Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Cape Feare

Episode Date: February 22, 2017

Smack us with a rake in the face — it’s Sideshow Bob’s greatest plot to kill Bart ever! It’s also an end of an era for the show, and we’re here to dissect it all, including explaining all the references to Cape Fear AND the HMS Pinafore! Try your best not to grumble…

this week's talking simpsons is brought to you by casper mattresses and you can go to caspertrial.com slash laser time to get fifty dollars towards any new mattress i heartily endorse this event or product product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we're coming to you live from a pee-pee-soaked heckhole. Sorry, Chris. I think I had to say it by now, but I'm your host, Bob Mackie, and there are wolves after me. And this is the LaserTime Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons.

Who else is here with me today? I'm Henry Gilbert and buh. Gah. And who else? Chrissy Borden and T-Stem. Dirty wax with a wet noodle, Bart. Schools don't force you like they should. And today's episode is Cape Fear with an E.

And it aired on October 7th, 1993 and Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in history. Oh my God! Oh happened on this mythical day in history. Oh, my God. Oh, Bobby. This day in substance history, ESPN2 debuts.

And Jamaicans make America believe again with cool runnings. And CNN debuts Late Edition, a Sunday news program featuring a scrappy young beardo named Wolf Blitzer. Oh. Also a Mega Man X-Boss. It's been made. That joke is been made. You have acquired gray beard. Get equipped with.

Get equipped. Boy, was that long ago that John Candy was alive and starring in movies. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was a 94 movie, but apparently it premiered right around early October. I just think of them for the Futurama joke where Hermes brings them up. My proud Jamaicans who also were in the Olympics. And then Fry says, and then they advertised beer. And then Hermes says, inspiration for the children.

Red Stripe, right? I'm baffled by this episode. I love it. I think it's one of the best we've seen so far. Henry and I have a lot of history to drop on you. I mean, because this is the true end of the Simpsons' first era. Okay. And we'll get into it now.

Basically, production of season four ends with this episode. Okay. And nine writers leave, essentially. Some of them have already left, but nine writers are now gone. In season five, next episode, they'll all be gone. So who left is John Vitti, Jeff Martin, Jay Kogan, Wally Woldarski, Sam Simon,

Al Jean, Mike Reese, George Meyer, David Stern. All gone, starting with the next episode. Tell me who didn't leave. Just kaboom. Yeah, who didn't leave? Conan O'Brien, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein. The rest are new hires. Because they were signed, Oakley, Weinstein, and Conan were signed to deals in season three or four.

Right. Which made them have longer contracts. Well, meanwhile, all the season one people or season two had contracts and ended season four. Or they were out to buy out their contracts to get better deals and other places and start doing new things and most of them did go on to work on pilots the only people who got anything made right after the simpsons were al jean and mike reese we'll talk about that in the rap season four we're going to talk more about their poster thing the fate of every simpsons writer following the simpsons at least from this era the purge yeah and it was a self- Following the purge. Yeah. It was a self-inflicted purge, though.

And because they're all on their way out, this is definitely, they talk about it on the commentary. John Vitti on his Twitter also talked about it, that this was just pure senioritis. Like, they were just like, this is our last one. We're going to have goofy fun. Yeah. We're not going to care. But I've now experienced that, like, having my dream job and getting sick of it i've watched you do the same thing henry it just it can happen yeah look at my final articles on us gamer i think that's when i threw funko pops under the bus oh that was

awesome yeah and so that it's the similar situation here vd even said on his twitter of just like they read the script then when they did their table read of the script, it wasn't a great reaction. It didn't go over well. And normally they would have, for Cape Fear, they do the table read, doesn't go over well, and normally old Al Jean and Reese would have been going like, we better do some big rewrites. But this time they said,

eh, it'll be funny when Kelsey's here to say it. He's bending his son head out. Yeah, I mean, the sentiment behind this episode is, what are you going to do, fire us? Because I feel like, in a way, they were sort of breaking the show as much as they could. This is the most Family Guy episode of The Simpsons I have ever seen.

It really is, to the point where Matt Groening, so when they screen the animatic, there are jokes in the animatic just for the writer's sake. It wouldn't be crazy if we put this in the show. There are some of these things that Matt Groening assumed wouldn't be in the animatic just for the writer's sake. Like, wouldn't it be crazy if we put this in the show? There are some of these things that Matt Groening assumed wouldn't be in the show, like Bart with the playbill at the end, and the Union Jack unfurling behind Sancho Bob at the end. But they made it into the show because they were just like,

let's just do whatever we want because we're going out. It's wrapped in such a specific parody more so than any episode. It really is. It's a beat-for-beat parody of a movie that would soon be two years old by this point in time. And of two movies. Yes, exactly. Were they obsessed with Martin Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear? Well, let's cut back to this year's season four's Halloween episode.

They already did a guy being tied under the car thing because they were so fascinated with that. Krusty tied being tied under the car thing because they were so fascinated that crusty tied himself up under a car because in the de niro film that was an addition for the de niro film we're talking about cape fear the 1962 and 1991 both really good both really good yeah so both have robert meachum yes that's right he plays the judge in the 91 one that's right wow god the the 1962 one is amazing the thing they made it in the haze code era too but meanwhile the that's the biggest difference between kate fear between the k fears scorsese was knew he was remaking a classic film and so he was just trying to modernize it and then just get bobby d doing all his crazy that's

before he was stinky grandpa and fartingarting Grandpa and Wrapping Grandpa. Scorsese's guy every movie. Yeah. This is the most, the wildest De Niro character in almost any movie, but definitely in a Scorsese movie. Come out, come out, where are you?

It's crazy. I think as a result. Counselor, yeah. As a result of how bold it is, when I got Sling, the cable thing, so I'm looking at things people play every day.

And movie channels run this movie all the time, all the time. It's still really works. And Robert Mitchum is a scary guy. He's a very imposing figure. I mean the remake, the remake,

they run in the remake. So the remake, it just sexes things up more. Like the stories are both the same. So Robert Mitchum or Robert De Niro, they are a bad man who went to jail for crimes he committed, but he was screwed over by his defense attorney, played either by

Gregory Peck or by Nick Nolte. Before he was a grizzled hobo. So both of them gave him bad defense when they could have kept him out of jail because the defense attorney knew this guy is horrible like this guy is

an awful man and deserves to go to jail but he gets out and now is out to menace the man and his family who failed him and it's just him it's him pissing in the face of the law of saying well he hasn't broken a law technically he's not you know he's not in trouble watching it again it's like de niro doesn't seem to know what he wants to do with the family other than torment him it's just like extreme conditions it's not as good of a movie when they get on the houseboat yeah because extreme conditions like well you got to do something the suspense is like what is he going to do because right now he's just like existing around us that's uncomfortable but what can he do to us next to show the difference between the two versions and how they just like ratcheted up some,

Robert Mitchum almost gets caught right after he gets out so he can show what a horrible person he is. He picks up a young woman at a bar and they think they're in for a night of fun and then he beats her badly. I think played by Leanna Douglas in the remake. Yeah, but so in the original... Scorsese's lady.

So in the original, she's beaten and afraid to say anything, though. So she won't name him. In the Scorsese remake, similar thing happens, except he bites a chunk out of her cheek. Yeah. Just to show you it's R-rated. And then also the stuff with Juliette Lewis. It's super, super creepy. It is some creepy stuff.

Just the way he feels her teeth sucking on her fingers and stuff yeah two years after christmas vacation no no she sucks his oh sucks his fingers right yeah he's just like i'll take off your take off your braces yeah she's sexy as fuck just i just want to say and also the rules there's this great scene where gregory peck hires people to not well uh sorry nick nolte hires people to beat him up, and he beats the shit out of those guys like, counselor, come out, come out, wherever you are. And I remember that scene being parodied

on the Ben Stiller show version of this, where it was Eddie Munster. One of the not-so-great Ben Stiller show sketches. The one that carried over from his short-lived SNL career. Oh, boy. I don't remember this movie making that big of an impact on people, but for Simpson to shell their first really off-the-wall fucking parody, it seems like a Halloween episode.

It's really like an airplane version of the movie. And a few more things about the production. It's a really great commentary. Please listen to it if you have the DVDs, because John Vitti, I feel like he's kind of burning bridges in that he mentions that two actors who he does not name were not happy with the staff all leaving at the end of season four they felt like they were being like set up to fail obviously they they wouldn't fail but nine writers are leaving yes simpsons actors i mean yeah i attribute i

know that snl attributes like certain writers to writing for certain people, but do you think Simpsons actors thought a writer would... Well, when you know the end... Only Schwarzwiller gets marred. When 80% of the staff leaves who's responsible for your hit show, you're like, well, my career's over now. Yeah, that's... I mean, we know the end of the story is better. Things get better. But why wouldn't you think that, like, okay, this fad is over.

Everybody quit. Whoever comes on is going to be terrible, and nobody will like us in the next season, and my golden goose is gone. Yeah, and it's a fascinating period in The Simpsons where, like, all of these other actors who are on The Simpsons are doing other things. It's not until, like, ten years in where they're like,

I'm Yordley Smith and I don't do shit. Exactly. I'm Nancy Cartwright, I don't do anything else other than The Simpsons. And I think Al Jean or John Beattie, whoever said it on the commentary, had the same opinion where it's like no one could ever take off after us and do the work we did. The show's

kind of screwed now, but we have our cushy development deals. We don't have to work as hard anymore. Let's go off and make our own things now. I mean, they also all quit because they were fucking miserable. Yeah, yeah. It was a grueling job. They talk about the very late nights, all of them gaining weight and not never sleeping their horrible place they did the jokes in like we uh yeah wait we were just

at a dana gould thing where he was talking about how they're in this horrible place the simpsons right in the room it looks awful and they're talking about like we're in the building we bought like the simpsons paid for this building and they're being told you're getting too many free pizzas you guys are drinking too much orange juice i believe this is a complaint but like if you see it now the simpsons has like a complex but on the serious jibber-jabber thing conan shows you the room and he says like they put decorations in here for this picture because this room was not decorated it looks disgusting yeah so one last production note um unless henry or something else is that that so everyone was busy. Algie and Mike Reese were working on The Critic.

This episode airs in the fall. This Act 3 was rewritten by the Season 5 team. Sam Simon basically came in and helped them rewrite it. Whoa. So they were watching the show like, oh, this happened in this show? This happened in this episode? Okay. Because they just dropped the – that's how soon they left because The Crit spoilers the critic will premiere in january like january after this so production

wise they can't still be working on that yeah i'm assuming you've seen how many people are bugging us to do talking critic or critically talking or whatever i do intend i would very much like to do at least the first episode of The Critic when we get timeline wise to The Simpsons that aired next to The Critic I at least want to do that with Diana with Diana Goodman and Michael and fucking Grimm was over here today like he's re-watching The Critic

and quoting The Critic and I forget how much of that stuff like it's just as in my brain as Simpsons stuff. There are only 26 episodes. Yeah, there'd be 22 and two of them are clip shows. I haven't seen a lot of the Addams Film stuff. And yeah, but they're all leaving. The season five people finished it with them, which is so weird.

It kind of reminds me of those random Stimpy episodes that they just took from John Kay and finished with him. Finished making a storyboard. I do have one final thing. And I think our season five special should be all the cut clips, all the cut scenes, because it's hard to squeeze them all into here.

They're all on a different disc. But John Feedy mentions a B-plot that was cut from this episode in which Bob is disguising himself as their maid, which I believe is a plot point in the De Niro version. That is ridiculous.

It is De Niro, like, in drag. There is no B-plot in this at all. I think that's why it seems, that's why the parody seems all-encompassing. Yeah, and it is the nero like in drag there is no b plot in this at all i think that's that's why it seems that's why the parody seems all-encompassing yeah and it is and it was it was amazing to then watch this movie i think this was the first scorsese film i saw in its entirety because i would have seen this in like 94 like just renting it just to see it and it's not i mean it's not a good Scorsese film. Dude, it's really fun.

It's a really super watchable movie, though. Actually, I read... So I'm really into the books of film history, both of them, the Easy Riders and Raging Bulls, and the one about indie films of the 90s by the same writer, Peter Beiskind. I also read a collection of a lot of his articles. He had this one

really good one he was on the set with martin scorsese of cape fear but talking about the chances of goodfellas winning an oscar and he framed it in a way i never thought about which is scorsese had just made his comeback they're like we all thought this is 91 he's talking about it or 90 uh he's like we all thought martin scorsese was finished the 80s were very bad for him and we're just like he's never coming back then he made goodfellas and this could actually win an oscar which he wouldn't win an oscar for 15 more years well dances with wolves is the one everybody watches every week right yes it's so memorable but so this was his follow-up to goodfellas goodfellas was a surprise hit for him and so they're like we'll take the safe holly like take the safe remake

made for hollywood and uh i think what was his next one after this it was a casino or was it kundun uh 95 kundun i think is a little before that there's one there's dangerous liaisons yeah but i'm a huge Scorsese fan and I'll say right now Goodfellas is one of my favorite movies of all time. I can quote it up and down

and I know it's not cool to say. It is endlessly rewatchable. Love it. It's so good. It's really good. The AV Club ranked it as the best film of the 90s ahead of Pulp Fiction

and at first I was like, I don't know, Pulp Fiction feels like so 90s to me but I think they're right. There's like 18 scenes I could lose from Pulp Fiction. Yeah. Whereas I wouldn't cut anything out of Goodfellas.

It has not aged as well as Goodfellas, I think. It's still a good movie, though. God damn it. But talk to me about Tune Robots. Let's just watch Goodfellas. Talking Goodfellas, a 17-part series with him. Wow. The episode now begins.

I think it was fitting that the final Gene and Reese episode starts with the circus. Well, I was going to say the circus opening. Another of the elongated openings because it was a short episode. Full intro and circus opening. That elongated couch gag in the last episode was fucking terrible. I had that in my notes and didn't get to say it. What, the take one, take two, take three? Yes, they get three couch gags.

That feels like a modern couch gag in which it is a viral video to be spread around. So I should have said this in the last episode too i had a note about that too i felt when it premiered that it gave it more gravitas like the simpsons is finally back and to make up for the lost time they're smashing you with like four couch gags in a row i think so yeah it felt like a bigger deal to me when i watched it when it was i know i'm entertained uh shitless when pixar does a fake outtake thing like their billion dollar outtakes yeah they have to create a storyboarded and uh yeah dave foley pops up in this toy story scene that's an outtake but yes then to save time or again to fill time they're watching television yeah oh it's it's almost the beginning of every episode at this point. Ladies and gentlemen, it's up late, Miss McBain.

I'm your announcer, Upper Coop and Führer Wolf Castle. And here's McBain. Yeah, thank you. Tiny tune theme song. Sounds like it. Let's say hello to my music guy, Skoy. That is some outfit, Skoy. It makes you look like a homosexual.

Maybe you all are homosexuals, too. This is horrible. The Fox network has sunk to a new low. Oh, man, I have so many bombs to drop on you guys for this. So Obergruppenführer is a Nazi paramilitary rank and apparently this is like Wolf Castle's father or grandfather

or something. His name is Wolf Castle. His name is McBain again. It's up late with McBain, but they introduced him as Rainier Wolf Castle. It's so weird. He had been named as Wolf Castle two episodes previous anyway. And the guy's just in a nazi uniform and he salutes he does a nazi salute pause it like no that's a swastika yeah on his armband and that feels like them being like fuck you graining we're putting a nazi a nazi joke so

what blew my fucking mind is scoey the band leader is mcbain's partner who gets killed scoey you're talking crazy scoey i looked at them same faces different haircuts different like scoey in the movie has a mustache but his name is scoey and he's a black guy with the same face it's all there it never oh my god i just like mcbain and scoey cannot be separated so apparently that was based on the awkward relationship between arsenio hall and his band leader. I could not find any clips of this, but that's what it was based on. But yes, Scoey is fucking here. He hasn't been shot.

He's still got the Live Forever boat. That's amazing. I never got that. I do. I love Maybe You're All Homosexuals, too. Maybe You're All Homosexuals. His head turn there is more frames of animation than almost anything in The Simpsons. Because he's shocked that the audience would disapprove with his comment. His head turn there is more frames of animation than almost anything in The Simpsons.

Because he's shocked that the audience would disapprove with his comment. Well, talking about the animation, animation is amazing in this whole episode. It is a tour de force by Rich Moore. And speaking of people leaving, he will leave to be the supervising director of The Critic. So this is his last one, too. And then eventually Futurama he would do. Yeah, he would never come back to the Simpsons he went from this to The Critic to Futurama to Disney

so one final thing about this scene I assumed it was a Chevy Chase show reference but it was written several months before they even would have known it would have sucked it premiered around the same time Chevy Chase's show did and if I may say that we were all excited and had high hopes for the Chevy Chase show. No one was rooting for it to fail.

People were looking forward to it because Chevy Chase at that point was funny. But the critic got in a good shot at the Chevy Chase show eventually. But I like the, I mean, it's just them knocking Fox again. It's just there. I think it's like three of the last four episodes had a joke about like Fox sucks. Watch Fox and be damn for all eternity yeah on fox and then this one yeah and what i love about the baby you're all homosexuals too is that joke was done a million times by every band of two band leaders a million

times of like you're looking a little uh fancy like, duck. Everybody will laugh at that, but if you were to directly say you look like a homosexual, people are like, that's too obvious. Boo, that's too hateful. You have to have some... Oh, but a real dark joke is that letter to Lisa. That is so dark.

Bart and Lisa get letters, and I love that it has different VOs as Lisa reads it. It's from my pen pal, Anya. Dear Lisa, as I write this, I am very sad. Our president has been overthrown and... Replaced by the benevolent General Krull. All hail Krull and his glorious new regime. Sincerely, little girl.

You got a letter too, Bart. I'm going to kill you. Okay, there's a debate raging behind the scenes at the Talking Simpsons studios. We came to blows, I think, before this episode aired. I was going to re-watch both films because I just felt like it knew this was coming. But I didn't have time. Yes.

But I'm pretty sure Scorsese used the same music from the original Cape Fear because he's a big movie nerd. Yeah. Should I rewind that? Well, I can tell you the Satchelob theme is bum, bum, bum, bum. But the Bernstein theme from Cape Fear is bum, bum, bum, bum. Yeah, let me see if I can cue that up again. They're just different enough to be legally different. And Bernstein is not named in the credits at all.

So I feel like they did do a sound alike. So there's not a credit to, oh my God, what's his name? We just set it open. Bernard Herman. Sorry, not Elmer Bernstein. Bernard Herman. The Cape Fear theme. They actually say Elmer Bernstein in the commentary, which is why I was confused.

Oh, wow. That's the original. This is the original Cape Fear theme from what, 1962? 62. Yeah. Yeah. So you think this is not being used in this episode. It's bum, bum, bum, bum. You just heard that.

Let's hear the other one now. Up. Yeah. Up. So Herman is bum, bum, bum, bum. Sasha Bob is bum, bum, bum, bum. It's that easy. I'm not even a musical guy. Ding, ding, ding, ding, bum, bum. It's that easy. I'm not even a musical guy.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. It's not the same. Not at all. I mean, well, 75% of it's the same. That's the Cape Fear. I don't know, but if you do check the credits, they would have to credit. Yeah. Bernard Herrmann, if it was the same song.

And I think it just passed off like, oh, of course, it's the theme from Cape Fear. But it's really not. It's not a Fox movie. It's a Universal movie. They would have had to acquire the rights. Well, well it's hardly the first time they've rewritten a song to be like close to yeah i mean that golden slumbers thing from the clip show is so close it's almost like this where it's like you could just no you're right i'd never notice that so you're right maybe they could have snuck it past me but it still sounds fucking fucking same, I swear. I don't hear the difference. Yeah. Come on, I just sang it nine times, Chris.

Bart doesn't know who to ever... So that theme became Bob's theme. It did. This episode would define Bob. Now he only wants to kill Bart, right? Even if you're just listening to this show, Sideshow Bob appears every couple of years. Every two years.

And this is the first episode Kelsey Grammer appears on when he's on Frasier. And I wanted to find some amazing revelation there, but odds are Kelsey Grammer didn't think Frasier was going to be one of the longest-running sitcoms ever. This was likely recorded before Frasier debuted. Probably. It debuted in the fall of 93 with this episode.

It's just like, I feel like Sideshow Bob is just used just enough all the time. And I remember talk of the time like Frasier. Why would you choose that character? Why not Sam or Woody? Or Norm, yeah. Kelsey Grammer, why would you do a spinoff? Ick, those never work.

Yeah, which J. Kogan and Wally Walidarski would later call on to work on. But that theme became his thing, and this also did change bob quite a lot they bring him on the commentary that this was the first one that wasn't a mystery but that's not totally true this first act is a mystery a bit but it's not a mystery in how black widower or krusty gets busted was they said it saved them time and made them like write more interesting scenes because there's no there's nothing to set up there's no clues to place it's just all suspense and like terror and jokes happen yes yeah though well none of them work like mysteries after this the closest thing is the cecil episode where you're just doubting that bob really has turned yeah but

that episode just turned 20 years old 30 2010 once again and sideshow bob roberts is that it's just the intensity of like can he he will he become mayor really like it's stuff like that i want to talk about it but he yeah uh though him making the note of like by corn holders where is he gonna get that in jail i mean come on i like how they zoom in on that and the blood is dripping down it's a very sinister corn holders message so this was another weird thing about watching it live when it originally aired i was struck by the mystery when it is revealed that is bob i'm like wow but my mom and brother sam were both just like once it was revealed and i was shocked they were like well we knew it was in it it's been all in all the commercials i think it was yeah do you

not hate that shit you know i remember the promos closed? Because I remember it vividly. No, I didn't watch it. What joke was it? It was the driving through the cactus patch. Oh, okay. That was the majority. They showed the under the car thing. But that's terrible because the entire first act is made to end on the reveal of Bob.

He doesn't talk for the first eight minutes of the episode. Exactly. It takes a while before you hear Kelsey Grammer's voice. But Bart's getting Threading letters He's getting Threading letters And like who would Hurt him

And I This line And the most I don't normally Notice the ADR That you guys do But this is so Apparent and awful

The most infamous ADR case I think It's basically Three frames of grandpa With no change In expression It's not even A great joke

It's not really I think it's all The season five guys But who'd want To hurt me I'm this century's Dennis the Menace It's not even a great joke. It's not really. I think it's all the season five guys. But who'd want to hurt me? I'm this century's Dennis the Menace. It's probably the person you least suspect. That's good, Dad.

I say we call Matlock. He'll find the culprit. It's probably that evil Gavin McCloud or George Goober Lindsey. Grandpa, Matlock's not real. Neither are my teeth, but I can still eat corn on the cob if someone cuts it off and smushes it into a fine paste. Now that's good eating.

Jesus. That line has Conan written all over it for some reason. Yeah, it really does. I do like the implication, though, that ones who Matlock would face would be other people from his generation of television. The guy who played Goober. Yeah, from Andy played Goober?

Goober Pyle and Gomer Pyle are different. They are. And don't you dare mess them up. When Gomer left to get his own show, then they elevated Goober to fill it. And I gotta tell you, I've read Goober Lindsay's biography. That was because... How old are you? I read it because the news radio...

If you love commentaries that tell all, get every season of news radio because they tell every story. I mentioned that before. Paul Sims? Paul Sims. He is on a bridge-burning world tour. He doesn't care at all. And he's also getting the enjoyment of,

Joe, I'm going to have a commentary with me, Joe Rogan, and Andy Dick when he knows Andy Dick really hates Joe Rogan, but he's making Andy Dick pretend to like him. And I've seen Andy Dick on podcasts where people are like, we now need to legally protect you and you have to be quiet. Because you're going to say something to get you in trouble. Anyway, on the show, they talk about how they, in multiple episodes, they talk about how they fell in love with George Cooper Lindsay for reading his biography about what it was like to be a marginally famous person in the 60s. It starts with a forward

by Ernest Borgnine telling the story of how George Cooper Lindsay stopped him from committing suicide once. It's amazing. What insight could he possibly have? If there's anybody who should have killed himself. George Cooper Lindsay is like, hey, you're better off than me. you were an oscar-nominated movie right before that was the reveal that homer

has a tattoo on his butt this is why i've never seen again a lot of magical tattoos i did i did how did bark get that tattooed on his butt i really want to know passes out quite a lot that's true so i was more wondering the dvs are great about including multilingual localized versions of The Simpsons. Do they replace the word on Homer's ass in every territory? I think someone will read it. Or it'll be in subtitle on the screen. If that exists as a different piece of animation,

I gotta see it, because Wide Load is so American. It really is, yeah. Yeah, I also love that homer wrote i kill you scum and just showing how wacky the episode gets this is the most spontaneous ha ha ever nelson has no reason to be there he is not referenced another time and it's just he's there to do it it'll get worse in season five and by worse i mean better when when bart is getting laughed at through a haha of a mental projection yeah nelson from when he overdoses

on squishies god damn but i really came to define him i'm asking how much i love doing the show we just stopped talking about an andy griffith side character uh but now we have to bring it over to the Safaris who make an appearance in The Simpsons. Again, you're right. It's still a mystery. I watched this episode knowing who was going to be on screen, but they don't reveal it for a while. Alright, this is dedicated to Bart Simpson

with a message. I am coming to kill you slowly and painfully. Yeah, the 1963 song Wipeout from the Safaris painfully. Yeah, the 1963 song Wipeout from the Safaris, which would be popularly sampled in the Fat Boys. That's right.

Only that guy could do it and then he died. I did a great job. You almost died doing it. I'm still here. The animation of Bart slowly moving back under the covers

is great too. Great animation throughout, especially with all the slowly moving back under the covers is great too. Great animation throughout, especially with all the Bob scenes. All the scary scenes of like Springfield townsfolk who the, again, I wasn't capable of accepting the misdirect because I knew who it was. But if I didn't, it's amazing. This is, I love these jokes. Conan O'Brien has talked about so many times how much he loves doing these jokes of like, Anderson, was this good? I agree, it is. You're right.

He loves these jokes, and so they do three super, super bad ones in a row. It's great. Say your prayers, Simpson. Because the schools can't force you like they should. Ma, these new finger razors make head trimming as much fun as sitting through church. All of these scenes were... Freddy Krueger Flanders, man. They're really great. I'm going to dress up as that for next Halloween.

It's Freddy Krueger into Edward Scissorhand. Yeah. And also, I love that he pushes up his glasses with the razor. With the blade. Nice little touch. And all of these scenes were built in to pad out the story because it was not long enough. This and the rake jokes. These three scenes.

I capture the sound like, that's astoundingly long. It is. Like when there's no picture. It looks like a couple things repeat. I love all the like, I'm going to get you, Bart. And you're going to play my murder victim, Bart. You're going to be my murder victim, Bart. Another threat on Bart's life. Oh, you're gonna you're going to be my murder victim Bart another

threat on Bart's life oh you got it not to be you're going to be my murder victim Bart in our school production of Lizzie Borden starring Martin Prince as Lizzie 40 wax with a wet noodle Bart so I'm sorry I'm giving 40 that's my line of the show. 40 wags for the wet milk bar. So Lizzie Borden was a real life person who was accused of axe murdering her mother and father. I heard Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother 40 wags. But it was created into an opera, yeah. A 1965 opera. So that's another one lost to time that I feel like we saw a ton of references by people who grew up in the 60s making to Lizzie Borden.

I think this show and The Simpsons just proves there's no lost reference or material at all. If you remember anything, it'll become valuable at some point. And in a few weeks, she would be on the jury of the damned. That's right. Oh, wow. And, oh, God, I can't wait for that episode. Ah, the best animation in the history of The Simpsons. Well, speaking of lost references, when Marge goes to the cops in Wiggum,

it's exactly a scene from Cape Fear. Like, well, you're not breaking any laws. When he says, I'll take advice from Ma Kettle. Ma Kettle and Pa Kettle were a pair of yokel hillbillies in comedy films of the 40s. Like cereals, right? Yeah, cereals. And Ma Kettle was the same in every film, but they replaced Pa Kettle at one point.

The Simpsons writers would have been in their late 20s, 30s, and would they really have known Ma Pa Kettle? The 60s TV was a wasteland, right? Yeah, yeah. In 60s and 70s TV. I could totally see them replaying all those films on TV then. And then it's super random, but it is funny, of the squirrels in the pants for gambling. But that is such rando humor just to fill time.

Like, squirrel pants. It is very monkey cheese humor of this era. Animated beautifully. It is. It would be a much worse Simpsons joke in a modern... Which would later be a big hit on the Disney show Phineas and Ferb's Squirrel in My Pants song. Oh, no.

All the kids love it. It did happen to me once. I love telling that story. Yeah, I just walked into my friend's backyard and a squirrel ran up my pants and onto my shoulder. Oh, but on the outside of your pants, not the inside. No, both. And then I grabbed it and ran it to my shoulder

and I grabbed him by the tail and threw him to the ground as hard as I could. Oh my god. And my friend's mother... Dude, it hurts and it's frightening. And his mother ran out and yells, No! Lucky! It was a domesticated squirrel that just

would run up people's shit. We became good friends and he was fine. Okay, good. There was a Ray Stevens song about this, I think. But it's literally the coolest squirrel I ever met who had no right to forgive me. Oh. And it's lucky. I still remember you.

What a saintly squirrel, man. I still remember you, but I don't remember Linda Lavin. I had to look this up. Bart, I figured it out. Who's someone you've been making irritating phone calls to for years? Linda Lavin? No, someone who didn't deserve it. Hello, Mo?

We know you're the one behind this. So knock it off or we're going to the cops. No, no, I'll take care of it. Okay, it's over. Get him out of here. Releases a fleet of pandas into the streets. He says on delay to Chinese pandas, presumably of pandas into the streets. He says, on delay to Chinese pandas, presumably Chinese pandas.

It is the first Moe does illegal, every illegal thing that happened in Moe's bar jokes. It's the first of those. It's Springfield's like civic center of trafficking. Yes, yeah. So Linda Lavin. Linda Lavin, I looked,

she's the star of Alice, and like, I have very few like prolific vague memories, but this is what my mother watched. She watched Alice, the show Alice. I only know Alice through the state sketch where Michael Showalter can only say, Kiss my grits, male. My mom watched that and Kate and Allie. I just have all these visual memories with no sound.

So I actually watched, as somebody who liked to watch TV all summer and not be active. I did too. There were a couple summers where E would get in the business of getting things that Nick at Night wouldn't pay for. Oh man, I think I watched a few Alice's on E. So Alice was on there, as was, this is it, this is life, the one you get. To me, there's nothing more iconic to me than the fucking guy in the blue waitress laser shoot with the big mustache on Alice. And I don't know his name, and I don't know who he is, but it's what I remember.

I grew up watching him. It was the sitcomification of another Scorsese film, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which is a much darker film than the than the sitcom Linda Levin was a star and she's also famous for Broadway now if you go to her wiki page you wouldn't understand why Bart would be mean to her I didn't I will now tell you why my I think it goes into the same place as there are multiple mean things at Mary Tyler Moore RIP. This was writers attacking an actress who wasn't nice. And it was, I looked this up on, believe it or not,

there are, of course, there's everything online. There are Alice fan blogs. No. Oh my God. And there was, I know from later time, there are no Mike and Molly fans, anything. So good for Alice. It's come to this.

So when I searched Linda Lavin hate, it talked about how Linda Lavin had, at least according to these super fans, Linda Lavin was having a lot of problems with her co-stars because she felt they were overshadowing her by being funnier or more likable, and she would try to harpoon them or get better lines from them. And that is partially why the Kiss My Grits lady left the show, too, because she's like, I'm out of here. But there was a secondary actress on it that also was much more likable than Alice. Like, Alice is the main character.

She's not as fun as the mousy waitress or the sassy one. If you had asked me at nine years old, I would have thought Alice was the biggest show in the world by how much my mom loved itassy one and so like nine years old i would have thought alice is the biggest show in the world by how much my mom loved it ran for like nine years like late late like mid 70s to me you're right it didn't make the nick at night train so i never caught it again but so i this is my theory based on those stories that she was not a great person to work with and that and sitcom writers tell each other everything back then yeah most simpsons writers had like were in that writer community before they started writing

for animation so yeah sorry to if i'd be smirching the great name of linda lavin and those and those forums are wrong then i'm sorry but uh i love her acting i don't know if she's like not a good get it out now because as we do research for shows like this in 302010, one of the best resources for uncorroborated information is the IMDB message boards, and they are going away. They're closing down. Oh, my God, no. They have saved 302010 because they have links and information

that the rest of the internet does not have. It's like 20 years of messages. IMDB can't get rid of those. Why do people bother getting rid of forums anyway? The Simpsons will be right back. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs.

Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? Hello, Talking Simpsons listeners. I hope you have a good sleep surface in your life. And in case you don't, we want to encourage you to check out Casper Premium Mattresses. That's right. And you can go to caspertrial.com slash lasertime right now and get $50 towards any new mattress. Casper mattresses combine high density memory and premium latex foam to create a sleep surface that contours to your body and keeps you cool and balanced throughout the night. So not only has Casper been trying to research and innovate all things in the science of sleep, it can do that, most importantly, by giving you a much cheaper mattress.

I don't know if you've been mattress shopping at any of those big box stores, but Casper mattresses start at just $500. And in case you didn't know, that is like a quarter less than the cheapest mattress you'll find in any store around me. Anyway, they have everything from twin to California King. They've got the size that you need. And guess what? You don't have to take my word for it. You can try it for free, sleep on it for a hundred night risk-free trial. And if you don't like it, Casper will come pick it up, dispose of it, refund your money. It'll be like it never even happened so if you're in the market for a mattress why not give casper a shot and you can do that at caspertrial.com slash laser time and get 50 towards any new mattress purchase thank you casper you like laser time shows then you

might like bonus time laser times weekly bonus show exclusively on patreon.com slash laser time here's a taste of what you've been missing a couple weekends ago watch like 75 of the pacifier with vin diesel this is really weird there is like a 10 minute segment of the movie where it tries to convince you that one of the kids that the cat that vin diesel is watching this movie came out like six or seven years ago, one of the kids is a neo-Nazi. The pacifier Vin Diesel gets called into the school and the principal, and he's like, I found this in your son's locker.

And it's a Nazi armband. He's got bleach blonde hair. So you're like, holy shit, this kid's a racist now. Like two scenes later, Vin Diesel, the pacifier, trails him to what turns out to be practice for the sound of music. That's the reveal, which is like, one, why are you bringing your Nazi armband to school? Why are you taking that anywhere outside of your play performance?

And even if you're seeing this on a regional play, do they need the nazi armbands to really sell it that's something that clearly predates this the day of social media because any play or musical no matter how harmless it involves nazis is not going to happen or excuse me wouldn't have happened before november of last year and i should also mention that the pacifier is a disney movie so there's a sub sub plot about a kid being a neo was the rock and the one called the tooth fairy i think so yeah okay i don't know if they're nazis in that 17th that we were talking about that in 30 2010 on an upcoming episode we'll talk about a disney movie with a shitload of gay panic only 10 years old i now pronounce you mickey and donald

no no i now pronounce you elsa and anna also has incest. Get bonus time, Laser Time's weekly, full-length, uncensored, and ad-free Patreon-exclusive podcast. As well as weekly full-length movie commentaries, wrestling and cartoon video commentaries, physical rewards, the first season of Talking Simpson, and more at patreon.com slash lasertime, starting at just five bucks. You'll help us live, and we'll do our best to help you never be bored again some of the greatest animation the show's ever had was the pan across the city to the to the prison to reveal it's bob. It's really, really good. Bart going, but who? Who? Pan and then two

Bob laughing. Great music too. Act one ends with one of my favorite lines that is echoing through my brain to this day. When Bob passes out from writing to Reader's Digest, Life in these United States, and Snake says, use a pen, Sideshow Bob. I think of that line and sometimes say

whenever someone is doing something impractically. So I've said that out loud many times and people would go, what? It's like, well, you know, okay, never mind.

Use a pen, Sideshow Bob. I'm sad I didn't get the Bob in here. I was trying to, because I love the whole Bob parole scene. Yeah. And I think that is probably

the most fertile ground for Simpsons comedy, the excuse you can get to get Bob out of jail And the blue haired lawyer is great He has so many great poses Yeah oh man his poses are amazing Rich Moore did not need to do that work

And it's great Next up for parole Bob Terwilliger A.K.A. Sideshow Bob Take care Snake May the next time we meet be under more Felicitous circumstances Go Take care snake. May the next time we meet be under more felicitous circumstances. Take care.

Sideshow Bob has no decency. He called me Chief Piggum. Now I get it. Sideshow Bob tried to kill me on our honeymoon. How many people in this court are thinking of killing her right now? Be honest.

All the hands go up, including Selma's. And a reverend. But not Reverend Lovejoy, just a clergy member. One of several jokes implying either Patty and or Selma is a man, actually. Yeah, you know what? This was the first time that hit me. Like she leaves the toilet seat up again, implying like,

does she have a penis? And there's, there's a, that's one of two, um, there's a later sensitive to trans people jokes. There's a later joke about when they redo the church and, and either Patty or Selma likes it because there's ice in the urinals.

And you're like, okay guys, that's a Midwestern thing. That was so awesome to see ice in the urinals. That's right. Okay, guys. That's a Midwestern thing. That was so awesome to see. Ice in the urinals? Yeah, it turns peeing into a game. Gives you something to do. Yeah, it's amazing.

I wish everybody did it. But I like that they stuck to the Selma continuity. They could have had Krusty come in there, but I guess they didn't. It's weird to not see Krusty. Krusty's not here at all. Yeah, but it's also where the free one. That testimony only has Selma. That's the only thing he's done.

Well, he framed Krusty. But framed Krusty, which is not a lifetime mass murderer kind of like. Attempt to murder, though. The Selma episode defined him as Bob is who he was. Well, as Bob said, once the Democrats get back in office, he'll be back on the street with all his criminal buddies. And we have the immortal lines, Thee, Bart, Thee. And no one who speaks German can be an evil man.

So great. A second Nazi joke in the same episode. I think the most iconic scene in the original Cape Fear is the movie theater sequence. Yes. Oh, wait. Pee-pee-soaked hellhole.

Pee-pee-soaked hellhole. Pee-pee-soaked heckhole. My theory is that was a Merkin replacement. The mouth movements were a little off. And Merkin especially really hated those fox sensors and being censored ever or being told, like, you can't say this line so having a character say hey your urine so tell the whole thing is that bums us out could you say a different thing like that but my parents loved the bart the like my mom that was so it's one of those things i quote all the time i didn't it taught me that die means the in german i know one word in german because the simpsons but uh the i

the iconic scene of uh deniro in the movie theater because like it just opens up with this low pan of like smoke filling a movie theater which is not something even i feel like i ever had to deal with it was not cool even in 91 or in the or my dad talked to i remember now my dad mentioning when he was a teen smoker in the 60s it was still like you leave the theater to smoke. You can't smoke in the theater. In Tallahassee, Florida we had a smoking theater. It was the closest theater to my house. Second run movies only

called Mugs and Movies and it had a bar and no rows. It was like everything was like a small Merv Griffin set. Swivel chairs and a table a thousand times all over and it was all smoking, all allowed in a bar. And there were like bar flies in there who were not there to see the movie in Loud and Raucous.

And like, I feel honored. I was allowed to see that. I like they take a nice little shot at Ernest with Ernest Goes Somewhere Cheap. That's what I'm mad about. But Chris, what movie was in Cape Fear 91 that he was watching? Oh, fuck. I don't know. It's Problem Child.

Oh, that's right. He was watching Problem Child, which Gilbert Gottfried brings up in his interview with Indiana Douglas. Yeah. That is so right. He's literally watching

Problem Child and laughing. I have to say, only a psychotic human being would like this movie. But that ended up to create the personas of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, writers of Ed Wood and Big Eyes.

That's right. They did Problem Child. Holy shit. That was their... Someone asked them, is that why you decided to write biopics about people who don't deserve them? Because you kind of got into this business in a way everybody hated you.

That's right. You were very successful in a way nobody respected. This could be the last Ernest joke on The Simpsons. I feel like even by this time, Scared Stupid was a year ago, like two years ago. Ernest Cuts the Cheese isn't...

Ernest Cuts the Cheese is much earlier, but... Yeah, I think it was a Gene and Reese thing. I don't think they were into... I could see Merkin saying, Ernest jokes are so lame. Who makes fun of Ernest? They're small budget film. We just did it.

We have a commentary on our Patreon. Patreon.com slash Lazer Time. If Ernest goes to jail, that movie is excellent and really funny and amazing. It's beautiful to look at. But he gets magical powers. Amazing performances. It's ridiculous. Yes.

I love when the quiet guy just pulls a fucking magnum out and just points it at someone. Put the hammer down. It's the movie that dares to put the beloved children's character on death row and almost kill him. But 91 was Scared Stupid, I believe, or 92. And that was the last big budget box office Ernest movie, period. Rides Again, I went to the theater to see it. It must have been a small release then, because I never saw the movie. It had to open with a short, Mr. Bill.

Mr. Bill is the president. Oh, man. And I was there with my buddy Scott Scott and we were the only people in the theater opening that sounds like earnest circa 94 the last earnest but that was after scared but I love Jim Varney he's a conclude scared stupid concluded the Disney deal right like I love I'm a big

Disney fan I love showing you how desperate Disney was back in the day and I think the story was that my Michael Eisner was at a nascar event and like a costume mickey mouse comes out yeah whatever earnest comes out and it's like like like uh john cherry and jim varney always owned earnest but disney disney kind of adopted him he'll tell us what to do i love i Ernest. Is there Ernest in this clip here? Oh, yeah.

Public library. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. That man is so rude. Yeah. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. If you don't mind, we're trying to watch the movie. Hey, Bert, let me get my head out of this toilet. That's a great joke.

Oh, really? Now that's too much. Oh, Cousin Mary. You wrote me those letters. You awful man, stay away from my son. Oh, I'll stay away from your son, all right. Stay away forever. No. Wait, I'll stay away from your son, all right. Stay away forever. No. Wait a minute.

That's no good. Uh-oh. Wait, I've got a good one now. Marge, say, stay away from my son again. No. It's my favorite. Like, if I didn't do this already, that's my... It's a great scene.

It's a beautiful scene. The great subversion of the dad being the more annoying one. Not the criminal is great. Oh, really? You would have to know that's a scene from Cape Fear. It's the first time... Multiple times you have to know there's... I feel like it plays well without that reference.

I don't think the subversion works unless you know that that's what happened in Cape Fear. I see. Yeah, this episode doesn't work so much if you don't it's still a hilarious episode i loved it without seeing the movie and i only deniro was sitting behind the family not in front of the family uh but he was smoking a cigar laughing out loud they didn't know who he was and they kind of like realized oh this guy who's been threatening me is right behind me and in our town and it should be pointed out that all of sidesideshow Bob's like cabana shirts are from that movie.

Because they change the setting. Yeah. Florida or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And I also like that Homer is smoking an even bigger cigar, which is in the 1968

Knoxville World's Fair. That makes me think it is a... The Watford. It makes me think it's an Oakley and Weinstein joke because they would later make it a major plot point in the Spring Break episode. But that was the 82.

The 82 in Knoxville. Oh, okay. I know that because I was born in 82, so I'm like, that's the year I was born. I think if you gave me multiple... But World's Fair jokes are their territory. They're the best. If you gave me a time machine with four options

and anything other than go to the World's Fair of this era, I will always choose World's Fair. What the world thought the world would look like. We're going to kill this elephant. It's amazing. And then we'll have Africans drinking Pepsi. It would be amazing. So then they have a workout scene with Sideshow Bob,

which that's totally from the Cape Fear. Oh, yeah. Especially the De Niro one. It was pretty much a scene to show off like, look how in awesome shape Robert De Niro got from this. It reminds me of the Seinfeld scene with Uncle Leo doing the same exact thing. Exactly.

But it was hello tattooed on his knuckles or something. So he has love and hate on this one, but spelled out the only way he could do it, three fingers. Now, that is a reference to Robert Mitchum in Night in night of the hunter yes another great mitchum movie so which he's even more menacing in that if you can believe it yeah oh what a great movie it's just you mentioned earlier the guy hired to beat up robert de niro's character i look it's a very quick reference and a weird simpsons character that'll never appear again he He looks like Sinatra. Yeah. Hired to beat up Sideshow Bob. Now, don't you fret.

When I'm through, he won't set foot in this town again. I can be very, very persuasive. Come on, leave town. No. I'll be your friend. No. Oh, you're mean. I don't know why I like this so much. That sounded like it was just the same friend. No. Oh, you're mean. I don't know why I like that so much.

That sounded like it was just the same clip. No. And again, you'd never know what that was. Yeah. If you hadn't seen Cape Fear. But the joke still works, though. It's just like I have methods. I mean, another...

But everything works better, and I had not seen Cape Fear. It works so much better. The first time I saw this episode. Another one that's so direct is Wiggum setting up the doll with the wires attached to it to see when somebody came in that's just from the film and though i love that homer's clearly been dreaming of like beating the shit out of ned like who boy that was the first sign homer wanted to kill ned the next one being homer los flanders like you're gonna get my noggin a flogging well yes uh so i I'd say Homer in this episode,

he is just a joke monkey. Like he is not active in the storyline. He's not invested in the story at all. I'd say this is 75% jerk-ass Homer. Jerk-ass Homer 100% I'd say is achieved in the hockey episode. Yeah. But this is 75% jerk-ass Homer.

You better win, right? Here's your trailer, live and well. in the hockey episode. Yeah. But this is 75% jerk. You better win or I win. Here's your trailer, live and well. We have, all these clips will emphasize that, Hank, that like,

this is him at Homer at two, just being just unobservant and awful. The following neighborhood residents will not be killed by me. Ned Flanders, Malk Flanders. Oh, isn't that nice? Homer Simpson

Marge Simpson Lisa Simpson That little baby Simpson That is all Did you hear Bart? Oh So I only The first time I ever noticed it this time

When Bob is driving by Flanders house The topiary angel angel is still drawn in front of it. It's for like three frames, but it's right there. I didn't notice that at all. That was something you had to draw again. It was very intentional. It was amazing that they put that in there. And this is the joke that I think most people remember from it.

This is the greatest. I love it. The Mr. Thompson portion. It's so old school comedy, and comedy writers love things like this kills so much time yeah we have places your family can hide in peace and security cape fear terror lake new horror field screamville ice creamville no screamville tell you what sir from now on you'll be be Homer Thompson at Terror Lake. Let's just practice a bit. When I say, hello, Mr. Thompson, you'll say, hi. Check.

Hello, Mr. Thompson. Remember now, your name is Homer Thompson. I got you. Hello, Mr. Thompson. Now, when I say, hello, Mr. Thompson, and press down on your foot, you smile and nod. No problem. Hello, Mr. Thompson. I think he's talking to you.

The stupidest he's ever been. I mean, they really are breaking the show. They're making Homer pretty much brain dead. He can't recognize his own fake name. Yes. The stomping on the foot. Hello, Mr. Thompson. I think his knee comes above the table.

Yeah. He's not a gentle tap. He's not gently doing it. It's like a horse clopping out math problems. And it's great drawings of the rest of the family, just like, God, we've been here two hours. And they're not even asking him to talk, just smile and nod. Yes, and he can't even do that. And right before that, Homer wants to be John Elway in the Broncos.

And the joke is that the Broncos, that he gets a touchdown at the last minute, but still loses greatly to the 49ers. Which, that's so hilarious now, the idea of like, oh, the 49ers are so much better than the Broncos. The 49ers haven't been in the Super Bowl in a very long time. The Broncos have been in multiple ones since then. Yeah, and Homer's wearing an old-timey leather helmet in that one. Yeah, it's like 1920 leatherheads.

Though they say they're at Super Bowl, the score of Super Bowl 30, and the actual score of Super Bowl 30 was Dallas 27 beating the Steelers 17. Gross. Gross. This is what makes me feel like it's a Family Guy episode. There's literally an episode where the family does this. Gilbert and Sullivan enters the frame, which I suppose is set up for the ending. If I wasn't researching this, I wouldn't know this is foreshadowing. In a way.

But this is not from the HMS Penafore. No, but it's Chekhov's musical. The same writers. You guys at the Bureau thought of everything. Hey, look, the FBI Light Opera Society sings the complete Gilbert and Sullivan. We can relate from school, aren't we? Parenting schoolgirl, well, can be.

Filled to the brim with girlish glee we get a nice little school everything is just awesome fun that's so family guy that is from the Mikado by the way which is well it's orientalism like it was very early orientalism

of the late 1800s where Gilbert and Sullivan it's the plot of the late 1800s where they're gilbert and sullivan it's the plot of the film topsy-turvy starring jim broadbent but the um gilbert and sullivan are kind of stuck like their their newest things haven't been as popular because they're just like ah it's the same thing over and over again so yes then they so then they meet someone Japanese and we're like, what is this place, Japan? Because in the mid-1800s, Japan for the first time opened up their ports to Americans and English people. So they got to know it. And it's about when the emperor comes to the small town of Titipu. Very funny.

Oh, boy. I'm on board. Yes'm on board yes and that song name available now and that song is about how uh how how proper japanese girls act and so that's it's but it it's a parody of what they thought japanese society was when they spoke speak to people who don't know japanese once the simpsons to Cape Fear, we're reminded that the episode has gone insane. But Homer and Bart's hats are a reference to I Love Lucy when they went to California. Jesus. When Ethel and Fred Mertz went with Lucy and Rick Dean. And that is actually the cover to Simpsons Comics number one.

Yep. Them driving with the hats on. I'm not kidding. Because I was subscribing to Simpsons Illustrated, which ended. Bongo's Comics. And Bongo Comics number one had the. Them driving with the hats on. I'm not kidding because I was subscribing to Simpsons Illustrated which ended and Bongo Comics number one had the hats on the characters.

I love Simpsons Illustrated. But again, this is full batshit Simpsons when they finally get to Cape Fear. Bob is under the car and the jokes of them

running over like he wants to run over cactus is so great. This coffee's too hot. This coffee's too hot and in a mug. Yeah. This coffee's too hot and in a mug yeah this coffee's too hot

love this commentary like like did the just the voice actors standing around record that or the higher definitely was the people who did it for the original yeah yeah yeah but it's also i can't place it doesn't sound like anybody in the cast. I can't place the voice either. Nah. They didn't mention it in the commentary. Yeah, they didn't. And this is probably

the best joke of this entire act. Bob just becomes Wile E. Coyote from that point forward. Once he's under the car, he's Wile E. Coyote. Unkillable, but easy to maim. This joke is probably the fan favorite. I feel bad.

Well, I think we missed Bob just getting marched on by elephants and rakes oh not the elephants in the rakes yes i also love that homer is wearing the uh witness relocation program outfits like just the shirts but okay let's talk about how the rake the rake scene is insane even the simpsons uh so basically this episode was short on time and uh al jean was editing it and saying let's add more rakes and he realized that the more rakes the more he added the funnier it became so by the end there are eight rake hits to bob's face that you can see nine if you count the one that's off screen

ten if you count the one that he does when he gets on the boat. So there are ten total rake hits. But it's a repeated scene again. Like they animated it and then they redid it. So you can tell they even recycled back to the first thing. Because even, I love the little animation to it. A cactus flies off his head. A chunk of cactus flies off his head when he gets hit with his first rake. Because he's still covered in like sign bits.

Yeah, from being under the car. Through the cactus patch. And it's so great that they're just cutting into the house and they're just having their conversation and you can still hear him hitting them outside. And if you watch that scene, he's just not even walking in any direction. He's just, I'm going to walk to the next rake.

He has a fan of rakes around him. The rainbow of rakes. If they didn't do these rake jokes in the episode family guy would not have a show like there's yeah there are i'm not kidding like so many episodes are just based around this joke went on too long and that's the joke like peter skinny is the eagle yes it's the exact or any conway twitty reference. Exactly. All of them are the one where Stewie has a slow reaction to sucking Peter's nipple. It was on TV the other night. Yes.

But I love this joke. It changed. I would say it kind of affected American televised comedy. It kind of invented a new form of joke. I think so. Which they were building to. We've seen takes on this, like Dental Plan. The Thompson joke is this one a bit.

Yeah. The Dental Plan is the proto-ra joke it really is yeah man we're digging too so deep I love they only had the balls to do it five times this is nine times nine times nine times did anybody else recreate the rake scene I mean it looked painful I never I thought about it every time I raked leaves after this, which I did a lot of in Ohio. It is the most painful thing I've ever done to myself. It hurt. And I tried to like brace myself and everything,

but like a rake handle coming at you as fast as you can step on it, it hurt so much for days. How can't it? I did it with no audience just to see what would happen. Wow. No, I believe I was like, I think my nose is gone.

And there's also a dent in my forehead. It got through my whole face. It was awful. Ouch. Well, so then they have the elephants walking on Bob, which is when Bart knows Bob is in town. And just the way his face contorts when the one steps on his head, it's so great very looney

tunes it is it is very looney tunes and then when bart runs in saying it it's so great too like with his little feet like tapping up and down yeah without moving and this was the time i noticed that they the little touch of they brought their corncob uh curtains curtains with them and their little clock that they always have in the cat clock right yeah no no not the cat clock the um the one that's like sharp and pointy oh yeah that one yeah yeah they were both in there that showed that was that was care that i feel the animators definitely yeah and we see one tiny scene in this of grandpa not being able to find his pills because he doesn't know the family left and he needs his pills and we'll find out why in the finale of this episode. And it's also weird that amid all this Cape Fear stuff, they then cut to Bob at the Bates Motel.

Yeah. Just to have like four seconds of a psycho joke, which is very weird. And there are stuffed birds in the background. Yes, just to make it more psycho-y. But you just go like, you're in a very specific place with Kate Thier. You don't have to go to Hitchcock, and it's kind of confusing. Yeah.

But maybe they're just like, ah, one more Hitchcock reference for the road, maybe. Yeah, before we blow this pop stand, yeah. But of all the, the entire houseboat sequence, this is the one most people remember. Why do you want some brownie before you go to bed? Come on, let me cut you a brownie while they're still hot. Dad, I'm kind of edgy right now.

I'd appreciate you not coming in my room screaming and brandishing a butcher knife. Why? Oh, right. The Sideshow Bob thing. I'm sorry, boy. Come on, do you want to see my new chainsaw and hockey mask oh sorry what am i thinking great animation fantastic animation so great yeah eyes are like popping it's just great and again homer is so stupid incredibly stupid has no idea what's

going on oh sideshow bob you said this was a Family Guy-ass episode. Like, that is Peter Griffin. That is exactly Peter Griffin. Yeah, and again, so we have the family tied up after this, and I love the line, like, Dad's been drugged, and Marge is mad. No, he hasn't. That is such callousness. Like, you really dig into that.

He's like, he could fall asleep now? Or he's drunk. I read it as he was drunk. Or he could sleep through a home invasion. No, he's drunk i read it as he was drunk yeah sleep through a home invasion no he hasn't yeah it could be drunk i only say to compare it to family guy and i hate this about myself i am a big ass simpsons fan yes but uh cable television plays family guy 700 times a night it really does and they don't play the Simpsons. I don't have FXX, but I don't see The Simpsons. You'll see Family Guy on TBS and at all times.

I have to dodge Family Guy like a fucking minefield. Whenever I go on a trip and I'm in a hotel, Family Guy is on at least three times whatever night I'm in a hotel. Multiple channels. And The Simpsons isn't. And it sucks. And on BBC.

Coming up next is Family Guy. So Bob makes his move. And Bart, I love Bart running. It's, again, time killer. But I do love him running it's again time killer but i do love it running back and forth like oh yeah a great animation of the electric eels and the crocodile or alligator i don't know one of my favorite viral videos of the last year or so was the electric eel taking down an alligator it's amazing oh i've seen that yeah it's incredible like all of a sudden he just looks taxidermy he's just like arms spread out can't move

wow electric eel escapes Apparently they do exist. So would you all like to know the history of the HMS Pinafore? Please tell me. All right. So first off, it is a joke. A Pinafore is a flower you attach to your shirt. It's kind of like a boutonniere. Who are the guys who make the flag signals? Semaphores.

I feel like the 8th podcast have done that already. So it's about a naval ship, a Royal Navy ship named after a flower. So you're already starting comedic. And it's a Gilbert and Sullivan light opera. Premiered May 28, 1878. Oh. And it is a musical very much about class and love on the high seas. And just to give you the perspective of

who bob is singing as at all times so uh but it's the story of there's a captain and his daughter josephine wants to marry a low class man named ralph who is in who's just a steerage guy whilst he wants her to marry sir jose, who is a much higher class guy. And then on comes to the ship a sad old woman named Buttercup. Poor little Buttercup. She's poor little Buttercup and she holds a secret and she won't tell why.

I see. So it is actually a very like Oedipus turn here. So there's a lot of drama of her wanting to marry below her station station her father not allowing it him even saying like the father the captain falls in love with buttercup but says but you're so far below my station i certainly can't marry you then comes the big reveal at the end when uh she's ready to elope with ralph instead and just ruin her good name by doing so. Buttercup reveals that she cared for two children in her youth.

Gasp. And one was a boy of high class and one was a boy of low class. But they looked so similar, she mixed up the babies. Wow. And one went to a different place and that boy nobody like the turned around boys were the captain and ralph wow so by the way this means that ralph that ralph is the same age as her father the man josephine is marrying is the same age as her father the the captain. I'm lost. So then the captain is like, oh, so Ralph should be the captain of the ship because he's higher class than me.

Ralph becomes the captain. He's the man singing, he remains an Englishman at the end of the song. Or no, wait, that's a captain singing it. He remains an Englishman. And that's their statement of like, well, no matter your class, you remain an Englishman. And Buttercup then does get

together with the captain oh so that is the plot of is uh likely most hms metaphor most importantly it's all public domain yeah it's all free wow that makes a lot of sense actually it all sounds interminable henry i love it i've heard all of these songs outside of the simpsons for some reason this is parodied more than any other Gilbert and Sullivan musical. I would think Pirates of Penzance gets it more. I've heard a lot of that, too, but I feel like... I am the very model of a modern major general. I'm information, vegetable, animal, and mineral.

I know the kings of England and the... Yeah, while doing the cartwheels, I think. I know the kings of England and the... Nope, lost after. Damn. Why have we never done this at karaoke? Oh, because you'll get no help. We will all lose

our voice to sing it. Next time at karaoke we're going to do it. All right. Let's hear Sideshow Bob singing. Yeah, I truncated this a little bit.

All the hits. But I just love him. Obviously I love the mop wig. Yeah. But him singing, like that develops that he's about to

kill Bart and then goes into Bart singing along. And Al Jean points out his devious plan is to go onto a boat and stab a small boy to death. Stab Bart until he's not alive. Yeah.

Like, that's the end of his goal. Oh, Bart. All that work just to stab him. Oh, Bart. Any last requests? Well, there is one, but... Nah. No, go on.

Well, you have such a beautiful voice. Guilty as charged. Uh-huh. Anyway, I was wondering if you could sing the entire score of the HMS Pinafore. Very well, Bart. I shall send you to heaven before I send you to hell. And a two and a three and... We sail the ocean blue

and our saucy ships of beauty. We are sober men and true and attentive to our duty. I'm called Little Buttercup poor Little Buttercup though I could never tell why.

What never? No never. What never? No, never. What never? Hardly ever. He's hardly ever sick, I see. I do love the end song he does. I know it's not part of the clip. It's like, for he himself has sinned.

Oh, that song, What Never? That's the captain talking about how he would never say a swear word, except he occasionally does. Hardly ever is when he says the big D. Which is damn. The big D. I've heard a lot of parodies of that song in particular. Like on Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, of course. I don't know if there's that great clip of Kelsey Grammer on Conan.

Part of me wants to imagine Kelsey Grammer being a dick about being Sideshow Bob. And not showing up as often as he was asked. But I think from last year's Halloween costume, if you saw that online. That's right. He looked like Chrono Trigger. He covered himself in yellow paint. Yeah.

Chrono Triggered himself. Just like Sideshow Bob. He's in the Riot Universal. He clearly likes it. I'd rather see him dressed as Sideshow Bob than naked eating food. Yeah. He was on Conan

and you wouldn't even know he was there to talk about the show Boss because he's talking with Conan about being Sideshow Bob. And he mentioned that he would just come into the voice acting studio

just singing and that's where the inspiration came from. Like give Bob a bunch of singing lines. It's beautiful. I mean, that is it becoming... It's how you want

Kelsey Grammer to emerge into any room. Just come in singing like Sideshow Bob. I mean, that is it becoming... It's how you want Kelsey Grammer to emerge into any room. Just come in singing like Sideshow Bob. I mean, Bart is saying, you've got a beautiful singing voice. But they made him sing in the first episode. He sings the... Yes, every time we say goodbye. Yeah. The ending...

The Cole Porter song. The relatively new compared to the Gilbert and Sons Cole Porter song. It's like 80 years newer. Still covered by copyright. But the ending is among my favorites ever. I love it. Again, written by the season 5 team. I believe Aljean name checks Jace Richdale, a season

5 and 6 writer, for coming up with the you're lucky you were by this brothel. I love that. I never got that as a kid that they were like, oh, brothel. It's a good thing you drifted by this brothel as a line. And that's why they're in robes. Yes, they were just all with their ladies. But it's Wiggum at his, like, my favorite kind of Wiggum.

Do what he says. By Lucifer's beard. Ah, yeah. It's a good thing you drifted by this brothel. I knew I had to buy some time, so I asked him to sing the score from the HMS Pinafore. Ooh, a plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies.

Homer, who are you? Take him away, boys. Hey, I'm the chief here. Take him away, toys. What'd you say, chief? Do what the kid says. Ha ha ha. Chief Wiggum sucks. And then season four ends with a joke about a man dating a man woman.

It ends with a more clumsy ADR where I feel like it was supposed to end with the heart closing on the screen and them doing the American, I'm sorry, Love American style, which we've seen a lot. But they don't play the music. Instead, there is a extended scene of dialogue off screen with no animation. Just to get them four more seconds it feels like but I it's like grandpa is like I don't I there's something you should know about me and Jasper's like I've got Steven Edie tickets which is a like

an old timey Hollywood act that eventually became like a Las Vegas kind of show Steven Edie were just two pretty good lounge singers who got famous for doing covers of all the hits if you wanted a safe version of songs that were popular they would do them they toured until 2013 when ed died yikes that's when they stopped what's her last name uh well e-y-d-i-e i think it's steve and

ed yes when i was a kid i thought who's steve and ed yeah who's the steve and ed man but yeah grandpa apparently becomes a woman without his pills. I do like that. Yeah, which, what are these pills that prevent him from... But he has makeup on and eyelashes. It's very strange. And then also, I do like that he kisses Jasper. Like, I'm all yours.

There's only so much time on this earth. It is such a, it is such a like, that's the end? It's a weak ending like the Krusty Gets C a, it is such a like, that's the end? It's a week ending like the Crested Gets Cancelled ending where it's like, is this the bus to the Civic Center? And they just didn't have a great line to go out on. And this is what brings down the curtain on the first era of The Simpsons, the true first years of The Simpsons. Next week we'll have a new showrunner, a bunch of new writers, so much to talk about with season five. This is in one of my, I don't like it more than Mr. Plow. It is not my favorite of season four, but it is close to it.

I do love this one very, very much. On this viewing, it's been one of my favorites. I like how there are no rules in this episode. And you can tell they're just like, fuck it. Let's just make the funniest shit ever. Homer is insane. That last line, it's like a plan, fiendishly clever, and it's intricacies. Intricacies. That is not a it's like a plan, fiendishly clever, and it's intricacies. Yes.

Intricacies. That is not a Homer thing he would ever say. It embraces being a cartoon in terms of animation rather than like a lot of comedy, live action comedy you see today

that are like cartoons but not animated. It does everything, it does things only a cartoon can do and it's beautiful. I would only put Mr. Plow

and Monorail ahead of this one in season four. Like, these are the only ones I'd put ahead of in season five. In production season four. It matters. Come on. It really matters. Look, when we're at the season premiere of season six and we're like, well,

Bard of Darkness was a production five one. That one doesn't matter as much. That one doesn't matter. Same showrunner, same writers, same staff same staff one matters yeah this one really matters this is really them saying goodbye uh to everyone going off to their cushy development deals yeah and i thank all of them for their amazing work it's this is this is this feels like an end of an era of the simpsons to talking simpsons as, we'll be talking about very different writers, very different animators too.

A lot of the animation staff changes. Digging into who David Merkin is, what he worked on before, what his point of view is. A lot of weird stuff about David Merkin. Yeah. Some weird stuff. Not the friendliest guy

to work with. No, but hey, I can't, he did this, he did Get a Life. Yeah. He's got his name on some good stuff.

The Edge even. Yeah. Which I watched all of. Heartbreakers. The Jennifer Aniston, Wayne Knight, Julie Brown ensemble. I think a couple of Square One cast members are on this. Oh, dear Lord. Wow.

But so long, Gene and Reese. We'll see you soon because once the critic comes to town, we'll be seeing them again. You'll be back. Yeah. Gene will be back in season 13 to run this show forever. Until someone dies. I mean, though, technically

George Meyer, John VD, Schwarzwalder left. But they're still credited writers on episodes in season 5, but it seemed like more of a freelance position type thing. Meyer would come back in 99. Schwarzwalder would stay with the show until around 2000, 2001 I think and until you became the writer of novels yeah which are all great so yeah all right thanks for sticking with us throughout talking simpsons another long episode but it's

the end of season four officially we'll be back next week with another great episode starting season five i can't wait i've been your host bob mac you can find me on twitter as bob servo i also write for fandom.com every day writing writing about video games, and SomethingAwful.com every other Thursday, writing a comedy article for you. And my other podcast is Retronauts every Monday at Retronauts.com. It's a classic gaming podcast. Please check out our Bart versus the Space Mutants episode. It is basically a secret Talking Simpsons episode where we talk about a terrible game

for like 45 minutes. We dig so deep into Bart vs. the Space Beans. I'm so proud of that episode. That's Nick Daniel. He's so great. So thank you, Nick, for that. Please go to retronauts.com or look for Retronauts in your podcast device for Retronauts stuff. Everybody else? H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G on

Twitter. You can find my rantings there. And also you can follow my work on fandom. And also, you can follow my work on Fandom.com where I write about video games every ding-dong day. And also, this show, as always, is brought to you by Patreon.com

slash LazerTime. Any support there helps keep this show going and the show wouldn't exist without that support. We dreamed of doing this show for a very long time and finally got to, partially thanks to Patreon and using the first season as an incentive on there. That's where the season wrap-ups live. It's a 13-episode pilot.

Yeah, and it's where the season four wrap-up's going to be. And they're amazing. You have season one, two, and three wrap-ups? Yeah. No, two, three, and four. Two, three, and four. And remember, these guys, Bob and Henry, both do this in their off time. Pro bon ups? Yeah. No, two, three, and four. Two, three, and four. Yeah. And remember,

these guys, Bob and Henry, both do this in their off time. Pro boner. Yeah. So like, this happens after dark. If you ever wanted more

of these contributing to something, it would be nice. Give me your money. I'm on board. That's the other thing. This show was executive produced by Margaret H.

and many other fine folks at patreon.com slash laser time. They keep the whole laser time ship afloat, including the show This show was executive produced by Margaret H. and many other fine folks at patreon.com slash laser time. They keep the whole laser time ship afloat, including the show Laser Time. Oh shit, I had something I wanted to tie it back into this very episode, and I forgot it. But it was a topic-based pop culture show. There must be one about remakes

like Cape Fear was. Yes, and twin movies, and a bunch of other fun stuff. Yeah, remakes that are better than the originals, I know we did that. We've talked about cinema's most confusing timelines, dead media formats, bad Beatles covers. Man, the show sounds really fun, and I helped to make it. There's almost 300 damn episodes of it.

There's a lot. All there available for free, but you can help us keep making them by going to patreon.com. I'm like Margaret here. And there's where you you can find exclusive weekly uncensored commercial free bonus episodes bonus time tentative title it's been

about 60 episodes like a hundred yeah it's been always been a lot and like almost a hundred movie full length movie commentaries with your friends here at the very this very table and video

and wrestling commentaries over there and including a wrestling show once a month. Cheap podcast. Yeah. Brand new. So many good times there. Tons of great stuff.

Patreon.com slash Lazer Time. And check out 302010 and Vigigame Apocalypse if you're into video games. All these guys have been on it. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with Homer Goes to College. See you then. Wow. Infotainment.