Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - And Maggie Makes Three

Episode Date: October 25, 2017

At long last, after six seasons we finally learn how Maggie was born (try to act surprised). We learn about crime solving boats, the continuity of Homer's hair, and how to burn bridges in this week's podcast flashback...

This week's episode of Talking Simpsons is brought to you by you. That's right, we're on Patreon now, so head on over to patreon.com slash talking simpsons. For as little as $5 a month, you can help our show and get all kinds of great extra content on top of that. We've got a ton of great bonus content waiting for you right now, so head on over to patreon.com slash talking simpsons today. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we're paralyzed with rage and island rhythms. I'm your host, Pin Monkey Bob Mackie, and this is the Lazer Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons.

Who else is here with me today? I'm Henry Gilbert, and I'm not that fancy quilted kind. Oh, who else? Nappy Time Chris Santista. And special guest... And I'm starfish poacher Kat Bailey. Kat will pay for her crimes one day, and today... This seems like a gay slur.

Oh, jeez. It kind pay for her crimes one day. This seems like a gay slur. Oh, jeez. It kind of does. It really does. I wonder if it was meant like that originally. All right. Today's episode is, And Maggie Makes Three. We're doomed.

Doomed. I told you. Yeah! Go! Which aired on January 22, 1995. And as always, Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real-world history.

Oh my God! Hot damn, Bobby! The San Francisco 49ers have won the 29th Super Bowl, Forrest Gump takes home the Golden Globe, and Pearl Jam's vitality spins the black circle all the way up the popular rock charts. Oh man, we're in Forrest Gump mania now. Yeah. Here we go. It should be called Forrest Gump mania now. Yeah. Here we go.

It should be called Forrest Gump Award Season. It ruins everything. The Pulp Fiction deserved it so much more. It's aged so much better, too. And its soundtrack is better, too. Well, those damn stonecutters love Forrest Gump. That's true. I say outside of its comical take on male rape,

Pulp Fiction is a great movie. Isn't it funny if a man got raped? That is just mwah. Yes, it's kind of jokey, but it also scars him for life. True, true. It is played for humor, yes. I'm putting it on the line here. Yeah, it's more of a joke than not a joke. But the

49ers, was that their last Super Bowl ever? It was, in fact, their last Super Bowl up until now. Number five was Steve Young, and they destroyed the poor San Diego Chargers. So that makes it 22 years? Oh, those poor 49ers. I feel so bad for them as a Minnesota Vikings fan. I heard about the 49ers a lot growing up because some rich idiot from a neighboring town owned them in the 90s.

Eddie DeBartolo. DeBartolo, yeah. A lot of buildings are named DeBartolo in Ron Youngstown, Ohio. No kidding. So some dipshit Ohio guy can just go buy San Francisco's sports team? I mean, a dipshit used car owner from San Antonio bought the Minnesota Vikings. No. Most of the people who own sports teams are dipshit rich guys.

That's disrespectful to our California flag, and I won't hear of it from here. Isn't it that Packers are the only ones not owned by the people? I know you're a Packers hater. Packers! It's quote unquote owned by the community. Come at me, Packers lovers. You're in a bad sports mood because your baseball team. They're on the rise.

Minnesota Twins. My girlfriend from Wisconsin went into a Packers store. The Packers store had another room that was all anti-Vikings. Just an anti-Vikings room. So it's all yellow, green, then total purple. Fuck Brett Favre. I hate him now. And they say they don't care about us.

Who do the Packers hate more, the Vikings or the Bears? They'll say that they hate the Bears, but they really loathe the Vikings. They say, we respect the Bears. We hate the Vikings. That's how it goes. But Kat has a Vikings agenda, so why should we listen to her? That's true.

The only sport we'll talk about from henceforth is bailing. Yes. Well, hey, we have Kat on here, and this is also an important episode for women. That's right this is the first episode written by jennifer crittenden who is the first shockingly in a bad way the first woman staff writer in simpsons history yes i mean it's so hard to break into organizations like that because these dudes all know each other they're in this world and then they hire their friends i mean that's how it goes in the video game industry too too. But she was 23 when she was hired by Dave Merkin.

That's incredible. Yeah, no previous writing credits. She interned for Late Night with David Letterman, and she was part of a beginner's writing program at Fox. And David Merkin read one of her spec scripts and hired her. I think it helped that she was an attractive young woman, and David Merkin is David Merkin. Whenever I see a picture of the Simpsons writing room, I'm like, it looks like it fucking stinks in there. Yeah, a lot of it. Put two more women in there next to your cheese balls and Coca-Colas.

Well, not to just promote our Patreon, but in our more recent interview with Bill Oakley, he gave us some insight in this one that they had gotten out of that disgusting writer's room for seasons five and six. The writer's room just became David Merkin's big office yeah i say that because of how this fucking studio smells and how my i can hear i can hear my pants by how bad they smell right now and the bill oakley absolutely agreed that it was a boys club that the simpsons was a boys club he didn't he didn't

comment on how it was made to be a boys club more women joined the staff during he and weinstein's time running the show as well carolyn omine and i believe another rachel palita rachel palita yes just talking about this with my girlfriend last night because that funny woman on twitter i forget her name but you made an amram yeah she just got hired as a simpsons staff oh i didn't know she's on the simpsons she's been on book one yesterday she's hilarious but this recently was a revelation because before jennifer cr, there had been two women who had written for the show but in a freelance capacity. Nell Scovel, who wrote the Blowfish episode, and Mimi Pond, who wrote the first episode

that ever aired, Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire. Never heard of it. And Mimi Pond called herself the turd in the punch bowl for having to share this information but that she said she was friends with Matt Groening and that's how she got the job. But she didn't get to be a staff writer. Force diversity! She didn't get to be a staff writer because Sam Simon. I'm speaking on behalf of the 5% of dipshits in our audience right now.

She says that Sam Simon had been going through a nasty divorce and he said, I want no women in my office. And so he chose to not hire any women. And I think it's really telling that Nell Scoville, friends with Gene and Reese, they liked her, but they couldn't get her on staff on The Simpsons. But she was on staff on their show for The Critic. So it's unfair that we can't hear Sam Simon's side to this story because he's dead. But it's... How somehow getting divorced makes you swear off pussy? I did not know that was the case. I mean, it's just...

Simpsons is hardly alone in having no women on its writing staff. That's most comedy shows. That's true. And with Jennifer Crittenden, as usual, if you're a woman and you're trying to break into this kind of, like, a more male-dominated field, like I broke into gaming, you have to A, be talented and B, be pretty lucky and hope that you get your shot and then you grab it. You grab onto it because as usual, people, not everybody is like that, but a lot of people just naturally hire their friends and they have to stop and think, hmm, you know, everybody here has the same perspective and the same thoughts. Maybe we should expand our radius a little bit. But some people who don't want to hear

those other thoughts would not hire you. Maybe hiring my best friend means I'm just doubling up on the same kind of shit I would pitch and write. But she wrote Maggie Makes Three, and in my opinion, this is a great episode.

The first episode with Maggie's name in the title. Every other member of the Simpsons family has had an episode with their name in the title. It makes me sad that Maggie is so criminally underutilized because she can be an amazing comedic character because there's so much physical comedy involved in what she does. Just the fact that she doesn't talk.

She was the star of the shorts. The shorts love her. All the Tracy Ullman shorts love her. And the Oscar one too. It's really good. She's good for a three minute gag and a bunch of physical stuff as the unkillable baby, basically, I meant the theatrical short. Yeah, it's really good. Well, because she's good for a three-minute gag and a bunch of physical stuff as the unkillable baby, basically, was her thing. Just to finish on Jennifer Crittenden,

she went on to success after success. Oh, yeah. She would leave The Simpsons to write for the last two seasons of Seinfeld. She was the co-writer of the second-to-last episode of Seinfeld, which doesn't get aired all that much. The Puerto Rican one? Yes, yeah. But she wrote other great episodes, too.

She then would go on to Everybody Loves Raymond, and then would work as a consulting producer on all of season two of Arrested Development. And also now is a co-executive producer on Veep. I think we're forgetting about the new Adventures of Old Christine, Henry. Yes, that's true. I bet that show's actually all right. I'm sure it's fine. It runs in syndication still. There's like 100 episodes of it.

I don't think there are, but the show does that well in syndication. I looked it up. There's like 70-something. It's a lot more than you would expect from a show no one remembers. So this is the first episode written by a woman. A female staff writer. Two women had written before it. But the sole credited writer for the episode.

So if we're using 2017 Rick and Morty logic, she ruined the show? She didn't ruin the show. She ruined the episode. By being on here, she made every character worse. And using Rick and Morty logic, this being one of the best episodes, this is somehow ruined once I find out a woman wrote it. It's true. You shouldn't look at those credits. You should just assume a man did it the right way.

I am just doing our best to appeal to the five percent of horrible people listening i'm really glad the creator one of the co-creators rick and morty came out and said and called them out and really had his uh writers back that was really cool yeah people on the internet you're awful shocking well when the internet is dominated by teenage boys turns out that they're awful sorry except if you give us money then you're cool thank you teenage i'll let it slide i had been waiting for this episode as a kid for the longest time because they had done every flashback but not talked about maggie and it was just it was a card they hadn't played yet it's true they finally played it, wow, yeah. But this flashback is the first flashback to flashback to a year in which the Simpsons TV show already existed, 1993. It doesn't even take any liberties with things that were happening at the time. No, Homer mentions two things, but there are no strictly 93 references.

Yeah, it's like you could have gone out of your way to mention like Dances with Wolves. Dr. Hibbert's haircut. Yes. Dr. Hibbert's haircut is all you have to take the episode one of three or four nine early 90 references well it doesn't help that the show is on when they were doing it so when homer says homer's two references are to crystal pepsi and to the internet in homer goes to college it's nerds on the internet talking about star Trek and in A Marge on the Run Marge on the Lamb he drinks crystal

beverage so he they already did those jokes they referenced themselves well the funny thing is that I mean this episode obviously was made in 1995 and I don't know about you guys but when I was living at that time I was like man the 90s I mean

you're in it so you assume that I was like at that time, I was like, man, the 90s, I mean, you're in it. So you assume that, I was like, you can't see the crazy, you can't see the stuff that's going to become dated, right? You can't see the things that people are going to remember. So it's hard to make jokes about something that happened two years ago. Like sitting here making jokes about 2015, you go, what the heck happened in 2015? At some point, stuff rises out of that decade and then you can start making easier jokes about it but in the moment i i think that was kind of hard so yeah but it was also kind of funny that it was like let us have this amazing nostalgic moment

for two years ago well they did it on bojack horseman they did a flashback to 2007 and they nailed it that was an amazing episode but i still was like oh i guess that was what makes 2007 different from now in my mind it was all the same year just wait until 2020 2000s nostalgia will be in vogue even there was a terrible terrible decade that's when hugh downs comes back to life pre-smartphones and pre-streaming changed my life that well those two things changed my entire life and everything that happened before that seems really weird. But the only other thing I'll say...

Smartphones changed everything. Yeah. As I read my notes off the web. Yeah. And I wanted to see this episode. I was very excited to find out it existed three years after the fact. I learned about this episode's existence

in the Simpsons episode guide. I wanted to see if you guys or anybody else had yet another one of those experiences of, this did not air ever in syndication. I saw it on syndication all the time. But not in 1997 or 98. I think all of these didn't see it in syndication thing. It was all up to the whims of the market

and the individual purchaser of those episodes. Maybe they thought this was not something they would want to show people. I don't know what the packages look like. I don't know if you could opt out of episodes. Maybe they didn't like Homer's sperm. I was segwaying. In a no-internet world, I didn't know this episode existed. I read about it in an episode

in the Simpsons episode guide, the first edition, and every day I walked through it. Okay, they played the episode Homer the Great, and then boom, right into Bart's comment. They never played it. They intentionally never showed it. For me, this one showed all the time, but they never showed the episode where Grandpa's dating Marge's mom. Miss Bouvier.

Yeah. That was a rare one in my market, too. Old money. I only know that because for the longest time, that was the one we didn't have on tape, or we didn't have the first act on tape. So I had to re-record it. It took forever for it to re-record. I can give you some help, because I read over this page in the episode guide over and over again, because the only thing I had to know was that it existed.

On every single Simpsons episode guide, they have a profile of somebody or something in the episode, and this being the middle to the end of the sixth season, the only thing they could profile in this episode was Nightboat. So Nightboat took the sidebar. The crime-solving boat. I will also give credit to Critton. And this is a Jeff Martin-less episode who he had done the previous two flashbacks.

He did Bart's birth. He was the writer for Bart's birth, and he was the writer for Lisa's birth. That's I Married Marge and Lisa's First Word. But he was gone from the show at this point. But this follows a lot of that template in that it is the family on a couch telling a story to the kids about one of the births. It is giving a flashback with time cues

though they don't mention Joe Piscopo, which is lost there, and that it has a sweet ending too. That's the other hallmark. So, Jennifer Critton and the rest of the team on season six who were not there for those previous flashback episodes. They really captured what made those really special, I'd say.

But yes, you mentioned him. Let's start off with quite a great opening. We now return to Nightboat, the crime-solving boat. Faster, Nightboat. You've got to catch those starfish poachers. You don't have to yell, Michael. I'm all around you. Oh, no, the headed Valayan.

We'll never catch him now. Incorrect. Look, a canal. Oh, night boat, go! Oh, every week there's a canal. Or an inlet. Or a fjord. Quiet! I will not hear another word against a boat.

Okay, TV off. It's family time. Oh, but Marge nightboat the crime solving boat so that's hank azaria doing his william daniels voice for nightboat we heard him in itchy and scratchy land there's no need to marry my ma'am you're right same same voice you kids might know him as mr feeney by kids i mean 30 year olds because i hated that show as a kid too night writer parodies were a little hack at this point, but I think it had turned back around to be 80s nostalgia. I think it had just started to become nostalgic for Knight Rider.

It had been off the air probably for at least five years. It's 86. I feel like it was in syndication, because it was on in my house all the damn time, because my dad watched it. And every time I watch it, I'm like, this is way more boring than I think it should be. The coolest part is the opening song.

Yeah. And then it's all downhill. David Hasselhoff walking in a desert. Like, that's most of the show. Well, Knight Rider was invented with the idea of leading men can't act. So, therefore, they're just going to be playing second fiddle to a cool thing. In this case, a cool car. We also, at some point, should get a sound effect or some kind of notation When the Simpsons accidentally predict something

I kind of hate those clickbait articles And things Simpsons invented Because you're going to stumble upon some things That happen in 30 years of comedy Things that Simpsons invented, Donald Trump I wrote one of those articles by the way To make fun of the bad articles Thank God I thought I insulted Bob

But we just on 302010 Discover discovered the series Team Knight Rider of 1997. There's a team one? Team. Team. So it should be called Ford Presents Team Knight Rider because it's a team of people, not just one, with all different vehicles. And I went through every single episode. I didn't see a boat, but they have

planes and motorcycles. I'm sure there is a team Knight Rider boat. I'm positive and I refuse to do any more research on it. There better be a tiny Mr. Feeny in every vehicle. I remember when they thought they could reboot Knight Rider in the modern day. It got one season.

They tried it multiple times. There was Knight Rider 2000 as well, which was set in the year 2000. And they had the heads-up display on the windshield and everything. You're going, whoa, that's amazing. It's all in like JNCO jeans font. Let's not forget the Hulk Hogan vehicle, Thunder in Paradise. He had his own nightboat in that show. That's true.

And the kids' complaints, I think they taught me a lot about media criticism of just their saying, like, there's always an inlet. They're very genre savvy, aren't they? Yes, totally. That if you're going to create a show about a boat, then the boat has to get everywhere. So you just have to go like, oh, no, look, there's an inlet. We can get there. It's something I'm noticing more and more. Why do you think kids are abandoning traditional media for YouTube?

Because television's always geared toward the dad in the house. Yeah, that's true. And it's sometimes boring as shit. And now kids have their own dang smartphones. They can watch whatever they want. They don't have to let the dad pick the channel. I do like the kind of sweet setup of family time. Like, though, I think...

Did you guys ever have family time? Inexperience. They tried. I feel like every once in a while my parents tried to be like, no, we're gonna eat dinner together. We're not gonna watch TV. Actually, they did make us do that every night. Whenever we did that, it would last

for about a week, and then we'd be like, no, none of us like this. But the rest of us were like, mom, we're all gonna play a board game together, and she should have just had Marge's voice. Ew, mom, gross. We loved each other, but we gave each other space, so we never ate dinner at a table. It was was like i'm gonna watch tv in my room and eat dinner bye mom thanks for cooking this the worst thing was i would be sitting in my room playing a game or something and then i would hear from the downstairs cat come down here we're having family time i'd be like no

and family time was always we're gonna sit down on the couch and we're going to watch something that I don't care about. I do not want to watch, but I am in the same room as everybody. And we're not going to talk. We're just going to watch the TV. And in hindsight, that's really dark. Let's not reveal anything about ourselves. It would be more fun to play a board game together. I mean, we played board games sometimes.

When we would have board game nights, it would get too mean. mean we'd always be like hey you no sell me that you're mean especially the biggest what'd you guys fight over well it would often be my mom choosing a side between me or my brother in a game like monopoly or ritz it's all politics. I'm just like, no, mom, team up with me in my countries. I think your brother's going to win. You hate me. Why are you doing this, mom? Oh, my God. Playing Monopoly with kids would be the worst.

It is the worst. It'll last forever. I introduced my parents to Ticket to Ride, so I feel like I've made their lives a little brighter. Though, actually, my mom gets in the worst mood during Scrabble, because she wants to win every Scrabble game. And anytime somebody uses a word, she's like, we're going to pull up the dictionary right now. Your parents are very competitive, I see. That is the only board game in history I've ever seen flipped over a loss. But it's the only one that should be, because man, it looks great.

Yeah, there's a lot of pieces. It makes a great mess. You need magnetic anti-rage Scrabble for that. Or digitally, you can't flip a board. No, can't flip boards with friends. Which my mom plays all the time. I think she actually met my stepdad. We'll see when Zynga goes out of business.

So I think it was a very true observational thing of moms of them loving photos of their kids sleeping. Like, that was not in a creepy way. That's what kids do. Either they're being annoying or they're asleep. And when they're annoying, it's harder to photograph them. It's true. And by the way, people, those are photographs, which are like physical things. You look at

pictures of people. You take them to a store. It's a scrapbook. The kids know, because trust me, I hung out with a bunch recently. The Polaroids are back. And it's so obnoxious. I hate those things. Also, it's a hipster thing now. Well, I mean, in the sense that Polaroids, if you want to take a nude of somebody,

you just do it to yourself. But what stops someone from taking it? That's why we have Snapchat. Well, but you take a picture of the nude Polaroid immediately with your phone, and then you have it forever. It's like a picture of your phone. You take a picture on your phone of the Polaroid. We're through the looking glass, people.

I think you just pitched Instagram. But so you need to know that for the plot of this episode because photographs of Maggie are a limited resource. There's only one copy of them. They couldn't make multiple copies to be in the book. And if you come from a family with multiple children, the first child tends to get the most photos taken of them. Oh, for sure.

Drops off after that. So watching it with, trying to watch it with fresh eyes, like, the ending's awesome. Because you don't know, because that always happens, especially with three children. Wait a minute. It wasn't exactly expensive to print photos back in the 90s. I honestly can't remember.

I mean, they had one-hour photo places. They don't want to do it. I mean, it was a cost, too. But I kind of wonder, watching this episode, I was thinking, I know people on Facebook who've had children years ago, and almost every moment of their child's life has been documented.

One day that child will grow up and see all of that. Every tantrum recorded, every shitty thing they did recorded. Like, what is the privacy issue with that as citizens of America? What the privacy issue with that as as citizens of america what do you do with that shit privacy is dead kids of 2050 it's true did you see that video we just put on our facebook like for some reason every time we play friday the 13th the game an m-rated game about an r-rated movie from 1980 a fucking five

year old is in there screaming his head off and it's hilarious and we had to mull it over like we have to blur this kid's name out we can't be responsible for blowing up this kid's spot and putting his gamer tag out he didn't ask for that that's not what he signed up for and people on the internet are shitty so i do wonder like if parents post shitty stuff about their children that could be used as bully ammunition i think later on i i think in 2040 we're going to be seeing a lot of stand-ups do jokes about how they had no privacy their entire life. I mean, in 10 years we're going to have a president who's probably been on social media for a good chunk of their lives. Yeah.

10, 20 years. Do you think we have to wait 10 years for that? I mean, look at what's happening with Donald Trump where he says something and immediately somebody finds a tweet where he said literally the exact opposite. Yeah. It's oh boy. But so, yeah, where are the pictures of Maggie? Why aren't there any pictures of Maggie? Well, I'm glad you asked.

It's actually a very interesting story. Oh. It all began about two years ago before Maggie was even born. Bart, you were Lisa's age, and Lisa, you were the age Bart was several years ago. Get the camera ready. Bart very sleepy. Listen carefully and my words will shape images as clear as any TV show. It was a tumultuous time for our nation. The clear beverage craze gave us all a reason to live.

The information superhighways showed the average person what some nerd thinks about Star Trek. And the domestication of the dog continued unabated. That's great. Continued unabated. But that's great. Notice, watching all these episodes back to back, every flashback episode comes with a Homer triple introduction on what the time period was like,

which is why we do the news. Or Marge saying Ms. Pac-man struck a blow for women's rights and the kids are never on board in the first act with these flashbacks they're always looking for a reason to get away or trying to fix the tv that broke or kids don't want to hear about their parents like whatever that happened with their parents before they were born i'd be bored as shit if someone's telling me about my little sister one year ago sure yeah yeah i would also, I would also say, like, I remember being... You know I was there. I was like, I'm 10. I remember being 8. I'm not drinking

yet. I remember everything. I took Bart and Lisa's groans as them representing the audience when they realized, like, oh, this is a flashback episode. I did enjoy the pictures of the TV. It looks like we have two TVs. See, to me, that represented one of the key themes of The Simpsons, which is the breakdown of kind of the TV. It looks like we have two TVs. See, to me, that represented

one of the key things of The Simpsons, which is the breakdown of the nuclear family. Because they literally are taking pictures of the freaking TV with Nightboat. Which is next to the mirror, which is a reference to what most people do with their animals. They treat the TV like a pet. Yeah, that's true.

Here's the cat and the dog discovering the mirror. And it's, again, dating it. It's an SD television, folks. It's just how it was. They were that big. I can't believe they updated it and kept it purple. And so then Homer basically flashes to under siege. I was at my workstation when suddenly...

Attention, American workers. Your plant has been taken over by an all-star team of freelance terrorists. Not on my shift! Simpson 10, terrorist 8. Homer, tell the story right. Okay. Homer, you should see a doctor. I don't think a healthy man can make that kind of smell.

That was Hans Gruber commanding a team of freelance terrorists. I love that they're an all-star team of terrorists freelance terrorists back when terrorists were white people in ninja outfits yes they were always seen as like well they're vaguely eastern european like they it was before the uh well also that they would be united in a hatred of america that they it could be an all-star team of international terrorists and you're right there was a hans gruber voice but i took homer homer basically says not on my ship though he says shift shift right which is under siege the only good steven seagal film that's actually good i've only seen under siege two it's on a train

wait you haven't seen under siege no i never have it's got like it's got a sexy playboy playmate scene in it steven seagal's now sort of Owlman. I heard somebody perfectly say that he looks like Peter Griffin in a bad disguise. And that George Foreman challenged him to a fight. George Foreman said, I'll box and you do whatever you want to fight right now, Steven Seagal. I used to love his political commentary, but back when it was like, I'm going to take you to the bank, Senator. The blood bank. Such a good clip on YouTube. He's the only guy who would make a film about murdering industrialists, but now he's just a crazy...

Several films where he's murdering on the side of activists. Yes, though now, as was pointed out on the great podcast, Choppo, Trap House, that he's on TV saying, like, these un-American people kneeling for the flag. He moved to Russia and renounced his American citizenship because he would be prosecuted for sex crimes in America. What a brave man. I don't think he's a Russian citizen now. What? Look up Steven Seagal.

Yes. It's related to that lawman thing. Roman Polanski and Steven Se seagal i like that burns lenny and carl laugh at homer to say it's something you don't see in actual action films of people laughing at their yeah the wise cracks their uh what cool dry wits yeah one-liners and that here's the thing you need to know, listeners. Like, one, you'll never be free of debt. But the two, don't quit your job until you have another one lined up. Oh, wait. We didn't do that.

Well, we had another one lined up and then we had a Patreon. That's true. Yeah, but it's just still, is this not unfathomable? Do you ever see a point where you can quit your job and go work at like a fucking record store? No, Homer's crazy to even be like, oh, I'm free of debt. One, you're never free of debt. Like, you never would be. Like, his mortgage wouldn't be paid off. No. Just thanks to that. be like, oh, I'm free of debt. One, you're never free of debt. You never would be. His mortgage wouldn't be paid off just thanks to that time.

I mean, how do you know? Maybe he did, in fact, pay off his mortgage. He's debt free. I mean, he says he is, but... He owns a house. This is on behalf, Kat, of people who have their paychecks not written on anything and no one withholding anything and no insurance. I just can't imagine having enough to walk away ever absolutely and he works like a blue collar job and like a main theme of the entire show for like the first three seasons is we don't have enough

money so it's like with two children if i with two kids if i make it hyper continuity yes they did buy the house using money from Grandpa selling his old house. So that could have helped with the mortgage and maybe helped paying it off. They lived there for, if Lisa is now six in this episode, they've lived in that house for six years. Boy, even with Grandpa's help, I'm just, now I'm depressed. At 36, Homer got to retire. But more to the point, Homer's not taking into account things like medical emergencies because he wouldn't have health insurance working.

School shootings, which are not covered, pre-existing condition. I guarantee that if Homer had actually been able to keep that job, they would have been screwed at some point. Well, I think in Homer Loves Flanders, we find out he makes $5 an hour. A pin monkey salary can't be much less than that legally. Actually, as a continuity nerd, I had some problems with it. But Vox.com actually did a whole video about Homer's wage. And they used his bear tax paycheck when he complains about the bear tax and his homer tax

aka the homeowner's tax you see his full paycheck so you know what he gets paid weekly which was in 1998 400 a month that was 1996 henry i really hope somebody was fired from this podcast for that but so they extrapolate from that but but they also say, well, he had all these other jobs. My rejoinder to that, when they try to predict how much money Homer has, they forget that they got bushels of free diamonds from an evil ape researcher when they went to Africa. What, season 10, I think? Season 12. Whoa, no wonder.

Oh, no. We canceled each other out. Help me. Sorry. It is hard not to identify, though, with Homer quitting a horrible job for his dream job. Yes. Because that is what we did, too. Yes.

Me and Bob did it very recently. Our boss was telecommuting that day, so he couldn't play. He just had a bongo. But I really wanted to. You really did, Ben. But we had to do it from his living room and just see him, I don't know, probably switch off his screen and then scream a bunch maybe yes we did burn a bridge on the way out to me uh quitting your job on your own terms is a luxury because all my other jobs ended with my whatever my placement employment literally shutting down that's another problem with

this episode that makes it unmodern in that well it's very 90s right the expectation is Homer would have this job for life you have no jobs for life nowhere now you don't have that you are always laid off it's a very old school concept of yep I'm here forever

yes but moving on that Burns can even threaten him with you'll be here forever because like no you won't you won't have a job

you'll be laid off you can sell this company to someone else move it overseas there's no job security anywhere a dead end job was a luxury.

Yes, exactly. Considering it. The Simpsons will be right back. I have a question for you. What's almost as good as a nightboat t-shirt? Why, it's an official Talking Simpsons t-shirt. Yes, the Talking Simpsons podcast, his own t-shirt, in case you haven't heard about it. And it's really cool.

I'm wearing mine right now. It's a beautiful sky blue uh it's a wonderful design based on the logo for ion springfield which is very close to our hearts and it was designed by a friend of the show nina matsumoto and she did an incredible job how to get your own talking simpsons t-shirt you'll find it on the website shirt sickle popsicle but with a shirt in it or you can go to the easy address of tiny.cc slash talking shirt that's tiny t-i-n-y dot cc slash talking shirt it's 1999 ships internationally as well just take a look at it for yourself. I think you really think it is key. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans,

EV tariffs, solar panels, and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our Net Zero Hub at electricireland.ie. We talk a lot in this episode about how Bob and myself quit our jobs, but what do we quit our jobs for? Patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. That is the website that helps pay for me and Bob to do this full time with Chris. What do you get for that?

Other than just being happy and knowing that me and Bob are doing a good job. Well, you get access that other than just being happy and knowing that me and Bob are doing a good job? Well, you get access to a million things. You get to hear every episode of The Simpsons a week early and ad-free, meaning you won't hear me talk about this anymore. You get the first season of Talking Simpsons right there, all our season wrap-ups, as well as our bonus weekly podcast, Talking Critic, where we go through every episode of The Critic, and our monthly community podcast, where we read some of our favorite comments on the show.

There's a ton of stuff, and there's even more if you give $10 a month. You can see all of it in detail in the Patreon tiers at patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. And when you sign up, you get your own RSS feed for all of the podcasts that you can plug into whatever you use for podcasts. So please check it out for yourself.

Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Hey, this is Hank Azaria. You're listening to Talking Simpsons on Laser Time. I didn't know that was a thing. Happy Halloween. Yes, Lizzie. Tis the season for Halloween spooktaculars, and we have launched a brand new series.

An Elm Street Nightmare. No good scream, Liz. It's a brand new limited podcast series all about our favorite horror series. A Nightmare on Elm Street. Every week in October, talk with us about our favorite horror villain, Freddy Krueger. Here's a highlight. Just the all out weirdest scene in like an almost all of Freddy history.

We get the tongue sequence again. Oh, yeah. But coming out of Jesse, the main character, onto his girlfriend's boobs. And I do like I also in hindsight hindsight like i come on i'm a little kid in the 80s i am watching this for nudity i'm watching horror movies for nudity as well they since they got that r rating they almost always snuck in boobs and butt it's there's nudity in every friday the 13th movie it's part of the game there's not a lot of nudity in the nightmare series as a series. Except in this movie

where it's just mostly dude butts. There's some boobage in here, but not as lovingly shot as the asses in the shower sequence. However, this is probably the gayest sequence in the entire film where Jesse runs away from the cabana. He doesn't want to be with the woman. He gets hot, sweaty

and feels weird and he needs to run into the bedroom of his friend. His frenemy, who they fight a little, they do push-ups together, they pull each other's pants down. He wakes him up as he's shirtless in bed. They're both incredibly sweaty. And this is what accounted for 80 subtext,

I suppose. me. And last night it made me go to my sister's room. And tonight with Lisa in the cabana, it started to happen again. I think you are seriously losing it, bro. I'm scared, Grady. Something is trying to get inside my body. Yeah, and she's female and she's waiting for you in the cabana. And you want to sleep with me. Look, I don't care if you believe me or not. Hey, I believe you. Sleep with me, bro. Just sleep with me. Pull your pants down, bro. Don't even put a shirt on.

Just sleep together. Listen to an Elm Street Nightmare. Every Tuesday. At elmstreetnightmare.com. Or wherever you get your podcasts. uh homer's obsession with dick clark never really comes back yes it was uh dick clark on carson dick clark's birthday and stalking dick clark so he is he's still stalker well he is previously a stalker this is two years ago all right uh this is before Chef Boyardee and Charles Kuralt. Yes, when Bob and I quit, I did

imagine the telling off of Burns in this scene, which is really beautiful. and do anything I want. Is that so? Ooh, lovely desk. It would be too bad if someone, oh, I don't know, didn't use a coaster! Such a nice, tiny office. Maybe it's time you started living like a pig!

Oh, I hope I haven't upset you. Bongo head! I should be resisting this, but I'm paralyzed with rage. And island rhythms. Yeah, way to play the boss's head like a bongo, Hobo. He's getting a pretty good sound out of that guy. That's for employing me for eight years! Oh, the burning bridge. And he literally burns

a bridge, which Dave Merkin was like, yeah, I want this animated gag in here because you can't really do that in real life. He's really smart. That is one of my favorite Twitter gifs to respond to something. My pinned tweet is a GIF of that from when I announced that I've quit my boring day job to then start this. It is burning a bridge, a.k.a. Homer.

My opinion is some bridges are shitty and worth burning and probably will disintegrate under their own free will at some point. So who the fuck cares? And sometimes burning that bridge builds a new bridge in front of you that you didn't realize. I've never found that to be the case. I don't like to burn bridges personally because I feel like you never know when a good relationship is going to come in handy. And we see that with Homer. He will regret this.

He will regret this. You never know when you're going to regret burning a bridge. I'm sorry, but you're complicit in our bridge burning with our former company. This is true. Yes. You're an accessory to this. You got me, Bob. Yeah. Well, you'll get there soon. Good luck working there.

Somebody will realize all your dreams are doomed. Well, still working on it. I'm still going strong. Way to go, Kat. But yeah, I also saw you see Lenny and Carl again getting a bunch of screen time because they are now regulars on the show. And as they point out on the commentary, and I never really noticed it as a joke,

but that Homer's plan involves quitting his job and then hoping he gets his dream job. He didn't even try to get his dream job first before quitting. Okay, I just want to point out, I can't believe that Marge, who to my knowledge controls the books, would allow him to be like, yeah, no, I'm going to quit, and I have figured out everything that needs to be happening. Oh, and by the way, I don't have a contingency plan if I don't get my dream job. That's true. He counts. Marge just trusts his bookmaking, which I absolutely wouldn't do with Homer.

Yeah, I would not allow Homer to figure out what the budget is. I'm sorry. Homer's budget is, what, quilted toilet paper, and oh, and one of you can't go to college. That's it. No, I guess they didn't already have cable, but yeah. So Homer applies for his dream job. And now,

the final phase of my plan. Hey, Barney, any chance you can give me a job here? Oh, sure, Homer. I told you my uncle owns the place. Hey, Uncle Al, can Homer have a job? Sure. Woo-hoo!

Barney, you're fired. Okay. Show up tomorrow. Bring three rags. Oh, and change your pants. Why? When it happens, you'll know. So Barney's Bolarama,

where Homer works in this episode, that was a season one thing, and it burned down in Moaning Lisa. They announced on the TV that the art gallery burns down, and this museum burns down, and also the bowling alley burns down. Well, they clearly rebuilt it. It's true. Well, again, this is a flashback. This is before Moaning Lisa. It was established when they

were creating the show that Barney would own Barney's Bolarama, which is named after it was established when they were you know creating the show that barney would own barney's bullorama which is named after him but then they decided my nephew he's too much of a drunk to run a business so this sort of retcons that into it being his uncle al's business that he named after his sweet nephew who he fired but did you notice not until the last shot of the bullorama does barney the word barney appear in front of Bola Rama. Yeah, yeah, that's true. They removed it from the logo for the rest of the scenes. In other episodes, it is back to being Barney's Bola Rama. But yeah, it's just...

Always will be in Bard vs. the Space Buten. Yes. I'll never be able to erase it from my mind. It's all the stupid time I spent in that level. It's a mainstay in every old Simpsons game because that was the content they had available to pull from. Yeah. These locations like Howard's Flowers, Candy Most Dandy. We didn't have enough hard drive space

to make a Barney sprite. Here's your reference. But when Barney's Bola Rama exists in that world, it's like, but even season one Barney is not a guy who could run his own business. No, no. It's impossible. Al Gumbel comes back in the Pen Pals episode.

Well, it's a great retcon of creating Al Gumbel as the owner who kind of looks like barney and even filthier than barney he's covered in stains true and that barney takes being fired to make room for homer very well too he does and uh so yeah then they do the budget and well you know barney has a million jobs i mean of course he does tell a big baby such a and i have to say that pin monkey salary to me sounds like a minimum wage job and i don't care if you are debt free there is no way a family of one income earner could live in the house they live in with two children at school in the same way they had been i'm not saying people

don't do that it's hey cost of living in springfield is amazing yes it's so polluted but uh i can say this as a former homeowner isn't it isn't it the most uh isn't it the least desirable city in america that is true as a former homeowner you still have to pay the government an enormous amount of taxes on your home every year. It's mildly less than what you would be paying in a shithouse fucking two bedroom, but that's about what it is. Even when you own your house lock, stock, and barrel with a mortgage payout.

And that's why if you ever win a house in a contest, take the cash prize. Don't take the house. Good to know. I would take the Simpsons house in that contest. I wish, yeah. That house, I wish it went to somebody who wanted it. Some old lady got it. Boo. Boo. So,

then to celebrate it, they go out and have drinks. They listen to Copacabana, which is the 1978 Barry Manilow classic, which, after Barry Manilow came out, I listened to some of his music again and I forgot, Copacabana is a depressing song. It's about the Copa, Copacabana,

but it is about a showgirl who falls in love with Tony, but Tony gets in a fight with a local mobster and Tony dies in the fight and then the showgirl spends the rest of her life hanging at the bar at the Copacabana in sad grief and his last lines of it are like don't fall in love yes yeah hey welcome out of the closet barry it's it's good i saw a lot of knife fights in vegas i guess i think it might have been a gun death i see i'm thinking of mac the knife and then we get cool from here to eternity

little homage right i like that homer enjoys marge doesn't like sand in her underpants homer does like it and just as i love it the his kind of hip swivel to get the sand in different places after he puts more sand and marge is too practical to be caught up in the moment the moment of passion he's like let's go home yeah i mean it's she's already got some sand in her pants to make love on the beach would mean oh boy increasingly more sand in the in those areas too much friction involved no no no no one shot they don't shower when they get home though they don't they just kick off their clothes and seconds later we have a baby did you notice that homer and marge are dressed basically the same as they were in some enchanted evening you're right marge's arms are colored incorrectly and her glove are colored correctly

in that it's her skin tone right orange and her glove her arm length gloves are orange instead of white but it is the same costume interesting yeah i i wonder i would doubt that was in the script i would bet that was more of the writer of the animators given homer's move in the career world it makes sense that they had a dinner at crusty burger in the drive-thru totally celebrates and uh and so yeah the then they demonstrate sex to their children. Great animation. I love you, Marge. I love you, too, homie. Everything in our lives is finally perfectly balanced. I hope things stay exactly like this forever.

Mm-hmm. Don't! Don't! Don't! Woo-hoo! it's okay marge they paved the way for this kind of filth in school though the cool movement homer is doing david silverman animated that no one else could do it as much as he wanted to like show them how to do it he's like let me do it i'll do it he did it it is perfect it's like wiggle like i also like how it's implied homer came in seconds it says seconds later that's true that's true i mean that's not surprising with yeah with homer yeah well and he's i mean maybe he's been raring to go all night and now he's finally just popping off but it's i guess as a kid i never realized like i didn't i didn't i knew what semen was in a scientific term i mean i didn't realize we were like literally looking at homer's con the

look who's talking movies paved the way for this kind of filth oh i get around yes every movie opens with somebody coming well even dogs yes yeah thanks mom look who's talking too starts with dog come now tell your kids in Now. Look Who's Talking Now. We're never going to hear the end of it on Claire. Proofies episodes had already established that in the world of The Simpsons, your semen is your head. Like, your head is your semen. That's how it looks.

Horrifying thought. Anybody have any Photoshop out there? I want to see Henry's sperm. But we just talked about actually paving the way for that filth in school as not happening when we were kids i didn't actually cat yeah did you did you have sex ed or was it abstinence only oh we definitely had sex ed starting in like when i was like in fourth grade we were in individual classes the boys got their own classes and girls got their own classes and we were learning about how the female body works and the the miracle of childbirth and everything and as we got older

it was kind of a well we kind of are dancing around how sex actually works but let us explain puberty to you so so they never explained how sex works, though, or birth control or any of that stuff. There was a long story about Jack and Jill and how Jack really wanted to have sex with Jill and then they have sex and uh-oh Jill suddenly misses her period

and she's not feeling so great and oh, Jill had a kid and now Jack has to pay child support and their lives are ruined forever jack didn't jack and he spilled in jill well the uh the second herb powell episode we do see homer's sperm he has a very low sperm count and that's why he's given that award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence it's true i guess though this was the last time his boys were really working that's true that is the future though, this was the last time his boys were really working. That's true. That is the future. So I think the radiation gradually killed his Homer spur.

He spent more time telling us how tight pants cause jock itch than telling us how sex worked in our sex ed classes. I wonder, this implies that Homer, I guess, so does she not normally take birth control? There's a lot of questions that would not be raised by a sitcom in 1995. One of them, again, we mentioned this on, I believe it was, not Lisa's first word, I Married Marge. There is no talk of abortion in this episode. Well, it is possible to get pregnant if you're taking birth control. True, true. Especially with my sperm.

I suspect that she wasn't taking birth control because they never had sex, as we've kind of seen in previous episodes. That's why they fuck pretty consistently though. I don't know. But maybe this is a special occasion so he took the glove off. But as I said on that

Talking Simpsons episode for I Marry Marge, no sitcom would broach the subject of abortion. A child that was coming was an inevitability that you had to have. That's true.

Except for that episode where Uncle Jesse had mercy and fired Les and Becky. They were gonna have quadruplets. The closest thing we have here is when Hibbert says, is this an unwanted pregnancy? But he talks about the black market before talking about... It wasn't just that he went out on the black... Was this in the news now or two years ago?

And why did he have a specific dollar figure for the worth of a baby uh white as i learned from stranger with candy white babies babies don't cost money they make money i didn't realize how taboo i didn't realize how taboo abortion was in the media until i watched the bojack episode about abortion yeah where they delved into it actually pretty deeply and, you know, Diane takes a trip to the abortion clinic. Sorry, spoiler alert.

And you're like going, oh, wow, like, they really go a lot of places with this episode that even now TV shows often will not address because abortion is too hot of a topic.

I don't think a network show would do that unless you're a mod. Mod, and then there's mod. And then there's mod. And only mod. It was a huge deal when Adrian Barbeau in that episode says abortion once. And it's also crazy to watch it because it was made like a year or two before Roe v. Wade so they're just

talking about how in New York it's legal now. It was a mind fuck to me like in my mom's lifetime it became legal and like but by the way you could obviously outlaw abortion unlike guns like you can't you can't what can you do outlaw guns everybody's gonna get a 10 year old movie like knocked up rated r filthy in continuity is like don't say abortion and so the rest of the movie they call it a gorgon because it's still too hard to say well there's just still a scene of like no i don't say abortion. And so the rest of the movie, they call it a Gagorshin. Because it's still too hard to say. Well, there's just still a scene of like,

no, I don't want to. Well, same in Juno. Like, Juno has a big scene of like, no, I guess I can't do it either. Like, couldn't, I mean, obviously Juno would be a very different film if she just was like, okay, I'll just have an abortion.

I'm not ready to have a kid now. I'm just going to get on my soapbox, Marge, get an abortion. Come on. You can't afford to be dead. Yes, no Maggie. Kill Maggie. Look, I love Maggie and everything, but it's on. You can't afford to be dead. Yes, no, Maggie. Kill Maggie. Look, I love Maggie and everything,

but it's obvious that you can't afford to give her a good life, and your family is going to suffer for it. So are you going to give her a bad life, or are you going to take care of the kids you have? That's what I ask. So anyway, Homer's having a great time in his new job. I was in heaven. If horse racing is a sport of kings then surely bowling

is a very good sport as well all right great job homer thanks a lot homer thank you the best i'm gonna make it after us so mary tyler moore throwing her hat at nicola Mall is probably the most important moment in Minnesota history. I just want to point that out. I have read full newspaper profiles about that moment. Did they ever find the hat? They always interview the lady who was standing behind Mary Tyler Moore judging her and going,

what is this strange lady doing with her hat? My word! That's not what hats go! You would forget that the show is set in Minnesota for any time they're indoors. It's mostly a set. But that was a reference I did get because I was watching Nick at Night

all the time, so I knew Mary Tyler Moore. But there's also, before that, seen a nice uh couple of urinal fresh rolling fresh and that though the sad thing is like this shows you this homer could either make a good amount of money to support his family and be miserable or he can be poor and happy but he can't have both like he can't basically capitalism henry yes yeah if it's a job you enjoy then you should be paid nothing because your enjoyment is the payment life is suffering homer has hit the crossroads that i feel all adults who are lucky enough to have a job

eventually hit which is to ask yourself all right well i i'm kind of bored with my job and i'm not really that interested in doing it but i have a certain lifestyle am i willing to'm kind of bored with my job and I'm not really that interested in doing it, but I have a certain lifestyle. Am I willing to just kind of accept how boring work is in exchange for being able to live my life? Or am I going to pursue something that is a little more fulfilling in my work days? Personally, I went for, oh, I decided that I wanted to write about video games

at a relatively early age and I somehow made that happen. I don't know how I managed that. And while it's a lot of hard work uh sometimes i have to step back and go yeah pretty cool i got a pretty cool job here i shit on my job all the time but i every day take a giant humble this is awesome that i get to do this and conversely my girlfriend i mean her job is not the most exciting thing in the world she does market research basically and sales stuff but when she comes home from her day at work she's done and then she can go to a concert that is

something i i do tend to i'll say it masturbate over something the job i can walk away from at five o'clock yeah i mean i've never had that job i have not had a job in a decade but it also reminds me i got i did get my dream job at 20 i got a job at Suncoast Video in the mall, the mall DVD store. A deeper selection than Best Buy. It was worthwhile. And guess what? Like Homer, fucking great at it. And guess what?

Nobody cared. Nobody at the company cared. Did you sell any DirecTV subscriptions? That's not my fucking job. You're here to sell Entertainment Weekly, Chris, not to sell movies. Bob clearly heard the story too many times. Yeah, I worked in the mall at that time. Oh, yeah, because if they used a credit card, they'd try and hoist some fucking subscriptions to magazines.

They'll charge them forever. Like, that's shady as shit. But, you know, you called me on my personal time eight weeks because someone came in with a movie recommendation, and I can tell you what it is. Didn't matter in the slightest to Suncoast. They did not care that people would come in, like tell me a dream of a movie that oh yeah that's the five stair steps here it's over here like i've seen that actually my expertise was punished i worked at a software etc with like just terrible awful managers who hated where they were and who they

were and i remember helping a mom for like 20 minutes recommending games walking her through systems and hardware and i rung her up and she's like, you know what? You did such a good job. I'm going to give you a tip. And she slides a $5 bill over to me. And the manager comes by. Manager comes by.

He's like, he's not allowed to take tips. And I'm like, you have made me a communist from this day forward. I renounce all capitalism. But Bob, check this out. We still deviate from The Simpsons. It turns out having a job where you knew a lot about movies and entertainment and you could talk about

it in a store, that wasn't worth paying me for, but look at what I do now. Yeah. I had that exact same thing at Blockbuster as well. I had it at AMC Theaters. I could not get a job at Blockbuster. I tried every year. I was not valuable at GameStop.

All those college kids always beat you out for it. Well, that's the thing. No, they want a cheap kid or a go-getter. Like, it doesn't... Yeah, it's... For that $5, they could have kept you as somebody with faith in capitalism. No shit. Like, if this all goes tits up, I think I could be happy working at some kind of blockbuster.

Working at an Alamo draft house and not molesting people. I know what you're talking about. Chris, I have bad news about Blockbuster. Well, there probably exists in some South American country. There are like five of them. The mom and pop video store I worked at at Berkeley, which stayed alive for a very long time, finally closed two years ago. Even that can last. So the Shino Bolo joke, I do love that.

It's really good animation of the shine on his head. And that is when I, as a viewer, noticed Homer had three hairs, not two, on his head. What is the thing around his ears count as? I mean, that is a hair. Is that a hair? It is one more hair, yes. Larry David Halo. Holy crap, he is the ugliest man ever.

Well, when they call it all but three hairs in the... In Stonecutters episode. In Stonecutters, that implies that the M around his head is one hair, even though it can't be. But other times it's been treated as a single hair, not as a drawing of some hair. I want to think it's an abstraction to suggest more hair. That's always an irony, too. But it's just like Matt Groening's drawing style. You cannot really explain what these features are. I mean, it exists that way because it is an M and the ear is a G.

So that is why his hair is that way. Anyway, meanwhile, oh, and there's a cute little, like, kind of Looney Tunes-o-mods of showing how the pins are made. Yeah, it's a Raymond Scott's powerhouse. It's beautiful and meanwhile as homer is enjoying life march gets the bad news and then they completely sell out hibbert's character yeah congratulations mrs simpson you're pregnant you might take it that this is an unwanted pregnancy oh no no not not exactly it's just that i haven't told homer yet and with his new job i don't know how we're going to be able to afford this well you know a healthy baby can

bring upwards of sixty thousand dollars what of course that was just a test uh how'd you react differently why you'd be a dare right now simply a test i mean. Hibbert doesn't have a character, to be honest. Well, when he first appeared, he was very serious of telling kids, like, don't imitate a death artist. Like, don't do that. But in this season, he had the tubes to carry away people who couldn't pay. Remember Bart of Darkness? Yeah, he did that. He's also a member of the Republican Party and of the Stonecutters he's not a nice guy but this is him

this implies he has been selling children before he knows who to sell babies to this is really evil stuff he's engaged in I just looked it up I literally googled how much does a baby cost you are now being tracked

good, good, I hope I am, give me a baby apparently according to a 2010 article a baby cost. You are now being tracked. Good, good. I hope I am. Give me a baby. Apparently, according to a 2010 article on a website called Suze Rocks, a Canadian baby could be purchased for $10,000. That's it? And then up to $30,000, and a woman in Florida was arrested for trying to sell her baby for $75,000, but the buyee

could only get $30,000. So $30,000. $30,000 of seven years ago's money. Man, that's money. Man. That's dark. Cost of an iPhone? I don't look at penalty prices. So we skipped over this scene,

but I just wanted to observe the bit where Homer was like, there was literally no way to know that Marge was pregnant. And Marge, of course, is running into the bathroom. Can I tell you, being pregnant sucks.

I've not been pregnant, but I've had friends who have been pregnant and watching their abject misery. Yeah, it looks pretty horrible. This infected cuticle hurts, so I get it. My poor friend threw up basically every day for the first three months. Now try imagining that. I only thought it odd really Marge isn't going to ever mention that she's pregnant.

Fine, Homer's very unobservant, but she just never mentions it. She would know, right? Well, I mean, she's clearly going, oh, God, now what are we going to do? After all the throwing up, then she goes to Hibbert to find out and get it confirmed. But, yeah, that Homer wouldn't know what morning sickness is, just he's that stupid. And that's like...

Every girl I sleep with does in the morning. When I think of the... When I've heard about the pain of childbirth, I remember hearing a joke on Night Court where a woman was, they had like 18 women gave birth on Night Court. It was like a running, there was like one where three different women were having a baby at the same time on that show, including the Vietnamese bride of the black guy on Night Court. Mac, yeah, Mac's Vietnamese wife. But, well, because he was a Vietnam vet and he had married her and then she came to live with him. Anyway.

I'm talking Night Court. But the joke was, it said, have you ever tried to push a bowling ball through your nostril? That is what I'm doing right now. I didn't need sex education in school because Night Court taught me everything. Thanks to Dan Fielding.

Every Dan Fielding joke of like, oh, I guess that's where a vagina kind of is. Yeah. Pregnancy and childbirth terrify me. Yeah, it's scary. Well, this is something, too, that we can't be in touch with this episode is that so many jokes are about Homer and Marge being trapped in the debt that children create. And it's just like, well, none of us have kids. We have more disposable income because it's not being thrown down the kid hole. Like I said, I have multiple friends now who have kids.

And I've watched, I mean, from a distance, like what it is, what it has meant to their lives and everything. And if anything, Marge and Homer are lucky because seemingly they're able to continue to sort of live their own life. Except not Marge. Poor Marge. Marge just ended her life. I mean, her life's over. And she learned to live with it. But yeah, I have friends who have kids and they

seem pretty happy. I love my friends' kids. But it's a game changer for sure. It totally changes how you spend your money, how you spend your time the the whole nine yards so i'm sure more and i can't even imagine having three of them oh my just one like is like freaking killing never heard me say this a thousand homers my age like i have to have an i'm trying to imagine having three kids one of which is an infant good lord see how dirty this table is i i also remember a co-worker of mine she uh she got pregnant with the plan to just have one kid and she finds out she is having triplets it's like

oh my god that's good orson city your first she had him like instead it's one thing like your first kid will kill you it's like no no you need to learn to deal with three kids from the start like uh well speaking of having more kids like the scene where marge is telling bart and lisa about maggie's coming is that i come on arrival arrival maggie's arrival it did make me watching it as a 12 year old think oh what would happen if my parents had a third kid would I hear this speech like we never did we stayed at the two of me and my brother Sam I begged my mother for a little brother well yeah wait is everybody a two

person family I have one sibling I have an older sister alright well so none of us if you are a third if you have a third kid in your family let us know how specially that changed the dynamic for you a third kid in your family let us know how especially that changed the dynamic for you a third kid or as we call it the ruiner so i one of my friends was the second kid in a third three person group so you go from the baby to the middle child so what happened was

that his brother was the favorite child and he and his younger brother fought for scraps essentially and it was pretty sad actually. And from that point on, he was the middle child forever and it seemed to really affect everything about him. Like how he saw himself, how he lived his life. Like he was extremely bitter about that whole thing.

For some reason, a bunch of my best friends were the last child of five or six. And watching, I think they became our best friends because their parents did not give a fuck. We've gone through this with four other children. We're not going to overthink this. No curfew. Eat whatever you want.

Raise yourself. Order a pizza. Who cares? Call a cab. We're very tired. They all have that luxury here. Don't stay above the garage. We won't bother you.

We'll build a bathroom. Just don't come in the house we're old now i've read parents blogs that are like the first baby you're like oh my god i have to do everything right i'm like doing everything and by a kid three you're like yeah yeah okay whatever i've been here done i didn't fuck this up before which is sad actually because i would think that every single child should be getting 100 of your attention 100 of your effort so in that respect like apologies to anybody who has multiple kids who are listening to this i personally would only have one well i've i've heard the argument that having more than one let's let your kid have somebody to you know fraternize with all the time instead of being like a an only child means

they're not getting as much socialization yeah well i would have rather had a much closer relationship with my parents my my dream child situation is nightmare in elm street five but uh it is it is in two years a 15 year old in a three-piece suit shows up on my doorstep we're best friends but i can still drink with them oh good that's That's my ideal child scenario. American Psycho. Gotcha. This is bone.

You said three priests sued. I just thought I could think. So Homer, though, meanwhile, is unaware of all this and is just happy, so happy he prays to God. Can't talk. Praying. Dear Lord, the gods have been good to me and I am thankful. For the first time in my life, everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is. So here's the deal.

You freeze everything as it is and I won't ask for anything more. If that is okay, please give me absolutely no sign. Okay, deal. In gratitude, I present you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, give me no sign. Okay, deal. In gratitude, I present you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, give me no sign. That will be done. Asking for no sign gets you all

your prayers, Matt. I do like his realistic, if cynical, attempt at prayer. Just like, I know God will not answer me, of course, so I can give myself these things. It's still pretty analogous to my relationship relationship with god give me no sign and i'll do nothing also that he says like dear lord the gods have been good to me all right so he's thinking about that he's a multi-d or he's a deist over uh over just god he's thinking uh then we get to see patty and selma basically poisoning magg Maggie in the womb,

which is pretty dark. There's a lot of smoke in that room. That is the most dated joke, the weirdly most monstrous joke ever. Seriously. Yeah, that Marge wouldn't tell them to put out their cigarettes. I mean, just a few years later, California had banned smoking inside restaurants. But it's a child coughing in the womb. But we were talking about secondhand smoke by the 90s, too. There's a a child coughing in the womb. But we were talking about secondhand smoke

by the 90s, too. There's a joke about it in Fargo. I was just re-watching Fargo recently. I love Fargo so much. But the secondhand smoke joke is just like, could you crack a window? You know, it's been shown that secondhand smoke is poisonous.

Even if you're on the fence about that, there's no dispute over birth defects. And a baby in the womb is coughing. I still think that's insane. It is a pretty dark joke. I think it's a joke you wouldn't be able to get by censors now. Previously I think they made baby Lisa cough too. They did. They blew

smoke at her and the crib shakes. But that was back in 1984 when they didn't know better. Now they should. They were making the same noises at her, too, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, so it's almost like a callback to that. It's true.

Patty and Selma love babies. Over the age of two, I think they kind of hate them. The old lady gets the cuter they get. Selma's desperate to get married and everything. But then they make a promise to not tell Homer. I like this. I've got to tell Homer about this baby in just the right way

and at just the right time. Until then, please, keep this to yourselves. If he found out now, it would probably destroy him, huh? Oh, yes. Gotta go. Wait a minute.

Wait, I know that look. Now promise you won't tell Homer. Oh. Now promise you won't tell Homer. Oh, we promise we won't tell Homer. Hello? Is this A. Aronson? It might interest you to know that Marge Simpson is pregnant again. Just thought you'd like to know, Mr. Zukowski. There. Aronson. Zukowski. There.

Aronson and Zukowski are the two biggest gossips in town. In an hour, everyone will know. Another great joke that only works once, but I still respect it. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful FU joke that obviously you think they called everyone in the phone book, but it's really that in Springfield, the two biggest gossips are the first person and the last person in the phone book, but it's really that in Springfield, the two biggest gossips are the first person and the last person in the phone book. And for no reason, they took a huge break in between calling them.

Yes. Well, that time cut could have removed two seconds. It's just to make you think. It was so great. I love that joke so much. A couple notes. First, I think this is the second appearance or second mention of Aaron Aronson because I believe he was mentioned also in...

Aaron A. Aronson voted for Bob. Arthur Applebab. And Sideshow Bob Roberts. That's correct. I totally missed that. He's no A-gorilla. But also, in Hot Fuzz, they mention Aaron A. Aronson as a joke, and then when they save the red-headed kid from Timothy Dalton's character,

the red-headed kid is named Aaron A. Aronson. A real Aaron Aronson, a Jewish agronomist, botanist, and Zionist activist who was born in Romania and lived with blah blah blah, but right at the top, not to be confused with Aaron

A. Aronsonson a fictional character in the simpsons episode sideshow bob roberts there are several aaron a aronson just by statistics alone homer's resistance to learning that marge is pregnant is also so great it's it's obviously too ridiculous he's too stupid but i it's not stupid he's really just going out of his way not to know. That's true. He's not. Another perfect day in my perfect life with my perfect job. Hey, just heard the news over the squat box. That's nice work, Homer. Thank you.

Thank you very much. It is nice work. Oh, Mr. Simpson, I've just heard about the little bundle of joy. Congratulations, sir. It's true. The bundle is little, but I'm not in it for the money. Hey, Homer, way to get Marge pregnant. This is getting very abstract, but thank you.

I do enjoy working at the bowling alley. Look how lecherous Moe is. He's mainly interested in the sex part of it. That's true, but I just love that. That was the same laugh he gives with like, nothing working in the bedroom. I just love how Homer says, this is getting very abstract. That's a smart way of saying that too.

This entire sequence, starting from when Patty and Selma start calling people all the way up, and Homer starts ripping out his hair, is just a masterpiece of comedy. It works so well. It is. It's windy as hell out there. So, yeah, first we see the baby shower, and that's where Homer, at the baby shower, by the way, is Ruth Powers, who did not move into Springfield until after Mark and Maggie's birth, so more discontinuity.

There's so many continuity errors in this episode. But yes, then Homer stumbles upon the baby shower on a particularly windy day. Baby shower! You know I haven't told Homer yet, and he'll be home any minute. Oh, really?

It's you. Hey, Wendy, it's hell out there. Hey, wait a minute. What are all these presents? It looks like you're showering Marge with gifts. With little tiny baby-sized gifts. Well, I'll be in the tub. By the way, congratulations on your new job, Homer.

New job? Marge is pregnant? No! No! Great reaction. It was beautiful, and that's when I noticed him pulling out his third hair. You can really hear it in the foley it sounds painful yeah but that hearing only being complimented about his job is is when it all clicks together all of the marge's pregnant compliments were taken to be oh you're talking

about my job and the job comment was like marge is pregnant it was a nice reversal of that logic and the windy as hell out there lie too is another great misdirect of like oh homer burst oh no he doesn't marge can't close the door she almost does i was like whoa hey i'm here all right time to get in this hair all right all right let's talk about the hair this is major major discontinuity and it made me so angry as a kid watching it i still don't like it now i will say this is a funny joke. It is funny. I'm not saying it's not funny, but I hate how in this episode that is about the old continuity, it disrupts the continuity from previous flashbacks. So with the Bart pregnancy, it's told to Marge and Homer in Dr. Hibbert's office. He has the afro and they get so you've ruined your life pamphlet. Yes.

Yeah. And they haven't bought the newphlet. Yes. Yeah. And Homer. And they haven't bought the new house yet. No. Yeah. So one, these flashbacks they're told at different times. Marge finds out from Dr. Hibbert and then Marge with Lisa finds out from Dr. finds out separate from Homer and then tells

Homer in the bathroom of their apartment in neither time are they in the house that they only buy because Lisa is being born. Two, Homer was relatively fine with finding out about Marge's pregnancies in both of those scenes. He did not go crazy. He did not lose it at them. And then also, Homer, in all those episodes, his hairline stays at the same level.

He does not change his hairline. In Lisa's first word, he is not down to his three hairs again. He is at the same hairline that he is when he starts ripping out his hair. I just, I don't like that. It was army experiments. There's a million

reasons for how he lost his hair. But this one drives me, this one really bugs me because it just, this is an episode about history let's listen to this it's a great joke though wow dad you really threw a tantrum like a little sissy girl oh just that one time actually when i was about to have bart you're pregnant and then when i told him about Lisa... You're pregnant again? Ada! Ada!

Ada! How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels, and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our Net Zero Hub at electricireland.ie. I agree. Stan Castellaneta does a great job of freaking out his homeroom. It's great, yeah.

I mean, the continuity is bad, but I just like the joke. There's a lot of rule of threes in The Simpsons, and I like how it escalates. Yeah, I do like that. And it shows, it at least also pays off the three hairs he's had the entire episode to this point. But then the family decides to take a commercial break. I love this. Hey, where are you going? Dad, you can't expect a person to sit for 30 minutes straight.

I'm going to get a snack and maybe go to the bathroom. I'll stay here, but I'm going to think about products I might like to purchase. Ooh. Mmm. Ooh. I don't have that. God, that's messed up.

They're so trained by TV, they can't sit through a regular story without taking their own commercial breaks. Well, it was a reference to kids having literally no attention span, and so they got worse. And then, meanwhile, Marge is like, she's thinking about commercials. Yeah. That's how trained she is. Then we come back with a great, Homer they was the opening sound but homers head exploding because bart's telling the story that was another like gasp moment in first viewing like what the this episode has some of the greatest like misdirects in the in the murkin years i'd say i

that bart is telling the story reveals it and then that homers butt inflating too and when he's telling the story he was a little fatter than yes letting on and uh but then uh homer thinks about like maybe he could get a raise you've worked hard at the bowling alley why don't you ask for a raise yeah a raise i've never been good enough at any job to deserve one before but i'm damn good at this one that's it i'm gonna march right up to al and say steve i mean l i think i deserve a raise you're a hard worker and i'd like to give you a raise but the alley just ain't doing enough business to pay that kind of money how about if i triple the business then could i get a raise well yeah but i just the touching of the lip is just so cute.

Homer's got confidence now. Unlike, as we talked about in Homer the Great, about him losing confidence from being told he's garbage his whole life. He finally feels confident by doing a good job and faith in his job. And he hits the books. He goes from advanced marketing to beginning marketing to looking up what marketing means. It's a really long setup that almost bored me, but the payoff is what I think is the

lie of the show. Yes, it is. That's the joke. Of course! Bowling! Bowling here! Come bowling! Get your bowling bowling who's ready mom make dad tell the story right that's what really happened oh my marketing plan attracted a record number of police and fire officials but you stay to bowl i failed homer quits he's not fired by l Homer quits. He's not fired by Al. He quits.

He was good at it. He needs a new job, so he has to quit. Yeah. Again, Homer should have applied at the nuclear plant first before quitting. But just, goddammit, Homer. Some of my favorite GIFs I've seen of the Simpsons are just Homer going, bowling! Get your bowling here! Just the shotgun exploding. It's a little too soon for me, frankly.

Dammit. Bowling! Get your bowling here! Just the shotgun exploding. It's a little too soon for me, frankly. Ah, damn it. Well, look, every... There will always be a massacre to make these gunplay jokes unfunny. And how do you like this, Bob? Your montage of getting a gun is scored by Tom Petty. Let's make it real. We'll get to that in a few years. I saw people point out that

the Simpsons gun control episode had Tom Petty in it on the same day. So we give up on gun control, we give up on Tom Petty. Got it. Did you know that if you shoot the gun in the air, the bullet will come back down? Uh-huh. Because that's what happened to somebody at a baseball game. They were sitting and watching the game, and they just got hit by a bullet and died because somebody had shot Tom Petty in the air.

Well, if it's buckshot, a lot of things come down, which I think is what Homer's firing in the air. It's true. It's not fireworks, folks. It's a projectile that has to eventually come back down. And it is crazy that they even recognize that the police and fire department would come, but Homer's not in jail. They just seem to...

No. I mean, Wiggum is the type who would just be like, Oh, you silly guy. He's a white guy with a gun. He wouldn't be in jail. And the people at the bowling alley are okay with it. They're not like, what did you do, Homer? No point in the bowling alley.

It's like, why, Homer? Why? They give him a jacket and everything. It's true, yes. He was such a good pin monkey, though. I do. Well, they don't even want. I'll tell you what will help Al's business.

Stop pushing away the young people. They're happy Homer kept the young people away. But then we get to meet little Joey, which I love Joey. He's dead now. This was the happiest time of my life. I'll never forget you guys, especially you, Joey. See you around, Mr. Homer. Don't worry, Joey.

We'll make it to california someday sure we will mr homer sure we will it's gonna be sad around here without you homer boy this is depressing hey i know what would cheer us up. Bowling. Little Joey died of tuberculosis. It's a great gag in the Oh Hello on Broadway show that they talk about all these tropes that are in Broadway productions. But if you have a handkerchief

that's just for collecting the blood you cough up, you're going to die soon. That's what they're showing with Joey. I just love that. Show we will, Mr. Homer. Show we will. to die soon like that's that's that's what they're showing with joey i just love that yeah show me well mr homer show me well like the shoeshine boy is such a stock character i love that later they would come back this i this joke come back in patches and poor violet the two other urchins poor violet oh i was thinking about the meaning that homer really gets out of this job and i was like man it's such such a menial job at the end of the day. I mean, he's changing out urinal cakes and washing things.

But I suppose going back to, I used to work for a convenience store when I was in high school. And I suppose there was a certain camaraderie there. And I got to be friends with everybody. And I knew the regular customers. I knew the ladies who were coming in to buy lottery tickets and everything. And in a way, even though the work was boring at the end of the day, I still look back on that pretty fondly. I mean, you know, I kind of miss when I had a cashier job

and knew where every DVD case was in the video store I worked at. And I took kind of pride in that. Just like if somebody asked, where's Movie X? I could close my eyes and walk to it and grab it off the shelf for them. And I missed doing that. I also miss having a job that I could just listen to podcasts all the time. That was super simple, right? I was not being in control of every step of my destiny.

Just relax and do some menial shit. It sucks not having a manager just to be mad at. But here's a conspiracy theory of mine on the production of this episode. I think that originally they had planned for a music cue for Homer's long walk back to the plant more than just the kind of average one they have in there and i think they added in those bowling jokes of everybody celebrating their

bowling after homer leaves i think before it might have had like a licensed song over it for homer going it just feels a little after the fact of having the ADR line. It felt ADR-y of kind of the, what do we do now? Oh, bowling. That always cheers us up. It's funny, but I wonder if it's ADR. We get a good acid rain joke. Are we still concerned about acid rain?

It was a big thing in the early 90s. Yeah, dude. It was a huge thing. Not only have I never seen it, I don't know anybody who's ever experienced it. Acid rain is still very much a thing. Is it? Where? I mean, we're already drowning in real rain,

but irregular rain. It rains bad enough. I guess, yeah, it's one of those things you hear about with climate change that we don't see the worst of it now

because we're in a first world country. Third world countries are suffering for all these things much more. That's exactly what it is. Especially like Brazil, I believe.

I don't know. I take Homer's approach of saying like, no, remember all this is like that rainforest thing. The guys fixed it. No, Dad, I don't know. I take Homer's approach of saying, like, no, remember all this. It's like that rainforest thing. The guys fixed it. No, Dad, I don't think there's that word again. So Homer has no choice but to reapply at the plant, crawling through the supplicant door,

not the applicant door. Is that a real word? Supplicant, yeah. It's a reapplicant? To supplicate is to, you know, prostate yourself for someone. Prostate myself? To crawl up to them and beg. Not prostate, I'm someone. Prostate myself? To crawl up to them and beg. Not prostate, I'm sorry.

Prostrate. Of all the things I've researched, I couldn't look up a fucking word. Why don't we get to see Burns' rarely seen secretary? Yeah. I guess maybe she's just the front desk person. She's not Burns' personal secretary, because that would be redundant with Smithers.

I just want to point out that, I mean, Homer is lucky that he even has the opportunity to go back. He literally burned the bridge. Yeah, he should really not be taken back. He's lucky that Burns would rather make him suffer than replace him. I think making it through that

shoot is a harrowing journey. He's like coughing and covered in dirt. It's like Metal Gear Solid 4 up in dirt. I mean, it's like Metal Gear Solid 4 up in here. Don't remind me. Don't remind me. If this were 2017, he would have already been replaced

and he probably would have been replaced by somebody just out of college who's making even less money than Homer was. They would laugh at the very idea of you thinking you'd get a new job. No, I think actually

they would wait for three other people to lose their jobs and replace them all with one. That is a 2017 motto. That's more of it. Anyway, this is Homer getting his job back. Yes, are you a new applicant? Actually, I quit and I came to get my job back.

Through there. So, come crawling back, eh? Seems like the classy thing to do would be not to call attention to it. Thanks for giving me my old job back. I'm afraid it's not that simple. As punishment for your desertion, it's company policy to give you the plague. Uh,

sir, that's the plaque. Ah, yes, the special demotivational plaque to break what's left of your spirit. Because, you see see you're here forever don't forget you're here forever burns has to say it out loud yeah uh animation junkies when burn says plague look at smithers his hair is off model in that one shot interesting weird i think it's also established before this episode that there's sort of like a clear window in front of homer's

not a blank wall he's been watching well i know when the plant was going through a meltdown orange light was going through there right and it shuts down over like the metal things go down over it so yeah i have a desk facing a wall. It seems pretty depressing. Well, they clearly introduced putting a window at some point and removed the plaque. Yes. Mr. Burns with his hands on the plaque

might be one of my favorite just stills in some animation. It's become a meme. He looks so happy. He's so proud of that plaque and that he has a special demotivational plaque and that he i also like that burn says oh it's one of the company guidelines like you made it like it's your but you can the way he delivers it and the way he's animated is kind of leaning in going the plague

the plague the poison dome didn't work the plague didn't work he just wants to kill his employees that's all he wants that yeah i it seems that Burns just wants to kill his employees all day long, and Smithers has to constantly remind him, like, no, we don't kill them, sir. So, reportedly, it was George Meyer who came up with the clever word puzzle that would, like, that could be anything on that demotivational plaque. But it has to be what ends up as do it for her. It's kind of a mad Folden style joke where you're sort of, you know, eliminating letters to build a different message out of an established phrase. Yes. Yeah. And then then Maggie has a right. Well, I love that Homer pretends he'll be valiant for like two seconds. He's like, I just can't keep it anymore. I'm unhappy. It's so horrible. Like, but it's true. Like every moment of his life has been worth since finding out he's like i just can't keep it anymore i'm unhappy it's so horrible like but it's true

like every moment of his life has been worth since finding out he's having a baby like i know it's hard to say when it's maggie but it's like maybe you didn't need to have this kid yeah he's not very enthused during her birth yes it's wonderful it's magical oh boy here it comes another mouth one more push should do it. Marvelous. Congratulations, Mr. Simpson. You have a beautiful, healthy baby. Okay.

Homie, I think someone is saying hello. Hello. Hello. Oh oh it's a boy and what a boy uh that's the umbilical cord it's a girl so homer and marge embrace and start kissing and maggie pulls a pacifier out of thin air to establish that part of her character it does show that maggie is quite resourceful and smart from the beginning, but then again, Bart did light Homer's tie on fire when he was first born, so Simpsons kids seem to be pretty smart from the beginning.

Actually, Lisa is one of the least smart at birth, like as in a newborn. What's your problem, Lisa? Yeah, get with it, Lisa. Not using tools immediately out of the womb? Typical middle child. They make fun of it on the commentary even that merkin says like that's right kids who suck pacifiers it's because they want to kiss like that's why it doesn't doesn't really make sense also we find out captain mccallister is a father it's the catch of the day i think they threw that baby into the

sea afterwards then we're just straight to the, and this is one of the times where Merkin obviously hates a treacly ending. He always cuts through it. He always has a joke at the end of it, but not this time. And I think it is because they definitely earn it. So you left her right from the start. Absolutely.

Then why no pictures? Oh, there are pictures. I keep them where I need the most cheering up. I keep meaning to hang up the picture I got for Brett of Ernest and the grandma with a neck brace thing and put do it for her right on the podcast. It's a tradition for the flashbackback shows have a sweet ending at the end that's true yeah i mean there was never a cynical ending in any of these flashback episodes any

flashback episode yeah any flashback episode about a family and it's heartfelt it's true i guess they want to make it that your family memories are worth it and not and they make you happy ultimately not sad but especially because uh i think maggie is the the child homer like interacts with the least he often forgets her name and that she exists so uh she ever done for anybody i was gonna say that that's kind of what bugs me is okay i love the ending it like i was almost getting a little teary watching it but at the same time like homer like often forgets her name and barely acknowledges that she exists and often forgets he even has another kid so as the dog doesn't count it doesn't it doesn't quite ring true for me i suppose and you just have to kind of go all right

it's just one episode and the simpsons is very much an episode by episode kind of thing and characterizations can change wildly but yeah but i do love all those maggie drawings or the art of her and all the photographs are great it's all very adorable i think my favorite is her in front of bart like that they were taking a photo of bart and then she kind of photo bombed the photo i i like that but it's yeah it's it's a real cute ending and do it for her alone he almost sits on true. He always forgets about her. But you'd have to assume once she starts talking and would be growing up, Homer would pay more attention to her, but she never will.

Homer's a terrible father. There's one thing I want to point out because people will yell at us if we missed it. In the scene on the couch where Marge is explaining to Homer that she's pregnant, there is a full body photo of Maggie in the background. So that's definitely Maggie. They definitely screwed that up. They misused the wrong background. They used the modern background, not the flashback background.

I suppose that, I mean, a key line about Homer, he's half-assing being a good dad, and they prefer him to just go the F away like he usually does love is scary as lisa says that is your typical homer and every once in a while they'll go uh we should make homer less of a monster and actually give him an episode where he's less a little bit less of a love his

children he can love his kids in this episode uh yeah i this is a really good flashback episode but i do prefer the births of bard and lisa as episodes i think they get a lot more we had no clips to play off youtube because there were no direct references but that's the only thing i would slight this episode for but it's still really good without i don't want to say pandering but the nostalgic throwback stuff yeah no no i mean all those callbacks are they're easy they're easier than emotional stories I mean the Simpsons were better than

anything else in that they went for the very specific references not just like blah vague 80s ish like that like that 90s show would do just like all the 90s are up for sale they like no 1980 and 1984

these are the only references we're doing in these episodes I was I'm very partial to that time period and I love episodes set in that time period so I adore Lisa's First Word it's one of my favorites especially because I was born in 1983

so it's like yeah oh man this is when I was born too I can totally identify with it but this one works because it's not overwhelmed by the references and it tells a really sharp story and i mean of course it has nightboat come on a story i can relate to a little more than any other i was never in homer and margaret situation and i have the flashbacks but this one i i understand i understand a little more wanting to get your dream job being

able to tell your boss to fuck off holy shit shit. We've all felt that. And then having life intervene. And then the other dumb factoid I have. I've talked endlessly about how when The Simpsons started, I was Bart's age. And now I'm Homer's age. It's really depressing. Maggie's official birth date is May 12th, 1986. I'm going to guess at least half of you. Half of you listening are older than are older than maggie at this point

maggie's older than my sister yeah my sister's almost 30 maggie is 30 years maggie is over 30 the baby man 30 year old baby which is what uh my girlfriend calls me i remember on commentaries they pointed out that they have they have when they freaked out when they hired a person on staff who was younger than Bart was, who was born after 1980. But now to put it as Maggie, even is over 30. It's like, damn. Yep. We're all going to die, everybody. Thanks for listening, though.

I have been your host for this one, Bob Mackey. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. My other podcast is Retronauts. Every Monday at retronauts.com or look for Retronauts in your podcast machine. It's a classic gaming podcast. If you want to get into it, I recommend you find a subject you like related to classic gaming. And you look up our corresponding episode because I guarantee you we've probably done it. If not, you're out of luck, buddy.

But please check us out at retronauts.com. Anybody else? Jump in. Hi, I'm Kat Bailey. And you should go check out usgamer.net, which is my site about video games. And if you enjoy my podcasting, well, you should check out Acts of the Blood God, which is like Talking Simpsons for RPGs.

We talk about, right now, we're in the middle of a big deep dive into Final Fantasy IX, episode by episode. We also did Persona 4 Golden at a different point. So go subscribe to that. And of course, I'm on the Twitter at the underscore catbot. I'm H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G on Twitter. You can follow me there for all the updates on The Simpsons.

And obviously, if you are listening to this with ads in it, did you know you could hear it with not ads and a week early? That's on Patreon, buddy. Go to patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons and for $5 starting at $5 a month you will get access to every episode a week early ad free every episode of the Simpsons first season that's exclusively on there every episode of Talking Critic where we go through every episode of the Critic one by one with Diana Goodman

and Michael Raparez our monthly community chats are $10 and up people also get access to several videos we especially did and much more to come after that. So please, think about supporting us. It is how Bob and I pay the rent. And it's a damn bargain, Chris.

Yeah! And think about listening to some of the other shows on Laser Time Network. Laser Time, I'm not going to let this go. We did a show about the most famous farts. Can you guess them just from the sound and smell of the fart? Yeah, we learned how to make a podcast smell. 30, 20, 10, your weekly look back 30, 20, and 10 years ago. Invigigame Apocalypse, the weekly video game show.

We also have a bonus show on our Patreon, patreon.com slash laser time, where we give you a ton of full-length commentaries, cartoon commentaries. We're going to slowly walk you through Clerks, the Clerks the Animated Series. We got one episode up there. But this month, I'll join Lizzie and I

for a look at Freddy's Nightmares, the anthology show from the... But it has official Robert Englund starring Freddy origins. Yeah. That is contained only in that show. It's a 40-minute episode, full length video. He's in an actual full episode. He is. And it doesn't make any sense.

You'll want to watch it with friends is all I'm saying. But patreon.com slash laser time commentaries and more. And an Elm Street nightmare all this all this month assuming this is still October thank you so much for listening we'll be back next week with Bart's

comic we'll see you then Wow. Infotainment.