Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Co-Dependents' Day With Eric Szyszka

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

"My drinking problem is out of control. At Oktoberfest, all I could think about was beer! I couldn't even celebrate... the harvest!" - Marge Simpson After the newest Cosmic Wars prequel inspires Bart and Lisa to seek fan justice, a trip to wine country rejuvenates Homer and Marge's relationship with the power of alcohol. But when Homer frames Marge for a DUI, he has to decide what he loves most: his wife, or not being arrested. Our guest: Eric Szyszka from We Hate Movies Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

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Pocket Hose. Messages and data rates may apply. No purchase required. Terms apply. Available at pockethose.com slash terms. 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 hardly endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons where we all sip from the devil's

mouthwash. I'm one of your hosts, the wrapping loaf of garlic bread Bob Mackie and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons. Who is here with me today as always? Henry Gilbert and I thought this podcast was about the mid 80s coal mining strike in the UK And who do we have on the line our special guest? Ah, Eric Sisga your movie stunk smelly, but I am fine And this week's episode is co-dependence Day!

This episode originally aired on March 21st, 2004, and as always Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh boy Bobby, Deadwood debuts on HBO, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake tops the box office, and to get some sort of Star Wars fact in here, Star Wars fans get their first look at General Grievous on the cover of Star Wars Insider 75. And Eric just talked a lot about General Grievous on your recent episode of We Hate Movies about episode three of Star Wars. Yes, yes. We just covered Revenge of the Sith and I got some details wrong and people like to

let me know that. But you know, I've been trying to cut back on a few things. I know why you guys invited me on this episode. Not only Star Wars, but alcoholism. I'm trying to cut back on both. I'm seeing some success there, so. Well, Eric, this is also an intervention. We love you a lot, we care about you,

which is why we had you on this episode and also Duffalus last year. Yes, of course. I'm noticing the trend. It is not lost on me. To start with General Grievous, I wasn't a Star Wars insider reader, but I do remember the buzz ahead of time

of like that General Grievous man know really he's cool. Look I felt for it every time and when I saw General Grievous not on the cover of Star Wars insider seventy five but on the Gendi Tartakovsky Clone Wars cartoon show that preceded the release of Revenge of the Sith General Grievous looks so cool in that. I was extremely excited for that coughing loser who gets defeated very quickly in Revenge of the Sith. You gotta love, see this one, you know, the prequel trilogy, it's, oh, it's doing something new and exciting, you know, like a part droid biological guy that has a speech issue, a health issue,

perhaps a breathing issue. And four lightsabers. A dude who can use four lightsabers at once. Like in the movie, he pulls out his four lightsabers, instantly gets disarmed of like two of them in like 30 seconds. I mean, he doesn't like die in like a second, but in the Genie Tartakovsky cartoon, he beats like five Jedi at once. And meanwhile, Obi-Wan, like, if you scratch a Star Wars fan,

they have eight million complaints. So I'm also going to try to bottle, put a cap on me. The general grievous thing just strikes me as franchise running out of ideas because episode one starts off with, what if there were two lightsabers? What if a guy had two? And then when you get to the end of that trilogy, you're like, wait, hold on.

What if there were four at once? You haven't seen this before, which is why episode seven should have started off with a guy with like six at once. Absolutely, yes, of course, yeah. I think there was a GIF going around, like a joke image of like Ray opening a lightsaber and it had like everything you'd seen a Swiss army knife.

And I think they should have gone that route. Well, to talk about a more mature thing though, Deadwood, like seriously one of my all time favorite TV shows, I love Deadwood so much that I watched it, episode one, it is a slow burn and I love it. Like David Milch, series show runner, creator, writer of all of this incredibly dense and swear filled dialogue full of some of my favorite actors.

Like it's basically what if all the character actors in movies and TV shows got to have a show just for them and to get all the good lines instead of being the guy who goes like, I'm sorry, I can't help you Mac. And they get to have all the good. You know, I've not watched Deadwood. It was, you know, too much cussing for me. You will hear the C word every seven words, I think. And it happens.

Yeah. But which C word, the small one or the big one? The one British people love to say that I see. Oh, that one. I thought I was thinking of a different one in my head. Me too. Well, they also, okay, they do say cocksucker a lot, too. Oh, they bounce between.

What am I on? Deadwood here talking deadwood? When the show came out, people asked like Robert Duvall did an interview and they're like, hey, do you like Deadwood? He complained he's like look they swore back then but it wasn't every other word It ain't say cocksucker that much like Robert Duvall was very offended by Deadwood and fans got a movie six years ago To sort of end the saga. Yes. It was totally a fan service It was the Deadwood equivalent which which is watching 70-year-old character actors mosey about, equivalent of a Hot Springs episode of an anime OVA, except it's like, man, I've been

wanting to see Al Swerage and walk around the saloon and drink again, and he's finally doing it. And Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, I recall liking it but not loving it then. Same. It's a great opening, that's for sure. You know, I was such an obnoxious snob more than even today, folks, that I never saw this movie because I love the original so much. And now the world has turned its back on Zack Snyder. Yeah. With good cause. Oh my god, did you guys check out that rebel moon? No. I know the premise is what if I did a Star Wars? Right, yeah.

For Netflix. So there's this moon and it's rebel. It's terrible. I watched both. We did a commentary track on the first one and we were like, we're gonna do it both, because we've been ragging on Zack Snyder on our show, We Hate Movies.

And that first one was so bad, no one else wanted to do the commentary on the next one. The only reason I knew it existed is because I logged on to Letterboxd one day and I saw a lot of ones and 1.5s in a row. And then I asked, what is Rebel Moon? I stayed up, night of. I watched that thing live, live drop. And well now I think Zack Snyder's next thing he's working on is a biopic type deal with,

he's doing it with the UFC so staying involved with great guys the most mega of sports the UFC he's working directly with them on something now too so I'm sure it'll be fantastic I can't wait to see what that guy comes up with next but that's everything that was happening in the week this episode of Simpsons aired which I must have watched this episode of Simpsons and then immediately changed the channel to Deadwood premiering that same Sunday night on HBO. Well joining us this week is Eric Siska from We Hate Movies.

He's also the editor in chief of the Gleap Glossary. Welcome back to the show, Eric. Yes, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure to be here. We're hitting you at a perfect time recording this in this month. In this very week we're recording you guys released your episode about Revenge of the Sith and another brand new Gleap glossary that you have on your Patreon. So I am very much in feeling my 90s to aughts Star Wars obsessive self hearing you guys talk about it again.

Yes we just covered a very obscure character, Queller, who was a dark Jedi fallen student of Luke Skywalker that then tries to kill him and does, he carries out multiple genocides. It was a fun conversation despite the dark subject matter, but yeah, I kind of miss back when the EU was like the wild west. It was very silly, very open. Your Newt Gunray one was, I learned a lot, one even I did not know that it's a Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan thing, I didn't know that. I was gonna say, I can't believe Newt Gunray

left his dying wife for his mistress. Yeah, see George Lucas, I mean Randall Curtis, he had the woke mind virus and that's why he had to name the Newt Gunray after Newt new gingrich and ronald reagan To you know poke fun at the old establishment and it's funny because it is both woke and one of the most anti-woke characters Because it's a character you don't even want to imitate anymore for fun as a white man Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that's what you do. You hide the progressivism ideas with uh, a heavy coat of racism.

People were too distracted by Jar Jar Binks's patois to complain as much about Newt Gunray and his ilk in the Trade Federation. Exactly. It was a genius move by Randall Curtis. Yeah, this one, it sounded like the Star Wars thing came in late because it sounded like Warburton, Mav Warburton, just pitched this as, what if Homer drank as much as Marge? Like that's Yeah, this one it sounded like the Star Wars thing came in late because it sounded like war Britain bad war Britain Just pitched this as what if Homer or drank as much as Marge like that's just where it began, right? And even though they go to Northern California to meet Randall Curtis I like the first two acts as some sort of a more grounded story about relationship and the difficulties and this new thing They're trying out together But then the third act goes into some weird territory and this is a famously hated episode.

Fans really disliked what Homer did to Marge and how quickly he was accepted back without having to do much work for basically giving his wife essentially a felony on the record. I remember disliking it back then, but not like super actively so. Though recent guest on our podcast, The real Jim's who reviews all of the

classic Simpsons on his Simpsons history, YouTube channel, I believe he put this as his least favorite episode of the season and one of his least favorite ever based on just like, this is a horrible, everybody talks about jerk ass Homer in the Mike Scully years, but like this, this may be the worst thing Homer has ever canonically done in a regular episode That's funny because in the movie in two years They have to make it so Homer does do the worst thing ever so much that Marge is contemplating leaving him But I think a lot of people who watch this episode had this in the back of their minds like well No framing Marge for a DUI

seems a lot worse than just dumping shit into a pond. I think, you know, that's the thing is like, I'm stepping back from alcohol a little bit. At least I've never done this to my wife. No, also in the movie, they make such pains to say that like, well, no, Homer's just thoughtless. You know, how mad can you be at a thoughtless person was kind of their defense there. Here, Homer has a lot of like thoughts and planning and it's a multi-step idea. It's not something he instantly does and then lies about. It's pretty premeditated.

He's mimicking sounds of the birds and stuff and rustling in the bushes to throw the police off his trail. It is a really dark moment for Homer. Yeah, I mean, we'll get to it, but they have to acknowledge it in the bushes to throw the police off his trail. It is a really dark moment for Homer. Yeah, I mean, we'll get to it, but they have to acknowledge it in the show because Homer even says, oh, this is a new low even for me. And then we have an act break for you to just dwell on that while you were watching like a Snickers commercial or something.

The episode, though, the first act is the one I remembered the most. And it was my negative reaction to it at the time was just that I thought that these were jokes. I'd heard a lot already, I think was a problem for me. Yeah, the Star Wars jokes. Now why don't they just call it Star Wars? I mean, Star Wars has been referenced on the Simpsons that exists in the Simpsons. Homer spoiled the Empire Strikes Back for all those people. It's sort of like how Don King and Lucia Sweet can coexist in the same reality. We have the parody and the actual item in The Simpsons World.

These jokes were out of date by 2004 because everybody was online making fun of Episode 1 immediately. But I feel like it was smart to drill down on the boring politics of Episode 1 because I think South Park had the market cornered on making fun of Jar Jar Binks because there's a Jar Jar Binks parody in the movie and then they do an entire episode after the movie that's about how annoying Jar Jar Binks is so I feel like they knew we can do one Jar Jar joke but let's find some other angle to tackle and the Simpsons to be fair they're really good

at boring humor and I think some of these jokes do land. Yes, I like the whole opening crawl in particular. Yeah, I think they found an angle that also is more the Jar Jar stuff that's musty in that these are 1999 jokes we were all doing online or South Park even did within four to six months of the movie's release. But the Senate stuff at least is only less than a year old from the May 2002 release of Attack of the Clones. It's only nearly two years old instead of five years old. You know what movie I'd rather they go to and we talk about?

Did you see that behind Kent Brockman? There was a poster for another movie, Teenage Sex Wager versus Boner Academy. This is actually the second appearance of Teenage Sex Wager in The Sim Academy. This is actually the second appearance of Teenage Sex Wager in The Simpsons. It appeared like a few episodes before this, right, Henry? Was it smart and smarter? They were going to the movies?

That was actually the episode, the 15 one we did just before this with Chris Cabin, where Homer wants to see Teenage Sex Wager, and the kids are like, you can't take us to that, Dad. So they've already got out the versus Boner Academy film which is it's them remembering they're doing these back-to-back it also is funny that this episode starts with the Simpsons go to the movies right after the previous episodes first act is the Simpsons go to the movies. This is not really jokes

about the movie theater experience because it's just about let's get them into Star Wars as quickly as possible maybe we'll make fun of the lines for episode one. I wasn't one of those 20 plus years ago, but that's kind of it in terms of like what is it like to go to the movie theater to see one of these movies? I think maybe too another reason this felt like this opening bit of the people waiting in line and making fun of the people who are in line. I was like, this is after the triumph, the insult comic dog scene, which is like, it's the last word on making fun of Star Wars fans back then.

Like, it was. Was that a Conan segment? I always forget the context in which that aired. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Conan would always have him on to do those things. Smigel, I think, was writing on the show at the time and throughout early aughts, for sure.

Because there was a weird triumph verse after Conan because there was SNL and TV Funhouse and triumph had his own I think special or series and an album too. There was a kind of a triumph bubble. Definitely a special. You know what's funny is I was an intern for late night with Conan O'Brien in when this episode came out, 2004 to 2005, and I actually got, I forget what segment he was working on, Smygle was there, they were editing a Triumph the Insult Comic Dog segment,

and I was tasked to get everyone in the writers' room Wendy's. Windies? Windies, yeah, spicy chicken sandwich was all the rage. Ah, got it. A new item at the time, right? I believe so. Fairly new.

Well, the episode begins with a couch gag of the family turning into dust, and I wanted to mention that because that's how I felt when I learned that it was the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith when it came back in theaters the other week. Yes. I was like, oh my god. That's fucked up. That shouldn't be happening Time should about to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the force awakens

I know it's nuts. This is kind of the thing Eric You're very plugged in into Star Wars fans who sometimes send you replies on the internet But like oh yes things have changed the balance of the force has shifted and the 10 year olds who saw Revenge of the Sith, they're 30 now and they make Revenge of the Sith a very profitable re-release in theaters. People love it and you know, it's interesting this whole thing because like people hated the prequels like Bob alluded to. People complained online constantly. I was probably one of them to be truthful. But you know, we appraised Revenge of the Sith. I still wasn't so hot on it. Chris Caban actually has

always liked it. I've known him forever and he's always been pretty warm on it despite being cold on the rest of those prequels. And you know, so he was talking positively about that movie on our episode. Andrew also warmed up to it more. And I warmed a little bit up to it, but not really. It's just funny to see a lot of our fans hated that we warmed up to it, and they hate, but they hate when we make fun of Marvel movies.

And I'm trying to like, how does this work? I don't know. What you're saying is yes, there was a cultural reevaluation because all of those kids who grew up on the prequels are adults now, so they think the prequel trilogy is great and they're the ones complaining about the sequel trilogy and guess what kids, in 10 years or so all the kids that grew up with the Force Awakens will be adults and that will be reappraised as well.

You can only have accurate Star Wars opinions if you remember 9-11. That is my theory. Yes, of course. I mean, that's the cultural touchstone. No one should be born after 9-11, okay? Shut it down. It's not working. Every single pregnancy should have been terminated.

Well, now Star Wars recently just did a very well-received, and I enjoyed it too, season of Andor that is the show for, you know, the 35 to 55, the nuts and gum demographic of Star Wars fandom. Incredible, love that Andor. It seriously was great. It's like an A-minus just on its own prestige drama. It made me rewatch Rogue One for the first time. And

I liked Rogue One fine, but it made me go like, man, I feel like I got to watch Rogue One again. It mostly made Rogue One better thanks to all of this context and background, I felt. Sure. Yeah. That's the Star Wars way. Like with the prequels, it's like, ah, let's just fill all this in in the cartoon and then it'll make some sense. But with Andor, they did it classy. I love that Tony Gilroy. I think they need to give him a movie or a trilogy now. Though also I feel like Tony Gilroy is like, I'm sick of this shit. I want to make a movie

about a regular guy again. I don't want to make a Star Wars movie. Too bad. Yes. Star Wars till you die, Tony. Why don't we get to our first clip here as Kent Brockman tells us what everybody's lining up for. Oh god, I love to smoke. We're live at the opening of the latest chapter of the epic space saga, Cosmic Wars, and the nerds have emerged from their basements, wearing strange costumes to shield their pasty skin from the moonlight. Simpsons, your lack of costumes ill befits line positions two, three, and four. Where's your costume? On the commentary they were talking about how they had a lot of different names for

this George Lucas guy and the one they wanted to stick with was fudge radon, which does sound like he could belong in the Gleap glossary That does sound like a Gleap name for sure Gleap glop fudge radon is a good name, but Randall Curtis that feels more like a find-and-replace Which is what like cosmic wars and you know later they say what may the power guide you or yeah Randall Curtis it feels like in terms of just how it flows out of your mouth you get the sense of a George Lucas Randall Curtis George Lucas right and the cosmic worst thing you mentioned they went and saw Empire Strikes Back in the season 3 episode not to mention in the by mon sci-fi con episode where Luke

Skywalker himself Mark Hamill is in it, they are talking about the gay robots of Star Wars and he's just dressed like Luke Skywalker. It's so strange then that for this one, they decide like, no, we gotta create our own replacement like they did with Legoland to Blockoland. When at the same time, like Robot Chicken is just doing, and this is before Robot Chicken's getting, like, working directly with George Lucas,

they're just doing the Star Wars bits. And I think Family Guy in a year or two after this would do their just entire Star Wars parody episode. Of three, yes. Is the first one called Blue Harvest, I wanna say it. I believe so, yeah. Didn't they, like, change the ages for Homer and Marge and everyone in these newer seasons?

I don't know if you guys are still, you guys are probably still watching it. So they could do a Homer going to see Revenge of the Sith as a 25 year old or something now, right? Oh, he would be, I mean, Homer is quickly becoming younger than all of us, Eric. And in a recent episode, we saw a teenage Marge mad that Tim Meadows was leaving SNL.

Yes. Wow. Yep. Honestly, they were leaning into it with a joke that they were having Marge look like she did in 1974, but complaining about a early 2000s SNL cast. Yeah. It does feel like trolling at this point,

but hey, give us hell, Simpsons. Give us context. Are they stuck in a nether realm? Like they're forced to weirdly digest the cultural zeitgeist for all time. They're cursed. My idea is like no matter how long the show runs, all of their memories are from the 70s and 80s. That should never change. And there should just be an inexplicable lack of aging from that point onwards.

The season finale of the newest season was predicated upon Bart and Lisa grew up watching Itchy and Scratchy and then fell out of love with it. And so they show them when Lisa is four and Bart is six watching the Itchy and Scratchy for the first time, but then Homer has an iPad in it. And it's just like, man, this just feels wrong. That does feel wrong. Though also like, no child in 2022 is going to be watching a clown show on TV anyway. Like, that's not happening. Yeah, they should make Krusty a YouTuber.

I'm surprised they haven't done that. He's been a podcaster at this point. Of course. Cosmic Wars just became the thing for any time after this when they did Star Wars stuff. I'm not saying they never have Star Wars be Star Wars when they make fun of it because it has happened. Just some quick examples, in season 23's The Food Wife, they go to see Cosmic Wars. In season 25's Steal This Episode, they watch the Cosmic Wars Christmas special, which is a parody

of the 78 Wookiee Life Day special. Or same with season 26 is the biggest one where it's the movie they tried to make, the would-be movie, the man who came to be dinner, it was supposed to, it might be the sequel. It starts with an extended The Simpsons Go to Disneyland, but it's now Disneyland after they bought all of the Star Wars stuff, except it's all Cosmic Wars things. Well, I guess I appreciate them sticking to something. And Comic Book Guy is right to question it. I would like an answer for how Bart, Lisa, and Homer

are only in line behind them. Like, they have been in line for days, and there's no explanation why. Also, I think Comic Book Guy, if I can punch up Comic Book Guy's line, he should say, I find your line placement disturbing. That's what he should say. Oh, yeah.

That's good. that's good. Of course that line does not exist in Cosmic Wars, but we can cheat it in there. That's the OT too, so you gotta come up with a prequel-esque line, which would be wooden and alien to us. Well we see that Cletus has been waiting in line to see if it's one of them aliens,

what is in his root cellar, which I did really laugh at that. Now I think it's my favorite joke in the episode is the alien in space. The terrified UPS man. Otto is standing in the wrong line, probably because he is full of all the drugs he talks about later in the episode.

He messed this up. But I will say, for this being a British film, Jim Broadband, good casting for the fake sad British film, but Ellen Burston is an American actress. She doesn't do British productions. This really should be, if I may suggest, Helen Mirren or Maggie Smith. But a better casting.

I've become a late in life Jim Broadbent fan, by the way, and I have to recommend Life is Sweet. It is from the early 90s, I believe, and it's about a very Simpsons-like British family. It's super low-key, very funny. I really liked him. I just watched in the last year for The Crying Game again, and he's in it, and he's really good.

And then I Googled like, wow, I'm Jim Broadbent's age now in this movie. Wow, remember me, I'm a young guy. I don't know what you guys are talking about. I only know him from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Of course. He's a Randall Curtis employee himself too.

Exactly. So he goes into the wrong movie, then we cut to the audience. You have to pause and catch it, but they worked really hard on that crowd shot full of distinct nerds. And you can even spot that Luigi is already seated next to the Simpsons for his joke later. And they all have slightly off-model Star Wars costumes in the line too. Yes, there was a golden Boba Fett. And you can see in the front row, Comic Book Guy is seated in between all of the super friends who help Bart find the comet, except for Lisa, of course, official Super Friends

member. We come to a joke about Homer even thinking large popcorn bucket satire is overdone at this point. Have you guys seen the very attempted viral marketing of Tom Cruise with large buckets of popcorn these days? Yes, and the insane way he eats it. And guess what, it's working on me. I'm like, yes, you eat that popcorn weird.

I can't wait to see the movie. Although I found that we've really lost the bucket over the past couple decades because we have the luxury buckets with you know They're designed they want you to take pictures of them and make jokes about them But if you order a large popcorn anywhere, it's gonna come in a greasy bag and only recently I went to a local VIP theater Which means it costs twice as much but they serve you alcohol It I actually got the bucket like the standard bucket for the first time since probably the 90s

I've seen my local Cinemark, which is the closest major theater chain to me. They have an XL I've never purchased that is like the refillable bucket. Me in my 20s going to see Revenge of the Sith, I might be shoveling all of it in the XL before the trailers are done and then running out to get like, well, now it's time for my free refill.

I don't want to miss any of the movie. Well, you gotta bring back the bucket. I appreciate the bucket for its sturdiness. You know, you can actually hold it and open a door with it. When you got that greasy bag, Bob, it's fumbling. Popcorn's descending on the floor. You're losing some off the top no matter what. Oh yeah.

Well, now I'm far enough removed from my concession work that the smell of movie theater popcorn is starting to return to me as a joyous scent instead of the smell of like a garbage bag of it mixed with soda. I'm starting to enjoy the smell of popcorn. Now, Henry, were you a popcorn jockey during the release of any of the prequel films? It's funny. I actually missed it.

I worked at the AMC 24 in Orange Park, Florida, I believe still open. I worked there from November of 2002, which would be the big release that weekend was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. And I worked there until the like April of 2004 release of The Passion of the Christ. So in between those two, I just missed Star Wars. Like I was six months after Attack of the Clones and a year before Revenge

of the Sith. Henry, I need a concession report from the audiences going to The Passion of the Christ. They would buy popcorn. I could not believe it. I've told the story before, but on Passion of the Christ, which was still in theaters when this episode aired, I was serving popcorn to people who were coming straight from Ash Wednesday with the thing on their head and buying their popcorn to watch the crucifixion of their savior in graphic detail. Maybe that was fine, but stepping it up to the hot dog or the nachos or the pizza or whatever might have existed at the time, maybe that's more of a newer thing. That would have been insulting to the Lord, I would imagine. You should have sold a bucket

of seasoned communion wafers, Henry. Oh, that would be amazing. This opportunity. Yeah, some of that wine. The Blood in the Body special, 899. This was before the AMC I worked at was years before Mulligans was introduced to AMC theaters. The bar had, have you guys been to a Mulligans

at an AMC theater? No. Oh, no, not Mulligans. MacGuffins or something? MacGuff at, have you guys been to a Mulligan's at an AMC Theater? No. Or no, not Mulligan's. MacGuffins or something? Mulled Dunes, thank you, not Mulligan's. I think that's a We Hate Movies, but I apologize.

Mulled Dunes, yeah, that was a early We Hate Movies bit regarding the Jurassic Park hunter and how the special is shooters. But no, I have not been. The AMC theaters in New York, we basically were dominated by AMC and Regal, really the only big chains, and they are the last in the game for alcohol and all that.

So I don't think I know of a single AMC theater in New York that has a bar attached. I think now some of them have started offering like a can of beer. If you go up to the concession stand and you can take it to the theater, but they don't have any bars or anything. We do have the Alamo now and we've sort of indie specialty kind of theaters that do what you're talking about that AMC and Regal do not do here. Cinemark does have around here a 21 and up, you know, dine-in theater of that style where you can get a $16 pile of nachos to make your fingers filthy while watching a film.

Yeah, that's the thing is even with popcorn, I'm like going to the bathroom. I'm like, I got to get this shit off of my hands. We get the opening crawl in cosmic wars is also a Fox film the same here it's a division of Orange Julius they couldn't imagine what kind of ownership Fox will go through at this time. They'd be in better hands with Orange Julius though. And we get the opening crawl which isn't that far from the real one from attack of the Clones. There is unrest in the Galactic Senate. Several thousand solar systems have declared their intentions to leave the Republic. At first, I thought you were reading the Simpsons joke, Henry.

But that's the actual text. I love the Empire's ambuigous tariff statutes mandate close re-examination of the Galactic export quotas. I mean, we're living through this fucking shit now. Yeah, see, that's the references in the Joe Crawl to Tariffs and Subcommittees. I was like, man, this is like, yeah. I'm sure before this episode goes live, Trump will streamline loading restrictions

for Class C cargo vessels. Of course, god damn it. Of course, right when I'm getting in the market for them. Yeah, so in the last two days, I've watched two and three again, honestly I am a sick man so I watched two because I was like you know what I feel like I haven't watched two in a long time and this is all two jokes I should see two again episode two Attack of the Clones and then after it was done the worst I was like I got to watch Revenge of the Sith now I just feel like I must just to feel complete because that's how I did it when I worked at a video store a few years after the movie theater. Me and my Star Wars

nerd coworker would just put them on like, well, this is a six hour shift. That's the whole prequel trilogy. Let's just put it on. Sure. You know, that's one of the details I got wrong in our Revenge of the Sith episode is we've been doing like this accelerated schedule to accommodate us going to Oxford, England. We're doing a six show residency in Oxford, England in July doing We Ate Movies shows. And I just did not have the time to squeeze in Attack

of the Clones. And I mentioned that Count Dooku wasn't called Tyrannus in live action, that it was in the cartoons, and that was false, apparently in Attack of the Clones. Everyone has let me know he's referred to as Lord Tyrannus like once, and I'm like, well, I don't see no Darth in there. This is a true statement. So I'm right. I agree. I think rewatching both of them, the politics stuff, I think that's the like, Oh, George Lincoln's was kind of right. Like this is the slow slide of a fascism through in part a boring bunch of subcommittees and

Senate redistricting. Like it is. Yes. I mean, correct, but not entertaining enough. True. But no man, when I saw in Attack of the Clones again, and I remembered this scene, but just seeing it again, the part where Senator Amidala is gone

and she has given her voting powers to Jar Jar Binks, and when they say like, well, we need to authorize it, but who could possibly vote for it? And they turn to Jar Jar and it's like, wow, Jar Jar immediately votes for it. Like he is the John Fetterman of his time, I would say. Yes, yes. I guess the one thing he was wrong about is that evil

would be some kind of phantom menace and not extremely obvious. Yes. I mean look, this is gonna make me just sound like I'm trying to be a guest star on the Mueller She Wrote podcast, but when you see like the hideous Palpatine who still is just like, guys, you should dress me, the Jedi's are evil. It's like, I guess that is a lot like Trump.

He does look, but it's so, it's lame as shit to say this. You know, I'll accept it, but you are a hair's breadth away from calling Trump Voldemort. I know, I know, look, it's lame as hell. I know it, I know it. It's so obvious to say, and dumb and stupid, but oh, this guy, when he's in his monster form, I'm like, in 2005 I was saying, Oh, so everybody's going to

just follow emperor monster now and believe everything he says. I'm like, Exactly. You know, I think we had movies, we covered that movie pixels, the Adam Sandler movie years ago. And I think in that, because Kevin James is the president, we had all these jokes. There was no way some fat moron would become president. And here we are. Yes, we do have two terms of president hot dog now. Yes, president hot dog.

I prefer what we call Harrison Ford in Air Force One, president punch. Can we get that guy in office? Yeah, it's like all of the jokes in here about boring Senate stuff, I'm just like, but that's the thing they get the most right. Like, I wish they found a good way to be boring. The biggest problem with Attack of the Clones they're not making fun of here to me is I do think Hayden Christensen is a good actor and I think Natalie Portman can be

a great actor, but both are completely terrible in the love scenes in that, but that is all bad direction. Yeah, it has to be, right? It's also, I feel like I cut them a little slack too because they're basically standing in an empty void. They have to act like they're in some, even the bedrooms are fake, you know? So everything's stilted out of the gate,

I think partially because of that. This is another thing I harp on as a sorry. We'll get to the next clip, but another thing I harp on is for the revisionism of the prequels are good, which I think my now feeling is the prequels are slightly better than I remember, but they're still not what I would call good. And disliking the sequel Disney Star Wars does not make prequels good. I'd also say that like, if you try to reclaim the prequels, but also are a person who complains about

how every Marvel movie looks like it's filmed in a green void and no actor is talking to each other, that is literally what George Lucas pioneered in the prequel trilogy. It happens because of George Lucas. Exactly, yes, 100%. So is Farkbot a Star Wars thing? I'm confused. I think that is just monkey cheese.

I think it is. It didn't feel like a Star Wars reference to me. Eric? Yeah, it got me swinging. But then again, you know, as the Star Wars guy of We Ain't Movies, I'm sure someone will be mentioning it to me like, you fucking idiot, you messed up again. That is a thing.

And I'm like, oh, okay. Because when the prequels hit, I was so disappointed in them. I cut back, I stopped reading the EU and all that type of stuff. So I really, I'm lost with some of this prequel stuff. Well, you know, thumbs down to Farkbot, but thumbs up to Woe Mama from Bart, which I don't think we've heard him say since the Do the Bartman single. You're right. They brought back some deep Simpsons lore here, just like a deep Star Wars reference. And now can I call this an AT-AT or is it an AT-AT? It depends on how old you are. I always said AT-AT. How about you guys?

I'm an AT-AT guy because I won't frown too hard anymore at an AT-AT. Used to because I would have said, Oh, then what's the Chicken Walker? An ATSTA? Like, you know, so that would be my stupid complaint, I'd say, as a dumb idiot. I know some Star Wars fans that were a little older than me that would say, At-At. And I think that might've, maybe some of the Kenner toy commercials might've actually said, At-At.

We came at a weird time as men in our early 40s. We became Star Wars fans, or we became aware of Star Wars. I won't say Bob, you was a Star Wars fan, but in... Thank you. For our youth was the slow unfalling of Star Wars because like you got put on ice after really like 85, 86-ish with the droids and Ewok shows. And then...

Yeah, I mean, the first time I saw Star Wars was the re-release of The Empire Strikes Back because I was like, Star Wars, huh? Well, I've heard about this. I wonder if it's any good. Wow. I saw it on VHS before the special editions were, I think, even announced. And then, of course, that made my nerd brain go into hyperdrive, pun intended. And then, you know, I became obsessive.

And then, honestly, I was disappointed in a lot of the changes of the special editions, but then people don't even know what that means anymore because you'll forget that they kept changing it. There's like a 2004 special, they just change out the files on Disney Plus or wherever you're seeing these movies. So they're taking things out, adding things in.

Like Tamara Morrison voicing Boba Fett was not a thing in the special edition, in the real special edition of The Empire Strikes Back, you still had Jason Wingreen doing the voice instead of Morrison, and it was better, but now even that version is verboten. Remember the magical first day of Disney+, when everyone discovered McClunky?

Remember that? Oh my God, that was, yeah, that was like Christmas morning. McClunky. It was McClunky followed by two years of COVID. Yes. So we had to treasure it. McClunky, that sounds, that should be like a Star Wars detective.

Detective McClunky here looking for Jim Jam. Bones. Jim Jim Bones. Jim Jim Bones, Jim Jam Bugs. That's right, you know the guy. We're spending an hour talking about Star Wars, but I guess I didn't see it because I don't think parents were indoctrinating their children as much in terms of, here are the things you need to watch and here are the experiences you need to have. I feel like that was not a priority with boomers.

Maybe there were some super nerdy boomers. My stepdad loved Star Trek, loved wizards, loved fantasy, had a ton of fantasy and sci-fi novels but never said, oh, you gotta watch this. He, had a ton of like fantasy and sci-fi novels, but never said, oh, you got to watch this. He just kind of let me roam free and discover my own. No, my parents didn't indoctrinate me into Star Wars. If they did, I could have someone to blame. But no, I think like my older brother's friend just had a copy of the VHS and that's how I first saw Star Wars.

I had a VHS copy of the original. Actually, one of my earliest memories of watching TV is seeing Return of the Jedi, like, taped off of ABC in the late 80s and watching it. And like, that was my first Star Wars. And then by the 90s, I was getting more into early 90s, reading the comics and reading the Timothy Zahn trilogy. Ooh, the good stuff right there. So yeah, it was countdown clock for me to see it the special edition in 97 and I was

Super hardcore into it. And so the idea of a prequel trilogy made me so excited and and yeah now by you know Oh for I was I was falling out of it as well though It was the opposite talking about parents My dad really didn't want me to be a Star Wars nerd would tell me how much he always thought Star Wars was stupid when He saw it in 77 he's like I thought this was dumb and never liked it We went on a family trip to Washington DC and I want to say 98 or 99 And when we went to the Smithsonian they were showing Star Wars props there and I was like guys Please we have to and we did go to see it and my dad complained the entire time and thought it was the stupidest

Biggest waste of time ever while meanwhile I was fawning over like but look at the Crimson Imperial Guard armor It's right in front of us So your dad he was more of a Trek guy Battlestar Galactica if by Trek you mean gambling on dog races then yes Yeah, a trek of dogs. He was trying to save you, you know? Like, he saw you falling like Anakin once did to the side of pure nerd. I think my parents saw what I was up to and they thought, maybe this will make money one day.

Let's just let him, let him free, let him go. And they watched the Cosmic Wars. It's all a Senate subcommittee checking things and doing the roll call. I did like that Lisa, they let Yardley Smith do the Star Wars noises. Like she's the one, normally they'd give it to one of the guys, but letting her do the vwing and grrr like, I wish I had a better Chewbacca, I'm sorry.

I don't have one either. Steve Sadek, I think has a good one. And this is where, yes, the AT-AT comes in. I think it just has one dealy bobber on its head to make it technically distinct from an AT-AT. The real AT-AT doesn't have reading glasses that emerge from the torso. Chuck Schumer style. He should have those just installed on his head instead.

Yes. Absolutely. And he's going to be around forever, like a robot forever like a robot See again. Yes, these venal ancient Emperors who stick around until they die in office like that would never happen in real life. Then we cut to Otto crying as he's watching the film and I actually have an alternate take from it That is the only deleted scene on the DVD which is what what I'm gonna play here. In the original version, or as aired, Otto is complaining about like, this blood is on your hands, Margaret Thatcher likes.

He's mad at Thatcher. Here's what the alternate line is on the DVD. Son, if you don't dig more coal, they'll put you on the dynamite gang. No dynamite! I didn't realize British coal miners had it so bad and the only boobs I've seen are Jim Brown pants! Alright that's better. That's better, yeah, improvement. Now there are a number of films

about the coal miner strike of the mid 80s in the UK, though this makes me think of the 2000 film and maybe it's what they're referencing. Billy Elliot is about that. It would have been like the most recent film Americans would have seen, I think about it. Still haven't, still have. I've never partook in Billy Elliot. It's all right.

I remember liking it back then. I haven't seen it since theaters then, but I remember liking it. And now it stars, you know, Jamie Bell, it was his star-making appearance. He was the thing in the Josh Trank Fantastic Four. So from Billy. I'll take your word for it. Then they cut back to the audience,

and this is where Al Jean admits, he, like Homer, did fall asleep during the Kamino section of Attack of the Clones. Was that when they were all inside of a giant car? It was the rainy clone factory planet, which I get all that rain makes you sleepy. I assumed it was an American graffiti reference. Oh, the name of the planet Camino. I tried.

Well, you know, the start of that movie, that is the most American graffiti of all the prequels because Anakin and Obi-Wan drive around in what is basically like a hot rod, a like Coruscant space hot rod. And this is where we meet the Dexter Jetster. Yep. Gotta have a big fat Greek diner owner even in outer space. What a failure of the galaxy's edge at Disneyland that you can't go to Dexter Jetster's diner. Oh, that would be huge. The lobby of the hotel, it would still be in business. This is where we get, well, the appearance of a very, oh, what a current joke to make in 2004.

Jim Jam, what happened to the wheel covers on my landing gear? Mesa sell them to buy Mesa some space bliff. That character's just a tired stereotype. Yes, and it's a make, and I'm so mad, how am I gonna throw the meatballs at a screen? But first, I gotta pose for a pizza box. The decision is final. Tabled, this motion is.

Or is it? That sucked. I can't believe the Gathering Shadow was Senate redistricting. Worst cosmic wars ever. I will only see it three more times. Today. Famously, on the Revenge of the Sith release day, I did see it twice in one day. Whoa. So you liked it at the time, or did you have like a comic book guy reaction? I actually did on first viewing.

I liked it. And then I basically saw it at a noon showing that I was free that day. And then my busy social calendar as a Star Wars fan was empty for some reason. I saw it at noon that day. And then in the evening, friends were like, Hey, do you want to see Star Wars? And I was like, I'll see it again. Sure. And I'm second viewing the flaws came to it, especially like just how long I was waiting or also just being like, boy, this lightsaber fight sure is long. Serious go a long time, this lightsaber fight.

That was my experience with the Phantom Menace. I think I saw that twice in a day. And it was, you know, the first time I did like it. And then I started to see the cracks. And then of course, the online vitriol. And it turned me sour on it. But re-evaluating all three of those prequels, I think the Phantom Menace is the best one. I think you got the best lightsaber fight in that. It's more of a contained movie. It's like, it ends like a movie. I feel like Attack of the Clones and Into Revenge of the Sith are just like, like Yoda there nodding at the screen. Or, you know, stay tuned.

Well, this is a much better movie, but it's why I like The Fellowship of the Ring, the best out of the trilogy. I just enjoy the beginning of the journey. Like getting it all, the promise is there, yeah. I can't, yeah, no, I have the exact same opinion. Yeah, like people feel like it's a letdown for them just running into the woods there, but I'm like, Oh my God, what are they going to get into in those woods?

I thought it was exciting. When I first saw Phantom Menace, I remember loving it, having no problems with Jar Jar Banks either. I wasn't even that bored by him. Loving the pod race and thinking that the lightsaber duel was the greatest one I had ever seen ever. And like it changed everything. But yes, on my second watch within a week of it, the, I remember feeling like the weight between the pod race and the lightsaber duel was interminable. And also just

everybody in the theater, I was like, guys, didn't you own the action figure called emperor Palpatine? Don't you know that's the emperor? Like surprised other people didn't know that, which I thought for sure everybody knew it. I think I mentioned this on our show, but yeah, no, I distinctly remember like the lead up to these prequels and during the prequels, it might've even been Star Wars Insider, it might've been one of those Hollywood shows like Access Hollywood or whatever. They were amping up like, well, you don't really know who Darth Sidious is, it could be another guy in a hoodie. But of course.

The Simpsons will be right back. It's a full hour of The Simpsons that's out of control when Homer's drinking leads to rehab. Would it be alright if I read from my Bible? Of course. And all new Simpsons, part of a full hour. Oh, no wonder they call it the Good Book. Next, Fox's Laugh Out Loud Sunday.

Hey everybody, welcome to the break. It's Henry Gilbert, a man in his 40s who has a lot of opinions about Star Wars. And a big thank you to our guest this week, Eric Sizga, the Gleap Glossary master himself from the We Hate Movies podcast. They do so many awesome things at We Hate Movies. Check out all of the great stuff they do, both on the free feed for We Hate Movies and the many awesome things they do on their Patreon. We love having back on Eric anytime and any of the other We Hate Movies guys, so please check out all the great stuff they do.

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This is very tired to say this but there are just so many problems with the character There's no way to redeem this. It's such a huge glaring mistake and just it's the design. It's the weird racial baggage It's the voice and then you know, the racial stuff eluded me when I'm watching this movie as a 17 year old But what really threw me off is like, oh, Jar Jar just made a Wayne's World joke, and wait a minute, Jar Jar just used Michelle's catchphrase on Full House, something is wrong here. I want to see the original script, because I think Ahmed Best was just doing improv,

and George was like, that's great, we should keep that in, that's funny, say how rude again. I've never heard of this, like, ugh, that's... Exsqueeze me, wow. Can you just make that up? We're turning into alternate versions Say how rude again. I've never heard of this. Like, that's squeeze me. Wow. You just make that up. We're turning into alternate versions of Kermit and Fuzzy.

It's like poetry. It rhymes there. Okay. Now you shouldn't be mean to Ahmed best. He was doing his best, but I think he was just like, I'll do funny things and you can decide what to keep. And I don't think he realized like these kind of street jokes he was doing as Jar Jar were going to be in a finished movie. I'm sure he's trying to loosen up that set.

I'm sure it was really tense and wooden and a terrible environment. Ahmed best has in the last several years has spoken more publicly about the struggles of being so hated for Jar Jar, how hard it was for him. It made him took him to some very dark places as he talked about and he seems to be like re-accepted by Star Wars fans. I think at least most Star Wars fans now welcome seeing him in things as well. Like Jar Jar just now is unironically being popularized again. Like you can buy multiple Jar Jar Binks skins in Fortnite for instance. Oh my god, of course. Well, we should have been a lot more vicious to Greg Proup.

That's all I'm saying. I agree with you there. Yep, 100%. And I actually have a quote of Ahmed Best about especially the charges about it being a racist character hurt him a lot. Here's a quote from him. The hardest part for me in that entire situation

was all the criticism that came from a racially motivated point of view. Growing up being black and wanting to be an artist, which is a very challenging and brave thing to do, it's not easy. We're always faced as black artists with this idea of being a sellout. We have our guard up when it comes to being portrayed as an Uncle Tom, a racist stereotype, or anything that makes you as a black person look less than. It hit me. It came right for me. I was called every racial stereotype you can me. I was called every racial stereotype you can imagine. There was criticism of being this Jamaican broken dialect,

which was offensive because I'm of West Indian descent. I'm not Jamaican. It was debilitating. I didn't know how to respond. So I feel for him. I feel for him. Yeah, no, I do too. And I do like when he appears in things. I forget what he was in. Was it Obi-Wan or something briefly? And he was great seeing him as just a regular Jedi. That's right. Yeah, I feel for him. And it seems like he's in a better place now.

And I did also hear him tell a funny story that before the release of the film, George Lucas was talking him up to everybody. He's like, this is the guy. Like, this is gonna be the next thing. This is huge. And that apparently Michael Jackson thought he was going to get to play the character

that became Jar Jar and was jealous and didn't like Amit Best when he was introduced to him. It's good knowing that it could have been worse. There you go, yeah. And also I feel for Jake Lloyd. I feel for all those actors because it wasn't their fault at all. It was Randall Curtis. And same with Hayden Christensen too. Like he also seems to be very beloved now.

And one other thing I want to mention on this scene too was the bit about the nod to the camera. The begun of the Clone War has, which is what the real line is. I would have always said it's begun the Clone Wars have, but Jesus Christ under my breath of how terrible writing is of attacking the clones I remembered it what confused me even more was it was used as a major moment in the trailers except he says because I pulled it up last night begun this Clone War has is what Yoda said and I remember seeing that trailer and again let me put you in the frame of child me watching the original Star Wars hearing Obi-Wan Kenobi say he fought in the Clone Wars with your father thinking like man, I'm finally going to get to see these Clone Wars. It in

the trailer goes begun this Clone War has I'm like, yes, this is the movie about the Clone War. Then you go to the movie. and the very end of the movie is like well Now the Clone Wars have begun. Goodbye That line drove me crazy when I finally saw it I was like wait no no I want to see but then of course Then they make a whole CGI show about a Clone Wars and I didn't watch it. So who's at fault here I tried to watch that show and I found it terrible at every turn and I know people say It's better or it's good or it gets better. I just can't do it I tried to watch that show and I found it terrible at every turn and I know people say, it's better or it's good or it gets better.

I just can't do it, I can't stand it. I did watch Rebels, which was a more recent show and I thought it was fine, but like, I just can't go back to those Clone Wars cartoons. Also, they very annoyingly start like, meanwhile on the, you know, like this fucking like, 1930s newsman yelling in my ear at the start of these things.

So the movie's over, comic book guy of course hates it. Like all obsessive fans, he's only going to keep watching the thing he hates. And Homer, meanwhile, refuses to look forward to anything and immediately looks forward to two piano benches. And this is where Lisa and Bart write an angry complaint letter. That's just, in both these cases, they write an angry complaint letter and then Homer is mad that he can't see brawl as women explaining things. Both of those things is what social media is for today, guys.

I haven't retrained. I don't use Instagram enough to know that it's a waste for the algorithm to show me nude women, but it's still like in my suggestions, it's like, Oh, do you want to see women in yoga pants? I'm like, that is the brawl is weather lady of today. Right. I get those as well. Yikes. Back in 2004, you had the naked news, but you also had to pay for it. That's right. They were a subscription service. Now they're giving away naked news on half of blue sky. So they send away their letter. They get sent back signed picture of a, which you know what, if I get a signed picture of Jar Jar Binks, I

think I would have enjoyed it. I would have appreciated it then. That says stay in school. Misa Seya stay in school. And this is where they realize that they can head up to Marin or Northern California, which here's more Star Wars dorkery. Around during the prequel era, sometimes in my late teens to early 20s. My mom visited my uncle and aunt who live in Marin County, and you know, my main questions to them were like, have you ever been to Skywalker Ranch? Have you ever been there? And they barely had. My uncle was a air conditioning repairman,

and he said he went and fixed their air conditioning one time, and all he just saw were sad guys. It honestly was the joke in this episode. He said he saw a sad guy animating CGI penguins. That's what he said. Well, we worked in the Bay Area in the gaming industry. I never went to Skywalker Ranch.

I think we were in the industry when they kind of stopped making Star Wars games for a while. It was a rough time. Yeah, we didn't get to go to the or if somebody got to go to a Force Unleashed video game thing, I was not high enough priority in 09 or whatever to get to get invited to that. I got to see a screening at the the Skywalker or the Lucasfilm like theater that's in the Presidio in San Francisco but I never also got to go to the actual Skywalker Ranch up in Marin. Though I did get to see at the Presidio one they do have a Darth Vader

there. I got to see the Darth Vader. They have the Empire Strikes Back Darth Vader at the Mopop in Seattle and that's my favorite Darth Vader and I could list several reasons why but mainly it's the head shape. That's the... I have been to the San Francisco one, and it was cool just being in the lobby for a second. I think they had a K2SO as well there. Oh, that's so cool.

It's got the Yoda statue out front, or not the Yoda fountain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I went to the bathroom there, it was great. It's in the fountain. And you know what, it's perfect time, because Homer just got fired again, off screen in this episode too. Yeah. It's a nice joke about how they no longer have to make an excuse to get them on vacation. So they had to the Curtis ranch,

which used to be Fresno, California, which is funny. Like Randall Curtis bought, it became the cosmic wars ranches, the entire city of Fresno. It's also funny timing. This is them ahead of the curve. A number of months later is when Sideways comes out, really popularizing this wine tasting thing. Of course, liberals elite were loving their wine tasting at this time. Right. In that movie, they also go to the Lush Valley winery. I took my mom on a tour of wine country. Well, we went on a tour. I didn't take her on a tour about 10 years after this aired. And I found out this is a stereotype with white boomer moms. Like,

as soon as they turn 60, they become lizards. They eat and drink very little. So she could never finish any of her wine. And I got so trashed on that wine tour that I was experiencing the hangover before I went to sleep. It was like, the bus was driving us back to the train station. I was like, my hangover has started. This sucks. Damn. I find wine is a hard, it hits me harder for whatever reason. If I drink a lot of wine, you know, no, no, no, no, no, no, you can't do that.

My mom was like high school classmates with some people who do own a winery up in the Lucasfilm area. And at my mom's wedding, they, to my stepfather, she had a bunch of free bottles of wine there and I did get pretty drunk on the the free I was like another this rosé ma. This is pretty good. I Knew it'd be rosé Henry. I'm a rosé bitch. That's what I am I'm the basic bitch who likes his rosé. What can I say? This is where the alcoholism part of this episode comes in which is Funny to like they discover the fun of couples drinking together. Now for me, my husband actually rarely drinks.

He just doesn't like the taste of it. It's not like any particular, you know, position. So I'm usually like drinking more, much more than him at social events. But what do you guys feel about couples drinking? My wife and I love going to breweries. That's kind of what we do on the weekends. And when we go on vacations, we love finding like, what are the good local beers? What are the good breweries?

It's like a hobby, I guess. Hey, it's something to do, right? I don't have a whole family or lobsters for dinner. So, you know, it's something to do. We like to do like cocktail bars when we go traveling and, uh, yeah, it's just, you know. Yeah, Bob, I always love to see the pics from the new bars and watering holes you guys discover too on your trips. Like, the ones you found on your last trip to Japan together looked really great.

And dog named Chappy is one of my favorite. The dog named Chappy? Didn't you mean a dog named Chappy? I swear, Nina posted about it. I think alcohol erased this memory from my brain. Okay. So I'm glad there's some record of it. But I guess the difference is, like, as you get older, you can kind of tolerate less.

So if I do any day drinking, there's gotta be food placed between drinks, because if I just have two beers, I'm kind of sleepy and I wanna go home. That's my problem as well, yeah, except white claws. Or honestly, I got, Bob and Nina at a We Hate Movie show got to see me get, I think, a little tipsy off of just one extra large white claw. If, uh.

Henry was bringing that thing down like a gavel. Well, then you guys saw me get tipsy there too, because that's what I do on stage. You know what's helped actually the fun of drinking or going out drinking with my husband is the recent increase or I've just noticed it more mocktail lists have really grown. I feel like the, like right next to the cocktail page is mocktails for the sober. And I will say that non-alcoholic beer has gotten pretty good.

Joke from 30 years ago on the Simpsons, no one has ever bought it, so we don't know. They will never discover the secret door of the Quickie Mart. That's in the past. I think there's a new market now for non-alcoholic beer. So I've stopped drinking during the week and the weekends are now for drinking. So lots of really good brands. They're mostly low calorie too, which is, has helped a lot. So I like that that's an option now if you miss the flavor.

So Homer breaks his ankle, which he's walking comfortably in the very next scene. Come on guys. That's that. So this is the thing. I hate seeing, nobody likes seeing breaking ankles in media, but it really is. It's one of those things like when I see it,

it like makes me just go like, ugh. Like I hate. Oh, I love it. Yeah, I kept rewinding it, Henry. If Homer broke his arm, I obviously wouldn't like seeing it, but it wouldn't make me like shiver the same as seeing him break his ankle. You have broken an arm before. Yes. Are you just fear a broken ankle? I mean, I have seriously sprained my ankle several times. I've rolled my ankle a number of times. I'm very scared of breaking my ankle. That is a fear. I've only broken one thing, my toe and my heart.

I broke my brain. So they go to the big hanger where they film things in green screen. Also that, I mean, a very accurate, you see those making of docs on the prequels. It's just a bunch of green screen and just George Lucas giving bad direction of like, it's a really big thing. Look out for it. Actually, I said that with too much enthusiasm.

Yes. Right, take it down a notch. Just keep your eye on that tennis ball. What was that one joke that somebody said, I want to say it was a Samuel L. Jackson thing, but somebody said that like the direction they got from Lucas once was louder and faster. Wasn't that it?

Right, I think bigger maybe or something. Yeah, I think that's it. So after they tear themselves away from a garlic bread, hip hop loaf of garlic bread promoting Subway, a very good 2004 idea, Marge and Homer enjoying drunkenness together. I think it's really cute how Marge says, oh, stop it, Steinfeld.

That's a good, I love that. She says Steinfeld, which is a great malapropism or whatever you wanna call it. Marge getting comedians' name wrong, like Woodsy Allen. Yeah. It's funny, for me, a victim of malapropisms, I didn't say her malapropism, I said it right there. Yeah, and if you remember correctly,

if I remember correctly, rather, you might remember differently, but in No Dis correctly, if I remember correctly, rather, you might remember differently, but in No Disgrace Like Home, season one episode, Marge gets drunk before Homer ever does, right? That's right, yeah. The episode is all wrong,

starting with Marge gets drunk at a function and embarrasses Homer. That's the starting point of the episode. Yeah, crazy, crazy. Like seventh or eighth episode, it's deep into season one because it's the first White Smithers, I believe. Oh, nice.

Meanwhile, they break into the home of Randall Curtis. Though if they wanted to make this more accurate, correct me if I'm wrong, Eric, shouldn't Randall Curtis be writing this all on a yellow legal pad, not on a computer? Yeah, yeah, probably. I mean, you know, I actually don't recall exactly what his method is,

but that would scan to me. That would make sense. I had heard he would write the drafts first on Yellow Legal Pad. When I Googled it, all I could see were other people saying, we've all heard about George Lucas writing his scripts on Yellow Legal Pads, but I could never find like George Lucas saying, here's my Yellow Legal Pad I wrote scripts on. I think I have a memory of like Tarantino doing that as well, at least in the early days. I can't recall at this time, Senator. I think I have heard too that Tarantino scripts are very like

sloppy and full of like endless misspellings. Oh, of course, yeah. But this is where we get to see how Randall Curtis writes his stories. Lord Kralak, if you want to take that deduction, then you'll have to bring your receipts. Then bring them I shall. This is awesome. Hey, what are you doing here?

We come from the real world. And we're here to tell you that your movies have lost their way. No, they haven't. My characters are getting better all the time. Now that we've perfected digital eyelash rendering. Better technology doesn't mean better storytelling. Well, now I know you're crazy.

Wait. Before you have us killed, hear us out. I will wait 10 of your Earth seconds. Your early movies are timeless classics. Please, Mr. Curtis, go back to what made your first film so great. You know what? You're right. I'm going back to what made your first film so great. You know what you're right I'm going back to my roots plots and characters lifted from Westerns and samurai films to the video store

Kids, please accept these boxes of Jim Jam cereal It's just alphabets with extra J's eight million sketches of just alphabets with extra J's. Eight million sketches of jokesters online and into other TV shows were, if only we could convince George Lucas to do, to change and get better and remember, literally there was the movie,

The People versus George Lucas, right? Documentary? Yes, yeah. Around this time, or actually, yeah, I think it came out like 2010 or 2011. And remember there was also that movie Fanboys? Ugh, yes. That was 2009, though.

Okay, I just looked it up. I feel like I should watch that movie because I recall being at the San Diego Comic Con where they are filming in 2008, and I feel like I might spot myself in the background. Oh, wow. Fanboys. Now, the big joke here is that

Randall Curtis is very, very tiny. He is the size of Bart and Lisa It's something that Al Jean regrets. I guess he just considers it mean but I looked up the height of George Lucas He's 5'6 which I think is on the tall side of short and when you're like make a joke about George Lucas's physical appearance I don't think anyone would say short No, they'd probably attack his like neck or something. I mean, yeah. Instantly. Like he has. And I say this as a, uh, a man who loves his longer beard hiding his neck. Um, but I, that is your first joke. It's about his bullfrog neck or whatever you'd say.

That's I've heard people mock that before, but I wonder if Matt graining is on the commentary, which he is not many season 15 commentaries. He definitely does not like all of this stuff making fun of George Lucas. Like Matt Selman makes fun of his chin on it. And I wonder if especially like Matt Groening has not unlike George Lucas's jawline. So maybe he also is a little sensitive to jokes about that. We can call it a waddle. It's a scientific term They're both billionaires with waddles

It's true when we see all the billionaires today just get hair plugs and have the same weird body Being that rich while still having a neck waddle. That's I think it shows integrity. Yeah, I agree with you there But now I think I never thought of George Lucas is short and like five six is like that's shorter than you know Than your average man, but not like tiny like that's like this height of like Tom Cruise, right? Sounds right? Yeah, I mean I still respect the five six man any lower. No It's weirdly mean on a thing like Al Jean says you can't control how tall you are I do like the Randall Curtis is like a weirdo who doesn't understand other people,

which is people have said this about Lucas his whole life. Comedian named Bugman who appears on podcasts like the Doughboys, he had this great point about like the George Lucas was the nerdiest guy in a group of like film majors and these cool film guys like Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Spielberg all these cooler guys. He's the nerdiest guy who's telling them like, you should see my next movie. It's

got Wookiees and Jedis and then it becomes the biggest film to ever exist. And it's like if the biggest dork in your friend group became the richest and most powerful. Well, that's usually how it works. If they didn't do it themselves, I would have complained of like how a season 15 Simpsons is talking about how you need to rediscover what you were good at. You guys should show up there and, uh, you know, show them that they lost their way to the video store rent some old episodes. At some point we were in a room with a bunch of writers from the show. We could have done that. Gotten kicked out immediately, yeah. Yeah, actually, the address they later say in this, Fox Building on Pico in Building 203,

me and Bob have stood outside of there when we got to go to the Simpsons. After we got to see the table read, we didn't get invited into the writer's room, but we just walked to it and took photos outside of it. Building 203, I looked at a map, I'm like, yeah, I'm pretty sure Building 203 is their building. Not for long. Yes. All right. Yeah. It's all gone now washed away, right? What are they doing? Where are they going? You know, Disney is

moving people off the Fox law. I mean, that's the hubbub right now. Nobody wants to film things in LA anymore. So Disney doesn't need to keep licensing the Fox lot. They already have their own places. They barely film TV shows in so What do they know Fox for it as well? Great. I can't wait for it to become luxury condos Also this bit about digital eyelash rendering you mentioned how the rereleases keep updating things Yep, this joke couldn't have imagined that in 2011's blu-ray release of the return of the Jedi that Ewoks blink and are given eyelashes. Yeah.

Jeez. Except all that's done in Vancouver now. Ha ha ha. I'm very happy to have like those despecialized editions. You guys look them up, look it up, get away from this Disney plus streamed version. Those are like from the 4K scans of the original, like of great prints of

them like right from all the way back. They're pretty good prints I think there's some patchwork I mean it's not exactly perfect but yeah no I think some of the good moments of the new releases they save and they patch it with other various sources. There's another one, there's a few floating around. There's a Grindhouse version, I think of Return of the Jedi, maybe it's all of them, where it's like a beat up 35 print that's been going around for years.

And there's also like the silver screen version of Star Wars 77, which is a similar situation. Those are pretty solid. Did either of you guys ever have the C-3PO cereal because I actually liked it as a kid. Never saw it. Oh man, well it basically is like a golden gray, or like a, look, all of them are just corn syrup

like covered in sugar. Like that's all they are. It's just different versions of that. Yeah, I wasn't eating healthy cereal, but I will say it was rarely licensed. I think I had my mom buy the Nintendo cereal system once. And after that that all original characters like Sunny and the Trix rabbit and the leprechaun. I remember the Ghostbusters

cereal being very good. Oh that like marshmallow ghost right? It was um yeah I think it was sort of like Fruit Loops with marshmallows which is just terrible for you. I did have the Pac-Man cereal I had that as well that was more regularly. And I'll say another thing they get wrong in this joke they're here. They get Randall Curtis to say he's gonna get back to ripping off samurai films and westerns, which is, you know, a charge that George Lucas had in the old Star Wars of like, oh this scene is from Seven Samurai, this scene is from The Searchers, all that. Which is a good thing. I mean we celebrate Tarantino for the same thing. But I'll also say the prequel trilogy is having just watched 2 and 3. In episode 2, they basically

remake the searchers when Anakin finds his mom and kills all the Tusken Raiders. And in episode 3, Yoda rubs his head just like Takashi Shimamura does in Seven Samurai. So There you go. They went to the video store. This episode resonated and he fixed it. And you know what? In Lucas's defense, right after he used all of these scenes from Akira Kurosawa films, he was one of several who helped get studio financing for Kurosawa's 1980 film Kagemusha. So he paid it back. Well, if George Lucas went to the video store, rented samurai movies in westerns,, if George Lucas went to the video store rented samurai movies in Westerns J.J. Abrams went back to the video store and rented Star Wars movies That is the snake eating its own tail. There's not even like great films great international films. They're starting to rip off

They're just ripping off a thing. They just remake the last Star Wars movie You can charge the Phantom Menace for that too. Like oh, there's a young kid from Tatooine who is taken by a wizard from space and then he ends up piloting this exciting ship and he goes in to this battle station that's blockading the system and he destroys it. You know, it's all the same shit. Well, hey, we know as was so wisely said by one George Lucas, it's like poetry, it rhymes. And that is the end of the 90 minute Star Wars section everybody, we made it through.

This will be faster the rest of this bit here. So yes, all right. I'm making the drinky drinky motion for the next two acts. So yes, Bart and Lisa toss away their alphabets with extra J's and this is where they say they're going to, their next address is the Simpsons writer's room.

So at least it's them playing fair with like, yeah, Al Jean says it later on the commentary. He regrets how much he reads online comments about the Simpsons. And he's saying that in like what? 2011, 2012, when they're doing this commentary, the commentary is fun too, because it's like one of the last, it's like a year or two before Lucas sells star wars. So they're still making Lucas Star Wars jokes instead

of Disney Star Wars. It's another one of those ones with Alan Sepulwal. Is that the guy? Yeah, right. It's a little quaint because they're like, wow, writing about TV shows on the internet, crazy. And that doesn't exist anymore. Do you think the comments they would get now, like if he was to read the comments now, would they be worse in 2025 versus 2011? I mean, the show is still a hit and it's still on the air. So I'm curious, what is the modern fan base?

Well, I definitely think in our age bracket, it is a lot of like, the Simpsons is good now, is discourse we see for sure. People aren't as fixated on hating the show. All those people kind of gave up on it probably around the time the movie or afterwards. So it's just kind of people, that group kind of just checks back in and sees a clip every now and then and they'll say like oh this is what's happening now or this is how Harry Shearer sounds they're not

as invested week to week and then yes we do have the the group of fans some of them i think are sincere about it but they're saying the Simpsons it's better than ever or at least in this period they're doing some new interesting stuff i I'm kind of like in the middle. They can do some very terrible things. They can do things that surprise me. I'm not like really in either camp. Though also Al Jean is, I get it too, just like George Lucas, probably why he in the 2011 commentary, Al Jean is feeling sorry for this.

Like he, by then in 2011, Al Jean is on Twitter and name searching and seeing everybody being like personally mean to him, including I'm sure me among them. Oh, me too. Actually, Bob, I think you you wrote a something awful piece that Al Jean is in it by name. And I like so I'm sure he saw that someone shared it with him and he reacted poorly to it. Although I understand. I understand. You know, we we love negative comments. We don't fixate on them at all. Nope. Water off a duck's back.

They're great, I welcome all, yeah. We're in season 10 and we're as funny as the Simpsons were in season 10. Hilarious. There you go, yeah. About to be entering, no, is it like season 15 or something or 14 of my show? Holy crow, we are past our prime.

Wow, so it's like we're like South Park to your Simpsons then in the podcast years. Actually, I think I'm about to be the Flintstones. That's how old I am at this pod game. So this is where the alcoholism comes in in the episode and I like that Bart and Lisa had their normal reaction to oh Well, dad's drunk again And Bob Anderson and his team do a great drawing of the four fingers on each hand holding empty wine bottles and then the shock on Bart and Lisa's face of like Mom is as drunk as dad. This is uncomfortable. Like I get that it is fun the wine bottles on the fingers

I was like, what is he trying to threaten the warriors? I'm surprised it didn't go for that reference. But it is always funny to see Marge drunk. Her drunk off of Long Island Ice Teas is very funny, like three or four years ago. And if you go to Universal's Simpsons area, you will see that clip about 40 times. Depending how long it takes you to eat your Krusty burgers,

you're going to see it a lot of times. You know what? I still agree eat your crusty burgers you're gonna see it a lot of times. You know what I still agree with Marge, they should be called large island iced teas. That's what they are. Sure yeah. Great drunk acting and animation on all of them. Also Marge's sloppy kiss like it's not just that getting drunk makes it fun to be around each other, it also is turning them both on. Just like how their public nudity turned them on, now it's the drunkenness. Is doing stuff in public is their kink? And then they assault Randall Curtis, who I must assume dies after this because despite

Cosmic Wars appearing a bunch in the show after, Randall Curtis, at least, I double checked the wiki, he's never, a couple wikis, he's never returned on the show since this episode. Yeah, I think they just felt so much regret over his tiny design. I still consider that the George Lucas look is what I yearn for. It's like, oh, time to dress up. Better get a flannel button up just like George Lucas.

That's dressing up. So we come back from the break. They're getting wine drunk. Homer is drinking out of a nasty girl plastic cup. Oh, the laundry soap was stored in under the sink and it starts fizzing. That was a nice detail. They unite over imitating each other,

which is always fun to hear imitating Marge. I love to hear you laugh. Ha ha ha ha ha. I don't talk like that. Yes you do. Well you talk like, oh Marge, sorry I set the bed on fire. Doh.

Ah! Ha, ha, ha. Ah! Ah, ha, ha, ha. You do a great me, Marge. You got to show the guys at Moe's. Moe's Tavern? That's your fun place, like me in the lamp store.

Ha, ha, come on. We'll have a blast. Kids, while we're out, the TV's in charge. Go to bed when it says. Two glasses of wine, Mo. Wine? Jeez, no one ever orders that. Well, I gots this old stuff here.

Chateau Latour, 1886. Ah, I should just throw this out. Nope, it'll have to do. Nope, it'll have to do. That'll be four bucks. Now in a step I perhaps should have taken initially, let me look up the value of that bottle in this wine collector's guide here. Oh, what have I done? Let me dry my tears with this lost Shakespeare play. Oh, what have I done?

Oh, let me dry my tears with this lost Shakespeare play. Oh, ho, ho. As area's delivery of now in a step by shit, it like, it's so obvious. I love that. I tried looking up the price of this wine and I think it is basically priceless. It's a bottle that doesn't like, I could find there was a 1961 bottle that sold for $56,000. So yes, this would have to be like a priceless bottle. It is the Action Comics number one of wine.

And this is the show's second Chateau Latour joke as Seyzl offered it to Seyzl's show, Bob, his 1982 bottle in that episode. Oh, Latour then. Yes, right. It's the punch line. Because that's the one that doesn't taste like orange drink fermented behind a toilet. Yes. Also it's cute, Marge's Fun Place is a lamp store. Isn't that adorable? Cause that's the one that doesn't taste like orange drink fermented behind a toilet. Yes.

Also it's cute. Marge's fun place is a lamp store. Isn't that adorable? Yes. I kind of chuckled at that. That was not a bad one. There's one other deleted scene in this episode, but I didn't clip it out because we'll be discussing it in season 16's Mommy Beerist because they reused it in that one with it's

also good they cut it cause it's not that funny. Marge and Homer get so drunk at Moe's that they dress up like Captain and Tenille I think and they're singing love will keep us together. It's just funny thinking about how they're going to be rebooted to be like born in 1990 soon enough. Another great line I love Homer as they're happily making out describing themselves as like Scott and Zelda Munster. That is a great line. He's of course getting them confused. The famous couple of the Fitzgeralds of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

Which that's why Zelda's named that in the video games, guys. Did you know this? Did you? It's very true. And Robin Williams' daughter. Zelda Fitzgerald is in, held in a different insane asylum. Sorry, Mario, you'll have to go to the next one. And get this, this is the lesser known bit of trivia. Rob Williams' son Cody, final fight reference. For real?

For real. Wow. Even I didn't know that one. Wow, that guy was off his rocker at that day. He should have named his son Hagar. I also like the reveal that Homer and Marge were out partying with Krusty and he's just like hungover in a tuxedo and made a mess in the fireplace and he's in real Frank Sinatra mode here. This will cover what I did in the fireplace. I got some bills here. As we've said many times in season 15, it's time for a musical montage, which Al Jean

loves so, so much. But I guess they don't go for an obvious song. They go for a song you're not gonna hear in a 2004 sitcom montage, the Cole Porter song, Let's Misbehave. It is like a drinking song, but maybe also this is like, well, it's 1928. I wonder if it is this public domain, did they have to pay for licensing it?

I don't know the legal status of Cole Porter song. I think it is the 1928 recording by Irving Aronson and his commanders, if you wanna to look up this specific recording. And shots fired at the Lizzie McGuire movie. Yes. It's kind of a funny gag, Greg.

The Lost Weekend and Barfly, these movies are all about the perils of alcoholism, pretty much. They come out loaded, blasted, having a great time. They go see the Lizzie McGuire movie and they're scared to death. Speaking of feeling old, I just watched a younger millennial standup comic who did jokes

about the specifics from the Lizzie McGuire movie and her love interest in that movie, Paolo. I was like, wow, I am old. I barely get this. Were you screaming, talk about Doug. I know about Doug. And not brand spanking new Doug, real Doug! I'm too old for the latter Doug! I love talking Doug guys, you know, I've been working on my patty mayonnaise. Hey Doug, we gotta go buy cigarettes! Doug, take me to the gas station! When I saw Orange is the New Black, I could not watch more than a season of the show

because the one character, Constance Shulman, is that the actress's name? She's Patty Mayonnaise and Doug, but she plays an adult convict with the exact same voice. Wow. She should not be a real person. I also only watched one season. It was somewhat distracting. We now see the dangers of it though. I will say with the DUI thing, I'm assuming Homer is always driving.

The establishing shot after all of this drinking montage is that he drove on his lawn. So they're already drunk driving. Like Marge is already being party to drunk driving. But this is the problem. Marge cannot keep up with the much heavier Homer of a stronger constitution like Marge is a comparative lightweight to chronic alcoholic Homer Simpson and can barely keep up where here in this next clip Marge. I've got to break in my ski boots sometime. Maybe we should put this booze cruise in dry dock for a while. No problem. We can still have fun without you drinking. OK.

And maybe you could cut back too. You got it. And when I feel weak, I will draw strength from the Bible. Uh-huh. Uh-oh. Here comes the gospel according to Puke. My only complaint about gospel according to Puke is that the established scene is that Homer handles his beer better than Marge, and yet here he is having, he's barfing after drinking, so he, you know, I don't know. I think perhaps Marge Barf the previous night.

And it's finally catching up with Homer here. Yeah, yeah, but that's my theory anyways. There's some very good animation on the noisy mustache brushing by Ned. Eric, you have a beautiful mustache. How much do you brush it? Why, thank you. You know, not so, here and there, yeah.

I mean, it was way bigger and I had to do it more often. I just trimmed it down to a more manageable because I want to take a break from brushing it. So this length, not so much, but bigger lengths, you know, you got to do at least once a day, you know? I try to keep my beard a little more comb than it used to be. Bob, you saw me, when we recorded in person, my beard was much more of a wild west,

verging on hobo. Hobo chic. I should have been a hobo for Halloween at least once when my beard was getting that furrier or perhaps a grizzled old prospector. Yeah, you would look great with a bindle or a pickaxe or you know, pan for gold type of thing. Oh, sassafra. I think a more trimming, less sunning and fluffing

your beard. I have thoughtful beard length. I can stroke my beard thoughtfully now. Look, that hobo's so wise. Okay. So Marge tries to make a deal with an alcoholic. Always a mistake. You can't trust them. Homer's not going gonna not pressure her into drinking And here comes a cameo that completely was lost on me until listening commentary They don't even get a close-up, but we have the polka fusion band brave combo making an appearance They will also do a remix of the theme at the end

Apparently Matt graining liked them and squoze them in here, but we don't learn anything about them. They don't get lines. We don't even, again, we don't see a close-up shot of the band members. They were all designed though. This is a real group. I had never heard of them before. I looked up the first hits I got for their songs on YouTube, which is where I listen to most music.

It's covers, like funny covers that I would say even verge on novelty song. It's a cover of Hey Jude with Tiny Tim was one of the first ones I got. Oh, wow. Now this will be lost on Eric, but I think what is this called again? This polka band? Brave. I think Brave Combo is Matt Groening's NRBQ and I will say nothing else. Longtime listeners will know. NRBQ references are our NRBQ.

I did find a 2004 article promoting this. They're a Texas band, so there was like the local paper was talking about, Brave Combo, local Texas boys made good. They're going to be on the Simpsons. And one of the band members is talking about how Mac Groening had been a fan of theirs since the early 80s when Mac Groening had been a fan of theirs since the early 80s when Matt Groening was a college radio DJ and like bought some of their earliest albums. And they tell it in the 04 article that Matt Groening paid them to be the wedding band at a friend of his

wedding. And then after the wedding, they said to him like, Hey, when are we going to be on The Simpsons already? It's been a while. And so he finally got it done. But then they said to him like hey when are we gonna be on the Simpsons already it's been a while and so he finally got it done but then they said Brave Combo filmed themselves performing on VHS sent it to the Simpsons to then use his visual reference and then as Matt Greening says on the commentary that the Brave Combo did not like they were drawn in Liederhosen because they do not perform in Liederhosen like a polka band. Well, more importantly, like all of our business leaders today, Duffman is sited with the Nazis. Yeah, yup. Yes. This is crazy. I do appreciate the Duff logo in the white circle, the red, the full Nazi banner for Duff. They wrote some great lines for old Duffman in this little clip here. some great lines for old Duff Man in this little clip here. You just can't stay mad at him. Well, I don't want to be a gloom hilda.

I guess one beer won't hurt. Isn't that a little big? You can just nurse it. Nostradamus. Nostradamus. Nostradamus. Nostradamus. Nostradamus.

Nostradamus. Have you ever walked on stilts? It's not that great. Yes, and you've said that several times now. Why do people worry about stuff? It's all gonna work out. That's great drunk writing on Mars. Yeah, she's shifting gears between the different kinds of drunks, like petty grievances and then, you know, kind of ambivalence about the world. That's all going to work out. Simpson's writers, while Matt Groening of course, famously hates Nazi jokes, they

love writing Nazi jokes and they are very, I mean, this Reich will last a thousand beers. I love that. I caught his name was Duff Mensch. Yeah. Yes. Duff Mensch orders you to party and then it's oh yeah, at the end, right? That's right.

Yeah. And just like Hank Azaria in real real life this Duff man is Jewish yeah I also was thinking of this because I just partially inspired by Bob's recent positive review of it and wanting to check out the new 4k release of it I just watched Robocop 2 for the first time in forever it is better than I remembered to Bob's thumbs up was a good review I I agree with though. At first I thought they went too obvious with at the end, the OCP flags at an event are also these like red banners with the OCP logo in the center. I was like, ah, they wouldn't be that obvious. But then

I had to stop myself and be like, no, the companies are very obvious. They like Nazis now. Like they don't care. I do think that movie is massively underrated. It is a lot of fun. It's a good world building on the Robocop world. They introduced cults. They introduced the drug nuke. There's a lot going on there. Great violence and Irvin Kirchner, director of Empire Strikes Back, to bring it back to Star Wars, directed it. And I do appreciate that in-world OCP is trying to literally develop RoboCop 2. So the title I thought is cheeky and fun. It has the best animatronic Peter Weller in any of the films. It's astounding. And also like children swearing as a little kids. When I first saw the movie in my like early teens

at the latest, seeing the kids swearing shocked me, I remember. I couldn't believe it. And also too, a few commercial parodies in it that are perfect. The man who blows his brains out because he used the wrong messaging service, like that, I love that commercial. And John Glover is in that in one of the commercial parodies, maybe for the car alarm. And I love John Glover. You might know him from Grimlands 2 as he was Clamp. That's right. He's basically playing the same guy

in that car commercial, isn't he? Yeah, he's just got that beautiful toothy smile. Love that guy. So Marge isn't a gloom Hilda. She gets drunker than Homer, but both are drunk and Homer drives drunk. I think in talk about current Simpsons stuff, you don't get Homer being this bad.

Like they would never, I don't think they would write a regular Simpsons episode where Homer drives drunk. I don't think they do that. Yeah. He can do something crazier and more dangerous, but this is too grounded. I think in terms of what this is something you can do at home imitatable act. It is crazy to me. There's still stories of celebrity DUIs these days in the age of ride-share apps even though

Of course a celebrity can afford like a private limousine to take them everywhere, too Here though Homer I did laugh at that the reveal that Homer is already upside down in the car We missed him crashing nearly killing them and this running off the road thing does remind me of a big Spoilery plot point from The Sopranos I only bring up two because then the Simpsons will reference it in a season 19 episode that upset many viewers. The one where Homer dreams of killing Abe. Oh, okay. Like, suffocating Abe very realistically.

So this is where Homer does the worst thing he ever could do. Oh. I'm in no condition to drive. Wait. I should have listened to myself. I'm drunk. OK, OK. Remember the rules for drinking and driving.

Drive slow, but not too slow. Drink some cola to keep yourself alert. What's this? Keep yourself alert. What's this? Nice work, Cruise Control! Now we home, yeah? In a minute, honey. Oh my god, if I get one more DUI they'll take away my license!

And what will I leave when I rent rollerblades? Woo! This is where the DUI is revealed to be a she-u-i. I smell beer, the devil's mouthwash. They make it a joke, but it makes it even worse to me. Like Homer, by moving her upside down, he nearly breaks Marge's neck too. This is also violence he does to Marge by making her fall like that. Yeah, this is terrible.

Homer says it out loud. But I do think if you have to write into the script, Homer saying, this is terrible. Homer says it out loud. But I do think if you have to write into the script, Homer saying, this is the worst thing I've ever done, then you pause your writing and go like, you know what? Should we have Homer do the worst thing he's ever done? Should we do this? Yeah, I mean, like I said, I was enjoying the first two acts.

I think this choice was a mistake because he does not really suffer enough for what he puts Marge through. And I feel like there could have been some other, like maybe the drinking turns ugly and they start fighting and they have a big fight or something. I don't know, something more creative than that. But it is truly on the list of bad Homer sins. This is up there in the top three. We've mentioned this in other episodes too, where they have like a big actually rewrite.

I wish the script was out there that I could have. I always love reading the original script, but there's very few season 15 or onward scripts that are on archive org Anyway, my usual resource But we've heard them say that like when they get to the rewrite section and it's like act three They go like we will be repetitive when we just have another one where the ending is Homer and March have a big fight Then Homer does something big to apologize to March. They do do it a lot But if you don't do that, yeah your pivot is like, well, then the asshole never apologizes for a crime.

Yes. It's like, well, what if he does nothing? That's a new angle. What if some other thing drove them apart other than framing Marge for like a felony that will send her to jail? And also like Wigam says out loud, does the real person want to confess, giving Homer a chance to give you more time for Homer to go like, no, this is a choice I am making. Like, I guess they heard some rustling in the brush and that's what he does. Like he's doing the animal noises. No, no,

no. There's no other person here. Arrest this woman and come back from the break. Marge is in a holding cell, but it is jail. And I again refer back to the real gyms making this point that this is a season where every member of the Simpsons family goes to jail once at least and twice in most cases. Homer was just in jail the previous episode in the Artie Zip episode. Is the Bart Mangled banner this season?

Are we hitting that soon? Yeah, that's how it makes it so everybody goes to jail. Even Maggie. Even Maggie. Yeah. Eric, that's the Simpsons reckoning with post 9-11 America episode, the Bart Mangels episode. Oh, wonderful.

They basically go to Guantanamo-ish. That's right. Kind of holding camp, yeah. That sounds fun. And then they live the then liberal dream of moving to, no, they moved to France. They moved to France and leave behind America, but they miss America too much.

We'll get to it, We'll get to it. Well, Bob, you'll be at that boat soon enough. Oh, I'm here. I'm not in French Canada, but I'm in the British part. Right, but you're going to miss America so much, aren't you? Close enough. Yeah. You could pop down. This is where Homer bails out Marge, and we get to see that he, again, this is no innocent, like, oh, I just did it on the spur of the moment. This is a continued plan of Homer's here.

I can't believe I drove drunk. But you do believe it, right? I don't know what to believe anymore. That's my girl. Just take me home. Where's your wife tonight, Homer? She's not coming anymore. What?

It's because of her I put in a bidet. Well, it's actually just a step ladder by the water fountain. Listen, Moe, I did something really terrible to someone I love. Hey, look, I've been in the bartender business for a long time, all right? I've heard it all. Well, what I did was...

I did what you could... Ugh! What are you? You're like a monster! That's like the worst thing I've ever heard anybody do to anybody! You should be drinking watered down beer in a chipped glass on a stool with a nail sticking up out of it! You know what? Can I have some peanuts? Alright, but I get to poke you with a stick. So oh hey, did you see the game last night? Really surprised we didn't get an eye poke on that.

That should be the period on the end of that scene. Now reminder folks that Moe has murdered people on screen, often has talked about that they have a few roofy jokes with Mo in this time, a couple are non-canonical. And one joke about having sex with a corpse. That's, yeah, keeps a man under his floorboards as well. Well, you know, this is just an average thing for a Polish American. I mean, his name is spelled similarly to mine,

and this is just sort of how we get our kicks. You're looking at a man underneath a knothole on your floorboard as well right now. We're staring at the door that Chris Cavanaugh has trapped behind. Yes, yes, of course. You know, it's funny, I always thought like, oh, you know, Mo Syslak, of course, you know,

that's a big popular character. People will obviously know how to say my name. No, no, no. Even when I've written it down, I always have to remind myself, like one more Z than you think, Henry. Yeah, it's complicated. It's a good Scrabble score though, right?

Oh yeah. If we can bend the rules a little bit. I was shocked. The nail literally, like, it is in the center of Homer's butt. You got to hear a nail enter Homer's butt That was a nice little squishy noise for that When you hear March say like I don't know what to believe anymore. Like it is shaken her very sense of self. This is

Mentally scarring. This is divorce like this is divorce stuff here should be honestly It is divorce and then you take him to criminal and civil court is what you do. But instead, everybody gets to shame Marge and Homer keeps the secret. This is where the entire congregation is shaming her and Barney lets her know about a way to get back on the wagon. This is still when the joke currently with Barney before they fully have given up is that he constantly relapses. He says, they cured me five times. And they briefly make the Simpsons Catholic for this joke because she's taking the communion, drinking the wine. We previously had the joke by Marge,

no one's going Catholic, three kids is enough. Ha ha ha ha. Hey, you're right, this is transubstantiation, isn't it? They're Presbylutheran, according to the show. Yeah, what the hell? They're throwing away all of this history of Simpsons Church just for a joke about drinking wine at church. So yeah, what the hell they're throwing away all of this history of Simpson's church just for a joke about drinking wine at church.

I also did like Barney's like, is it Marge? Is it like, cause he's trying to like, he thinks that Marge is dodging going to AA, but he actually handed her the wrong flyer. I chuckled at that too. Then we get a joke. Here's one where I feel like every time I see an Andy Dick joke, I'm in shock that Andy Dick is still alive as I'm watching it. That remains even now in 2025.

At the time of this recording? Sure. Anything can happen in the next two weeks. There have been not a lot of Andy Dick stories lately. The last most recent story I found was that since 2022 he's been a registered sex offender. Those are the Andy Dick stories going on. Oh, okay. Though it's funny, they do this joke about Andy Dick, and three years later, he's gonna be in the episode

Yokelcords on the show, and on the 2011 commentary, then they are joking that they are shocked he's still alive. So, now I'm glad we are just done with Andy Dick. We're not having to see him keep coming back with his, I feel like all his comedy friends have at least given up trying to recast him in things, even if they still maybe privately hang out with him. I don't know.

I mean, his, you know, like he was fine in the army now or whatever, but like, he wasn't good enough to defend after all those things, I think. I liked him on the Ben Stiller show and news radio. I thought he was a funny guy and things that we chalked up as like funny antics in 1999 are like horrible things. Yeah. So Marge checks in to rehab and this is where I do love that she goes to Oktoberfest

and all she could think of is the beer. She wasn't even thinking of the harvest. That's a good line. Yeah, I love the stress in her voice when she's like, I couldn't even celebrate the harvest. I've never been to an Oktoberfest either. What about you guys? I've just gone to local ones, not the actual Munich big one, but it's fun,

you know, for obvious reasons. And, you know, I did get a chance to admire the harvest as well, which is great. There was a German restaurant in Berkeley for a while, kind of pricey. But I went there about, I don't know, 10 times, and every time, I almost got the big stein. It's still my goal in life to drink out of the big stein, but you're signing up for a liter of beer. You haven't? I've gotten the stein and I've gotten it refilled.

I have a few steins from these occasions in the house. I don't really use because it's kind of ridiculous, but I've also had the boot, you know, the giant boot, which is even bigger, I think. Ever since I've seen that Nazi drink it in the Inglorious Bastards, it made me want to try it. I haven't had it yet though. Now I've had the boot. Is that called a schooner or am I thinking of something else? Oh, I do not recall this time Senator. So Marge checks herself in, then we get Homer trying to call. We get him a very long sequence

here. Homer treats us to his version of Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell. I can't talk to my wife for 28 days? Cersei is not an alcoholic. You can't put me on hold. I'll put you on hold. I am a lineman for the county. Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold. And I drive the main road. There are eight calls ahead of you. And the Wichita Line man is still on the line.

La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la line. Dad, I still have a couple of questions about this. Mom never drives drunk, and the crash was in your car. Also, the driver's seat was adjusted for your stomach. Lisa, Lisa, your suspicions are important to me and will be answered in the order received. MacArthur Park is melting in the dark All that sweet green icing rolling down.

Someone left my cake out in the, la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la. You know, they spend a lot of time on this gag and I think they really need to do a lot more with undoing the Marge Dilemma. It shouldn't be an entire minute of Homer singing when he could be apologizing. It's funny and it's fun enough to hear Dan Casleneta singing, I'm just a lineman for

the county, but you know, deal with the emotions. They had to stick it to hold music and all these phone calls you used to make in 2004 and it was annoying. But now all the kids know about MacArthur Park, thanks to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Thanks to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Thanks to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Honestly, that scene, it pushed it a little too far. You're not gonna get the magic of Day-O back. I appreciate the ambition though.

Right, yeah. It could be half as long, but at a certain point when I saw it, I actually did like, you know what? They're playing the whole thing, but no, it's no Day-O. Also, Day-O is only 30 seconds or something. They don't play the whole song of dayo in Beetlejuice. MacArthur Park, that sequence in there too though, at least they used Richard Harris, right?

The original one. I think so. Although I was made familiar with the song via Weird Al. So that's what I'm always thinking of. It was the combo of Weird Al and also it being played on the tablet, the Little Miss Springfield contest. Well, and also I only knew the song Wichita Lineman because Matt Groening referenced it on Space Ghost Coast to Coast when he was on it.

Space Ghost asks him, what do you do? And Mac Groening replies, I'm just a lineman for the county. And I watched it with my mom when it first aired and my mom laughed at it and I was like, what's that mean? And she then explained to me Glenn Campbell's song Wichita Lineman. This is where Homer has to run away because his children are correctly going like, you're a horrible man. You framed our mother for a crime. You're awful. And he has to run away.

Then we cut to Marge at a meeting or during her first rehab session. You know how some people are chocoholics? Well, I'm an alcoholic. Look, I'm not sure this place is working. The drinkers are smoking, the smokers are drinking, and the gamblers are having sex with everything that moves. Hey, baby, do you want to play Caribbean stud? I'll show you what I'm holding. Get away from me.

Your loss, stupid lady. Planters, can you watch my kids while I'm at the rehab clinic? Oh, thank God. You're finally fighting your demons. My demons and I are closer than ever. Next year, we're going to return of Hank Azaria's character from Blame It on Lisa. That is the Brazil episode. When they're taking a tour of Brazil, they're walking by the dance academy

where they invented the Lombada and other sexual dances and the man's explaining it to Marge. And she does not want Lisa to hear this. And she goes, you can't protect her forever, stupid lady, as she walks away. So I think stupid lady is just a fun Hank Azaria ad lib. It is fun. In an accent, much like Newt Gunray's,

you wouldn't do now on the show. Well I just did it. No I know. So you're quoting. Guys in the special and ultimate editions of this episode you guys can tinker that impression in or out. I like Homer's persistent like my demons and I are closer than ever and I would assume the nerds on Simpsons, the baseball nerds who write on Simpsons have for real done this

of visiting every major league baseball park. Which, you know, it doesn't seem, as far as millionaire long sabbaticals go, why not use that as an excuse to visit every major city in America and to also see a baseball game? Like, you know what, I've never been to Cleveland and I'll see a baseball game there.

As an Ohioan, I'll say don't. It would be after like 12 other baseball parks I would go to on that. I'm sorry, Cleveland. I mean, when I did get to visit Chicago for the second time I went to Chicago, then I was like, you know what? I have always wanted to see Wrigley Field. I'm going to see a baseball game.

Like, so I'm near that level of nerd. Wrigley Field is nice. The bathroom situation, tired, all. You know what's pretty good is City Field, the Mets Stadium is pretty solid. How was old Shea Stadium? It was shitty. It was akin to Yankee Stadium.

That's how bad it was. I kid. I've been to Shea Stadium, just very, felt very generic, to be honest. Yankee Stadium, old and new, feel similar to how both of them are. And it's fine. I've been to Yankee Stadium this year.

It's fine. I think Citi Field has more options for beers and things like that. Now, Henry, you went to Wrigley Field in Chicago, right? Did you reenact the opening of Perfect Strangers? Follow-up question, who was Balky? When my husband took a photo of me, of us together in front of it, I did consider it, but you know, we were in kind of a rush. It took us longer to get there than I thought it would.

So it's like, Oh, we're going to miss the opening pitch. So we didn't have time. Yeah. You got to get seated, get that old style. Well, also I was shocked to find out that if you order a hot dog there, they make you Chicago style it. They don't hand it to you Chicago style. And they're like, no, you get a tomato and a knife. My parents were big Cubs and various fans. They were from Chicago.

I was born in Chicago. We moved to New York when I was a kid. I like a lot of Chicago food. I like deep dish, et cetera, et cetera. I just can't get behind the hot dog. I've tried numerous times, it's just a big wet clump. I think New York got the hot dog. I prefer a New York hot dog style, yeah. Sometimes I like, I've had the skinless Chicago dog style, so it's not like the super, the snapping skin on it, like super tight skin on a hot dog is, yeah. Oh, that's nice.

I'm gonna recommend the Beyond Bratwurst. They're pretty good. Meanwhile, at AT&T field in San Francisco, garlic fries. That was my number one order at those. So Homer leaves the kids and they decide to repeat another classic joke from the show. Like did Dan at Castle in Etta, after doing the voices, like, wait, this is when I was trying to get the letter I sent to Mr. Burns in blood feud. Like this is the same joke. It's also the voice Homer uses on the phone

to get Barney on Forbidding Widow's Peaks. I think it is just Homer's disguised voice, like, hello, like one of those. That's true, yeah. It's a go-to. Though just like in Bloodfeud, he even starts it with like, I believe, like he even says, I believe first.

Oh yeah, and also when he in Homer the Smyther's, when he calls Mr. Burns like like hello, this is Mrs. Burns You're my bad son Montel So it's just his go-to phony voice. And this is where Homer finally comes clean to Marge I'm here to deliver a package to Marge Simpson Where's the package? Damn it! Homer! Marge, I have an awful confession to make.

You didn't crash that car. It was me! I put you behind the wheel and I'm so, so, so sorry! You let me believe that I'd done such a terrible thing? Marge, I did it out of love! Love of not being arrested! But I realize now that nothing

is more important than you. I can't believe you did that to me! That woman means the world to me. Would it be alright if I read from my Bible? Of course. And Homer drinks a bunch. So Marge's reaction is the right one, but then they don't... She kinda loses that pretty quickly, doesn't she?

Yeah, I guess he kind of just apologizes again, then that one takes. But it's like... It's sort of like a more cynical Duffless, where Duffless, he wants to go to Moe's immediately. She's like, why don't we just, you know, spend some time together? And it's a very sweet ending here. It's sort of like Homer saying, well, how about, what is it? All clear liquors, the eventual agreement they reach. Yes. Yeah. It feels like... I'm going to give up the healthiest one. sort of like Homer saying, well, how about, what is it, all clear liquors, the eventual agreement they reach?

Yeah. It feels like- I'm gonna give up the healthiest one. It feels like we're in the early aughts, we have lost sincerity in the post 9-11 hellscape, so this is what they're going for with this ending. I mean, admitting love of not being arrested, like that's okay, then you did it

to let her go to jail instead of you, that's horrible. And he let her believe it, and this is where then Marge needs a relapse and she gets some drinks with her pals thanks to it being hidden in Captain McAllister's wooden leg, which he only has when it's needed for a joke. Usually he has two legs or at the very least not a peg leg. What, the two glass eyes?

Yeah, that's true, right. You can't prove he doesn't have two glass eyes sometimes. Maybe he's all just pretending, echolocating, Daredevil style. Also, we have another joke that Captain Macalester has sex with his crew a lot. Like, look who's talking, as we remember. Well, yes, we've learned how quickly they resort

to homosexuality, in his words, when he buys the pornography. On those long nights at sea, as he said after he took a photo of the mistress of Mayor Quimby. And as everybody gets drunk, Agnes, who also, I mean, I didn't think Agnes didn't not have a drinking problem, but Edna fits in more there than Agnes. So I'm sure Agnes definitely, it's another part of her character that she's a drunk,

sure. Yeah, I wish Edna had more to say. She's oddly silent to the point where I thought, did they get Marsha Wallace? But no, she has one line here And this is where Agnes also speaks truth to power of one of the worst things in comedy films of 2004 What's with all those rapping grannies in the movies if I ever start rapping just shoot me in the head How are you doing big blue? Maybe it wasn't the alcohol you liked How are you doing, Big Blue? Well, I feel a buzz. But I don't feel happier. It's not like when I was drinking with Homer.

Maybe it wasn't the alcohol you liked. Hey, you are right. What I enjoy was spending time with my husband. You're hooked on love, Marge. I know that feeling. Nine months later, Seymour plopped out of me. I would have kept walking, but there were cops everywhere. Well, I love my husband, and I'm glad I do. My name is Marge S., and I'm a Homer-holic.

You're drinking Homer-holic? I'll take a swig. I'm afraid what I like can't be swallowed, sniffed, or smelt. Then you better inject it between my toes, because my mom checks my arms. That's good. They rarely bring Otto as low as they would bring Moe, but he's in rough shape in this episode. Maybe after learning about the Jim Broadbent movie he'll be more introspective and

get over this drug problem, but here not so much. They're talking about rapping grannies now much they hated, which the Simpsons have talked about the rapping granny and mocked it before, but here not so much. They're talking about wrapping grannies, how much they hate it, which the Simpsons of Vip talked about the wrapping granny and mocked it before. But like this reminded me that I could not believe that Space Jam 2 was so bereft of originality that they put a wrapping granny in it. And this is like 15 years after this episode, 15, 16 years after this episode. Oh yeah. Man, that movie. There was also a matrix

parody in that film. Yeah. They just made it ready player one. Actually both were done with granny. Both were like wouldn't it be funny if the granny character from Tweety Bird cartoons did this. Oh so bad. I mean already like porky pig wrapping it's like that is such a 1989 sketch idea joke like that they put in movie, but then they're wrapping Granny on top of it. I also love the act out of Agnes, shoot me in the head, her act out is very funny too. Seymour was going to be a dumpster baby.

There were chops everywhere. I love how dismissive she is of that. Remember that's just Seymour, not Armand Tanzarian. Oh that's true. That was the Martin Sheen character she was's right. She was giving birth to him. Well, here what Marge asks in the next one, but the turn here is like, I can't believe he did that. Then she realizes that it's a co-dependent situation.

She doesn't like drinking, but she does it to spend time around Homer. And her realization is, that's right, I really love my husband. It's like that really papers over the problems she was just vocalizing. I do like how they address it in this final scene though, because the rehab guy says, no, no, no, you shouldn't leave.

You both have horrible problems that have not been resolved. Yes, yes. Let's hear this crazy ending here. Thanks for everything, Kyle. Yes, I really don't think you two should leave. He's a chronic alcoholic, and you're in complete denial. Ah, shut up, Captain Bringdown! Homie, I want you to promise me you'll cut down on the drinking.

Okay, Marge, for you, I'll give up rum-based cocktails, except mojitos and rum and cokes. Well, that's no promise at all. It's important for me to see you take at least one step. Then maybe we can have some memories together that aren't just a nauseous blur. All right. For you, I will give up all clear liquors. Really?

Even Zima? Hey, I only drink that when I'm already drunk. You really mean it? Hey, anything's possible with a little help from my Bible. Oh no! It's a real one! No! Why, God, why? And then starts the Brave Combo's version of The Simpsons' credits theme, which you'll hear on the outro for this episode. At least Homer, they make a joke of like no more rum based cocktails, except Mojitos and

rum and Cokes and March rightly calls it like not a promise at all, but clear liquors is not much of an improvement of a promise. Yeah. It feels like they made a big move with that second act break plot turn and they didn't know how to work their way out of it. So they made a joke about how they didn't work their way out of it. So they made a joke about how they didn't work their way out of it, which I can respect that if it goes hard

and is like original and funny, but here it just feels like a shrug. Like we can't change anything, they're still incredibly damaged, and Homer really won't suffer for this at all. And Secrets of a Successful Marriage, like that one is a dark ending of just that Homer says, complete and utter dependence.

And Marge says, that's not a good thing, but they settle for it and realize like, no, we do need to stay together for this. They make the resolution bad on purpose. This one is also bad on purpose, but I feel like it's more just Homer being saved by, he can make any kind of promise and know that the writers know,

the status quo will be resumed no matter what he says. So Homer can drink a Zima in like two episodes and it's not going to matter. And Zima, by the way, will be discontinued in the United States in 2008, but it was always bigger in Japan and we keep going there until being discontinued during the pandemic in 2021. That's crazy. I thought Zima was already like gone by the time this episode aired. There are already like a lot of Zima jokes on The Simpsons before this.

Well, and that poor Zima guy got all of the hate. Was that Richard Jenney? Who was the Zima guy? Oh man, it is like a Richard. All I can see is his hat and his frizzy hair. I can't see his face. It's a Richard Jenney type. That's for sure.

If it's not Richard Jenney, it's a guy like him. Roger Kabler apparently is the Zima guy. Is he still around? Can I get a cameo from the Zima guy? Last credit was in 2024, so he's still kicking. Oh man, all right. I'm gonna be checking cameo for the Zima guy then. But he probably can't call himself the Zima guy.

He can call himself the clear drink man. Clear malt liquor spokesman, former spokesman. I mean, hey, I like a Smirnoff Ice. I like it. Just like my love of Rose, I also like lame drinks like Zima and wine coolers that are easy to drink. I have bad taste in alcohol. I admit this. When I visited Japan in 2011 for the first time and saw they still had Zimas there, I was excited. And I ordered me a several Zimas in Japan. Well, that you got to do, right? You know, that's a novelty right there. Yeah, apparently Zima has returned in Japan in 2023. A sake company there bought it from whoever previously owned

it that has resumed selling Zimas in Japan. So somehow Zima returned. And hey, we brought it back to Star Wars after just now. Now another hour on Star Wars. Get ready. Let's do it. OK, we're going to go through the OT. Count Zima. Is that a character?

Should be. General Zima. It would be General Zima. That sounds more appropriate. He's a Corellian spice miner there. Weesa in big, deep doo-doo. Sorry. I can't even do the Gungan voice, which is probably for the best. Hey, my final thoughts on this episode. The star war stuff felt tired at the time. Now I can appreciate the specificity of like, they at least zoned in on like two things, the Senate and George Lucas is short.

So they picked their battles. They didn't try to do everything, but it couldn't keep up with regular, all of the other places I saw making fun of star wars. And on top of that, I like the concept of the marginge and Homer become bad drunks together is a fun idea. But they take Homer to such a dark place, and then they don't get out of it very well. The third act of this is a big bring down. The middle act is shockingly the best part of it.

Normally, I don't say that about the show. But it showed I still have many Star Wars grievances that are easily, they're right below the surface and bubble up instantly, given the excuse. General grievances. Ha ha ha ha. Right? Ha ha ha ha.

Problems. That's right. Eric, how about you? What'd you think of this episode? Final thoughts. Well, you know, I agree with Henry about that middle act probably being the strongest. There was a few laughs, but it is kind of a shoulder shrug.

It is kind of lukewarm Star Wars blue milk lukewarm Star Wars jokes that don't really land and then we kind of just don't know how to end the episode So it just kind of ends Homer bad man to the tenth degree. It's crazy So not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination. No well, Eric, thank you so much for coming back to the show. This is going live in June. Can you tell us what's going on with We Hate Movies that month? Sure, yeah, in June, we're actually doing

a totally awesome 80s month for our summer blockbuster, Stravaganza. One month, we're gonna do all 80s movies. We're kicking it off with Rambo, First Blood, Part Two. We're gonna be talking about willow willow I actually remember liking so it's gonna be an interesting Revaluation month on the patreon feed. We're gonna be talking 28 days later to gear up for that Sequel and of course we have got a family of shows on patreon. We've got animation damnation

We're gonna be talking about Superman the animated series for the first time. Mr. Mixleplex is the episode. It was pretty fun. Gilbert Godfrey voices him there. On the Gleap Glossary, our Star Wars shine show, we already make fun of Star Wars and hopefully there are a little more hitting of jokes than we saw on this episode here today. I mean the Simpsons episode, not this podcast episode, but we're

going to be talking about Andor season two, a little late, but better than never. So tune into that. We've got tons of stuff. Go to whnpodcast.com to find out more. We got Star Trek show, we got Melrose 210, a 90210 Melrose Place recap show. We got a lifetime movie show. We're covering a lot of bases. I'm exhausted constantly by doing this. And we're also going on the road in July. If you live in Europe, which I now love because I'm promoting it, come see us

at the Oxford Comedy Festival in Oxford, England. We have a six show residency I alluded to earlier, July 18th, 19th, and 20th. We're doing it live in person. That's what this is, it's a stage show. We're talking about one of the shows of Animation Damnation. We're doing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,

Elementary My Dear Turtle, which I believe is partially set in Oxford. Then later that night, we have a show on Quantum of Solace, which is sold out. And then the next day we're doing a live Gleap Closery on Darth Vader. I'll be going through the old, weird, non-canonical EU,

so expect some curve balls at that show. That night we're doing Hellraiser, WLM, we love movies, that is sold out. The third night, Sunday night, seems to be the least selling, so come to those. We're doing the Nexus, covering the TNG episode Sub Rosa, which I understand gets pretty grossa. And then the finale will be King Ralph,

a live podcast on King Ralph, because that's how I'm gonna feel over there, me a disgusting American in your beautiful country of England. We could be undergoing a King Ralph situation soon. Given the state of that man. Hopefully. Yeah, they might just put me on there. Put me on the throne. Why not? Man, you are a very productive crew.

You even own and also you do a weekly YouTube live stream as well. Yes, yes. We've been taking some breaks there because we've been busy with other projects. And yeah, so youtube.com slash we hate movies. We do a live stream thing where we talk about the weekly box office results and we review new releases. You can find that, but it's kind of hide this. These archived live streams don't appear on the video list. You have to hit live and you can find them there. You know, in the Simpsons universe, Randall Curtis, instead of making Willow,

he made a movie called Sawgrass. Sorry, I've been sitting on that joke for like two minutes now, I was like, oh, I gotta think of a, what's the thing like Willow? Thank you for humoring my comedy. I liked it. I thought it was real. I thought that was an actual Simpsons thing.

Thank you, Eric, so much. Yes, thanks for coming back, Eric. Thank thought it was real. I thought that was an actual Simpsons thing. Thank you, Eric, so much. Yes, thanks for coming back, Eric. Thank you for having me. No, it's always a pleasure, guys. Thank you so much to Eric Siska for being on the show. Please check out We Hate Movies. We love them and everything they're doing over there. But as for us, if you want to check out more

of what we're doing and get all of our episodes ad free and also access to a huge back catalog of full-length bonus episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Again, for five bucks a month, you get all of the back catalog of mini series episodes, including things like Talking Futurama, Talking of the Hill, Talking Critic, Blabbing about Batman the Animated Series, and Talking Mission Hill. Eight years worth of bonus content just waiting for you right there.

And like I said earlier, you also get the ad-free podcast. So if you don't want to hear ads, that's the best way to dodge them at the $5 level at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. And also you get every month a new episode of talking future. I'm talking in the hill. There's so much just for five bucks at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. And there is a $10 level too. You get all the $5 stuff at that $10 level, but also one extremely

huge podcast once a month, only for patrons of that level. And what's going on there, Henry? Henry Morgan Bob is referring to, of course, our What a Cartoon Movie podcast, our premium podcast where we cover an animated feature film each month, just like an episode of The Simpsons. And mean, if you love, we hate movies. We talk about movies, super duper in depth. We go deep into the history, the creation of it, and then scene by scene, discussing it, all the great animation in there. Last month you got to hear us talk about an extremely goofy movie, which we had a lot of fun talking about that very 2000 movie, and that's just the start of our early 2000s Disney

summer that we're doing for our themed summer programming on What a Cartoon Movie. This month you're going to hear us talk about Lilo and Stitch, the original of course, not the live action. Don't worry. And I would call that a new classic. And it's just our most recent one that we have been doing out of nearly seven years of what a cartoon movies. We've covered the entire Disney Renaissance of films, all the nineties ones, other Disney classics, and not just Disney. We've covered a ton of Studio Ghibli. We've covered a lot of Batman movies. We've covered six and a half hours about Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and that's all included along with the ad free bonuses you get at that $5 level. So please check out everything you're missing at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and

support us there. And I've been one of your hosts, Bob Mackie. You can find me on Blue Sky, Letterboxd and a bunch of other places as Bob Servo. And I have another podcast, by the way, it's a classic gaming podcast about old video games and it's called RetroNauts and you can find RetroNauts wherever you find podcasts or go to patreon.com slash RetroNauts and sign up there for two full length bonus episodes every month and Henry what about you? I'm on Blue Sky and Instagram as Talking Henry I am always posting fun stuff there so follow me as Talking Henry in those places. And you know, on Twitter, Blue Sky, and Instagram, the official account for this podcast is at

Talk Simpsons Pod. At Talk Simpsons Pod will keep you up to date when new podcasts come out on the free feed on our Patreon. When the schedules go out, if we have live shows or other events happening, you learn about it first. Or say even when we go to the Simpsons table read, you learn about it first if you follow at Talk Simpsons Pod on Twitter. So please follow that today. Or also when we guest star on other people's podcasts too, you'll learn about that by following at Talk Simpsons Pod in all of those places. And don't forget an easy list of all our

previously released free podcasts can be found at TalkingSimpsons.com. Thank you so much for listening folks. We'll see you again next time for season five's Deep Space Homer and we will see you then. Oh no! I'm gonna be in-car-sa- in-car-sa. In-car-sa. I'm going to jail. What was that? Maybe someone else is here. And maybe he'll step forward and admit to being the real culprit. Oh, this is a new low for me.