to see this is how it ends. Like, this is so, you know, it's a sad part of these obituaries that you'd only be celebrating the great, important work he had done for the series, and instead they all have to have like, and then, of course, in season 28, like, they all have to recognize that. Yeah, I think Alf Clossom was kind of cursed with not writing the opening theme for the show, because that's what distracts everybody. Oh, Danny Elfman did the theme. Isn't that great? And then the music just fits so well with the visuals. You often aren't really thinking about it.

But I feel like the benefit of our podcast is you will hear those audio cues isolated and you're not looking at the great animation. So you can really appreciate, oh, this sound alike is so great. Oh, this cue is so good. Oh, he came up with this original, very emotional tune. Like, for example, the final song over the credits where Homer is thinking about his mother who just left. That's a half-closs and original. It's not a song with lyrics. It's just a very stirring original piece just fully sprung out of his brain.

Yes. Or, you know, another of my favorite to his is his, the medieval time style version at the end of Lisa's wedding. Like that's such a beautiful one too. And just how close he was able to get when they asked him to do a sound alike to the point where I have to think very hard

to remember the difference between the Cape Fear music and Alf Closson's version of the Cape Fear music. Or the Hill Street Blues version from when Marge became a cop too. Yeah. Yeah, those Simpson soundtrack CDs from now 25 to 20 years ago are great just because they isolate those

original compositions, especially the end music, the new takes on the Simpsons themes. And when we redid season one and two and really did them properly, that was when, you know, listeners were kind of even goofing on us a little of like, all right, we know you hate the season one music, but the season one music was crumbier. And then when he came on, I'm pretty sure it was the first tree house. We really did feel like night and day or like everything got better. that. Yeah, and it's just something that makes the new seasons feel off, and by new, I mean

the past, I guess at this point, eight years since he left. I guess so. Just the fact that his music isn't there, it just makes it seem like a different show. Like, it's sort of like bit by bit, different elements of the show

are being replaced, so it's not, it's not the thing I like. I can enjoy it for what it is, but losing Alph Clauseen was a huge blow to the point where I like to try to not think about it, because he is just as essential as one of the voice actors to me on The Simpsons. Absolutely. Well, and I think that's people talk about that term in shittification.

Like it is every old thing that was good when it goes away, it doesn't get replaced with an equivalent current good thing. Even if the good, and it's not that a good thing doesn't exist, it's that people who could pay for the good thing don't. Yes, absolutely. It's why when anything comes back, it just always looks worse, it's cheaper. It might still be funny, but the resources are not. given to it. But the resources are there.

In fact, these companies are richer than ever because there's fewer and fewer of them. But, well, hey, well, speaking in new things. Oh, are we talking about the Emmys? Yeah. Yes, Emmy nomination. So for the outstanding animated program category, or whatever it's called, I forget what

it's called. BART's birthday, the season premiere, broadcast, season 36 premiere, was nominated. It was up against Bob's Burgers, the show Arcane, common side effects and love, death, and robots. and Hank Azaria was nominated for the outstanding voiceover category for his work in Abe League of their Mo.

And I've actually not seen anything else that was nominated in this category outside of Parts' birthday, but I have downloaded the Common Side Effects show, and I do hear it's very good, and also it's a case of Mike Judge doing a voice on a show he didn't work on. So there's a Mike Judge voice in there. But I believe it's produced by the Mike Judge Greg Daniels' collab studio. I think so.

also heard very good things about common side effects but hadn't given it time yet and i did i watched the first episode of that arcane show and people do like it it's it seemed like a good adventure series based on you know the league of legends video game i believe and then you know bobs burger is a constant there but surprising uh like and then love death and robots another one i don't really know but the rick and morty had been a standard of these things even like winning them i not even like a nomination for Rick and Morty or I guess common side effects is taking the adult swim section of this though it's more of a max original than adults. It feels like Rick and Morty is now just an institution and people are talking about is there a decline happening? I don't see that much

excitement over new Rick and Morty actually I don't really see a lot and I feel like it was it really peaked with the Pickle Rick era in terms of enthusiasm like seasons three and four really. Did you know it just got a new spinoff announced of the president played by Keith David is getting a spin-off series. Yes, I did see that and I was trying to think, well, I know I've heard him in the show, but maybe they did a lot more with him after I stopped watching because he just seemed to be like a movie president kind of character.

I've come in and out and watched occasional episodes in the last like six, seven years, but one of the last ones I remember regularly watching was it was like 2018 and it was the finale of, the season where the president is the main character and it just felt so depressing to see their Obama parody guy in the context of the first Trump term. It was it made it not funny to me. I could see that. And I guess we could talk about some more recent TV stuff because it's related to stuff that we cover. Of course, King of the Hill, that goes live on August 4th, the new season of that. And then following that in September, I believe, we'd get both new Futurama season and a new Beavis and Butthead season. So basically everything that we live, like is coming out all within the span of two months.

Yeah, that's right. Man, we got to, so you got to finish watching all 10 episodes of King of the Hill before they drop that Futurama or Beavis and Butthead, whichever comes first. Or maybe they're the same week even, I think. Yeah, I'm looking forward to everything, especially Beavis and Butthead. I know we talked to Lou Morton about that third season, a very long time ago, and he's like, I don't know when it goes live, maybe early 2025, but it turns out no, very late 2025, because I don't even want to get into it, but there's all that stuff with Paramount

happening, which makes me think, maybe I don't want to support Paramount stuff. Maybe it's time for a little steely, steely. Beavis and Butthead would approve of you shoplifting their cartoon. In fact, I think I have to shoplift it because I don't have cable. And I tried watching the trailer in Paramount or Comedy Central was like, we're not showing you this in your country. Wow. Not even the advertisement. And I signed up for Paramount Plus just to watch Beavis and Butthead. So it's going to be one of those things where Beavis and Butthead was a Paramount Plus show. And then it became a Comedy Central show. And then they had to spend a lot of time airing those as regular TV seasons, and now they're ready for a third season, which I guess eventually will go to Paramount Plus much later. It's very convoluted. Well, and our pal Neil Campbell, our previous Talking Simpsons guest, like his show, Digman finally got its second season to premiere.

It was like right after the season premiere of South Park that also was everything was delayed because of that Paramount deal that was, yes, as you said, it's all very comprehensive. and tied up in Trump bullshit. It sucks. Does it involve giving Barry Weiss a lot of money? Well, it might. Yes. The rich child, the billionaire child who owns Skydance, who now owns Paramount, he really likes Barry Weiss and thinks that she and her free press are honest truth tellers that should be in charge of CBS News.

I see. Well, I'm just going to PayPal Mike Judge, I think, $20 for this new season. See where that gets me. Mike Judge, do you have a Venmo? So anyways, that's a number. about new stuff in terms of new shows that are debuting. Let's talk about one new news item that is Marge Simpson is dead. Dead tired of people not watching the season finale that shows she's dead in an alternate

future because people were not watching this and then unscrupulous newshounds were misreporting this as Marge Simpson dies in this new episode, which I guess technically is accurate because I was seeing this reported as you'll never guess who they killed in this new episode and it's Marge. Well, yes, but again, like I said, as Stranger Things, season 36, broadcast finale, it is a future episode in which the question is posed, what if Marge

was the first one to die, not Homer? And what do Bard and Lisa do at that point as adults? Yeah, and it, when you would then click on the like, let's just say, screen rant trash article of that, paragraph three, once they've got you, is like, no, it was they'll admit she's not really

dead and it's an alternate future, but they got you to click on it. Like, and it It had gotten so many headlines that, like, Matt Selman had to give a quote to variety, like variety. Well, of course, this was Variety's way of getting in on the virality of it of they published the, no, it's not true, Marge isn't dead. Here's a sourced interview. But I guess they are playing with fire when they kill off such a major character, even in a non-canonical episode. So then we have everyone misreporting it, and then we have a new wave of articles, everyone correcting the misreporting.

And to quote Matt Selman in that Variety article, there is no canon. The Simpsons doesn't even have canon, he says. Matt Selman is the number one canon violator. He is the most, yes, he is the greatest hater of canon, yes. So Variety had a pretty good profile on Matt Grinning, Dave Silverman, and Matt Selman from the Annasie Animation Festival. And this is definitely worth reading, but it does seem like three guys who are kind of tired of being asked the same question, so they're just being very playful. That's the vibe I got from this. Yeah, I mean, Matt Grainning has, he is in full, like, Stan Lee in his 90s mode of just like, oh, yeah, here's my story of creating that, here's my story of creating that.

Like, they don't talk about current things. But I did like, I like them mentioning how at the Anasi Animation Festival, like David Silverman is the biggest star there. Like, he's the most famous guy there. I will tell you, having met him in person, he's a recognizable guy. He's usually got a fun hat on. Oh, yeah, he's a great, man, his top hat collection must be an impressive one in his home. But a good quote from Matt Selman from that article is, quote, I wish you could do an original couch gag for every episode.

But money is a little tighter than it used to be, and you can't cut a story short to add a couch gag. And I've talked about this on, I think, a future episode, but The Real Jims, who's been on our show, does a lot of great YouTube videos. He did a video documenting all of the couch gags. It looked like an incredible amount of work. So if you like what we do, you'll love what he does. And yes, there is a point in time in which they are basically phased out,

or there's only just a few per season. They used to be a much bigger deal for the show And yeah, I spit out my drink when I hear Things are getting a little tight at Disney This little place is just falling apart No, it's like money's too tight for steak And by stake I mean short stories Or short opening couch gags

Well and also like he mentioned They asked like oh is 17 episodes a season easier And he's like no no, still a full time job But it's them having to reflect on like Simpsons is still bigger than it ever is and they get renewed for four more seasons. But they have had to slash a bunch of stuff. And this gets ahead of the San Diego thing.

But at Comic Con this year, Al Jean was there and was like sharing photos from it. He was not on stage. Like I do think Al Jean is no longer a Simpsons guy. I think he got cut. Not for professional reasons, but for budget stuff. Many reasons. Yeah, I guess we'll find out.

There might be a new story. We might just not see his name listed in broadcast season 37. Sorry, production season 37's first episode. I imagine he works up through broadcast, or sorry, production 36. But maybe he'll just be consulting producer. Who knows? That is interesting. And I guess they have to bite their tongue because they're saying we're never, we've

never been more popular, everyone loves us. The property only gets more valuable. But the money, there's not enough money. Yeah. It's crazy that they have to like cover for, I mean, what can they do? Like Disney is the ones giving them the money. And if Disney wants to cry poverty, It's just sad that, like, we say it all the time.

I'll say it again. In the Fox years when Fox would refuse to give them money, they'd make fun of Fox on the TV show. When Disney refuses to give them money, they go like, well, Disney's a great partner. Like, that's all they say. What can we do? They just don't have it. I say, like, stop re-filming Avengers, what is it called, Doomsday for the 30th time?

Yes. And just give some of this money to your TV shows, Disney. Isn't it great those new headlines have been coming out of Doomsday where they're like, I don't know if the movie has a screen. script like says stars in movie yeah yeah it turns out i think there's not going to be another marvel movie for the next 18 months after uh fantastic four right is that is that how it's really going to go down there should be a spider man in between but uh avengers doomsday is now 18 months away yes yeah and i know i mean it's it's going on like this on both sides even dc where

it's taken fucking forever to get another batman movie it's batman i know matt reeves is going through personal stuff and I understand that, but Jesus Christ, the next Batman is going to be literally five years after his reboot. Yes, I know. He'll be so much older. He's supposed to be the young Batman and he's going to be like the 43 year old Batman. Like, and this is after we got a whole season of the Penguin as well. Yeah, uh, not interested in that, but I do want to see what he does more of that character. But yes, uh, Disney running out of money. So if you can, sign up for Disney Plus. They really need it. Maybe they can throw a little money the Simpsons way. Keep a few producers on. It's only the most

watched thing on Disney Plus we're always told and yet no money for it. Oh and also at Anisee I wanted to mention that our previous Talking Simpsons guest, Rebecca Sugarney and Jones Cordy, they finally announced they have a new series, a spin-off of Stephen Universe, Lars of the stars. It's wild

to me that Rebecca Sugarney and Jones Cordy went like five or seven years without an actively announced in production television show, but now they've got one. Yeah, yeah. It's It's been a very long time since Stephen Universe and OkKO, Let's Be Heroes, went off the air. So it just seems like nobody wants to make or buy anything.

Yes, yeah. You would think the safest of bets is a Stephen Universe spinoff, and it took that long for this to happen. Like, I had seen this is not like they told me secrets. I don't know. This was a happy surprise to me, too. Just seeing how they would post like, hey, tell Warner that you want to see more Stephen Universe. I was like, I always was shocked to that because it's like,

Warner should be begging them to do more Stephen Universe. In a just world, yes. But yes, congrats to Rebecca Sugar and Ian Junkerty for their new show that's coming out. I imagine late this year, early next year. Oh, it's got to be neck. I would bet mid next year. And we had San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend. And of course, Matt Selman, Matt Grainning, David Silverman, and Michael Price were there along with Matt Fawn.

Is that he say his name? I think it's Fawn in. Fawn in, thank you. They preview the new season. An upcoming guest include Albert Book. and Michael Keaton, and the Onion Stan Kelly will do a treehouse couch gag, although there's only going to be one tree house this year. We were predicting they were going to double down on them like they have been doing. It's the most popular thing they do every year, but no,

only one. And they are promising a Jaws meets the Blob sequence. Even though they've already done the blob, they have not yet done a Jaws parody within Treehouse, as far as I know. Yeah, it's really weird like Jaws and Blob. It also makes me think that's an algae and pitch just because it's about ancient movies. He's that have been over-parodied. Well, hey, Jaws turns 50 this year, so maybe this is the most appropriate time to do it. Oh, and that list of guest stars, there's, I could have put like 30 more names on there, but read the variety or deadline things about like, oh, and it's also Danny Pudi and Dominole Gleason and blah, blah, blah, like there's a ton of other people.

But the returning ones of Albert Brooks and Michael Keaton to me are the most interesting for long-time fans. And apparently the 800th episode is coming up soon. It will be double length, and they're promising big things. And MacRaining, mostly joking about the death of Donald Trump. And also, I had fun reading his quote about Elon Musk getting stranded on Mars and everyone cheering. Yes, that was. So clearly, some regret over that episode from like 10 years ago at this point.

Yes, that Neil Campbell wrote, then you can hear all about how that was not his pitch and he, but in his experience on it when we first had a mom. But yeah, it was nice to see them openly mock Elon Musk, their former guest. They were not acting nice about it just because he had been on. the show and they also commented on the many annoying fake predicted it's like that it really is a shitty thing now that like nobody even bothers to like pull a frame from an episode

that has nothing to do with a fake prediction it just is now hideous ugly obvious AI art that of it now I respect the first wave of Simpsons predicted it way more than the second wave yes I wanted to read Graynings quote

quote the Simpsons predicts Elon Musk will be the first man to land on Mars amazingly he will crash land on Mars but he will radio back that he is marooned there forever and most emotionally of all he will be able to hear the cheering all the way that's good yeah graining sounded like he was

real spicy in that one because he was he was also saying that like when I I'll predict that when you know who dies they'll be dancing in the street and he he meant Trump and he was telling people out there younger people delete Fox News from your parents cable although that is a very 70 year old man concerned

because we all know Gateway News is the gateway drug. Sorry, Fox News, not Gateway News, Fox News of the Gateway Drug, too, going on to Facebook, going down those rabbit holes, getting way more radicalized. But I guess you've got to start somewhere. Your parents probably now are like, Fox News is sold out. Like, they're lying about it now. Yeah, I'm sure they think Fox News is woke. Yes, totally. I, and I think Greaning, they also all came in and, like, dressed as Dr. Doom as a parody of the Dr. Doom reveal from last Comic Con and they And Matt Graney, I swear, was wearing a jacket

to look like the Homer in the Bush's thing. It was like a green jacket that looked like shrubbery to me. I think they were all forced into those Dr. Doom costumes. For a brand synergy. Yes. I think so. But yeah, not a lot of news happening

this month, but we did want to remember Alph Klaus and talk about some upcoming things for The Simpsons and other shows that we enjoy. And now it's time to talk about what's happening in our world and let's start with the schedule. We got some fun stuff coming up in the month of August and we're going to start off with a new episode of What a Cartoon we took last month off as we normally do. We're coming back this month for another visit to Superman the animated series, the episode The Late Mr. Kent, which is a lot of

great superhero stuff and a lot of great film noir stuff and shockingly dark for a Saturday morning cartoon. We had a lot of fun watching this. Yeah, it was a great one to return to that an excuse to go back to Superman since the new movie came out and it's one of the most beloved of the series and also the most like it does reflect real Superman comics though it's not a direct adaptation but it's the most it feels the most like a Batman the animated series episode and then on top of that amazing animation by telecom studios at TMS that you can always count on and it's all to celebrate Superman which I think most people think is a triumph for this summer well after after so many bad Superman movies where he murders people it's nice to have one where

Superman's like a good dude. And for our patrons at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons, we have our typical mini-series episodes. First, Talking Futurama, Mobius Dick, it's exactly what it sounds like. It is a Moby Dick parody in space about Lila's obsession with hunting a space whale. Yeah, that was

a really good one. Man, in both these cases, we've been so productive. I have forgotten that we recorded these ones like a couple months ago now, it feels like. Yes, we're about to record October's Talking Futurama this week. So these are These are in the distant past, but I remember that talking of the hill for August, it's to kill a lady bird.

This is the one where Bobby adopts a wild raccoon, and Dale comes down with rabies. He doesn't really have rabies. He just is tripping on mushrooms, but still, it's Dale basically becoming the character we know, pushing him to the limit and pushing the performance by Johnny Hardwick to the limit as well. Yeah, it's a great parody, well, not really parody, but kind of a tribute to like to kill a mockingbird or other like coming of age, boy kills a pet type stories. And yeah, it was better than I remember, especially thanks to Dale being insane. And we're going to end our Disney summer of the aughts with a look at treasure planet. That's for people on our $10 level. Of course, you get the entire What a Cartoon movie podcast, normally five to six hours long.

If you're on the free feed or the $5 feed, you get the preview of the history of that episode. And I'm really looking forward to watching this because it's another one I have not seen. The mega bomb of this era, the one that really caused Disney to say, all right, we're shutting this all down. and we're making everything CGI. Really curious to dig into this one. We're pre-prep right now, so we're just getting our feet wet in this world. But it was fun to look at Atlantis, too.

They're both of the same kind of movie. Yeah, I'm interested to see what this one compares to Atlantis, and I just know it as like the gravestone of Disney 2D feature animation. I mean, technically you could say they're still home on the range after this, I think, and then Princess and the Frog tries its best. to bring it back but this is usually treated in most like histories of the Disney Renaissance as the end so yes that's all happening on the free feed and there's some Patreon stuff happening at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons please sign up there if you're

not a member there's so much great stuff happening and you get to join the discord it's a lot of fun and now it's time to talk about what we've been playing and watching that's not necessarily related to our normal cartoon discussions and as for me I've been very busy over these past two months playing a lot of video games I wanted to call out a few of them because I have finished, in big scare quotes, the video game The Hundred Line Last Defense Academy. Now, I mentioned playing the demo of this, I think Black in April. And here's the thing. You've got to be a very specific kind of person to enjoy this game. So if you enjoy the works of Kotaro Uchikoshi and Kazutaka Kodaka, you'll love this game. If you don't know what I'm

talking about, well, that's the creator of Dangan Rampa and the creator of the Zero Escape series. And it's basically both sensibilities mash together. And the result of that is essentially, a 150-hour adventure game where you're basically doing nothing but reading text and occasionally dipping into turn-based battles, although that is gradually phased out as you play more of the game. And to explain this a little more,

the way this game works is, first you need to play a full playthrough of 30 hours of this game, and that will establish all the characters, the story, the stakes, the situation, what's happening, and then once you hit that ending, you realize, these are mechanical spoilers, but it's the premise of the game.

I'm going to go back to the beginning, and see what I can do again. And from there, you can explore a number of timelines, and there were 100 endings in total. There's not 100 storylines in total, but there's a lot of them. And if you want to explore fullest, the game to its fullest,

it will be over 100 hours. So I play through that first 30 hours, and then I found another timeline to play through that took me like another 20 hours. So I have 50 hours, and I think eight total endings out of 100. And over the years, I will keep going back to this game

and getting more stories out of it, But it is, I feel like people should not be playing this to scrape every bit of content out of it in one sitting. You will drive yourself crazy. But just the sheer amount of things that are sitting there waiting for you if you want to leave it on the shelf for a little bit and come back to it is astounding. Man, I, well, I'm surprised to hear that term-based stuff gets phased out over to, or you just do less of it. I did purchase it to support to the studio because it sounded like the studio really was like, please buy it now, don't wait to help us continue existing. So it's been sitting on my Switch and then my Switch 2 for a few months now. But I haven't turned it on just yet.

It's basically the game Virtue's Last Reward, but if it was on steroids, because it's the same thing where after you do a playthrough, you see the map of the story. And then as you make different decisions, you see you go in different directions on that map. And I guess the ultimate meta goal is to uncover that entire map of the story and see every possible different interpretation of events and to see just what you can do within that timeline. It's really fascinating and it seemingly took a ton of work for just a very small amount of people to write 140 hours worth of text. Yeah, that sounds like a monster game like it. Well, I hope they've sold enough to keep going and not don't have to like

shutter their new studio after this. They are reporting that they have the game has sold well. And so they had they had realistic hopes for what a game like this would sell and it seems to be meeting those hopes. So it feels like there is a future for the company. But if you're listening to this, 98% of the people are probably out there thinking, that sounds stupid. I don't want to play that. And maybe, hey, you're right. But I've been playing these two creators games for the past, I don't know, 15 years. So this is tailor-made for people who are way into what they do. And only these two guys kind of do that thing right now. So this is where you have to go if you want the thing that they do. And

there's a lot of it, thankfully, right now. And I also finished a game that more people are playing than the 100-line Last Defense Academy. Claire Obscure, Expedition 33. It is a Japanese RPG made by the French. Figure that one out. But it's also a very good role-playing game that I'm not as head over heels for as a lot of people, but I had a really good time and 30 goddamn hours. You are out. You can make this into a 50 or 60-hour game.

I chose not to because the game, it's mostly dungeon crawling. It's mostly battles. You don't go to a lot of towns. It's all about building your characters, tailoring them to these turn-based battles, and then learning how the enemies move in battle to parry and do these quick time events to battle effectively. And a lot of the game is going through dungeons and with very, very little story points in between.

Now, when you get to the point of no return, that's when the world opens up and the game tells you, hey, guys, if you want to spend 20 more hours here, or perhaps 30, we've made a lot of stuff for you to do. And I was like, no, that's okay. I'm going to go right to the final boss. And I did.

And I beat the game. And I'm like, well, that was fun. So I do recommend this And it's normally on sale For a lot cheaper than your average new $70 or $80 game So it's gorgeous for an indie game It looks like on par with a major studios release Not that it needs to be

But I was really surprised by the fidelity And the presentation of this game This one is next on my two play list Of games this year Like I think I might even be starting it up this week Just to see Because it's on Game Pass and I signed up for three years of Game Pass two years ago.

So I may as well start it up. But another thing was seeing your logging of it online and that it was 30 hours on your play clock. And I was like, wow, that's a third of the amount of time I put into the last three RPGs I defeated that were 100 hours. So I could use Expedition 33 being Expedition 33 hours for me. Yes. Yeah. And I support any RPG that wants to come in under 30. Hell, make me a 20-hour RPG.

PG and I'll be happy. It just, and it doesn't feel like you are, you're being shortchanged or that they could explore more. Once I got to the final boss area, I was like, well, that's it. I don't want to play any more of the game. You've really figured this out. And there are freaks out there when I am one of them occasionally. They will say, oh, I want to see everything you have to show me. This time around, I was like, nope, I'm checking out. Let's have a good time. Let's see the credits. And I was very happy. In one game I'm playing, uh, not for the first time, probably for like the 30th time is Earthbound. Now, I just put together a podcast about this for Retronauts, I believe in May, to celebrate this game's 30th anniversary, the American release. And I honestly have not played through Earthbound since 2005.

So this is my first playthrough of the game in 20 years. It's a game I played, like I said, over and over and over again. I know it so well, but it's nice to return with fresh eyes now that I'm a little older. And I'm also playing through while reading two of fan game publications. One is the very nice Legends of Localization book that goes through, like, like, Town by town, NPC by NPC, just how the game is

different in Japanese and what they did to localize it and all the work that went into it. It's given me another level appreciation for that game.

And then Fangamer also kick started this essentially a spiritual sequel to the players guide that shipped with Earthbound. And I've been using

that as like a supplement for what I'm done playing. I'm going to read the chapters that covered the area I was in and now it's been fun too. So I'm trying to

have like the best fully fleshed out earthbound experience for my first return to this game in 20 years and it's been great. And as I'm playing through this game, the company that owns the rights

to Earthbound, they're now releasing actual figures. Basically, they scan the clay models that you see in all the marketing and guides and stuff for Earthbound, and they turn those into actual figures. They're very expensive, but they got me at the right time, and I ordered the whole set of five of them. Oh, nice.

I'll be looking forward to those showing up in the future. So I'm having a really Earthboundy summer. It can go with your other Earthbound stuff in the background there. I always like when we have a guest on and they can see in your video, screen your original box of Earthbound with the other Earthbound characters next to it. It's the one big vintage video game thing I held on to.

And I know you went to like some pop-up shop in Japan. I never actually saw what you got from there. Oh, I got a couple magnets and, oh, and also this mother notebook I used from time to time. This one here. Cool. And the magnets are on the fridge. But yeah, it was in the Shibuya Parko building, which is like a upscale mall. basically on the top floor is a hobonichi shop normally but when I happened to be there it

had become new porco city because it's parko but now it's porco is the joke and they were selling they were selling a lot of dedicated merch there in the place based on shigizatoi toys you know hobo nietzsche stuff that you're an even bigger fan of than me yeah I used to get those via mail order the the the planners but now I've gone to Japan for the past two years I just go to the store in person and buy one. It's great. I guess, yeah, it was really cool to see the, but you, I am a casual earthbound fan. Like, you're a hardcore. This is also making me feel like I want to give that. I haven't played it in a very long time. I need to give it another shot. It's still great. It's not just nostalgia. The game is very well made. And because I tend

to play it in the summer, I was getting a real sense memory because I started going to a local pool in Vancouver. The pool is very chlorinated because everyone's in there using it. And just, I reek of chlorine for days after I'm in it. And I'm playing Earthbound at night. I'm smelling the chlorine coming off my skin. I'm transported back to Ohio. Like, I just went swimming in our backyard. I'm going into play Earthbound.

It's, like, very, very powerful. So I'm having these very strong emotions now playing Earthbound as an old man. That's a magical scent enhancement you've got there. So in terms of watching stuff, I have a few things to bring up. And a few of these are things that Henry watched. Now, I've watched like 40 movies since our last talk to the audience. So I can't mention them all. But I know Henry and I both watch the movie.

I like movies, a very great Canadian, let's call it a dromedy. I don't know what to call it, but it was still very good. And you look at this movie, you look at the cover, and you're thinking, okay, I get what this is. It's like clerks, right? And it's all about, oh, movies bring us together. We're all misfits, but we all like the same movies. It's like, no, it's about how you're an annoying little shit as a teenager, and you use your hobbies to have some kind of control over your life that's spiraling into nothingness. And those hobbies push everyone else away.

And it's about how liking movies can be bad, which was brilliant. I'm not giving any spoilers, but that was a brilliant angle on this. I thought it was going to be like, oh, cutesy, indie comedy. Like, oh, my God, you love Truffaut. I love Truffo. Let's hang out. Yes, I gave it a watch when I saw. I think our pal on Letterbox, Will Sloan, he maybe logged it first.

So I think he also, like, knows the director. But he logged it with a very positive review. then you and Nina also did and then it's on prime video so I just downloaded it and watched it on a flight I took recently and I mean yeah it fucked me up like I was like oh yeah this is I saw many things

that were familiar to me not just in working at a thing that's like Blockbuster but I seriously Bob I can tell you everything they kept doing in it I was like I did this thing working at Blockbuster like the way they were logging the returns I was like yep that's what you do somebody will say

you need to get on the second person to get on the cash register. It's like, no, they have to log the returns. They can't do that. Yeah, I had similar vibes because even though I didn't work in a video rental store, I worked in like mall retail and it was all the similar stuff where it's like, we're doing inventory tonight.

So everyone has to stay late and count all the crap. And you have to log into the POS and all of this stuff. And having like a cool manager and other cooler employees that have to tell you like, dude, don't make your fucking mom drive here. God, I'll drive you home. I'm like, guy, you suck. Like, I'm just trying, trying to convince a little piece of shit to not be so shitty. And like, yeah, no, I mean, my husband looked over my shoulder as I was watching it and wiping tears away on the plane.

And he instantly knew why it was affecting me. Yeah, this movie will remind you of every shitty thing you've ever said to your mom. Because it's the most realistically depicted crappy little nerdy teenager in the world. And, yes, the movie is about how he is eventually forced to change because nobody can stand him. there is a reason to see this through but it takes people so long to get through to him and it's so realistic in that sense I did really enjoy it for that

it's just like it's showing the ugly side of being a teenager because there's so many movies are like oh the outcast they're the cool ones they're the ones who've got heart but it's like no some outcast are little shitty assholes yes I fucking I love how it starts with outcast nights and they're like little home video like

then the main character he pops up and says like oh yeah well you guys are out having fun and getting high and having sex we're doing outcast night we're having a lot we're having and like he was already putting himself like of course on the outcast everybody hates me it's like then you're seeing it from the outside of like well you're nobody is bullying him the whole fucking movie like you think oh he's a victim of bullying and thinks he's outcast no he's shoving everybody away first yeah not not to go on too long about the movie but it is uh it's i think it's been overlooked yeah and again you

might think it is like a twee comedy that's like, oh, it's very clerksy. It's probably about like movie nerds. No, not at all, really. And it's about how teenagers, especially of a certain age, they really need to get over themselves before they can actually become a real human being. And that's, it's about the journey of this character, essentially getting over himself and, you know, trying to make connections with people. And I found it very relatable as someone who has gone through that in my life, a long, long time ago. But it was like, it was like looking in a mirror. Yes. Yeah, it was like looking at a little. Living movie mirror as well, yes.

And I know Henry watch this as well. I watch Pee WeS himself, the great two-part documentary. And it's fantastic because there's a lot of documentaries on streaming networks. They can't stop making them. This one has the benefit of the direct involvement of Paul Rubens, Pee We Herman himself. He's not only on camera, his relationship with the documentarian is a big part of the documentary. But without all of his archival materials, this documentary would not be what it is. There's so much behind the scenes material, so many clips of him appearing as Pee Wee and other characters on all these old TV shows, all this behind the scene stuff.

My only negative point about this is that at some point it becomes like a Peewee's Playhouse clip show. And I feel like, well, there are ways to watch these episodes that I don't think we needed to see all of these clips, but it was still enjoyable. That's just where it kind of lost me for a little bit. And I thought the end was very, very touching. And it really showed you just how much these tragedies messed him up that it was affecting the making of this documentary like 30 years since the last scandal or like 20 years since the last scandal. And, you know, in a lot of these types of movies, they could have soft peddled what those scandals were and just like say like, well, I was in the past and he's innocent now. But like, I think they engaged with it more than people would have been fine if they didn't engage with it as much. but I also see it as Rubens.

His way of saying, like, I don't have anything to hide on this. I am not guilty what people were charging me of. Yeah, it gives you a really full picture of the man, as much as he will allow, because he's very guarded, you know, he did not want people to know that Peewee wasn't a character for a very long time. He didn't want to make appearances as Paul Rubens. And even with the scandals, he doesn't say, yes, I was doing this, and I know I wasn't supposed to. There was nothing anything. He just resoundly says, no, that wasn't happening.

So he is just so private He does not even want to get into Well here's what was actually happening And then when we get to the second scandal I don't want to spoil anything It wasn't the news in 2001 But I don't want to give you spoilers for the documentary It feels like he is

He is not even willing to broach that He's not saying okay this is what happened Instead people that were working on the case with him Are telling you what happened He's not giving his explanation Because I think he's still so mortified Of being seen in that light And I really like seeing his from

It seemed like from his personal archives which he had so much of that in his personal archives the footage of his his pre-groundlings like, honestly like avant-garde queer cinema or like indie film stuff

that he wanted he seemingly like had a drag persona or several drag personas like and peewee is a drag persona too like you could say but yeah and you learn about a lot of the people he worked with especially Phil Hartman and it just reminds you

how essential Phil Hartman was to the pee-wee character to the pee-wee playhouse, the creation of the idea. And you see that Paul Rubens, he seems like a very fun guy, but also very driven and willing to hold big grudges. And it seems like he pushed a lot of people

out of his life because he just had to be in the spotlight as this character and nothing could keep him out of it. I had never seen, there's a Howard Stern interview with Phil Hartman that's clipped in the movie that I'd not seen before. That was a bit of a bummer of just like, oh, yeah,

I guess they really did not. They ended on poor turn, like they, I doubt they made up before Phil Hardman's passing. Yeah, it didn't seem like it. So, Peewee as himself, good, good documentary. And an animated movie that I watched last month, or maybe it was June, was the movie on Gaku, R Sound. It's a animated movie made by one guy in Japan. It took him a very long time. It is charming, but the, the fact that

one guy made it also lends to some qualities that make it less interesting than it could be, because obviously the manpower isn't there to make a full animated movie, but But essentially, the story is, what if three juvenile delinquents have their own band? They just decide one day, we want to start a band. And what ensues from there? It was very charming. But again, when you get into watching it, understand that one person made this movie.

I'd seen clips from it. It looked very impressive just on that, you know, I don't want to say gimmick, but that idea of it being one person's creation and over many, many years. But, yeah, is it where, well, I guess wherever you watched it on is not where. I could watch it on here, perhaps. I think I just rented it through YouTube. I think it is available through YouTube. So it is pretty available.

It was officially released, I think, through maybe G-Kids. Oh, okay. Maybe I'll just buy a physical copy. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I think it's very rentable, though. So, I mean, it's not something I would ever watch again. I don't know if I would buy a copy of it, but it's definitely a fun experiment.

And I'm having fun watching, you know, okay, what is a non-jibble Japanese animated movie? Because those do exist. It's fun to seek them out, like the little weird. independent ones and i also saw polyester john waters polyester in theaters actually just last night we had watched it at the end of june because uh it was you know gay pride month and we wanted to watch some queer films and that was wrapping up june with polyester and then we saw our local theater the rio was showing it in odorama at the end of this month and we saw we thought okay we just saw but now we can have the full experience with the oterrama cards case you don't know

polyester the entire point of the movie is you watch it and then when a number flashes on the screen, you scratch your little card in front of you, and you smell the paper, and you experience the movie in Odorama. And I had a lot of fun watching it at home, but when you're watching it with a crowd who's tapped into the movie, that's great. But also, you realize the movie is like a lot of trolling you via the otorama experience, because a lot of people are like, oh, the garbage smells so bad, oh, your feet stink. They keep faking you out like, you're going to smell the bad smell.

We're going to make you smell the bad smell, but then they kind of back away from it. So what you end up smelling is a surprise on the otorama cards. Oh, man, the audience, yeah, like, to see it with an audience, like, that's what John Waters wants. Like, that's, that's the, that is the experience. Oh, man, I, I need to check it. We have a really good, uh, the SIF cinemas around here. There's two of them uptown and downtown. I need to watch out if they're going to do a polyester with Oderama around because that, I've never seen that one.

Uh, I've seen the many of his movies, but not that one. And I've, when I went to the Academy. museum of his, you know, celebrating these films. They had a vintage oedorama card under glass so you couldn't scratch it, but they had it there. I guess the only downside is, so here's the thing. The Scratch and Smith chemicals from our youth were dangerous. They can't make them anymore. They can't give them to consumers anymore. And I know this because I was just talking about Earthbound and Fan Gamer put out the strategy guide, their own strategy guide. They wanted to include the Scratch and sniff cards, but then they did research and they found out that, oh, we can't actually

replicate the same smells that came with the scratch and sniff cards that came with the game in 95 because a lot of those chemicals are no longer allowed to be put on things for a consumer to smell with their nose. So we all have brain tumors right now. Every time we scratch the scratch and sniff sticker, we gave ourselves a brain tumor. It's going to manifest in the future. Look forward to that. But because of that, today's odorama sheets are not very effective, I'm sad to say. So most of the tense smells just smell like a different version of a citronella candle. Like basically, the candle you like to keep mosquitoes away. That's what it kind of smelled like. And then there are two

like kind of floral scents that kind of smell more like that. But I want to go back to 1981 and get the brain destroying scratch and sniff cards because I feel like when you're smelling, let's say, pizza or gasoline on those cards, it actually would smell a lot more like the thing I was smelling last night. That again reminds me in one of my favorite Simpsons commentary moments too where John Waters is on it for Homer's phobia. And they're talking about the odorama cards and how I think it's Bill or Josh. is talking about they still have theirs or something and he says oh yeah i got a ton to my garage and you know the darn ruggrats ripped me off for it they even called it otorama and they're like john it's an homage a check would be an homage yes and i think spy kids did it too you're right yeah i think they did yeah i think there's some spy kids one but yeah uh the ruggrats go wild was the one who uh the movie that also used otorama which we uh what oh yeah and they also just made fun of that one on the simpsons like a few episodes ago in season 15 when we covered it too, that movie. Yeah, the wild dingleberries. Oh, right. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I'm watching a lot of stuff and

playing a lot of stuff. It's been a good summer of just chilling out and relaxing and my wife and I are seeing some live theater. And just this past month, we saw the Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap. It is, I believe, the longest running, let's say, English language play in history. They only took a breakthrough COVID. And it's one of those things where you can't watch a movie version of it or you can't see like a TV version because part of this play is it's a mystery. And there's one killer and they didn't ever want to make it available widely. They want you to have to go to see the play and get the full experience that way. And then when the play is over, the actors tell you now it's tradition that when you leave the theater, you don't tell anyone who the killer

was so they can enjoy this play. I fully recommend it. It's Agatha Christie, the master of writing mysteries. It's a very fun play. It takes place in the 50s. There is a wild Italian stereotype in the play. And I will say, that shit still plays in 2025. He was lighting up the room, this Italian character so we are never outlying that as a people we are keeping italian stereotypes on the menu oh that's awesome man the life i wonder if my mom's ever seen that that would probably be a good one to take my mom to if not because she's read a ton of agatha christie books but i don't know if she's ever seen seen that play and honestly folks murder mysteries are another big fascination of mine that i never bore you about but behind me on camera it's mostly murder mystery books

i'm a weird freak for those but i feel like if i start talking about them everyone will fall asleep on subscribe so they're never going to come up on this podcast but yeah i also saw the musical waitress i didn't know about it but somebody that we know in vancouver is performing in the musical so they got us some tickets for it uh so thanks to victor for doing that it's based on some indie movie that didn't do very well the indie movie waitress and then they eventually turned that into a musical which was very fun and i guess most people know about the movie i think it's because the screenwriter was murdered before the movie even got made she was like ready to start her Hollywood career and she was tragically murdered. And I feel like that is how this is known most for,

but it's also a very delightful musical. See, even when you want to see a musical, it turns into a murder mystery. But the thing is, I know who did it. Yeah. I found out. Now, I actually, speaking of sense stuff, isn't that, I think I remember hearing for the Broadway production, like, you smell pies at the theater? Is this, was that your thing? Yes, they pipe in pie smells. And at intermission, I was talking to my wife and I told her, oh, did you? I kept smelling the pie smells. It was really distracting, but I thought it'd be like giving me a headache, but I eventually got into it. And she was like, what pie smells?

So I thought I was having a stroke briefly. It turns out my sense of smell is much better than hers because, folks, my nose is huge, okay? I'm smelling everything. So you got to smell fresh when you're around me. But I was getting the pie smells. Eventually, she was tuning in and getting the pie smells as well. But whenever there's like a pie on stage, they're shooting pie smells at you in the audience. So July was a month of smells for Bob.

Yeah, and then the next day we went to get pie. It was great. Pie sales must spike in every town that waitress is playing in. We have a very good pie restaurant here called the pie hole. That sounds good. But I had basic bitch apple pie because, hey, I love America. What can I say, folks? I had a Mary and Berry pie this weekend. That was a nice slice of that. Or it was actually a pie impanata, which was like a fancy. It's just a fruit pie. It's a fruit pie.

Was it actually made of the former mayor of New York? Oh, wait. Mary and Barry. But that is the Barry, right? Marion Barry, or is that another thing? Well, I know it's a guy's name, but I'm just making a pun here. Okay, all right. I thought, I'm failing miserably.

I fall into malapropism so much. I feared I was saying the, I was saying the Barry name wrong there. But yeah, that's it for me this summer, just kind of chilling out in Vancouver, watching movies playing games. How about you, Henry? Oh, well, for video games, I beat two giant games over the last two months. I beat Death Stranding 2, played it all the way through 30, 40 hours. It's great.

If you did not like the first Death Stranding or bounced off of it, then everything has been improved gameplay-wise like it. The friction was the point of the first Death Stranding. Here he's like, I don't need to have as much friction. This'll be, this will. Or I just got so used to finishing Death Stranding this year that two felt easy to me because I was just in the groove. I don't know.

Yeah, it looks great. people are really raving about it. I'm gearing up towards playing the first one because I've had the PC version for a very long time. Actually, I played a bit of it on PS4, but it made my PS4 too loud. And that's why it bounced off because it was a really taxing game on the original hardware. And then I've just, it's been in the back of my mind. It's like there's a Kojima game and I haven't played it. And I know this will probably be on PC by early next year. So I want to play the Destranding one. And I know what I'm in for. And I'm looking forward to it. If you're not going to play the first Death Stranding, then you need to watch a YouTube video on

what happened in the first one, or the game has an all right previously on kind of slideshow, but two really counts on you having known what happened in the first game and plays off it, like every Kojima game. I think also too, Kojima is all, Hadeo Kojima, the creator of it. He's always at his best when he's on a sequel that can call back endlessly to other stuff. And boy, there's some callbacks. Also, excellent, excellent soundtrack. Now, I'm a little worried about Death Stranding one and two because here's a little bit. a thing, Metal Gear Solid Delta, the remake of three, comes out at the end of August. And I know based on tweets that Chapo Trap House is about to launch a Metal Gear Solid podcast miniseries with

Felix Beterman and I think Brendan James. And I do want to replay one and two before Delta. I don't want to be Kojima out by the time Metal Gear Solid Delta comes out. So I'm very, I don't know if I should make August the month of Kojima for myself. Boy, that's a lot. I mean, he's a lot, a little goes a long way with him, I'd say too. But. And I have not replayed Metal Gear saw one since like the early aughts. It's been a very long time. The last time I played through it all the way was I think I played through twin snakes and then I think after that is when I got a bleam cast and played it on the dream cast the first one. One of one of a few bleam cast releases. Yes. And then on the other side of things I played at Donkey Kong Bonanza. I just rolled credits on it

this weekend. It rules. I would say Super Mario Odyssey, which this is the same team and it has a lot of similarities. But if Super Mario Odyssey is a 100, this to me is a 98. Like, it's just ever so blow up. But like, it was seriously so satisfying to just punch the shit out of everything and just smash everything and grab junk. I love it. Do you know how many hours you have or is your Switch 2 not telling you that yet? Oh, I think, I mean, I should check. I'm going to say 20 hours and I collected just to give people a number like my banana count, Was it like 410 after 20-something hours? I've been playing a little bit of that.

Honestly, because it came out while I was playing Claire Obscure and Earthbound, I was splitting my time between all of them. But whenever one of these Mario team game comes out, I know it's a smaller game compared to some of the bigger games that are out there. So I really savour it. So I only play like an hour at a time.

And one week out from release, I just got to Pauline. So that's where I am in the game. But still, that's like for me, that's five hours in. I've still played a big chunk of it. but I know there's a lot more left, a lot more to discover. Thankfully, I have not been spoiled on anything yet,

but I'm really liking it. It does feel like Mario Odyssey with a lot of like Breath of the Wild Tears of the Kingdom stuff in it in terms of like, oh, do you like climbing? Well, what if you could just climb forever? And we're going to build a lot of the levels and gameplay mechanics around climbing forever, not just digging, but like you want to go up there,

just crawl up there. Donkey Kong will not get tired. And it's like voxel smashing like you see in Minecraft and Minecraft alike, except they don't expect you to build shit. They're just like, no, they smash everything. Maybe there's another thing in there. Keep breaking it. You'll find it. The only real downside is the camera can be freaking crazy in that game, but I honestly can't think of any kind of solution because you just have to plow through all the geometry. And I'm thinking, well, what is a safe place for this camera to go? I feel like

Nintendo is just throwing up their hands like, okay, as long as you know where he is, kind of, that's enough of visual information to get you through this level sometimes. Yeah, no, I mean, I eventually got, I got pretty used to it. I mean, yeah, like you said, though, there's, if it's going to have almost all of the environments being destructible, then the camera can only do so much with where you're going to be. Yeah. And in general, just enjoying the Switch 2, but this was like the Bonanza is what should have been

the launch game. This is the launch of Switch 2. Yes, I've really been enjoying the Switch 2. I've actually never played it handheld yet. But I love how it looks on my 4K TV. It's got HDR this time. looks phenomenal. I just, I've been enjoying Donkey Kong. And I feel like we need to have a formal discussion about Mario Kart World because everybody was excited about that game. And then when it came

out, everyone acted like they were sitting through church until Donkey Kong released. I had a good, the Bloom fell off it quickly. I had a good week or two with it. And I think the things that were good about Mario Kart 8 are still like there and that there's, well, really, the music. I love the music. The music. There's never been a better soundtrack because it's just all your favorite music remixed, and it sounds amazing. But here's a thing. Now, Nintendo is doing this. Every game is Breath of the Wild kind of set up for their series,

because Breath of the Wild, very successful. Mario Odyssey, kind of like Breath of the Wild in that. There's like a billion little mini challenges. You're collecting a billion little mini things, and you can just like knock out a few of them every gameplay session and feel satisfied. They're trying to do the same thing with Mario Kart World, but it was a complete misfire, and I had nothing but the highest hopes for this open world for the game,

and that's the biggest downside, because I feel like with the way the open world is designed, it naturally makes the tracks less interesting because they all have to fit into one contiguous space. So you can't get the crazy tracks you would get in Mario Kart 8 when they just could exist in their own vacuums. Now, there are some cool things that are done with the contiguous world, but I feel like ultimately it is all for the sake of this open world gameplay

that you're just like sitting down and you're finding the fun. You're like, all right, where's the fun? Let's track it down. instead of you're playing Donkey Kong, you're playing Mario, you're playing Zelda. There's fun things all around you. You're not having to try that hard to find the challenges. No, I think that was when Mario Kart World started to really downfall for me because I rolled credits on it, which is like I beat the last race.

Like, is it spoilers to say the last race in Mario Kart is probably what you think it is? It's Rainbow Road, and if that surprised you, I'm going to arrest you. I'm going to call the cops. But so I beat that. at and the credits rolled and then I was like you know what now it's time to really get the unlock some more costumes in open world and like open world did feel like a chore like I like I drove up to a challenge as wario and I was like and after I redid it like twice I was like man sucks I just I was not having a good time yeah yeah I did all of the tracks on 100 cc and I thought okay that was fun

maybe I'll do 150 but first I want to check out this open world and just like you I was like all right where's the fun there's some fun and then I did a challenge and I thought okay now what do another one sure and then I'm like well what what does this do what is this doing for me am I building towards anything no you're getting stickers where do the stickers go well somewhere on your car or bike you often can't see them they're very very small if they were these were like big cosmetic changes you were opening up I could see this being an incentive to explore more of the open world but you don't really get anything substantial for doing these challenges outside of the fun you're having from participating in a video game but I need a bigger motivator than that

Like, I need some sort of, like, the carrot and stick thing. Like, where's the carrot? How, you know, I did have a good time, not enough to keep going back to it all the time. But for the first couple weeks, I was having a good time with the online, basically their version of Battle Royale mode of the 24 player one. I like that. I did like that. I was expecting something more like Burnout Paradise, where you're in that game,

immediately, there's like a million things around you to do. Like, depending on, like, okay, I want to race. I want to break billboards. I want to, you know, play them over your crashing people into the building. But in Mario Kart, you're like, let me look at my map. Where do I go now? Oh, I'll drive to this piece, which now.

This challenge sucks. All right, where else do I? It just felt like too much work to find the fun for me. In both those games, Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart, I really do love Donkey Kong's new redesign. Like, he is so funny looking every time I look at him. And it's also just nice, in Donkey Kong Bonanza, they just get to do funny things and they're not worried about,

it doesn't feel like they're worried about brands or anything. Yeah, Mario can be often too safe as a character. Donkey Kong can go wild, be a little grosser, a little sillier. And then as for watching stuff, yes, I saw several of things Bob saw, but I also, yes, it was a big month for superhero movies. So quick stuff on Superman. I thought it was pretty good. I thought it was a nice start to the James Gunn era of Superhero movies at DC,

though technically that sort of started three or four years ago. but the biggest negative I felt on it, and I still liked it, but it feels like you're coming into the middle of a story. Like, this feels like the second Superman movie out of a series of Superman films. Yeah, that can have its downsides. I did hear, I mean, I'm not personally interested in this. It's not for me.

That's fine. I'm glad people are enjoying it. It does feel like one of those movies that's made to set up other things, and I know that's the model, but I thoroughly reject that idea for a movie. I don't need to, like, be part of a plan. I'm not like buying in. I'm not investing in like an opportunity, a franchise. I just want a full story that's satisfying.

Maybe give me a stinger that will show me something new. But it feels like there's so much built in here that's like, oh, wait, wait until you see this. Yeah, I mean, there's, there's literally a dozen characters in it that are just like, oh, I know where that roadmap goes or I have a feeling where this one goes. Some of them get to exist as their own, well, they get to be cool. And in the context of the film, if you don't know, like I do like Mr. terrific and the Green Lantern Guy Gardner. Those are two of my favorite DC characters from comics.

So seeing them do their thing in the way that feels legitimate to them, I think is well done. Now, is Nathan Philean maybe too old to be Guy Gardner? I don't want to be ages, but he should be playing this in his 40s or late 30s, I think. I see. Yeah, I mean,

at least for men, it doesn't really matter, unfortunately. That is true. Yeah. I just watched a game night, which was a fun comedy. I wasn't expecting much from it, but it was good. But Jason Bateman is kind of like playing a millennial, and I'm like, wow, dude, you're way too old for this. Yeah. You know, I'm still at this point from Scott Ackerman, but he was saying this about how romantic comedies now, it's still the people who are in romantic comedies in the 90s. So it's like

people who are like pushing 60, like Owen Wilson, who are still having these like romantic misadventures. And it's like, oh, it's kind of, you should have your shit together more now for a rom-com. And usually the women are the women younger? Are the women still the same women from the 90s romantic comedies? Well, if it's a Jennifer Lopez one, it's usually the same one. Yeah. Oh, you know what?

Superman did finally have the Superman fights a kaiju fight thing. I always wanted to see in a movie. It's shocking it took this long. And I think David Corn Sweat is a really good Superman. I mean, honestly, I just watched the first three Christopher Reeve Superman movies. and he is great as Superman, but I think those are all like over, I think he kind of is overrated

and I like Corn Sweat better as a live-action Superman. Yeah, I mean, I think I've been toying with watching the old Superman movies, but I just listen to all the blank check commentaries instead. And everything they said about them made me think,

I don't think I would enjoy these. They all seem very long. And also, like, weirdly goofy in a way that is a relic of when they were made. And seriously, in Superman 2 and 3, in both of those, has sex with a woman and then makes her forget or it's

really weird it happens in two movies it's a little creepy I don't like that uh and then on the other side of things I watched Fantastic Four First Steps which yeah I mean look hey it's what I want they gave me what I want it's once again now is it I watched it twice this weekend on second watch

I liked him more one of the things that drives me crazy and it is that the thing is underwritten in it like he he has like a scene that's basically like could be his a serious man for the Cohen Brothers movie like it is about like his Jewish identity and a little romantic subplot

you get five minutes of it it's nothing every and that's the whole movie that it feels like he filmed the director filmed a three hour version of this and then cut down everything that it feels like you're just missing everything in it. Now Mike Reese had a great joke about this movie and I want you to confirm if it's

accurate Henry Mike Reese says the Fantastic Four spend more time talking in one room than the breakfast club No, but it's I'd say they spend 20 minutes in room It's like three different rooms in the same building talking But it's a lot of talk Okay, I'll reply and let him know he's wrong

It's uh I Hey, when it's finally time to fight a giant Galactus It happens and Inison, the man playing the Galactus rules Like he's great as it It also just like I always want to see Superman fight A giant Kaiju monster I always wanted to see a giant Galactus fight through Manhattan.

They did it in the movie. The thing is the thing I always wanted him to be. All the actors are great. But it just feels like, especially the first 30 minutes, feels like seriously an hour-long opening, they chubbed into 30 minutes. Like there's so many things they skip over. I'm like, wait, show me more of that.

And it's fairly short for one of these. It's a little under two hours, right? Yeah, yeah. So maybe I'd be, if this was 220, I'd be like, God, why are Marvel movies so long? You know, maybe I'd be complaining on the other side about it, but... My grand theory is maybe some of these things just can't be movies. Maybe it just doesn't work.

But then if they were TV shows, like they, Marvel TV shows have not been very good either. Well, I guess my overarching thing is maybe they just can't be filmed. Maybe some ideas just can't be filmed. They're just better as comics. Well, hey, Bob, you'll see how you feel. And they all team up together with the 37 other actors and Avengers Dooms Day next year. Great. well everyone better clear their schedules

that movie's been in production for or will be in production for another year it sounds like and I also saw 28 years later you did too Bob and I thought it was really good but after seeing it that's when I had to look up that there's already a sequel being filmed because that ending confused the shit out of me

yes my wife had to tell me it ends on I'll call it a cliffhanger kind or just ends on an inexplicable moment to me it wasn't a cliffhanger because I didn't know they were actually filming more Danny Boyle is not directing the other one apparently, but this is part of a new trilogy. And I did I did like it. I don't like as much as the first

one. My only issue was they do new things with it, but I have seen far too many takes on me and my son at the end of the world. And they kind of subvert that in a way, and I like it. But for the first half of the movie, it's just kind of that and you're kind of sitting with that. And to some people

that is a new idea, but to me, it's just like I played video games. I've seen this and comics and movies, et cetera, et cetera. I like the back half a lot more. Oh, yeah, yeah. I was very happy they, I thought, I thought the first third was going to be the rest of the movie. I was sure like, oh yeah, that's because I also didn't want to go in knowing a ton of stuff. And nor should you, listener, watch it, watch it on your own without knowing where it goes.

I ended up liking it more, even more I thought I would. So, yeah. And I guess if you want to understand the ending, you have to also know about Jimmy Saville. Yes, yeah, I did not know much about him too. And yeah, it was a very confusing. I guess they'll expand on it more in the second one for sure. I mean, all I know about Jimmy Saville are his crimes, his many, many crimes that came out after his death.

I didn't know what he looked or dressed like, and I guess that's a huge part of the ending of 20 years later. And props to them for making such a British choice. Yeah, yeah. I did know about him as a name before the sandals came out that Americans heard of, only because a listicle on the video game website I used to work for 15 years ago,

before the truth came out about him. We did a listicle called Like the Most British Games ever, and one was called Hover Bover, and it was made via his Jiml Fixit TV show. I see. So no longer collector's item, I take it. Oh, and then one other suggestion I want to make, I also, like Bob, I'm very active on Letterbox.

You can see the many other things I watch this month, but I didn't want to suggest the, there's the Industrial Light and Magic documentary that's on series, that's on Disney Plus that's like 12 episodes long. It's really good in that it's like 80% of the truth as I've read about ILM. There's a lot of interesting stories in there about how like, oh, do you know,

one of the lead special effects guys on the prequel trilogy invented Photoshop. Like he's like the co-creator of Photoshop with his brother. Oh, very nice. Yeah. And also what I really like is the director is Joe Johnston, who, if you don't know, was the storyboarder of the original Star Wars, the first trilogy, then became a popular director in his own right.

He did The Rocketeer. He's the director of the movie. So when he's interviewing George Lucas, he can tell, or anybody else, he can say to George Lucas, well, wait, I don't remember that, or was that what we did? Like, there's a great bit where George Lucas is defending Jar Jar Binks. And he goes, like, well, everybody hated C3PO2 when he came out and Johnston pushes back. on that. He's like, no, people didn't hate 3PO the same. And then George

Lucas gets mad at him and goes like, okay, okay, how about this? I told you to make the, the Ewox cuter and cuter, and everybody hated those two. So there and it, like, you actually get George Lucas passionate and mad at Joe Johnson. He still believes in Jarjar. He's really, they are all still mad

about Jarjar. Now, now everybody loves Jar Jar Jar, not everybody, but the children who watched him now like him, Jar Jar Jar still sucks. Like he's, I feel bad for I'm at best, the actor, but... Irredevable character. Yeah.

Every scene you see him and it's like, this guy sucks, he doesn't work, it's lame. And that's just one small part of the 12 hours of the industrial light and magic documentary series. Yeah, I say watch it because Disney Plus has taken documentaries down for tax reasons. So I feel like those are always the first to go. That in Willow. Right, yeah. Oh, and also I'm looking forward to George Lucas was at San Diego Comic Con this last weekend. His first time ever going to Comic Con.

And it was to promote that he's about to open. in that museum is like billion dollar museum to the narrative arts in Los Angeles. And I can't, I'm looking forward to visiting that someday. It's like his personal collection of art and everything. Like this is a man who knows his, he doesn't have as

many years left and he's like, you know what, somebody else should see my Norman Rockwell paintings or Frank Fazetta originals themselves. Yeah, hey, why the hell not? I'll check it out too. And a quick little thing too, I went to Las Vegas and I saw a weird owl perform there. It was really great. It

It's the big Weird Al show. You always wanted to see tons of costume changes. He puts on the fat suit, for instance. Does he dress up with a ton of other people in Storm Trooper outfits to do the saga begins? Yes, of course he does. Awesome. Yeah, I've never been to. I mean, the only one I went to was the one with you where it was the tour where he didn't play any of the parodies.

It was all original material. And everybody's seated and nobody changes costume. It was like, let's chill out, I'm getting older kind of move. And I appreciate that. Meanwhile, this one might be his last of like, I will be dancing and putting on the outfits. And he, and my husband, he wanted to do the full meet and greet thing. So we even got a picture with Al and I got my VHS. I bought a copy of the Alapalooza VHS.

I lost from childhood, but I got him to sign that one. I hope you lied to him and told him it was from your childhood. No, I told him the truth. I couldn't lie to it. Weird Al. He's too nice. Oh, and also I saw Penn and Teller. And Penn and Teller, a thumbs up.

I give their show a good, good review. Also, because Pendelet has gone back on his libertarian ways, I believe, too. Yeah, and I know you went to MagicCon when you were there. I want to know more about your Magic the Gathering journey because you were going wild over the Final Fantasy stuff. I assume the Spider-Man stuff is coming out or is out. Are you playing it? Like, what are you doing with the magic? Yeah, so in September is when Spider-Man comes out, but I have been playing a bit of Final Fantasy,

mostly Final Fantasy decks. My husband has been helping me build decks. I've played Commander a few times. Basically, Commander version of Magic is 100 cards each, and it's more like a board game, honestly. Like, that's why it's the most popular version of Magic now. What I've been playing the most has still been the phone app version, and I've been playing that a lot because the nice thing in the phone app is,

I don't need to know the rules. The app will to let me do something if I don't know the rules. Does the app cost money? Can you just play Magic on the app? Yeah, it's a free app. It's a free app. I mean, it's freemium. You know how it goes.

but yes, I haven't put any dollars into it. And are you playing against other people like in Marvel Snap? Yes, yes, you are, yeah. So, and it has a good ranking system or, you know, I never feel overmatched or whatever. So, and yeah, MagicCon was full of, it was a fun divided MagicCon of a mix of people who were there for Final Fantasy first and were new to magic. And then the Magic hardcore who had to contend with a bunch of new Final Fantasy turns there. But it was very welcoming. I've never seen more talk about Magic the Gathering on my timeline, so it's definitely working.

And it's going to work even more with the Spider-Man set coming out. I think I did read that Final Fantasy set is the highest selling magic set ever. I'm not surprised at all. And you know what? I came to Vegas with, like I set aside, 400 bucks as my gambling money. I was down, and then I found a little shop of horrors machine at a less attended casino that friends were staying at. It was very nice to me, and I eventually just got back to where I started at. Oh, nice.

That's a good way to leave Vegas. Not in debt. So it was so nice that, like, it's a really fun machine. Like, you have Audrey, too, talking to you the whole time going, like, feed me. He is saying, feed me to feed him more coins or more money into it. Better do what he says. And you know what? I hit, like, The Suddenly Seymour.

That was my biggest one. I made $150. bucks on like a the suddenly Seymour bonus round kind of deal. Give that a shot, the little Shop of Horrors machine. You might turn your luck around. So that's what I did this last month.

And now we're going to cover some questions and comments left on the episodes. And before we do, just a little comment up front from us, we celebrated our 10th anniversary last month. We put together a three-hour anniversary podcast. So please check that out. If you haven't heard it, we cover our history with the show, reflect on some memories, talk about

the past, the present, the future. It's been a lot of fun and after we put that out we got a ton of amazing comments from people and we really appreciate all of those i love seeing all of those roll in very touching as we again roll into the 11th year of this podcast it's nice to feel like there's still more to talk about there's more to do i'm still motivated and it's all because everyone out there being so kind to us and staying on board and really appreciate that yeah i loved all the the great comments of people who from people who have been with us since the very first one to people who like came on during the the lockdown or even like the most recent sign-ups.

Like, there were so many very nice comments on the Patreon for it, and including lots of nice chat about our new music from Miles Morkreys. So thanks very much to all of those comments there, too. Yeah, the new themes are so stuck in my head, so I know they're effective. I have not gotten sick of them, so they're effective earworms. And I guess one thing I wanted to point out was I feel like some people were thinking, overthinking one of the few things we said on the podcast about our schedule. We were talking about how we noticed, like, anime,

doesn't make us a lot of money in terms of subscribers. People will tune out for anime and that Disney in those kind of movies and shows bring us more. That doesn't mean that we're never going to do anime. In fact we're talking about an exot of cartoon that's going to be an anime series. That doesn't

mean that we're only going to be just be doing Disney in the future. That's just what we know most people want to hear. So to let everyone know that's what our plan is. And when we're talking about numbers and stuff, Henry and I aren't looking at test tubes and measuring graphs.

It's essentially like the naming poochie meeting. That's all the thought that goes into. So another summer of Disney, okay? Yes, yeah. Yeah, it comes down to more vibes than anything. But I mean, yeah, we notice things, but like there are charts out there that we look at from time to time.

But it more is just like a feel of it. Hey, if you would like us to do more anime, for instance, the next time we do an anime thing, you know, more engagement on it, more comments like that. That would lead us to to see that there's more fans for it. Yeah, yeah, and I don't think anyone would accuse

us of this, but we're definitely not being cynical. We're doing things that we like, but we also know that we are entertaining an audience. That's the point of the show. We're not just doing our own self-indulgent thing, for the most part. So it's a tricky dance of like, we want to do things that we like, and things that we all like, and then things that you like,

and we have to, like, you know, spread out the steps of that dance evenly so we don't fall on our faces. If that metaphor works, and I think it does. I think so, yeah. But anyways, I just also discussion about that and maybe people thought that we were over we were overthinking the stats and everything but no it's more like we fall into the groove of a summer of these really popular movies works well for us and then like only a few anime things a year until we notice

more traction on that because i feel like our audience is of a certain mindset of a certain age group and they're not always completely on board with anime if we get more people on board that are then we'll do more anime i think that's basically it absolutely and now let's talk about our questions and comments for the month's episodes, and we're going to start with Homer loves Flanders, and Andrew Taylor says, growing up, there were smaller golf courses near us where every hole was par three, and some only had nine holes instead of the standard 18, so one could conceivably be called a pitch and putt, since you could use only a pitching wedge and a putter. And thank you, Andrew Taylor. I guess we assume that pitch and putt was like a place with batting

cages and like a driving range or a putting green or mini golf, but I guess pitch and putt specifically refers to this kind of a thing. Yeah, I had assumed pitch meant pitching machine and so batting cages. But, yes, several people weighed in with the pitching wedge stuff. So thanks, thanks, Andrew, among others for that. Yeah, I guess when I grew up, these fun centers I went to a few times, they would always have like mini golf and batting cages in a driving range. So I just naturally assume, oh, you can do these two activities together. And mostly it was like when I went to them I would do 18 holes in the mini golf and have a good time

and then it's like okay arcade arcade time now and I don't look at anything else to do out of those two things the other things are too close to real sports and MathNet also says on that episode backing up what others say about Geos a typical small car in the 1960s had big engines and produced around

150 horsepower the oil embargo and environmental laws of the 70s left carmakers unprepared and horsepower plummeted during the 1980s with new technology horsepower skyrocket in the 2000s. There's a Prius now with over 200 horsepower. But even during the modest power era of 1994, the geo was still a joke. Being an imported Suzuki, the three-cylinder engine made less than 50 horsepower, the perfect white bread with a side of water for dipping car for Ned. In fairness, it looked like Maude had a pretty sweet

classic station wagon, but Homer smashed it with the boat, forcing the family to squeeze into Ned's geo and we got a lot of geo information because of our wrong assumptions i thought it was an american car but i guess not yeah we i didn't know we had so many geoologists in our audience there but yeah i liked i liked all of that coming out about the geo explanation also it was crazy then when we did this homer love slanders that like since we did that one i felt like three new things building off of the homer in the bushes meme happened since then we can't Can't stop it. We can't stop it. But up next we have my Big Fat Geek wedding. And Henry has an apology. He wants to tell the audience here. Yes. Several people pointed out that like Henry, you're crazy for thinking pickleback shots is a sexual drink that I could not find the thing. Maybe I imagined it. I swear I saw it on a list of things of like sexy drinks because back shots is a, you know, a dirty euphemism. And pickle, I know that pickleback means the flavor of pickle is within a shot.

from like Pickle Bryant. I know that, but I still thought like back shots, it was getting something sneaky in there, but I rescind my suggestion. I thought I was being gaslit because I immediately thought, no, Henry is wrong, but then I thought, well, maybe I'm wrong. So I'm like frantically Googling him. No, no, I'm right. And the one thing I forgot is that when you want a beer chaser with your shot of whiskey or whatever, you'll say, I'll have a whiskey and a beer back. So blank back is the chaser for whatever hard liquor you're drinking. And I think it's the same thing as like, yes, back

shots are a thing, but you can also order a cream pie at a pie place. I'm not going to be like, oh, you're disgusting, sir. Yes, that's true. You want a what for your wife? A pearl necklace? Please leave. I guess it also sucks in current age. I think there's five words that don't have some sexual meaning to it these days. Yeah, yeah.

Everything means cum or penis. And we're stuck with it. I'm sorry, that's just the English language. So moving on, Silky P.J. says, I think this episode is even worse than Co-Dependence Day. While what happened to Homer and Marge was bad, it was always limited by the status quo to be fixed.

However, Edna seemed more breaking apart because of Marge and Homer being actively awful and complaining non-stop. It sells out the characters a lot without good payoff to gags or jokes. This is why everyone under 40 hates I hate my wife comedy. Thank you, Silky, PJ.

Yes, it's hard to say because this codependence Day is one of the worst times Homer was ever mean to Marge, or one of the cruelest he's ever been to Marge. But this breaks apart a couple I was rooting for and wanted the show to do more with. So they're really neck and neck for me. But I honestly feel like this is more iconic

in terms of a missed opportunity or completely ruining something I was enjoying. Yeah, it's weird to compliment codependence day because it is such a low moment for Homer and Marge's relationship. But that episode is about Homer and Marge's relationship goes to an interesting new place at the beginning because it's like, oh, they both like getting drunk together. Like, it seems like it's pulled from a real thing.

Meanwhile, this one creates an Edna and Seymour problem that wasn't a problem before, was fully addressed, and then, like, tax on at the very end of Margin Homer thing that isn't very interesting and isn't well told. So you ruin, you ruin two perfectly good sweats jackets that way. Yeah, and I mean, I'm not a fan of the I Hate My Wife jokes, especially when they seem so pointed and personal. It's funny and married with children Because the jokes are so broad and cartoonish

But here it feels like people are really grinding axes And I've been party to I hate my wife humor from people I've been associated with And I don't know what to say Because I feel like the way the conversation works Is like yeah, I'll be lucky if my wife lets me do this this weekend And then it's your turn to complain about your wife But I feel like well I have no complaints

You should just say oh your wife sucks And you're a loser That should be the follow up Like your wife sounds like a real asshole and I'm sure they will get mad at you then It sounds like you guys don't ever communicate It sounds like you got Yeah, that

The next time someone complains plays out their wife in front of you Just agree, yeah, your wife sucks Yeah, and then see what happens next Yeah, no, I think it's I understand, I can understand it as a release valve Of marital tension earlier in life Or an American, you know, societal thing But yeah, I mean, in the episode

Just having the line of like, He's about to learn that everything he believes is wrong It's like, well, that sounds like you don't talk to your wives very much. Yeah, the second you get married, it all changes. Oh, I mean, also, I hated that episode that Edna's like, oh, I'm finally going to land him. It's like, that's not how you've ever treated your relationship with Skinner. Yeah, it was like very sexually charged and loving, compassionate, not, I can't wait to castrate this bull. You know, now I didn't say it on the episode, so I'll say it now.

I see this problem beginning with Al Jean's first episode back when he, in mom and pop art, that's where Edna keeps wanting, him to propose and he's not doing it and that's when like the that's when it began yeah that's al jean driving his crowbar between uh edna and skinner saying this should never have been i didn't why wasn't i guiding the ship if i had been working there i could have gone behind everybody's back until jim brooks don't allow this to happen so also on that episode jeremy melea says or meal skinner should have remembered the byman sci-fi con because he was there to see mark camel request a volunteer from the audience to play obi-one Canobi?

Oh, yes. I don't remember him being there, but I'll take Jeremy's word for it. No, I think he is the one who questions Kenobi. I think that's his line in there. Oh, I believe him. I believe him.

So, yeah. And also Skinner, a Star Wars fan for at least one episode. That's right. He was, as you made such a great point, that joke is about how only the biggest losers in the world know what Star Wars is back in 1994. And it was true very briefly.

Moving on to Barkets and Elephant Rubber Cat says, my mom had quite an affinity for winning meet and greets via calling into our classic rock station. When I was a kid, she won one with the recently departed Ozzy Osbourne, and when I was an adult, she won one to meet Rush, which she luckily brought me along for. So thank you, Rebecca Kat. I wonder how that Ozzy Osbourne meet and greet went down. Maybe you can tell us in the comments. Yeah, I wonder too. I would think he, I mean, depending on if this is after like 1985, then this has to be like when he was being heavily handled by by, by Sharon Osborne, I would assume.

I didn't really know a lot about Ozzy outside of like the reality show stuff, but I learned that he went out with like a huge charity concert that raised millions and millions and millions of dollars for I believe Parkinson's research, which is the affliction he came down with later in life. Yeah, yeah, I remember hearing about

the run up to this like final concert for the longest time and yeah, it was like, I think reading in his obituary it was like I think the Black Sabbath, the surviving members, reformed and they performed like four. songs together and it was you know and that is like the the perfect in the movie in the movie walk hard they make fun of biopics because like right after he finished singing his last song he died

immediately but that's that's how it feels like perfect movie yeah like he went out like i was reading more about it he he stopped taking his his drugs he needed to you know fight off the pain so he could perform which is very admirable if you know you're on your way out and just a few weeks after that concert on july 5th that's when he passed away and i guess they raised $190 million. It was nice the last few days like I've been seeing online or also I went to a my husband's company picnic. You know, his songs were getting played more than they had in public spaces that I, or maybe I just noticed them more. And not just crazy train though, that song's great. But there's, it was nice to hear his music again and be reminded like that he was a great

musician not just like the reality star that we all knew him as for the last like 30 years yeah that's mainly my impression of him just having the osborns on in the background in the early aughts and then being friggin everywhere like just god the simpsons i mean the simpsons did made stale jokes about it like everybody else back then no for our listeners there there are power washing windows in our building today they just turned on the big power washing truck so you might hear a slight little noise in my background but the episode is wrapping up soon so it shouldn't be that much of a distraction uh well eric schumann says in our talk about radio greetings from the recently defunded world of public radio there might not be many bill and marty like shows to be heard on

our end of the dial but if you miss the regional character and inventive programming give a listen to your local public radio music station yes i i like that one just hearing uh you know i think i think eric has chimed in uh other times about his public radio work and it also worth mentioning here because yeah you know and more more real world bad news like his these American public radio stations what small

governmental shrinking governmental funding they were getting is now even less now yeah Berkeley had a very good public radio station KPFA I believe it was right across from the Trader Joe's I did all of my grocery shopping at so I would see it a lot I hope they're able to well at the very least I hope

this has led to some funding drives for them in in the light of this like terrible news that you would think liberals with the money would care about and give to it to make up for it? They're just getting around to learning that certain war crimes are bad lately. So give them time to catch up. How are they to catch up? How are they to know?

No one was saying anything about it. So we're going to move on and let's change the subject here. Move on to Lilo and Stitch. And Fry's Jacket says, Kevin McDonald did go on to voice a cartoon cat from the well-known, well-loved Nicktoon Cat Scratch, of course. and hey you could have fooled me Fry's Jacket. Also, that's a Dougtonaple cartoon and we all know, stay far away from that guy. Yes. Yes. Yeah, it's worth

forgetting then. Yeah, too bad for Kevin McDonald. Another one of like, that has to be, he was talking about in the interview then, about a Nicktoon where he's like, oh yeah, the director had a huge fight with another actor. I'm like, I bet that was Dougton Apple now you mentioned it. Yeah, not the most hinged man in the world. And Ryan O'Reilly says about Lilo and Stitch.

I'm surprised there was no, and look, normally I'd skip over and I'm surprised one. But I'm surprised there was no mention of the Stitch anime. It ran from 2008 to 2011 and was a sequel to the franchise produced by Madhouse, where Lilo grows up and Stitch actually moves to the island of Okinawa, teaming up with a new little girl after his destructive tendencies are restored. There's a ton of business about performing good deeds and meeting various Yokai, as well as an episode where Stitch meets Lilo's daughter who just happens to look identical to Lilo herself.

You know, I knew about this, and I thought about bringing it up, but it didn't seem super relevant. I don't think we even mentioned the Power Puff Girls anime when we covered Powerpuff Girls. Oh, that's, you know, that's true. I don't think we did. Yeah, I keep, in both of these, I had,

if I ever knew about this, I had have forgotten, but I definitely didn't know, it was like, Sedan Okinawa and he meets Yo Kai. I will say, okay, so Ryan O'Reilly, I appreciate the information, but we like to tell people on our podcast that if you have new things to present to us, the way to start it off was,

a good way to start it off could be, did you know that, or here's some more information. I immediately my brain starts boiling when I see I'm surprised. Yes. You know, I felt the Stitch anime was worth mentioning to go over,

get over that one, but yes, let this also be another reminder to listeners. Yes, Ryan O'Reilly, thank you for the information. I just will never want to see the phrase, I'm surprised, or I'm shocked,

starting off a comment ever again. Moving on, we have Taki Futurama, the Silence of the Client. And you could tell nobody cared about this episode of Futurama because none of the comments were about it. Yes, yeah. Even though it's a funny episode. Yeah, they weren't talking about the clamps.

And Thad Kamarowski says, agreed. Good commentary on physical media. 4K is literally the resolution of 35 millimeter film. There is absolutely no benefit for archiving any old film in a resolution above it. So thank you, Thad. So don't upgrade to 8K just yet, people, until they start making 8K. They're filming things in 8K and then maybe go for it, but I'm not sure. they're doing that yet.

And Thad knows his physical media. He is a physical media professional, so that's why I wanted to. I think, well, did our physical media conversation start because we were talking about how we were going by the production order of the series based on the, the Blu-ray and DVD releases of it, I think. I think so, yeah. And it's funny because this came up in The Rescuers Down Under. It was the first Disney movie to be made via the CAPS system, the digital animation system.

And Caps, the resolution of Caps is 2048 by 1234. So the max resolution that they're outputting is not even 4K on those movies. Man, so that 4K release of Lilo and Stitch, like, it's, is that, was that even a real 4K or did they have to, like, upgrade it? I think, I think technically that is 2K. Interesting. And maybe it's upres to 4K. I don't know how it works, but I know maybe, I mean, CPS doesn't exist anymore, but maybe CGI Disney movies were made at a higher resolution or output at a high resolution afterwards. I've been thinking about this a little bit, too, because local, uh, things.

theaters around here, and this is in many places of major cities. There's new 4Ks of Akira Krasala films that are getting theatrical releases. I'm going to a few of them. But a couple are still in 2K, and in their listings, they have to put an asterisk of explaining, like, well, this is why it's still 2K or we haven't. There isn't a better resolution of it out there. They need to let people know something isn't 4K now. Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, if you're turning up your nose at 2K, a 2K restoration. of an old movie. I'm like, come on. What are you expecting? We used to write movies on VHS. When I'm watching Roshaman in even 2K, I'm like, I remember watching this on like a 20-inch TV in a college classroom, like at the front of the classroom. Yeah, like local stations would show you the worst possible prints of movies

and air them over broadcast signals. And also with terrible localizations in the case of like foreign films too. Then Cody C also says on that episode, interesting commentary on physical media as I've been involved in film and TV I have tried to get a physical release for most things I work on in any sort of extended capacity

it has gotten hard many films do not even release physically in the region I work and if they do they aren't cheap it's just nice to have a record to say those long nights amounted to something that exists yeah it really stinks that we can't get the new Futurama seasons

on Blu-ray or DVD I'm sure the new King of the Hill will not be on Blu-ray or DVD. And there's a lot of movies that aren't on Blu-ray or 4K. I think one big movie that was a surprise hit that has not been released physically is the horror movie Barbarian. That never got a physical release. And you feel like anybody could have snapped that up and put out like a cool steel book or just a bare-bones 4K. But as far as I know, that never got a 4K. Or if it did, it was very recently. That is wild because you would think with horror films in particular, those are the

hardcore fans who want physical copies like that that's just like anime fans honestly like horror fans want to own a steel book of any big movie and that was a i haven't seen barbarians yet but i had heard that seems like it was a big enough hit that people would you would make a profit selling physical copies of it to horror found yeah no no uh physical release for barbarian yet i really recommend that movie it was great oh why his weapons is coming out soon right yes uh it's by sketch comedy legend zach cragher and no i'm not being ironic I do enjoy the waydest kids you know, although I will not promote Miss March,

the movie he made with Trevor Moore, RIP. Moving on to Not in My Back Ho for Talking of the Hill, and Josh Flaniken says, Never thought it before you guys mentioned the B-plot with Dale and Bill, but Hank and Hal's relationship kind of reads like the anti-joke version of Beavis and Butthead. Those two are a comedy duo where both characters are gag men, and Hank and Hal are an anti-comedy duo where they're both the straight men. Makes even more sense considering Hank carries on the Mr. Anderson voice.

And yes, that is the part of the joke about when we see them together. Like, no one is saying anything. No one is wise cracking. They're both the straight man, although Hank thinks that Howell's a real wild card with his jokes. The shot of them like sitting, I think that you used very well as the art for the episode. The shot of them sitting drinking their beers like that is like a two shot of Beavis and Butthead, except neither is laughing, neither is saying anything. They just are silently nursing beers.

They're not saying anything or doing anything. Another angle on the anti-comedy of that episode, too. And our final comment, D.L. McDonald says, I do remember when Bear Naked Ladies had their video premiere after an episode, not realizing it was for promotion of a CD specific to King of the Hill. You stab the song burnt to a disc. Now here's the funny part. Bob mentioned one of the tracks was Hank singing Teddy Bear,

and that it was about truckers. I had to double check to see if it was the red Sovine. song. It was. When my grandfather died, I began hearing from a specific uncle that this song was always Papa's favorite. So I thought it would be interesting to hear it while we were all at the house during the funeral. That one uncle heard it and began sobbing like heartbroken. What I thought was going to be fun suddenly made to be uncomfortable. So I made my way into the kitchen explained that what I did while my uncle was still listening and crying in the other room. Another of Papa's sons chuckled about it saying it was never Papa's favorite song.

What a fun memory. Hey, at least somebody bought that album, or at least downloaded the MP3. I think another person chimed in about being a B&L hardcore fan and getting it on like a greatest hits album instead of on the King of the Hill album. Yeah, I recall something in the comments. I was trying to pull it up where, oh, okay, here it is. Blake R said, this is what Bear Naked Lady said about the album. They cruelly joked about making a song for the album as they refer to it as,

having sold about seven copies from what we heard. I mean, it came right as people were not buying CDs anymore, unfortunately. Yeah, and King of the Hill, a very overlooked show, despite being watched by a lot of people, was not considered like a marketing juggernaut like The Simpsons. That Teddy Bears story from D.L. I also liked because in the song when Hank sings it, he is crying. It is like a tough man cries kind of song. And then here we have a story of it bringing a man to tears with the boosted sadness of a funeral, probably helping it out.

You know, I saw Mike Judge at Comic-Con and he looked like he was in hell because he has to do the rounds. And I hold nothing against these people interviewing him because they are the ones who are working at the websites. And every interview with the celebrity is like, look at this wacky thing or, hey, can you read something in this funny voice? And that's exactly what they're doing with Mike Judge. But these are two people I worked with at IGN. They're still there. They're interviewing Mike Judge and they're showing him Fortnite in Hank Hill dancing and he looks like he wants to die.

I saw that clip. I did see that clip too. Yes, that was fun. Nothing against these guys, but it's like Mike Judge, he's like a 63-year-old outlaw country music loving guy. He has become Hank Hill and I don't think he belongs at Comic Con in any way. No, I mean these guys, the Gen X creators and stars, Like, they don't want to know these things, but also, like, nobody, nobody does straightforward interviews anymore.

I wonder, like, do the movie stars or the creators of these shows, do they miss just being asked the same eight questions over and over again? Or instead of having to, like, eat a spicy chip or play a video game. Again, like, these guys are just doing what they're asked to do from their editors and their top brass. But I would love to see a question about the new series, not like, hey, look at Fortnite or, hey, can you read this funny quote as Bobby Hill? It just, those are the, you're just trying to go viral. I know the business and it stinks and we can't have anything more than that. But man, I just want like actual good interviews to come out of these meetings with these people. Like, oh, do you like this picture of Hank Hill as a thought?

Like, what do you think here? Yeah, I think another question they asked him is, what do you think about people calling King of the Hill anime? And Mike Judge is just stumped. I did see a funny, you mentioned IGN clips. It was, I didn't pull up the whole video, but I did see Bob Odenkirk sat down to promote nobody to. And it's him being asked like, how would you kill the, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and he's like,

I just step on him, hear their bones breaking, like, just squish. Yeah, I saw it's quote about killing Mario. Again, that was funny, but also IGN laid off me and everyone I've ever known. Yes. So I can only like them so much. No, I don't want to compliment the remaining people at IGN are doing like, like you said, they're

doing what they got to do. It's what the machine wants. You don't, you don't do interesting interviews anymore because people don't read them. Yeah, if you see Mike Judge in the wild, just nod and, you know, go on your way. Don't show him Fortnite. I think it really upsets him to see Hank Hill dancing like Carlton. That's got to be his last going to Comic Con, right?

He's like, I'm not doing this again. I'm sorry, Greg. Yeah, Greg can go, but I'm staying in Austin. But that has been another episode of Talk to the audience. Thank you for joining us, everybody. Welcome to Year 11 of the Talking Simpsons Network. We're so excited to keep on rolling. And again, thank you for all of the kind thoughts and nice words you sent out to us over our 10th anniversary.

In about 10 years, we'll do another one of those and see. We'll check in again, see if you still like us. I think it'll happen. Yeah, I'll have to listen back to our last 10-year one to be like, what did we do in our first 10 years when we get to the 20th year one? It'll just be brains and jars. I did. Yeah, I loved all the comments.

I read every comment I could, and there were so many nice ones. So, yes, thanks. Thanks everybody for their comments and all the love for our first 10 years. But that has been another episode of Talk to the audience. We'll see you again next week for a new Talking Simpsons and next month for another community podcast. Take care.