Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Blood Feud With Stephen Sajdak

Episode Date: February 23, 2022

We've reached the end of season 2, which calls for returning favorite Stephen Sajdak, cohost of the great We Hate Movies podcast! He helps us with the 90210-related reasoning for when it aired, then we reflect on the wildest ep of the season as Bart gives blood, Burns sends a card, Homer gets fired, and somehow it all pays off with a big ugly head. Listen now to learn all the broadcast history fun! Support this podcast and get dozens of bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod!

this podcast is brought to you by patreon.com slash talking simpsons head there to check out exclusive podcasts like talking futurama talk king of the hill the what a cartoon movie podcast and tons more i heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we sully the moment with our price taggery. I'm your host, the scourge of the despot, Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons, who is here with me today, as always. Hey, it's Henry Elberton.

Will there ever be a rainbow? And who do we have on the line? Diamond Steve Sadek. And this week's episode is Blood Feud. Hey, I'm 11th, 1991. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh boy, Bobby. The second season of 90210 debuts alongside this episode of Simpsons.

Terminator 2 rules the box office for the second week in a row. And Paula Abdul's Rush Rush tops the Billboard charts. Well, we have the perfect guest on for this, the first news item, because Steve, I am in love with your Melrose 210 podcast. It's a recap podcast that goes over both a 902 1 0 and Melrose place. And because of your podcast, I learned that between the first and second season of 902 1 0, there was basically like two months.

They started their second season in July. And this Simpsons episode was pushed to July for one fantastic night of programming this and beach blanket Brandon on the same night. Yes. I must've watched this back to back. My sister ruled the television, so we would watch 90210 whenever it was on. And I probably was very jazzed to get a reprieve

with a brand new Simpsons episode. Weirdly in July, I have no memory of it, but I'm positive that must have happened. Yeah, I was very jazzed as well to see a Simpsons in July, though at that time as a kid, I don't think my brain had been trained yet to think simpsons debuts in the fall because especially like simpsons was probably the first

primetime show i really paid attention to anyway and it had a very different thing but its entire run up to this point of like okay so the simpsons has a christmas special in december the new episodes in january and then it debuts in september and then hey another episode in july who's to say that they won't be that all the time this was a very special night for me because uh you know how when you're a kid you're like happy sometimes and then you spend your entire adult life trying to chase that again and trying to find it perhaps you start a podcast network about it uh you know in your search and i remember uh the like through the age of nine we were like desperately poor i live with my grandma and then we moved into a house and i had my own bedroom in the summer of 91 and this was the first

new episode and i thought could life get better than this we've got a house i've got a room and a tv and there's a new simpsons on wow and then it was all downhill from there you've been chasing that ever since and uh yeah Terminator 2 I did not see that in the movie theaters it was uh I waited to see it on VHS the next uh year I think probably but about as good as action films get that Terminator 2 I don't know if it's everybody's favorite James Cameron movie. I do think Aliens is pretty great, too. It's one or the other for me. I've become a snob and love because I grew up. I was like one of the right age for it. I grew up watching that Terminator 2 right into the ground.

But I definitely now as an adult kind of prefer Terminator 1 to it, even though I'll touch my glasses when I do. But I do love both of them and i that movie is one of those is like the uber action movie for me like in terms of growing up and remembering what action movies could be yeah i think i'm on steve's side having just re-watched that in a theater uh during the summer i think i might be a terminator one guy but uh terminator 2 another childhood memory i think it might have been the first r-rated movie my parents told me I should watch at the age of nine. But then again, I just re-watched Darkman. I remember watching that on VHS at the suggestion of my parents.

So maybe I saw Darkman on VHS first. And that's another R-rated movie, a great movie, by the way. I like the idea that your parents are recommending movies to you as a small child, like your buddies at the water cooler. oh you know bob you know you should go see you should go you're like seven like you should go see terminator go for it i remember my mom saying oh bobby would like this so yeah well in terminator 2 was made like for our age group literally like they give despite it's our rating he is given a teen kid to hang out with like the team 100 is his new dad yeah eddie furlong in that movie teaches him to talk like bart simpson yes yeah yes it's so funny like yeah he should be wearing a bart t-shirt in it but like he's playing all the games we played he's hanging out with bud nick from salute your shorts just like

we all wanted to is there a story about arnold not doing uh and we might have talked about this even on the episode we did together was arnold ever approached to do anything for the simpsons or was he just never interested in it or because it just seems like a match made in heaven obviously they made fun of him mercilessly throughout their entire run especially the early run so maybe that was a a no-go maybe or well here's so odd that he never he never showed up here's the thing i think around season five or six or so uh i think they were trying to push a uh a script involving arnold schwarzenegger bruce willis and sliced alone on the simpsons saying oh wow we want you to help promote planet

hollywood and the showrunner at the time was like absolutely not even if i can get all your voices on the show and i think to date neither of those and none of those actors have been on the simpsons so i think maybe that's what soured them aljean in particular on all of the shows he showrun and that goes up to the simpsons movie like he is savage to schwarzenegger like across decades he has been like he's a bad actor uh it was weird how he said that like you know hitler had some good ideas he seems like he uh would be a terrible governor he had all those things to say for decades so it's like yeah i don't think he'd want to do it in the end with that planet hollywood script i think the simpsons writers end up finding out they were bamboozled anyway and it was like the agent said they do it but then the actors were like wait we never said we do that

and he has paul abdul's rush rush that was the uh the song that was in all of our ears as well no cartoon for me no sale right now yeah it's i was gonna say that's not that's not the one where she's flirting with the cat so then that's's kind of not for me then. If it's not opposite attracts, we don't remember now. That must have been another furry activation point. Like I would just love to have those numbers in front of me, which is impossible. Like a big old school,

like in Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, that those big binders full of figures. Like I just feel like activation points have to be the Robin Hood movie, that video. Like there's just a lot of them where you're like i could see where that how that could go i can see it i think in 89 it was either you're activated by either rescue rangers or uh opposites attract yes yeah it really affected a lot of kids uh sexual development and then right after that was a sexy cat guy running around fucking paul paul abdul not a bad situation and by the way i pull up the video here on my computer just to be sure

yes kiana reeves is in the rush rush video oh wow i didn't know that dang well i was gonna say then after that the the sonic the hedgehog series took over the activation no i and i know some fans of monterey jack that were also activated just like gadget are they in this room i am not telling i'm not telling uh but joining us today is uh steven sadak of we hate movies welcome back again to the show steve i'm very happy to be here uh it's god is this like the third or fourth episode I've been on since COVID, which is so, so horrible to think about. It's been fun to catch up with you guys as we go through this never, ever, never ending nightmare.

Year three. It's going to turn around in year three, I think. I think that's it. Biden's got Biden's ride the dragon this month. He's got it. And when you mentioned Arnold Schwarzenegger, we did the Simpsons movie with you guys on We Hate Movies. That was the last time I think we recorded together. I think so, yeah.

That was so much fun, and that's an episode that people freaking loved, so I was really happy to have you guys on it. I have not visited season two in a really long time, and it was kind of interesting. I was very happy that you guys brought me in for this because I think the last one, maybe the last one we did on your show was the Mel Gibson Simpsons episode. Speaking of celebrities, which are,

and it was, I was really excited to do that. And I was like, Oh wow. That's it. It's just kind of weird. Like outside of my Simpson watching, which is,

I'm, you know, I'm a three to like 10 person that I'm constantly in rotation with those. Anytime I go outside of that, but I know that I've seen them. It takes me way back into a very bizarre place of like nostalgia and like oh these jokes that's where this that's why I say this is because of this episode that I haven't thought about in five to ten to twelve to fifteen years this episode is a season two episode but it has like the energy of a season four episode I feel like me, this is really where it begins. The golden age,

if you want to call it that. I mean, season two, you don't want to throw that away or season one. There's lots of great moments, but here I feel like they realize the comic potential and they realize

they don't need this pat emotional ending on every episode. They can have just a shrug. I think that's the mission statement for the rest of the show. I mean, Seinfeld, I think too much gets credited for the show about nothing when really the Seinfeld is not about nothing.

It's about a lot of things. It's about social interactions. It's about faux pas, lots of things. This show is often a bunch of stuff happened and it was funny, wasn't it? So we don't really need a point. Well, and it's only separated by like six weeks with this in the official start of season three if this hadn't been it's just such a random choice they made that i feel like was uh i would guess it was first in the episode guide that they put out that they decided this is a season two not a season three

and then after that it would be in the dvd set though i guess this is a season two episode but really it's like they called the michael jackson episode that follows this the season premiere at the time like that's how they promoted it but this the this is the start of season three like season two ended in may and this is like two months after this like this is really the and it's also weird that like this is the end of season two but it's with the start of beverly hill season like 90210 its seasons started and it's weird they didn't classify this as a season premiere i guess only reason because there wouldn't be new simpsons again until september

i suppose yeah yeah it's just this kind of weird dead island of uh content where you're like well here comes season three in two months so it's like this weird epilogue and it's kind of yeah it's almost like a a boat and and like a comic annual almost you know what i mean it's outside of the numbering series but you know that it's uh it speaks to whatever is going on at that time and you know steven yeah you mentioned comics i wanted to compliment you on here i uh i was just listening to new at the time you uh are recording this uh the eternals podcast you did for we hate movies that was really great like that was just a wonderful discussion of that film uh that is so long and yet so forgettable uh and just how even jack kirby you know it's it's not a home run every time even when you're the king of comics it's not a home run

every time yeah and i i really i think that's my i mean i'm sure someone can call me on it and say oh this character this movie is great even though this uh character never sold but i feel like if a comic series is routinely canceled chances are there's not enough interest there to hold a major motion picture that's that's i think that's a decent rule to take. And it's like with Kirby, Eternals never felt special to me as a kid. And I'll not, I mean, I read almost all the Kirby stuff and it's like New Gods was his best riff on that idea. Like so good. And even that is incredibly unfriendly to new readers.

And then you've got the Inhumans that's the second best version of that and then I'd say below that is actually everything he did with Thor and all of the Norse god stuff that's also the same kind of story and then below that is Eternal so it's like the fourth best version of a story Kirby told many times he loved the mythology he loved the idea of oh my gosh aren't wouldn't it be interesting as superheroes were gods etc etc and yes you're right he's told that so many times in so many better iterations than than the eternals which i've just been reading and it's fun kirby stuff but even even still it's just kind of weak sauce i'll be honest well like i i do think i do think stan lee takes too much credit for every

single thing he was involved in but oppositely i also think jack kirby it was at his best when him and stan lee were working together on things and eternals meanwhile is proof of like well if jack kirby got to do whatever he felt like sometimes it's like really loose and he maybe needed an editor occasionally. Yes. And or someone to be like, you know, it might be fun. I don't know. Nothing to do with Gilgamesh or gods or anything like that. What if we just like, I don't know what to New York City and it was jazzy, baby.

Very distracted by the idea of a character named Sprites. And I get thirsty. If that also that movie was directed by somebody less respected people would be like it's pretty sus you have a story about a child that's an adult and wants to date adults like that's weird you know but i mean it's just that being true to the source material but i was like this is i don't want icarus should just be like no i'm not attracted to you at all sprite i'm sorry like it would be that would make a lot of sense and why make a baby god if you're making robots anyway there's a lot of it just i could go through it again but it's just it's so confusing as to why that child is in that movie that nobody wanted

and then at the end of the movie they just have to go like oh well uh you're gonna age now because this actor can't look unlike other the adult actors and this actor won't look ageless so uh one more preamble thing about blood feud by the way uh i don't mean to interrupt the internals chat but uh i do think that this really is where they figure out mr burns i feel like brush with greatness was a great first step towards that uh by throwing him into that story but in this episode he is so full of pith and vinegar, as he says, so full of energy and has all of these great rants. And we can see the extremes of his evil at this portion of the show.

The story sticks with him the entire time. Pretty much. I think he has more scenes than Homer does in this episode. And also, this is when they made him 100. Like, he was 80 before but in this episode like he makes references that the only way they could work is if he is 100 years old in 1991 and and that's great he's also uh the one thing uh i agree with all that does have his earlier voice the it's a bit more gusto that sure was doing it as opposed to the later three four like

four five like where he's definitely a little bit more wispy and it's kind of funny when he's dying like he does in sort of quote-unquote classic simpsons but when he comes back it's got this you know this kind of uh edge to it but like a girth to the voice that you don't really get often well yeah bob you also mentioned the airing strategy of Fox that they're like, no, we want to be big in the summer. We're going to get a jump on all the networks. I tried to look up how successful that was for them because like the wiki will say, you know, it's ratings for this or that,

but I wanted to find contemporary news. So I went to the LA Times archives and a week after this, it said that Fox was still fourth for the week, even though they had the only new thing on that was like regular programming. Beverly Hills 90210 was 17th nationally, though in the Los Angeles market, it was in second place for the week. And The Simpsons was 24th nationally. So still didn't really raise fox all that much

even having brand new stuff they did a similar thing in uh season 10 with lard of the dance that one aired in august alongside i believe the debut of that 70s show so they did this one more time that's right interesting i'm interested about um the simpsons and 90210 specific or the simpsons actually about how much maybe fox getting the nfl really catapulted i mean obviously this was a phenomenon t-shirts etc and all that stuff but like really the rate like just the idea of having the nfl as a lead-in uh and just or if you're watching football games it's like the simpsons is coming on next like how much that has to do with this catapulted to 30 years of success kind of well you know the

simpsons definitely it it has it just kind of became an institution but before they got major league sports fox was just like it was like four fads in a row like it was like married with children was their first one then simpsons then 90210 i feel like there's no place yeah melrose place and then x files a little bit i mean a little cultier probably no but it was still like headlines and then it was their twin peaks which got them like a bunch of new viewers and then major league baseball comes in and right at and then two years after major league baseball i think it's the nfl and then then they're a real network with five nights a week of programming and all that yeah there's seven nights not five uh but uh yeah and this also uh was directed by say david

silverman who says that this was one of his favorites ever to direct which uh this has a lot of fun animation in it too and and also he shouts out the guy who i've now added to my rolodex of like i'd like to interview this guy who's still active in the animation industry his name is mike gerard uh he shouts him out because for the honestly best looking years of the simpsons to me animation wise uh he was the overseas animation director which is a hugely important thing to the execution of animation that you output overseas so and he's still still working the animation industry to this day yeah as somebody that's been a little season two agnostic and i watched a couple of these this

week the faces you get in the in in these episodes you will never see again just like the amount of the amount of when marge is trying to tell homer that they're partners and you know they have to be in this together there's so much emotion in that one drawing. It's just it really I don't know. I found it really emotionally satisfying in a way that I feel like a lot of times and not to shit on even my favorites and stuff. But like there's I don't know, I really was the animation of this episode is really inspiring and interesting to look at. I agree. I agree. this episode is really inspiring and interesting to look at i agree i agree and and as for the

writing uh this was a very interesting uh week for them writing it because it's the end of their production season as we said many times before when you get at the end of a simpsons production year you are exhausted you are like dying you had no sleep and you want to pump out this last script and be done with it and take a vacation and as we've talked about an episode that uh we'll go about after this but we've recorded already uh the parent rap uh the last one of production season 12 also co-written by george meyer the writer of this episode uh it's when you get zanier and you don't care as much about like a heartfelt ending you're you're more about like yeah let's fight let's

fucking have some fun guys oh no well and also this was technically still in production season two but a test balloon for al jean and mike reese as showrunners for the show as as al jean talks about on the commentary as sam simon the showrunner of seasons one and two, he was having his problems with Matt Groening. They weren't getting along. And on top of that, Bob, as Bob has laid out before, the James L. Brooks and Gracie sells a new sitcom to ABC,

a live action one called Sibs. And so Sam Simon, it was a great solution. Sam Simon, you run this show and go away from Matt Groening and no more problems. I mean, you're going to hear about Sib soon, but just a preview. It debuted on the same day as Home Improvement, same night rather, did not become the number one hit that show did. Yeah, I'm going to jettison. This Simpsons thing is on autopilot. I'm more interested in what's going on on Sibs, ladies and gentlemen and gentlemen i'm gonna hitch my star to sibs

and so gene and reese they are working very hard on this and i do think that because gene and reese were so you know like we got to do this perfect and it's got to be perfect kind of thing i think too that got them less involvement from james l brooks who for most of this season two seems to show up at the end to be like no you got to pull on the heart strings where's the emotion at the end we need the emotion this is like spitting in the face of the emotion that's ended so many season two episodes yeah we talked about uh throughout season two how you know the show could never have been a success without james l brooks but a few times throughout the season he has kind of made things a little too sappy like uh things like

what dancing homer was a an ending basically pulled out of re-edited video footage yes just to have more emotion to it and same with like a late addition to the uh oh yeah on the the dignities on me friends like that just embarrasses the writers on the commentary so well also they mentioned uh that they they mentioned that harry shearer couldn't make the recording uh or sorry the table read for this episode which was rare then not something he has done for 20 years straight at this point uh but but on that episode they were really worried of like oh fuck we don't have harry shearer here this This is Burns and Smithers' aren't every scene. He was like, sorry, guys, I can't put the show on hold.

It's just too funny. Well, yep, it's the funniest thing on the radio. The Simpsons will be right back. Hey, paper baghead. Oh, man, I'm dead meat on a stick. How much money you got, Simpson? A dollar and three cents, Mr. Bully, sir. Keep it changed.

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simpsons today to see what you're missing out on but all right this episode though begins with a great setup of a hilarious traffic warning sign turned into a nuclear disaster warning sign. They were new in Los Angeles at the time. So this is L.A. writers talking about L.A. traffic. That's really what it's about. I think you see some of these in Terminator 2. Maybe I'm thinking of Falling Down. Yeah, Falling Down has them a lot maybe there is i don't remember in terminator 2 they have those but they're very famous in the movie la story where i think something's something and i haven't

seen them in forever but i'd see martin like proposes to sarah jessica parker via la traffic sign or like will you forgive me or something like that yeah yeah so these are huge for la folk uh but in this case this is such a hilarious thing about how the warnings are disquieting everybody like they as they realize like oh a nuclear disaster means we're all dead there's no warning to be had less clapping during meltdown flea city a few people are still clapping core explosion repent sins is such a great like there's a period that's my favorite bit core explosion period repent sins period so grim uh and uh and also this this meltdown joke then you know a few months later

in homer defined they just go all the way like you don't know a meltdown does happen we're just gonna do it it happens like twice in that episode that's right yeah first in springfield then in shelbyville as uh they are about to unveil it mr burns is a no-show in our first clip joked on them if the core explodes there won't be any power to light that sign and now i would like to present the man who made this sign possible by dropping the last of his obstructionist legal challenges,

Montgomery Burns. Mr. Burns is never late. Something must be terribly wrong. Well, there better be. Nobody leaves Diamond Joe Quimby holding a bag. Must turn over. Got two great dignitaries. Oh, no.

Mr. Burns, we've got to get a doctor. Absolutely not. No quack so bold as going to apply his leeches to me. As long as there's an ounce of strength left in me. His wiggling arms is so funny. What a great drawing. Even more Citizen Kane-y things. Yes.

Yeah, yeah. This scene here, this is like back-to-back Citizen Kane scenes because the discovery of him is very similar to the discovery of Charles Foster Kane after his death. And then in the next scene, it's meant to mirror when Smithers visits him in his bedside with a doctor. That's when Kane's second wife attempts suicide and they're visiting her in her bed as well. I love the blocking on that scene too.

That's real commitment to the joke. It's very cinematic where the camera stays on Burns and Smithers and Herbert just just go to the recede to the back it's just it's it's really funny yeah earlier i said they really figured out mr burns this one they really figure out smithers uh the pieces are coming together in brush with greatness i think the dynamic between those two characters they were like oh this is lots of fun yes here you really learn what smithers is about at this at this portion of the show he's he's a softy too like he's not the jerk he he was a jerk this season one of the first episodes is samson and delilah simpson and

delilah and in that smithers is just an asshole like he he ruins homer's career uh seemingly out of just normal normal executive behavior of like yeah you're not gonna over take me in the company but this is much more than like the uh the smithers who's like yeah i'm your best friend like thank you burns let's hang out yes and he has given mr burns a kidney already which uh which really hit the spot and is ready to give blood at the drop of a hat rips his whole somehow rips through a jacket and a sweater and uh a button-down shirt he's super strong or that's how incredibly strong that's how passionate he is you know it's the adrenaline just rushing through him i i also uh it's i love this line because it is just the man who made this

possible by dropping the last of his obstructionist legal challenges like that and it's seemingly this whole event uh because burns did this out of the goodness of his heart but it's actually that he finally got convinced all right just drop your lawsuits you have to put this up that's so great and then he seemingly has made an enemy for life out of quimby by leaving him looking bad at the at the podium on your suggestion i re-watched three men in a comic book and it's funny to get to diamond no one does this to diamond joe quimby jokes back to back and forth because there's one last episode with with jimbo and jimbo uh you know says radiation man you dumbass or whatever and he's like no one no one makes a fool out of diamond joe quimby it's a fun runner and i miss diamond i

love i love the term diamond joe quimby i'll never not laugh at that it was there from the beginning i was like did they invent this for this show but no in uh barkinson f uh episode one uh his his uh placard or whatever his symbol says diamond joe quimby it's it's funny too to see quimby before he just became a receptacle for kennedy jokes and mainly being a philanderer these jokes are about how he instantly makes you like a political enemy for life. If you embarrass him one time, he's like, get that punk's name. That's his joke. I think once they heard Castellaneta's version of Quimby, they're like, ah, you know what?

Kennedy jokes are just so much more fun. Why fight against this? Let's just go full on with Kennedy stuff. And this is a bit of a blood chat for all you blood fans out there uh because we got some things wrong last time i think and that was five years ago we've grown so much as people since then but we've learned a lot about blood uh double o negative isn't real hypohemia isn't real type o negative is a real blood type it's the most useful blood type because uh you can give it to anybody right and uh i think they're implying well double o negative is the reverse of that i get it that makes okay that finally makes sense to me that

joke i knew it was a made-up blood type but the the idea is that nobody you can only get that blood type from another of that like it can't take any other type and it's very rare got it okay well one i love that uh smithers won't even wait for like a few seconds to sterilize a needle he's like nah i don't even care get it to him right now but also leave me enough just leave me enough to get home it's great uh it's a great idea yeah though apparently the original line just leave me enough to get home to my wife and kids oh okay i always wonder if they they never clarify if it was cut in full animation or cut in the script phase or maybe the animatic phase because the way he says just leave me enough to get home you could totally see that

they just cut out the next like two seconds where he said to my wife and kids uh and i i think that was the right move because if you make smithers like a closeted guy who is lying to a wife and children that changes the tone of his relationship with burns far too much yeah yeah i much prefer him as a man who just has a yorkie terrier at home and a killer blog about uh malibu stacy or a proto blog rather he was leading the forums or the the message boards uh for stacycon94 although future uh showrunner uh aljean on the commentary for this recorded like literally 20 years ago so i think he's changed his mind like he considers smithers burns a sexual but we've all learned that Smithers is gay for other men as well. Yes.

I mean, I almost think that he wouldn't even given it. He would just he it's not even he's attracted. He's attracted to Mr. Burns, but in a way that like an untouchable like he's God. I could never touch that. Like I'll have sex with John Waters or John Waters or whomever else. Whether they're gay men or they be in Springfield. But I will look up to Mr. Burns. Yeah, it's funny to me that Gene felt that, you know, 20 years ago when they recorded

that commentary because, you know, the people who followed him, like as showrunner on the show, they wrote Smithers as a gay man. Like, you know, in Merkin seasons, they smithers as yes he is gay he as he frequents gay clubs like he he turns on the republican party and sideshow bob because uh it disagrees with his choice of lifestyle as he puts it then and then on top of that in the in the bill and josh season seasons he just dates men and goes to like goes to fire island yeah i don't i don't agree with the idea that like if smithers if burns was a frog he'd love frogs it's like no no yeah exactly well and these days for the last like four or five years smithers

is just an openly gay man on the show he's he's not in the closet or anything also i i looked up what is the rarest blood type in the united states it's ab though apparent and type o positive is the most common though apparently ab being the rarest it actually is though the most on hand at blood banks because they know it's the rarest they actually keep it around the most and also you know some people might say as i first thought wait a minute if their blood types don't match how can he give him his kidney but uh technically if you don't have the same blood type you might be able to give people your kidney so like as this is according to a google search a b blood type patients can get a kidney from any blood type a patients can get kidneys from people with o or a type b patients can get kidneys from o any blood type a patients can get kidneys from people with or a type b patients can get kidneys from or b type blood so it is possible that in the fictional

world of a double o negative blood perhaps it can still take a kidney from someone else if we see an x-ray of smithers on the show from this point onward there better be one kidney in there absolutely i'll go fucking nuts i also i'm always terrified of having to give someone my kidney those boys stay in my body hate to break it to you everybody there's they're not going anywhere i think the later uh george meyer show run episode of homer giving the kidney to abe did make me scared of like but if i gave a kidney doesn't that shorten my life or can't i drink as much like all all the things that were jokes in that episode i took as fact and did not read more about kidney yeah my kidneys are doing a lot of work especially over the past two years

they've got a lot of they've got a lot to process you probably guess what you don't even want them that's that's kind of the way i'm treating it it's like it's a car i don't want to give back it's like no no these are. Or maybe now nobody even would want our kidneys. Like, we're too old for it. Just like, it's like, well, you don't have to worry about the draft anymore because they wouldn't want you in their army anyway. You're too old. Like, same deal. Kidney's too old. But yes, as

everyone realizes that Burns doesn't have long to live, Smithers is desperate. Attention all employees. Our boss and inspiration, Mr. Burns, is at death's door. If you have type 00 negative blood, I implore you to report to the blood mobile outside.

That is all. I give him my blood except for one thing. What's that? I don't wanna. I can't believe you guys. There's a human being out there with millions of dollars who needs our help and you don't want to cash in that's why you losers are stuck in this crummy dead-end job you know homer i am your supervisor sorry sir that is not consistent in the show carl

is not written as his uh as his manager but i i love that like uh i've now that i've been on the other side of the workforce not as a child watching this it's like occasionally there can be moments where the person you're joking around with will pull rank on you you have to be like sorry sir yes i do love for that joke only they put carl in a tie in this episode or that one scene to just make make it look like you maybe got promoted yesterday and then it gets demoted at the end of the episode yeah everyone's more dressed up they're all wearing badges yeah and this thing with homer pinning up the you wanted when uh joke facts it brought me back to the the days of joke faxes where my mom was at an office uh she was a nurse

she was at an office with a fax machine and she would bring them home like that this is how memes were spread in olden times and the one she hung up in her bedroom was it was a cat and it's hair was in curlers had a handgun pointed at you the viewer and it says I have a gun in PMS any questions so that was being faxed into the hospital

now you'd be fired I love I love that Homer is so into all of these uh like the the professional comedy writers the simpsons are making fun of what hack signs are and like jokes around the office like you want it when like they but homer is so entertained by it and this time i caught i love how burr he says like he calls burns our boss and inspiration like so heady if i was there i certainly would say like oh yeah i i'm on carl's side i don't wanna like yeah let him let him die let this little asshole die it's always a thing though you could always have a worse boss that's

that's well and you know working for a company you don't want someone to swoop in and then now now you're working for the well were good, but they fired Homer. So it's kind of Homer is lucky to be where he is, I guess, the idea. And maybe maybe maybe leaving well enough alone as best you can is good. The Germans fire him because they're good. They're actually like, wait, this man should not work here. This is not a crazy sitcom. Like, we have to fire this guy.

Yeah, I guess. Well, I suppose in the event of death though it would be inherited by uh you know i guess his mom would take it or just go to the board of directors perhaps i guess cut back home uh maggie is being shown a bunch of flashcards this is one of those jokes i think uh graining is really into the idea that maggie is secretly the smartest simpson like they've they've put that in so many uh classic episodes yeah that and i guess it's partially because lisa is training her with these flash cards for zebus and lemurs back when we didn't know what lemurs were and the 94

comes around we're all crazy about lemurs we're nuts about lemurs i i kind of love the uh lisa's back and forth with marge with you know i'm trying to give her the advantages i never had and you know obviously it's hilarious she's a small child anyway and marge is like i don't know we did our best like she's kind of offended by it which i kind of love and then she immediately changes the subject she's like what's a zebu that's a zebu no it's so great she's like lisa we did the best we could like it's so funny that marge is like is offended like you're eight like how can you already tell her tell me that you we failed you as parents though they have failed her as parents and i it not only taught me what a zebu was but also a hump

and a dewlap i did not know those terms for animal shapes then uh i and you better believe after this as soon as i could get to a reference section of my school library i looked up to see if a zebu was a real thing and it pulled out the i would guess probably the encyclopedia britannica i would guess at my local library zebu is a funny i mean it's a funny word and apparently you know what some people they're used all around the world but mainly in in India as sort of pack animal alike, as in a steer or cattle you would use. But a zebu, also, though, they have bred miniature zebus that people have as pets around the world.

A domesticated zebu. I like this. Though they seem like bigger. From pictures I saw, miniature, I i mean it's smaller than a zebu a normal one is but it's bigger than a big dog like it's not it's not like a tiny little thing it's not cat size i'd take a cat size zebu oh you know you don't want to hear those who's rattling around all night yeah it's true mess up i'd scratch up the uh the hardwood floor around my apartment. But yes, this joke next of them asking her what their blood types are. Homer, as an adult man, should know his blood type.

But then again, if I didn't have my driver's license to look at, I'd probably forget as well. I don't know if mine's on my driver's license. This episode always makes me think, do I know my blood type? I need to call my mom. I do know mine only because i gave blood at work once they were uh it's a not a rare blood type but a very sought after blood type so now the red cross calls me all the time i do try to give blood and end or platelets like two or three times a year but i haven't because i'm a very good person i want to get credit for this you're good anyway you can't yeah this is i the thing is my wife does a lot of like actually good things like volunteering and stuff like that i'm like i don't know you can cut me open and just take this stuff

that i'm not using and i could just kind of like listen to music while you do it and feel kind of weak for a day that's that's my thing i'm just thinking a lot of people are hearing about steve's rare blood yeah it's even you know you don't want to dox yourself on your blood type, though, on the podcast. That's why I didn't say it. I'll never, I'll never. I don't want some freaks coming after me or any more freaks. No, yeah. Me as a kid, this was one of those jokes that gave me more respect for my mom.

I'm like, wow, my mom has to memorize all that stuff. She has to know what my brother or I is allergic to or what our hat size is or whatever. And my mom, unlike Marge, had a full-time job as well. She had to remember all that stuff with. I respect her more now. But I also, I think it's funny that Lisa's reaction, like, you know, his blood type, how romantic. Of course, in Japan, it is used for matchmaking.

That is true. I always wondered why with anime characters sometimes it would list like well yeah this sailor sailor moon's blood type is this but sailor venus's blood type is this and it was uh it's it's kind of a horoscope thing yeah it's like astrology yeah yeah oh that's interesting yeah that makes sense to you i remember like just cards like you know comic book cards and god knows like whenever it gets to blood type you're like okay guys that's that's a little too much information i'm not going to get anything out of but i guess if you you treat it that way you treat it that way one of my favorites on the cards of ridiculous things for comic book

cards was in the in the first marvel trading cards run which i love so dearly they would make up win loss records like it was a baseball card yes i remember that and and i think i i feel pretty sure they were not based on fact of like if you were to have counted every every time spider-man appeared in a comic book and his wins and losses i don't think that's the actual number i think they just made it up but i i love to imagine they actually counted like okay this episode issue he fights two people one win one lost write it down, guys. Yeah, you basically have to, some poor editorial assistant had to cycle through the archives for this actual win-loss record. But yes, as they learn, Bart actually does have this very rare blood, which has never been part of the series ever before or after.

But yeah, Bart. Oh, wait, second time in the season he's given blood barbara thanksgiving yeah man you know he got shortchanged on his blood at that thanksgiving at the uh the blood center he gave it to those little kids gushing all over this season yeah do kids give blood can kids give blood as a question uh you know i bet in a medical emergency like this he can but yeah i mean the joke in the thanksgiving episode is he needed a fake id to give blood for that i mean i'm sure we'll talk about this soon isn't that peter peter thiel's kind of thing yes uh stealing blood from babies yes yeah that's his thing i allegedly in some articles like i mean you know oh yeah this is uh

i'm saying if this happened in a video game, it'd be a fun premise. Yeah, yeah. That's all. This is a, we're parodic characters. We're not even ourselves here on this podcast. No, yeah. My name is made up. Yeah, yeah.

But, yes, Bart doesn't want to give blood, and Homer, Homer's got to talk him into it. Congratulations, boy. You've got a date with a needle. Hey, wait a minute. I don't have to give blood. I have rights, you know. Yeah, you have the right to remain silent. Bart, you have to help someone in need. It's the only decent thing to do. No!

Bart, it's not like I'm asking you to give blood for free. That would be crazy! You're a little young to understand this, but when you save a rich man's life, he showers you with riches! Don't you know the story of Hercules and the lion? Is it a Bible story? Yeah, probably. Anyway, once upon a time, there was a big, mean lion who got a thorn in his paw. And all the village people tried to pull it out, but nobody was strong enough. So, they got Hercules, and Hercules used his mighty strength.

And bingo! Anyway, the moral is the lion was so happy, he gave Hercules this big thing of riches. How did a lion get rich? It was the olden days. Yeah. That's a great set. Not a great explanation from Homer there.

It's great. You know, i never considered it till now but this is uh kind of foreshadowing of there is no moral to this story that homer tells or of this episode i was like well the moral is you're given money for doing a good thing that's the moral of the story uh even his plan uh when he tries to explain it does not actually work in in uh in any logistical way, shape, or form. And Homer should like, okay, if you wanted money for it, Homer is assuming Burns will do it out of the goodness of his heart. Homer should have at least said like, no, we are selling you this blood.

This blood cost you a million dollars. Give it to us, and then you can have the blood. Apparently, there are many thorns out of a lion paw story out there but i think it goes back to androlicles and the lion from uh olden times aesop fables from like the roman era i suppose but i always as a kid heard more of the the mouse taking it from the lion's paw that the lion's a jerk to the mouse. And then the moral of that story is, hey, just because someone's weaker than you doesn't mean they can't help you

and you should be nice to them. And though in some of the Androlicles stories, he's given a bunch of money. In other ones, the lion says, oh, I owe you a favor. And then later Androlicles needs some help. And the lion's like, hey, I vouched for this guy.

He helped me out. It's funny. Just like a lion that just owes me a favor you know maybe a mafia lion possibly i like this i like where all this is going you want a line in your corner really uh i would think at first andrew all cleese was like oh boy a lion owes me a favor great if i ever need a dead zebra we uh we head over to uh the blood bank uh or the blood bank mobile auto is the driver of it it's one of his second jobs i think it's the first time we've seen him do something other than drive the bus uh and i agree i love he says like yeah when all my friends are in school i i can't hang out with him so i got a job as a blood certified bloodletting tech dude and uh and steven could you identify the song he

was humming as he uh was cleaning his hands up was this iron maiden or it was iron man yeah iron man and i bet they had to pay to get that much of iron man on it's very identifiable of iron man yes yeah using the using the wet nap to clean up is a nice touch too yes i always like that huge huge slam on vet on blood techs out of nowhere man these people work hard they're not they're not exactly stoners that are using uh what do you call their wet naps i would hope that's true yeah who are both like ate a bunch of fried chicken and then changed the uh the like gears on the back of the bus too uh and it's the return of shakespeare's fried chicken first scene in the way we was uh unfortunately they didn't get that fried chicken as much as they uh it was like a season two thing really the shakespeare's fried chicken yeah usually they just would go to crusty burger

for fast food jokes yeah after this uh and uh so yes then uh and as smithers shows up uh i also like that homer's like you hug him. Hug Barton. I don't want to hug you. I don't know. Well, he asks who wants to get hugged first, which is like, yeah, I'm good, man. Thank you. The boy. Yeah.

We have a fun little scene of passing a blood bag very quickly. And then one guy just forgets he's in the elevator. A great time killer of a joke there. And then Burns is on his last legs i just laugh every drawing of burns like with his mouth open like nearly yeah it is so funny looking i also like the silly sound effect of the blood draining into his body like someone's sucking on a hat like a mostly empty soda cup yeah oh so funny there's i mean honestly he gives him a lot they take a lot of blood from this tiny little kid by by the way. It's a lot.

Yeah. A full bag. A full bag like that, that does seem like a lot to take out of Bart. We saw that he passed out in Bart vs. Thanksgiving. Yeah, that seems like even more blood than that much. Yeah. Honestly, it was a real physical risk to Bart, and he deserves to be paid. I wish they'd have shown that there was some physical side effect to Bart in this one but you know what george meyer wrote that episode too the things

wow uh in that one he tells the george meyer tells the story that he tried to get money for giving blood and the people at the uh the blood bank said like you just can't show up and give blood you have to run through a test you can't just give blood well we'll talk about another inspiration for this episode later i assume uh but one of them was uh they said on the commentary one of the producers needed a blood transfusion right and uh they got the idea like oh what if burns needed one so it all started there so maybe this happened before he wrote barbers is thanksgiving like blood transfusions that's hilarious boy let's try to guess at the physical uh problems that

simpsons writer was going through then which one was it no i'm not gonna name people then burns reads his epitaph which uh this also feels a bit citizen kane to me not that there's a there's not a scene in citizen kane where he's like where he's dying and he gives his epitaph but uh definitely in the at the start of citizen k, he does say, remember, at all times I am an American. Yes. But here's Mr. Burns' epitaph. We're ready with the transfusion. Smithers, I'm not going to make it.

I want to dictate my epitaph. Go ahead. Charles Montgomery Burns. American. And patriot American patriot master of the atom scourge of the despot tyrant here his mighty name and quick, Smithers, I'm back. Oh, top of the morning to ye. Why, look who's here. It's good old you.

Hi, Mr. Burns. Oh, hey there, Mr. Brown Shoes. How about that local sports team? Mr. Burns, he's okay. Jackpot. Mr. Brown Shoes. Mr. Brown Shoes. sports team mr burns he's okay jackpot mr brown shoes mr brown you know how about that local sports team and it works still with strangers you know if if ever were i at a party again with strangers in person i would definitely say how about that local sports team too i also love uh the mustachioed guy that we see sometimes and i love that we refuse to give him

a name like we could have given him a name here no he's just a mustache guy yeah yeah only like carl lenny and charlie i think are named out of all of his work friends and charlie barely counts yeah charlie only exists of like well we need a fourth guy to like die in this scene or have a horrible thing happen it's sucked into a tube yes uh it's also i always laugh seeing burns his butt just seeing his bony old behind oh yes we were this is still the era in which that was a fresh joke i think that joke happens again in stark raving dad i could be mistaken but it happens a few times it was the era of uh ill-fitting hospital gown jokes yes yeah yeah and then well and also we saw we saw burns his butt a few times in his full nude appearance and uh and brushed with great uh also great little effect on the green

explosion his homer like drops a very dangerous thing while he says jackpot uh so then mr burns is killing it at high lie he has super incredible strength oh man this wall run is so well animated i just tweeted out a gif of it i made with frinky ike it's so great it's gorgeous i love i do also love his uh i guess it's i don't know if they're friends i assume it's someone he's paying to play high lie with them or an instructor possibly yeah that's what i figured osvaldo never seen again uh i i knew high lie as a kid because my dad was a fan of gambling on it it was one of those things you can gamble on no one nobody would watch highlight if you couldn't give a gamble on it that's what i think but it was it was but it wasn't fun you know once you've

been on the ponies all day at the track if you see like here's a closed circuit tv of highlights like well all right i mean these are two guys i only got to pick one of the other guy who's gonna who's gonna throw that thing first and yeah as uh as burns then celebrates how he's full of pith and vinegar there's a great bit that was like it was silverman making something a joke because when he says like and all i really needed zoom in is the blood of a young boy like silverman wanted it to feel like a bit of a misdirect of like is this episode about burns trying to steal the rest of bart's blood like just the sinisterness to it is so funny much like a uh a billionaire that we won't mention

ever again yeah yeah well parodies and jokes i was looking up on that guy who may not exist and he is very open about this. I think he hasn't started doing it yet, but he's like, no, I really want to get a regular blood infusions from an 18 year old man. And, uh, it's all about these, uh, it's all about these, uh, billionaires are trying to like solve death. Like, well, no, I'm going to live forever. I'm very important.

You see, uh, we saw it didn't really work out that way for Steve jobs, but, uh, Hey buddy, we're rooting for you. The rest of them are trying yeah i mean they all think they'll live as long as mr burns you know but like yeah i mean uh well honestly longer they yeah i mean also with uh peter teal another funny publicly known fact about him is that like he's this very distant weird very rich man and he is giving a ton of money to jd vance who is trying to read like is running for uh the congress in ohio i'm like yeah i'm just a regular guy i'm sick of these elites and it's

like your your main funder is the guy who buys blood and is a billionaire like oh man i i mean this is slightly off topic but i love no matter how much money they throw at that guy that dog won't hunt it's not gonna work it's never gonna happen for him and it's fantastic and i mean it's just the best watching he's one of those people that i love to watch fail and i mean like there's so much bad in the world but every so often it's like he'll never be anything that's kind of cool yeah it's uh the jd vance the only person who's gonna beat him will be another republican so you can't root too hard for the guy who's going to beat him. But it's like, oh, yeah, this J.D. Vance looks so fake and phony to even the average Republican voter.

He's like, no, this guy's full of shit. And I mean, it doesn't help him that he tried to rebrand is like, oh, I'm an anti-Trump guy. And then later after that didn't work, he's like, oh, did I say anti-Trump? No, no, no. I'm just as pro-Trump as anybody i love that dude yeah yeah he well once you know once his movie failed and people didn't accept him as uh the hillbilly whisperer he's like ah fuck all right well you know what actually i agree with trump and uh i'm gonna trigger you liberals. Yeah. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there.

You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels, and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our net zero hub at electricireland.ie. Anyways, Bart is named to Burns as the boy who gave him the blood. And it's just Burns forgets the Simpsons names

three times in this episode. It's so great. And it's another's another mislead he's like you'll get something very nice for me very nice indeed i love that's such a great joke my i it feels like a george meyer joke that this person laughs knowingly but within as a sitcom mislead it works great but if you take it as reality this person is insane why is he laughing like very nice indeed a card that just says thank you why is that making him laugh so hard it's just maybe he's just so excited for them to not to think that they aren't going to get a card at all but oh no they'll get a card they'll get a very impersonal card they would think i wouldn't send a card but they're getting

a card the nicest thing anyone he's ever gotten from mr burns uh so yes it cuts to home homers throwing out bills which uh they they build on this joke for an even better joke in the george meyer written mr lisa goes to washington uh and then uh when he sees burns in the address is on mammon street which is correct for the Thanksgiving episode. That is the street that Burns lived on in that episode. And Homer is so excited. He's losing it. I just love he picks up Bart.

He's like, oh, boy, oh, boy. And then he even just like telling Lisa, do something. And she just turns on the sprinkler. By the way, they're at 94 Ever 94 evergreen terrace we're not at 742 evergreen yet wow i missed that i was my eyes were drawn to the return address i didn't even miss that it's yeah yeah 742 will be the address uh it'll be like used as not their address a couple times before it finally becomes their address but that's that's more of a season four thing yeah uh but yes i as homer opens it up his slow realization that it is nothing and he got nothing the uh my favorite bit is lisa sadly just like but silently just turning off the sprinkler

i know i'm not a jerk like homer but when i get a card for my birthday or christmas uh i'll open it up not like and shake it but as soon as i open it up and nothing falls out i'm like okay maybe they're telling me where i can pick up my gift now as i as a kid would certainly in a very selfish way of like oh birthday card open it open it uh sideways not to read it but to see what falls out like all right is this a check or cash if it's if it's cash it's mine right now if it's a check i gotta give it to mom to take to the bank house i'm very jerry seinfeld how soon can i turn this throw this away i hold on to nothing it's it's very nice of you that you got me a card yes gift card is uber important obviously i do think now in the world of digital gift cards you do sort of lose that i mean i know whatever who cares but like so now

it's like you get a card and it's like oh i also emailed you a gift card a gift card it's like well then then why give me the card just write me a nice email it's fine let's go full digital for doing it yeah you know what the postal service has a lot on their plate right now let's let's not involve the garbage man in this uh no you, Bob, you gave me so much insight into why gift cards are good as a gift for people. Now, they're not impersonal or just like, oh, you don't think it's to tell somebody like, I want you to have fun at this place. I give you permission to spend money at this on this meal or on this video game. Have at it. Personalized gift cards rule.

Amazon gift cards are like, i don't care about you or the environment that's true if it's an amazon gift card it's like buy whatever i don't care man i'm sure you have coffee filters you need to use it on that i don't know but yes homer homer is losing it at this idea of what little he was given homer you don't do things like that to be rewarded. You do them because a fellow human being needs a helping hand. Marge, you're my wife, and I love you very much, but you're living in a world of make-believe

with flowers and bells and leprechauns and magic frogs with funny little hats. Yeah, Mom, we got hosed. We got exactly what we wanted out of this. We gave an old man a second chance. I promised my boy one simple thing. Lots of riches. And that man broke my promise.

Well, I've had it! Bart, take a letter. Dear Mr. Burns, I'm so glad you enjoyed my son's blood. And your card was just great. In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic. You stink. Could you read that last part back to me?

You stink. Good. You are a senile, buck-toothed old mummy with bony girl arms, and you smell like... An elephant's butt? Hee hee. an elephant's butt. Okay, there's a lot here. First thing on the sarcastic thing.

I love how many levels that works on because... Yeah, yeah. The way Homer says it, it's so obvious he's being sarcastic that you would not need to say, in case you can't tell I'm being sarcastic. But then, the next step is about how if you were to write down your sarcastic thoughts in tone-free text it you actually do need to tell someone you're being sarcastic we didn't have uh sarcasm tags yet yes yeah i mean on mr show they did an even better joke with this idea i just like, oh, I love your cereal.

I want to have a box of it every single day. And they keep sending it. But, oh, yes. They also use that joke. I mean, it's really close to the Flaming Moes in case you can't. Because he starts by telling Marge that she's in a fantasy world and not in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane but close and then in case you couldn't tell i'm being sarcastic it's very very similar yeah the acting is not quite as extreme as it would become in that one this is like the practice version

this uh yeah it was there was something for silverman like this was a breakthrough moment for silverman he talks about it on the commentary but like when he heard this delivery by castellaneta of these lines for homer he's like you know what layout guy give me this i'm going to basically animate or at least like pose out this entire sequence that's why homer pops into like eight different uh moves like this grew then into that one and then i'd say even bigger was homer's speech of in front of the sugar pile is is even bigger than this one and it was just huge like uh i believe silverman calls it his homer's fairy voice is is what they put in quotes for it uh but yes it's so i mean his i love to like if it wasn't so humorously, it would come off as extremely cruel to think like, you know, to tell to your spouse, I love you very much, but you live in a land of make-believe.

Like, you're a fucking idiot. God, yeah, he's such an asshole. And I just love the staging. I'm looking at it on Frankie Yak, and I love how, speaking of Citizen Kane, you can see the ceiling of the kitchen, and the camera's like on the ground almost looking up at the table from below yeah man it's not as flat as they'd get to do it in later ones like this is kind of a peak for them animation wise in a certain

way and one of the saddest things is probably Bart's best memory as a child is when his dad rubbed his head after he said an elephant's butt you know what I mean like it's like so much affection and it's a really nice again the blocking is fantastic because it's really well animated it's like yeah an elephant's butt and so this entire five minutes of the episode uh is actually a tribute uh slash ripping off of a classic honeymooners episode is this is this set on the commentary or okay

i must have missed it so on the commentary they say some people have pointed out this is similar to the honeymooners but i watched the episode letter to the boss it is exactly this one and yes not to sound like a uh an old old man but you know what them honeymooners that doesn't get better in sitcom writing but it really doesn't like yeah and and performance i'm a huge honeymooners guy and i actually it was funny because i hadn't i haven't watched honeymooners in a while for whatever reason but i looked up uh just the the the script of that episode just to sort of like is it that close that it is and i was just laughing because you could hear uh how gleason would said it late the you dirty bum the amount of uh juice that gentleman got from the word bum is just oh i'm sure you can you can see you can see the set the

walls and the set swaying back and forth yes yeah oh man the breeze like uh i think silverman on the commentary said uh this homer and bart team up they're very much like fred and barney and he that was said to silverman in a complimentary way so i can see like jackie gleason and art carney yes they're barring a lot from that dynamic no this is just ralph and norton so yeah in in the episode uh which also would have been fresh in their minds writing this in 1990 because the letter to the boss episode was not in the short honeymooners history thing there were the classic episodes of honeymooners which was 39 episodes and that's what played in syndication for eight million for decades

pretty much and then there were episodes that were technically episodes of the jackie leeson show and people thought oh these are lost forever. They don't exist. And then in the 80s, a television historian discovered some kinescopes of a few of those lost episodes. And that then led the late in life, Jackie Gleason himself to discover too, like, oh, I actually do have the originals

of all of these lost episodes. And so they were put back into uh circulation and it was this rediscovery of how great the honeymooners was so letter to the boss was actually like a new honeymooners episode to sitcom writers back then the quick version of the story is ralph is told, like, give us your uniform. You're not going to need it anymore. He thinks he's been fired. He decides he's going to write an angry letter to his boss. Norton dictates it for him, just as Bart dictates it from Homer.

He tells Norton to mail it off. And then Ralph meets one of his old work buddies who tells him, well, yeah, you just got a promotion. That's why they asked you to give up your thing. He tries to get Norton to not mail the letter. Norton has already mailed it. They even have a battle in front of the mailbox that even better than the twist in this episode of it which is ralph cramden is there for his boss reading the letter and he's like oh look at these things a crank letter you get these every once in a while in management cramden let me read it to you and

then ralph is like jackie gleason his face is perfect. He's just losing it. And then the guy gets to the end of it, and he says, like, sincerely, et cetera, et cetera. The guy didn't even write his name. And it's because Norton took dictation, and Jackie Gleason said, sincerely, et cetera, et cetera. And so Norton just wrote, et cetera, et cetera. Okay. And then Ralph, like, drops dead. He just like passes out. it's such a great it's one of the funniest things apparently you can watch it on 2b and i was just thinking there's a seinfeld

that's a lot like that they update the technology and it's either jerry or george they need to get answering machine tape from a girlfriend's apartment i think it's george that's right yes yeah that's right also it has a joke that the monsters ink stole or uh or did an homage to norton and ralph are talking about how like well then we're gonna break into the mailbox and steal the mail and they don't realize that a police officer is right behind them as they're describing it and so when the police officer says like so what was that again and then ralph after a lot of hummina hummina ralph says uh yes those were lines we were running for a play and uh we'll invite you to the play buddy that's what mike and sully say when they get caught talking about uh the lost child it's like

oh it's a play but in monsters inc they go the extra mile of then having the play performed live at the end of the movie i forgot about that yes and that movie co-directed by david silverman all right we're back in the simpsons okay hey but yes everybody look that up on to me if you can it's uh or somewhere else it really really really is funny i i hate i hate to sound old and say like no this this 70 year old thing hilarious, but it really is. The kids don't watch enough Honeymooners. And I do think, I imagine it holds up because I can't imagine it's super, you know, quote-unquote problematic because they don't talk about anything except for, like, the bus. You know what I mean?

Like, there's almost no race stuff because everyone's white. Yes. You know what I mean? Et cetera, et cetera. So it's like sort of yeah i imagine it holds up fairly okay in that context i don't think you see days every show on tv now is about aspirational people who have like great lives and great like in the episode i watched they do jokes about how he's like if i lose this job like we're screwed like we have no savings we got to move back in

with your parents and then and then he says we'll probably have to move to a terrible tiny apartment and then he walks around the set that there is their apartment and the whole audience explodes with laughter because like they know your apartment is shit already but so yes in this case bart is the ed norton who uh and marge is the alice telling her, like, can you sleep on it? Though in The Honeymooners, Ralph basically just says, shut up and get out of here. I'm going to write it down right now. He's much meaner than Homer is to Marge. Yeah, I guess that's what doesn't hold up so much is the constant threats of physical abuse from the husband.

Yeah, that'll ruffle a feather or two, probably rightfully so. But it's realistic for the 50s you can't you can't deny that yeah but yes homer is convinced to sleep on it and he dreams of uh first shaking all the money out of burns which i love the animation on that and and then the very corny music as burns turns into a syrup bottle and he eats pancakes. It's such a great, fun little dream sequence in like a thought bubble, like out of a comic strip. And I love how well both Homer, sorry, both Marge and Bart know Homer more than he knows himself. They both realize you will be very angry. You're super emotional, but then you'll immediately get over it and be distracted by something like food.

Yeah. Both Bart and Marge know that uh that homer homer is already famous for his extreme mood swings uh i do love the animation on the on the dream sequence it's a very early simpsons thing with that one color dream kind of a thing they're they're both green it reminds me very much of i think homer uh explaining what happened uh or his night out i can't uh where it's purple i've tried to i've lost that but yes yeah yeah no i mean also it's like his uh his dream sequence uh well definitely his his golden slumbers dream sequence in uh in season three is he's falling asleep while driving yes but uh but yeah then uh this always makes me hungry for pancakes because that big pile of pancakes looks so good man i but i mean i i love

pancakes which are a great breakfast and not just like dessert it's a point of contention on this podcast i'm the waffle guy it's interesting my wife had pancake we went to brunch of the day she had pancakes and i was like you know i have not willingly had pancakes in about 25 years and i think it's because i'm more of a waffle person but the pancakes looked and i tried them they were delicious and i might henry right now i'm a bob but by the end of this year i might be a henry we'll find out you know i i do understand though that pancakes are like one of the easiest things to make at home so going to a restaurant like that's where i'd be like why i can make pancakes at home but i can't make like eggs benedict or whatever like so i should order something fancier

there uh but yes we as homer wakes up and is is happy and decides not to mail it we cut to part happily whistling as he walks down into the mailbox and and that should have been the act break they are so uh nervous about this show and where to put the act break that this has the longest first act in the entire show's history this is a two-act episode yes yeah yeah it's crazy this this is 11 minutes 11 seconds when it hits the commercial break which yes longest that is halfway of the episode i have 15 minutes oh really yeah that that bart putting the thing in the mailbox that is not of the episode i have 15 minutes oh really yeah that bart putting the thing in the mailbox that is not the act break and it should be oh okay oh and it's when homer gets

thrown out of the thing that's that's the one act break in the episode they'd never do it again but they were talking about in the commentary we wanted uh the stakes to be very high we wanted to show you the effects of what the letter did before we did an act break but i think bart putting the letter in the mailbox could have been the act break. Okay, see, I read it as that. You're right, you're right. But yes, we then cut back to Homer freaking out, and this is when he asked Bart if he has seen that letter.

It didn't just get up and walk away. Bart, have you seen the letter? Yep. All right, think very carefully. Where did you see it last? The last place I saw it... Uh-huh. ...was in my hand...

Yeah? ...as I was shoving it into the mailbox. Oh! Why did you do that? Dad, there were things in the letter that had to be said. And I know you you you're an emotional guy just because you were mad last night is no guarantee you'd be mad in the morning so i know you mad in the morning homer you encouraged him you should be strangling yourself she's right

okay take homer don't panic they don't pick up the mail till noon there's still time bart's delivery of like the last place i saw it like he's dragging it out to really get home it really feels like that commentary by marge should have been the last strangling joke we had because she's pointing out how violent an act it is and it's kind of disturbing because when marge is yelling at homer he still has his hands wrapped around bart's neck and bart is like pounding on his fists yes with his hands please it's like the only time she intervenes every other time she i guess it's because of the logic of the situation she's like now homer in this one instance i think you shouldn't strangle our son because you encouraged him otherwise yes you should strangle him go strangle away and i also love how then in the animation he goes like she's right and he like is reaching at his own throat

for just a second he's like oh should i literally strangle myself no no no he pulls his hands away but also the big cutaway to outdoors on the dough like that's always fun a big homer dough so loud that like ned can hear it from outside on the zoom in of bart explaining it it's like that's again just a great like directorial choice it's like a dutch angle and a zoom in on bart as he explains it you know so yes then it's time to battle the mailbox uh again exactly how it goes in the honeymooners episode they uh they don't try to water the mail they just pick up the mailbox and then the uh postman shows up, and he says, what are you doing? And then Jackie Gleason, Ralph, says, oh, some kids had flipped it over, and we're putting it back.

So everything's fine. I like how Homer promises he's got a little trick up his sleeve, and it's just violence. It's just physical violence and barney of course is uh fighting the power which i just love that uh just having no idea what the situation is but yeah let's kick some mailboxes it's like we're taking down the government one mailbox at a time and barney's here for it uh and then it's over to gets the great idea that he's just going to destroy every piece of mail that's in that uh i love his like bart is the one who's more responsible here and he homer's speech about like uh dear so-and-so like sign blah blah sign who cares yours truly some bozo big loss

and uh and yes and then the mail carrier who arrives it's the one who delivered the spy camera to Bart in Homer's Night Out. Well, no wonder she knows where they live. That's right. She's sick of them already. Again, another great line from Homer, like, there's no point in running away since you delivered your mail carrier and you know who I am. That's right.

Well, I'm still going to run. And Bart just goes like, well, okay, and just walks walks away uh meanwhile we cut to this feels like a late edition of a very simple b-plot but I love it the ghost writer for Burns's book I want the whole world to hear the story of my harrowing struggle with hypohemia well sir Mr. Roman is one of the finest ghost writers in the the business. He's written Like Hell I Can't, Up from the Muck, The Unsinkables at Rudin-Mabaradad. Excellent. All right, all right.

First question. Have you slept with anyone famous? Well, Curtis von Zeppelin and I... What in blaze? Now you listen to me, you bargain basement boudreleur. I'm not some dizzy starlet who can't string two words together. I can write this thing myself. You're fired.

Oh, God. Everything about it. I mean, this isn't either the episode. It just gives Burns more plot. And I feel like if this was like even five episodes earlier in season two, James L. Brooks would have said, your B plot can't be about Burns. It has to be about one of the family members. Yeah, a Burns story with a Burns B-plot. Yes.

They were obsessed with him. This whole thing, a great design on the very wormy ghostwriter. Like, he's so great. And then he instantly is like, well, do you have sex with anybody famous? The person he names is Baron Von Zeppelinelin died in 1917 just to show you how old the countess would be uh and yes these uh i mean the unsinkable said ruden mabaradad uh is kind of a reference to titanic survivor the unsinkable molly brown uh played by uh kate's kathy bates kathy bates thank you uh stevens. Kathy Bates in the Titanic film.

They really like the name Sedrudin Mabaradad. It would come up two more times, and we'll count them every time. Believe you me. One's in Camp Krusty, one's in another place. And also, like Hell I Can't, that is a reference to Sammy Davis Jr.'s Yes I Can, which will also be quoted in Like Father, Like Cl clown uh where he says the jews are a swinging bunch of people but it's so great that burns just like throws it out and just goes like the second he's asked like have you slept with anybody he's like get out of here i can write

this myself and also apparently he subscribes to the new yorker that this erudite crip about him being a bargain basement baudelaire yes it's very uh unburns for me but very humorous uh we already covered sorry we already recorded mr lisa goes to washington also written by george meyer and george meyer loves making fun of bad writing we don't hear a lot of it in this but what we do here is superb and i love it I love every second of it, yes. It's so good. And speaking of great writing, this joke is like an all-timer Simpson scene as we arrive at the post office. Hello.

My name is Mr. Burns. I believe you have a letter for me. Okay, Mr. Burns. What's your first name? I don't know. Great plan, Mr. Burns. What's your first name? I don't know. Great plan, Bart. Here's the thing. They're not comfortable with making Homer that stupid,

so they have to add the tag, great plan, Bart. That's true, yes. Though I guess, I mean, it makes him dumb enough to listen to Bart's plan. But, I mean, that's... One needless touch I love in this little establishing shot of the post office is you see this great mural. And if you go into the oldest post offices in your city, there will usually be one of those if they're old enough. Because during the Depression, the WPA, they would pay artists to just make art. Isn't that a crazy idea when the economy is bad, the government makes jobs?

No, no, man. Sorry, Jack. Not going to fly. Well, fortunately, we'll never have that again like it only led to like the biggest economic expansion in american history right after that whatever there's a really cool one in our berkeley post office that is rapidly deteriorating as everything is in this country i i think of i thought of our post office as i saw that painting i was like oh yeah our ancient post office uh is a is a perfect example of like America falling apart.

The last time it had an investment made into it was now I'd say 90 years ago. And it's just falling apart. I hate going to that post office. Every time I go to that post office, I leave it incredibly furious. But I can't, but part of my anger is I don't even want to be mad at the people who work there because I'm like, yeah, you guys have nothing. I know you incredibly furious. But part of my anger is I don't even want to be mad at the people who work there

because I'm like, yeah, you guys have nothing. I know you have nothing. You're giving me exactly what you should give me, which is the nothing you're given. I understand. But it's infuriating the post office. But, yes, just the voice Homer puts on to pretend to be mr burns uh and also just is in the confidence of i don't know that's the amount also the speed in which uh azaria gets his straight man

line out just like okay mr look and it's he's not like you could play it where you're trying to catch him but he's literally just asking a man what his first name is and uh his uh plan just easily falls apart i love it and uh i i know from experience when we interviewed david silverman the director of this episode the one one time we had him on our podcast he actually does say i don't know in reaction to questions about simpson's history if he does not recall them which is great to to know that simpson's people quote simpsons themselves even was was such a fun thing to find out uh but yes uh we quick cut to mr burns where we hear the his next chapter title so funny a trip to the infirmary with most unexpected results

which if you're reading this book it is not unexpected you know he doesn't die you're reading his book i i love the just the premise of the book is about his struggle with this disease that uh has only affected him once at the age of 100 just once and it worked out just fine really quickly uh and just the satisfaction on burns his face every time he writes an incredible cliche because he thinks he's the first person to ever think of it like what i think of when i see these autobiographies now is uh i'm sure it was happening back then and even earlier but i feel like it's happening with even greater magnitude that whenever anyone is running for president yeah their autobiography

is immediately released there's got to be a ghost writer and it always has a title like courage yes or like um building strength or whatever just these very broad generic titles well i mean not that he was the first one to do it but it were it really did work very well for barack obama like his that dude is on his like eighth autobiography frankly i've heard enough so you're the first black president we get and we get no no i was teaming up with bruce springsteen the right books it's true yeah i'd like a mystery novel by those two guys but but yeah oh like uh like clinton's mystery novel the president is missing uh he's got one mystery doesn't want anyone to solve no but yeah obama did it so well and everybody loved his book that everybody's like well if i'm gonna

run for president i have to sell these books and also like it's why it's why as much as we love bernie sanders people like get them i'm like you're technically worth two million dollars he's like yeah i sold a book okay give me a break those books always sell for whatever reason people want to be people want to old people want to read books called moving mountains or whatever the hell it's called our our friends on podcast the ride spotlit a guy who's like uh his one was called like there's always a paddle coming for your ass like uh that unfortunately Like that. Unfortunately, Joe Biden's is called promises to keep now slightly ironic. These things, you know, it's not to make. I, you know, I bet he could technically say when he said ten thousand dollars of college

debt forgiveness, that wasn't a promise. It was a suggestion. He said doll hairs. You weren't listening. And really, Bob, it was technically $2,000. Yes, he completed the $2,000. As he always promised. Anyway, so yes, then Homer is going to try one last chance to get the letter, which is exactly what Ralph Cramden does.

He sneaks into his boss's office and gets caught as well. For Operation Mail Take. Though his boss doesn't pretend he's about to stab him. But yes, Burns reads his letter. Don't tell him. Give him a fake name. Call me Simpson. Simpson? Simpson!

Why, there's a letter here from you. I'll just read it right now. Dear Mr. Burns, I'm so glad you enjoyed my son's blood and your card was just great. Why, Simpson, you've made my day. You're a true gentleman. Yeah, well, I'll be on my... Hello, there's more.

In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic. You stink. You are a senile, buck-toothed old mummy with bony girl arms, and you smell like an elephant's butt. Hey, come on, Joey. You have to twist my arm. Homer, I don't tell you how to do your job, okay? I could crush him like an ant, but it would be too easy. No, revenge is a dish best served cold i'll bide my time until

oh what the hell i'll just crush him like an ant yeah so 16 minutes in first act break i go ahead steven out of bony girl arms gonna make me laugh every time sorry folks uh buck tooth old mummy i uh yeah i whenever if i call somebody old and old mummy i think of this uh but yeah the i think too uh i this is short henry's tale the tape but i always i never get to hear the end of that one in my childhood videotape of this because we messed up on the pause we wanted to cut out this commercials and so didn't hear Burns' amazing last line of this scene for so many years until I got the DVDs. But I love that at this point,

even Burns is sick of his big flowery speech. He's like, eh, forget it. I'll clear some on the dance. Though Silverman on the commentary misremembers, he says that this is the first time Homer's brain has talked to him, which is not true. It was three episodes earlier in Lisa's Substitute. That was the

first time Homer's brain spoke to him. But Silverman does credit Brad Bird, animation and live action director superstar Brad Bird. It was his idea to have the camera pan up to Homer's brain and pan down like that was that was his idea that's a great choice but I I do love is like Burns reads that and compliments

him and what a silly thing like hello there's more like you know there's more text on it that's such a great line and this is when we also meet Joey the very businessman like goon who he'll get a different name later he's either crusher or low blow right right right but here he's just i love that he has a goon on retainer uh like a guy that is absolutely willing to beat somebody up 100 no problem and it gotta be likes too yeah that you know that maybe it's because i've been watched uh doing a full rewatch of the entire series of Sopranos. But it reminded me so much, like, in Sopranos, that's taken as reality.

A guy who's just like, yeah, I played poker with him a few times. Good guy. Will you beat the shit out of him? Oh, yeah. Consider it done. Got it right there. Like, yeah, just the sociopathy of these big friendly guys who once you tell them, like, well, it's part of your job to beat him up. Like, consider it done. Hor gonna do it like same with him saying like do you have to

twist my arm and yeah silverman regrets that it uh they changed the line that originally was like uh you know yeah yes i do it's called being compliance like that's the line but i i kind of like better the line of uh you know homer do i tell you how to do your job like i mostly think of this joey guy as the uh guy in margaret's of the monorail who was told i like the way snrub thinks that he's the skeptical guy who doesn't believe mr shrub isn't mr burns that's right he's ready to beat the shit out of smithers and burns in that moment they have to run they have to grappling hook out of there like out of 1989's batman uh but yeah so uh homer has been fired he's thrown out burns then uh even signs his pink slip an amazing penmanship on smithers back it's a nice little touch of acting

there i love it's like liver spots did i that's a good yes i think one of them is blank would we yes and i love that he's just it's not enough he's he wants he wants blood actually which is kind of funny no that that's such a great like misdirect too and he says yes i feel so strange i just destroyed a man's life with his pen and yet i feel so empty you know what haven't beaten to a bloody ball play it's uh in a lesser sitcom it would have been him saying like you know what i shouldn't fire him why i there's something wrong with me and say he's like oh no this this isn't satisfying because he still has his bodily function like he's not horribly beaten and put in the hospital uh meanwhile hom Homer is reflecting on how much

his life is ruined in this fun little clip. Honey, what's done is done. No matter what happens, we'll pull through. We always do. Okay, here's a plan. You can move in with your sisters and raise the kids, and I'll die in a gutter. It's practical and within our means.

Aww. They always told me I was gonna destroy the family, but I never believed it. That's okay, Bart. Nobody really believed it. We were just trying to scare you. I love that line so much like that. That, I think, comes from the same. I think it's a George Meyer line because it feels so much like the mean family interactions that are in

part of thanksgiving uh just the bart saying like oh yeah everybody has always told me you ruined this you're gonna destroy this and that lisa has to give up the game of like no we didn't really mean that we were just trying to scare you it was just being cruel to you saying that stuff but also just homers homers like it's practical and within our means. Like, great, great delivery. Well, speaking of great deliveries here. Yeah. Yeah.

There are so many line readings that were burned into my developing brain, and this is definitely one of them. And I get excited whenever I hear it. Could you imagine in this next clip, could you imagine now hearing Harry Shearer try this hard? No. He wouldn't be in anything. You know Homer Simpson? Yeah, nice guy.

Play poker with him once in a while. We need him beaten up. You got it. Wait. What is it? Nothing. Wait. What?

Beat, but don't kick. Hold the kicks. Got it. Wait. What? Beat, but don't kick. Hold the kicks. Got it. Wait. What? What did homie do anyway? He saved Mr. Burns' life. That's so good.

Mr. Burns' life. You got some phlegm in there, which you will not get Harry Shearer ever showing. No. Well, he's got a lot of phlegm now, but that will not get harry sheer ever showing no well he's got a lot of phlegm now but that's just because he's like in his 80s you know it's just it's happened yeah no just like when you're getting into cookie monster territory there well when it you know when it bubbles up and you're that upset yeah uh also another like great little moment is when joey turns around to say what like the way he like kind of bounces and puts his hands on like in his shrug he's like what like that's another great drawing too and also you know what this uh kind of precedes his characterization and who shot mr burns when smithers is you know mr bowtie and very a feed and shaving and all that but when he's in stress

he's a smoker he stopped shaving drinking yeah i i definitely think in the design for smithers and who shot mr burns they looked back to this of like okay what's a strung out smithers look like he's not coughing up an entire ass trays worth of uh debris though uh unfortunately no also it's a great little thing like he's looking at a photo of burns and homer at the same time as a way to express how embattled he is like that's a really good just like you know animation choice like silverman and his team are doing a great job in this it shows i've said it a million times but i think an underrated thing about why people don't i think that the show went down in quality that is not spoken to is thanks to the success of King of the Hill and a bunch of other animated

shows they lost like 80 percent of their animation team in the late 90s and there was really no rebuilding from that they they had such great artists on it before that they they could never really catch up and so Smithithers decides it's time to confront mr burns as mr burns finishes his important work in our next clip in closing gentle reader i'd like to thank you what's that you say me thanking you no it's not a misprint for you see, I enjoyed writing this book as much as you enjoyed reading it. The end. Now, Smithers, how'd the beating go? Sir, I... there was no beating.

What? Well, that's a hell of a thing. Why? Because I... I called it off. Judas! I'm sorry, sir, but I just couldn't hurt Homer Simpson. He saved your life. I see. I know you're mad at me, but I think it's only fair to warn you. I'm going to stand outside the gate

until you forgive me. No need, Smithies. As usual, you've been the sober ying to my raging yang. Put her there, old pal. Sir, while I wish this handshake would never end, I'm afraid we still have the simpson matter to attend to we do indeed old friend we do indeed uh i consider henry my

sober ying and i'm the raging yang no i'm the raging oh okay got it you can't both be the raging yang bob called the yang i call yang that is a great scene too because it's like a parody of a sitcom because that's the end of a sitcom there when they shake hands and make up and then it lasts a little too long and smith has to go like well technically this isn't the end of the episode we have to do another thing and then birds going like we do indeed old friend we do indeed i love the uh phrasing well that's a hell of a thing yes the beating a asking how the beating went oh it went great he got the shit kicked out it was fantastic and then he's like well that's a hell of a thing why wouldn't that happen what the uh and of course yes the great it's one of like the worst cliches in writing like

oh what's that me thanking you no it's not a misprint oh so good i think i read like an orson scott card that had an intro like that oh he's awful yes that it was not a joke in his case no yeah it was like you're such a genius for buying Ender's Game, but you know what? I'm a genius for writing it. We're all great together. So, yes, we have a quick cut to Moe's bar as Moe gets a prank call for Mike Roch. Mike Roch. Missing tooth on Moe. I'm on missing tooth watch, and it's not there.

I mean, it is there. Oh, good, good. The missing tooth is there, so the tooth is not there. I love the cut to Bart and Lisa laughing on the phone. Such a great drawing. I love that. And also nice detail that Homer is the only one not laughing because he's that unhappy. And this is before they got the mugs at most. They're drinking out of the tall drinking glasses instead of the mugs they normally drink out of.

Yes, that was weird. I saw that too. It seems like a nicer bar all of a sudden. Yes. drinking glasses instead of that instead of the mugs they normally drink yes that was weird i saw that too it's like okay this is it seems like a nicer bar all of a sudden yes yeah i also loved to just hearing mo very concernedly saying like you should not drink to forget your problems that's not a very mo thing to say yes yeah we're coming we've already recorded but in the parent rap mo pulls a gun on homer and robs him of his 600 pants like that's that's how different mo is 10 years later i mean we've we've seen the mo uh like beer steins before but i think he's trying to class up the place but you know what when you get a beer mug like that a big classic the the rim is always chipped you're

gonna feel a little bit of chip on that rim and you know you can't send them all back that's that's rule number one just turn the glass around both rims won't be you know both edges of the room won't be won't chipped just drink around it it's a fun game to try to not cut your lips you know it's part of the excitement keeps you on your toes uh i also i like hearing barney say yeah you should only drink to enhance your social skills that's a great line from old party and i love burns seussing it up on the elevator both the voice acting and the animation uh just very very good just a static shot of him just moving upwards delivering all of this very fun dialogue and the extra challenge too that they make it a mirrored background so you see it from two angles like that's so great and and it's i

also laugh that maude and the flanders boys are watching this like crazy guy freak out and talk about a zip zoop zabulus present uh and then we get the fun montage of all the presents they might get them. And I love this. I love. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels, and and much more making your usage clearer your trips greener your home cozier and your world brighter find our net zero hub at electric

ireland.ie smith is in the banjo i'm slapping my knee i'm having i'm having a blast he's really hamming it up i mean this is like a repeat of the joke uh the series of jokes from life on the fast lane when homer is looking for a gift for marge like oh too corny oh too exciting so it's them visiting a bunch of mall stores i mean the joke is like malls have a store for everything oh well not 30 years later they don't but uh yeah it's like going to all these different like specialty stores like the brushes are coming the brushes are coming i often say too cutesy poo yeah i describe things i don't like things when they're too cutesy poo including on this series but i i love i love his statement of it and and yeah smithers is the look on his face he's so pleased at playing this banjo that's so great and the pool table

clearly burns has a hundred year old stance on pool it's like what you do in a public house yes yes and it's also obviously exactly the gift that homer would like at least you know what i mean like would you like want to turn his house his home into a bar like absolutely if you could uh and what a great line of like a saloon such a fancy way of saying it uh this store that they get the olmec head from i mean you'll find these places in new york occasionally like they'll like have like just insane items that cost a thousand dollars each that are like a diamond studded statue of a poodle and you're like who in the world would buy such a thing i i assume that's what the store is supposed to be or

have you run across stores that are similar to this? I don't think I have, but I feel like those stores are for rich men who cheat on their wives. They need a really big gesture to get her back. You know, I have the place that he ultimately buys something from, Plunderer Pete's. It does feel a little like, I can't remember the name of the place. It was like a rainforest type thing. And I remember it had like rain sticks in it, which is just like, you know, a stick with like ball bearings in it. And you turn it upside down.

Sounds like rain. It's a great thing for a little kid to play with in a store. I am so glad my mom never like she was able to not waste money on that because like, what do you do with that? You spend like $40 on that for a kid and they turn it upside down like four times and then and then it just becomes like a thing they hit their brother with that's all or a thing your mom trips over yes yeah but but yeah this is certainly a joke about like walking around a mall and thinking who the hell buys this thing like how does this place stay open and actually uh though it will air, the episode before this in the season two production run, when Flanders fails, is about the same thing.

It takes the idea of like, there's a store for everything, even a left-handed item store, and it makes it the whole plot. Although I will take that back. I think malls are turning back into this now because malls are just selling space to local business people and the last time i walked through my local mall back in my hometown uh i don't know i think earlier in 2021 it was like i've never even heard of this store it's not a chain it's just some person selling things they basically set up an etsy store in a room with stuff yes there's like a folding chair it's basically just like i set up my own Etsy store at the mall

because real estate is very cheap here. You know, in one of our community's Simpsons news segments on the podcast, I remember seeing like it was a pop-up of an imitation Moe's that sells, you know, Simpsons food as a bar food. That was one of those things that's like, oh, yeah, it's in this dead mall and you can go to it. Like we just built – we like oh yeah it's in this dead mall and you can go to it like we just built we built a moe's in it for like four months and you can enjoy it and then closing up the moe's we're not staying open all the time in this moe's but it's i guess really

it is that everything is a is a halloween halloween store now you know like everything is a fly by night one uh and out yeah it's it's all uh any business can afford these days also i love that burns his nose is squished up against the window as he looks at it like that's such a great shot and yes it's a it's a great you know it doesn't work as a mystery anytime after the first time but when burns is pointing at something in there and says it's $32,000, as a viewer, you're like, what the hell could this be? What could it be? But we find out as the head is unveiled, they head home and Homer is crying on the couch saying, woe is me. And then Homer sees that Burns has arrived and i noted this time that the movers who are bringing in the giant box

they're the movers from treehouse of horrors first segment who are moving them into the bad dream house and they don't talk because one of them is james earl jones yep yeah so this time silent movers but uh but yes homer gets a gift in our next clip you brought us a present wait what did you think i was going to do? Have you beaten to a bloody pulp? To show there's no hard feelings, please take an advance copy of my book. Will there ever be a rainbow?

And now, young fellow, I haven't forgotten you. Here. Wow, a crew bar. It's to open the crate, stupid. What did I tell you? Oh, bet it's filled with diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls. Wow! A big ugly head.

Actually, son, it's a big ugly Olmec Indian head. It was carved by Mesoamerican Indians over 3,000 years ago. This gruesome customer is Extapolapa Kettle, the god of war. Awesome! No, Maggie, not Aztec. Olmec! Olmec! Marge, what does it do?

Doesn't do anything. Marge, really, what does it do? Whatever it does, it's doing it now. Well, I'll let you get acquainted with Señor Extopolopikettle. Did you see their faces, Smithers? Sir, you're my god of generosity. By the way, Ixtapalapa kettle, not real. Made up.

But him saying Ixtapalapa kettle, that's in my head as well. Yes, yes. Now, of course, the old Meck people were a real group. The Mesopotamian culture, like one of the first cultures in uh uh the southern south america i believe but the point is that they and they did make big heads silverman even admits on the commentary he's like yeah i have friends who collect pre-columbian art and they said the that head looks nothing like the other head they actually embellished it and made it look more interesting it's a rather kind of flat head design for the well i mean is it like not many extra details unless you know maybe they were painted a long

time ago but they if you look up a real olmec head it's not as uh there's not as many like rings in it or all that i do love the detail it's a great payoff of the the uh flashcards gag of maggie coming up with Aztec, and it's wrong, but it's incredible that she would identify any Native peoples associated with it. It's a great little joke. Yeah, I'm kind of sad that, I mean, this is 31 years later, and I know the mystery, but I remember it being a mystery

when I first saw it, and I like how this is also secretly one of the biggest pieces of Simpsons continuity, in that it's a mystery how they got this in the house and then into the basement but it will be in the basement almost every time you see their basement you will see the head like behind debris or stacks of newspapers or whatever it's so great that they keep the head in there as many times as they can like even even in the movie when the house gets destroyed, you can spot the head in the big house destruction sequence. Oh, and I take that back.

Sorry. The Olmec were in the tropical lowlands of the Gulf of Mexico in present day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. Did you watch The Road to El Dorado or didn't you? I know I'm failing. You know, we went to all that. Well, you know, you were the main producer. It's true.

Oh, but yeah, the also will there ever be a rainbow popped up a couple extra times in the series too it was uh in the last temptation of homer when they had their convention display for the plant uh the book is on there and in the old man and the lisa when lisa says burns is net worth she is reading this book to source it. It says, like, in your most recent autobiography, you said you're worth this much. What a great, like, final joke about his book about, like, yeah, this the most hacky, dumb book of all time is called the Will There Ever Be a Rainbow? Like, what a great, awful name. And also the way my life is full of gray gray clouds even though uh you know you're a total

billionaire the entire time yes you've been rich your entire life you've lived to be 100 you've you've done everything possible but you've had one setback and you should be dead you've lived too long a thing that should have killed you of natural causes because you're old he's like oh finally i didn't die but but yes i mean the box is gigantic the reveal of how it even get in there you're like what no this is impossible like that it's so great and cartoony and just the reveal for a first time viewer what a great reveal of that thing because you just go like what the what like what is this and just the explanation that it is an incredibly expensive and rare thing

so it actually is a great gift in rareness and worth but it is actually worthless unuseful in any way and actually a massive inconvenience for the simpsons going forward like such a perfect perfect bad gift to give couldn't you hawk it though for even like 15 grand if someone's willing to pay 32 someone should be able to pay 15 and that's a huge huge windfall for the simpsons that's true yeah i but i guess you know maybe they feel like if we throw it out burns will know and we'll get in trouble or something or they just or maybe homer you know in his uh very selfish ways just like no it was the gift and i'm keeping it like i'm gonna keep this

forever the the dynamic i read between burns and smithers this time is that uh burns is definitely being passive aggressive it's like i'll give you a gift and smithers because he can see no wrong in burns uh thinks oh what a nice thing my boss did giving this family this priceless artifact yeah i also love too how burn says what do you think i was gonna do have you beaten to a bloody pulp and then smithers just laughs like what a horrible in joke to have with each other like yeah you almost did beat him to death that's so funny uh but uh but yes then comes the moral of the story and one of the best uh closings of a simpsons episode ever i dare say. It's just a

great encapsulation of this episode. The moral of this story is a good deed is its own reward. Hey, we got a reward. The head is cool. Well, then, I guess the moral is no good deed goes unrewarded. Wait a minute. If I hadn't written that nasty letter, we wouldn't have gotten anything. Well, hmm. Then I guess the moral is the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Perhaps there is no moral to this story.

Exactly. It's just a bunch of stuff that happened but it certainly was a memorable few days amen to that that's perfect uh it does feel like a writer's room too like so what's the point of this how do we how do we end this and james l brooks is not uh flown in to have a character you have a big grand speech and again like I said at the beginning this does feel like the mission statement from here on out like this will not this this sometimes will not have a pat ending that has a feel-good moment with nice music behind it sometimes it's like yes wasn't that a bunch of fun jokes about one theme all right we'll see you watch Drexel's class come up next yeah yep or 90210 this week oh yeah 90210 oh steve sorry it's also super it gets even more meta because

they laugh at literally nothing you know what i mean like they're it ends on a big like oh we're all just a big family laughing together but like you're just saying it was a memorable couple of couple of days and you're cackling like it just it's a very a fun gag on sitcom endings and and a great point that it's like oh this was just like 72 hours in your life this is what it was was this ridiculous thing and also they all laugh just because like well it's the end of the tv show you gotta laugh at the end of it like it's like they know they're at the end of the tv show and and yeah also it feels like writers like tearing apart their story and just saying like well this is the moral it's like well no this wouldn't happen if homer wasn't a jerk well okay and then but yes as as a

kid i did not get how great it was to hear lisa say maybe there is no moral to this story just like yeah i've quit why are you looking for this in the tv show didn't you have a good time that's all you that's all you gotta ask for it certainly was eventful it's also very uh familiar to the end of rosebud with uh i don't know it's an ending that's good enough you know what i mean which is you know it's a happy ending or a sad ending it's an ending and well it's also that's one where they help burns and they actually do get nothing for it and they just go like so actually yeah rosebud one of the greatest episodes of simpsons ever actually just rips off this episode i forgot about that uh i you know i've got it coming in the mail i haven't

got it yet but i recently made the splurgy purchase of a cell from rosebud of mr burns future burns in his robot body holding the uh the bobo and uh it's best uh best hundreds of dollars i ever spent but anyway uh yeah i i love this is the last episode of season two it shows compare this to bart gets an f which i think is a great episode but they have grown so much they've gotten so much confidence gene and reese are taking over and you know they have their own ups and downs as showrunners but this shows what they're really great at which is like this show is a zany satire of sitcoms and we can do crazy shit you can't do in another sitcom why are we trying to be like other sitcoms with like a heartfelt ending or homer telling marge like i

love you more than ever homer well yeah, what do we need this shit for? Like, we can just be the funniest show on TV. And this is their way of showing it. What's interesting, just kind of in the context of Honeymooners, that's what they were aping, obviously, right? It's the baby or the greatest ending. You can't have an episode unless they don't kiss. And he doesn't actually finally not only uh apologize but let her know that she is the best i mean and also look at that guy and look at her you know you better be saying

maybe you're the greatest a lot but i mean like that's sort of that convention that they it took them a while to get out of i guess yeah i totally agree and again to restate what i said up front uh hours and hours ago but this is really where it starts for me it's not like the things before this you can discount entirely but i feel like they figured everything out the dynamic the kind of jokes they can write uh important characters like smithers and burns and the idea of uh you know a fun ending that is very frivolous and not wrapping everything up with a grand speech and nice music so yeah i'm very excited about doing this episode and excited about what's to come in season three. So, Steve, thanks for being on the show once again. You are from We Hate Movies.

You've got a Patreon with a lot of great, great stuff happening behind the paywall. And also this will launch in the middle of February. What is going on with We Hate Movies? We're just kind of doing a back to basics month. We just did our We Love Movies month in December. We did a big worst of the 2021 era. Right now we're just we did like we're doing 90s movies. We've got we did a big worst of the 2021 era right now we're just we did like we're doing 90s movies we've got uh we did big bully uh we've got the truth about cats and dogs

is probably out at this point uh and on the on our patreon we're doing you're getting for the we love movies feed you're getting two full-length episodes on kill bill volume one and kill bill volume two so that's all for the low low price $5, not to be a huckster. Pretty good deal. Best deal in podcasting. I should say one of the best deals in podcasting. Yes. I'm a proud patron.

I as well. Yeah. No, I'm looking forward to those. You know that Truth About Cats and Dogs, saw that in the theater with my mom. And the only thing I remember is the extreme discomfort I felt during the phone sex scene in that movie. Yeah. That's not in that movie. Yeah. That's not a mom movie for sure. Well, I'm glad you guys are moving on

to lighter fare in February because it felt like January was killing all of you. Oh, yeah. Just all these two and a half hour slogs. Now 90 minutes tops. That's what I'm looking forward to, folks. Base Jam, a new legacy. I hope that we, you know,

it'll probably be on some poll at some point for us, but I hope to never have to go what you guys went through with that one. Oh, Jesus. But thank you, Stephen, so much, man. It's always awesome having you back. This was super fun. Revisiting season two was a blast with you folks and i'm gonna i i'm kind of gonna add this to my repertoire of running the simpsons running it's not the same 150 episodes of the simpsons of the ground it'll now be the same 170 broad in your horizon of simpsons reruns you rewatch and that's it yeah only that way that

is it so thanks again to steve sadak for being on the show please check out we hate movies we love it as for us if you want to check out more of what we do please go to patreon.com slash talking Simpsons sign up there for five bucks a month to get all these episodes one week ahead of

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is pride the one of the best disney sequels i dare say of the direct-to-video sequels let's be honest here uh and then this month chosen by our patrons we are doing the 1999 film south park bigger longer and uncut a film we all remember if you were a fan back then so check out the entire back catalog of three years worth over 200 hours of what a cartoon movie podcast in addition to all the five dollar things bob mentioned at the ten dollar level you'll see a big list of them if you visit patreon.com slash talking simpsons to see it all as for me i've been one of your hosts bob mackie if you like the sound of my voice i'm doing a lot of talking over on the retronauts podcast that is a podcast about classic games or retro games whatever you want to call them please head on over to patreon.com slash retronauts sign up there for

two full-length bonus episodes every month and henry what about you i'm h-e-n-e-r-e-y-g on twitter follow me there for all the cool updates in my life and you should also be following the official twitter account of this podcast network at talk simpsons pod you stay up to date with the news there and also if you're looking for an easy list of our uh all the free episodes we've done or other cool information about us, check out our official website, TalkingSimpsonsPodcast.com. Thank you so much for listening, folks. We'll see you again next time for the next episode of our community podcast, Talk to the Audience, and we'll see you then. I'm I'm

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