Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Bart's Comet

Episode Date: November 1, 2017

Que sera, sera, it's time for us to do what some argue is the greatest episode of The Simpsons ever. We've got Butzilla, perverted arts, the Super Friends, barnyard guessing games and SO MUCH MORE in this absolutely essential Simpsons chronicle. Enjoy this podcast and remember, democracy simply doesn't work.

This week's episode of Talking Simpsons is brought to you by you. That's right, we're on Patreon now, so head on over to patreon.com slash talking simpsons. For as little as $5 a month, you can help our show and get all kinds of great extra content on top of that. We've got a ton of great bonus content waiting for you right now, so head on over to patreon.com slash talking simpsons today. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Welcome to TalkingSimpsons. Proud supporter of the perverted arts. I am your host, Bob Butzilla Mackey, and this is the Lazer Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons.

Who else is here with me today? Henry Gilbert, and I make it a point not to turn my head unless I expect to see something. Who else? Pavoided artist Chris Santista. It's technically different. Who else? I'm Dave Rudden, and I'm terribly sorry.

And today's episode is Bart's Comet Uncannily sounds like a baby ox Today's episode aired on February 5th, 1995 And as always, Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history Oh my god Oh boy, Bobby The Jerky Boys bring their timeless form of comedy to the big screen in their very own movie, and The Simpsons receive some stiff competition in the ratings department.

Not only did the Golf Channel premiere this week, but after its September 1994 debut, ER begins a five-year streak of being the most watched show on television. Wow. That show was such an event show. They pitched it like movies. They're like, this is going to be a movie We're going to have Quentin Tarantino direct an episode I think it's even weirder

That I've never seen it It is in contention with only Seinfeld During that five year period Seinfeld is on multiple channels every single day I have never seen ER in syndication ever And there are 15 years of it I remember not too long ago being surprised That ER was still on TV

Who was watching this? It lasted until 2009 think yeah until i had no original cast members yeah even eric lasalle couldn't stick around i want to go back to the jerky boys movie though because i assume uh we're all white guys who grew up in the 90s we had to all have loved the jerky boys is that true yes would you believe i actually went to see this in theaters oh my god i read it on vhs and i was like oh this is a waste of three dollars like there were like three other people in that theater and it's one of those movies that i i don't know if it's out on tvd yet but it took a long ass time to get there i own the soundtrack for some reason no is it phone calls or is it actually no it's music including tom jones covering lenny kravitz's are you gonna go my way wow we're gonna go my way it could have

been a better movie if they had just taken the characters those people played and made them a movie around them, but it's like, no, we're gonna watch this guy make a phone call and make someone angry. They treat prank phone calling like a superpower. Yeah. It can topple organizations. Saul Rosenberg, I think was his name. Saul Rosenberg.

He's basically a character on Family Guy now. I thought somebody said he is a voice actor on Family Guy. That's the same voice actor? Basically the same character. Yeah, okay. Is he Mort Rosenthal? Saul Rosenberg is the Jerky Boys character. Mort Rosenthal is the Family Guy. Saul Rosenberg has warts on his ass and genitalia.

There was an ugly split between the Jerky Boys. I think one of them did not want to be as famous and was kind of not comfortable performing. Johnny Brennan, I think, is the guy who does most of the voices i mean he does a great assemblage of racist stereotypes it's our generation's two live jews yeah yeah i had friends who uh listen to jerky boy stuff i never had a jerky boy cd i'm not i'm the same oh my gosh i had like three i had the adam sandler cds no i love those. Man, the Tollbooth Willie.

He's going to tell him he's got a small dick. I loved Fatty McGee. Yes. That was the height of comedy, kids. Yes. We're all much happier now. But I think this is the height of comedy for some reason. This is my favorite episode.

I've told another podcast I've mentioned. I went through a period of being obsessed with UFOs and astronomy and using telescopes a lot and staying on my roof hoping I'm visited by alien visitors or discover something that's never been discovered being still kind of young through Bart's eyes him getting to discover something amazing I don't know I love this this was the first time I had seen this premise uh in any kind of fiction I'm sure it existed before but Deep Impact and Armageddon would be three years later like the two matching asteroid movies i think they joke on the commentary that all of hollywood saw like a cover to a news story of like what if a meteor came to america or crest new america like in time and so everybody wrote their thing but they could

just produce the simpsons faster than armageddon and deep impact could be made yeah but i and and in terms of like i think it's only because they make a note of it in the simpsons episode guide because they call them like vcr jokes or something to that effect of like there's a ton of visual things in here that yeah you can't possibly notice on first viewing and you notice better with a vcr it's an incredibly dense episode it has earned emotion in it too and it is it's kind of it's almost like the simpsons movie in that there are the entire town comes together to face annihilation too in that way this was i said before the before we started doing the show this was my favorite to remember i remember this was ranked as my favorite i think this has replaced mr plow as my favorite well yeah like this is my new i always say ranked as my favorite i think this has replaced mr plow as

my favorite thing yeah like this is my new i always say some of my favorite episodes are when the residents of springfield all go nuts and not only do they all go nuts they're confined into a single fucking room yeah they all get to interact together this episode has a is hugely influenced by the twilight zone episode the shelter which i just watched for the first time a few days ago and it is pretty i i love just the sheer melodrama of the Twilight Zone. Everyone is overacting to the rafters. But it's a story about a guy who has prepared for, you know, Armageddon. All the townspeople make fun of him.

Yeah, and then he is safe, but then they try to break down his shelter. They do, and it ends with everything being a false alarm, and he is very sanctimonious about it. He's like, I can't believe you would do this to me. We avoided a bomb. We're all neighbors. We avoided a bomb. Yeah. But they destroyed us anyway. Thank can't believe you would do this to me. We avoided a bomb. We're all neighbors. We avoided a bomb. But they destroyed us anyway. Thank you.

I have a clip from it because it has a mind-blowing appearance by someone you might recognize. Why don't we just go down to his basement and break down the door? Frank! Frank! Wait a minute! Frank! Frank! Wait a minute! We can't all fit in that bomb shelter. We'd be crazy to even try. Why don't we pick out

one family? Draw lots of something. What difference would it make? I keep telling you he won't let fit in that bomb shelter. We'd be crazy to even try. Why don't we pick out one family? Draw lots of something. What difference would it make? I keep telling you, he won't let anybody in. We could all go down there and tell him he's got the whole street against him. We could do that. What good would it do? I keep telling you, even if you'll break down the door,

we can't all fit in that bomb shelter. We'd be killing everybody for no reason. It would save the life of even one of my kids. I call that good reason. Jerry, Jerry, you know him better than any of us. You're his best friend. Go down there again. Talk to him.

Plead with him. Tell him to pick out one family. We'll draw lots or something. One family? Meaning yours, Marty, huh? Why not? I've got a three-month-old baby. What difference does that make?

Is your baby any more precious than one of my kids? I never said that. Look, if you're going to argue about who deserves to live more than the next one, you shut your mouth, wife! Let go! That's the way it is when the foreigners come over here. Pushy, grabby, semi-Americans! You garbage-brained idiot! Garbage-brained idiot. I'm sorry. I had to hit the whole thing. I've got to say, it's a little embarrassing. I have a semi-American right now. That one guy is vaguely non-white, but I just love the weird cadence. It's almost like Rick and Morty where they say their names.

So it's like, Frank, you've got to listen. Frank, listen to reason. Frank, you've got to hear me out, Frank. It's because it's an anthology episode. You haven't seen these characters before. If you listen closely to that again, I should have told you earlier, that's Jack Albertson, Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka

and the Chocolate Factory. Oh, I watched it. It doesn't look like that guy, but every time I turned my head and heard that voice, I was like, that's the guy. It sounds like yelling

at Willy Wonka, you're a swindler. You're a crook. Wow, man. It's a really, really good episode. It's great. It's way hammy,

but it's so much fun to watch these guys scream at each other for 30 minutes. Though, reading post-apocalyptic books in general like say the road what i learned is like you having a big obvious bomb shelter or a shelter that everyone would know about when the world's over you're just asking to be murdered by the strongest person who will steal all that stuff you're a giant target it's also and not to not to fuck with the simpsons

premise a bomb shelter is largely for radiation. A basement will protect you from a blast. A bomb shelter, there's no radiation involved in a comet. No, I mean, that comet will just land with the impact of a nuke, so it'll just wipe everything out as we show. I'll say the Simpsons ends

better than that episode, which is like they bust down the door, and right as they bust down the door, the radio says, just a satellite. Don't worry. And everyone's like, sorry. I'm sorry I called you a dirty immigrant. I like how it depicts people in a time of panic and uncertainty

and a president comes in to calm things down. Only in fiction. So this episode starts with a cuphead couch gag but uh it it i can't not think of cuphead when i see anything making uh parodying that very specific the rubber hose style animation and just cycling through there are movements like the threes yes this episode opens with the most propane explosion free science fair of all time they're unveiling a new weather balloon now to top off our most propane-explosion-free science fair of all time, they're unveiling a new weather balloon.

Now to top off our most propane-explosion-free science week ever, our grand finale, the launching of a weather balloon. Yay! Go weather balloon! Hurrah for science! Woo! Hurrah for science woo? I can't say I approve of the woo, but the hurrah was quite heartening. Release the balloon! Yeah, that's great writing for skinner yeah i was gonna say this skinner this is a john schwarzwalder written episode i think it was really easy to see that we got uh in season five there were two skinner episodes back to back one oakley weinstein one where he's just like

a lame nerd and the other one where he is a cruel petty man and i think this episode skinner is kind of between the two because like that i don't approve of the woo but no one writes stuffy conservatives better than schwarzwilder yes yeah but he's also cruel and petty to bart with his punishments too so i think he's kind of between them that and also pity like what happens to him. Very much so. And yeah, the design of the weather balloon, too, is perfect. You don't notice that it looks like a butt in his clothes. I looked up pictures of weather balloons.

There are some that still are shaped like butts. Not usually. They're usually rounded. Well, has the weather balloon community been influenced by this episode? It's a chicken and egg situation. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if so. I believe it was Duffless that first showed up Skinner's huge ass when Bart threw the science fair tomato

at Skinner. Best part of virtual Bart. Yeah, subtle hiney. And yes, his reveal of like big butt Skinner then his, I love his bitter. No! I don't think I really captured the eyes. Bart, if you have a failing, it's that you're always demanding perfection.

If you have a failing. Whoever brings down that balloon doesn't have to learn fractions. Yay! Careful, children. That's my car. Wow, so cruel. There's so many times Skinner throws back his head and says no. And it's the only time we see that angle on the Simpsons head ever.

I've never seen that angle. I'm doing it if I sound bad in this episode because I was trying to do it live. You can see the bottoms of his molars and everything. I've got to say, Bob Anderson, this is probably his best directorial work. There's little things he does that are tiny bits of animation. Especially when Skinner will point at Bart. He can just do a straight arm point, but there's kind of an upturn of his finger. There's just little stuff to that, including the breaking of the window

and the little dents in it and stuff. I think the opening of this episode is the closest you get to perfect. Every line works. Every joke works. There's subtlety. Things occur off and on screen. Mark should get in trouble for doing that,

but he also, like, maybe the art department of Springfield Elementary should commend him on making such an uncanny resemblance. And I think the bullies breaking Skinner's windows is more important than a weather balloon that is defaming Skinner's ass. Nelson should have gone to jail for that. He's like, well, I'm calling the cops, Nelson.

I just saw you break my window. But then for some reason, the government gets involved, too. Iraqis again. Launching Sidewinder Missile. Missed him. gets involved too iraqis again launching sidewinder missile missed him launching second sidewinder missile this is what happens when you cut money out of the military and put it into health care it's a good program just give it a chance. That's all I ask. What an odd joke.

Well, I love the visual of these guys want to continue arguing so much, even though they fell and probably broke both their legs. They're like, nope, we got to keep fighting. But this is when Hillary Clinton was trying to launch universal health care, right? Yes, yeah. I mean, it's a standard belief that when democrats are in charge they'll cut the military and put it in social security which who would do that but uh military is health care but also that never happens like the bill clinton did not cut military spending in a real way obama certainly did not i think he just gave the military 800

billion dollars yes not to be political but it's a good argument, especially for the trans ban in the military. It's the surgeries and there is no proof in the history of this country that we have a problem with military overspending. If anything, they're overspending on Viagra. We just called for a $500 billion increase and we're not involved with any conflicts. Yeah, and we have a military that is bigger than the other eight, the next eight combined. But I do like that joke, just the visual of Iraqi fighter jet over the silhouette of Willie.

So that's a great gag. It seems like a hyper-conservative joke, but there's a joke in there about how a lot of this military equipment never works. It never has to. It fails on three different levels. Finding the Iraqi recognition, heat-seeking,

and then the parachutes. I think there's also jokes in here about how they're trying to make this as easy as possible for people flying the planes. We just did a Talking Critic where in that episode it was sort of like a video game. Yeah, it was a flashback to the Iraq Desert Storm when I say Iraq where I have to be specific. Desert Storm. I think also Iraq War, I have to be specific.

Desert Storm. I think also in Hot Shots there's a joke like that, too, where the heads-up display is like a Donkey Kong-style game. The rest of development season four. Yeah. Well, I actually love that joke because it's so insanely dark that Buster is the best soldier because he thinks it's a video game and it's not real, and everyone else around him is like,

you just killed that whole family. He's like, yeah, I did great. It's a lot game and it's not real and everyone else around him is like, you just killed that whole family. He's like, yeah, I did great. It's a lot like Ender's Game then. And Guardians of the Galaxy 2, where the entire race just plays video games that is shooting down. That sounds like social commentary to me. So yeah, then Bart gets caught with his,

I love the kind of writerly joke about like, at an alternate pitch, but Zilla. Yeah, it's almost like patent pending, sort of. It's just like copyright Bart Simpson. Notarized photos. He went to an office to be like, can this be official that I made this? So now Skinner is going to make Bart aid science. I am going to punish you for this, Bart.

And it won't just be a simple caning this time. Because you have impeded science, you must now aid science. Yes. Starting tomorrow, you will assist me with my amateur astronomy, taking down coordinates, carrying equipment, and so forth. 4.30 in the morning. There's a 4.30 in the morning now? This is how I feel every time I wake up before 6 a.m.

Me too. Top of the hour time for the morning news. But of course, there is no news yet. Everyone's still asleep in their comfy comfy beds goodnight everybody yeah

every time I have to wake up early I think of those two lines back to back yeah 30s 4.30 is just the most uncomfortable time to be awake you feel ashamed

unless it's when you wake up in the middle of the night like oh 4 o'clock I still got 2 or 3 hours left or 4 or 5 that's beautiful and you're immediately resentful of anyone else in the house

or apartment that gets to sleep, even though they have nothing to do with this. It's like, you're still in bed. Must be nice. Actually, I just quoted this this week. On Twitter, one of my friends was like, I have to wake up at 6 a.m. for a flight. And I'm like, boom, the radio thing, the radio gag. Comfy, comfy bed.

Which is probably a cruel thing to tweet to them, but I like gotta do it it's like mandatory for me i do like the bit with marge telling him to wash off a stuffed pepper in the garbage nothing is more disgusting to me than a stuffed pepper to begin with maybe stuffed cabbage is worse but just thinking about that in the trash now i like marge one of the most caring tv moms ever is like just take garbage even if at 4 a.m., she's like, I can't think. Eat garbage. So that caning. Yeah. That is a reference to. Michael Fay. Yes, Michael Fay, who in 1994 was going to be caned in Singapore.

Wait two episodes. There's an entire episode based on this premise. Bar versus Australia. Yeah. It's funny. They have this one offline about it. And then Bar versus Australia is all of that. He did some graffiti in Singapore. And he was sentenced to being caned, which is a government spanking.

Well, Singapore is really not into graffiti. Expression? Perhaps so. But also, that guy would later be arrested for pot possession and also for huffing paints. Michael Faze had a bad life. I mean, that was a cruel thing, but it did give birth to the Singapore Cane in wrestling, which is one of the best things. And it never makes sense why there are canes underneath a wrestling ring.

It just became a thing. Well, the quick history on it is that EC ecw was run by paul hayman who always wanted to be cutting edge he's like we got to rip stuff from the headlines and so they have a basically this classic thing that's happened in wrestling a million times a respect match where it's just a grudge match where the other guy if you win they have to do something and if they win you have to do something and this was a singapore cane match where the loser will be caned uh 10 times and when the audience had to see it the good guy lost due to cheating and he basically like he's he just says thank you sir may i have another and like you're seeing welts on him you're like this is horrible but it made everybody love

it's one of the most satisfying wrestling weapons too because it just has that thwack noise now it's just a cane they do not call call it a Singapore cane anymore. But it's actually a foreign object in the parlance of wrestling in that it is from Singapore. When we get to Bart vs. Australia, I want to let the Weird Al song explain what happened. That's the best way to learn about that. Lorena Brobbitt, Nancy Kerrigan. It's all there. A lot of other references in between there.

I tried to look up the generator bike light because I still have never seen one but they do exist still and look exactly like that i want to see if anybody yeah i never did on the commentary david murkin was like remember those in the 60s they never worked like i think it was a reflection like in a 70s joke yeah into the 90s well uh and also the skinner damning the inventor of helium yes uh jules jansen really did discover helium that's the distinction you can't invent it's not a man-made gas so but but he he's actually a fellow astronomer that's right skinner so explain why i like that he discovered it through just looking at the stratosphere in august 18th 1868 you also see the part about principal Kohotek? Yes. Yes. The little boy of his.

Well, so, yeah, first off, the implication is that Skinner has murdered Principal Kohotek and his son. Or did something to their voice boxes. Yes. I always thought Principal Kohotek's boy was like, he had a bar too. Oh, I see. I couldn't find an explanation for Kohotek's boy. Well, yeah, so the comet Kohotek was a big deal. Well, it was kind of a flop. It's exactly what this episode is.

Pretty much, yeah, except much more stuff happened in this episode than in 73. Yeah, in 1973 it was, I believe it was called the Comet of the Century, discovered by Czech astronomer Lubos Kohotek, and it pretty much dissipated upon entering Earth's atmosphere. Principal Kohotek is named after another comet? Wow. astronomer lubos kohotec and it pretty much dissipated upon atmosphere principal kohotec

is named after another comet wow but after after an astronomer yeah interesting yeah well that's why skinner's like well yeah then i'll get comet skinner like just like yeah which would explain that skinner was watching the skis in 1973 as well astronomer and science nerds this all occurs way too quickly the comet was discovered in like march and all this occurred in December of 73. It took forever to see the results. I also, the only joke that falls flat to me in this entire episode is the Constellation jokes. I feel like every animated comedy has done this. It's basically the same.

The Cherry Race was good. It's just like one star, right? Yes. And I mean basically the same. The Cherry Race was good. It's just like one star, right? Yes. And I mean, the joke. The Three Stooges gag about it. But constellations are stupid. Yes, they are. They were interpreted by morons, and they're so ambiguous, they don't make any sense.

You're just memorizing shapes. The Superior Constellation Simpsons joke is where Homer names every constellation the cowboy. Jerry the cowboy. And that's Alan the cowboy. Yes. Brother from another planet. I don't know.

I'm not into those three stooges. I was like, yeah, I get it. The three wise men, you guys love the stooges. I got that joke in 1995. I was very happy about it. I know who that is. And I also like Skinner setting up the tedium of looking at the sky because it really sets up, if you're a Futurama viewer,

the episode where Bender meets God or maybe not God and just to know how impossible it is to search the entire universe even just to look at every part of the sky I gotta ask here is this the first instance of a cellular telephone on the Simpsons I don't think so I can't imagine that it is but he says it by name and like as an

audience member you just accept yeah there's portable phones now and I do find it weird when you watch a modern simpsons episode and they all have smartphones it's a big ass phone with a with like a core i mean a antenna i remember that no it's definitely a very early 90s one i maybe unky herb used it i'm trying to think of like a rich regular guy who used it but it might have also been hard to tell if it was a a cordless phone or not i think it was just cordless phones it was predict not predicting but showing the beginning of mobile phones where it wasn't just for rich people it was something skinner has although it had to be

rather expensive for skinner i think that shows him being like that's how obsessed he is that he he has no money and instead of like perhaps paying rent on his own place to not live with his mother he would rather pay a giant cell phone bill in the in the 90s not to drag it out the first time i saw that particular model of phone was in the movie hook because robin williams peter pan was a work-obsessed man and he had a retractable antenna flip flip out phone yeah which is more advanced than the zach morris cell phone phone, which is just a military phone. I also just love that Bart, like Skinner isn't even listening to Bart anymore. Hell no.

Good, good. Just his rising thing to like, 16 degrees declination. No, sorry. It's great. And from a storytelling perspective, I love this episode. Everything makes like, well, almost everything makes logical sense especially like the end result is that bart has to see this comment and he has to immediately claim it for himself well how does he do that well skinner has to have a cell phone and they even they could have totally gotten away with bart not hitting that insult that insert of redial like oh yeah barb wouldn't know the number, would he? I have not hit redial in 10 years. Yes, now, who would ever do that?

I was a little confused that he said, like, when he went to go get the balloon, he said, don't touch anything because this could ruin an entire day's work. But Skinner thinks that Bart is taking notes of every single setting that he took. So it's like, you could just go back to that, couldn't you? I guess so. He could easily reset to it. I think if he already knows the coordinates. Stars are on a time basis.

I guess if the telescope itself moved, that would be detrimental. But yeah, he already had the coordinates. I don't understand. I love the animation of the telescope. It just waxes. It's such a mean thing to do. It's great how it moves.

The way it moves is just so believable. Again, Bob Anderson did a great job. And then Bart not only gets lucky and spots it, but then immediately moves the way it moves is just so believable again bob anderson did a great job and then bart not only gets lucky and spots it but then immediately moves the telescope again he's like but yes bart seems to have discovered a comet and skinner cannot take it uh got you my rumpy doppelganger i've got got it. Hey, what are you doing? Give me that phone. Congratulations, Bart. You've just discovered a comet.

No! No! No! No! Prez says... No! That's got to be John Schwartzwelder with the anti-clinton sentiment he really around him as he says it i didn't see anti-clinton just it's such a dumb thing to say from a person

of ultimate authority any press could say that i mean schwarzwelder thought people were going to lynch clinton yeah he would be so unpopular that's a story that al jean tells a funny story about that on there that he's that he felt that that it was just Schwarzwalder trolling all these liberal comedy writers by saying, like, they're going to hang him from a tree. They're going to kill him. They're like, no, they're not. He's not going to do it. Are you sure he didn't say lunch, Clinton?

Because that guy liked eating, remember? Yeah. The Sentence will be right back. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels, and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter.

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Well, it has every episode of the show from now on ad free and a week early you could have listened to this a week early you know also it's home to a ton of awesome exclusives such as interviews with simpsons and cartoon experts such as executive producer of the simpsons bill oakley and the creator of okko ian jones cordy to mention, there's the entire series Talking Critic, exclusive to Patreon, where we go through every episode of The Critic in the same way we do this show. And tons more cool stuff there, including some exclusive videos only for people who pledge $10 and up a month as well.

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Well, then why not check in on some of the good stuff that happened this week in movies, TV, games, and more 30, 20, and 10 years ago this very week with our show 302010. Here's a clip from 2007 now one's bald one's in a boat and they're both unconscious jerry seinfeld's b movie jesus b movie how is it like jerry seinfeld's done like three things since seinfeld ended and this is one of them have you seen this no this movie is really weird i've only ever watched this movie sped up every time the word B is said. I was trying to find part of that. Me too!

I was going to say, when you edit this, can you speed it up every time we say B movie? B, B, B. Jump into the past with 302010 every Thursday on LazerTimePodcast.com or iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. We come back from the break and Homer is like telling a story that must involve a crime. Like, what did he do?

Like a hit and run, it sounded like. At least a hit and run. Nobody saw it. But I forgot to get to work. And I wish I looked it up on frankie never again did they use the term springfieldianite which i wish it stuck it's a fun little joke yeah that in other times when they've said it they have said springfieldian in other episodes that came up in the search of frankie act but the only other time they said springfieldianite it that kind of gag reminds me on king of the hill when um the battle over arlenian arlenian versus arlenite yeah i prefer

arlenite but i'm i have an anti i prefer propaniacs propane maniacs on the floor and and also marge's reaction of like you've always been proud of me. Yes. Cut. Yeah. Lisa's reaction. I also wonder how they were able to keep it. Like Bart was good at keeping it a secret from them. And he'd been waiting all dinner to just throw that newspaper at them just to show off.

But oh my God. Okay. These characters. I love all of them. I had to capture this is in two parts, but these Super Friends are the greatest. Only one survives, though. Won't you join us, Bart? Uh, I guess so.

As a first student at Springfield Elementary to discover a comet, we're very proud to make you a member of our very select group. Welcome to Super Friends. Huh. Welcome to Super Friends. Huh? Welcome, Super Friends. I am called Ham since I enjoy ham radio. This is email, cosign, report card, database, and Lisa. Your nickname will be Cosmos.

Well, I'm done eating. Goodbye. will be Cosmos. Well, I'm done eating. Goodbye. Goodbye, Cosmos. Bye-bye. I love Data. He will come back. Matt Groening hates his voice, but I love his voice so much, and I think he's supposed to be Al Jean.

He looks like a larger Al Jean when he put on some weight, and his voice is really annoying. Bitch, you're right. We all do podcasts. What is your nerd voice? When I do a nerd voice, it's very Professor Freaky with the talking and the nasally. Nasal to go to, but I'm close to my own voice pretty much. Do your nerd voice.

Do an impression of a nerd. Actually, I would say. It's more like the college nerd voice you're doing impression yeah actually yeah it's more like the college nerds i would say oh it does does mario 2 is actually a japanese video game and uh very authentic impression of a commenter i appreciate that a lot but i just thought that most of our nerd voices come from the simpsons everybody has their own distinct nerd impression yeah i think everyone's squeaky voice team comes from the simpsons yeah like i don't know what i'm doing only tyler wilde tyler wilde when doingure of a Nerd, does database to a T.

Adding in, if you remember Tyler Wilde on other shows, he does a perfect database. I don't even know if he's doing it. He knows that he's doing it. I love that extra emphasis, like, to discover a comet. And I also love Ham's self-satisfied, because I enjoy Ham radio. They're all very satisfied. I feel bad that Martin is not a – Martin should be a member of the Super Friends. I agree.

Does everybody else have a Ham Radio? No, I don't know. I built one once with my father. I remember it was creepy as shit. I don't know how it worked. It seemed cool, but yeah. But I'm picking up different languages, sometimes Russian. I don't know what they are. I was a little Russian. I don't know what they are.

I was a little kid. I don't remember how it worked. Well, I like that one kid's name is emailed to say, like, well, who would have the internet? Only some dork. He's known for his emailing. Cosines, block. If you like cosines, you're lame-o math geek, dude. I'm more of an email guy.

Get your graphing calculator out for that one. Did you know that three of the Super Friends have longer names? Really? Yeah. So Database's name is Kyle. And I guess in a future episode, these guys show up a lot. Cosign, his full name is Cosign Tangent. And Report Card's full name is

Booker Report. Those sound like late season jokes to me. Henry, I don't know if you want to mention it's your territory, but what is Super Friends referencing? Well, it is a reference to the DC animated series with Hanna-Barbera from the 70s and 80s,

Super Friends, which, though the song they sing is not the Super Friends theme song or any of that, but yes, at first, Filmation had the rights to televised animation for DC,

but then Hanna-Barbera got it, which is quite an improvement over Filmation, though still not good animation. Still terrible. But yeah, Super Friends started out as a straight Justice League TV show but then after a couple seasons they're like, this needs more of the Hanna-Barbera

touch so they got teenagers. And Gleek. Yeah, teenagers and an animal. So first it was the Wonder Twins with Gleek and then in the next season, oh actually no, it was it was marvin i got it here okay this is the original 1973 version please indulge me all this makes me so happy for cape crisis funky here's marvin

in the great hall of the Justice League, there are assembled the world's four greatest heroes. Created from the cosmic legends of the universe. Superman. Wonder Woman. The most animation you'll ever see. Yep. Batman's power is picking up hitchhikers? The most animation you'll ever see. Come on. Batman's power is picking up pitch hikers?

And Aquaman, those concentric circles forever. The greatest. And those three junior super friends, Wendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. Ooh. Their mission, to fight injustice, to right that which is wrong, Marvin, and Wonder Dog. Their mission, to fight injustice, to right that which is wrong, and to serve all mankind. I'm fascinated by this, because just how often the rights changed hands, and this couldn't be syndicated because of DC ownership, as a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.

They are now under the umbrella of the exact same company. Yeah! They can release it any time they want want and no one gives a shit. But at the time, and I meant to find more information on it, they couldn't, there was a Justice League comic,

but DC, I don't think, would let Hanna-Barbera call the show Justice League. Super Friends is the dumb title they came up with instead. I'm guessing

in one single pitch. Yeah. Super the Friends. Let's do it. Super Friends. But they felt like kids, it was the thing that always plagued superhero animation for me until uh basically the batman series of like well kids don't just want to see superman they need younger idiot characters to be around them to be funny and to identify with. But Wendy and Marvin suck.

Nobody liked Wendy and Marvin. And Wonder Dog is basically Astro 200 years earlier. Yes, he's Astro. He's Dino Mutt. He's all of them. I forget which laser time we talked about. DC characters were introduced into animation as backdoor pilots in the fucking Brady Bunch cartoon.

Oh, that's right. Both Wonder Woman and Superman debut there before they get their own television show and yet I would tell you guys like watch Super Friends before the Filmation ones those are worse though those are the ones that inspired ambiguously gay duo like they redrew scenes from the Green Lantern Filmation

ones because those were so gay but the yeah Super Friends sucks the only nice thing I'll say about Super Friends now is like all those character designs in that 73 intro were done by master comic artist Alex Toth. Like, they hired Alex Toth to redesign them for Hanna-Barbera because Alex Toth, he made all these 60s Hanna-Barbera characters who were superheroes. They were ripoffs of DC. Yeah, oh, yeah.

And Marvel. Well, because in the 60s marvel and dc had a whole new silver age of comics and so hannah barbara's like instead just yogi bear we need our own superheroes we can't get jack kirby let's get alex toth and he'll design the herculoid space ghost and all the other piddling and the rest and the rest uh what thundar no that was later that but anyway so that is the Super Friends. Sorry, I didn't mean to get us off. Blue Falcon?

Yes, Blue Falcon. But I could tell, well, no, he was a 70s one where they had to stick him with a fucking dog. Yeah, like Dino Mutt. He was better on Harvey Birdman and not Hawkman Hawkman. I would watch, if I had a choice between Blue Falcon or Scooby-Doo.

I'd watch Blue Falcon because at least he's wearing a mask. I was like, this is better than Jabberjaw than Yapple Dapple. We had to watch all those things. We just had an interview with Ian Jones-Cordy, and we had the same deal. He talked about how, like, a cartoon network, I'll watch everything that's on there. So we'd seen all of these awful shows. Josie and the Pussycats is one of the better ones. But okay, we did hear that Super Friends theme.

The Super Friends theme in The Simpsons is a little different. Perhaps some night you could show us your comet. There it is right there. I make it a point never to turn my head unless I expect to see something, Bart. Naturally. We can't see your comet in broad daylight and without a telescope. But you don't need a stupid

telescope. It's right there. Oh, no, no, no, no. This isn't right at all. It must be coming toward us at a fantastic speed. Huh? Don't you realize what's happening, Bart? Your comet is going to collide with the Earth and every living thing in its path will be killed.

I knew you'd try to find something wrong with my comet, Lisa. You've always been petty and small, right from the beginning. We must alert the proper authorities. To the observatory! Uh-huh. We are the Super Friends! Hey, shut up. Another runner from the David Merkin era, a character just saying shut up, and the scene ends.

It's almost my line of the show, but I don't know it. Shut up. But just how dweeby. I love their lines that they think they're in an action film, but they're saying it so dweebly. Like they're sing-songy. To the observatory! This isn't right at all the one thing i notice is like this is very much an older perspective on nerds where their skills are associated with

intelligence or technology there's no video game nerd no comic book nerd no anime nerd pop figure collector yeah it's like and they let lisa be part of their group instead of that's also true like what does lisa have a... What's her name? Her name's Lisa. She doesn't have a codename, but they actually let a girl into the work group. Yeah. Well, it's just... I also... Yeah, that now...

I never even thought about Database Aljean. He absolutely is. And I think, too... I mean, this is at a time when they were not happy with the critic either. So I could see it being a slight dig. And yeah, you talked about how graining hated him i think that's why database is a major character in lemon of troy because graining was

like please don't use him again they're like well okay then he's we've already got martin but we need another dork here actually yeah they bring three geeks with them on lemon of troy it's like you got two geeks you don't need database Database. I always mix up Database's joke about not turning around with Milhouse has one where he leaves him open to the dreaded Purple Nurple and Wedgie and whatever. Rear Admiral. Rear Admiral. Which they made up. We don't know what it means, but it sounds sinister. Rear Admiral.

Then we get the Doomsday Whistle, and that is another classic Abe and Jasper in front of literally the general store. In rocking chairs. They've been blown for nine on three years. That never shows up again, does it? No, I don't think they have had the Doomsday Whistle since then, even though they've had many causes to play it. I meant that general store. It's like straight out of a Western. Yeah.

I think there's multiple jokes on Rocky and Bullwinkle of that, too, like of just them running by the old men at the general store, which you'd think in the 60s probably still actually existed. I think they had to hearken back to a time where America thought it was on the verge of obliteration on a daily basis, hence that Twilight Zone episode. Only now do we know how they felt. I know. Yeah. It was nice living without a nuclear cloud over our heads. It was a good time. They mentioned another, like, in the Wikipedia entry for this episode,

they mentioned another Twilight Zone episode that has a similar, like, world's going to end vibe. The monsters are doing it. The monsters are doing it. We watched that in school. We did a play of that. We read the script. It was one of our lit books.

We probably had the same books. It's the premise of my favorite Simpsons episodes when a town goes panicky and nuts, interpreting omens in the wrong way. There's a guy who explains the moral at the end. But in The Simpsons, there is no moral. But yeah, well, speaking of the town freaking out, now they have to deal with a comet.

First of all, yes, there is a comet in the sky, and yes, it is going to hit Springfield. You don't need to applaud that. Now, here's what we think the impact might look like. Show them, Jerry. Oh, dear God, no! Charred corpses. Fortunately, we have a plan, Professor Frink.

Hi, good evening, ladies. I'm starting! That's the plan! All right, just take your seat. Just take your seat. Now, working with former Carter administration officials and military men who were forced into early retirement for various reasons that you won't go into here,

we have planned this defense for the city. As the comet hurdles toward the city, our rocket will intercept it and blow it to smithereens. What? Oh dear god, no! Mo is so great at this. Mo can never escape this.

It's pointed on both the rubble, that's where his bar is, and then it hits it on the model. It's destined for doom, and it's so sad. This is only my second favorite Mo Town Hall outburst next to the brothel episode. Oh, Barney! That's more of a Fred delivery than a Moe delivery. That is more Fred.

But, yeah, he's the only one there to speak for Barney. To be shocked by Barney. Also, I do love the little animation on Frank's slight m'hang. But he just puts it to the side like, you know, we all know it, but just like, m'hang. I like slightly authoritative Frank, like, just take a seat. Yeah, he has some authority there, which he usually doesn't have.

Dan Castellanet's screaming voice is so... What's the point? He does it twice. I love generic Dan Castellanet characters. Just give it a chance. Yeah, it sounds... Whenever he really screams, he sounds like his electric villain in Dark Wind. Megabull. Megabull, yes.

One thing I don't get, and it seems like a very Schwarzwaldian joke, which was like, with the help of military men who are retired, we can't talk about that. Like, that whole little thing there. Well, you wonder, at first when I heard that joke, I thought it was a don't ask, don't tell joke. But I think like, well, these I heard that joke, I thought it was a don't ask, don't tell joke, but I think like, well, these could have been guys who committed war crimes

or there's a million reasons they've been drummed out of the military. I assumed it was Nazis because all the Nazis helped us with rocketry after the war. That is a strange love

kind of joke too, yeah. I assumed at the time I had a good friend whose dad was succumbing to Gulf War Syndrome. Good head. It was a big payday for his family, him and his family.

I thought it was like dudes radiated by nuclear weapons or something. Turns out it could be all of these characters. Oh, man, we should have said that Gulf War Syndrome. That's the joke in the Sherman of Arabia episode. Right. Bones are glowing. So I also love the animation of everybody laughing

at the comet and Lisa being the only sane person. Like, we should be still concerned, guys. There is a generic Simpsons character in that shot that is Homer's body with a very handsome head. It's very unnerving. And Homer's clothes. Like, the white button-up shirt and blue jeans. And he is right up front in front of the camera, too. No, only Homer may do that.

For several of the character, for the group shots, they have to dig out some season one people. It's a little distracting. I think this is the most crowded Springfield has ever been. I don't know. Characters appearing for a long time on screen together. This is another of my favorite slides. I think of this in political discourse often. Will you all stop worrying about that stupid comet?

It's going to be destroyed. Didn't you hear what the guy in the building said? Dad, don't you think... Lisa, the whole reason we have elected officials is so we don't have to think all the time. Just like that rainforest scare a few years back. Our officials saw there was a problem and they fixed it, didn't they?

No, Dad, I don't think... There's that word again. Just love that. Homer's very like, there's that word again. Song just love that. Homer's very like, there's that word again. Songy display. I love it. And that was something, too.

They talk about it on the commentaries when they talk about Schwarzwalder that he would troll them about rainforests as well. He'd say, actually, there's more rainforests now than ever. Really? Doesn't make sense. No, it doesn't. It really doesn't.

He's a huge troll. Earth is getting bigger. But that is still how we think, too. Like, yeah, we don't think about the rainforest anymore. Every cartoon, there's a fucking, like, $90 million Ferngully cartoon all about the rainforest and how it's going to save all of us. And, like, we don't remember any of that. Are you going to grow my Big Mac meat?

Come on, find a better solution. There's nothing glaciers. We'll just take care of... Where are you going to grow my Big Mac meat? Come on, find a better solution. If you listeners are out there, watch the Captain Planet episode of OK KO that just aired. Because it ends with, like, they got back the original voice of Captain Planet and LeVar Burton to play Kwame. And at the end of it, Captain Planet is very clear of, like, well, we tried to help all these people years ago, but nobody really listened to us. I'm a useless superhero. He just says, like, and we're not in a place right now where we can even choose to save the Earth. We have to or else everyone's whole life is in danger.

And then it just slams to the Captain Planet set. It's so great. All right. So these comment watching scenes, I love. The color design is just gorgeous You've never seen these colors all together The gradient of the sky is something that they didn't really use after season 1 Well now we're seeing it because we've got

Fires all around us I was going to compare it to the eclipse It's how seeing the eclipse when I was in the What's the path of finality Like that's what it looked like The glowing horizon and a dark sky I was there too it was so creepy for like a minute and a half Just like wow this is not right Yeah it looked like, the glowing horizon in a dark sky. I was there too. It was so creepy for like a minute and a half

and just like, wow, this is not right. Yeah, it looks like a 1990s rap video. And this also feels different than modern day Simpsons because it's just them staring in awe of the comet.

They're looking at the comet. I feel like in current Simpsons they'd be like, well, we need another joke here. We need five more jokes in these scenes. Sometimes just set up the doom or

wonder of the comet you don't need an extra joke they let the tension breathe without interrupting i just love the setting of like picnic chairs on the top of that is very white trash which is like but i feel like the simpsons have done it too at some other point but i can't place it before this i can't really place it either but uh but yes honestly, this clip is very long, but I just love all of it. Another return of the rake joke style humor. Homer, what if this doesn't work? Well, then I have a backup plan. See, while the unprepared are still sitting around twiddling their thumbs and going...

Dad, the plan. I'm getting to that. So anyway, they're going... Dad! So anyway, we get in our car and take the bridge out of town. While all the while, they're still going... Dad, they're firing the rocket! It's a lot to ask Dan Castaneda to improv

humming without actually singing a real song. He kind of goes into Peter and the Wolf at the end there. With all the Simpsons CDs that they put out how did they not do a musical accompaniment to that? Just jam on the guitar and tune to that they put out, how did they not do a musical accompaniment to that? Just jam on the guitar and tune to that. Just a premium ringtone.

I also love Bart's angry posture in Homer. Like, Dad! Oh, yeah. If you freeze frame on that, it's a great angry drawing of Bart. I love how impatient he's getting. Just like, just tell us the plan. Also, another amazing animation, the way Homer is knocked back out of his chair. He's like, yeah!

It's awesome. But obviously the rocket misses and then so logically it makes no sense. Is the town of Springfield surrounded on all sides by a gorge and there is only one bridge that goes out of it? It doesn't make any sense.

But I did notice a sign joke that there's like, you can see it for a tenth of a second. They don't freeze on it long enough. Only Bridge Out of Town becomes Bridge Out, which I only noticed now after seeing this episode like 30 times probably. I remember them referring to it as a VCR episode,

so she won't get it. I attribute that as a hallmark of The Simpsons, but I think it's something they actually had to improve upon. They didn't want to waste jokes, and while it bothers me, they linger longer on small things like that now. Well, that was, I think, a big change. Oakley oakley weinstein i think were the last showrunners who really cared like no we're gonna stay here all night to think of a joke no one will see yeah

like i think they really stopped caring about that kind of thing like i mean well even in season 9 and 10 you'd have jokes like stoner's pot palace but they would pause on that and have auto comment on it just so you'd have time to read i think normally they give you enough time to time to read sign jokes, but maybe that was just something they had to cut quickly away from or something. But it was the first time I noticed it. The only thing I can compare it to in a modern sense is Arrested Development. But Mitch Hurwitz credits that with the set designers getting the joke they were after. So we didn't specifically ask for a red doghouse with a beagle in the good grief scene, but somebody got the joke and it just showed up.

That's awesome. That's not the specific one, but he said he wouldn't even know some of the stuff was going into the scene. I do wish this scene had incorporated Moe's bar getting destroyed. Yeah. Well, I do love this act break, though. It blew up the bridge! We're doomed! It's times like this I wish I were a religious man.

It's all over, people! We don't have a prayer! Great Harry and Harry. Great Lovejoy Doppler. And the scene could end with that, but then they actually stick with this fear of it, of like they show the bridge and then pan up to the comet, like it really enforces

the danger. Good act break and again Modern Simpsons I feel like the camera would have been full center on Lovejoy. His voice wouldn't have trailed off. It just lingered too long and I love this shit about early Simpsons. Alright. I think a lot of this episode though from this point on I feel like they've reused a lot of these

jokes in the dome bits in the film. But this, oh my god, Kent Brockman. And like Icarus, the rocket foolishly soared too high and lost control of its servo guidance mechanism, leaving us with some six hours to live. So, let's go live now to the charred remains of the only bridge out of town with Arnie Pie and Arnie in the Sky. With the bridge gone and the airport unfortunately on the other side of the bridge, a number of citizens are

attempting to jump the gorge with their cars. It's a silent testament to the never give up and never think things out spirit of our citizens. With our utter annihilation imminent, our federal government is snapped into action. We go live now via satellite to the floor of the United States Congress. Then it is unanimous.

We are going to approve the bill to evacuate the town of Springfield in the great state of... Wait a second. I want to tack on a rider to that bill. $30 million of taxpayer money to support the perverted arts. All in favor of the amended Springfield slash pervert bill? Bill defeated. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Democracy simply doesn't work. I love a few things more than a southern politician saying poivet.

I like that they're both southern politicians. I mean, this is a joke about NEA grants going towards things that weren't completely wholesome. Yeah, which I really... Mr. Show had a whole episode about it. I honestly hate any jokes about the NEA. I need a porn shot. Yeah. That it is, like, even if we gave $100 million to artists, that would be nothing compared

to what we spend on anything in the government. They peed in a jar and they put a cross in it. My tax dollars... They made me look at it. My tax dollars paid for that. Your tax dollars also paid for that drone that shot everybody at a wedding. I got to say, Piss Christ is the ultimate troll. That's why I love it.

It's so brain dead in how it shocks people, but I just love that it does. But it did. It's basically shitting on the flag for Mr. Show. Why are you leaning into the joke by pretending to be offended by this you're letting him win if you just didn't talk about it nothing like that would happen it's a great it's a great troll but so the but but the perverted and uh it's also that is a the clowns in congress are at a jenga there's no specific i would say with the southern voice it could honestly be either side

because there are Dixiecrats and the Republican side. Only watching the show back to back with you guys am I noticing Ken Propkopfman's libertarian slant. Yeah. Which Homer will repeat

like a year later, that exact line. Oh, that's true. Yeah, that's right. I don't know why I love it so much, but there's a vocal tick in there for Harry Shearer where it sounds like he really leans away from Mike. To look at a number I don't know why I love it so much but there's a there's a vocal tick in there for Harry Shearer where it like sounds like he really leans

away from Mike to look at his watch six hours to live you can hear his head turning back to the mic we do get a nice list it's sort of a repeat of the rock bottom retractions list it's the following people are gay but we're not going to read it all like we did with

rock bottom because it's all Simpsons writers including people that don't work on the show anymore they all had to sign something saying the following people are gay. But we're not going to read it all like we did with Rock Bottom because they're not jokes. It's all Simpsons writers, including people that don't work on the show anymore. They all had to sign something saying, it's okay if you say that I'm gay in this thing. The first one is Matt Groening. Yes.

They couldn't say that about anyone else because they could sue. Well, in 1995, they would absolutely... I bet you could still be sued now. I wonder if there are any writers who are like, no, don't put my name on the spot. Yeah, perhaps they're like, I am gay. I don't want even a hint. That's exactly who would protest.

You're just outing yourself. But so, yeah, it's just Alf Clausen, Merkin, Jennifer Crinton, John Schwarzwalder, they're all on there. David Cohen. I think Al Jean or Mike Reese is on there, too. Not all current staff members. Was it Fyre Clausen and they said he was gay? He's now, too bad he can't sue him.

He signed that thing I wonder if in there it's like oh we can also fire you at any time again little touches the animation

the way Homer is like looking and right like looking back up writing down the names like oh his attention to detail there is great

it also makes me remember the Mr. Plot episode oh yeah they were gay like that was intentionally written so you couldn't know who he was saying was gay from

Leave it to Beaver but it's a short list of people that could be on that but i also love the foreshadowing of homer's prediction like it will come true and it's so it's a great ending you have to remember his specificness of the chihuahua's head for one of the best visual gags in the episode and over is like maybe i'll be crushed from above somehow but but homer has a backup plan that is quite uh quite a smart one okay if you're that worried about it let's go down to the bomb shelter we have a bomb shelter homer simpson takes care of his family bl, open up!

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What can I do you for? Get out of there. My family needs to use your palm shelter. Oh, I kind of figured this might happen, so I built a shelter big enough for both our families. No deal, out. No deal. I mean, ideally, a bomb shelter should be below ground.

Yeah, there is that. It's funny that Springfield doesn't have bomb shelters because it's a, like, late 19th century town that was built. And in my town, which is sort of like Springfield, when you drive downtown, all the old buildings have a sign that says Fallout Shelter on them. And there my town, which is sort of like Springfield, when you drive downtown, all of the old buildings have a sign that says Fallout Shelter on them.

Oh, shit. And there's a Fallout Shelter inside. So everyone had to be prepared at some point to... We should go there and check it out. I love bomb shelters. One of my friends rented a house with like... They didn't even know it

when they rented it. There was a bomb shelter in there and it was filled with water and it was bunk beds. It looked terrifying. Like an oil silo buried underground. I don't know. I'm obsessed with the atomic age and the fear.

I think Flanders, it's weird that Flanders would have a bomb shelter. It can't be for the Armageddon because he should be sure. He's like, well, I'm getting raptured. What do I need a bomb shelter for? He's notably looked forward to the signs of the apocalypse. Yeah, the four elephants of the apocalypse. He's totally here. Yay, Judgment Day!

He's also a guy who does his taxes on January 1st. That's true, an over-prepared man. Yeah, that's true. He would spend all that extra money to make it big enough for the Simpsons, and Homer is still... Homer's callousness toward Ned is amazing. Yes, but Homer is not the only person without a shelterini.

Well, huddly doodly, neighbors. Shouldn't you be in your shelterinis by now? We haven't got shelterinis. We want in yours. Oh, well, sorry. The shelter's kind of full. Really? Oh.

Well, we'll just go off someplace and die then. Thanks. Wait. Oh. Well, we'll just go off someplace and die then. Thanks. Wait! You know, I may regret this when our air runs out and we can't whistle or stay alive, but... Oh, what the hank? And David said earlier this felt like a Halloween episode. This is where most of the Twilight Zone shelter elements come in.

The shot of the door opening and the people behind it is very much taken from that episode I love all the crowd together It's also something that like Quimby and Krusty couldn't get away, like they should have had private helicopters or something Was Brockman in there? Because Artie Pye has that helicopter

He wasn't in there No, Brockman wasn't there I love this episode, I feel like a missed opportunity is not having Skinner in the bomb shelter to tie the two parts of the episode together. He's oddly missing. And it is weird. I mean, this show is kind of bookended like it's a Skinner story for the first third and it's a Flanders

story for the last third. But they're both kind of absent in those other sequences. It is a little bit divided. This episode depends on... That's true. This episode really depends on you knowing Springfield unites very well and then i'll see uh barney and nelson next to each other yeah it was like oh you guys there are certain same clothes certain combinations you haven't seen in the same shot before and like i was kind of astonished watching this again like oh there are generic

characters in here like i thought they literally could have filled that with just a couple shots yes that's a great troll on the commentary that dave merkin says you know nobody's ever noticed Oh, there are generic characters in here. I thought they literally could have filled that with just Frank D.O.B. Yes. That's a great troll on the commentary that Dave Merkin says, you know, nobody's ever noticed Waldo. I've never heard it from any person. It's so crazy. If you're in the UK, we're talking about, of course, Wally. Waldo's a more interesting name. It's a better name.

Yeah, come on. Just turned 30, as we discussed in 3020. Oh, my God, really? So then they can't close the door. Somebody has to leave this crushing shelter and they just start listing all the things that basically explain, oh, the world will need everything I do.

Someone to serve drinks. Yes, someone to serve drinks and like nobody could serve a drink before. But then- Gossip, we need gossip. Yes, we need gossip in the future. So then Homer comes to realize who is the most useless, and boy. Wait a minute.

We all know the one thing we won't need in the future. Left-handed stores. That's you, Flanders. I'm terribly sorry. Flanders is the only useless person here. If anyone dies, it should be him. I'm sorry. Please forgive me.

So let's kick Flanders out. Sorry. Buster, sounds fair. Doodle-oo, everybody. I'll scream when the comet gets here. Oh, I'm coming with you, Nettie. No, sweetheart. You stay here, because... Okay.

I might go mad with fear out there, so, Todd, I want you to shoot Daddy if he tries to get back in. Okay, Dad. Okay. Hey, Sarah. Sarah. Whatever will be, will be. The future is not ours Yeah, one of the greatest, maybe like three seconds of The Simpsons

Is Todd crying while loading a shotgun As Ned leaves singing Que Sera Sera Like one of the greatest moments of comedy I have to say, if there's room for people to write And for Rod or Todd to load a gun There's room for everyone to squeeze in a little further You know the priorities are S Sucking your guts, everybody. Yes, yeah.

But hey, guys, you have to face this now. Were we in this scenario, podcasters are not to be saved in the coming apocalypse. No, the world needs laughter. We'll tell all the stories. We'll be like, we remember the media. We'll be the storytellers. I would have loved to hear the rationale for Barney to stay in there. Who's going to hand out pamphlets in a diaper?

That is another. I didn't get that quote, but it was like, who's touching me? Skinner is there. Oh, you're right. He just has no other lines. All right. Okay. Yeah, Barney has a weird one-episode crush on Skinner.

But him throwing out Flanders is one of the meanest things Homer's ever done. But at least him apologizing to kids as he does it, it's even better. Now I'm bothered by Skinner having no other lines, not addressing the comment at all. Every second of this, all this is fucking perfect. I love this shit. It could have been anybody touching Barney, but just that he's too far. And all right, let's talk about Que Sera Sera. Yeah, let's talk about Que Sera Sera. Yeah, let's do it. So it was a 1956 Doris Day song written for and debuting in the Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Oh, shit. I thought it was like a 200-year-old song. It's not a standard. It was written for that film. It was nominated for an Oscar from that film, so it originated there. It didn't win? Song with lyric. That Oscar's God damn it.

We'll always let you down. But this is how it is used in the film. This is not the popular, the pop music version you heard on the radio. Here's what she said to me. Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see Que sera, sera What will be, will be

Second verse. I just can't think of any other song with lyrics written for a Hitchcock movie. I know. It having a soundtrack you could buy or listen to. You didn't hear Birds from Birds? No. Actually, Rear Window has Mona Lisa, the song that's composed throughout the film and then at the end it's a finished song.

Oh, by Dave Stills. Was it written for the movie? It's by Ross Bagdasarian. I'm pretty sure it was. Wow. Yes. And I have to say, I want to know what our listeners think. I think this is a really boring movie except for the one awesome set piece at the concert where Jimmy Stewart has to stop a sniper from attacking a dignitary or something like that. I forget what it is.

They're in Morocco, a guy gets killed, and then they kidnap Doris Day and Jimmy Stewart's son who that's who she's singing it to in that part there. And then they have to work with the kidnappers but also work with Interpol to try to capture them. It leads to, yes, it is boring

until the final set piece with no dialogue almost yeah and i mean doris day is so talented that she's like just too wholesome to be a hitchcock blonde she's just a very wholesome mom and i wonder that's why they made music such a central part to it because doris day was a star of musicals and this song would go on to be a big hit it's is a plot point at the end of it. So this is the beginning of the film where she's singing it to her son. To find her son while he's being hidden at this place, she sings the song and he sings it back to her

and that's how they find him. Because he doesn't know who to trust there, but if he hears his mom singing that song, he's like, okay, I'll go to her. And it's a really good film, I'd say. I watched it because of this song. When I heard the song in this episode, my mom told me where it was from,

and so we rented it, I think, within the same year of this episode airing. No Hitchcock film from this era is bad. I just find it a little dull. I feel like The Man Who Knew Too Much has been like three Simpsons episode titles, slightly revised. Not as bad as The Old Man and the Sea, but...

Yes, yeah. No, yeah, the Bill Murray... Don't get it confused with the Bill Murray film, man who knew too little which is fine and by the way it did win the academy award okay friendly persuasion julie from julie true love in high society and written on the wind okay so an oscar-winning song and uh also if you want a good covers of this sly and the family stone does like a five minuteminute kind of like loose version of this song that's really good. Look it up, folks. But, okay.

But anyway, Mo plans to unite everybody. Okay, is this line of the show? I think so. Let's do it, yeah. That's the joke. Hey, I got an idea. We can play a game to pass the time. I'll make the sound of a barnyard animal,

and you all try to guess what it is. It's a pig. It's a cow, man. It's a pony. No, it's a goat. You know, one of them lady goats. There are no lady goats. A lady goat is a sheep.

I don't believe she's right. You're crazy. D'ar, what's it to ya? What's it to me? Let's talk. Oh, shut up. Stop it. Stop it.

Can't you see the Sparnyard noise guessing game is tearing us apart? Say, Moe, was it a duck? Whatever will be, will be. Say, Moe, was it a duck? It was baby ox. Yeah, I love, so one of the things you don't get on Newer Simpsons is the face you see on Moe, like a unique face for a scene. If not line of the show, face of the show. Yeah, face of the show. It makes me laugh every fucking time I see it.

I pulled it up just like this. You rarely see gums on a Simpsons character and we're seeing his gum line and his eyes are completely wall-eyed. His eyes get derpy.

His teeth have never looked worse. Like, oh, it's beautiful. You think he's harbored baby oxes in his bar like pandas and whales he has before?

I can see that, yeah. He also keeps man under his bar as well. He's intimately familiar with many animal noises. It's so... Andale. Hank Azaria, just his credit to making the best...

He just had to invent that sound. Best ambiguous barnyard animal. But then, yes, Homer is right about everything. I can't let that brave man out there die alone. I'm surprised and disgusted by all of you. Especially his children. I'm going out there.

That's great. And it was a baby ox. He's right, you know. About the ox? About everything, damn it. Hey, Homer, wait up. I want to die too. If you aren't going, I am going. Me too.

I'm out of here. Big brain. Radio reception in there sucked. What did Dotto say? Something sucked? I think it was radio reception in there sucked. It's definitely reception sucked. I want to go back and parse out all the walla wallas in that

because I know everyone is saying something distinct and unique. Homer's like, does anybody care that I'm hungry? It's so great. So it's just, I'm getting goosebumps now remembering it. Just like they all decide they want to die. I want to die too. It's very reminiscent of the Toy Story 3 ending. I was going to say the Lectorium episode where it's like,

Flanders thinking everything is ruined, but the entire community comes together for him. And they sing a classic song from the movie. Yeah, this is a beautiful scene. When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, what will I be? Will I be pretty? Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here's what she said to me.

Hey, Sarah, Sarah. Whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see Deserat Run! I hope you can hear Barney in there as distinctly as I can. Yeah, with his great singing voice. I just feel warm.

I don't know about you guys. I just feel warm and fuzzy the whole time. It's a very beautiful character thing where he's comfortable with his own death and he's just going to sing the song that he likes before he dies. It's just like he's come to terms with death already. It's euphoria I only feel during incredible turbulence on an airplane. Thank God. No more work.

Well, they're all just like, yeah, we accept our fate together, and it's all over for all of us. And isn't this beautiful? The way they sway back and forth. The swaying back and forth is totally out of the leftoria. Yeah. I mean, before we mention that, episode uh requires previous knowledge of characters because flanders is not introduced they also bring up the left toria which we have not seen in years so you have to be a simpsons viewer to know what a left-handed store is in the context of who net is

that's totally yeah it's it's a joke that would make no sense if you weren't a simpsons yeah i just say like left-handed stores that meansers. Like, that wouldn't make sense at all. Right, you'd have to have seen When Flanders Failed. When Flanders Failed, yeah. And the... And, like, Homer did a 180,

sorry, about that store where it was like, he saved that store, now he hates it? Especially his children. Well, Homer forgets everything the moment he did it. Like, he sees blaming his children

for the thing he did. And that I just... We talked about the gradients before, the gradient of the skyline as they're there and just seeing them come up over a hill, all the Springfieldianites coming over the hill. Awesome job by Bob Anderson. I was looking at some of the other episodes. He directed Two Dozen and a Half Greyhounds

and Sweet Seymour Skinner's Badass Song. So he's done some great episodes, I think. Yeah, no, oh God, he's so good. But it's beautiful. I also love that they can undercut, they have a sweet moment, they're still like, right! They're reminded, like, no, death is here now.

And we should still try to avoid it. But what's more terrifying than a comet is Homer being right about something. Let's go burn down the observatory so this'll never happen again! I can't believe that extra thick layer of pollution

that I've actually picketed against is what burned up the comet. What's really amazing is that this is exactly what Dad said would happen.

Yeah, Dad was right. I know, kids. I'm scared too. Just a break in the atmosphere was a beautiful shot, especially the way Bart can just put his own comet in his pocket. And it lands next to the chihuahua. Right by a chihuahua.

A very realistically drawn, non-Simpsons-style chihuahua. Compared to all the dogs in the Santa's Little Helper School episode, it doesn't have the same overbite that every other animal has. And the big Simpsons eyes, too. It's just a chihuahua. Well, you only see him for a second.

I'd say an underrated best line in this episode is Moe saying, like, it's burned down the observatory. It just never happens again. And to talk about one thing that happened ages ago in this episode, but I did love that San Jose Little Helper and Snowball watched TV together in the morning. Yeah, that's really great. Watching last week. Last week.

Which was very much on. At 4 a.m., you'd see last week. Pointing ahead to that, they'll have sentience and be able to talk soon. Did we mention taquito like I didn't notice this joke I remember being called out in school that when Homer predicted the meteor which sank to the size

of a chihuahua's head and for no reason there's a chihuahua there yeah that chihuahua's name is taquito oh he appeared in the radioactive man as Bart wanted to make himself look taller he's bumblebee man's dog in 22 short films about Springfield and he was eventually revealed

to be Milhouse's dog in your favorite season, season 28, the episode Dog Town. No, I'm sorry, he has a dog. He chokes it when he jumps up and enjoys it.

Maybe he killed that dog. I don't want that to happen. I don't make the rules. I guess they named him in that late episode because I don't think he had a name before that. It's the same episode

where they named the other super friends. So, man, that is, I think, my favorite episode we watched at this point. I wouldn't call it what I think is the funniest episode. I actually think the next episode is funnier, more laugh a minute. It's fucking incredible and a meme generator out there. This is probably my top ten. This is my favorite all-around episode.

I think maybe I've been tricked by Dave Merkin on the commentary saying it's a perfect Simpsons episode, but it is gorgeous. I feel like episodes like these make me like the Merkin era more than the Al Jean-Mike Reese era because they are more centered around one strong story instead of several stories, which I think is a problem we saw in The Critic when we're going through The Critic.

So I really appreciate a soul story that is given full attention by the episode, and that's what this is exactly. And it still allows you, as I mentioned before, it gets deep on three characters, Skinner, then Bart, then Flanders. And it's like, yeah, and those are three great characters that you want to know more about, so it's perfect in that way. Yeah, and this gave us a million great lines like democracy simply doesn't work oh god i yeah great great yeah so thank you so much for listening everybody i have been your host bob mackie you can find me on twitter as bob servo my other podcast is retronauts that is a classic gaming podcast every monday occasionally a bonus episode on friday go to retronauts.com or look for retronauts in your podcast machine.

And I swear to God, you will find it. So please subscribe. If you listen to this with ads, you know, you could listen to it without ads in a week earlier. That's available on patrion.com slash talking Simpsons, where we have every episode a week early.

We have the aforementioned talking critic, which we do every week going over each episode of the critic until we run out of them with Diana Goodman and Michael Rapariz and a ton of other great things. Support us right there, but also support... Lazer Time! Either our Patreon,

patreon.com slash Lazer Time, or go to lazertimepodcast.com. You'll find this show and many others. Have a bunch of fun. Lazer Time, I guess we're out of the October Halloween-y goodness. But in between all that Halloween-y goodness, we had our 300th episode,

which was all about Ravaloja. Wonderfully stupid, but we deserve it. We deserve one for us. Yeah, I can't believe he hasn't had a reference on The Simpsons. It must be a scapegoat. Yeah, family guy got beat up to it on that one. Twice. Not okay! Oh, and we should mention too, you know,

check your iTunes subscriptions, by the way. That's true. You just got dicked by the new iOS you're being unsubscribed and you might not know it I'm going to say don't use that podcast app and don't use iTunes find literally any other MP3 player podcast player is better

podcatcher if you will downcast $3 it is the best podcast program ever it will save your life Robert Loja didn't appear on The Simpsons but they did do that scene from Big on The Simpsons. That's true. Close enough.

Piano. And I guess we're just closing out. You might be able to catch the last episode of Elm Street Nightmare, which we went through the entire Elm Street series, not the prequel, closing it out at Freddy vs. Jason, which is one of the most fun movies I've ever seen. How are you going to get us?

Skeleton powers? That and our YouTube channel. We've got a bunch of fun stuff for you over there, as well as shows like 302010, where we do occasionally talk about The Simpsons in 97, and almost never 2007. And Vigigame Apocalypse, the video game show, which both Henry and Bob have been on numerous times.

I believe we've done an episode that's kind of like, it was eclipses, where it's like, games are where the moon is trying to kill you. Yeah, and Laser Time's a topic-based show, in case you don't know. The Simpsons informs a lot of that. But if you like the pop culture minutiae you hear on this show, there's a whole show dedicated to just that every single Monday.

LazerTimePodcast.com or wherever you listen to shit. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with Homie the Clown. We'll see you then. I'm going to go.