Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Bart's Comet With Mike Mitchell

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

"Of course I'm right. If I'm not, may we all be horribly crushed from above somehow." - Homer J. Simpson When a prank backfires and Bart is forced into Skinner servitude, he discovers a force more destructive than him: a comet headed right towards Springfield. Can the citizens survive this calamity with their never-give-up and never-think-things-out spirit, or are they doomed to become charred corpses outside the remnants of Moe's Tavern? Our Guest: Mike Mitchell from the Doughboys podcast Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

This podcast is brought to you by patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Head there to check out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talk King of the Hill, the What a Cartoon Movie podcast, and tons more. Event or product. Hoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast that's more fun than a barnyard noise guessing game. I'm one of your host, the Rumpy Dobbleganger Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons, who is here with me today, as always. Still waiting for my grant of taxpayer money to support the perverted arts, Henry Gilbert.

And who is our special guest on the line today? Hooray for podcasting, woo. It's me, Mike Mitchell. And this week's episode is Bart's Comet. 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, Super Friend. This week's episode, we're just a member of our very select group. This week's episode originally aired on February 5th, 1995. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. The jerky boys and boys on the side both failed to reach the top of the box office. A week earlier, the Super Bowl 29 happened with the 49ers coming out on top. And partial namesake of Troy McClure, Doug McClure, passes away at 59. Apparently, he was touched by the Troy McClure character.

He did not feel it was mean-spirited. Mike Reese put it in his book that he said, the daughter of Doug McClure came to him and told him that he was a fan of the show and that they had fun. His kids had fun laughing at, realizing they were making fun of their dance. Not great film career.

Hey, it's a film career. That's all that matters. He was in lots of movies. This was a joke for our parents. We didn't know who Troy, Donahue, or Doug McClure were when we were kids. We had never seen. The Virginian is his biggest TV show of the 60s and 70.

Yeah, he was in way more movies than the jerky boys. That's for sure. Apparently boys very unpopular in February of 95, but I did not see boys on the side. I did see the jerky boys. Not even in the Dollar Theater. I did wait for the VHS. Not thrilled with this one. I am sure that I saw the jerky boys on VHS at one point.

I did not see it in the theaters. Probably I was too young at this point, I would say. What was the date of this episode again? February 5th, 1995. Ooh, so I'm getting close to maybe wanting to go into the jerky boys. I'm 12 about to, I'm turning 13 this year in 1995. So. As were we.

Yeah. Okay, all right. All the same age this year. Okay, all right. Is this true? Are we all 12 going on 13 this year? Yes, yeah. I would be turning 13 in May.

I would be turned 13 October. Oh, nice. So I don't know. Is this sixth grade? Maybe. Is it somewhere around? For me, this to be seventh grade. Okay.

I think I'm sixth grade at this point. but that is old enough. I think my first Jerky Boys experience was getting a bootleg from a friend's older stepbrother. That's really how you're supposed to get into the jerky boys at the age of 12. You can't just go out and buy that album. It's got a parental advisory sticker on it.

They're not going to let you. I learned in the production of the Jerky Boys film that MTV was betting big on it that they were waiting because the first album release of these early viral before the internet, really internet tapes of the jerky boys.

came out. They filmed the movie and then they sat on it for almost a year to time it for the release of the album, the second Jerky Boys album, but it was kind of a flop. I think it came to some cult success on VHS when uncool parents that couldn't take them to theaters that could be tricked into renting it at Blockbuster. There is kind of like a little course you take as a kid which is like you discover weird owl and you're like, oh, they're doing like funny music and then you discover like Jerky Boys or like the Sandler album or whatever. whatever, and you're like, you don't even going to do music. Sometimes you can have little dirty sketches as a teenage boy progresses.

I wish that there was more comedy album. Just hearing about the jerky boys makes me nostalgic for a time where there would be comedy. And there hasn't been, like, I guess the last Lonely Island album, right, is kind of like the last fun kind of concept comedy album, right, that I can think of. I guess you used to have to go out and buy swears at the record store. You did. A CD full of swears. And now they're widely available.

And I will say, unbelievably, the lasting power of the jerky boys, their legacy, is the fact that the Radiohead album, Pablo Honey, is named after one of their bits. That's wild. You got that. You never think that Radiohead and the jerky boys will meet midstream on something, but that was the one time where they saw eye to eye.

I thought you were going to say that Johnny Brennan has been playing Mort Goldman, the same Jewish voice character on family guys all this time too, but you're right. Also Pablo Honey, yeah. Johnny Brennan went on to become a semi-notable voice actor, I guess. I guess he left Prank Calls behind. Prank Call is just not the same in the 2020s.

It's just a harder thing to pull off now. You see who's calling you? You know what I mean? It's tough. After the death of the landline, the jerky boys had to hang up their phones. Meanwhile, my mom should have realized I was gay because I did not ask to see the jerky boys.

I asked to see boys on the side. We saw it in theaters together because I watched too much e-news and they play its trailer and e-news a lot. And I wanted to see it. What kind of a boy sees boys on the side with his mom? A lucky boy. In case you don't know, it's a road trip dromedy starring Whoopi Goldberg, Mary Louise Parker, and Drew Barry Moore, and also a young Matthew McConaughey, full of, like, Whoopi Goldberg plays a lesbian.

Mary Louise Parker has AIDS. It's a 90s movie as well, but also there's murder and sex. If it was released this year, I think it would be the best movie this year. Well, I don't know. Maybe that's being too kind to boys on the side, but. And maybe that's being too mean to. obsession or something. By the way, Kari Barker, I know that he based

obsession. Have you guys talked about this off of he said that the treehouse of horror inspired him to make obsession because of the monkey paw segment or whatever. And we were asking how did he see the monkey paw segment so late in his life and it turns out he was born in like the year 2000 and that's why. Oh, okay, yeah.

And also maybe his next horror film will be about a comet hurtling towards Earth because this is one of these it's not like a scary episode I guess but it is one of these doomsday episodes which one. The third act does include a Twilight Zone parody. We'll talk about it. Yeah. And that reminds me, have you guys seen the trailer for the new Jesse Eisenberg movie starring Julian Moore and Paul Giamani? Now I'm forgetting the name of it. But you watch that trailer. He is just remaking the Marge in

Streetcar Name Desire episode. Right. Yes, I've heard this. Exactly that. Yeah. It's crazy. That's so funny. I hope it's good. I would like Paul Giamani to win an Oscar. You know, it should have been for holdovers, but nobody was going to beat Oppenheimer that year. It was a bad year. for old Paul. I was on Twist and Metal with the first season with Sandman. Yeah, the Sandman himself. Thomas Hayden Church and he was like, he still was like, man, Paul should have won the Oscar that. He was still talking about it all these years later. Because Giamadi, I don't even think it was nominated for Sideways, which is crazy. Because Hayden Church was nominated for Sideways. And Giammati, I don't think, which rightfully so, Thomas Hayden Church is so good and Sideways.

And Giamati, I think, wasn't even nominated. And he's just, It's like one of the best performances. He's so good in it. They both won an even bigger award, playing a Spider-Man villain. That is true. Mitch, you're the only football enjoyer here. We're too nerdy.

So do you remember Super Bowl 29 where the 49ers won their fifth Super Bowl, beating the Chargers? No, I mean, like, I probably had this on. It was like watching the commercials at this point. It was like kind of sixth grade. I'm like starting to like football more. I still was into like kind of nerdier things at this time in my life. which I shouldn't call nerdy.

That's what I've always loved. But, like, I wasn't like as big of a sporto. I think I pivoted, you know, like I liked baseball the most, and I would watch football. But the Patriots also in the 90s were not great until the end of the decade. And I would tune into the Super Bowl to watch the new commercial or whatever, or the halftime show or whatever was happening. But that's everything that happened the week, this classic episode of The Simpsons Air.

And joining us once again is Mike Mitchell from the Doe Boys podcast. Welcome back to the show, Mike. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here to talk about. I mean, season six is my favorite season, I believe, with The Simpsons. And this is just one of those scenarios, again, where I'm writing down things I think are funny. And I'm just writing down the whole entire episode. It's just kind of a flawless episode.

I'm excited to talk about greatness here. This is an especially great sweet spot because right before this, we had Homer the Great, the Stone Cutters episode. Right after this, I believe, is Homie the Clown. So we have reached like the peak of season six, I feel. Three flawless episodes in a row. I forget what follows Homey the Clown, but I bet it's also very good. Homey the Clown is one of my favorite episodes of all time. And I didn't discuss it with you guys, right?

Did we do when Bart gets famous maybe or something? We did Camp Krusty. We did Camp Krusty, which I do love Camp Krusty. But this three run of episodes is maybe like the three best episodes in a row. If you could pick like, okay, pick three episodes in a row of The Simpsons, which are the best three. very easy to argue that this is it. And this is such an easy one for me to say is like,

if somebody asks, what's the best episode of The Simpsons? This is a good one to go to. Yeah. Because it's such like, it's an event episode that would be stretched out into an hour long now. Or it's a film really shoved into one 20 minute thing. And it covers everything about Springfield.

That's awesome. Yeah. When they do like the town of Springfield episodes, which you know, the movie did too or whatever, especially if the town is in peril or something bad is happening and you get to see, you know, little glimpses of every character and they're all coming together.

It's Simpsons at its best. It really is. And to pack all of that into, you know, 23 minutes or whatever, 22 minutes is wild. It makes me sad because TV is not as good as that anymore. This episode was inspired by a real comment that later inspired movies like Deep Impact in Armageddon. So in July of 1994, the comet Shuman. Maker Levy 9 collided with Jupiter in July of that year. And this is the first time in human history where we could see celestial impacts and

their effects. It was a very big deal. And people started asking, well, what will happen if a comet hits Earth or pieces of a comet hit Earth? And David Merkin says he was specifically inspired by an issue of Time magazine. I looked it up. This is the May 23rd, 1994 issue of time, which features the headline, Cosmic Crash in very big letters on the cover.

And the text under it reads, A shattered comet is about to hit Jupiter, creating the biggest explosion ever witnessed in the solar system. Can it happen here on Earth? Yes. I looked it up that Deep Impact apparently was the one being written first, and Disney heard about it and fast-tracked Michael Bayes Armageddon, or at least that's what the writer of Deep Impact says, but they both got beaten to it by The Simpsons by three years. I mean, hey, that's the Hollywood system. It just takes forever.

Who knows if they had the idea even before The Simpsons. But it's such a nerdy Schwartzwelder, that sort of thing of like where you're watching this episode. And I don't think this way often. I don't think I'm the smartest guy in the room ever. But you're watching this and you're like, John Schwarzwelder is both a smart and funny man. He's making astrological jokes and also being very like one of the dumb jokes in this episode, which I'll get to later is like a joke I loved as a kid. It has to do with Homer sitting on.

on the roof of the house. And I'm like, that's just like such a silly joke too. And then you're watching it as an adult, you're like, this is still funny. And then also he's just throwing so many funny zingers and whatever. He's the goat, of course. He's the best. I mean, based on the timeline of when these events were happening,

it feels like they started writing the episode immediately when they heard this news because the news happens in May, episode airs in February. That is like the production schedule for an episode. So this is basically hot off the presses for The Simpsons. It even sounded like it was not a typical, Swartzwolder pitched it thing that they realized they had an opening for a script who assigned Schwartzweilter. So the room pitched it together. And it sounds like it was like a room outline for the pitch, then assigned to Swartzwolder who did it like his usual incredible job of writing it.

So this is an apotheosis of just every good writer on season six. I feel like the Swartzwolder write, I don't know, a third of this season or something crazy like that or a fourth of the season. He's written so many. We talked about it with Bill recently, how it's like the, Half of the season seems to have been written mainly by like the writer's room of guys. And the other half was written by either Swartzwolder or Bill and Josh is like their own group script writing assignments. You were talking to Oakley about it? Well, it's why Oakley doesn't have as many specific memories about scripts he didn't write from season

six because him and Josh were busy to their office writing their assigned script like one a month pretty much. You guys will know this. Who was on the staff at this point in time? Who was in the writer's room? I guess David X. Cohen was there. And Conan had left, by the way. So there's no more Conan.

Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein. Who else do we have here? Brent Forrester is there, too. We got Mike Scully, Jennifer Clinton. Greg Daniels is still there. I think Chase Richdale would probably still be there. Are Al Jean and Mike Reese there or no? I think they're consulting at this point because the critic, or maybe they're not consulting

during the mercant years because that's when they're hard at work on the critics. So I feel like they're absent from these just, two years of the show. Okay. And as we learned from Mike Rees' book, they weren't very happy with the Simpsons writers at this moment because a lot of the Simpsons writer staff hated the idea of a critic crossover and let them know it. Oh, interesting. I love the critic, which is maybe coming back now at some point. I worked with Mike Scully. I worked at the Simpsons and Mike Scully was there and Al and Mike Reese and I love all those guys. And I worked with Brent on the show Love, Brent Forrester. He was, yeah. Also, I talked about this before, but I don't know if I've ever shown

guys. Do you mind if I step away for a second and grab something? Oh, sure. I'll be able to hear you, but I think I've told you guys about this and I've never showed it to you. So one second. So we'll just continue while Minch leaves the room. Well, another interesting thing on the animation side is that Bob Anderson and his team did an incredible job. And while we didn't have access to a script, we had the next best thing, didn't we, Bob? Yes, we have storyboards for the entire third act of the show given to us by Peter Abenzino, who did the storyboards. He is now the supervising director of Futurama and he worked on things like

Ren and Stimpy and a lot of other greats of the 90s like Duckman. But it was great to see how his drawings translated to all the events of the third act, including his very detailed drawing of the mashup of people in that one four by three space. And it's dated August 10th

1994, just to put it where in the production pipeline it was. And also there are four deleted scenes on the DVD, so a good chunk of deleted scenes on this one too, to to go into. Also, that bit when you mentioned Bob, the Shoemaker Levy 9, that's also

ties into the episode 2 because it's named after the people who discovered that Carolyn, Eugene, Shoemaker, and David Levy of 1993. Yeah, just like Hillbop. I heard everything, by the way, that image of all of them stuck in the bunker together is so it's iconic, it's so great.

And also the shot of them all entering the bunker. They have the bats and everything like that. It's such a funny image. It's like two of the iconic Simpsons images in my head. But I've been cleaning up my house and I found this basketball that was Conan's. I think I told you guys this, that it was Conan, Greg Daniels, and who's the last guy? And they all signed it. Oh, okay. It was given to me as a gift before I left the Simpsons. And I just found it and I went downstairs to see where it was and I could not find it again.

I want to show you guys the damn basketball. We believe you. At some point, maybe I'll send you a picture of it when find it again, we can post it with the episode. But I've held on to it. And Tom Brady has now signed it since then, which is a weird addition to it. Tom Brady basketball. We've already heard so much about their lunch orders. I feel like you've brought so much to the show in terms of behind the scenes. We know what they all eat. I bet you anything right now during the making of season six, they are in the writing process. They are getting whatever they want because the show is a gigantic hit. When I was there, they started to pull back on those lunch orders. But here, I can only imagine in the early 90s or mid-90s around Beverly Hills what they were eating they were eating good

this is the era in which a childless man was lording over a bunch of childless writers for the most part so they were staying until two in the morning oof we wouldn't have the stonecutters episode if david murkin didn't drive home at two in the morning after a long night of rewriting it's that tricky thing in the world now we're like and i completely get it where people in hollywood are like i have a family i don't want to stay all night and stuff like that i get that and then also at the same time, it's like there's something that's beautiful about that of making something great and staying

and burning the midnight oil or something like that. And that is kind of gone in a lot of writers' rooms now in Hollywood. And a part of me is like, that's fun. In the case of the Simpsons, it led to good stuff. I think it would be pretty awful if you were in until two in the morning and you were making kind of a crappy show or whatever. But with The Simpsons, it's like there's something that I dreamed of that when I was a kid of being in a writer's room.

and it being, you know, one in the morning or whatever and writing funny jokes. And I say, let's try it again with one show and find out if it's funnier than everything else. It could be the test case. Now, we're saying we want Matt Selman to be miserable. He sounds so happy and well-balanced in his life now when I see him in interviews. Get out of the gym, Matt. You've got to rewrite these sign gags. I think the entire staff is happy.

I'm not saying it has to be the Simpsons. Selman, I'm sorry. I'm not telling you that you have to stay there until two in the morning. It's a well-oiled machine over there. Selman is knocking out of the park. They don't have to do that. But, you know, I think that maybe only SNL is a place that, like, kind of is still known to do that. And that's more just, like, what the schedule is that they have.

It can't be stopped now. Yeah. It's just the machine. Like Harry Shear complained about this before we were born, that it's like, why does it have to be this late? It doesn't have to be run this way. Yes. By the way, what a Harry Shear episode this episode is. He's so, so, so funny in this episode.

I was just both Skinner. in the top half and then Flanders in the back half. It's like he's just knocking it out of the park. And every line read is so, so funny. The episode begins after a fun Fleischer Brothers parody couch gag, which is funny because we just covered the season seven. I think it's six. Production season six, a Futurama?

Yeah. Production season six Futurama finale, which was called Reincarnation that has a full Fleischer parody that looks just like this, and which Peter Avanzino directed, I wonder if he worked on this couch gag, I wonder. Then it's time. We're straight into it.

You know it's a jam-packed, great episode of The Simpsons Where. We all love the B stories that can be crazy and unrelated to the episode. There is no space for it in this one. Every act, like these are some of the, if you're just judging, like, the Robert McKee rules of plotting, like every act just is perfect. Like, it tells only its story with no distractions from it. Yeah, we're off to the races. And I love how this Butzilla thing carries towards the end of the show, all the way to

end that we see what happens to it in the third act. Yeah, that's fantastic. We see Skinner, we see Skinner welcome us to the most propane explosion-free science week ever as they are going to launch a weather balloon. And this is wonderful, nerdy, boring Skinner here. We're launching a weather balloon very important for him. Despite the fact that he booze the woo, when he hears part say, hurrah for science. Hurrah, that's right.

I said hooray. I've messed it up. I had a bad line read. The woo was too vulgar for Skinner, but the hurrah was quite heartening. He should know Bart's up to something, but he hasn't figured it out yet. They don't say this on the commentary. I would believe it. I've seen others online say that this prank of the unfurling of a balloon with a thing that makes fun of a high-ranking student authority is a reference to the opening bit incentive of a woman.

A film I've not seen, but I just watched the opening bit of it where they prank James Reborn's character in it. And then like the third act is a trial or something, right? Yes, yeah, it's actually how the whole movie begins. Like Philip Seymour Hoffman, and now that I know he's in it, I actually am more interested in finally watching it at some point. And if we were doing the critic again, I feel like I should watch it because every third episode had a sent to a woman. You never have heard the hoo-a in person, first-hand experience?

The weather balloon looks so funny, just knowing the gag, you know, by heart at this point, and you're like looking at the weather balloon, it's like, very much Skinner's, skin tone on top and his blue suit on the bottom is so funny. When you see it pre-Budzilla, you think, well, it can only be Butzilla. There's nothing else who could turn into. This is just destined to happen. So it launches into the air, Bart pulls on the string and it reveals, hi, I'm Big But Skinner. It breaks a character rule.

You almost never see a character's head go back as far as Skinner does for that. But I love that it breaks the character rule. His No is amazing every time I just do it. Oh, man, his nose, especially when he does it again. Yes, some great angles on him. It's just fun to see their teeth from that angle because their teeth just look like little balls jammed into their gums. And many words or lines from Simpsons get put into my vocabulary. The way Millhouse talks about Bart's perfectionism of like, if you have a failing.

Yes. And he goes, if you have a failing. Millhouse would admit if he does. Like, he was not saying he does have a failing, but if he does, it's that. Pamela Hayden, the best. I've said it before I'll say it again. She's the best in the world. Oh, yeah.

And this episode's stuffed and then they have 45 seconds, a little tangent about health care in military overspending and inefficiency. Yes. Yes. After a bunch of rocks start smashing Ginners' car, which even, once the bullies realize that, they just aim for the car, which is pretty great.

Willie then just starts firing a rifle into the air. And only John Schwarzwolder, our favorite libertarian, we do jokes about cutting, an underfunded U.S. military. Like, the premise of the joke is, we used to have good fighter jets and now they suck because we invested in health care, which would never, ever happen and never does ever. But it's a great joke. It is the most Schwartzweldry thing in the entire. It's so Schwartzwoldery.

It is very, very funny. Like to say that this is about Clinton, the perception that Clinton was underfunding the military when we could cut it in half and we'd still have a bigger military budget than any other existing country. around, but the idea that he also was investing his social programs not true, I can complain about all these things, but when I see groundskeeper Willie's silhouette, say, a rocky fighter jet over it.

I'm laughing. I'm laughing. When they follow the ground and fist, right, it's just, you know, I'd like to think that he's being facetious with a lot of this too, obviously, but, you know, there is some politics in there, I'm sure I don't agree with, but it feels like he could still be on the right side. Mike Scully told us once

that John Schwarzwolder said that he predicted that Bill Clinton would be lynched by the end of his administration. That was something that he said. But not for the good reasons that he should be. Okay, so, after all of these shenanigans and the balloon gets away, we get our

first clip. It won't come down for months. Curse the man who invented helium. Curse Pierre Jules, says Arjansen. Now to find out who did this. Bart, empty your pockets. Empty my pockets, you say? Well,

Certainly, but I fail to see how... Hmm. Blueprints of the dummy, notarized photos of you making the dummy, and an alternate wording for the banner, Butzilla. Rishita, Utah, Milhouse. Okay.

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? There's a little bit of Batman 66 and Skinner coming up with his punishment. Yes, he's stroking the chin and pacing. Yeah, right. A little bit about him west in that delivery, I think. There was so many good sheer deliveries right in a row there. It's insane. Curse the man who created helium. And then, yes, because you impeded science, you now you must aid science. There's so much funny stuff. Also, did Millhouse run? to Utah. Is that what happened?

I don't know if we see him again, so possibly. They may be around to Utah. We'll talk all about caning in Bart versus Australia. The entire episode is based on that incident. You're right, yes. We've got a strict schedule here. We'll save our talk about the caning of the 1992 Singapore caning. But apparently Bart has been caned.

And back then, you couldn't just Google or look on Wikipedia for Pierre Jules Cesar Jensen to know that he, yes, is the French astronomer, who along. with English scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer is credited for discovering the gaseous nature of solar chromosphere and with some justification the ailomet helium, you couldn't just look that up. I knew that but I didn't say it.

Yeah, same. And I knew that off top of my head. I didn't just copy paste that from Wikipedia. Yeah, I guess they did get because did they say the man who invented helium? Is that what they said? Invented, yes. Yes, yes. I know that this may be, you know, patting myself on the back here, but I'm just going to give a shout out to writers, PAs, who

100% got something for Schwartzweiler to look up all of this information. Someone went to a library or rented something or got a book or bought a book or whatever. And I mean, Schwarzenberger also is the type of guy who maybe just knew all this shit off the top of his head. That is a possibility. But I think there's a writer's PA that was helping with these jokes in some way. And then they were rewarded by being outed as gay in the second act because half of those names are PA's. Yes. We'll talk about it.

We'll talk about it. Yes. Also, the Skinner, he thought. thinks of irony as he's talking to. He can't just give him an ironic punishment to baiting science. And also, yes, the 4.30 in the morning now, an early wake up, that's tough. I mean, Mitch, in your job as a professional actor, are there 430s in the morning? There's 430s in the morning.

If you've got a call time at 5, you're waking up in that 4 o'clock hour, and that is brutal because I would much rather be in my comfy, comfy bed. I love that Bart wakes up and that the radio is doing regular shows for it. But in the Springfield, the radio tells you. to go back to sleep and just go silent. And Mitch, are your cats up watching Lassie or The Little Rascals or something on Me TV when you get up late? I've never caught them doing it, but now I see the Santa's Little Helper and Snowball are quick to turn it off and pretend to be sleeping, so I can't tell. And I think I remember as a kid really liking this one of, I'm used to like waking up and just thinking like, Mom, I'm sick, help me.

But Marge, Cavner's delivery of like, there's stuff pepper in the trash. I guess such a great life. Rinse it real good. And yes, man, reruns a Lassie. You know, when Lassie came on Nickelode, that was like even that, it being on Nickelodeon, I could not bother watching Lassie.

It just was the worst, the worst. Oh, yeah. Boring, boring, boring show. But you know what? For them, I guess for Stances with the helper, I feel like it is probably, you know, it's probably a fun show to watch. And Snowball, too, is just waiting for any cat to show up.

Not happening a lot on Lassie. So Bart heads out on his bike. He has a little generator on it too. I love that bit. It's much more useless for him. Yeah, great animation of just the struggle and the resistance. And super great folly on that, too. It sounds painful.

Yeah, I don't know if you've said who directed the episode here, but just very well directed. The visual gags are so funny throughout the entire episode. It's great. I think it's Bob Anderson. Yes, Bob Anderson. All right. Great one.

Journeyman maybe sounds like, but he's not usually named as like one of the greatest of like the top five, but he really has so many great ones in his repertoire, including this one. This is probably his best episode, not having a list in front of me right now. Bart finally arrives. There's also just like gorgeous, like this looks so, so good, like the angles, the composition, the coloring of the night or early morning sky within the clouds moving across it. It looks so good.

I love Skinner explaining, like writing down numbers, paying attention. Yes, science has it all. We get some jokes about, I don't have the, clip for that because it's really just, it's all visual, but constellations don't look like what they're supposed to, but if you like the one of the free wise men, let me tell you listeners, check out our friend Will Sloan's fanzine, the Journal of Stugological Studies. Oh, man. You'll learn a lot about the three Stooges.

You think Schwarzwelder is a big Stooges guy? I wonder if that was a room thing or what the deal. He's got to be. He's got to be a stuja's guy. I think most of these guys, maybe except for the younger ones, perhaps, but a lot of these guys love the Three Stooges. Yeah. Conan was always doing it, like, making three stooges noises.

and stuff during a late night and everything. I think all those guys are in love with them. Well, actually, Mitch, have you breathed the same air as John Swordswolder? Like, were you at the Simpsons movie premiere or near that? Like, that was my best guest of if you were near the guy who did not come into the office much. I was lucky enough that I believe I got a glimpse of Schwarzwelder at the Simpsons movie premiere. Calpacus pointed him out to me. But he, yeah, was not.

When I first started there, it was right after the movie. It was basically the movie had just come up. out or was coming out. I don't know exact time frame, but that room where Swartzweiler came back and was sitting in the room with writing the movie script with those guys, that had wrapped. But I got to see The Man, which was great. And George Meyer, I think I saw George two at one point, but. Yeah, I should note that there used to be only two John Swartzweiler pictures. Now there are five or seven of them because he's mildly active on Twitter. And recently he's been posting images from behind the scenes on The Simpsons, images from his time on SNL where he would often be an extra in a

sketch so check him out on Twitter he's still doing stuff on there it's really interesting he is posting these things that you've never thought you'd ever see about like here's him recording it really seems like that he loved that baseball episode's production more than any other one because that's like half of the pictures he shares are like here's me with Jose canseco or don manningly i forget which guys but it's with the baseball guys from the softball episode i could see yeah that entire episode seems very schwartzweiler humor did you write that episode or no he is the writer correct yeah he is that makes sense They credit him for like the reference to baseball players who were dead for a hundred years at that point. He was the only one who had heard of that.

We also get to learn the official way that comments are named for viewers who are not science nerds. And he sets up who would be named for it. There's nothing more exciting than science. You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention. Science has it all. Is that the telescope we're going to be looking through? Yes, but you won't be looking through. I forbid it. But you don't need a telescope to enjoy

astronomy part. There are all the constellations you've heard so much about. There's Orion, the Swan, the chariot race. Why don't they look anything like their names? Well, you do have to use your imagination. Look, there's the three wise men. Who names these things anyway? Whoever discovers them. I've been hoping I could find something that would be named after me. And you've never found anything? Once. But by the time I got to a phone, my discovery

recovery had already been reported by principal Kohotech. I got back at him, though. Him and that little boy of his. Anyway, that's why I always keep a cellular phone next to me. And it would also set up why he'd even have a cell phone, which you needed to create a plot reason for somebody to have a cell phone in a 1995 TV show. Normally people would not have one. Yeah, that is wild to me. I guess early, or mid-90s, again,

this is, I wonder how many, it was not a common thing. To put into perspective, I did not own a cell phone until about eight years later, 2003 or 2004, and then it was an emergency cell phone. Yeah, I think I had a prepaid one that was up for emergencies. Yeah, my first iPhone was when I was actually working at the Simpsons. And then, you know, the world got worse from there. I look at the thing every day. I hate it. But the Comet Cahotech was real, and I guess you would only know about it if you're alive in the early 70s.

It was supposed to be the comet of the century, but it ended up being very, very disappointed. pointing and it wasn't a principal who named it. It was an astronomer who named it. It's great, too. After all the boring jokes with Skinner, we then get a quick joke that Skinner seemingly has killed him and his son. Yes. Principal Goethe. He's annihilated a family. Yes, he ended the bloodline, which is, I mean, I always love when they do the, uh, at this point in the series is like Skinner's like Vietnam reminiscing. Is that come and gone at this point? I think it's still around. It's still around a little bit. They leave the two.

it a lot more in the past few seasons, but they still reference it, but yeah, I think he is drawing upon his Green Beret training to kill this family. But you're talking, Mitch, about great Harry Shire deliveries. I think Skinner has done this before, and Harry does this with his characters, where the line is him, that little boy of his. Anyway, like, he just immediately transitions

into a completely different tone, a completely different subject, that anyway is so great. Yeah. Yes, he's straight back into boring mode of telling Bart, you know, okay, just take down what I also he says, oh, you know, he says, he could have fun with Bart of like, oh, wouldn't it be fun for you to look through?

But he's like, I forbid it. Bart is not allowed to touch this thing or have fun on it. And also a great sheer delivery. They have just a long scene of boringness of nothing is seen and it's just a lot of nothing. And then the way he goes up, like he says like 33 degrees declination. No sighting. Like the build to nothing, that's again a great sheer delivery there.

And he's so wrapped up in it when Bart says hell no, he doesn't even notice. Yeah, that's right. He said, did you write that down? And Bart says, hell no. And he says, good. Isn't that his response? Yes, yeah.

Yep. Then Skinner does see something, but it turns out it's already named after him. This is also where we see that he dials like, this is good. It's a great joke that also is plot purposes. Bart, he doesn't know the number for the astronomers. He has to hit redial right after, so Skinner has to call them. Yeah, I noted that. That's some clever plotting.

Now I think they wouldn't care, like motion. shows wouldn't, but because the cell phone was such a new idea, they had to let people know, well, this is how Bart can call them back. Skinner runs off, and then Bart immediately smacks the telescope. And it's so great that it randomly lands in the exact spot he needed to see it. And then after he does the redial and is telling him the numbers, he just absent-mindedly moves it. So he might never find it again either after doing that.

I love Bart's just him not caring and twirling the telescope around. so funny. This is where Skinner comes back a little too late. Observatory? This is Bart Simpson. I see something in the sky at 412, 8 and last number of 7. Uh, got you, my

rumpy doppelganger. I've got it. What are you doing? Give me that phone. Congratulations, Bart. You've just discovered a comment. No! Prez says school is for losers. And I've generally stopped retweeting things about our president,

but he has said a number of negative things about the Department of Education in his lifetime, and especially in recent years. And it's just really easy to put that prez says schools for losers because essentially he has said that. He said it many times now. It's pressing. Yeah. It's, I mean, like, obviously they, you know, people say they can see into the future or whatever, but I'm like, oh, I wonder if they really thought that we'd be so dumb as a society that

that headline just would be reality into the 2000s and 20s or whatever. It's just, it's too much of a modern headline. It makes me sad. almost seeing that joke. I mean, satire outstripping The Simpsons in general is a sad fact of our lives. Yes. Yes. Yes.

All of those knows, to listen to them closely there, it's like, Shira did a different one each time. He can tell it like he built on it. He's really trying. It's always worth celebrating. Now, we just saw recently that Shira is doing the commercials again. I don't know if you saw this, Mitch. No. He did the Monopoly commercial.

Oh, I have seen the Monopoly commercial. Yes. To be fair, he has done commercial. We'll see if we could put an S on that in upcoming months. It'd be cool to see him back playing ball. Will there be a Harry Shearer Fortnite character? We're going to find out. The commercial, is he the only voice actor who's in that commercial or Dan doing it as well?

I think Dan might be in it, but it's Shear and Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell has Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly. Oh, okay. All right, yeah. As we all learn how great, the Monopoly Go app is. Download it now. It seems like there's still our monthly shearer headline of I don't care about the Simpsons. That's been ongoing for, I don't know, 33 years.

Yes, yeah. When I was there, that was a time where that came to a head a little bit. And when I was there, he transitioned from coming in and recording to I saw the last of sheer. I saw kind of sheer fade away. And, you know, I saw him at table reads a little bit. And then I saw him at records. Always pleasant enough to me. For a guy who I think is notoriously cranky, you can say that.

For basically his whole professional life, he's been known to be a little cranky. Yeah. I think there was a contract dispute. The actors were up for a new contract. It's funny because I've said this to you before too, but being there, it was like the movie had come out. So there was a little bit of energy there, but then also I think a lot of people were like, this is almost over. And now that's 20, you know, almost 20 years ago. Which is crazy.

But I think shearer, I think he wanted the bag. at that point and that caused him to never come back in again. It does seem like every new contract negotiation is them being asked to take a pay cut as well. So I can see why he might be a little annoyed at it. Yeah, yeah. Pamela has since the last time I did the show, she's retired. Yeah. Do they have a replacement millhouse at this point?

Yeah. For a lot of the kids now, because Pamela has retired, there's a new Jimbo, there's a new millhouse. Whoa. I'm not sure if the Jimbo Millhouse voice actor is the same person. They're separate. Do they sound similar? Or?

They sound all right. Jimbo is voiced by Mo Collins from Mad TV. Okay. And lots of other stuff. It was great. She's on Parks and Rec, for instance. Yeah, but the millhouse voice,

I can't remember because it's like, it's a musician primarily who did like music on the Simpsons like five or ten years ago. And they just, I think we're aware that she did a really good mill house. Oh, wow. Yeah. Her name is Kelly McLeod. That's all I can tell you.

Okay. Oh, wow. So yeah, already Pamela, to replace Pamela. is just two main voices, they have to get two new voice actors, just for that alone. Yeah, that's wild. She's the best. And congrats on her retirement. Yes.

So well deserved to be on a show for that long. A giant comet is headed for Springfield. One more hour. You can't wait another hour. What's keeping that stupid comment? On a brand new Simpsons Sunday. Welcome, Super Friends. This is Henry Gilbert here saying thanks for listening.

this week. And a big thank you to our guest, Mike Mitchell from the Doe Boys, the Birthday Boys, Napa Boys, and many things without the word boys in it. A huge thank you to Mitch for coming back on. We always love having him on to chat The Simpsons, a show he both loves and worked on, and you should definitely be checking out all of the cool stuff he does and that we link to in our description. Thanks so much again, Mitch. Always an honor to have you on the podcast. And you know, I actually did Doe Boys this year too. Check out their Patreon to see the Muppets chat I'd had with them just a couple months ago. And if you enjoy our podcast, you should know that Talking Simpsons is only possible for me and Bob,

thanks to the support of patrons at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. If you were to sign up today, you would get ad-free podcasts and a week early. You could hear next week's episode right now and without any ads like this one. And you would get a huge number of bonuses. Each month, we'd do an episode about Futurama and an episode about King of the Hill, just like a Simpsons, and you can only hear that if you're a patron. We are over 100 episodes in on both of those shows,

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It's listening to our premium. podcast, What a Cartoon movie that we cover each month only for our $10 and up subscribers at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. We cover an animated feature film just like the Simpsons. It's like a triple-length podcast, four or five, even six hours long sometimes of us going deep into the history of an animated feature film with tons of extra chat about its history and trivia. We're in the summer of Disney 2010s right now in our eighth year of doing what a cartoon movie. We started with Winnie the Pooh from 2011, then we did RecitRal from 2012. We just did Zootopia from 2016, and we're wrapping up this month with Big Hero 6,

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and it's always great to hear Homer tell the end of a horrifying story that something got hit by his comedy. Yeah, this episode shows a lot of self-control by not having any Homer until Act 2. Yeah. As a writing exercise, to imagine that, like, I never think of this as, oh yeah, all of Act 1 is just Bart and Skinner school stuff.

Like, it's so small compared to how huge, this episode gets. Yeah. I think they do a good job with it. Then Homer comes in and he's killing it from here on out, you know. And so Bart was sitting on it all day until he was asked at dinner, what did you do today? As the family talks about there. And then boom, he's got his newspaper right there to reveal that I wish they used Springfield

Unite more. I double-checked Frankieck. This is the only ping for it on Frankieac of Springfieldianite as the name of a resident of Springfield. I wish it stuck. I like it. Also, so funny. this is dinner time. It's in the newspaper.

No one has seen it. Another great acting Nancy and Kavner together. But then you've always been proud of me. Yes. So then we get to another like perfect scene. I love all of these characters, but one most of all is one of like the three characters that I'm like, oh yeah,

I'm Doug Millhouse Martin and then Database. Those are the four characters that I am of Springfield. owned yourself, savagely. I'm being honest. I'm being honest. You know what's funny about database? I mean, I love the introduction of the Super Friends. And you know what? Some of the other ones should have come back more. I think they're all great. I know that they

kind of floated around a little bit, but database I always thought when I was younger was based on its pat. I always thought that it was a, it's pat reference. And I think I was just wrong. I think they just kind of look kind of curly hair and have glasses. It might be Mike Reese-ish in design. Like Marty Sherman

is designed to look like Mike Reese in The Critic, just like a chubby little kid with curly hair. But Database is the one character would stick around, much to match Graining's chagrin because he hates the voice. The voice is amazing. This is such a crazy voice. Nancy Cartwright does. I love every line reading. And Database kind of went away, but in the teens that we're covering now, we're alternating between six and 16, database has been kind of creeping back in as a regular chum of part of the house. Why does Graney hate for database? Database is funny. We've just come to learn Graney has a very odd taste. things that we love, he puts his foot downs and says, no, get this out of the show.

Yes, and look, those specific roles are what make him, and it's like, well, it's why he wouldn't be the artist he is, like, who created the Simpsons if he didn't. But yes, it's funny over time to be like, Mac Raining hates when he sees a character cry too much if he thinks the tears are unrealistic. He doesn't like if cartooning physics come into the show. He doesn't like if animals act like people. God help you if those pupils are too big. He will shut you down. He will find you a little. fire you. Oh my God.

I kind of like all those things. I'm sorry. Yeah, we love the big pupils. We love the cartoonie acting and things like that. He hates when Homer kills people. In Homie the clown, he truly hates the scene of beating the Estonian Dwarf nearly to death. Oh my God. Come on, Graining.

Also, he's critical of database and then of that scene. He's being critical of like three of the best episodes right in a row here. They're like, what the hell is he doing? He can't be the fun police, but writers find out what he hates and they write jokes just to target the things he hates. So a lot of fun comes out of that. I love that. Milhouse is a nerd that's too dumb to be in the Super Friends. I think he had that line earlier. Like, I'm not a nerd.

Nerds are smart. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Oh, man. I love database too so much. I don't even think of him as like one of Nancy Cartwright's best characters, but he really is. Yeah. 31 years later, if we update these Super Friends, I think we get rid of Co-Sign and email. We introduce Reddit and Discord into the mix. Yes. That's, yes. Isn't that great? Like, yeah, that one of them is called email, which is so nerdy for then. You have to be a big nerd if you have email in 1995. And cosine is almost too, I guess it's nerdy to want to be called cosign. Ham really grew on me on this one because the way he giggles when he says, I am Ham because I enjoy Ham radio. He doesn't understand he's a bigger child. People are making fun of him calling him Ham.

And he's like, no, I enjoy Ham radio. Which, by the way, there's a thing later in the episode where I think Ham comes back. And it was the first time I'd noticed it. When we get there, I'm going to call it out. I think Ham and Uder would be a good duo, these two. Ham and Uder would be the big boys of Springfield Elementary. I love that. That would be great. And I think Report Card probably the only other Indian character on the show outside of Apu and Sanjay. Yeah. You know what? It's a very diverse group. They even have one girl in the group there. Which also like Bob Anderson and his team on the layout, this shows how the animators can make or break a joke. The reveal that Lisa is in the group is a great joke.

So funny. They have to show the full group to do the joke, but you can't see where Lisa is. But you have to frame it in a way that's not noticeable. Only after you know that Lisa is hiding behind Ham and shots, do you realize she's not in the composition of those shots. So it asks like natural, but then also pay off the joke in a realistic way. Like, yeah, Lisa was there the whole time. Lisa's a member of the Super Friends, too.

That's why he's invited. And also Ham introducing Lisa to Bart. You should probably know that it's a sister. And also the Super Friends is such a dorky. Writers were younger. Like if they were the family guy writers, I would think it could be a reference to the Justice League cartoon show Super Friends. But I do read it more as just like,

it's just a dweeby thing to be like, we're not just friends. We're super friends. Like it's just a dork name. 100%. I don't think that there's a comic influence here. but I think they're being nerds. I was familiar with this group of super friends

before I knew about the superhero super friends. So when I learned that the superheroes were called super friends, I could not believe it. Right. Yes. I mean, it's so dweeby on that cartoon too. Yeah.

I also take this to be David Merkin in the Simpsons writers room. I think David Merkin back then felt like Bart surrounded by the super friend. Yes. With all of the Harvard guys. And David Merkin is like the cool guy who, I think didn't even graduate, like, college. I think that's how, a little bit of how Merkin felt. Yeah.

I was just going to say, hey, I met Merkin, also a nerd. I'm a nerd, too, just to be clear. But, like, you weren't too cool, Merkin. That's all I'll say. Sorry, Bob, go ahead. Yeah, he's definitely a sci-fi nerd. I'm going to say, Bart has nothing clever to say to these nerds except for shut up. Yes, yes.

When they're singing their little song. Bart tries to leave as quickly as he can from all of these nerds. A shocking discovery. is made. Well, I'm done eating. Goodbye. Goodbye. Some night you could show us your comet. There it is right there. I make it the 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. It must be coming tortoise at a fantastic speed. Huh?

Don't you realize we slide with the Earth and every living thing in it? I knew you tried to. to find something wrong with my comment Lisa. You've always been petty and small, right from the beginning. We must alert the proper authorities. To the observatory!

Shut up. It's a really nice bit of very contrived character writing. Why won't database just turn around? Because he has principles. I make it a point not to, said in the nerdiest way possible. And that they're giving them like disaster movie lines said by the biggest

high-pitched nerds in the world. world. Like, it's so great, too. Like, we must alert the proper authority. I think that's Pamela Hayden on the two, the observatory kid, I think. Co-sign. Sounds like her. It does sound like her. It sounds a lot like her. Also, I love the rhubarb rubarb moment right before they start singing where the superfront you're just kind of hear like a nerds kind of like making bike noises as they're biking off the hill. Oh, God. And that, Bob, you've noted this many times. And another Merkin staple is somebody could say a line to somebody to tell them to shut up, but it's always

funnier just to be like, shut up. Yeah. He's just so annoyed, there's no time for anything witty or savaging, just he wants them to be quiet. This bit with the Super Friends, too, I did want to say. It reminded me of a film I enjoyed a little more than pub, but Asteroid City is like the realistic version of the Super Friends. It has a bunch of nerds who have to try to solve a problem at a Meteor site as well at Crashdown Meteor's Site.

I didn't mind Asteroid City. I was okay with it. I saw it with my mom and sister. They had a good enough time. All I have to say is that recently Wes Anderson and James L. Brooks were stuck in an elevator together. That is true.

Huge Simpsons news. Which I saw people saying like, hey, you can stay for the movie. I wonder what movie. Do you know what the screening was? It was the 30th anniversary of Bottle Rocket. His debut feature. Did Brooks help produce that?

Is that what it was? Oh, the listeners, listen to our fantastic Mr. Fox podcast for all of the secrets on that. But yes, Polly Platt, the late super-producer who worked at Gracie back then. She identified films. She discovered Cameron Crow also,

and she saw the short film version of Bottle Rocket and said, this guy is a great director, and Owen and Luke Wilson will be big movie stars. Let's make this into a movie. Yeah. Well, you know, my theory is that James L. Brooks saw the Phoenician scheme, and he engineered the elevator to stop so he could talk Wes Anderson out of making more movies. This is just too much, Wes.

To slow down. Have you considered writing for the Simpsons? People really liked that Wes afterwards was like talking to the firefighters and being like, why did this happen? And Brooks kind of just ignored them and walked by, which in my experiences, that's kind of my experience with James L. Brooks. Was that a man who, you know, like I said, Harry Shear was kind of pleasant enough to me. I could tell that he was a cranky guy. But James L. Brooks, I worked for for a long time and it felt like you were going to get talked to if you messed up.

was kind of where he was kind of the most intimidating guy to work for there, I felt like. And, you know, that's my experience. You know, I don't know if people who worked there. Have you guys ever had Tim Calapagas on the podcast? We have, yes, yeah. Tim worked at Gracie, and he did not love working for James L. Brooks. And he wrote a birthday boy sketch about it at one point. Oh, okay.

Which is a sketch group he and I were in together. I think Tim talked around that maybe a little bit, yes. Well, he was nice when he was forced to meet us. for about 20 seconds. Oh, funny. And that was our only counter with him. I'm sure if you were working under him, it's a different experience. You know, I'm not trying to say he's a bad guy.

I didn't have like, besides the time, I think he did shut a door in my face once. I think I told you guys when Seth Rogen was there pitching an episode. But overall, you know, I love James Brooks as an artist. You know what I mean? I have a lot of respect for him. If I lived where you did, Mitch, I definitely would have gone to the Academy Museum that night to see that bottle rocket screaming. I got to take more advantage of that.

That Academy Museum is fantastic. But yeah, you know, I'm not here to bury James L. Brooks. I was a PA, writer's PA, in a very late season of The Simpsons. Another thing that's funny about that elevator thing is that almost no headlines say, mentioned that Luke Wilson was also in that elevator. Oh, really? He was too. Nobody mentions it.

That's so funny. He's the star of multiple phone commercials these days. He's still famous. Yes, I actually just did something with him recently. Oh, cool. I try to secretly take a picture of him. and got caught red-handed. So there's a picture in my phone of Luke Wilson looking up at my camera kind of angrily,

which, by the way, me taking a secret photo, not cool of me to do either. But then he was very nice. I do wonder if it was just that I caught him at the right moment. Henry, I'll text you that photo later. You can share it with Bob. Mitch, not invited to the Idiocracy 20th Anniversary screen. But enough about Wes Anderson work. So we go to the astronomers and the same ones we saw before.

We get a little moment of that Warren and is one of the. astronomers and he's always hogging the telescope. In both scenes when we see them, he's the one sitting at the telescope. It sounds like they wanted to have like a more shared thing there. Then we cut to the doomsday whistle as now the episode is no longer

a kids episode. Now it becomes a monorail town hall meeting episode. Once you go to the town hall, now it's a big episode of the Simpson. I know. Are we done with the super friends at this point? That does make me sad that there was no more super friends at all, even in the shelter.

we'll get to it because I think it is actually right around here. I think this is it, yeah. Yes, yeah. Instead, cut to basically a general store straight out of Disneyland, like the frontier land of area of Disneyland, the general store with Jasper and Abe sitting there with even a moonshine bottle with the three Xs on it to make it really dated.

It's so good. Doomsday whistle is such a funny, just such a funny gag in reference. It's great. To really dissect the joke, it's great that he says, it ain't been blown for Nyon three years. The joke should be says like 40 years or something, but it was only three years ago. Not kind of routine. Would that be Homer defined that episode

maybe? Oh, yeah, that would fit. Season three when the town is going to be destroyed in the meltdown. That was the last town destroying situation. That's wild if that is a reference to that episode. That's good on them. That's crazy. So we go back to the ever-present town hall. Mayor Quimby has just flown back into town. He's normally not staying in Springfield. Oh, he means field. I love how as he announces,

like, yes, it is heading towards us and yes, it will kill us. I'm like, you don't have to clap for that last part. Sounds like the Doomsday whistle ain't been blown for nigh on to three years. Trouble of Bruin.

Fellow citizens, when I learned about the impending crisis, I caught the very next playing the Springfeld. Field. 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. This is where we then see him. It's just a great visual gag. The reveal of the town and that Moe's bar is specifically pointed out on it and then cuts to Moe. Like, this is a perfect Moe episode, too. Moe says six lines in this and they're all his best lines. It's so funny.

The Moes Bar bit here is so, so good. But they pointed out in the kind of shitty illustration that they've made, they pointed out Moes Bar and then when they actually, you know, when Frank has his little construction made there. And this is where we learn what the town's plan is going to be. Oh, dear God, no. Fortunately, we have a plan, Professor Frank. Hey, good evening, ladies.

What's the plan? Alright, 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, as 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 Smithereen. Why? Oh, dear God, no!

And that will be the end of our Mr. Comet! Oh, 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? But, Dad, don't you think? Ah, 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. So Mo is doomed no matter what. and I was trying to follow along with Frank's explanation as who was helping him with this plan. That was a don't-ass, don't-tell jokes. I think so, right? Yeah, the way he goes.

Yeah. Oh. It could be also. There's kind of like a hand movement to indicate like. Yeah. Oh, interesting. I love the compliment to his area there. He has to do his Jerry Lewis-Frank noises, except this has to be his like, you know, light week.

Instead of like, me, it's me. Hey. It's me. I also just love the hubris of the town laughing at the comet. It's so, so, so funny. Yes, this inspired Adam McKay to make an entire movie about this idea. Kari Barker and Adam McKay getting influenced by the Simpsons. I'm referring to the film Don't Look Up, which I only know from discourse.

I actually never watched it. I don't think I watched the whole thing ever. By the way, the town, when they're all laughing at the comet, there was a guy who's dressed exactly like Homer. Yes, thank you, Mitch. That's so distracting in the foreground. I always focus on him. He stole Homer's clothes. It's weird.

I was wondering, I was like, was it supposed to be Homer at one point? Like, is that, like, did the end of they just change it to some random guy? Why was this man dressed like Homer exactly in that one shot? I think it's just one of the mistakes that you can make if you're designing a background character is it can't look like any of the other characters. It can't have, like, the Simpsons hair line where the hair is not a defined part of the head. And it can't be someone wearing, like, Lisa's dress, for example, or Bart's outfit. Yeah.

This is very strange. I love this, you know, transfer. basically, like it started as Bart's episode, and it still is named his episode, but this midpoint moment of like, we see the fear and concern in Lisa's eyes. It now becomes a lease episode for a little bit. It'll be, I guess, a whole family episode by the third act. But the Lisa's concern is she looks at everybody laughing is just, it's a great grounding, emotional moment in a hilarious episode. Yeah. And I wonder if that maybe it was Homer laughing. and then they change it.

I don't know. Maybe I'm getting too conspiratorial here, but it could be like, oh, we shouldn't have him be like one of the people who, because Lisa is there with him. It should be some random guy. But maybe not. Maybe it's just that he's dressed

just like Homer and it's distracting. I could see it being Homer in that shot at like the storyboard or layout stage, but unfortunately we only have Act 3 layout or storyboard so we can't compare it, unfortunately. This is where there's the first of four deleted scenes. They're all pretty brief on the DVD.

They were going to have one more joke with the screaming man who will have a bigger role in the PTA disbation. after Quimby says and that'll be the end of Mr. Comet this happens Wait, what about Mrs. Comet?

There is no Mrs. Comet. There, that's it. I assume at some point Dan Castellaneda took that rollover because that is Hank Azaria and that deleted scenes. Yes, yeah. Azaria's voice area is good, but Dan has some of the best screaming

of any of the actors. Funny screams, not easy. Like stretching your vocal chords like that. I feel like Dan can just really live up there. this is all of us age I feel bad of watching those episodes from you know even just 20 years ago of like

Homer having to scream so much with new screams and I'm like poor Dan Kesslinna like you know his voice he's not a machine I know oh god he maybe is he just kind of is a machine I've like anytime that I've tried to I've done some voice overwork and any time I'm like you have to scream or whatever I do it

and then immediately lose my voice like the rest of the session they're just like well I guess he's done I can't do anything else. They save all of that for the end, usually, but still. It sounds like there are certain characters he does last, like Krusty. He'll do last in a session. Oh, yes.

Yeah. But I think in 10 years, we'll all sound like Julie Kavanaugh on the mic. I mean, if you go back 10 years to a podcast that we were on in, like, 2015, we do sound like we're 12. Yeah, Mitch, have you thought about or noticed any aging in your voice if you go back and listen to like for the first season of Doe Boys? and then I've definitely fallen into more of like a Mitch guy voice over time. That's funny because Julie Kavanaugh is almost like in like the shorts. She's like, good night, Bart. And she almost sounds more like that now as time has gone on.

She sounds like Marge's mom more so now. She's gotten older. She's used her voice vocal cords for so long. It makes sense. I notice it with Shearer, too. Shear's voice has definitely gotten a little older. Shear did recently reveal like he has been suffering from long COVID too, that he seems to be on the other. side of. Oh man. All right. Hey, I'm right there

with sheer. Yeah. He's gotten over it, but I guess there was a period at which it did affect his performances. Oh, wow. Okay. He mentions that they had to really accommodate for it during the filming of the second Spinal Tap film a few years ago. Yeah. Oh, it's brutal. I feel. Also, I just

love Homer's like, there's that word again. Like, no, we're not supposed to think Lisa. Like, the politicians got it. Yeah. It is like the very nihilistic Swartzweiler opinion where like our officials fail us. but we're stupid enough to believe in them. That's his worldview.

It's only going to get worse as the episode goes. So we then cut to the whole family. Nobody is left town because they all think everything's going to be fine. They want to be in town to watch the comet explode. The family is sitting on the roof to watch it, and it's so fucking funny. 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 do, Dad, do-do-do-do-do-do-d-do-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d... So, anyway, we get in our car and take the bridge out of town, while all the while they're still going. Dad! Homer twiddling his thumbs. This is as a child, I feel like being in middle school and watching this episode, I probably saw this episode when it came out or whatever and then watching the repeats of it.

But this was like such a thing of like saying this like, do do do do like that sort of thing is so funny to like a middle school kid. I feel like especially. And that, oh, yeah, you're like, a dumb little kid. There's a lot of things. And I mean, obviously why the show is so great is that someone in sixth grade could watch it and appreciate it. for what it is and being funny. And then watching it again, I was like,

oh yeah, I get how a little kid likes that. And it still is very funny. It still is super funny. I also remember having a very strong reaction to first seeing this at the age of 12, thinking the first time he does it, you're thinking, well, how long will this go on?

It goes on for a very long time. And then he does it again. It is also funny, just how mad Bart gets at Homer. He puts his hands down on the chair armrest and, like, turns over towards him. Also that Homer thinks it's a brilliant plan, no one else is thought of of, we'll get in the car and drive out of town, which is like nobody else will think of that.

And for this plot only, Springfield is an island, I guess. Yes, there's one bridge out of town. Forget any episode before this where they drove on multiple bridges that went places. There's only one bridge and there's no other way to leave the town at all, period, in the show. The sign says only bridge out of town, correct? For a sign gag, for a great sign gag, because when it explodes, then it turns into bridge. out. And I have to say, there are very few pop culture references in this episode, and that's fine.

But some of the few that exist like this next one are very, very old and obscure. So everybody tugging their collars and going, as a reference to the actor Charles Nelson Riley, but it's not just that. It's a reference to his performance in the sitcom, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which ran for two seasons. But this is old-timey TV. So those two seasons generated 50 episodes. It's 5-0. And they're all on YouTube if you want to see The Ghost of Mrs. Muir and Charles Nelson Riley tugging his collar and going,

that's more episodes than Stranger Things Got in a decade. That's wild. By the way, I'm Macari Barker with that because I thought it was more of a, I knew it was some old-timey reference, but I don't know if I thought it was just like the stooges forever or whatever. I didn't know exactly what it was, but Charles Nelson Riley, that makes a lot of sense. Also, by the way, there's a moment here when the rocket fires and the Homer goes like, oh right and I remember that being in Simpsons commercial so much right am I wrong here yeah like when his chair gets blown back yeah yeah yeah they would always choose those clips because

of the announcer would be like the Simpsons are on five days a week woohoo and then characters celebrating or saying fun lines like Homer's saying oh what a glorious day from Bart gets an half to that one yes I remember that and yes the rocket goes up and then just misses and blows up the bridge you know also Bob that Charles Nelson Riley thing that's an important thing to know where the Simpsons writers are coming from because I like that scent of a woman one, which I do think it could be, but if they don't say it on the commentary, I don't want to say, oh, it's definitely a reference to that. I have seen people online say, oh, the model of the town for Frank showing off how it'll work

is a back-to-the-future reference for, you know, the model of town, Doc Brown designs to explain. Now, that's what we think as elder millennials, but I wonder if the writers of the show is back to the future are that important to them to reference to make it, or is it just similar joke? Yeah, I wonder if there's some older reference there that we're not seeing. Or if it's just the idea of a diorama to represent something is just unrelated

to any kind of media. Yeah. Again, if Family Guy did it, you would be like, well, of course it's a Back the Future reference. It would be the 800th one they did in the show. Yeah, Doc Brown would be in the reference. Well, I guess Professor Frank is there, but you know what I'd say?

There would be so much more on the nose with it. And hey, you know what? They have interacted in the Simpsons line for the Simpsons ride. Right. Oh, right. Right. Right. I love that they did that.

They explained how they replaced the ride, how they replaced the Back to the Future ride. That's one of my favorite bits in that ride. Also, by the way, the rocket had the little sign on it that said aim away from face, which is fun to see. They all realize they're doomed, and it's so great. They get a joke of Lovejoy giving up his beliefs too,

and just say, like, it's all over, we don't have a prayer. They could just black out on that, but I like that they instead go with the, the menace of the missile to stay with the plot relevance and the danger instead of just a laugh. It's times like this. I wish I were a religious man. It's all over, people. We don't have a prayer. I like that it isn't an un-a-joke. And we mentioned this earlier. This is not a Trihast of Horror episode, by the way. We know that. But they are still parading a Twilight Zone within this episode. And so this is what the third act is based on.

It's a Twilight Zone parody of the episode The Shelter, where a family with a bomb shelter equipped for three people to survive in finds itself under attack by all the neighbors who demand entry. And the moral of the story is the threat of danger is a false alarm. And the moral is much like many Twilight Zone episodes, we have met the enemy and he is us. We cannot get along together. And it's a very smug Rod Serling tells you that at the end.

He thinks he's so smart that Rod Serling. But apparently it really freaked out David Merkin as a kid, more than any other Twilight Zone. So he really wanted to work that in. I think it's a less known one. I did watch it the last time we cover this. It's very good. It's a very good little one-act play kind of,

just within one space. If you watch that, you'll see where a lot of the beats of this story come from. Mitch, did the many Twilight Zone on The Simpsons get you to watch the Twilight Zone anymore than you would have as a kid? Oh, yeah, I think 100%. You know, the sci-fi marathons that they would have, which did they play Twilight Zone on New Year's Eve? Was that one of them?

Like, I feel like... I think it was... Fourth of July, too, was another sci-fi channel, Twilight Zone Marathon. Yeah, and I think, you know, even probably pre-Sy-Fi channel

even, because I remember when I got my cable box that had Comedy Central and the Sci-Fi channel, and I was so thrilled. Because Mystery Science Theater was on sci-fi, right? It wasn't even on Comedy Central.

It was a sci-fi show originally, or... It left Comedy Central in 96 and started on Sci-Fi 97. Okay, all right. Yeah. But even just getting both of those channels, I was like so thrilled by

but anytime there was a Twilight Zone marathon, I would strap in and watch a bunch of them. And to this day, I still, I'll record. I've never done a sit-down and watched every single Twilight Zone episode. I know there are some that have not aged as well, right? There's some that aren't great, but there's still so many classics that are so good. I got to give it stew diligence at some point. Weirdly enough, for the longest time, it was just always on Netflix,

and that has changed in recent years. But I remember it being just a mainstay of Netflix streaming, just you could always watch the Twilight Zone on there, but not anymore. Rod Serling also, I think he was a professor at Ithaca at one point. He was in I think he was a professor at Ithaca. I could be wrong. I might need to be fact-checked on this, but I think so. I think they're kicking Twilight Zone off Paramount Plus Mountain because it has too many pro-social messages in it.

Oh, yes, yeah. Too woke. Too woke. It had several episodes about how racism is bad, which is not what they're going for. Made a little shift on Paramount Plus. Also, to make this like a tree house of heart. deaths happen on screen. We watch cars plummet off screen

to their deaths as Arnie Pie is eating a donut while watching it. Yes. Man, I think this might be my favorite in the entire episode. And he's also, the angle is that it's like, it's brave that they're trying to jump the gorge.

They never give up, never think things through spirits shine through. This is where there is another deleted scene where Brockman had a different way of explaining how the rocket missed. and so the mighty rocket carrying with it all of our hopes and dreams smash those hopes and stramble those dreams like so many cheap hens eggs and left us all with some six hours to live

that's fine i do like the tortured icarus metaphor he's got though he turns a good metaphor into him he could just say he brings it to its servo guidance systems when he could just say like it flew too close to the sun in our hubris it fell but he turns a good metaphor into him he could just say he brings it to it but he gets literal with it and ruins an analogy. Then comes another of my favorite scenes in the show and one of the darker

and some pure Swartzwaldersms here, I would say too. 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 private bill. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Democracy simply doesn't work. Now, over the years, a newsman learns a number of things that for one reason or another, he just cannot report.

It doesn't seem to matter now, so... The following people are gay. Cutting off! Just a second. What's everyone so worked up about? So there's a comet. Big deal. It'll burn up in our atmosphere,

and what's ever left will be no bigger than a Chihuahua's head. Wow, Dad. Maybe you're right. Of course I'm right. If I'm not, may we all be horribly crushed from above somehow. And mentioned this before, but that list of people who are gay, it's all a writer's producers and production assistants. And they all had to sign a waiver saying they wouldn't sue the show if the show showed their name and implied that they were gay. Mitch, if you'd only worked on the show then, like Don Gilbert, Jane O'Brien, and Annette Anderson, all assistants on the show then. you could have been named gay in the episode too. I like that Homer seems to be writing things down like not malicious,

just out of pure curiosity more than anything. Colonel O'Brien's sister? A joke that definitely feels a little dated, of course, but Homer still seems to be it doesn't ruin my image of Homer at all in any way. What's not dated is the government pushback against any A grants, which this is referencing, because this was a constant fight throughout the 90s, especially there's a big focus on this in the early 90s

because there are new guidelines in place. Like, the government gives you a grant to make art. It cannot promote homosexuality or this or that. It's very conservative, these laws. And now I don't want to depress everybody, but guess what happens under Trump? No artists are getting any money to make anything. Of course, yes. I have no joke to make about this.

No. Sorry. A huge part, because Donald Trump is complaining about things everybody complained about in the 80s as well, Reagan tried to destroy the NIA and couldn't do it. At the start of Trump, too, he had a big thing against the NIA, trying to ban federal funding for programs promoting DEI or gender ideology, his terms for it. And over 400 artists were taken out of it. There was a lawsuit against it.

It was a big move of Doge to do it. And I say this again, the 2023, just like the other thing about like, oh, we spend too much money on health care, not the military. The 2023 budget of the National Endowment of the Arts was $207 million, which would not buy you two fucking drones. that murder people. You couldn't buy two drones for that. Like we said, we have no jokes, but if you want jokes about this, check out the Mr. Show episode What to Think, because it's all about the fight for

N.A. rights and money in the mid-90s. This is the Governor Tinkerbell sketch, yes, you're right, yeah. A lot of depressing things when seen through the light of 2026 throughout the episode. I do like the congressman. He comes around every so often, right? This congressman or... Oh, the prevert bill

guy? Yes, this pervert very strangely. Yeah, pre-verting. That's how he says it, yes. And the younger congressman, too, I think he's the one who gets arrested at the end of Mr. Lisa goes to Washington, I think. It's not Bob Anderson. It's Bob something or other. Oh, man. Bob Barlow? No, you think of Birch Barlow.

Everyone's screaming at us. They're pulling over their cars. Sorry, listeners. They're flagging down the police to arrest us. The expulsion of Bob Arnold. That's the line. Okay, got it. See, I don't got to know anything.

Even though I've watched these episodes so many times. By the way, Rod Serling was a professor and lecturer. or the Communications Department of Ithaca College from 1967 until this untimely death in 1975. I bet his class was wild. I'm sure, yeah. I missed him by a good 30 years. A twist at the end of all of them. This is where Homer announces his plan, actually, which is the plan of stealing Ned Shelter.

That was his plan the whole time. He says Homer Simpson takes care of his family, and then he goes over to a man who actually does take care of his family. And it's a great twist on the Twilight Zone, a very fun curveball where, yes, there is room for your family. Come on in. Yeah. No deal out. No deal out is so great. 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. Blanders, open up. Hi-hi-ho, a runny, neighbor. What can I do you for? Get out of there. My family needs to use your bomb shelter.

Homer? I kind of figured this might happen so I built the shelter big enough for both our families. No deal out. Get in the shelter, Homer. By the way, on that list of people that they released who were gay, Jacqueline Atkins, I worked with. Al Jean was on there too and Mike Reese were on that list.

I actually worked with a few of those people still at the Simpsons by the time. All those homosexuals. That's impressive. That's great. It's great. They were still there. Again, see, those are the fun things that you could get, even as a production assistant.

You could get named and things like that. tree house of horror name, which I told you guys before that my mom and dad were disappointed by. They're starting to get bored waiting in the shelter for everything, waiting to all die. Homer can't take another hour. This is where there's back-to-back deleted scenes, quick ones. You may notice when they enter the shelter,

there's a TV in there, and they don't have a joke for it in the episode, but they do in this deleted scene where Bart tries to turn on the TV. Hey, this TV doesn't work. Oh, I'm afraid we can't get TV in here, Bartley-Dartley. But we have enough food air and sannie wipes to last for 50 years. Got any magazines? Sure did they do. One copy of Ranger Rick, censored for your enjoyment. The black bars are put over the nipple and genital area of all of the Ranger Rick animals.

I'm sad that was cut just for Bartley-Darly. Is that what he said there? Like Bartley-Dardley-Dardley. It's nice that they underlined the fact that you will survive, but it will be hell with the flavors. There's no TV and one issue of censored Ranger Rick. Also, there shouldn't be that much of a fallout from a comet, correct? I guess there is a nuclear power plant that will be destroyed. Oh. Yeah. Maybe that's a part of it. Then during the incredible, again, to Bob Anderson and his team, just like on Marge

versus the monorail, these animators who are tasked with doing weekly television shows are told you're making a disaster movie. And like these shots of the dark shadow going over the city are so good. Like, these are movie quality shots. Yes. the only one that's kind of funny is I guess is the penguins flying away and the guy hiding under the bench I guess is kind of funny as well yeah but the rest of them are kind of and by the way this is where I believe and you guys can is that ham running across the street at one point during this scene and also maybe correct me if I'm wrong do we see the human fly as well is that is he near a building I was so busy looking at ham running across the street there I noticed that too this time I missed the human fly if he was there I'm not sure if it is is the human fly, but when ham is running across the street there, and that is ham,

right, that has to be ham. I'm pretty sure, yes. Yeah, well, his ham seems like he should be way more prepared than he is. Too busy on the ham radio. Too distracted. And they cut one last deleted scene here of the seniors at the retirement castle

are listening to the news on the radio. The comet is looming huge in the sky now, hurtling toward us, threatening to wreak untold destruction. Hey, Orson Wounds is doing it again. He never gives up. That young man has loads of potential. Who do you say is doing it again?

Orson Wells. So we get another Simpsons reference to the Orson Wells War of the World. Radio play. We get a rare case of Yardley Smith voicing another character. That's not Lisa. A rarity. She gets sometimes back then they'd give her an old lady voice, I think. Though even by season six, rare to give her an old.

lady voice or any non-Lisa voice. Yeah. So this is where then it's pretty much just, I have like every clip of every minute that follows this and I can't play them all, but every second from this point forward is my favorite thing. The whole town's showing up, the interplay

the dynamics of everybody, and then they actually go for like the emotion in it. Every beat of this rules so hard. I mean, them coming to the, first of all, Homer saying what's keeping that stupid comment and then there's a knock on the door and he says, there it is. It's so funny. The picture of all of the townspeople with the bats and trying to get in.

And then they're so sweet and it's so sad when it's like, we're out of room and they're just like, okay, and they leave. It's so sad. They were brandishing those weapons for no reason because they just accepted like, well, all right. Also, the Moe Delivery of We Ain't Got Shelterini. This is the only cut joke I saw in Peter Avanzino's storyboards, which was Otto and Dr. Nick start to argue about. about where to go next. Otto wants to go to the record store. Dr. Nick wants to go to the roller rink to die.

And then Dr. Hebert says, why do we just go to the cemetery to save time? And then that makes everybody depressed. I guess Dr. Nick is in this crowd scene. Yeah, we see him marching in. One more hour. An hour. I can't wait another hour.

What's keeping that stupid comet? Well, haggly doodily, neighbors. Shouldn't you be in your shelterines by now? We haven't got shelteringies. We want in yours. Oh, well, sorry, the shelter's kind of full. Really? Oh. Well, we'll just go off some place 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 hangs!

We can't get the... I can't get the door closed. Somebody's gonna have to get out. I get out, but... Somebody's touching me! I am. Oh, okay. And so Ned admits they won't have enough air to whistle or stay alive, but what the hay? And just even though he shouldn't, he lets everybody cram into it.

And it leads to a perfect drawing, which is in the storyboards we have. The credit, a guy we've been talking about a lot lately on the commentary for designing it, too. Oh, Isvan Majoros? Yes, yeah. That's who Bob Anderson shouts out is one of the designers of it. Ishvan Majoras, the late animator who worked on Ralph Baxi's Mighty Mouse, the New Adventures, which Bob does or did, I guess it's coming soon. I will do.

I will have done because we recorded it. I love the joke that Barney is upset. Somebody's touching me, but he is excited that it's Skinner. Oh, okay. Skinner is, it seems like he's a snack in the Simpsons universe. He's a good looking man, apparently. I'm not saying Skinner is reciprocal to Barney, but I believe in Skinner being bisexual in this show at this time.

Again, when he was told to make it past his commanding officer here, he's like, done and done. And I mean, done. Also, by the way, I love Lisa when they're trying to say who should get out. I couldn't find her in the big picture. I think you can't see her, right? She's like on the ground. We cut to her later and she's on the ground kind of curled into a ball. So she's out of the frame where people are covering her up in the foreground.

If I was to frame something from the Simpsons, I think it would be this just big mass of people. It is perfect. So a Simpson's sale of some of the mass was sold back in October 2023. Wow. Somebody's touching me line. It was for $2,200. I'm sure we go for much more now. Oh, yeah.

I was going to say that that's not bad for that setup. That was three years ago? Yep, yep. 20203. I found it. But it's not the full super shot and certainly not the even rarer one with Waldo in it. Oh, man, the Wal-L. If you're not an American.

Do you know that he's called Wally in every place but America, Mitch, that it's Waldo's Wally. I have a cat named Wally and I still don't like that. And it's also, I love, Merkin is such a bad boy or funny bad boy on the commentary. He says, you know, nobody ever told me or noticed that Waldo's in this shot here. He's breaking fans by saying it on the commentary they're even falling for like, what? Come on. It's obvious. He's right there.

Merkin's like, no, nobody ever mentioned. and they noticed him. I never heard it from any fans. The door can't close. They need to start deciding who's going to leave. And it is perfect how everybody so selfishly starts listing themselves, like the reasons why it has to not be me. It's all great.

Yes. I.E.B. That's such a funny line. We'll need gossip. We'll need entertainment. People to dispense drinks. I really love the move here because, of course, Homer outs Flanders as the one who should die. And then later he gets to be outraged about it,

because he forgot he's the one who made that decision. That's so, so, so, so funny to have him be... You know, even as a kid, and even though it's so funny, you're almost like, Homer's being almost too mean in this moment, but also at the same time apologizing to Ned's kids, and it's so funny, and then also gets outraged at everyone else. It's just, it's fantastic. There's no regret in his voice.

He just says, that's you, Flanders! Yeah, the last bit of like, I'm so sorry. If anybody's got, it's got to be him. Sorry. And then after he says his last story, he just goes like, with his thumb going backwards. And Ned just accepts it. And he even tells his own son to shoot him with a shotgun if he tries to get back in.

And Maude immediately throws him under the bus. Yes. Yes. It's funny to see the rest of the Flanders Todd loading the shotgun and Ma just immediately saying, okay. It's so funny to see the rest of the Flanders also abandoned Ned. Ned walks away, starting to sing the song. so I'll just mention it here. The song is K. Sarasarah.

Made famous, sung for the first time by Doris Day, written for the, the Alfred Hitchcock film is 1956 version of the man who knew too much. It's so great. I watched it around when this came out because my mom instantly got the reference, and I was like, I want to get the reference. So within a year, we rented it. It is important to the movie, that song.

And also, it's an odd place for that song to debut, but that's where it debuted, and it sort of became Doris Day's signature song. But I know you're watching it. it again recently, Henry. I watched it as a teenager and I thought it was kind of boring, so I need to revisit it. It's all a drive to that one big famous scene at the performance. Oh, yes. Waiting for the symbol crash. It's all built around that. Like the opening shot of the credits is setting up like, oh, you can't wait until you get to the orchestra. But first,

Morocco, and then they just go to Morocco on vacation for a bit. And yes, it's a song she sings to her little boy in it, the boy who gets kidnapped and I won't reveal the rest of it. But it's good, Hitchcock. I've never seen it. Maybe I should watch it. Yeah. Yeah. Again, like I saw it as a 16 year old and I need to revisit it again. But it is a classic, but it's one of those things where Hitchcock has an idea. It feels like he wrote backwards from that. He wanted to get to that one set piece, the assassination set piece. So he's like, well, how do I get there from the beginning? Yeah. I don't think it's anybody's, it's like right outside of most top fives. Like it's not up there with like vertigo or psycho, the highest level of critically regarded Hitchcock's. I also wouldn't put it. It's not as good as vertigo. The first one I haven't seen,

So I have a copy of it, the Peter Lorry original version of it from, I think, the 30s. So it's kind of him even remaking himself. What is your guy's favorite Hitchcock movie out of curiosity? Oh, I think for me it's definitely shadow of a doubt tied with rear window. Yeah, rear window. I mean, I was just also thinking of every so many Simpsons, Hitchcock references, but I think rear window is it for me. Rear window is so good.

I used to like Vertigo a lot, but I think everyone should calm down about Vertigo. It's okay. Is part of darkness this season, by the way, or? Yeah, we just did that one. kicked off the season. That's the rear window episode, right? Am I right? Yes, that's it. It's recency bias for me, but I did see Vertigo in 70mm last year, and that's my current favorite. Oh, we got a college boy here. I love Vertigo, too. It's pretty brave, Henry, to like the most critically praised Hitchcock movie the best, I got to say. I'm really going outside of the box.

I was just being brave by saying, I also like Vertigo, but Rear Window, I think Rear Window is maybe my favorite Hitchie. It'd be crazy if I said Topaz. I just watched Dialin for Murder in 35 millimeter on that same weekend. And it was pretty great. It was better than I remembered. I haven't seen that in a while. I watched Rope not too long ago, and I like Rope quite a bit. Oh, Rope Rocks.

Yeah, Rope is great. Rope rocks. Rope rocks. You heard it here first. Rope rocks. Ned accepts his death. Everybody in town is very awkward about it. And then, oh boy, the greatest sound ever.

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 believe she's right You're crazy Dahr, what's it to ya? Was it to me? I'm sorry

Oh, shut up Anybody You just hear that I'm hustling Stop it, stop it Can't you see this barnyard noise guessing game Is tearing us apart? Huh? Was it a duck?

I can't let that brave man out there die alone. I'm surprised that disgusted by all of you, especially his children. I'm going out. And it was a baby ox. He's right, you know. About the aunt? About everything, damn it.

Hey, Homa, wait up. I want to die, too. If you are going, I am going. Rachel! Me too! Me too. My man out of here. Big ready.

There's such. noises like, eh, eh, eh, fuck, I love that. Yeah,

a friend of the show Maddie cop, way back in day, she made an enamel pin of Mo's face when he makes that noise and I still have it

to this day. It's a great little pin. That whole stretch is so, I mean, can't you see this barnyard noise guessing game is tearing us apart is so,

so, so funny. And I love when he says, especially his children, he was just apologizing to him. Also, I didn't even hear this when I was watching

the episode last night, but Homer, when they were all yelling, and I was like, shut up, shut up. And then Homer's saying, doesn't anyone care that I'm hungry? I just heard that when you were playing the clip right now, Henry.

It's a good ADR work. And that Bart Lisa and Wiggum all guests the animals that are there. It's a Lisa loves ponies joke, which has been dropped in the series for years at this point. Of course, Wigham chooses a pig. Everyone's choosing their spirit animal here. And we learned all about female sheep from the sheep detectives recently. So we know that they're not lady goats. Female goat as a nanny, I believe.

Oh, that makes sense. And he goes, right, of course. And it was a baby ox. That's great. Yes, Homer, after chastising everybody, that's the one thing that makes it okay that Homer forces Ned to his death, that Homer does decide to join him after he forgets that he did it. So at least he doesn't leave Ned to die.

But like, and yes, his parting shot is, and it was a baby ox. And when Mo says, he's right. About the ox, about everything, damn it. Meaning yes, it was a baby ox. And hearing Moe, go like, I want to die too. And everybody else agrees. They're just fed up. It's not a nice thing that they all want to die with him.

They're like, I'm fed up with this. Yeah, let's all die. I want to die. And after that, we get the very heartwarming shot of Ned alone. It's a very like, eerie but beautiful shot of him just being okay with his own death. But then everyone crests the hill to join in on the refrain. It's very beautiful. Oh, man, it's a tearjerker. And also another shot, I feel like that is, you would see on commercials or you just would see is that all of them joining Ned there on the hill.

I feel like I've seen that shot a million times in promotions or whatever. Every time I watch it, I get goosebumps. Every time I'm thinking about it right now, I get goosebumps. It's maybe my most like, it's right up there with Marge hugging Bart's at the end of Marge, be not proud of like giving me emotional reaction in The Simpsons. I'm just like, Ned's all alone. And he's like, well, I guess I'm going to die. And then everybody comes to join him.

And it's just so beautiful. Mo leading the charge on them on wanting to die first is perfect, too, by the way. True to his character. I was going to say, like, perfect episode, by the way, if I could ding it very, very tiny amount, I wish the joke it ends on is great. The kids are afraid that Homer is right about something, but I wish we would have ended with Ned because after they join him, we don't talk about or see Ned afterwards. We just forget about Ned once the safety is over.

Once the safety has begun, once the danger is over. And I feel like the show should end with Ned saying something or some exchange with Ned or something like that. Why, we drop in the full Kayserah song right here. When I was just. I also love that the show, it's a very Merkin move of. They allow themselves the emotion here. And like, you know what?

Merkin loves this. You can't control life, like, whatever will be will be. But your friends are here. But then they cut it off of like, run! They can't let you live in it too long. Also, by the way, when Otto was leaving the bomb shelter, I liked that he said the radio reception and there sucked, which is a very funny.

And hey, speaking to sales, comics mint also has a cell, of everybody singing together. Oh boy. Only sold for 2,500. Again, that seems cheap. That does seem cheap. It does. And so they're watching it come in,

and it's just, uh, the visuals, like it comes in. It starts breaking up. It then flies through the Skinner balloon that you haven't thought about in like 20 minutes of the show. And then it just,

the only thing it hits and destroys is the bomb shelter that they were all in, which would have killed. them. Yes. Meaning if, like they even sort of saved Ned's life

by forcing him out in the first place. Ned could have stayed there the whole time and died with his family if Homer hadn't

gone there. Also, the bomb shelter is so, it's unlike Ned to have such a shitty bomb shelter

that just collapses upon itself. I guess, yeah, they could have written any other kind of joke, like what would

be funny for the meteor to hit, but instead they decided, let's tie this into established things that have happened so we get some

nice payoffs. The comet then flies back. bounces towards Bart right by a Chihuahua so you can see it for a size comparison. And then Bart, it makes the title of the episode perfect too. It is called Bart's Comet. And at the end of the episode, Bart has the comet in his hand and puts it in his pocket. It's so funny.

Bart still has his own comet. It's a little hot too. He's got to throw up between hand to hand until it cools down a little bit. And this is where it's a happy ending for everybody except Homer. Cool Sure makes you appreciate the preciousness of life Let's go burn down the observatory So this will 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 Beautiful

Beautiful segue into the Ksera The late Alf Klausen They made the right choice Of going out with his re-orchestration In Simpson style of Ksarasaerah Rest in peace to Alf I worked with Alf a little bit too When I was there

Oh that's sweet Yeah no he did such beautiful Like that music is such a great way To take you out with it It doesn't exactly fit the feeling of It should perhaps end with like ominous music that they're all scared that Homer was right, but I'm glad they went with the sweet music. It ties into the song and everything. And we do have to wrap up soon, but I said my thoughts

up front and they remain unchanged. This is a perfect episode. And we struck gold in early 1995. It's incredible. All of season six is great, but this is a particularly amazing part of this season. And we are lucky to have experienced it. A thousand percent. It makes me nostalgic for the mid-90s and seeing something like this for the first time. It blew my mind then and watching it last night. It was still blowing my mind. And Henry, like you were saying, giving me goosebumps and it's so good. Let's burn down the observatory so this never happen again is another like, it's an even better version like, go the old mill, get some cider like that. Perfect exit. But yes, I think this is, everything is good in this one. It's such an amazing event episode. And look, guys,

will you hear a lot of people say that the things that were on TV, when they were 12 were the best things. Sure, but we're right. We're right. When it comes to cartoons. Yes. This stands the test of time. It's so funny and so good.

And also the burn down the observatory so this doesn't happen again is once again another 2026. It just feels too accurate. It feels dark as fuck. We're burning down all the things that warn us about stuff. Yeah. Kill all the messengers. Well, thanks for coming back to the show, Mitch. Please let us know where we can find you online.

What you're up to and more about the doughboys, which I'm sure. all of our listeners have heard. Yes, listen to the Do Boys. We also have a Patreon, the Do Boys double. This is going to come out after, but we just did a live show. And I think you could probably still get that stream, the Munch Madness finale. If you go to Patreon.com slash Do Boys, you can probably still get that stream. And then besides that, the Napa Boys, I was just in recently. I'm in it, but it's my favorite movie of the year. It's insane. Check it out. And then I have a blink and you miss it moment in Maddie's Secret if you want to go check out some independent movies. And yeah, microbudget. Check out microbudget too. But yeah,

check out all those movies. If you're a fan, like I have a recent, on the bandwagon fan of Twin Peaks. I now just think about how like, wow, Mitch is in a scene with Ray Wise, like that Mike Hanford is like co-starring in a scene with Ray Wise as his sidekick is so great in Napal Boys. We could only dream of being anywhere near Ray Wise. It is wild.

I never thought that that would ever happen for me, but God bless those Napa Boys for making it happen. God bless you, Mitch, for coming back on the show. We always love having you. What a joy. What's the episode before this? Oh, Homer the Great. I think I might go watch Homer the Great because I haven't watched that one in a while.

It's just so good. Oh, it's always a good idea. Time for a four where you watch is season six for you, Mitch. I have a meeting of between everyone who lives in my little area, like a town meeting, almost like a Simpson sort of thing. Where I'm going to meet up with neighbors in about 26 minutes. Can I sneak in Homer the Great? We'll see. Well, but thank you, Mitch.

Thank you, Mitch. Yeah, thanks, guys. Thank you once again to Mike Mitchell for being on the show. please check out Doobo Boys and everything Mike does. He's up to a lot of things these days. But as for us, if you want to support our show and get all these episodes one week ahead of time and ad free, that's right, ad free. Go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. When you go there, you must simply sign for five bucks a month.

And when you do, you'll access those ad free podcasts one week at a time. But also access an entire back catalog over nine years worth of bonus podcasts. They're all full length. There's over 200 of them. And we cover all the shows you love like Futurama, Kick of the Hill, Mission Hill, Batman, the animated series, and The Critic. And for only five bucks a month, you also get new episodes of both Talking of the Hill and Talking Futurama every month. It's an amazing deal. It's just five bucks. And it's happening at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and Henry. What is happening at that $10 level. I hear it's even better. I hear you will become the smartest person on the earth if you sign up for $10. All that and more because that is our premium level podcast. It's like three extra podcasts a month. We do what a cartoon movie there. We cover an animated feature film as in depth as we do in episode. episode of The Simpsons, which means four, five, or even six hours about an animated movie. Like this summer, we have been doing 2010's Disney.

We started with Winnie the Pooh from 2011. We then did 2012's record Ralph. Zootopia was the one we did last month. And this month, if you signed up, you get to hear all of those. And then at the end of the month, a brand new one about Big Hero Six. And that's just the most recent stuff. And when we go into those, we talk about all their connections to Simpsons when there are some there especially are on Reckett Ralph and Zootopia.

And you'll hear all about that when you sign up at the premium level at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Huge back catalog there, hundreds of hours of episodes, eight years of them. And when you sign it for both, for all of the ad-free bonuses, know that you get a 10% discount when you sign up for an annual subscription. So come on. What are you waiting for? And I've been one of your host, Bob Mackey.

You can find me on Blue Sky and Letterbox. As Bob Servo, I also have another podcast. It's called Retronauts. It's about old video games. Go check that out at patreon.com slash retronauts or wherever you get podcasts. And Henry, how about you? You can follow me on Blue Sky and Instagram as Talking Henry for all your Henry Gilbert updates. I am always posting fun stuff there.

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Thank you so much for listening, everybody. We'll see you again next time when we cover Season 16's The Seven Beer Snitch, and we'll see you then.