Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Blame It On Lisa With Toby Jones & Maddie Queripel

Episode Date: November 30, 2022

This week we join the family on their controversial trip to Brazil, and our buddies Toby Jones (Regular Show, OK K.O.) and Maddie Queripel (Regular Show, Infinity Train) are along for the ride! After a bunch of jokes about early '00s phone companies, the Simpsons head to Rio, and we take time to go into all the moments that caused controversy with representatives of Brazil's government back in 2002. So grab a speedo and let's get in the culturally inaccurate conga line for this week's podcast! Support this podcast and get over 100 bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod!

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So become a patron and join us through the rest of 2022 for another great miniseries. Same bad day, same bad podcast feed. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast that makes sex look like a church. I'm your host, the sheep embryo addict, Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who is here with me today, as always? My money is quite gay, it's Henry Gilbert. And who do we have on the line, our special guests?

Of course you have sexual sexual predator Toby Jones. And you have Madeline Vertiqual Carripel. And this week's episode is Blame It on Lisa. Ma'am, would you be interested in changing your long-distance service if... What the... She hung up on me. What did I do? This week's episode originally aired on march 31st 2002 and as always henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history oh my god oh boy bobby the queen mother

of england passes away at 101 panic room is number one at the box office and Degrassi The Next Generation makes its US debut on The N the nighttime version of Noggin so yes we're finally all getting to watch Degrassi The Next Generation I watched it well I watched it because like many things

Kevin Smith kind of made me want to watch it alright to get all the references yes yeah he worked on a Degrassi at some point he would later direct an episode like many things, Kevin Smith kind of made me want to watch it. Oh, right. To get all the references. Yes. He worked on a Degrassi at some point? He would later direct an episode. I thought so. I really wanted the N. Oh, did you not have it in your area?

Well, you could order it. You could pay more to get it. I had some friends who had it, and they were talking up Degrassi a lot, but I think it had Daria on it too. So I really wanted that. Yeah. Maybe it had Daria.

We also didn't have The End, but I did watch Panic Room though. I don't know if it was that weekend, but of course at that time I was probably 14. Actually, March 31st is my birthday. And so I was in ninth grade. Thank you. Thank you.

Yes. Happy birthday to me watching that episode and definitely watching the Future Stock. I think aired that same night and I definitely watched that. But I definitely remember having my dad get me into Ghosty Panic Room because I was a huge Fincher head at the time. Having just been pilled by Fight Club as like a 14 year old boy. Had to catch the next Fincher flick.

Basically we're required. Yeah. It's an interesting movie i mean it introduced the world to the idea of the panic room uh you know i don't feel like if anybody references it now it's like oh that's like that movie right like family guy did a whole episode of panic room uh and but they and it started a young kristin stewart among other actors too i was also Fight Club pilled. I watched that special edition DVD over and over. And to my girlfriend at the time, I told her, we got to see what's going on in that room. It's a panic.

It's a panic. But yeah, I enjoyed it. I only saw it once. And I recall a lot of unnecessary CGI that was mocked at the time. But it was an interesting take on panic rooms. Only one to date so far. You know, I wish Kevin Smith with his Degrassi directing episodes, that that got it out of his system. And he didn't make a thing like Yoga Hosers afterwards. But yeah, and the Queen Mother of England passed away 101. That's England in mourning again 20 years ago.

Little Liz couldn't outlap her. No, she's five years younger than him. I don't know how much our guests want to be involved on the record of mocking the death of the queen. I'll go for it. Please. I am blameless. I just thought it was funny, too, of like, wow, here we are talking about when the mother of the queen died 20 years before the queen herself passed away. So it was a crazy couple months there. But yes, so that's everything that was happening in the same week as The Simpsons go to Rio.

And joining us today are Toby Jones and Maddie Carapel. Last seen on Itchy and Scratchy in March. Welcome back to the show. Always a pleasure to be here and talk about the greats. Yes, thanks so much for having me back. Yeah, it's awesome having you guys here. And in case listeners didn't listen to the previous one, that was all about the world

of animation, which you both know very, very well. You work on shows like OK KO, Let's Be Heroes, The Infinity Train, regular show. And, you know, well, my first question, though, is with that kind of background, how do you guys approach stories about characters, you know, say visiting places you maybe haven't been to before?

Well, in my experience, we usually do it only if we have somebody involved who has gone to that place and has some experience with that location. For example, you know, there's that regular show episode, Hello China, where Benson goes to China. And that was based on Owen, my board partner's experience teaching English in China. In most cases, normally. And so like when I was working on that one, having not been there, I just was more in support of making sure his story was being told because it's like, well, I don't have anything to say about this.

I've never been there. Anything I came up with would be complete bullshit. What do you think, Maddie? Yeah, I think a direct experience is the best way to go, but maybe at least a consultant would be cool. Consultant? That's always something you can do? Yeah.

Well, I mean, in this case, they consulted with friends who went there on vacation once. Yeah. That's great. We weren't doing this in 2002. We weren't being as sensitive in 2002. No, that episode of Regular Show is such a great episode. We had Owen with you on another podcast

and talked about it but i mean just that speech bench and benson gives about how like well you traveled all this way and nothing even changed like his freak out like that really spoke to me i was like oh that's such a great a great scene of a high strung guy i hate to admit that the character are usually in regular show i identified with the most is not one of the cool guys, but Benson. Oh, totally. We all want to think we're Mordecai or Skips even, but we're all Benson. We're all Benson.

Or maybe Rigby even. Yeah, for sure. And coming up with that part, it was definitely collaborating with Owen to tell his story of what it felt like, you know, being after college

and thinking like, oh, I'm going to go teach English in China and I'm going to grow and change and be this better person and being like, no, I'm still me. Shit, I'm stuck with go teach English in China and I'm going to grow and change and be this better person. And being like, no, I'm still me. Shit.

I'm stuck with this. There you go. There you are. I just wish Benson met Tom Servo. Yeah. Would they get along or would they battle? Yeah, right. Tom Servo would really get Benson's goat, I think.

I think so. Maybe they would commiserate being annoyed by Crow. Maybe that would be their plan. Yeah, they both, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, he is, I feel like Tom Servo would be another just wiseacre that Benson would say he's wasting his time. That's true, that could be true.

I think Crow is like the Rigby of the Mystery Science Theater group. You guys, this feels like a loaded question, but you guys are still you're doing plugging away in the world of animation too and uh doing good stuff oh yeah keeping you know plugging indie yes you can call us a couple of pluggers oh no we're that old oh no yeah yeah so i'm trying to get my my my animated adaptation of the famous uh newspaper strip Pluggers picked up.

And I'm hoping that the more I mention Pluggers that the Pluggers crew will find out that I'm a really good match for the material. It's a good IP. It's especially funny because most of Pluggers is people sending in ideas for a strip. Yes, maybe if I just send in my Bible concept for the Pluggers animated series to the syndicate

they'll maybe want to team up with a studio and make my Pluggers show. Yeah. Yeah, we've still been, you know, it's so funny. We've done various podcasts since our last shows have wrapped and we are truly Pluggers. We are, you know, I've been working a lot in development and hopping on shows and helping out.

And I just joined the crew of Jellystone recently, which is one of the best shows out there right now. So that's good. And yeah, still working on our little projects. that accurate would you say yeah they are little aren't you know i i think you could uh i think prime video is ready for a plugger cinematic universe that starts starts with your show i'm confused with pcu i'm glad you mentioned that because i'm looking at pluggers right now and it's part of the shoe-niverse because the artist of Pluggers also does the comic Shoe, which is about like a duck journalist or something.

Yes, yes. I never knew that, but thinking it aloud, it makes perfect sense when I think on the art style. Whoa, I didn't know that there was a Shoe Pluggers connection. I only knew of, of course, the Crankshaft. Oh, what is it? Funky Winkerbean universe. We could do... Okay, so now we have a whole thing here

where it's like it's for a quadrant right? it's for everybody because you've got, it's like Garfield and Friends and US Acres because you've got a plugger short and then you've got a shoe short you know something for everybody I think that really is anybody listening? Hello? you just need to fold it all in because there was already a Mary Worth the Phantom

crossover, that was great so one more. Just one at a time. Get them all hooked up. That's where she advised the Phantom to kill himself. That's actually usually where she goes with her advice. I'm not being dark. It's a Simpsons joke. It's a Simpsons joke. It's a very rare

Mary Worth. Well, I guess then do either of you remember watching this one live? I have light memories of watching it live, but being kind of disappointed when I saw it originally. Yeah, I think I definitely did. I was avidly watching them every Sunday at the time. So I definitely caught it when it aired.

I don't have a strong memory of watching this on air. But again, it was my birthday. So I probably was coming off of a fun sleepover with friends of playing Halo and Smash Brothers and then maybe going to a screening of Panic Room and then probably catching up on some homework instead of watching this episode. Because at that time I was Mr. Futurama and kind of like, oh, these Simpsons seasons aren't doing it for me at the time. And so I probably TiVo'd the Futurama and caught that when I had the chance.

And I don't think I did watch this episode when initially aired or if it did i didn't remember i definitely saw it live and i remember that i saw it live because something happened to me that was a reference to this episode in my real life and we'll talk about it later oh oh wow i was abducted i was abducted by shusha and it was terrifying no something happened i'll talk about it's not that exciting and although i did i had a little thing for shusha when i was 11 but i i feel like there's like no when you uh toby when you mention future stock coming right after this like that is how it feels that probably hurt it a little bit when i see the like oh what's the predictable joke homer puts on a speedo and his and and humorous results happen how does that compare to watching bonitis like the death of bonita death by bonitis that's

so much fun you had just seen bonitis afflict that man and then you're rolling into the simpsons if we were lucky enough to catch it when it aired at 6 p.m in my time zone you know depending on the baseball situation uh but no i was like a full- But no, I was like a full on Futurama. I was like a full on Futurama. I was in the fandom at the time. I was an obsessive, fully Mr. Futurama guy. I was on can'tgetenoughfuturama.com, you know, following it very closely. Obsessed with the Fry and Leela ship.

Are they going to finally get together? So that was kind of where my head was at for sure at that time. Man, well, I, yeah, this one was one that I did watch, but begrudgingly, I did not like it at the time. I thought that it was just such a, I was like, oh, this is, I'm sensing the pattern of the Simpsons vacation episodes now. I saw them go to Japan and it was, you know, act one is setting up for it. Act two, they go there.

And then it's just a bunch of very light observations of a tourist. And I mean, we just had the Africa one at the end of last season, which at the very least, this isn't just all of South. It occasionally does treat Brazil as all of the countries below the American border. But Africa just was like, yeah, they went to Africa. Every part of africa is the same it's just africa the continent by comparison this is less close-minded yeah re-watching it now i guess i was i was slightly less offended than i remember but it still was

like boy even to even to regular just googling of things i was like well that's wrong like that's wrong yeah and i just didn't like tress mcneil playing another orphan with big eyes yeah like eight years after peppy or nine years after peppy whatever he's just a ripoff of peppy this ronaldo kid yeah yeah i will say overall having not watched that episode on its airing and when you sent me this episode and i saw what it was and i was like like i was i was concerned but i will say it was and I was like, ooh, like I was concerned. But I will say it was better than I expected. There were some good gags in there.

But there are certain genuine chuckles, a couple of genuine chuckles, which we'll go over. But yes, the things you mentioned are also prominent and present within the episode. So, you know, a little from column A, a little from column B. Though watching it again, I forgot that the phrase, don't be sad be sad it's carnival has been stuck in my head since i watched it originally it is a fun thing to say yeah for the for the longest time uh this this episode's title means nothing to you unless you know about the horrific movie it's based on yes so i always confused make room for lisa with blame it on lisa and yes it's based on blame it on rio a comedy that should be arrested, based on a French film.

Oh, it's one of those. Yes, it's like, you know, it's one of the many movies from that era. This is one of the last ones where it's like, what if an old man fell in love with a girl? Well, she's actually an actual girl. She's not an adult. She's a 17-year-old.

A 17-year-old actress who, they got special permission to do nude scenes for her in it, and she has sex with Michael Caine. Let's take a moment. Can you define special permission? Did they like go to the police and say like, just this once, can we like do something illegal on camera? Like somehow they got, they got a judge and her guardians to sign off on it that she could

do a nude scene in the film. It's a, yeah, I, to describe it is insane that she could do a nude scene in the film it's uh yeah i to describe it is insane that this was like a major film starring michael cain in it like uh that this was a movie and yeah it's just it's about like uh i mean it's the comedy version of american beauty i guess like american beauty well honestly american beauty thought it was funny too i guess but i mean at least woody allen in manh Manhattan you didn't see the naked body of the teenager he was dating in that movie yeah it's true this is a step

far so yeah he's our hero he's patron saint of this podcast you know that's one of my favorite favorite Simpsons jokes about him like that when he says wow what do I do to deserve this oh right like that just but yeah don't don't look up Blame It On Rio now folks you'll be on a list don't do it but I will say what did I do to deserve this? Oh, right. But yeah,

don't look up Blame It On Rio now, folks. You'll be on a list. Don't do it. But I will say, if you want to know what it's about, We Hate Movies, friends of the show, have a very funny episode about it and they're just recoiling in horror

throughout all two hours of their podcast. Oh, dear. Same with like, it's in the same department as the Getting Even With Dad. No, not Getting Even With Dad. My Father, The Hero? My Father, The Hero. Thank you hero thank you yes yeah you have to know all these comedies that should be illegal yes yeah yeah katherine heigl uh i think she's dad should be illegal

no not that one i'm dvd of getting even with dad we're holding ted dancing accountable on this podcast no i believe katherine heigl uh either naked or nearly naked in that movie and the camera is all over her teenage body in that movie yeah it's uh these are uncomfortable films fortunately not much of that was actually referenced in this episode of the simpsons just just title wise yeah uh it's written by bob bendison which bob already talked about in a previous episode but the short version is they even just say it on the commentary it's like like, he was Al Jean's boss on ALF. And so they threw a script to him, which again, I'm just like,

me and Bob were saying this beforehand. It's so much better now that they actually give their freelance scripts to starting writers or people who could use a Simpsons credit as opposed to a guy who was the head writer of ALF getting a job in 2002 yeah no what about the poor little people who already ran a show i'm between running shows

yeah uh no i it's just like when he said oh you know he was my boss on elf and he was great i was like why does he get to write a simpsons episode? Why is this happening? And I'm guessing as far as bringing in a freelancer, I would assume that your boss on Elf versus a new up-and-coming freelancer, probably similar amount of rewrites you'd have to do. Yeah. Someone's jumping in who's not part of the normal crew. So it's like, you may as well give it to the less expensive person

who could use the opportunity more. But hey, it wasn't there, you know? It sounds like his idea was more traditional sitcom idea of Lisa befriending an orphan from another country. That's what he came in with. And I think they took that idea and said, let's send The Simpsons to Brazil and then have them walk through a bunch of sketches

about what we know about the country. And that's sort of the direction they took with it. Did they ever? They can't even wait till they're in Brazil. They start when they go to the phone company that's true you already got your sketch sketch on sketch you know it's sketch city there's like three different things before they even get to lindsey nagel but uh let's let's talk about the the big news of the episode was its controversy uh because uh and i did a good deal of research on this uh reading five different contemporary articles from april of 2002 that were in fall out of this that thankfully

you're still online and not not taken down but uh yeah so basically the episode airs and representatives for the government of brazil specifically like the tourism bureau responded very negatively to it and we're it was headlines of simpsons anger brazil like easy easy headline like in the guardian in the washington post which as as al jean says on the commentary their research was they joke because they're like yeah yeah we didn't do a lot of research but it's it's a comedy like that was their cover uh but just saying like hey our friend mike reese he'd gone on vacation there and and we ran up we bought a book about it and david silverman went there once for an animation festival like we learned a ton about this you know looking at the animation i think they do at least like the animators tried to draw things that look like photographs of brazil they didn't just like make up a coastline or mountains or whatever

but uh but yes so uh here's where the issues from the i'm specifically going to the washington post reporting because it was the only one that didn't just repeat things they had heard they actually like interviewed sources in who live in brazil and then uh and got some actual commentary from it in general they disliked the inaccuracies. Specifically, it's a lot of Spanish language kind of accents that the actors are doing on characters who live in Brazil, which even if you were to have a white guy do a broad accent of someone from Brazil, it wouldn't sound like that anyway. And also that things like, say, the conga lines and the Macarena are not Brazilian.

They weren't invented there. It's a thing of like, hey, if you're going to make silly jokes about our country, at least make them to be the correct silly jokes. Hyper-specificity, please. And they bring up too that the episode didn't even air in Brazil at the time. Like there was a delay.

It was not simulcast though. If you lived in Brazil and had a satellite dish, you might've been able to watch it new, but it was really also the reactions were some from people hearing descriptions of jokes in the episode and being upset about it too which probably created an echo chamber to make the reaction even worse than it was uh it sounds like it's like twitter now yeah yeah well and this article actually has a feel of it, too, of the Anthony Fiola, who is the writer of the article.

He doesn't live in Brazil, but he did live in Brazil for the time. And he interviewed a lot of Brazilian, several Brazilian sources for it. This is his reporting. Rio authorities have threatened lawsuits and boycotts. Cariocas, as the residents of the city are called, are so furious that they seem poised to brush the sand off their thongs and take up arms against bart homer and the gang i was like what the hell is this they really do wear that's some very colorful writing yes yeah it uh he he continues after a week things have cooled off a bit jose eduardo juniel please forgive me if i'm mispronouncing that rio's secretary of tourism had threatened to sue Fox for damages.

Now he is simply calling on the show's producers to donate proceeds from the episode to the poor of Rio, whom the show's producers seem to be so concerned about. It's interesting. In 2002, the claim was not, this is kind of racist. It was, this is hurting the tourism industry. Yeah. But now I think they would examine like your white people writing this show. Don't make these jokes. Don't have these character.

These people voice these characters. I think that would be the concern. Not like our economies and shambles. Thanks to the Simpsons. Yes. Also, Al Jean mentions on the commentary that the threats of the lawsuit he had to be told by fox lawyers of like well technically a city can't sue you for defamation so don't don't worry about it first they piss off new orleans you can say or do anything you want about a city and it'll be fine

well at least legally speaking yes seemingly but uh and here's the last bit uh from it he was also demanding an apology and got one of sorts quote we apologize to the lovely city and the people of rio de janeiro said the show's producers in a statement and if that doesn't settle the issue homer simpson offers to take on the president of brazil on fox's celebrity boxing so there's there that was all the comment they publicly gave to it. LOL. That certainly was a show. Did they discuss this controversy on the commentary track? Yeah, a bit. And they mainly just quoted things like this article of, I have a couple more quotes later about specifics.

Mainly they say like, you know what? I heard from people saying, actually, you guys are right about the monkeys or whatever but i i think i think on a couple jokes even algin goes like you know what that was too far i see why brazil was mad that's a dumb joke now i'm looking up celebrity boxing matches and i remember villanelle ice did fight uh todd burgess oh wow yeah i i remember screech fought somebody the late dustin diamond he fought somebody but I can't remember who. He fought Ron Polillo. Right, right. Wow, they're both dead now. Man, that's depressing.

Yeah, I'm just sad. That's what killed them. Yeah, died in the ring. It was late onset boxing injuries. But I will say from my own informal Simpsons style lax research, when I went on several Reddit and social media posts, definitely there are brazilian fans of the simpsons who who in fact like i found an article or a reddit post from all in english this

wasn't uh google translated but it was saying like oh you know i actually i grew up in in rio watching the simpsons and my friends say watch it in english but i say no the brazilian dub's actually funnier and uh it's it was a subs versus dubs debate as well from Brazilian Simpsons fans. A tale as old as time. Wait until you hear Brazilian ooder. You'll lose your mind. German in Brazil, the joke writes itself. Oh, no.

Whoops. That's the overall thing on it. My guess is that at the very least, I would say that the Secretary of Tourism for Brazil identified that he could get a lot of headlines and publicity for Brazil by talking about the Simpsons doing a Brazil episode. And I think in that way, he succeeded. I don't know if it improved tourism or not in Brazil, but I would say he succeeded in that way. Truly.

But I guess the episode begins after a quick couch gag of matt graining as a puppet master which that makes me think matt graining wasn't there to say i don't want to do cameos don't do that uh there are a couple things in this episode actually that i think matt graining might not have liked i think so yeah and matt graining actually shows up at the last two seconds of the commentary. I think he was late for this commentary. So he got- I think in 2002, he was bailing water out of the Futurama ship as it was going down.

Oh yes, yeah. Actually, that was in my notes too. I was like, oh, thematically, Matt Groening lets go of one of the hands of the marionette puppets. Is that them referencing that he can only focus so much on the Simpsons while doing Futurama at the same time? I'm sure it's not keep watching the skis so then we go to

par for the corpse a a cute little golfing uh itchy and scratchy thing and boy is there a funny thing on the commentary here yes they wanted uh tiger woods to be in this but he turned them down and i think they lost their chance because he's fallen from grace is he still doing stuff i think he was doing a comeback tour and like one another thing i don't think he's back to where he was and plus he's you know an older golfer now he probably can't golf at the high level anyway but i was just thinking like oh wait okay when did this come out dvd box that came out in 2010 they recorded it 2009 ish and it was late 2009 when tiger woods's marriage troubles began so i it's funny to know that al jean is innocently saying he wants tiger woods on the show and then by the

time the dvd comes out it sounds like a joke that he's like oh we want tiger woods on the show i'm sure he'd love to joke around with us i mean for what it's worth i don't know that tiger woods being in that itchy and scratchy would have made it funnier no i i don't think so either what do you just would he have said the line yeah now that's what i call a moonshot would he have said that and by the way moonshot is not a common golf term so you could tell whoever wrote this is just a rich person who golfs a lot because out of all the golf video games I played several dozen at this point that

term has never come up and I Google it and it's even hard to Google for because they're referring to like playing golf on the moon and things like that it's like and then much much further down

it's like oh if you hit a ball very far it's a moonshot because you know it comes close to the moon or something but it's not a common term yeah yeah Mario doesn't do it in Mario golf games

that's all I know about golf the most legitimate source for golf knowledge we have i i also wondered like well did they ever get tiger woods and no they did not i was tricked into thinking briefly that they got his dad on the show because he has a wiki entry but it's actually it was kevin the great kevin michael richardson uh voicing him It was not, they didn't actually get Tiger Woods' dad. I mean, certainly if you told me that they had gotten Tiger Woods and Tiger Woods' dad, I would believe you in a second. It's a shame they couldn't, but you know, I would certainly believe it. Me and Bob got to meet Kevin Michael Richardson once.

He was such a nice guy. He was very humble. Have you guys worked with him much in the animation world? No, I never have actually. He's been been on episodes of stuff but i've never actually been in the booth with him before same oh let's do one of these cast him as the lead in your new show do that then you'll get to consider it yeah i'll just whip that up yeah i'm sure you guys love it when people say that stuff to you just do that i just like the optimism of of conceiving that any of the stuff that we're

working on could be greenlit anytime soon uh no i'll say put us in your show yes actually he gets enough work you know and he's very busy he's shredder and all this stuff yeah busy he's got all this stuff we met as long as he gives us his blessing the uh taft hartley thing for us then okay so uh yeah they they you know the obvious thing happens he kicks up he not scratch his head is uh shot up on onto the moon i at least like that itchy tips his corpse that's that's the funniest joke in it to me though honestly the the best joke is that it sets up homer then quoting the show he just watched and then pretending like he didn't and you know the trip to the moon thing is cute.

You know, at the time I would have been like, wow, it's like that Smashing Pumpkins music video. But now I'm very cultured and I understand what a trip to the moon is. Cultured. It's just like Voyage de la Lune. That's what I would have said in 2002 with a mouthful of Doritos 3Ds. I'm a fan of the Lumiere brothers, those famous Campbell men. The Simpsons will be right back.

When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? A new Malcolm in 30. Now, can he keep a secret? Nope. It's a new simpsons welcome to the break everybody it's henry gilbert and don't be sad it's carnival and it always is carnival when we have on great guests like toby jones and maddie carapel thank

you both of you guys for being on here we love chatting with you guys about the simpsons everybody should follow toby jones and maddie carapel on Twitter and also keep an eye out for all their stuff that they're doing in animation. Definitely watch stuff they've worked on before, like OK KO, Let's Be Heroes, Infinity Train and Regular Show. And if you enjoy this week's podcast, you should know that we're only able to do it thanks to listeners like you who support us at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. Subscribers there for five bucks a month not only get to know this lets me and Bob do our full-time jobs,

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But if you want something even nicer than a flying nun, you should sign up at the premium level of patreon.com slash talking simpsons because you get all the $5 things I just told you about and then you get our exclusive monthly extra long podcast what a cartoon movie me and bob covering an animated feature film just like we do the simpsons often over five hours long sometimes even over six hours long this month is the 2012 like a classic paranormal the month before the 1986 toy commercial that we all remember the transformers the movie and at the end of this year we are covering the new year's holiday classic tokyo godfathers there's so much awesome stuff there over four years of what a cartoon movies i would

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They charged us for a call to Brazil. Why, did you make a prank call to Brazil? No, sir, I didn't. Choke on your lies! Ah! Ah! Ah! Homer, they must have made a mistake.

We'll just go down to the phone company and straighten it out. Which phone company? There are hundreds of them. And they all keep changing their names. I think we're with Comquack. No, I think it's Niagara. No, last week they became Vertiqua. I like that this scene ends not with their funny joke names,

but with them noticing Homer is still sobbing and them looking at him somewhat concerned. Yeah. You know, it's an extremely relatable situation. You know, they do keep changing. They do. Yeah. It is like that. Those are all quality merger names.

Comquack became Zovuvaz. That's a great one. I'm definitely at the point now where I'm used to just like getting a weird letter in the mail that's being like, did you know that your cable internet is now with this guy? It's like, okay. And I don't even remember who it's with anymore. And of course, now our lives, Maddie and I's lives are entirely dictated by the whims of these horrifying mergers. So it's more relatable than ever. Ha ha.

Ha ha. Tee hee. I was used to more of my student loan debt being sold around the country and getting a letter in the mail saying, and the business name sounds so made up, they don't mean anything like, oh, Navient owns your debt now. And also Nelnet does. What do those words mean? Navient? Have you considered writing them a personal letter just to get to know know them maybe you could learn something i i also had a personal connection to this too because uh there was a a family friend who worked at all tell

another of those at the time and we knew all tell because that was also the name of the where the jacksonville jaguars played where i grew up i was like wait what did happen to all tell and like the simplified version is it bought a bunch of things including like century tell and liberty cellular and then it got bought out in turn by at&t and verizon kind of at the same time and then that got shut down and turned into another thing it's like i was like wow i'll tell is like eight names ago of phone companies and once at&t bought all the phone companies then they turned their their eyes to hollywood sadly yep and uh did nothing but great things they said can't wait i do i do have a tale a personal tale regarding uh phone bills if you'll if you'll indulge me briefly uh which

is that i one summer the summer of the year 2000 i was staying my family was staying at a lake cabin for the summer and i was using the internet the dreamcast internet which was connected to a phone line and and using that every single day to go on anime message boards and talk about evangelion uh every day message boards message boards message boards on my dreamcast internet until one day a phone bill came in and it turned out that all the internet that i was doing for the entire summer was on a long distance number. And there was a massive, massive phone bill. And I got in tremendous trouble.

And I had to get my Dreamcast internet taken away. To add a little bit of color to this, I remember that the news came when I was watching the live premiere of Daria Is It Fall Yet on MTV. That's when the hammer went down and it all was revealed. Oh, no. That I was unknowingly doing hundreds of hours of long distance numbers on my dreamcast internet so this this storyline really spoke to me each gif of ray cost you 120 dollars every time i every time i downloaded an image of ray and use it as paint in jet set radio uh we're not we're not doing this anymore with long distance stuff there used to be

long distance wars now uh literally the only person to actually call on the phone is my parents everyone else it's like well we all use discord or skype or whatever else we could just do over wi-fi no one's actually using phone data to make phone calls yeah it's funny because it's like no no one you know i bemoan the fact that you know media has no value anymore like it's you know oh it's so much harder to make money off of like music or other kinds of media now because of the way streaming services have have bottomed them out but uh i don't feel bad about not having to spend money on that bullshit anymore yeah well no the only people who call me are parents or uh somebody trying to steal something oh yeah never answer

your phone yeah never yeah it's never good i forgot how hard bart gets it in act one in this episode like that i think that might be the meanest strangling joke they ever did like intentionally so like homer replying with choke on your lies and then choking him. And then they have to linger with Bart, like, rubbing his neck of like, oh, God, like, this pain. Like, God. It's a dark opening. But then there's an even meaner Bart joke later. Yeah.

Yeah. But yes, they head over to the cell phone company. We get a lot of very 2002 era cell phones that they walk by. And they also walk by a Fut futurama joke where all of the operators i mean a joke yeah as a joke straight out of futurama yes they certainly yeah all of the operators are uh robots but they're all like designed to look like the lily tomlin character from laughing yes yeah ernestine and i was looking up sketches of that character she sticks her tongue out too much it's gross i don't like it bugged me as a kid, too. Yeah, I never liked it. She's like a saucy, not receptionist, but telephone operator.

And Henry's like swiveling his head around and sticking his tongue out. Don't please stop, Henry. Sorry, guys. It's disgusting to see it on anyone. She's always chewing on her tongue while talking to some celebrity. And she sounds like Julia Sweeney's pet character, but like a little sexier. She's sexing it up a little, but I don't care for it. You can get sexier she's sexing it up a little but i don't care for it sexier sexier than pat yeah i just love a two ringy dingies oh right yes yeah i she was one of

those characters like she was in every like she appeared on sesame street when we were kids like to entertain our parents and confuse us who's oscar the grouch talking to this and what is a telephone operator? I prefer the Edith Ann, but she also stunk her tongue on a bunch. So I think that was Lily Tomlin's thing for sketch characters. Like if I stick my tongue out, that's a laugh.

It got her that far. She was on to something. I want to talk about Moviefone though. So they meet the Moviefone guy. Even in 2002, most of the country doesn't understand this joke because Moviefone was only going concern in certain cities. I mean, famously, there's a Seinfeld episode where Kramer's number is similar to the movie

phone number and he starts doing the movie phone stuff. That episode was seven years before this. Oh, wow. Was that old? I was like, wow, it's older than I remember. Yeah, it was a 95 episode. Okay. Yeah.

So the actual number 777 film was discontinued in 2014. And we talk about Moviefone and Raging Bender because they actually got the Moviefone guy, Russ Leatherman, to do the Moviefone voice in that episode. So he's in that. Leatherman's a great name. Yeah. But I think most people don't know what Moviefone is. It wasn't in my neighborhood.

And actually, because I had the VHS Letterboxd version of Austin Powers 1, they include deleted scenes. You've got to get to the right aspect ratio. I needed it for a comedy. You need 1.85 to 1. You're going to miss so much on the sides. But on that VHS tape, before I had a DVD player, they had deleted scenes. And one of them was Sherry O'Terry was playing a flight attendant. And Austin Powers asked for her number.

And she writes down 777 film on it and gives it to him and i i assume most focus groups and test audiences didn't understand that because nobody had movie phone except for like new york and la and a few other areas so there was a movie phone joke in austin powers one you've heard it from me people but they're but you're saying there wasn't a payoff where we see him call the number later and start flirting with the movie phone guy uh there should be there should be he should be talking to the automated voice look it's never too late it's never too late to punch up those movies we can we can keep them yeah we can we can we can work on it and final movies on fact if he comes back he comes back for four but final movie phone trivia a movie phone was very big there was a lot of money going around in the 90s so much money the 90s was a golden age for money but aol purchased movie phone in 1999 for 388 million

dollars wow yeah wow 388 that's crazy 90s money yeah man aol had so much money it's insane and they blew it they just they really blew it aol time warner uh i'll have you know that if you if I look into the metadata of some of the servers that I'm on at Warner Brothers, you can still find the word AOL in them. Man, how many people do you work with who still have Turner email addresses? Oh, they murdered that stuff as quickly as they possibly could. Yeah, that was long ago. Anything Turner related, it was like it was with prejudice. That's so sad to me. I laugh, but it's very sad.

We say. As a Southerner, I took pride in like, you know, Turner was the one media place where I grew up. I was like, well, clearly I could never move to Los Angeles or New York City, but I could move to Atlanta and work on a cartoon show there, couldn't I? Yeah. Yeah, you could have Yeah. No, no. Yeah. You could have at that time perhaps. But yeah, all the stuff got switched to like,

for a while it was like WB consultant, like as insulting as possible. And then it's, it's all leveled out differently now, but yeah, I, you know, I'm very,

Maddie and I are very fortunate that we got to visit the Atlanta, you know, Cartoon Network, you know, base at a time. Obviously the building still exists and there are still people working there. The most amazing was seeing the Williams Street

building. It's like, what? It's there. It's real. Seeing where all the Adult Swim stuff was done and getting the tour was just amazing. Oh, that's magical. Well, so the Simpsons then, after a weird joke about robots and the Moviefone guy, which to me felt old by 2002.

And they couldn't even get the real guy. It's just Tank Azaria doing it. And then the joke is like, he wants to have sex. That's ultimately where the joke is. Or at least see brief nudity. Yes. He's hoping for first base, I guess. First is kissing, Henry.

Come on. Yeah, he didn't put his expectations too high. Then, though, we get another appearance by Lindsay Nagle and the show is starting to notice how much she appears. Hello, I'm your customer service rep, Lindsay Nagle. We've met you many times, Miss Nagle.

Why do you keep changing jobs? I'm a sexual predator. Now, how may I best dispense with you today? We've been charged for calls to Brazil that we didn't make. We are not paying this bill. Fine. I'll cut off your service. Fine.

I'll cut off your ponytail. Marge, it's called negotiating. I forgot that Marge has a little grouse there at the end. When the scene opens, I'm like, why'd they change her hair? And then it's answered 30 seconds in. Exactly. No character model would change if it wasn't a joke. It's like time that Finn had a pocket on his shirt.

It's all just a moment. But look, that's a very funny scene that cracks me up. That she's like, oh, I have an explanation as to why I'm here.'s this uh why i'm everywhere and they're just like oh god it was a recent episode where lindsey's in the bar and homer says why are you here i'm an alcoholic yes it's all it happens to all recurring characters on simpsons their background becomes darker and darker the more they appear yeah so she's an alcoholic sexual predator yes get away from lindsey nagel uh her pride at that like the simplicity and ambiguousness with which she says i'm a sexual predator and there's no more information uh it's very funny um it's dark uh but it did make me laugh for sure yeah and the way marge receives that information

like she's like okay we just got some wind out of the sails like i thought this might be something fun but uh this was 20 years ago there was recently a lindsey nagel focused episode where she's the villain uh in the crusty as ellen style episode lindsey nagel is the antagonist to marge in that one i mean she's she was perfectly cast in that episode as evil daytime talk show host like that's or evil daytime talk show producer executive producer she was well cast to that so yes they fail here i will say to this entire it's funny you mentioned how ronaldo looks like peppy because also this plot is the cory b plot from that same episode of a bill for a large phone bill that then they slowly realize is actually Lisa.

Oh, yeah. But of course, because of inflation, the money amount is now $400. And it's not a metaphor for drug withdrawal in this episode like it was in that one. Lisa has a good reason for it this time. But so yes, this is when Homer decides how to fix things. I need to call Janie, but I can't get a dial tone.

We're not paying our bills so the phone company shut off our service. Why must you fight with every utility? I told you, I have too much time on my hands. Homer! We were cleaning out a cooling duct at the plant and found a box of old taco shells. Oh, why didn't you call me? Oh, we tried, but a recording said you were a bunch of deadbeats. That's it. They have awoken a sleeping giant.

Homer, what are you going to do? Crazy scheme, crazy scheme, crazy scheme. Get me tools and beer. Yes. going to do crazy scheme crazy scheme crazy scheme get me tools and beers yes you know what that that joke is kind of similar to homer saying gay gay gay gay gay when ned says he uh has something to confess in simpsons movie uh i guess uh as late as my early 20s i was not above eating dry taco shells because when i was still living at home my mom would buy them and make tacos once and there'd be a bunch of them left over and then nothing to eat in the house i guess these are like chips and you eat one it's like this is kind of stale but hey it's still

carby let's go let's rock it's technically food you you can put it in your stomach and then you i really love that lenny delivery yes yeah casually like oh we tried and he's just chomping on an empty taco shell he never filled it he just walked around with this empty taco irradiated old taco shells and also similar to the end of lisa versus homer in the eighth commandment or homer versus lisa in the eighth commandment uh this involves homer climbing up something and messing with stuff he doesn't understand it also shows you talk about inflation. Before, the joke was Homer just cuts the wrong cord and lights go out. But now it's like, no, Homer has to be electrocuted for a long amount of time and many times.

But I got to say, by the fourth time, I was like, this is funny. I'm laughing. I like the pacing. Yeah. When he said, let's try red again. After climbing up? Is that after climbing up again? Okay. Yeah. It was a good button on pacing. Yeah. When he said, let's try red again. After climbing up? Is that after climbing up again? Okay, yeah.

It was a good button on that, yes. And David Silverman credits Paul Wee, who's been a layout guy and animator on the show for a long time at that point, so doing a lot of great scenes. Already previously this season, he had thanklessly animated the people ball. That's right.

Oh, I just remember, never mind. The writers making fun of his name when they're trying to talk about how much work he did. That's right. Oh, I just remember, never mind, the writers making fun of his name when they're trying to talk about how much work he did. Yep, yeah. Those darn writers. That's a dark sea. You guys know both sides of it, the writing and the drawing. You'd have respect for the artist who drew the people ball. Do writers make you

angrier than a yak in heat? We let the artists make fun of their own name, respectfully. Yeah. But yes, after a fun long scene of Homerer being electrocuted he then wakes up this is when lisa tells the truth in another very mean moment towards bart that that bart clearly hears and understands and no one comments on how did i get here we found you smoldering in the bushes that's it we're just going to have to pay for that call to Brazil. What call to Brazil?

The one I didn't make and Marge didn't make and Bart didn't make and hence no one in the house made. Uh-oh. You made that call? But you're the good one. Yeah, the one we both like. Why did you do it? Please don't be mad. I've been sponsoring an orphan boy in Brazil. Aren't you sweet? Sharing your allowance with a poor Brazilian boy.

Don't you know the boys from Brazil are little Hitlers? I saw it in a movie. Whose name I can't remember. Ronaldo used to send me a letter every month, but then they stopped. That's why I called the orphanage, but they said he'd disappeared. How come you talked for $400? month but then they stopped that's why i called the orphanage but they said he disappeared how come you talked for four hundred dollars well then they started pressuring me for more donations and you can't hang up on a nun that's right they have powers

so yeah when they say yeah the one we like, Bart looks sad and then looks at the floor. Like, just watch him for that scene. It's like someone's paying attention to how bad he feels about this. The reveal that it was all Lisa, but that it was an orphan. I will say on my first watch, I thought the show would go in the more South Park's direction that it was all a scam, that the orphan was scamming them and the orphanage was a scam too but at the very least they don't they don't go in that direction the

catholic run orphanage is nice and the good things happen to the boy ultimately and uh yes homer is referencing the 1976 book 1978 movie the boys from brazil about cloning hitler that's the uh i just assumed it was a very 2002 style hitler non sequitur as was the style at the time like every i i remember on mr show commentaries they said that they had to set in the room like no more hitler sketches guys you can't do like let's just stop it stop doing hitler sketches they did make the best hitler sketch uh in that the premise was every Jewish family got their own Hitler clone, like as a slave, basically. Yes. Yeah.

Yes. And you know what? I guess that was probably inspired by Boys from Brazil as well. Yeah. It's also about Hitler clones. What do they say? Get used to it, Hitler. Yeah.

That's right. That's what we all say here. So, yes, we then have a joke about the little write-offs as uh we play the video and yeah it's like it's tress doing another little boy voice and trust mcdeal's very good at it but i yes obviously these days they do not cast trust mcdeal to do ethnic voices anymore on the simpsons thankfully it was a different time it's been uh eight or nine years i think but she is kind of just doing peppy the peppy voice you know if peppy and ronaldo met it'd be an amazing team up i do like her little like improv scatting when she's doing her samba

dance that's very cute but pretty cute this is i think that's what annoyed me when i saw this in 2002 i'm like well this is peppy it's true yeah he lives with tom now the non-tom cruise man you know that they at least they are correct when they call his little footwork adorable. And he says the shoes will last for a thousand sambas as opposed to a thousand summers. And samba is a dance that originates in Brazil. So we got one reference. We got one. Slam dunk, guys.

I did laugh at the joke where the monkeys do chase him into the building and he slides the... Okay, who's the cameraman number one? But never mind. But he slides a little keyhole over and he goes, I am like sugar to them. It's a good line. Also, primo, zoom in. Yeah, I wanted to say there's a lot of really... Must have been very difficult zooms.

You can't tell though. You don't even see the line weight change when they zoom into that. Ooh, juicy. Yeah. And this is the last pre-digital season, too, so that's all on cells. They knew what they were doing. Yeah. We should fear monkeys.

This episode is teaching about monkey awareness because monkeys regularly do just snatch babies and kill them. One happened in July of this year. A baby was snatched and then thrown off a roof by a group of monkeys. Jesus. So watch your baby around monkeys, mothers and fathers. Wow. Here we were just having fun with monkeys in this episode i was trying to look up like baby

kills monkey news story and many popped up so wow holy crap look this is the internet you know it just gives you what you want to hear you want to hear about babies being killed by monkeys you can find it now amazon's gonna link me to all the baby killing monkey books in my email. I just want to hear about the one. Sorry. Oh, no, no, no. So this was the monkeys were a big sticking point for Brazilians who were talking to the media about being upset at this episode. They thought that this took a couple stories about monkeys in Rio, wild monkeys in Rio, and turned it into make it look like an epidemic.

It made it look like a scary place. So it happened one time. So this is from the Washington Post reporting again from 2002. Quote, I see monkeys and trees in front of my office all the time. And there are monkeys in Copacabana too, said Paula Gobi, an Argentine journalist who has lived in Rio for 16 years years i think it's fantastic something to be proud of but you listen to some of the authorities who here who are now trying to pretend the monkeys don't exist and you just have to wonder what is going on in their heads

so no monkeys are terrifying i remember another story not quite as tragic in which a town in japan was being menaced by a gang of monkeys, 50 monkeys. They were breaking into your apartments. They're breaking into your schools. They were scratching you, stealing your food, attacking the elderly. That is not,

we need to destroy monkeys. Keep them in zoos. I mean, think of the pros V cons of monkeys. I think it's clear. Yeah. So, so yes,

the, at least the Washington post article, which I already, I read you another part that makes you go like, writer seems to be on the simpsons side here but you know here's here's another quote from a person who live has lived in rio for 16 years of like no there are monkeys there that's it's real but i definitely think that animators like like bart love monkeys i think it's funny and so the second they read like Rio has monkeys. All right. That's three monkey jokes getting in this episode.

And really, I mean, they were here. You can't not. And monkeys were here first. If anything, we deserve to be attacked and have our babies thrown off the buildings. Weird. We had it coming. They ask Lisa how many people live in Brazil. She says 156 million, which according to online studies, that was the number in 1993.

By 2001, it was 177 today or as of 2020 212 million is the population of brazil that is compared to america has 329 million as of 2020 so wow so you know yeah it's a lot of people live there it's a big place they decide that the simpsons are going to Brazil. What? I'm really concerned. Fine. I want to meet monkeys. I don't know. It's awfully expensive to fly to Brazil. Not if we buy our tickets on the Internet. It's really cheap if we change planes in Phoenix, Honolulu, Sun City, and East St. Louis, spend the night in a haunted house, and leave right now.

Then it's settled. The Simpsons are going to Brazil! Then I'll have been on every continent. Except Antarctica. The Simpsons are going to Antarctica. Next year. This year, Brazil. I like the jokes about the clearly done for commercials statements of the Simpsons are going to place. I like those.

I like the delivery. And also going to say, I really like that the concept of buying airplane tickets online is sort of new at the time yeah i'm glad you mentioned that because uh this was around the time in my adult life where i started flying a few times uh had never flown before and in the past you'd have to like call an airline get a travel agent but this thing called the internet came around and like there were sites like price line with captain kirk doing the ads and they would give you actual good deals but now every one of those sites gives you the same prices as the airline because the airlines learn like, oh, we have competition now. If people book directly

through us, they're going to learn we're much more expensive. I wonder how those Priceline sites even exist now, because like when I search that, Google just takes me to like Google just has the first results. I go, here's all the dates. This is the date. Yeah. They've got it covered, and it's total ripoff, especially now. But yeah. Oh, yeah. You know what?

Now I pay the premium for a direct flight. Any of these layover, any one layover, I'm like, no, never. I've evolved into business class Bob. Business class Bob. Yes. Lookout world. I'm getting leg room oh honestly though it's true it's like i see flights with multiple uh connections it's like i would rather fucking die

the clock is ticking on my life yes i don't have this time to waste anymore the thing is these every every connection is like a multiplier of the things that could go wrong and further ruin your your time it's like i will i will do anything to avoid angering the multiplier. And everything goes wrong on flights now. Yeah. Now, Brazil, these days, I mostly know about it because every new COVID variant comes from the body of the president. Oh, yeah.

He has gotten COVID about 34 times. Yes. And whenever you see him, he's in a hospital bed, like giving a weak thumbs up. But out of any world leader, you see him he's in a hospital bed like giving a weak thumbs up but uh out of any out of any world leader you see you see news stories like oh nancy pelosi has covid or joe biden has covid but you every three months it's like he's got covid again why are you still reporting on this uh everybody thinks he's gonna die like so many times it's like oh bolsnero's dead this time like nope not again again he's a sickly fascist but he still hangs

on though that guy aren't they all damn and also you know what this promise of doing it next year not the case but in season 23 is a totally fun thing bart will never do again the family is stranded in antarctica so it's took that long that that is the episode that is not good about Bart faking a disease on a cruise ship to keep a cruise going longer and longer. Oh, it's not fun to watch after COVID, right? Yes. It's a tough watch. That's rough.

The rhythm of the joke where it's like, this year Brazil. Very funny. Yeah. Oh, and also another East St. Louis bashing here on the show. It's actually the below sun city the the place in south africa uh apartheid south africa people did not want to play now uh but yes so then come back from the break we have another very 2002 joke about who wants to be a brazilian heir i i'm angry that they stole the word brazilian air from dan akroyd's nothing but trouble

because uh that's the other major Brazil influence I can remember is those characters from Nothing But Trouble. Yes, the actor Taylor Negron is in that movie with another actor, and they're Brazilian millionaires, and I think Demi Moore calls them Brazilianaires in the movie. So there you have it.

I watch the movie a lot on Comedy Central, okay? Look, they owed the Dan Aykroyd estate a lot of money for stealing his intellectual property so uh they they then talk about travel tips for for rio i will say i google this uh lisa says you know don't drink the water according to travel sites tap water in big cities like rio de janeiro is safe but apparently is known to have a little bit of a chemically aftertaste to some and that they still suggest you know you might want to stick with bottled water but they don't seem to indicate that it will give you like digestive issues uh from drinking yeah it might taste but i mean i go to vegas and the water tastes horrible i hate that

taste of water it's my understanding that everything tastes bad in vegas including oxygen i mean it's powerful oxygen they're putting in there and but also everybody can smoke everywhere and so everything smells like smoke it's one of the only places i can still go in america where it's like oh it still smells like an ashtray and yes uh homer did failed to learn what he learned on his trip to australia about the reverse seasons in the Upside Down world. Right. He brought that sled with him for no reason. But I guess Homer's pretty stupid.

If there's one thing we've learned is that Homer's maybe not the smartest guy, actually. So then they do have a joke about Bart becoming fluent in Spanish via Español para Dummies hosted by Bblebee man and this is when they get in the joke that that shows they knew it which is you know many americans say like do you know that in brazil they don't actually speak spanish like at the age of 19 it taught me that fact yeah yeah i know i it took me a while to learn too but yeah spanish class but don't think this will help you in bra, guys. I looked up, like, I was like, okay, well, Spanish, it could be, like, is it the second most spoken language in Brazil?

No, not even, like, third most. Second most is German, apparently. There it is. Yes, look, hey, and third most Italian. And let's not investigate this more on these things okay guys but i'm this is a real website this is a real website i visited about uh the spanish or what language is spoken the most in brazil yeah it had no joy it was like yeah it's german you know it did mention germans have been immigrating to brazil for over a century it's just to make sure you're they don't say nazis but they say just in case you're thinking they're all Nazis.

A lot came before the Third Reich. Many more after. Of course. Yes. Of course, Mr. Website. I believe you. Yeah. And so Homer then demands Bart unlearn Spanish.

Yeah. This brought me back because it was 2002. You don't have a seat back screen in your airplane seat. You've got a phone sometimes. Yeah. The old plane phones. Man, talk about phone bills geez uh and so bart hits his head three times instantly forget spanish uh which we then have kind of an easy gay joke but honestly i like that the pilots fell in love over that hot hot hot joke i know you're supposed to go like you gay people but i'm like

no these two love each other they didn't start making out and crash the plane or whatever and of course just straightforward a buster point dexter song hot hot hot it is not about brazil it is not i mean we'll get to it he's not brazilian the original performer is in brazilian and uh it was big mistake i can see why brazil got mad at hearing that song in it first referenced by the pilots and then played out loud uh and so they they then cut away to maggie changing her own diaper with patty and selma which is kind of funny i like i like she puts it on inside out and then they go like ah so helpless honestly i was getting sick of brazil i wanted them to cut back more to patty and selma and maggie and find out

what they were up to. Hey, it's the rule of ones. You cut back one time. Yeah. Quick side note. I've just recently been watching some MacGyver for the first time. It kind of rules. Oh, wow.

I kind of love it. I just watched an episode where he fell asleep watching a Western and imagined a whole episode where he was on the frontiers of Montana. And he, you know, defeats an evil cowboy and meets the guy who invents the Swiss army knife so pretty great wow suffice to say some are some are they're on to something they were right as usual honestly that that's one thing that we've learned in the podcast is the rehabilitation of Paddy and Selma as being great people who are worthy of tremendous respect although I guess tread lightly with MacGgyver i've only watched like three episodes just watch the ones i watch i mean it's 2002 the b story could be come on maggie we've got all of macgyver on dvd yeah and then they can like

have a macgyver marathon yeah jokes about dvd box sets that would have been fresh at the time so uh they say on the commentary they're like this is one of the last times we even bothered to have a joke explaining why Maggie isn't with them. We just decided to stop even caring to show. Like, look, Maggie's not on the vacation. We were not going to explain it. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't

remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? And so they then land uh and this is one of those i said this in the africa episode this is a google correct thing as in if you google it google says it's right uh which is it is aeropuerto or aeroporto i was saying it the spanish way aeroporto is the portuguese way of saying airport gaelloaelo is the airport for Rio. So these are both correct things. This is not making something up. That's two.

And you know what? Speaking of cartoons that go to Brazil, when they looked at Christ the Redeemer, I instantly thought of where I learned that it's called Christ the Redeemer. Smiling Friends and their recent trip to Brazil episode. That's true. Now that was a good, that Smiling Friends, I don't want to give it away for listeners that haven't watched it yet, but that

was a really good, that's a great episode of Characters Go to Brazil. I agree. They see all the sites. Yeah. So I'm surprised you didn't reference this, Henry. The Statue of Christ reminds me of the first episode of Lupin the Third Part II, where it's full of money and they have to steal the statue. And it ends in a very sacrilegious way

where they rip the statue off the base and it kind of gives them a thumbs up or something. Right, the statue comes alive and it proves it. That's right. Wow, I forgot that. That one's not ringing a bell, but I'm going to have to watch it. It's a great way to kick off that series you know it

would have just premiered on adult swim around this time in early 2002 as i recall it reveals that like yeah the whole time it's been in brazil and we're all expats living here and they totally commit to it yeah that's right man that was a good joke yeah boy you know adult swim in brazil it's's a lot of connections here. There's something there. And then, of course, they leave the Brazilian airport by getting in a conga line, which, again, pissed off Brazilians because it's not from Brazil. Conga lines are Cuban.

It was started in Cuba. Conga line is not a Brazilian thing. Several Brazilians in the interviews were bad about that one but you know what their conga line dancing is fun and i like that homer uh in a not gay in a no homo way appreciates the the quality of the man's butt that he's touching real conga lines are difficult because everyone's legs are different lengths and it's hard to sync up really i've never been part of one i feel sad a lot of legs to draw yeah there's definitely a lot of work for there's so many designs in this episode too we already talked about zooms but dang so many

characters just everywhere yeah steven dean moore and his team had to do a whole lot of extra work on this one no no it can't be squeaky voice teen it has to be brazilian squeaky voice teen kicking the soccer uh soccer style that's easy to write on a page. Yes, yeah. Yeah, it sure is. Boy, howdy. But yeah, you only see that lobby for two seconds and there's like 15 characters in there. Yeah.

It's so busy. That part of the lobby is very much just like, I guess now we are fully into the world of The Simpsons doing cultural humor, which is just like, uh-huh. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Jokes. Okay. Jokes about funny things that happen there. Okay. Yeah. It's good. into the world of the Simpsons doing cultural humor, which is just like, uh-huh, okay, yeah, jokes. Okay, jokes about funny things that happen there. Okay, yeah, it's good. I feel like I can see it on a vaudeville stage.

It's like, you know, Homer, I hear people in Brazil really like soccer. Have you heard about this, eh? Why, yes, I hear they even kick suitcases around like soccer balls. What? Why, that's just absurd. And Homer is bad at soccer because he's american that's that's

the joke there but uh his plan to loot brazil never really came into uh action there i thought they were setting up a little funnier just like a total non-sequitur just that he happens to have that booking runs away and you know what again to the design team those look like accurate centavos and real drawn on the cover there those one dollar real notes which are the green kind oh there's a joke later about the the gay money as they call it yes yeah the gay money yeah hey i didn't write the joke we're judging you and you know hey we're talking about things animators are good at they really if you tell the simpsons animators that you want big boobs moving around, they deliver. They deliver.

Yes. They parodied Shusha in which episode? Some Christmas episode? The Grip of the Magi, maybe? No, no. It's Marge Be Not Proud. Yeah. Oh, that long ago.

Wow. I mean, her show ended in 92 in Brazil. It's like the most popular Brazilian show of all time for kids. And she's like a multi, multimillionaire. They tried to do Shusha in America in 93. And that's when I watched Shusha. And I was like, the show is for children, but I like the way she's dressed. And I'll tell you what.

I like Bart in this episode. She was not this racy on the show. At best, she had like very high shorts and like go-go boots. And maybe she had her like bare shoulders and arms. But she never had like her breasts were not on display right they were usually covered up but she was a very attractive woman the kind you would not see on like a sesame street show and it was like them trying to bring that kind of entertainment to america but it really failed here and she has a movie in brazil as well super shusha oh yes we'll look that up on letterboxd yeah she was uh apparently while hosting the show

she did a brazilian playboy shoot as well and uh and also apparently first got famous or early got famous for dating a soccer player pele uh when he was 40 and she was 17 oh don't do that yeah more like blaming on taylor yes also from the washington post uh 2002 article they mentioned that various of her male co-stars have posed nude for brazil's gay magazines which i was surprised by that but hey i think that's a quality like but if it's the guys if the guys on the show have to be hot enough to be in a gay magazine to match the hotness of Zusha. If you're going to look at First of the 100, it's Shusha. Shusha. Shusha, not Zusha.

Sorry. Also, if you want to look up any Shusha clip, there is a very unhappy Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen on her show on a guest appearance. You have to see this clip. They look miserable. They don't know where they are. Some awful agent probably shoved them on stage. They look so unhappy. That could be

their villainous origins like full house era yeah it'll be 93 so full house is still on the air uh and a few years away from being canceled so yeah very very young but also very unhappy deeply upset by being on the shusha show and yeah you know the alphabet letters that the women are suggestively rubbing up against it is accurate because the brazilian alphabet uses all the same letters as the american one so that is also accurate uh we get to hear the dancing flamingo saying tuki tuki tuki which uh ronaldo it's clearly ronaldo's voice so you don't really catch that in the moment uh yeah you're so desensitized to tress mcneil at this point you're just taking it yes yeah it's just another Tress voice. We haven't said this before, but I believe he's named after the Brazilian soccer player,

Ronaldo, who would later be on the show in a guest role. So I'm pretty sure that's where his voice comes from. I think you're right. And this is, again, where, you know, the Chiquita Banana isn't exactly not Brazilian, I suppose. She seems more Caribbean to me, but it's where we get another reference. I'm Chiquita Banana and I'm here to say I will eat this Toblerone and I will not pay. Guys, while you're singing and dancing, somewhere out there,

Rinaldo is waiting to be found. There he is! Oh wait, you said brown hair, right? What a charming neighborhood. Mom, these are slums. The government just painted them bright colors so the tourists wouldn't be offended. Works for me. Yeah, check out the rats.

Ooh, they look like Skittles. Here we are. 123 Papaya Street. This is Ronaldo's orphanage. Excuse me. We're looking for this little boy. Ah, yes. Ronaldo.

He went out months ago, and we haven't heard from him since. Every day we light a candle for him. Have you tried looking for him? That's plan B. We're never going gonna find him. Now, Lisa, it's not as bleak as that. Can you fly me over town to look for him?

We nuns cannot fly. Oh, too much junk in the trunk, eh? Yes. I like that she at least accepts it. I love that it's real, but yes. So correct. Otherwise, I would be able to fly, yes. I feel bad having to explain a Flying Nun reference

in that the Flying Nun also had 88 episodes. 88? Yes. It's Sally Field, right? Yeah, and I guess she could fly and go places and solve problems, but there was one other reference on the show where I think it was... Also Brother from the Same Planet, yeah. Where she's flying across the sky and saying,

This isn't funny. Man, did they just take their Brother from the Same planet. Yeah. Where she's flying across the sky and saying, this isn't funny, man. Did they just take their brother from the same planet script and just rework the whole They just shook it up like an ant farm. That Chiquita Banana song, I only knew it because my mom would sing it. Like that song was basically not in ads when we were kids. And yeah, Hot, Hot, Hot. That is the more famous cover by Buster Poindexter. And it was actually a Caribbean song by a Caribbean performer called Arrow.

Nothing about it is South American. The Caribbean and Brazil, very far away from each other. They are, yeah. Another strike. I'm going to have to look up the original version of that song. Yeah, the version in the episode is the only one I'm familiar with because it was basically in every TV commercial for five years straight. I guess the song made him a lot of money, but he hates it because it haunts him like a ghost. But no one talks about Buster Poindexter and Scrooge.

We're all talking about Hot Hot Hot. Yeah. Oh, God, he's so good in Scrooge, man. I just saw a picture of him, like a recent picture of him with Martin Scorsese at something. I was like, wow, there he is. Still going at it. You know what? Toblerones taste better in a hotel. That's what I think. But you can't just bite into Toblerone. You got to remove the triforces one at a time. It's true. Homer's not known to take his time with a chocolate bar. But yeah, you know that Chiquita Banana song?

It lies in the song. It tells you like, don't put don't put your bananas in the fridge. Like that's not where they're supposed to be. That the i learned this from npr thing once that that was a lie spread by the chiquita banana company because if you put them in the fridge your bananas would last longer and you wouldn't have to buy new bananas because they went bad i tweeted that once is this 100 true i'm telling this is what npr told me. Can no one be trusted? So you're saying that if I start putting bananas in the fridge, they will last longer and still taste good and nothing bad will happen? Yeah. I tweeted once.

I told people on Twitter once, hey, guys, here's a tip for me. Put your bananas in the fridge. They last longer. And the response was, he's a liar. This man is crazy. him well i guess the question is how is the texture of a banana out of the fridge versus a regular banana on a countertop answer the question i like a cold banana it's refreshing it makes it sounds like it would be refreshing this is so interesting it makes the banana more firm which i think is more satisfying

to eat so there you have it now we'll get into the conversation about peanut butter in the fridge whoa whoa whoa let's not go crazy i you know i'm pro peanut butter in the fridge that's that's me i mean it gets look it gets tougher it's harder to spread sure but you know for a while i was buying that uh trader joe's stir it yourself it's so organic and good for you but then it's just like you're mining for peanut butter at the end of the day and it's like i want the the factory good for you. But then it's just like, you're mining for peanut butter at the end of the day. And it's like, I want the factory belched out

jif in a jar. Just give me some peanut slime. It's harder to get. I've spent so much time on this earth and I'm not spending it stirring peanut butter into oil. I think that version of organic peanut butter

is harder to get now just because also, I think the technology advanced on organic peanut butter where it's less necessary. But man, because also just like the feeling of getting oil goop on your hand from doing

the stirring is like the most unpleasant thing. And it's just like very hard to wash out. No, and I feel guilty when it happens too, because I'm like, I just lost some of the oil. This will make the rest of this peanut butter worse because I didn't mix it with it. I spilled it out. Yeah. They gave me the appropriate amount of oil for the ratio of peanut butter.

See, that's why I keep an extra jar of peanut slime just to pour in if ever it's needed. I leave it to my friend Peter Pan to have the mix in. And you know what? Jif now makes like, they just slap the word natural on a Jif. It's like, yeah, it's natural Jif. The label's brown now. It's like, well, good enough for me. That's natural. Yeahif. The label's brown now. It's like, well, good enough for me. That's natural.

And you know what? At least according to Google Translate, that is the correct Portuguese translation of filthy angel's orphanage. That is the correct use of it. We then head to, clearly at the very least, they went to a Brazilian steakhouse in Los Angeles, I think, before writing this episode. Do you think they went to the ones in Burbank? I'm sure they did, yeah.

We had one across the street from Cartoon Network briefly. Yeah, the spot... Togo de Chão or a different one? It was called Picanha? Yeah, there might have been another one before that even. I feel like the spot just like... Well, Pampas was later. Across the street from Cartoon Network is like a cursed location

that has been like 15 different restaurants in the time that we've been there. I feel like several of them were Brazilian barbecue places. Yeah. Look, they should just get it over with and slap a veggie grill there. It would do great. I don't know. I have had Brazilian Steakhouse All You Can Eat Once and it was quite an opulent experience of just having, you know,

just like, oh, come over here. Whatever that meat is, give me a slice of that. Okay. Oh, there's other meat over there. Give me that meat. Was it eaten off of a sword? They do have a sword they they do have the sword but they didn't they didn't carve it off the sword to you and give to you so you're not each individually at the table giving your own personal sword like in this scene i guess this whole episode really isn't but at this point i will play the jingle the the mentioned in vulture jingle of our show hey Hey-o! Take that, Lisa's beliefs!

Not only do they shit on Lisa for caring about the income inequality in Brazil and saying, like, oh, it's dumb to care about that. Then they have to tell her, ah, just eat meat on your vacation. Who cares? And Homer shits on the sanctity of his own marriage.

Yes, yeah, he does. He's not wearing his wedding ring. I love Marge is just Homer. And there's nothing after that. It's just like, oh, there's just something very unpleasant happened. Yes. Then Lisa clearly has never watched another episode of the show before because she sends Bart and Homer to do something, which you should not send those two alone to do anything

if you actually want it done. But this is when we get the Frank Nelson guy. And I'm just going to say real quick here. C is not how you say yes in Portuguese. You would say seem with a with a like an M at the end of it. Or look, there's other ways to say yes. But in this version, I think you should be saying seem not see when would require minutes of research that they weren't prepared for. Are you going to say no to that joke? It's gold.

Check, please. See? Does that include tip? See? Hey, look. There's Copacabana Beach, the heart and soul of Rio. Excuse me, Americans. How did you know?

There is a dress code on this beach, but we can help you. I feel so European. Mine keeps disappearing oh well oh i hope they're going somewhere good okay boy let's strut our stuff i'm in rio and i'm walking on the beach i'm in my speedo oh and a bunch of people are grossed out by it but that was the song brazil right And I'm walking on the beach I'm in my Speedo He he he And a bunch of people are grossed out by it But that was the song Brazil right?

Playing us in Aquarela do Brasil Or yes Brazil I'm familiar with it from the movie Brazil Also from Saludos Amigos Right So real life thing that happened to me

I see this episode I do laugh at the try and stop a shirt with Uncle Sam eating the globe great job and that is funny that's good the scary music yes very funny also a little a little edgy in this early George W Bush era we're we're either about to enter Afghanistan or we're in it what's the timeline clearly uh no we're in it oh we're in it yeah yeah lead up by the end of this year Iraq is no, we're in it. Oh, we're in it. Yeah, yeah. It's the lead up. By the end of this year, Iraq is next. Right, right. But we're in Afghanistan.

But clearly a joke written before 9-11, too. Yeah. But I was walking around my college campus, probably less than a year after this aired, and I saw somebody wearing this t-shirt. Somebody was actually wearing the Try and Stop Us t-shirt. And I wanted to say, hey, that's hilarious. But I also thought, I don't know if he actually sincerely is into this shirt. So I'm not going to say anything.

Whoa. But it was not an official shirt. Fair. That's what I was going to ask. Like, did they, did they, there's no way, it feels hard to imagine they would, they would sell that shirt officially, which means someone would have had to like design it by hand to, to, to mimic the design in the episode, right? But still, you never know.

Yeah. You just don't know. It was not an official shirt and it was a very reactionary time so i wasn't sure which side he stood on and there was not like a red bubble or an etsy or anything like that at the time so either he found a bootleg of it somewhere or he made it himself but somebody was walking around my college campus wearing the try and stop us shirt you know yeah look it's a very funny joke but i would not wear the shirt yeah Yeah, you know. Just like Henry's Hitler manga he carries around. Hey, I showed you that Hitler manga in earnest.

No, look, Osamu Tezuka did a series about Adolf characters, and the cover of it looks crazy, and I would never walk around holding it, but it's Tezuka. He's a genius. They should not have put a giant Hitler face on the cover. Yeah, look, if that's what the Tezuka State wanted, they're doing it. But yeah, it's, you know, being on a college campus, my first guess would be it is ironically worn by a fan. But you never know.

It could be that, you know, one out of every 10 college Republican who's looking to get in a fight with a snowflake just like you, Bob. It was like a football commuter college. It was not like a bastion of the liberal arts or anything. So yeah, now it's feeling more earnest to me with these descriptions. Not to be disgusting, but we have jokes about clothing disappearing into Homer's anus. Yes. And then we have the outline of his penis clearly defined in these strutting around scenes and this is too much for me we have never in more detail seen homer's penis

in the show yeah so we can say we've seen bart's penis entirely but homer's penis we have never seen more in detail and yes i mean uh yeah you'd be crazy to uh like looking at that right yeah the timing on uh the speedos and the jokes of them walking by people who are disgusted it's all very critic you can really smell the algin on on this particular sequence honestly yes this joke works exactly the same with jay sherman including the singing honestly the singing fits more for jay sherman than than homer that is true that is true especially because he is singing a song from the 70s a campy song uh is peter allen's i go to rio uh made uh seemingly made for you know to be shown in the commercials but peter allen he was the first husband of liza minnelli also a closeted gay man, was one of the first famous people to pass away from AIDS-related complications.

Hugh Jackman did an entire musical about it, about this guy. Because also the guy's Australian. So, of course, that's the only reason Hugh Jackman would find anything in common with Peter Allen. That's because he's Australian. Well, I will say, it's okay if you enjoy watching homer's giant ass eat fabric but i just want a smooth crotch on a homer i don't want any sort of uh visible genitalia on my homer you don't want to know the size and scope yeah i just want the smooth inverted light bulb body that i'm used to you know i will say homer's ass grows so much every season like all right

let's compare homer's butt in rosebud which that's weird to say homer's butt in rosebud but in that episode when he when he does mr burns do this do that his his butt isn't huge i mean it's like i guess it's big but then compared to say a couple seasons ago after the panda love when you see his butt it is much like more oval shape like it is expanded out more and then this time his butt is so so big and there's so many like crevices and and lumps in it like it is they make his thighs bigger too they really uh blowed up homer for these speedo scenes those blue pants are hiding a lot i mean look if you look at the baseline character design for both homer and jay sherman neither of them is that fat it's really just that you know

you can you can embellish that for the for the for the joke you go in for the uh for the gross up i do like homer saying i hope they're going somewhere good that's that's and you know what underrated joke i thought this time they're in brazil told to wear speedos to fit in in brazil and bart says he feels european like that's uh i thought it's a joke we then uh see that marge and lisa are uh coming to the place where the lombada was invented which did originate in brazil the lombada is a brazilian dance so they're not wrong. But the Macarena is from Spain. It's not. Now, I looked it up. The Macarena guys are from Spain.

Okay. While in Venezuela, they saw the Macarena dance. Oh. And they got it from Venezuela, but not Brazil. Got it. Yeah. Okay. So Spanish guys in Venezuela steal. So they steal.

It's cultural appropriation. I think with permission it was given to them. Okay. Yeah. But also, how many times does Hank Azaria have to do this birdcage character? steal they so they still it's cultural appropriation i think with permission it was given to them okay yeah but also how many times does hank azaria have to do this birdcage character uh i mean julio hasn't even been created yet in the show really i mean uh i i love the just a non-creative blunt it makes sex look like a church so which makes no sense it makes an act look like a building which makes no sense it should be like it makes sex look like skipping through the fields or whatever. And I do like Hank Azaria's just tall stuff like, you stupid lady.

It's a good ad-lib. They said it was an ad-lib. I mean, without that ad-lib, there would have been no good button. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Hank Azaria has great ad-libs. He's got, that's right, I rob now.

Yeah. Yeah, I think Hank Azaria has great ad libs. He's got, that's right, I rob now. Yeah, some of his best ad libs are sort of throwing shade at a joke in the episode going too far. And of course, so now Julio is voiced by a friend of the show, Tony Rodriguez, who does a great job. Marge takes Lisa away from there. Then they head back to Bart and homer who homer drinks drinks something very sweet and i guess the joke is that it's that it's a very sweet thing but he's reacting to it like it's very spicy is that the joke sweet i think that's the yes it's so sweet that he has

to react as though it's very spicy or sour it could have been a little bit of extra uh explanation uh but it didn't make me want that fun drink no hey no drink can be too sweet for me i say i i'm mr i'm mr uh sweet tooth when it comes to drinks oh sweet tooth from twisted metal yes coming soon to streaming right yeah yeah sorry mike the mitch man yeah uh but also uh cootamundis that he does also feel something like they read a national geographic like yeah that's a that's an animal there. And apparently they're more commonly referred to as cooties now, not cootabundies. I really like Marge's like, everything here is something. I feel like Marge gets a lot of good lines in this episode. That's a great reaction.

Yeah. Yeah. It's great when she's recognizing the joke setups and getting frustrated by them. Aljean admits that the bracelet turning into a snake, he felt that was too far and too mean about Brazil. But yeah, everything here is something. That's such a big claim. I think then we come to the next scene,

which is probably the one that angered Brazil's Secretary of Tourism the most. Because, I mean, look, kidnappings happen everywhere. But I would think if you are the Secretary of tourism for brazil and the incredibly famous cartoon character homer simpson is kidnapped while on vacation in brazil that would look pretty bad for your job as a secretary of tourism so i can get why that this was probably the thing that made them the most mad at the time uh and uh and yes they though also though when Homer gets kidnapped here, Bart doesn't really care.

There's gotta be a million kids here. We'll never find Ronaldo. Ronaldo? You know him? No, no. I was just distracting you while my children robbed you. No, look at all the stuffed Codamondi.

I bet Maggie would like one. I'll just get her this bracelet. Everything here is something. Hey, Bart, how many more places do we have to search? Just one, and it's across town. Taxi! My American friend, I'm afraid that this is a kidnapping. So that means I don't have to pay the fare.

I suppose. Woohoo! I'm afraid you don't appreciate the seriousness of the situation. Fine. Take me, but let the boy go. I'm afraid he has already gone. Oh! Bart's calmness in walking away

from his father having a gun pointed at him, that's pretty good. Yeah, that was really funny. Homer's earned it at this point. He's been so awful to Bart this episode

in particular. I get why Bart's like, yeah, I don't care. Die or don't, Dad. I'm out of here. It is kind of fun having Bart be the punching bag in the episode as opposed to like Marge or Lisa. I don't dad i'm out i'm out of here it is kind of fun having bart be the punching bag in the episode as opposed to like marjorie's i don't know it's something about it it's a little it's

i don't know it's kind of fun you know what why in brazil does the taxi sign say hostage in english on it it should say it in portuguese come on also these jokes about like don't get in an unlicensed taxi i'm like that is like that's all we do every single day now is get into unlicensed check that license plate yeah it's true uh so then we come back from the commercial break so they've left rio with homer what is the only other thing they know about brazil the rainforest the amazon so and for some reason they're playing their miami vice music sting over there i was wondering about that using Very confusing. Yeah. They spent the money, presumably, to get that music cue, and they play it for like two and a half seconds,

and that's gone, and it's just like... It's just boat-related. There's a boat on screen. It's very odd. I guess they had fan boats in some Miami Vice episodes, I guess. It's just their fan boat theme. I don't know.

Yeah, that's the only reach I can make. It escapes me. I'm curious, too, because this episode has a joke about choosing music cues. Yeah, that's true. reach I can make. It escapes me. I'm curious, too, because this episode has a joke about choosing music cues. Yeah, that's true. That's true. So, yes, the kidnapped Homer tries to make a break for it. Where are you taking me?

Shut up. And take that stupid bag off your head. No, it smells like cinnamon. Behold, the Amazon. But quick, because we are burning it down. Listen, I really need to rest up. Again? I have a bladder the size of a Brazil nut. We just call them

nuts here. Suckers. Suckers! I like any new turn on the ha-ha suckers joke, because this is the suckers era for the show. Yeah, I think Scully really had a suckers run there for a while in his seasons. And that joke about Brazil nuts, the accurate, at least according to Wikipedia, is they actually call Brazil nuts there. Castanha do Para, which means chestnuts from Para para which is the region that those chestnuts are

from so that's what brazil nuts are called there it's not as fun as just saying they call them nuts there but that's that's the accurate thing now i know that joke feels more like the joke like well what english people call english muffins what do they call them like that that i don't have the answer to but yes a bunch of bats attack homer in the amazon and uh and i do like the joke that homer put the bag on his own head that they didn't do it to him they're not torturing him but the those jokes will later show homer goes through he's horribly beaten off screen tortured his teeth are pulled out his nose is broken i think with a burn with a cigarette butt yeah it's uh's a tough time for Homer off screen.

But yes, we cut back to Marge and Lisa. Marge has a great line. I guess planning a vacation around a missing kid is not a way to have fun. Yep. And Bart nonchalantly walks back into the room and turns on the TV. This is so ADR. Yeah. I don't like the teleboobies. Teleboobies. It's not what they call it in Brazil. I don't like the teleboobies.

Teleboobies. It's not what they call it in Brazil. I don't like horny Barts. I don't like when Bart is like horny for an adult woman. That's a problem. Yeah. There are a handful of ADRs in this episode. You know, it's an algae.

You know, it's got to be. I mean, especially when it pauses, Bart like holds up the remote and then he is clearly about to press the button and then he's just like, let's watch Teleboobie is like. And also Teleboobies definitely sounds like a final rewrite line that you that you accept two days before the show airs, perhaps, but not not in a writer's room. But yes, then the boobs move quite a lot here as they move both clockwise and counterclockwise. They get away with doing like a stripper tassel joke on tv and i would guess on top of him beneath is a live sex act happening i guess so i suppose if one must guess but this is when marge learns that he's been kidnapped and they

they head to the cops and basically a brazilian cop is just wiggum who just thinks that he's being hit on the staging is like identical to the staging in scenes when cop is just wiggum who just thinks that he's being the staging is like identical to the staging in scenes when they go to wiggum and he does like the typewriter or whatever i think it's thoughtfully done actually i think it's very intentional but in this case wiggum thinks it's a guy or sorry the the brazilian wiggum thinks it's a man and woman hitting on him and he's like i'm flattered but i do not swing that way but yes so then we cut back to homer he's asking them to scratch him and all right i'm not going there again i don't like that line lame joke but uh but yes i do like the line i've been saying like they ever want to see you alive again they'll have

to pay this much oh i don't know they've been seeing me alive for free for a long time that's a good one there's a lot of like classic setup punch lines between these characters it feels very old-fashioned in a fun way also i you know we talk about these animators they had so much to design if they cut corners here i'm not trying to target them but the design of this jungle hut with a radio in it is very similar to the jungle hut in mission and missionary impossible in season 11 also directed directed by Stephen Dean Moore. I looked that up. All right.

Well, then there you go. Yeah. I feel like they're running out of Brazil material. So they're like, let's call Burns and Flanders and Moe. We're kind of done with Brazil. What are they up to? I mean, this episode, I'm not a huge fan. I don't hate it.

But when Burns shows up, I lit up. I was like, let's get into this. Let's talk more about Burns. What's he doing? Yeah. And now that you got Burns there, he can say Burns calls one of his old Nazi friends in Brazil. Do that. Rich as Nazis.

But yes, Homer first calls his family for money. They can only get together $1,200. And this is when he must call others. They have $1,200. $1,200? You've already eaten that much. Oh, come on. I didn't.

Well, maybe. Enough of your blarney. Get the money. Ahoy, hoy. Mr. Burns, it's Homer Simpson. I've been kidnapped and I need $50,000. Hmm. Well, I'm high on sheep embryos, so I am feeling charitable. How about I advance you the money and you work it off?

No deal! Moe's Tavern, Homer the stinkiest rag in America. Hey, Moe. Oh, Homer, listen, I need 50 grand. Don't ask me why. Oh, no, I need 50 grand. I asked you first. Fine, I'll I need 50 grand. Don't ask me why. Oh, no, I need 50 grand. I asked you first. Fine, I'll send you 50 grand. Thanks.

Oh, Landers, I need 100 grand. Well, I don't really have that much, but if you need it that bad, you'll be in my prayers. Go suck a Bible. Go suck a Bible. That's a good... Great comeback to a religious man man that now as far as that little sketch goes that was great like yeah then he calls mo and then mo asks for 50 000 and then his next call is to ask for 100 000 that is great it's like it's a really good trilogy of jokes uh

sketch that has nothing to do with brazil this could be in any episode yeah and then it gets up to a hundred when he calls flanders because now he needs to to 50 000 he's got to cover mo as well he's he's sticking to his promise he's gonna cover for mo and also it's funny hearing the captors say blarney i don't know where i like enough of your blarney but as homer is uh has no one left to turn to after hanging up on all these people uh we then cut to the family still looking for him and carnival is happening which in 2002 carnival happened in mid to february so it's not it's like six weeks after it's not honestly they could have timed it to air during carnival if they if they'd really wanted to but i like the shot of the ambiguous sexuality that like there's, you know,

there's some hot girls dancing around and then a guy in a Speedo as well. And Marge is just confused all by it. But Homer would love it. I don't know if Homer would like it. I don't know if Homer would have enjoyed it. He was upset by the gay pride dog parade. That's true.

Earlier. He didn't like that. Not too long ago in the show. But another compliment to the animators, Marge dancing and worrying at the same time. That's really funny. Yeah, I love and it's it's staged very well too i like that uh we see it in the medium and then we see that for a while then we cut out wide and we see it in the wide for a while that was very funny while bart and lisa are dancing around her yeah and they're just dancing

regular i like lisa's doing real cool like uh like her arms back and kind of like i don't know like a fish move or something. I don't know. That was some great animation there. And then this is when they are saved by an unlikely parade float. I'll just dance and worry at the same time. Hey, look, it's a stripper from the kids' show! She makes paying attention cool.

Lisa! Lisa! It's me, Ronaldo! Ronaldo! Yes, I am Flamenco Flamingo. And it all started with the dancing shoes you bought me. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs weird i don't remember saying that part visit dejaden.com care and get insurance that's really big on care did i mention that we care why didn't you tell me i tried to write but I didn't know what state you lived in.

It's a bit of a mystery, yes. But if you look at the clues, you can figure it out. Oh, no. The parade. She starts. Maybe at the studio. Where is it? That way. Here is the ransom for your father. Are you sure you can afford it?

I make as much as Malcolm in the middle. And because I have no parents, my earnings remain unstolen. It feels like a mean joke towards their coach. The show follows this one directly, Malcolm in the Middle. And his parents didn't steal his money. He just had horrible brain problems. And now he can't remember the show. Yeah, I feel like maybe it's not specifically aimed at Frankie Muniz's financial situation,

more just I make as much as Malcolm in the Middle. Side note, because I am an orphan, I don't get my earnings stolen. And the usage of the words unstolen is very pointed. Oh, I was wondering, because earlier in the episode, Lisa's like, oh, he usually sends me a letter every month, but I haven't gotten one. So I tried to call. And in this one, he's like, I tried to write you, but I didn't know what state you're in.

So like, what about the letter? Well, then how do you write her in the first place? Doesn't make no sense. Did he, maybe he wrote the letters and handed them to the nuns and the nuns sent them. And now that he's no longer at the orphanage, he has to send it himself. Yeah, perhaps it's something to the program. It made there and yada yada yada no but that's a that is an important plot hole you're correct i thank you i'm done goodbye again i think on my first watch of this i feared they'd do the south park thing of going extra cynical like that ronaldo uh was like running the kidnappers or

something or that's like it would be something evil and dark but instead it is like no lisa lisa helped out a kid in poverty and he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and is now a very rich television star yeah it's not it's even less cynical than this show might have done a couple years earlier yeah yeah but he's a flamenco flamingo, and flamenco dancing is from Spain. He's not samba-ing. He should be like the samba salamander or something. Yeah.

Well, they don't care. I wonder if there were children in the audience who see him unzip his costume to their horror of like, what? That should freak him out. Yeah. That was just a flamen was just what are you telling me ws people do wear revealing costumes at carnival that's another fact horny americans are aware for sure uh but the heat i've got my horny finger on the horny pulse but but though it's also funny

that the they bring up on the commentary to the swinging boobs that point that where to go they almost considered cutting that similar joke from the simpsons movie because like ah wait we did it in the brazil episode can we really do it again but they decided no we we can't do it the swinging boobs are too essential to the plot of this movie yes yes people love them plenty of boobs for the time tress mcneil playing another character with swinging breasts that point in a certain direction yeah leading characters to their goal that's true man become a part you wouldn't play these days no so i'm confused here though if they so they're asking for 50 000 if they're asking for 50 000 real that's worth today nine thousand dollars but i believe the real is really

dropped in the last few years i think it was more like twenty thousand dollars back then but i think they want american dollars i think everybody does and uh and you know what rio's cable cars to sugarloaf mountain all real things and still in operation so again this is one of those oh this is correct by a tourist standard and that though i don't know if i'd ever get in one of those. They look so scary. I've never, even at Disneyland, I've never really been in like a cable. Maybe once at an amusement park, I've been in a cable car. But I don't think I've ever been in one. Especially after seeing what happens to Homer.

You know, I don't want that to happen to me. It's scary stuff. Don't get into one of those with your captors. Yes, yeah. That's the key. But yes, as they're there there we get some live music editing we're supposed to bring the ransom money to the top of sugarloaf mountain the tension is killing me how about this that's not tense enough that's the one look so so you guys well how similar to that is to

actually picking out sound cues uh for uh animation editing well i feel like you'd have a music handout yeah and you describe what you want for that scene i don't think you would get something as i think rarely will you do the handout and describe what is needed for the scene and you will get the wrong like the fully wrong emotion although the scene reminded me of a part in a regular show uh halloween special where high five ghost was trapped in an elevator and there were various music cues that were incorrect uh and bad but it's a difficult thing when you have a character commenting on the quality or tone of music it always there's always like a bit of a readability issue like even that third song cue it's like oh what is that exactly that's just like a classic

simpsons tension song it feels like so it's funny though because it's like the first thing was a tension song and this is slightly less tension song it's a it's tricky yeah i love marge's reaction like that's it that and elise going that's the one like i'm sure they use that cue before to introduce like a tense scene or coming back from break and something dangerous is happening yeah maybe it was a joke amongst themselves being so familiar with it like and we'll use tension music number three or whatever that's the right one for this scene yeah so yes uh they then are doing the homer handoff uh this is where they were looking through their book of memories their scrapbook my favorite in there that i only got on pausing was that homer wrote a poem called my teeth hurt which that's a good that just the title made me laugh i like it but this is so the runner in this

time somebody will do something crazy and then someone else will say you slept like a baby that night or oh he's gonna sleep tonight they were saying that must be like five episodes there could have been some new parents on the staff or something that's all right and yes they explain stockholm syndrome to us when they they do the payoff and uh yes this is when they have to agree that their currency is gay and that it's colorful but you know the reason country u.s is the weirdos for not having multiple different colors of their currency because it's it's meant to make it easier to differentiate your thing and you look in your wallet a 20 and a 10 look the same

i would much prefer to have color coordinated uh money where where again it's a clarity thing it would just be much clearer at a glance yeah a pile A pile of green looks this. It's just, what? Is this ones or is this fives? What is this? The Canadian money is so resilient. It's got holograms on it. You can look through this little, like, plastic window. It's great.

And Japanese money's fun, too. If you turn the bill, the queen dances for you. Right. That doesn't happen, Henry. Play a little song. Oh, that does happen with Washington with washington right i think he winks at you or something oh that's right yeah yes yeah they do the handoff and of course does not go well homer jumps i mean the kidnappers get their money they're paid they're all fine

happy ending for them no no comeuppance for the guys who kidnapped homer but instead homer jumps into it and this really may is because i just know, saw the gorge clip recently again. But it's like, this is basically Homer falls down the gorge happening to every member of the family. But this time, everyone is fine. They're just like, ooh. I like them smashing against the fourth wall. That's good. That's really cool.

That was a fun little bit of boarding. Yeah. I like that. Then we have an ending which, on the commentary, they even sheepishly admit, the last joke is hard to come up with sometimes, guys. Mommy, are you okay? Yes, honey, I'm better than okay. Because I've learned that no matter how bad I screw up, you'll always bail me out.

Oh. bad I screw up, you'll always bail me out. Mom, Dad, we better do something about this. Don't be sad. It's carnival! Yeah, that's a weird ending because the episode wasn't about homer being too impulsive nor was it about snake safety no no why why didn't ronaldo get to come back at the end and and thank lisa or something and why why this is another of those stories where lisa gets her story stolen from her by wacky homer adventures it happens all the time but bart dancing inside of a snake happily like it makes me chuckle like but yeah it's it's real random i'll say that like that oh he's scared it's carnival the joke is random and the emotional resolution is random

yes yeah that's what that was about this whole time? Finally, Homer and Marge are reunited. They were split up in this episode. The kiss is really interesting. The kiss is a little long. It's a little long and it's a weird cycle. Okay, okay, sure. Yeah, I forgot how this ended and I was like, is something going to happen with the kiss?

Because it's going on for a long time. I don't know if there was something that was going to be the joke about that that they cut. I don't know what's happening there. was 16 frames short so they had to find some time cycle that kiss one more time you need a half a second back here now uh and then of course the song overbart dancing inside the snake then transitions to a new version of the simpsons theme done carnival style and it's that's nice i like that i like that we don't get those anymore because al flossen isn't around and also there aren't really credits with music anymore yes yeah they often just put deleted scenes at the end or some tag oh yeah pretty much it's just another joke yeah which you know they cut so many things for commercials i see why

they use them but a show that does do the alternate versions of the theme a lot at the end is Murder, She Wrote. Great. A lot of great versions, like a jangly country version, or she's going to Hawaii, so it turns into an island theme version. That's fun. That's fun. And so The Simpsons and Murder, She Wrote, the two shows that care enough to do the different entry music. There is such a rabid vinyl market now. You could put out an 8LP box set of Murder, She

Wrote remixes and people would buy them. It's like, oh, Mondo released this. It's $400. They'd sell $5,000 like that. Shipping in 2020. There's a big bottleneck on vinyl production right now. You know,

this is about an episode we did two episodes ago but speaking of credit stuff the beverly hillbillies ending they did i saw how it originally aired and i think i know why they did it too it was i think they did it to prevent fox from putting commercials for the next show over it because they actually do air the waving and the music the entire time right so i think there was a sinister background for them choosing to do it and for a while king of the hill would put a final scene over the credits uh i think for the same reason it wasn't a deleted scene it was like here's an epilogue over the credits and i think they just wanted to make sure fox didn't shove

them to the side and put in a promo for whatever was coming next usually in my experience trying to find commercials for old episodes it's a commercial for that 70 show usually they they were going hard on ads for that 70 show this one we watched some ads that had dark angel we did find the ads it was dark angel this drama greg the bunny oh right oh right on on tap this is in the brief air of greg the bunny airing on on fox yeah blink and you'll miss it folks uh but uh yeah you know i expected to be slightly more um offended by this episode though uh certainly they make some broad assumptions about brazil and straight up wrong things about it uh but i guess it's me as a white guy who's never been to brazil i i thought it could have been more offensive but yeah definitely they would never do this episode today one because i think they'd at least have a writer

that went to brazil write it at the very least and to probably hire some brazilian actors i would think yes you would think i would also think i would hope certainly get shusha on the show yeah yeah yeah i was i thought it would be worse uh no i was never a fan of this one uh and i think by being inaccurate they actually avoided being uh racist about things just like oh you're making jokes about other countries that's fine don't worry about it uh yeah i was i thought it would be worse but there's a lot of again they wouldn't do this today and some stuff is hard to watch and it's just like wacky travelogue. Some of the sketches in here are fine. We talked about the phone call.

That's very funny. Oh, yeah. And a few other things like Homer electrocuting himself. I think things unrelated to where they are are very, very funny in this episode. But once we get back to the Brazil content, it's like, oh, yeah, women steal from you and monkeys bite you and people take you hostage. It's all very weird and not a huge fan. Toby and Maddie, final thoughts on this one? I would echo what both what both of you said which is to say i expected it maybe

to be a little worse and there were at least a handful of solidly funny jokes within uh so it was so it wasn't a completely uh difficult situation but at the same time you know not among my favorites what about you yeah um ditto some uh there some good lines. Marge got a lot of good lines and impressive artistry. Lots of hard to pull off shots and many, many characters. So bravo, I say, on that front. Yes.

If anything, congrats to Stephen Dean Moore for this travelogue episode and all of the work that everyone had to put into it with new backgrounds and characters and all of the action and stuff like that. Perfect breast physics swinging around and homer's balls drawn in circles you see the foundation of animation the ball ah yes the bouncing ball now it's uh we we always love having actual animation professionals on here we can appreciate simpsons from a direction you know not everybody looks at i we it's great to have you guys on and and you know hey if this

inspired you guys to do an episode of a cartoon you're working on of the characters go to brazil like uh and i i i'm sure you'll handle it better than the simpsons did i think so thank you for the vote of confidence we'll do the characters go to the Midwest first. Yeah, that one I think we can handle. We got enough info on that one. So Toby and Maddie, thanks for joining us. Where can we find you online? And do you want to plug anything that is not NDA'd to hell and back?

Sure. I'm Toby. You can catch me on social media at TobyTobyJones for all of your updates. If you can find them, watch regular show and OK KO Let's Be Heroes on wherever they happen to be at this moment. And keep an eye out for fun stuff on the way. You can find me on Twitter at Hamshears. Yeah,

Infinity Train is somewhere out there. You can buy it with money. You can buy it's on iTunes, I think still. It's somewhere. Otherwise, same things Toby said. Yeah. One of these days, you'll see what we're doing. Yeah.

Can't wait. It'll be worth the wait, I'm sure, once the time comes. Yeah. No, thank you guys so much. It was awesome talking with you guys, as always. Always a pleasure. Oh, no, wait. I know what I'll plug.

Babylon 5. Everyone should watch Babylon 5. Our friend Kat will appreciate that. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks again to Toby and Maddie for being on the show. If you want to check out more of what we do and get all these episodes one week at a time and ad-free, please go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Sign up for five bucks a month to get just that, but also access to everything behind the five dollar paywall that includes over 100 miniseries episodes about shows like the critic mission hill and batman the

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talking about the what a cartoon movie podcast which for 10 bucks a month you get to hear that and all the five dollar things bob just mentioned us covering an animated feature film super in depth just like we do an episode of the simpsons where they go to brazil last month we covered the transformers the movie 1986 the long toy commercial full of brutal murder that we had a whole bunch of fun talking about for over four hours at the end of this month we are covering for the first time a Laika film Paranorman from 2012 our Halloween hangover and there is a giant back catalog I'm talking four full years of what a cartoon movie podcast you get over 240 hours of what a cartoon movie

podcast in addition to all of the other stuff you get at patreon.com slash talking simpsons as for me i've been one of your hosts bob mackie you can find me on twitter as bob servo and i have another podcast it's called retronauts it's all about classic video game you can find that wherever you find podcasts or go to patreon.com slash retronaut sign up there for two full-length bonus episodes every month and henry how about you you can follow me on twitter at h-e-n-e-r-e-y-g and if you're following me and bob on twitter then you definitely should be following the official twitter account of this podcast at talk simpsons pod if you follow at TalkSimpsonsPod on Twitter, you stay up to date whenever there's new podcasts on our free feeds or for What A Cartoon as well. Also, whenever we do

new stuff on the Patreon, please follow at TalkSimpsonsPod on Twitter. And finally, if you're looking for an easy to view list of all of our previous free podcasts that we've released of Talking Simpsons and What A Cartoon, head over to TalkingSimpsonsPodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you again next time for the newest episode of our community podcast. Talk to the audience and we'll see you then. Boy, they sure love soccer here. Kicker! Mm-mm-mm-mm! Hop! Whoa!

Ah! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! No! Look, Marge, I'm Brazilian! Eh! Eh! No! Look, Marge, I'm Brazilian. How to loot Brazil? I got it, I got it, I got it.