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

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

We've reached the end of the month, which means it's once again time for another installment of our community podcast! Join us as we check in on the end of broadcast season 36, learn about Milhouse's new voice actor, consider buying expensive new LEGO sets, and mourn the recent passing of a Simpsons writer. And, as always, we read and respond to your questions and comments from the most recent round of episodes. It's all happening on this month's Talk to the Audience: the podcast that at long last has a new hat! Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

I hardly endorse this event or product. Ahoi hoi everybody and welcome to Talk to the Audience where this is always death. I am one of your hosts, a man celebrating how we avoided the untimely end of Millhouse Bob Mackie, and who is here with me today as always Henry Gilbert having to Google the names of tons of different sports athletes this month and yes this is talk to the audience our community podcast this launches at the end of the month on patreon the beginning of the month on the free feed and in this podcast we talked about what's happening in the Simpsons world what's happening in our

world and then we respond to a bunch of questions and comments from our recent episodes that were left on the patreon And yes, this is a big month for Simpsons because broadcast season 36 is dead It has come to an end and season 37 a distance a distant thing in the future We'll talk about that come October, but there were four new episodes this month. I guess one of them was in late April Yeah, but it was right at the cutoff of our talk to the audience. So we're like, you know what, let's save, let's just save that for May 1.

Yes, and I will, I'll let everyone out there that I have failed on my duties as a Simpsons podcaster and that I have not seen these, but in my defense, I'm taking the stand here, my hands on the Bible. I was on vacation for a week, and when I came back, I injured my shoulder. And I normally spend time at the gym watching these episodes, but I could not go, and I was spending my free time planning a really cool thing

for next month for Talking Simpsons, so it'll all be worth it. My ignorance will pay off next month, so just stay tuned for that. But Henry, I will ask you to be our guide for the last four episodes of broadcast season 36. Oh, sure. I, it was a fun, it was a fun bunch of episodes.

I'll go in order here. We've got Abe League of their Mo, which is a great story of like, uh, Abe befriending Mo. It's, it's one of those like, oh, what's the two pairings we haven't done before. And Joel Cohen really though, wrote this as a tribute to baseball. Like this is a baseball nerds episode. And it also is about how if the team gets more popular and the isotopes get more popular, they then sell out to gambling and how it's just like, why is gambling in all of all of sports all the time now?

So is it a parody of all of the gambling apps specifically? Yes. Yeah. It basically once, once the isotopes get big, everything is a gambling ad, and then the new star player that they scouted, he gets caught gambling, and so it's a question of, basically they turn it on the press and be like,

well, everything is advertising gambling here, but if a player gambles, that's when it's bad? You know, I was looking up just now, I couldn't remember if Chris Rock had been on the show before because he has a guest voice in this episode. And I just type in Chris Rock Simpsons because it'll bring up the Wiki Simpsons showing, here's where he's been, here's what he was on.

And I love the AI result for this because it's so wrong. And it says, Stark raving dad, season five episode one. In this episode, Rock voices a hallucination of Homer Simpson in an episode where Homer is hospitalized after a mental breakdown. This is one of the most well-known appearances of Rock on the show.

No part of that is true. Jesus. That is an amazing bad one. I'll give it to Google AI for being creative with that terrible one, but Jesus. I think all of this is made up. I'm sorry, I know this is so obvious and this is something that happens constantly, but I'm just surprised at how wrong this got that simple bit of information. Chris Rock and Danny Trejo both make appearances as themselves in pitch videos to get this

new star player to come to their baseball teams. I will complain that it has to retcon the isotopes into being a major league baseball team because they're in competition with the Dodgers and the Mets for a player, which they wouldn't be as a minor league team. Like that doesn't make sense. And the jokes are all about major league baseball, not minor league. So it has to flush that away. But it's as aside from that, it is a fine little like, Aben Mo are a funny combo. I do like them together.

I have a somewhat related story. You have to go to Twitter to see this though, and I did retweet it on my semi-active Twitter account and John Swartzwalder's active Twitter account posted a few pictures of he and Jeff Martin recording with a few of the baseball players for Homer at the Bat. So this gives us our like third or fourth picture of John Swartzwalter on record. Yes, those are great pictures. I love because it's so 90s, like except for him, he always looks like a man out of time, but everybody else is dressed very early 90s.

Like I love seeing these major league baseball players these huge men Dressed dressed in 90s fashion also. Yeah, it's just it's shocking that we now have two more pictures of John Swartzwald or something I never thought would happen then the next episode is Stu lies where John DiMaggio is there to play a guy Fieri type Or also the the guy who does man versus food whoever that guy is is, though the design is much more guy fietti. But guess what? It's a Fat Tony episode. He gets like four episodes a season now, it feels like. Was this an El Jean produced one? Because he loves Fat Tony. Oh that, you know, I'm not clear on that one. It had more of a feel of a Selman, but just in that it has references to like ska music and season four of Fargo which is like season four of Fargo which I didn't finish but it starts with the idea of two competing mafia families trade sons like to

make sure they can trust each other and that's it that's how it's revealed that like Fat Tony learned a secret stew recipe from when he was traded through a competing mob family and It's it's an alright one. I think Demagio is the funniest in it. Yeah, it's the first time He's not playing Bender on the Simpsons. It was really cool They're like, you know what this guy he can do guyfury We don't need to get the real guy like let's have him be like this gross food monster He's perfect should have just done emerald and it could have been another essence of Emeril parody, which is not dated at all. That's right. He could be like Elzar's great, great, great, great relative, but then moves

to Neptune later. And then as far as programming goes, I do have to complain a little that they're like, they have two Abe episodes in the same space. Like Full Heart Empty Pool is a Homer Abe episoderape episode or basically they invent what I am assuming is the equivalent of pickleball like it's a it's like a pool ball game thing and they'd also is a joke about sports washing or it's kind of a satire of sports washing about how a lot of OPEC nations and mainly Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates like use sports to buy prestige when they are you

know detestable human rights violators and in this case they make it about big avocado oil as represented by a smart me businessman played by Robert Spiegel who I think this is his first appearance on the show too. Yeah good, I don't think people think of him as a voice actor but obviously he's very good at that. He's great he is so great. Like, though it was funny too to read his posts about how happy he was to do it when his, all his Twitter accounts are, he just tweets

from the triumph, the insult comic dog official accounts. Like those are his accounts, he doesn't have doubles. And yeah, so this episode features Rick Steves. I've never heard of him before. He's a PBS travel host. His show seems nice. Seems like a nice show. I think you jokingly shared the link with me. Like Rick Steves appears on The Simpsons,

and we were both like, what? Who? Help? It's three retired athletes, major league athletes who are playing this like easier game. Blake Griffin, Andrew Luck, and Megan Rapinoe, who she's the one who has the funniest joke to me, that she is a professional soccer player,

and Homer's like, I don't know who you are, but my daughter likes you, and then Megan had heard of, reads Lisa's sub stack, and then she's like, oh, I've heard a lot about you, and Homer doesn't get that she's saying bad things. Oh, and the episode was dedicated to Past Simpsons guest, Jill Sobule, who had just passed away, the singer of I Kissed a Girl.

Yeah, died very suddenly in a house fire, very tragic. And I will say she has the superior I Kissed a Girl song. Take that, Katy Perry. Oh yeah, I think Katy Perry has done many, you know, can't, as far as I know, Jill Sobule has never killed a nun, unlike Katy Perry. That's true, follow the evidence, everybody. I know Jill Sobule has never killed a nun. I'm like Katy Perry That's true. Follow the evidence everybody

I mean Rick Steves was such a weird one the the famous actor But there's so many famous actors in these there really are like piling up But it it was a fine little homer and Abe episode Abe like kind of dies in the episode and is resuscitated It's uh, it's a it's a dark ending as you would expect from it And then we have what I think is maybe our 10th future Simpsons episode, but maybe not even counting Lisa's wedding. I really want to know, I really need a chronology of these, or I'm looking forward to when we start getting our feet wet into this territory

because this is a thing they return to a lot, this kind of a setting. Yeah, this one is Stranger Things. I actually really liked it. this kind of a setting. Yeah, this one is Stranger Things. I actually really liked it partially it's because I feel it turns its back on those other flash forwards because there's several that have a consistent chronology or they definitely seem to be in the same timeline.

They're not making up new timelines, but this one, Lisa is not married to Milhouse and her and Bart are estranged siblings in a different way than before. And also that the another split point is that Marge dies before Homer. Unbelievably. Everybody's like, this is impossible. There's no way Marge, but it happens. And so that's when Bart and Lisa really grow apart. And it's about them being estranged siblings. And I believe they basically age in real time to make them our ages. They are 35 years older by the end of it,

so Lisa is like 43 and Bart is 45. Now, do they have fun playing with the idea of the future or are they kind of done with that? Is it more about what the characters do when they get older? Yeah, it is more about being older. It's more about Homer. Homer, Lenny, and Carl are all seniors

in relatively realistic ways. I mean, they do have jokes like Florida has now become just a prison for old people and it can't be escaped. But there's also a joke that like fax machines are still being used because actually technology has regressed some, it's kind of strange. They have jokes like that. And I saw this online, there was a good natured slam

on Smiling Friends. Yeah, the Red Letter Media guys who are Smiling Friends cast members, they were very excited on their behalf. I don't know how, if I saw either of the Smiling Friends creators do it, but yeah, that was, it's called like Screaming Friends, I believe the parody was. Yeah, and it seems like people,

a little bit older than us, saying, this just seems like insane nonsense. I think that's the joke behind it, but obviously it's not for them. They're just than us saying, this just seems like insane nonsense. I think that's the joke behind it, but obviously it's not for them. They're just wondering, this is popular? I think a better joke would have been how Smiling Friends has six new episodes

every two and a half years. And they're all eight minutes long. You're done with them immediately. Yeah, I think they were even more, they were just as pointed with jokes about the new girl, which is funnier because they make they frame it as Lisa's watching old TV And it's the Zooey de Chanel show the new girl which is like 15 years old now. Yeah, that's crazy Yeah, the new girl or so, I guess it's just new girl. Oh, yeah Yeah, it's it's now Nick at night fodder if Nick at night still existed

I mean they also get Sarah McLachlan to sing basically a parody of her own song, When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2, where it's Bart and Lisa grow apart, and they used to love Itchy and Scratchy together, and now they grow apart. And they eventually like find new common ground loving Itchy and Scratchy again. I it did touch me a little. Maybe this is also why I liked the episode, that it did touch me, of like me and my brother, he lives in Florida, we have grown apart some, but we talk occasionally,

but we also, the itchy and scratchy for us was The Simpsons 35 years ago. Like that was, it is our itchy and scratchy for Bart and Lisa. I think your brother needs to be a future guest, Henry. Oh, I'd be scared. I have to have final edit on that one. I think your brother needs to be a future guest, Henry. I'd be scared. I have to have final edit on that one. I want the dirt on Henry.

Oh, and yes, I apologize, everybody. Again, I've been working on cool stuff. I will be punching myself in the leg for the rest of the podcast. I'll post the bruise on Patreon to show you that I've been punishing myself for not watching these episodes this month. Oh, and the last thing about that

is Stranger Things episode was that it could be seen as a farewell to Itchy and Scratchy. Like, it even ends with almost like an in-memoriam montage of Itchy and Scratchy cartoon moments from the series. And they like cracked interviewed the writer of the episode, Tim Long, who said like, no, that wasn't written as like,

we're never doing Itchy and Scratchy again. I promise, this is not our farewell to them. We'll still have them. Don't think we're done with Itchy and Scratchy again. I promise this is not our farewell to them. We'll still have them. Don't think we're done with Itchy and Scratchy. They still need to open the second movie, right? I hope so. It'd be very sad if they didn't. And I guess too in A Stranger Things,

that leads right into our next headline from the month too. Yes, so we have a new voice actor for Millhouse. So I wasn't sure if this was being misreported because when I found out the context of this, I saw that, well, this person is actor for Millhouse. So I wasn't sure if this was being misreported because when I found out the context of this I saw that well this person is voicing Millhouse as his future self but then when I heard the clip I thought well this is just the Millhouse voice so it makes sense that this is going to be the voice of young Millhouse as well. And it is the singer Kelly McCloud. She is the one taking over as Milhouse. So she was also a singer in a

season 33 episode. That episode was Two Badges One Mind and was in the 90s band Private Life. And it's kind of a weird move because she has no real acting credits on IMDB and might be only 10 years younger than Pamela Hayden. But that's the same thing with the voice that's replacing Jimbo. They're not getting much younger voice actors to replace the 70 yearyear-old Pamela Hayden. Yeah, the choices on that do feel, one thing I like about them is it at least feels like more of the Gracie films style choice

than a Disney style choice. Cause I do feel like if Disney was informing this, they would have said, you future-proof this and you cast somebody in their late 20s and early 30s for a long-term assignment, as opposed to, in both cases of Milhouse and Jimbo's voice actor, they both seem to be picking people who have worked on the show before and that they want to continue working with. The Entertainment Weekly piece on it didn't really imply things. The assumption I would make is like this singer Kelly McLeod did when she did that season 33 episode and worked with them she's like

hey did you know I can do a really great Millhouse and then just like impress the voice director that day with like oh wow you do a good one. Yeah it could be that could be the case it sounds like it because it's otherwise inexplicable why she'd end up in this position but yeah I'm curious to see like will she come back in broadcast 37 as Milhouse? Maybe they just needed a pinch hitter for this one line. It's really just one line in this episode, correct? It's not a whole lot of material?

Yeah, yeah, she comes in to play adult Milhouse who does his was up line and annoys Lisa. And I mean, the same thing did happen with Julio. Julio, before Tony Rodriguez took over the voice He did have a different actor do it for one scene and then Tony took over full-time So that I know that I it could happen that in season 37 They changed their mind and cast a more traditional voice actor in in the role as Milhouse And yeah, she was in the 90s band Private Life. I was looking more into this and apparently

their song called Touch Me is on the Wayne's World soundtrack and the Gremlins 2 the New Batch soundtrack. So I believe in Wayne's World, Tia Carrera covers that song. And then Gremlins 2, you can hear the actual original version of the song. So I guess she, 35 years ago, was a rock star?

Yeah, that's- She's presumably 60 now, I can't find an age on her, and honestly, it doesn't matter, but if they're trying to future-proof these roles, I find it odd that they're casting women in their 60s to do the voices for someone who retired at 70. It is a, yeah, it's a strange choice, but I at least appreciate that it seems like,

well, it's who you wanted, so good, good on that. But yeah, it's not, I, there are many, many voice actors out there who would love the position to be the new Millhouse and giving it to a singer who's never seemingly really acted professionally before is an odd choice. I, I mean, if I was a professional voice actor with a killer Millhouse, I'd be kind of pissed right now, to be honest. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see how this shakes out. I'm curious as to see whether or not they'll use Millhouse less because of this, because as more of these voice actors step down,

they need more and more people to fill all of their roles, it becomes a more expensive show. They might be told by Disney, let's lay off some of these characters where we need to bring in a lot of extra guests, who knows? It's not like Disney has the money to pay for these people. Oh, no way. I've seen those Lilo and Stitch returns.

They're going broke. Jesus Christ, that, oh boy. Box office report, it's depressing. Live action, we danced on the grave of live action Disney films too soon. I feared we were. Yeah, I feel like, well, Felix Biederman from Trap or Trap has had a great tweet about this.

He called the movie entertainment for default Americans. It's just like, it is, the slop trough has been filled for the month of May, and it's time to descend your snout into the trough. It's funny, I don't wanna piss on anyone's fun, but we went out to eat on Sunday, and I saw a huge family. Well, not huge, just like three kids. And they had clearly just

went to see Lilo and Stitch, and the little girls were dressed up, one had a Stitch dress, one had like a Stitch hoodie on, I was like, well you know what, they had fun, so I'll only allow myself to be a little grumpy about this live action movie, but it's clear that we're 23 years later, the kids who were 10 when they saw Lilo and Stitch, they now have little kids, so it's kind of like

a family event, but I wish they didn't step all over some of the choices made by the original film. And I guess we can talk about that when we talk about Lilo and Stitch next month. Yes. Yeah. I, uh, yeah. So I'll put that in my back pocket as well. Yes. But it was, it's disappointing to see that it made, it made as much money as, I mean, not adjusted for inflation. In one weekend, the live action one has now outgrossed the original entirety of money made by the first Lilo & Stitch. So yes, new voice of Milhouse, looking forward to more from Kelly McLeod. In other news, Simpsons Legos are back! If you have a lot of money, because these have always been expensive, and there will be a new Krusty Burger toy set for 209 US dollars 209 US dollars pre-orders are coming soon these have

always been rather neat I kind of regret not getting the house and the quickie mart when those were on sale like in the early 2010s but again it's hard to find space for a big Lego building I assume Henry you have not built your daily bugle yet no just because once I build it like I don't know where it can go. It's such it is a great it is such a great gift and I really do appreciate it but it's a monster. It is a giant like it's like three feet tall like or maybe even four feet tall it's so huge. Yeah this this is pretty neat I mean it's not really the Krusty Burger is a location where the shape is always changing, depending on the needs of the show.

So it's not like, oh, it's the famous blank from the Krusty Burger. But it's nice to see this. Part of me wishes they would reissue the house and the Quickie Mart, and I believe there's maybe one other location. But these are always fun. But again, these are for people who can afford Legos, and Legos have always been kind of a premium item in terms of this kind of a toy. Legos are always more expensive than I think they're going to be. Even when I tell myself, yeah, these I know they're expensive. And I look at the price like, oh, wow. OK.

But yeah, I hope I hope this gets the house back in print. If I were to get one Simpson Lego set, I think it'd be that one. But the Simpsons Legos, I know of our Lego fans out there. They have been wanting the Simpsons to come back for a while. So this is the reopening of the door to Simpsons Legos out of the so many countless Simpsons toys out there. They're finally back in Lego form now too. And I know one of our patrons worked on the Lego Dimensions game and they worked on The Simpsons content and throughout the years they've always posted fun behind the scenes

stories of getting voice actors to say certain things or writing very specific lines so I think people just love embracing the idea of Simpsons plus Lego and they even made a whole episode where they were Legos right? Like that's right yeah yeah it wasn't official tied yeah no actually I think I got a comment from that that user on Looney Tunes back in action as well so so our final news item not pretty slow news month but this is a pretty notable item here because our writer Steve Papoon passed away at the age of 68.

So in case you're wondering who he was, it's been a while since we covered it, but he wrote the Emmy award winning episode, Lisa versus the Eighth Commandment as a freelancer. So he was never on the staff of the Simpsons, but he co-created the Wild Thornberrys, worked on Alf, Roseanne, Teen Angel, both seasons of Get a Life, and it's the Gary Shandling show, clearly a friend of Algenia Mike Reese.

There's a great Hollywood Reporter obituary on Steve Papoon, and I will say if you want to hear a lot from Steve Papoon, check out the Get a Life DVD set, because he and one other guy are the only two writers from that show that still want to talk to David Merkin. And you'll hear a lot from Steve Papoon about the making of that show. I think all the commentaries are David Merkin alone, but the behind the scenes video featurettes are Steve Papoon and one other writer. I forget who else was on that one. Ah, man, I want to say Jace Richdale, but I can't remember the, I, but yeah, it's the, it's funny on Get a Life that it seemed like very few people were like Steve Papoon who worked on both seasons

could stand working with Dave Merkin for two seasons. That makes Dave Merkin seem like an impossible guy to work with. But yeah, all of his credits are Steve Papoon. I didn't realize how much we'd interacted with his work. We've covered, you know, we had the most in-depth Teen Angel podcast that you'll ever hear, but that he co-created the Wild Thornberrys, I think that came up when we were talking about the Wild Thornberrys movie getting kind of goofed on in the Simpsons episode we covered with Chris Cabin.

Yeah, and in case you don't remember or were too young or perhaps too old, the Wild Thornberrys was a huge post-Rugrats hit. A big, big time hit, just both on TV. And now kids who grew up with it love to make memes about Nigel, the Tim Curry-voiced character in it too. Are they horny for him? What's the story there?

They're odd-looking characters, and now I kind of missed Classical YouTube, but we talked about it a bunch, but I want the ugly cartoons to come back. I think Nigel, he definitely has meme potential potential and people liked him just because he's so weird and I I definitely saw all the memes coming through when they added him to that Nickelodeon Smash Brothers type game and I also know a previous Talking Simpsons guest the channel Papa Rita Gregorfer covered a Nigel specific episode of Wild Thornberrys recently and and dug a little into Nigel specific episode of Wild Thornberries recently and and dug a little into Nigel's popularity.

Yes, so RIP to Steve Papoon. If you want to hear more about him go back to our revisit of Lisa vs. The Eighth Commandment. I do a little writer's corner on him, maybe explain a few more things about what he worked on, but I think we covered most of it here very briefly. Yes, rest in peace. So moving on to our news, let's talk about the schedule for the month of June. So what a cartoon is kicking off June

with an episode all about the 1994 Fantastic Four cartoon, the episode When Calls Galactus, because we are celebrating what Henry hopes will be the first good Fantastic Four movie, Fourth Time's a Charm. And in order to do that, we brought on friend of the show, Mike Lawrence, and this is an episode where I patiently sit around

while Henry and Mike talk about Fantastic Four, and I ask questions like, what are the Fantastic Four? What does that mean? There were a couple moments where it was basically just like two mirrors reflecting themselves, and we had to be reminded, like wait, there's a third person here, and an audience listening. I mean Mike Lawrence and Henry similar-looking gentlemen so it was like I've got two Henry's now talking at me

about comic books. If listeners heard him last year when we had him on the show Mike even called his shot on that he would love to talk about the Fantastic 494 show and his love for the thing, Ben Grimm the thing really comes through in that. He loves him even more than me. Multiple times I'll say like, I think it was, I remember there was one issue and then he names the issue. Like it was like the experience of being on a podcast with me except an even more accurate me on things.

Yeah, I'm just raising my hand a lot asking teacher questions about things I really don't know about. But we have a lot of fun on that. It's three hours long, so I think you're gonna really enjoy a super long water cartoon. And then at the $5 level at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons for the month of June, we have our standard mini series episodes.

And we got kind of a theme here. We stumbled into kind of a theme because we're celebrating the holidays in June, the furthest away we could be from these holidays. So for Talking Futurama, we'll be covering the Futurama Holiday Spectacular, the first big holiday episode Futurama did since A Tale of Two Santas. And it's a kind of a Treehouse of Horror style get up with each act celebrating a different holiday. We have X-mas, Robotica, and Kwanzaa. We learn a little, we laugh a little, we love a little.

And yeah, it's gonna be weird celebrating this in June. If you want, just wait until December to listen to it, but we have to talk about it in chronological order, the only good order there is. It's the start of the Comedy Central era of anthology episodes, different from the anthology of interest. And I do enjoy how morbid and dark it is.

So it's more like a treehouse of horror in that many characters die quite a lot in it. Yeah, I mean, spoilers, but each act ends with most of the cast dying horribly. So that's just a theme throughout the holiday episode. So very nice. And then for Talking of the Hill, again, for patrons, we are covering the episode Happy Thanksgiving.

It's one of my favorites because I love episodes, sitcom episodes that trap characters in a different location. I love the Chinese restaurant and the parking garage episode of Seinfeld. And this is very similar in that we are trapped in an airport at Thanksgiving. What do we do? Where do we go? How do we cope? It's very, very great and very stressful. Yeah, it's, it is one of my favorites.. I love I remember loving this one when it first aired, like in the run up to to Thanksgiving. And I think I think of it as my favorite Thanksgiving episode of King of the Hill. Like, it's such a sweet. I mean, just the the exploding turkey alone is is an amazing moment.

It's hard to say what my favorite is, because I think spin the choices next year. And that one is also very good and very much wrapped up in John Redcorn and his suffering. But we'll talk about that. We'll compare them as we cover both of them. So yes, Talking of the Hill, great episode next month, month of June. And of course, our Disney Outs Summer coverage is rolling out throughout the month of June, July, and August. We started in May with an extremely goofy movie.

June, very appropriately, we are covering Lilo and Stitch. We've been waiting a very long time to cover this movie and now that the remake made more than the original movie in its first weekend it's time to go back and see why that version is better and why it was a standout in this very very odd rocky time for Disney. Yeah I was already doing some early research on it and it's very helpful that both Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois both have very strong memories of this and talk about it very publicly in ways that are not usually are included in Disney stuff, including I don't think I will be watching the live action remake anytime soon, but reading some of the changes made, I just think about how hard

Sanders and DeBlois talk about working to try to represent native Hawaiian, you know culture and beliefs and and reactions to colonialism that I feel like I would bet current Disney doesn't want to engage in even a little bit. So I'm really looking forward to re-exploring the original Lilo and Stitch for that reason. We will all forgive you, Henry, if you don't watch it for research. Don't hurt yourself like that, please. I mean, I did, though, re-watch the Kids in the Hall reunion episode

of the Lilo and Stitch TV series, and that was a fun one. It was a good little TV episode. Yeah, I think I might check that out. I've never seen the series. I was like 20 or 21 when it aired, but I think that's the one I would go to if I watched an episode.

So yes, looking forward to our coverage of Lilo and Stitch and then more weird Disney Outs movies in July and August. And one thing I wanted to note is that there will not be an episode of Talk to the Audience next month. Instead, we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary as a podcast because Talking Simpsons turns 10 in June. We are currently in our 10th year. We are having a similar decade of dreams just like blank check because

Doughboys blank check and our podcast all started in 2015. It's very strange It's wild isn't it that we're all turning 10 at the same time our Interconnected and friendly podcast all turning 10 around the same time though Though me and you also can you know one up them of like well, this was our new podcast We were actually doing lots of well, this was our new podcast. We were actually doing lots of podcasts before that. This is my second podcast. Oh, it's cute. Yours is turning 10.

Oh, that's adorable. But yes, instead of talk to the audience, we'll be putting together a 10th anniversary celebration. Different things will be happening there. It'll still be a lot of fun. I'm working on a lot of cool stuff behind the scenes to fit into that episode, so look forward to that. And keep your eyes on our Patreon and social media feeds because there will be a way for all of you out there to help contribute to this 10th anniversary celebration. So please

allow us to be self-indulgent every 10 years. Then we'll see you again for our 20th anniversary celebration. Now weirdly enough, Retronauts turns 20 next year, so I'll be doing the Retronauts 20th nine years before Talking Simpsons 20th, even though I've only been on Retronauts turns 20 next year, so I'll be doing the Retronauts 20th nine years before talking Simpsons 20th, even though I've only been on Retronauts, only 15 years. You know, I'm kind of the rookie still on that podcast. Man, that's incredible. When I mentioned I was just hanging out

with some folks over the weekend and mentioning how like, you know, my co-host, Bob, he's on like the retro gaming podcast. It is the granddaddy of all retro. Lots of people talk about old video games, but it's retronauts. I'm sure there's somebody who did record one and was doing it before retronauts.

I'm like, oh five or something, or oh four. But still, retronauts is the granddaddy of them all. The important thing is we never stopped. And we never will. Just like Talking Simpsons, that. The important thing is we never stopped. We never will. Just like Talking Simpsons, that's our motto. We will never stop, you can't make us. You had a good tweet, Bob, if I may compliment your tweet about the Memorial Day for podcasts.

Oh right, I was taking the day off to celebrate the memory of all of the me and my funny friends just hanging out podcasts that couldn't make it to 2025. I'm allowed to make that joke because I had one in I think like late 2010, early 2011. Those days are long gone. You can't, you gotta have a gimmick,

you gotta have a gimmick as the song says. So yeah, that is what's going on in our neck of the woods. And now we could talk about what we've been playing and watching that's not really related to the show. And perhaps I was inspired by the month of Easter, but sorry, the holiday of Easter in late April because May has been Robocop month for me. I've been celebrating Peter Weller, Alex Murphy,

the man, the myth, the half machine. And because of that, I finally played through Robocop Rogue City, the 2023 first person shooter with some light RPG elements. I was finally motivated to play it because some DLC is coming out next month and I was curious about that. And the best way I can describe this game, it's a great seven out of 10. It really feels like an elevated Xbox 360 game.

Like everything about the game design is screaming 2007 at you to the point where there is like a karma system that has no relevance at all and barely functions, but Peter Weller's there doing the voice of Robocop, and it kind of exists as a bridge between Robocop 2 and 3. I will say the story and the satire is about on the level of a Grand Theft Auto game,

so not great, but it's fun to see these characters again. Not as good as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but I'm glad they were able to release a very faithful Robocop game, just as the series is kinda hitting its 40th birthday very soon. Played three hours of the demo when it first came out, but didn't set aside the time.

I was probably playing a 100-hour RPG, and I was like, I have no time to finish this Robocop. But I remember liking that they didn't sell out the speed of RoboCop like he is a tank and moves slowly even if it might play more fun if he moves faster he moved it felt like he moved the right speed for Robo. Yeah it's you don't take cover because you're RoboCop he just like wanders out into gunfights and blows people's heads off but yeah very fun very true to very true to the brand. And Peter Weller sounds great.

Now, because it's a mid-budget game, they gave all the voice acting money to Peter Weller. Everyone else is a European trying to do an American accent. So you get some of the worst voice acting I've heard in like the past 10 years. But that is also kind of charming. Like it's great to play a super polished game like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

or like a super polished JRPG. But I actually love getting into the jank a little and having fun with the jank because you'll see and hear things that you're not going to hear in a triple A game that costs $300 million. That's nice. It's nice to celebrate a seven out of 10 sometimes. Yes, a great seven out of 10. It's always on sale for like 10 bucks. So check it out if you like RoboCop.

And I just wanted to throw in a little mention here because the Rise of the Golden Idol, the great puzzle mystery game has some good DLCs out. I wanna remind everybody, if you have a Netflix subscription, Netflix gives you free games. You can play them on your tablet, you can play them on your phone, and you can play like all 20 hours of Rise of the Golden Idol.

That's the core game and the DLCs for free if you have Netflix and I really recommend them, they're great games. And I think most people, like with Amazon Prime, they don't realize, they're just throwing free games at you every month. That's, man, you know, I never check it, same with, like, they had the turtles,

but I had already beat at the Shredder's Revenge, that turtle's game I think was on there, yeah. They still have it, they have not shut down their games division yet. It feels like they're still hiring for it So they have not ended this initiative But that was part of my argument last month when we were talking about our games too expensive And I was trying to say that there are so many things giving you free games

You have no time to even interface with them And it's like yeah Netflix I totally forgot Netflix is one of those like every three months. I'll be like oh, yeah There's a games tab on here like holy shit. There's so much stuff on here if I didn't have 700 games in my Steam library. I would probably play some of these. This is where I am at. Time is far more my enemy than money with gaming. I say this with, you know, just the shadow of a week from now ish is the Switch 2 launch and I'll be playing a new Mario Kart and Hades 2 will finally be like complete and I can start that back up. I was going to say, thankfully, the Switch 2 only launches with one game, so I won't be too busy with it.

But that's fine. That's fine. This has been a very, very, very busy year for games. There's still a lot of 2025 stuff I have to catch up on. But yeah, I just wanted to mention RoboCop. Now, speaking of RoboCop, I watched RoboCop again, and for the first time, I watched RoboCop's 2 and 3. And guess what, folks? check out my reviews on letterbox

But I really enjoyed them. They are not gonna be as good as Robocop 1 and of course It's diminishing returns Robocop 2 is a little worse and Robocop 3 is a little worse than 2 But these are movies that still understand Robocop and still have a lot of fun in that world And it's still going to be an amazing display of practical effects, even if Peter Weller isn't there for the third movie. I think if you've been dismissive of these, if I've only seen them on TV, I would say give them another chance. It's just kind of fun to get back into that world, even if the people aren't going to be as good as Paul Verhoeven. I, of course, Robocop is in my top four on on Letterboxd. I love Robocop so very much.

I hadn't watched Robocop 2 in a long time. Your Nina's positive reviews of it on Letterboxd made me pick up the 4K and watch it. And it was better than I remembered. My problem re-watching it though was I can't not view, when I know Frank Miller wrote it, or co-wrote it, and I just, I see the Frank Millerisms in it for good and bad but I love my favorite part is when those evil women force RoboCop to be nice and be a positive role model like

I that I really did love that section you're gonna see a suicidal robots drug addicted robots but especially RoboCop 2 it has better effects than RoboCop 1 because I think it got a lot more money. So the stop-motion effects are incredible, the prosthetic effects are incredible, and in fact I also watched Total Recall this month and I was just like, wow, this is one of the best displays of practical effects on the brink of computers taking over. So that's another recommendation. But yeah, not to talk too long about these, but RoboCop 2 and 3, very good. Definitely worth checking out. I also wanted to reference or throw out a recommendation for RoboDoc, something I was

not aware of. This is a five-hour documentary about RoboCop. It is exhaustive, but at long last, a documentary has the same attention to detail and length as a podcast. It's taken us this long to get here, but we've reached this point, gentlemen. You know, I've only seen chunks of it online. I have never put aside the whole five. I'm a fake Robo cop fan of not watch the full Robo doc. I need to, I need to get on that. Yes. It is like basically four episodes of, of one doc and it is exhaustive. I'm so impressed

they get everybody. And just when you think someone might be dead They show up as a talking head the all I'd buy that that for a dollar guy is alive And he is a talking head in Robo doc god damn. Oh, that's amazing I I love one of my films I liked watching this month was an exhaustive film doc But it's like two hours shorter than Robo doc So it makes me I I want people to make very long great documentaries instead of having to cut them down to fit like Two hours in a general audience and I know like we've had complaints about you know The just a goof documentary it is it is sanctioned by the company that makes the movie Robo doc independent

They are allowed to tell all the stories They're allowed to use as much footage as they can because they've licensed it and they also use a ton of footage from other movies This this Robo doc went out of its way to get the they also use a ton of footage from other movies this this Robo Doc went out of its way To get the license to use a ton of clips if you have a clip of Star Wars in your documentary I know that you're taking shit seriously And what that's got the Oreo story that has gone viral right? Yes, Robo wants an Oreo although Peter Weller says that's bullshit He says that's not true, but it is funny It is funny also want to recommend anime movies People outside of Studio Ghibli make them.

Can you believe it folks? And one of them is fairly new for 2024. I rented it on a whim from the great Video Cat video store in Vancouver. It is called Ghost Cat Enzu. And it is a very funny and charming little movie. And the premise is basically, what if Big Totoro from My Neighbor Neighbor Totoro, had childless uncle vibes,

and he had kind of a gambling problem and hung out with Yokai and got drunk? So it's kind of like a scruffier, more salt of the earth version of Totoro. And unlike Totoro, he shows up about two minutes into the movie, everyone's like, hey, it's Ghost Cat. So everybody in this village knows Ghost Cat. Super charming, super great.

And it seems like there is a live action director and an animation director on this film. And based on what I'm reading about it, it sounds like they filmed it as a live action movie first to get the audio. And then they rotoscope that footage and use the audio from that footage to make the animated movie.

So it has a very unique kind of voice acting style. You're not gonna hear that in the dub, by the way. You have to hear the animated movie. So it has a very unique kind of voice acting style. You're not gonna hear that in the dub, by the way. You have to hear the original language that I found very like charming and rough and scrappy because people are often not on mic because they're not standing in front of a microphone like this doing their voice performance. So it's very original and charming in that way too.

So I definitely recommend Ghost Cat On Zoo. I believe you can rent it. It was a G-Kids release. That's really cool. I had seen it advertised a little bit and I think I remember seeing it like that it was coming to theaters around here too for a few months back, but I didn't make time for it. But that's a great endorsement. I'm going to check that out. If I don't rent it, I'll wait and see if it appears on one of the streamers I the too many streamers I am signed up for it's definitely worth it I also want to throw out a brief mention to the movie companion

Because I watched it right before I left on my vacation And I will say go into this movie blind it just go and not knowing anything about it like I did you'll be very very Surprised it is a great boilerplate comedic thriller sort of like a tales from the crypt episode like just a movie length version of that And I'm proud to say that while Sophie Thatcher is in it. I like her. I like to work in the yellow jackets I think she's great at what she does but also Henry's boyfriend is in it the guy from what we do in the shadows. Oh That's great. I Yes, I what is his name? Well, it, oh God, you've taken me by surprise here. Well, he's Guillermo on What We Do in the Shadows.

That's, God. Is it Harvey? Yes, it's, yes, it is. Is it Harvey Guillen? Thank you, yes, yes. It's Harvey Guillen, yes. Well, it looks like Henry broke up with Harvey because he forgets his name.

I know. Out of sight, out of mind. I haven't seen him on my TV in a few months. I totally, yes, Guillermo, Guillermo Delacruz's actor Harvey Ginn, yes, I didn't know he was in this movie, okay. Yeah, yeah, I haven't heard anything about this. He plays a gay, and he's a real piece of shit in the movie, which is great.

Nice, gay guys, aren't all nice guys, that's good. I like that, okay, I'm gonna, well, you know, I went in similarly blind to Juror number two after hearing suggestions about that And so I'll follow the same with companion Yeah, very like like clockwork like screenplay it delivers twists at the like the exact right moment to keep you interested and it's 90 minutes Long, I really really enjoyed it and other stuff. I went to Montreal for a week because not going to America, sorry folks, not for a while. We just wanted to go to a city we hadn't visited before. There's nothing nerdy about Montreal, I'm sorry. I guess Ubisoft is there in some capacity, maybe

some other folks are there. But I just had fun exploring an old city and hearing a lot of French. And folks, they're not kidding about the French language in Montreal. I was like, well, they probably speak French a little. No, some people will only speak French to you. And then some people will seem disappointed when they go, hello, bonjour, and you say hi, and they're like, oh, I guess I have to speak English to this guy. Okay. So that is why the back of every video game box is ruined because of Montreal. It's all their fault. Wow. So, well, yeah, so how easily did you get around then? I mean, you know a little French. Oh, I didn't use any French.

I was an entitled Western Canadian and was like, hello, I am speaking English. And you know, it's weird because I've been spending the last year learning Japanese. And every time I interacted with a shopkeeper or somebody, I was like, oh, I have five years of French under my belt. I'll switch to that. I kept switching to Japanese in my mind and I could not get the French to come out.

So I can only spin two language plates in my head at once. And the Japanese one is like very wobbly right now. So I think the French one fell off the pole and shattered on the ground. Oh, no, I don't think that the, the, the two years of Spanish I learned in high school, I do feel like that is had to take a backseat with the, you know, now 650 days I've gotten in Japanese language learning. Wow. They let you out of high school with only two years of a foreign language? That must be Florida for you.

It is. It was. That was Florida. Just that two years was the minima. I mean, I could have done more, but yes, they let you get away with just two. Man, just that. Two years was the minima. Or, I mean, I could have done more, but yes, they let you get away with just two. Man, lucky duck. Anyway, yeah, Montreal was fun.

Nina and I had a lot of fun, walked like 20,000 plus steps a day, saw a lot of old buildings, had a lot of great beer. We ate a lot of Montreal-style bagels. If you can find them, folks, they are delicious, but they are best eaten in Montreal. We came back to Vancouver, ate at the Montreal style bagel place here. We're not as enthralled with those, although that is our only option right now.

In case you're wondering, Montreal bagels are flatter and chewier and denser, and they're usually just covered with sesame seeds. The New York style bagels are like big and puffy, and the hole is much tighter, folks, on those New York bagels So depends on what you're in mood for but the big big hole on those Montreal style bagels So it's just a different experience and I guess they're hard to get outside of Canada But it's one of our favorite breakfast items and because they're a little flatter a little thinner You don't feel like you're walking around with a loaf of bread inside of you right after you eat one a bagel a

Regular bagel is a very filling experience the older I get. I've never had one of these Montreal bagels. I hear that apparently once you're outside of the wonderland of a French Canada, then they can't get it is right, seemingly. Yeah, it could be the water, it could be French people and their secret knowledge, who knows?

Ah, it's the French bagels. But yeah, Montreal, fun. We're gonna explore more of Canada as America becomes more and more hostile. So look out Toronto. I'll be visiting you, I don't know, next year maybe. Hey, more America for me, I say. Not to get too depressing headlines thing, but yeah, it's like, it is a risk for any person to visit America right now, like quite honestly, like you shouldn't, but why any tourists would come here to the United States is crazy to me. It's a huge risk. Yeah, it's just, I mean, we understand that we're not the kind of people who are targeted

for these kinds of things, but it does sound like now more than ever, the second you set foot in an airport, all of your rights dissolve. Yeah. Yeah. And no, yeah, you're less the type of person who would be targeted, but it just takes like one piece of shit to be like, nah, I want to target you.

And there is literally nothing you can do to stop that person, no rights exist, and there will be no punishment for them for breaking the law that technically exists. So I'm not too upset about technically not having freedom of speech in Canada. The Queen or the King could cancel that if they want We don't have that in the same way that America has but I mean we all know it's not real

This is the son of real concept that never was certainly not it now It's it's really not real for certain countries you want to talk about but anyways of what I did fun things Oh, I finished devil may cry 3 the the special edition that was on the switch where you can like swap abilities on the fly like it's the most fans of the DMC series say that is like the best way to play it and This was partially influenced by like my husband saw I was a big fan of Bayonetta But I never really played the DMC games other than the first Devil May Cry And he was like you should really check out the this is where the series really begins is Devil May Cry, and he was like, you should really check out this is where the series really begins, is Devil May Cry 3.

And it was a good time. Also, I had to mentally go back to like, a mid-aughts video game, like a late era PS2 game, and remember like, this is how they played back then. Like, don't forget. Yeah, I had fun with that. It's been a while. I had a lot of fun with Devil May Cry 5,

which is the last one that came out in 2019. If you like 3, 4 is okay, 4 is a lot of fun with Devil May Cry 5, which is the last one that came out in 2019. If you like 3, 4 is okay, 4 is a lot of problems, but I think I reviewed the HD version or something a long time ago. But 5, amazing, really good. Oh yes, my husband Darren was telling me, basically he's like, here, watch this gameplay video of 4 in the storyline, because when I was playing three and he was watching me play it and I was going a little bit of backtracking here and then he's like well you're not playing for them he'd explain to me that how much backtracking yeah if I remember correctly and I did

like for for what it was and maybe because I wasn't paying for it I didn't mind but you play through the game and you're like okay what now oh you go back through all the levels again. Yep, because they're like, we don't know how to make an HD game yet, we're sorry. So yeah, I do really wanna play Five, and I'm looking forward to it. And then the other thing I've been playing on my phone

has been Marvel Snap has taken a little back seat because I have now been playing Magic the Gathering Arena, the mobile app version of it to to learn how to play Magic and I have played against real people but in like specific starter deck packs just so it's like you're only facing people who have one of like eight or nine different starter decks so you don't have to the most daunting thing for me with Magic is like oh there's like hundreds of cards and I can be surprised by any card at any time and also the rules the rules are much clearer like in real life if I was

playing with a new starter deck and I'd be like okay and I'll just put this card down somebody would have to say wait you can't do that card right now in the app it just is like here are the two cards you can do anything with right now and it makes it much clearer It's been and I've I've wanted to learn it because there's a Final Fantasy Expansion coming out and spider-man a few months after that and I have been having a good time So is your plan to take this into the to the meat space and play against people that that is the next plan? Yes, I do actually want to I'm going to

I believe in a local tournament in the Bellevue area, oh not tournament, but there's a starter thing for Final Fantasy like with a constructed deck at an event. I do intend to go to probably, we'll lose very quickly, but I want to, I really, the fun I've been having with it, I also played a little with the Lord of the Rings set, and when the cards express the Lord of the Rings characters, as I know, like, oh, Samwise would do this with this ability that's on the card, stuff like that.

I could imagine that with a Spider-Man, or also with some of the, like, Final Fantasy cards that I've seen out there, it's like, oh, that sounds, that's what really hooks me in card games, the ones I've gotten into, is if they are related to a thing I already like, oh, that sounds, that's what really hooks me in card games, the ones I've gotten into is, if they are related to a thing I already like and I think it can express the characters well in the gameplay rules.

Yeah, I'm glad people are excited about the Final Fantasy cards. I'm excited that I can just look at the art and not have to buy anything. So thank you for everyone for posting those. Now, my husband is having a real Magic the Gathering resurgence and he played a lot in his teens and now is kind of having a I don't want to call it midlife crisis but a

return to it and he's also been showing me a really great YouTube channel of these videos called Talarian Community College and the professor there a very good and friendly YouTube channel of guides of how to play Magic, both for beginners and for the most advanced users. So I've, yeah. Bringing me back to lunchtime in eighth grade, which was the last time I played Magic the Gathering. Yeah, it's funny to remember like being 15

and it's a new thing my friends are trying to get me into and be going like, I don't think so, seems too complicated. Now's your time, you just needed to give it 30 years. And movie-wise, speaking of 30 years, well 29 years of Mission Impossible has been capped off with The Final Reckoning, which I saw in theaters.

I'm here, they should call it The Final Flushening, cause it's a real turtaroo. You know, it's too long. It's 90, it's three hours long. 90 minutes are about like, you're checking your watch, you're going like, boy, let's speed this up, guys. When it finally gets to stunt town and you're seeing amazing stunts,

I was having a good time and going like, oh, hey, that's fun. That's why I like Mission Impossible. But it's been weird to see Tom Cruise become Jackie Chan. Like he's like, oh, I'm Jackie Chan. I do all my own stunts all the time and show off it. Yeah, I wonder, I honestly wonder what's next for him. And if you'll take on normal acting roles now

that he's this phase of it, he's starting to look older. He's starting to look like he's 47, even though he's 63 now. Yes, yeah, his face looks older, though in the movie he has an excuse story-wise to strip down to essentially nude, other than like the tiniest of briefs, just so he can show off like, yeah, I still have a perfect body, I worked very hard for this, and you should be impressed.

And hey, I am impressed, Tom Cruise, good job. You're a crazy intense guy who still is a member of a cult. But darn it, you do great stunts. That cult gets results, damn it. And hey, if you want to hear more of my thoughts on the Mission Impossible series, if you haven't seen it yet, I was on the Dough Boys double this month on their Patreon talking about Ghost Protocol. And I saw an anime film in theaters that also isn't a Ghibli film. Wolf Children, the film Wolf Children that got re-released in theaters with a new 4K version of it by G-Kids, the Mamoru Hosoda film. It was really good, though it was touching. Probably if you're a parent, it like fucks you up royal, but as a childless person, it makes me go like,

boy, yeah, this seems like shitty to be a parent. This is hard, I don't like this. Yeah, I have not seen that one, but it's a G-Kids release, right? Yes, yeah. And I like how they're normalizing the idea of just seeing anime movies in theaters. It's been happening over the last decade,

but it's no longer feeling like an event anymore. Like, oh my God, there's an anime playing. I also watched Kiki's Delivery Service in theaters this month just because I like, I was like, you know what, I love this film, I wanna see it again. But Wolf Children, a non-Ghibli film getting a theatrical release now feel is the special feeling thing comparatively.

Though I, it did have one of my main flaws I feel in Hosoda films and I was feeling it more watching Kiki's Delivery Service back to back is like, I do feel Miyazaki in his films challenges gender norms a little more. While meanwhile in Wolf Children, like there's, Kiki's delivery service back to back is like, I do feel Miyazaki in his films challenges gender norms a little more while meanwhile in Wolf Children, like there's, I don't want to spoil it, but there's a boy and a girl Wolf Child and I kind of wish their stories were reversed. And I mean, maybe it is a little, perhaps he is making a comment on the expectations

of being a woman in society forces these things onto you and you have to deal with it. But I think he has a little more, he seems more invested in those gender roles being supported than Miyazaki who I think challenges him more. That's just that's a personal feeling. I feel after watching him back to back I need to see more of his work I'm not super familiar with it, but I will say Henry tonight and I'll report on this next month I'm seeing a Hideaki Anno's first movie a live-action movie love and pop. It's in theaters here. They're doing a remaster, and so far I've only seen his takes on existing IP, so I'm curious, that's a little, what he made immediately

after End of Evangelion. Yeah, you know, I've never seen Love and Pop either. I'm jealous here in this. I think it was extremely unavailable for a very long time. I would just see it listed on Evangelion websites, like here's what he's doing now not anime it definitely I remember seeing it in biographies of him of him just talking about how he loved making that movie because With the then new digital film making tech and it's just the digital cameras

He's like this is so fast compared to anime like the animation. It's so much better. Yeah I'm actually looking this up now. It is a GKIDS release, so they own the world now, GKIDS. Well hey, good on them. I'm glad GKIDS is seemingly, it must be paying off for them business-wise too, to treat anime more seriously and get it in theaters a lot. Yeah, and Wolf Children is just part of a trilogy, a summer of Hosoda films getting like 4K theatrical

re-releases in the US. Summer Wars in July, and I think September is gonna be The Girl Who Lep Through Time, which that one I've never seen. I've seen Summer Wars, haven't seen The Girl Who Lep Through Time, I've always wanted to see that, so I'm waiting for that theatrical release. Sorry, two more movies I wanna mention real quick.

I went to Portland this weekend, and I went to the Hollywood Theater for the first time. Bob's been there, it's a beautiful old theater theater and they did what an old theater should do, which is show Vertigo in 70 millimeter. Nice. I hope you explored that space because it is just a beautiful old theater with a lot of fun props and old movie things inside on the various floors. Oh yeah.

Yeah. I went upstairs and checked out the bar area and all these old posters that were up and they had a cool section that I think before had been dressed up to look like the the black lodge from Twin Peaks. It wasn't then there, but they had and they also have like sizzle pie. They're very good pizza place like you is attached to it. So you can actually like order pizza at the theater too. And it was part of a festival of Hitchcock on film, which if I had known, we did this on a real spur of the moment weekend.

So almost everything was sold out except for one Vertigo showing and Dial M for Murder, which I did see in 35 millimeter, which was really nice because that is seen I think is like a not as Hitchcock made so many many major films that like Dial M for Murder is a great film, but it often doesn't get like the treatment of a theatrical screening these days compared to Vertigo or Psycho. Yeah, so Vertigo, you remember this Henry, in the Bay Area, Vertigo played like every eight days in movie theaters, because it's a movie set

in San Francisco, and every time Nina would come to visit me in the Bay Area, I wanted to take her to the castro, I was like, god damn it, it's another Vertigo showing, so I just got, I saw the Vertigo like twice in the Bay Area when I was living there. Well you know Bob, all the times it was showing in those theaters, I said, I'll go a little later, I'll go a little later.

And then when I showed up to the Castro Theater, they were closed for repairs and they said they didn't know. They didn't know what they'd be doing. Henry, you'll get to go to Alcatraz finally when you're locked up for your opinions on the president. Man, I do wish I could have seen Vertigo at the Castor Theater, which is still, I think, currently being remodeled.

Hopefully it comes back. But you know what, seeing it at this, I mean, it was to see in 70 millimeter, the pure lankiness of James Stewart was really something. Yeah, I do enjoy that movie. Also, Dialing for Murder is like a real hidden gem, and I think people were dismissive of it because I believe it's a Hitchcock's only 3D movie, so the camera is very locked down, but it has like some of the boldest, brightest colors I've seen

in a movie of that era. I think it's because they were trying to push the 3D to be very, very effective, but Grace Kelly looking fine in that movie. That's all I'll say. Hey, you'd kill for her too out of jealousy. With some scissors. Yeah, I hadn't seen Dial M for Murder since I was 18. I did a lot of VHS watching of Hitchcock after going to Universal Studios, which had like a whole Hitchcock ride,

well not ride, more experience, but we rented Dial M for Murder and I hadn't seen it since then. And both this and Vertigo, seeing as a man who is the age of like the man in the movie, But we rented dial M for murder and I hadn't seen it since then and both this and vertigo Seeing as a man who is the age of like the man in the movie It is very different than seeing it as a teen who can't appreciate all of the you know stuff about Honestly, it taught me if somebody I knew in college reaches out to me. Don't go they they've got evil plan

What dial M for murder and vertigo? Yeah, because yeah now I will, last Vertigo thought on this. Now I watched it as a teenager because you look online, what are the two best movies of all time? Oh, Citizen Kane and Vertigo. Oh, I like Citizen Kane. I watched Vertigo as a teen, didn't get it. Saw it again in like my late 20s, early 30s.

I'm like, oh, I get it. But the one thing is that ending is unintentionally very funny. How something crazy happens and then the movie just slams the door in your face and the Effect along with what's happening is very very silly, too So I feel like that's a weird moment to end that movie on I feel not to spoil anything and to experience it with the audience To is with an audience. It's almost a Looney Tunes gag to not give anything away. Wouldn't you agree with me? No, I mean like the physical thing that happens to the character. It's just like a Wile E. Coyote stunt gone wrong. And Dial N for Murder also ends on a big laugh too for the audience,

which is really great to experience with a group of people. Like I appreciated it even more. They're both... Dial N for Murder is like a proto Columbo episode too. Like it almost feels like, oh, this is what inspired Columbo or all these other like detective TV shows. And lastly, I want to mention I saw Pee Wee as himself. Just big, if you're a Pee Wee fan, big thumbs up. It is, it is great. It will make you hate the cops even more than you probably already do. If you, if you can stand listening to us. Now the thing about that is he recorded a lot with a documentarian before he passed away. Is that the hook of the movie, the hook of the doc?

Yes, I mean, it's him speaking from beyond the grave. The director interviewed Peewee for 40 hours, Paul Rubens, interviewed him for 40 hours, and unbeknownst to him, Paul Rubens for six years had been suffering from cancer. It didn't tell anybody. Yes, it does deal with the shocking. And also, one of the most fun things in the movie is that Paul Rubin's doesn't like that he's not the director of the movie and that he's giving up control to the director. And the combativeness is so present in the many interviews.

But impish combativeness in the way you'd expect from Paul Rubin's. Yeah, I plan on watching it when I get a chance. After watching the five hour Robocop documentary, I wanna go back to narrative entertainment for a tiny bit of time, but I'm glad that exists. And you know what, Andor season two, it was really great. It's the hype is real, I'm not gonna go over every step

of it, but it's the good Star Wars thing. If you watch one Star Wars thing, watch Andor. And yeah, my Portland trip, otherwise I wanted to talk up, I went to a couple really cool bars. There was one that was in a, like, it was a converted school, so it was like seven different bars all over this school, which that was when I got the most drunk.

And walking through there at like one in the morning while trying to find a bathroom is, it is, it was a mindfuck to be like, I'm trying to find a bathroom is, it was a mind fuck to be like, I'm trying to find a bathroom, but I'm in a school, but I'm drinking and I hope I can find my friends again. Yeah, when I was asking you about what you were doing in Portland, you said you'd be bar hopping and I was like, well, Henry doesn't drink that much

and your husband doesn't drink at all. I'm just wondering, where will this lead? I was concerned. Well, the first place, there were mocktails that my husband enjoyed. And the second place, not so much. They had no non-alcoholic options at the first place there were mocktails that my husband enjoyed. And the second place, not so much. They had, they had no non-alcoholic options at the second place, but they, they had some very good local ciders, which I enjoyed perhaps too much, but, uh,

I didn't even get hung over. I was good. I was fine. But yeah, though the drinking was good. The food is the best in Portland. I love the food everywhere there. Like I went to a really cool, right across the street from the Hollywood theater. There's a really great conveyor belt sushi

that I really enjoyed called the Chiyo Sushi. And I can also, next door also was a Korean chicken place called ChimChikin, which I really liked too, a Korean like chicken wings place. Really, really tasty. You're stealing my title of Portland guy, Henry. I don't know how to feel about this. It's your self embargo to America

leaves me, gives me a chance to become Mr. Portland. Powells, you go to Powells? I did, I did. Indeed go to Powells. Son of a bitch. And they had, they did have in stock Life in Hell comics, as I can always count on a Life in Hell comic or two to be available. A follow up question, Blue Star or Voodoo?

Oh, Blue Star, I don't touch Voodoo anymore. We went two. I did finally go, Portland Maniacs will also be happy, because the last time I tweeted, like I went to Blue Star, three different people replied, you gotta go to Pips, have Pips, and so I did have Pips donuts as well this trip. Well, last time you went to Blue Star, you posted a picture of a closed box,

and I was like, open the box, I wanna see what's in the fucking box. Sorry. Well, this time I didn't get the creme brulee because that was too messy, honestly. I did love it, but it's such a mess. But I loved the, I had the cherry, it was like a cherry berry cheesecake filled one that was very good. And also a, their maple sea salt one was a very, it was like, it was a much more subdued.

It wasn't the, you know, voodoo style in your face. Like we have three strips of bacon on this maple bacon thing. It was just a more quiet subdued maple. Yeah. I like the sophisticated donuts of blue star. And I went to a Excalibur comics also in Portland, which was a really nice comic shop. If you, if you want an old school style comic shop with the long boxes and Comics also in Portland, which was a really nice comic shop. If you want an old school style comic shop with the long boxes and old books in them, it was great. I went there the day that sadly Peter David passed away. When I was there, I was like, you know what? I'm going to rebuy one of my favorite Spider-Man comics while I'm here and read it on the train, which is Amazing Spider-Man 267. When cometh the Commuter, a classic one-off funny Spider-Man story.

I really enjoy it. Yeah, it was funny because, well not funny, but tragic, the opposite of funny, because Nina and I were looking at Peter David novels in a used bookstore because she had just read a few of his Star Trek The Next Generation novels. I was like, oh, here's another one. And then later we find out that he passed away.

And I guess there are still active fundraisers going on for his end of life care and funeral services and everything. So if you want to support Peter David, it sounds like his widow still needs a lot of money and help on that end. So if you Google the right sources, I'm sure you'll find out where you can help donate

to that cause. But one of many artists not treated very well by Marvel. He was a writer for decades and decades of both Marvel and DC. The major ones, like I mean, I would say his biggest thing in the comic book space, he also did like co-create TV series and write for television as well in the comic book space. I would say his long run on The Incredible Hulk is the most famous, like Smart Hulk is him. Like he came up with Smart Hulk, but you don't get like creator credit for just having a great new spin on Hulk. But if you, uh, I saw future guests, Mike Lawrence point out, like, if you like Smart Hulk Ruffalo

in these Avengers movies, that's because Peter David like co-created him and did it. And same with, if you like the Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man of 2099 that you see in the Spider-Verse films, he co-created Miguel with Rick Leonardo. And that was one of the first comics. In 92, I was a day one Spider-Man 2099 reader. I love seeing him now as a character. And yet, the co-creator dies in horrible medical debt. And it's sad.

And he couldn't even really call out Marvel because technically he was still sort of employed by them in his late days so he couldn't even be like, fuck Marvel, I'm screwed because he kind of still was getting a meager earning from them while also dying. It's so sad. Yeah, I'm looking at his bibliography now and he wrote a ton of novels, most of them

licensed but he was super prolific. There's like 20 Star Trek novels alone outside of everything else. He was like novelizing movies like Spider-Man 2. He was really good at that kind of like, I won't call it like machinery style work, just like getting the things on the page but turning visual, but turning very visual IP into something that works in prose. He always had such a great sense of humor. When I was reading that amazing 267 on the train, I was like, man, he's just a funny guy.

He comes up with funny slice of life stories that really just fit in the comic book world. He always puts such a great groundedness to it. I was reading his stuff even up to five years ago, and he still had it. I really felt, and he also wrote the Spider-Man video game Edge of Time, which was an average Spider-Man game, but it had the Peter David kind of touches to it.

Yeah, he worked everywhere. I hate to think that being that prolific also was partially because the page rate wasn't good enough to support him if he didn't do like seven books a month to, to cover his, his like living expenses, a somber note to end on, but Portland, a great time. I, I, it's an easy, quick trip from Seattle on the train and I'll be, I'll be making it again. I'm sure soon.

And up next, we have questions and comments from our last round of episodes to start with talking Simpsons, the episode smart and smarter smarter and I'll kick things off by reading Sean Ryan as quote who says I feel like quote just because Maggie can't talk doesn't mean that she's dumb unquote is an underrated joke these days we typically use mute to describe someone who can't speak but dumb and dumbstruck used to mean the same thing. Bob jumping in here, yes, I believe that is a little subtle joke because we don't longer think of like the whole deaf and dumb thing anymore. Dumb just means stupid. We don't think of it as meaning unable to speak. For an episode that we had some notes about the script on here, we missed a clever joke. So I, thanks for Sean pointing that out. It was,

it was clever wordplay on a thing that, I don't know if it's insensitive to use the term dumb anymore to describe someone who is mute, or even if mute is the correct phrase in the disability community for it even now. I don't know. I'm ignorant, perhaps even dumb on this. I would say don't call anyone dumb,

just as a rule of thumb. Hey, that rhymes Also on that episode Dylan free tag says the Simon Cowell as not Simon Cowell bit is Especially odd since in his jokes over the credits He does refer to his role as Simon Cowell as Simon Cowell to mock the casting director as y'all play at the end of the podcast It definitely got lost in translation somewhere and I guess they thought him being referred to as Henry the one time was still fine. Yeah, I missed that in the credits. They really should have edited out that Henry thing because outside of one person saying that to him once, it was clear like this is Simon Cowell. He's Simon Cowell in the Simpsons world. He's no one else. He's dressed like him. He looks

like him. He acts like him. I wonder if there's something they're not talking about there, that it was like a vertical integration put upon them by Fox to be like, can you please just have Simon Cowell in the show? And like his scenes are just so sequestered. I don't know. They just felt like retakes, like that he appeared as a different character. And then they're like, no, we need to promote this as Simon Cowell is on the Simpsons.

So draw him as Simon Cowell, redo this. We'll pay for it even if we have to. But he needs to look like Simon Cowell for this ad to appear on American Idol, which it did appear. I put the clip in the episode for the break. Yeah. Yeah. It feels like ultimately there was a decision made very late to stop him from being Henry. And they had to stick with Simon Cowell. But I guess we have Homer and Apu up next and Guy Incognito says, I think the first Simpsons musical scene, meaning not an in-story performance, but characters bursting into a non-diegetic song number, is the Hey Brother, Pour the Wine scene from season one, episode four.

There's no disgrace like home. You might make the distinction that the Apu song here is the first original musical scene. Yes. Thank you, Guy Incognito. I forgot about that because I was proclaiming with some hesitation that who needs the quickie mart? Is that the first song that is a true musical style song and that it's not in the context of a performance? It's in the context of someone spontaneously telling you their feelings via song, perhaps lying via song. But I forgot about that bad episode that's so, it's so bad, it's great,

where everybody is wrong, everything is wrong. Marge gets drunk and sings a Dean Martin song. Is that correct? That's right, yes, yeah. So it is such a random scene that also just feels like this show, you know, realizing like, hey, we can do these things. You know what, they could just all burst into song

and we have a big musical number. But, and yet it is, and also that Homer is ashamed for the family. And yet, despite all that, it has like perhaps the most famous scene from season one, which is the Marvin Rowe every shock therapy section. Yeah. That scene sticks out in my head. The Hey brother, pour the wine is just like one of the oddest scenes in the show. And I guess that is true that that's a cover of a song. So we can still say, Who Needs the Quickie Mart is the first original musical

number not framed as a performance in The Simpsons. There are so many asterisks there, but hey, I'll take it. Also on that episode, Riley Hall says, to answer Bob's question of who will old people talk to while checking out, bud attenders. The answer is bud attenders. You would have to be nice, tell them you heard what was on Hunter Biden's laptop,

and send them home with their gummies. Interesting, now I don't mean to be a narc or anything, but my parents, last time they were here, they told me they go to a dispensary for weed products, and I was like, I am shocked, because I don't really do that anymore, I'm just kind of bored with it and I don't really need it or want to partake of that. But now my parents are getting into it and I'm sure

they have a lot of questions for the butt tenders and I kind of want to be a fly on the wall when my mom is buying gummies. It was, you know, I went with Oregon to my mom like six, seven years ago when it became legal there. She bought her first edibles, like my mom like six, seven years ago when it became legal there. She bought her first edibles. Like my mom had never had pot before. And I think that honestly we then like partied with,

we met up with the family that night, extended family, and drinks were drank. And I think my mom couldn't tell what was drunk and what was pot in that night. So yeah. Well, my mom played a lot of music in the seventies. couldn't tell what was drunk and what was pot in that night. Well, my mom played a lot of music in the 70s. I'm making the smoky smoky motion right now. It's funny to think that the elderly now

are going to Bud Tenders instead of a bar, or in addition to, being with the person selling them legal marijuana and then telling them like, but no, seriously, did you see Hunter Biden's laptop? Like, yes, sir, yes, that's great. You're harsher my buzz, man. So moving on to the Ziff who came to dinner, Rubbercat says, I went to the Game Over panel

at Comic-Con 2003 because the Futurama and Simpsons panels are being held in the same auditorium afterwards. The audience loved a reference to Vice City. In retrospect, that was probably the high point of the whole experience for the producers. This is Bob jumping in to say Game Over was a very short-lived animated adult sitcom that was what if video games were real or something like that. We covered it on RetroNauts a while ago as a kind of makeshift what a cartoon episode,

but I guess Rubbercat lived to see the first reaction of a live audience to the hilarious antics of that Bender-style dog. Was it a dog? Yeah, but he's like a, man, now I'm getting him confused with the Steven Root space alien from... Tripping the Rift? Tripping the Rift, yes, yeah.

Yeah, I think it was, for Game Over, it was basically asking what if Bender was a dog and voiced by Artie Lang? And then hilarity ensues from there. And also it was like, had very poor sexual boundaries, let's say, also, yeah. Yeah, we mentioned Game Over came up because it debuted the same week as the Zipfoo came to dinner, which was the only chance to,

and it's the only time it would be seen on television before they just dumped the rest of them on DVD. And now nobody even cares to take it down from YouTube. It's at that level of popularity. Yeah. And it's not even worth watching for free. Absolutely not. Your time is far more valuable, but that's, that's to know in 2003 to be in the audience of a screening of it at Comic-Con and a person on stage is like like I know what Vice City is everybody's like whoa nobody knows people who make a TV show to have played Vice City that that was the state of gamers in 2000 2003 they're like please acknowledge us in our hobby now I can't take any more acknowledgement of the gaming I don't want it anymore yeah like Dave Chappelle

rose to glory on the shoulders of a sketch that was like what if GTA was real and the jokes were the most obvious things you would do with that premise, but nobody had done it. Yep. I know. And now, meanwhile, like, actually, you know, I think people have turned on that last of a season two. I was going to say it's very popular, but a video game show, but I think people have

turned on it a little bit. Yeah, yeah. It's just me saying I didn't watch it. I'm not sure why you're mad, but a lot of people are very upset with season two. It's one of those things where Reddit wants to keep showing me until I've told them to stop. Keep showing me the last of it's Reddit when I scan Reddit as a suggestion.

And all it is is people who I thought people did have negative reactions to the second game and I didn't play the second game, but people already had that. But now these new reactions were I liked the second game and season two is ruining the story play the second game. But people already had that, but now these new reactions where I liked the second game and season two is ruining the story of the second game is now the new complaint. All I know about the second game,

very, very impressive rope technology, which is what I wanna see in a video game. I'll base that over everything else. And Bob, did you see that scene where a guy takes off his shirt? They didn't cut away, you saw the fabric of the shirt move around his body. Who cares about level design or fun?

I wanna see that shirt come off. Don't cut away. I think you called it a dog killing game too on Twitter. It's a very funny line. Yes, when the director was mad at me, I was like, I'm sorry I insulted your dog killing game. Well, also on that episode, Gavi Robb said, did anyone else find it weird that the episode ends

with Artie being disgusted by smoking, but also talks about how he's attracted to Selma, who constantly smokes. Easy to overlook with a babe like Selma. And when you're in love, you don't see the flaws. But you're right, you know, I am ashamed that I missed that chance for pedantry. In an episode where I was quite a pedant,

I missed that opportunity at saying, like, now wait a minute, guys. I think we were just relieved that he was not about to be sexually assaulted, which is a direction the show could have taken. Yeah, I think this season 15, I think it has like two other sexual assault jokes, or near prison sexual assault jokes that then just veer

into like, no, no, no, Snake is merely strangling someone to death. don't worry I'm glad yeah, I mean it was 2004 they easily could have done a much worse joke So we're happy they didn't moving on to Lisa versus Malibu Stacy and TJ Gaines says sadly My son will never experience the pure unadulterated joy of walking into a Toys R Us We went to a big-box store this past weekend and the toy aisle was lackluster and picked over Henry is right though about buying toys. My wife and I will see something my son will like and just add it to the Amazon wishlist to either order then and there or later on."

Yeah, I wondered how kids, how do kids experience toy aisles now? Do they just see, do they watch an unboxing on YouTube from one of their favorite influencers or just go like, that's how they go, mommy, I want it. I think they can also just browse the same storefronts that we do. So instead of, I remember as a kid in the late 80s, you would get the Sears holiday gift guide, the toy guide, just a big book full of new toys. That was the only place to see what the new toys were

unless you went to a store. Now you can just go on Amazon, type in toys, just scroll and scroll and scroll and then cry when you see the one you want. I mean, also having just stayed in a hotel room, that is the only time I watch regular television and putting on in the background, you know, Cartoon Network in the morning, I can still say

that toy ads are prevalent for children, very much so on Cartoon Network. What was one of the toy ads you saw? Anything stand out? You know, it was, ah, boy, there definitely was an ad for a new... There was like Sesame Street toys. I remember seeing that. Like, a new run of those. And also Teen Titan toys as well,

to fit in with the Teen Titans ads we were seeing, too. Also snacks. A lot of these sugary fruit snacks for kids, too. And Kat Heiberg also had a great comment on this, her own Barbie memories. When I was five, Teen Talk Barbie was my top item on my holiday list obtained for the record. And I was a big Barbie fan. I remember my parents mentioning the controversy

and or overhearing a news story and thinking, you will take this doll from my cold dead hands in a grownups are stupid way. I looked at it as the same as some kids not being allowed to watch the Simpsons, same as the Bart as a bad influence thing and any gender nuances flew over my head. I'm pretty sure I didn't have the math is tough doll, but I did always struggle a lot with math so if anything I would have found it validating. More so I think I embraced Bart's school attitude for

better or worse even though I did okay academically aside from the math of it all and would get extra annoyed by the girl characters of the 90s and aughts who were always perfect at school and sports and never did anything wrong. I had a particular hatred of Skeeter from Muppet Babies. I was am really into fashion and ballet and the color pink and all the things Barbie, though obviously imperfect, let me indulge in.

That said, I still loved and love Lisa versus Malibu Staceyacey and I guess I knew that like most media, I loved it was very clearly written by people who didn't understand or play with Barbies, which is for me and so many of my friends the same age why the Barbie movie was so important. Like finally something that gets my nostalgia and what it meant to me. To that end, I did appreciate that the character as smart and mature as Lisa, still did play with Balboa Stacy. In UN speeches aside, the little details from the animators about how she moves them, stores them, and interacts with them in the episode felt really accurate.

Yeah, I totally get what Kat is saying here as a man. But I feel like there is, and girls need role models and stuff, and girls need to see strong women figures, but there is a drive to be like every female character needs to be into STEM. Yes, yeah. Including in the Lou Lilo and Stitch movie. I'm hearing weird things about that. It's just like, what if one of the characters was a budding engineer with a full college scholarship,

not a regular woman that you could be like, oh cool, relatable. No, super genius. Nani has to be a lot less relatable now, I think. I mean, yeah, everybody's gotta be a role model. It feels a little taxing to me as an outsider. But yeah, I mean, it was nice to hear when we all had our own gripes on the episode with the Barbie film, which it made a billion dollars. Who cares

if we don't like it? But I liked hearing the cat's side of things. It did speak to why Barbie was important to somebody who did grow up liking Barbies, which you, me and Rebecca all were like not Barbie players as owners as Barbie gamer. Yeah, it was. There were some other good comments, by the way, in there of other people who either knew Barbie or there were a couple, I think, who were mentioned that their mother were Barbie collectors and they knew Barbie facts before I said them about like the competing line for for Jim and the holograms for instance of Barbie.

So moving on to our what a cartoon which secretly was a blab about Batman episode about the laughing fish and Dennis K says I looked up the Joker fish issue after listening to this and was kind of amazed at how multiple lines of dialogue were just copied verbatim from that script. It was an improvement with the addition of Harley, however, as in the original story Batman just comments, the Joker must have secretly sprayed him. But in the adaptation, you actually see Harley do it. And yeah, we on that episode we talked about, or I think we wrote on the same page with about this Henry, where there was a really good Joker story in there, and they pulled it out and kind of like improved it without all of the other

Serialized stuff that had to happen issue to issue and gave it a much better ending by then taking the ending from a different Joker story as well and combining them like bringing in the aquarium ending from a different great Joker story of the same time because The regular issue story was kind of like weak how the Joker went out But that is also because they were writing on a monthly schedule and having to fit like eight different subplots around the laughing fish story in the comic page that they didn't have to do in the cartoon. Yeah, glad everybody liked that.

And we're not done with Bob and Bob Batman. We're gonna surprise you every now and then with that episode, but we haven't covered like Catwoman and Clayface and the Penguin and a few others. So there's still territory for us to explore with that series. And Ron Sterling also said, Joker's problem isn't that his scheme couldn't work,

just that he's barking up the wrong branch of IP law. Copyright is meant primarily for works of art or expression. Genetic engineering can be protected with patents. In the plain states, Monsanto is infamous for enforcing their roundup ready seed patents with all sorts of aggressive tactics, including confiscating and destroying the crops of farmers not using the seed themselves because seeds from a neighboring farm blew into their fields and or

cross-pollinated with their plants. This kind of strong arming has been backed up by the courts all the way to the top, so I imagine it's the kind of abuse of power the Joker is looking for. In response to Ron Sterling, I will say you may be right. You tell the Joker that. You see what happens. See what happens.

Hey, you know, there's that great panel out there. Maybe you've seen Bob from a Batman-Captain America crossover comic where the Joker refuses to work with the Red Skull when he realizes he's a Nazi. And it's like the Joker has a line in the sand, like, hey, I may be a psycho, but I'm an American psycho. I wonder if the, I don't think he literally

says American psycho, but then with Monsanto, I wonder if he meant that, maybe like, oh, you guys are too evil for me. I don't like you guys. Yeah, I think Monsanto would creep the Joker out. It's, and you know you know who did that comic? John Byrne, the writer and artist of the Fantastic Four comics that were based on the episode,

that Influency episode we're covering next month. Nice connection. Moving on to what a cartoon movie for the month of April. That was Looney Tunes back in action. And Manic Rainbow says, I was obsessed with this movie and the cheap PS2 video game adaptation. That alternate opening scene with the dark and gritty superhero Daffy

is used in the video game version. Porky and Speedy are portrayed as villainous cops throughout the game as well. And thanks Manic Rainbow, I'd never played the game, but I always like when adaptations retain the original version of the movie that is changed multiple times before the release. Like if I used to read novelizations in the past and all the

deleted scenes are in there, they're working from an earlier version of the screenplay. So it's cool that what seemed like a much better idea is preserved in some different versions or adaptations of the film. Yeah you know that came up in other wetacartoon movies when you when we did Cool World you mentioned how like in the comic you can see so much of what the original we did Cool World, you mentioned how in the comic, you can see so much of what the original script of Cool World was before they made all the late cuts to it. And Roger Rabbit, I think, had a similar issue too.

Yeah, I read the original Cool World comic, I apologize. And the novel Roger Rabbit, if I remember, is just so, so different. Oh yeah. The novel came first, so it's not like an adaptation of the movie. No, yeah, I think Marvel did a Roger-Avett comic too that had like oh it had it had like a

Judge dooms buzzard in it for instance that before it got cut from right, right, okay So the stuff they made after the fact, right? Yeah, also to boldly Joe Moore I think we mentioned their comments earlier It says I had the honor of working with Joe comments earlier says, I had the honor of working with Joe Alasky in what turned out to be his last time voicing Daffy as the green lune turn in Lego Batman 3. I just wanted to let everyone know how nice he was, how professional he was, and despite the length and complexity of some lines thrown at him, he totally gave it his all and he was just an incredible talent. Super nice guy. I always love Daffy and getting to work with that screwy duck will always be

one of my favorite memories. If anyone's interested, you can listen to all his lines here. I wrote some of the shorter gameplay ones. Then he has a YouTube link to it, which you can find in the comments for the film too. Yeah, I'm glad to hear that he was a nice guy. Even though he had the market cornered

on the Daffy Duck voice, he was not a prima donna. Yeah, that's always great to hear. There were other that Thad also weighed in, our guest for the history section, Thad weighed in some on the Jeff Berger situation too, with him and Porky and all that. And I mean, there's many great Daffy's out there, and I think Eric Bowes is a great Daffy.

He really was great in the day the earth blew up. But that Joe Alasky is the Daffy of Post Malblanc to me. We did grow up with him, but he is the- Yeah, I think he was just born with the right throat meat. That's all it boils down to. It's like, are your pipe shape a certain way? Well, then you can do this voice. And thanks, Joe Moore, for sharing with us your own personal experience working with

him. A tragic, but the last time he voiced Daffy is also very, you know, that's a special moment, special moment too. So moving on to Talking Futurama, the episode, The Mutants Are Revolting, and Kaylyn Ramos says, I enjoyed the tangents about Swiffer and Coffee Pods. Can we get a bonus podcast where it's just Bob ranting about modern conveniences that are less convenient than the thing that they're supposed to replace?

This is Bob speaking. I hold back, actually, do not sound like an out of touch crank. But honestly, those are two of my biggest pet peeves, those two items, because they just, This is Bob speaking. I hold back, actually. Do not sound like an out of touch crank. But honestly, those are two of my biggest pet peeves, those two items, because they just, they make the world worse. And I think a lot of people have just adopted them

as the standard. Like, I go to so many offices and other places where it's like, free coffee! And they're just the nightmarish coffee pods with water in a dirty tank that has not been changed for a while. The hotel we were just staying at had a Keurig in it and the water was already in it.

I was like, I don't know where this water has been. I don't know who filled this up. Boy, that makes just, it makes you just yearn for the instant coffee of just like stirring powder in a hot water cup or something. Yeah, instant coffee actually better, I still don't want it, but better than the Keurig. But honestly, just get a drip coffee maker, it's easy.

Get one that's easy to clean up. Don't torture yourself, stop making all this garbage. Again, we're starting my rant podcast right now. You don't want it, it's gonna be really irritating. But hey, Katelyn Ramos has to be happy to get this little dose of it there. And Lee Olson also says on The Mutants Are Revolting, just wanted to add in a weird bit of a coincidence that didn't come up

that Dave, Dee, Dozy, Mick and Titch are a major sort of plot point in Death Proof where the DJ is explaining how Pete Townsend wanted to quit the Who and join them. Anyways, they all get killed while the song Hold Tight is playing which I assume must have been their most famous song, just because of that. Anyways, thank you guys for the great work as always. And this, Lee Olsen brought it up as a funny coincidence,

because we started the episode talking about the Grindhouse spinoff, Machete, and this had another connection to Grindhouse and the Death Proof thing. Yeah, in case you forgot, people, the Dave D. Dozy-Mickint are, they're the band who wrote the song Bend It. I think it's called Bend It. Yeah. Is that what it's called? And that's what plays at the end of the episode. No, I've listened to a whole day, you know, sometimes when I'm in the mood, I listen

to just Tarantino movie soundtracks because they are great mixtapes, they always are. And I've listened to Hold Tight a million times, but I always forget who the band was on it. So I appreciate that. They're a minor, and yeah, that scene is the, I don't know, it's the best scene in Death Proof too. Well, you know, man, Zoe trapped on the car hood is pretty awesome too. It's hard to say what's the best part of Death Proof.

I have not seen it, but I'll get back to you when I do. You should watch both versions Bobby, gotta watch the Grindhouse cut and then the full theatrical cut. Now I gotta watch two movies. Well we're gonna move on to Talking of the Hill, a beer can named Desire and Henry's producing this episode but I went over his head to add this comment to clarify more about the comic, he's a writer right? Comic writer, artist? Yes, Chuck Austin is a comic, yeah, I think he has done some art in comics too, but he was mainly a writer in the comic book world, yes.

Got it, well, listener Kiefer Folsom helped solve this mystery, like, what was he doing in animation, how did he end up writing comics, what's going on here? Well, this is what Kiefer said, Chuck explains on an episode of the Cerebro podcast that there was a production break in the middle of King of the Hill seasons four and five where he was unsure if the show was getting renewed or not. And he was having

trouble getting more TV work since King of the Hill was non-union. So he tried his hand at writing War Machine and this led to him writing X-Men. This was also during the time when we had three X titles running concurrently. Austin wrote the him writing X-Men. This was also during the time when we had three X titles running concurrently. Austin wrote the uncanny X-Men line while Grant Morrison was on the new X-Men and Chris Claremont on extreme X-Men. So thank you, Kiefer. I guess the on the bubble nature of this era

of King of the Hill forced Chuck Austin into Marvel again. Yeah, and I appreciate Kiefer for bringing that up because yes, I read that War Machine comic. It was part of the Max line. It was trying to be like an American manga. Like, it was all black and white, printed weekly. It had nudity and blood in it and gore that you don't see in normally in Marvel comics. An important note on how Austin was writing Uncanny X-Men while note on how Austin was writing Uncanny X-Men while Grant Morrison was new X-Men and Chris Claremont was extreme X-Men. I was reading new X-Men regularly. I was reading Chris Claremont's extreme X-Men sporadically. And I think another negative on Chuck Austin was like his was

the third best X-Men book at a time when the one of the best X-Men runs of modern era, the new X-Men was happening and it it only made his books seem shittier. But I will still blame him for writing the scene where Juggernaut has sex with She-Hulk. I do not like that scene. You can blame Fox for not renewing King of the Hill fast enough for seasons five and six. It would have saved all of us comic readers from having to see Chuck Austin's run on X-Men and Avengers.

He also had a bad Avengers run. But hey, he seems like a nice guy. I don't want to be too mean. Well, we'll go back to our standard order. I'll read this first one, Henry. So, dead in Denver says, "'When I tried to learn Italian, "'the professor was a lovely woman from Italy,

"'and she spoke 14 different languages. "'Was working on a 15th, but she always said "'French was the goofy one out of all the Romance languages.' Well, thank you, dead in Denver. I will say that when I was in Montreal, seeing the French everywhere, it was very hard to not read every sign in a silly French accent. It's a fun accent to do and one

thing I forgot about my trip it nothing nerdy happened there but we went to a museum that was basically a museum of the old sewer system of Montreal so we got to explore some of the old sewers now fully renovated into a museum experience but that was very very neat so that's one thing I can mention but yeah that sewer stuff looked really cool in your pics. That looked very neat. Yeah, if you go to Real Bob Servoma on Instagram, you can watch a first-person shot of me walking down old sewers. That's so much shit and piss went through in the 19th century. You know what, since you mentioned museums, I

did forget to say when I was in Portland, I also I went to the General Zoo area and which is also where the Japanese tea gardens are and did a little walk through through that but the main reason we went there was to go to the World Forestry Museum Because it was hosting the the log ladies log Catherine Colson the actress the late actress who played the log lady on Twin Peaks her daughter lives in the Portland area and she has possession of the log that was used in the filming. Every time she held the log, it was this log. And she said, I have this

and some other memorabilia from that. And her mother, Katherine Colson, loved the park system and parks and forests and all that. And so it's donated as a way to you know Get people to go to this museum who normally wouldn't I wouldn't have gone to a thing all about the history of like logging and and in forestry But to see the log ladies log I did and it was really a included a reference Yes, I needed it's a thing what I saw on the TV. Yes

I've learned from knowing Henry for so long a reference will really get his foot in the door. Yes, it is the spoonful of sugar for me to take in the medicine of greater culture. Well yeah, because I was confused, you tweeted about it and you were like, went to the, what was it called again? I'm sorry, the name. The World Forestry Museum.

I was like, went to the World Forestry Museum, I was like, does Henry have a new interest that's not pop culture? To see the log, ladies log. I was like, what's the World Forestry Museum? I was like, does Henry have a new interest that's not pop culture? To see the log, Lady's Log. I was like, okay, well this is a Henry trip. There you go, yes. The answer revealed itself very quickly. But it was a cool museum of other,

I took in the other stuff, I didn't just immediately like, I didn't spend 10 minutes there to run to the log on the second floor and then run back out the room. We saw the log, let's go already. It ain't getting any, she ain't getting any debtor. No, it was a good, use that as an excuse if you're in Portland or live in Portland, go check that out and then while you're there,

you can go to the Japanese Tea Garden, it's right across the street from the zoo. We didn't make time for the zoo this time. I'll go to the Portland Zoo next time, I will. Good zoo, give zoos a chance, Henry, they're great. I mean, I know you've been to the Seattle one a few times now. Yes, yeah, I have. It is a really good zoo. I need to give zoos more time. All right. And then lastly, final comment is a small correction for me. And I did goof it up, but it was Joshua says, small correction.

John Dilworth wasn't involved with Scooby meets Courage. Also a shame that Thea White's final performance as Muriel before her passing was in a corporate mandated crossover instead of a proposed sequel about how Muriel and Courage met. Dilworth shared some completed storyboards in a video I believe he's since taken down from his YouTube channel. Anything could have been better than the resulting 78 minutes of two uncomplimentary art styles which over explains the weirdness of Courage's world to fit a standard Scooby mystery featuring rapping Eustace in a Shrek style dance party ending which that does sound pretty horrible. Maybe if we get really desperate on what a cartoon movie it'll come up. I really feel I especially

apologies to me from to John Dilworth for making the assumption. I thought I misread somewhere that he was involved in it. Maybe I saw somebody else who worked on Courage say they were involved in it and goofed it up, but it is sad to know that that was the Muriel actress's final appearance was in a thing he didn't even work on instead of a sweet story of of how she found courage and in a wrapping Eustace That sounds horrible description. I hope he maybe got some money

You know what with owning the character and everything or having made the show there's got to be something in there for him I hope be at least some sort of creator Payments for that. Yes, even though I mean in the Cartoon Network world How much does the co-creator payment get if they make a thing without you? some sort of creator payment for that. Yes, even though I mean in the Cartoon Network world, how much does the co-creator payment get if they make a thing without you, I wonder. Cookie bouquet. I hope you got a cookie bouquet out of it.

Scooby snack-shaped cookie bouquet even. How about that? The driest graham crackers imaginable, but there's Scooby on the box. But that's it for comments for this month of all of our podcasts. And that's it for another episode this month of all of our podcasts. And that's it for another episode of Talk to the Audience. Again, we have a fun month coming up in the month of June.

We're covering Lilo and Stitch on What a Cartoon Movie. We've got our normal episodes of Talking Futurama and Talking of the Hill. They're both holiday related, oddly enough, but hey, it's going to be Thanksgiving and Christmas in June. And of course, we are going to be celebrating 10 years of Talking Simpsons. And it's a preface to the next 10 years of Talking Simpsons. So get ready, lock in your Patreon subscriptions because we're not going to stop.

And keep an eye out for cool ways you can engage with that 10th anniversary plans we've got there. Pay attention on the Patreon. And yeah, oh, and also don't forget, we got the Fantastic Four episode we're doing with Mike Lawrence. And that's just one of several really great guests we've got coming up in June, also on the Talking Simpsons episodes to some some new and returning folks Actually just returning folks. Yeah, so that is it for us this week

We'll see you next time for another episode of Talking Simpsons and then next month for another episode of talk to the audience. Take care Wow, infotainment.