Talking Simpsons - Talk To The Audience?!? - June 2026

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

We've reached the end of the month, which means it's time for another episode of our community podcast! This time around, listen in as we discuss a new slate of Disney+ exclusive episodes, explore The Simpsons/Monopoly Go collaboration, weigh in on Harry Shearer grumpiness updates, and more. And, as always, we read and respond to your questions and comments from the last round of podcasts. It's all happening on Talk to the Audience: the podcast that remains in a state of cat-like readiness!

I heartily endorse this event or product. Ah, hoi, hoy, everybody, and welcome to talk to the audience where this is always death. I am one of your host, the guy who's pure Baltic Avenue, Bob Mackie, and who is here with me today, as always. Henry Gilbert, with the current fitness goal of Matt Selman's current body type. I don't know what that is. We're going to find out. And yes, this is Talk to the audience, our community podcast. And on this podcast, we talk about what's happening in the Simpsons world, what's happening in our world.

and then we cover the most recent comments and questions from the last round of podcast. And I want to welcome everybody out there to Talking Simpsons Year 12. Year 11 is in the books. That means next year, much like the Simpsons, Al Jean will be taking over in year 13. He's going to be bringing Talking Simpsons back to basics. It'll last until year 33. So get settled in, guys, for when Gene takes it over. Wow, I didn't know.

It was the 12th night. It just feels like we recorded the 10th anniversary special. Well, here's the thing. I'm cheating. We finished year 11. So now it's the 11th anniversary, but we're beginning year 12. I like that counting.

I prefer that. That's good. Yes. It makes you think like you've done more work. We'll hit the 15th sooner that way. So just three years from now, we can celebrate the 15th anniversary of Simpsons. We'll start the year-long celebration, of course.

We're looking forward to it. Anyhow, let's cover some Simpsons news. And yes, finally, we were waiting for it for a very long time. Disney made fools of us all right after our last talk to the audience by announcing the release date of the first Disney Plus exclusive episode from this season. That episode was Extreme Makeover Homer Edition. It hit Disney Plus, I believe, on June 15th of this week. And we've covered this before in the past. We thought they launched it on World Simpsons Day in April. They

didn't. We've known about this for a while, but in case you've forgotten, this episode is a double-length anthology episode in which we get three stories about three different versions of Homer. It's a high concept episode. Henry and I have both seen it before this recording. And I will say, how can I say this politely? They worked really hard. on it. Number one. Number two, I'm tired of these very high concept episodes. They feel very desperate. And number three, this could have been a normal length episode. I feel like I would have had the patience for these segments if they were delivered to me in 20 or 21 minutes. I feel like this didn't need to be 47 minutes. And maybe if they want to keep it 47, we could have done like

three other homers. But it didn't really work for me. And I've liked a lot of recent episodes. So that's just my own take. I didn't love it, but I liked it until the first two of the three I liked more, though I didn't like love them either. But it was the Joker one left a gross taste in my mouth. And I suppose it does mean that it fit the style. It was parodying well because the Joker and I guess I haven't seen Follyadu, but they are supposed to make you feel grimy and gross. I don't think anyone has seen Foliadieu. Yes.

Yeah. I have seen two scenes from it. My husband showed me, and he hadn't seen it either, but he's like, oh, these are the two scenes that are worth watching once it's on HBO Max. One was just a musical sequence just to see Lady Gaga's performance. And the other is the ending, just because I won't spoil Folly Adieu for folks.

Oh, Henry, spoil Foliadu for folks. Stop them from seeing it. You're only helping them. Well, so I did not know that one of the two actors who plays the Russian in heated rivalry. He's in that movie. And spoilers for the end of the movie. He kills Arthur Fleck.

And the implication is that he's the real Joker and becomes the Joker by killing Arthur Fleck. So you are secretly watching his origin story the entire time. I see. Hey, very stupid. Yes. So in that way, they also were copying the end of the sequel to the Joker because they die at the end of their segments in the Simpsons episode. So you got that. Yeah.

Well, here's the thing. This episode, the framing device, is Marge and Home. having a couple's night out with, I believe, Lenny and Carl and their partners, correct? Yes, yeah. And they make up a girlfriend or a, you know, a one-time girlfriend for Lenny, played by Betty Gilpin. That's the only reason I remember Amy's character because Betty Gilpin is an actress I really like. She's underrated.

She's in a lot of good stuff. She was in The Glow. I know from the Netflix series Glow with Allison Bree. Betty Gilpin is great in that. And at this establishment, things turn south because Homer is a, a rather boorish man we've come to learn about this man. And he has to go home and watch the kids, and Marge gets plowed on apparel sprits and has a series of fantasies

about what could Homer possibly be in other realities? And those realities are a Top Gun parody. That's also kind of a parody of Top Gun Maverick. That's parody number one, or set piece number one. Set piece number two is, what if Homer is a post-war adult who is becoming disillusioned with the promise of this period of progress and wealth for this. generation of men and he falls in with a beatnik.

The third parody or set piece is we've said it before, The Joker parody, the parody of the 2019 and I guess 2023, 2024 sequel. In theory, these are fine ideas for segments. I feel like perhaps doing your Top Gun parody in 26 could verge on being a little dated, even of Maverick. But like I said, I don't see a reason why these need to be double length. The framing device takes a very long time to get to the segments. And then the segments clearly, a lot of them don't have enough material to fill this extended parody because in the

Joker pigment titled The Doaker, I believe about two minutes of that are just Homer falling down the stairs. Yes, yeah, which felt like they were trying to do the rake joke thing, except make it that version of it for the famous stairs dance from The Joker, though they did not set it to Gary Glitter like they do in the movie The Joker. It's interesting too because in the madmenish one, or rock Hudson style, March said that too. But in that one, it also has a lengthy sequence within the sequence of a, man, what would you call it? Like an animation sequence from an American in Paris or something, the Dream Ballet, that kind of thing in it. Yeah, it's done a different style. That's kind of nice.

But I feel like everything just took a little too long to play out, much like our discussion of this episode. And I feel that you guys don't have to try so hard. I feel like they're pulling out all the stops to do all of these high concept things. But I can sense when they're trying a little too hard and it kind of alienates me a bit. So I appreciate the effort. But I feel like, boy, I wish there was a little more going on in this episode. Because with this double length, like I said earlier, I just wish this was a space for more parodies, not just the three that we received.

I have two compliments for it, though, while feeling personally attacked at making Homer, Marge, Lenny and Carl, millennials who go to barcades. I kind of laughed at just, I liked how lazily Marge said like, I wish you was like, I don't know, that fighter pilot game they're playing over there as their entrance into a top gun parody. Or when Marge

was like, oh, we're having a conversation like characters in an S&L sketch before the crazy person shows up. Yeah, there's some fun jokes snuck into there, but ultimately, I just like kind of regular fun. I've never been a mega fan of these high concept episodes, and I feel like they're getting more

more frequent. Maybe they pulled back on them recently, but I just feel like, guys, I already like The Simpsons. You can calm down a little bit. There's also a new viral couch gag. It's meant to go viral, but it was produced in tandem with the Meow Wolf Artists Collective, which is kind of fun, although I will say, Meow Wolf, very bad when it comes to unions. Please look that up. Unfortunately, they all got money poisoning. By they, I mean the people at the top. Yes. Really goes against the artist collective thing they're going for there. I did note that once they get back on Disney Plus, their first Disney Plus original in a minute, that that's when they go back to having a long opening in couch gag. It seems just that Fox doesn't want to waste the minutes on that

anymore. They won't give them a viral couch gag anymore. Yeah, the Meow Wolf thing was like cute and all, but I agree with you about it too that I think that we as Simpsons fans complimented them so much on the high concept episodes. It's almost like we get a monthly treehouse of horror now. They just do it so much during the seasons. It's like this used to be a once a year special thing that we treasured, and now it's like it's happening a little too frequently. And again, I feel like it's not quite desperation, but a certain need for attention that I feel a little alienating. So I don't know. Maybe I'll like the other Disney exclusives that will be coming later this summer. So there's a few on their way. So on July 3rd, we'll have Simpsley, which is a parody of the

talented Mr. Ripley. I love that book. I love Patricia Highsmith. I'm not a huge fan of the Matt Damon movie. I'm curious as to see what exactly. this will parody, like what iteration of the book or perhaps the book itself. There's a newer Netflix series that I'm interested in, have not seen that yet, but I like the source material, so this is already kind of winning me over. And then August 26, we have Yellow Mirror, which is a black mirror parody. There will be two stories, Twilight Zone E stories in that episode. So look for more of those. I will say that at least Disney Plus has made these easier to find than in previous years. Oh, that's good. There is like a little thumbnail right on Disney Plus. You don't have to go

to Simpsons. Scroll up, up past season one to go to exclusives. Yeah, when I turned on Disney Plus, it was the first thing I saw in the top carousel. I went straight to it. Having Yellow Mirror, so soon after this, is like, that sounds like another basically anthology episode again that's not in universe.

So soon after this one. Yes, I'm just a little concerned because I'm also thinking, you guys are also working on the movie. All of these high concept things feel like a lot of work. I really feel like you need to get, pencils need to be moving on that movie because we have almost like less than a year.

It got delayed. It was supposed to be basically like a year from around this time period. That's right. It's my birthday weekend next year. So about 15 months, I think we got. One last compliment I did want to give the episode, not to the joke itself in the episode,

but during the Joker sequence, they have a joke about having slow music versions of upbeat songs, which are overdone in movies like The Joker. I didn't love the joke. joke, but the singer of it I had never heard of before. Her name is he's an Icelandic Chinese singer named, I had a look up the pronunciation because it's not how it looks. It's Lefei, Lefei, and that's, her music is really good. I looked up with some of her music. I've been listening to like five or six of her songs a lot in the last couple days, and I really like her music now.

Okay, yeah, that's completely new to me. I was watching the credits and I was thinking, who is this? But I figured we'd be talking about it soon. Okay, one joke I really liked about Extreme Makeover Homer Edition, we start the Top Gun parody with Homer in the plane, and then when you finally see him in relation to other people, he's very small, like Tom Cruise. Just constantly seeing Homer much smaller than normal did make me laugh. I thought that was very funny,

and also cruel to Tom Cruise, who never heard anyone. And the jokes about, you know, and I also, as a concept, I just want to know how did somebody explain Harley Quinn to Julie Cavner, who you must assume has never heard of the character Harlequin before ever. Yes. She said, I don't know who that is. I guess she's not doing a voice. She just is being a little more animated.

And frankly, I don't love the character design. The Homer one, I guess, is fine for being a creepy, skinny Homer. But I guess it's highlighting a fact that we all forgot about, or at least I forgot about when it comes to the Joker, 2019 film, that Joaquin Phoenix apparently lost a lot of weight to be the Joker. Crazy Skinny and he. Yes, yeah, yeah. I don't remember that being a talking point, but it's been seven years and there was like a mass pandemic and stuff.

And we've complained to sometimes that Modern Simpsons over animates character animation, like too much flibbing around. But in the doker sequence, what they're parodying are characters in movies who move too much while they're talking. So it actually, I thought, worked in that sequence, the over animation. I think I didn't remember the Joaquin Phoenix weight loss thing because the talking point for, the Joker film was, this movie is going to cause mass shootings. It's the most dangerous film ever released and we must stop it. Yes, yes, boy, we were very concerned about things before 2020. Yeah, it's that, well, and also all of the few scenes in it that went the most viral are not him shirtless showing off his skinniness scenes.

Like, it's him on stage. It's him saying, I'm going to become the Joker, a line he does not say in the movie, things like that. Yes. Like dancing down the stairs. We all remember that. Mm-hmm. So again, look forward to more Simpsons exclusives on Disney Plus throughout the summer. So we have some other news here.

While a tapped out might be DOA, the Simpsons are starring in the current season of Monopoly Go, which launched on June 3rd of this year. And the highlight of this project is a promotional short, surprisingly, with Harry Shearer playing Mr. Burns and Will Ferrell playing Uncle Pennybags. I will say his voice does not fit the character to the point where I thought, who is playing this guy? Yeah. But it is Will Ferrell.

More importantly, like I said, surprisingly, Harry Shearer is playing Burns, and that's because Harry Shearer never plays ball with anything outside of the show, and he barely plays ball with the show. So something must have happened. Hell must have frozen over, but Harry Shearer is now actively part of an outside the show promotion. And I will say, the short they made for being a short that promotes a mobile money toilet is very good.

Yes, yeah. Their standard quality of animation, and it starts with just a great, concept that was done in classic era Simpsons that the actual Uncle Pennybags knows Mr. Burns and those two characters know each other, but them having a rivalry is funny. Like this is funnier than just oh, it's them with the family or whatever. It actually has a good concept to work from. And we mentioned Harry Shearer's lack of

participation in Simpsons things outside of the show before, but in case you need a timeline or just for us to remind you, the last time he really played ball with anything close to this was nearly 20 years ago when he is doing voices in the Simpsons game. That was really the last instance. The Simpsons part of the Universal Parks comes after that and he is nowhere to be found outside of voicing scratchy on the pre-ride video and I'm honestly not sure how they even pulled that off. Yeah, yeah, like there's a kodos ride at the Orlando version of Simpsons and there's no Kang there to talk. There's no Mr. Burns. there's no Flanders, there's no McBain, none of that there.

And even in the clips, they don't play clips with him in it. And yet, it has seemed like for a very long time, Harry Shear didn't agree to these things. And it could be a money thing, it could be a time thing, it could be, these things kept popping up during when he nearly quits the show and is having, like, public feuds with Al Jean about his level of commitment or not to the show. Yes. And I will say the burns sounded really good. And in this next news item, we're going to find out why some of his voices might have sounded off for a bit.

So there was an interview with Harry Shearer, thanks to the Times. And on the topic of The Simpsons, he reports, quote unquote, it's fine. So we're used to this. Whenever there's a Harry Shear interview, ask him about the Simpsons because you have to. He's been working on this show for 40 years. And he gives a glib and passive aggressive response every time. And this is no different. So after saying it's fine, he is asked about the Simpsons movie.

Shear says, quote, it's a little difficult when you're cranking out, sorry, turning out a show every week for half the year. But I think at some point it's going to happen. So I guess Harry Shearer has forgotten that The Simpsons now only does 15 broadcast episodes a year. But the idea of cranking out episodes implies a lack of quality. So he's being a little catty. Kitty's got claws in this interview. I mean, he is an incredibly catty guy always. Like, and yeah, I mean, now when you say it that way, like, but I think at some point it's going to.

to happen. That almost sounds like he doesn't know that the sequel movie has been announced. Yes. Yes. My speculation is based on what we're hearing in this interview is his lack of information about the movie, which is under production and has been for some time. I'm going to assume he will have very little to do with Simpsons movie too, although this could just be his general lack of enthusiasm about anything related to the Simpsons for the past three decades, but I feel like my dream is not going to happen and Mr. Burns is not going to be the villain in Simpsons movie two or featured prominently or at all. Yeah, in the first Simpsons movie, it's so disappointing how little Mr. Burns is in it.

The only real major character, sheerer voices in it is Flanders. Like, Flanders has a lengthy storyline in it, but of his other major characters, none of them have big parts in those, I guess Arnold Schwarzenegger, the president, sort of has like a bigger part in it. Right. I was like, Arnold Schwarzenegner, oh, right, McBain or Rainier-Wolf Castle. But it has to be Arnold, because it's worse. I can't get into it. We can't. Well, we'll cover it soon extensively. Don't worry. We've already done it before. We'll do it again. And also from this article, we learned that Harry Scher also had long COVID in recent years. He is over it now. But that does explain why in some notable clips people have been posting over the past couple of years, he has sounded very rough. Long COVID is bad. I don't need to tell you this, but it's even worse when you're in your 80s. So we're lucky he's still with us. And he apparently has gotten over that, which is why his voices sound a lot better than they used to.

Burns sounded much better in the Monopoly Goad. I'll say that for sure. Burns has sounded a little better in more recent ones. And yeah, they hear the long COVID thing. It made me, I felt a little bad of, like, talking about how old he sounds and things. He mentioned in the interview, he used it in the context of how hard it was to make

the second Spinal Tap film that had been, and now which has like a terrible, terrible legacy to it of just like, it's the last thing. Rob Reiner died within six months, was murdered, within six months of its release. And even in the interview, he's like, yeah, Spinal Tap is definitely done now.

And he even was poo-pooing on that of like, well, yeah, we don't really like. He's like kind of implying how the Spinal Tap actors don't like each other either. And that, I don't know, again, we say this all the time of Harry Sherer. Like, maybe it's you, Harry Sherer. Maybe it's not the problem.

Cheer up, Harry Shearer. Like, I feel like he has been this way for a very long time when it comes to interviews. And I remember, I see this clip every once in a while resurfaced. There is a Conan episode with both Harry Shearer and Dan, and they're both guests, and they're both doing all of their voices and having

fun, and I'm thinking, this is probably the last time Harry Scher ever did this. It might be like 98, 97, 99, something around that time period. But man, I wish you would have kept up that attitude for the past 25 years. When they did the inside the actor's studio, he still seemed slightly friendly

about it, but I think he was more liking talking about things that wasn't Simpsons when he was on that. Yeah. So thank you, Harry Scher, for getting well and participating in advertising, our favorite thing. Cheer up, buddy. Like, you're Harry Shearer.

You got to act with Jack Benny as a child. Like, you're one of the few living people who acted with Jack Benny. It's true. So there was a new Matt Selman interview with the Staying Alive podcast. And by the way, that is a podcast featuring John Gabris and Adam Pally. They have been abducted by the Smartless Network. Did you know this, Henry? They are part of the Smartless family.

It's the only Smartless adjacent podcast I've listened to because I am a fan of Gabris. a regular listener, but I do check in every few months. It is. I am interested in the level of both. Well, Adam Pally is a formerly chubby actor, now just a in-shape actor. And John Gaboris is a man who is one of my favorite podcasters to hear talking about his struggles with weights and exercise. So those are when I enjoy checking in on staying alive. But then when I saw, I didn't see this episode when it posted only when the headlines like the next day started hitting the feeds. So we're going to talk about Matt Sleman's body next. And Henry, is that your goal?

Nothing about his body seemed notable, which is why I'm asking. He just seemed to be like, oh, you are a 55-year-old man sitting on a couch. They are extremely complimentary of his body. Like, man, you are shredded. Like, he has actual, like, good muscles, especially for, like, comedy writer in his 50s muscles. And most of the, they've released a secondary one that is the actual, like, Simpsons nerd questions. But the main podcast is them just asking, how often do you go to the gym? And he talks about how, like, he became a.

Jim addict all of a sudden. Yeah, yeah. They were talking about the Simpsons and the young audience, and I think he said something like, well, the most important thing for young people is to go outside and exercise. So Matt Sillman is a real exercise addict. It's crazy to see that a Simpsons comedy writers

were famous for talking about in the 90s that they eat all of the time and don't get any exercise and you gain weight working on the Simpsons. I remember another one on a Simpsons commentary where it was the Hansel and Gretel and Gretel tree house and Bart is surrounded by snacks and is just eating them,

Mac Greening goes like, hey, it's the writer's room. Like, that's how much they were known for snacking. Things have really turned around a lot. So in this interview, we get some little tidbits of info about the Simpsons and related areas.

So he thinks the Springfield USA section of Universal Studios is going to be at the parks for, quote, unquote, a long time. And apparently, Simpson's producers just had a meeting with Universal about Halloweenizing the Simpsons experience for Universal's Halloween horror nights.

So he said something will be be happening this year. And I guess it took a very long time to get this going. I guess Springfield EOSA has been around since, what, 2009? Well, the ride opened in 2009, but I think it's more like 12 or 13 when they expanded to the Springfield section. It used to just be the Krustyland stuff. And then the Springfield expanded out for that a few years later. Yeah. And they were talking with him about the ride and he told them, well, the ride itself is built on old technology. It's very much locked down, but there is still the potential to change the pre-ride experience. So that will take money, of course, and perhaps new animation, but that is also on the table. So it sounds like

our prediction that this ride is going away might not happen within the next couple of years, at least. All of that in the interview was the first big, from an official source kind of update I've heard that was in any, sounded anything than they're losing it in two years. Because the prevailing wisdom that I've mentioned many times on here is that the Simpsons land got signed to a 20-year deal and the 20 years are up in two. 2009. But now it seems that the way they are having meetings to potentially expand it and extend it and even

approve new things, including related Halloween Horror Night stuff, which does, I've never been to Halloween Horror Nights. Too scary. But shouldn't there be Treehouse of Horror stuff at Halloween Horror Nights? It's crazy. There isn't. Yeah, it's crazy that there isn't. I was taken aback like, oh, I guess they never did this. The most obvious thing to do on Halloween, you have the Simpsons Land, the most famous episodes of the show are the Treehouse of Horror episodes. Yes. And to hear him admit, like, oh, yeah, the ride video has aged quite a lot, guys,

but you can't really change it. It's pretty locked in to what it is. Also hearing him talk about just the testing of it or hurling on it. Like, he had very funny stories, but I liked how he said, hey, sorry, Universal, if I'm telling Tales out of school, but we've had meetings. I was like, oh, yeah, they actually might probably be spoiling things to talk about this. But hey, it's nice to know that there's hope for that area of Universal. So that is just some Matt Selman updates for all of you out there. And here's some Fortnite updates. Well, it seems like, thanks to some social media teases,

that Simpsons content is making a return to the game this summer. Of course, this might be news by the time this episode goes live. But we're wondering, will this be new content? Will it be last year's content? The important thing is you'll get to spend too much money on JPEGs. That's what's going on here. If you missed out on spending hundreds of dollars to get every version of Simpsons characters from there. I bet they're at the very

least, my husband does much more Fortnite than I've done, and he has mentioned to me that the characters cycle in and out. Partially, they do that because once they're gone, when they can come back, then that scares people, they're like, oh, well, you missed it last time, they're back again. Now, aren't

you going to buy them? And now they have another chance. And so it seems like the Simpsons are back on that cycle. Now, Henry, you guys play Fortnite. What is the household budget for Fortnite skins? Oh, well, you know, they're having been any good ones lately. But during the Simpsons month, I think it was, I'll be honest, probably in the $80 range of V-Bucks we purchased just to get most of the skins in it, just to have them.

I guess you can save if you buy a lot at once. It is like the scam system of like, well, it only makes sense to buy the $75 pack. It's like you're getting $10 extra free of V-bucks. Makes sense to me. But I guess we'll find out more in the future if there will be new content, is content for Fortnite. And our last news item is just updates about shows that we've covered in the past, shows that you care about, people who are listening, because a lot of seasons are rolling out over the summer. Some of these we've waited years to see. So in order, chronological order, here's what's coming this summer. So X-Men 97 hitting Disney Plus on July 1st, King of the Hill, hitting Disney Plus on July 20th, Batman Cape Crusader, another season of that hitting Amazon Prime

on July 31st. And Futurama, what could potentially be the last 10 episodes of Futurama, hitting Disney Plus on August 3rd. So that's 40 episodes of things that are potentially very good. Yeah, and we've covered X-Men 97's first season and Batman Cape Crusaders first season during what now feels like a very long time ago when the first seasons of those came out.

And we really enjoyed the King of the Hill season 14. I am hopeful that they can keep the quality going with season 15. And then I have taken it for granted these new seasons Futurama. I think I should savor this. This could very well be the last new episodes of Futurama. I never count Futurama out, but it could be. It could happen. Actually, my wife and I have been watching the newer 10 episodes,

which launched in September, but it was hard for me to get on to them because obviously we cover Futurama for our job, so it feels like a little bit of work when I'm watching new episodes. But we've been catching up, and I have to say they've really hit their stride so far. So I hope they don't go away because I feel like it took them 10, 15 episodes to find,

their groove and they're kind of in it now. So if the show is going away forever, we'll probably hear about it soon because like I said in an earlier Futurama podcast, the big renewal came in November of 2023 after the initial order was made. So I feel like if we don't hear anything soon, that could be it for Futurama. And same with the Cape Crusader. Like it got renewed or no, it only got a 20 episode order like I think like four or five years ago, I think.

Yes. Who wants to watch a Batman show? boring. And I did see that X-Men 97, I think I just read this today, that the July 1st, it's a three-episode drop. So it's going to be weekly after that, but they're starting with the first three episodes. Yeah, I think some of these are on a weekly basis. I think Futurama might be weekly. I forget. They keep going back and forth. They can't decide. And I love weekly. Man, I think King of the Hill might be a full season drop, though. I could be wrong on that. Well, Amazon always does the full drop, right? Yes, actually, for the show I watched this. Yeah, Bats. man probably will be it for i watched an amazon show this month that was a full season drop as well but i'll get to that later okay yeah and that's what's going on in simpson's news and a related

shows now let's talk about what's happening in our world and let's start with our schedule so as usual for the past i don't know how long but for a while we take it a little easier in july and that means we take the first full week of the month off and me explaining this is sort of like the pre-taped collins show sketch on mr show but I'll make this as easy as possible and I don't want to see anyone out there on the first full week of July saying, hey, Goober, where's the podcast?

Because it'll be on our schedule on the Patreon and I'm explaining it to you now. Any questions, please consult this podcast again or that schedule. So on the Patreon, because our schedule is staggered, here's how it will break down. On the Patreon,

there will be no new episodes on the first full week of July, which begins on the 5th. So that means no Talking Simpsons and no what a cartoon. And then on the free feed, there will be no new episodes on the second week of July, which means no Talking Simpsons or What a Cartoon,

although we are throwing a few Patreon-related exclusives on the free feed for you to enjoy. So please check out the Talking Simpsons and What a Cartoon Free Feeds that second full week of July to find some interviews we did way back in 2018 that have never breached the paywall. And then we're back to regular releases as usual on the 12th for the Patreon feed of Talking Simpsons. But yes, and listeners, you should know, we've been taking off this. first full week of July for a while now, if you're new to us, and this has nothing to do. We wish it didn't seem like we were celebrating the 250th birthday of America. We don't care about that. I'm celebrating Canada Day, but we should also point out we don't actually take this week off when you don't have content that week.

We're working on a lot of other stuff. This just helps us catch up with all the podcasts that we do. So it makes things a little bit easier for us to take one week off in January, one week off in July. We thank you for being understanding. Yes. Thank you very much. So yes, no, what a cartoon in July. Let's move on to the other scheduled episodes. So Talking Futurama will be covering Reincarnation, which is a potential series finale, but it's more of like an anthology of interest. And it wraps up the first big comedy central order.

We're moving on to the second order starting in August. But this one is three different stories. One is a kind of like Fleischer Brothers parody. One is an anime parody and one is a video game parody. And I'm looking forward to covering all of these. Very interesting visual styles on all of them. Yeah, and it's directed by previous Talking Simpsons, a podcast interviewee, at Peter Avanzino. Hello, Peter. You might be listening to this.

Talking of the Hill is next on Patreon, and we're covering Hank's Bad Hairday, an episode about government overspending. It's something... Thunder and Lightning Sounds. Something Mike Judge hates, but the... Yes. It's a great bill episode, though. We're in a real, like, trance of bill episodes, like positive or good bill episodes. Two months ago, we covered him and Peggy being part of a pyramid scheme.

And now it's a Hank and Bill friendship episode. Yeah, it's a very good episode as are most of them, or if not all of them in season four. Season four is very strong. And finally, our What a Cartoon movie for the month of July. We are doing the Disney 2010 summer theme, of course. So we are covering Zootopia Next, a movie I have not seen yet. I'm looking forward to digging into it. And that's because I know people like it.

But also Zootopia, too, is the highest grossing non-Chinese animated movie of all time. So it's got to be good. That is wild that Zootopia, too as like, I saw Zootopia. I didn't see it in theaters, but I did see it pretty soon after theaters, because people talked it up pretty well. And I remember enjoying it, especially, I mean, I like, there aren't gay characters in it, but there are fun characters that you can tell yourself,

oh, they would be gay in a movie that would allow gay characters to exist. I'm really sure it onboarded a lot of furries who were on the fence. Yes. Now, Judy Hopps, eh? Though, of course, ACAB, you know, that applies to Judy Hopps as well. sorry, sorry Judy. But what if they're good cops? They do their jobs. It's an interesting film and directed

by the same director as Rackett Ralph, so it's a fun. We're continuing with Rich Moore's career. So yes, if you want to listen to these episodes of our mini-series, go to Patreon.com slash Talking Simpson's sign for five bucks and that will get you Talking Futurama, talking of the Hill, the preview of the

What a Cartoon movie, but of course if you want to hear the what a cartoon movie, that's at the $10 level. And that will get you all the other ones. So check that out at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. And we have a bonus coming for you, which might actually be out before this podcast because Henry has seen Toy Story 5. It's Friday, by the way. I'm seeing it tonight. Tomorrow morning, we're recording a emergency spoiler cast about Toy Story 5. It's not a what a cartoon movie. It'll just be a brief discussion about the film and our thoughts so far. It will be a what a cartoon movie in the future.

We just wanted to give you a little bonus while our thoughts are still very fresh. And yeah, looking forward to seeing this tonight. I did not read your review yet, Henry. No, yeah. It's fun to stay clear, but not. that I have spoilers in my letterbox. I'm looking forward to chatting about it with you or have in the past when you listeners hear this. And I think Toy Story of a series that long, it's the only film series we've done all of them to this point as full What a Cartoon movie. So it makes sense that we would do Toy Story 5 immediate reactions for such a recent film as that. Looking forward to my IMAX screening with my SOTI and my popcorn having fun. I totally miss Toy Story

Ford Theater. I think I was too busy having fun in Vancouver or something. I know that was like a summer of 2019. That's like right before the world ended that period. It was great to see an IMAX. It was good. I got to see an IMAX screening of it as well. That was nice with an only, I think it was a 7 p.m. one, not many kids in the audience.

So just a lot of knowing laughs from fellow adults. I'm going at 9.30 p.m. The kids better be in bed. That's all I'm saying. I could have gone into the 21 and up only movie theater. that's also around here, but they don't have it in IMAX. It's a fake Alamo draft house style. So with alcohol and walking through the audience type thing,

they don't have IMAX at that. Yeah, I rarely see IMAX. This time I'm making an exception because it's a movie I've been looking forward to for a while and I miss for. So yes, check out the Patreon for that. It will only be on Patreon. You must subscribe to hear our thoughts on Toy Story 5 as they're hot off the presses. And now it's time to talk about what we've been playing and watching

that is not related to podcasting. And Henry, this is an amazing summer for games. I don't know if you've noticed, but there are too many things competing for my time, and it sucks because there are so many things I want to play. So many things are about to come out, like the Star Fox 64 remake, there's like a Splatoon game coming out. It's a real damn nightmare, but I've managed to start and finish a few things. The first game I want to talk about is called 007 First Light. That is the James Bond game made by I.O. Interactive, makers of the very, very good Hitman games. And I will say I did enjoy this to an extent.

this is the best possible version of a game style I don't really like and that is really the AAA naughty dog style game experience where there's cover-based shooting, you're walking down narrative story tunnels and there's very little room to get off the rails they have you on. In terms of a James Bond game, it's probably the best one ever made on a technical level. But I really wish it was more like the Hitman games where they throw you into a level and they say, figure out how to do this however you want. But I feel like there are more rules to the James Bond character, what he can and cannot do.

So there is a big reason why you can't just kill anyone you want or solve the problem any way you want. You have to do it in very James Bondy ways. But it is a very fun game. But again, I will say my least favorite kind of game, but I still found it enjoyable. You might enjoy it a lot more than I did. I enjoy a story tube now and then, especially in the Sony story tube world. Though also sometimes I kind of overdosed on them, I didn't even play Uncharted 4 after. the third on chart, I was like, man, I have had enough.

I think I need a break from story tubes. But I get why I.O. would end up in the space because James Bond is such a huge franchise that to even get it, you have to promise, you have to pitch yourself in the most mainstream way. And if you're going to make a focus single player game, that kind of story presentation is what's expected from a AAA release of a mega franchise like Bond. Yeah. Yeah.

Like I totally understand why it is the way it is. Ultimately, I think Hitman, the recent trilogy, is still the best James Bond experience. But I like what they did here. I hope they get to stay with this franchise and maybe make a game with like a little more wiggle room in terms of what the player can do. But I really did like this as a prequel story for James Bond, which to my knowledge has not been done yet. And I think I am no James Bond expert.

I've seen like two Bond movies in my lifetime. But I thought this is a very nice treatment of this portion of his life. And it doesn't feel gimmicky at all. And I feel like they respect the character. and they're asking the question a lot of us have asked, like, where did he come from? Who is this guy? And it's better than the common story of like,

should we have James Bond in this modern time? I'm very sick of that, which is what every James Bond movie has been for 20 years. It's what every Daniel Craig Bond is. It pissed me off and good and bad ones. And there's ones I really enjoyed. And with the ending of, you know what, I am James Bond, and that's who I am.

And it's like, great. So I hope the next movie are just James Bond, start of the next movie. I don't want to be James Bond anymore Maybe I'm too old And maybe you don't even need James Bond It's like no you solved this You just solved this

Yeah just make it a period piece I've recently watched the casino Royale For the first time and I loved it And I know it's all downhill from there unfortunately But yes I did like this treatment of the character And I hope the company gets to stay on And make more of these games So that's level 7 first light

Skyfall is pretty great I don't know if you need to watch Quantum of Solis Before seeing that But Skyfall is my second favorite of the five Craig Bonds. Yeah, I've heard out of all of them you can watch Xena Royale and Skyfall and like Spector, Quantum of Salas

and No Time to Die, you can kind of leave those behind. If you're going to watch Spector, then you may as well watch. Actually, it's like Casino Royale and then Quantum of Salas like technically they're part one and two but Quantum of Salas is so skippable. And if you're going to watch Spector though,

then you may as well watch No Time to Die because those are kind of like part A and B of a bigger story. Well, the next game I want to talk about is Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Night. So this game came out on the time of my birthday, and I was like, oh, boy, people are really talking up this Lego game. I don't know why.

There are just so many of these, but I guess this one is special, and I was looking more into it. And I was like, oh, it's kind of like an Arkham game. I'm not spending $80 on a Batman game. Luckily, I had enough Amazon points to basically get me this game for free. So I grabbed it for PS5. And yes, it is not like an Arkham game. It essentially is an Arkham game with many playable characters.

I have never really liked these Lego games outside of like the initial ones. The gimmick immediately wore off for me. But Rocksteady, the Arkham developers are on this project. And yes, it is essentially you are playing an Arkham game in a Arkham style open world with many mini games and challenges and things to find, except it's all depicted in the world of Lego. And instead of just playing as Batman, you switch on the fly between six different characters who all of their own abilities

that are used to solve various different puzzles in the environment. And it is very, very good. I didn't think I would like it, but this is my recommendation. I was going to play Arkham Night this summer, and now I don't have to. So now that will always be in the back burner for me. There will always be an Arkham game that I've not played yet with Kevin Conroy voice acting. But for now, yes, Lego Batman, this most recent one. I know there's been a bunch of them, but this one is really surprising.

I'm waiting for the first price cut probably to give it a shot. But every clip I see of it that gets shared looks so cool because it's also full of, you know, the gameplay, as you say, is more like Arkham. clips I see of the like the comedy in it or the writing is the good traveler tales writing of hey, these are nerdy references to even things. The clip I saw of it was Alfred saying the pick ourselves back up again thing, except it was the Michael Kane mumbled tweet of it of like, Batman begin. I don't like that one. Yeah, it's a great mashup of various Batman elements. And I like how mildly disrespectful they are because it's not consistent. because the penguin is the Danny DeVito penguin.

The Joker is Jack Nicholson. The Commissioner Gordon is from The Batman. Like you said, Alfred is from the Nolan films. They're just picking and choosing, like, what would be funniest, and it's great. I like how it's basically like a highlight of so much Batman stuff. It's a very, like, dense and long game. So, yeah, that surprised me. I never thought I would play another Lego game.

And I like it because it's not really a Lego game. Lego stuff is in there, but it's essentially an Arkham game in Lego skin. And that was like a wise move because it's been 11 years since we've had an Arkham game. after Suicide Squad, I'm glad Rocksteady still existed and long enough to work on this Lego Batman game instead of being closed and laid off, as happens to all game companies apparently these days. Oh, yeah. Like everyone's saying this, but it does feel like we're in the middle of a video game crash. And I have to say, please support games not made by gigantic publishers. Go out there on Steam, buy a ton of indie games, support people making games without oversight of these gigantic companies who will lay them off.

It's never been more important to do it than now. And speaking of giant games that are published by huge publishers, I recently played through The Adventures of Elliot, the demo for that. It is one of the worst titles ever made for a video game. It's the dorkiest title. Indicates nothing about what it is, but it's a very beefy demo four hours long. The game just came out.

I have to say, Mina the Hollower is the Superior Overhead Perspective Action Game, and I played about 90 minutes of that, really like it, can't wait to get back to it. It's phenomenal. But I feel like the Adventures of Elliot is closer to a 2D Zelda style game

and if you're looking more for that and more of a laid back kind of game not quite as difficult as me to the hollower or in demand of as much precision as me to the hollower. Adventures of Elliot very, very good. At least check out the demo because like I said, four to five hours you really get to play a lot of the game

and I was very impressed and honestly the HD 2D gimmick is kind of losing appeal for me but this brought me back into it and feel like it's to be off most people's radar. Even if it's a big publisher, it's also nice to support new IP. Even if it is Square Annex, a gigantic publisher, it's like, okay, Elliot, here's 60 bucks. You're doing something new. This is not another Final Fantasy. I support this new venture. I assume Square usually does this. A big chunky demo like that actually does usually carry over

into the final game, right? Yeah. Yeah. I really love these giant demos, which honestly are kind of like a trap because you think, well, I've already spent five hours. I might as well just buy the game and then continue because that was the same with Monscharner Stories 3. I played that demo for like seven or eight hours and I thought, well, I'm in this deep. Might as well play the whole game and I did enjoy it. So yeah, Adventures of Elliot.

So that's video games for me. In terms of watching stuff, I got to say, I saw the backrooms and it did work on me. Three and a half out of five on Letterbox. I thought it was very good. It did help that the park theater in Vancouver had a backroom style setup within the theater. They're big backrooms boosters at the park theater.

So many backrooms elements, are within the theater. I'm not sure if they're still there now, but they were when we saw it. And I got to say, it is nice to see a new kind of movie and especially one by a director who is not even old enough to drink.

This director is as old as the PlayStation 3, and I support him. The kids are going to be okay. You know, you talk about how there's so many video games and there sure are this summer. And this really does feel like an interesting summer of movies, like are a hot summer of movies to me,

thanks in part to backrooms and another film. In June, But this feels even hotter than like the Barbenheimer summer that was the last time it felt like, ooh, a big summer movie. Like it feels like every week there is a mega big movie. And then also you get all of these surprises. And it feels exciting to go to the movies right now. A lot of people assume the movies would be dead after COVID. But everybody, like the theaters are full.

Everyone's having a great time. There's so many great movies. Again, like a new kind of movie like Backrooms. The kind of found footagey content within it has been on the internet for a while. But I like seeing it in a theater. and also it's great that they just let this guy direct the movie. They didn't say, oh, your idea is cute. We're going to give it to a guy who knows what he's doing who's 20 years older than you,

and they're going to make your little movie for you. No, they're like, okay, 20-year-old, you understand what this is. Apparently it's very popular. We trust you. And that trust paid off. And I will say, absolutely worth seeing. I didn't absolutely love it, but it's like, okay, the backroom stuff is really creepy and effective, and a traditional narrative is woven through it that I liked.

So, very, very impressed by that. Things have come up lately that I've bought tickets to it twice and then got a refund in my cinema gap of like, oh, wait. Well, guys, it's like, oh, wait, one time it was, I forgot that we had made plans to hang out with somebody that have dinner with some friends. And then the second time, it was like basically a work thing. I was like, eh, I need to finish this one thing. So I just canceled my daytime ticket for it. But I plan on seeing it in the next week. I do want to see it.

Yeah, we're seeing in a theater, I'll say, with an audience. Again, new kind of movie. Really enjoyed it. Also, not a new kind of movie. Disclosure Day. the recent Steven Spielberg movie. This I also liked. I feel like, no spoilers here, of course.

The ending is very contentious. But I feel myself saying I want to believe, not in aliens, which the movie is about, but I want to believe in the sense of hope that Stephen Spielberg carries for the future of civilization. And that's all I'll really say. But a lot of people viewed Spielberg's philosophy with this movie to be very corny,

and I understand that. But I find myself thinking, well, I really want to be on board with this idea. and I want to kill the part of my brain that says, this wouldn't happen in real life when I'm watching a movie. Because that's the most annoying part of your brain, right? I feel that so much, Bob. I saw Disclosure Day as well,

and it was a pretty full theater, nearly sold out. And it made me feel my age in a way I wasn't ready for, which was 20 years ago, I would have seen another Spielberg movie, like, let's say, War of the Worlds, or 25 years ago I'd have seen AI. And I would have complained about, like, well what oh the bear saved the hair or whatever from AI in disclosure day i was just having a good

time and then behind me after the movie is over there is a guy who sounds like what i think i sounded like when i was in my 20s trying to tear down inconsistencies in a movie right after it was always like and this guy just goes like to his friend well and you know that wouldn't really work and why did this guy do that thing i was like oh i hate you is what i wanted to turn around and yell at this guy. You should have turned around and pointed a shaky finger in their face and say, I was you. Yes. It made me regret being such a doubt. And especially like AI, I've watched it a couple times since I saw it in theaters as a younger man. And I love that movie. These are all movies I avoided because of the opinions of peers around me. But I saw AI for the first time not too long ago. And I really liked it. And I saw War of the Worlds for the first time this month. And all I remember about that movie is my peers who were all in their early 20s to be fair, complaining about the family. family element. And I go into the movie and I love it. I come out the other side loving and I'm

thinking, well, yes, of course you complained about the family element. You were 22. That's why you didn't like this. But I'm glad I approached this movie in my 40s and I'm able to meet it halfway at least. Yes. And Spielberg's optimism and hope he's always had that. He's always been called corny. And maybe part of getting older is just I've started to get more and more on Spielberg's level of wanting to believe that good things are possible, which is harder and harder to believe in a film set now, I will say. Yes, I will say, please don't Cinemisins this movie. Just embrace it.

I think you'll have a good time. Also, other movie I saw, and I'm sad I put this off for so long, but I finally saw the People's Joker. What this movie is, it's a borderline illegal film that is basically a trans coming of age story wrapped around a Batman allegory. And

we briefly mentioned like Wonder shows on a recent recording, and after the fact I thought like, oh, I should have mentioned this thing about it. There was an area or a time period in entertainment where you could have said, I can't believe they got away with that. That's over now with the internet. You can just see whatever kind of content you want. There are no rules.

But with the People's Joker, again, a movie that is borderline illegal, I often thought, like, how are they just able to use all of these Batman characters in this unlicensed parody? That is part of the gimmick. It's also a very funny movie. And I will say that it is really part of the Tim and Eric Awesome Show universe in that the entire movie looks like a Tim and Eric Awesome Show sketched to the point where Tim Heidecker does a voice.

role in the film and David Liebahart the crazy puppeteer from Tim and Eric he plays Rosal Ghoul in the film but not the version of him you're thinking I was very very pleased by all of the weird and interesting takes on Batman characters of this movie kept constantly showing me

and I'm glad they were able to release it in some form eventually I know there was like a lot of legal contention over this film but I was really impressed by it my personal shame is that I heard about this movie before it even came out like streams from the Jack Allison stream, who we had Jack Allison on our podcast a million years ago,

he would talk with Vera Drew, the creator and star and director of it, of the People's Joker, and I still haven't seen it. But Vera Drew, I know worked on Tim and Eric editing. Like, she understands this comedy. It sounds like it is a comedy nerd of our age dream while also being a trans allegory, too. Not even allegory. It's just a trans story, right? Yeah, and it's not just about that.

It covers a lot of topics. will say I really liked its takedown of mainstream comedy, especially the UCB and SNL, they're major targets of this movie, and especially like the improv classes that you have to take to work your way through the system. There's a lot of inside baseball commentary on the

comedy community that I loved. But yeah, check it out. This movie is great, and please pay for it and support it. I'd like to see more crazy things like this. Again, it is hard to watch a movie where you think, how did they get away with making this? This has not really happened in the past like 10 to 20 years, but with the people's joker, I'm able to say,

wow, this is crazy and I'm glad I can see something like this. It's Pride Month. I need to watch it. This is my Pride Month Promise to you guys on the podcast. I'm going to watch it while it's still June. This is Henry's PMP, Pride Month Promise. Other things, I saw it in the library. I have so many books that I bought that I have to read, but I saw it in the library and I grabbed Patrick Stewart's making it so.

Oh, hello, I wrote a big book and it's 450 pages, and it's all about my time in the theater. So that's essentially what it is. I really enjoyed it. I talk a lot about it on the Homer's. the great episode of Talking Simpsons coming later. But I have to say, I love the book. It gave me a newer appreciation for Patrick Stewart. And if you're going into it looking for stories about Star Trek,

that is not what the book is about, even though it's called Making It So. It's 450 pages. And I will say, after page 300 is when he gets to the interview or the audition for TNG. So it really is shining a light on an element of Patrick Stewart that most of us are unfamiliar with because we were not alive before 1987 and able to go to plays in London, let's say. Yes, it sounds like for Americans, it's a lot of stuff that was not very available to us. If you were even alive then, to be aware of his career pre any American production he was in. But yes, it's a great book.

And I say, Patrick Stewart, you're turning 86 next month. Give me Volume 2. There are more stories. Yes, it sounds like he could easily fill another 600 pages with everything he's done since like 1995, I would think. We were talking about Patrick Stewart and my wife showed me this Paramount Plus ad. This is back when Paramount Plus was known as like the Fun Mountain Network and not like the fourth rank, basically. It was a different era for the network entirely. But it was a bunch of Paramount characters on Paramount and they needed to climb up it.

And Patrick Stewart, he's there with Drew Barrymore and Lieutenant Dangle. He's like, oh, look, it's Hey Arnold. Maybe I'll throw Hay Arnold at the top of the mountain with his football head. And I could not believe this. Guess it was a Super Bowl ad or something? But I thought, what does Patrick Stewart think of, hey Arnold? He had to be in a comedy sketch about it. Yes, I remember that.

It was insane. And then it turns into they sing a parody version of, Can You Take Me Higher? Yes. At the end of it? Yeah. Yeah, as corny as that is, again, I like that era more than we are now the Fourth Reich. All hail President Trump in his glorious regime in Paramount.

Yes. Yeah, that our taxpayer dollars get to pay for bread and circuses. But if you want to see the circus, you got to sign up. for Paramount Plus to see the most hateful MMA event that's ever happened. Oh, and speaking of hateful, We Hate Movies, the great podcast. We are on it this week talking about Minions.

So if you're listening to this, it's already out, regardless of which feed you're listening to this on. So check it out. We had a lot of fun. The last time I recorded with We Hate Movies, I just remembered this. It was Despickel Me Too. And that was the day I tested positive for COVID,

and I had a very high fever while recording that podcast. So I feel like this recording process went a lot easier for me, at least. And we had so much fun talking about. about minions. So check out we hate movies just in general, but that episode in particular, we're on it. It was a ton of fun to continue our work on the minions crotling with the we A movies guys. And yes, Bob remembers it this time because he's not horribly sick. Yes. No COVID since then, but I have not really been to any theme park since then. I see the connection. Oh, that's true. Yeah, yeah, that's, I forgot that was right after the Universal Trip.

Well, for gaming this month, I is actually very light on games this month. I was more of a movie man, but I am excited to play the Magic the Gathering Marvel Superhero set is just about to come out the day of recording this, but I've been playing it digitally in the Arena app and have really been enjoying it. They finally got the Marvel guys in there. Magic fans hate me

being a person who's coming in only for Marvel, but sorry guys, I want to play with my Marvel guys in this game. I can see the clickbait ad, Magic fans hate him. Yeah, that's right. For this one weird trick, he buys Marvel cards. Though the only real game I played and like Bob only lightly, I played

like two hours of Mina the Hollower. I also just wanted to support it. Yacht Club games, making this game that's getting very well reviewed. It's an independent studio. It's their first full game since Shovel Night a long time ago, I think, right? Like, they haven't had one in between. Yeah, I mean, they've done shovel night dig, and they've done

some expansions for shovel night, but, and they're working on Shovel Night, like a 3D version of Shovel Night. But, yeah, this has been in the Hopper for a very long time. As somebody who, of course, loves, Link's Awakening and the other Game Boy era, Zelda games, this one of like Game Boy Zelda meets Dark Souls.

It did pull me in a little bit, but it also like kicked my fucking ass. And I was having real trouble getting past like the first like guard in the game, I think. The big guy who's in front of the castle is what you get through the opening areas. Oh, so you're pretty early on in the game then, right? Pretty much. Yeah, yeah. I was exploring the side areas too. It's also my timing. I got to work on my timing of the thing where you're supposed to like, you know, swim underwater or duck in the thing and then hop out like with the jump. Like I'm having trouble with the timing with it so far. Yeah. Yeah, I will say I thought this is going to start a whole new slightly irritating discourse about difficulty in games and it didn't because the difficulty curve is very early in the game and is very easy to overcome if you know like the right tips. They're pretty easy to find online. Like what do I do to overcome these early areas? But then apparently it's smooth sailing. You get a lot of gadgets and weapons that can help you along your way. I've only

played the beginning. I finish off that boss and just have access to the first town, and that's basically it. But a lot of what I'm hearing for people is that the burrowing ability that Mina has, it's only to be used for repositioning. It's not to be used for dodging. That does not really work, and that might be your first instinct, and that's going to really make you die very quickly. So that's just like one thing to get out of the way and keep in mind. And going into it with that mindset, it did help me out. But again, I need to return to the game. But if it makes you feel better, the difficulty curve is very early in the game and easily overpassed and there are like a lot of videos online. Like, here's 10 tips for Meena the Hollower and they do work. Okay, then I will

come back to it, though I expect I will be playing next week, Star Fox 64 remake, but I feel like I can beat that in seven hours, tops. Henry, it's Starfax 64. You can beat that in 70 minutes. Well, but if I want to beat, I always have trouble beating that Y Galaxy. That's always been a problem for me as a kid. What I love about Star Fox 64 is that you can just replay it over and over and over and over again very quickly. Summers I would just hang out at my friend's house and I would just sit down on the floor and play Starbucks 64 while we talked or played music or whatever. And then you just sail through to the end of the game. We both enjoy Mina and also that Mina has a friend in Nina, because Nina designed some really cool merch for Mina the Hollower. That's just cut.

Unfortunately, that really cool stuff, animal, I'm not going to call it a stuffy. It is sold out. It's sold out very quickly. So keep your eyes on Fan Gamer for more of Mina the Hollower stuff. The other stuff is available, but I love that stuff, the animal she designed. And the only other game I play this month was just watching all of the announcements, though not live in most cases, except for Nintendo Direct, of the Game Fest, which is what is E3 and all of the new announcements. And, yeah, like everything, most games, it still is, this was two or ten years ago, and it still is true that if it's not a Nintendo system,

every game they show you is like murder games. Like, is this so much murder? If you watch a PC gamers live show, their E3, three style show is really good because it highlights a lot of indie titles. I definitely recommend that if you're looking for something different. Of course, Nintendo's is good too. I do want to point out, I am the lathe of heaven because early on in the month of, I believe it was like late May, I complained about how they should make a Star Fox 64 remake on two sequential podcasts. They ended up making that. I was listening to, I believe it's on a clear day you can't see my sister or I can't

see my sister. And on that podcast, you're talking about Devil May Cry three. I mentioned how they're not making a new Devil May Cry. Capcom is leaving all of their B-tier franchises behind like Ace Attorney, Devil May Cry, Dragon's Dogma. We recorded that. And then Capcom's like, hey, you know what? Dragon's Dogma, too, we're making DLC. Also, we're fixing all the things in that game that you hate.

Here you go. So, again, I'm the Lave of Heaven, and I would predict all future events. That was such a weird trailer because I watched that trailer, and then afterwards people said, you know, they announced DLC in that trailer. I was like, what? They did.

It wasn't clear at first that it, or at least to me. It's one of those games that I've been sitting on for a while, I've owned it, and I'll tell you, I like playing games that are new, but nothing rules harder

than waiting a few years to play a game, and they've just, like, improved it and patched every bug and added so much content. Like, the Final Fantasy Tactics remake now has a new game Plus mode and a bunch of other things. They just randomly added to it.

So patience, in many cases, does pay off, not just in terms of saving money. Often the game will become a lot better. And the Wolverine game look kind of fun. I'll be playing that soon enough in September, though.

There's two many September. games. There's like eight games in September I want to play. But then the Xbox one at first had a couple games I thought were interesting. And then the day, I felt like it was three days later comes the news. Oh, Xbox is going to fire everybody soon too, by the way. Half our developers we're going to get rid of. So that takes some of the fun out of it. Henry, once you hit 100,000 treatment points, can you just leave that brand behind forever? I guess I'm going to have to. They are too evil. And every company's evil, but man, they are so evil. They're pushing the limits and evil I can accept of a giant company.

Just buy a steambox whenever we're allowed by computer hardware again, which would be never, but it might happen. And then for movies, I watched the other. There's two hot horror films directed by people under 30 right now that are destroying the box office of the old men. And I saw the other one, Obsession. I did see Obsession. And it was, I felt like the oldest person in the world in that theater. It felt like everybody in the theater with me was under 30. Like it was all young people.

But it was a good feeling. Not like, oh, I'm seeing the hip young thing. A movie for them, not for me. It's nice. Yeah. Directed by Curry Barker. And Curry Barker is what I turn into when my curry is too spicy. You bark about how hot it is.

Something like that. You figure out how that joke is supposed to work. I do want to see this, but it turns out Curry Barker is kind of a stinker when it comes to disputes by people who worked on the movie, like the art director, who said, I got paid very little. response was, I paid you an exposure. So maybe a cruel monkey's paw wish will happen to Curry Barker, perhaps, in an ironic twist of fate. I did see that. That was disappointing. I do feel like he should, you know, the cool thing to do when after you have a hit movie and you're making all these deals for

tens of millions of dollars is you don't have to contractually, but send a bonus to people like that of like, hey guys, it really succeeded. Here's a bonus I didn't have to contractually give you. Now, I don't make movies, of course. But if you make your movie, and it makes a profit of $300 million. I would feel comfortable giving a little bit of that away to people that worked on the film, perhaps, even if their contracts didn't stipulate

they would get any of that. That's why we're not rich, because we think like that. But the film of Session was very good. I gave it three and a half. It is that, especially the main actress who plays Nikki,

she makes it work. It all depends on her performance as the villain of the movie. I don't want to spoil too much, but the Monkees Paw thing, it only really works if the person who is playing the mind-controlled character actually can find nuance and interesting things to do with the character, which she does.

I was cranky about Curry Barker, but I do want to watch the movie, but I will pirate it because I'm paying Curry Barker and exposure by talking about the movie. It's only fair. And also the thing we talked about last month that it was inspired by, he says it was inspired by the Treehouse of Horror one,

specifically of the Monkees Paw, that I did read a fun little interview with Mike Reese and Al Jean being asked about that. And Al Jean did not see the movie yet. But Mike Rees said he had seen the movie because he watches like tons of horror movies. He's a big horror movie fan apparently. That's cool.

Yeah, I believe when we discovered this fact, we were thinking, well, how didn't Curry Barker see that segment when it aired? Like, well, what's his problem? Well, the problem is he's 27. He was born eight years after that segment aired. And that's why he was new to it in the 2010s. It's painful to see, well, it's inspiring that they're could be a future for movies and things,

but to see film directors or, say, politicians or all this, who are younger than season 10 of The Simpsons, like that, it hurts on some level, for sure. Then on the other side of things for old man movies, the Masters of the Universe film I did see. It was all right. It was better than the Grogu movie. But I mentioned it, too, just because it did feel like,

I am not a key demographic anymore when I'm watching the movie. Like, I'm like, oh, this is way too late. This is so expensive. And obsession in backrooms are proving that, like, Master of the Universe is, I saw Griffin Newman call it this. It's like the Dr. Doolittle movie in the 60s. It's like so missing the point of where the zeitgeist is. You know, this seemed better than I was expecting. But the underperformance of this in Grogu, it really feels like the gun has been pressed in the back of the head of Gen X and Elder Millennium Nostalgia and it's been fired.

The future no longer belongs to us. I mean, Mass of the universe, when you see it in the theater, you're, And when I saw it, I was thinking of myself, like, well, for you to get this joke, you have to be over 40. And honestly, over 48. Like, I am young for a Masters of the Universe original fan. Like, I got into it when the series had just ended. Like, when I was four, regular episodes of He-Man had just ended, and I was getting into it then. Like, you're in your 50s if you were a He-Man fan when He-Man first appeared.

I missed it entirely, yeah, like, I'm sure I might have seen it in passing. But, yeah, I remember, like, I associate He-Man Toy. with the things that are just left behind in sandboxes because the original owners had moved on from the craze. To speak of the movie itself, it has interesting ideas where it seemed like they wanted it to be kind of like the Barbie movie, but they got scared to engage with those bigger ideas.

We kind of knocked the Barbie movie. We're like, oh, well, the Barbie movie's not bad, but it kind of plays around with ideas that it can't fully engage with while still being a billion-dollar toy movie. Masters of the Universe doesn't even get that close. in it. Like they get just a little close and like, well, but we don't want to really

talk about how gay Skeletor is for He-Man, or we don't really want to talk about what if He-Man worked with a blue-haired, they, them, at the office. Like, they don't really want to do those scenes. And I know people are fine with Jared Leto being Skeletor, but he should talk like this.

I don't want to compliment Jared Leto, but Skeletor is the best part of the movie because Skeletor is great. No matter where you see, Skeletor is always the best part of Heman. That's what seeing this movie reminded me of you. Like, oh yeah, wait, Skeletor is funny. And the guy playing He-Man is good.

Like, the British guy, they got to play him, who was before playing he-man, was famous for playing, like, gay characters, and a couple things are queer characters. So it had just a little bit of queer edge to it for Heman, but also it is a gigantic waste of money and comes 20 years too late to do a Heman movie.

There's a reason it didn't even like, it made a hundred-something million dollars, over 100 million globally, but that doesn't matter. It failed. Yeah. I'm seeing like 90 million so far, but this is a very expensive movie. It's like it's more than a Marvel movie, it seems, or as much as a Marvel. I think they were like building,

they're trying to build the runway towards a Marvel movie with this. It has three post-credit seeds, none of which will be fulfilled. Yes, yeah. And then speaking of Marvel things, I saw Spider-Noar, the eight-episode Amazon series, and I watched it in black and white. You can fry

two versions, black and white, or in color. It actually looks good in black and white and was the way to watch it. And it doesn't have some streaming show like wasting your time, stuff in it a little bit. But it's a good little noir show. And it is carried by Nicholas Cage feels like being silly in it. And he's having a good time. So that's good enough.

Yeah, it's the first time he's actually stooped to television. I guess you can call this television. It's not a movie. It's its streaming thing. But yeah, welcome to television, Nicholas Cage. And Brandon Gleason's really good in it too. And so is the. The guy from the new girl who's about to be the new voice of Garfield, he's also really good at it, too.

You're asking the wrong guy. He plays Robbie Robertson in it. But yeah, it's like, the only weird thing it is that they are very vague about what Nicholas Cage's character age is supposed to be. Because it's like, oh, yeah, you were in the Great War. And 18 years ago. And it's like, well, he doesn't look like he was 45 in the Great War, but it doesn't make sense. I mean, as these stars continue to age, they're reaching, like, cruise levels of implausibility. like, really you?

And also when the spider does things like, again, no offense. Nick Cage can look however he wants, and I'm not body-shaming him about it. But when you switch to the stunt person who is performing stunts in the spider costume, the body difference is quite obvious. Like, it's no offense to Mr. Cage. And lastly, speaking of comic bookie things that are said in a certain time period, reading, I just started reading. It's finally come out officially.

in print and in digital actually Naoki Arasawa's Billy Bat has finally come out in the U.S. over 10 years since it debuted in Japan. Yeah, there's still a lot of Arasawa manga needs to come over here. I wish the release dates on these weren't so staggered because it's basically like one a quarter

and so this won't be finished for years and years and years. Yes, it's a 16-volume thing. This was the problem with 20th century boys as well, which I bought all the official. release and I really did. But when I got up to volume 9 and was tired of waiting, I didn't wait to read it all from the official release. I just promised

myself and fulfilled that promise. I'd buy it eventually. And I support the official release of Billy Beth. That's Arisawa deserves it. Not that he's a very successful guy. He doesn't need your sales. But Billy Bat production is so good. I'm reading the physical.

When you are in the comic reading Billy Bat comics, they actually printed it on, you know, a different type of paper stock that feels like you're reading old newsprint. It's a really interesting, cool choice they made in the publishing of it. That is nice. I don't know if I, I mean, I love his work. I don't know if I have room for 16 additional books over the next four years, but I'm really happy he has made it available digitally because he's been a stickler about that. A lot of older manga artists have been

sticklers about this. And after a certain point in your life, you run out of room for books, or it seems unappetizing to devote that much space to one series. So, he is coming around on it. I'm looking at you, Otomo, author of Akira. I'm not reading those phone books. Within your lifetime, you must make that available digitally. I refuse to engage with Akira in that size and format. The end.

The 30th anniversary box can kill a man. It's so dangerous. Yeah, so that's the big stuff I was doing in this last month. And now we're going to move on to questions and comments for Talking Simpsons. The first episode is there's something about marrying. And Joe

Hodgson says, I almost feel bad the writers of this one, as I think they had good intentions with Patty's firm declaration at the end that she likes girls, and it's just a shame that it had to come at the expense of the trans community. Principal and the pop-ar gets most of the hate, maybe less so now, as people seem no longer care, for it's screw the audience ending, returning

the show to the status quo, but this episode's attempt to do the same while still retaining Patty's sexuality is obviously the most offensive of the two. And it's a shame because I think the Marge arc is a good one to explore because there are a lot of people that claim to be liberal-minded on social issues, but reveal their whole ass when actually faced

with LGBTQ issues in their personal life. Well said Joe Hodgson, and that was an interesting episode to cover, and I'm glad we didn't step in any poop or on any landmines. I feel like we received no complaints, and I was happy to see that. Yeah, yeah.

I appreciate all the nice comments about it, and I think there were good dialogue in the comments, and Joe makes a great point that, yes, I think that the writers wanted to, if you view it as the writers just wanted to get out of having Patty be married, to a new character, and they came up with, like, a dumb idea for doing it, but I want to believe they didn't have hate in their hearts towards trans people.

It was at best ignorance. Peter Hanneman says on that episode, Wedding officiant policies vary state to state, and I think county to county. I officiated a friend's wedding in 2024 in Wisconsin and did the online thing only to learn upon reading laws that it wasn't necessary, in that in Wisconsin, two legal adults of sound mind and body can just declare themselves married and file the paperwork, effectively making myself an optional prop in their wedding.

I think you have to have some amount of cheese present to make it official, but yes, that's the rule. You have to fry some curds as part of the... That's the equivalent of the stomping on the glass at a Jewish ceremony. Wisconsin, dip them and fry the cheese. Much safer and more delicious. Thank you for the wedding information, Peter. Moving on to Fear of Flying,

Dan Bell says this episode was a favorite of mine long before I became an airline pilot, but I've definitely grown more fond of it ever since. Once I was just starting out, I found myself on a trip that involved flying as a passenger to reposition deadheading, is what it's called, and our company doesn't require us to be in uniform before these flights. When I got on the van to the hotel after landing, the driver mentioned he was supposed to be picking up a pilot and asked where my uniform was. I couldn't believe how well I had been set up and beamed as I replied, I stowed it safely

in the overhead compartment. He, of course, stared at me blankly in response and we went on with our day. Thanks for always giving me something to listen to on long layover walks around foreign cities, often in strange exotic malls, and listen up in case I'm working your next flight to Tokyo. I usually try to sneak in a welcome to Japan, folks, that local time is tomorrow over the PA.

Thank you, Dan Bell. Slican know some of our listeners have gone on to lofty positions, no pun intended. I love all this insider info in the pilot world, and also to know that he is trying to get in Simpsons' lines as best as possible on his day job. And to even be set up for the perfect return to it. But you know, you can't count on everybody to be as Simpsons-pilled as us when it comes to close.

It's pathetic. I look down upon them. Why are they not listening to our show? If they heard our show, they would be able to understand all of these references around them. It's a shame. And Tiny Crow says, I'm lucky I can say I work at one of the few remaining video stores in the United States. For privacy reasons, I'd rather not say the exact name of my employer. but needless to say, it's an incredible fortune to play a part in the childhood traditions of your.

The success of Boutique 4Ks combined with the resurgence of physical media can be thanked for me being able to feed my cat and my appetite for snacks. Getting to see a ton of couples, college kids, and many others legitimately excited about owning movies and sharing new experiences with people is a truly rewarding experience. I wish this was a more normalized thing instead of a lucky privilege a handful of states can enjoy. But if it is to stay this way, I'm glad this niche fandom is keeping the communal bonding of movies alive. Superficially, it's a blessing to get paid a living wage to recommend animated people. Oh, that's what we do.

Yes, and Tiny Crow, I've got to say, I love video stores now. There's one in Vancouver called VideoCat that I absolutely love. And it's because what's better than buying a $50 4K is renting it for $5, consuming all of the content and then bringing it back to a nice person and taking home another one. That is awesome, and I wish we could still have that in this world of ours. Now that physical media costs so much money. Yes, it only gets more expensive. It is how I only buy 4Ks on sale now.

Now, do I buy too many? That's for the course to decide. But I'm looking behind you, Henry. Yes, I know. But like, I have been sitting on like, okay, the criterion sales coming soon. That's when I'll buy eyes wide shut or whatever, like for the 50% off sale. I keep a list of stuff for that. But, yeah, I am lucky that there is a scarecrow video.

but it is like about an hour for me. I don't go enough. I'm lazy in that regard. But also, if I think about renting a movie, I'm like, but I have like 34Ks I should just watch here instead of going renting one. So there's that too. I will say, with the price of physical media exploding, I'm glad that reading is more unpopular than ever and no one reads books

because I was talking to my wife how an old record or an old video game or an old VHS tape will be an astronomical figure. But we walk into a bookstore. I pull out a book. published 80 years ago, $3. That's just the state of old books these days. Yes, there are rare ones that are worth a lot more money, but they've never been more affordable.

So if you want a cheap hobby, start reading, the library is a good place to start. And you know what, unlike with things like old NES games or magic cards or Pokemon cards, those old books are not going to be picked up by, say, Logan Paul to pitch to his kid audience to be like, hey, this is an investment, guys. Yes, exactly. I think I brought that up too.

It's like, yeah, you're not going to see Logan Paul saying, I got Jim Thompson paperbacks, yo. Right, yes. Never going to happen. Never going to happen. Moving on to, on a clear day, I can't see my sister. Blake R says, regarding the Gary Bucie laugh, it may be a great area on just how game he was for a line

that was clearly making fun of his mental state. There's a section in the unauthorized history of the Simpsons book on the guest stars and some of the more interesting interactions throughout the years. I know the book is a point of contention among Simpson's diehards, but this testimonial comes from Hank's area, which gives a little more creative. supposedly during the recording of this episode, Busey stopped,

asked why the script called for a quote-unquote crazy laugh, to which Westbrook nervously responded on the spot suggesting that it's because he's just so happy and overjoyed to be Gary Bucy. He can't help but laugh. Bucy supposedly accepted that and gave us the laugh we hear in the episode. So, yes, it feels like they were

dancing around some Bucy stories on the commentary, and that might have been one of them. That's a good, man. I didn't check. I check in usually on classic ones every now and then into the unauthorized history just in case there's a story I had forgot or overlooked, but that is a good story from there from season 16

one. And yeah, I mean, on the commentary, I think, well, is it Tim Long who talks about directing him and saying, like, he was great, and that's all I have to say on the record. Yes, basically. So a lot was not being said. And Purple Comet says on that episode, I realize The Simpsons is a cartoon and TV shows

been reality all the time. But the idea that Springfield Elementary is so small that Bart can't be incited while staying 20 feet away from Lisa really irked me. They're not even in the same grade. There to be several classrooms between them. And surely the cafeteria can hold them both. And why would they make Bart sleep in the yard instead of staying with Patty and Selma or grandpa?

Instead of Lisa apologizing with Bart, the adult should have apologized to them both for not finding a better solution. The episode had some good jokes, but the premise needed some work. Wow, those are some good. I failed as a pedant to not think of any of those when we did the episode. That's the worst on the show when we fail as peddins. Yeah, Jeff Westbrook has a Ph.D. in math and he can't figure out these simple distances. Yeah, these guys, they're so focused on the high-level math.

They don't think of just algebra or just arithmetic of like, well, 20 feet equals this amount of space as a 20-foot radius. Yeah, no explanation as to why Bart couldn't stay with Patty Selma or Grandpa or anyone else, but I guess they were committed to the idea that the Simpsons now live on the border of a giant set of woods and bark can run free in them. And every member of the Simpsons family is great at playing musical instruments, not just Lisa. That's important. By the way, I think I am going to see Herb Alpert in October. Thanks to all the comments and blue sky messages that are pushing me in that direction, if he survives until October. Stay healthy, Herb.

Yes. I know he's out there listening. Moving on to our What a Cartoon for that month. It was a Blabin' About Batman episode about Bain. And Ben Sopatka says, I picked up all three 600-page volumes of what I thought was the complete nightfall storyline earlier this year, only to find out there's an even more complete collection

that contains even more pages of tangentially related tie-in issues. While the story is a historically significant chapter in the Batman mythos, it mostly just serves as a time capsule as to what these comics were like 30 years ago, hundreds and hundreds of pages of bad haircuts, casual misogyny, and C-tier villains that haven't been seen since the Clinton administration. Still curious what the upcoming. coming animated movie will carry forward from the arc. Will Cornelius Stirk make an appearance?

How about that hunchback mechanic Batman keeps in the Batcave? Bet you forgot about that guy. Thank you, Ben, and Henry. Do you know what he's talking about with these references to very minor characters? Boy, now, Cornelius Stirk, no, I don't remember that. But I do remember that, yes, they created around in the late 80s. They had an explanation of like, well, who fixes the Batmobile if it breaks, which they did have an episode of that on the animated series, too, with a different answer.

Yes, Batman found a handicapped man, a hunchback man, who also was a savant for, I feel like had verbal, as I remember correctly, he had speaking issues too, but could fix anything. And he basically lives in the Batcave. I don't think he like has a home, I think. This sounds very well researched to me, the story of disability. Very sensitive. I mean, the casual misogyny too, yes, that was quite a lot in the comics back then. I would guess this has the catwoman stuff. And a catwoman is also, when we were talking about Bain, I also forgot the catwoman is kind of a kept woman

or kidnapped slash sort of seducing Bain in Nightfall 2, I think. In her stories, it's weird. Chris Dobson says about Bain. Listening to the episode today, Henry dropped the ball by not mentioning that Bain had his own Batman-style team of sidekicks, including Bird, a guy with a bird. See, because Robin is a bird, he had his own. bird guy. I do enjoy this

episode because I think Bain's voice actor has a lot of fun with minimal material and because Candace is such a great fame fatale design in Two-Face that it's worth using her again. And the animation sequence of her taking off her shoes and jumping into the water to wrestle Robin is a real, this is doing

something for someone to quote irregular guests of the we hate movies guys. Yeah, I guess the joke is Bain is stupid. That's why he is ripping off Batman in a very dumb way. Well, Bain, was very literal in his first issues, as I recall. He's just like, no, I will be the opposite of Batman in all these ways, or I'll be his dark

reflection. I'm super smart. He's super smart. He's strong. I'm stronger. He has sidekicks. I have sidekicks. Yeah.

Bird, I totally have forgotten about Bird, though. I don't know why I'm having a real Batman month. It's also Batman Pride Month, by the way, to all those who celebrate. And I rewatch the Joel Schumacher movies. They're awful. I recently rewatch Batman and Robin, and Bain is like a nothing character. It feels like they're making fun of Bain in that movie as well. But, man, everybody is doing their worst performance for the biggest paycheck.

It is crazy. Uma Thurman should have retired afterwards. It feels like watching the movie again, it feels like she went back in and dubbed herself in an even worse way. It just everybody's embarrassing. I remember that Bain, when he's the chauffeur in the movie, he has a little hat on his head and it looks extra silly. I remember that. Yes. I think they're mostly having fun with.

Isn't it crazy? This guy is a Lutador, and he's just walking around with tubes. hanging out of his head. And can you believe, Bob, that the man who played Bain died not long after that from, you know, steroid-related health problems? I thought it was venom. It was that venom drug. Now, I mean, in honor of Pride Month, I could pause for 20 minutes here to give you my

speech about how Batman Forever is actually about Batman's dueling sexual preferences and trying to balance his and understand his bisexuality, but you know what? That'll take a while. That'll be another emergency podcast. Yes. I'm saying the entrance to the. Batcave is in a closet, folks. In Batman Forever. It's not normally in a closet.

They put it in there in a closet for a reason. I see. They knew what they were doing. Moving on to what a cartoon movie, Winnie the Pooh. Joshua Martin says, I decided to read A.A. Milne's original stories last year and discovered that Disney actually toned down book Eeyore's passive aggressive nature. The chapter

in which characters find themselves stuck in a pit as piglet suggests that they all stand on Eeyore's back. And Eeyore replies, and if Eeyore's back snaps suddenly then we could all laugh. ha, amusing in a quiet way, but not really helpful. The fact that his catiness is never registered by his innocent friends keeps it from feeling too mean-spirited.

Get their asses, donkey boy. So, yeah, I guess Eeyore, again, kitty's got claws for coming out. You know what? I just define Eeyore, re-watching or seeing the movie for the first time. I limit E-Ore in my imagination of him. Like, oh, yeah, he's just depressed all the time. But no, it is, it's him being passive-aggressive all the time. It's not just the depression.

It's that he's a dick also of being depressed. There's a reason why no one wants to be around him. He's always like, Not that anybody cares about how I'm doing. You probably will never give it back. It doesn't matter. I don't deserve it anyway. Your is like, stop trauma dumping.

Again, we're saying it here. And Dennis Kaye says on that film, funny you mentioned they didn't introduce any new characters when the original many adventures of Winnie the Pooh did exactly that with Gofer. The first authorized prose sequel, Return to the 100 Acre Wood, also introduces a new character, Lati the Otter.

Yeah, Gofer is in the many adventure shorts, and the joke is that he says, I'm not in the book. In the short, it means I'm not in the phone book, but it means overall I'm not in the original book. That's the joke. Oh, man, I totally missed that. I just remembered his swistling teeth bit.

That's all I remember about Gofer. Yeah, he's in the TV series, but pointedly, he is not in any. of the 2000s movies. I think they like withdrew him and wanted to make it more a pure expression of the original characters. Gofer's fine. Yeah, that makes sense.

I don't know. I guess he also doesn't fit as much with the concept that it's all in Christopher Robbins' imagination. Where does Gofer fit in in that as opposed to the other personality disorders he's expressing through his characters? Yeah, I never got a big handle on Gofer and what his deal was. I have not watched the TV series in a bit, though, so I'm not sure. I feel like he was very industrious, very pushy.

Yeah, he was like a mean contractor or something. Like I just remember him from many adventures of. He's supposed to be helping dig up the poo. But to get him unstuck from Rabbit's house. I remember that. Moving on to Talking Futurama, the episode was overclockwise. And Dan Vincent says, In terms of episode computer pedantry corner,

there's very little to point out or complain about. The writers did a good job. Cuberts bit about overclocking is pretty accurate for the time. And Bender's liquid cooling is an open loop type that used to be used by the real hardcore. Closed loop liquid coolers are popular these days because they're sealed and easy to use, but there's a few maniacs out there

building custom open loop rigs. You don't hear much about overclocking these days because most CPUs are architected to boost as much as possible by design. They'll go as fast as your cooling will allow, so there is an overhead to reclaim. Where you eke out performance is by undervolting to try to make things run cooler

than to boost clocks. Yes, thank you, Dan. While I do all of my gaming on PC for the most part, I don't go into like the super deep reddits. So I was wondering like, mine have been liquid cool for a while. Should I be adding more coolant? But no, it turns out it's a sealed system

and only the true freaks are dumping antifreeze in their computers every day. How wet should my computer be? I appreciate that Dan gave us the insider knowledge on this stuff that we were, you know, confused or I was confused about in the episode of like, oh, how true is this then or now? But I shouldn't have doubted Ken Keeler being at least back then very in, knowledgeable on the topic of overclocking. Mario the Demon says about that

episode, I loved it. The Bender becoming a universe computer plot is really 1950s pulp sci-fi in a way I feel like the show often tries for, but can be hit or miss. The stuff about Yulas is taking a good stand against something that way the show usually

does with global warming, and it is full of just straight up good jokes. Hang them both! was a belly laugh from me. Only issue was that, as Bob said, it probably should have been at least a two-parter and they could use some of that hypothetical extra time to flesh out the Fry Lila thing. Okay.

Yes. I like the Yula stuff as well. Although it's a fight that we have lost. So it's kind of sad going back to these early episodes, like an episode from 15 years ago thinking like, oh, you still thought you could win? Yes. Yeah. Now, it really is like I sign into a Yula every time I play any video game.

And I only hope that it's like, okay, do you have at least like a skip to the end? but I don't care when I'm signing away. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters. I'm playing Lego Batman. I've signed a privacy agreement. What's going on here? And certainly you're writing something in there that always says,

like, I don't really own this. You can take this from me. And also maybe I can't even join a class action lawsuit. And you own my house. Moving on to talking to the hill, Won't you pee my neighbor? And Dennis Kay says, I have to admit,

I was one of those white millennials who discovered Buddhism at age 19, although it was less setting out to find his spiritual path and more just wanting to be knowledgeable about religion in general. I purchased a copy of the Damapata and after reading it I found myself going, huh, I pretty much agree with everything this guy says. I should learn more. I checked out several more books,

including Buddhism for dummies, and found myself parthal to the Theraveda school, which teaches that enlightenment can be attained in this life, as opposed to the Mahayana school, which teaches that you have to be reborn as a higher being before you can truly attain enlightenment. That said, I've never been a very devout participant and simply try to follow life as a layperson, not a monk.

It honestly surprises me when friends or family come to me to ask about Buddhism 20-some-odd years later, as it's hardly in the forefront of my life. Thank you, Dennis Kay, for your life experience talking about that. And by the way, we talk a little bit about Buddhism, and we know that it's not essentially about material goods being bad. It's about the attachment that brings discontent. So I wanted to clarify there. I think we're just simplifying things for the sake of just having a fun discussion.

But yes, it's okay to own stuff as long as you're not like clutching yet. and sleeping with it pressed tight against your body every night and saying, I love you 4K? Yeah, I don't do that. How many Spider-Men do you have and how often do you kiss them? That's a question. You know, it's more just like I feel them in my hand just to ground myself. Right now I am fiddling around with a Godzilla keychain.

I like to have to fiddle with. It's him doing the little jump thing, that one character from, you know, that buck-tooth guy from that one classic manga. Is it sharp? Yes. Oh, no, no, it is not sharp. Okay, I'm seeing spines on that guy. The Buddhism stuff, though, if I have to pick one right now, gun to my head.

I think I like that Theravada one. I want a pathway to enlightenment in this life. I don't want to have to be like, well, definitely you got to die and be reborn at least one more time for enlighten. I want one hour enlightenment. Let's go. We can speed this up, guys. I've got podcasts to record here. Help me out.

Do podcast count as enlightening? These are our scriptures. Dylan Sludge, our last comment of the month here says about the episode, My Weird Thinking. Until recently, I thought the last. line, it's mine and I made it, was referencing the mirror itself. I assume the monk had made the mirror and had gifted it to Sanglug and was like, I made the damn thing, I want it back. Like he was very materialistic at the last second and that was the joke.

Hmm. Interesting. I could see that working. Obviously not the intent, but I like the alternate take on that joke. Yeah, it's an interesting reading on it, not unlike what it doesn't really mean if you're a Viking when you go to sleep. Yes. And also ultimately it does underline how the decision is arbitrary. It's like, oh, he either likes it for arbitrary reasons or he likes it because that's his mirror and he wants it back. So ultimately faith or like some grander scheme is not really understood or necessary here. It's just like a man's decision.

Yeah, it's really just about, well, when it gets up to the highest level, it still is one guy goes like, yeah, yeah, it's mine. I made it. Like he's basically a manager at that point or like the company president of a company, except the highest level llama they had available to be, or holy man they had available that day to make the decision. But yes, this has been another episode of talk to the audience. Thanks for joining us. Longer than normal, but we had a lot of Simpsons News to get through. News is finally happening. New episodes are hitting Disney Plus.

We're hearing a few things about the movie. And as for us next month, remember, we were taking one week off just to work ahead on our backlog. But if you were on the free feeds, check out Talking Simpsons and What a Cartoon. You will find interviews that you have never heard before with people like Mike Reeves. or David Silverman, perhaps, big wheels at the Simpsons factory. And if you're on the Patreon or about to join it, you got to keep an eye out for our, or look back in the recent past for our chat about Toy Story 5,

our immediate spoilery reactions to it that are too big to fit into a talk to the audience discussion. So you're going to find it on there as a fun extra bonus you get this month for your Patreon subscription. So that is it for this episode of Talk to the audience. We'll see you again next week for a new Talking Simpsons. and again next month for another talk to the audience. We'll see you then.