Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Don't Fear the Roofer With Drew Mackie

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

"Wow, it's been so long since I've been with someone who doesn't know what a selfish pig I am." - Homer Simpson When massive downpours strike Springfield, Homer seeks roofing assistance—and finds it in a helpful, friendly fellow named Ray. But when no one else can confirm this newcomer's presence, Homer earns himself a one-way trip to the loony bin. Our guest: Drew Mackie from Gayest Episode Ever and Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games 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!

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. Event or product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, an amusing yet tragic farce. I'm one of your host, the devout Raytheist Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons, who is here with me today, as always. Henry Gilbert, and I sold all my bad weather jokes to Jay Moore.

And who is our special guest on the line? Hardware store hallucination, Drew Mackey. And this week's episode is Don't Fear the Roofer. To my new buddy. Now, all we need is an awesome theme song. Whatever plays next on the jukebox. Deal. Next song.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Yeah, absolutely. This episode originally aired on May 1, 2005. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy briefly tops the box office. The first Fort Sub Motorsport

is released on the Xbox and Justin Timberlake is announced to be joining his girlfriend, Cameron Diaz, into the film Shrek 3. Well, no one liked our take on Shrek 2, so I think we're going to keep our distance from Shrek. I think we have a restraining order or the other way around.

Shrek has issued a restraining order on the What a Cartoon movie podcast. Maybe we just skip straight to Shrek 5 and we'll do the Shrek 5 spoiler cast. like we did for Toy Story 5. The funny thing with the Justin Timberlake thing is that there's a Prince Justin joke in Princess Fiona's teenage bedroom.

There's a poster for a Justin Timberlake style Prince Justin on the ceiling, except that they wrote the joke in the movie before they realized Cameron Diaz was dating Justin Timberlake. And then the two had broken up by the time Shrek 3 comes out, but they still dutifully promoted the film together like professionals. Now we know that guy's bad news. Keep away.

I believe Star Snoop tells me that they broke up because of Justin's cheating as well. Not a good boyfriend this Justin Timberlake, it sounds like. Was he a good Shrek boys? I don't know. I think he plays some sort of prints in that movie. I don't know. Shrek 3, I've only seen the opening of it to confirm a plot element for Shrek 2 when we covered that. That's too much Shrek 3, honestly.

Shrek 3 begins with the death of Princess Fiona's father, and it only gets funnier from there. Are you serious? It really does, yeah. Yeah, John Cleese's character dies making Shrek the king of the castle in that one. Wait, why wouldn't Fiona be the queen and Shrek would be the world? Well, because a woman can't, you know. Oh, honestly, she should become queen and he the consort. Yeah, that's how it happened with our, you know, actual Queen of England.

And forts a motorsport, anybody played? I never got into this or Grand Tourismo. I only played five and somewhat recently. It was fun. I had not played a racing game for a while. and it's enjoyable. There's honestly like all these open world games too much to do.

What I really walked away with it though is that the game like totally glazes you at every opportunity because you put your name in before you play and it knows like a billion different name so it's like, hey Bob, get ready for the next race. Oh, you're doing great Bob. Oh Bob, only this much to go to the next level. It just constantly is like giving you too much support

and I don't need that in my life. I'm confident. I just remember they are always sold heavily on their like graphical fidelity and true to life. of it. Though the most recent one, that one almost got me because it was like, it's Japan.

So my inner, like, weeb almost gave it a shot. Well, here's the thing, Henry, your inner weeb is turning into your outer webe. Yes, I guess. What am I saying, interweeb? Yes. I'm not hiding anything here. I think you're wearing a peanut shirt today. Any other day, it would be some anime thing. Actually, I'm wearing my Universal Studios

60th anniversary of the Star Tours. All I saw was the raglan sleeves. So normally, one of my new favorite current shirts, Drew, is my raglan sleeves, and they actually are secretly weepy because they are Uniclo's shirts. So they are Japanese shirts. And just out myself here, I'm wearing an Atari 2600 E.T shirt. Well, Drew Fitchek here, what are you wearing?

I'm wearing the same tank top I wore the day before because you made me record at 10 o'clock in the morning. And this is like 7.30 in the morning for me. So you're lucky I'm here and awake and conscious. Thank you, Drew. And Hitchhiker's Guide, this was the Disney American version of it that I saw in theaters. I thought it was funny, but actual, like, real fans of Hitchhiker's Guy thought it was, you know, it ruined, not ruined, but lessened the book. And scrunched down a lot of stuff, just from the first book, even. I was never a mega fan of these books.

I read, like, maybe the first three of them on a bus trip. Then I learned that Douglas Adams was kind of forced against his will to write more of them. And so they just got very hateful and cruel to the characters. But one thing I found very funny is there's a character, I believe his name is Zaffod Bebelbrocks. Yes. I could be mangling this, by the way. but for absolutely no reason Douglas Adams gives him two heads the other head doesn't do anything it has nothing to do with anything that goes on in the plot

it's just an element of his body that is described when we first meet him and because of that every adaptation has to do that and it's always been very hard sure Sam Rockwell is Bebel-Brocks in this movie and they do the head thing all right it's kind of like you know those action figures like the Transformers that have like the head in the chest and the head in the chest like flips to the other one that's kind of works in this film version that also starred Martin Freeman and Zoe de Chanel and Alan Rickman is the sad robot in it okay remember the character's name yeah the paranoid Android yes he is the very paranoid Android yes I forgot like Safod in the TV

adaptation which I believe is the first adaptation of the radio stuff it's just like basically a mannequin head staple to some actor's shoulder you know that's the BBC for you they're publicly funded they can only do so much it's also directed by Garth Jennings, the future director of mega hit series sing. What If Animals did American Idol? Oh. It makes a billion dollars is what it does. Sure. I never partoken anything about Douglas Adams because in college, I ran into some big Douglas Adams fans and their description of it made me seem like it was something that was not for me. I don't know if that's true. Well, American Douglas Adams fan, can't speak to the British ones,

but American Douglas Adams fans, they are people who felt that Monty Python was too. mainstream and they need to get a level deeper. That's how hardcore. What if it was Monty Python, but you had to know how to read? Fortunately, I listened to the audiobook read by Stephen Frye around when this came out, as well as the BBC audio play, as well, a drama, as you call it.

Which they're fun. But anyway, yes, that's just the beginning of what happened this night because two more things we're going to cover aired this very same night because this was a big night of Simpsons. It really was. And joining us once again is Drew Mackey from gayest episode ever

in thrilling tales of old video games and last time Drew joined us, it was for What a Cartoon when we covered Hollywood Dog. Welcome back to the show. It's been a long time since I've done an actual Simpsons episode with you guys,

which is very nice. Depending on when this episode airs, by the way, I might be formerly of gayest episode ever because we have two more episodes to record and it'll probably be done by early September. Wow, yes, it might be over them,

but well, what a run. And one of your last ones was a great one on the finale of Cheers. finally you closed it out with Shelly Long as proper. I thought you were going to say one of the last ones you did was a great episode about Duckman starring us. Well, that should have been the finale, honestly. Where else can you go?

Spiritual finale. People can, people can trail off when they want. I sort of pick this one, one, because I'm tired of picking Drew for gay episodes. And two, you did once cover Everybody Loves Raymond on Gayest Episode ever. In 2019, which means I learned everything about everyone loves Raymond and then immediately forgot about it and have remembered. some of it for this episode. Okay, good, good.

Did you pull up your old notes on it? I scan them. Also, I'm going to point out that, like, you're like, it's not a gay episode. I'm like, it's kind of a gay episode. Yeah, actually, it ends up being, well, that I played the gayest clip at the front there. You really do. All we have to know is that Raymond is their leader when it comes to everybody loves Raymond, right? And yeah, this was a big night for Simpsons.

It was the 350th episode as advertised. Which is why when you watch it on Disney Plus or on DVD, you'll see very, very briefly text appear on the screen that says 350th episode, man. And it's just, I think they're ashamed of celebrating that because it comes and it goes very quickly. Yeah. I do wish that the last episode we covered

of season 16, future drama, that should have been the 350th. That makes sense to be a 350th. It's like, oh, a flash forward. It would happen to these characters if they were 10 years older or, no, seven years older and they were in high school. But instead, it's a random episode

that happens to have Ray Romano in it all because of the dang pope. That dang pope. We have to remind people of the star power of Ray Romano, and I'm not kidding. That sitcom was very big towards the end. Yeah. So everybody loves Raymond was like Al Jean says it on the commentary, and it's easy to forget that it was a very, very popular sitcom.

It's finale that aired two weeks after this, but was a big, big hit. It's still big in reruns. Of course, now it's old enough to be like a core show to Nick at Night. Now here's the thing. We were talking about Cheers earlier. And this is like a cheer-style scenario with Raymond where the show would never be allowed to make more than one season today

because when it debuted, it was 84th in the ratings in its first season. It eventually climbed to fourth in the ratings by 2000, 2001, but it started as a very unpopular show. Man, isn't that great? That is the issue today with all TV. Well, there's many issues of TV today, but one of them is that nothing gets to be more than one season pretty much. Anything that could find its footing with a second season and find an audience, the algorithm tells them not to do that and to not wait and give anything a shot.

I think the lesson here is that America just thought I was a show about a family, and it took several years for them to realize that this family loaves each other and is extremely mean to each other all the time for no reason. And then they're like, we love it now. When I watched a clip of best of things, it was basically a man and a wife hate each other and barely. want to have sex. A brother hates his other brother. A mother hates their children. Well, actually, she loves one child too much. And a father hates them too and his wife. And the wife hates the mother-in-law. Everyone hates each other. I mean, like, Seinfeld was revolutionary for at least admitting that most sitcom characters are evil and cruel to each other. I remember enjoying the episodes I watched. Like, I was not like a regular viewer of it or anything. It was more of like, oh, it happens

to be on. Let's see this. And the compliment I always give to it, or anyway, if I ever think about everybody loves Raymond, is that. that it was like a classic sitcom in that they came up with what would be a great big reveal of like lies upon lies and now in act three. Uh-oh, Robert said he was Ray when dating a girl and now the girl has showed up at the home saying that she's dating Ray to his wife

and now the whole thing's falling apart. It also really showed, so we're talking about Ray Romano up front. I might as well just like do my spiel about Ray Romano. I like him. I think he's very charismatic. And I like to stand up, especially when he did bits of it on Dr. Katz. And when I heard he was going to get a show, I was really excited for the show because he was one of the funniest performers on Dr. Katz,

the Comedy Central show, where essentially a stand-up comic would do their bit as part of, like, therapy for a fake therapist. And it was barely animated in case you're wondering what that was. But then I realized, Ray Romano is one of those guys who only had to develop one hour of stand-up. And it's a very good hour, but he never moved beyond that. So it's sort of like Tim Allen, Ray Romano, a few other people.

They just had to work on a really good hour of material to get a sitcom or another, like, platform for their abilities. And that's it. Because, like, 10 years after I first see him on Dr. Katz, I still would hear him say, put the cookie down as part of his bits about his kids. And I'm like, does he have to keep having kids to keep doing these bits? Because these kids who wanted the cookies, they must be teenagers by now. The girl who was thinking about candy has now had a baby and made him a grandfather.

I don't know this. Yes. Good for them. I literally, I presume that Ray Romano was a stand-up, but I've never seen him even standing on a stand-up stage behind a mic. I have no concept of his stand-up comedy whatsoever. Bob, can you please explain it? And also how that related to the comedic tone of everybody who's right with it. It's basically just like the perils of being a husband and a man and a father.

Just like, I guess relatable humor, but delivered in a very funny way. And then when he became more of a family comedian, he had to get rid of some of his dirty jokes. I remember he did commentary on Dr. Katz, and there's a joke on Dr. Katz where he's getting ready to have sex with his wife. And he thinks he's going to go all night. And he comes too quick. This is the joke. I'm just, don't kill the messenger here. You move.

You move. Henry, you motherfucker! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You son of a bitch. Yes. Yeah. Never.

Hey, why don't you say it, Henry? I came too fast there. I'm sorry. No, you did the punchline. Yes. Why am I even here? I apologize. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Wait, I didn't hear what the punch. What is the punchline? The punchline is, you moved. You moved. He's just mad at his wife, like, because he came too quickly. Okay. How much of his comedy is successful because he has a funny voice?

Oh, I think it's a huge part of it. Okay. I think the material was good, but again, he did never develop more than an hour. I apologize, Bob. I was so excited. We need a gag for Henry when I'm talking. Can't you mute his mic? I like this bit about, like, the orange juice.

that he wants a large orange juice, and it's always too small, no matter which order. His wife ordered a small, and it was just like a napkin with orange juice on it. Sure, the large, like that. Bits like that.

I'm trying here, but what you're laying down sounds dreadful. I'll be perfectly open. It's just the delivery. It just Kim saying, you moved. Things like that. I just,

I like funny voices. I like yelling. And like, he had some fun. I mean, I was a kid. I was not relating to this, obviously. But I thought, like, he has like a funny persona

and a funny delivery. And, but again, he never developed more than like one solid hour. But that's still a lot of material. And he was able to get a sitcom. I don't know if he was, in fact. Yeah, like a lot of a sitcom. And I don't know like what he was able to capitalize on after that. He doesn't really need to.

But he's had like a series of failures. Like on actually on the commentary, I think Matt Sleman cruelly references the sitcom men of a certain age, which had just been canceled as of that commentary recording. If you look at his career since everybody loves Raymond, he could just have done, you know, like Kevin James. James, he just did another sitcom. He even got like Leah Ramini back eventually.

But I think Romano usually picks more challenging, like dramatic stuff. Like he does want to work in more dramas that usually only last a season or two or drama. He wants to be a bigger actor. He was on parenthood. So I literally, I've never seen anything this man has done, really. But like, he was recurring on the latter seasons of parenthood as a love interest for Lauren Graham.

And that sort of makes sense for me. It was like, okay, that is like a dromedy. an hour-long dromedy that was very popular. I could see him enjoying playing opposite Lauren Graham. But, yeah, it's just one of the strange things of there being a very famous person with whom I have very little interaction and, like, awareness of his, like, work firsthand, if that makes sense. I think he's also like a very hetero comedian. And all of his bits are very like, boomer, hetero, not the family, but he is a family guy. Yeah, lowercase family guy.

Yeah. So his show started in 1996. And at that point, I was not interested in watching a family sitcom because I'm like, well, I'm 13. I'm basically a grown-up. And I want to watch Urbane New York set sitcoms where young people are witty. And I had no interest in watching, is it everyone loves Freeman or everybody loves Raymond? Everybody loves Raymond. I find that presumptuous, don't you, Drew?

Well, it's, I mean, forcing this on me. It was like, I clearly was not polled before you titled the sitcom. Then we had Everybody Hates Chris and I was more willing to believe that. That makes sense. I saw the ad for that one and it made sense. But also, I grew up in the sticks and we actually didn't have CBS. So it wasn't an option that I could have watched this anyway. Like the cable TV cable didn't reach where I lived.

And there was a hill blocking where the CVS station was broadcasting out of. So I just didn't ever see a CBS show. So this is also undiscovered territory. But then again, it turns out most of it was this. Most of it was like everybody loves Raymond as interpreted by Chuck Lorry and repurposed again and again. Yeah, after everybody loves Raymond. and they made like eight other shows that were just that. Though those shows ended up like a lot of our favorite comedians got steady.

Well, I mainly meet Pat Nosswald and Andy Kindler. Those guys by being friends with Ray Romano or Kevin James, they end up getting like very steady work and can own houses thanks to this. No, I think it all goes back to being friends with Dr. Katz. He is the central connection, Dr. Katz. And I feel like Romano even appeared on one, I feel like he even was on one season of Dr. Katz after the show debuted, at least once. I was like, wow, he's still doing Dr. Katz.

He's still got time for that. Oh, also that the connection of Simpsons to everybody loves Raymond is multifold. One of them is that Dan Castaneta had been on two episodes, though they act like it had been recent when they had him on. But no, Dan was on the episode from season two, episode 20, T-Ball, and season six, episode eight, it's supposed to be fun, both playing a wacky coach at his daughter's school. Okay, yeah, they mentioned on the commentary.

And of course, the real connection here is Mike Scully, is a writer for Everybody Loves Raymond. Yes. He was co-executive producer on one of the last seasons because he's 03 to 04, so I think the second to last season. And I think, do I remember correctly, Bob, that Phil Rosenthal,

the co-creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, that he is in the Simpsons movie as a favor because he let Mike Scully write on the Simpsons movie when he should have been working on Raymond. You are correct. I looked into this because I was like, oh, he did a random TV dad voice for the Simpsons movie. Why did he do that?

and tried to figure all that out. And then he later voiced himself on The Simpsons as well, correct? Phil Rosendahl. Yes, in season 32, because he became famous as an eating eater. I think this is from the commentaries as well. Mike Scully, or somebody who's reporting on Mike Scully, he went to everybody who loves Raymond, and he was pitching like Simpsons ideas,

and they had to like talk him down, like, this is a normal show. Like, Raymond can't invent anything. We can't really leave the house that often. In an age of when it was all the cool shows were going single camera, Raymond just was a show of like, no, we have three standing sets and find a story to do like, okay, does this thing happen in their house, the parents' house, or in the pizza restaurant? Which three places is this episode tick plays?

I should probably like clarify, given my background with sitcoms and gayest episode ever, and I should probably love this show because it is such an essential sitcom. Like what it's doing is the essence of a sitcom. And it is very well acted. Like everyone who is an adult on this show is. is a very good actor and knows what they're doing. And if you watch five minutes of the show, it's very clear who these characters are.

I think if Glenn were on this podcast, he would say that, like, a mark of a good sitcom that CBS does better than other shows is that it is unmistakable who these characters are the minute they open their mouths. And that's true for everyone on the show. It is just something has not been my personal experience at all. Yeah, and going back to how mean the show is,

I think Mike Scully, great marriage, great kids. They've all gone far in the world. But I think Mike Scully's favorite kind of humor is, what if a husband said something incredibly cruel but slightly honest to his wife and kids? Like, what's the worst thing a husband could say or do? And he finds a lot of delight in that. It's kind of a sick fantasy he can play out via sitcom characters

and keep his home life nice and clean. Remarkable psychological insight, Bob. Thank you. I think for Scully, he's... Sorry, man. Okay. Was that a Romano impression? I couldn't tell.

Ah, Scully. We got to keep that in now, Drew. Darn. Okay, yes. I think for Scully, he's pulling from, though this episode, this also comes in like this era of terrible marriage on The Simpsons. Like, I did a little history out of it, but Marge is the worst in this episode. Yeah, I assume, Drew, you probably haven't seen Mobile Homer, but that's like a little more amped up compared to this, but it's still Marge just like viciously attacking Homer at every turn, even though he does deserve it. It's just, it's not fun to watch these two going at it so often.

That one's on the feed already, right? I think I listened to your episode, Mobile Homer. I've seen Mobile Homer maybe once and did not want to revisit it again, but I used to listen to your talk about it. And yeah, this is a bad March episode. Marge is weirdly not understanding of anything that's happening with Homer. Well, Bob, I told you I had a theory about this episode, and I'm going to throw it out here now.

It hit me late late last night. So this episode, written by Kevin Curran, was he the late Kevin Curran, the partner for a while of the author of the Bridget Jones books. But as well, he was a writer for years, Andy Boyce, on Married with Children. this episode feels like a married with children episode. Like if you replace the characters with not just the husband and wife to Peg and Al, but also the kids, like this feels like even going to a boo bar, this feels like I'm married with children episode.

My wife says I need a roofer. Yes. All of these things of like, oh, did you go to the beer? And they even like, they do a slams joke in this episode of like Margin Homer of trading barbs like Pegging Al. Well, I think it's either, you know, he had some spec script lying around or draft lying around. or his brain is just wired to sort of fall into married with children mode. Sure. And then, not only that, when I looked up the episodes, Kevin Kerr wrote,

Season 4 episode, Who Will Stop the Rain? An endless storm is causing a leaky roof, but in this case, Al refuses to hire a roofer and keeps trying to fix it himself, but keeps falling off of the roof in continually comedic ways. I remember that episode. That was funnier than this one. So not to speak ill of the dead,

But like if you are going to rip off a married with children idea or do a married with children-esque episode of The Simpsons accidentally or not. It is weird how much this one, there are some very good jokes in this episode. A lot of the jokes did not land for me. And it seems weirdly more preoccupied with like the mystery aspect of this episode, which I don't only give a shit about. Like I would rather if the episode were just like, Homer hires a roofer. And that was the premise. That is enough for The Simpsons to do a funny episode. You don't have to get into this whole thing of like, did Homer fabricate an imaginary person?

And then the payoff of that is kind of not good once you find out what was actually going on with everything. It seems busy in a way that's not forefronting joke writing. I can chalk up the husband-wife dynamic to Kevin Curran. But I think the mystery aspect comes from one Mr. Alfredine, who seemingly was very obsessed with a beautiful mind because this is our second A Beautiful Mind parody within the past couple of years. So, by the way, I feel like we need to just fully say in here, Ron Howard is an enemy of humanity and he must be brought to justice. Bryce Dallas Howard, an accessory. Jail her as well.

But because of the whitewashing of J.D. Vance, he is culpable. Sure. Oh, yeah. That's actually a really good point. Yes. Like, don't let him get away when we're doing the tribunals. He's next. When Nuremberg, too, happens.

I want his bald head up on that stand. I have not seen a beautiful mind because I don't do biopics because I have better things to do, and I think people can write better movies than what if something was a fake version of real events. Wikipedia says this is a take off on a beautiful mind, but I was like, oh, interesting. Bob, Henry, please explain to me whether this is true. Well, Henry, I need to ask you,

did you see this movie with your mother? Bob, you got me. Yes, this seems like a Henry and Mom duo. Any movie is a Henry and Mom duo. I can't think of a single movie that Henry wouldn't have gone to see with his mom. Whether it's half-baked, fight club, a beautiful mind.

If it was from 1990 to 2005, it's likely I saw it with Mother. Short bus. I didn't see that. Okay, good. I did not see that. No, I'm a lot like Robert Barone in that way. He lives with his mother still.

Henry, Jackass the movie? I think we did, yeah. Really? Not Jackass, too. I was old enough by then. Okay. But yes, we did a thing of trying to see every Oscar-nominated movie each year for several years. So we saw this one, and it is such a cliched biopic.

Like, it takes the life of a real guy, John Nash, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, who also has mental problems. is schizophrenia, and it's then decided that the way to do schizophrenia in a prestige biopic is to basically do Fight Club from two years earlier. Spoilers for the movie A Beautiful Mind, but in the movie, he is contacted by a CIA agent who wants him to decode things, which is all of the like red line decoding messages, things that Homer does in my mother the carjacker that Bob mentioned earlier. But then it turns out, Paul Bettney, a couple other people he met aren't real and they need to convince him.

He goes through big therapy in the film with Jennifer Connolly, his loving wife, to try to stop seeing or ignoring the fake people he is seeing thanks to his schizophrenia. Okay. That is interesting. That explains why the thing with Marge being like Ray isn't real seems so forced when I don't understand the reference. It's like, that's weird. She's pulling this kind of out of nowhere.

It's because it's a reference. It didn't get that. First question. Is this one of the biopic? where the character was, the real person was kind of gay and they straightwash all the gay stuff out? So sort of, sort of. This is also one of the joys of seeing it with my mom

is that afterwards he's like, man, they changed. I read this article about him. He was gay. And I was like, wait, what? And so then I looked this up. This is contested by, he passed away in 2015. This is contested by some biographers, whether he had same-sex attraction or not,

that one biographer says that he just had very intense friendships with other men. Yeah, I know. But I'm going to read a quote from the Wikipedia page, though. In Santa Monica, California in 1954, when he was in his 20s, Nash was arrested for indecent exposure in a sting operation targeting gay men. Although the charges were dropped, he was stripped of his top secret security clearance and fired from the Rand Corporation. There you go. Okay. Interesting. Number two, I don't know if you did the other Beautiful Mind episode. Is that already on the feed? I might have missed that one. Oh, yeah. That's like from a season or two ago. I can't remember.

Okay. Yeah, it was last season. Yeah, it was last season. The one with the return of Mona Simpson. There was an episode of, it's a Slate podcast, and it is about pop culture. It's like explaining pop culture mysteries in the name of it I now can't think of. But they did an episode about the aesthetic of the red twine connected, like, research board that, like, has become such a meme. Do you guys know that a beautiful mind invented that?

That didn't exist in any sort of observable phenomenon before a beautiful mind. and it became such a efficient way to show on a screen, a mental process, that it became a thing that just got repeated again and again. Like, the reason it's always sunny in Philadelphia does it is because it had been so ingrained in pop culture. Everyone knows what it is. And now you can see TV commercials advertising, like purging people to like join the FBI or something. And they show people in a mock environment researching something and they have the same like study board up with red. string connecting things. And it has now been, like, gone from a fabrication to an actual thing that people are doing

because everyone understands it. Isn't that odd? Yeah. Well, we need to give a tip of the hat to schizophrenics for teaching us how to organize our thoughts, right? Yes. Yes. Or at least the fake biopic versions of those schizophrenics.

No credit goes to Ron Howard. Yeah. Also in the movie, too, it's a love story between him and Jennifer Connolly. And it is a real relationship between, like, John Nash and his. wife who they did have struggles and came back together again at overtime. But before he met his wife, he already had a son with a woman who he then abandoned because she was a lower class station than him, apparently. Sure. That's also cut out of the film. Several other things too. But you know what's important? It is where Jennifer Connolly and Paul Bettney fell in love

and they're still together to this day. Great, interesting looking couple. Intense, striking looking couple. But unfortunately, this one best picture that year. ship of the ring did not. Hey, but they got it for the next one. Yeah, the third one. Decoder ring, by the way, is the name of the podcast. I don't know if you guys have ever listened to it. But I think you guys in particular would enjoy some of the deep digs.

They're currently halfway through a two-part episode about the history of McGruff that I think you guys would give a kick out of him. Okay. I'm looking into this. And I think that Al Jean was just so used to in the 90s. If something won best picture, you could make fun of it for like, you could parody it for five years. and it would be a fresh movie. But by 2005, even a film that won at the 2002 Oscar event was seen as an old movie, and you wouldn't remember it.

It did not have the staying power. I feel that we're watching the monoculture dissolve with this episode because a beautiful mind, not a touch done they thought it was. Also, they reference a commercial here that they assume everyone hated. I had no memory of this. I have memories of so many commercials, but not this one. So I feel like we are post-monoculture by 2005. Oh, interesting.

It's over. In Algeon's defense, there was a time, like when the critic was on where they were making fun of best picture nominees, like several years after the fact. And we did still get the joke. Like, even though we might not have seen Driving Miss Daisy, we as kids watching, the critic understood what that was. But Bob, you're right, that did sort of dissolve at some point. And I'm not sure exactly when it happened. And on the critic, they loved picking on certain movies. There were many, a few good men parodies.

There were many Rain Man parodies. As long as they found a funny voice that one of their two guys could impress. They would return to that parody a few more times. Sure. And of course, Crying Game was their skeleton key to a whole world of jokes as well. And yes, this is advertised as 350th.

It is, I'll say it again when we cover that episode, but it is because they had earlier in the schedule, had the Father of the Son and the Holy Guest Star Plan, which was their like Liam Neeson Catholic episode. It's going to air later because Pope John Paul the second died. They decided to delay it.

So it messed up the whole schedule making this 350 and not future drama instead. Okay. That makes a little bit more sense. Future drama is the better episode of the two. But now that we're about to round the corner on 800 with the Simpsons, it feels very apathetic to celebrate 350. At that time, it seemed like, oh, well, who knows if we'll get to 400? Who knows if we'll get to the next 50, Mark, right? Actually, I had that math in my thing, too, that everybody loves Raymond, a very long running for a live action.

sitcom show. It had 210 episodes, not even one-fourth of the number of Simpsons episodes. Yeah. Oh, and lastly, I'm like pre-talk. Matt Selman is a real stinker on this commentary, man. Poor Mark Kirkland. They are needling him on this, especially at the very start. Matt Selman is just like, hey, Mark, you've directed so many Simpsons episodes. I mean, it's so many residuals. And Mark Kirkland goes, yeah, yeah. And hey, my apologies, I forgot we did run the corner on 800. That was like this season. Yeah, I got a free 800 hat. We're talking to somebody who is at the 800 party. What am I saying?

That's true. You should have told me you're wrong, Bob. Yeah, it's true. How was that 800 party? I don't think we've talked about that on a Simpsons podcast. Oh, it was very nice. I went Tony, brought me as his guest, and I sat at a table with Christine Nagel, and who wrote the episode. It's a very Philadelphia-centric episode.

Yeah, like, there's this, like, a very interesting class of cool, millennial taste makers who've all had some sort of job at The Simpsons at some point or another and are all just incredibly cool and hanging out with each other. And it's a very, which is also to say that there's like the new class where like people like Brody Gupta and like they're either very young millennial or elder Genzi people who are bringing entirely different energy to the whole process. But yeah, it was one of the nicer Hollywood events I've ever been to. Nice. Yeah, I forgot that they technically had like four 800th episodes because there's like, oh, here's,

production, air order, mount total, things like that. Whether a Disney Plus exclusive counts as an episode or not, whether two-parters count as one episode or not. It's more complicated than it's ever been to count the milestone episodes. But we don't want to take away from your friend, Christine Nagel, that hers is the 800.

Well, you know, it's her honor. The celebrated one. And if you guys ever get a chance to interview her, and you might, if you keep doing this podcast for several decades, when you can finally get to her episodes, She is an amazing person, big fan. Oh, yeah, she sounds really cool. Tony you're mentioning there, too.

If your new listeners, Drew is a longtime friend with Tony Rodriguez, a voice actor on The Simpsons of Julio, who is not in this episode. So, okay, so the episode, though, after a cute little jigsaw puzzle couch gag, we then start the episode with weather problems, which is always a good, you know, Simpsons, many great Simpsons episodes start with, what if it rain too much, what if it was too sunny, what if it was too, to windy. In this case, we get to see a lot of leaky roof comedy in this episode. It starts with Barney getting some rare hydration as he drinks water for once.

Yeah, I think so this is a, I feel like Drew can maybe attest to this or tell me I'm wrong, but this feels very L.A. base, this plot because when it rains in Southern California, no one knows what to do. Every building crumbles. No one knows how to drive. I have that experience from like the year I lived in Southern California. Drew? Yeah, it's really miserable. And we're going into allegedly the biggest L.D. New Year in like a century and it is not going to be fun having to like hoard supplies because I don't want to leave my house because if there's like a moderate amount of moisture on the ground everyone loses their minds and starts speeding up and stopping without any reason

and also the city was designed to not ever have water anywhere so when we have water it is either rushing out to the ocean instantly and taking stuff with it or just sitting in depressions in our paved roads and not draining anywhere. It's genuinely a nightmare. And yeah, most people don't have to worry about the roofs here until we get a moderate amount of frame, which usually does it. And also my understanding is everyone in California, Southern California, needs contractors, but they also hate them. As someone who's had to deal with contractors a lot, I was always, like, surprised by how courteous and punctual. Many of them are because stuff media like this trained me to hate them, but I'm also not as grumpy as the frustrated heterosexual dads who wrote these episodes. Well, yes, I think the Simpsons, any times they do contractor jokes,

are just home renovation jokes in these seasons. It feels like it comes with the energy of, you know, millionaires who ask their wives to work with a contract for all day while they're at their comedy jobs and then come home and wonder why something isn't done yet, I think. Animation domination is coming. All your favorite animated shows are on one night, featuring the Simpsons 350th episode with Ray Romano.

I just came down with a case of shingles. What's in the book? And Family Guy is back on five. H. Do we go away, Fat Man. Then meet Stan Smith, the American Dad. Holy Ayatollah! Animation domination, starting with a special King of the Hill and Malcolm. Cool! Starting Sunday, May 1st at 7.6 Central only on Fox.

Welcome to the break, everybody, and oh, Deborah, thank you so much to Drew Mackey for being on this week's podcast. We love what Drew does over on Gayest Episode Ever, which is just about to wrap up. We did his podcast just this year. That's where we talked about the gayest episode of Duckman. And you should also check out all the cool stuff he does at Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games, his great blog series that he does on tons of super deep video game lore. Once again, big thank you to Drew Mackey.

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the Adams family, the 1991 live action adaptation of that class. classic cartoon. In just this last few months, we had our summer of Disney's 2010s of us talking about Winnie the Pooh, Rekid Ralph, Vute, Winnie the Pooh, Rekid Ralph, Sutopia, and Big Hero 6. And those are just our most recent ones we've done eight full years almost of what a cartoon movies, hundreds of hours at your fingertips of us covering Pixar, Disney, Warner Brothers, Studio Ghibli, other classic anime, too. Our longest podcast ever six and a half hours about who framed Roger Rabbit. It's all there. When you sign up

at patreon.com slash talking simpsons. And don't forget that if you sign up for the $10 or $5 a month, if you do it at the annual rate, you save 10% off if you do it for a full year. That's one more time, patreon.com slash talking simpsons. This is where we get our first clip of the episode as Kent Brockman reports on bad weather. Kent Brockman here with Stormwatch 6.

Professor Frank, what's the scientific explanation for this unusually, of air thunderstorm. Well, Kent, we are exploring two theories at this point. Um, A, either we have a supercell of high pressure fronts, or B, God is bowling! With the balls and the pins and the rental shoes and the very bad cheese pizza that comes in squares. Questy, wants your lighthearted take on our recent bad weather. Sorry, Kent, I sold all my bad weather jokes to Jay Moore, but I can make funny sound in your microphone.

Fine. Br-br-la, the little... A-U-Lah! Ah, Oogah! There you have it. Hey, Jay Moore, taken...

Well, I was going to say strays, but actually, I think this is deserved. This is not strays. Was he even doing stand-up in 2005? I feel like he was transitioning into, like, being a regular

and ghost whisperer at this point in his career. No, he's still does stand-up on and off these days, even. I think they're just referencing how he infamously stole a stand-up comedian's bit

bit and presented it on SNL as his own. Yeah. He has a long history of that, like, that's just his most, the one that's so famous he had to, like, admit to it in his memoir. Like, he took a stand-ups routine and then used that as the premise for a sketch on SNL. But other people, another one of his was he heard Tracy Morgan tell a story. And then his bit on stage was, I will pretend to be Tracy Morgan and tell his story. So you also get Jay Moore doing a Tracy Morgan imitation for even more comedy.

Oh, no. And Burke Kreischer as well, has, I have. to look this one up. I was like, oh, yeah, Burke Kreischer. Like, I know too much about Jay Moore, unfortunately. I don't mean to come into contact with him. He's been doing 500 episodes of a podcast, almost as much as us. That's a lot. That's a lot. And hey, Bowling Alley Pizza is taking some strays here, too. But I feel like this is before the Square Pizza Revolution. Now we're okay with Square Pizza Pizza because we have Detroit Pizza. We have Tavern style. We have New Haven. Square Pizza is fine. And I honestly never went to a bowling alley that served pizza. There's always things that could

easily fry or reheat. Right. No, square pizzas is bounce back. One of my favorites, square pizza I had when I visited L.A. and New York in the last year for a little trips was the Prince Street pizza. Have you had that yet to Drew? No, I don't know. There's a couple locations in your area.

I do love pizza. I do love square pizza. I should check it top. Though when I told the doughboys about it, they were like, it's all right. It's all right. Maybe I have bad taste in the pizza. We go to the pizza kitchen. That's what locals warm to.

Oh, yes. Right. Have you heard of the Sanctuary, the California Pizza Kitchen? Right, of course. I don't have that in Washington anymore. I miss it. I need to. Oh, also the Jay Moore thing I need to call back to it.

Me and Drew, by way of talking about Nikki Cox's sitcom, Nikki, ended up talking about Jay Moore's sum because they were together at one time. I feel like the last time I did a regular episode of The Simpsons was the one with Krusty's daughter, Sophie. And that starts off at the book fair. And Jay Moore is a guest voice in that episode because he's doing as Christopher walking impression. So I feel like me talking to you guys, we spent a lot more time than we should have talking about

Jay Moore. I wish Nikki Cox well. Her Instagram doesn't look like things are going that great right now. I wish her well. What's happening? She's posting weird photos. I don't want to comment on her looks, but maybe she should visit a different doctor perhaps. Well, I see her roles basically ended about 15 years ago. Yeah. Allegedly she was doing work as a producer for Jay Moore. And then

that relationship ended and there was a lot of discord about how responsible she was for anything that his career was doing positively. I mean, I'm not going to say that Nikki Cox is a polyplatt situation, but that was the vibe of it. She at least got writing credit on some of his comedy albums. So I don't know if you'd want to take credit for that. Sorry, one more mean joke about Jay Moore I heard, I'll repeat, like Jay Moore would, is that Nikki Cox first dated Bobcat, Goldthwaite and then started dating Jay Moore. And, Bobcat Goldthwaite, I want to say it's on WTF, but a WTF type interview a long time ago, I heard Bobcat Goldthwaite say, Jay Moore doesn't try anything that another comedian didn't do first, and that included dating Mickey Cox.

That's great. That's really good joke. Yes, and Jay Moore should steal that joke. This whole segment with Kent doing news about the rain, number one, I don't think needs to be here, because it seems like it's just literally, I mean, I'm not making a joke, but treading water until we get to the Simpsons. We could have gone from Moes to the puddle forming inside the Simpsons home without having this. Number two, it also feels very L.A. when it rains, it becomes a news story where you have a news reporter who has to report on the rain, and they're just begging anyone to say something interesting about the rain. But that's not something that happens in cities where rain is in more regular regards.

Yes, it feels like they're introducing the audience of the concept of rain. Yeah. This first scene. Yeah. We see the Simpson House, the roof is leaking to. and Mark Kirkland and his team do a good job in animating this episode. I like mechanically how they animate a pool of water collecting in Marge's hair that then eventually splashes on her face and wakes her up.

And this must have been a time like this is the same season that Marge makes Homer pay for a gigantic kitchen remodel in the house. So it's the remodeling season on The Simpsons here. Which has the better joke. I'm sure you guys have already done the episode, but it's the one where she says, Virginia Wolf was talking about a room of one's own. She must have been talking about the kitchen.

That's a great joke. That's good. Yeah. Well, and hey, this is where there's three deleted scenes for the episode I've got here, and there's a different, I think good joke they could have kept here, where Marge is complaining to Homer when she wakes him up after the water splashes him. But they have some different lines here. Homer, the roof is leaking again.

Come back, breakfast burrito. Oh, Marge, I was just... dreaming about you. I thought I put fix the roof on your honey-do list. As in honey-do this, honey-do that. I'll do it, I'll do it. I'm starting to regret giving you that Irma-Bombach book. He points out an Irma-Bomb-Bomb-Bek book in the cover says,

I married Prince Charming. Who's this frog in my bed? That's a great parody of an Irma-Bomb-Bombic book title. And they do mention the honey-do list on the commentary. I was like, what are they talking about? But it's one of the deleted scenes. Isn't that funny? Selman remembered it as a good joke.

that he thinks is in the episode they're watching. But yes, that the honey, it's also still a joke about like, those nagging wives want me to do something around the house. So they didn't coin the term honey-do list, right? That must have been something that was in use because that is a phrase I know from straight people, I guess. I don't know where I know it from.

I have not heard it. I can't recall hearing it before in these delete scenes here as a thing. Like a honey-dew melon? Is that why it's a honey-dew? Yeah, that's a working pun, I guess. Yeah. I feel like it did exist before this episode. They didn't coin the term.

Especially because the scene was deleted, so it wouldn't have been the thing that would make it catch on it. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. And when Homer is tasked with it, though, he decides he's going to put up some cool hot wheel tracks. And the Simpsons and Hot Wheels have a long association. Going back to 1990, they were some of the first toys of Simpsons were a couple of Simpsons

toys for a, was a nuclear disposal van and like Bart's Party wagon. They didn't. It took him in, I think 2010 to sell the pink car. Bart's party wagon? What is, please? Wait, maybe I'm wrong on that. I'm only seeing the nuclear waste van, and you can look inside and there's like an image if

you like look through the back. Okay, Bart is like pictured on that one on the card stock for it, right? Yes, yes. Okay. And then they also would do the Homer. I mean, that's the best one, that they did a hot wheel of the car that Homer designed for his brother, her. Oh, that's amazing.

That's what I would go with. And this scene is very boomer-coded, because you have the classic orange hot wheels track, although they were still orange when we were kids. So in a way, we're also old. Lisa bought a hamster just for this joke to see it tortured as well. Such a weird choice to be like, okay, now Lisa has a hamster. Is there anything else they could have sent shooting down the hot wheel track

to get the same reaction that wouldn't involve like introducing a new pat for no reason? It seems like there would have had something. Malibu Stacey, at least, right? Yeah, yeah. I think like Mark Kirkland heard this was going to be a milestone episode, so he had his team like, put in some more interesting scenes visually than they would usually have time for. And the hamster P.O.V.

It is well done. And I guess looking at hamster feet is funny. They're looking at Malibu's Dacey legs on the water slide. Now, I have to say here, I'm doing some research online right now. Hot Wheels track's still orange. In fact, I was talking about Forza, the fifth game I was playing. There is Hot Wheels D.L.C. And yes, you are driving on orange track.

So I feel like they have kept that as part of their brand. Do they still sting when you slap each other with them as hard as you can? If there's a guide pin in it, that's like a board with a nail in it. Yeah. I'm lucky we were a micro-machines house and not a Hot Wheels house. So only choking hazards. You see that they're important for home security as a kid, too, when you watch Home Alone. That's true.

So Lisa's hamster is almost injured, and this is where the nagging really begins in our next clip. You know, Homer, I let a lot of things slide. But when you can't keep a roof over your family's head, you're just not much of a father. I was going to have my classmates over for a homework post. party, but now my refreshments are ruined. Goodbye, college. He was supposed to be in a show and tell this week. That's not going to happen. Teddy Bear survived three safety recalls, but it couldn't survive you.

Oh, that's it. I'm going to move. Oh, it's raining outside. It's raining inside. Loudy cat. We talked about this with a previous joke in a previous episode, but at some point in this time period, the Simpsons had a Ritz-Bits tie-in product. The Smoor sandwiches? Yes. I looked this up again. It was at least on several consumer fan websites or people who sell old boxes, but not the food.

They say Ritzbitts was selling Smoor sandwiches. So basically, they were the cheese sandwich type of Ritz branded Cracker cheese sandwich things, except replace it with a gram-crackery type thing and then marshmallow and chocolate in the middle of that. And then they had Simpson character faces. on it. You can find a commercial of it with Bart, Middlehouse, and comic book guy eating the s'more sandwiches. I have to believe

that this is, and also Simpsons, we're on some regular Ritz bits cheese sandwiches boxes too. I have to assume that this Ritzie Crackers joke was because they were given like a pallet of free ones in the writer's room and then we're deciding to

write a joke about it. What faces were on the sandwiches? If they didn't have like Miss Hoover, then I'm interested in I want deep cuts deep cuts on my oh I'm afraid like I don't even think you get women on these sandwich cookies looking at the pictures last night I on the boxes I think I just saw bard and Homer only I think okay yeah sorry I'm seeing marge get screwed because we have bart Lisa and Homer no marge or Maggie even though March and Maggie are on the box that's this I mean give me smile and joffision I don't know if they started selling those s'mores sandwich

one still without simpsons on it like how for a time ecto cooler was like a different green high sea drink that just took slimer off of it they thought they could sell us that again without slimer it was crazy man that was the real failing of those new ghostbusters movies I'd sell it without slimer who's the guy like uh griper grimer oh muncher muncher okay that was the new guy I think in the most recent one frozen empire I think they admitted to themselves they had to get slimer back I believe slimer is in I actually saw the movie and can't fully remember but I think slimer's in frozen empire wait are you guys joking about there being a character called Muncher.

Oh, Muncher is Josh Gadd, Drew. I regret to tell you this. Oh, this frown on Drew's face here. I must have blocked that out of I have no memory of Muncher or Josh Gad in Bart's homework party.

A very random joke. I guess the joke is that Bart would never have a homework party, but now is for this one thing he can guilt Homer about. And yes, I really, I have to nag on Marge's nagging here and how much they're doing it.

So I went back through just the episodes we've done this season, not the full season 16. So we had Mobile Homer, Bob mentioned before. All's Fair and Oven War is Marge complaining Homer won't remodel the kitchen.

She used to be my girl, is Marge nagging at Homer that she doesn't have the career she wants. Mommy Bearest is Marge has an emotional affair with Mo is nagging Homer a bunch. The seven beer snitch, she's nagging to him that he is a prison rat. And in future drama,

they are separated because they are arguing too much that they have actually ended up getting just separate. I don't think they're divorced in that episode. I think it's just a separation. It's a real divorced energy season so far. And again, I do believe Kevin Curran will not be with his partner by 2006, I believe. He's broken up with her.

Rich, powerful, fantastically wealthy, authorist partner. Helen Fielding, right? Yes, yeah. I keep just wanting to call her the Bridget Jones lady. She's Bridget Jones. She is the real Bridget Jones. Which would make him Mark Darcy as well. See, I remember all these characters from the two character names from Bridget Jones, but not the author name.

I prefer to honor Kevin Kern's memory by thinking of him as Buck Bundy. Oh, for sure. Greatest contribution to humanity. And we have a joke that I did like how Maggie, the animation of Maggie, tossing her bear on the floor angrily, that was cute. Then we should probably explain to the listeners that the last noise you hear is the cat drowning in soaked through kitty litter? Yes, she's lost weight since the last time we saw the Snowball 2 episode about her being a fat cat

in Seven Beers Snitch. I kept that in there too because I wanted to complimented that. I think pacing-wise, originally, that was just a joke earlier in the scene of like setting up that it's leaking in the house. But then they put it in between Homer leaving and coming back for his jacket to have him react with lousy cat. That was in the kitchen. Why is he reacting to the cat in the kitchen that he probably couldn't even see the cat drowning and saying lousy cat? I thought it made it funnier. It's like very weird logic that he can sense something is happening and he's blaming the cat.

Yeah, I guess we're adding up all the grievances the family has with him. and the cat drowning in kitty litter is just another one of them in this context, but yeah, it doesn't really hold up to logic. A lot of animal violence to start out this episode here. And then, and they didn't have a sense a little helper joke because they're saving all that for 90 seconds in the middle of the episode.

In our next clip, Homer heads over to Moes. Stupid Homer-Hating family. At least there's one place I'm always welcome. He's a jolly good battle. Oh, guys, this is just what I'm. I needed. This ain't for you, sweat-stained. It's a surprise party for Lenny,

thrown by his closest friends. So what's Stephen Hawking doing here? I live here now. You're looking at the new owner of the little seizures down the street. Pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, pizza, sorry, that button sticks. So why didn't you invite me?

We couldn't tell you ahead of time because you'd spill the beads. I wouldn't ruin a surprise for Lenny. Surprise? What surprise? Wait a go, Homer. Six years planning down a drain. I'm sorry.

I'll just sit over here until you stop being mad at me. Oh, great, Homer. I bake a cake-shaped like Lenny's favorite bar stool, and you wreck it. Everybody hates Homer this week. It sucks. Poor Homer. This does remind me a bit. I do like this scene.

It does remind me a bit of Homer's practical jokes in the Fear Flying episode, where everyone is just turning on Homer. for no reason. Right. Yeah. I think what took him six years was a carefully constructed bar of stool cake. It fooled me too.

Was this before cake fakes? Cake fakes weren't a thing in 2005. Were they? They were not. I mean, I'm sure someone was doing it privately. We just didn't know about it. Right, right, right. Now what?

It's a whole genre of television, right? It's not just one TV show, is that cake, right? Multiple TV shows, multiple videos, multiple content creators. Stephen Hawking, this is not his, first appearance on the show, correct? It is not. He was in the Save Lisa's brain, and he had been on Futurama a few times. And on the commentary, they tell the story again, a story that I love, because it's an example of awful behavior, where Chris Carter, the creator of X-Files, who we know is

like a hack at this point, right? We know Chris Carter is not the Jews behind the X-Files. The first time Stephen Hawking was on the Simpsons, Chris Carter found out, he went to the recording, he put an X-Files hat on Stephen Hawking's head. Famously, Stephen Hawking can't take off hats. It's like a personality quirk of his. And he goes. And he goes. got a picture with him with the X-Files hat on his head. Now I think Chris Carter was telling everyone that the truth is out there. Investigate the Epstein files. He's in there.

Man, you're right. I'm going to say Stephen Hawking-Inneson, he was one of many scientists who was lured to Epstein Island for whatever reason. To talk with the most stupid man in the world, who's also a pedophile. But also, there is an image of him with two, like, babes with their faces blacked out. He's, like, laying on a beach chair and, like, they're holding drinks and stuff. So he was partying on upsteen Island. I have a Stephen Hawking story.

Not related to this. So I went to UC Santa Barbara, which is like, it's like a party school and didn't realize as a party school and he went there. But once you get there, you're like, oh, this is not a real college, whatever. And when I was a junior, I was living with, you know, friends. And I was talking about, like, yeah, I was on campus. And I saw this guy look just like Stephen Hawking. It was crazy.

And it was like he must get people constantly thinking that he looks like Stephen Hawking. And my roommate was like, oh, my roommate was like, oh, my roommate was like, I'm my god, I've seen this guy as well. Like, people probably are embarrassed to, like, assume that the guy in the wheelchair is Stephen Hawking because they don't want to be the person that assumes that, like, every person in a motorized wheelchair is Stephen Hawking. And our third roommate is like, you fucking idiots. That's Stephen Hawking.

What are you talking about? She's like, you know that, like, our theoretical physics department is, like, really good, right? I was like, no. It's like, we're, like, we have, like, a party school. And then over on the side, we have a theoretical physics department that wins, like, Nobel prizes and a way that, like, is far more frequent than what you would expect. for a college of our level. Like our humanities are just like whatever.

But the theoretical physics is great, and he's frequently there. And we were both seeing Stephen Hawking more than one occasion and didn't realize it was actually it. Wow, man. You were too shy to introduce yourselves to him then. I wouldn't have bothered in any way,

but also it is just because our humanities program was so not Nobel Prize winning, I didn't ever expect that there would be a reason that Stephen Hawking was there. However, party school, maybe he was there to party as well. We know he likes to party. I've seen the photo.

He does party. Not to get too dark about this, but I think what Jeffrey Epstein did to him was a little more rude than putting a hat on his head. So I'm reading from the emails here. We're getting into the emails, folks, on this episode. Epstein said, when Hawking came to my island, he said his dream was to go diving. I duct tape his head to a high back chair and loaded him into a private sub. Great fun.

Wow. He taped Hawking down and just launched him. That's crazy. It is crazy. Wow. Crazy like a fox. That is crazier even than the multiple dinner parties that we've discovered Dick Cavett had with Jeffrey Epstein and Woody Allen. That Chris Carter thing, he was just in the news recently because there were some headline.

He did some new interview. And X-Files is attempting to be rebooted by Ryan Coogler. And that Chris Carter was saying, oh, I wish I got a chance to wrap up X-Files. And all I saw were X-Files fans saying, like, you. You had eight chances to end X-Files and you fucked it up every time. You don't need another chance. Yeah. That's why I like how even in the fiction, I feel like they're acknowledging the new X-File seasons never happened.

Because I think we talked about this on some podcast, Henry, but there's an ad for the new Lego set, right? And Gillian Anderson is in it. And she receives the Lego set. She's like, oh, it's been 30 years or something like that. And I'm thinking like, no, you came back. Everyone was mad about it. Yes. Yeah.

It's been 10 years tops. Maybe even less if you count. Like, they did audible books, too. Like as in Duccovney and Anderson came back for it. He also recut one of the two movies. I don't know which one it is. But there's a new director's, Chris Carter director's cut of one of the X-Files, theatrical films.

And everyone's like, it's the version you always wanted to make. And I'm like, in my head, I'm like, did we want to see that? Like history has told us this will not actually be better. I believe it's the R-rated cut of the second one. The truth is out there. Fight the future. And then I want to believe,

but it's the exhibit one. Exhibit is in the second one. Exhibit and Amanda Pete are like, the main FBI agents in the new, this one. Okay. In the 2008 one. That one had a lot of transphobic issues, if I recall correctly. It was not the best film.

It was not good. That one was called I Want to Believe. Thank you. Yeah. And you know, final note on this. So Jeffrey Epstein, he tainted the man's legacy forever. This will always be like an asterisk on his name, even though it's not clear if he did anything.

But he got to go on a fun little submarine ride, and I think that was worth it. He should just have the reputation of liking fun submarine rides, no matter where he goes. Submarine enthusiasts, Jeffrey Epstein. They take pride in that this is the real Stephen Hawking recording of his stuff. They didn't just emulate it or make it sound like it. He apparently literally put a bunch of pizza pizzas into his machine and repeated it a bunch,

which making him say, Little Caesar's catchphrase over and over again is a funny thing to do. It's a funny thing to do with like a geniuses free time. Selman Walt's name names on it, but he throws shade on the commentary. at other shows, and I think he meets Family Guy, that have Stephen Hawking characters appear on it. They do fake it and just play the program. You know what also? I like Lenny's Fishing Hat look.

You should do that more often. I think it's a good look. Oh, also, when Homer's on the ground looking at everybody mad at him, I feel like the only time they've ever drawn Larry front-facing. Can you think of any other front-facing Larry? It's a rare front-facing Larry. We've reached this finally in our 12-year journey. We can condemn Stephen Hawking for his action.

with Jeffrey Epstein. I also condemn him for doing an Atkins diet joke in 2005. That is hacky, hacky. When did Atkins stop being a thing? Oh, I really started to stop hearing about it before, like, maybe 2010 at some point. I think, like, it was always around in some form. Like, in the 90s, it was called Sugar Busters. Okay. Atkins was, I definitely remember.

By 2005, like, it was a joke in, I feel like, the same season of Arrested Development, but, like, it aired earlier in season three. the joke of that they were going to celebrate with cake and then like, oh, wait, no, I'm on Atkins, fry a bacon. And at the end of the season, you just see them all eating bread together. And they're like, oh, it was too much meat. Yeah, you're right. That's this year.

And isn't it just called like keto now or keto, whatever that diet is? Yeah. I also heard it called the caveman diet of like nothing you could bake or whatever that has flour in it. I did not know that all of these were the same thing until now. And so Homer, it drives away angrily. Also similar to another episode, this is like his drive to meet up with Lurlin Lumpkin, similarly when he was feeling rejected by everybody in Colonel Homer. Except this time, instead of going to a shit kicker bar, well, first he loses his recipe for

cola, which is sugar, water, bubbles, and question mark. That was the first joke that actually made me laugh out loud in this episode because it is such a stupid joke and that he had to write that down. And then he's sad that he loses it when it blows out the window because he wouldn't be able to remember sugar, bubbles. What's the third one? Water. Question mark.

He sees a sign that says, welcome, Homer, but it was really just saying welcome rowdy drinkers to knockers. It's our first we've heard knockers mentioned before, but it's our first visit to it. And it's based on a place where Henry also went with his mom. Is that true? Look, I'm only saying these things because you've voluntarily revealed this information, Henry, and it must be brought up.

No, no, no. I'm fake sighing. I had it in my notes to bring up, yes. Okay, thank you. I'm not picking on him. I'm just finding bits. No, no. No, no. You're getting back at him for stepping on your joke, and it's very obvious that what you're doing, Bob. This is going to be a decade of revenge for stepping on that joke. That was Ray Romano's in the first place. The last time I went to Hooters was about 12 years ago, visiting home, was that my mom loves trivia nights, and she will go to where bar trivia happens, and we love doing

trivia together. I do enjoy doing it, doing the trivia with her, and Hooters was where it happened to be that week during Christmas week. So it was Christmas week that we went as well, and yes, it was a Hooters, and in Jacksonville, though the funniest thing there was to me, you know, several waitresses in the standard Hooters outfit of the tan leg nylons and a low-cut shirt. But our waitress was like,

she seemed at least seven months pregnant and was wearing whatever she felt like wearing and they couldn't fire her because that would have been discrimination and I thought that was pretty cool. I'm sure some guys really liked it. Some guys probably did, yes. They were discovering an audience they didn't know they had.

Now, things are not great for Hooters. Now that we're living in, in Woke 2. Are we in Woke 2? Or is Woke 2 we're going to start? I think it's starting. I think we're at the dawn of Woke 2. Things are not good. So Hooters filed for bankruptcy in March of 2025. I've now found restaurants that are kind of like a Hooters, but without the shame of going to Hooters. And Henry, you've been to one of these before two. There's the chain Earls. Now, Earles is a classy place. Earl's is like an entree's $25, whatever. It's like pretty elevated food. It's not like super high class, but it's like maybe you bring your parents there or whatever. But at Earls,

every waitress is very attractive and they are wearing very, very tight-fitting black shirts and very, very thin, high-rise skirts. And I've learned that when you want to work at Earls, you need to do a video interview first because are you Earle's material? You have to look a certain way. And if you go into one of these restaurants,

you can see, okay, this is for Dad to Ogle when he's waiting for his appetizers to come out. It feels like I'm kind of in a hooters, but it's not like you're not here to celebrate the breast. The breast just happened to be part of the show. Sure. I mean, that seems like the smarter investment than calling your restaurant after boobs, you know. Yeah.

I have been to Earl several times. It's where my husband and I took his mother and sisters. But I have never noticed that about it. Well, you're gay. That's so funny. Yes, I know. My husband and I never noticed. Next time, Henry, look at the women, look at him very closely.

I'll judge them. Up and down. I've never been to any of these tiddy restaurants. I would like to say, Bob, have you ever been to a hooters? No, I've never been to a hooters in my life. There were not around me. And then, like, when I was exposed to them, later in life, I thought, well, why would I go here?

It just, I feel like maybe when I was younger and had less empathy, I would be, like, able to enjoy the experience. But now I just think of, like, what these women have to go through. Right. And I'm sure they're tipped very well. But then they have, like, the regulars who come in who think, like, oh, that's going to be my girlfriend one day. I mean, I just, that's like the lesser end of the harassment they must face in that role.

Right. According to the theory that the men who go to these places will understand that it's, like, for show and it's not a real interaction. But that could never happen because men are not that. and are really bad at understanding social nuance in general. And there are always going to be the creeps who cannot understand that the woman is not actually interested in you. And she's only doing it as a show. And there's an exchange of attention for debts, basically.

Right? Am I understanding this correctly? Well, I think there's probably most guys tell themselves who think that they're like, well, yes, every other woman is doing it because it's her job. But this waitress is the one that really likes me. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to put Earls in the crosshairs here. They're a fine place. They're not sleazy, but they do go for a very specific type of look for the servers. And they're all women. And it sort of was like that Seinfeld episode where George and Jerry noticed like all the women at the diners suddenly have big breasts. Right. I just noticed one day like there's like a vibe going on here that's unspoken at Earls. And we're not talking about it enough.

You're saying it now. Yeah. I'm calling out Earls right now. I was sadden to learn. I had only driven by them or like seen them out of like. windows. I was sad to learn that like I saw signs that were for places called Twin Peaks. I thought they were themed after the series, not they were also a breasterant and the Twin Peaks refer to breasts. I thought you were going to say that you'd only driven by them and seen them through windows and that you were talking about press. Oh. One last Hootersy story. I never went to Hooters, but I forget where we were. Maybe it was

Philadelphia or like Long Island, but the Retronauts crew, I think it was, me and Jeremy Parrish from Retronaut, somebody else was there too. We wanted to eat somewhere nearby. We couldn't find a place. And I think we ended up going to a place called cans. And I assume, like, it's about cans of beer, right? They're just going to have beer and some bar of food.

No, it's a butt-themed restaurant. You're there to look at, you know, butts in tight shorts, essentially. And, of course, you know me. I'm not the kind of guy who would go to a place like that. But Jeremy Parrish is absolutely not the kind of guy. He'd be going there asking for, like, gin selections. And he knows it. Yes, yes.

So, yes, there are butt-themed restaurants, and I guess I found one in Long Island or in the Philadelphia area. I think it was Long Island, maybe. Okay, so when someone talked about, like, I'm saying this as a gay man, so I don't mean this, but it was like, oh, that chick has enormous cans. They're talking about her butt, or they're talking about her boobs? Now, can is a multi-purpose term here. Can singular is always the butt. Yes. Plural is.

Those are breasts. But in this case, it's talking about, like, the very, very. cans on the different waitresses? Like, why is it called? See, that's why I feel like I was misled. If it was called like, can. I would think it was maybe some avant-garde restaurant and I wouldn't go there. It was called cans or something to indicate a butt in a very cute, winky way.

But yes, but I think, like, if you call a woman's butt a can or her breast cans, you are over 63 years old. Right, right, right. Again, I'm using these expressions, in quote, I'm not saying it because I think it's normal. You should point out thinking about hooters, I was like, why is there not like a gay version of this? I was like, oh, this is every gay establishment. and like literally everyone who works at a gay establishment is doing under the idea that like I'm only being cutesy with you for tips. That's the only reason.

And I think the clientele there understand that maybe slightly better than the heterosexual ones understand that at a hooters. Every bartender, every male bartender at a gay bar I've been to has been very nice. They're very friendly guys, yes. A couple times I went to a couple pride events where it was a lot of guys. And then it was like the women who worked at the bar were still working there that night. In my opinion, the women who worked there seemed happier than usual because they were

being left alone and able to do their jobs serving gay guys all night. Though if there were some evil bisexual men in there, they probably still were to root to them. They probably got more compliments on their outfits or their makeup than they would have normally, so that was probably a nice pat on the back for them. Also, Knockers pulls into Deep Simpsons

lore here because on the neon sign, it's not just any large breasted woman, it is Titania from the Pygmolian episode there. It's her second and last appearance unless you count the epic that's what's annoying if you go to the simpsons wiki page to be like character appearances

if there are a character like titania at her level of course she appeared in the simpsons movie in the giant crowd shot of the everybody that doesn't count. Yeah I tend to not count that when it comes to appearances just because it's like well they found everyone. I like that the simpsons is a rich enough universe that they have two different female characters who are defined by having

absurdly large boobs that being Titania and buborella. They're much more into booborella at this point. Yes, yeah. Do we think that, oh, by the way, Kevin Curran, he's buried next to the real-life buborella, vampire. That's right. That's right. That's what it says on her tombstone, vampire, the real-life buborella. The real-life buvorella.

And do we think this is a reactionary joke here where there's a sign here saying, no looking at our waitresses' enormous breasts. So I feel like it's a bit of like reactionary humor where it's like, well, now you can't even look at them. It seems almost like ass-covering humor here where they're having you, they're getting away with the joke of having a boob restaurant by telling you, telling you that it's inappropriate to look at the boobs and Homer gets slapped. I don't know. Or maybe it's like there's no place for this kind of restaurant anymore in an area which we know about sexual harassment and what it means. That's a very generous reading because Hoosers were alive and well in 2005.

But I would like to think that you're correct, but I don't. On a recent Do Boys, they had a whole section about Hooters. So I learned that multiple Hooters they used to go to are closed in the L.A. area now. It was in a similar clip where they were talking about that Mike Mitchell has a lot of fans on bear websites. and he deserves it. He deserves it. He does. Oh, and Nancy Cartwright's on the commentary,

and she has a fun little joke about how, as voicing Nelson, she's done multiple jokes about Nelson's mom working at Hooters. And now she's like, but wait, there's knockers in the show, so does she work at knockers or hooters? And the writers don't pick up on her little dig there. It's sort of like how there's Star Wars and Galaxy Wars and there's Legoland and Blocko Land.

They do the parody, but they also want to make fun of the real thing. So this is where Homer sits down. He's the first man ever depressed at a bar. He has a very dutiful bartender who's come in for his job that night after having lost an eye the night earlier. And this is a clue, everybody. Which is one of the good clues in this in that it doesn't seem like a clue. It actually seems like a real joke. And you don't really question it if you don't understand where the episode's going.

You just think it's a funny thing. It's like, oh, you think that having an eye patch is like this characteristic of this person, but it's actually a brand new thing for him. And that's sort of funny in itself. So you don't catch on that, like, they're setting up something. They rub your face in the clues much later. They really do. Let's hear her as Homer is feeling so sad, he makes a new friend.

How did it ever come to this? I'm the first man ever to feel depressed in a bar. I don't have a friend in a world. Look at the size of that nacho plate. I haven't seen this much melted cheese since I left my Billy Joel albums out in the sun. The sun. Hey, you want to split this? Wow, it's been so long since I've been with someone who'd

He doesn't know what a selfish pig I am. Man, move your head. I get this. Hey, my name's Ray. Ray Magini. Ray, you know me better than anyone. How can I get my wife to love me again? It's me.

I'm no marriage counselor. Just a license and bonded roofer. Ray, will you help me fix my roof? Sure, I'll help you. I know one condition. You got to help me finish this picture of beer. Homer then imagines himself after imagining of that a roofer could fix his roof,

he then imagines one driving drunk and having a car accident, and then Re thinks that and he will be the president and can slam dunk. And I forget, I wasn't really listening to the beginning of the clip when, like, I was listening for the music, but do they do, like, the harp sting when we first see Ray? You know, I don't think they do.

I think he just says a lot here. I'll play it again, the opening of it real quick here. How did it ever come to this? I'm the first man ever to feel depressed in a bar. I don't have a friend in a world. Size of that nacho plate. That is a common, that's a recurring theme with this character. To guess I imply some kind of supernatural quality or some sort of otherworldliness to him.

Interesting. Okay. I find that like a very funny musical gag, especially as you learn later, he could possibly be a figment of Homer's imagination. Like a Harvey style character. I miss that musical sting there. That was a good catch. I was too focused on looking at the nachos and appreciating them. I've seen the opposite with friends ordering a plate of nachos for the table is,

And it feels like everybody at the table is trying to not be Homer. So nobody, there's like a big chunk of like the good stuff in the middle and nobody wants to be the one to take it. They're just like, oh, I don't want to be the greedy nacho taker. And so you just end up with like a lot in the middle that nobody's touching. Who are you getting nachos with? I think of a group function recently. I think it was with like my husband's work friends. I got to hang out with them and the thing.

And it was just like a center thing of nachos. It took us a minute to be, I think somebody had to literally. say out loud like, okay, guys, come on. We can have the chicken in the middle here. Well, there's always like a center clump. And then like somebody has to take it apart, but you have to make sure other people are okay with you touching the food or somebody's got to like make the first move here. Utensals could be involved.

Deutically, yes. Yes. Yeah, this pile, it is more cheese than nachos. He's right. That is a lot of melted cheese and he should have a joke about it. Though Homer's over laugh at it. That's how I like that joke. Just make you a joke about Billy Joel albums.

Okay. Homer laughing too much at it That makes it better And then he laughs at the wrong thing Because his thing that he repeats is The Sun And that's not the That's not the funny part of the joke

That is what makes it work for me even better And this actually reminds me a bit of Season 3 King of the Hill episode Or season four by the way With Drew Carey Where it's all about like What a male friendship is like In your 40s

This case I guess Homer his late 30s And with King of the Hill The joke is These are two straight men Who are very boring to watch together Who told talk very little and just nod at each other and just compliment ladders. Like just saying that, oh, that's a nice car.

Thanks. And that's it. Also, Bob, that's a great point because that also is a guy from a popular sitcom comes in and just use himself and befriends the cartoon character. And looks just like his real life visage. Yes. Yes. Yeah. They do give him a different name.

But this is, Homer makes friends with a famous guy type thing. But at least he's playing. Also, you can't count on Ray Romano to play anybody other. than Ray Romano. Even when he is Manny, the woolly mammoth in Ice Age, he's Ray Romano. That's the other thing he's done. That's the other thing he's made a ton of money on. Get ready for a fifth one. Or maybe it's even the sixth. In February 2027, Ice Age is back. Everybody.

We fired everyone who made the original movies. Don't worry. Yes. Finally. It's going to be made by Disney people instead. When you heard his name for the first time, were you already thinking that that was going to be an anagram? Because Magini is such an odd last name to give a character? You know, at first I thought it was just, it had to be a reference to something I hadn't researched yet to find out what it was. And then fortunately, Lisa, I think I spent a little time searching for it before I got back to the end of the episode where Lisa reveals what it is. Yeah, I thought it would eventually result in a joke, but not sure what it was.

And I've seen this one before, maybe a few times, but I forgot the reveal or like where it's all leading. So I wasn't thinking of like, oh, this means imaginary or I wasn't thinking of the clues like the eyepatch quite yet. yet. I knew there was a reveal and rewashing it for the first time to do this podcast. I wasn't clear what the reveal was going to be. And then when I actually get there, I was like, oh, it's not that clever. It's not that good. That's why my brain forgot it because it's kind of an unrememberable reveal. It turns out. Now, it's a joke that Homer says, you know me better than anybody, Ray, having just eaten nachos with him and for the first, like, 30 seconds he's known him. Though in a deleted scene, the second of three, there actually is more conversation in the

Meat Cute of Homer and Ray. Hey, you want to split this? Well, my first choice is to have all of it, but I'm sensing that's not an option. I didn't think so. Favorite movie? Hot dog, the movie. Favorite food? Hamburger. The sandwich. Favorite stooge?

Curly? Joe. Dorina! Mr. You're just like me. We both like sports. We've both been held back by the jealousy of others. And we get drunk every day, but we're not. not alcoholics.

Hey, my name's Ray, Ray Maggini. I do like the drinking joke, where they're both deeply in denial. They're just enablers. They found an enabler. I imagine in this world, this Ray Romano's second man is divorced. Based on the text he gets later,

I'm thinking he's divorced as well. Though this does, the character Ray Barone is a sports writer, which keeps him as, you know, a man's man, but like one who doesn't work with his hand. butches him up a little more by being a contractor. And this is where we have the opening bit there that I played at the very start of the episode

where they're uncomfortable because they say their song will be the next song that plays on the jukebox and it is 1979. Captain Netanil's song, Do that to me one more time. And of course it's uncomfortable because it's gay. It would be gay for them to have a song about a man and a woman having sex, apparently. I didn't realize this was Captain Nathaniel.

I just know them from Love Will Keep Us to together? I know them from Muscat Love. Oh, that's them too. Okay. Yeah. This is apparently late Captain Intaniel was like their comeback song after that, like, because 79 is a little late for Captain Intaniel. You think of that more as a mid-70s band. So I associate the song from a Saturday Night Live sketch with Chris Farley and Tim Meadows that is specifically very gay. And that's one of the reasons some of the stuff in this episode, I'm like, oh, it seems a little repurposed from other places. But there is Holland Oates style musical group

where they're the two lead singers and the idea is that they're both heterosexual men with families but they sing songs as if they were a gay couple. And if you order now, you can get their album songs that if they were really, really gay and like the sketch ends with them singing as a duet do it to me one more time because that's

very specifically gay song. Also a very horny song for mainstream radio. It was a hit. I did a little Captain and Tenil research that's Tony Tenil, the woman's singing and then her husband and producer and musician pianist on it is captain. Though Captain's real name is Daryl Dragon, which is much cooler, but... That's a great name.

I want to hear Dragon and Toneal. Can we do that? Yeah, Tony T'Neil and Daryl Dragon. Book them, that's a much better name. I believe he didn't do it because it would have revealed he was a Nepo baby. His father was a famous conductor named Carmen a Dragon, and his older brother was already in a music group called The Dragon, so he's like, well, I can't be also Daryl. dragon, so instead puts on a captain's hat, some sunglasses, and calls himself captain. Sure.

Interesting. Well, I need to hear from a Stoge scholar, by the way, like a Will Sloan figure, Thad Kamarowski, because I feel like if you name Curly Joe Dorita as your favorite stooge, you're a hipster, a stooge hipster. If you name Joe Besser as your favorite stooge, you are a liar. And if you like Shemp as your favorite stooge, you prefer a stooge group without any kind of curly figure at all. It's like when they got the curly, it was too broad.

I like Shemp, Mo, and Larry. You're going to have to translate for someone who was too gay to watch three stooges growing up. Curly Joe Dorita is different than regular curly, or no? Regular Curley died very young. Larry Curley and Mo are the iconic stooges, but there were many iterations of the stooges. And in the later era, we got Curly Joe Dorita and then Joe Besser. And the Joe Besser thing is, what if a stooge was gay? But we don't know what to do with that.

so he's just kind of like a big sissy. Those are all the jokes about him. Besser, I only know for when the Hanna-Barbara cartoons hired him to just do that act as a very effeminate genie. Yappel-Daple! Oh, okay. Yeah, I knew who this person is. Thank you for translating into Hannah-Barbara for me. Hannah-Barbara mostly, well, they ripped off many things.

The stooges were one of them. They even did, oh, yeah, what? Hannah-Barbara did, like, the robo-studges, right? Are they super-stooges? Yeah. But regular Curley died at, like, 48. So we didn't have Curly for very long, and he's great. Also, do that to me one more time.

In real life, Captain Sineal, they were married for 39 years, though divorced in 2014, because Teneal said he had an inability to be affectionate, so I don't think he was doing it to her one more time. Though nice end of the story is later in life they reconnected, and she was by his side when he passed away in 2019. I think really this is Al Jean just showing off how much music he can afford this season.

I'm like, there's just so much music. And we cannot leave, like, the 70s either. Yes. Okay, so we're back to now the start of act two, and Homer is sleeping off something. That's something, too. They want you to think Homer is maybe even dreaming Ray, because a couple of these scenes of, like,

he meets Ray, and then the next scene starts with him waking up, having seen Ray in the next scene. And I guess this implies that he's not sleeping in the same bed with Marge because they're fighting, right? Yeah, right. Yeah, he is on the couch. And here Marge's nagging.

begins and this is where I say listen here and think of married with children this is an exchange of zingers here i woke up to find an owl eating a mouse on the pillow next to me i think that means six more weeks of autumn it means you have to fix the roof don't worry honey i found us a roofer last night and you'll never guess where knockers on route 98 how did you know i'm psychic look i don't know if i want a roo who hangs out in bars oh you're right marge i guess i should look for roofers at poetry slams and yoga retreats. High five. Nah, I got standards.

I don't hand out high fives like chicklets. Ray would high five me. Well, he better high five our roof. Yay, Mom! Sing! Come on, kids, we're gonna visit Grandpa. Then we're gonna take the dog to the V-E-T. Then take Bart to get C-I-R-C-U-M-C-I-S-E-D.

Huh? I'll tell you what it means when it's over. unexpected although in two years we would see bart's penis and we know he's uncut so i guess they decided to not get him circumcised yes that that is an insane joke that bart is getting randomly circumcised at age 10 yeah it's a really inexplicable joke and it's for it seems like it's beneath the simpsons to i don't know it seems that payoff isn't good enough to make us think about bart's penis you know in HD detail we'll see it soon enough and bob's right it doesn't look circumcised to me They wanted just a joke of like spelling a thing for the vet.

Again, that feels are also like the Zing. Homer Zing return of like, oh, I'll look at yoga retreats. It was just like, whoa, a poetry slams and yoga retreats. Just imagine Ed O'Neill saying that. It's just an albundney line. Look at poetry slams. Everyone laughs. I mean, Mary with Children, great jokes.

They could get away with a sarcastic comeback like, I'm psychic. And then, you know, the audience would laugh and you get into it more. But this feels a little deflated for a Simpsons joke. Just like a snap. be one line or like that. And then like March's comeback that does get the high five, for the purposes of the scene we're doing this, because we're supposed to just imagine that everyone's against Homer

and he's feeling ganged up upon. But like her comeback, her slam is not very good. No, no. Is the joke that it's not good and they're high-fiving when they don't need to? I think so, yeah. Like, would you say high-five the roof? Yeah, high-five the roof.

It's not good. This also is classic. And I say this because Bob produced, picked that as our live action. What a cartoon for the year. It was great. I learned so much. about it and I watched a bunch of old episodes, including the one we did. Those are usually

Peg and the kids team up against Al and don't believe him either. So this is also, the one we did is they didn't believe Al about aliens and the whole family teams up against him. This is all family teaming up against him on this. Mark should say, thank your father, kids. Thanks, dad. That should be how this plays out. Kevin Kern is good at writing I'm married with children. I don't want to make it sound like I'm being too mean to this dead man. So the family drives away. They also, like, they indicate with the music and just with a very long cut of, like, the family has left. Ray arrives. Notice they don't see each other type deal. This is where Ray arrives, and Homer is very complimentary to him. Hey, Homer. Oh, Ray, you came at the agreed upon time.

That's what I like about you, Homer. Everything impresses you. Impresses. What a big word. I'm going to look that up. This is going to take some work. Tell me, was the roof in good condition when you bought the house? I didn't really check. I mainly bought this house for the view. Someday that bowl will overflow and I'll be there. That billboard that we've never seen before has been there the entire time they've owned the place.

And even back in like 1984 when they got it. Yeah. And let me explain how reality has outlap satire. Since this episode has been written there, have been at least three birthday cake cereals. I think I just saw at the grocery store, like there's birthday cake cheery. or something to celebrate America's 250th, I want to say.

Yeah. And I think it's before we recognize birthday cake as a flavor, like, that you could get, you know, like ice cream in birthday cake flavor, birthday cake flavored candy, things like that. I'm not sure what it's supposed to taste like, because birthday cake could be any flavor, right? It's weird. We all decided upon, it's something like bubble gum where you can't explain, like, what does bubble gum taste like? It tastes like bubble gum. What does birthday cake flavor taste like?

Well, it tastes like birthday cake. I guess this is an agreed upon consistence we have. When I imagine birthday cake ice cream, which I have enjoyed from time to time, I think of like that it tastes like a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and a little bit of sprinkles, I want to say. That's what I think. The specific, though I love the slogan, it's like eating a birthday cake for breakfast. That's a good slogan. Also some good, I wanted to clip almost every Ray scene because he makes some good noises. There's some good Ray Romano noises in there. Well, you don't need to clip any scenes with the Santa's Little Hupper subplot, all two scenes of it.

It's very strange that we had recently a very very, disappointing Snowball 2 plot and they said, why don't we do that with the dog? A plot that ends suddenly and amounts to nothing. Yeah. So all the deleted scenes in this are related to the main plot of the Leaky Roof and Ray Romano or Ray Magini. And so if they had kept in those scenes and just cut out the

Santa's Little Helper stuff, they could have used it in a later episode where they could have maybe expanded on it and turned it into something funnier. It could have been its own episode. Like Sam's Little Helper having adventures in the nursing home. There's definitely more there. I don't mind a San Joseville Hover episode. What they've done with it in this episode is just not really worth doing. It doesn't even feel observational. It feels like he went to the cursed nursing home that makes you old. Is this a common thing with pets if they're introduced

to old people, they start acting old themselves? Yeah, no, it's the opposite usually. It's a little that they actually, you know, bring about more usefulness. This is sort of an episode about dog ownership, and you've got two dogs now. My dogs make me older and more decrepid. But that That's just because they're very partly by it. So yes, they arrive at the senior home, and we do get a little bit of the take that Lisa's beliefs because as she explains the things that make the, why it works, they tell her to shut up.

So also, the weird thing, did you guys watch this on Disney Plus or pull it up on there? I watch the DVD. I watched on Disney Plus. I got the DVD out as well, but for Disney Plus, the teaser image they have, it is the Sanisville Helper with Abe.

You wouldn't know. this is the Ray Romano episode. You would think when I looked at it as like, oh, wait, he befriends Santa's Little Helper. I don't remember this episode. Disney was thinking, we don't own Ray Romano. Yes. This counts as a likeness.

His lawyer will call us. In getting to the nursing home, there are two jokes I actually appreciate that we might have skipped over a little bit. The first one is Mardt saying that like we're only staying for a short amount of time. So as soon as Grandpa feels loved, we have to go. I think that one's pretty good. And then when San Salis Little Helper is excited, he march remarks like, oh, he must smell leftovers.

And the nurse is pushing one of the patients outside. She says, we refer to them as senior citizens. Those are pretty decent jokes. And it's the nurse from the Flying Healthish episode who like single-hand shotgun pumps the rifle. And I'm happy to see her again. Yeah. She still got an edge tour. This did remind me of Oscar the Therapy Cat that made all the headlines back in 2007.

Is that the one that, the Angel of Death? The Angel of Death Cat, the cat that lived in a Providence, Rhode Island, nursing home and was claimed by doctors there that it would appear able to predict the impending death of terminally ill patients by choosing to nap next to them a few hours before they died. I think it's because the cat wanted to eat their faces. Yeah, that's my assumption as well. Naysayers about it said it was merely confirmation bias. It's like cats get a nap at a lot of places and if it's surrounded by people who are

likely to die sooner than later, it's going to happen, you would think. And Oscar passed away himself in 2022. too, did a senior sleep next to him? Take that death cat. They all gathered around him in a circle. This next scene on the roof, by the way, if you think it's similar to the Simpsons movie, you are not mistaken.

You have not gone crazy. They admit that very similar things happen in this scene that happened in the Simpsons movie because they were working on their 9,000 drafts of the Simpsons movie in complete seclusion. They could not share with the TV writing team what was going on with the Simpsons movie. So that's why we have a scene with a nail gun fight,

much like we do in the Simpsons movie, which a lot of it involves roofing for some reason. So it is a coincidence. Big coincidence, yeah. They're kind of bashfully admitting it on the commentary of like, oh, yeah, that is like the Simpsons movie. Even the episode and the movie end the same way on the roof as well. And so already this episode clearly, Al Jean and the writers on the movie,

Al Jean sees this script and is like, boy, Bart's penis roofing. We've got to get this in the movie. That's what I would have named the episode. said. Parts, penis, and roofing. We go back to them shooting each other with nail guns, blood coming out of their heads. And Ned is really, the term is flanderized as a TV trope term, referring to Ned Flanders. But this is a very flanderized Flanders.

Like, he is only talking in Flanderisms. He is just there to be the wacky neighbor character. I think he only speaks in, like, rhymes in this episode or puns. Like, every line he says is a pun, I think. And important clue number two, he does. doesn't see Ray because Ray is standing behind the chimney in the scene. I did like the posing on Ray like he's in a cover shooter with his gun up hiding behind the chimney there. But my mower can't get any lower.

That was wrong, as Ned says, he drives away. And this is where Ray and Homer's friendship is cut short for the day. Oh, sorry, man. I got to go. This says my kid attempted something. I hate the way these things cut off. Oh, he turned a corner. Oh, no.

I see him again! You're drooling on my goodwill pile. Is the hole in the roof even bigger? Don't worry. Ray will be back any minute. It's after six. He's not coming back. He's a lousy roofer in a flake. Hey, what's what you say about him? I think Ray could be the one. The one what? My new best friend. We think alike. We act alike. We finish each other's sandwiches.

I don't want to hear any more about Ray. Tomorrow morning you buy some shingles and fix that roof. yourself. Ray's not going to like that. You're not married to Ray. Well, if I was, we'd have taller kids. It's a little gay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So two things here. Did Marge pull her wedding dress out of the Goodwill pile? Is that what that was? That white dress?

It looks like a wedding dress, but it's hard to tell, and maybe it's just, yeah, I don't know. I had that same thought. It's debatable. A thing number two, item number two. We finish each other's sandwiches as a public domain joke. I'm sorry. And it's even used in Frozen. Yes. Drew has something to say. But this is on the early end of that being a trend.

So this actually proceeds it being a public domain joke. I recognize it from Arrested Development. It appears in 2006 in the episode where, what's her name? Justine Bateman guest stars as Nellie Bluth, who they think is the other Bluth. And her and Maine Bluth boy have so much in common. He says, we finished other sandwiches. And the weird thing about that joke is that the night before. before, I believe, or the night after, the joke got used by that 70 show, which proves that it's a parallel development.

That two different unrelated shows put the same joke into the scripts and they aired so close to each other. But this preceded that by a year. So this edges those two out. However, the first use of this actually comes from 2001 on an episode of The Ellen Show, which is the second Ellen Generous sitcom that only lasted for a single season, which we covered on the gayest episode ever. It wasn't very good. But that joke gets used in an Ellen show episode, and that show was co-created by Mitch Hurwitz, who was the creator of Arrested Development. So it probably is Mitch Hurwitz's fault. And when he used it for Arrested Development, he was just repurposing his own joke on a show that no one watched.

But as near as anything can tell, finish each other sandwiches originated in 2001 on the Ellen Show. Very nice, Drew. Thank you for the history of that joke. Sounds like everyone was thinking laterally, but people were all discovering this joke at the same time after 9-11. 11. Yeah. Don't know what it was about the towers falling that made everyone think that was funny and then stop. But like there was a period. Well, after that arrested development and 70 show two, for then it is definitely public domain. And by the time it gets to frozen seven years later, like that's a public domain joke. Yeah. There's nothing good about it there. Now, again, when I was in like, this is married with children mine. Imagine a scene where Peg says, Al, you're drooling on my goodwill pile. And then pulls out the wedding dress, holds it up for a second so the audience can last. laugh at it and then throws it back down. It's funnier. It's funnier that way.

But yeah, Homer has passed out again further setting up to like, oh, Ray is not real. He imagined it. I also like that I laughed at the darkness of Ray's kid seemingly attempted suicide is what he's like, I had attempted something. I will say, or a mass shooting. Yeah. It could be either. It is sort of complicated by the fact that one of the kids on everybody who's

Raymond did commit suicide. Oh, no. I didn't know this. Oh, no. The twins did that. Eesh. Oh, that's sad. I did not know this. On that note, that guy's got a funny voice, right? Then, speaking of death, we go back to the senior home for the wrapping up of the dog story,

not two minutes after it had been set up. I'm sure everyone's happier with Sadd's little helper here to love them. Yeah, I bet the old people will be acting like young people. Like in those cell phone ads everyone hates. He's become one of them. Hey boy. Want a treat? Fur?

Better get you home. Come on, Lisa. Right after Pat Sejack. Jeez, Louise. You know, it's too bad. We've had that dog as long as I can remember. What dog? Who the hell are you?

I wish I knew. And that's all she wrote. Yep, yeah. You know, I like when Yardley Smith is given a chance to do a funny voice, she does a good job. I like her to do an old lady voice. They're referring to Wheel of Fortune as Pat Sejack. Which no longer, Dana White's still there, but it's one of Ryan Seacrest's many jobs is hosting it. I see.

And so this ad, Marge is referencing, I guess Boost Mobile, am I correct about the century? Boost Mobile had an ad campaign, and this was the gimmick. It was sort of like the buzz cola ad from season five. One sip, and I'm totally hip. It's the old man drinking the soda. Yes, I had totally forgotten this as the ad. I was like, God, I know Marge is referring to a specific thing, but Bob, you discovered it and sent me the clip.

And so, yes, here's the, here's one of the 30-second boost to mobile commercials of old people talk like young people about their cell phones. So I was like at home having like a really lame time. So I use my Bruce mobile phone to two-way my friend. And she's like, want to go to a bangy party, yo? And I'm like, yeah. And she's like, shall we two-way Alicia? And I'm like, hell's, yeah.

And now we're all this banging party and getting 10 tons of nasty. Let's go. Beipip. Hollopack, young. Hoopack. Hoopack, yon. Hallow back, young. Oh, ho.

Marge is right. I do hate that. Yeah. And it brings me no joy. to let everyone know this woman cannot two-way anyone anymore what does two-way mean in boost mobile speak is that like when you have

more than one person on your line wouldn't that be a three-way two-way feels like a normal phone call yeah it's some sort of shared calling thing yeah I think two-way on it or also like wasn't boost mobile the one that let you do like almost like it was a walkie-talkie

like it was like you would just get like an instant thing like hey the blah blah blah is like an instant voice text you would get. All of this pre- iPhone stuff is a race for my memory. I just remember like, I can't remember what phones did before iPhones. I don't think I talked to anyone that used this mobile. On principle. I don't think so either. Yes. I saw this ad and I was like, no, no thanks. But I believe the working joke for this ad is here's what people born in 1988 talk like. Yes, yes. Well, what have old people talked like that instead? And there's like old people like jamming

in the background and hip hop dancing. Yes, hip hop style dancing in low. And in low cut clothing and low jeans. Yes. But listeners, tell us if you remember this ad. I think they were thinking we would remember this far into the future as an iconic ad. And that you would hate them too as well. I mean, that part, not wrong. The only real thing I remember Boost Mobile for from around this same time was there's an Aquatine Hunger Force episode that is all a Boost Mobile ad. But the joke is about how it's annoying, but also a Boost Mobile phone moves in with them and constantly talks about how great Boost Mobile is.

Okay, I kind of remember that. Me too, yeah. It was integrated marketing, but they were able to make fun of it too, right? Yes, yeah. And that Master Shake was the biggest shill of them all as well. Yes, that wraps it up as March drags, both of them out of there, the dog. The age of dog just makes me sad seeing an old dog like that. I didn't laugh. I was like, oh, poor Sands a little helper. I hope he gets better. He does, or he dies after this. Not clear. So then we get, you know, from one attempted potential suicide joke, we get another one of as Homer walks to the builder's barn. He's telling part a story about the previous owner of the place who hung himself at the very store they're going into after it got shut down by the big box place.

I think this is okay because it's not we're making a suicide joke and that's edgy. Like they're commenting on big box stores and how they put out mom and pop own hardware stores, which were a lot better. a company and much more useful. Yeah, I think it wasn't the previous owner. It was somebody who owned a different hardware store and the big box drove him out of business. Yeah. And his final act of vengeance was hanging himself at the store. Yes.

Yeah. It's on the darker side of Simpson jokes, but I did laugh at it. And this is where they head in. And a lot of jokes about shingles. The Fox Marketing Department liked this joke so much that listeners will hear it or heard in the ad break. The vintage ad for it, I found like two vintage ads for this episode. Both use the I just came down with a case of shingles joke as the one for the advertisement. Once again, Homer laughing at Ray's joke, but not quite understanding it.

Right. Are they saying, is it a little bit of a joke about Ray Romano's show of like that I just came down with a case of the shingles would just be a joke on the everybody loves Raymond? Bart also conveniently leaves and comes back. Part also, this doesn't get brought up when they're explaining things later, but. the first time Bart could have seen Ray where Homer goes, oh, look, there's Ray. Bart is holding a big pile of shingles that it goes over his face. So he can't see Ray in that moment either.

Right. They could have been clue number three, but clue number three is something that we cannot detect with our own eyes. Yeah. Because when we see it in the first time, Bart is clearly looking where Homer and Ray are, and there is no reason he wouldn't see them. It's very clear when they use the shot to then reverse shot

to pan over and show. that Bart has just about killed Squeaky Voice teen, Bart would have to be looking at where Ray was standing. There's no other way. To the point that you could argue that it's cheating how they justify Bart not seeing Ray eventually.

Oh, it's extreme cheating. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. So Homer leaves. Marge told him to do it himself, but now he meets Ray again and Ray is very bashfully asking if they can still keep hanging out. That gets a little gay too, I'd say.

Yeah. Lots of like shy, scuffing. And so Homer thinks that Ray's coming back. He is so sure of it. And Marge is now getting less naggy and more worried for Homer. As she insists that he's not going to show up, Homer, he's missing dinner even for this. He stays on the roof saying like he's going to come now, now, now, now, time cut to now. I can't even think of just one time they've done this joke of Simpsons of the show. Like, they've done this joke a lot. And now when Marge, is merely concerned for Homer.

Oh, you know what? I skipped over one good one. When Marge says, where is Ray? Homer then painted Ray's face on the entire house. And Marge says, how do you think I would react to this? He then chose a mean drawing of Marge on the other side of it to show what he meant. You know, that's a great drawing of Ray in the Simpson style. It's very realistic.

It's also a nice, made me laugh a little bit when you see the Angry Marge portrait. And then it reminds me of something that Lenny does. Carl. Now, Carlmore, is this a similarly gay way of showing reverence for your friend. So after waiting forever, this is where Marge must finally confront Homer. He is. Oh, thank God. Where is he? Tell me. Sweetheart, your friend Ray is in your head. Ray wouldn't fit my head. He's a human man.

You have to understand. Ray doesn't exist. Yes, he does. He's on his. way and when he gets here we'll have ever so much fun you'll see ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha we'll laugh that's our act break yes it's great acting on dance part as always he does disturbingly psychotic laughter from homer very well it's not even a violent fall off the roof he just sort of like rolls off yeah though the sound effects imply he's broken his back that's what he should be treated for in the next scene he's surprised that he's not going to a hospital hospital so much as a

mental hospital, but yeah. This is a strange act three, like a lot of act three is in the teens, where half of it is about electrocuting Homer, the other half is a parlor scene, and they really love electrocuting Homer in this season, even though in the early season, season one, that was one of the most talked about moments on the show, the family electrocating each other. So it goes back to that, but they're really having a lot of fun with Zapp and Homer. The animation of Electrified Homer is great. I like the electrifying.

I think Dan is doing a good job and his crazy noises, you know, even 16 years into the show. he's still doing good crazy noises. Though we'll also talk about things in this clip here where nobody believes him, it also feels too far for me that Homer spits in Hibbert's face. That's sort of really shocking. Yeah, it's just a weird moment. It's ugly, yeah.

Hibbert retaliates by bashing him with a mallet. Yeah, at this point in the show, Algin has run out of material to make fun of in One Fleur over the Cuckoo's Nest. Although I feel like electroconvulsive therapy in general is a cuckoo's nest parody. Yeah. Reference.

I think you're right. Yeah, this is where Homer learns what everybody really thinks of Ray. What am I doing here? Let me go. We'll let you go when you admit there is no Ray Magini. Fine, I admit it.

Help me, Ray. Appearance strike them down. No one has ever seen Ray, but you. But that's not true. Bart saw him at the builder's barn. No, I didn't, Dad. I saw you talk into yourself.

Flanders, you saw Ray on the roof with me. Sorry, Homer. You'll have to call me a rathiest, because I don't believe I saw him. Ned, are you okay? There has to be someone who saw him. Someone who doesn't hate me like Flanders and Bart. Wait, the bartender at Knockers.

I called that bosom bar. The bartender said you were there alone. Ray's a figment of your imagination, Homer. You felt a little bit of your imagination, Homer. He felt lonely and unappreciated, so you made him up. And here's the clincher. Ray Magini is an anagram for imaginary. Wow, my subconscious is a genius.

Well, that's all very convincing. But then Homer sees Ray, but only from his point of view. And it's driving him even crazier that nobody else will even look where he can clearly see Ray. Imaginary Ray Magini, that made me, I did like, oh, clever. It was a nod. It's like, oh, that's good. That's clever. It sounds like an Italian name ending with the genie.

Yeah. But yeah, this bit here of like they all described how they didn't see him, that also Homer is sure that Homer and Bart, the Flanders and Bart both ate him. Though this is where the commentary accidentally stumbles into Scientologyville that I don't think they were ready for, I think. I listened to the, like, what did they talk about? I don't remember this part.

Okay. What I mean is that when they start talking about electrocom. This is where Nancy Cartwright starts talking about how bad it is and starts having a general antitherepy stance on it. And that's when I'm like, oh shit, you guys had the Scientologist on this one about electroshock therapy. But like we all, non-scientologists also think electroconvulsive therapy is bad. Apparently, they say it on the commentary. The Mayo Clinic does say that it actually can work in some extreme cases, that it actually does. is still used. Now, obviously, we think about it for, you know, conversion therapy and a lot of bad stuff. And it certainly is, uh, seems very bad. And it was used badly in history and in movies. But apparently, it actually does help with some problems, uh, some mental health issues, apparently. Like in the 50s when someone's like, my wife is sad doing housework all day. Shocker, doc. Yes. Yeah. That of course works too. And it made women do their housework. But.

At least, the Mayo Clinic website wouldn't lie to me, right? It actually helps people with, like, severe depression or that was like the number one one. I didn't know we still did that. I thought that was something we used to, like, give out like candy back in the day. And now we're like, yeah, we kind of over-did that. It probably was overprescribed in the past. I also say on the Mayo Clinic website about it, they did say it is an extreme or it's a rarely used one. It's like after a bunch of other stuff doesn't work, then you go to electroconvulsive.

therapy. But yes, Nancy Cartwright strongly against it on the commentary. She says, I bet if you offered any of those doctors to take the shocks themselves, I bet they would all say no to it. That's what you should say to your doctor. Why don't you take the pills? Yes. Asshole. Why don't you get this appendix removed? Nancy Carter will not be appearing on our podcast. So Homer is given a bite guard as well, which he eats. Rubber covered in Vaseline, delicious to Homer. This is also like food monster stuff that Matt Graney would normally frown upon

were he involved in this. I like the joke of him telling Marge to write that down so we can have it at home. Yeah. I do like it. It's two things. And so they zap Homer a bunch he screams. They ask him, do you see anybody who's not there? He says, nope, just you, Marge and Yogi Bear.

I'm just kidding. And then Hibbert says, I see your sense of humor's not affected. That's a very bad sign. I like that joke to Yeah, that's good. But right after that joke is our final deleted scene, that really sells out the character of Dr. Hibbert. As Marge leaves the room, and when Homer comes to after some more electrocution,

he sees Hibbert kissing a woman. Dr. Hibbert, are you kissing a woman that's not your wife? Uh, she's imaginary, too. Better increase the dosage. I think this is the third Hibbert mistress joke of the season, I think. There was definitely the one where he was, I can't remember if it was deleted or not, too, but it was Hibbert complaining to Bart that he was being sued for sexual harassment by one of the people. That's right.

You know, I take it back. That's not a mistress joke. It's him being a bad person joke. This is what happens when you sell out Hibbert so much and don't have, just have this be Dr. Nick. If you want jokes about bad doctors, it's a lot of. like they got allergic to Dr. Nick Riviera in this season. Well, they're going to kill him. Temporarily.

Temporarily, yes. It didn't stick. His days are slightly numbered at this time. Then we do not exactly the inkblot test, but timed like inkblot test of showing him home or pictures of things and asking him if they're real or imaginary. And you know what? Despite what Hibbert says in here, history.com says it's still up in the air. We may never know for sure whether Robin Hood ever existed outside of verses of ballads. and pages of books.

I see. Well, one thing is clear. Nobody wants to see movies about him anymore. Yeah, what was the death? Was it called the death of Robin Hood, the new Hugh Jackman, Robin Hood, like, did terribly, yeah.

Why don't they make movies where he's a sexy fox anymore? I think that would turn the whole thing. That one should get another shot. Go back to the sexy fox, Robin Hood. Yeah, I think Robin Hood was like, I mean, it was like the Marvel movies of the greatest generation is what Robin Hood was.

I think the last, when that one failed, the most recent one, I remember reading some article about it saying that the last time there was a successful Robin Hood movie was the Kevin Koster one from when we were children like 35 years ago. Did men and tights not make money? It should have been. I feel like he was still making money with men and tights. I think it did good on VHS. I don't think it was a big box office hit.

I looked it up here. It did well based on its small budget. Budget 20 million. A box office, 72 million. You know what? Okay. That's a success. 72 million in 90, what, 93, 94?

93, yeah. 93, yeah. That's good. That's good. Yeah, there have been a lot of Robin Hood adaptations since that, however. And apparently they were all not good. I just rewatched the Star Trek The Next Generation Robin Hood episode as well. That happened to wrap the time as a Kevin Costner film.

Well, hey, Dracula dead and loving it is when Melbrook said. That's it for me. But I'm holding out hopes for Spaceballs too and that he will also survive to see it hit theaters. Sure. Sure. Yes, Drew, Q teleports them to the land of make-believe, where forcing Captain Picard to be Robin Hood and the rest of the main cast to be his merry man.

And guess what? Worf hates it. He's not a fan. I can't believe I'm a merry man. And Bob, recently from you reading Patrick Stewart's memoir, that's how that episode's ruined for me now because his love interest in that episode, I learned, like, broke up his marriage.

Like, that was like the affair with that actress, right? It's whoever he meets on Riza. Yes, and she came back for that Robin Hood episode. Yeah, got it, got it. It made me go like, now I'm just thinking about like, the poor family of Patrick Stewart, these episodes. I doubt it's easy for him to go back to those episodes either. So, yes, they electrocute Homer for a long time,

and six weeks have passed as we learn that he's doing a little better. You kids can relax. Your father is fine now. Fine and dandy? Well, this dandiness will slowly return with time. Dad! Oh, kids, I heart you too. Man, I'm glad to be off that electro-shock table.

Although, to be honest, I did enjoy lying down. Hello, Homer! Ah! It's Ray! We see him again! Monster! You don't exist! Hey, no one calls me a monster and questions my existence! Woo! The awesome power of the human mind. I see Ray too!

So do I. Uh-oh. Well, I'm not worried. You've already agreed not to sue me for anything. When did I agreed to that? You did when I validated your parking. You didn't validate my parking. Check and mate. You know, if the end of the episode is going to have a joke about punishing him, then they shouldn't already have a joke about that he can avoid legal liability through that whole punch.

Sure. But I like any joke that involves chair being smashed over another character's head. then Ray finally the friendly Ray can't take it anymore and punches Homer back after all this and everybody now realizes that Ray is real I also do like the banner that says they scratch through the IN at the start of insane to just say they heart their sane father now

which is why Homer says I heart you too so now comes the long explanation about how this possibly could have happened so Ray does exist That's right. Now let's explore the improbable series of events that led to this amusing yet tragic farce. On account of my eye patch, I couldn't see Ray sitting at the bar.

All I saw was you, eating and drinking and talking to yourself. And Ned, you didn't see me because I was hiding behind the chimney. Gee, I thought my vision was perfect, and here I was. Worshiping false eyeballs. Wait, wait, wait, wait. How come at Builders' Barn I saw Homer talking to thin air? Well, that... Hmm.

I can answer that. I've been tracking a tear in the fabric of space time, which combined with airborne pieces of metal at Buildersbarn to create a miniature black hole. This anomaly interposed itself between Homer and Bart, causing a gravitational lens, which absorbed the light reflected from ray the roofer. That seems feasible. Yay! I don't really like this screw you.

joke because I think they work a little too hard to make it clever, but I do enjoy everyone deferring to Lisa so the episode can end. At least they called in a guest star for this. That's why Stephen Hawking had a joke at the start of the episode so he could come back later to explain how black holes work or well, not really. Did you guys also hallucinate him saying that he called it a Hawking's hole? Oh yes. But that's the line for Futurama, right? The Futurama joke could just kind of fall in here to be fine. Yep. I think he's on more

Futuramas than Simpsons, but as they point out on the commentary, only the Simpsons got him an action figure. Oh, there you go. Which the Simpsons action figure actually came out

two years before this set or twoish years. It was in the summer of 2003 in wave 13 of the Playmates set. So that's where you can get the Stephen Hawking action figure with attached

launching boxing glove like in his previous appearance. You know, here's the thing. I'm seeing. there are four appearances on The Simpsons, only two on Futurama. Oh, okay. All right. Well, maybe it was this point there, tied then when this episode aired. He will return in season 18 and in season 22.

Around the same times he was probably partying up with the Epstein, I guess. Well, I mean, it's throughout the whole time of this time on the show. Also, they credit this is not CGI. Mark Kirkland says that he laid out the camera move tilt thing himself, did not use computer assistance, which would have been, you know, not impossible in 2004 when they did production on this,

but it wasn't easy. But he said that he tried explaining it to one of the layout people, and it was just, he said it was easier to just draw it himself, this change in perspective that made Ray appear and disappear. And so, after all of this,

Homer should be really upset and wanting apologies from everybody else, but only Marge has one last question. Wait, there's still one last thing that doesn't make sense. Why did you start fixing our roof and then just disappear? That's easy. I'm a contractor. That's right.

You're all crooks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're all crooks. It's true. Wait a minute. I went through a lot of pain and suffering because of this little misunderstanding. Somebody owes me big. Well, Homer, I could make it up to you. Maybe a free eye scraping.

That's a given. There's something else. Something much more else. Homer, can I please knock off? I've got surgery in the morning. Not if those gutters aren't clean, you don't. So as I was saying, Homer, Monday's 9 o'clock CBS? They say everybody loves that guy, but I don't get it.

What are you talking about? I'm just saying, catch it while you're still catting. Yeah, they used to do this thing again. And yes, you had two weeks to go before the series finale. They knew it when they were recording it, that it was his final season, I guess, at that time. Now, this is like misreported, even by Al Jean on the commentary, that, like, maybe it's true in the syndicated versions in America.

I couldn't find any syndicated versions. They say this part is cut out as not the full ending. I mean, just Ray Romano saying CBS Mondays, like that is cut out. Al Jean says it on the commentary and it's on the Wikipedia's. My best guess, it's on Disney Plus still and it's on the DVDs. My best guess is that in other overseas markets, this joke was cut out of like the British replays, the Australian replays, that kind of deal. Yeah. They have a good joke at contractors, though. Then Al Jean and Dean Aguul take a moment to like thank their own personal contractor who they both love. It's very strange.

And I've had to deal with contractors recently because we're improving our nice home here. And one LA-based podcaster I've listened to in the past has referred to contractors as ghosts. That's what he calls them because they just kind of disappear. And I think it's more like working with Hans Solo because I'm currently waiting on some contractors because I want to get blinds installed in my podcast room. This is what I'm spending Patreon money on, by the way, blinds. And you pay them a lot up front just to secure the deal and everything. And then weeks and weeks pass and you don't hear anything.

and you're wondering like, what's happening with my money? They eventually come back, but you're kept in suspense. So really, it's a way to add more thrills to your life working with a contractor. Sounds great. The unpredictability, it's like playing the lottery every day, right? Yeah. And I always say, these men do things that I won't do and I refuse to do. So they serve a purpose.

And I'm glad they're around because I don't know how to measure things. I don't know how to put a nail on a wall. I don't know how to cut in a dry wall for an HVAC system. That's where they come in. Guys, I've been spending the last week redoing the tile in my shower, and it is both easier than I thought it would be, but much more time-consuming. So I save money only if I don't value my hours of life at any dollar value whatsoever. And it can be done, and it is fulfilling.

And it will never be as good as if I paid someone to do it. But I will still have the money at the end of the day. You know, that time we waste improving our own homes and learning new skills, Drew, we could be spending that podcasting. You could. That's true. If he turned this into you starting a new DIY podcast, then you've got a new street. of income right there.

It would just be like a live feat of me trying and failing and like swearing a lot, like a lot. I've got a great name for this podcast, by the way. It should be called Back to the Drewing Board. They're great, great, great, great. I love that. One last thing that felt like married with children to me, though, too. This ending totally feels like how many times where they end an episode with Algo's

like, oh, we'll get even and then cut to, you know, Marcy has to like clean. the gutters or something and the whole audience going, woo, woo, woo! And then Al Smirks puts his hand down his pants, freeze frame on that, created by yes, as the audience continues cheering or like, or it cuts to Marcy in a chicken suit, as in one episode I

rewatched. He wrote a good married with children episode that happened to be his Simpson's episode this week, is my, though he was painted into a corner by having to parody a film that nobody remembered and I don't think they spent so much time, I never bought into the whole Ray is a fake person thing.

I kind of wish they just went all the way with it. And he just was a Tyler Durdon type figure in it. Like two new of a movie, I guess. Well, actually, it's older than a beautiful mind, but I think it's like a two out there. Yeah, it's not mainstream enough. Yeah. Well, to Algina was it, it didn't win any Oscars.

Like, now everybody remembers no one references a beautiful mind. And even if they do reference conspiracy board that Drew mentioned, like everybody is just referencing Charlie Day doing it on always, sunny and think that that's where it came from. Or Homeland. I think Homeland did that a lot as well. Did Homeland have like a fake person thing too in it? Also this like fake imaginary thing are like

oh I'm the only one he sees him stuff. Like that stuff is still happening in like recent TV shows. Well I don't want to spoil it if I said it but there was one of a recent top TV show on HBO Max I saw too. But it doesn't work exactly the same but you'll see. Tell me after we're done recording because I don't know what show what you're talking about. This episode

I guess you know what I can said it First, I think Marge is as bad as ever. She's not as nagging as she is immobile Homer, but also I don't think she's as justified. Immobile Homer, Homer wastes all of their money and does a giant purchase without telling her. In this one, he simply doesn't fix the roof fast enough and hires a contractor. And for that, Marge yells at him all of the time and puts him on the couch. I guess they're not as vicious towards each other, but Marge does have him institutionalized and gets him electroshocks. So bad on Marge there.

He's institutionalized for half a year. No, no, six weeks. Six weeks. It's still a long time. Still a long time, yeah. Oh, man, and how much is that going to cost? That insurance isn't covering it. And also, yeah, they completely sell out Herbert's character and waste what could be an

okay B story in just the middle act for, to be completely forgotten by the rest of the episode. Also, waste the storyline of Lisa gets a hamster. Yes, yeah. And also, Lisa's in second grade. I guess in second grade you have show and tell. But a show and tell joke with Lisa always also feels beneath her, too. Hmm. Oh, final thoughts on this?

Yeah. Okay. Well, let's cut out the side chatter. I just wanted to make sure what part of the episode we're on. So final thoughts on this one. You know what? I think it's kind of funny, and I like Ray Romano's performance. I feel like if we cut out the Santa's Little Hupper thing, all two minutes of it,

and just built more on the story, it could be a little better. And I would have liked just an honest-to-God sincere parlor scene that would have been very clever and maybe like a Futurama-style way, and not this, like, ass pole that's kind of a screw-the-audience joke. and also because five hours have passed since we started recording this, I do forgive Henry for interrupting me, poorly, retelling a Ray Romano joke.

So the healing has begun. Thank you. Revenge might follow, but it'll be very subtle throughout the next couple of years. Drew, your final thoughts. Did everybody love this episode or no? It's just,

I look forward to listening to your episode about future drama. That's the name of the episode, right? Yes. Because I think that, is a more interesting episode with more stuff going on. This just feels like a missed effort in a lot of ways with a few good jokes. And I'm always happy to talk about The Simpsons.

But I do think it's funny that you brought me on to discuss an episode about a show I don't watch and a restaurant that I'd never been to. And I'm just sorry that someone else dropped out of the last minute, apparently. What? No, no, no. No, that's what I'm going to tell everyone. This podcast might have been guessless. I'm glad to be better than no one. You're much better than no one.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks again to Drew Mackey for being on the show. Drew, where can we find you? We know the latest episode ever is coming to a close, but your blog is still rolling. It's on fire. You're writing so many facts about Mario.

You're clarifying. You're destroying conventional wisdom about our favorite plumber, or is he a plumber? The answer is, yeah, more than you might think he is. He kind of is a plumber. But yeah, thrilling tales of old videogames.com is where I'm writing about video games and doing something that was fulfilling enough that I was okay with saying goodbye

to my own podcast for a little while. Although there actually will probably be a thrilling tales of old video games podcast, but it will be a very different one than the latest episode ever in that. It will not rip off talking symptoms. Details to come. Otherwise, you can find me on Buskeye at Drew G. Mackie,

M-A-C-I-E. The other way you spell Maggie. There's great surprises every week that I see you posting of like, wow, you came up with another, like, just incredible, like, answer to a thing that you just know all this stuff and you do so much more research

than just about anybody does about video game history on very specific things. Like I never thought about like why does a rat, why do mice have bombs? And there's probably a reason for that. And when people have video game mysteries, they should seek me out and ask me and challenge me

to find an answer to the most obscure thing that I can think of. I take that as a personal challenge. Well, I'll have you back for another one. Maybe I should pick a gay or one next time. This was plenty of gay. there are less gay episodes of The Simpsons than this one. They said like four good jokes. Thank you, Drew.

Thank you. Thanks again to Drew Mackey for being on the show. Check out Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games, the blog. It's very great, and he'll be on Retronauts. Well, he actually was on Retronauts back in August if you want to hear him talk about some of his great Mario facts that are deeply research. But as for us, if you want to check out more of our stuff and get all of our podcast ad-free in a week ahead of time. Go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Sign up there for five bucks a month.

When you do, you can access nine plus years of... of Patreon content. And that includes over 200 bonus episodes that are all full length and about shows you like Talking Futurama, King of the Hill, Mission Hill, Batman, the Animated Series, and The Critic. And that will also get you a new episode of both Talking Futurama and Talk King of the Hill every month on top of that. So that's just a ton of bonus stuff. If you like hearing us talk about cartoons, we've been doing it for a very long time. And a lot of that stuff is only on Patreon. And there is also a $10 level at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons.

And Henry, what's happening there for $10 a month? That is our What a Cartoon movie podcast. Bob is referring to the monthly animated film discussion that we do. That's like three extra podcasts you get a month where we cover super in-depth, the history, the making of, and a lot of the fun trivia in a bunch of animated feature films. We just wrapped up a summer of Disney 2010s where we covered Winnie the Pooh from 2011, Ragget Ralph from 2012, Zootopia from 2016 and 2014's Big Hero 6, which all have very interesting stories behind them.

And that's just the most recent stuff. We've done a ton of animated features all from over the entire industry. Disney Renaissance, classic Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli, Warner Brothers, Sony, DreamWorks, tons of that stuff. Ardman, it's all there. Hundreds of hours, ad-free. You get all that in addition to all the great $5 stuff, Bob mentioned too. Sign up today at Patreon. dot com slash talking simpsons and if you sign up for an annual membership you get 10% off one more time

patreon dot com slash talking simpsons and as for me i've been one of your host bob macky you can find me on blue sky and letterbox as bob servo and my other podcast is called retronauts that is a classic gaming podcast all about old video games you can find that wherever you find podcasts or go to patreon dot com slash retronauts and sign up there for a bunch of bonus stuff as well and also retronauts will be at portland retrogaming expo in in mid-October of this year. So please come to the show and check out our panel.

Thank you. And you can find me on Blue Sky and Instagram as Talking Henry. I'm posting fun stuff there all of the time. And if you're following me and Bob, you should also be following

on Instagram and Blue Sky at Talk SimpsonsPod. If you follow at Talk Simpsonspod, you stay in the loop whenever new podcasts come out from either Talking Simpsons or what a cartoon or any of our exclusive stuff

on the Patreon. And if you would like to see all of the previously released free podcast we've done of Talking Simpsons and What a Cartoon. You can find that at Talking Simpsons.com. Thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you again next time for the latest episode of our community podcast. Talk to the audience and we'll see you then.

See, I'm not wanted here. Wait, Homer, don't go. Okay, be it. Who wants ass frosting? No thanks. I'm on Atkins. My family hates me. My stupid friends kick me out of their stupid party.

So I'll be sorry when I invent the world's best tasting cola and share it with no one.