Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Bart Sells His Soul

Episode Date: February 14, 2018

Spirituality, restaurants, and pogs all in one episode - you know it's a classic Simpsons. After befouling church with rock and/or roll, Bart sell his soul to Milhouse only to deeply regret it soon after. Meanwhile, Moe loses the dank and makes his bar into a family feedback, with expensive fries and crazy crap on the walls. So listen along as we revisit this one. ♪ It's good, good, good, good, good, good, good. ♪ 

this week's episode is brought to you by patreon at patreon.com slash talking simpsons not only you get access to every episode a week early and ad free but we have tons of extras including our two newest interviews we chat with mike scully about his time executive producing the show i ran it through seasons 9 through 12 which I always characterize as the four most consecutive seasons of the show. And we talked with writer Mimi Pond about what it was like to write the first episode of The Simpsons. You know, and I get to be the turd in the punch bowl every single time I tell this story,

because nobody wants to hear anything bad about The Simpsons. You can find all that and more exclusively on patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, where your tongue will be torn out by ravenous birds. I'm your host, Bob No-Breath Mackey, and this is the Later Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today? Hi, Bob. I know you from school.

It's me, Henry Gilbert. Who else? Professor Chris Antistas, Cornucopia, fantastic food, Magorium, and great American steakery. I'm already hungry. And who else? Cat Bailey, and I am familiar with the works of Pablo Muruto. As we all are. And today's episode is Bart Sells His Soul. Professor PJ Cornucopia's fantastic food, Magorium,

and great American steakery. I almost got it. I almost got it. I did not think you'd have that, Chris. Bob stole my no breath. So I had to struggle. You had to come up with more than one. I had to struggle. I can't believe nobody did Pogform. I was like, well, I'm not going to do Pogform. Somebody else has it.

Today's episode aired on October 8th, 1995. And as always, Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in Simpsons history. Oh, my God. Hell, boy, Bobby. Wishbone debuts on PBS. John Bobbitt uses plastic surgery to extend his severed dick three whole inches. Well, why wouldn't you? And Antonio Banderas will be number one when he takes down Sylvester Stallone and the Wachowskis assassins.

I feel like Dave Rudden should be here to tell us that Wishbone is dead. I'm sorry to break it to you guys, but I like Wishbone. It came on when I was way too old to be watching it. But I was like, Wishbone is a show that encourages reading, but it actually cuts out the middleman where it's like, this dog will tell you the story. Don't read the book. Now how's a dog in it?

This dog will narrate the cliff notes. Jesus Christ. And you kill cliff notes. Yeah. I was more of a fan of Ghostwriter. Me too. That was my favorite. I didn't care for that much.

Today's episode, I do want to mention, it is the last script written by Greg Daniels before he left to work on King of the Hill. I believe he supervised 22 short films about springfield yes yeah he was the like he kept track of everything yeah glued it all together but this was his last written episode he would leave for king of the hill uh as the story goes that mike judge was the creator of it but then fox partnered him with greg daniels and judge likes what greg daniels did so much that normally greg daniels what he did would have gotten him the developed by credit like say

sam simon and james l brooks have on the simpsons but mike judge was like you know what no you did so much work on this your co-creator and he gave him the co-creator credit as in meaning millions more dollars i say billions at this point so i want to talk about greg daniels real quick because two events in his life kind of form what happens in this episode so uh he tells he's on the commentary does a much better job than i will but to give you the short version is in in greg's life he was he was millhouse he looks like millhouse when he was a kid he was being bullied uh at his boarding school. So he's a little richy rich kid. But he was being bullied by someone who

kicked him with sharp cowboy boots. So he was a philosophy guy. He ran the philosophy club. So he tricked this bully. He doesn't deserve to be bullied if you run the philosophy club. So he tricked this bully into selling him his soul on a piece of paper for 50 cents. And then, after that happened, he coached

people into telling the bully, are you sure you want to do that? Do you really think? This could be your one chance. You could go to hell for this. So by the end, the bully wanted his soul back and Greg raised the price drastically. But the bully bought his soul back on a piece of paper

and that's what formed the basis of this episode, Greg tormenting a bully. It's wonderful to know it's based on something so specific. I love that he says that he did it more than once and then eventually he's like, I then remembered who's the only person who makes money

off of selling souls and that is the devil. So I should probably stop. The only thing worse is an executive producer of a TV show. I don't mean to judge it with my cold atheist heart, but it comes off as one of the more spiritual Simpsons episodes. Oh, yeah.

It is. If it's not based on an actual story that Greg Daniels experienced. Well, Simpsons is an alternate universe where God actually exists. It's true. It's true. God not only exists, but intervenes, as we have seen in canonical episodes. It is a cruel God of the world of The Simpsons, but that's how to make jokes funnier, is if God

is cruel. The second Greg Daniels anecdote relates to the first thing that happens in this episode in which Greg was trying to get close to a devout Baptist woman. I believe he was a non-believer, probably still is, and he decided to go on a spiritual retreat with her, a weekend retreat. That girl

missed the bus, so he was there alone, and brooding. Couldn't even get an attempt to get laid on his trip. And at a service, they were asking him, like, what hymn should we sing? And he, being a jerk, he said Stairway to Heaven. And they looked for it for minutes, and they were really mad when they found out it wasn't an actual hymn. So he's both Bart and Milhouse in this episode, so thank you, Greg Daniels. I love Greg Daniels. I think it really... him so he pulled the he's both bart and millhouse in this episode so thank you greg daniels i i love

greg daniels i think it really the show is i think more damaged by losing greg daniels and conan o'brien yeah i mean you would go on to see just how influential greg daniels was to comedy with both king of the hill and the american office yeah sorry the office an american workplace i'm stealing that from scott ackerman by the way greg daniels is a very like prolific dude who he he never forgot his roots on the simpsons either not just uh going into animation with king of the hill but on the office there was a homer simpson doll in the office okay on the show as well but it's time with conan the the mug greg daniels gave him is still on conan's desk uh on every episode of the

show yeah i i also saw I remember on the commentary, Daniel said he was going to make this an episode about race in Springfield at first. Eh, maybe don't do that. Yeah, I wonder what Simpsons would have to say about race. In 1995, I don't know. I mean, they handled sexual harassment so well. No, they didn't. Go back to Homer, bad man. Boy, yeah, It's funny we recorded

Funny is the wrong word It's interesting we recorded that right before every Every Hollywood person That was right before me too Yeah pre-Weinstein It was pre-Weinstein But yes this start out here though Bart has his own little trick in

And now please rise for our opening hymn Uh In the Garden of Eden his own little trick him. And now, please rise for our opening hymn. Uh, In the Garden of Eden by I, Ron Butterfly. In the Garden of Eden, honey Don't you know that I love you In the Garden of Eden, baby I love Bart's sadist. Hey, Mark.

Remember when we used to make out to the gym? Tire solo. They're dying at this point. Wait a minute. This sounds like rock and roll. Oh, boy. So good. Bart basically kills the organ player. It's 17 minutes later.

Yeah. I actually had heard of Inigata De Vida when this episode aired. Really? Really. Because it was one of my mom's favorite go-to joke songs. She would always say, call into the oldie station and request Inigata De Vida. Because they would never play it on the radio because it's a 20- 17 minutes and five seconds long.

Wasn't there a previous joke about this on The Simpsons? Like, long version. The extra long version of Inigata De Vida was when the boogeyman Michael Jackson came to town. He was not made up to scare children, is quite what they'd have you believe. Bart interacted with him. Yeah, I know. He kind of forgot his love of Michael Jackson.

If you can see the sheet music, you can see that it says Indigata De Vida by Iron Butterfly. So Reverend Lovejoy didn't even bother to look at the title. What does that even mean? Do we know the history of this? No.

Because I always thought it was shocking that Bart knew this song. I'd never heard of this song. It's a very clever plan. It's my favorite part about that, that he's singing the loudest. For someone presumably born in 1985 in this episode, he's pretty savvy to classic rock, but it's a 1968 psychedelic rock song by Iron Butterfly. It is 17 minutes long, and it takes up the entire side of that album by the same name.

And apparently it was written by a dude uh who had drunk a gallon of wine and he wrote it while drunk and then he his slurred words became the title of the song it sounds that sounds made up it does it's been confirmed almost everywhere i read it sounds apocryphal but it really happened and there is a two minute and 53 second radio version you can't don't listen to that but it's a drum so it's a very long drum solo is it a drum solo or just well it's it's i guess an over a solo in general yeah it feels like prog rocky yeah it's it's like early prog rock in 69 68 you will hear it i never heard this song before this and now it's it's like stock for like when anybody accidentally trips like this song just kicks in i think fuck what was it freddy's dead i think i think it comes

in there sorry we just did elm street nightmare it's a catchy song i mean and i'm glad iron butterfly got paid off for this yeah but it like screams psychedelia at this point so it's my first exposure to the song was in the songs songs in the key of springfield i had not seen the episode and i was like oh this is kind of catchy and so I found the actual song and discovered that it was, in fact, 17 minutes long. And also, it's not a very good song to listen to. Those are all the lyrics. You heard all of them. There's not a lot of singing in the song.

And then they just had to stand the entire time as the... I would think that the organ player should have been very suspicious when her music sheet was handed to her was probably like 50 pages long. An entire book of music for one song. But it's fun. They got some good fun out of Lovejoy being a fuddy-duddy of like rock and or roll. And then we get to see some good old-fashioned Christian guilt.

I know one of you is responsible for this, so repeat after me. If I withhold the truth, may I go straight to hell, where I will eat naught but burning hot coals and drink naught but burning hot cola. Where fiery demons will push me in the back. Where my soul will be chopped into confetti and strewn upon a parade of murderers and single mothers. Where my tongue will be torn out by ravenous birds. Bart did it! That part right there!

Millhouse? Millhouse? You did the right thing. Bart, come with me for punishment. You too, Snitchy. I want you to clean every one of these organ pipes that you have befouled with your popular music. Murderers and single mothers together

at last. That's pretty rough because, I mean, Hellfire is a very real thing to a lot of people. So to have kids reciting that, and they do believe every single word that, I mean, you saw Milhouse's reaction to that. It was like, oh my God, there is actually literally going to be a bird

that tears out my tongue. It's the brainwashing of children to make them afraid. Yeah, like Bart being very bored reciting that. You can tell they've said it many times before. You can tell where we stand on this subject, by the way. Yes, no, we're not. Sorry, Christian listeners. The episode is taking this stance as well. I'm not going to

apologize. I refuse to apologize. Well, the episode kind of plays fast and loose. It takes an interesting stance in this. I'm sure we'll talk about this a little later. But when I think of Milhouse's My Tongue Will Be Ripped Up by Ravenous Birds, it reminds me of that terrifying documentary Jesus Can't, where you can see these poor children who are just praying. So they're like, please, please don't send me out.

It's like, this is horrible to do to children. This is abuse. I'm just reminded of a story of somebody saying, yeah i was told that my my parents were burning in hell by my pastor or whatever and i that tormented me for like years and years and years it's rough no this is pretty cruel of love joy to make the kids feel that just to find out who did it which honestly should have jumped to the conclusion it is either nelson or Bart. It was Bart's mistake to tell Milhouse because I don't think Milhouse was even an accomplice to this plan. He probably knew where Xerox machine was.

Milhouse is party to most of his plans. He was party to Budzilla. He was party to the Lost Dutchman's Mine. Milhouse is usually in on the plan. These pranks are not funny, though, if you've ever pulled them before unless you tell somebody that you've done it. True, true. Oh, the brag.

And one last thing about that uh ravenous birds line so when this season began i remember they had a ad that was just like the new season of simpsons is starting and interspersed in it were clips from a lot of the first few episodes that would include the triads of horror and scenes from this and when they played that clip of the of the ravenous birds thing just on its own that it sounds like it's so scary looking same with the dinosaur eating lisa that i was like i was sure these clips are from treehouse of horror so when this episode came out i was like oh this isn't out of context the slow pan across the chanting children to the bird in the window is kind of creepy. It's generally a creepy episode. But yeah, so as they're cleaning this, we get to hear all about Bart's non-believing and also not believing in Michael Jackson, who just four years ago, he was his biggest fan.

He loved Michael Jackson. He moonwalked. But every religion says there's a soul, Bart. Why would they lie? What would they have to gain? Yes. I don't care. Well, if your soul is real, where is it?

It's kind of in here. And when you sneeze, that's your soul trying to escape. Saying God bless you crams it back in. And when you die, it squirms out and flies away. Uh-huh. What if you die in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean? Oh, it can swim. It's even got wheels.

In case you die in the desert and it has to drive to the cemetery. How can someone with glasses that thick be so stupid? Listen, you don't have a soul. I don't have a soul. There's no such thing as a soul. Fine. If you're so sure about that, why don't you sell your soul to me how much you got five bucks deal there you go one soul pleasure doing business with you anytime jim

i think millhouse came up with the idea for It Follows in that little pitch. Yeah, I love that little kiddie kind of thing of saying, oh, it's got wheels, and it can swim, too. Just self-assured and bullshit. I wish I could get there again. Wild speculation is the foundation of all religion. Yeah, pretty much. I've listened to everybody.

We're like, well, what about this? Well, I imagine that it must be like this, this, this. You're just making that up. Ultimately, pretty much. I've listened to everybody. Well, what about this? Well, I imagine that it must be like this, this, this. You're just making that up. Well, canon's probably this. Like, no. It's not canon. I think my favorite critique of religion in this whole episode is

what do they have to gain? That's the sound of money. Pretty heavy-handed, but also pretty great. It's a big gut punch. I also love the churchy echo when Bart says, there's no such thing as a soul. That's how blasphemous Bart is being in this church. It's very well staged.

Yeah, it's great. The thing that's interesting, I think, is that it establishes Bart at the beginning as a huckster. He is pulling pranks on the church. He's tricking Milhouse into giving him his soul. And he's a kid with no morals or no ethics, right? And the rest of the show is basically him paying penance for that. Yeah, it's true.

He learns a lot of ethical lessons, I suppose, or morals. What's the difference? I think that people who say, well, if you don't believe in God, the he learns a lot of ethical lessons i suppose or morals what's the difference i can't say well i think that people who say well if you don't believe in god there's no way that you can have morals and i strongly disagree with that because i have a pretty staunch code of ethics here you're a star trek viewer if the only reason you're a good person is fear of punishment that's kind of fucked up you know which is like i can't go to hell i better be good but if you're looking at bart like he doesn't have any morals he doesn't have any ethics and so this is him kind of being punished for that

uh cat did you stop believing in god after seeing star trek 5 oh boy i stopped believing in god when i discovered that uh god really hated lesbians oh yeah he'll do that he's specific. It's only the men. Another thing that reminded me of being a kid was the conversation between the Hibberts about going out to dinner. So I guess I was a little upper middle class compared

to other people. Like me. So we would go out to dinner at strip mall restaurants like these, theme restaurants like these semi regularly i would also find out later it's because my dad and my mom didn't like cooking and my dad was very unhappy being at home and wanted to just go go out to exciting places to eat my parents never did except for one one time one place tuesday night at tuesday night at pizza hut

are you gonna free nickelodeon kids where kids get free personal pay pizzas. You get a pitcher of Pepsi. And a pitcher of soda, a shitty pizza, and hopefully a little stamp on your book it card. But we would go, we went to Applebee's, we went to TGI Fridays, we went to Outback Steakhouse,

Bennigan's, Spaghetti Factory. We didn't have a Bennigan's where I grew up. We had an Applebee's. Oh, Turkey Tom. We did have an Applebee's and a TGI Friday's and a Fuddruckers, which we would always go Oh, I didn't have a Fuddruckers. I never went to Fuddruckers until I moved here.

I loved Fuddruckers. We went before MSD, didn't we? Well, we did. Yeah, we did. Yes. In my shit town, we had none of this stuff until a few years later. There was no... I mean, there wasn't even a Walmart anywhere near us.

The term I heard used to describe them, I thought was great, is brass bar restaurants. Oh, brass bar. That's a great way to put it. Yeah, I never heard that. I never heard that until, well, the moment when I heard it like 15 years ago. And it perfectly described all of them. It makes sense. And they're all dying.

They're all dying, sad death. I remember the Applebee's, well, because millennials don't want to eat there. The food is disgusting. And everything inside of them is wet like everything has just been wiped off with a rag

it's really weird you know I just ate at a cheesecake factory this weekend in a celebratory meal with my boyfriend I ate like 8,000 calories

and felt disgusting afterwards it is a factory and we went to TGI Fridays over the holidays because they're open Christmas Eve

it's so odd when you get like a receipt back for your drink that has the scent on it because the bars around here are just like, it's just $6, $8. That's all it is. Like, $14.93. Like, Jesus, man. This is coming out of your tip. It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I discovered what actually good food was. And then I went back to places like Applebee's and went oh this isn't very good at all look

they're not Chili's all those types of Ruby Tuesdays they're not particularly great or Olive Garden they're not particularly good but I feel warm nostalgia eating at them and yeah for McDonald's we also live in a place where those places are not allowed so all the places I get are just local like there's local chains or just one local restaurant. I think the thing is that they hand you a plate of food. First of all, it's a massive plate of food. So the portions are insane, and they're kind of tasteless. I don't drink soda anymore.

So when I was a kid... Is it because the soda's too cold? No, I just don't like soda. What do you got against Deep Fried Ranch? Exactly. So I inevitably come out feeling really gross. The beer is not very good, and it's actually kind of overpriced for what it gives you. At all those places, the best possible beer is Blue Moon.

That's the best, highest quality beer you can get. Your parents haven't heard of this. Ooh, and it's got flavor in it. The Simpsons will be right back. Why sell your soul for $5 when you can give that $5 to Talking Simpsons? Well, you can do that at patreon.com slash talking simpsons, where you could have heard this episode a week early and ad free along with a ton of other awesome stuff that includes all of our previous interviews that we've done with folks who'd worked on the simpsons including showrunner bill oakley

showrunner mike scully mimi pon the writer of the first episode of the simpsons that ever aired and many other awesome people plus our live interview and sketch fest show with dana gould is on the patreon right now though it will also be appearing in your podcast feed very soon not to mention you'll get access to every episode of talking critic the entire first season of talking simpsons all of our season wrap-ups including the one we just did for season six and a ton of other things including some exclusive videos that only ten dollar and up premium users can get their hands on it's all at patreon.com slash talking simpsons and just five dollars will get you so much sure you could get mo's million dollar birthday fries but wouldn't you rather have a talking simpsons t-shirt for just $19.99 plus tax and shipping you can get one of those for yourself

at shirtsicle.com or at tiny.cc slash talking shirt i saw some really cool people wearing those shirts at our recent live shows in san francisco and you can get one for yourself a beautiful sky blue a logo designed by wonderful friend of the show nina matsumoto and it ships somewhat internationally so even if you're not in north america that doesn't mean you can't get your hands on the shirt it's at shirt sickle like popsicle but with shirt in title, or at tiny.cc slash talking shirt. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

We care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? Hey, this is Sideshow Luke Perry. You're listening to Talking Simpsons on Lazer Time.

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So that's the basic setup. This guy has a sex bot, and it breaks, and he wants... He wants the exact same model of sex bot, so he has to go out beyond civilization to go find the warehouse full of the sex bot that he wants. Oh, because it's like an older one? It's weird. Do you think he, like,

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5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I want to say this is the first time that we see Hibbert's entire Cosby-esque family. Yeah. And this family features one of two doppelgangers in this episode. So the Theo in his family is the same as the Theo we see on the Cosby show when the stars burn. Except they're wearing different clothes. They are the same design. So he stole a Theo.

Well, maybe you guys would have loved themed restaurants. The Rudy's different, sorry. He's gone to Moe's and they were dank. Oh. Ah! Natural light! Get it off me! Get it off me! Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was a family restaurant. Oh, it is.

It is. Just, uh, pull them stools up to the pool table. Daddy, this place smells like Tinkle. Mm-hmm. I think we'll just go to the Texas Cheesecake Depository. Everybody is going to family restaurants these days. Seems nobody wants to hang out in a dank pit no more. You ain't thinking of getting rid of the dank, are you, Moe?

Ah, maybe I am. Oh, but Moe, the dank. The dank. Yeah, family restaurants. That's where the big bucks are. So I've been to a place like Moe's, and when she says, this place smells like Tinkle, I can totally imagine it, because I used to go to Santa Clara for San Jose Earthquakes games,

and there was one bar, and it was called The Hut, and I would walk in, and I would immediately be overwhelmed by the smell of urine. And the beer would all be very warm, so you didn't want to get it out of the tap, because it would be flat and warm. You wanted to get it out of bottles. But it was literally the only place to drink. So you would go out into the back area to stand by the table. So you didn't have to smell the inside.

I don't like tinkle smell, but I love bars with a lot of good dank in them. And I do the Carl thing. The dank, the dank. As a young man smoking pot, I relish the opportunity to like... Go in a dark place. No, to someone like... To say the dank? Who's rolling this thing? The dank! The dank! Like just... The what?

The dank! The natural light thing, by the way, is something that I say all the time. I hear it weird now, also having grown up in the same pod period, drinking a lot of natural light. They're in a bar and they're... It's like the only time they've name-checked a real beer. They should be afraid of that piss water.

It is ocean water, like to the taste. So this episode was directed by Wes Archer, who would also leave The Simpsons for King of the Hill to be the series director of the animation. Though a little after, he'll finish out season seven. And he's currently the series director on Rick and Morty, the previously mentioned Rick and Morty. But there's an interesting fight that's going on, even still on the commentary for it, but that happened during the production of the episode is that Oakley Weinstein think Mo looks wrong. But Wes Archer's like, no, this is him on the model sheet. This is how he's supposed to look.

So Mo is missing a left tooth in the upper part of his mouth for most of this episode and there were a lot of retakes in this episode too it is distracting to see it because he doesn't normally miss a tooth i think i don't know my theory is that it was a power move by west archer who had he had done episodes with mo and them before i think he was like this is how i want mo to look and i'm gonna make him look like this for an entire episode and if i do it'll stick like i want mo to be missing a tooth. Which apparently he's missing that one tooth on the model sheet. But also you get the problem is when the Simpsons smile, it's a bunch of vertical lines.

When Moe smiles, the missing tooth goes away. There's now a tooth there. So it doesn't make any sense visually. Maybe Wes Archer was playing a power move there because he's like, I've been here since the shorts. You new kids aren't telling me how to draw Moe. Especially in the commercial where he's like i've been here since the shorts yeah you new kids aren't telling me how to draw mo especially in the commercial where he's forced to smile at the camera all of his teeth are there yeah it's like all vertical lines so he definitely looks more ugly than usual in this one though does which he's kind of supposed to i think to make it even

even more weird that he's being friendly and having to be nice to people i'm going to be an iconoclast i wish the missing tooth most stuck around. Oh, wow. It's good for his character. Make him uglier. What about you want him to get back his black hair, too? Ooh, that's a step too far. Uglier.

Gray hair. Gray hair. Missing tooth. Well, he should be in his 60s, so he should have his chestnut hair. But Maggie, also, it's almost too dark to read it it but I do like Maggie sucking on the umbrella the drink umbrella and then he's got to put a coaster under it so did you ever buy

those dinosaur sponges as a kid I did they are very disappointing though I never even like sprayed them with water you put them you're told to put them in a glass like put them in a glass of water and they'll grow 10% bigger.

It alleges 500%. I tried to look up if there's anybody who made these specifically, but mostly they're called Magic Grows. But a billion different other names, bought almost exclusively in museum gift shops in the shape of dinosaurs. You can put it in your mouth. They're the closest thing to, like, a smart toy

to get your parents to buy you at the gift shop. The stupidity of single-use toys. Bart's imagination kind of reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes. Yeah. There was a storyline that I always think of where Calvin ordered a beanie that had a little spinning propeller blade, and half the comics are him imagining

all the cool things he's going to do. He's going to fly away, and he finally gets it, and he accidentally breaks it, and his dad fixes it, and he finally gets it to work. And then, of course, it's just going... And he's like... I love that, yeah. You have those dreams so many times as a kid of, like,

this toy is going to change everything. Yeah. So Bart's ultimate plan is to get Lisa wet with water. It's very much like his ultimate plan to get Allison Taylor wet with a hose, giving her the spring of a lifetime. But I remember being nervous because we'd already seen, imagine Skinner being cut in half. Like, what's he going to do to his sister? I'm like, oh, nothing. That's sweet.

Dripping funny-smelling water all over me. He could do so much better with five bucks, though. I mean, it's kind of annoying to me that he spent it on those sponge things. Five bucks and 95. That's like a value meal value meal yeah he could have bought three comic books at the would have lasted him longer him not caring i i probably would have had bart's same attitude but i also would have been like too much of a chicken to sell it because it'd be like just to hedge my bets just in case that's called pascal's wager everybody uh that's like i'm gonna believe in god just in case i mean recanting on my deathbed simpsons taught me that too yeah that's my plan like and uh i have a similar feeling about throwing away toys ever because i i think like

what if toy story is real i'm killing this toy like what am i doing need more shelves man that's all you need toys make me happy this room is a testament to that. I just put up a bunch of toys on the shelves. Got a lot of compliments for it. I don't have any Simpsons toys. Or close to any, really. Still buying them. Also, my cat never eats bugs. I don't know what this cat eating bugs means.

My cat totally eats bugs. He will hunt the bug as it's flying around and then grab it with his paw and eat it. It's pretty impressive. I can't recall my cats ever eating bugs. They hunted lizards in Florida. Well, there's lots of protein in them. Protein and fat in those bugs. You see bugs as odd, but not hunting lizards.

I guess not. No, I mean, that's for sure. Cat coming in with three lizards in his mouth. It is funny to see that Bart gets very, like, physical proof that his soul changed things immediately. Stupid automatic door. Thank you, door. Some ice cream guy's

gonna see that and it'll blow his mind. Let me try. Way to breathe. No breath. This is getting weird. Subject to the entrance with the Windex. Subject to the entrance with the Windex. So the Simpsons has poisoned my mind, to which every time I go through an automatic door, I think, thank you, door.

It happened to me when I was at Target. But I never say it. As a little kid, I thought they were making Barton do a vampire because he's scaring pets and he seems to have no physical embodiment. He is a demon. He became a demon. I love that sound of the intercom that has never been used at the Quickie Mart ever again, I don't think. It's small enough where Sanjay could hear him if he just said,

Sanjay, get over here. But it's much funnier if you hear it over an intercom sound. It heightens the humiliation. I used to work for a convenience store. As it happens, we had a button. So you'd press the button and if they were in the back it would just buzz them to come up okay sanjay is usually in the back at the quickie mart you don't see him all that

often yeah well he's probably putting things away in the cooler or he's handling the accounts or something like that he could be tending to the garden he's the bookkeeper there is what i want to think my headcanon also he has children unlike apu at this point. So, oh, so then Moe is trying to think of a name, and we get a return of my favorite Barney catchphrase. So, come on, I need a name that says friendly all-American cooking. How about Chairman Moe's Magic Walk? I like it. Nah, I want something that says people can have a nice relaxing time.

I got it. Madman Moe's Pressure Cooker. I like it. Hey, how aboutman Moe's pressure cooker! I like it! Hey, how about Uncle Moe's family feed bag? I hate it! Oh boy! The deep fryer's here. I got it used from the Navy.

You can flash fry a buffalo in 40 seconds. 40 seconds? But I want it now! That was from the USS Missouri, by the way. A real battleship. It fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, the Korean War, and Operation Desert Storm,

and it was decommissioned in 1992. But most importantly, Cher's video, if I could turn back time, was filmed on the USS Missouri. It really made the Navy mad. I love that strumpet strutting around in her little stockings. I believe the USS Missouri. It really made the Navy mad. They're like, that's grump. It's strutting around in her little stockings. I believe the USS Missouri was also

where the Japanese surrendered to the U.S. This is definitely a very old man kind of reference. I have been on the USS Missouri, by the way. Prove it. What did you flash fry? Man, that's...

Why? What? Where? More, that's, I have not. Why? What? Where? More, Kat, more. Forgive me. I don't remember where exactly it was. I might have been Hawaii, in Hawaii, because I remember I went, whenever I'm traveling, I usually end up in a World War II museum or something, because I'm a history nerd.

Yeah. I like history, and I was like, oh, cool, a submarine. Or, oh, cool, an old battleship. So I recall, I was like, oh, the USS Missouri. The Japanese surrendered to America here. So I went on the ship and learned about its history and everything. No, I did not see the deep fryers. I don't know a lot about war because I'm not a weirdo. But I was surprised to see a ship built for World War II was in Desert Storm. I guess they last see a ship built for World War II was in Desert Storm.

I guess they last for a while. Well, that was the return of Barney's catchphrase of, I like it. That's great. If you guys have gotten text from me, it's one of my favorite things is if I'm going to get somebody to affirm it. When anybody says, well, should we do this today? I like it. He literally did that to me yesterday yes from uh the b sharps right yeah okay handsome homa simpson plus four plus three i like it that and now this is another barney i like it from underneath a uh a sheet as they're building the place around him

barney's pretty funny in this episode he's's good. He's a good set decoration in this episode. I also think Skinless in Seattle is maybe my favorite Itchy and Scratchy short or one of them. I forgot the space needle only goes into his eye

a little bit. It's perfect. It goes, it gets stuck in his iris and he runs around with it. It's just so perfect. So I'll confess

to having a really hard time watching Itchy and Scratchy episodes because the violence has always turned up just a little too high, and I'm squeamish. And having the space needle thing come down right in his eye, I'm like, ah! I think the problem is... Eye stuff is a lot for me. Yeah, the violence is too specific. It's not like a head exploding or someone turning into a skeleton.

It's actually something that could happen to you. It's not Looney Tunes. It's really gory. My God. This one's pretty mild by most comparisons. It goes further than Woody Woodpecker most of the time. And this episode, I think, taught many people about the work of the Nobel Prize winning poet, Pablo Neruda. I know that's funny, but I'm just not laughing.

Pablo Neruda said laughter is the language of the soul. I am familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda. I think we should do a test. Well? Nope. I don't feel a thing. That's creepy, Bart. I think you really did lose your soul.

Good boy. Ow! Ow! Who's doing that? Nothing. Ow! Help me! Ow!

Why isn't anybody... Ow! Help me! That's so great. Who's doing that got my favorite, my heartiest laugh. They're both looking worried in the center is homer's ass being bitten by a dog i just love to his vocalizing oh yeah that's got to be an ad-lib it really feels like it goes just long enough yeah that's another act break right

there are two great act breaks in this episode just the way and homer's the key to both of them but then he just fell he's, why is no one helping me? It was the ideal joke where it went long enough that it became funny, or even funnier, but also took up a little bit of extra time. Yes. So Pablo Neruda was... Oh, the nine-tailed fox. Before we get to this, I apologize for mispronouncing his last name. I know it's Neruda, not Nerudo.

Pablo Nerudo. He was finally gonna be the chieftain of his his son pablo boruto so it was a dirty communist yeah it was a chilean socialist politician slash poet and uh who may have been killed by pinochet uh there's still some guests on that but uh he was also a key plot point in How I Met Your Mother, because one of his poems was a favorite poem of both Bob Saget and the mother.

Bob Saget. That is not the same show. It might as well be. I know they're different. I know one's way better. But I do have a selection of Pablo Neruda, a poem of his read by Glenn Close. I like for you to be still. It is as though

you are absent, and you hear me from far away, and my voice does not touch you. It seems as though your eyes had flown away, and it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth. As all things are filled with my soul, you emerge

from the things filled with my soul. You are like my soul, a butterfly of dream, and you are like the word melancholy. Too high, bro. Of all the complaints we've gotten on any podcast ever,

I think the most is going to come from playing a poem. That was Jessica Lovejoy, right? Yeah, I had the music for Am to come from playing a poem. That was Jessica Lovejoy, right? Yeah, it had the music from Amelie in the background. I love that soundtrack.

My parents' screensaver as the visual. All of Naruto's work, like, it was translated in English. Even the sexy ninjutsu? That's my last Naruto joke.

Last one. I don't have any more references. I'm out too. But yeah, so that's who he is. He won, he died in 73, I believe yeah murdered

by the Pinochet regime yep likely like who's to who knows for sure the sound of it from the sound of it they're like

the Chilean government was like yeah he was probably murdered well I don't think Pinochet would do anything wrong he was supported by America like so I don't really see

like all the best dictators yeah all the best dictators are supported by America and if they're gonna take down communists then they must have been good. Yeah. You know, omelets breaking eggs. You know how it works.

Yeah, I think this episode shows another of Oakley Weinstein's early favoritism towards some characters. And Milhouse is one of them. And this is Milhouse coming into his own for sure. And this is like extra smart Millhouse here. If the Ayatollah can't have it, no one can. But, you know, Millhouse. Yes? You're getting tired of that soul, huh?

No. Suppose someone wanted to buy it from you. Oh, you want to buy it back, Bart? Sure. No problem. Fifty bucks. What? someone wanted to buy it from you oh you want to buy a back part sure no problem 50 bucks what who's stupid now huh oh good laugh there but insane guffaw so millhouse going yes uh that is an impression of frank nelson who played characters on the jack Jack Benny program And eventually they turned him into A Simpsons character called Mr. Costington

He had a stroke So here's a Compilation of yeses that eventually turns into The Simpsons compilation of yeses so we can shut it off then So here's Frank Nelson Yeah Yeah Yeah

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah You managed to make quite the career out of saying that line. Well, I think it started in radio, and you didn't know exactly who that character would be, but he'd be the clerk at every store. And if you noticed in that clip, he's lifting his head up, letting the audience know, it is me. He's going to talk like this. I'm on this now.

Because even on TV, he'd be standing there for minutes with his back turned to the camera. This time I'm bothering Flip Wilson. I mean, I know nothing about wrestling, but I thought it was preposterous a wrestler had the catchphrase of yes. But now I realize it's totally fine.

Who is that guy, Henry? Tell me. Daniel Bryan. I thought so. Yes. It's so much fun. It is fun. I also like in that video, you can see him aging and getting fake mustaches and

wigs. So when Milhouse is playing his war games, I just want to observe that he's about 15 years behind on American enemies at that time. Yes, we were still

at odds with Iran, but Iraq was the new hotness in 1995. Like I think he's poor and has the discount patriotic toys. And just like... They didn't even have G.I. Joes.

G.I. Joes were still a thing in 1995. Yeah, fighting robots instead of ayatollahs yeah and this was one of two instances in this episode in which someone remembers that millhouse had a white piece of paper with him as if that's something you take note of like yes he did have a white piece of paper with him without the backstory of like weird without the backstory of the commentary which i heard years ago this is the meanest millhouse has ever been because it's like only him saying that they played up

the value of the soul it seems like millhouse knew bart was coming and it's playing up i liked his who's stupid now they're kind of like dead he's like see he said i was stupid now who's yeah bart kind of chewed out millhouse so he's getting his comeuppance it's not a surprise also that if nerds are always in a position of like having to take it, so when they get put into a position of power, they tend to overplay their hand a little bit. Are you describing the last four years? I bet if he had said $10, Bart would have scrounged up the money,

but instead he said $50. There's too many nerds out there who their response to being bullies was to become a worse bully. My turn. That's not the lesson you're supposed to learn from being bullied, but I love his dorky, sinister he's great i think he got a taste of it he got a taste of the

power i think these writers love writing for millhouse more than bart because they were millhouse not part none of them were none of them were bart as kids like al jean was certainly not bart oh for sure like he was millhouse. And this goes straight into the perfect commercial for a local eatery. Like, I love it. If you like good food, good fun, and a whole lot of crazy crap on the walls, then come on down to Uncle Moe's Family Feedback. At Moe's, we serve good old-fashioned home cookies, deep-fried to perfection.

Now that's Moe like it. So bring the whole family. Mom, Dad, kids, and no old people. They're not covered by our insurance. It's fun. And remember our guarantee. If I'm not smiling when your check comes, your meal's on me, Uncle Moe. Come to Uncle Moe's for family fun.

It's good, good, good, good, good, good, good. Sounds good. I love the quote, crazy crap on the walls, because I had not been in these restaurants in 1995. Having been in them many times after this, it's like, yes, it's always the most generic Americana stuff. It's like, you need to have a lifesaver on the wall. Tricycle. The three stooges playing golf that photo uh maryland albert einstein with his tongue sticking out yes exactly and like go up and touch it next time you're there i'm like oh my god this is plastic molded like this is this is just fake anyway yeah the one that sticks out

to me the most recent memory was at the red robin that uh chris and I would usually go to at our home. Bottomless pride. You got it. That it had baseballs on the wall in the shape of the American flag, if you remember that. Yeah, it made me proud to eat there. I was kind of curious because I remember these restaurants becoming a thing in the 90s, and I was kind of like, is my memory wrong? So I went back and I looked at a whole bunch of them,

and sure enough, a lot of them got started in like the 70s or even the early 80s and expanded wildly and became the restaurants we knew by the 90s. So this was very much a new trend at this time. The 90s was the era of the Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood and just like critical mass for theme restaurants. And also like before creating Beavis and But butthead mike judge was working at one of these oh you're right like that's why that's in the office in office space and now all these restaurants are dying because no one can afford to go out for a middle brow meal anymore it's

serious it's like the death of red lobster is like families can't afford these meals i went to one over the break and it's just like this i could have gone anywhere else for this amount of money and not feel this sick why would i do this i don't think it's just that they're too expensive. I think that the health kind of thing. They're gross. Yeah, people came to acknowledge, oh, yeah, this is where you go if you want to be real fat. And they're also so tacky. And they legally made them put the calorie counts on the menus because they're so astronomical.

They count as like 2.5 meals every single thing you order. I feel like that's what you accept. If you're going to the Cheesecake Factory, you know you're going to eat there to be a fat turd. I would have loved to be ice skating right at the Christmas tree once a year. That's the only reason I go. As Mo showed us,

almost everything is deep fried to cover up the low quality of the frozen things they're serving you. I wince every time that guy bites the fried glass. Yeah, still hear the glass. But this is a very well-observed like Bennigan's or TGI Friday's look, though. Wes Archer was thinking, like, they could have done a better job.

I'm like, you guys did a great job. Don't under- My favorite image from this episode is Marge looking at an alligator wearing sunglasses. Well, and Greg Daniels, I think, has a not-so-secret love of these chain restaurants because- Oh, yeah. On The Office, they got Chili's to be the official place he talks about it on the commentary yeah this is like pre-airing i think yeah he had just gone for the season two episode the dundies it all takes place in a chili's and chili's made them change

the script a little bit because pam is supposed to get drunk there but Chili's was like we it's our rule to never over serve alcohol she would not get drunk they're like fine then we have to change this but yes yes no one's ever been drunk at a Chili's certainly not to my uncle the Chili's was a recurring place on the office but that was the Dundee's episode was the most use of Chili's and it was one of the best he all Greg Daniels also directed that episode. He was very in touch with Chili's. The shaking, smiling Moe's head is so creepy.

It's twitching. Holding a smile legitimately hurts. He can't do it. As I said, he was the most pathetic man in Springfield. He can't be happy. He has to faint it. We'll see what happens. This will be the same smile that will be reused they just draw it again oh when mo is on the duff calendar in the season 11 episode pig moly that is the same expression wow in the episode where he gets a facelift and then

a thing hits his face at the end that somehow changes his face back to being the same and they make a joke about it that's not the same as fixing a story problem to just have Mo speak to camera of like, hey, this is a plot hole. Boom, the end. Like, no, that's a big problem with the era of The Simpsons. We'll get to it. They just accept like, well, if we just make a joke out of the fact

we had a bad plot, it's the same. They did it too much. Anyway, then we get to Bart's bedtime, which I think Oakley Weinstein got a lot of work. They got a lot out of the kids' bedtime. Yeah, little parent-child interactions. I like Marge hugging him to figure out his anxieties. It's swim test anxiety.

So what is that? I guess you have a test that involves swimming at school where they test your ability to swim. Did you guys not take swimming? No. Not in school. What the fuck? I was almost a lifeguard, actually. Whoa.

I am a certified lifeguard. I used to take this. I swam at Y, but not at school. So my parents always said, my kids are going to learn two things. They're going to learn how to play an instrument, and they're going to learn how to swim for some reason. And so I took a lot of the summer swimming lessons at the local pool, and I just kept rising up the levels. But whenever we got to the swim test,

I did feel swim test anxiety because, I mean, you had to do the strokes in a very specific way, and if you failed, it's like the entire summer down the drain. Damn. Yeah, it's harsh. You get that butterfly stroke correctly. Man, those abs.

Those abs. I think that the Simpsons really lost sight of this kind of pleasurable mundanity of just like tucking the kids in for bed they they got they got too silly in other ways like it's a nice like lower key scene that they can still make jokes in i do miss those and i really love the the bart's dream i didn't get any clips from it because it's really visual but bart's dream of all of his friends with their souls and him feeling left out like it's kind of a it feels like how i as a kid would have dreamed of hell of just like in my

or purgatory of just like in school terms of it i appreciate how gay martin is in this i choose martin oh boy i like sherry and terry as the kind of very creepy, shining-ass twins. They get to be quadruplets in this. I love that. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs weird i don't remember saying that part visit dejaden.com care and get insurance that's really big on care did i mention that we care and that this episode i swear sherry and terry have not had this many lines in like

five years they rediscovered sh Sherry and Terry in this episode. It's a great sequence. It's visually inventive. Yeah, it's beautiful. And it really drives home the point, because you see everybody rowing toward kind of an Emerald City type thing. Is that Oz? It looks like Oz. It represents purgatory to me of

Bart just rowing in a circle place he can't get out. That's kind of like hell, right? Where you can't get out and you can only kind of do the same action over and over again. He's just trapped forever. It's terrifying. And then, again, in reused animation stuff, I double-checked this on Freaky Act. They removed

a couple frames, but Bart's jump up to scream is his exact scream from Treehouse of Heart 2. I was wondering that. It is. Compare it on Treehouse. Oakley and Weinstein love season three so much they put part of it in season seven. At least a few frames of it.

One last observation. The music in the dream sequence is really good, too. Oh, yeah. And the music in this episode overall is excellent because there's some really good music later on when he's kind of doing the chase for his soul or whatever. Though apparently Wes Archer wanted the souls to be kind of transparent, not blue.

I think there was just a messaging error. He was annoyed by that. The Simpsons head to Uncle Moe's family feedback, and this is a long clip, but I love every... An alligator with sunglasses? Now I've seen everything. Hiya, folks. Welcome to Uncle Moe's. Aw, look at all the cute little miners.

Whoa, that's Moe, the guy from the ad. Right this way, Homer. And he knows my name. Street signs? In doors? Whatever. Now, Rod, you order anything you want for your big 10-0.

Million dollar birthday fries! Uh-oh! Moe gets so excited, you order anything you want for your big 10-0. Million-dollar birthday fries! Uh-oh! Mom gets so excited when you order his million-dollar birthday fries, he just has to celebrate. Here you go! Here I am! Uncle Moe! Thank you, ma'am! This'll be a treat! Uncle Moe! Here I am! While you eat! Please take the fries off my head kid the basket is extremely hot moe is giving himself too much work to do not only is he like the manager the the the owner doing the books yeah he's also like a part-time waiter when it's somebody's birthday well he's

used to being the bartender and proprietor he's not used to having actual waiters and he has to give everyone their check because he has to be there to smile at them. Oh, that's true, Manny. Mo knows how hateful he is. He should not have set himself up. Mo's working too hard for Mo. It almost is too much ambition for Mo. Yeah.

But I love Marge's wholesome reactions to the stuff on the walls. It was made for moms to go like, oh, how sane he is. It is kind of moms to go like, oh, how zany. It is kind of a mean joke, but it's very observational. In the early 90s, it was kind of quirky and people living in the suburbs,

apologies to people living in the suburbs, might have been going, oh, that's kind of fun. I guess it is a joke in like how Marge is so lame that she thinks this easy stuff is funny. But now it just makes me feel like, I don't know,

I love my mom and she'd have sweet reactions like that. It feels like a very King of the Hill joke, actually, with Greg Daniels on board, because it's about a very middle American family being excited by something that's very boring and not interesting. Peggy would have that exact same reaction. I mean, we saw Peggy's theme restaurant when she took over Sugarfoots. Oh, my God, yeah. Look forward to talking King of the Hill soon.

Peggy's Sugarfoots. I remember being like 12, and I was just ragging on Suburban Nights. I grew up in a suburb, and I remember thinking, oh, that's pretty funny. Look at all those signs. Yeah, I had that same reaction as a little kid. And then I think this joke taught me, no, cool, it's cool to not like this.

I think it's dumb. Then my soul ossified, and I hated everything. And there's no difference between that place and my room, except that everything I had has a license attached to it. And did anybody try their damnedest to see what was written on the wall? I could not. Like two little reds. I got one, and it's awesome.

Ranch thingy thingies. Oh, great. They probably spent five hours writing that joke, and it is lost in the background. You just cannot see it. And this joke officially makes Rod the same age as bart you could maybe read rod is older than bart because he's drawn taller but rod is 10 oh it's the same as bart for some or 10 oh which would make him a hundred this scene astonishingly is commonly

shit posted and simpson's memefied this whole scene with Uncle Moe, or Moe with a basket of fries on his head. I'm sort of shocked by it. It gets more play than Pogs. No, it should not. I love Million Dollar Birthday Fries. It's great marketing on Moe's part to be like, well, I'll do this song and dance, but they're called Million Dollar because they're probably like 50 bucks for French fries.

It's classic like Bennigan's markup on bullshit. And you don't want to eat fries off an old man's head. I don't understand the appeal. Yes, it's true. I don't think that's very hygienic. Looking back, I feel bad for the waiters who always had to come out and do their stupid little birthday song

because they'd always do the, they had to clap all together and they had their little song and I'm sure they sang it like every single night. That's why when I hear it. TGI Fridays, we like to say to you. Oh my God, you actually know the song? Not really.

The copyright free TGI Fridays birthday song? Well, what was, oh my God. Actually, an even better gag on Chain Restaurants is in the Upright Citizens Brigade. There's a whole episode about Chain Restaurants. That has my favorite sketch of all time. It is the guy interviewing and going through. To work at Bennigan's, basically.

All of the steps in order. It's like, I'm going to get ice. Oh, you're just going to make ice levitate using my hands. I will get ice. You're just going to put your hands into the thing? Well, how many pieces of ice? Exactly. Like that level of granularity in explaining a task.

I'm sorry. Please. I applied to several restaurant jobs, and that's how they – You ever dealt with a 10-top? What's a 10-top? 10 tables. Like, dude, you carry shit and do light math. You need to relax.

Like, you are not cooking any of these. Can you handle it, Chris? Can you handle it? Yeah, I can write down someone's order and bring them food. Jesus Christ. I'm sure you're very good at your job, waiters. I think the episode is called Invaded by Friars.

And that restaurant was the Rainforest Cafe. Oh my God. Three interviews. Didn't get the job. That serious. That serious. You've got to be on brand at all times, Chris. What?

I could dress up like a gorilla? As a kid, I definitely would have ordered Southwestern Pizza Fingers. I want them now so bad. How are the Southwestern Pizza Fingers? They're awesomely outrageous. Oh, these look good. Guilt-free steakfish fillets. Nah, nah, let me level with you, Marge.

That's just our name for bottom-feeding suction eel. You don't want that. Why don't you try Moe's hobo chicken chili? I start with the best part, the neck. Then I add secret hobo spices. Ooh, tray beer. Yeah. Hey, what the hell are you doing you little freak

sorry kid sorry i'm not used to the laughter of children it cut through me like a dentist drill but no no that was funny that was funny you're taking away my dignity like that so weird that wiggum doesn't get a line there he's just sitting there in the background but that marge saying trey bien is a callback to marge from the way we was where she was uh you know tutoring homer in french yeah it's true she is a french expert she throws it out there every now and then i don't know if they've gone to paris on the show but they should go somewhere where both marge and bart speak french fluently bart is fluent in french you probably lost it by now i would think he's forgotten yes but the i yeah it feels like wiggum should have a line there i think they only had wiggum there because you need to know he's

ralph's father for a later scene yeah well yeah and uh also i i forgot to mention it in the million dollar birthday fries but that buzzer is the same buzzer for crusty's secret word in the wolf episode like loud that's our secret word of the day! It's the perfect just jarring buzzer noise. Then I also love when the episode has the A and B plots smashed together like this. This is beautiful. I would like to say grace.

Lord have mercy on my soul. And mom's soul. And dad's soul. And Maggie's soul. And let every soul in Christendom. Bart! I can't take this anymore.

I want my soul and I want it now. Bart, you didn't finish your spaghetti and mo balls. Silence, you fool. It can be hard. Run, boy!

Run! Run for your life! Boy! I mean, okay, so we just had the neglectorinos episode, right? Yes. This episode proves that Homer and Marge are neglectful parents because Bart runs away at night from Moe's. Gone all night.

Gone until the morning because he sleeps outside of the android's dungeon many scenes later. He does not return. And in the next episode, they'll just letisa run away as well that's true yeah i think you know child protective services was right i remember thinking well i mean i was left alone to go and do whatever a lot growing up not all night in a way that not all night not all night if i ran out of apple bees my parents would not just go like yeah he'll be back yeah but when parents now my friends or parents leave their five-year-old for like 10 minutes, they have to have a babysitter. I just can't imagine people letting their kids ride around their town at this point alone. Yeah, things have changed a lot.

I mean, I used to go all over the place on my bike and everything. As far as I could go. I love spaghetti and bo balls. Now it sounds a lot more disgusting. I prefer spepeggie and meatballs. Again, back to King of the Hill. In my opinion, you need to boil spepeggie. I love, god damn, I love spepeggie.

So, and that's another great act break. So the third act is so fucking weird, including the opening with the spaceman. Like, it's like a psychedelic 60s movie of the spaceman coming out of the door. Is that a reference to E.T.? No, it's an E.T. reference. Yeah, I thought so. Okay. It's an E.T., which is great,

because it's something I didn't pick up on for years. My first thought was Back to the Future, because he kind of looks like he's got the radiation suit on, and he's got the deep voice. That whole emerging from the front door thing is definitely E.T. It is, because other than the mother in E.T., you do not see an adult for the entire film. And Peter Coyote eventually talks, but you see him by his keys for the first, like, 80 minutes.

So the first time that you see, like, Elliot sees adult figures, they're in the NASA costumes looking down. It's a very specific scene, and everything he says is not specific at all. And it's great that he goes from the one you call Milhouse to Bronson voice. And he remembers that Milhouse had a piece of paper with him. You wouldn't forget a thing like that. No, I thought he was goofing on him. I always heard it as sarcastic

if it was like, oh yeah, you never forget a thing like that. I mean, number one, he always sounds sarcastic, but number two, this is a second occurrence of this joke in which Luanne Van Houten remembers and he remembers just for the sake of so Bart can know where to go next. But it's also funny. It is funny, yeah. So, though I have a theory about the editing of this episode

that I think the Milhouse house scene was originally before their trip to the restaurant, but they wanted the act break, they didn't want it to go before the act break because... It's a daytime scene. Yeah, it's a daytime scene and it makes much more sense for bart to run out of mose and then be on third street and run all the way to 200 and whatever street but instead he runs from mose to millhouse

and then back to downtown where mose is for his weird night when he left mose at night yeah there are a lot of weird time issues that will come up much later, though. Moe's place closes down in one evening. Yeah. In two hours, Moe's place is gone. Yeah, Homer's seemingly there at three in the morning. Yeah, what the hell? But anyway, yes.

So then Sherry and Terry again, I think this is the first time they've ever, them being twins actually mattered for like a joke, like a plot point. Here you go. Here I am. Uncle Moe. Thank you, ma'am. This will be a treat. Uncle Moe.

Here I am. I'll get eat. Yay. Now do it for Terry. What? It's your birthday too? We're twins. Here you go.

Here I am. Eat your fries. Eat them. Here's you. Oh, geez. And you got the stink lines and everything. Here's you. Oh, jeez. And you got the stink lines and everything. So stinky. Oh, dude.

You did not smile. We eat for free. Come on, Shoshana. Let's roll. But I sang you the potato stuffings. Come on. I sang you the potato stuffings. Look at the vein on that guy's forehead.

He's going to blow. Auntie Mo? What is it, sweetheart? My sodie is too cold. My teeth hurt. Oh, your teeth hurt, huh? Your teeth hurt? Well, that's too freaking bad. You hear me? I'll tell you where you can put your freaking sodie, too. Oh, my freaking ears! Oh, let's go, dear. Well, I expect that type of language at Denny's, but not here. Come on, folks, wait. Please come back.

Please, I got a new offer. Whenever Uncle Mo threatens you, you get a free steak. Fish. Steak fish. Never got that until this viewing. So much to go over. So, number one, Shoshanna was the name and still is

the name of Jerry Seinfeld's teenage girlfriend he started dating her I think he was like 35 and she was 17 so he's a cool guy think of that

when you watch Seinfeld it will ruin it it's really weird that that happened and nobody really talked about it they were like he's silly

it's a smaller world and it wasn't for very long he was too busy stealing his friend's wife he dated her for four years. Oh, he did? Yeah, yeah. Hollywood comedians and teenagers.

All right. Well, and also, though, I looked into her, too. I was like, wow, she started her own fashion business. That's cool. Oh, she's a rich kid. It's like she started her own business after a loan from her father, the CEO of Infocoms.biz. Oh, boy. It's not just any 17-year-old that gets in Jerry

Seinfeld's orbit. That's true. Obviously, it's going to be a rich kid who Jerry Seinfeld would meet. Somewhere in the Hampton. So, second thing I want to say is that we have our second doppelganger in this episode. So, the first one was, we have two Theos. This is Samantha Stanky without braces. I looked

at the designs. Oh, that's who she was. It's like the smoke to Samantha Stanky's braces i looked at the designs that's who she was it's like it's like the the smoke to uh samantha snanky's like scorpion or whatever it's like she's a different palette with no braces but it is the same design wow they pulled samantha snanky for this one yeah bart's bart's uh friend falls in love right yeah season three uh late in season three episode i love the animation on mo's second song like eat your fries eat them and the uh they had the uncle mo's theme in a minor key yes during his freak out as the buzzer is going off that he's gonna have to sing the song again they play only hearing it in audio just now did i notice like oh that was the that was the mo song that was his commercial song so

do you want to talk about denny's well it's also random to see crusty and barney hanging out yeah they rarely share scenes together. That is true. Krusty should not be there. And for the second episode in a row, there's a joke about Todd being very impressionable. That's right. If he hears something or sees something, he will repeat it. I don't want any damn vegetables.

All My Freakin' Ears is actually one of my favorite lines. It's my personal line of the episode in this one. I did like the knock against Denny's, but was this based on something? Based on a class action lawsuit. So from Wikipedia, in 1994, Denny's settled a class

action lawsuit followed by black customers who had been refused service, forced to wait longer, or pay more than white customers. The $54.4 million settlement was the largest to date under federal public accommodations laws established 30 years earlier. This is a huge deal. It was huge enough to

like you didn't just have to know about it. If you ate at Denny's, they had to have a disclaimer inside of their menu. There was a sign on the door. Wow. In the menu, they talk about we will not racially discriminate against anybody. Was this across the country? I mean, definitely in Florida. If it happened to me and Bob, let's see if we can triangulate it, commenters.

Yeah. No, I do remember that lawsuit because I think I saw somebody make fun of Denny's when they had, I think the Denny's

had some tweet on like a civil rights holiday and people were like, you know, you were sued for hating black people. I'm sure they're not racist anymore. They learned a lesson and they lost a lot of money.

We're expecting a lot from a restaurant That started from a place called Sambo's Oh no So then we get to another very visual Gag of Bart looking For the street he's going to be on He has to go over 200 blocks I love the little animation of him going Over the map and you can see it on the other side

It's little touches like that they don't do anymore They really can't do it anymore but the street cleaner joke is yes the street cleaner joke is great actually so bob and i were not very nice to the video fall of the simpsons on our community thing if you if you've seen it the uh youtuber super eyepatch wolf did a video called fall of the simpsons which bob and i didn't completely agree with his other videos are really good i fucking love it it's i feel bad now because I hadn't seen Super Eyepatch Wolf stuff at the time. Now I've watched all of his videos. His anime stuff is great. It's really good.

In his Fall of the Simpsons videos, though, he says this street cleaner joke is one of his favorites ever because it's so dense. He says it's really five jokes in one. Bart's trapped on a long street. His bike is destroyed intentionally by a crazy street cleaner. Then his bike is seemingly fine. Better than ever. And then it falls apart when he gets on it. And then the street cleaner just maniacally laughs for no reason.

And then intentionally, seemingly crashes his cleaner in the train station. The first appearance of the Springfield Subway. All of a sudden, Bart's in New York or something? Somebody was speculating that it was a riff on something from Orphan Annie where the orphans were all racing from like 3rd Street

to like 550th Street or something like that. I think Wes Archer calls out the Scorsese movie Night Shift or Night Hours. Night Hours, the one that few I've Wes Archer calls out the Scorsese movie Night Shift, or Night Hours. Night Hours, the one that few I've never seen. It's really good. It was one of his 80s ones. I'm less clear on his 80s stuff.

I looked at Chris, and he looked at me as if he didn't know. Chris, I thought you liked the man. It was like post-King of Comedy, I think. That was the movie he made after. It was like 85. I really love that movie. Night Shift, Night Hours, Night something. It's good.

There's no De Niro in it, so that's why I wouldn't have watched it. I watched all the De Niro ones, and then I did some cleanup afterwards. Cheech and Chong are in it, and they're only good movie appearance, probably. Though, yeah, Bart could have taken the subway, though. Perhaps he had no money. Or maybe it was so late, the subway had stopped going. Why did they need a monorail to get to the subway? He ran out the door with no money.

I didn't carry money when I was 10 years old. Though I did like the gag of the first time I noticed that it was the 3rd Street Station because Bart is on 3rd Street. So extra bit of continuity there. Actually, though, the money thing you mentioned, Kat, that is actually a really good plot point in this episode. That, like, multiple times Bart's like, well, I don't have five bucks. Or I just got five bucks. Lisa wants five bucks. The limited funds of the kids is really key to, well, I don't have five bucks, right? Just got five bucks. Lisa wants five bucks.

The limited funds of the kids is really key to this episode, I think. I like that a lot. So Wiggum does some police work, which I really just love Dan in this scene. It's really great. All improvised. Just be the same.

I know you and your wife and everybody. Son, you wait here while Daddy tries to talk some sense into this Raven Daryl. You guys are telling me so much that the time is now. What the hell are you talking about? Oh, yes, I'm on. Son, you wait here while Daddy tries to talk some sense into this Raven Daryl. Slow down, slow down. Who's been stealing your thoughts? Did you ever read the old curiosity shop? Hello, Ralph.

Hi, Bart. I know you from school. Yes. A simple proposition, Ralph. How would you like to make a dollar? I don't know. All you have to do is sign a paper that says I can have your soul. I need a soul, Ralph.

Any soul. Yours. Yours. Hey, what's going on over there? Disappears to the sewer mist. With the cat eyes. Yeah. I gotta say, living in the Bay Area, there's been a strong uptick in that kind of homeless person lately.

Just like, everyone is talking to themselves around me. I had an experience with that just yesterday. But it was actually a surprisingly positive one because I was having lunch with my friend, shout out to Mara, and we had somebody come in and start raving right behind us at the table. And she said,

would you like lunch? And he was like, and he stopped and he goes, yes. And she bought him lunch and he proceeded to tell her how amazing she was and how nice she was and how beautiful she was.

And then he was ushered out eventually. It's a good strategy. Yeah. At least he got a meal. That's nice. I just love that Wiggum, who is a terrible cop who usually cares about nobody, he's humoring a homeless man for really no reason. He's just like, well, I got to talk some sense into him. I've noticed that cops often do that.

But it's not humoring. It's actually kind of looking down on them and being like, oh, it's this guy. We get to know all the homeless people. Yeah, yeah. People are controlling your thoughts. Okay. I think Wiggum is setting out on an impossible task, which is why it's funny. It's just like, I'll talk some sense into this person

with clear mental illness or brain damage or something. One of the scariest things I've seen a cop do in San Francisco, which this is low on cop horrors, but it was it was chris you were there we were leaving uh that theater that we saw the very bad burt reynolds film in the uh no not oh the red vic yeah the red vic we're leaving the red vic and there was a homeless guy crossing it was late at night homeless guy crossing the street with his shopping cart but he's kind of going too slow and also kind of going in circles then a cop car comes up and stops in

the middle of the intersection a cop gets out and instead of like being i thought like oh the cop's gonna walk him away he yells and shoves him to the ground he's like get the fuck out of here like it was it was terrifying i gotta say I pass several tent cities every day now and America's not really working out the way we planned. It's they live but reality. The movie was After Hours. Oh, After Hours. Thank you.

Excellent movie. Please watch it. Chris, you have to watch it. How have I seen a movie you haven't? I don't know. I've seen almost all the Best Picture nominees. Bart is legit scary with Ralph, by the way, too. Yes. I love his cat eyes. That's very creepy.

And his cry is repeated almost verbatim. Oh, that's true. It's reused from early in the episode. Wow, man. Well, so we go back to Moe's for one last thing. Yeah, so in the time Bart leaves, Moe has already converted his bar mostly back to Moe's, and Homer is still there. Yes, it's true.

Presumably Marge went looking for Bart. Gotta take it all. Get it all out of here. You know, Moe, you might want to keep the fire extinguishers. Nah, too many bad memories. Well, look at the bright side, Moe. You still got us. Yeah. Yeah, you know, that actually makes me feel a little better. Why? That was a problem in the first place. You were going broke because we were your only customers.

Wasn't that the problem in the first place? That you were going broke? Moe? Moe? Hey, Moe? Oh, you're thinking about all the money in blue, aren't you? What was it? Fifty? Sixty thousand dollars? Moe?

Look, maybe it would help if you went over all the mistakes you made from the beginning. Mo? What? Let me get a pad. I love that it's just one shot. It's just one camera angle, and Mo just sulking. His head is down, and he's sulking. It cost $50,000 to start a restaurant in 1995?

That's not too bad, honestly. To completely convert his... Not only that, but he hired a waiter. He hired somebody. He bought a giant flash fryer. He bought Ad Time. He completely remodeled the restaurant. Hired a whole new staff.

Got new outfits, too. And all that crazy crap on the walls could not have been cheap. But it was still an old installation. So he was converting it all. And he had to pay the people to get it all out of there. I forgot. I want to steer people to something that I wrote for something awful it's an article called wall garbage warehouse and it's about a retailer that sells things you put on your uh walls in your

theme restaurants yeah so please look that up i i'm i'm funny i've heard i also do love that that scene perfectly undercuts the typical like sweet sitcom storytelling. Yeah. Because just like, hey, you still got us and Homer's like, no, that's a whole problem. You've only had us and you're running out of money. It would have been worse if Homer was the one who convinced Mo to change the bar. That's one thing they didn't do.

Yeah, but well, because Homer loved the dank. He couldn't be against it. The dank, the dank. And this is one of several episodes in which Mo's bar will change or be redesigned it's a it's a recurring uh plot idea it's a very malleable place yeah wasn't it completely redesigned in flaming mo's yep it got changed up for that before yeah yeah maybe he maybe that fifty thousand dollars came from his nest egg of uh of flaming mo's money i think in flaming mo's mo built a second story because homer's up in the rafters

when Aerosmith is playing, which is weird. Yeah, that's true. It's a great episode. I'm not looking to picknitzer. So you know what's weird? That Milhouse's grandma never, I checked on the wiki,

she's never made another speaking appearance on the show since this one. She is kind of just like Diet Agnes, I suppose. A more boring Agnes. Milhouse's parents. She could be either one of the in-laws. She could be the mother of either of them. Kirk's relationship with her

suggests something horrific. If that's his mother, why would you talk to your mother like that? When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? Why would you talk to your mother-in-law like that? Another glimpse into Milhouse's somewhat terrifying

home life. If the grandmother is Kirk's mom, then he married a woman who looked exactly like his mother, like 100% the same. Oh man, this is getting creepy. Call her at this hour? You dial 9-1.

Then when I say so, dial 1 again. Milhouse, please. Bart, I can't play now. It's 2am. Milhouse, I gotta have my soul back. I'll do anything you want. Uh, well...

Milhouse, give him back his soul. I've got work tomorrow. I'm really sorry. I kind of traded your soul to the guy at the comic book store. But look, I got some cool pogs. Elf pogs. Remember Elf? He's back in pog form. You traded

my soul for pogs? No! Close that door! You're letting the heat out! Shut up, shut up, shut up! I do like Milhouse saying, elf! I gotta give that line in the episode there. That's the joke.

You traded my soul for pogs? Yeah. Elf pogs! Yeah, they're back. He's back. We were firmly in pog craziness in 1995. The. Alf Pogs. Yeah, they're back. He's back. We were firmly in Pog craziness in 1995. The one year of Pogs. Yeah. I was into Pogs quite a bit. Were you?

Yeah. My brother was into them more, but I had a little Pog collection. I like collecting lots of garbage. I remember the giant... People had closets full of those things. Jesus Christ. Yeah. No, I had Spidey Pogs.

I didn't have any Simpsons Pogs. I still don't really understand it Every magazine was giving them away Nintendo Power was giving them away It was an easy item to make It was like a flat disc Made of cardboard Yeah you just shove

You just shove a thing of cardboard And then you put little circles in it And you put that in your magazine Like so many fads to follow It was banned from schools Because kids were getting into fights And Pogs were being stolen And gambling I feel like this was The writer saying Pogs are going away fads to follow was banned from schools because kids were getting into fights and pogs were being stolen and gambling.

I feel like this was the writer saying pogs are going away in like six months and they were just having a little, they were goofing on it by putting Alf, who of course was from the 80s and he's back. In 1985, Alf nostalgia was the stupidest thing. Who cares about Alf?

Let's be honest, it's still pretty freaking stupid. It's awesome. Is there an Alf calendar back there? I don't want to turn around. It's still pretty freaking stupid it's awesome is there an elf calendar back there I don't want to turn around it's still there from 1989 this episode reminds

me of round Springfield in that not only is there a pog reference the plot is resolved by one of the Simpson characters buying an item

from comic book guy for the other person for the other sibling it's the exact same thing but I think

elf pogs is one of the greatest gifts the Simpsons has given pop culture commentators at least because it is a perfect encapsulation of the unwanted return of an unpopular thing in a silly new medium like any time oh if a tv show comes back as a video game if a video game comes back as a phone app or like like a Heathcliff app. Yeah.

It's so easy to say he's back in pod form. The saddest thing is I walking through the mall we cut through to come to Chris's place to record. There's an entire wall taken up by an interactive like Peanuts version of Candy Crush. It's like, is this where these characters are now? Because there's like too many empty shops now. you can still go by the fucking zynga building a couple blocks away from here and zynga the mobile app developer on their sign glowing it's like words with friends 2 wizard of oz slots and it's just merited it's like the wicked witch of the west from 1939's face on it like this is your biggest new thing i feel bad for saying this

because a friend of mine works for them but jam city has a random snoopy game that they managed to turn in they managed to get into like the top 50 like most popular mobile games i gotta know what this is the puzzle game i'm talking about that you just take a recognizable property even if it's old and you attach it to a game and people go like i know what that is i'll play that my mom doesn't have to read the description i'll put money into it well there i don't know if there's been an alf app that really works I'll play that. My mom doesn't have to read the description. I'll put money into it. Ding, ding, ding, ding. Well, I don't know if there's been an ALF app that really works. But I just realized I make the podcast version of ALF Pogs. Yeah, that's true.

Whoa. You're not allowed to agree with me on that. The sentence is still here, though. It hasn't gone away. I really just meant retronauts. That would be Snoopy Pop. This looks adorable. We talked for an hour about Animaniacs games recently.

That was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that. My only issue with Comic Book Guy in this episode is that he should know who Bart Simpson is by name by now. He later will. Actually, he'll even be like... That's why he valued the soul. Well, later he

won't take a check from him. I also think he didn't really want to buy a soul, but he had a bunch of alfpogs he wanted to offload. He could throw them away. It was probably right next to the Hamburglar Adventure. The answer is fries. If you're waiting for the high and lowest signing, it has been moved to the Springfield Coliseum.

Please, you have something of mine on a little piece of paper. Oh, so you're Bart Simpson, eh? Well, since my breakfast burrito is congealing rapidly, I will be blunt. You're too late. I sold your soul last night. Yes, yes. I found a buyer right away for that item.

Who? I am not at liberty to divulge the party, but they were most interested in having possession of a little boy's soul. Um, excuse me, no banging your head on the display case, please. It contains a very rare Mary Worth, in which she has advised a friend to commit suicide.

Thank you. So, he not only sells the Mary Worth phone, he also sells rare Mary Worth unprintable comics. So he really loves Mary Worth. It's just a funny, it's like one of the funniest, like, I'm sure it's fine, but it's inexplicable how Mary Worth has existed for... He loves comic strips from the 1930s.

Any of this. And it's a funny joke that the High and Lowest convention is so popular it had to be moved to a stadium. I also love that he's a big High and Lowest fan, too. Are you the creator of High and Lowest? Because you're making me laugh. Yes. Comic book guy

is a huge comic strip fan. I am a big comic strip fan. I love them, but they're irredeemable and hard to defend. And doing research on High and Lois for this, it was a comic that I liked. I had no idea. They're both done by Beetle Bailey and High and Lois. It's Beetle Bailey's sister. It is Lois. Lois is Beetle Bailey's sister.

Oh, yeah, the Walkerverse. What the fuck? I knew a lot about the Walkerverse. Yes, yeah. I read several. Well, it was also- You want to talk nepotism, go through the comics page and look at something that's existed for 90 years with no fans, and now it's written by two children of the person who created it.

Hang on to the horrible... Well, you know, the weirdest thing with Mort Walker in reading his collections, which would be the only books I'd take out of the library as a kid, but is when I came to realize, like, whoa, he got real horny. Like, especially in Beetle Bailey, he introduced a sexy secretary. Oh, you're right. Just give the old general a boner all the time. These cartoonists, they get too horned up, man. We need to get salt-petered, these cartoonists.

Recently, I found out through twitter that uh the author of the berenstain bears i think they're both deceased now stan and jim berenstain before that book they wrote a bunch of like sexy joke like comic books oh sort of like almost like playboy comics or whatever and playboy comics yeah still can accept that pronunciation it's very hard berenstain it's very hard for me I hate this alternate universe I'm stuck in. I want to be in the SimPad Shazam universe. So then we get a very sweet ending that I think kind of plays fast and loose about, like, is there a God? Is there not?

Who's to say? Are you there, God? It's me, Bart Simpson. I know I never paid too much attention in church, but I could really use some of that good stuff now. I'm afraid. I'm afraid some weirdo's got my soul and I don't know what they're doing to it. I just want it back.

Please? Please? I hope you can hear this. Lisa, you bought this? With the change in my piggy bank. There's no change in your piggy bank. Not in any of the ones you know about. Please, thank you.

Happy to do it. But you know, Bart, some philosophers believe that nobody is born with a soul That you have to earn one Through suffering and thought and prayer Like you did last night Uh huh I like the bit of uncomfortableness When he's like trying to swallow the paper There's like a bit of like a choking thing going on

But yeah Are You There God It's Me Bart is a parody of Are You There God It's Me Margaret the 1970 Judy Blume book. I prefer Super Fudge. Yes. Jelly Belly, the one set in Fetkin. Actually, I didn't read any of that crap. I read Ramona and her mother and all that garbage. I read the Ramona ones.

I didn't read those. Indeed, in the cupboard of GTFO. Don't want to hear it. I remember one of the Ramona books that her dad lost his job yeah and then their cat died in another one nothing but tragedy i liked how philosophical uh i liked how philosophical lisa is in this one and it really fits with her character because she's a very smart and thoughtful individual and i actually strongly agree with what she says that you have to

kind of earn your soul through thought, introspection. You're not just giving it at the start of your life. You will be a Buddhist in six years. So six seasons, rather. Well, this also fits with Greg Daniels being a philosophy dork as well. Like these kind of lines. Which, for a second, I almost thought, like, oh, is this? I got confused.

I was like, oh, he created a good place. Like, no, it was his co-creator on Parks and Rec, Mike Schur, who created a good place. I didn't know that. Which is all about ethics and morals and the soul. Is it about ethics and games journalism? That's all I care about. No, unfortunately not. I hear it's very important.

It is all about the Jacksonville Jaguars, which, man, Kat, I got to say, this really sucks for two. I don't care about football like you do, but boy, would it have been nice if the Jaguars actually made it to a Super Bowl. Almost didn't suck for once. It almost happened. I hate seeing Bill Belichick happy. It makes me so mad. But if the Jaguars had made it and the Vikings hadn't, I would

have had to kill you. This is the only time I've seen Bob just back away from the microphone. That's a shutdown. I'm quietly protesting this. This is a Simpsons podcast. We talk about the Berenstain Bears, the Simpsons, Sergeant Bilko, but no football.

Okay, but so there is a sweet ending that's all visual too of just Bart dreaming of going to heaven. Yeah. It's so good. Greg Daniels points out this episode implies that Bart dies because he makes it to that golden kingdom.

Yes, that's true. He died in his sleep. But in this world, religion is interesting because, like I said, God literally exists and is interventionalist. And we see that there is actual honest God, probably proof that Bart loses his soul. Yeah, and got it back. God controls automatic doors. The sweet touch, instead of having to prove to the audience that his soul is back, you just it back. God controls automatic doors. And the sweet touch, instead of having to prove to the audience that his soul is back, you just see the animal sleeping next to him.

That was the first time I really got it. Oh, you're right. Everything is fine now. It's really beautiful. Somewhere a door is opening in the Quickie Mart. It must have really sucked for the Oakland Weinstein to be working on season seven and then lose one of their best writers so

early in greg daniels is hurricane netty the same season next season next season okay so there's a couple of very spiritual episodes i want to say oh yeah well there's also she of little faith with lisa being the heretic in that one season 13 that's an aljean uh oh yeah that's an Al Jean, Peter Rooney. Oh, yeah, that's the Buddhist one. I meant, sorry, what's the one where they find the angel? Oh, Lisa the Skeptic. Okay, sorry, getting that one confused. How dare you. I want to run this by you. I've seen multiple people suggest that the seven deadly sins is in this episode.

Have you seen this? I think the seven deadly sins are present in every work of fiction ever. Sort of like the monomyth in which you can apply it to everything. You sound smart. But please, please go on, Kat. I want to hear this. All right. Well, they're saying

Lust is Homer and Marge remembering how they used to make out to the song. Yeah, right at her first stretch. I'll be sure. Gluttony was, of course, Moe turning his bar into a restaurant with the fried stuff and everything. Homer eating spaghetti and Moe balls.

Greed, Reverend Lovejoy with his coins. Or Moe with turning his back on the dink. True. Sloth. Bart in Mill's house slacking off and cleaning the organ. A little bit of a stretch right there. Wrath. Reverend Lovejoy gets angry at being fooled.

Okay. Envy. Moe envies the profits of family restaurants. Lisa wants $5 after Bart tells her he had $5. Bart envies the kids and family restaurants lisa wants five dollars after bart tells her he had five dollars bart envies the kids in the dream for their souls pride bart being too proud to believe the is a soul i see well it turns out you can apply seven very broad concepts to almost any work of fiction i would say the wrath more is moe yelling at the kid whose sody hurt their teeth ah that's true that's true what about the sin of envy of envy that's gone. That's more rap. What about the soon of envy? Of envy.

That's gone well and good for sheep, but what are we going to do? That's a good note to wrap up on. Thanks for listening, folks. This has been Talking Simpsons. A great episode. I've been your host, Bob Mackie. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. And my other podcast is RetroNauts, a classic gaming podcast.

Every Monday at RetroNauts.com or look for RetroNauts in your podcatcher. These guys have been on it recently. We talked about Animaniacs games for an hour. But also recently Henry, he headed up an episode about Spider-Man games. The whip. Yes, from 1982 to 1996. So we cover a ton of games. Go to retronauts.com or find Retronauts on any podcast machine and you will download it and you'll love it.

We're saving the Never Solve Spider-Man game for part two. Yes. I'm going to throw the – I want-Man game for part two. Yes. I'm going to throw the... I want to hear from Kat what her plugs are. Our special guest. All right. Well, I'm on Twitter at the underscore Katbot. Don't worry, I won't make fun of your religion

if you come and follow me. I like people of all different backgrounds and things like that. Also, I run US Gamer, which is a website about video games. And we have a podcast called Acts of the Blood God, which is our RPG podcast. It's kind of like Retronauts, but for RPGs and you should

subscribe to us. It's really good. I like that show and I'm with Nadia Oxford. Yeah, I like that show a lot too. Thank you. And so I'm H-E-N-E-R-A-Y-G on Twitter and you can find me there. That's where I tweet about any new announcements in the world of Simpsons, which that includes our first

live show, which now is available for download at patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons, and we'll maybe put it in the free feed. Anyway, patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons is what supports me and Bob doing this full-time. We just hit our funding milestone to start a whole other

podcast. We're getting to work on that now. Look forward to it. It'll be free, but also available a week early on on the Patreon. And Futurama is coming soon. That's right. You voted for it, and you ignored me saying vote for King of the Hill, but we'll get to it, and I'm still excited about

Futurama. And Futurama Season 1 will be exclusive to Patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. But more importantly, when's the star trek animated series season come on nobody can spare 13 weeks but yes follow all those things and thanks for your support folks yeah and uh laser time is another show if you have any more time but you should definitely check it out because i hereby promise you banging my arm on the table i I'm going to do an episode about comic strips

because, man, I love comic strips more than I love most. I think more than I loved comics before I was 10. I collected those. You've been dreaming of a comic strips episode for a while. It's an audible medium. It's going to be difficult to do, but I think Michael and I spent like an hour laughing at Toon Lagoon, the Universal Studios,

Island of Mbisset IP, the Kathy Ack Cafe, the Tagwood Sandwich Shop. You mean Ask Your Grandma Island? Yeah. You're going to have to steal that bitch. No, that's not Prince Valiant. That's the shadow. I hate my kid.

Tony Fox, that joke is yours. Jesus, yeah. I swear we'll do one on that. We have a bunch of other fun episodes up for you now. Clearly one we recently did on Weird Al, celebrating the work of Weird Al sort of outside music. I cannot hear. I listened to Beat It recently on an airplane. I put on a collection of 80s music videos just to watch something on a long flight.

And when Beat It, the music video came out, I was like, oh, wow, I only remember the lines from Eat It. And I only remember the Eat It music video and now all these jokes from the Eat It music video. It's more plausible

than hearing Michael Jackson sing about street fighting. I mean, seriously. But yes, all that and more. 30, 20, 10, a show where we look 30, 20, and 10 years back in time.

If you're a Simpsons fan, I had to rewatch That 90s Show, one of the most hated episodes from Simpsons fans and I came away with a much different opinion this time we'll get to it in several years but we devoted a couple minutes to it on our shows

almost interesting you might like it more than you think but yes that and Veggie Game Apocalypse our weekly video game podcast thank you thanks so much for listening folks we'll see you next week with Lisa the Vegetarian a great episode see you next week with Lisa the Vegetarian. A great episode. See you then. Wow. Infotainment.