Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Flaming Moe's

Episode Date: May 25, 2016

Homer gets screwed over by Moe in this all-time alcoholic classic, Aerosmith comes to town, and we delve into a secret fan theory about this episode’s origin, all in one exciting podcast…

Ahoy, ahoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the Later Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. I am your host, Bob Mackie. Who else is here with me today? Thank you. I need that sound clip to live. Who else is here today? This way.

This way. Henry Gilbert. And I'm Dave Rudden, and I'm just a composite of other successful logos. And today's episode is Flaming Moes, which aired on November 21st, 1991. And Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in history. Oh, my God. Oh, boy, Bobby. This week, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury passes away from pneumonia.

That's air quotes. Mikhail Gorbachev is failing to hold together the Soviet Union, and Cyndi Lauper gets married in a ceremony officiated by Little Richard. Are they still together? Who is that? He's officiated. Sorry, I missed that. I ain't married no woman.

She married a unfamous man. But they seem so happy together. But yeah, poor Freddie Mercury. I think a couple weeks ago in the news it was that they had confirmed he had AIDS, which had been a suspicion basically for a decade with Mercury. And sadly, they're like, yeah, he does have it, and it's not looking good. Or Gorbachev. Like, all the stress of that must have... That's what gave him that rash

on his head. It's port wine. That is a modern millennial understanding of history. He is a living birthmark? That was a constant joke on Saved by the Bell. Does Gorbachev have a thing on his head? But yeah, the USSR

could not hold together. And it wasn't Reagan's doing. It just fell apart of its own free will. So this episode is about Moe's Bar, the first Moe's Bar episode. And I do want to ask you guys real quick, do you have any, like, local watering holes that would be your Moe's? Because I do, and I was wondering. Yeah. I hate paying for alcohol, and so I don't. I mean, like, every bar in San Francisco where most of us are based, or you guys in Oakland and Berkeley, the bars are all very expensive.

And even the dye bars, you don't have that kind of rapport, I think, with your bartenders. But just from the outside look of it, I don't think I've ever actually been in there. But there was a bar a couple blocks away from where I grew up called Mr. Beery's. What do they serve, I wonder? Yes, and the logo outside is just a living beer mug. My dad had a shirt with one of those on it, and I'm like, I can't wait to be involved with whatever this cartoon beer is. Drink my fluids, everybody!

But my brothers would go there when I wouldn't drink, and I'm like, that place sounds grimy and nasty. I don't ever want to go there, but now I kind of of want to go there but i don't think it's around anymore yeah see yeah i i the only ones i go to are usually when other people go to them and i meet them they're like like bobby g's and berserkly like a true leader i do have a watering hole and i won't say the name on it of it in case anyone wants to make like a bob suit later in life but uh i have to say like i know what it's like to have like a mose in my life because But I have to say, like, I know what it's like to have like a Moe's in my life because I can walk in,

they're like, hey Bob, and like, I don't even have to order. They just bring me the beer I usually get. Wow. And it's just like,

I talk to the bartender. It's great. Yeah, I did have like a corner bar at like, when I worked at GamePro where it was like, they knew me,

but like, I don't think they knew my drink or anything. Shout out to Tallahassee, Florida, where I'm from. Waterworks. Waterworks.

Hello, Don. I know you're listening. Big NPR fan. It was our local place when we were there. I go back home. I don't even have to call my friends because most of them will just show up there. It's real nice.

Waterworks has waters cascading down all the way. One thing I did want to add about the observationalness of just how Moses portrayed observationalness. That's a word, right? I don't know. But it's the ever-present barflies. We see the same barflies.

They never talk. Those guys are at my bar and any bar you go to, there will be three or four regulars, middle-aged, very sad men who smell awful. They universally will just smell awful like cigarettes and unwashed bedsheets. They're not homeless. They're just pathetic drunks. But unwashed bed sheets. They're not homeless. They're just pathetic drunks, but they're always there. They are always there. I understand pathetic drunks more being one now, but the idea that you have to... It speaks to something I think that's nice about people, that people would rather be around one another even if they're not speaking.

It's nice. I just would hope they would bathe one day. That's the thing. It's nice. I just would hope they would bathe one day. Yeah, but that's the thing. It doesn't matter to them. It's just like, I'd just be happier here than I would be at home. Yeah, but at the same time, it is a cautionary tale. I can just look down the bar and like,

that's not going to be me. I'm going to cut myself off at like two and then go home. I drink alone like a man. Yes. That guy told himself that too 20 years ago. Exactly. But let's talk about what this episode's really about.

Matt Groening being a fraud. Exactly. But let's talk about what this episode is really about. Matt Groening being a fraud. Oh. So this is something they would never talk about on the commentaries. And it was a theory I didn't even know until last year with the passing of Sam Simon. So Sam Simon is the third name you'll see in the credits every time, every episode of developed by. It's the long fingerna developed by James L. Brooks Sam Simon. He's the Howard Hughes

guy with the fingernails. 138th episode. He actually looks a lot like Mike Reese, I think. But so he left the show in the fourth season because he was fed up with it and he was very open that he did not get along with Matt Groening. The two of them did not get along.

But after he passed away, I had read this article on vox that pointed this thing out that the theory was because he was the real brains behind the show and people say like well he created mr burns he cultivated the staff of writers and the style of joke telling on the show and he designed quite a few characters like literally the the drawings were done by him like he's a professional cartoonist too on top of being an experienced showrunner. He even talked about how Matt Groening and him hated each other from the beginning because, to Sam,

it was just another TV show. If the Simpsons failed, he'd just do another TV show. For Matt Groening, this was his one chance. If it failed, he would just be a failure and never come back to Hollywood. You can understand why Matt would want so much control over it because it's like, cannot go wrong for me this is my dream that's happening and on that note and i i rarely think about this but have before sam simon is a guy i

don't know a ton about uh knew know a lot more about him now is he well approached death in one of the coolest ways ever just like was about to die and started giving his money away to a bunch of charities being outspoken and recording a bunch of interviews to say fuck you to everybody before he left this earth. I believe he had a record as the youngest showrunner being given taxi. 23 in charge of taxi.

That's astounding. I don't love, but when I think back when I would see them like Nick at night, it was amazing. And when I think of reading Life and Hell, I don't see The Simpsons night like it was amazing and when I think of reading Life and Hell I don't see The Simpsons in any of the pages or things I remember about Life and Hell. I kind of do I mean

if you read enough of it you can see where the observational humor from the first few seasons came from there are some observations. It eventually became a lot more Arch a lot more Harvard-y than what Macaraning started with but I do like Life and Hell a lot. No I do too but like what I do know rather well is the George Carlin show, the two-season Fox sitcom.

That's right. Co-created by Sam Simon, George Carlin famously in his biography, even before either of them were dead, called Sam Simon a total piece of shit. But that humor in that show is way more Simpsons than Life in Hell. It is. No, I think Sam Simon is due a lot

of credit that people don't know. And it's also because from the beginning, when the show started, Matt Groening was through his choice, through Fox's PR choice or whoever, he was the central dude to it. James L. Brooks was in it too, but it was very clear. Matt Groening created The Simpsons.

Let's all talk to him about how great The Simpsons are and how he did it all. And so then you have this episode, and it never connected for me until reading this explanation. You have an episode about a guy who creates something, a jerk who takes all the credit, who then gets very rich off of taking that credit and puts out a bunch of crappy merchandise based on it and uh

so the closest thing to a confirmation was this clip i found from one of sam simon's late in life interviews when he was already diagnosed with uh the stomach cancer that would take his life within two years but uh so there's this theory going around i've i've only seen this theory online but there's a theory that the premise behind the episode flaming mose was kind of inspired by the relationship between yourself and matt graining is there any truth to that is that just an urban legend uh that may be true oh interesting the laughter there is it's like yeah that's a knowing laugh it's like yeah exactly it would be subtitled knowing laugh and they feel like, yeah, exactly. It would be subtitled Knowing Laugh. I feel like I want to isolate that for later on.

But yeah, so on the commentary for this episode, they obviously never mentioned that. Al Jean is very diplomatic. Yeah, Al Jean is super diplomatic. I think most of the writers. Who's the accredited writer on this show? Rob Cohen, who is a disciple well not a disciple but he he came up through tracy olman and worked with sam simon like i believe he is a sam simon friend and most of the writers were because he recruited them for

a lot of them it was their first tv writing job or they had quit television writing like john schwartzwelder and george meyer two of the most famous and best writers on the series he got them both because they had quit snl and then were just writing a fanzine called army men and then he hired them yeah and so yeah they the writers love him i wonder if matt then realized they were making fun of him he has to know now yeah i wonder if he knew during the even the episode commentary recording i think for graening it was like, bite your tongue and collect the $3 million. It's going to earn in syndication.

If only it was just $3 million. Sam Simon was very honest about that. Someone asked him, how much money do you make having not touched The Simpsons since 1994? And he's like, I don't know. $10 million. He's like, way more than that. I'm like, fuck. And then a hole in the ceiling

burst and gold coins started pouring down this whole place is falling apart he spent it on philanthropy all the time he gave it all away

and all his fuck you things I love his he's on WTF talking about his vegan LA food bank and like

people have criticized it like why only vegan like go somewhere else yeah if you don't want free food you don't have to have it. If you'd like free vegan food, I'm here for you. But he's also like, if I'm going to buy tons of food,

I'm not going to do it through factory farming and killing animals. That's not how I'm spending my money. And it's not like the homeless people who are going to be like, what, no meat? It's like the people who read the story and are in the comments section. Guys, I make the best vegan chili you've ever had. And I say that as a meat eater. And Sam Simon...

It's three alarm at best. Sam Simon in that same interview also said that when he worked on the show, he felt underpaid and undervalued. And now he says that every year after he left the show he's felt overpaid and overvalued by it. And that he was famously married to Jennifer Tilly, who was still around him. They had one of those amicable divorces.

They were good friends. And they make a joke about it later on in The Simpsons where she plays herself as the owner of The Simpsons. That's right. And towards the end of his life, he would just post pictures. And he was always surrounded by beautiful women. Just constantly surrounded by beautiful women. And he was great friends with Pam Anderson because they were both vegans and PETA people. Surrounded by beautiful women just like Moe in this episode.

That's right. We should talk about the episode. We are going long, but this might be like if you were to ask me to show, I love The Simpsons, after an alien asked me my favorite TV show. Well, what episode should you see? I'm like, this one. This one's great. You should see this one. And it's not just the writing. The directing is fantastic. Rich Moore, he had to step out because his kid was born, but someone named Alan

Smart co-directed it. Beautiful colors, beautiful animation. It just looks so good. It's so beautiful. An Eye on Springfield opening. Hello. Yeah, it opens with Eye on Springfield. Our first taste of that. Hello, I'm Kent Brockman and this is Eye on Springfield. our first taste of that. Hello, I'm Kent Brockman, and this is Eye on Springfield. If you ever wondered what to close the show with on a fairly regular basis, I can't believe we have to tell you. But some of them are pretty.

Coming up next, an elephant who never forgets to brush. How many times was this recycled? I remember it was at the beginning of the Critic episode. Was it ever again? Yeah, but not as many times as you'd think. They added in new jokes in that one, too. Yeah, but that was at least 20 seconds of, this is 20 seconds you don't have to write,

you don't have to animate. We'll just use it again in this episode. No, but those are all really... I wish we could play it, but it doesn't work as a clip. But they're all good jokes. Him dropping sushi in a Japanese hot tub. Love his laughter on it. But also the animators were really excited to draw

women in bikinis. Ooh, TNA. Super 90s bikinis. Yeah, very 90s bikinis, but they were not Simpsons bodies. Those women did not have Simpsons bodies. They looked straight out of an Uncle Luke video. I did like the joke about Dredrick Tatum reminiscing about Springfield.

Oh, what a dump. Which made me think, like, he did end up back in Springfield for that fight against Homer, so I guess he did fuck up. Oh, but not forever. But that's the only time they've ever done a bleep joke. Yeah. And I want to know as another first, this. And again, we should be experts by now, but I keep forgetting where we are,

because I do watch The Simpsons all the time outside of researching Talking Simpsons. We salute the silver anniversary of the great Springfield Tire Yard fire. 25 years and still burning strong. So The Simpsons Tire Fire is in the intro to the show and has been from the beginning. It's in the arcade intro, but I don't think it's been acknowledged until now as a thing that just never stops. Yeah, it's true. And I wonder if they moved it when they moved the whole town over in the 200th episode. We don't acknowledge

that here. Two years, Bobby. Oh, God, no. Yeah, a lot of firsts here. This is also where I did learn the term TNA as a nine-year-old. Me too, probably. Total non-stop action wrestling. T-ampersand. Me too, probably. Total non-stop action wrestling. T-ampersand A, I should say.

Lisa's having a slumber party and she has more friends in this moment than she has ever had in any episode. There's only one that I recognize. Janie. Was Janie there? Yes, she is. But there's two other girls, too. One of them was a proto-Samantha Stanky.

With braces and all that but she didn't have the same hair color or a hortense or no what was the name of the girl who had the spider-man doll like no gladys or no it's probably gladys what season is this it sounds like it's season five it's malibu stacy one yeah oh right right too drunk i never had a sister so i don't know if those did uh yes when your little sister has a slumber party, and you're only two or three years away. One, I loved how that episode is played, because time seems to go a lot slower when I was a kid. And I do remember, we didn't live in a giant house, but most of it was around me dodging my sister and her friends. Yeah, during your childhood, there's nothing more repellent than your sister's friends.

Until you and your sister's friends hit puberty, and then things change. That happened to me, not to get too disgusting. I'm going to keep this PG-13. But I had a sister, my older sister had a friend who liked to torture me psychologically. She would try on outfits and come into my room like, how do I look in this, Bob? I'm like, I'm 12. Fine. And, yeah, that was kind of like, how do I look in this, Bob? I'm like, I'm 12. Fine! And yeah, that was kind of like a fun nightmare I had.

My pants are tight. If you're still out there, Melissa. I'll tell you what, I have to lie under this blanket. Wow, see, this is the stuff I miss by not having a sister. Yeah, psychological torture. Works for everybody. And I also, when they do the jinx thing, I never knew that rule from Jinx, the punches

of that. I'd heard of the, oh, you're a coke jinx, not a punch jinx. I guess we're Floridians, so we heard that too. I was never formally jinxed, even after this episode. It just seemed not to be in my area. It's one of those things I've never seen anybody adhere to as rigidly as Homer does. Who does say it's the law.

And Homer punches him real hard. Like, that looks like a painful punch. Yeah. Bart goes, ow! This is the first, like, earned abuse in this show. Like, every other time it's like, you're choking him for kind of small reasons. But this is like, you know what? You broke the jinx, you get punched.

Oh, and I thought the animators did a great job on, like, the horror film chase of Bart with the girls. I meant to look that up because I thought that was very specific to something. That shot where Bart has his back pressed against the door and they're drilling the screws out. The colors, the animation, it's just beautiful. It's amazing. It's a small little thing, but I love how Bart's, I don't know if it's his own instinct, to go limp when he jumps out the window so he doesn't injure himself. That was great.

I like him in that split second deciding, like, looking down, like, ah, and then, like, just falling, going limp. And just the girls' reaction, like, well, all right. And they just turn around like they don't care. And then when Homer just sees Maggie that way and just leaves, I'm like, I hope Marge is here. They have not proven Marge is home, but I have to assume she's there. But also, like, Homer at his wits end, like, there's too much stupid chick on him.

I gotta get out of here. So when he goes to Moe's. There we's... That's it, I'm out of here. We're finally at Moe's. We've seen Moe's at way darker than this since but this is the worst it's looked at this point. I just like I got to call this not even. I got to call this clip Moe Problems. What's the matter, Moe?

Ah, business is slow. People today are healthier and drinking less. You know, if it wasn't for the junior high school next door, no one would even use the cigarette machine. Yeah, things are tough all over. Increased job satisfaction and family togetherness are poison for a purveyor of mind-numbing intoxicants like myself. Can I get a beer?

Ah, yeah, sure. Oh, sorry, I forgot we're out of beer. That's a nightmare. That scream is so good. Someone didn't do the Barney guarding job we heard about in Homer the Smithers. His gums are pretty bad. Pretty bad. I love how he says cut his gums up pretty bad.

So without beer, I guess Barney is only a beer drinker because he's not there for alcohol. But also in that song that he sang during the Sherry Bobbins episode, he'll drink anything. I don't think we've seen him drinking turpentine yet, but he does that at one point in the series. Well, he hasn't gotten that low. As someone as desperate as just last night, of like, there's no more alcohol in my house

and it's too late to get any more, Homer tells the story of building the Flaming Homer. And the liquors they show that I can now recognize. Is it like Tom Collins It's so gross. It is gross. It is so gross because Paddy or Selma drank the last beer and Homer has to mix the last of what's left of his liquor

bottles and he just removes. Is that something he'd do? I've never done that. It is so gross. You know what all of them taste like. You would just take a shot of each one I would think. It's kind of what teenagers do. It's like mom and dad aren't home You would just take a shot of each one, I would think. It's kind of what teenagers do. It's like mom and dad aren't home. Let's sneak everything out of these bottles.

I've been to house parties where they've had like, I don't know what they called it exactly, but it's like basically just like- Suicide? Kind of. It's kind of like just one of those sports coolers that you get water out of, but they fill it with a ton of alcohol and it all tastes like watermelon. We call it Hunch Punch. I think there was a very special episode of

Roseanne where they made hurricanes, remember? Becky and her friend got drunk. Which was just mix everything together. Darren wrote a song about that drink. But it's just the origin of the Flaming Homer. I decided to mix the little bits that were left in every liquor bottle. In my haste I had grabbed a bottle of the kids cougher i decided to mix the little bits that were left in every liquor bottle in my

haste i had grabbed a bottle of the kids cough syrup huh i don't know the scientific explanation but fire made it good whoa sounds like one hell of a drink what do you call it a flaming homer okay why don't you make us up a couple of flaming homers? So this is a minor little thing, but when Patty and Selma were going through their slides, they mentioned that they couldn't find a proper use for the ungodly Czechoslovakian outlets. I looked up Czechoslovakian outlets, and they are not ungodly. Maybe they have become godly in the two decades since. It's the fall of the Soviet Union that did it. But the standard

in both Europe and Russia right now, they're different than America, but they're just two little circles instead of the normal... This is still almost 30 years ago. Doesn't it have a different name? Government? Now it's the Czech Republic. But I imagine that they exaggerated.

I know it's a cartoon, but still. So cough syrup, it should be noted that this is before they took the get you stoned ingredient out of cough syrup, which is what all my teenage friends like to do. Dog, you ever gone robo-tripping? I'm a tussin'. I didn't want to because all my friends were cool and liked video games and cartoons

and then they all started drinking cough syrup and it was like, let's drink cough syrup and listen to Korn all day. I'm like, uh, no. I don't want to do that or tool. Cue money sucks, Bob. That does happen. You can just have cough syrup to lessen it a little bit. I abused anime and my body. I had a very brief period,

a seemingly brief period in my life that was chasing a hallucinogenic high. And I would double a lot of stuff with Robitussin and stuff like that. Krusty's non-narcotic with a K, cough syrup. This is back when they called you Chris Antusta. And Chris...

Robo-Kristen. I think Chris and I have both drank a... what they call a Flaming Moe at Universal. Never been there. Well, okay, I drank it at the... So, okay, I showed Bob and Dave videos of this beforehand, but at the Universal Studios Florida, and I believe in Hollywood now, they have a replica of Moe's Tavern, which is fairly accurate. It's like 80% accurate.

And there you can order Flaming Moe. Now, it has a lot of problems they honestly shouldn't call it Flaming Moe. But it's basically orange soda with dry ice on top and it's... Why can't it just be grape soda? But it's not like... So one, it's not purple. Two, it's not alcoholic. And three, you don't set it on fire. It needs to be purple at least. Yeah. At the very least.

I have the 20th Century Fox sanctioned recipe for a flaming moe. Four ingredients. We have four ounces of tequila, four ounces of peppermint schnapps, four ounces of creme de menthe, and two ounces of grape soda. So you can either use that or cough syrup. I recommend grape soda. That shit is gross, by the way.

You should never drink that. Grape soda or creme de menthe? All that together with tequila and grape soda? I want a sip. I want a sip. We should have made it for this episode. I agree. But the magic thing about Flaming Moes are Flaming Homers are that they don't...

They're mythical. Like, nothing you, no drink you light on fire would get better. Well, that's the thing, I don't, I don't, I don't know what, I don't know if the writers were that afraid of copycats, kids seeing this and trying to make their own drink. I just assumed that the flame was a caveat to say, like, well, you can't really recreate this. Because in order for a drink to be set on fire, it has to be very, very alcohol-like. Yeah, it does. No tequila will ever do that. Oh, and also the Love Tester,

which makes his first appearance here, is also at the Moe's Tavern at Universal, and I tested it out. I got cold fish. I did. The lowest rating. So did Steven Tyler, though. I have my line of the show already.

What? That's the joke. This is one of those lines I say very often. I still find it very funny. And not only do I find it very funny, The Simpsons found it funny enough to say just a few episodes later, It's like there's a party in my mouth

and everyone's invited. Hey, your love tester's busted. Go on my Nickelback. Nickelback is my quote of the show. It's the debut of Nickelback. I do like, it's not without its jams. I use that in writing all the time. I'm like, am I ripping off Moe?

Yes, you are. For a second, I double-checked on the internet. I thought maybe the party in your mouth and everyone's invited thing was just taken from a 70s commercial, but as far as can tell i think the simpsons is original yeah i think it's meant to sound like that but it is very like a very simpsons thing it's a way nobody would ever talk yeah but yeah except for king geoffrey jr so you know the thing we're not talking about yet and it's very weird for me uh that this is a is kind of largely a Cheers parody in addition to everything else.

So it becomes Cheers in the second act. And I remember yelling at... Again, we were a one TV household. Simpsons was one of those things that I and my sister and my father would like. And that meant it got watched every Sunday and Thursday because we all liked it. A lot of that stuff didn't make it. I remember hating Cheers. And my mom was entertaining me as a young man.

Why do you hate Cheers? Because it's all about... It's all about sex! Because I barely knew about sex and every time we watched it, I thought it was the most scandalous show I'd ever seen. And being set in a bar all the time. It's like, I don't understand any of this.

I'll never drink. And and being set in a bar all the time. It's like, I don't understand any of this. I'll never drink. This clip of the Shelley Long character does validate fucking puritanical six-year-old me. Barkeep, I couldn't help noticing your sign. The one that says bartenders do it to your bar? No, above that store-bought drollery. Oh, great. Why don't we fill out an application?

I'll need your name, measurements, and turn-ons. You really expect me to tell you my measurements? You could, but I find this way is much more accurate and fun. Ugh. What do you offer in the way of salary? Minimum wage and tips. Of course, there are fringe benefits. Such as? An unforgettable weekend at Club Moe. I'd prefer to take my vacation someplace hot.

I like your moxie, kid. You're hired. You shan't regret this. I shan't. This is a very like Sam and Diane from Cheers bantering scene. I also got shades of Cocktail, the Tom Cruise movie. They were going for that too, David. Yeah, like I had cousins and a sister who just loved Tom Cruise. You shan't regret this. This was in Lisa's Pony, though, as well.

Oh, you're right. Yeah. I mean, this goes back to Sam's time. And again, he wrote on Cheers in the first seasons, the Sam and Diane seasons. And so he knew how to write dialogue just like that and worked real hard on that part. We did skip over the bit just like Moe takes all the credit for. He's like, it's the Flaming Moe. Moe takes all the credit for the Flaming Moe.

But this is just starting. And I love, if you listen to the background, it has like 1920s speakeasy music. And then it moves on to Yuppie Bar and Family Bar. As I stretched out the symbolism here with Bob earlier, it was that Moe's Tavern is the original Simpsons. Moe is the creator of Moe's Tavern. And that is Matt Groening is the creator is the original Simpsons. Moe is the creator of Moe's Tavern, and that is Matt Groening is the creator of the original Simpsons, but he can't make it work. But Homer brought the flave.

And so Homer brings the thing that actually makes it successful, and Moe takes all the credit for that. So I think it really fits together in that theory. So who's Barney in this situation? James L. Brooks. He literally represents gentrification. Do you mean now?

One thing I don't understand about this episode is how does he osmosis get successful because he's just at Moe's Tavern still? I think it's just there to rub it in Homer's face. Even Barney is profiting from this. He's also way more disgusting than Homer, so why is he allowed in all the time and not

Homer? He's networking, man. Sneezeguard joke disgusted me. According to, going back to Henry's analogy, Seth MacFarlane is a representative of Tipsy McStagger. Pardon me, are you the genius behind the flaming monk? Yes, I am. I'm your man. My name's

Hawk Bannister. I work for Tipsy McStagger's Good Time Drinking and Eating Emporium. Oh, yeah? Hey, what's Mr. McStagger really like? Actually, there is no Tipsy McStagger. He's just a composite of other successful logos. Well, you tell him from me that he makes one great mozzarella stick. Yes, fine, I will. Anyway, I've got a proposition for you. Keep talking. We feel your flaming moe is perfect for our restaurant chain. We want to buy the recipe. No dice. The Flaming Moe is

not for sale. Do you know how much of my blood and sweat are in this drink? Figure a speech. I do love Harry Shearer's bit parts. There's so much life in this character that we only talk to for a few scenes. Yes, I sure will. Tipsy McStaggeragger uh mo thinking tipsy

mcstagger is real is a great running joke yeah one so that also the diane part colette she was originally played by katherine o'hara yeah and they but they said it didn't animate correctly so they then got one of their stock voice actors joanne harris they used the temp track who she did originally yeah and her name is colette but I don't think they ever name her within the episode. Like I was looking for that. I'm like, how do you know her name is Colette? But I guess it was just in the script. It's a wiki. The Sentence will be right back.

How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our net zero hub at electricireland.ie. Are you already tired of 2016? Jump into the past with 302010, our weekly pop culture Thai Basheed podcast. Here's something you may remember from 1996.

In case you don't know what Kinder the Embraced is, it's based on the White Wolf tabletop RPG series Vampire the Masquerade. Can you hold these books so I can knock them on the ground? Is tabletop RPGs too far for you? No, no, it's one of my friends played this stuff. I did find it impenetrable. I mean, I was D&D. It's fine.

They made Vampire the Masquerade, Werewolf the Apocalypse, Mage the Awakening. Can you say this like Troy McClure, please? These are just random words and adjectives. Werewolf the Apocalypse. Zombie the Simmering. Well, no. They were... Frankenstein the Lombard.

All right, but fine. Enough about King Green. I never get to make fun of anybody for being a nerd. If you could see the room we're in right now. There is an alphabetized Disney shelf right behind me. Did your hubby play these games like that? He did. Actually, and my boyfriend at the time did.

I went to one party. She does have a type. She does have a type. Oh, yeah. Fucking losers. That's 302010, a weekly look at what happened in pop culture 30 years ago, 20 years ago, and 10 years ago, every Thursday right here on the Lazer Time Network. 302010. In terms of names, this I thought was fun.

The Inventor I Admire by Bart Simpson. The Inventor I Admire is not a rich man or a famous man or even a smart man. He's my father, Homer Simpson, creator of, dun-dun-dun-dun, The Flaming Homer! The Flaming Homer? You mean, The Flaming Moe! And your dad didn't invent it, you wuss! Moe the bartender did!

Yes, everyone knows that. It's not true! My father invented that drink, and if you'll allow me to demonstrate... Bart, are those liquor bottles? Brought enough for everybody. Take those to the teacher's lounge. You can have what's left at the end of the day. I do like how Nelson knows.

Yeah, this episode really establishes Edna Krabappel's alcoholism. I have only two visions of a teacher's lounge from the 80s when I was in elementary school. And I do remember a door opening in a shitload of smoke. Yeah. Like, a lot. Smoke and drink. All this just seemed natural. It didn't seem like jokes. I just assumed that's what was happening.

It also is that Mo's name is Mo Sislak. Or Mo-Mar Sislak. Nobody knows that. Mo the bartender is how Nelson refers to him. I love that he calls it Mo the bartender. You know, Mo Sislak was only invented to make him a possible suspect in the murder of Monty Burns.

That's true. Because he's called Morris later. But it's nice. It's like a nice quaint little thing that establishes that it's like Springfield is a small town and everyone knows each other. So Moe is the bartender. This person is the florist. But I did love, I felt like I did that once or twice as a kid, like bringing something from home and then the teacher going like, you can't bring this. What are you doing?

Take that revolver home, Henry. It's my dad's cool toy! You see, this is also my runner-up for line of the show. This date shall forever be known as Flaming Moe's Day. Sir, this is already Veterans Day. It can be two things! Very disrespectfully, I always say, happy Flaming Moe's Day

on Veterans Day. No one gets the joke. I'll do that the next time. The episode before this, I feel like, had the most licensed music I'd ever seen from the show, and this just has a ton of house music that they create. The montage stuff. With one or two notable examples.

Before we get to the big band, I do want to point out something we could miss because we're young but still old. This is also parodying the rise of the corporate adult eatery, which came before the rise of the corporate family eatery like Chili's, Applebee's, and stuff like that. And the Flaming Moes is kind of based on this restaurant called the Coconut Teaser that had its own drink. If you watch MST3K, they make a reference to these silly, crazy restaurant drinks. The reference is, it's the Fintintusler and you can keep the glass. If you hear that reference, they're making fun of the early 90s novelty drink at an adult corporate

restaurant. That did not stick with me at all. I'm waving my hands around a lot, but it's all true. Mike Nelson worked at a TGI Fridays for a long time. I knew those very well. I also did just a little bit of Krusty punching the photographer just to show anything that happens in Hollywood, horribleness.

If Sean Penn did it, they can just hand it to him. If Bob Hope did it. If Woody Allen does it, Krusty will do it. The writer said it was a Frank Sinatra reference, but I couldn't find it. It seemed like a Sean Penn punching the photographer thing. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. He's done way worse than that. So when Bart comes wearing the Flaming Moe shirt

and they insist that he takes the shirt off, I just like how relaxed he is. Like, okay. We're coming up on the exact halfway point in my lifetime where I was comfortable taking my shirt off in front of people. It is almost there. This is the Celebrity Guest for the episode. We have to talk about this.

Aerosmith. Come up here. How about a warm Flaming Mo for the episode, Aerosmith. Come up here. How about a warm flaming most welcome for Aerosmith. We're just hanging out. Come on, guys. Free pickled eggs. Hello, St.

Louis. That's Springfield, Stephen. Yeah, right. That's fun. It Stephen. Yeah, right. That's fun. It is. Just to follow up to the SNL Aerosmith appearance, which is one of the funniest Wayne's World sketches ever. It is good, yeah. All the members of Aerosmith have different comedic things to offer.

And Stephen Tyler's Simpsons persona might be one of the least flattering I've ever seen. I think it's ghoulish and extreme, and they would not go this far, but it's perfect. It's such a great caricature of him. Even the way he moves and talks. Well, he's saying hello, say hello. His face is so close to the camera and

he has no nostrils. It's very creepy. Though I would say he looks better as a Simpson than he does currently. But in 1991, could there be a cooler band to have on The Simpsons? When I was a kid, I didn't know this was an old band. Oh, these new cool rockers, and I'm going to listen to big ones over and over.

Get a grip, man. Yeah, they were either just did or were on the verge of living on the edge. Like the Alicia Silverstone trilogy of songs. Yeah, Take Me to the Other Side. They had, at this point, Loving an Elevator was out. No, they were my... I was super into them, too.

They were the first CD I ever owned was an Aerosmith CD. The Pierce Cow Nipple Man. Yeah, how edgy. I think it was Get a Grip and then also, what, Pumped or whatever? The one with the two trucks on the... There's very little music from my upbringing

that I consider unlistenable and terrible, and Aerosmith is all of that. I cannot stand it. Ragdoll. It has not of that. I cannot stand it. Right down. It has not aged well. I will say, I hope I'm not offending anybody who likes Aerosmith. I hate it so much.

It was love at first sight. That's like the one I might, like I would not change the radio immediately or punch something. Or the crazy and the other one. Crying and you're crazy. But like how Tipsy McStagger is the corporate soulless restaurant chain,

Aerosmith has become the corporate soulless rock band where it's like if you go to Vegas, there's Aerosmith stuff everywhere. Because Vegas is now like the boomer death spot. Like I'm going to go there to die and remember the things I like. I was going to say, we'll be there in 20 years buying Tiny Toons merchandise. The Hard Rock Cafe Casino is just like the boomer like Valhalla. I'm telling you guys, if you've been to Vegas now, they're making inroads into selling

it to us now. They're like, they've got the Batman stuff, but it's Batman 66. They've got, I know there was a Family Guy slot machine. I don't believe I saw a Simpsons one though. That'd be weird. So about the Aerosmith, how they did it, one was that they had heard they were interested,

but then they had to actually, like, wine and dine them to get them on. And then if you see a bearded guy who is not a member of the band, that is their A&R representative, John Kolodner, who Aerosmith insisted on being in the thing, too. That's nice of them. So each guitarist or each member of the band

gets at least one line yeah and then john clodner is just drawn with them all the time and you can tell in the commentary they are not happy they put clodner in and they're like we would not do this with future people we say like no we're not like we draw you we're not putting we're not drawing your friends in here they said they had done it again after that like if you see an unrelated person with this celebrity and you know it's they had a demand and we needed to put them in yeah yeah but i mean i think they cut the cut the cord at some point and the other bit they have is that originally the way you heard him say free pickled eggs in the clip originally the line was free beer but they had just gone through aa

they're like oh so could you make it free pickle it's funnier it's a better joke yeah that sounds delicious though and lastly that they were able to record it. So Gene and Reese, like most of the writers on it, went to a certain college in Boston. And Aerosmith is based out of Boston, too. Disneyland for white people. Gene and Reese went to their college reunion, brought Hank Azaria with them,

and the Mo stuff is recorded with Aerosmith. So when he's later in the episode singing Walk Thisaria with them, and the Moe stuff is recorded with Aerosmith. So when he's later in the episode singing, Walk This Way With Them, that's him really singing it. Like, Hank Azaria was there with them singing it. So that's why it feels a little better than it normally would with a celebrity in it. The rest of these clips, this is the longest episode ever.

Moe and Homer argue. Itter in the flaming Homer. I get it. How this is the longest episode ever. Moe and Homer argue. It is the flaming Homer. I get it. How could you do this to me, Moe? This bar was going under and it was the drink I invented that saved it. If there was any justice, my face would be on a bunch of crappy merchandise. Morris, is what this man's saying true? Well, it's hard to say.

He may have come up with a recipe recipe but i came up with the idea of charging 6.95 for it so that's not bad yeah nowadays especially in san francisco where everything's overpriced dickhead said it while watching the thing about the flaming most universal studios that in san francisco we already pay theme park prices for all food and drinks talking about how a beer 20 ounce beer is seven dollars i'm like yeah that's like for most bars in san francisco somebody was shocked by my behavior i was at an amusement beer is $7. I'm like, yeah, that's for most bars in San Francisco. Somebody was shocked by my behavior. I was at an amusement park and in a hotel. I'm like, yeah, I don't care.

Mini bar? Theme park stuff? This is all cheaper than what I pay. Especially for a cocktail. Cocktails are even pricier than beer, I think, right? $6.95 is great for it. Dude, I accidentally got two double gray gooses at Twin Peaks, the picturesque Castro bar

just last week. $40. $40. No mixers. Don't go to that bar. Ice and vodka. Wow. Oh, and they also see Miss Krabappel and like, not a light in the eye on Springfield thing. The animators were going crazy like, oh, we get to draw

a sexy woman? Alright. They knocked her apart. Miss Krabappel has never looked higher. Does not care that she's gonna fuck a married parent of a... But Homer, out of all the men in that bar, is Homer the one she's like, she's gotta be wasted. Later, she's

with two sailors, so she turned it up. And Joey from Aerosmith, right? Really need my drumsticks. Do we have the Hugh Jazz call? Of course we do. Thank you. Telephone. Flaming Mouse.

Yes, I'm looking for a friend of mine. Last name Jazz, first name Hugh. Hold on, I'll check. Hugh Jazz! Oh, somebody check the men's room for a Hugh Jazz. I'm Hugh Jazz. Telephone. Hello, this is Hugh Jazz.

Hi. Who is this? Bart Simpson. What can I do for you, Bart? Look, I'll level with. Telephone. Hello, this is Hugh Jazz. Uh, hi. Who is this? Bart Simpson. What can I do for you, Bart? Uh, look, I'll level with you, mister. This is a crank call that sort of backfired, and I'd like to bail out right now. All right. Better luck next time.

Oh, my God. Nice young man. I gotta say, this is a weird tangent, but I love Hugh Jazz. I kind of want to spend, like, an afternoon with him. He'd make you some cocktails, put on some records. Like, he is so comfortable with who he is, and'm jealous like i'm i'm you jazz so what a nice oh you were using me for a prank that's okay i get this all the time yeah what a polite boy he's the most like comfortable in his own skin character i think on the simpsons and we need to see hugh

jazz again he just lets it go but the back and forth between homer and moe he's like just talking over everybody in all honestly that's's my favorite scene in the show. And I didn't get it just because it doesn't work without like showing how busy Moe's bar is. And it ends with, yeah, you can use it. That is my quote of the episode. So good. And also something that I used a lot when I used to work at GameStop. So like anytime we had a customer that was just being an a-hole, after they left, we would do that.

You just lost yourself a customer. And also, when we're shouting things from across the store, like doing inventory, and you mishear something, the response would be, yeah, you can use it. Wow. But yeah, just love that line. That's perfect. And then I love that the third act opens with just the cheers theme to just let you know this is now an episode of cheers you're watching and the flaming mo song is so great so depressing it warms my heart in a dark way though liquor in a mug can warm you like a hug and it had rare blood for this thing well not rare blood but

it like the way the guy was bleeding out of his mouth for me you know i think one guy had a cut hand too and like like a broken bottle as a. Also firmly establishes that even though Barney is all fancied up, he is still a hideous drunk and is disgusting. I think like most businessmen, he's always drunk. And this is all part of my quest to capture every single Phil Hartman appearance on the show. Lionel Hutz appears for almost no reason, and it's great anyway. I love it. So, Mr. Hutz, does my husband have a case?

I'm sorry, Mrs. Simpson, but you can't copyright a drink. No. Oh, this all goes back to the Frank Wahlbanger case of 78. How about that? I looked something up. These books behind me don't just make the office look good. They're filled with useful legal tidbits just like that. I feel like it was some writer that, like, we can't make Hutz be right or do research.

And the rest of the joke is just to follow up on the Marv Wallbanger joke. Lionel Hutz is not allowed to have knowledge. It is a very brief scene that all of us wonder. Like, wow, they paid Phil Harbin for just one voice in one scene. He's the next three episodes surrounding this. Yeah, I assume it was like one big session, right? Well well this scene is important from a plot standpoint because you have to be able to say like well when homer reveals what it is why why does that mean they can everybody can make it because you can't true a copyright recipe you had to have huts explain that to the audience to kids

like me who i didn't know that was also like. Also, like, it makes Homer's being crazy, like, gives a little bit more context. Like, he tried going other avenues, and it didn't work. Yeah, I do like how Hutz is surprised by his own competence. Like, oh, I could, wow, I knew something. I just love that he calls them useful legal tidbits. This animation sequence, I'm just running out of, there's too many lines

in this. We're running out of time, but... Stupid, moan, uninfenting, recipe-stealing poke news. Oh my god. Maybe you can take some consolation in the fact that something you created is making so many people happy. Oh, look at me. I'm making people happy. I'm the magical

man from Happyland in a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane. I guess that's... I cannot believe it and get the rest of it. This episode directed by Rich Moore, that scene, David Silverman, period. I do a ton of Simpsons quotes to my girlfriend rather reluctantly, but the ones I act out, that is one of them.

My favorite of the act outs is the way he puts his hands over his head. He's like, go drop hoes. Lollipop Lane, where it looks like he's just using his hand to create magic little drop points. David Silverman is just the king. I don't know, my Mount Rushmore of Simpsons directors are probably Silverman, if Brad Bird

counts Brad Bird, Jim Reardon, and Rich Moore, but man the Silverman stuff, like, he doesn't get every character great, but he is the master of Homer. Nobody does Homer better than Silverman. I also, though, I love the appearance by Frank. I feel like we hadn't seen Professor Frank in a while. And I also like the callback.

I never got it until this viewing. So at Show and Tell, Martin's talking about his hero who invented the gas chromatograph. And Frank is using a gas chromatograph and Frank is using a gas chromatograph to analyze it. Al Jean said that's the one thing he learned from Harvard. He had to put it in the show. I was so bored by that one part of the episode. I'm like, what the hell

is Martin going on about? I don't care. If only I had paid attention. It was one of those Simpsons callbacks you never noticed, but Jesus, can we please just give hats off to Dan Castaneda when Homer spoils everything from home. Oh yeah, the Phantom of the Opera scene. Oh, you're gonna be a rich man, Mo.

I gotta tell you, the way we usually work in these situations is to steal the recipe and run the inventor out of business. I love it. You poor, pathetic, misguided creatures, choking down your flaming moes, all the time wondering, how does he do it? Well, I'm going to tell you. The secret ingredient is... Oh, my! No! Cough syrup.

Nothing but plain, ordinary, over-the-counter children's cough syrup. I like the little hand over his mouth when he's doing it. That was after Moe had already decided to split the profits with Homer. He could have gotten 500K. This was preceded by one of, like, two or three episodes ago we had the dream sequence, but, like, Homer just going Moe. The Moe dream sequence was also great but i yeah i think i say all work and mo play makes mo mo mo more than all work and no play makes jack a dull boy you

promised me mo money i mo i mo now if i was the whole scene right now if i was mo when homer was about to reveal it i would have grabbed the contract and signed it immediately be like nope signed it it's bonding, he said it, yeah. Or throw a mug at him. He'll fall down, and you can cover his injury costs. He falls anyways. He crashes on Aerosmith, and John Kolodner is so shocked by it, too. Yeah, if you're looking for John Kolodner,

if you're a real Kolodner head, he's standing next to Barney putting his hand up when Homer crushes Aerosmith. It is non-canonical, but it was the first time Maggie had ever opened her mouth and said a word. Yeah. But it doesn't count. But in the show, it was the first time she'd done that. I love this.

And then it ends with Moe's ruined. Everybody can make a flaming Moe. They make a classic joke about, if you ever have a Cheers thing, you have to make a joke about how Shelley Long left the show in the fifth year. But I think it's because comedy writers hated her for doing that.

Cheers was still on. That was happening concurrently. She was a few years gone from the show. We were deep into the Kirstie Alley season. It would end this year, this season, right? 92, I think. Didn't it go to 96? No, it ended pretty early.

You're thinking of Frasier. Sorry, but we watched a video tour of the Simpsons area at Universal Studios, and there is a Moe's Tavern, but there is also a pop-up Flaming Moe's store. Yeah. To show, yeah, it's everywhere. Just like that in the show. But I think the Shelley Long jokes are always because comedy writers, Han Cheers, were pissed at her for leaving,

and so they just teach it to younger comedy writers, like, yeah, it was bullshit, she left, she shouldn't have left, she had a terrible movie career. To make what, Camp Nowhere and The Money Pit and things like that? She was very... Troop Beverly Hills, maybe? Is that Goldie Hawn? Is that Goldie Hawn? That's on either of them, I believe.

Some other blonde lady, I guess. She barely made films, that was a joke. And I also do like, now looking back on it, the joke is, oh, Aerosmith would never come back. The Red Hot Chili Peppers would be back in a year and a half. And the song Taking Him Out was an original. It was not the master off the CD of that song. They recorded an original version of it for the episode. It's on that album from that time. But it was very sweet that

even though Homer had a right to be angry at Moe and vice versa, that they just like not too wrong to make a right, but it's like we're friends and Moe realized he was a shithead. So he was like, I deserve this. So that was Talking Simpsons, probably our

longest episode. Lisa's Pony was really long, but I like it. I like talking about it. I like getting all the clips out. And again, I've been Bob Mackie, your host. And you can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. I do another podcast. It's a classic gaming podcast called Retronauts. All these guys have been on it.

You can find it at retronauts.com, usgamer.net, or just search for Retronauts in your podcast machine. Everybody else, where do you live and where can we find you? Laser Time, baby. You can find Laser Time podcast on the internets and most places you can get podcasts. Not on Stitcher right now for whatever reason. That one is the only one. Stitcher, we were just

good enough for Stitcher. I've emailed them about it. We'll see. But anyway, we also do 302010, our time capsule podcast where you talk about what happened 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 10 years ago that week. It's a bit like uh you know the intro of the history stuff we do that all in one episode uh and this is a patreon supported podcast obviously and if you have uh not supported us

you know you can get the first season of talking simpsons all on there exclusively as well as our season two wrap up and a ton of other, including our weekly podcast bonus time and the Monday Night Movie commentary. And I host Cheap Podcast, a pro wrestling podcast. I was straining for some kind of a comparison in this episode, so I'm going to go with this. Aerosmith did the theme song for WWE SummerSlam 2009. There's your fact. We'll be back next week when the Germans appear. Later, everybody.

Oh, no, it's the Germans. Again, I have failed. When the weight of the world has got you down And you want to end your life Bills to pay, a dead-end job And problems with a wife But don't throw in the towel cause there's a place right down the block where you can drink your misery away

happiness is just a flaming When the girl in a mug can warm you like a hug Happiness is just a flaming row away Happiness is just a flaming row away