Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Fraudcast News

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

"I can't be held responsible for what my goons were ordered to do!" - Charles Montgomery Burns After yet another brush with death, Mr. Burns realizes the people of Springfield would rather dance on his grave than celebrate his legacy. But instead of committing various good deeds to restore his reputation, he buys every media outlet in town, except for one holdout: Lisa Simpson's Red Dress Press. As his grip on the fourth estate grows even tighter, we find out if ponies, power outages, and even Milhouse-based misinformation will get Lisa to fold. Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!

This podcast is brought to you by patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. Head there to check out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talk King of the Hill, the What a Cartoon movie podcast, and tons more. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ho, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we learn the truth about Carl. He's great. I'm one of your host, the Mole Milk Addict, Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons, who is here with me today, as always. Great Gleaven's ghost, it's Henry Gilbert.

And this week's episode is Fraudcast News. Not need home renters. Can't we thin this herd with some smallpox infected blanket? We're already immune you, jerk. This week's episode originally aired on May 23, 2004, and as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh my God! As we enter the summer break of television,

a maturing Jimmy Fallon left Saturday Night Live to conquer Hollywood. The band Fish announces a breakup after their summer tour, and Shrek, too, has a huge opening weekend at the box office. Now, I will say this on the record that on S&L, at least when he first appeared on S&L, I did really like Jimmy Fallon. I thought, wow, what an amazing impressionist. He can do all of these great impressions of famous people. And then he stops doing that, and I immediately stop liking him because I see who the true Jimmy Fallon is. And it turns out that was a conscious decision by him because he wanted to forge his own comedic identity.

He didn't want to just be the impression guy. And now we've seen what that comic identity has wrought in the past 20 years. The comic identity is, like, empty and no good. And that he, like, I've heard the podcaster I guys joke about Jimmy Fallon of just like, why are you taking all of these jobs? Be around your family. Like, you're already extremely rich. Yes, it seems like a lot of late nights at the office for old Jimmy.

And I don't understand the appeal. I really don't get it. They really need someone with not a lot of presents to fill these late night voids. Or if someone has presents like Stephen Colbert, they remove it from him. Yeah, well, I mean, Fallon's a good soldier. He'll tussle the hair or talk to the Gutfelds out there and love it. He loves doing that shit. And also that you learn that like he doesn't give a shit about like the gummy bears or dark wing duck theme song.

He just does it to have it be on a YouTube sensation 10 years ago when you could get it with that. Yes, yeah. And yeah, I recommend people listen to the podcast, The Ride episode about the Jimmy Fallon ride. What the hell is that called that ride, Henry? Oh, God. It's like race to New York or race. of New York. I have done that ride. It sucks hard. It's so bad. And according to them, like, the very funny thing about that ride is there are so many references baked into it that were basically

year one Jimmy Fallon things like the panda and the teenage girl character. I guess her name is ew. Oh, that 80, yes, right. The dad's 80 miles or a stepdad is 80 miles back when he worked on the show. Yeah. So it just, it's a remnant of a, when I guess the Jimmy Fallon show had more of identity. And, you know, you get to hear a lot of Steve Higgins because he's the announcer and he's like your, he's the guy who says, please get in your seats and buckle your seatbelts. I'm Steve Higgins. I think you can leave your seatbelts unbuckled for that experience. It sucks. He also like beat you at the ride. It's like the only ride you don't win is the viewer. Like, or actually no, you beat him, but then he's like, whatever, I don't care. I think that was a behind the scenes

rumor that Jimmy Fallon loves playing video games with his staff, but you have to let him win. Oh, yes, that sounds familiar. It's funny now that his crummy ride is usurped by a slightly better Mario Kart actual ride at Universal. And as I use the phrasing of Off to Conquer Hollywood, because that's the joke of Episcopoe. But when I looked at the timeline, yes, in October after this is the release of taxi, a big flop. And then an even worse performing the next year, fever pitch. and then he becomes a talk show host in 2009. Yeah, I believe Taxi is a remake of a French film.

Yeah, it's Luke Besson is an executive producer slash sex offender on the movie. Yeah, didn't see this. Does the taxi talk to in this film? I just remember Nathan Rabin's review of it, which was very funny, that he's like a bad cop who is bad in impressions. Like, that sounded like his character. And then the streetwise taxi driver who could, also be a professional race car driver.

Queen Latifah picks him up and they go chasing cars together in it or something. Yeah, yeah, I'm looking at his filmography now. It feels like he was rescued from movies. Pretty much. They thought he could, they're like, oh, you'll be the next Will Fowell, right? But it's like he has nothing. Like Will Ferrell has so much more to give. And both of them are remakes, actually.

Yeah, and Fever Pitch is a remake of a British rom-com about, I think it's Colin Firth who's like a Manchester United fan or something and they turn it into like a Boston Red Sox fan? Yeah, they turned from it like a soccer movie or a footy movie into a soccer movie. Now I'm looking at the vast filmography of Jimmy Fallon and because of this I'm learning for the first time

that there was a sequel to the mockumentary The Ruttles called The Ruttles 2. Wow. I guess I should have figured that happened. Eric Idol is not above doing sequels. No, he's not doing the Ruttles two in like 2025 like Spinal Tap.

too. Oof, man. I feel like I'll have to watch it out of obligation, but... I'm going to say, try to find a way to not pay money for it, unless it's good, which it feels like it probably can't be. Christopher Guest, I believe, can still make a great movie. Michael McKeon, still a great actor. We even love Harry Shearer for his foibles.

Rob Reiner, I don't think, has made a good movie in 20, 30 years even, maybe. It's been rough, yeah. I mean, this could open the door for another appearance of Spinal Tap on the Simpsons, but something tells me that will not happen. I find that unlikely, I think. Oh, well, yeah, speaking of bands, fish breaks up. This was two years after they were on The Simpsons,

but they will reunite in 2008, and I believe they are still touring regularly. Wow, so they were broken up for, what, only four years? Yeah, yeah, it was very brief. As I remember, it's like, oh, they were broken up for forever, but we don't pay attention to fish.

I assume that something was Bogarted, buzzes were harsh, and then they hugged it out. I do recall on the very great podcast, analyzing fish, where Fish fan, the late Harris Whittles, takes Scott Ackerman backstage to meet with Fish. And Ackerman is asking him all of the questions a fan would know not to ask them because it's about the things they broke up about. And Scott's like, So, what do you think of how you did? Or do you still play the song? And Harris Whittles is like, oh, my God, don't ask that question.

Stop. A classic podcast miniseries. And yes, Bob, this is the summer of Shrek 2. When I checked the domestic and international box office, if I had been playing the box office game, I would have lost because I would have said, definitely Spider-Man 2 was number one this year, right? And if not that, there was a Harry Potter movie. That must have been, the Prisoner of Azcabat must have been the number one movie the year.

No, Shrek 2, domestic and international, the number one movie of 2004. Yeah, it made like $200 million more than Spider-Man 2. That's insane. This is, I feel like, when Shrek fever peaked, because people had to wait three years for this next movie. And I assume three and four did pretty good. But here, I feel like this is when it reached the zenith of Shrek mania. I remember watching the trailer for it that was like just the opening of the Shrek honeymoon for the song Accidentally in Love.

And I remember they did a Spider-Man upside-down kiss reference in it for among other references. Very nice. And I guess we'll cover this one day. on What a Cartoon movie. But I feel like we need to take six years off between every time we cover a Shrek movie and we're almost at year six. Wow, man, it feels, you know,

I also was thinking to Shrek recently because I was checking letterbox lists of like, oh, the top 250 films by female directors, how many have you seen? And I clicked on it. And I think, let's say I was like 10% or something. And one of the top ones on my have seen list was Shrek. And I was like, oh, right, a woman co-directed Shrek.

It's true. I forgot about that. Yeah, so this is something, again, never saw it, haven't seen any of the other Shrek movies, saw Shrek won twice in theaters. That was enough for me. But by the time this episode of Fraudcast News was airing, you were just like, I'm too, I'm too good for Shrek too.

I was a wizened, mature 22-year-old who had put the childish things like Shrek behind me on my path to becoming a man. So that's everything that happened when this season finale of Season 15 of The Simpsons aired. And yes, this is a guest-free, episode because Henry and I are both preparing for some pretty big trips, so we're trying to record a lot in advance and not having to work around a guest in their schedule makes it a lot

easier for us to record at time. So that's why you're not hearing a guest. And since we're recording this episode about two months in advance, I feel like we're going to ease up on talking about modern day politics because a lot of you out there are like, I don't like when they talk about modern day politics. And then some people are like, actually I do. And the weird voices battle each other until one of them wins. This time, the side who doesn't like politics is going to win. Yes, there's no political guess this time to help us for me to fact check on like, well, hey, do Rupert Murdoch do that or this?

Though it's funny that this is like 15 ends with two back-to-back, very political episodes in different ways, but very political. Yeah, they were really getting it through their systems, I guess, in the run-up to yet another win for George W. Bush. Yes, it was a rough time at 2004, unlike now. Yeah, this really did feel like if you were alive during that time period, the run-up to that 2004 election was like, we have to pull out all the stops to stop him from winning again. And, of course, we saw that in 2020 and we saw that again in 2024 with a different guy. Yeah, yep, yep.

Oh, no, I mentioned modern day politics. crap. No, I mean, but yes, we were all having to adjust. I know I was adjusting to how do I say that John Kerry is not who I would have picked either, but he's very. important in this very important election of the most important election of our lives that we have to support him every four years it's the most important election and you know what uh about 21 years ago when this episode aired i really appreciated it for being a burns focused episode because we really weren't seeing much of the character especially compared to the burns rich season five we're currently covering uh concurrently with season 15 because we did a recent recording i believe it was lady bovier's lover and i i said this season is so just burns cr crazy. I think they ease up on Burns a bit more in season six, but I feel like Merkin was so fascinated with the comic potential of that character. So he keeps appearing and keeps taking over episodes. Here, I was looking at season 15, and it feels like there are what you could call Burns episodes, but he kind of arrives late to the party. So there is my mother, the carjacker, and there is the Pie Man episode. But in both cases, I feel like Burns is a late complication to the plot. Here, he is a is in it from act one. So this could be potentially the only true Burns episode of season 15.

Yeah, yeah. My mother, the carjacker, he's just like the villain of Act 2 and Homer isn't even mad at him for getting his mother arrested again. And then in Pie Man, it's like the last 40% Burns is the villain of it, like for that one

and takes control of him. That was the better of the two because it did seem like Viti. Maybe after Viti wrote that Pi Man one and he's showing how fun Mr. Burns can be in crazy situations. It reminded other writers on the staff like wait, maybe we can just have something crazy

like Mr. Burns suckling out a mole in the show again. Yes, and it feels like oh yeah, this is an element this era is definitely missing, especially after revisiting the classic seasons. Like we need more burns in our lives. And yes, this episode

is written by the late Don Payne, who I assume Henry has forgiven for his fantastic four 2015 movie. which you just re-watch, right, Henry? Honestly, it's the second best Fantastic Four movie now. That first steps is better than it, but the 2005 Fantastic Four film, I gave a deserved two or two and a half, I think. It's not as terrible as I thought.

The second one, definitely is terrible, and I do blame him for that. But Don Payne did win the Paul Selvin Award for this episode, and I believe, Henry, you did some research on this. Oh, yes, yeah. So Don Payne pitched it as Lisa v. Media Consolidation, and was a very funny idea and this was part of a award

they do every year at the Writers Guild Awards and as described by the Guild itself the Paul Selvin Award is presented to that member whose script best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties which are indispensable to the survival of free writers everywhere and to those whose defense Paul Selvin

committed his professional life and Paul Selvin was a lawyer slash screenwriter, not TV writer. So they're into free speech, but not in a creepy, disingenuous way. Yes, this is real free speech stuff. And to give you an example, like, Pickett Fences is the only other television show to win this award in the history of the Paul Selvin Award.

Other wins are like The People versus Larry Flint, the insider, good night and good luck, milk, the Post. Those are the types of, like, journalism is important movies that win, unlike a cartoon like this. I guess we'll be talking a tiny bit about the post later, thanks to a reference. And here's a funny bit from the variety write-up that night. One of the biggest laughs of the event was elicited by Don Payne in his acceptance of the Paul Selvin Award for the Fraudcast News segment of the Simpsons,

which satirized media consolidation. Quote, I'd like to thank Rupert Murdoch for not having me killed, he quipped. Yeah, he said that on the commentary, and I thought, oh, no, is this, is this why he's no longer with us? I actually think Rupert Murdoch does have a secret cancer ray and shot it at Don Payne. It is bullshit that Ruben Murdoch has lived twice as long as Don Payne did. That sucks. Yes. Yeah, seeing that he passed away once again at 48, whenever we encounter a Don Payne script,

I'm like, oh, it's too bad he's not around anymore because this is his first solo episode after breaking off his writing partnership with John Frank. Don Payne would pass away in March of 2013 at age 48. His last two episodes aired posthumously. And currently John Frank is on the show still as a writer and an executive producer. And they do talk a little bit about the writing partnership and the breakup and there was no animosity. And essentially, it's a case of being able to write whenever you want, being able to write things without disagreements and getting paid twice as much. These are the reasons why you might not want a writing partnership in Hollywood. it's more of like a promotion they both they're like we're friends but let's have a promotion

because i mean don pain then got to write a bunch of like comic book movies probably for millions and millions of dollars yeah and i was looking at his i mdb and despite leaving to work in hollywood on uh superhero pictures he was still a consulting producer on the simpsons up until his death so he would still come in once a week seemingly while working on things like let's say my super ex-girlfriend or one of the Thor's. Which one was that, the second Thor? I think it was the most hated Thor, Dark World. Well, actually, you know what?

No, I think people hate four more than two now, actually. And I'm sure Al Jean was very jealous that Don Payne got to write a Fantastic Four movie. You got to think he at least convinced Don Payne. Like, please take me to one of these Fantastic Four premieres. Also, at that WGA ceremony that year, Ian Maxtone Graham won for Catch Him If You Can. And it was, of course, four Simpsons got nominated and one episode of Justice League. So at least it wasn't a complete shutout in the animated category. Oh, I mean, I assume I have not seen any of these Justice League,

but any of them would have, should have won over Catch him if you can. Yeah, the nominees were Catch him if you can. Broadcast News, Millhouse doesn't live here anymore. Today I am a clown. And then the Justice League episode is the finale of regular Justice League StarCrossed, which is really great. and it's written by the equally dead Dwayne McDuffey, one of my favorite comic book writers of all time

as well as John Ridley and Rich Fogel. Now, are we sure he's just as dead? Do we need to dig these guys up? I think they even died around the same time or something, if not close to it. Dway McDuffey, one of the most important and underrated black comic writers of all time. I love him. He's the greatest.

And he wrote for a bunch of Justice League. He also wrote to the Justice League Doom movie that you've seen as well. well. But that has nothing to do with Don Payne, but it's more just the WGA, again, it happened this year, too, of just, it's four Simpsons and one thing that isn't the Simpsons all nominated. Yeah, it's just a shotgun blast of Simpsons. And the judges are like, I don't know, Simpsons. And then they throw a dart and pick which one. And Don Payne, though, I think must have been very proud of this award because when I searched his name plus this award in all of the obituaries, which I think usually are at least like submitted. by his press agents and whatnot this was included in his

obituaries and his list of honor so I think I mean I would think you write an episode like this you would be very honored for your guild to be like oh this really exemplifies the importance of civil liberties and free speech sure especially because it was the only TV show outside of picket fences

that won and nobody remembers picket fences unfortunately there's no footage out there on YouTube from WGA of this though from the same event you can watch David Mamet and Susan Harris both win honorary award. Oh, very nice. At least for Susan Harris.

Yes. I do hate watching it that the stuff it's complaining about is all 100 times worse now, 21 years later. I do hate that. Yes, yeah. Again, we're going to ease off on the modern politics pedal a little bit. But yes, there was a movement, let's say around 2016, when we were saying, let's support the press, let's get behind the press. It's the last bastion of freedom.

And then we see the press go on to roll over for certain presidents. We see the press go on to be like, genocides are cool, who's paying me? So it's very disappointing to see these large institutions fall or get bought out by a Mr. Burns style billionaire. Yes, yeah, I mean, multiple times, this will be while I'll just talk about it here. Yes, I kept thinking of like, Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, Elon Musk bought Twitter. These are the things like, and they are worse than Mr. Burns. like they are they make rupert murdock look quaint in comparison and it and also like these jokes about fox news that are in this era i'm just like well that's can't even compare to like newsmax or the rogan verse of of talking heads like it's really bad yeah i would rather i would still rather have a mr burns or rupert murdock in charge of these things i mean richard murgark's still alive still in charge of a lot of things but talking about how things have changed again we don't want to depress you too much but there was the movie the post right and we're going to talk a little bit about that later it was all about like democracy dies in darkness and the washington Washington Post is this marvelous institution protecting us from fascism, liberating everybody, spreading the word about freedom of speech.

And then a billionaire buys it in 2024. They're like, we're not going to tell you who to vote for for president. That's not our thing anymore. And we need to only have opinion writers who support the free market. Yes. Very depressing. I can't even make a joke about this, everybody. It stinks.

No, I know. I'll just also point people to like, I guess it's a couple months old now, but there was that recent video. from the YouTube account, The Elephant's Graveyard about the Roganverse and how it became the death of comedy that obviously I totally understand if you don't want to know anything

more than you already do about the Roganverse of comedians but as far as people who are like fawning of billionaires and how they have become a captured class like the Elphin Graveyard video does an amazing job of it in his Comedy Jonestown video

I believe is the subhead for it. Very nice. And we open this. episode with quite a few big references. Oh, yes, right. I did not know until checking the wiki on this episode. I had never heard of the old man in the mountain, or I had forgotten it if I saw the news stories about it at the time.

I only heard about it because Conan did a joke on his late night show, way back in the day. They had just put this natural rock formation that looks like an old man's face on the state quarter for New Hampshire. And immediately afterwards, that's when the thing crumbles. due to natural causes. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, wow.

Yes, it was the Old Man in the Mountain, also called the Great Stone Face and the profile was a series of five granite cliff ledges on Cannon Mountain in Franconia, New Hampshire. And, yeah, a year before this aired was when it crumbled. So it was a very recent reference to put it in this episode. Yeah, May 3rd, 2003, that was your last chance to see the Old Man of the Mountain in New Hampshire.

Here it's called Geezer Rock. Here, it has an overbite, which I like. and soon it will be more than just a place to have sex and commit suicide. Now, the suicide thing is another reference. A very, very dark reference. I don't know if you have a clip or something, Henry. Oh, you know what? I'll play the clip first.

I actually miss that being a reference. This is Kent Brockman live at Springfield's most beloved tourist attraction. The man-shaped mountain crag known as Geyser Rock. Carved by centuries of wind and rain. Geyser Rock will soon be more than just a place for teens to have sex and commit suicide. Why did they cancel Futurama? Ha! You crushed my boyfriend!

You better be good at making out. Today, Geezer Rock will be officially designated on National Landmark. What's a big deal about a rock that looks like a dude? I've got a dad that looks like a monkey. But you promise you stop making that comparison. Per our agreement. And we're going all the way back to Quigibow for that one, folks. Isn't that amazing?

We're getting, yeah, it's like, that's like a season two of the shorts thing of like, here's a monkey that looks like Homer. Yes, when they go to the zoo. So this Futurama suicide thing is a very mean and pointed joke about a real-life suicide of a teenage boy who did take his own life in part because they canceled a television show. That television show was Battlestar Galactica, and the boy was Edward Seidel, and he was 15 years old. And he did not take his own life just because of Battlestar Galactica. He was a very troubled boy. I was reading old AP articles about him. But the cancellation of the show was considered

the trigger that pushed him over the edge. And yes, he did jump to his own death. So this is a specific reference to that. And I have heard jokes about this in media for a while. It might be in space mutiny, but they steal a lot of footage from Battlestar Galactica, the original 70s version. And by the way, this kid that take his own life in like 1979. And when the ships are flying by, I think Tom Servo says, I'm going to kill myself if they canceled Battlestar Galactica. So this joke has come up. And yes, it is very mean.

But yes, an actual teenage suicide. I had forgotten that bit of history. I thought it was just, it's just a general thing of the idea of all a nerd will kill themselves if they cancel a TV show. But that it's specifically about Battlestar Galactica, though, then they get to imprint it on their sister series, Futurama, which was like, it sounded like it actually got canceled, basically not renewed, before 9-11 happened almost, but it took like until 2003 for people to know it was really dead. Yeah, by the time they were writing this, I assume some of the last episodes hadn't even aired in the summer of 2003, or maybe they had just finished airing.

And, you know, see, listeners, this is why you step back from the ledge. If you were like squeaky voice teen and committed this self-harm, you would have missed the equivalent of 98 new episodes of Futurama and 10 more that are currently being produced that you never know what's going to happen. But don't watch the movies because then you might jump. It'll pull you. The orcs that are morgue might make you reconsider going back to that length.

Yes, and into the wild green yonder might put you into a coma. But in that case, you'll fall asleep. and then the suicidal tendencies will, you'll slept them off. Maybe. Best case scenario. It's also funny that like squeaky voice teen gets to be kissed for like the first time ever only because he killed a man accidentally.

So it's a real, it's real ups and downs for old squeaky voice team here. Yeah, at best he'll find guilty of manslaughter. But he got kissed first. That's what's important. Yes, this is where Burns shows up really early in the episode to let you know. Like, no, this is a real Burns up. Though you might, maybe I'm first watched, I just thought, oh, it's like a one-off joke with Burns.

I didn't not expect it to be a Burns episode unless I had seen the commercial that aired ahead of time. Yeah, it feels like a mislead in that he is one of many people in the crowd there for one joke, like his Mr. Burns style joke. And it is funny, too, to see Burns in this. I'm reminded again that Burns, in part, I think, was a visual, visually influenced by the way Barry Diller looked, who was the president of Fox at the time. like there's it's an ancient story but when they first designed mr burns he was like just like a big mean billionaire like a larger man and it was sam simon who redesigned him in like he drew the mr burns and everybody's like oh that's mr burns that you would you would know yeah a barry diller still alive at 83 again two months from now this episode goes live ruper murdock still kicking at 94 unbelievable i mean it's not unbelievable like just like mr burns they live for a thousand years like that's what happens They all get the Springfield Files treatment where they're stretched up by machines and injected with goo. Whatever they're doing to cheat death for another week, which again, like, satire, again, every satire in this has been outpaced by reality. Every satire of like all of those things that turn Mr. Burns Green is like you, that's what you wish was happening to Peter Thiel.

Those kind of thing. Then we get a joke about roadside corn, which made me think of John Redcorn's Red corn from the new season of King of the Hill. And hey, roadside corn, you can never go wrong with a nice batch of roadside corn. You know, not that I haven't seen those sold, but my eyes are always drawn to like, this is like driving around the highways of California, often like with my mom, because I didn't drive. I would more see like, ooh, strawberries or peaches or whatever. My eyes would be drawn to the fruit first over the corn, I think. Court's pretty sweet.

And yeah, that Homer, I mean, the second you see that tree in the eye and Homer is concerned about it, like, we all know where this is going. We all know. Yeah, and we get, there's a lot of really weird jokes up here, a lot of early references, because Quimby is taken to the stage and he thanks, blood and tears for their performance of Spinning Wheel and says, he's sorry to hear about sweats. There are many eras of this band and ten different members, so I couldn't really track down who sweat is in this scenario, but this is none of the people from that band.

They were not credited in the credits as far as I know. No, no, I don't think so either. I mean, they paid for spinning wheel. They paid for the real song. But yeah, when I went to the Wiki page, like the former members list is dozens of people. Like, it seems like it's a huge band that in its current members list on Wiki, the oldest member is a guy who joined in 1987. So it seems like it's one of those, like, a very fake band you're seeing of blood, sweat, and tears if we see him now. It's like the ship of Theseus band where there's like how many original parts are left.

And honestly, I could have Google searched every band member looked at images, but honestly, guys, that's like 20 minutes of my life. I can't do this. The most inaccurate thing about it to me, I guess, in this joke, was that it's only two guys on stage when my impression of the band Blood, Sweat and Tears, is that it should be like 12 people on stage because it's a huge number of people who are in the band. Yeah, they're a regular polyspaonic free. Wait, polyphonic spree. Yes, that's right. I turn that into a spoonerism. I apologize.

Early recording today. Are they still around those guys? Probably. Or they all starve to death because there's just so many of them. Or they, I mean, they Jonestowned out as the cult they always were, perhaps, and I missed it. Could be. Then Lisa is about to give a Lisa Simpson is about to give a speech before the Undersecretary comes out, which I do like that the Undersecretary of the Interior is wearing a sash that says Undersecretary like Quimby's mayor sash. And State Comptroller Atkins. You know, he even looks a little like Atkins. Maybe he's his brother or something.

You know, of Super 7, that's the toy manufacturer that stopped doing the Simpsons rare figures. They should have went out with a bang with the state comptroller Atkins action figure. And it should have come, just like Heather was the baby axe accessory that you could get with the robotic, itchy and scratchy. It should have come with the puppet of Lisa that part made. I would have bought it just for that. It is too bad that they were too good at it. Though also the quality could have been slightly better on them, I have to say. They were a good idea that they were not, they're not the most posable.

They're really hard to pose, as I know from having Unboxed Apucci and Radioactive Man and tried to put them into poses. Yeah, yeah, I just, I wish the, what is it, Jack specific? They'd go a little deeper. Yeah. But they only just got the license, so I'll cut them some slack, I guess. It looks like they're going a little deeper in the upcoming.

I think they have a Troy McClure come in. I think they do. Meanwhile, Super 7, like, I think they peaked with the Troy McClure set of three Troy McClure's with sidekicks like Fuzzy Bunny and Billy or Jimmy. Jimmy. See, I'm doing what Troy McClure did in it and called it Jimmy Billy. But so this is where, while Lisa is starting to read her poem, you can see Homer in the background. And I really feel for the animators who had a script that said, Homer causes giant rock slide and a huge mountain falls apart. Yeah, I'm not sure if it was an animation error or an intentional choice.

But Lisa briefly stops reading her poem so you can focus on Homer in the background. Yeah, you know, that is weird time. I wondered if that was like a timing mistake or just it could even just be a retake. They're like, we need to see more of Homer. Let's pause her dialogue. We don't want to write more lines for her to say here and zoom in on Homer.

I wonder. Yeah, you eventually hear the entire poem, so they had more to give her, but she just, there's this strange pause. I'm not sure if it's a meta thing or just an error or them wanting to draw your attention to Homer. Also, in 2004, everybody running through the smoke coming in feels a little 9-11y, just to reference 9-11.

again for our podcast. Yeah, we have to. Thank you. And Mr. Burns, while in a jaunty outfit is crushed to death seemingly by rocks and I don't know, Smithers' boss of my heart tattoo, eh, it's okay. It could be a little better. Yeah, my only main issue with this episode is that the death of Mr. Burns, the news of that should be immediate. Nobody is talking about it on the way home. It's crazy.

Yes, yeah, that's two notes I'd give. That's a good. My big note was nobody knows Homer did this like it should be something like Lisa especially who's sad that the rock is destroyed doesn't know her father is the one who did it and Homer never admits to it or gets come up and it's for it. That's true and it was so obviously him

I guess he makes up for it with his little last minute save at the Annis Hill Mary pass with that his own newspaper it makes up for both of the things he does to Lisa and this but only one of them she knows about but you're right yes they should be driving home with like boy it's Crazy Mr. Burns was crushed to death, I get.

Do you're going to have to go to work tomorrow, Homer? Like, something like that. But this is when Lisa finds a new cause. I can't believe that historic rock is gone. My poem has become an elegy. An elegy, no one will ever hear. Well, at least some good came out of today. Park, you're grounded for a year.

I'll just pay the fine. Okay, three bucks. Why don't you publish your poem? Publish it myself? Why not? I could put out a whole new. Newspaper dedicated to The Rock. I'd be a publisher just like Catherine Graham.

Or that lady who wheels Larry Flint around. That even feels a little political there of like Bart paying a fine rather than doing jail time. That's how rich people get away with everything then and now. Yeah, I did chuckle at that joke. And yes, Catherine Graham, she was the publisher of the Washington Post from 63 to 91. And famously headed up the newspaper when it was reporting on the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to Nixon's resignation. And, of course, Merrill Streep plays her in the 2017 film The Post.

Yes, which that one's about the Pentagon Papers, right? That one. I have not seen it, but it's about them covering some giant political scandal. I didn't see it either because I'm sure it's full of great actors. And we all know why Steven Spielberg made it in 2017. It was a statement about the press holding the powerful to account and how important it was then and meaning it's important now. And these are all true things.

But we see when the rubber meant the road, it didn't happen. So it just makes me feel depressed to see that movie now. Yeah, and I mean, we all need things like this in times of strife. But it ultimately felt like a way to make yourself feel better about things by seeing like, oh, in the past, they figured it out. And then you're just like, you're feeling good walking out of the theater, thinking about freedom of speech. But then there's really nothing ultimately you can do, unfortunately, as a single voter that's not a billionaire. I mean, I also think I heard about that movie that this is an opinion. of the Chapo guys that when I one of them saw it and they pointed out that the film is about

the publishing of the Pentagon papers which is you know about horrible atrocities that were covered up by our government and the point of the film is oh it's great that they published it but you have to ask yourself and what accountability did the government do over the Pentagon papers all they did was find a better way of hiding those secrets like it didn't fix things so it's also kind of depressing in that way too uh to be less depressing I remember a great account from Bob Odenkirk's autobiography in that he and David Cross are both in the post and there is a chance for them to act together in one scene because of the way the screenplay is written and they were wondering like, does Steven Spielberg know about Mr. Show? It turns out he

didn't. But I think, I could be misremembering the account, but I think he was a little annoyed because then he assumed that people might think the scene was intended to be comedic if David Cross and Bob Odenkirk are in the same shot talking to each other. other. That was the biggest thing that was going to make me watch the post. Again, I'm sure it's a good movie. Of course, it's full of great actors and is by one of the best directors of all time. But it's like Merrill Street playing that role seems like invented to demand Oscars. Like, it's like a gun you pointed the Oscars to be like, this is a biographical and Merrill Street is it. Give us Oscars. Give her what she wants. And yeah, I'd love to see this. Eventually, I'm going to see all the Spielbergs. But with what is currently happening to the Washington Post, it's going to be depressing. ultimately to see, like, oh, these institutions once did protect us instead of just being another platform for an evil billionaire. Another issue I have with a Catherine Graham, like building her up, is that she is used as an example of she's like a rich heiress who did the right thing

and held the powerful to account. And ultimately, it still is like celebrating a rich person passing, like crossing a very low bar, which I guess is better than being entirely evil, like, yes, that's better, but I hate that it defines the spectrum of what you can get in this world. It's like, well, maybe a rich asshole will do the right thing once. What if they did that? Yes, it's so funny that Nixon was this touchstone for like the worst president ever, which is why it comes up in Futurama so much.

And yeah, he was a rotten bastard. But now we're like, we are living with the most impeached guy of all time. Nixon actually was never impeached. So it's like, I guess it doesn't really do anything, huh? yeah nothing like every every day a new what are the headlines now you'd hate to see them but i last thing on the katherine graham thing too is when i looked up her when i was looking up info on her one i thought she appeared in all the president's men but actually nobody plays her in the movie you don't see katherine graham in the film and then second i was like oh is there many documentaries

about her she wrote a memoir prime video the amazon themselves are doing a documentary i think it comes out in like a month about Catherine Graham, which again is just, it's like, oh, what an important woman, she stood up to a president. It's like, this is just brand management for the shit you own. I hate this. Yeah, yeah. We keep treading into

modern territory, but it does think that the Washington Post is owned by the most impossibly rich man in the world, but then they're like, we don't have any money. We can't write about these things. We don't have to endorse that. One guy can write about video games, like once a week for the Washington

post. That's right. One of these days that that loophole's going to close. They're going to realize they're paying somebody to do something popular that is about video games. Oh, and meanwhile, that the woman who pushed Larry Flint around, I'm wondering if Homer means the character Courtney Love played in the in the 1998 biopic Althea Flint. Okay. I think Homer's just thinking of Courtney Love, period. Yes, just herself. Yes. She thought she was going to win an Oscar for that. I feel bad. I feel bad for it. It's too bad for old Courtney love. Fox season finale Sunday. The Simpsons wage a media war with Mr. Byrne. X-free, X-3. And driving erratically throws papers out window.

Then will Reese make it in the Army? Forward! He'll do that all that. Malcolm. After the Simpsons, it all starts at 7-6 Central Fox season finale Sunday. Here's the truth about our listeners. They're great. It had to be told, and we thank you for listening this week on this podcast as we finish up season 15 of the Simpsons. Can you believe we've made it that far in our chronological exploration?

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more, patreon.com slash talking Simpson. But yes, we think that Mr. Burns has expired, and then he comes into the room with stop your wailing, wailing, I'm alive, which is funny. This first act is full of what I will call Renan Stimpy gags. Like a lot of real gross out humor with Burns, which I like because I feel Like they don't really cross too much of a line, but things like parts of his brain falling out, him nursing from a giant mother mole, would be at home on Ren and Stimpy. Actually, now you mention it, yeah, that brain falling out, I feel like they did that joke like twice with Stimpy on Ren and Stimpy, right?

Yes. Yeah, Mr. Burns is a disgusting creature in this one, breaking the rules they would normally, which I really like that they broke so many animation rules because the show, the show is getting stagnant in its animation. to say, there's so many great animators of work on it, but the rules are really boxing them in from drawing cool things. You get a Lauren McMullen who can break those rules, but on this one, like, I think

it's Bob Anderson's the director, like they got some funny stuff out of Burns that breaks the rules here. Yeah, all these very funny poses and the animation of him like wriggling through the crevices of the rock, like a lizard. Yes. Or later when he's suckling again, like his lips grow to like

two feet long to do That mole is like 50 times larger than any mole that it's ever existed. This episode should be about the world's biggest mole. Yes, it really should be. He's the discoverer. And yeah, him showing that he survived by getting in an air pocket and then wriggling around with his like basically like worm-like body and then escaping. And then it's a good gag that this turn is Mr. Burns gets to see like basically what Ebenezer Scrooge got to see except as the entire. wrong reaction to it.

Oh yeah, and there's a scene where he just eats a bunch of bugs with his lizard tongue, which predates the lizard tongue joke in the Simpsons movie by three years, where Homer inexplicably just grabs shrimp off the barbecue with his lizard tongue. That is an insane joke. Man, that's crazy. Yeah, I knew there were three gross out jokes and eating

like a cockroach and a centipede and something else and seemingly enjoying it, that's another one of those. You know, I didn't look this up because it's harder to find cuts, international cut information, but they were saying on the commentary that like these scenes were deemed too gross for like the

UK broadcasts of this and got cut out they say I can see that yeah they could be touchy about some stuff that we're not touchy about well and same with they definitely cut a dirty word late in the episode too for the UK but this is where Burns wants to relax

after his survival and watch a little television thankfully a mother mole nursed me as her own until I was strong enough to continue Now, let's see how the common folk are grieving for their fallen god. Me. And so, a day after the tragedy, the town still mourns the loss of its venerable old man. Here it comes.

Beloved by children. Ah, yes, the little ones. Thought to be thousands of years old. I have been 89 for a while now. We'll miss you. Gieser. Rock. Quickly smithers,

rehydrates me. Love that sound. Great sound effect. I'm honestly surprised we have not seen that joke with Burns before, that a spit tank nearly kills him. It feels like something they would have done in season two and, like, forgot they did it and repeated it. But it's so, yes, a spit take nearly kills him.

That's such a great gag. And I love the drawing. it's it again it's it's a rule breaker there's so many lines on him it breaks the rules of simpson's design for a good joke which is a good reason to break rules if it's funny now obviously in real life we've seen many times that when a horrible person dies the the the kent brockmans of the world aren't talking about that uh thanking nature for killing them unfortunately no they they have too much decorum for that but he thanks the rock for doing what they didn't have the courage to do squish mr burns meanwhile i can name a million

people, but just like any time a bad person dies at a ripe old age, people want to take the high road. And I fear even with the current president, that will be what people do, which they really shouldn't. The lower road is great. It's got all these rest stops. There's

like McDonald's on it. And this is where Burns has like is like, oh no, I don't have a friend in the world. Everybody hates me. And it's like, well, I'm going to change this town's accurate impression of me. And even though this seems like a time for Smithers to be a shoulder to cry on.

Smithers is like, you have me, sir. And he goes, don't be so needy. That's great. Just shoving him away. And I, the Smithers tries to push burns to what old the rich guys used to do. Like, as you've pointed out, Bob, they used to spend their last years giving millions to charity. Yes, unfortunately, the turkey slice program was phased out in the 30s.

You know, the Rockefellers and all of them. that they wanted to buy their way to heaven with charity in their late ages and that today's billionaires think they'll never die and maybe they're right because Rupert Murdoch still is alive. So they don't bother with this late in life charity anymore. They're waiting for the robot brain transplant surgery to come around. They're told it's going to be happening any day now. And they're going to electrocute a million more monkeys before it happens. Oh, God.

Those poor. See, they should just be suckling moles. Maybe that'll help them as Burns did, which I love when he calls for it. Smithers immediately has a mole foresuckling right there on a pillow for him. So that's the first commercial break. This feels like a really brief first act for the series. Yeah, a very short act for act one. Now, here's something I don't like about this episode.

And it's something that I feel like is a hallmark of the Algin era, even dating back to his classic episodes, is that he really loves the cutesy thing of kids doing adult things. Like, these are all the kids. What is the stand in for the old? adult thing where the kid is going to do it. So Lisa's running a paper. She can't come up with a word for burns. So she calls him like a poopie pants. And then Bard is doing a political cartoon. And instead of drawing anything like incisive or cutting, it's like principal skinner

is principal skin rash. The Algin era loves this kind of humor. And I noticed that like this is not happening with David Merkin or Oakley and Weinstein's episodes. In fact, when a little kid is trying to do an adult thing, they kind of make fun of that. And they treat it like it's actually happening so like sort of like the uh the flanders newspaper yeah yeah it's they don't elevate it it's just like well yeah it's the flanders newspaper they printed in their living room and that's all the only person who reads it there's no joke about rod or todd reporting from iraq or anything like that so i feel like these jokes can be funny but to me it's a little too easy and we we've always called this humor like rug rats humor yeah yeah i you know i didn't even register this

It's like, oh, yeah, it's another of the, like, what if kids did a thing, storyline? It's like the, you know, this was in the Gene and Reese, even the season three and four ones like that. Well, like the original idea of like Bart starting a, like unionizing the paper boys for an episode that they ended up not doing that, but was going to be about like union graft. Yeah, I'm just a little tired of this device. Then you see it's really all over the Maggie shorts. It's like, what if Maggie did adult things? What's the, what's the baby stand in for these adult things?

Is it just a real A to B thing that I think The Simpsons is better than? No, Maggie going on the date, that was so crummy. It sickens me. Yeah, and yet I would trade another Maggie goes on a date short for any of the commercials for the Mandalorian that we've gotten. Or like Loki or Billy Eilish. Yes. Or Italian singer whose name I can't remember. Butchelli?

I think that's right. Bata Shelley? I don't know. I'm not looking this up. right now. But yes, this is where Lisa prints her elegy, and not only that, Homer helps deliver the papers. They're so happy together, and the whole town is enjoying it.

Elgy for geyser rock. Postcard image, thing to see. To think of Springfield is to think of thee. What thoughts be past behind thy mean? Why sky art blue, why trees are green? And what pray tell did thine eye see? Perchance, old friend, they gazed at me. Brought low by nature's oafish hand,

Thou crushed our reviewing stand, and twixt thy stones, glimpsed I the truth. All things must pass. Thy face, my youth. Wow, I haven't cried like this since the third Mr. Tini died. You couldn't hold a candle to him. Neither could yell. You're okay, you got me broads.

But this is one dilly of a daily, Lisa. Can't wait for tomorrow's. Tomorrow's? I hadn't thought about publishing more. You better. I've already sold a bunch of subscriptions. How do you think I got these swell prizes? And of course, Krusty is pointing to the other taxidermine Mr. Teeny's.

Now this is said without criticism This is another kind of thing Al Jean loves to do There's a certain kind of Algin joke where a song is playing on the radio or something is playing on the radio We cut around town to see how everyone is reacting As they're doing their character-based antics

This is very similar because we're cutting around town Seeing what secondary characters are doing Or what's being done to them As they're reading the Red Dress Press Why, you're right This is just like in Billy Eilish Where they're listening to the Irish song And everybody's reacting to it

I mean I think it really just started With Round Springfield But it's been like a repeating joke throughout. I think this is a well-written elegy in that, one, it's just, it's nice. Two, it's not like full of jokes, but also it feels like a thing

a very smart eight-year-old would write. It doesn't feel above Lisa's ability as an eight-year-old. We can't forget Lisa is eight. She's not an adult. It seems like what a gifted eight-year-old would put together. And I think we have to tell our listeners about grit.

Oh, yes. Do we need to talk about grit, which is what BART is referencing with all these swell prizes because we don't hear grit references anymore but it was for the longest time a mostly a rural newspaper that serviced areas that did not have a local newspaper and in order to get it delivered they recruited children

through comic books and you did get paid for delivering grit to readers but you also were entered in raffles for prizes and things like that and I guess if you sold enough you would get these prizes on top of your pittance you got for delivering grit But it was a common thing to see an old comic book, sell grit. Oh, yeah.

I think he got, like, referenced in, definitely in mystery science theater, I feel like there were sell grit jokes. I think, I think I also remember, I want to say in like a Ren and Stimpy comic book, I remember a joke was, Rand, I've made a lot of money selling grit. And they're like, the newspaper, no. And it's just like a pile of rocks. Yeah, I think even in the mystery science theater sketch, Joel has just a bag of dirt around his waist, around his waist,

around his shoulder like on a sash That's right, that's right. Yeah, and Grit currently is a magazine now, no longer a newspaper. Wow, that's impressive. I would have figured Grit was grown. Grot, grit was grown. Well, it's owned by Ogden newspapers, which is an organization

that's pure evil that just consumes every local newspaper and turns it into a conservative rag. Oh, good. That's great. That's, uh, no, yes, that satire gets outstripped again. That is exactly like the itgy and scratchy joke later in the episode actually all the jokes in that section

like, no, that's just every local news channel now, is only that now. I only know this thing about Ogden because I had a friend who worked for, I still have a friend, by the way, hello, Bell, who worked for the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio. It was an Ogden rag, and

he was doing his best at that paper. But their Christmas gift one year was a blanket with a picture of the building on it. So you could snuggle up with the building you go to every day as you're hanging out on the couch at home, trying to not think about work. Oh, God.

No, that I love the way the prizes are drawn. Like, I never got enticed by the ads for grit. I feel like those had died out in comics by the early 90s. But at my school, there definitely was a sell something and get these prizes. They always were a similar layout of, like, a bike, a tent, a camera, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, for me, it was, you know, you would sell the candy bars or whatever. But here's the thing, early instruction in that the rich get richer. The kids whose parents had local businesses, they won all the prizes because those

tyrant CEOs or tyrant small business owners would force that candy on all their employees. I think my mom maybe tried that, but she was like just the secretary at the office, and she's had to compete with other secretaries with children at the same school. So it didn't work out too well for us, I don't think. but I was trying to find old great ads from comic books and it was tough to do I did find similar ones

from like 60s Marvel comics that people uploaded of selling seeds for similar results oh yeah the seed selling scam I guess that was another thing you could do for a pittance because you needed to order your pet monkey

through the comic book right yes yeah the speaking of dead monkeys that I mean clearly I think the two episodes or an episode earlier is the

joke of a Mr. Tini being like overdosed with drugs. So it's easy to imagine there have been many Mr. Tienies and Krusty is not a responsible pet owner. But to know that at least three have died and he's stuffed them, that's a bit dark.

And that he's ranking them that he remembers like Mr. Tienies didn't get good until the third Mr. Tini. Yes. Yeah. And this is where all of the Rugrats stuff comes in that I'm not a fan of. I love the burn stuff. I love some of the Lisa stuff. But this feels like it would not make the cut on recess that Disney program, which was actually pretty good.

It's like Lisa is recruiting for different roles and, you know, Ralph is like a features editor and Nelson is a TV credit because he can make nerds cry and they're all treating it like it's a real thing. Yeah, I have to assume there is a real recess episode about them starting a newspaper. It would be poor development of that show if they didn't have that. There has to be, yeah. And hey, connection to recess and Simpsons. co-creator recess Paul Germain

was one of the original producers on the Simpson shorts. They drew Matt Graining, strangling him in the last short of the series. Yes, he would go on to work for Rugrats, be a key element of that. That's why it got bad after he left and he went on to create recess. You're right.

I do think of these jokes of Ralph as a feature columnist related to when our friends on Chopo Trap House made fun of conservative moron opinion writer at the New York Times, Ross do that or doubt that guy I mean there's just so many of them

and they've made me aware of all of them I think Ross when you see pictures of him he's the most Ralph Wiggum as an adult looking of them like he's basically a thumb with a beard painted on it and he has the most ralphish takes of like pure pure stupidity

yet it is very little kid comedy of the like they're assigned their jobs and oh Ralph I mean especially the Ralph jokes are like oh this is baby comedy here. Yeah, where I guess it is classic Ralph where he wants to be a fire truck

and he just assumes that a feature's editor is a fire truck. Lisa, you have a history with Ralph. Don't hire him. She should know by now. She hires Martin, but we don't hear Martin because Rousie Taylor could be an extra cost. You're right. They were cheap and didn't write lines for Martin this week.

I mean, at least I do like where the Ralph jokes take us. They didn't just put Ralph in here for the one gang. And this is also where Burns is alive and the town is in shock.

Good day. Hello. Greg, Glyvon's ghost, he's alive. Yes, that's right. I pulled a Jesus. Have a nickel. Hi. Burns is alive? The new skull am I drinking beer out of.

Boy, I can't wait to dance on his grave. Oh, yeah. Who's grave? Uh, the unknown soldier? Carry on. Okay, it's time to win the love of these hateful morons. Step one, a mass of vast media empire.

Win the love of these hateful morons is a great Burns line. And, yeah, like I said earlier, I feel like the death of Burns or the supposed death of Burns should be a much bigger deal for Homer, because I'm thinking of the classic Smithers line when it comes to The Simpsons. All of the events in your life have revolved around the... that I'm in some way recently. Yeah, they should have let the Simpsons, now this is like us being a James L. Brooks note, bring it back to the family, at least have the family watching the news that Burns is dead and be like,

oh man, we love this. This is great. Yeah, yeah. I feel like they're putting the Lisa newspaper plot ahead of this, and it should be a much bigger deal. But I'm glad they quickly let everybody know that Burns is okay, so we don't have to linger with what should be a hugely impactful moment in Springfield history. I feel like it could be a meme, the guys in their white tucks and tails and tap shoes to dance on a grave. Like, I think it deserves to be a meme. And I mean, we're, I've been thinking about how nice it would be to dance on some graves these days. I tell you.

I'm learning tap right now. It is, it's a nice joke where the, the, the tap backwards off screen. And then in the establishing shot, they're like tapping backwards through it. Yes. Because Burns like has kept pace with them the entire way. And so they're still scared of burns tapping back it it's a swartz welderian type of gag that that pain is bringing in here i do want to compliment pain in general for this compared to bart mangle banner both being satires political satires of their times while it is rugg rats comedy i appreciate that this is grounded enough and does not go completely insane in the third act like this one does yeah they're not in jail with elmo exactly yes we don't have to hear about elmo

Elmo killing himself. Like, the crazy things that happen are at least crazy to the degree a rich guy can't make. I guess Burns just makes a crazy act three seem not crazy because it's Mr. Burns. And, yes, this is where Burns buys the first, the television channel 6. And, you know, the station owner, I feel like he could be a little more specific. He's just kind of like an everyman type dude. Yeah, someone we've never seen before. I do like the bit where increasingly large bags of money are placed in front of him,

but he keeps shutting this down until a woman pops out of the bag with an ice cream Sunday, and that's what causes him to break. And it's a nice detail. He could eat that Sunday anywhere. He gets inside of the bag with her to eat it. I forgot about that. That's a nice swartzwellery touch. And, yeah, this is where not only is Bart selling subscriptions,

but he's also on the staff as the paper is growing. Check it out. Principal Skin rash. Nice work, Bart. But give him a runny nose. I want the readers to gag on their morning cup of Joe. It's not a problem, Chief. Don't call me Chief.

Sure thing, jerk. Chief is fine. You're on the Morning Zoo with Bill and Marty. What's your Wednesday wine? Well, first of all, I agree with you, too. It's sheer humbuggery that pretty girls can flirt their way out of speeding tickets. No support for the naughty hottest. Secondly, I want you to pack up and get out.

I just bought this station and you're fired. And play that delightful flush sound on your way out. Yes, sir. Indoor plumbing. The lack of it killed my mother. I guess she died off screen after we saw her in Homer the

Smithers. Yeah, with I mean, I could assume the 116-year-old woman. Did he say she was 120? I can't remember if they literally said her age in that. I think 124 or something like that. Yeah, but I could imagine

she doesn't have indoor plumbing in her house, but you said it, I think, when we did the elephant episode, Bob, but this is kind of the end of Bill and Marty in the show. It's true, yeah, I think they realize, well, these characters are out of date, especially with the way media is heading. We're not having DJs anymore,

let alone these guys. And so, yeah, I guess they make an appearance in the episode The Boys of Bummer, which is not going to be on our agenda for another three years. But after that, it's just cameos. Maybe their background characters, maybe they're very limited in their role in the episode. But this is just the fate of Bill and Marty.

And they have not had a lot of presence on the show. And I really feel like Bart gets an elephant was their only story. Yeah, the only other major thing I can remember is them interviewing Spinal Tap. Just because back in season two or three, they could justify, or they couldn't justify, well, Bart and Lisa can't interview Spinal Tap. It needs to be the radio DJ characters. Just a few seasons later They'd be like

Just have the Simpsons meet Spinal Tap Who cares? Yeah, we don't need these logistics And you know It's really too bad for what is kind of their exit of the series That somebody goofed Bill and Marty are voiced by the wrong people They traded voices

I thought so I thought there was something wrong about this Because it's often like Well, their races change Their clothing colors change But yeah, I guess it had been so long Since they used these guys They forgot like who was who

Yeah, Marty, just imagine Marty, the one with hair, in the talking to spinal tap and saying, rockado doodle do, that's Harry Shear's voice. But when he stands up and goes, yes, sir, it's the sad Dan Castleneta voice that he gets to Bald Bill. That's how you can always remember, Bill bald. And so, yeah, the indignity of that in their final appearances, they didn't even get their voices correct. It's sad. But I guess they got the races correct this time. Because is it, Bill and Barks and Elephant was portrayed as a black man? Was he colored, like, with brown skin?

Yes. And I think, I believe on the toy, I think he has his yellow skin for the toy. Where did I put that toy? It's around here somewhere. I have confirmed that on the classic Playmates toy, it is a yellow-skinned bill. Oh, by the way, Mr. Burns' mom at least was 122 years old, according to Smithers. Though I think for this joke, they forgot that they established that his mother was still alive. I mean, and this media consolidation was happening then.

A Clear Channel was one of the major guilty parties of it. But that's the problem. I can't even complain about one specific company because all of them did this now. And they all, like, radio just isn't a thing anymore, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah. I mean, of course, there are always going to be, like, little local startups and, like, college stations and stuff where you can actually get real DJs, but they're few and far between. And there are many, you know, listeners supported, and now they have to be more listener

supported than ever in the world of public bar broadcasting, but there are like college stations or I'm thinking of in New Jersey, though it's famous around the world, WFMU, that radio station is fully listener supported. Like, they do exist. We have, I remember on a recent talk to the audience, we had a comment from somebody who works in the public radio space and is talking about how they're hanging on by the fingernails but there are still some out there in the U.S. Yeah, the fate of public media funding right now

not very good. And oh, this also is he buys Skywriters and I'll compliment this Cleetus and Brandein joke for not getting incestuous. That's a positive. Yes, I'm glad to see Brandein has eventually learned how to read though because there was a

somewhat recent episode where she was part of a book club. Yeah, wasn't that a crazy episode that they try to? I think They did a fine job, but they're trying to give dignity to a character who is Cletus's sister and mother who has sex with him constantly. It might have been a little too late to salvage Brandean, I think. Let's hear more about Diabeti. Oh, God. She's in the same lost character section as Bill and Marty.

They live together now. And this is where we see, just like at the power plant, Burns and Smithers are very hands-on when they take over the newspaper. They're the ones editing the newspaper pages. Yeah, I mean, I used to work in a college newspaper office, and this very much looks like the technology of the time. In fact, I started working for my college newspaper in the year 2005 as the humor columnist, and these kind of programs of these kind of layouts looked very, very familiar to me. Also, it's funny to see the appalling of adding the apple blossom, or the apple cheeks to burns. He's like, it's appling now, sir. I feel like the progress bar is meant to look like a Mac style progress bar, too.

Oh, yeah, yeah, they were all laid out on Macs. And I do enjoy the invention of the word appling. Appling, that's good. That feels like classic Simpsons there. And, yeah, I mean, this is also, all newspapers are basically dead now. The local ones are dead. Now it's been out, so, well, when you're listening to this, so we'll know if it's any good or not.

But I did just listen to an interview with Greg Daniels promoting the about to release now, newspaper-based spinoff of the office that's about to debut. and Greg Daniels is talking about how he was inspired to do this show about newspapers because of things like this in the episode about how they're all being closed down and like one rich jerk owns it. I feel like Greg Daniels might be being spread a little bit too thin lately, but hey, the new King of the Hill was good, so I'm being curious about this. It was great hearing him on Conan because they're joking that he didn't do Conan's podcast

until like now. Like he never did it before. And he says like, oh yeah, it took me having three different TV shows. coming out within a month of each other for you to finally let me on your goddamn podcast. Well, we have the invention of the word appling. We also have some great Mr. Burnsism for the television. He calls it the jumping box and the picto tube. Picto cube, I apologize.

Now when people think of jumping boxes, they think of all of their boxed-based workout routines. And yes, why don't we see something, give a listen to another clip of a TV debate that, honestly, this satire far behind what television is now. Now let's see how I'm fearing on the jumping bucks. You mean the television, sir? Television jumping box, PictoCube, just crank it up. In tonight's face-off, I'll be debating Channel 6 movie googly booborella on the subject of our new boss, C Montgomery Burns.

My view, he's a great leader and a gallant American. He's got a heart as big as my boobes. I guess we'll have to agree to agree on this one. boobes smithers do you know bill from accounting that's his daughter that's a nice little joke yes and on the commentary i forgot that this buborella is not invented by dana gould she's invented by kevin curran this feels like how did dana gould not invent buborella i feel like i've misrepresented like oh yeah that must be buborella must be a dana gould creation right like it has to be and yet no and they're talking about how Kevin Curran kept pitching. He's also dead now, but that he kept pitching, maybe Bubarella could show up here because he'd get the character payment for the scene. Hey, maybe he's hanging out with Myel Anurmi in heaven.

That's Vampira. I actually, Bob, I said it before, but yeah, that, remember, he is buried right next to Milanermi. Really? Okay. Wow. I forgot about this. So, yeah, I thought you're going to say, I can confirm, Bob. They are hanging out in heaven.

I've got a live stream running right now. He is looking at her boobs. It's funny. When we were kids, we just thought, or 20, when we were 23 watching this, but I always thought Bubarella was only an Elvira reference, not the vampire, the TV, while the actress turned sexy TV host of horror films of the youth of the writers. But yeah, if you go to Hollywood Forever Cemetery and find Kevin Kern's grave, it is, in the exact, I triple check this on the map

when I was writing this down. Like, wait, am I remembering this right? Yes, like, within a three-grave radius is Vampira and Kevin Kirk. Nice, so easy to spot. And, yeah, I mean, this is debates where both talking heads you see on TV agree with each other.

Like, that just is TV now. Like, or I mean, it was then, too. But I've just, back then, I think it was both sides agree that something in Iraq was right to happen, just whether it was the Democrat version or the Republican version of it. You didn't get to have a person on TV who said, we shouldn't be in

Iraq. That isn't part of the debate to that. Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't do a Crossfire parody here or yet on the show, but I think that TV show doesn't exist yet in this timeline. Oh, Crossfire? It definitely was around in 04, right? Oh, maybe 04 is when

the John Stewart thing happened. Okay, sorry, I apologize. This is a very old program. It's as old as me and you, Henry. It's started in 82. Damn, I didn't know that. This was another one of like two episodes in a row where we think, oh, is this where there's going to be a crossfire parody? And no, they know that it was not. But again, I like that this is keeping it small. This is in Bart Mangled Banner, they're like, oh, we need to have a meet a Chris Matthews type. And in this one, they're like, no, just have it be Buberrell and Kent Brockman of Springfield regulars who are the two sides of the debate. Yeah, Springfield does not become a national issue. They're keeping this a little low scale, which I like. You're right. It's a nice touch.

And so this is where there's the only deleted scene in the episode. It's a hidden deleted scene on the DVD. But Burns, after taking over all of these things, we also see that he took over baseball announcing. Batter swings and hits a squibber up the third baseline. It rolls fair. As fair as Monty Burns' business practices. Now back to the game, San Diego comes.

up with it throws to first and the runner is safe as safe as the plutonium in your tap water. It's like drinking sunshine. Yay! It's fun. I'd have kept it. Yeah, it's not bad. I like to see how Burns' influence

is growing. So that would have been right after Smithers' is understanding not like about Bubarella being related to the bill from accounting. So yes, Burns, you know, not only does Burns get involved in all that he also writes and directs his own cartoons yeah he's like a regular stephen spielberg

he is just as busy that see these days the guys just count on their own fawning you know fanboys to pay for a basically an ai to draw a loving picture of them burns is going to the trouble of making his own cartoons to talk about how great he is he's paying people in south korea to draw him as a lovely ballad eagle here Now, this cartoon is fine, but I think the joke about it being so on the nose makes it not very interesting just inherently, because they have to just directly state, here's why protesters are bad, vote Republicans, et cetera, et cetera. So they can't do anything too inventive or twisty.

I think just saying out loud, vote Republican, at least is more direct of like, yeah, this is Mr. Burns is conservative. We're not saying he's not one party or the other. Like, yeah, vote Republican. That's what you should do. And it does betray the premise of this short to end it with Itchy saying, God bless America, this cartoon was made in Korea. Like, why would that be part of the cartoon?

I'm overthinking this, yes, but I think a more clever touch would have been Itchy saying, God Bless America, we cut to a card saying proudly animated in South Korea. It's weird that the, where the cartoon was made is part of the short. Yeah, you're right. That doesn't make sense within the premise of the script of this being a satire. They wouldn't say that out loud. Yeah, you're right. Just adjust it just a little bit

And you can have both jokes in there Without selling out the premise of the little sketch And I mean every conservative crank Is against great energy resources like solar And wind and hydroelectric Trump especially has a real vendetta against windmills And every time you ask him He gives a different story

And now I guess currently his story Or one of his most recent stories Is the fact that well he thinks That windmills make whales go crazy Yeah I saw this Actually Bob he's on your side here with one of his ones it was you see these windmills all

over the place ruining your beautiful fields and valleys and killing your birds and if they're stuck in the ocean ruining your oceans like yeah like I actually think Donald Trump cares about birds give me a break here and it was a great so moving to Canada we have hydroelectric power

in Vancouver and it's it's so impossibly cheap compared to those ripoff bastards of PG&E that I was dealing with in California who just gleefully would explode entire towns and be allowed to stay in business. Yes. Like nearly burning down my mom's home as part of their thing.

And that they had to like be taken to court to get any money from people like my mom and stepdad. They're the lucky ones who didn't lose their home around all of their friends who mostly did in the affected like Northern California areas from those brush fires. And instead of apologizing or perhaps going out of business, they would run ads that were like, our workers are working so hard and you're being so mean. These prisoners putting out the fires are working so hard. They don't acknowledge the prisoners. No, no, no. See, I just did a bad version of the joke in the episode of the saying the South Korea thing.

They wouldn't do that in the ad. I messed up to. Yeah, like, by being saw in the nose, this cartoon can't be that interesting because it's all about directly delivering propaganda to the viewer. But the fact that itchy underlines the satire just reminds me of like a bad joke in a Grand Theft Auto game where they're always calling attention to the satire instead of just letting it play straight. it frustrates me so much. Yes. It's, yeah, that is a rock star issue. I wonder if that'll be a thing in the next Grand Theft Auto.

I wonder if they'll finally, though I also, in the clips that were in the trailer, I was like, well, can they even make satire anymore? The jokes that they would have made even 10 years ago in Grand Theft Auto 5 or 13 years ago in Grand Theft Auto 5, that just is YouTubers now. Like, that's just influencers now. I hope they grow up because, like, a common, Grant that thought of a joke that instead of, like, Burger King would be called Gay Burger or something. Yes, yes. Yeah, it would be that.

It would, or it be like fat-ass town or whatever, and everybody's fat. Yes, it's, though, man, that, yeah, I mean, again, that the anti-windmill thing, like, it's just one of those eight million examples of like, oh, yeah, Trump just is like your racist, stupid old uncle who just says, like, what do you do? when the wind stops for your windmill. You run out of power. It's like, but you have to hear it because it's the president's saying. Yeah, solar power. What if it's cloudy? Well, I guess March versus the monorail misled a lot of people.

Yes, it's true. See, that we need to take Conan O'Brien more to task for spreading such lies about both public transit and solar power. For all the money. It comes from Harvard on down. It's an op. It's an op from the CIA assets at Harvard. But yes, so after that, this is when. Lisa can take snow more.

Nuclear power helps heat that orphanage and keep that hospital humming. But what about wind power? It's cheap and safe. Is it? Remember, children, nuclear power is your friend? And so is Monty Burns. Don't end up like me for Republican.

God bless America. This cartoon was made in Korea. Burns owns everything. I've got to speak out before it's too late. Do! Dear readers, you hold in your hands the last paper not controlled by the Burns Media Empire. We are not afraid to say Montgomery Burns is a monopolistic,

self-aggrandizing... Stinky pants. Hmm, maybe Burns ain't so great. This little girl has given us a lot to mull. Hey, hey, you mugs, thinking ain't drinking. Hey, ow, okay. It's always nice to see an abusive mode. Yeah, it's just the stinky pants thing.

Like, I feel like you could do better. This is just like the basic idea. The swap in A for B. What's the kid equivalent? But, yeah, we've heard enough of this so far. And it looks like ADR. So I was like, boy, stinky pants, I feel like you can do better than that. I think Lisa can do better than that.

Right. I do like that the cover of Burns Weekly is it's already too late. Like, that's a good joke. That should be an economist cover. Oh, I'm reading The Economist. It's already too late. Don't do anything. So this is where, you know, and this also is real life.

The real Berns can't stand even one dissenting opinion. But I'll tell you what's not like real life. Everybody takes the blood ponies in real life. It sucks. That's true. The blood ponies do work. Yeah. Actually, this does remind me of the modern day in which you can make a billionaire go insane

if you are the one person who's yelling at them. through your platform now now it's social media like before they were protected from us and now it could be like shut up or here's where your private plane is flying right now yes yeah yeah like and that is why people buy social media accounts to shut those things down or have only people be nice to them and this this version of this is he brings in Lisa and is going to offer to buy it and people want to be bought out also everything sucks now if somebody gets offers you millions of dollars to sell out like I get it while I get wanting to sell out. It makes sense, but Jesus.

I mean, we're waiting for it to happen. We haven't been offered the blood ponies yet, but it's like, yeah, I mean, again, in that elephant graveyard video, it's about like, oh, yeah, all the billionaires easily captured the minds of these free thinkers out there. It was incredibly easy to do. You hire them for things, or you just fawn over them. You don't even have to pay them money. You just fawn over them and tell them how special and how they're fighting against the tyranny of thinking of two genders or more than two genders and then if someone says anything bad about that

billionaire you can say well they were always nice to me exactly like have you even talk to him this billionaire is a really smart guy actually it's like Jesus Christ well speaking of the blood ponies these things are totally designed to look like classic my little pony yes yeah it's like they and they them dancing like it's some really great animation

too it's also this feels like Al Jean remembers hey wait a minute I wrote an episode about Lisa getting a pony she likes ponies they're remembering that one trade of leases yeah it's funny that uh i went to a comic convention recently in vancouver a really small one and we stay for the cosplay competition there was like 20 people and the crowd still goes crazy uh for a very low effort cosplay of any of the new my little pony characters so like like i'm sparkle dash or whatever or is it rainbow dash there we go rainbow and the whole crowd's like yeah now i wonder if this was a vancouver comic con i know multiple

Vancouver based actors were the voices of the classic ML or the recent and by recent I mean 15 years old MLP show. I wonder if they were in attendance but yeah I was like oh this is so easy I should just go up to the mic in my street clothes and be like I'm Apple Jack now the people who were in their 20s for my little pony

are like 35 yeah actually I go to the stage to be like hi I'm derpy everybody would be like boo that's not okay and then you could do a video about cancel culture preventing your derpy act. Yeah. Can't talk about derpy anymore. But this

is where, unlike in the real world, Lisa resists the temptation. They're so beautiful. And their breath smells like peppermint. No, no. I won't take your blood ponies. Go on, sweetie. Go on. Shoot.

Very well. You had your chance. I'm going to shred you like a Christmas card. Now get out. I can't. My mom's not Picking me up for an hour. So, what do you think of today's popular music scene? I think it distracts people from more important social issues. My God, are you always on?

I think a lot of people listening to this are asking that about us. Yes. Maybe that should be one of our new clips when we talk too much about current day. Actually, I'm going to say that would be great. Okay, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, That'll become one of the new jingles, I'll add to it. But also, I love that Lisa's always on. It's like, you have to be always on if you're going to fight the Mr. Burns's of this world.

I hate to say it. And so we come to the next act, and this is where Lisa is making headlines. And this should be more headlines. Drop Dead. That should be it. And this whole Lisa to Burns Drop Dead headline is a parody of a very famous headline from the past. So the New York Daily News headline, 4 to City, drop dead. originally published on October 29th, 1975. So Ford never

actually said the words drop dead, but the headline was meant to increase anxiety over the possibility that Ford would not bail out and on the brink of bankruptcy New York City. They were worried he would not do that. So they generated that attention seeking headline. Oh, man.

Well, thank you, Bob. I should have realized that was a real thing. Now that's pinging my brain because in the 50th anniversary Saturday Night Live special, they had a parody of that headline said, New York to Ford, who's dead now, was the headline. I forgot about the rebuttal there. Yeah, it was in the John Mullaney musical sketch of the 50th anniversary

about how much New York has changed since 1975, and they ended with a parody of that headline, which is so funny now, I totally miss that as a reference here of Lisa saying Drop Dead to Byrd. Yeah, Fort to City Drop Dead is no headless body and topless bar, but it is one of the nicest newspaper headlines ever published. And this is where Ralph, he's below the fold, but he's making the front page with his reviews.

So he's moving up in the world. Yeah, and it is the obvious joke. It's like Ralph Wiggum's Oscar picks, and he is picking his nose. Ralph picking his nose became a dominant trait for a while. The playmates figure that I have of Ralph, probably the only Ralph they made from back. in the day he is he does have his finger in the nose picking position you can raise it up to his

nose so season 15 now i realize is like all nose pick well there's many ralph jokes in the season but he says my nose makes its own bubble gum and the other joke where he tries to pick his nose but instead pokes himself in the eye and is then going to cut his finger with scissors yeah and i guess looking back at i love lisa when they first started defining ralph that is something that he told the lisa like oh my doctor said i wouldn't get so many notes nose bleeds if I just kept my finger out of there. That shows you how the degradation of society that in that season, they're like, well, we can't literally have his finger in his nose.

We can just refer to it. Then in this season, they're like, finger and nose every shot, every episode. Let's paint a picture with our minds. Unfortunately, as they're delivering their papers, they're being attacked by some stupid women drivers and stupid women helicopter pilots. No nose statement about the segue that runs them off the road. which they say it on the commentary. We've mentioned it before.

The guy who owned the Segway company died falling off a cliff on a Segway. Yeah, it wasn't the creator. It was like a higher up at Segway. And then when they end up in the Rattlesnake Sanctuary, that also feels like an attempt at a Schwarzwaltry gag, too, right? Yeah, it's kind of a screw-you joke because you don't see how they escape from this. Yeah, you're right. It is, and at the very least, they should have a line.

like Charlie saying, I won't bore you with the details of how we escaped, Lisa, but this is very bad. Yeah, just not acknowledge at all. The car's a little beaten up, but we see them immediately back to work after fighting off a hundred rattlesnakes. And this is where most of the staff is quitting. You can't leave

now. We're the only thing is stopping, Mr. Burns. Sorry, Lisa. And by the way, that story I filed from Baghdad was all made up. I was actually in Basra. Everyone chickened out, except Ralph. He got poached by the Chicago Tribune.

I guess we're down to just me. Take the sob, Sister X, somewhere else. You're standing in my life. Bart, you're staying. Lease, I've learned a valuable lesson here. The pen is mightier than the flaming bag of poop. Oh, it's beautiful. This is a little.

an outrage. Since when are public figures fair game for satire? Your goons did run her off the road, sir. I can't be held responsible for what my goons were ordered to do. Perhaps there's a nonviolent way to silence this girl? Nonviolence never solved anything. Fine, curtsy boy. I'll try it your way. So the joke about Milhouse's fraudulent reporting, I think it might be a reference to disgraced journalist Jason Blair although there's more than a few reporters from his era that got in trouble for plagiarism,

fraudulent reporting, you know, not being where they said they were, making up sources, things like that. Brian Williams did a similar thing, but that was over a decade later. So it might be Jason Blair. Yeah, my first thought was like, oh, this is like predicting Brian Williams and saying that like he was somewhere in a

Basra type area being shot at in a helicopter and that never happened. But I think he's back to work at NBC News these days. I'm pretty sure, yeah. Jason Blair, I don't know what he's doing. But the fallout from that happened around the time the old man on the mountain crumbled. So I think these things were concurrent events. It's funny to imagine Millhouse in Basra, a city in Iraq, no American would ever hear of unless we illegally invaded that country.

And I got to say, Bart's political cartoon is just your average political cartoon. You draw Trump in a diaper in a crib. Maybe you label him Trump in case people are too stupid to know And he's throwing a bottle that says free speech on it Or whatever you want He's throwing a toy that has a thing That you like, but he doesn't written on it And then maybe like Putin is looking over him

As like the proud parents Yes, I mean, or he's he's on his knees At crotch level with Putin while throwing the bottle that says free speech Draw those hands small people It's all we've got The comb over has to be big, big comb over Like, yeah, it's a editorial cartoon I love them as a kid.

They can still be fun, but also, yeah, there's a lot of people who get away with the easy road in those editorial cartoons. Yeah, there are some very good ones. The very good ones are, like, devastating. But I just hate when it's just like, okay, here's a metaphor. Everything's labeled very nicely for you. Yes. Oh, on the birthday boys, Mike Hanford had that great character of like,

it's very funny, who just drew people over like a barrel of oil, right? I think it was the same basic. concept every time. But you know what I like of Bart realizing I like that an editorial cartoon is so powerful in this and that Bart is the type of person who would become a cartoonist who learns that you can bother the powerful with this. And I also like that in true cartoonist fashion, not only does he get in like the obvious jokes, but he also gets to get in his own personal like weirdness, which is drawing in

principal skin rash for no reason. Actually, we just described why political cartoons are bad. Just look at the work of Stan Kelly who makes parodies of those cartoons and often incorporates his own avatar into them, the character he's playing. And yes, those are like, everything is overly labeled. It's just this very twisted point of view that's engineering everything. Oh, yeah, and then Stan Kelly is in the middle. He draws himself in the corner box to explain the joke further, too.

Yes, yes. Actually, wait, oh, yeah, there's going to be, there's a Stan Kelly appearance in the Simpsons. this season. It would have been in the treehouse, I think. Yeah, I believe he, it's aired by now, but he did a couch gag, I think. At the Chicago Tribune these days, they just laid off most people, including the, I know the film critic, like, I think took a buyout, and it was whoever inherited the job after and replaced or took over after the passing of Roger Ebert. Yeah, yeah, it was the end of an era. Like, Ebert started, I think, in 67 or 68 at that job.

And so, honestly, I'm shocked it even was still. that it was a position that still existed in 2025 to lay off, that it didn't happen to be killed earlier than that. But I love that picture of Ralph looking thoughtful in an editorial way. Like that is a, I really love that drawing. Yeah, with all like the crosshatching on it, it looks like it's out of the New Yorker or something. Yes, it looks like, like, oh, the editor at large,

all of those like terrible articles written by the Brett Stevens of the world or whoever about just like you know I was seeing today why do people buy so many pieces of laundry or whatever but a terrible opinion page is what I'm trying to think of here and also yes Burns kind of saying

the point of the episode too like since when are public figures fair game for satire this is what you're watching I like that and I think Burns saying I can't be held responsible for what my goons were ordered to do is a classic Mr. Burns line yeah they're remembering that Burns loves his goons we haven't heard

We haven't seen much gooning from the burn side of things these days. Not a lot of goning. Can't be a goon anymore. I mean something different. And this is where they decide to go the nonviolent route, which is doing the things that billionaires love to do to silence their enemies and starting with cutting the power. And Homer singing the Spice Girls isn't funny to me.

But the meta joke of that it was worth it. I like that because it's them saying, we spent real money to get this Spice Girl song and it was worth it. Yeah, he puts the two remaining D batteries that have to power everything in the house in the boom box, and he gets to sing along to wannabe for, I don't know, eight seconds. Yes. And it was worth it. All of that.

I mean, this time they're really into Dan Castaneta as Homer singing along to a song poorly. There's a lot of that in season 15. And after we get a Spice Girls joke, we think everything's over. She can't print her stuff. And this is when she runs in a Skinner, this feels like a scene in the post or whatever of like, Or in one of those biopics of, oh, you thought this person was your enemy, but you know what? They want to stand up for what's real or what's true. Yeah, I wish there'd be a little more Skinner in this back half because he's only here to introduce Lisa to the

Mimeograph. They are still remembering that he is a Vietnam vet. I'm trying to keep track of when will they stop with Skinner and Vietnam jokes. So, Henry, I know I'm old enough for this. You're my age. I'm sure our school systems were the same in certain ways. But I definitely had worksheets and tests that were mimeographed or they came out of the ditto machine, which was a similar process. And yes, the ink was always purple or blue.

In my case, it was always purple. Man, yeah, the purple sounds right. You know, when you said mimeograph, I was like, I don't remember that. But yes, we have the ditto machine. I don't know if this was your case, but my teacher would hand out like, okay, guys, here's your dittos. Work on your dittos. They'd call them dittos. Yeah, I feel like a billion years old.

And I feel like by the time I hit maybe six or seventh grade, I never saw a ditto again. I think somebody was like, we cannot be handing out dittos in 1994 people. What's happening here? When I saw the mimeograph in this, I wasn't even thinking of like, oh, that's the dittos I got as a kid. But you're totally right. It's the same process. And the ink was kind of stinky. That's a hallmark of the ditto machine or the mimeograph.

They're different machines. I know that. Mimeograph heads, please settle down. But they do have similar processes and similar stinky inks. If we were to smell the ink now, it would take us back to our Vietnam's, which is second grade. That was a good Vietnam. I won. Yeah, actually, no, I would guess middle schools more of our Vietnam's, wouldn't it be? Now, we make fun about Gene for his licensed music too much in the season,

but this one I liked because they know Incenses Peppermints is such a hacky song to indicate Vietnam, that that's the joke. Yeah, and they play about five seconds of it. Now Disney has to pay for both of these songs, which I really like. And it's all for the sake of setting up a joke where he is captured by the Viet Cong while mimeographing a flyer for the sale of a chair. Finally, in 1992, I was reunited with that chair. It wasn't quite the same.

$5 or best offer, great for sitting. I think Two Skinner is supposed to represent when he's like, oh, I like the principal skin rash joke of like, if you're a public figure like that, take the joke well like Principal Skinner does or honestly in the real world Rupert Murdoch did take these jokes better than the current billionaires. I hate to, you don't got to hand it to him, but he took these jokes better. Yeah, these guys cannot handle being disliked. Rupertnerc is like, no, fine, I get to have my money. I get to get a new wife every once in a while. It's great. I own everything. Meanwhile, it's like to name a different billionaire when you say the owner of

Facebook or meta, when people make fun of you, you instead get super into MMA and become weirdly buff. You start dressing like a teenager of a different ethnicity, usually? Oh, right. Yeah, that was also weird. Yeah, he's, look, it's crazy to be rich. If you weren't crazy before, you will be crazy once you be. Like, you think how crazy you get if you had $10 million, then multiply that by a thousand and

imagine how crazy you'd be. And we're back to more of the little kid humor, which I'll keep harping on. The headline is, yeah, yeah, we're back. Lisa rules, Burns, drools. And I don't like that they're reducing Lisa to this with this and the stinky pants and things like that. Lisa, if anything, she takes herself too seriously. Yes, she is an eight-year-old. But that's why we have the great Burns joke.

Are you always on? So it should be more articulate, again, maybe taking itself a little too seriously. But it's like, well, I know Lisa wrote this headline. Why would she do this? Yeah, the childish stuff also, it works better if she doesn't do it, because then she's surrounded by people acting childish, like Bart's being childish with his editorial cartoon, it would hit harder if Lisa was very serious in her headlines

instead of acting childish as well. Yeah, there's lots of great scenes in which Lisa is trying to be grown up and she's surrounded by actual children, like the, yes, I'm going to marry a carrot scene in Lisa the vegetarian, where all the girls are acting like real little kids and she is above it all. Like, no, it's sexes. Lisa said a dirty word. Yeah, like that too.

Yeah. But Mr. Burns can't take it, and this is where he wants to call in some help. Good God. I'm at war with a little girl, and I'm losing. Smithers, this calls for the League of Evil. My league! My beautiful league! All dead.

Even monsters need air, sir. Blessed. Well, gather their watches. I must find another way to vanquish the girl. So, has your daughter always been such a righteous little rabble-roser? Oh, yeah, she's always trying to improve mankind. Fascinating, do go on. Wait a minute.

Are you trying to get dirt on, Lisa? Oh, you saw right through me. Well done. Have some congratulatory drugs. Well, if that's your custom. Now, tell me more about your daughter and speak into the lamp. Okay. Yeah, the League of Evil is so great, and I love how Burns killed all of these men.

Yeah. Because he suffocated them behind this door that exists when the bookcases part. We see this room behind the bookcases. And it's a great choice that they're all skeletons, and they're still in all of their period clothing. And seemingly they're each from a different time period and location. There's like a cowboy, there's like a Genghis Khan kind of guy there, too, like a NASA scientist. It's so great. I love that he has this League of Evil, and at one point he said, well, thanks, guys, and he pressed the button to close it, and he didn't realize he killed all of them, and they were trapped.

They were trapped behind their starving to death, seemingly. Even monsters need air, sir. Oh, yeah, I guess they suffocated before they starved, yeah. And the extra detail that he's stealing their watch is pretty great, too. And I love hearing Byrne say, my league, my beautiful league. But yeah, now Homer has to be brought into this to let Lisa down. Like, it has to, I mean, Algin loves a Homer wrongs, Lisa, and has to make it up to her. But this is coming in real late to do that.

Yeah, he knows this plays in the sticks. It's funny and how lazy it is, but he's like, well, if it's your custom, like, he has to take the drugs. So he does something that you can't fully blame Homer for. Yeah, real Homer would just blab this out. He would need to eat two bowls full of pills and drink two green potions. Yes. Like, you don't need him to be drugged to say he hates Milhouse and that he thinks it's funny that Millhouse is a nerd who likes a girl.

In fact, I forgot that he was drugged until we see the newspaper headline later, where there's a photo of Homer looking very drunk and talking into the lamp. Yeah, that's right. He isn't drawn drunk until later when it's like Lisa is a total wacko implies father. also saying liberal wacko is fun well it is funny that like Byrne says liberal wacko a and then

they call her a wacko implying the father when it's just Burns asking him that and yeah we get a little bit of Millhouse brought in here I you know I do like the design of Burns as beefcake Charlie that's an all right drawing yeah he looks like Rudolph Valentino

because he struts in front of the mirror and says oh there's nothing more pathetic than self-delusion he's like oh hello beefcake Charlie he's got a little mustache too, like a little Spanish mustache? He does. It is a great design of what a 89-year-old man would think was a handsome old, older gentleman. And so, yes, it makes all the headlines.

This has always been the playbook of, well, he couldn't buy her off. He couldn't destroy her business. So it's time for basically libel to destroy Lisa. Like, definitely that it's what you do to your political enemies always in this stuff. And it works. It hurts. It destroys Lisa, except it's about a crush. I guess this is more of that rug ratification or recess style thing, too, right?

Yeah, yeah, because the shopper reports on Lisa Loving Millhouse, and then he pulls a real chairface maneuver by projecting a message onto the moon. You know, it's good animation for how that red light writing on things looked back then. Now he would write it in the sky with lit up drones, I would guess. That's how they do it these days. I think so. Also, I do like the line, way to go, moon millhouse. Moon Millhouse is a fun title.

Yeah, this just reminded me that my hometown's paper in Youngstown, Ohio, The Vindicator, went out of business in 2019. I think it was consumed by the Ogden company, that conservative company. I'm not sure whose services are town now in terms of news, but that was hard to see. And it was before COVID, too, so they couldn't use that as an excuse. Dang, yeah, I was going to say 2019. It can't even say that, yeah, I wonder if my local paper from Jacksonville, what its status is. I can't imagine, I mean, it was a conservative newspaper already.

One of the last things I remember about it was the anger at when in the mid-aughts they started, they got some angry letters from when they started publishing boondocks in the newspaper there. So your local paper was the Jacksonville. There was no Orange Park Herald? You know, I bet there was a freebie in Orange Park, but we definitely, we, we, we, subscribe to the Jacksonville newspaper. I want to say Tribune. I'm seeing it's called the Florida Times Union. Is this

sound correct? Yep. Thank you, Bob. Yes. Well, do you have it in front of you if it still exists? Does it exist? I'm looking. I'm looking yes, it does. Okay, all right. Well, that's not as cool as the word the Vindicator. No, Vindicator is so much

better. Times Union. That's boring. Also, I love any joke where they bring up that Lisa wears plastic pearls all of the time. Like, that's a good joke, too. It's not as good as when John Waters compliments them, but it's still pretty good. Yeah, it's an acknowledgement of a weird choice. And this is where Burns is celebrating, but he is overpowered by an ant.

I think this is where on the commentary, Al Jean points out the like, this is one of the last times we did, like, a Burns' is weak joke. Or he seems to say they put a moratorium on it. I don't know why. He does not give his reasoning. These are funny. I mean, they're just hilarious. Like, he can't crush an ant, and then he take my wallet and leave me a little. own. Yeah, the aunt pushes him over via his shoe.

And I like that he's like mid a sentence. He's like as easy as crushing an ant, you know, and then he gets like knocked over by the end. But yes, this is where Lisa, she can't take it anymore. She gives up. You know, this is in real life, the truth tellers out there do eventually. There's only so much someone can take, really, in this life. And so she's just given up. And this is where Homer can stands no more. It's not fair. Oh, I can't stand seeing one of my children like this. I can still hear her. I better do something.

Look at you go. Typeity, type, type, type. March, I'm pulling an all-nighter for my little girl. Put in a pot of coffee. Drink it and start making burgers. Hmm. Some anniversary. this is. Marge does not have a lot to do in this episode, so even though it's at her expense, I do like there's a joke about how sad her life is.

Yeah, I think that's my favorite joke in the episode is like that Marge, with the joke being that Marge is disappointed and that's what the anniversary has become, then I think her complimenting, like, look at you go, I read it as Marge is kind of turned on or just like, okay, once you finish typing this,

it's time for our anniversary date, right? And instead, he finds out he's just going to be up all night writing. We're just very proud that Homer has some initiative. Also, put on a cup of coffee, drink it, and start making burgers. Homer's going to stay up all night eating cheeseburgers. That'll give him the quick energy he needs to finish writing. Now, I'm wondering if this joke, this headline, is a reference to the movie My Father, the Hero.

I think it has to be. Ooh, yeah, you know, I think you're right, too, though, boy, that's a movie best forgotten, I think. I remember We Hate Movies covered it And they did every possible joke you can do About Gerard Depardue Not being in love with his daughter But everybody thinking he is Oh, that's the premise

Yeah, I know Catherine Hegel Uncomfortably Young and Half Naked in that film Yes, the joke is He doesn't like that his young daughter wears a revealing thong-like A piece of swimwear But for the joke to work, you have to see all of a 15-year-old's butt Like, it's just how the joke has to work, guys.

They have to show it. You see, when that came out and I was 10, I was told that's why I should see it. Now that I'm much older, I'm told that's why I shouldn't see it. And yet, I bet it being a remake of a French film also starring Gerard Depardue, I have to bet the joke in the French film is even worse than the one that they did in the American version. You don't want to go there. Yeah, you know, now you mention titles referencing movies. Obviously, the idea of broadcast news is just like an idea.

it being a James L. Brooks directed film, I do feel like the title is a reference to his movie broadcast news as well. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And hey, speaking of, well, actually, why do we hear Homer's editorial, which it's written the way Homer would write a bad thing, but that has heart to it. All my daughter ever did was tell people to think for themselves. I may be her father, but when I grow up, I want to be just like her.

Except still a dude. Oh, dad, this is so sweet. But I've learned one little paper can't make a difference in this world. The Barney Bugle... Lisa, you made me realize the importance of free and independent media. So I printed my own paper, although it's mostly cold from wire services. Ugh.

Hey, who wants a copy of the Lenny Sava? You have a newspaper, too? Well, I was reading in the home of times about what you did for us, and I got to thinking maybe I should start asking my own questions. You know, find out the truth about things. It had to be told. Check out the Willie World News. I reviewed the new tractors.

They're all shit. How do they get away with, like, that's just saying the word shit on TV. Yeah, with an accent. Well, I guess the argument could be made. Well, we've said the word sheet before, and I guess that that's somebody with an accent saying the word shit could sound like sheet, but it feels like something that slip past the sensors, but a big slip up. It's, uh, the U.K. sensors apparently, uh, didn't slip up the same and cut that joke. Well, you know, uh, corporate media is not very conservative, but, uh, Barney and Lenny and others are starting up their own chapo trap houses, their own Michael and Uses, their own citations needed.

Yeah. I would assume back in 2004, this joke is just about how every people are starting up blogs or drudge report. or things like that. Like this also, I think, is predicting now how everything, there's just a massive information in every, Homer will say it. I have the clip of that too. But this might be just a reference to blogs at the time, right? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. And in the 2011 commentary, they're talking about, well, this episode feels so dated. It's all print. And now, while we have our blogs, I'm thinking, man, I wish we had blogs again. That was great. I've been doing this for so long that I remember being called a blogger

as an insult a few times back in the day. And now, like, if you're a blogger, you have a personal blog that's not on a Patreon or a or if you're a Nazi substack, if you don't have those two things, if you just have like, no, I have a blog. It is my website where I have a web blog. It still is seen as like very old-fashioned, isn't it? And there are still a very few remaining blogs that I actually read. And I'm like, man, this was a great format.

Why did we get away from it? Well, there are various reasons, most of them because of corporate media, because of horrible people buying websites. and changing the way we consume media to make our taste more singular. Well, like we would go to social media originally, like, I was told to start up my Twitter account and began my Twitter obsession

because it was like, I work for a website, if people follow you on Twitter, you can tell them to read your articles somewhere else. And at a certain point, again, like you say, thanks to corporate media, it just became like, no, you only put your things on this site,

because that's what people are going to see on the social media and we'll send nobody nowhere. Yes, yeah. I mean, we've litigated this a lot on our podcasts. Many of you have heard this, but it was very funny, in quotes. You've got to laugh that so much energy in time, so many jobs were wasted on the idea of like, we got to make good posts on Facebook and Twitter

to send people to our websites and ultimately those places decide, no, we want you to stay here. And then that throws everything into disarray. When we worked together at a certain website in 2016, 17. They had one video of like a Telatubbies parody or something that did like 10 million views on Facebook and like, wow, what a big success for us. It led to no traffic and no other things happening. Like nobody went to the website because of that video. Yeah, it was an example of now this is the kind of viral video we need to make. And it was Telatubbies set to an Ed Sheeran song or something like that. But here's the thing. Facebook almost immediately took it down for copyright infringement. So it never even had a chance to. to make us money if that was even on the table, which I don't think it was. And this was like during the time of being told, like, no, short form video. That's what Facebook wants.

It's like Facebook lied about all of those numbers. None of it did right. Yeah. It's, we go on about this, but it is crazy to see this episode ending with, well, these cooks will replace newspapers and like, well, now we've lived long enough to see those cooks replace it. And now that's been replaced like two times over by things even worse. but the Lenny Saver also is a good

I mean they take penny saver turn it to Lenny Saver good good joke same way the headline The Truth About Carl He's great Like good good good good It had to be told

But yes this is where we get Homer telling us the sad future We're all going to live in And then Burns giving us the moral To the story See Lisa Instead of one big shot controlling all the media

Now there's a thousand freaks Xeroxing their worthless opinion. I couldn't be prouder. Are you a penny or a Selma? Take our quiz. Well, blow me down. I'm a Shelma. Well, I guess it's impossible to control all the media.

Unless, of course, Rupert Murdoch. He is one beautiful man. I couldn't agree more. Smithers, I'm a proud fellow, and it's not easy for me to admit defeat. But I know just the thing to me make me feel better shopping. Would it surprise you to learn everyone out there?

This was a very late rewrite, this ending with no animation. What a weird thing. I feel like the looking at the camera and naming Rupert Murdoch, that can just be your ending. Fade out on that. That's all you need. I guess they thought it wasn't strong enough. And it feels like they just are reusing Alf Klossin's Land of Chocolate theme for

an easy laugh. All the pictures of Burns and Smithers shopping. Together at the mall are very cute, and I like when Burns is being carried away from the mall at night, Smithers is carrying him, Burns has got like a little balloon. It's all very adorable. In fact, I'd like to have one of these production drawings because they're so cute, but it's not a strong ending. When you're ending on no animation in your cartoon. Yeah, and just they didn't pay for a song. They instead just used the copy of the theme from Tuck. Tucker, a man in his dream. Right. And also, you know, now that you mention it, Bob, this rhymes in a way. because the season finale Mo Baby Blues also ended with a photo montage of Homer and Mo going on like a double date with a ham and Maggie.

I guess they might think that that device works or like the playing up the cutesyness over the top will generate some laughs. It just feels like a shrug to me. But this is the season finale, right? Yep, yeah, this is the end of season 15. They want this just like that Mo Baby Blues is the best episode of that season probably

but ends with kind of a thud to me of just like a series of photographs and then same deal they ended with this one but I'm at least glad they decided to end the season with this episode instead of Bart Mangled Banner this is a better one to take you into those tough summer months of the 2004 election

yeah it was a rough anxiety-ridden time that summer of 2004 but hey it'll be so much better in the fall of 2000. Don't go back in time and tell people it gets much worse. They don't want to know that. But looking at the camera to tell you, this is about Rupert Murdoch, the guy who owns this place. Get it?

Like, I like the thud obviousness of it at the very end. Yeah, too bad Rupert did not make an appearance on this episode. See, I was like, boy, what do I remember about Rupert Murdoch these days? And like, he stepped down in 2003. He married his fifth wife last year at 94. And he lost a lawsuit from suing his also old children to make sure that when he finally goes to hell, that only the son he wants stays in charge because he fears the other kids will make it too liberal when he dies. But he lost that lawsuit. So when he dies, who knows what will happen to his remaining empire anyway.

Yeah, I mean, like some of his kids have to be, what, 70 years old at this point? Right. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It's funny, too, that, like, he outlived the TV show's succession that was making fun of him being old. Yeah, I mean, anything can happen in two months. And if it happens, we're responsible. It's the one time we can take credit. And I hope that we get some Kent Brockman-style news pieces on it as well when that happens.

Because it is, I mean, he, look, did he have a good sense of humor about himself when Simpson's made fun of him? Maybe. But you can look at, like, 800 different things in your life. and why things are so bad, and you could probably blame Rupert Murdoch for a few of them, at the very least. I think so, too. But I guess, wrapping this up here,

I do like this episode. Again, I've said it before multiple times in the past two hours, but the kiddie stuff, it always grates on me. I want The Simpsons to do a little more, put an added twist on it outside of like the kids are doing it all things,

blah, blah, blah. But the burn stuff is great, lots of great Burnsisms, and I just love seeing him in this era where he is not around very much. So that ultimately makes this a winner for me. Yeah, I think compared to Bart Mangled Banner where they decide to go macro and it's the Simpsons arrested by the U.S. government and thrown into a secret prison

and it just goes so big in a South Park style, I prefer them sticking to Springfield scale stories that satirize the same big targets, except they make it Mr. Burns. And we all have Mr. Burns. and it works. Like the kid newspaper thing, I could use a little less of that too. But the satire works. It's a better way to leave this season on a happier note than Elmo killing himself. Yes, thank you.

We opened the episode with a near suicide. We didn't close the episode with an absolutely it happened suicide. Well, I mean, every time there's a suicide joke, we think it has to be Dana Gould because he really loves jokes about suicide. thankfully he's still with us to this very day and yes it's been another episode of Talking Simpsons

thanks so much for listening everybody if you want to support the show but even more importantly get all the episodes ad free that's right zero ads and also you'll get a ton

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Bob's talking about the What a Cartoon movie podcast our premium podcast where we cover animated feature films as in depth as The Simpsons it's basically the equivalent of getting three extra podcasts a month from us because we talk for sometimes five or six hours about films like last month we covered the Lego movie a very important film from the creators of Clone High that changed the animation history

wouldn't have the Spider-Verse movie or K-pop demon hunters without the Lego movie and that's just the most recent ones we've covered we've done tons of Disney films we've done tons of anime we've done the Beavis and Butthead both movies and so many others Hey, we even did Shrek. We talked about that at the beginning of the episode. I know you'll love our Shrek one.

Sign up today to get the whole back catalog, hundreds of hours of us covering the movies on top of all the ad-free and other bonus exclusives you get at the $5 level. Look for yourself and see what you're missing at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. And I've been one of your host, Bob Mackie. You can find me on Blue Sky and Letterbox

and many other places as Bob Servo. And my other podcast is called Retronauts. That is a classic gaming podcast about old video games. You can find that wherever you find your podcast or go to patreon.com slash retronauts for a ton of bonus episodes. And Henry, what about you? You can find me on Blue Sky and Instagram as Talking Henry. Plus, I'm on Letterbox as H&E-R-E-Y-G.

Follow both of us in those places to keep up to date with what we're doing. But you can also follow at Talk Simpsons Pod in all of those places because that is where you will stay up to date when new episodes go live on the Patreon or on the free feed. or if we've got news in our lives, you know about all of it if you follow at Talk Simpsons pod. And never forget,

talking simpsons.com is the website for all of our previously released, free podcast, both of Talking Simpsons and What a Cartoon. Thank you so much for listening, everybody. We'll see you again next time as we wrap up season five with Secrets of a Successful Marriage,

and we'll see you then. I've bought every media outlet in town, TV, radio, even the Skywriters. Claytus, what does that say? That? That says, um, I loves you, Brandein. Oh, Cletus. Tonight you can knock me up again.