Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Fear of Flying

Episode Date: October 11, 2017

After going to a lesbian bar and Cheers, Homer gets the family a flight to any non-freak states. But this is when Marge reveals airplane anxiety with a mysterious origin. Can she get help? Was her father an American hero? And will Lowenstein whistle through the leaves? Find out on this podcast!

This week's episode of Talking Simpsons is brought to you by you. That's right, we're on Patreon now, so head on over to patreon.com slash talking simpsons. For as little as $5 a month, you can help our show and get all kinds of great extra content on top of that. We've got a ton of great bonus content waiting for you right now, so head on over to patreon.com slash talking simpsons today. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody, and welcome to TalkingSimpsons, where we're swimming in Christ-a-tunity. I'm your host, Bob. Don't look at me, Mackie. And this is the Lazer Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons where we're swimming in Christ-a-tunity. I'm your host, Bob. Don't look at me, Mackie.

And this is the Lazer Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Willis is here with us today. Henry? Who is Henry? My name is Guy Incognito. Wow, it's Henry's exact double. And who else? Ah, shit.

Christatunity Antista. Christatunity Antista. I like it. Today's episode is Fear of Flying. Can't talk. Keeping myself in a state of cat-like readiness. Love it. Today's episode is Fear of Flying. Can't talk. Keeping myself in a state of cat-like readiness. Love it. And today's episode aired on December 18th, 1994.

And as always, Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in history. Oh my God. Great googly moogly, baby. Disneyland gives guests a sneak peek of its Indiana Jones ride via a Lucasfilm partnership that surely nothing will become of. Tupac Shakur has been shot he recovers only to be convicted of a 1993 sexual assault and jewish clarinet phenom kenji tops the charts with his christmas album oh and i know it's not a clarinet so don't fucking correct me nobody cares it's a different sex yes it's a smaller sex well i'll tell you what guys i love that indiana j Jones ride. Yeah, it's great. I like how you get on a random path every time.

I don't know how that's determined or whatever. Sort of an illusion, but it's still cool. I think I've taken all the paths in that ride. You know, I actually have never been. I've only been on that ride in Japan. Is that only in... He speaks Japanese. It's great.

Yeah, it's so weird. Yeah, I went on it at Tokyo Disney or DisneySea, which if you've ever been to Tokyo, that's another great thing to do is to go to Disneyland. Be ready for lines unless you plan it on a weekday that is not a holiday. Yeah, it's an awesome dark ride where you do feel like you're going to die. It's very, very convincing. I love it. Like you could fall out of that Jeep at any time, too, it feels like.

It feels so bouncy and scary. And it is strange to see Indiana Jones, who is basically like fun colonialism, speaking Japanese to your face. That's extra weird. That is weird. But at the end of the ride, he thanks you. Or he has a little statement. He's like, it's not a guy. It's like a robot hanging off a rope. But it's very cute.

Is it Harrison Ford in the American one? Or is it Soundalike? It's Soundalike. There's no way Harrison Ford's coming back to do a line. The trick of that jeep, it makes it seem so bouncy and dangerous. It's great. One of the funnest lines to be in. You walk through a ruins

in order to get there. Oh, yeah. Is that only in America in Disneyland? Not in Disney World? I believe it is not at World now. They have an Indiana Jones stunt show, but they don't have that at World. Or do they, Chris? I think they do now.

Oh, they do now? Interesting. I really want to go back to Disneyland now. I mean, I didn't go on Star Tours until three or four years ago. I am posting today on the seven-year anniversary of the last time I went to Disneyland. Every time, and I went two times in three months. It was insane.

The Star Tours ride was closed each time. So I've never in my life been on Star Tours. My parents, Floridians, never ever took me to MGM. Fucking assholes. The next time you visit Florida, you gotta go. For context, these guys have been on like nine podcasts with me about amusement parks, which I'm obsessed with. Fuck my parents.

They're perfect. So this episode, surprisingly produced, it is in production order too i checked produced and aired right after homer's daddy issues episode right right do a homer daddy issues and a marge daddy issues one back to back and i did notice that uh for the first time i think since season four we get the full extended opening and the circus couch gag which is two solid minutes of content it is and that was something gene and reese always did because their episodes would come in short and they'd need to pad for time merkin never really needed to do it in this is the rare time

they did it the only other time to choose the season is in round springfield but that's a gene and reese episode it's not a merkin episode. It's them padding more things up. Going back to their classic padding. I love them though. And I think this is a good episode, but it feels a little thin to me. When I rewatched it, I was like, oh, I remembered the first ten minutes a lot more

than the second ten minutes. The beginning is great, and this is a freelance script by David Sachs, who is not on the staff, but he's one of those journeyman writers like Reed Harrison who's just sort of done every sitcom and every cartoon and things like that. Yeah, he worked on Malcolm in the Middle, Murphy Brown, and the short-lived video game TV show Game Over. Oh, yuck. We got to do an episode of that for Retronauts because it is vile. It is bad.

And David Sachs is still around, and he even has his own podcast which I was like, oh, is this a fun podcast? It's about Judaism in the world he's a very seriously Jewish man which is, hey, totally good Tova, whatever, oh boy, that sounds horrible, it's Rosh Hashanah when we're

recording this, I mean this in good spirit to the Jewish people and the guest character is a Jewish character that is correct, yes. I'm assuming by her last name. Well, she definitely married into Judaism as well, the actress, but we'll get to that, and we'll play the death jingle, which we haven't played in so long.

Yeah, I miss it. Also, a lot of this, weirdly enough, is a Prince of Tides parody, which is very weird. A little too late to be making a Prince of Tides joke. I feel like this happens... No one remembers this. If you saw it, you do. Because I saw it.

When I saw this episode, I can officially say I saw every movie this episode references, including, for some reason, 1992's Prince of Tides. Wow. Which you'll never forget. A Streisand film. Why would a 10-year-old see a Streisand? Why would a 10-year-old even remember it? Well, at the end, Nick Nolte as a 10-year- a 10 year old even remember it well at the end nick nolte

is a 10 year old gets raped on screen yes and it's and at the time i'd never like i'd seen all the nightmare on elm streets but i'd never seen anything like that so prince of tide sticks in my head for a while it does feel a little late whenever these jokes happen where it's like you're making a joke about that now i feel like a writer had that in their packet or in their head or in a script and they just reused it like two years later is when it finally aired one thing i remember was when community did their ken burns civil war parody i'm like dude it's like the 2010s i've been watching these since duckman did one in 95 i guess it's come back around to being a nostalgic joke uh this episode though definitely colored my expectations and experiences i've had in therapy i have i have gone to a

therapist that kind of has fallen by the wayside because mental health is not covered too much by medical insurance and it's a shitty thing we do in america why you have most tavern that is therapy get confident stupid oh you know it's why i have a podcast that is my therapy but uh but it definitely colored my expectations on therapy and what march goes through and i'll go over several scenes in this episode that when they happened to me in therapy i definitely thought like oh this is the simpsons like i'm i i can't even escape simpsons nostalgia than when i'm in in therapy i feel like a lot of this is that sort of phenomenon in the 90s where it was sort of telling normal people or like non-celebrities you know non-rich people non-new yorkers like it's okay maybe you need therapy it's not just for people and fans within fancy buildings and fancy cities though as march

says earlier the king of the hill had one of my favorite lines about that sphere of therapy which is in again probably my favorite ever king of the hill episode where bill is suicidal at christmas they stop him from killing himself and then peggy suggests him seeing a therapist and then hank says peggy he's suicidal not crazy yeah i love that i love that joke so uh so the opening is actually a watershed moment for the simpsons. Lenny and Carl officially become regulars at Moe's Bar. You will see them. They will be seen at Moe's Tavern in Flaming Moe's, but they have never been in the bar drinking with Homer like Barney is.

But for this scene is the first time they've done it, and they've been regulars ever since. Yeah, I mean, as the show goes on, Homer is at the plant less and less because they're running out of ideas for that sort of atmosphere. regulars ever since so yeah i mean as the show goes on homer is at the plant less and less because they're running out of ideas for that that sort of atmosphere so they just sort of pull lenny and carl out of the plan and put them around homer but lenny and carl are great guys to be foils to homer so if he's not if they're not going to do jokes in the plant then they have to bring them

to homer and that's why they start bowling with him all the time. Not Lenny. Marge's weird one-episode Lenny fixation. I love that. Then we start the episode with some harmless pranks. Hey, Mo. You got change for a five? Yeah, sure thing, Lenny. A snake in a cash register.

Great prank, fellas, great. Oh, I'm going to be sick tonight. Hey, Ma, you want to smell my flower? Do I? Oh, I'm burning up here. Taking advantage of my alcohol-soaked clothes. Oh, it's funny and it makes you think. Oh, I need some coffee before I black out. Homer, pass me the sugar.

This is going to be great. Oh, cheers. Oh, there's sugar all over the bar now. That's not funny, Homer. Yeah, we were just messing around and you had to go too far. Moe will die a snake handler, we learned yes i wonder if he was more used to that because the snake but handling snakes cobras aren't too king cobras are not part of it which that is a super deadly snake he has killed moe yes moe is already dead he's

bitten i love how many times he's been like it's seven times one bite would be enough for the joke it's like ow ow ow ow he's full of venom with with the with the like the fatal the fatalness of their pranks i love how artless barney's is you think that the the flower is going to squirt him he just sets his clothes on fire yeah that's not even a that's attempted murder and i i love mo's do i which is very similar to Bart's, will I? At the end of Bart's Girlfriend. And the Sugar Me Do, it sounds like a reference to something. The closest I can think of is the Beatles song Love Me Do, which was their first ever hit. Like putting sugar in a gas tank sort of thing?

Like putting sugar in a prank? I don't know. I don't totally get it. But then there's the Mount Lushmore gag. He's taking them off mount lushmore which is a it's a joke about how people have their photos on the wall at famous bars or caricatures or characters like theirs are specifically the new yorker right right and people did a fan art of us as people on mount lushmore i forget the person's name i think that's because they drew you as barney they chose the barney uh true. So, yeah, it was very nice.

Thank you. I couldn't find who drew it recently. I'm sorry, but thank you so much. Identify yourself in the comments. Yes, remind us because I want those pictures back. It's Raining Men is a very, it's a big cliche of a joke. It's a fantastic song. It's great that Homer loves Raining Men.

That's not a cliche. I love that. And that's, yeah, so the history of It it's raining men was recorded in 1982 by the weather girls san francisco's own the weather girls and it had been offered to the likes of diana ross barbara streisand and share who all turned it down and then the weather girls got it to become a game for barbara and share wait wait were the weather girls before this song hit them? Because that seems like a real price attunity. It was. They renamed themselves a couple times.

They covered it many times. They kind of had a breakup. Oh, their album Forecast for Dong? Well, when RuPaul did a cover of this in 1997, I believe it was only one of the Weather Girls, not both of them. I believe now both of them have passed away one and one of their daughters one of their daughters sings the is part of the new weather girls but they're they were a pair of um large and in charge ladies singing about how they want to get absolutely soaking wet when it's raining man and yeah obviously it is a campy gay anthem

is what it turned into it's tons of fun and smithers loves having that thrown in his car it's like bad joke yeah i don't like that joke it's like how how did i not get it at this point i really didn't no i mean either as a kid i didn't get it but yeah mo throws the it's raining men album out of the bar through smithers Smithers windshield and it hits him in the head and he's he's like this gay bashing really turned the corner. Dude it still never came to me that Smithers

was a it's crazy. Even after what was it Sideshow Bob Roberts? Yeah it was it was not until the montage.

Oh yes yeah they already got their gay joke like it's funny that Homer would love such a campy song as It's Raining Men. It really is. They didn't need to joke like, it's funny that Homer would love such a campy song as It's Rainin' Men. It really is. They didn't need to literally fling it at a gay man who loved it.

And if I'm going to plug it the way we're doing Nightmare on Elm Street 2, talking about that with you and Lewis and doing an Elm Street nightmare on that new podcast, I watched that movie 11 billion times, all that shit went over my head. Just as a little kid, you weren't thinking about it. Oh, yeah, for sure. A little straight kid. In my first viewing, it did not hit me either i it wasn't until i read lewis pitesman's uh awesome article on it and then we also did a commentary for it which you can find

on the laser time band camp where at the very start of it they get into like a fight while on in the gym class and they like pull down one guy's pants and just show his ass i'm like this is so gay yeah that reminds me of reading Ender's Game I'm like why are there so many scenes of naked wet children wrestling

yeah I know that guy's got some baggage no Bob that's not to talk anymore about Nightmare on Elm Street we have a whole show for it now it's cool

but it occurred to me another reason it never occurred to me is because we watched the TV edits yes so all the male butts of which there are several we never saw you will not see one naked woman in that movie lots of lots of s&m lots of pants pulling down jock straps i love at the end of that movie when plot wise technically through the love of a girl he has defeated his homosexual desires represented by freddie but then when

they're on the bus together she's like could freddie be back the the way the guy goes oh man could freddie be back could he be back like okay you're not you're not conversion therapy doesn't work bitch i he sure says bitch a lot cool but it's also weird that homer thought they'd kill him when they throw him out he's like ha jokes on them i'm still alive well moe's moe was on his way out for sure they caught though they cut a joke that i actually would have liked to have heard in there which is that a a cat then comes in and knocks over sugar and they're like oh what a cute cat oh was that a deleted scene or it was a deleted lie okay which if they're looking for time on this episode they could have used this i do back the couch gag it did it's not only had the long couch gag it had the full intro only had the long couch gag it had

the full intro right so then yeah it is about almost two minutes before we get to the show two minutes and then it's over 10 minutes before the first act break too this is it's a long it's definitely they didn't have a ton of faith in the second half of this show it reminds me a bit of bart's and her child where like oh we're done with this story fuck it uh here's another story and it's just sort of like unfulfilling even though the trampoline stuff is great you know also about therapy and Marge needing therapy yeah it seems like when they're like so Marge we should investigate Marge they lose their stamina a bit let's kill 10 minutes on Homer finding a bar which is great by the way yeah well also though you know something I meant to mention when we mentioned

David Sachs being given this Bill Oakley outright said to us, new writers are given Marge scripts. He was handed this Marge script as well. It's a good Marge script. It's a good Marge episode, though. It is good. It's a better Marge one, and so we also get to see how much Homer hates his family and loves drinking.

Oh, there's a very sad plea for Marge here, I think. Cheer up, Homer. Can't. Okay. What if you pretended that this couch were a bar? Then you could spend more nights at home with us. I'm not going to dignify that with an answer. Look on the bright side, Dad.

Did you know that the Chinese use the same word for crisis as they do for opportunity? Yes. Crisis-tunity. Crisis-tunity was best. Bob ruined it. I'm sorry. I love that word, though. I think of it all the time It is kind of hurtful

The way Homer just denies Marge's idea of like Just drink at home alone No It's the saddest Like pretend this couch is a bar Like please spend time with us Something my girlfriend

Would say to calm me down Like We need a bigger TV Why don't you just Move the TV closer You wouldn't understand So the Christatunity thing I looked into this I don't know if you just move the TV closer? You wouldn't understand. So the Christatunity thing, I looked into this. I don't know if you guys did the

research on this, but actually, Lisa is repeating an apocryphal statement about the Chinese word. Sort of like how the Eskimos have 15 words for snow. It's a bit like that, too. So Lisa is just repeating things like Al Gore and Bush. Other presidents have

said this. Important people have said this it's a perfect it's a perfect thing to say in a dumb speech about like and did you know that success fail whatever uh this is from worldwide words the website that's sourced on this but i double look this up that sounds legit to me the the idea that they have the same words is kind of off so the word they're looking for in chinese which they didn't clarify of it this is mandarin or cantonese but the word is wagee is the word for crisis but the word has two characters in it two chinese characters and it is in letters and each of those characters are used for crisis and opportunity but it's just saying like this letter is used

in the letter for crisis this the second letter is used for opportunity that is saying that they mean the same thing or it's the same word is mistaken it means that the characters are included the same and it's as worldwide words words puts, it's like arguing that locomotive means crazy incentive. It's the same deal. I see. So it's us not understanding another culture's language. Yeah, and our fault language is so complicated. Well, and apparently they could find it all the way back to a book in 1934 spreading this idea so it's not completely incorrect but if if there are any you know chinese speakers out

there mandarin cantonese whatever who can clarify this even more i'd love to hear about it but this that is what my research says so i don't blame my elisa it is a classic like harvard guy thing to say totally yeah they don't have the internet yet the fact check that totally so that that is the story behind christatunity. And Homer is not only going to find a new bar, he's going to get drunker than he's ever been in his life. That's his new resolve. And Bart just has his wallet and Homer accepts it. Here you go, Dad.

Then he does a tour of bars. I love all these scenes. Yeah. You know what? I didn't get the clip for it here, but I'm going to insert it now. Just him with the fancy bar is so great. The way the guy intimidates him wow classy good evening sir would you please leave without a fuss right now okay yeah and homer immediately just like falls in line like okay

please leave without making a fuss that is class warfare right there. In place of like, you can't be here. You can't spend money. Please leave without a fuss. This was quite a shock as a viewer as a kid to see this. I was so excited. And the show had ended, what, three years before this?

92? Two years, two years. This was the last episode of 1994, so it ended two years earlier. One character is conspicuously missing. This looks like a nice, friendly place. Sammy, you're too old to go on a date with two twins on the same night you're supposed to marry Diane

without Rebecca knowing. Okay, Carl, I'll make you a bet. If this affects my major league comeback, I'll sell the bar. Woody, give me a beer. I think you've had enough, Mr. Peterson. My chiropractor says I can't carry you home anymore. Just give me another beer, you brain-dead hick!

I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you! Whoa, settle down, Nami! Gotta save those pipes for karaoke! I love you guys. It's a very observational joke about just how dark Cheers is and no one really realizes it. All of these sad middle-aged men just drinking together away from their wives and having kind of crappy lives. And a barfly like Norm, like the people who work at the bar, it's their job. But Norm and Cliff Clavin are always there.

Yeah. but norm and cliff clavin are always there like yeah yeah and but it's also them going through every plot of cheers out loud and every joke the the reality is only broken when uh when norm is turned down for another drink he's like i'll kill you well i mean i think now we know the reality is broken when the only cast member who doesn't speak is kelsey graham fraser is there in the scene he doesn't speak that it was that joke intentional um it was because they couldn't get him they well their story is that he was too busy making fraser to come and record that's quite unbelievable so what i didn't realize watching this at the time cheers was over yeah so one year later they had almost an entire cheers reunion on the simpsons with the biggest sitcom ever being reunited on the simpsons. That's what made this joke kind of special

because they got most of the, like all but Kelsey Grammer. And all the major ones. Kirstie Alley and Shelley Long. Oh, right, right, yeah. Well, Shelley Long was done with it and Kirstie Alley was away with Scientology. And look who's talking movies. So, it was beautiful to see a Cheers reunion. Obviously, it's less

impressive when you think they just recorded everybody separately. It's a bigger deal when they can get everybody in the same room. But I was a big Cheers fanboy at this point, so I loved it. I got every joke about though, as a continuity dork, I was mad that like,

why is Woody back at the bar? The series ended with Woody being elected as a city council guy and he was going to be on his path to become the president. Cheers is great, by the way. Though in the Cheers, Frasier would later make that not the... So Frasier would eventually bring on classic Cheers guest stars. I think they held off for like two seasons before they started doing it.

I'm surprised your biggest problem wasn't Frasier is there and not in Seattle. That's true, too. Yeah, actually, I was bothered by that as well but that frazier that frazier was visited by sam alone and at one point and sam reveals that he's still working at cheers and that everybody else is still there basically implying cheers is still having new episodes somewhere else that's great you're just not in them and it's gotten even worse for norm and then in in the seventh, no, the sixth season, Woody would even come back for an episode. You're right, yeah. And he would reveal that he had still just been working at Cheers the whole time.

And it's actually kind of a funny episode about how they realized they weren't friends. It's just like, oh, we just had this bar together. We're not friends. I don't like hanging out with you. We just have this shared past. Yeah, I just served you for like five years. well that sam when he comes back there's a funny actually speaking of cheers continuity good way when sam comes there they deal with a thing that had been a problem since the beginning on cheers frazier said a one-off line that his father was dead and so then

obviously for frazier i meant to me yeah so then Sam meets his father like, I thought you said your dad was dead. And then his dad's like, you said I was dead. It's a great joke. It's a great joke. And Homer visits a lesbian bar. I fucking love this joke. Is this line of the show? Yeah.

I think so. Yes. That's the joke. Wait a minute. There's something bothering me about this place. I know.

This lesbian bar doesn't have a fire exit. Enjoy your death trap, ladies. What was her problem? Yeah, what was her problem? Homer being confused for a lesbian. Yeah, I mean, his bosom probably.

They're very accepting of whoever is there, identifies as a woman and is a lesbian. They're very accepting of this lesbian. I know that's not what meant to be. No. I'm sure the joke is meant to say lesbian women are butch and could be identified for Homer. That's probably the joke. That's probably the joke. But let's assume the nicer side of that joke.

I'll also say for a 90s sitcom that goes to a lesbian bar, this is a lot nicer in design and realistic of lesbian designs than you would see of like, there's no like giant butch battle acts there. They're not all man-hating monsters. No one is hairy. Yes. They're just women who are talking to other women in a bar to socialize. That is the joke. And that Mortal Kombat-y music, I'm wondering if that was the same music that played when Marge and Ruth went to that bar. It was indeed.

The smart bar or whatever. It was the same place where they served the smart drinks. Same music. Yeah, there's what good waffles do. And that the, I just love homers. Same music. Stick them together. It's what good waffles do. And that the... I just love Homer's Enjoy Your Death Trap, ladies. Homer drove him from the lesbian bar.

He was fine to be there. Which doesn't really fit with Homer being a homophobe in a couple seasons. But, you know. And this was the first time I got the joke that the She-She Lounge is a joke about the calling something a Chi-chi lounge or she-she lounge,

which is a description of something that is hip and trendy is a she-she. The adjective she-she. I didn't get that until this very time. It's a good signed joke already for a lesbian bar. Then we also get to meet one of my favorite original one-off characters in the show's history greetings good man might i trouble you for a drink i'll get out of here homer homer who is homer my name is guy incognito Oh my god. This man is my exact double.

That dog has a puffy tail. Ear puff. Ear puff. So that's two great jokes in the road that really subvert your expectations. That's what I love about those two jokes back to back. Just like, oh, that's not what I thought would happen. That makes it funnier. Yeah, Guy Incognito only works once, but I do love the joke that it is such a bad...

You would totally accept a joke on The Simpsons where Homer puts on a bad mustache and tries to sneak in, and that's a joke. So then to reveal that Guy Incognito is just a real human... Obviously, that's a joke. Guy Incognito is a bad fake name. I prefer Duckman and Disguise as a pseudonym. I prefer Joey Jojo Shabadoo. That's good joke. Guy Incognito is a bad fake name. I prefer Duckman and Disguise as a pseudonym. I prefer Joey Jojo Shabadoo. That's good, too. It's more creative. But that's his real name. The man's name is Guy Incognito.

And even under his hat, he has Homer's hair. But I don't like, I will say that Dan Castellaneta does a great job with his giggling, but I really don't like the joke of just homer is randomly distracted by something it's the same like oh it's a squirrel or a dog he's kind of written like a dog i think in the best of terms so uh it is it is funny that he would uh be distracted by a dog when this this magical thing is happening he could eat his exact double but it's like that dog what's what's his story i mean in the homer goes to college episode he was distracted by a squirrel right a squirrel and a dog with a hand. That's right.

Those back to back. I think Groening announced his displeasure on the commentary. He also felt those jokes were a little too easy. I think here poof makes it better. Here poof. Yeah, that is pretty cute. It's also similar to him chasing a boy with bosoms as well. Give me a tell. So this is the first and only time

Homer's liver spoke. Like, yay. But just his, he's like, oh, my liver hurts. He punches himself in the liver, right? It's just so desperate and sad. It's like,

oh, my liver hurts. I love the design on the little black box. It is a great place for people to drink at. Yeah, well, I mean, was that a stereotype that pilots were drunks?

I don't think so. i think it's a good joke because it makes viewers imagine every pilot of theirs is a drunk yeah i think it's more of a reference to like the the sexy days of aviation where uh pilots and stewardesses would have like bar carts and they'd be swinging and having martinis and stuff like that just like the era when everyone was drunk all the time. I read it as an admission that the stress of flying makes you become a drunk. You need to take the edge off of it. So speaking of them undercutting sitcom BS, I love this gag so much. I'd like a beer, please. Sorry, you've got to be a pilot to drink in here. But I am a pilot.

Where's your uniform? I stowed it safely in the overhead compartment. Well, you talk the talk. Here's a loner. We need a pilot. Pronto. Who wants to fly to the Windy City? I'll go.

Hey, I'm your man. Conditions are a little windy. You! But I... Hey, you're not just impersonating a pilot so you can drink here are you yeah that's exactly why i'm here you fly boys you crack me up but i keep telling you i'm not a pilot and i keep telling you you fly boys crack me up he just refuses he knows he's in a sitcom and has to get homer into a crazy scenario yeah i know like

in every bad sitcom there is a moment where you think oh if you just sat down and explain this to someone in 15 seconds this problem would be resolved if a commercial commercial break didn't interrupt your speech yeah no episode of three's company would work if everyone just like pause for one second and explain let's clear this up and And same with, like, in a regular sitcom, Homer would have just said, yes, I am a pilot. But instead, Homer is just honest, like, no, I'm just lying. I'm sorry. We need the next joke to happen.

Yeah, it's on that guy's responsibility to be obscenely in denial that Homer isn't a pilot. And then he just keeps insisting like you fly boys crack me up stop cracking me up i do like his co-pilot uh i'll be letting you do most of the work and homer is looking for a button to push and he's like we need that to live i love his obvious consternation if you're like you do most of the work alan i think you're ready for he's like the least damage homer could do is just crashing the plane before it goes up. Yeah. Pulling up the things.

I wonder if that, I wonder what the original line was because Quazy Clown Airlines is kind of weak. My assumption is he said a real airline and then somebody told him, no, no, no, you can't say that. I like the joke though. Yes. Yeah. It would make Quazy Clown Airlines a laughing stock. That is funny. We already recommended F is for Family. It's great's great yeah and he looks like he said something else like the the

even the dialogue kind of changes in that scene so i wonder what the old joke was because it makes me think what is it like mohawk airlines and they have a bunch of insensitive indian and actually i found this out through michael that it's a reference to a real airline that ended because of a labor dispute and the show things go much better and that it's a reference to a real airline that ended because of a labor dispute. And the show things go much better. And that airline was a Native American theme in an insensitive way as well. I think it was like Mohican. Yeah.

That's told to us by Michael Rapara as co-host of Talking Critic on Patreon.com. You're making an apocalypse. Yes. So then they're offered free trips and. No freak states. Yeah. So then they're offered free trips and... No freak states. Yeah, they're not the freak states. I love that joke because I'd see it on, say, Family Double Dare, where they'd say, you'll win a trip to one of the 48 continental United States.

Like, they never want to pay the extra to fly you to the farther off places like Alaska, Hawaii, which are more exciting than the continental states. Yeah, there's a whole lot of Alaska. Yeah, well, actually, I don't want to go to alaska i'd i'd go to i'd go to chicago before she can't go before alaska i've never been there i've never been maybe you can get a grinder there yes i love i love this speech by homer because these were i it's what i do love about trips of seeing the little things that are different in each place i don't want to be a wet blanket, but getting on a plane like that seems like a hassle coupled with a burden.

Come on, Marge. I want to shake off the dust of this one-horse town. I want to explore the world. I want to watch TV in a different time zone. I want to visit strange, exotic malls. I'm sick of eating hoagies. I want a grinder, a sub, a footlong hero. I want to live, Marge.

Won't you let me live? Won't you please? Oh, God. Just a desperate Homer speech. I mean, as I found out as a kid, though, going to exciting new malls, the malls are exactly the same. All the same stores. Except when you go back to my mall, all of these stores are local stores because no one wants to buy space in a mall anymore. Well, yeah.

I'll say when I went on vacations as a kid, all malls were the same. Now it's really about touring your old mall and seeing how it's a graveyard. in a mall anymore. Well, yeah, I'll say when I went on vacation as a kid, all malls were the same. Now it's really about touring your old mall and seeing how it's a graveyard. Yeah, I wonder when this movie theater's leaving. Oh, look at that.

A new army recruitment center. How strange. Well, I grew up in... Oh, I want to comment on Homer. I just finally was able to say it. All my favorite foods are sandwiches. And yes, and sandwiches

are the perfect vehicle for food. It is. You can eat the plate and the utensils. Pizza's awesome. Pizza. Burritos, burgers are sandwiches. And yes, and sandwiches are the perfect vehicle for food. It is. You can eat the plate and the utensils. Pizza's awesome. Pizza, burritos, burgers, sandwiches. Hot dogs. Favorite food. Burgers are really just a sandwich.

It's great. I will say I grew up in Ohio, and my term for that kind of sandwich was hero until the Subway Corporation moved in. They were heroes. Then they became subs. I only knew subs we uh and i know in the tri-state area pennsylvania new jersey new york they're more hoogies or hoogies as you say the sentence will be right back.

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Lazer Time's weekly bonus show exclusively on patreon.com slash Lazer Time. Here's a taste of what you've been missing. How was your weekend, Dave? Me and my girlfriend had a day where we did a bunch of chores. Her dog was with us just because the thing that we've been meaning to do How was your weekend, Dave? Me and my girlfriend had a day where we did a bunch of chores. Her dog was with us just because the thing that we've been meaning to do is to get her dog's nails clipped. We give them the dog to the groomers, who are, by the way, coated in fur, which I should have expected. The groomers?

The groomers are covered in fur because that's what they do. They're shaving dogs and stuff. But not like Italian. No, no, no, no. What? They're not just hairy people, Chris. I had to check. This guy's got like a ball cap and t-shirt and jeans and every inch of it is covered

in fur. Covered in hair. And I'm like, I know you probably... It would be waste to use lint roller all the time, but it's like, is there not something you could do to like when I come in not to be like... One of your complaints is how unkempt the groomers were. Well, that and also... You become full San Francisco. One of your complaints is how unkempt the groomers were. With that and also when he's ringing me up and I see he has a soda can right next to the register.

And I'm not a big germaphobe. I'll sometimes use the five second rule. But there was a wad of fur right on top of the Coke can. Which made me wonder, why do you even have an open can of Coke? Yes, is Clarence Thomas in here trying to make another joke it's the it was just like that i almost had a lee i'm like that's disgusting if it's his can i don't see but there's dog fur on it like if you brought a can in and it's congealing with all of the i guess that'd be your fault so get bonus time laser times weekly full-length uncensored and ad-free patreon exclusive podcasts as well as full-length movie

commentaries wrestling and cartoon video commentaries the first season of talking simpson and more at patreon.com slash laser time starting at just five bucks you'll help us live and we'll do our best to help you never be bored again uh though homer's speech is i believe it's mostly uh it's a wonderful life especially the shake the dust off line uh here here's the original mary i know what i'm gonna do tomorrow and the next day and next year and a year after that, I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm going to see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then I'm coming back here and go to college to see what they know.

And then I'm going to build things. I'm going to build air. Wow. I did not read that as an It's Wonderful Life clip. And I don't appreciate that that clip was colorized, Henry. Let's strike that from the record. You guys didn't have to see that filth. It's too bad that George Bailey doesn't realize he's about to be told his father is dead

or while i had a stroke as he's saying this but yeah that's after he steals a woman's clothes but so well hey he's it was all innocent fun he gave him back uh he'd heard about these things happening to other guys but no i never did no I I love the movie It's a Wonderful Life it's a beautiful film makes me cry every time and that was a beautiful well so Homer saying all those things

though that shows you his his dreams are a lot smaller than George Bailey eating different kinds of sandwiches which are all essentially the same

they're all basically the same and a Greek sandwich in the hero in that like Greece and Italy which is where he wants to go

it's trying to think of a gyro the hero in my my case was not gyro it was actually called a hero sandwich we had a joint called mr hero h-e-r-o wow not japanese not japanese man i never heard of that nope nope uh yeah so uh henry is usually the biggest continuity cop but i'm i'm actually shocked he did not point out that marge was on a plane in Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington in season three. I mean, I think we just see her hair. She has no lines on the plane, but she's clearly on the plane. So maybe they drugged her up. I mean, you could paint over that continuity problem with, yes, she did take sleeping pills, or yes, she did manage to do something to fly to Washington, D.C.

But it was not a problem in that episode. In talking Simpsons continuity, we've even said before, oh, I don't think she's ever been on a plane before this episode. And then we did Mr. Lisa like, no, she's there. Yeah. Perhaps she doped herself up real good. But it's also that it's established that Marge had never told Homer that she was afraid of airlines either.

So it's a surprise to Homer. That she'd flown before yeah it doesn't it doesn't really fit but but i do think it's really it's really good animation of her anxiety it's a good uh expression of anxiety like her at first trying to like say i don't know maybe we shouldn't um it's not a good time to fly yes if someone broke into the house and did laundry they could start a fire that there's some parts of this episode that really get me of like this is my mom and that is absolutely one of them my mom has a major anxiety about the lint in the dryer you have to clean out the lint trap every time you use the dryer and you have to make sure it's always

empty and you can certainly never ever leave the dryer on when you leave. You can't go like, well, it'll be dry when we're back. No. It's a ticking time bomb. It is. Well, I believe she told me that when she was a kid, that actually happened like a lint fire started in one of her dryers, and so it's been a fear of hers ever since.

At least it's somewhat rational, I guess. If there was some trauma there, you know, associated with it. I will say a friend of mine, their mother, they were convinced that if you turn on a microwave with nothing in it, it would explode and probably blow up the entire house. So their microwave always

had a mug of water in it. Just in case someone turned it on. I don't know where this belief came from, so whenever I would microbe something in their house, I would always knock over that fucking mug of water. Like, this crazy woman! Just tell her! Just tell her it won't happen! It won't happen! Strap her down and turn it on

and prove it doesn't explode. I don't know how atoms work. But that's, I mean, well, at least we'll say later in the episode, if you don't deal with those things it comes out in weird ways. And that is perhaps an example of someone who had some things that they needed to deal with openly and instead denied them and repressed them. And it came out in putting a mug of water in the microwave at all times. Not to spoil this episode, but I love where the neurosis comes from.

I think it's a really great reveal. Yeah. to spoil this episode but i love where the neurosis comes from i think it's a really great reveal yeah uh but so they get a couple cute plane jokes that maggie is the crying baby next to bard and that grandpa's apparently eyes full of cataracts and that he's blind everything's fuzzy and there are a couple jokes in here that's like well post 9-11 this wouldn't happen but the stuff about overselling flights that absolutely still happens. It really does. The only difference is between now and then is that they weren't beaten and taken off the plane by cops for refusing to get out of a seat for an overselling flight. That's true. I've said it before on podcasts. It's your duty as an American to crop dust first class on your way to coach.

Yes. You let loose some farts. You hold them in. I mean, I love the animation. The better the better. Bart running on their shoulders is great I have flown first class like twice with you

2014 I believe it was we went to see a MOBA from DC the comic company that went defunct in six months but they spent money to fly us first class to Burbank I've never done that come to Burbank we got to go and tour the dc offices in burbank which is like on the lot at

warner it was really cool even though we got to walk by the uh man of steel costume and then i got to tell bob for like 10 minutes straight like this is what sucked about man of steel it was terrible certainly wasn't that ass on that costume though though. Well, it was obscured by the cape. We couldn't even see that. That was my first industry appointment with a YouTuber. And it was like, wow, you're like this in real life, too. You don't turn this off. It was a first taste of things to come, I think.

I'll give you a clue. He had the word angry in his name. That's like 5,000 guys. You figure it out, kids. Hello, I'm Ghost Gamer, creator of what are those? Other fine memes? But, yeah, we were in the first class section which in this one it was like more like room and drinking like that was all free drinks the food they give you is much better it is it is well they give you food not peanuts you hear these these peanuts they give you on airplanes it's like you need a wrench to open the bag but we uh we were both playing dongan rompo which was

new at the time just to give you a date on it it was right around i believe it was february of 2014 right yeah yeah i was on the first chapter of dongan rompo play it everybody it's good good game three just came out uh the only other time i flew it was for a cross-country trip which actually when it was better because i was on a plane for like six hours. My parents had gotten a free upgrade. So I flew Delta first class and tons of leg room. And they like put your jacket on a wire hanger or a hanger, which is like nice. I mean, I don't care. I mean, first class is really there so you can feel better than other people who are

near you. It is one of the most classist things you can be. Yes. You get on first. You have a better seat than everybody. I would only say having had a job where I flew almost every week being able to get to the airport and get the fuck on

the plane first and get the fuck off the plane first. Yes. I constantly now fly. I get on the plane last. I leave the plane last and it's just anxiety inducing. I hate that. I also hate like the Pokemon based ranking system like Ruby and Platinum members of the Silver Star Club can go first. And I'm on Zone 4 always, or Zone D.

They have to go through eight different classifications. Zone D, get the fuck on the plane. If there's no space for putting anything in your over-air compartment, this has changed a lot since this episode, which is everybody wants to bring eight carry-ons because they charge you money for checked bags so much. So you're like, no, no, no, this gigantic roller is everybody wants to bring eight carry-ons because they charge you money for checked bags so much so you're like no no this gigantic roller is a carry-on like no it fucking isn't i have a duffel bag that squishes way better than your giant box of a roller cheap

skate and i but i get it like fuck the companies for not giving you free bag check but it's just like dude i guess they do turn you against your fellow man like that guy's bag sucks it's exactly how capitalism works man i apologize it's not the people's fault it's the company's exactly uh but yeah i was glad you remembered that our our co-trip uh it'll probably be the only time i ever fly first class because no one's paying to fly me anywhere these days so marge's freakout is very well animated i especially love her tearing of the paper in a circle. Like, it's really great. Flight crew, prepare for takeoff. I think I'll go get a picture of the plane taking off. Marge, what's wrong?

Are you hungry? Sleepy? Gassy? Gassy? Is it gas? It's gas, isn't it? I've never told you this before, but I'm not a good flyer. I have to get off the plane.

Let me off the plane. I'm asking you nicely to open the doors. Take it easy, Marge. How about if we dope you up real good? Let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off, let me off. I guess now you're right Henry Marge would have been beaten to death by an air marshal or something you can't you once that sign

you don't open that door once the door is closed they don't give a shit and I think in real life they would have doped her up real good that's what would have happened I think so you feel so bad for marge in this i think that's maybe why this episode kind of feels bad after this point because they get good jokes out of it but marge is going through like a nervous breakdown and it's a bummer unless you like food

yeah yes but uh then the like the act break line is kind of a weak one too like we'll let the killer bees come to us which killer bee jokes we already kind of explained in margin chains but yes it was a thing people were afraid of before you know terrorism they're just like what about these killer bees africanized bees replacing our friendly bees that they want to kill us like apparently grandpa did make it to it where were they going did they say where they're going no they didn't say where i think because they didn't i think it was a good thing because? Did they say where they're going? No, they didn't say where. I think because they didn't. I think it was a good thing because if they said Simpsons are going to, say, Chicago,

then it's a promise to the audience that when you watch this episode, they're going to be there. But Grandpa does go there in a very Home Alone moment. Oh, another joke I really got. In 1994, a Home Alone joke was kind of hack, I gotta say. It's more iconic than Prince of Tides, though.

That's true. That's true. That's kid rape. I think this episode depends on a lot of like, all right, we get it. Every 90s sitcom did this joke. And before The Simpsons, because The Simpsons took too long, it was just sad to see, like, with a Home Alone joke, Prince of Tide jokes, Alive jokes, I was used to The Simpsons being ahead of the curve, but instead they were kind of behind the curve with references. But they probably wouldn't have gone the full therapy route.

No, that's true. Let alone explore deep neuroses. So then we get to see Marge's repression, which it is really good acting on Julie Kavner in this one. A lot more than she's usually asked to do, I'd say. Mom, are you sure you don't want to discuss it? Sure as sugar. Lisa,

the important thing is for your mother to repress what happened. Push it deep down inside her so she'll never annoy us again. But if we don't encourage her to vent her feelings, they can come out in other ways. I just realized we never had a wedding for the cat and the

dog. They've been living in sin. It's very telling that Homer finds Marge's pain annoying. Yes, yeah. It's all very... Homer is quite self-centered in this episode. Marge inconvenienced them in his opinion. All the hope Marge... All the help Marge needs to get Homer

opposes at every point because it would impact him in some way, which is not being a good partner in life, I would say. More importantly, cats and dog living together is not a Ghostbusters reference, but I want it to be, so I'm going to make it that way. Yeah, it's true.

Cats and dogs getting married together. Just the reaction of the cat and the dog, like, oh, they're disappointed. They have to get. I think there should have been a joke that Homer loves Marge's obsessive cooking because he'd get to eat everything. But they don't really go into that aspect of it. Like, Homer isn't excited to eat food. It's just Marge has a lot of manic energy she has to express.

I mean, there was a line, shouldn't you be baking? It's 3 a.m. So he's getting used to all of the extra food, I think. Mom, you've been cooking all night? Judge, jury, and executioner all rolled into one you are. See, Dad, I told you Mom would have problems. No, no, honey, it's all right. Really, I'm fine.

I'm all right. Mother always said, don't complain. Be good. Behave. Behave. Be nice. Smile. Be polite.

Don't make waves. You heard your mother's ramblings. She's fine. So behave. Your mother's ramblings. Your mother's ramblings. That also echoes Moaning Lisa, where Marge is remembering all the bad advice her mother gave her.

It's very much the same. Always smile. Never tell people how you feel. Repress it. Marge has a ton of repressed feelings she's never dealt with and it does that's good continuity on the simpsons this episode has some shaky ones but that's good continuity of remembering her as a child and what her mom told her which we get a lot of little family sucks yeah all of them yeah every member of the Bouvier family. The Bouvier family. Yeah, we made fun of Abe being a bad parent in the previous episode, but at least he had a good mom. Maybe Clancy Bouvier is the good father we never really hear about. We saw him in the way we was.

That's true. He wasn't such a good guy then. He gets like two lines, I guess, but yeah, not so great. I want to see that kid took years off my life. But I can identify with Marge in this episode. I have some minor anxiety issues I would self-diagnose myself with, which is the best way to figure out what's wrong with you. And I do understand, like, I have all this nervous energy. I have all this anxiety. I'm going to clean the entire house just to do something with that.

Can I borrow some of that? You don't want it. You don't want it. Look at the studio. I also drink too much coffee. But, yeah, I do recognize just, like, yes, that is something someone with a lot of anxiety would do. Just like I need to do something with this energy, with this mania I'm feeling.

I need to make it productive. I don't have any of that. I almost don't. Of course, I understand like people not wanting to die. But I think it's funny. And my girlfriend said she has some of that too. When I'm on a plane and start shaking, I'm like, whatever. Like if it's over, it's over.

I don't care. Sleep. I'm so tired and overworked let's just let bring it on death don't care it'll be quick probably yeah exactly like this is the coolest way to possibly die i i've had i'm sure everybody has had a moment of thinking oh is the plane going down that kind of anxiety i've had that but the only anxiety i have about flights is getting to the flight on time once i am sat at the terminal like anxiety gone now it's just boredom but so i i don't have the nervousness on a plane i was truly tested on the flight back from japan because i think it might have just been that was hell their stewardesses training because like it was the worst turbulence i've ever seen the stewardess were standing up and all of a sudden it got really bad.

And in unison, they all ducked down into cannonball formation in the middle of the aisles. And women were screaming. It was that bad. It just looked crazy. The lights were going on and off. It was awesome. Jeez. I love the feeling of getting out of the TSA, like, now to visit Hudson News and relax.

CNBC presents Snapple. I'm on more of the depressive end of the manic depressive side of things. Just like when I feel overwhelmed by something, I do nothing. I'm like, hey, I'll just keep avoiding this until it becomes so much pressure. I have a heart attack or I just do it late. You should try video games or masturbation. What's the difference? I certainly do, but eventually that's diminishing.

Why not both? Lisa is finally convinced Marge needs help and Marge refuses it in a very proletariat work till you're dead kind of way, I'd say. Mom, can we talk to you? Can't talk. Keeping myself in a state of count-like readiness. Neat. Mom, can we talk to you? Can't talk. Keeping myself in a state of cat-like readiness. Uh, neat. Anyway, Mom, maybe you should go into therapy.

No, I don't need therapy. I'm fine, and it's too expensive. And I don't believe in it. Breaks up families. Turns wives against husbands. Children against fathers. Neighbors against me. I love how just nakedly obvious homer is there like this he can

only see it from his vantage point yeah i mean he's right to suspect it because the psychiatrist immediately identifies homer as the problem in that first scene yes yeah okay i'll just say that like this was probably a thing that happened to parents like mine where you will go to a therapist and one partner won't want it because they can obviously recognize there's a problem in the relationship and they don't want to fix it and they they would rather continue denial of it and that's that homer can recognize they're in a bad situation but also doesn't want to do anything because i or if you're in my situation it could help i don't want to pay for that no the money gets in the way.

It's true. And I got to say this, getting ahead of ourselves, but like 30 bucks is a pretty good deal per visit to a therapist. Oh, for sure. God, I mean. Pretty, pretty good. I think I, on me on a sliding scale, I got to pay $100 at the bottom of a sliding scale. Yeah, that still doesn't slide very far in that other direction.

Which like, hey, you know what? They're doing work. I don't want to take advantage of them. They have to insist they get money. Right, right. But, man, if only there was something like, I don't know, government-paid health care. It'll never happen.

Never, ever happen. We've got to build planes that will not fly ever. All right. So then the way Homer wants to fix it is they head to VHS Village, which we have not seen since... Formerly the Beta Barn. Saturdays of Thunder. Yes. We did miss the one odd joke I always forget about where she calls the radio psychic.

I don't know. Why is she calling a psychic? It's just filler. Like, she should call a self-help line or something like that. You will die a terrible, terrible death. What would have been great is if that had been Frasier on the phone and she called Frasier. It would have been a great callback,

but they did not do that. And the only thing that makes the joke particularly good is Homer running in with the radio to his ear showing that he'd been listening and then requests Reign in Men. Oh, right. I love that. Get a callback to It's Reign in Men.

Play It's Reign in Men! It's Reign in Men! I like that it is Dear Abby that gives Homer this idea. Now, Marge, Dear Abby says seeing films about air travel can calm your fears. Ooh, here are some upbeat titles. Hero, Fearless, Alive. No thanks to the plane. Many of us are still alive.

We certainly are. Pass me another hunk of co-pilot. Dad, Mom's getting worse. You have to take her to see a real psychiatrist. Look how tense she is. She's fine. Oh. She's not sitting on the couch.

She's sort of like crouched away from the couch. Yes, really working out her legs, though. Cat late readiness. Yeah. We were, again, during this time, we were one TV household. So I had actually seen every single one of these movies multiple times. And I'll rank them for you. Okay.

So Hero. Can you describe what these movies are about, Chris? What's Hero? Fearless. It goes ordered like this. Number three is Fearless. It is Jeff Bridges who survives a plane crash But has an existential awakening Doesn't bother to call

His wife and children And just drives away Interesting From the wreck It's pretty cool Number three or number one? Number three Okay

Number two is Alive About the Brazilian soccer team That crashes in the Andes Who are forced to eat Their fellow travelers And of all the movies Has the coolest Plane crash sequence

Because that's the first And only time And it happens In every plane crash sequence now Where people strapped In their seats Get sucked out of the back Yeah, because that's the first and only time, and it happens in every plane crash sequence now, where people strapped in their seats get sucked out of the back. Yeah, I saw that in the trailer, actually, watching it for this. I first saw that happen in a live. I watched that one the most.

But the best one is Hero, because I miss Dustin Hoffman. He's Mr. Bergstrom. He's a shitty, petty criminal. A plane crashes in front of him. He goes inside to loot it and ends up saving everybody and leaving before anybody can give him credit for it. Andy Garcia takes credit for it

becomes a massive celebrity and no one can get to Justin Hoffman wants Geena Davis, this news reporter to recognize that he was the one who did it but he's got all these fucking priors. The trailer would make it look good but these movies are forgotten outside of Alive and I think people remember Alive because shows and movies would use it as a way to make cannibalism jokes it was yeah

yes not unlike crying game and rain man alive let people make jokes about cannibalism that they wouldn't normally make it lets them touch a taboo topic through a reference but it's such a small part of the film because it's like it's the last thing they have to do to survive. And the guy says, taste like chicken. I don't like that joke. I like the fake hacky titular line that I'm sure was not said unanimously by everybody. That is actually the end line from Short Circuit 2, as we all know. Titular line jokes are my favorite. I mean, obviously, I first saw it in UCBb's sketch show like meryl out of africa

i sure i'm sick of sick of all these star wars though even as a kid even as a kid a 12 year old in 1994 i thought that a live joke was hack i was like i've seen every sitcom make a reference to this yeah they had a few years maybe like 18 months of those jokes up until then yeah so so they agree to take march to therapy and that's uh there's two there's two great jokes back to back here i love this long exchange between lisa and homer all right lisa you got your way your mom's going to a psychiatrist she's gonna tell march to leave me it'll break up the family and you'll have to live with your grandmother and pick beans. Dad, I like picking beans

with Grandma. Well, keep it up then. Okay, I will. Good. You do that. Fine. You'll be picking many a bean. Hope I do. You'll be picking many a bean. Hope I do. Obviously, in real life, especially

to her face, a husband should not blame a divorce on the child. Yes. An incoming divorce. Was it hard for you to make the connection to, like, who the fuck is grandma? That's true. Because we've never seen Lisa interact in any way. It has to be Jackie Boobie. It does.

But, like, we've never seen her interact with her. Yeah, I mean, she, like, shows up on the show twice. Yeah. And she lives in a retirement home. She does not have a par in picking beans. I wonder if that's a reference to something. I don't know. It just feels like a very grandmotherly activity you would do, like picking beans.

Yeah, that's true. And the homer should know Lisa doesn't want them to get a divorce because she saved their marriage just like eight episodes ago. That's true. she saved their marriage just like eight episodes ago. And then also my favorite visual gag of this episode is Skinner holding the magazine. That's the most enduring image. I don't believe it! Principal Skinner!

Well, well, well. I never thought I'd win this easy. This has nothing to do with you, Simpson. I have many, many issues with my beloved's mother. Mother. Bart, leave that man alone with his pain and sit down. Okay.

Leave that man alone with his pain. That's a funny statement to make, but also just that it's my beloved's mother. Mother! Was that magazine thing a Hard Day's Night joke? Oh, yeah, that's true. One of those movies. They all run together. Visual gags like that have happened a lot.

It's hardly the first. I doubt even the Beatles invented that. I feel like you'd see jokes like that in Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse cartoons. I thought Skinner was kind of a shitty principal because we'll learn in a few episodes from now that Principal Valiance is the king principal, king of shit Principal Mountain. That's right, yeah. Yes, sir, Principal Valiance. But there's also Principal Kohotek that he's in quite a competition with, too.

Then we get to our special guest, which we're going to have to play the death jingle here. Death stalks you at every turn. There it is. Death. It's been a moment. It has. We haven't had a dead actor guest on the show in a long time, but this is Miss Anne Bancroft, the lovely, beautiful, mega-talented Anne Bancroft.

Everybody loves her. Her real name is the most Italian name ever. It's like Anna Maria Lucia Italiano. It's just like, why isn't pizza in there? I don't understand. You may also know her as Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Mel Brooks. Her most famous role is Mrs. Robinson, the seductress

of Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. And she died in 2005 just as they were recording the commentary, so there's a nice little in-memoriam thing after the main commentary on this episode where David Merkin talks about working with her. Yeah, it's very sweet. sweet she died in 2005 i can't believe she's been gone this long and i can't believe mel brooks has been around this long yes yeah well it's still funny poor mel brooks that he that he's been a widow for this long too though i was i was worried because

mel brooks regular gene wilder things didn't go so good for him after uh after gilda radner died and so like it's it it worried me when stan lee's wife passed away too it's just these famous guys once they lose the like their wife of decades there's a conscious choice with wilder yes he even said like i don't want to make any more movies but if mel brooks wanted to i would and that's the only way and mel brooks didn't make another movie after Dracula, Dead and Loving It. He did get Gene Wilder to guest star in Will and Grace, though, he would appear. And then eventually he was going into Alzheimer's and just didn't want to make public appearances, which is absolutely understandable.

He was already a weird-looking dude. Yeah. But so Anne Bancroft's obviously amazing. It's the Gary Shandling show she wasn't on it but Dave Merkin is a huge graduate fan

so he cast her in here she's also a gorgeous woman into she was cast to be a gorgeous older woman in the 60s remained so until her passing

like she was a beautiful woman who was the love of Mel Brooks' life and she would do tons of comedy stuff she is a very funny woman as well and that's how they got mel brooks on the show in a few episodes yes he was there versus patty and selma uh home uh yes yeah for a completely pointless scene i don't like that

subplot but it was that homer it was that they were he was there with mancroft recording her purposeful line just like hey mel can you just be mel? Which, that's also why it's so phony in the episode. They're like, well, we had Mel Brooks. Just make up a scene for Homer. He's driving him. I do like how it ends with, I hate Carl Reiner. I hate Carl Reiner. It's so great.

Even though no one loves Carl Reiner more than Mel Brooks. Rob Reiner doesn't love Carl Reiner more than Mel Brooks. He's still hanging in there, too. Mel is in better shape than Carl Reiner. Her name, we don't find out until the very end, is Dr. He's still hanging in there too. Mel is in better shape than Mel Carr. Yeah, I think so. Her name we don't find out until the very end is Dr. Zweig. So let's meet Dr. Zweig. Alright,

how much do you charge? If money's a problem, I charge on a sliding scale. I can go as low as $30 an hour. Keep sliding. $30 will be fine. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! First first what are your qualifications well oh no i'm not here to take a reading test i want to see some credentials i'm sorry doctor he's just afraid to blame all my problems on him i'm not here to blame anyone husband double underlines

husband and i mean if you would see if you were her and that was your first time meeting homer i'd also blame homer for everything before even talking to march really there's a side they're deciding on a price and she already immediately identifies the problem i also love that it reminds me of a great joke in season three of Bojack where there's couple therapy for Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter. Dr. Melfi from The Sopranos, she plays the therapist. And she has this great thing of like, I'm not blaming anyone,

but I think you both should think about thinking of each other's needs and problems and you should really work on that. And then Mr. Peanutbutter goes like, me? And then Melfi just shakes her head like, no. of each other's needs and problems and you should really work on that and then mr peterberger is like me and then melfi just shakes her head like no she like basically point like it was funny to hear them say we're not here to blame anyone and then the therapist clearly knows who they want to blame but they're trying to be nice the zwig zwig isn't played too much for laughs she's pretty she has some funny she has a couple funny lines but also that she was not when they originally designed the character tress mcneil was the

temp track and they didn't know if they could get anne bankrupt okay so they did intentionally go for her they they went for her well as bill oakley explained to us tress ends up playing a woman when they can't cast a woman it's why tress is um the woman who runs the the maison derere. It's because they couldn't get a famous person. Though Tress is awesome. Yeah, she is. And she played the lead nasty rich woman in Class Struggle in Springfield. And they wanted Stalker Channing. Yes, yeah.

Hear all about that in our interview. But so in this case, they actually did Tress' attempt and did get a famous person. But then they redesigned Zweig to have gray hair instead of black hair and have the kind of like streak in it and also to have the half glasses all to imply a little more age because anne bancroft sounds a little older than tress probably i like the design it's a great design and uh then we get to also see another like giant warning sign from homer afterwards ever since you started therapy all you can do is talk about yourself but what about me marge i just left my first session and i haven't

even opened my mouth yet you see you see i just left my first session and i haven't opened my mouth yet homer who is the most selfish person in the world is accusing her of being selfish before she even says something like yes it is it is humorous exaggeration for the purpose of a joke yes i get it but it's also homer's really bad homer also tried to spy on the first session as a window washer yes that's great i love that joke it's a few seconds before noon. Yeah, that kills Homer seemingly. He falls a long way. He falls a real long way. And then, yeah, so I really like these flashbacks into Marge.

I wish they'd done more of it. I don't want any more Simpsons merchandise, really. Thank you if you want to send it. But a little Marge action figure. She's so adorable. Little Marge is so cute. It's great. I love it. Yeah, I don't think I've ever identified more with Marge than figure. She's so adorable. Little Marge is so cute. It's great. I love it.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever identified more with Marge than I do in this scene. Think back. What's the earliest memory you have of something bad happening? That would have to be my first day of school. They got this thing called a fire drill. They use it to drill a flaming hole in your head. And there's only one big toilet, and they make you all go at the same time. The kids at school were even worse.

Ew, you like the monkeys? You know they don't write their own songs. They do so. They don't even play their own instruments. No, no. That's not even Michael Nesmith's real hat. Kids can be so cruel. But it's true.

They didn't write their own songs or play their own instruments. The monkeys weren't about music, Marge. They were about rebellion, about political and social upheaval. I love Marge's agreeing. Murmuring and agreement, yeah. Oakley and Weinstein should be really proud they got Anne Bancroft to say that about the monkeys. The monkeys, yeah. That's really good. The monkey, yeah.

It's so great. So, in case you don't know the monkeys, they were one of a million wannabe Beatles groups. But the monkeys are actually great, I think. They're pretty great and came with their own cartoon. That's what they showed on Nickelodeon, the kids' network, for lack of original content, and it was fine. Yeah, I watched the monkeys all the time.

It was on Nick at Night. I think it was one of those bridge shows they'd put on of like, if you're watching Nickelodeon, we've now transformed into Nick at Night for the evening, but we're showing the more kid-friendly stuff first. Maybe that or Get Smart or something. Yeah. Which I did like. Well, let's cut in some of the music now. I thought love was only true in fairy tales

And for someone else but not for me Our love was out to get me That's the way it seemed Disappointment haunted all my dreams. Then I saw her face. Now I'm a believer. Now her

trace of doubt in my mind. I've been alone. I'm a believer. I couldn't leave you If I tried I prefer this music

In Shrek really Yes Daydream Believer Last Trains to Clarksville I'm a believer They're all They're all great songs And so

I like the extra joke here That in the late 60s No child actually knew That they didn't play Their own song They didn't write Their own songs or play their own instruments, which was true for many, many big stars. I don't want to be the old man here. Substitute anybody in the top 50 of the pop charts right now and say the same thing and see if a kid gives a shit.

Yeah, they don't care. Nobody cares. Well, back then, though, there was the belief of like, no, they're singing from their hearts. I remember the grunge movement was really high and that was important. It was an authenticity, not to be a phony. But Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, and Peter Tork, they were all actors slash singers who were kind of pulled together by a firm of people to cast them and stuff. But they eventually just gelled together and became a band on their own and would write their own songs later. They'd make a crazy-ass film called Head with Jack Nicholson.

Written by Jack Nicholson. And that they would then kind of break up for the entirety of the 70s and then nostalgia would kick in and they started doing tours in the 80s. Except for Mike Nesmith. He was always the holdout because he was already rich. The whiteout fortune. Yes. The inventor of liquid paper was his mother, and he got $25 million from her passing away.

And so he was like, I don't need to tour for money, guys. He would play with them in L.A. whenever they would come to town. He's's like i'm not touring i i just i'll play with you guys i was just thinking about liquid it's called liquid paper now it was called white out when i was a little kid and i loved it and i can't imagine eating it ever again no yeah nope no it's but they hey the met in the nesmith family made their bones while they could and actually i there was a plot on difficult people which is an awesome show the best show on hulu in my opinion original programming suck it handmade what about pram face oh god uh but so on difficult people mickey dolan's just had a guest starring appearance and in it billy eichner who's my age, he talks about how he loved the monkeys because he watched 60s sitcoms all the time as a kid.

It was just so – I never felt more in touch with a character on TV than that one. Not really. And I had the exact same incident as Marge. I've told that story before, but it was – my dad wanted to push me into going to camp. His agency had a camp in the Everglades. He got me in at the last minute, and I was excited to go. On the way there, it's so far away from our house, I got to stop at McDonald's twice, so I got two Garfield toys in those Happy Meals.

What Pops didn't tell me is that he had to pull strings to get me in, so he put me as a 7-year-old in the bunk with the 12-year-olds. I walk in, not cool. Hey, my Garfield stuff. This kid brought toys, and I became the Garfield fag after that. I was tormented by the entire cabin, cried for a week straight.

For the exact same incident, if I was with kids, like, look, Garfield, right? No. Are you sure this is not just an elaborate punishment concocted by your father? Chris, here's two things people can make fun of you for. He's an outdoorsy type, and I'm sure if I know him, he got a deal.

He got a deal. Send your child to torture camp. Wow. Well, I was also like Marge at a young age. I believed anybody who could easily scare me with a story of like, oh, you have to go to the nurse's office. They're going to give you a horrible shot that will make your arm numb all day oh are you scared like they'd i'd believe all those kinds of stories told to me by an older person because like an older kid like they wouldn't be just lying to scare me they i trust them they're older there's there's a value in being jaded yes yeah it i eventually

got cynical enough to trust no one and believe no one. Anyway, the Monkees are great. They're still touring around, even though Davy Jones died in 2011. The rest of them are still touring around. I don't know. I mean, Davy Jones didn't sing all the songs. Mickey Dolan sang some. Last Trains to Clarkville is his song, which actually I re-watched the music video for it which so many of their music videos from the 60s were them not even standing near the instruments they pretended to play mostly mostly

running at high speed is what i remember under crank cameras all over the place but the the one for last trains to clarksville they make it clear that dolan sings the songs by having the microphone in front of his face but they still put davey the front of him and like it's a good looking man there's literally shots where like Davey gets in the way of Dolan singing it's like let let Mickey at least have his song be his song on TV TV I'm glad you're dead he's that locker that famous locker that's also how they tricked you into thinking it was a British invasion show because they hired one Brit to be the lead singer and the other three are just handsome American boys. Oh, and they make every single song sound exactly like the Beatles.

Yeah, oh yeah, that's it. They also did that. I also loved on the show when Mickey Dolenz would be like, no, I did a really good Cagney impersonation, guys. Listen, like, no you don't. Like, please don't. Me, you dirty man.

So yeah, Marge has a lost in space nightmare. Yes. And we have to talk about lost in space. I keep having the same dream. I'm the mother from lost in space. Ready for breakfast, Dr. Smith? Oh, being stuck on this godforsaken planet has vanquished what little appetite I have. Warning.

Warning. Dr. Smith refuses to do his astro chores. Warning! Warning! Dr. Smith refuses to do his astral chores Why, you clattering clink of gods My dear lady, as you well know, my back is a disaster area Do the pain! Do the pain of it all! Danger! Danger! My hooks are flailing wildly Wait! Daddy, wait! Please don't leave! Books are flailing wildly.

Wait, Daddy, wait, please don't leave. Take me with you. Marge, are you aware you just said, please don't leave to your daddy? No, I didn't. Yes, you did. And you also infringed on any number of copyrights. So yeah, Lost in Space was a sitcom about a family that is lost in space with a psychotic gay man. For whatever reason, he is there.

I have some clips of this, too. Dr. Smith was a very high-strung, eccentric man, let's call him, who would curse at the robot in a very alliterative way. And here are some of his screamings. You bubble-headed booby, do you realize what you've done? I was at the point of landing on the Isle of capri now i'll never get there yes spare us your ridiculous remarks you insensitive idiot well i saw a fly did you

really there are billions of flies on earth remember there are no flies of this species on earth it was so i should deactivate you less talk more action please silence unity the important thing to know about dr smith is he hates everything i fucking hate you you piece of shit robots well i saw so much of this yeah the constant plot line with with dr smith is that he wanted to escape. He was sick of being stuck with him, so he'd always try to sneak away. And that put him in constant battle with Billy Moomy. Billy Moomy. Right, right. Twilight Zone fame.

What else was he in? Maybe just this. Bless the Beasts and the Children? Yes. It's a good life. Okay. Twilight Zone, yeah. But wait, he was gay?

I want to hear this June Lockhart clip. June Lockhart talking to some dweeb. From Lassie. You were Mrs. Robinson in Lost in Space. Yes, we loved doing that show. As a matter of fact, of course, that's just come out on DVD now, too. The first season. The first season.

And it's a great success. And I have wonderful, affectionate feelings about that show. Today, when you watch Lost in Space, Dr. Smith is, I mean, it just doesn't get gayer than that. That's right. Keep going. And with the little boy in space behind the rocks. I mean, I don't think they could do that as broadly today. What the fuck?

One, why do you lead with that question, too? Why do you lean into it? June! So, yeah, I'd be like, June, nice to meet you. So, the doctor. Homo, am I right? I was hoping... Oh, yes! I was hoping that was a gay interviewer, at least. If that was a straight interviewer, it was just like,

he was molesting that boy behind the rock, wasn't he? That's what it sounded like! Yes, it did! Oh, you would never trust a gay man with a child on television today! Well, this that boy behind the rock wasn't he that's what it sounded like with the boy behind the 12 never trust a gay man with a child on television today well this in the simpsons also did that joke it by mon sci-fi con right dan castellaneta played the actor he does try to pick up bart all right no another boy he See my trailer.

And then he says danger, danger. The implication is he's trying to molest a kid. Which I wonder why that actor didn't want to be on The Simpsons. Yeah, Jonathan Harris. I forget when he died. How we use

electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier and your world brighter find our net zero hope at electric island.ie i know him best from the second season of freakazoid when they tried to give the show more of a structure he was so great yes and they made him basically the same

character but freakazoid's man serving oh the pain of it all everybody tells him all the time like you sound like that lost in space guy. Shut up, you. Shut up, you boobie. I love that voice though. I'm so mad at everything. They talk about how he's from America. He's not British. It's all effective. Throw it out again.

Again, my absolute favorite Lost in Space potential bit of trivia. It is rumored, and I can't prove this obviously, but that the Patterson-Gimley Bigfoot footage, that that suit is a Lost in Space potential bit of trivia it is rumored and i can't prove this obviously but that the what the patterson gimley bigfoot footage that that suit is a lost in space suit oh really that people enhanced and then is that the big like lurching through the weeds or whatever patterson gimley yes it is rumored that that is a lost in space outfits and as a kid i watched lost in space but

i did not like it i loved it until the second i, but I did not like it. I loved it until the second I hated it. I didn't like it ever. It just seemed kind of boring to me. I loved the robot. When I was a little kid, it was fine to sit there and watch them. Wait, Bob, I'd never heard anybody describe it as a sitcom, because it wasn't a sci-fi show. It was like a three-camera

single set. Was there a laugh track? I don't think there was, but they didn't walk much more than like yeah it was almost the stage from snl you have where the band plays the host segment the sketch thing there's three pieces to this set but they had to pretend it was a new planet every time and i remember one episode they fought a carrot man i remember that and another episode where the robot had to fight herbie no not herbie the robot the robbie the robbie the robot herbie is the robot from fantastic four but they had to find the robot

everybody thinks robbie the robot is the robot on lost in space but it's not but he fights that robot fantastic no yeah i think fantastic yeah but he's fucking great but the robot he fights the that the robot on lost in space i believe is also the robot in Gremlins. When the father is on the phone calling in, I think it's the same robot. But I like that they gave Lisa the robot line. That could have easily been a smart robot. Yeah, it makes more sense. And just the one-off of my hooks are flailing wildly.

Yes, that's the real danger. Now, if I may be an armchair psychiatrist, though, I also like, I think thematically it fits. Marge was scarred by finding out her father had lied to her and had a secret job. And it happened at the age when she was probably watching Lost in Space. Okay. So she connects it mentally with watching Lost in Space as a kid. That's literally how dreams work for adults and children. I don't know if they did that intentionally or if they just liked having a reference.

I'm sure they liked having a reference, but that's what your brain does to parse new information. It combines it with old and previously accepted information. You're watching a shitload of Lost in Space. Someone touches your boobie. You might have a Lost in Space molestation dream. I wanted that to be funnier than a regret better not be the doctor what june lockhart thinks of him i'm going straight for you i think i found it boring because it was just like i would watch old star trek as a kid but this is just like the very domestic it doesn't move it doesn't move at all no i'd love if i saw that i'd be like why isn't this star

trek or twilight zone i want that instead and i'd watch it before lassie or dennis the menace any day but it was it was lower no dennis the menace well the risk with dennis the menace is you might end up with another the other mr wilson you could be diving right into a lassie episode too yeah you have to go straight into lassie they i hope nickelodeon didn't pay much for those it was just like cheap filler it's not very funny but marge's avoidance of her father is very realistic avoidion henry avoidion yeah i say evasion all right but she her not talking about it it was very realistic of how denial works and how i it was very real to me in with

a therapist of saying like uh you know let's change the subject actually uh this other thing scared me too i uh why even talk about this and and it's so nakedly obvious to your therapist that they would be like yeah obviously i've hit something i'm going to explore this more not that and absolutely have had that moment in therapy of saying all right before i say this i know you're gonna think it's a big deal so i'll just say it like that you can recognize i i've had that many times in therapy like yes obviously this is the core to my problems but i have to say it to you done so marge being reluctant to give away all of these very important things that formed her problem is sort of realistic

then as much as it's played as a joke here i think it is realistic other or i just can't avoid simpsons with nostalgia and references even at a therapist as i'm dealing with my problems i just can't but i i just love the this is a big deal goodbye margie be a good girl now. Why does Daddy have to leave? Because he's a pilot. He flies all over the world. I want to see Daddy fly. Marky, don't come back. Daddy? Daddy, where are you?

So, who wants pre-flight cookie? Fig dutons? Hydrox? Daddy? Don't look at me! Don't look at me! Oh, so good. My father was a stewardess?

Marge, there's nothing to be ashamed of here. Today, male flight attendants or stewards are common. They are? Yes. Thanks to trailblazers like your father, you might say he was a pioneer. Yeah. You might even say he was an American hero. Let's not go nuts.

Very good. Oh, man. Harry Shearer's screaming, though. Amazing. He did play Clancy in the way we was, although he was much larger and much more gruff-sounding. I mean, if 14 years or so separate those scenes, so I guess he smoked more, or perhaps his shame then led him to eat worse and lead a worse life. And Jackie Bouvier still sounds like 90. Margie!

Yeah, that's true. And, well, because otherwise, if she just sounds like a younger version of! Yeah, that's true. And well, because otherwise if she just sounds like a younger version of herself, then she's Marge. Julie Kavner has already done five variations on that voice. That's true, yeah. And so Clancy, like we said before, we saw him in the way he was.

Also, we were told that he was not a flight attendant, that he was a baby photographer in the Swear Jar episode. You could have more than one job. And that he had been in the Navy before that and then in the season 27 episode puffless right it is revealed that he had been he had died of lung cancer from smoking wow really though he had lived long enough to meet bart and lisa he apparently dies between lisa's birth and maggie's birth did they uh have him on the show die or just mention that he did die it is make an appearance uh patty and selma did not yeah they have a flashback okay patty and

selma though didn't know he died of lung cancer it was a secret the mother had only shared to the men which then spurs them to stop smoking though they didn't start smoking again by the end of the episode they have to it was also had been established in a Simpsons Illustrated comic, and that's the only place, that Clancy had died in a roller coaster accident, it had been said. That is non-canonical, but that was the only thing I, as a kid, knew about Marge's dad before this scene, because I obsessively read Simpsons Illustrated. Me too. read simpsons illustrated me too this now sets up the clients he was a stewardess and obviously the they had to make something funny out of it because this realization in other films is like oh i was abused and i repressed it my parent was an alcoholic and i repressed it repressed memories are not an easy thing to just say like oh don't feel shame that your father was a stewardess yeah they had to make it fun because otherwise it would be too horrifying to contemplate i've already revealed the prince of

tide ending yeah that comes about at the very very end of the film it does yeah and i will say like they have to make it lighthearted because the epiphany i believe nick nolte right yes and prince of tides realizes is when he was a kid, three escaped convicts come into his house and sexually assault everyone in the house and then the mom kills them and buries the convicts under the house. And that's what he remembers. And that's the crescendo.

It's still a horrifying image in my head. I've never forgotten it. I've never seen a kid get fucked in a movie before. I can't even believe you'd do it. That's what made me not want to see it. I have to watch this? It's just so horribly depicted. I think the point of it... A kid get fucked in a movie before, I can't even believe you do it. That's what made me not want to see it, reading the synopsis. Like, oh, I have to watch this? No, no, it's just, like, so horribly depicted. I get...

I think what the vision of it was, that it was to teach tough guys that they can still admit to pain, and they don't have to, like, just put on this, you know, mask of strength, and then just drink their pain away and other people yeah the stoicism doesn't do anybody any help because as the show said it comes out in other ways it always does you can't your oppression doesn't work as good as you think it will and marge is definitely thinking about prince of tides when she's leaving well so before it couldn't be more clear now yeah she already replaced memories with prince of tides right she was remembering her dead aunts. Selma's Choice.

Selma's Choice, yeah. But first off, though, I do like the kind of rejection of the sitcom trope that this is the one thing that was wrong with her by recognizing it fixes it. Because then she remembers three other horrible things with planes, including a North by Northwest reference. When someone is gunning them down. This is what a cornfield is. The second best North by Northwest reference next to Follow That Bird, where Burton and Ernie literally fly after Big Bird. It's an astonishing sequence.

No guns, though. No guns. And I just love Zweig's... Does she consider Ernie's laugh? I just love her rejection of like, yes, yes, it's all rich tap. She's really more concerned about being paid, though. Yes.

At that point. At this point, she probably isn't too sad to see Marge go since her check bounces. Like, look, I have enough patience and you're not paying. You think those things could also have contributed to my fear of flying? Yes, yes, it's all a rich tapestry. Well, thank you, Doctor. You've changed my life. You know, Marge, we've really just begun to scratch the surface.

There's still the far more serious problem of your husband. That's okay. You don't have to make her into some kind of superwoman. She can get on a plane. That's plenty. Thank you, Doctor. Whenever the wind whistles through the leaves, I'll think Lowenstein. Lowenstein.

My name is Zweig. Lowenstein. I love her just pulling out of the shot Just sliding out of the shot It's a great silly joke that Marge doesn't usually get to do Yeah, and they didn't name her at this point You did not know the therapist's name at all Not until this joke happened

And we have the clip from Prince of Tides I think it's of the very last scene where Nick Nolte's driving away Back to his corn pone town And I think the last thing we should consider This is way before that era of McNulty. This is Sexiest Man Alive, McNulty. That's true. Might I remind our audience.

But yeah, he's driving away. Women don't have choices. And reflecting upon the word Lowenstein will calm him and his anxiety. So let's play the clip. At the end of every day, I drive through the city of Charleston. And as I cross the bridge that'll take me home,

I feel the words building inside me. I can't stop them or tell you why I see them. But as I reach the top of the bridge, these words come to me in a whisper. I say them as prayer. As regret. As praise. I say,

Lowenstein. Lowenstein. That's the most... That's it. I thought he'd at least say it a third time That's the most movie ass movie soundtrack in the world It really is One that made such an impression on Marge

But way more odd than it made an impression on Bill Oakley I was actually getting impatient Because I had watched the clip before I'm like when's he going to say Lowenstein Yeah I kept waiting for it too I was like well he's going to say it three times like Marge does It's a very good word It's a great word

What is that word? Wait a word I think of. I think of this word. What is that word? Wait a minute, I'll tell you. Yeah, I had never seen that clip until now because I never watched the movie. I don't think I will watch that movie. I will. I kind of found out in passing just a few years ago that this is kind of a Prince of Tides thing too. Like, very, very

minor, but that joke, you kind of need to know Prince of Tides to know why Marge wants her to be Lowenstein. Otherwise, Marge is crazy. I can't think of another movie less talked about this year than Prince of Tides. People would mention Alive and Hero more than Prince of Tides. I don't know if it was. I think it was Barbra Streisand's first movie she directed.

And it lost big time to Silence of the Lambs. It was nominated for everything. No, I mean, Prince of Tides is clearly the type of like Oscar bait that usually would win. In the second to last big Barbara movie. Yeah. But Silence of the Lambs also is about a mental health professional and their patient dealing with it. But it's a little, things go a little differently.

Yeah. I don't, I, it's Streisand films. I'm not the, I'm sorry to be a bad gay guy, but I'm not the biggest fan of Streisand. I mean... What about What's Up, Doc? That's fine. That's good. But I'm more of a Garland man myself.

Garland and Liza. What about Hustle My Bustle? I'm making stuff up now. You wouldn't believe me if I kept it up. If you said Funny Face, I'd be like, sure, yeah, Funny Face. Funny Face is fine. The sequel to Funny Girl? She was also that.

I mean, I think all of the jokes about Streisand from this era were like, who is this ugly old woman with a big nose? Always focusing on her nose, which is why when I would go back and be like, oh, this is a movie she was in in the 60s. I'm like, she's hot. Why does everyone think she's ugly? I mean, she aged, of course, but man. Their crime was getting older and having billions and not wanting to deal with bullshit and not looking white enough yeah

how dare she i'm getting married and settling down yes i i do agree with the idea of the stridesand effect is a real thing though i think it is misquoted by assholes but the the idea of the stridesand effect is that barbara stridesand didn't want her house to appear on a Google map type thing. And so she tried to have it disappear. That only made people look at it more through her efforts to make it not be seen. I've never heard of that term. So it is now. You'll hear it cited by bad people who are anti-SJW types, anti-feminists.

They would say, oh, it's a Streisand effect. You're trying to censor me. It'll actually make me more famous. But anyway, I think that is the hatred of Streisand. It's not even from Simpsons or anything. It was South Park, I'd say, that really first started it. Oh, yeah, Mecha Streisand. Not a good joke.

Did you like the, they called it the Kaikan? Oh. Yes. Oh, no. I said that in quotes, guys. But that's why they called it in the second appearance of it. Not in the first episode with Megan Strice. Why did she come back? For the 200th episode.

Because they ran out of ideas? It was the 200th episode. It was supposed to be a fun callback. Bob, that's why. You're going to hate an episode of Laser Time that just came out about the other works of Trey and Matt. Oh. Which was somewhat interesting. Everything but South Park.

I mean, Cannibal the Musical is great. I love it on DVD. Or GASMO, I love it. Yeah, suck that cock! The commentary on Cannibal the Musical is them getting obscenely drunk and hating each other. And then Trey Parker bragging about how he wrote the story of the Leanne character, the horse that leaves him, is the name of the girlfriend that left him before making the film. He was like, she's going to see how wrong she is when she sees this. Screaming about how much money he's worth.

He's like, oh, and oops, who'd you get with? A guy who manages an Applebee's and I'm worth $7 million. Oops, oops. Which again, he's super drunk but it's it's a shitty thing to say yeah you know especially when you imagine your girlfriend with her new boyfriend going out to rent troma films that's certainly gonna happen there's a new toxic adventure honey but so oh i meant to mention that when we talked about the um tunnel of love incident this this is an advertisement for talking critic we talk about the Tunnel of Love incident. This is an advertisement for Talking Critic.

We talk about the Love Canal. Tunnel of Love Canal. Tunnel of Love Canal. Love Canal had to be the inspiration for Toxic Avenger. Oh, for sure. It's about toxic waste in New Jersey, and then they make up Toxie for that. I've got to say, I'm a bigger Newcomb High fan. Sorry, that could be controversial for some people, but it's a better movie, sergeant kabuki no i'm nobody likes sergeant kabuki you smoke radioactive weed

it turns you into monsters what's not to like uh sorry i'm a toxy man i'm more of a toxy man but so i like that the family supports marge as she gets onto the plane with them like it's kind of a pretty moment and this ending leaves me kind of flat, I have to say. It's funny in that all of Marge's anxieties are confirmed. Like, yes, you did crash. You were right to worry. Don't worry about a thing, honey. I'm going to help you through this. Those are all normal noises.

Nugget compartment closing. Cross checking. Just sit back and relax. That's just the engine powering up. That's just the engine struggling. That's just a carp swimming around your ankles. The final grumble I like. Mr. Carp swimming around your ankles. The final grumble I like.

Great audio joke, but also I would give my left testicle for planes to take off that fast. Yeah, really. I know. It's like, we've got to wait. We're ninth in line. Even in the 90s, it would take that long. Yeah, it's going to be 45 minutes before we close the luggage rack and get these wheels moving. Oh, everybody's taking too long. The union says they have to take a break now. to close the luggage rack and get these wheels moving uh oh everybody's taking too long the

union says they have to take a break now i've been on planes and heard noises and i think i've tried to talk to myself and the way homer goes like just checking cross checking it's fine it's like that wing doesn't look very sturdy to me i'll stop looking at it unlike the guy incognito joke where i didn't see it coming the second they took a while on the plane i was like well the joke this episode has to end with a plane crashing then and at least it gingerly dunking into water is a nice it's the nicest way to do a plane crash joke without anybody injured but if i want to make a quick 50 bucks i could write a fan theory that says they died they drowned in this plane and then everything else after is a death dream only homer knows about you're a genius bob fucking hate those like you can never write that again never you can't do

it what culture or whoever else does it but this was an okay episode i gotta say i think it's one of the weaker season six ones especially like the next two episodes are two of my all-time favorites like this is kind of a weak one i don't know if if I want to blame David Sachs too much as being an interim editor, a writer, or a freelancer. This could have nestled into just about any other sitcom show. But there's still some really great jokes. It reminds me a lot of Bart's Inner Child, in which there's half of a good episode there, but they don't really do anything with the first half, and it just kind of goes away. There's a fun first half, and there's a meandering second half, and the resolution isn't great.

I'm not sure exactly what they wanted to do with therapy, because they couldn't make her a bad therapist for humor. It had to actually be Marge being healed through mental health help. But that's not always funny. It's a good Marge episode. It is good. I like an exploration of Marge. We should explore her interior life more often. She gets a lot of good lines in this one.

Yeah, she does. She gets to be not only to see more about her and what made Marge Marge, but she gets genuinely funny Simpsons-esque lines. And gets to show emotional range she never gets to show. And so yeah, it's I'll give it a thumbs up in general, but it's definitely a low point for season

six to me, which is an amazing season I love so much. It's a good low point to be in. Yes. The bar is so high. Something can go below it every now and then. Yes. So this is Talking Simpsons, everyone. Thank you so much for listening.

I've been your host, Bob Mackie. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. My other podcast is Retronauts. That is a classic gaming podcast every Monday at retronauts.com or occasionally an extra episode on Friday. Go there, check out the podcast. My suggestion is find a topic you like and download the corresponding

podcast. You can also find us just by looking in your podcast machine for Retronauts. Thank you. I'll let everyone else take over. I'm H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G on Twitter where you can follow me for all updates about Talking Simpsons like say when I'm advertising our t-shirt, which by the way, hey, we got a t-shirt. It's on Shirtsicle. Or you can go to tiny.cc slash talking shirt and get one for yourself.

Also, though, you should be a subscriber to our Patreon because you would have heard this episode a week early and ad-free. As well as gotten exclusive access to Talking Critic, us doing this but for the critic, a ton of exclusive videos, interviews, there's so much stuff you get just for starting at $5 a month. Season one. Yeah! I always forget that. There's too many things. Too many things.

Laser Time is also a show that happens. We've done that South Park episode by the time you hear this. And also a little exploration into Rick and Morty. That was really, really fun. Halloween's coming up. We'll have some good Halloween stuff, but also an Elm Street Nightmare. That should be in full swing at this moment. It's a limited series from the Lazer Time Network featuring me and my buddy Lizzy Quavis

talking about the work and legacy of Freddy Krueger. Not unlike Talking Simpsons, you go chronologically through each Elm Street film. Yeah, it's a little more all over the place, and not a total breakdown of the plot, but just it's fun. It's weird. We've never done it.

Laser Time Network's never done anything like this before. That's really awesome. I do recommend you watch those films because they are so much fun, every single one. And in order, they're more rewarding than ever. We also have 302010, where we recently talked about the day the Simpsons died is now 20 years old

the principal on the pauper episode yeah i don't truly uh i don't truly ascribe to that uh the arm and tanzarian episode is the worst thing that's ever happened but uh with that that happened on 30 2010 where we looked 30 20 and 10 years ago in the past we have vigil game apocalypse and am i done is that it patreon.com slash laser time give them money yeah thank you so much for listening we'll be back next week with homer the great a fantastic episode we'll see you then wow infotainment