Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Deep Space Homer

Episode Date: May 31, 2017

Homer search for respect takes him into outer space in one of the wildest episodes of the series ever. We explain some of the weirdest references, spotlight our favorite jokes, and do it all without an inanimate carbon rod…

this episode of talking simpsons is brought to you by bark box and you find folks can go to get bark box.com slash laser time and get a free month's worth of stuff for your dog i heartily endorse this event or product Got it. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we know how to get tang. I'm your host, Bob Mackie, a different kind of mathematician, and this is the Laser Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today? Hello, in another more accurate way, I'm Henry Gilbert. And the ever-careful, ever-ruffled Chris Antista.

I'm Dave Rudden, and I have the right... What's that stuff? Excellent. And today's episode is Deep Space Homer. I'll show him, inanimate guy! And today's episode aired on February 24th, 1994. And as always, Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real life history Oh my god It's been across the next week or so because the space shuttle Columbia

Successfully launches five passengers to the space station Ironically, the Bodyguard soundtrack wins Album of the Year at the Grammys Kurt Cobain successfully recovers from his first OD Oh no While John Candy dies on the set of Wagons Eastys, Kurt Cobain successfully recovers from his first O.D. while John Candy dies on the set of Wagons East. Chris, you owe me an Oh Boy Bobby. These are being cataloged. Oh Boy Bobby! Thank you, thank you. Somebody is clipping all of these for a future

compilation. I want to make sure they're all saved. I think John Candy may have been the first celebrity death that really hurt me. Yeah, probably. It made me sad. It was too soon. He was in a bunch of kid shit. Not our podcast, but last podcast on the left did a two-part series on kurt cobain's suicide it's very interesting they talk about all the conspiracy theories too behind it so i recommend i'm pretty sure he just killed himself

i mean they don't believe in them but they talk about them yeah i do think orny love killed john candy yes for sure and chris farley but this isn't like the conspiracy theory that is true That all the monkeys that go into space learn how to speak English That's true Or that Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing Through the shining, somehow But Deep Space Homer is one of the best episodes of the show ever You think so? I think so

I love it, but I was going to ask you guys The conventional theory of what sucks about The Simpsons is Homer and Jobs This could be the shark jump you guys the conventional theory of what sucks about the Simpsons is Homer and Jobs. This could be the shark jump. Well, internally it kind of was. And on the commentary they play it off as if it was a friendly spat. But I feel like Matt Groening was as angry

about this as he was over the critic. About this choice. About the critic crossover. Because he wanted to keep the show fairly grounded, and it did get crazy. But sending Homer to space felt like a step too far for Matt. And he still really, really hates a few jokes in this episode, which we'll talk about. His feeling in general was, once he goes into outer space, where do you go from there? Yeah.

Where do you go from there? Back to Earth. You definitely feel like Oakley and Weinstein also really hated it. Like, Frank Grimes, this was the job that put him... You've been to space? You. You have been to space. You've never been?

Yeah. You've never been? Like, that was them pointing out that a rational person would say, how could this idiot actually go into outer space? It's stupid. That was the point. Well, it was the plot of Armageddon, eventually. Right? But I do love this episode. I love this one. I think it's really funny, wall the point. Well, it was the plot of Armageddon eventually. But I do love this episode.

I love this one. I think it's really funny wall to wall. I think it's very good and actually it's based on the 1984 Teachers in Space program engineered to send ordinary people into space and that killed a teacher on the Challenger and then it was abandoned in 1990 because they were like, you know what? Going into space

is fucking dangerous. And expensive. And like every space mission is kind of a suicide mission in a way. That was to get children interested in space by, because normally when you go into space, this is what they don't tell you about, is a, actually there's a joke about it in this episode, it's a military mathematician, the most boring human being on the planet. So to get something a kid could impress upon or imprint upon, they decided to send a teacher into space. That was originally supposed to be Big Bird. Big Bird Carol Spinney was supposed to go into space.

In the suit? In the Big Bird suit? In the suit. It was going to be a big thing. That was not very close, but really close to exploding Big Bird. Jesus Christ. Look forward to the third episode of 30 2010 by the way we talk about the challenger and the chicago beers winning the super bowl all in the same

week that helped get america through the challenger the super bowl shuffle i think well they actually they talk about how they had they were so excited that they won the super bowl and then by the time it was time for their parade, the Challenger had put the nation in mourning. That poor dog. That is where NASA was left at here. NASA had been the very exciting explorers of the space race. But into the 70s and 80s, it got kind of boring. Yeah.

Yeah, we did it. When the Cold War ended, the pissing contest was over. I mean, it was kind of over with the moon landing for the most part. I don't think we've actually had a launch for like five or six years. Well, there's been all these calls to pull back on NASA. I'm of two minds on that that I do think. I think it gets people to dream and it is like we should be house on the moon I think you could house every homeless person in America for the price of making a

house on the moon there's a great David Cross joke put a man on Mars put a man in a fucking apartment do that instead just like imagine being like giving an Aaron Sorkin speech about the glory of the space program to somebody who's hungry

I know you didn't get food today and your child died of a preventable we're explorers we're explorers one day you're great man one day your grandchild could starve on mars this homeless person doesn't want to do a walk and talk but david merkin this is the only episode he is credited as the writer on he wrote this one this was his baby and yeah that mac reigning said that it was i think mac reigning maybe it was when he realized it wasn't his show anymore that he couldn't he could have killed this story another time but i think he i get the feeling on the commentary that he tried to and that ultimately it would have gone up to james l brooks to say no this Merkin's show and he makes his call.

Matt, it's a cartoon, Matt. Also, who cares? Remember that, yeah. Matt, it's been four years. You're a billionaire. Just do something else now. And maybe that's when he started thinking about Futurama. I don't know.

But this is Merkin-y fan fiction. He legitimately says on the commentary, I put these people in here so I can meet them because I like these people. He does that a lot in his seasons. Very much. Hey, if I had a TV show, maybe I'd do that too. I would too. I would say, like, I like this musician.

I should be on this show. The episode starts, though, with the Homer hoping that he will finally get an award. I hate these worker of the week award ceremonies. Who even cares anymore? Everyone that works here has already got one. Except for... Hello. Well, today's the day for Homer J.

I know I'm going to win this time. Yeah, how come? Union rule 26. Every employee must win worker of the week at least once, regardless of gross incompetence, obesity, or rank odor. Unions. We have to mark every reference, and the beginning of the episode opens with a total recall parody

when they're all walking through the x-ray scanner, and Homer has the gorilla posture walking through. What I love is that they say two kids posed as an adult, and if you then were just to go back five seconds, you do see them in line, and you're now like, oh, that is obviously two kids posed as an adult and if you then were just to go back five seconds you do see them in line and you're now like oh that is obviously two kids post as an adult. It's a nice visual joke. But I also like that there's no point to it because like Uzi, Pistol,

they don't care. Hi Homer. Is that a tape recorder? This was also me. Student of the year. There was a mandate that every student must win Student of the Week. Participation trophy. That's what ruined your generation, Chris.

No, it was Student of the Week. You'd win it, and they would announce your name with the intercom, and you'd get a pizza coupon. I was a terrible student, a terrible behavioral problem, and just watching. But still, like, come on. This has to be my time. And like, oh, no. Betty, the third time.

Congratulations. But even if you knew it was fake, didn't that small amount of praise help you in some way? like come on this has to be my time and like oh no betty the third time congratulations but even if you knew it was fake didn't that small amount of a praise it'd make help you in some way it's so bad that praise you know in elementary school it was one of those weirdly hurtful things of course with no recognition of my behavior the reason i'm not getting this i remember they had the quarterly like awards things and i got i was so excited to get one i got one for like most improved student because i really slacked off at the start of the year and then tried and did a well and when i got that award my dad then told me if you'd done good in the first place you

wouldn't have won that award even talk to me when you get that most improved odor trophy so you know if you want to know why i have a lot of issues but but the look on homer's face when he thinks he's going to get the award it's really good like carlos baez is the director of this except for one key sequence which we get to then but homer's just like he's tapping his little book lights like oh i'm gonna get it right baeza was a good pick for this one there's a lot of great action in it compadres it is imperative that we crush the freedom fighters before the start of the rainy season. And remember, a shiny new donkey for whoever brings me the head of Colonel Montoya.

We don't have it. What? And by that I mean, of course, it's time for the Worker of the Week Award. I can't believe we've overlooked this week's winner for so very, very long. We simply could not function without his tireless efforts. Sue,

a round of applause for this inanimate carbon rod. Inanimate, huh? I'll show him inanimate! So the Colonel Montoya reference, do we know what that's from? No. Okay.

I found it. Oh, you did? A 2004 No Homers Club post led me in this direction. It's a reference to the Sam Peckinpah 70s film Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, where a corrupt Mexican military governor with the support of corrupt U.S. industrialists vows revenge on the rebel Garcia,

and he offers a large ransom for his head. Wow. It is a veiled reference to this Sam Peckinpah movie from the 70s. That's amazing. But placing Burns once again in the turn of the century. Though Burns, for his limited appearance in here, is most senile, I'd say. He thinks he's somewhere else, though.

Listening to it in audio form. That was the first time I heard Smithers actually say words to it. We're out of here. This was when I finally got it that when Homer says I'll show him an animate, he then stops being animated. A joke I did not get until this viewing.

It's like, oh, that's smart. I'll show him an animate. And then he stops moving. It's like the apex of Homer having coworkers who are not actually workers. So there's a Stewart, the duck, and you could argue Tibor. And then the inanimate carbon rods.

Pretty great. I love, I love him. He apparently appeared. His only other appearance was as an, in an org chart for the plant in season 13. And you know the gender, apparently. Oh, hang on.

You're right. I should have said they. After feeling disrespected at work recently, Homer's plight really spoke to me. Like, I'm just feeling like nobody respects me. And feeling like not respected at home either. My bird disrespects me every day, so I hate it. And it was too... I didn't collect the sound for it, but when Homer has the thing drawn

on the back of his head and is trying to look at it, the animation is so great of him turning around. It's even better than Last Exit to Springfield's similar joke with him doing the same one. Also one of the more darkly comic moments of the show is them all laughing and then slowly realizing how stupid Homer is.

It's not going to stop. They're like, oh no. Even Bart isn't laughing anymore. He's like, Homer's trying to relax on TV

even though it laughs at him and that's how we learn about NASA. And of course this could have literally millions of applications

here on Earth and everything from watchmaking to watch repair. Boring! No! The batteries! Now let's look at the crew a little. They're a colorful bunch.

They've been dubbed the Three Musketeers. And we laugh legitimately. There's a mathematician, a different kind of mathematician, and a statistician. Make it stop! No, not another boring space launch. Change the channel.

Change the channel! I can't! I can't! I can never go wrong with the Tom Brokaw impression. And we laugh legitimately. Rub-a-lay. Rub-a-lay. I was too articulate there.

Jackal is wacko. Was there all the... I can't do Broca Why Broca not Brockman I mean Harry Shearer is so great Yeah just the fun voice Even the newscasters are boring Yeah maybe I think that was it

I mean Tom Broca's voice is kind of boring I find it funny more than boring But like it does It's very monotone yeah And that's more of a nationwide thing, not a local thing like Brockman. Though it did seem weird that Tom Brokaw would be on it when that's more of a thing.

At the time, I thought I'd see on C-SPAN 3 or whatever. This really did capture how boring NASA felt then because it was like, oh, another space launch because they're launching something else. This is about sorting tiny screws in space. I wasn't there. I was captivated by most space launches. But we're from Florida

and they would sometimes divert the shuttle and fly it over the city whenever it came back. It was more exciting in Florida when you're like, oh, I see it in the sky. I feel like nowadays people would ironically like it. You know how they have the art of painting or whatever the bob ross on twitch like or mr rogers on twitch the puppy bowl yeah yeah the puppy bowl well you know as mtv found this out when they launched their network it's public domain any space shuttle launch we all own it

yeah we pay for it so anybody could air that on twitch maybe that should be after the mr rogers marathon is over the next twitch marathon could be every shuttle launch like like um it wasn't a launch but it was a couple years ago with that like the guy with like the purple colored hair at nas do you remember that and the crazy like sex shirt he was wearing yeah yeah it was like oh yeah. The guy in the sexist shirt and all that thing. Yes, I remember that. I said sexy shirt, Henry. Bob said a dirty word.

That's a March Lisa versus Malibu States reference. Coming up. According to, no, it's in the past. Oh, in the past. Apparently, also according to Wikipedia, that they actually, NASA did try sorting tiny screws in space in 2014. I feel like that's also a joke about government waste all being spent for watchmaking and watch repair.

It's like, there are a lot of jokes about government waste in these 90s shows. There's like three more government waste jokes in this episode. Other than tragedy, I never really paid much attention to NASA as a kid. Like, you would think, like, oh, it blew up again or another thing. Like, there was one, it blew up, like, about, what, 15 years ago or something, right? And did you ever have that feeling of, like, not knowing how to change it? Back then, you knew how to change a channel without a remote. You didn't like doing it, but...

Homer didn't want to get up, I think. I guess so. A wonderfully framed sense of drama, though. Yeah, yeah. in it but homer didn't want to get up i think i guess a wonderfully framed sense of drama though yeah yeah but nasa is feeling the same kind of pressure about the unpopularity though i think the connie chung christmas is a it's a lame joke a connie chung christmas it's weirdly delivered too because he like paused before he said we've been beaten by a connie chung christmas like was there something else there before maybe if there was a replacement i was like man what was better than that like i don't know a know, knocking Connie Chung in 94.

Yeah. I mean, it's sort of a nothing voice, but I like Dan Castellaneta's space guy voice in this. Do you guys know what a statistician is? What makes a different from a math? Keeps track of stats. Gives you the lock of the week. The definition from Wikipedia is, A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics

the profession exists in both the private and public sectors it is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise on other subjects and statisticians may work as employees or as statistical consultants i checked out on algebra too so i'm good i'm fine i don't know that sounds like a freakonomics type guy statistician that's where all the statistician went and I do though like that the NASA people all act like television executives they are worried about ratings. That joke later on like this is all to give us television right that was so beautiful. So there's also uh coming up there's a comment about in the 90s it was very popular to have blue collar shows they kind of disappeared into the 2000s as we wanted to be more escapist

with our entertainment, for obvious reasons. But these shows, Home Improvement really wasn't one of them. I mean, they were a well-off family. Like, the dad was a TV star. Yeah, he was a TV star. He was not Roseanne. He was a Home Improvement. His TV show was about building shit. Yeah, yeah.

But, like, Roseanne... But Roseanne and just whatever the fuck Brett Butler was. Oh, Grace Under Fire and Married With Children, of course. These are all like kind of upper,

lower middle class people like The Simpsons. You have the NBC like young New York people but everything else was kind of populated by like, we're pretending

this is the Midwest. Just go with it. I mean, Roseanne captured it perfectly. Growing up poor in the Midwest, it was just like, oh, this is my life on TV. I'm a disaster.

I'm a mechanic. So when they confront regular, when they watch TV, it allows David Merkin to do the thing he loves most, which is making fun of other television shows. The public see our astronauts as clean-cut, athletic go-getters. They hate people like that. Well, who do they like? Here are the most popular personalities on television or TV. I did it! I supercharged my riding mower! Oh, no. I've killed Wilson.

Looks like it's back to jail for me. This is... Al, let's have sex no pig the toilet is next to the couch that's very accurate I think it was I forget which episode it was

there was a previous Married with Children parody that was much nicer that was March in Chains okay but they basically wrote a previous Married with the Children parody that was much nicer. That was March in Chains. Okay, but they basically wrote an accurate Married with the Children joke. Here they're making fun of how crass it is. But I want to talk about Home Improvement because this was the number one show on TV in 1994. It was in its third season, always in the number one slot.

You know where this episode ended up on the Nielsen ratings, Deep Space Homer? Like 13th? 32. Whoa. And it was still considered a successful? Like 13th? 32. Whoa. And it was still considered a successful show because everyone was watching TV. Yeah.

But yeah. Home Improvement, I think it does hold some kind of record adjusted for inflation. I think the stars made the most money. The show made the most money.

The most people watched it. I have no idea why. I mean, it was just an appealing show with an appealing main character that spoke to manliness. I was a kid. I watched it. I mean, it was just an appealing show with an appealing main character that spoke to manliness. I watched it. I mean, I watched like six years of it. My sister liked JTT. Oh yeah, the boy

factor. I didn't love or hate it. It was just one of those things like, well, this is what they're giving us. And I learned that a lot of bears were turned on to Al Borland early in life. Something for everyone. The mom was hot too. My girlfriend's first crush. So I have nothing to live up to. I love that shit.

Back to Jill for me. Tim Allen. I never got that until now. Tim Allen, his real name, Tim Dick, was arrested in 1978 for possessing 1.43 pounds of cocaine. He could have had a life sentence, but he

named names and he served two years and four months of a three to seven year sentence so got out in 81 and these days he complains that being conservative in hollywood is sort of like being a jew in nazi germany so you got a great deal asshole it's like you should be in jail like you should be in jail for the rest of your life but now yeah he's like i'm so victimized i had a t uh people made fun of me because i went to the inauguration of trump and then they canceled my tv show after six years when it was not as profitable the public is worse than hitler the public can't throw tim allen in a gulag i wish uh by the way but so that was that comment you're about to leave

just stop yeah please stop listening so that back to jail for me it wasn't a secret that he'd been to jail but it wasn't public knowledge it wasn't something everybody talked about you'd read it in profiles like a rags to riches thing they would cover up the the details of what happened like there he had a drug bus and what happened here but now he's a big tv guy good for him but i do wonder if they had some inter-channel problems with making fun of a Fox show so directly with Married With Children. I don't know. They threw Fox under the bus a lot. It just seems like they should

have been more allied with Married With Children. I think so. Because it was slandered for a lot of the same reasons as The Simpsons and holds up almost as well. It's a really good show, but it did get into cheapness. That toilet flushing thing was a real thing they did on the show. Like, yeah, he would go upstairs, the toilet would flush,

the audience would scream. He'd come out buckling his pants in a magazine. Yeah, or there was briefly a toilet in their living room for once. There was. This is apropos of nothing, but I guess I'll just plug it. I shot a video where I go to a Japanese monkey park, put it up on YouTube, and I got all this footage of monkeys fucking

in the middle of this pristine, beautiful... And so I couldn't... Well, wouldn't you? I'm like, I want a clip of like an audience hoo-hooing them and I can't find it.

I can't find it in my sound effects library. I want it to sound like this because I keep forgetting obnoxious hooting and hollering. And I just ripped it from this clip. So like if you see that video, it is just the audience, the Simpsons audience of Married with Children.

I assume you grabbed it from an episode where Kelly walks in and the audience starts screaming. Because that was a lot harder to find. I got the Simpsons DVDs all over the place. By the way, I found this out recently. This is a little off topic. But I watched the MSD3K new season and they did a Jane Mansfield movie. I looked up who her children were and first off i didn't know mariska hargitay was her daughter but another of her children got into hollywood that we

didn't know about her son from her third marriage was an actor and his biggest claim to fame that we would know is he was the the very specific voice he did the Married with Children commercials. Like, Al brought home his Dodge this week. Only Al would have Guardian Angel, who's Sam Kinison. I know the voice. I can't do an imitation, but I know the voice. It's so specific. It's what made those commercials extra special. Like, oh, it's that voice.

I know that voice. So they're trying to think of who they're going to get on it uh who will be their blue collar slob they're ready to do a very expensive to taxpayers search when they get a call that's who we need for our next astronaut i suggest a lengthy inefficient search at the taxpayers expense of course hell i wish there was an easier way hello is this nasa yes listen i'm sick of your boring space launches homer then like yells at them a bunch and is is also looking for tang which is his mouth movements are off there so i it was a replacement joke and i wonder what it was before in case you don't know i as a kid was like what's homer saying i can find tang in a president clinton can

find it it's it's right it's right next to the kool-aid or the ic you will find tang and in case you don't know tang actually predates nasa yeah and but it was just used on their flights and then it was used in the first flights of like eating the mercury program and then that sold them a million a million packets of sugar yeah thanks to being the tank thing and now after nasa stopped being cool it just became like it's tang itself i enjoy some tank now now and then i'm gonna go hunting for some tang i i wish dan castaneda would play this more drunk because he seems drunk because he's calling them from the bar and they're like how did you get this number? Shut up.

That's true. It should be him at the end of being drunk. Like, this is his 10th beer. He's like, I'm finally going to call NASA. Go let him know. And that is, that's again, Merkin saying, it doesn't matter how we got NASA's number or how Homer could call them to continue the storyline. He simply called them. I mean, for reasons we'll discover later,

this episode underplays Homer's drunkenness. A little bit, yeah, because... He is next to Barney, of course. Yeah, actually, that's why it took place in the bar, because they had to discover Barney. Yeah. Also, fun fact, the creator of Tang, William A. Mitchell, also invented pop rocks and Cool Whip. That wasn't

fun. And the dessert, only known as Poon. It's made of chocolate. I will also increase the poon hunt. I do think that line about Clinton makes it feel like, did this mean a different thing? It's a joke about pussy. It is a joke that he's a womanizer.

I can't imagine. Even in 94. As a kid I was like, oh, because he's fat and he likes big sugary drinks. But even in 94, the jokes were Bill Clinton is a womanizer. When he was running for president, they were too. But NASA decides to follow up.

Is this President Clinton? Good. I figured if anyone knew where to get some tang, it'd be you. Shut up! Are you the person that called NASA yesterday? No, it wasn't me, I swear. It was him! Sir, I think Respect! No! It was me! I made the crank call! I do it all the time! Check with the FBI! I have a file! I have a file!

I think I better take both of them. That Barney line is my line of the show. I have a file is my line of the show. Let's combine them. That's what it sounds like. That's the joke. I have a file. I have a file.

The beginning of Simpson's self-awareness, though. Be an astronaut? Because I didn't remember it that well. I was bracing myself for the lame joke that was coming. It's such a perfect setup of a bad joke to be like, get higher than you've ever been. That even in, like, season four, they would have done a joke like, actually, I'm a governor. But in this time, he's like, he knew exactly that they meant joy nasa would be an astronaut it was a reversal of your typical barney joke you're right yeah i love that he actually

knows what's going on for once and that it's a it is a smart way to fill the second act to create a competition between homer and barney like and it gets it lets homer and barney kind of bounce off each other and oh well my line of the show is in the next clip which i have definitely said a bunch of times jim wallace associated press is this a joke far from it jim one of these men will prove space travel is within the reach of a common man toby hunter minneapolis star no really is this a joke no toby and no more questions about whether this is a joke no toby that line is in my head no toby no more questions about if this is a joke so we missed one one reference which was the the simpsons traveling to cape canaveral via the beverly

hillbillies get up. That's going to fall on a lot of deaf eyes. I don't quite get it, though, because Florida is a big, highfalutin place to go to. Is that it? No, I think it was just a simple one-off joke of them relocating somewhere. They needed to communicate very quickly. This is a Simpsons problem of Homer gets a new job, which is like, don't explain how he left his job don't explain that he moved the whole family to florida don't explain any of that

just have a quick joke of like see they moved down to florida and now they're at cape canaveral it's the end the beauty of not having a real location for springfield because we don't know how far they traveled and the the sign joke is uh they go to cape canaveral formerly cape kennedy formerly cape arbuckle the joke is those two men were associated with rape and sex offenses. Oh, I didn't know that Arbuckle one. It was Spaddy Arbuckle. I think the story is he actually didn't do it. He didn't.

Yeah, but actors were not looked upon kindly in those days. Just a bizarre instance of, I've been here a bunch of times to Cape Canaveral. Yeah. But Lyndon Johnson, as a tribute to his fallen friend, renamed Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy for 10 years. And then everyone's like, no, fuck that. Cape Canaveral. That corpse is cold now.

There was a lot of material if you grew up living in Florida and looking at educational material. Like, wait, where's Cape Kennedy? Yeah. Like, it's fucking Canaveral. How old is your textbook? There was a similar issue where Gilda Radner, when she died, they started a cancer foundation in her name. And they had to rename it after more than a decade of just saying, like, people don't know who Gilda is anymore.

It was a real bummer that they had to admit that. Okay, this, I think, is some of the, like, hardest acting Dan Kesslin has ever done. Like, you can hear the echoes in the room. It's a My Boy's a Box scream. The only danger is if they send us to that terrible planet of the apes. Wait a minute. Statue of Liberty. That was our planet! Send us to that terrible planet of the apes. Wait a minute. Statue of Liberty.

That was our planet. You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell! Yeah, you get a sense of the acoustics in the room even. Just like, what is around Dan Castellaneta? I never get tired of this.

This is a huge Planet of the Apes film. That's one of... The spoiler is the most known thing about the movie. Yeah, like you said, Chris, it's on the DVD cover. It's on the DVD. It's on the poster. It's on every new poster. I mean, Spaceballs gave it away for me, so... Yeah, but nobody minds.

And the movie still works, and I'll shut up about it. I mean, I think it's like, the movie's great. That's just like an extra cherry on top. It is. It doesn't really matter. But this is one of two jokes that led me to believe, like, does somebody really want to do Futurama? There have been Star Trek jokes, but not the songs in a specific situation. Oh, yes, yes.

It was parodying Cable Guy. Well, before the Planting Apes quote, though, it's always what they have to do for TV. He says, God damn you all to hell. He does not say that. But they can't say God damn on network TV. I've seen more parodies with damn you all to hell, you're right. But it is God damn.

It is what he says. The movie is still rated g despite the amount of naked dicks and a lot of ass in that but uh i also like that they're dressed their outfits like barney is a golfer for some reason and he he says nothing except pass out are they trying to dress them up as blue collar slobs because they kind of already are And now they're getting trained like they have to be, they're told they have to be sober. And so Barney's like, three whole weeks with Holy Wine? I don't have every Barney clip because I like doing the Barney voice. My theory here, Henry and everybody else, is that Homer is undermining Barney.

He's getting revenge for Mr. Plow. He's secretly getting revenge for Mr. Plow. It makes me wonder why there weren't more episodes that pitted them both against one another. They're great, yeah. The last time that Homer tried to be as sober as Barney has to be, he struggled too. And it's weird that he didn't have that struggle at all in this episode. Maybe Homer gets off on being better than Barney. He has a friend who is definitely worse than him who makes him look better by comparison.

That's his addiction, that supersedes alcohol. But his family is actually, well, not proud of him. Wow, my father an astronaut. I feel so full of... What's the opposite of shame? Pride? No, not that far from shame. Less shame?

Yeah. I do love the pride. Pride versus less shame. what's the opposite of pride not that far from shame i feel less shame for you dad and i actually think it's an underrated bit when marge saying all the things she felt which is her just describing being worried with different words yes nervous anxious wary apprehensive kind of sleepy worried concerned but i think i forgot it always because homer then immediately goes like what that home the joke was homer wasn't listening i wish stopping drinking did make you into a superman that would be really

cool barney so this is my first of three clips i have saved here when barney does his dance or when he proves yes it is from the pirates of penzance let's get a little here to the original i am the very model of a modern major general i have information vegetable animal and mineral i know the kings of england and i quote the fight's historical from marathon to waterloo in order categorical i am very well acquainted too with matters mathematical i understand equations both the simple and quadratical. About binomial theory, I'm teeming with a lot of news. A lot of news. Got it.

With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse. Hooray. I will always remember, I mean, besides this episode of Simpsons, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Boo. They had an episode where, oh, this is our first big comeback after our showrunner's quit. How do we make the best possible show intro? Let's do a parody of Modern Major General.

No, that is not nearly popular enough. It's time to take Rodgers and Hammerstein down a peg. That was them, right? Oh, Gilbert and Sullivan. What's Rodgers and Hammerstein? South Pacific. Cinderella? Okay, so later.

But it is totally Aaron Sorkin's obsession with old music. Old timey things. That is probably my favorite reference to that song, but I bet younger people, Mass Effect 2. Oh, yeah. Mass Effect, Morton singing the song. Except he replaced it with Solarian.

Yeah. And Homer, I finally looked up what the full dirty limerick is, and I will say it here now. Oh, please do. I heard this at camp. I'm going to say a very dirty word here. Yes.

Yep. It's a dick. There once was a man from Nantucket whose dick was so long he could suck it. He said with a grin as he wiped off his chin, if my ear was a cunt, I would fuck it. Jesus, did you break the Jackie Robinson cunt for the Talking Simpsons show? I said that in quotes, people, but I, this is for statistics.

Isolate that word. Shame him. It was on Wikipedia. I'm just, but that is the full one. If you ever wonder where that goes. Yes. I,

I never knew that he says that he would, it almost sounds like he's saying like, like, I don't, I don't like having, I don't like sucking my dick.

I just like, Dave, that's the most popular song from Ireland? And then Tucket Ireland. And then Danny Boy comes after that. And then we get a fun little montage of them training. I like Homer's medicine-y. He drinks the thing. But Matt Groening hates the Homer turning into Popeye joke. Very cartoonish.

Yeah, I mean, I don't even think it's funny. Not really. I mean, it's fine. It's like five seconds long. It's like a naked gun joke. Very cartoonish. Yeah. I mean, I don't even think it's funny. Not really. I mean, it's fine. It's like five seconds long. It's like a made gun joke. Yeah, yeah. It really is. It's very on Simpsons.

And yeah, then they have their fight. And it also is another tip that David Merkin is a huge Star Trek fan of the original series. And the episode in question they're doing, it's kind of two. Yeah. But it's really the Gamesters of Triskelion, which is also they bet quatloods on Kirk versus people. But Kirk is fighting regular aliens in the Khalifa battle over who has the right to mate in Vulcan society. And cable guy. Yeah, I mean, you can tell this is like pre-internet research where they're conflating two episodes together with very similar things. Well, the music is used in both, but the idea of two friends fighting like that is more from a mock time. But the quad lewds and the costumes, maybe the writers wanted a mock time. And when they gave it to the director, they're like, oh, they want Gamesters of Stris.

It's the most specific Star Trek reference. There's been Star Trek parodies. I think that's a difference between the Gene and Reese years and Merkin. The Merkin wants to get more specific. That Gene and Reese will make fun of a pastiche of Star Trek, but he's like, no, I want this episode of Star Trek to be made fun of.

I'm referencing that. Everyone who's watching this show has watched the episode at least eight times, right? The Simpsons will be right back. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our net zero hub at electricireland.ie.

Hey there, lovely listener. You got a dog in your life that you want to spoil? I wish I did, but I live in the city and it's impossible. But if that's not the case for you, know that this episode is brought to you by BarkBox. And if you go to getbarkbox.com slash lasertime you can try a free month for yourself. What is BarkBox? Well, it's a service that's committed to making dogs happy through delivering

four to six natural treats and super fun toys, usually curated around a surprise theme each month, to your door for your pup. BarkBox ships to the U.S. and Canada and starts for as low as $20, and just know that you can select not only your dog's size, if your dog has any special allergies, you can let them

know. They will ensure that your dog gets what's good for him, and you can even send stuff back if it's not jiving with your dog. Either way, know that all BarkBoxes choose treats, vitamins, toys. All the items in a BarkBox are wheat, corn, and soy-free, so you should rest a little easier. Give yourself or your pup the joy of a million belly scratches

and give BarkBox a shot. And again, you listeners can get one month free of BarkBox by going to getbarkbox.com slash lasertime. Hey, this is Hank Azaria. You're listening to Talking Simpsons on Laser Time. I didn't know that was a thing. Are you already tired of 2017? Jump into the past with 302010, a weekly look back at what happened 30 years ago,

20 years ago, and 10 years ago. Here's something you may remember from 1987. Alf had a clip show episode based on the fact that he shocked himself in the bathtub and got amnesia in the first season. So they, yeah, look. But it was actually controversial because he electrocuted himself in the scene

and then parents called in saying like, that's too easily imitatable, I guess. So they changed it that he just got hit on the head, which is the standard stock, cliche way of getting in. That I can't replicate. So they spent the entire episode reminding him of their previous adventures. This is January. I know. This means they've only been on the air for, like, four months.

Hey. You got a lot of clips of El. There's, like to remember that was a tougher production there's puppeteering and more and like the first season has to be in the can yeah like it's january i bet there's also a way like put this at the end you kids like elf this episode is just elf clips there's no that's true you know father and son stupid talks. Who cares? Oh, the fucking 90-year-old dad. Oh, Alf. I constantly have to take a shit. Oh, honey. I love you so much.

Oh, my goodness. Morried Alf and morried Ronald Reagan won't get reelected. Alf. He's in his second term. Further than... I'm much older than I seem. Oh, why do I have second term. Further than... I wanted to be king. I'm much older than I seem. Oh, why do I have a two-year-old? That's 302010, a weekly look back at what happened in music, movies, TV, and games

every Thursday right here on the Lazer Time Network. I'm down in 2010. 302010! But then they get to meet Race Banyan and Buzz Aldrin. Which you can tell they redid the book. I bet they just did say Race Banyan and the lawyers were like, no, you've got to make it a parody.

The fake name seems like a joke about how they had to change the name almost. Like James Bond. I was a stupid enough kid that, I mean, I knew Buzz Aldrin was an actual astronaut. I just assumed Ray Spannon was also an astronaut who existed in reality. But I must say, this episode will air a few weeks after we record it, but Buzz Aldrin is still kicking at 87. May the Simpsons curse not strike him down as it has before. The talking Simpsons curse. He still has moon DNA on him.

He's still punching out dudes in the face. That was pretty great. Yeah, the guy kept saying, like, yeah, but it's fake. It was fake, right? It's fake. It's the greatest. You got decked by an old man who went to the moon. Gentlemen, I'd like you to meet the two experienced astronauts

who will accompany the winner into space. Ray Spanion and Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. Second comes right after first. So, Barney, we hear you're kicking ass. I, uh, don't think this contest is over yet, Buzz, if that is your real name. I believe there is still a little something called the swimsuit competition. There's no swimsuit competition, Homer. You mean I shaved my bikini zone for nothing?

Yeah. That's not great. So Buzz Aldrin was not very happy with that line. He actually didn't say the original line, which was second man on the moon. His line was first to take a soil sample. Oh oh no i'd heard it the other way oh really that they didn't want to do that joke because they're like that's too insulting to the second man on the moon he's like no i don't care i'll do the i think he just wasn't totally on board with it well i mean second comes great after first is funnier than first to take a soil sample i think

about that whenever i place not first in something i'll be like this number comes right before this number being the second man on the mood is still pretty awesome yeah and this was special too because like it's not that buzz aldrin never appeared on tv shows but he did not do comedy really he did not joke about his career he also didn't have a cool name like neil armstrong also as homer loose do buzz Aldrin is not his real name. It's Edwin Eugene Aldrin. Boring! Was Buzz because he was Kevin's brother in Home Alone? Oh wait, different Buzz.

But Buzz would go on to be really funny in 30 Rock. Yes! 30 Rock just glaring at the moon. Yeah, I got a clip of that. Would you like to yell at the moon with Buzz Aldrin? Yes, please. I own you! You dumb moon!

I walked on your face! Don't you know it's day? Idiot! I really like him in that episode. It's adorable. But Race Banyan is a reference to Race Bannan of Johnny Quest. Though when I think of him, episode it's adorable uh but race banyan is a reference to race bannon of johnny quest though when i think of him i think of the greatest johnny quest parody ever toby danger it's played so straight too like it kind of went over my head as a kid who had not seen the original johnny quest

yet with all the same actors or not all the same actors but the same actors in the place of dr quest and race Bannon. And so this is a quote I always think of with Race Bannon, even though he didn't actually say this. Can nothing stop this thing? Just let me throw a barrel at it. What the fuck is that? I don't know what this is. You never watched Toby Danger on Freakazoid?

No. We were just talking about Freakazoid. It went to WB. I never got to see it. It was in the first season of Freakazoid when the Freakazoid was basically a variety sketch show. Second season was more like, here's Freakazoid and his friends and whatever. But first season was like, anything goes. And that was one of the sketches they made.

It was more like Animaniacs. Yeah, but I mean, Venture Brothers is the much more popular Johnny Quest parody. Yeah, Race Bannon dies in like the first five episodes of Venture Brothers. I mean, Brock Sampson is Race Bannon, right? Yeah. Except the more extreme race bannon but also the first season they got to have characters from johnny quest appear and then in this from the second season on they were told like you can't not say it's johnny but don't

actually say johnny is johnny quest just call him johnny yeah johnny has problems i forgot about that god damn it yeah but i also thought it was cute that that Homer had a photo of Marge in his locker. I thought that was nice. Oh, I meant to mention this when we were talking about Star Trek. I was at a Star Trek convention last year and for my company ran a Star Trek trivia contest. And one of, I think, the guy who got every question right and won the first day and we're like, you can't compete the next day. He was a NASA scientist. Wow.

There were multiple people there who we met and interviewed who were like, I'm in the sciences, but it's because of Star Trek. I am jealous of Star Trek fans because there are a lot of things I love, but then a lot of other things

I haven't discovered yet. If you like Star Trek, you had nothing else in the universe but that. What about Brett? Brett loves Star Trek. Well, not the first one so much. Oh, he loves TOS. Yeah, he went back to go back to TOS.

He grew up with TNG, but it's hard to obsess over anything on that level at this point. I say as I'm doing my 17th consecutive hour of a Simpsons podcast. I mean, I kind of like the original because it's not as much about lore. It's more like a liberal parable in the terms of the Twilight Zone.

It's just like, here's a bunch of liberal parables about morality. And it also is Horatio Hornblower. It is a show about people on a ship fighting people on other ships. And it's about diplomacy and war. And it's about the Cold War. And it is a liberal's, SJW's dream of the future, as our haters would say. Stop listening.

Please do. So then it looks like Barney's got this all sewed up. You've both worked very hard, and in a way you're both winners. But in another more accurate way, Barney is the winner. Congratulations, Barney. That's very gracious of you, Homer.

Please join us in a toast. To the mission! It begins! I guess you're the winner by default. Default! Woohoo! The two sweetest words in the English language. Default!

Default! Default! Where'd you get that, anyway? Sent away? There's a running gag of the one guy knocking people out with a blackjack. Or a sap, or whatever you want to call it. I like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah-doo. Yeah, sorry, I wanted to cut all that.

I just like there's a jet pack just sitting around. Just take it. And it's non-alcoholic wine. But I don't know if it's like beer where there's still trace amounts of alcohol. There's trace amounts of alcohol in non-alcoholic beer, but I don't know about champagne. It's like 0.23%. Yeah, but it could be enough to get Barney. I couldn't find a direct reference there either.

It Begins just sounds like a funny... It's just a way of narrating your life. Also, I didn't know, are there actual lyrics to the Charge theme? And then you can just easily steal a jetpack and then him hitting the pillow factory and then being run over by the marshmallow truck. Okay, so the pillow factory is Klasky Chupo. I think you were wrong in that the box factory isn't,

but the pillow factory is. Okay. Yeah. Or the people in the commentary were wrong. I don't know. I couldn't, I could not, that whole sequence when Barney's both sober and in the air, he's never looked more like Nelson's dad in his entire life.

Yeah. It's weird to see a ripped, not ripped Barney, but like an in-shape Barney where like his torso is sticking out further than his stomach. And his hair is slicked back. Even that dumb arc where he's sober, he's so fat as fuck. Yeah, he's still fat, yeah. Yeah, you know what? That's true.

When he gets sober, it doesn't have this effect again. That's weird. I think it just changes his haircut again. Yeah. So Homer, by default, is the guy, but he's starting to get nervous by watching an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, which is all over the place with references. Yeah, this is of the era of The Simpsons where the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon was now a commentary on the main story. It's always related to the main story. It's been like that for at least two years now, right?

Yeah, but it was so all over the place that it starts with the Star Trek theme or a parody of the Star Trek theme. Then Alien popping out of your chest chest a chestburster moment then it becomes 2001 and then i'm going to say the head exploding is total recall yeah another total recall reference two in this episode so they're all over the place in just like 13 like 30 seconds and i think it was i love that joke but i do think it was the most violent itchy and scratchy to that point i think so yeah he gets torn apart like three different ways and it ends with blood streaking the screen which like not every itchy and scratchy cartoon has blood in it no i think it was mainly just to uh like upset homer so the most upsetting images homer could

possibly see before going into space were there on the screen. But the joke of saying that the preceding cartoon was too violent and children shouldn't have watched it. That's a total Merkin thing too. He's for TV violence. Then straight to another reference of the right stuff of them boarding the shuttle in slow motion

and then Homer ripping out of slow motion into regular speed. It's a really great joke. And animating slow motion is not easy. It's a lot of extra drawings. Yeah. Then Homer gets convinced. By the way, for him, he has to be really stupid to not know how to do a touch-dome phone.

In 1994, maybe you grew up with a dial, but... It's way more complicated than touch-dome. Yes, I know. The rotary phone? I remember having to learn how to use ours. We still had one and one touch-tone with rotary. We had one that was just fun to play with. Like an old phone.

Ooh, I gotta go to zero. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I think of this story about every time I have missed an opportunity or chosen not to do something I should have. But on the other hand, when you don't take advantage of an opportunity, you can end up regretting it for the rest of your life.

You're right, Marge. Just like the time I could have met Mr. T at the mall. The entire day I kept saying, I'll go a little later. I'll go a little later. And then when I got there, they told me he just left. And when I asked the mall guy if he would ever come back again, he said he didn't know. Well, I'm never going to let something like that happen again.

I'm going into space right now. Oh, I am so proud of you. And I know it's going to go just fine. Homer's tragic story. The guy just was like, I don't know if he'll come back. I do yes Mr. T will be back

in a mall near you Mr. T is very accessible these days he really is you can't not see him honestly remember he was famous for doing almost nothing

he's around oh come on Mr. T Mr. T worked really hard from 1982 to 1989 he was really hard working there's no brand stronger than Mr. T's. I mean, no one else can have that shtick.

I mean, seriously. I guess, yeah. Mr. T was on the A-Team. He was in Rocky III, a huge hit. He got his own cereal. He got his own cartoon. He main-evented the first WrestleMania and then WrestleMania II.

I mean, Pee Wee Herman ate his cereal in a movie. Yeah, and DC Cab. And DC Cab. Mr. T was a big deal. Then in the 90s, it became... I remember when Mr. T shaved off all his hair, and people were like, wait, you're still Mr. T?

And then it was sad to see him grow back, because it was supposed to be a statement of like, you don't define me as Mr. T. I'm this guy. And then he realized, no, I make more money just being in a Snickers commercial. I think it was also post-cancer, because Mr. T beat Mr. C. guy and then then he realized like no i make more money just if being in a snickers commercial i think it was uh also post-cancer because like mr t beat mr c and he like sold his gold chains and

stuff no he really said this i remember that yeah he also loves his mother in case you didn't know yeah what's that from be somebody or be somebody's for some reason i've seen be somebody or be somebody thank you to sean internet legend sean baby for revealing that to us in the late 90s my buddy had that on a tape with Woody Woodpecker cartoons right in the middle, so we would just end up watching it and like, where these gold chains is because I'm from Africa. And I remember that line like, that doesn't make any sense.

I can't connect those two ideas. Where these gold chains is because I'm from Africa. And in his WWE Hall of Fame speech, he talked for 30 minutes about his mother until they cut his mic. They're like, you can't talk about your mother. We got other people here, man.

It does seem like Mr. T might not all be there. So Homer says he... I don't know if he's ever been there. He didn't get to meet Mr. T, but just looking at Mr. T in the Simpsons wiki, he was one of the stonecutters. So they might have met there. That's true, he met him there

i didn't meet him but i ran yeah so all but also in the future the season 15 episode today i am a clown he mr t actually guest starred i don't know if he actually met no he didn't watch it he did he did it was crusty gets bar mitzvahed uh and they bring back jackie mason by the way put this out there season 15 the best season. Sure it is. Prove me wrong, we'll get there. I can do that now, but... And he wanted to get bar mitzvahed and he wanted to do it simply

then it gets all show busy including Mr. T being the officiant of it. And he isn't it isn't his voice, but when they go to Branson, Missouri, he's also there in season 13. Bart may have met him. I didn't get this until now, that the ship being called the Corvair, that's just a reference to an old car.

That was the Chevrolet. Is it a shitty car? Well, Ralph Nader called it unsafe at any speed. Oh, really? It is a lost car. I found out the name for it. And if our gearhead Michael Grimm was on here, he'd be telling us all about it.

It was a Jeopardy question, Beavis and Butthead, and that's the only reason I know it. So it is between a Corvette and the Bel Air. So it is the Corvair. And there's no real explanation in the show why the shuttle is named

after a lost Chevrolet car. The space shuttle gremlin. I love that Race Banyan hates Homer so much and that he refers to him as cargo that he wants to sedate. So when they take off, this joke kind of baffles me. I kind of know why it's a joke, but like, make Rocket go now. They're saying that instead of blast off? Is that the joke? No, they actually say that, I believe.

Really? No. I don't think so. Then later it's like, make hatch blow now. I feel like it's just a way to overcomplicate an easier to say expression maybe. Like, blow the hatch or blast off or whatever. I don't know. Can I strabulate chum scrubbers?

This is a job for the comment section to yell at us, so please do. What does Maycatch blow now mean? All the search results are The Simpsons, so perhaps those are wrong. What also I didn't know until looking up was that Lisa's poem to her dad, I was sure it was like, oh, she must have got that from some famous poem somewhere. But as far as I can tell, it's original. It is an original thing by Lisa Simpson. I did some serious research, and you're right, Henry. Lisa wrote that poem.

And that the family, I just, as a creative kid in the family who said kind of artsy-fartsy things instead of go, dad, go, and everybody looking at you, I could identify with that. Just like, go, dad, go. And that the NASA people are so in love with the ratings like they don't care all these machines just measure ratings it was their highest ratings in 10 years which i would have to think in 87 they had higher rate or 86 they had higher ratings uh but after that first one blew up how do people not watch you want to watch the next one to see if uh they bounce back i'm actually surprised there were no challenger references especially with david david merkin's dark sense of humor was Was it too soon?

I don't know. It was too soon. That was the first 9-11 I can remember living through. Yeah, 1993. I think if you made a Challenger joke in a cartoon, you might get called out on it. The first Challenger joke I remember was in the Clerks animated series from 2000. So that could have been the first one that I...

And I remember seeing it in 2000. I did do a gasp like, a gas like holy shit like the class of 1986 or something yes oh yeah they all got on the rocket talking clerks we're gonna do it yes all six fabulous episodes of which two are good five episodes lurking clerks lurking clerks but i wondered why i did wonder how did homer sneak these chips onto the ship? Were they in his suit? But I love this. It's beautiful. It's the most awe-inspiring sight I have ever seen.

Giver of life. Mother of us all. Hey, guys, look what I smuggled aboard. Homer, no! They'll clog the instruments. Careful, they're ruffled. I'll take care of this that might be my this is a couple qualifiers this might be my favorite line delivery of a celebrity who is

not an actor careful they're ruffled yeah you someone one of our great listeners actually sent a bunch of simpsons action figures yeah and it's all the guest stars and buzz aldrinrin. And Buzz Aldrin is the one that I like out of that collection. Like, that's the best one. Thank you, Eric. Because the rest of them are like, oh, well, that's a, there's like six members of. Michael Stipe? You don't like Michael Stipe? No.

I have the kid. Yeah, R.E.M. And then like Smashing Pumpkins. I was given the Kid Rock one and I was like, I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't want to remember this episode ever. I threw this away. Don't. Yeah. want to remember this episode ever i threw this away don't uh yeah so then it goes into what i

think is one of if not the most well animated sequence in the series uh-huh the homer floating and eating the chips the entire the entire episode was directed by carlos paeza but david silverman did this sequence yeah and it was sort of like they went to him he's like just let me do it it's all in my head i'll just do it for you. And it's beautiful. Him just biting the chips, set to the Blue Danube, which was the same music used in the docking sequence in 2001. So another 2001 reference. Docking sequence I did last night. This was an early use of computers in the Simpsons animation.

I was good because the chips all rotate in 3D. It wasn't 3D animation on the chips. Yeah. They used an Amiga to figure out where the shadows would be on the ridges of the chips as they turned around. Everything is still hand drawn, but they used a computer to assist them in knowing how to draw the different shapes. One of the funniest things I got on 302010

was from 1986's Great Mouse Detective. They talked about, yeah, for the first time, we're using a computer to help animate this. And it's like, well, this is going to be all about how they're using computer animation. No, it's about how they taught a computer how to draw. Exactly. And that's how those sequences came to light.

They literally had a computer drawing it. And actually, Bart on the Road, we'll get to that in like a year or so, they used a computer to figure out how to do that shot of the car, the radar love shot. That's all done with a computer figuring out what the drawing of the car looks like. They didn't actually computer animate it. They used a computer to tell them what to draw.

That shot of Homer's spinning head, like his expected mouth. I love that. His teeth are just... And the chips just gather in his mouth and he closes his mouth. It's so great. And the spinning Homer is just like...

If that was all David Silverman, massive amounts of respect to him because just to he imagined a three dimensional Homer without like he just drew it. It wasn't a computer and just like wearing a space suit, too. Yeah. And the way his suit or the way his head circles around it. And then also when he's about to hit the ant farm, the way he's trying to slow down, it's like swimming in air. The mad scrambling is really good, too. And by the way, it's purely visual, but the ants arguing.

Yes. Save the queen. I'm the queen. That feels like a comment on society, like no one really knows what they're doing. Especially in an emergency. As a kid, I took it like, how do they know which one's the queen? They're all ants. They all look the same.

It's the one with the vagina. Well, and freedom, horrible, horrible freedom. I love that line so much. That is a great line. And so now the ants are loose in the ship. And they'll never know if ants can sort tiny screws in space. Every time someone gives me chips, careful, they're ruffled. I have to say it.

Anytime they're ruffled. Homer tears the bag apart immediately. I'd like to think he didn't know his own strength and zero gravity. Shut up. So, Henry, we missed one thing. During the takeoff, Homer is singing the Golden Grams commercial theme from the 70s. I've never heard of it. No, no.

It's actually when they're going back down. Oh, back down. Okay. He turns into Nixon in the liftoff. That's right. I was thinking of the Nixon joke. I don't put down on that one buzz and actual astronaut uh race banyan uh they're what were they humming like the battle hymn of the republic yeah they're humming battle hymn of the republic while homer

is singing the golden graham's theme which i had never actually this commercial's from the fucking 70s i didn't see it so i looked it up for this, so here's the original. It's the first time I heard it. Oh, those golden grahams. Oh, those golden grahams. Crispy, crunchy grahams. Cereal, family, breakfast treat. Oh, those golden grahams. Oh, those golden grahams. Golden honey, just attached with grahams.

Golden wheat. Man, that 70s dad is about to take a giant rip off a bong. He smuggled a doobie to their kid. That was surprising to me as a kid, hearing that name, because Golden Grahams is probably, at that point in my life, in my top five favorite cereals. Really? It was always a low-tier one.

I loved it. It was still sugary. My parents let me have it once in a while. See, I wouldn't have it because if I was going to get something in that same shape and hella sugary, I would get Cinnamon Toast Crunch, which is the king of cereals to me. I mean, Golden Grahams is good until you're halfway through. Then it's like a wet cinnamon slurry.

I still love that. And you're just like, ugh, what do I do with these flat paper-like things? It's like an expired Crest White Strip. Yeah. But that's – I criticize – look, when you're writing a show And you want to reference a jingle There's a line in there that says it's a new cereal They're not going to stick with the new jingle No

Go with the established jingle Of which there was not one for Golden Grapes But I guess they're setting up that that's how Homer remembers it And it's one that's always meant a lot to him Since the 70s when that was new If you've heard Laser Time I should not judge Of how many commercial jingles I remember. Yeah, like, I wouldn't sing the current

Cookie Crisp thing. That's one of my favorite community... I'm Domesta Repper and I'm here to save. I love Fruity Pebbles and a Macchi Crisp. I loved that community... Yeah, the community bit that Dan Harmon writes a joke about the Cookie Crisp wizard

and that Donald Glover doesn't get it. I don't get it. He was a burglar. Well, no one knows who King Vitamin is anymore. King Vitamin. Or Quisp cereal. King Vitamin. Raining over cut roofs.

Speaking of raining over something like fire and rain. The answer loose. And then we get a scene no one expected to ever hear buzz aldrin talking to arguing with james taylor this will make no sense to a young person but he is vh1 the human i i love james taylor he's great how you doing fellas with all due respect mr taylor this isn't the best time for your unique brand of bittersweet folk rock we have a potentially critical situation here i'm sure you'll understand listen aldrin i'm not as laid back as people think So, former President James Taylor, he has to rewrite his song on the spot because it mentions flying machines in pieces on the ground.

So, big ups to James Taylor. He gets paid for two songs in this episode. Oh, that's right. That's right. This is a different song he starts with. Now, you've got a friend. He popularized it in the 70s. Many people have sung it, including Vincent Price on The Muppet Show.

But it was written by Carole King, who was a collaborator and I think lover of his. I just watched a documentary on her. The amount of songs she wrote and is not associated with is insane. But just them floating around annoyed, having to hear James Taylor sing a live song. I didn't even realize until this viewing the insanity that the second man on the moon is talking with James Taylor. Yes. Like, they're interacting.

It's very crazy. Yeah, hear the audio. They give him a lot of lines. Yeah. And then James Taylor is sassy with him. Yeah. And listen, man. I can't even think of, like, are there other instances on The Simpsons where it's one celebrity

who's never met another celebrity interacting with, and they're calling each other by their actual names? I'm sure it's happened yeah. It's a bizarre thing to think about. Was anybody else, were your parents favorite musician James Taylor? My mom and stepdad love him yeah. So the Flying Machine references Sorry like if Al Gore met Gallagher or something

like what? Okay. They're talking to each other. The song he changes is the 1970 hit Fire and Rain. It was written after the suicide of a childhood friend. And also he was dealing with depression and drug abuse. That too. And the flying machine and pieces on the ground is not a reference to a actual flying machine. It's a reference to his band, The Flying Machine, which was his first failed band project.

I didn't know that. Yep. But that was a joke as a child. I did not get that my mom immediately explained to me because... Which one's the song about his girlfriend who's flying out to see him and she died in a plane crash is that not this uh i don't it's not this one this is a girlfriend that killed herself while he was an old friend of his that killed childhood friend yeah while he was on tour for his first album and people didn't tell him for six months because they wanted him to enjoy his success

and but of course then it hurt all the more when he found out. And, uh, that's what the song is about. But as Merkin admits, and I could not capture it because I could not find the fricking clip of it, but on the DVD, I know there is the actual audio of Merkin telling him to change the lyrics

because the joke was in the script they gave to Taylor. But as far as James Taylor knew, he was reading the script they gave to Taylor but as far as James Taylor knew he was reading the script he's like okay and then I sing fire and rain I don't need to read the lyrics to my own song so then he's singing it normally and then when he's done Dave Merkin says um actually could you change the lyrics to your song for a joke and and James Taylor totally goes with it. But that song that means so much to him that then have to tell him while he's in the booth, could we make fun of it?

I thought you knew we were going to make fun of it. They're flying safely through the air. I'm guessing this is just Merkin being in love with James Taylor. Oh, of course. He had him on the Gary Shandling show. It's the Gary Shandling show. And meanwhile, things look pretty bad to earthlings the core of air spacecraft has apparently been taken over conquered if you will

by a master race of giant space ants it's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth man or merely enslave them one thing thing is for certain, there is no stopping them. The ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.

Okay, so Ken Brockman immediately sells out all of humanity. All of it! And they have a graphic ready for this event. And whipping a human. This is my favorite joke. Is this the line of the show for you?

I don't know. The Barney one took me off guard. Yeah, I forgot about this. This is the one. We should probably have a sound effect to denote a meme. I for one welcome our new overlords. Our new overlords. Again, itords. Our new overlords, yeah. Again, it's Simpson shorthand.

It was created here. For being stupidly reactionary to the slightest amount of information that's not proven true yet. And selling out everyone the second you can. It's like, oh, I guess, I welcome our new president or I welcome our new overlords or whatever.

I was at a fucking i was at my girlfriend a girl a girl for my girlfriend's work friends wedding party didn't know anybody and they're playing like you know what do you want to call them adult jimmy fallon drinking games or word-based games it was all this about memorizing these one word responses like Snoopy the dog and like the boss's husband just put down as his one word response and I for one welcome our alien and overlords. That was his one word response

like a fuck you the whole thing. Everybody had to remember that a room full of 12 people had to remember that phrase and say it verbatim and I was shocked by how many people didn't get it. You were like, I got you beat already, buddy. Yeah, I'll say this a thousand times. I'm not bothered by this.

This is the only word I have memorized. You underestimated me, sir. I got you, buddy. I wasted more of my life. But everybody is really troubled by it. I like how Marge immediately tries to bury her emotions like, who wants ginger snaps? That was cute.

I have to call a question on, maybe I need a science-tician to explain this to me, but how would James Taylor create a vacuum outside his house in a vineyard? The outside, creating a vacuum within two spaces indoors is one thing, but building a vacuum outside of a place that is outdoors? Maybe he had some sort of dome set up? Perhaps they were under a geodesic dome. But I did love his cute story that he tells them the science.

How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero hub has all you need to know about smart And that's true. He actually does live in Martha's vineyard or spends a lot of time there I look that up and that that the other guy is ready

he's ready with his blackjack again and and that he gets called like this this unkempt youngster yeah it's like oh it's 45 okay morning so they let out all the ants into the vacuum of space.

Homer almost flies out. And then he is seemingly killed them by breaking the door. Wait, that James Taylor thing, though, reminded me of Star Trek where they made fun of it on Futurama where it's like, let's explain something

in a way the audience can understand. Like letting air out of a balloon. No, like too much air in a balloon. Too much air in a balloon, yeah. So it was a way to explain a complex problem with a with a normal situation a human could understand like a regular human yeah you know i bet that is somewhat of a star trekky thing because they did that in the original series too then homer seemingly killed them for like the third time in this episode and he's ready to he's ready to just settle things up with race before they die that's it if i go i'm taking you to hell with me

wait a minute wait a minute wait aha now i'll bust that pretty face here ah stupid bar wait homer if that bar holds we just might make it back to earth oh bet you of homer it's a run it's a recurring gag but homer refusing to save his own life and self-preservation that he he works so hard to wrench it out there might seem this sir winks a lot scene actually where it's like sir winks a lot bites him and they're holding him back from trying

to kill the pig. Totally. Yeah. It was at this point I probably should have realized that Race Banyan was not an actual person since he wanted to kill Homer. Yes. And I should have said it, the design of Race Banyan pretty much is Race Banyan except with black hair instead of white bear. It's the exact design from the original Hanna-Barbera cartoon, which is very visually striking and way better than the Yogi Bear bullshit

they were making back then. Way different design than racist Bannon. You mean the white house? Zing? That won't be happening by the time this goes live. We're recording this so far in advance, I don't want to make too many specific Trump jokes, because I honestly can't predict them. They'll all be in super jail by now. Well, speaking of the news, the news is already ready to make too many specific trump jokes that i honestly can't predict them they'll all be in super jail by now and well speaking of the news the news is already ready

to make their retract well this reporter was possibly a little hasty earlier would like to reaffirm his allegiance to this country and its human president may not be perfect but it's still the best government we have what a a craven idiot. For now. Oh, yes. By the way, the spacecraft still in extreme danger. May not make it back. Attempting risky reentry. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

We'll see you after the movie. But the second Homer got that carbon rod stuck in the thing, I was like, all right, the carbon rod's coming back. I see it. That's a carbon rod right there. I know you're going to do a bookend of it, but that's when they're going down to earth and that's when homer sings the golden rams theme and uh turns into nixon right no i'm sorry going up is nixon i can't keep track of this bad joke anyways i don't care for it and well abe simpson doesn't care much for drama i just love this line come on dad you can make it oh of course they'll make it it's tv in playing the audience just like they're not gonna kill homer on the show yeah we're not

afraid they still have like 10 episodes left in the season it does show like i think it was like season one or season two where we thought like oh homer ate the bad fish he might actually die in this episode when i was 10 it got me and there was no there's no cynical commentary from the show like no we won't kill homer it's a tv show they wanted james l brooks definitely wanted you to think homer's gonna die yeah i believed it and uh we talked about it in that episode but it even tricked me because it double tricked me because they had the ad for next week's episode was going to be a flashback to the 70s the way we was. So I thought, they're killing Homer and then starting back over when he was a teen. As a

10-year-old, it made sense. It made sense to me. So did anybody else try to research carbon rods? No. I mean, they're used in nuclear... They're used in everything. I mean, the last level of Bart vs. the Space Mutants revolves around carbon rods, like finding the rods.

But this one is green. Yes. Yeah. And irradiated. I mean, I like in the sense that most things glow green. But carbon rods are very common in a lot of things. But according to Google in our world, The Simpsons has overtaken the meaning of what a carbon rod is.

They're heroes, Chris. They're now our heroes. That is the fourth Google result. Carbon rod. Buy them at Goodwins.com. Amazon. And then it riding around chauffeured in a car.

That's the fourth Google result for a carbon rod. That is a great shot. So they crash into the reporters convention. I'm guessing because the controls were messed up, they couldn't safely crash. Yeah.

They couldn't safely land, so they ended up crashing. Where Tom Brokaw just was again. He was just there. It was a weird camera shake, too. Did you notice that? It was a very odd thing they normally don't do on The Simpsons, which was clearly a digital effects of shaking the camera, not a post-effect. It's like post-animation.

Yes. Yeah. the camera, not a post-effect. It's like post-animation, yeah. Yes, yeah. Well, the dumb thing is... If you're a low-level reporter reporting on the boring space launches, why are you at the reporter convention front and center? I don't know about that. But it is a space landing, and there is a tacit agreement. The reporters aren't allowed to talk to astronauts who return from space because they're... Space madness. Space madness, but the idea

that their organs have been floating in space and not falling on the sides of their body and when they get back, all their shit is sucked into the side and they can barely move and they're carried off the ship and they can't talk to it and they're not seen generally after this. Eating ice cream sandwiches

which are actually bars of soap. I didn't mean to ruin the joke, but yeah, you don't usually see astronauts for a few days. Homer should just be like vomiting after this. But so, Homer seems to be the hero, right? How'd you solve the door dilemma?

Homer Simpson was the real hero here. He jury rigged the door closed using this. Hey, what is that? It's an inanimate carbon rod! In Rod We Trust. Oh, they were just about to show some close-ups of the rod. Oh, stupid rod. Something I've always noticed about that but never figured out why

is the weirdly high-pitched cheers right after the carbon rod is discovered. If you play it, it's like midway through the clip. Ladies go nuts for rods. They kind of hit it twice. Yeah, yeah. It seems a little too high-pitched, Dave. You're right. I don't know.

I just imagine like it's carbon rods, other carbon rods cheering for that carbon rod. The stupid rod is what I would yell at my pants on the bus in seventh grade. The shot of the rod in a convertible by itself being driven through a parade is so fantastic. Just highlighting Homer's, again, failure to be a hero. Like a 1950s ticker tape career. Just that visual, I keep expecting, even though I've seen this episode like a dozen times, like, is there going to be a Kennedy joke here?

Someone shot the rod. They did so many JFK jokes, I'm surprised. There wasn't one. And then Bart draws Hero on Homer's head in kind of a sweet mockery of him. We've seen this 2001 parody in a previous episode though someone's throwing something in the air and then it turns into a fox in lisa's pony uh it starts with the uh it starts with the opening well no way no it doesn't do the it does do the bone throw they it does it to the bone throw but it is the past thing but

then this is bart throwing the pen instead of the bone that then does the match cut to a satellite but a really rough match cut and they mimic the roughness of the match yes yeah they could make it perfect because it's a cartoon but it honestly fell a little flat to me i was like other than just saying like oh 2001 one more reference this is also a space thing the reference earlier i think it might have been prove me, comments the first time you see the Fox logo animated on The Simpsons. They made fun of Fox and said the word Fox. It hits space baby Homer in the head. It's bizarre.

That Fox logo is far more recognizable now in the Fox News logo. Fox does not use that logo anymore, but Fox News does. The little searchlights. It's not even in So Brash, So Great, So Fox. It's just letters, three letters. But, I mean,

this episode was full of so many references to movies about space that it was not surprising they'd go to a 2001 one, but it doesn't really mean anything. It's just like, why is Homer a space baby?

Is this supposed to be the future? Is this the hell? Now you know what it's like to watch 2001. I think it was a reference for the sake of having a reference. Like in Principal Charming, the Vertigo stuff, which had no place at all. It just was like, we can make a reference here.

I'm going to, again, deflect to my 13-year-old brain who had never seen 2001 A Space Odyssey at that point. I just assumed that because Homer had been in space, that somehow his DNA had been permeated into space and his baby was in space. Wow. Have you actually seen 2001? Because I would love to hear your interpretation.

Is Ray Spanion in it? No, because then I haven't seen it. I'd say half of 2001 is an incredible movie, and then the rest is like, well, you've got to be high. Half is a screensaver. You need acid for it. But man, Hal versus the spaceman is amazing he is hal's one of the greatest villains in film history i just love he's so like he's so condescending to

them but so flatly too just it's beautiful dave's not here man so uh that was uh that was deep space homer possibly reference to deep space nine i don't know i guess but kind of way i guess these these titles are not that clever yet space nine was new then it was a reference to Deep Space Nine, I don't know. I guess so. But kind of way, I guess. These titles are not that clever yet. Deep Space Nine was new then? It was a reference to the deep state. The Colorado airport. No more Alex Jones improv for you. You know, I said this is one of the best episodes.

I take that back a little bit. I do think it sells at home a little bit. And the rest of the family have like 40 seconds of screen time or something. I do like Marge's stuff in here. But I still think the chips eating is some of the best animation the show's ever, ever had. It's a glorious scene. And yeah, I mean, Matt Groening was right to have reservations, but I feel like they went back to mundanity afterwards and there were no questions.

There was no like, oh, but he went to space. I mean, it was great when Frank Grimes brought it up, and it was just a funny underlining of how outlandish the show had gotten over its years but um yeah but you could hear on the commentaries with oakley weinstein they were very clear of like we wanted to bring homer back down he oakley said it in our interview too that yeah in in they say look we don't have to name the episodes but there were episodes where homer did crazy stuff we didn't want homer walking around with a ray gun anymore yeah that's what they say there but i i was pretty sure they meant homer goes into outer space that's pretty much so they're talking about so i think though merkin they made the they said on the commentary i think it is true i think they

to earn the right to break the show they they wrote a very good episode for it. They earned it, I think, for sure. And it is very rare in the entire history of the series for the sitting showrunner to get a writing credit on an episode. It pretty much never has happened. They're usually way too busy. I mean, season three had Colonel Homer that Matt Groening wrote. Yes. But I don't think three and four had any Al, Gene, and Mike Reese duo scripts.

I think Gene and Reese did write al gina mike reese duo scripts i think gina reese did write lisa's pony okay but that was when sam simon was here too yeah and i do believe the episode where bart is separated from the family by constance harm that that episode is written by george meyer and mike scully oh yeah mike scully co-wrote one while running the show which they even admit they wrote in a weekend that they just locked themselves in a room. That's true, yeah. So it's pretty rare for this to happen.

It's a very rare thing, yeah. And this episode beloved by NASA. Don't you mean NASA? NASA. There was a very early video format sent to the space station

and there it remains where the astronauts can enjoy it. And on the commentary, David Silverman has an interesting story about Homer in space of him giving a drawing of the,

it just, I think it was like Mark Kirkland visited NASA and he drew a Homer on something that they eventually shot into space. So it was Kirkland, which had nothing to do with this episode. So, but it still happened. He was there to tell that story at the end of the commentary.

Yes. So this has been talking Simpsons. Thanks for listening, everybody. I've been your host, Bob Mackey. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo

and my other podcast is Retronauts the classic gaming podcast every Monday and twice a month on Fridays random Fridays. Look for them then. You'll find us talking about classic games if you want to get into the show. Look at our archives find a game or series you like and download the episode. I guarantee you'll like it.

Episodes that Talking Simpsons dudes have been on we have Bart vs. the Space Mutants, Bart's Nightmare, we have a Zelda jingle quiz and we have a Pac-Man holiday special extravaganza which I really love so I mean you don't need us to help you get into RetroNuts but that can help ease you into the world

of old games so go to RetroNuts.com or search for RetroNuts in your podcast machine and you will find our podcast everybody else and i'm h-e-n-e-r-e-y-g on twitter you can find all my fun musings on there and it's also where i put the links up as soon as the episode goes live i put it there so if you want to know as soon as possible though you can also follow laser time show on twitter because i immediately retweeted on that account as well, just so everybody knows it happened. Or you can find it out on Facebook too.

And as long as I'm promoting things, be sure to give us reviews on iTunes. We had a nice new slate of new ones, and it's always good to get new reviews if you want to do a free thing to help us. Of course, if you want to do a not-free thing, there's also patreon.com slash Lazer Time, right, Chris? Yes, indeed. It's how we are supported, how we are supported how we live how we upgrade our equipment and keep this show going and putting out i wouldn't say quality but

painstakingly produced shows they're quality chris they're i love the seal of quality has been applied to all these podcasts i love what we do and if you do too we encourage you to support us at patreon.com slash laser time in exchange a almost a hundred full-length movie commentary should you want to watch. Star Wars, Ernest Goes to Jail. Why are those the only two that come to me? Back to the Future trilogy? A bunch of these guys I don't know as of recording time,

but I really want to put you on the hook for watching Chipmunk Adventure. I want to be on one of those Monday Night Movie commentaries. It's going to be fun. We've got to do Spaceballs. I'm saying here, Dave, we've got to do Spaceballs. You can hear one of the last non-Bart Nancy Cartwrights in that very film. Oh, wow. On Patreon.com slash LazerTime.

Of course, we also watch once a month a cartoon. We sneak onto the internet with our video commentary. No syncing required. Just watch, enjoy, or don't. I would steer you towards the Danger Mouse drinking game. I have watched that. I didn't realize how much i hated danger mouse until i watched it again as an animation five years later drink every time they try and find an excuse to not animate a mouth and it will be hammered in 12 minutes yeah uh and also on that a weekly show

bonus time should a new episode of the simpsons come on i got something to say about it that's probably where i will do it. Who knows if these guys will be on it from time to time. But we do have a revolving panel of guests. And of course, Laser Time, which you guys have been on recently for shows about strikes. We saw Guardians

of the Galaxy 2 to talk about obscure superhero teams. That was a good time. The brief anime chat I was allowed to have under duress. There was a gun trained on me at all times. I saw a pitch for somebody to say we should do a podcast where me and you, Bob, make Diana Goodman,

host of 302010, watch anime with us and we call it Die Anime. I've heard a complaint that she needs to get over the eyes. I mean, there are Disney characters

with bigger eyes. The Anime The. And yeah, laser time, I am actually angling for around July when the new Planet of the Apes

movie comes out for us to do a monkey episode and we would have to have the clip of the ape in this episode. We won't be doing that. You mean Tim Allen?

Yes. No, I didn't comment then. It made the grunt way more simian. Yeah. So that's been Talking Simpsons. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. We'll be back next week to ask the question,

what the hell are you staring at? See you then. Wow. Infotainment.