Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Future-Drama With Steve Yurko

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

"We can do anything now that scientists have invented magic." - Marge Simpson Join us as we travel to the far-off future world of 2013, where Lisa's Yale full scholarship to Yale is somehow snatched away by Bart. Will she be damned to a future with a roided-up, emotionally unstable Milhouse, or will her brother do the right thing and make Lisa's dreams of studying femistry and galgebra a reality? Our guest: Steve Yurko from The One Piece Podcast 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. Hoy, ho, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, a serious discussion of gender. I'm one of your host, the Femistry Major Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons, who is here with me today, as always. Still not gay for moleman, Henry Gilbert. And who is our special guest on the line? Now a Dictorian of Hot Dog on a Stick Management Camp, Steve Yerco. And this week's episode is Future Drama.

Would you like to see yourselves as teenagers? No, let's go there now. This episode originally aired on April 17, 2005, and as always, Henryville will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. The Amityville Horror remake tops the box office. Cult hit Psychonauts is released on the Xbox. and Joseph Ratzinger is elected Pope Benedict the 16th. We all saw the smoke coming out of the chimney.

We've been on Pope Watch for a while now. Pope John Paul II's death. Upset of the schedule of Simpsons releases in 2005. And now we're at the election of Pope Benedict the 16th. We're now two popes past that as it is. I just remember this guy, obviously, he grew up in Germany. He was all that stuff. But also, I thought it was BS that he got to retire as Pope.

A Pope retirement, you're supposed to die as Pope. It's like podcasting, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Less important, but still pretty important to some people. He got to retire in 2013 and then die in 2022 at 95. It's just like, I'm sorry, man. If you get to be the Pope, you're Pope for life, man. That's the Pope deal.

Of course, too, he oversaw a lot of the church's biggest scandals, or at least the reporting on them happened during his time. Yeah. I mean, even more importantly, though, at this moment in time, this is when I began formally my comedy writing career, which lasted for about 15 years. I'm not funny anymore, but I was for a time. And my first article was about the swearing-in of the new pope. I was a regular comedy columnist for my college newspaper at the jam bar, and I transitioned into writing for something awful, and I did that for a very long time. And I hung up my comedy cap in 2019.

So more important than the Pope, I dare say. Wow. Well, you retired from comedy writing a little later after he retired from being the Pope. And I oversaw no scandals. Yeah. And Psychonauts, that was a big deal that it was Tim Schaefer's first game with Double Fine, and Double Fine's just been in the news a lot lately. I think when we're recording this, they just got back.

They announced that they got back the rights to all of their games. They released with Microsoft after Microsoft just spun them off to avoid calling it layoffs. Yes, yeah. And now you can buy Double Fine games without supporting Microsoft, which is great. And unfortunately, I already own all of their games. games because they don't really make that many. It was easy to own them without it, right? Yes. Yes. Psychonauts, I don't know what our opinion is on this one. I played the PS2 version,

not ideal. This is an early-aughts platformer, so it's kind of rough. I was having problems with it at the time. I did finish it. There's an infamous final level called the Meat Circus that everybody hates. And I know Psychonauts 2 universally beloved, I have it still up to play it. I know it's a lot more playable, but it's great to see this brand continue into the future. And there's even like a VR game they made. I think. to bridge Psychonauts 1 and 2. I only played a little of Psychonauts 2. I got to like five hours in

and then something came up. For some reason, I didn't get back to it. But Steve, what's your Psychonauts experience? Not much. I just remember that being a game, my assistant store manager at GameStop at the time told me I should play. And I did not listen to him.

I'm sure the game probably costs like 10 bucks back in 2008. Now it's probably like 10 times as much. and it's graded by someone very important, I take it. It's sealed and lucite. You can't break it out of that box. I did play a lot of the Xbox release of the first Psychonauts back when this came out, or within a month of it, though it was another one that me and my brother shared playing, and he's the one who stuck with it to beat that meat circus level

and searching for like the 800th collectible to see the secret ending. It left such a, we had a good time. with it, then the last like eight hours of playing it was interminable, looking for like the last eight things you missed in the stage. I'm going to tie this into my writing career, too. Tim Schaefer wrote the afterwork to my book. Wow. Man.

Okay. Well, Bob, what did you write about Amityville Horror then? I briefly lived in the house and I wrote a few articles in there. So this is all about me this week. Sorry, Steve. I don't want to draw attention from our guests. No, I was a sophomore in high school in 2005. I was doing nothing of note.

The Amityville Horror remake of one of many, many, many ones. So this was, the aughts were a real heavy time for remakes of 70s and early 80s horror films. This is the one, there's a million films called Amity. I think with Amityville in the title, I believe the Red Letter Media guys did a video talking about how that and calling a horror movie like Exorcist, having that in the title. Neither of those are like copywritten. So there's a million movies called like the Amityville something. or The Blank Exorcist. Right.

Yeah, yeah. I know the original 70s movie was very, very popular. It influenced that Simpsons Trey House of Horror segments. Right. The first segment in Treehouse History, yeah.

Though this one is the Ryan Reynolds film. He's the father of the family. And it was a film debut of Chloe Grace Mortz, or Moritz. And it broke 100 million, so it was a successful horror film. Okay. I will tie this into my life, by the way.

So my former boss, Richard Lotech, Kianca, he made a short film called Doom House. So sort of like an Amityville horror, but comedic. And I'm not sure what happened to that guy, because last thing I heard, he lost his head. He must have been really worried about something. I didn't pursue that any further. I'm sure people will get to the bottom.

Yeah, yeah. Somebody get internet detectives. Tell me what happened. I don't know. And this is 2005. Was this when Ryan Reynolds could still play a character? Or was he locked into Van Wilder at this point? He wasn't always Deadpool slash Ryan Reynolds.

Reynolds in everything at that point. He was acting so. Where are we on the Taj timeline? Has the rise of Taj happened? Were we living under the reign of Taj? Man, is Taj movie out of this point? That was a direct-to-video, I think, too, wasn't it? Yes. So Taj's cruel rain and cool rain did not begin until 2006. They might be filming it at this time. And unfortunately, Henry, they did put this in movie theaters, but we all wanted Van Wilder himself to show up. I don't think he did.

So that's everything that happened when this futuristic episode of Simpsons first aired. And joining us once again is Steve Yerko from the One Piece podcast and Steve last joined us when we talked about season four as a new kid on the block. Welcome back to the show, Steve. Thanks for having me, guys. Yeah, I realized that was like three years ago. I'm like, yeah, that was like a couple years ago. It's, oh, time is an abyss, as some of my friends say. But not happy to be back and uncharted territory for me. Yeah, season 16, I never touched this stuff. I did think Steve would be a good guess for this one too because of your work on Rick and Morty.

You've been a storyboarder on it for years now. I think, what, five, five years or so? Let's see. No, it'll be seven years. Whoa. We all forget how long it's been running. It's now an institution. Yeah, basically.

I would like to think that because in the year 2026, I would still like to be employed in an animation production. So thank God Rick and Morty is on this level. And this episode feels like Rick and Mortyish to me, not just in that they go into a scientist's basement instead of his garage. And he has a magic device that then creates the plot driver of the episode. But also, I feel like in the world of Rick and Morty, correct me if I'm wrong, Steve, but it seems like almost every episode would have the demands that this episode puts on the artist, which is a ton of designs of every character that's brand new and tons of

brand new places too. Or not even that. It'd be something like Morty's mind blowers from seasons back where it's just multiple like futures, different scenarios. Though that's something Futurama has done. I forget which episode is that. But you guys know what I'm talking about there where it had like three. But this one's just.

Oh yeah. What if Bart and Lisa were teenagers? And that's as far as it goes. But yeah, I think what was astounded me watching this was just seeing how many redesigns were in this. because those are costly, both time and money. Yeah, it's pretty work-intensive. And also, this is the first episode of The Simpsons New Future Canon,

which peers into the far-off year of 2013. What will the world have for us in that future? This episode explores that. And this episode is also part of a loose trilogy. So we have this one. We have 2011's Holidays of Future Past, which could have been the series finale if things shook out differently.

And then we have 2014's Days of Future Future. So forget what you know about Lisa's wedding embark to the future. Those futures do not exist anymore. And I did watch those in prep too, just to compare. I had not seen either Polidays of Future Past or Days of Future Future in a good while, and probably since their first airings. But so I did rewatch them as part of this, and yes, there are more future episodes than those two after this one in Simpsons, but they are really the Jenda trilogy.

Like they all have gender. and Lisa Millhouse trilogy. It canonizes the relationships in this one. I'm just thinking what would happen if The Simpsons ended in 2011. We'd be screwed, Henry. We'd be out on the streets. We'd only have seven more seasons to cover after this one.

I have held it against this episode for years, though, because I think it's Holidays of Future Past is an all right season 23 episode. I actually, having just rewatched the Days of Future Future from season 25, I don't like that episode that much. But I hold it against this one because I really do hate. BART and Jenda, that doesn't bother me as much. But I do not like Lisa and Milhouse together.

And it does bother me. It always has. It bothers me too. I like the Millhouse doesn't count era of the future where clearly something happened and they're willing to put it behind them and laugh. And in that loose trilogy, there is like a sort of kind of side one to it that could sort of count with this one, which is the season 27 episode Bart Hood, which is the Boyhood parody, where it does go up to Bart's graduation day,

or it's the party after graduation. And most characters match their character designs in this episode, but especially Millhouse, and it's Millhouse's graduation party. So it sort of fits with this one, except in that one, then when they flash forward more Lisa's with Nelson. So it doesn't exactly fit there,

I'd say. But yeah, I'm glad they've gotten away from, they've done a lot more future episodes after that, but they don't fit with this Jenda trilogy. Right, right. The very rich character of Jenda. In this episode, the origins come from Matt Sleman being a little stinker because Matt Sleman heard MacRenning Stain and Press a few times. The best part about the Simpsons never aging is that you don't have to see Bart and Lisa as teenagers. And he thought, what if we did exactly that? What if I violated my boss's wishes? Which is where a lot of Matt Selman people are. pitches came from. And this will not be the first time Matt Selman screws with the timeline. He also will write that 90s show. And we're going to need a lot of therapy to get through that one. But I think I've come to terms with what that episode is trying to do. That'll be years in our future, though. I mean, now I wonder how I'll react to that one now because we do exist in a world now where they've done episodes where Marge graduates high school in like 2001. Or, no, 2000, I think it was. Yeah. It was a Y2K musical, right? Yes. Yes, yes. She's mad about Tim Meadows leaving

SNL or something like that as a teenager. I'm just mad Tim Meadows never gets his due. I mean, he is like, he's the foundation of so many comedy movies I enjoy. Tim Meadows is not good enough flowers. I'm using this platform to profess my love for Tim Meadows. This is the official son of Zorn podcast now. We won't talk about his co-star who plays his wife in that show, but Tim Meadows, no problems at all with him. You have to at least say who this is and that they're not imprisoned or guilty of anything.

Guilty of any crimes. Sorry, I am talking about the wife of R.FK. Jr. plays wife from, but God, now I can't remember. And Henry, what's her name? I can't remember it now. Damn it. Betty actorless. No, Cheryl Hines.

Cheryl Hines. Yes. But her only crime is having bad taste in men, I think, ultimately. She should leave that guy for many reasons, I think. It's strange she has it. Henry, you're exempt from this, but she's from Florida. What do you expect? Oh, damn.

Henry, you're from Arkansas. Yeah. I can only judge the people from Arkansas. But speaking of just aging up these characters, it's interesting talking about it now in a post King of the Hill reboot world. And I think it works great for King of the Hill, but I think Simpsons is just too much of a brand where, no, you can't age these characters.

We got to make Legos and all this other stuff out of them. They're not doing that with Bobby Hill. You're totally right, Steve. There's too much of a like Simpsons footprint in our world when it comes to just how they're just around everywhere in toys, in signage, in rides. King of the Hill had like a few t-shirts, one line of action figures, one PC game no one remembers, but that's essentially it. So it was fine to meddle in that world because we're not living in like seeing Hank everywhere

in that kind of universe. I wonder what the Simpsons would do if faced with this specific challenge that King of the Hill has and succeeded with their flash forward, which is for The Simpsons, every time they do a flash forward, it is just built around what they think will be a funny joke or can work for one episode. But, you know, Mike Judge and Greg Daniels and Saladin Patterson, they all have to think of a way that the King of the Hill show can work for 100 episodes in a setup instead.

Like so they had to think it through more. I would like to see what The Simpsons could do if they were tasked with write a whole season in the future of The Simpsons. Yeah, yeah. And this episode also was nominated for the outstanding animated program, Emmy and lost, surprisingly, the Simpsons around this time rarely ever lost, but it lost to the South Park episode Best Friends Forever. And if you don't know what that is, that is their Terry Shivo episode, which also had a lot of PSP product placement. Now, if you don't know what Terry Shivo or the PSP are,

ask your parents. They will explain it all to you. I remember, yes, Cartman was trying to inherit the PSP that Kenny got and was keeping him alive with a feeding tube. Yes. Yes. And the other nominees were Family guys North by North, Cahog, Samurai Jacks, the Four Seasons of Death, and the SpongeBob Square Pants segments, Fear of a Cravy Paddy and Shell of Man. So South Park, by being extremely topical, and I imagine that episode was pretty funny, I saw it at the time. They took home that Oscar Gold. Sorry, Emmy Gold. Yes, Emmy. And the golden PSP.

Yes. Well, I mean, Steve, as an employee on Ricky Morty, you would know what it's like to have to battle the Simpsons over Emmys and stuff. I could say it now because our season 9 premiere was our first Emmy nomination since season four. Wow. So, yeah, I just, I guess I was in the Dark Ages, I guess, but now that's exciting. Yeah, for sure. It'll be business as usual, but I think like any, quote, humble person will say, like, oh, it's just an award. But then if you win, it's the greatest thing in the world.

We are recording this before the Emmy Award, so who knows who won. I fear that Rick and Morty and will split the. vote with like smiling friends like so neither adult swim show can win in yeah up against simpsons yeah we're gonna be punching across and then simpsons is just gonna get it or bobs so we'll talk about her in detail when we reach her character agenda but amy polar is the guest on this episode and steve i was looking at your i mdb you worked on amy poler's animated sitcom duncanville and this is right before amy polar becomes a voice in a name and animation because she has the mighty b in 2008 a great looking show. Then there's Duncanville,

a show created by Mike Scully. I think that lasts for like three seasons. And of course, she is joy and inside out. She just is now part of the animation world. Yeah, there was a few times during this episode, I realized, I'm like, oh, this is more of a Steve Urico coded episode than I realized, but yeah, I didn't

pick up that was Amy Poller throughout the whole episode. I'll try my best to quiz myself here or just guess. I'm like, who is this person? I know who this is. And I find out of Amy, I'm like, I should have known. But yeah, it was on the initial first season of Duncanville. The funniest story I have about that show was I went in for one table read on the Fox lot.

She was not there. I remember telling my sister-in-law, I'm like, yeah, I got to go to table read. It was great. And she was like, I can't, oh, that's so great. I can't believe you got to sit in there with Amy Poehler. I'm like, no, I got to sit in there with Amy Poehler on her voice over speakerphone. Yeah, I'm actually looking at her IMDB. This might be her first voice role, period.

It's happening the same year as she's on SpongeBob Squarepants and something called O'Grady. So it's all happening for Amy Poehler in 2005. Is she not on SNL? She's still on SNL at this point. I believe she had to phone in her voice role, literally, because she's in New York and they're in L. She was currently hosting, I think it might be the first year. She has taken over as the co-host on Weekend Update after Jimmy Fallon exits SNL. They're hitching their wagon to Amy Poehler early in her mainstream.

though Bob and myself as comedy nerds were watching the UCB series and it's like oh when she's an upright citizen's brigade when she got cast on SNL like I feel like it was like right after 9-11 was her first episode yeah it it's like wow the UCB on SNL that's amazing was she got for Giuliani I was to say this is also this is post mean girls right yeah right after mean girl. Yeah, so she's kind of like, yeah. Yeah, she's entering like, you know, the public conscious at this point, I'd think. And they said that Tim Long had known her for a while, so I'm assuming he was a UCB affiliated writer or her would have known her. But this is before she became, now she is, I mean, you just think about how successful Inside Out and especially Inside

Out too were, like, she's one of like the most famous voice actors around right now, thanks to that in animation. It got Duncanville three seasons, I guess, and had to finish off on Hulu. but yeah that was rough i think it was hurt by lockdown as well right i think so and around the time i think that's when i was working on the show i think that's when fox bought bento box as well bento box is pretty much just like the animation domination factory now i don't know but also since we last talk too even more celebrities have podcasts now and she's one of them yes she's a very successful epi or something she has become a very successful podcaster now who i will give her credit it. She has stuck to a weekly release schedule for at least a year now.

Yes. There was some recent ranking. Like, here are the best podcast ever. And I think hers is number one, even though it was around for four months. Yes, that was, that was, that was a bit crazy to see. Thanks, Entertainment Weekly. Oh, that was Entertainment Weekly? I don't know. I'm guessing. I think that list, now, I'm not going to check it right now. I'm just going to just throw out speculation. But I believe people were mad also because it didn't mention one video game podcast. And that is where podcasting started. That's back when nobody wanted to touch the medium. They were only nerdy podcast out there. I mean,

I think that I used to say that those lists didn't recognize podcasts before serial, but I think after Mark Merrin's retirement was so public last year, I think they at least say, okay, podcast started with Mark Barron. That's the first podcast now. So they don't look earlier than that, but they at least look

before serial. Damn. Retronauts got in like three years earlier than Mark Maron, so we don't count. Retronauts got started. started while Mark Marin was still on the failed liberal radio station project. Oh, Air America. Air America. Yeah, Mark Marin was still checking the gates. We were talking about the Pope in retirement earlier.

I was going to make a joke about Marin. And I'm like, yeah, who said he could leave? That's true. Hey, Marin, you're not done. Interview Obama third time. Come on. Yeah. Oh, and also, Selman, he talked about what he wanted to write in this, like,

I kind of wish they had gone with his pitch on this being an American graffiti style episode that it would all be in a one crazy night. I think is a more, I prefer that higher concept and structure idea as opposed to it just going into like a more regular three-act structure. And it feels like the kind of higher concept episodes that Selman does approve now when he is the guy in charge of the series. Yeah, we saw him playing with the format back in things like. like trilogy of error from a few years ago.

So it feels like he is definitely more into playing with that. Al Jean is more of the like no traditional television three act structure. That's what he is attached to. This is a helpful one too because it is the only episode in season 16 that I could actually find original scripts for on internet archive. I actually had a table draft and a final draft that's online. The earliest one is dated July 22nd, 2004, just to let you know when they did their table. read. And there's a few interesting changes in it, not super duper major ones, but I will note them

as as they come. Oh, and on the DVD, the entire first act, they have the animatic and storyboards for the entire first act, too. Yeah, yeah. They're very proud of how this episode looks, especially on the commentary. So I feel like that's why it was chosen to show off. Also Emmy nominated. Mike Anderson, Mike B. Anderson, the director of it, would not too long after this, would be the supervising director for the whole series after the... this episode. And we're in the digital seasons now, right? Yes. Okay. It's still, it's still animated on paper, but then digitally colored. So no cells are being photographed. Now we've moved beyond that to like the digital tool sets and everything, but we're still looking at things

that were drawn for the time being. Yeah, it just seems like it's the transitional where I think they look like they're still adding like shadows behind the characters, make it look like it's so animated. Yes, yeah. They still are adding the cell flare effect, which is something they don't now, That's my main issue with how it looks today. It just looks too clean, and also there's too much detail packed it through the frame. But I like how they at least understood at this point. We need to approximate how things used to be.

But I guess they were too enchanted by the possibilities of what they're using now to stick to that kind of old style. But we've seen in the past, when they try to make a scene that looks like an old episode, they know how to do it. So the technology has not been lost. It's torturous those scenes. Every time I see them, it's like,

just make it look like this all the time. I want to just shout at my TV. We first have a little couch gag that is Transformers. They're all Transformers here, and Homer is clearly Optimus Prime. And hey, we're recording this right around the 40th anniversary of the Transformers, the movie, the official title of the 1986 film. Do you have your tickets to the new screening, Henry? 4K?

I considered it. It is the 40th anniversary apology tour, I think they're even calling it. The poster is actually dead gray Optimus Prime on it. Be like, sorry, we were. ruined your childhood, I think is basically what they're calling it. And apparently they're adding a new sequence into it. Oh, this I had missed. Yeah. I, I, I, here's the second Steve Yerko-coded thing. It's the Transformers couch gag. I was like, oh, okay. It's like, here we go. And the Transformers the movie is also probably my favorite movie ever unabashedly. Nice. The 40th anniversary,

She's just been like a weird, very hokey, just onslaught of marketing from Hasbro with just releasing some things that no one asked for or doesn't seem like to put in too much effort in. This extra sequence, I'm skeptical. I just, I don't know, it's very 1997 special edition to me. I'm guessing it's just going to be Optimus Prime. Just his, it comes, it reveals that he's still alive or something like that. Well, I've seen they've even selling, I was like, I just went to a store the other day that had on the shelf a new Optimus Prime toy that is like how he looks like when he dies. Like he's got the hole in his stomach and he can open it. It's just like, it's basically by Optimus Prime's corpse.

I think the new scene is going to be an ad for Magic the Gathering cards featuring the Transformers, but it will be made in the Fortnite engine. Most likely. Don't worry. You're right. just like that extra, the new scene that was in Kill Bill, right? Yes, yeah. How close are we to Transformers Magic the Gathering?

We're like, we're seconds away from it. Matter of time. This episode goes live in like a month. You know, I think they actually did make like just a five-card set of them. I think it was my husband has told me about these where it's a weird card where to, one of the interesting cards is to have your card to do a thing. You have to physically have a Transformers toy with you in transforming. And then the action on the card is done.

I think he showed me that it's one of the weird things. Yes. This happened in 2022, so I apologize. I was just like, here's a ridiculous idea. Nope, we figured out a way to sell it. And that must have been agonizing at locals. I'll commend the animation team on this couch gag. I think all the family members are based off in an existing Autobot.

My eyes were drawn to Homer. I think, what, was Lisa Bumblebee or like Bart was a green car? I could tell that. Going off in memory, it looked like Maggie was Bumblebee. Oh, that would make sense. I would say Lisa was hound. She was like an orange Jeep. Marge was jet fire.

Bart was jazz, I would say. Well, more importantly, this signifies that at least one writer was born in the late 70s. It's Matt Warburton. None of the boomers on the staff would be writing Transformers Couch Cags. It was the edge family guy had on Simpsons for a time, was that family guy would make the references to 80s toys, while Simpsons writers, they were just too old. They were in college when not buying toys.

Even Matt Selman, one of the younger writers of this era, he was like 15 when the Transformers rolled out. No pun intended. Well, why don't we hear our first clip of the episode, which I would also say is maybe the most memed moment of the episode, as Bart and Lisa are walking down the street. At least, there's your boyfriend. Oh, yeah.

Well, there's your girlfriend. Boy! Yeah, well, you love moleman. No, you do. You're gay for mole man. You're gay for mole man. No one's gay for mole man. You're gay for mole man. Bart, Lisa, welcome. I've been expecting you.

Your gasps are appropriate because I have perfectly predicted the future. Gay for moleman. My husband has used that as a meme saying, and I don't think he's, seen this episode. What is the context in which you use gay for mole man, though? Well, usually it is used as like no one's gay for mole man in like a meme situation.

I see. And so we haven't talked about Dana Gould in a while. This actually comes from his life. This is something his hateful father would do to his mother when they were driving around. If he saw some very disheveled, possibly crazy person on the street corner, he'd be like, hey, there's your boyfriend.

Oh, wow, I didn't know that. Yes. If you listen to Dana Gould's podcast, he tells the same stories a lot, and that's what I've heard a few times. Doesn't it feel like it is selling out Lisa a little bit that she would use gay in a pejorative term? It makes her accurate to a 2005 child who isn't Lisa, but it does sell her out a little bit. Also, the sound you were hearing listeners was comic book guy eating burrito beans or just burrito innards off of his shoe and licking it off. That Bart's still sticking with the you're gay from old man is a great joke too. But here's one of the funny changes that in the original script, and I kind of like this better, that comic book guy is disgusting.

That's the joke. But in the original and in the animatic, he has a hot dog in his hand. And when he eats it, he says, you're about to enter my fortress of solid food. Hey, not bad. Yeah. It's weird how every character just becomes very punny like Flanders, though, in this era. Yeah, that's true.

Everybody, they're really in a pun mood at this. time that though the gay from old man that's all there in the script from page one from the original page one. I'm just shocked that comic book guy does not have a strategy for going into this burrito. You need a game plan and it's weird to see he's eating a naked burrito out on the street.

The bottom half has to be wrapped up still in the foil. You work your way through the burrito and the foil contains the juices and material that slips out. Steve is nodding his head. Oh, absolutely. 100%. I'm just like, oh, no, already football. Unless this is one of those microwavable burritos, you know,

No one wants to hold on to that plastic because it's just going to melt into the burrito. But yeah, this is the faux pa, number one. As a South Californian, I defected. So eat burritos, breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. You peel the burrito down, and yeah, if you keep the thing on the bottom, though, you are left with, like, a really wet burrito bottom at the end of it. If you're going to eat it, that's why it's like, okay, how much do I want this soggy burrito bottom? At that point, it's basically the cigarette butt of food.

You just throw it away. What Burrito Bottom sounds like a rejected Queen song? That sounds like a first draft. This was the bit that I was like, okay, this feels like Rick and Morty in that, except Perez or Frank is very much nicer than Rick Sanchez, but going into the lab and then he's like, actually, I predicted this and let me show you this thing that I made that starts the episode, except Frank likes Bart and Lisa. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. I wonder how Bart and Lisa would handle Rick. I almost kind of feel like it would be like a bugs bunny kind of situation where they would be constantly just trying to fuck with each other. But yeah, luckily Frank is just desperate for attention. It could be like a family guy style situation. When The Simpsons met the family guy, by the way, we cover that on our Patreon. The children were just kind of upset by Chris and Meg Griffin.

It's kind of alienated by them. Yeah, it's interesting. Chris just in that episode like Chris just hung out with the dog. And Bart instead spends all his time with Stewie, who is just sucking up to him the entire time. And it became just a meta-commentary of like family guy wanting to be liked by The Simpsons. And then meanwhile, Lisa was just like, when Meg jokes are said by Meg to Lisa, Lisa is only upset of just like, you need help now. Like, please, stop saying Meg jokes to me about how you cut yourself or harm or kill cats. This is very upsetting to me, Lisa Simpson.

It's reminding me more and more just how I just think of that intense like stewy prank call scene, which is the point of the joke. But it's like, yeah, these are, you know, while very similar, we are two very different shows. We see also that he didn't fully predict it correctly thought Maggie would be there too. But he then reveals the bit that I used is the intro clip, but that through just no science at all, astrology. Astrology turns out to be true thanks to computers that can work on. along with it, that he is able to accurately predict the future, apparently. Yes, it's the one true science, and I guess believing in astrology eventually leads to the invention of magic.

Yes. It follows, just eight years after that, it follows straight into it. And I think they even say on the commentary that it's eight years after, like, they're recording it around when it would have been, I think they said it was six weeks in the past. If we're talking February 2013, which would be eight years after the February 2005 episode aired, they were recording it like within a couple months of that date when they did their commentary. The commentary is pretty fun too because there must have been like a Harvard reunion or something going on because John Vidi, Mike Reese, and Laura McMullen are all on the commentary who are all Harvard-Lampoon grads.

I mean, it's not so crazy to hear Mike Reese on a commentary in this season, but it's not usual. And Vidi and McMullen are especially, McMullen doesn't show up for some of the ones she directed even. So her being on this one randomly, but this one, especially because we just covered it a couple months ago, they are recording it like right after Recit Ralph came out, which she was a story lead on, I think she was. And that she says, oh, you know, there were actually a lot of X-Simpsons people on Record Ralph. And Algin goes, yeah. We know. It was still stinging them to lose all of that staff to Recit Ralph.

Because after Record Ralph was open, I'm pretty sure just about everybody stayed at Disney or Pixie. are to not come back to the Simpsons. Can relate. I kind of feel like there's always, you know, the proof is in the pudding with our show with how many people left to go right on Marvel Disney Plus shows. Disney's pissing off everybody. That's true. I think most of the movies that have come out of the MCU in the last decade have had at least one Rick and Morty writer working on it.

I'm pretty sure. And so we decide that we're going to go forward into the future despite Bart rejecting it. Like I like that Bart rejects the premise of the entire episode like, no, let's go there now. They waste a lot of time with this E.T. ship gag. I guess they have to do it twice for it to work, but it takes a long time to do it. And I want to ask both of you, is there some kind of high concept thing going on? I don't understand where there are a lot of 80s references in the future. I mean, we have A.T. ship, but then I believe we have four licensed songs all from the early 80s. What is happening? I think they just predicted the stranger thingsification of pop culture. We're still stuck in 80s.

land now. But I feel like the 2010s is when it really took off. It was starting to reach a boil in the 2000s, but the 2010s is when everybody is talking about the 80s and we're remaking a lot of games and rebooting a lot of movies and stuff like that. Nobody comments on it on the

commentary. In the script there is no real reference to it also because like the one song that's in the episode is called for in the script but to go ahead a little bit at the prom that has all those 80s songs, those are not

called out in the script. No specific song is called out in the script. So I think that 80s music choice at the prom was done a lot later. So I can't guess to why the teens of 2013 are so into the 80s. Also in the original script, the ET joke is not there.

Instead, the joke is that there is a C. 3PO-like Gardner Robot, but then the joke is that the Gardner robot still just turns on a lawn mower and starts mowing the lawn. The garbage man coming out has a very sassy walk. But it cuts off really quick.

There's a lot of bits. They're not like family guys saw cutaway bits, but a lot of stuff feels like it doesn't have air. This episode feels like it's moving out a really brisk pace. But the few frames of that guy walked down the ramp, it just is a funny walk. And I'm not sure if that was trying to invoke ET or not.

I haven't seen ET in a long time. Yeah. Maybe something was misread along the way. Maybe there was like an animation mistake. But there's no like, sassie strut from these little ETs in the movie It's more of like an anxious shuffle Fox Sunday

The Simpsons take a time machine to a horrifying future Rusty the clown is dating your mom In all news Simpsons Band is mayhem on the arrested development season finale Look at a crying like a couple of girls I hear the only one crying All new followed by a bonus

Simpsons and a special encore of Pamela Anderson in the new hit comedy stacked. This is your father's new girlfriend. Where to go, Dad? It all starts at 7th, Sixth Central, Fox Sunday. This is Henry Gilbert, welcoming you to the break from the far-off future of 2026. And a big thank you to listeners this week and to our guest, Steve Yerco, from the One Piece podcast, who's also worked on Rick and Morty. He had a ton of fun things to add to this great episode of The Simpsons in Season 16,

that established a whole lot of future continuity, and we love to talk in with Steve, just like we did about all the other cool nerdy stuff that we always talk about with Steve. Be sure to check out the One Piece podcast. They've been doing it forever. As well, Steve is also part of the Sugwan Show plays channel, so please check out his Prozody plays as well.

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Simpsons. And so we see that Marge is a little older, and by that I mean me and Bob's age in her mid-40s. If we're to take that she turns 36 in season one and that we normally read Marge's 36, then she's 44 in this episode. Yes, like Marge, my hair got a little smaller. I have an additional jow line. This is where Bart and Lisa come down the stairs and Marge takes a picture of these two teens.

Smile! It's so great. We can do anything now. that scientists haven't invented magic. I'm so proud of you. Lisa graduating two years early. And Bart, graduating. What I missed, what I miss.

Homer, we're separated now. You can't just walk in without knocking. Well, maybe I was partying so hard with my single friend last night. I forgot the rules. Could you please stop fighting in front of us? Why is it messing you up? Homer just settled down.

We just got a postcard for Maggie. She's really enjoying Alaska. Stupid wildlife. Serbs them right. I think in this new future trilogy, they really like playing with the status quo of Homer and Marge because in this one they have been separated,

but they get back together in the end. And then I believe in the last one, Henry, Homer's dead, right? Of the trilogy, yes, yeah. Homer dies, but he keeps dying. He actually died like when the kids were 10 or maybe 11, Bart was 11, and then Frank keeps cloning him. Like that episode is much more sci-fi.

The third one is even more sci-fi than the second one in the trilogy. Like Homer is constantly cloned until his mind exists as a disc. But also that is an even more confusing one because spoilers for the episode listeners, half of it actually just happens in Bart's dreams, his imagination. So it's a future that half of it doesn't even actually count as the plot of the episode. And zombies are real in that one, too. It's a lot of weird stuff. Oh, and also, District 9, that's real in that reality, too.

District 9 is real, the Matrix is real, and zombies are real in that future. Is District 9, 2013? Everything is just tying together, like a neat little package. It's in that era. Yeah. No, it had to be posts. Oh, sorry, is it District 9? Yeah, District 9.

It's definitely post-Avatar because I enraged someone. I said the movie's just Avatar. with bug aliens. Actually, it's 2009, so same avatar, I think the avatar is 2009 2 maybe. Oh my God. Yeah, I was a much later movie. Well, I feel like the director of that,

Neil Blomcamp, it felt like he just made District 9, like that was his one idea. Chapy is kind of replaced bugs with robots. I love that line. One that the photo she took turned into a cake of all things, and that it was magic. It's better than

in the script, the joke is that Marge is able to manipulate the photo and she does it like minority report style. She changes it so everything is like fancier or nicer in the house and everybody looks better, which is now feels like them predicting how much, at least say my mom and stepdad,

think generative AI slop is fun and send me pictures from it. And I just grit my teeth and go like, nice. Got to cut them off, Henry. Put him in a crooked home. I am a little bothered by it. I have to say, but I don't know how much your parents have or not. Think AI, Gen AI garbage is like fun or fun thing to post on Facebook.

I blame Facebook. They're on Facebook too much. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's the boomers on Facebook. My mom just does emoji, and that's a new frontier for her. So I don't know what's next.

Slow, slow to the, she's got time. I think the only thing my mom did is I think there was like the action figure one that was going around years ago. and I just calmly but firmly message saying, yeah, don't do those. My dad, like, forgot his Twitter password. So that's the level I'm dealing with here too. So I think I'm okay. I think they're good.

I don't think they're getting in the AI slot. And the joke about Maggie on a beachfront that actually is Alaska and all the climate change bits, that was different in the, even the animatic, this joke made it to where, and I like the Alaska joke, but the other joke is Maggie is seemingly, it looks like she's on,

Mars and she's riding around on the Mars rover. But then Marge says, oh, Maggie is loving Mars camp. And then Maggie keeps driving. And then she gets off at a dairy queen and takes her helmet off and hangs out with other kids. And Mars says, yep, that Mars themed camp in Arizona. Yeah. That's good.

And by the way, the polar bear is not a reference to an inconvenient truth. It's a reference to climate change. Which was based, which happened to be the, like, inspiration for that film, that documentary. documentary. We should be getting those cards any day now. Now, this was one thing I did hold against the episode for a time, which I, which I don't think is this episode's fault. This episode is about Lisa should not be with Millhouse, but I, because of this trilogy, I false remember this episode. It's like, oh, this is when they start putting her with Millhouse. But I think just this scene and

what follows, it's about how she shouldn't be with Millhouse is the point of the episode, Right? Yeah, and how Millhouse has engineered this situation. Yes, that he, well, why do we hear how possibly Millhouse could have ended up with Lisa at the prom, as well as hearing the voice of our big guest star. Lisa, your dates here? Hey, Lisa. Milhouse. Oh, I've been turning him down for the prom since kindergarten.

Uh, yes, you were lent to age 12 when he pulled you out of a house fire, which you later found out he started. Joe should have seen the look on your face. In fact, here it is. Now back to your team, sir. Sorry, I'm late, Lisa. I was at the gym totally gunning my lats. Just gunning them. Oh, man, the deposit on this tux was 200 Regens.

Hey, everybody. Bart, you're looking crooked. Hey, Jenda, how about some forehead? Oh. Again, in a vacuum, I like that Millhouse grew up to be at 18. He's shorter than Lisa. And then to compensate for that,

he became like a gym addict that he is constantly working out and becomes like a huge man. Though then there's no connective tissue of like, well, then how's he become a sad sack later? I mean, people let themselves go, obviously. But I feel like they should at least have a line about like, hey, remember when you were in like awesome shape when you were 18? Some people peek. I'm waiting for mine any day now.

But there is like the in-cell pipeline. I guess for getting rejected so much that you just become a gym guy. Oh, yeah, like you could call this Millhouse is predicting the type of dude online who becomes like a gym fluencer, eat meat every day, video watcher guy, yes. Or it could be taking the carrot top route

in which he wants no one to make fun of him again by becoming terrifying. Or we could make that more of a recent reference. We could say like Jonah Hillifying. Yes, there you go. There we go. Thank you. Thank you.

We still don't have Reagan on any dollars yet, but I like that joke that it's for you to guess what a Reagan is. What denomination could a Reagan be? What are 200 of those to make the deposit? Is it a new $2 bill? A $3 bill is a Reagan? So is it $600? To me, it just replaced the word dollar.

Oh, that Reagan is just every dollar is a Reagan now? Yeah. And yes, that is Amy Poehler there. So I have a theory that this episode has two genders. There's Act 1 gender and there's Act 3 genda. Act one gender is, I think, a relatively balanced young adult. who you can see how, like, her and Bart are both skater kids, and that's how they connected in that way.

Like, she's wearing cool jacket. She comes in on the skateboard. And then Act 3, Jenda is when she becomes, like, a manipulative, mean person who has, like, ultimatums for her boyfriend. A typical woman on The Simpsons. I mean, Bob, did you notice on the commentary? Selman even describes Jendi. He describes the character he created as manipulative senior year girlfriend,

is what he calls her. Yeah, yeah, maybe this comes from personal experience. But when we first see her agenda is just sort of like a trendy elder zoomer slash late millennial. I guess she would have to been born in 1995. Right, right. Yeah, so she's on the bridge of Zellennial. Is that what they would call those kids? I thought that we were Zelenials.

I'm trying to say more of the Zillenials. We're Xenials like X Xenials. So, yeah, I'll think of something else. Zoom annuals. There, that makes sense. He's a real Zelpha. Man, what they do to Janda later in this, she seems like a fun hang here. You can see why her and Bart work.

She is the trope of like the girl that could hang. From my experience with The Simpsons, because this feels very much my previous podcast appearance, New Kid on the Block with Powers, not, what's her name again? Alora. Laura Powers. Yeah, that's right. Always get her and the mom confused. Yeah, Bart has a type for sure.

Mm-hmm. And I guess, I mean, I don't like what she turns into, but to be fair, if somebody proposes to you after they graduate from high school, you should flee the scene. Yeah, everything Jenda does in Acts 1, I think is defensible and makes sense. Like, she is acting like a normal person who also is like being up front with Bart and not like tricking him or trying to like make him do something self-destructive. They also, they cut a joke instead of the forehead thing of like Homer and Marge smashing their heads together or Homer trying to and Marge rejecting it.

Bart gives her a corsage that eats other corsages while Millhouse is secretly taking human growth hormones. And he starts doing sit-ups while talking about how much he hates himself as he's doing sit-ups, which I thought was a good joke too. What do you guys feel about Homer and Marge like being divorced? Like this is the first time they have done a, the flash forward lets them do instead of killing one of the parents, they decide like, okay, what happens if Marge finally actually does have a separation from Homer? Not a full divorce, but they're separated. Right. Yeah, I mean, I guess it is a cynical view of the characters, but the implicit joke is, well, of course they would be split up.

How did it not happen already? A bit of that real world logic applied to, of course, you know, all these animated sitcom dads would be divorce immediately held. Simpsons was toying with this since I remember like season five, I think, was kind of the first time it was really taken seriously. But I think this definitely doesn't have a whole lot of time to really develop. It kind of is just happening in the background. Like, it's the B plot for sure.

I did feel the forehead smash. thing is varying character with Homer because some people are just tricks. All right. So we head to the high school for prom and this is where the Larry Davis iPod experience, a good joke. It keeps the streak alive of the Larry Davis experience being the band for Homer and Marge's prom except now it's an iPod. But this is where the 80s music comes in with the AHA's take on me and then True

by Spando ballet playing, which maybe that was at Metz. Hellman's proms, perhaps, during slow dances. Yeah, that makes sense. I guess iPods were still in use in 2013, but I believe they're being phased out. Or people were relying on them less. I know for the longest time, I had an iPhone as early as 2009, but I always thought, like, no, my iPod is for music. My phone is for phone things. So I don't have an iPhone in one pocket and the iPod in the other pocket.

Eventually, I just thought, what am I doing? This device can do both things. I think what was when we did Zootopia this summer too, that felt like the last time there was a joke of the character listens to an iPod instead of their phone for music.

Yes, yeah. And it was more like, because I listened to a lot of podcasts, I thought, why do I need to hook up my device to a computer? This phone can just download the podcasts. And here we see the teen versions of a lot of the

characters who often have little to do the old Bart and Lisa's friends characters. We get to see like Janie, Sarah, Wendell, Richard, and even Uder. Uder, formerly dead or presumed dead, has come back to life and is an adult or

a young adult in the future. All new designs. Yep, every single one of them. Like, it's crazy. And I feel like even Nelson has like two different designs in this episode. Oh, and also they have to wear their prom outfits and their graduation outfits and then their house party outfits too. I'll say, I'll

all of them though, Ralph feels the most underdeveloped. It really just looks like a stretched out Ralph Wiggum that we know in a suit. Yeah. Same hair. Not like the previous future episode, at least as the present, where Ralph has questionable brown hair, which I guess probably fed a lot of theories for some people. Yeah, I guess with Bart to the future, they decided, okay, Bart will not sound different than he does normally. In Lisa's wedding, Nancy Carwight speaks with like a lower register as Bart, trying to age the voice up. But they just decided, well, the character needs to be recognizable and it's not odd that the voice is the same. I feel like that works with the King of the Hill reboot because Pamela Adlon's voice has naturally aged a bit.

And Bobby does not sound like an adult man, but the voice has aged enough where it doesn't really take you out of the experience. And you would think, like, why is he a child in a man's body? Also with the Ralph redesign, they really bounce around with that, not just that brown hair in Bart to the future, but then, because I just watched, holidays of future past. In that one, they don't give him the line hair. They get rid of that, but on that one, they decide, well, but his dad is Wiggum. He should have blue hair. So he breaks the normal Simpsons rule of no new character can have blue hair because it looks weird. He gets to have Wigom blue hair, but that doesn't look right either. It's a weird, I don't know.

Should he just, I think he should just have the line hair as an adult, I think. Yeah, he's unrecognizable without it, I feel. I agree. And we get to there we see what's been going on with Nelson and other bullies in the future. So Nelson, who did you end up bringing tonight, Sherry or Terry? It didn't seem fair to choose.

Welcome, seniors, and sexually precocious underclassmen. I'd like to say goodbye to those who are going off to college or to fight in Gulf War 5, Operation Find Our President's Head. USA! And now here's

Assistant Principal Kearney. Okay, I want a nice clean prom. That means no booze, kick, puff, doze, max. Stim or Terb? Remember, Stim kills. It's what turned Superintendent Chalmers into a vegetable. Inert, Inert, Iner, Iner, Iner, Iner, Iner. You know, if David Merkin, I guess he was still a producer around this time.

He was still writing on the show. I'm surprised this was not a Star Trek reference. Right. He should be in the Pike Box. You're right. Yeah. We have to throw it out here. Simpson's predicted it. Golf War 5. Now, the president didn't lose his head, but I say Dangerous Donald lost his mind. Take that. Oh, you got him now. That taco.

Wow, guys. Don't hold back. Can we put this online? Yes, the Gulf War, that one really hurt watching it now, that Gulf War five. And it's interesting. In the script, it actually was Principal Dondlinger. They stuck with who would be the normally the high school professional. principal. I guess we're only on Gulf War III, to be fair, right? Oh, boy. I mean, we can count other skirmishes. Maybe we've gone beyond five, but it all depends on what you would count as a war. I mean, I would think Dangerous Donald doesn't count this one as a war either, I think. I remember hearing that it got settled like at six weeks and everything's been fine. I hear that every Friday.

War's over again. Who knows how many times it will have ended and begun again since we recorded this and you're listening to it, listeners. We used to get banners that said mission accomplished. I know. Our failed Gulf Wars, they don't even put the effort in anymore. Like, yeah. No. Also, the assistant principal Kearney stuff. I believe Selman is the one who says that this is about how in late seasons of happy days

that Fonzie becomes an assistant principal at the school. Yeah, I mean, I watch a lot of reruns. I don't recall this, but I guess he was a principal of the vocational school. Oh, okay. That's how they did. So he's teaching guys to work with their hands. Just to explain why this 30-year-old teenager is still hanging out after all of his friends have graduated and left the show. Because we're younger, that to me feels more like, say, by the bell of the new class where Screech just remained on the show and was, I guess, the assistant principal on that show or like a building helper or whatever.

Yeah, oh, man, I can't remember Screech's title, but assistant principal sounds right in that show that he was always, he was supporting belting in the show. And he immediately left college to go back to Bayside High. I mean, I get it. Like, I visited my old high school after graduating maybe the first couple years, but then I became, you know, a new person. I knew I'm like, this is not where I'm going to peak. This wasn't where my life began and ended. Do you think that Chalmers was dosed or do you think he had a secret addiction to stim off off screen? I think he was self-medicating after his wife passed away.

Right. Raising his daughter is pretty tough, so I can understand why he'd, he did. with Medicaid like that. It's such a dark, such a dark joke of him slurring his speech, too, as he's going, I laughed, but it's a dark one. Well, the longer goes on, yeah, the more slurred it gets. Yeah, it's pretty dark. I always just assume, I don't know, I just assume it's Skinner's fault, who's, you know, not really fumbling much. Skinner looks really good now that you have Chalmers in that condition. Like, he looks really good in comparison. I have a question about Kearney, though. Has Kearney always sounded exactly like Nelson, or is this Cartwright just trying to age up the voice a little bit?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I think maybe in the booth, she lost the distinction. But yeah, Nelson's voice is often a gruffer than Kearney's voice. I could see that the put them both into the future ask could maybe make it a little tough. I mean, these future episodes in general, I guess, are a bit tough for Nancy Cartwright, who specializes in doing great 10-year-old boy voices. a great mix of them. And when they all have to age up into adult men, like how much range can she find in that? That is a big challenge for her, I would think. But I think she deals with pretty good. But, yeah.

Yeah. Yardley Smith, another day at the office. I don't say that, you know, just Slater. It's just like, it's amazing how her voice, I was going to say Lisa's voice, but just Yardley Smith's voice is just, no matter what the age just feels appropriate for Lisa. Yeah.

I think she's probably played like five background characters. in the 16 years of the show we've covered so far, because she just is unmistakably Lisa whenever you hear her. I do love her old lady voice. I like when she does. In next weeks, don't fear the roofer. Sorry, two weeks from now, don't fear the roofer. Lisa, for a joke, becomes an old lady that lets Yardley do her senior lady voice.

But I liked when she occasionally got to say, God bless that man, like she said. I think she was also a grandma Flanders. Oh, yes. Yeah. Help me with my tons. Yes. Then Ralph also gets dosed, which this was another thing that's like two season, 16 episodes in a row.

In Seven Beer Snitch, that is where they have auto take a urine test for drugs. And then when he looks at his urine, it turns into an Inagata de Vita sound alike and psychedelic visions. And now in this one, Ralph gets dosed by Nelson, and it turns into a psychedelic thing with a sound alike of the doors light my fire. Yeah, I mean, I do generally like this episode, but I feel like this is an odd scene because the joke is just Ralph has a bad trip, but it's not even Ralph themed in any particularly interesting way. It just is a generic bad trip.

I thought that they also, since they set up with the line of him saying, I can go to the bathroom by myself now, it was going to end with him peeing his pants or some sort of bathroom joke, but it just ends with it being scared. I was waiting for an extra joke there, too. Yeah, same here. Speaking of bathrooms, we cut to the bathroom where Lisa and Jen,

are talking. The main place where women talk is bathrooms, apparently. Television has taught me anyway. This is where Jenda is a little kind of like crappy, I think. At least she's constantly telling Lisa how hot her brother is, which is, I'm with Lisa, that is annoying. Stop saying this. Yes. I like how she's interrupting this conversation with these very militant commands to the sink.

Changing the tone completely and then jumping back into the conversation. I like that too. And Huller is playing it very well of just like the instant turn in her voice and and then back down to normal, and then a command again to the voice commanded sync. And this is where we learned that Lisa is getting to go to Yale on a Mr. Burns scholarship, which Yale is good, even though McDonald's has bought it. In the script, Harvard bought Yale.

So it was more of a Harvard versus Yale joke. I kind of like McDonald's buying Yale. That's a good joke. The closest gender in Act 1 acts like Act 3 gender to me is where Lisa says, I miss Christmas, then very rudely, like, polar goes like, I don't. I laughed at that. I liked the too cool gender persona. It is a premonition of what's to come, like the change in the personality.

And yes, I do want to remark upon the reappearance of Chum, the childlike humanoid urban macho. The robot Martin invented to be his friend, but it honestly is just creeped out by him and self-destructs. And weirdly enough, Chum makes a surprising amount of appearances. I was looking at the Simpsons Wiki. I think Chum may appear more than Samma's daughter. Chum beats Ling, you're saying, in appearances.

Yes, but Chum aged up. Yes, Ling stays a child forever. Though Chum, yeah, this chump, actually, yeah, by the way, they're missing a chance of, hey, why don't they flash forward and show what Ling is like as an adult or is it like a, well, I guess she should be with Maggie at the day camp thing as a nine-year-old or eight-year-old, right? Yeah, the Chum character, him in fact, and little boy, they love the joke so much

that Millhouse is kind of attracted to the robot he built and now he took him to prom with him and Chum does not reciprocate the feelings. Martin could build a walking talking robot but not one that likes him. I'm just surprised

Martin didn't have any plan post high school like he's willing to go backpacking with Chum here. I'm like Martin's not Lisa but Martin's still a smart fellow with a thought. he would have gotten to a Yale equivalent. He has not strike me as a guy who would take a semester off.

No. Now, obviously, this does not subscribe to the future where Martin blows up in a science fair and becomes the Phantom of the Opera. Yes. I was wondering if I was going to be able to mention how I saw the production of Phantom of the Opera recently in L.A. And, yeah, I'm just too poisoned

because we saw the Martin sequence like twice during that old thing. Isn't that funny, too, in that episode, they decided they recast the Rousie voices with an adult voice, like for Martin at least, in that they had Dan Kessleneta do the voice. But in this one, both for Martin and for Sherry and Terry later, Rousie just does the voices pretty much how she does them as kids, too. Yeah, I think they're unchanged. We then see that Bart has stayed a nice guy. Otto, who long ago got fired, he's hired him to be his limo driver,

which I feel like they shouldn't, when they saw that he was nude when they got in, they probably shouldn't have got in the limo at that point, I think. Unless he took his clothes off while he was driving, which would explain the erratic driving. Yeah, maybe at a red light. Then Otto jumps out of the car and thinks he can fly. Then he's just kidding around,

but he does know he can glide. And he seemingly jumps to his death, though he don't see a follow. Otto dies. Yeah, dark future for Otto. This is another kind of gag that cuts off, I think, like a second too early. I was expecting to hear like some bones crunching impacts at the bottom of that canyon or whoever there. But it didn't happen.

I have to assume while waiting for Bart Engenda, Otto drank some of that punch. He's got to be high on turb there, too. Yeah, but like almost back to back, we have two jokes about characters tripping. Yeah, this is a lot of tripping. And also Chalmers being affected by it too. So this is where we go to contraception point. This seems to imply in the episode that, okay, do we think that Bart is a virgin here? We know that he and Jenda have not had sex yet.

Jenda will have a joke later that implies she has had sex before with a certain young man. But Bart hasn't had sex with her. I do think Bart is a virgin. What do you guys think? Yes, because he seems to have no interest in sex. Yeah, that's true. It would fit then with the idea we came up with in Bart to the future that Bart and Ralph are a couple and or were one and now are just roommates who were a couple at one point. I like that.

No, I think Bart would not, I don't think Bart would hold it sacred, especially with the way the relationship feels right now. If they're headbutting each other, that's like, I don't know, it's probably like third base for Bart at this point. It's the future intimacy level is the headbutting. Yeah. So, I don't know, I do think Bart told like this would be his first for sure. But let's hear how Bart plans for his future. I think we're ready to go all the way, but I'm a little nervous. Bart, don't be nervous.

Sex on prom night is as American as our 51st state, Saudi-Israelia. Jenna, that's not what I meant. I love you. Will you marry me? Oh, that's really sweet. But marriage is a three-year commitment. I mean, do you even know what you're going to do with your life? I've got it all figured out.

You can waitress while I learn to cut meat. We'll live in a trailer, but to avoid paying for parking, I'll drive while you sleep. We'll never, ever stop. Bart, I hate to say this, but I think I outgrew you. When? Just this minute. Okay, lovebirds, break it up.

Hey, this one's alone. What a loser. Oh, you want some. chicken. Just grab it with your hands. Go ahead. We're not fancy here. Just a great image to end the act on. Wiggum as a robot with a rotisserie

chicken spinning inside of him. And Bart takes him up on the offer and just starts eating it. Like he's like, mm-hmm. And we have more Simpsons predicted it with Saudi Israelia, which, yes. It's only predicting depressing things. Nothing fun like the Newton. It's not the 51st state yet.

Yet. I really like cartwright's delivery on we'll never ever stop. Like it is delivered like if you heard that as the pitch for your future, I think you would also act like Jen of like, yeah, I'm going to get out of here. I'll see you later,

Bart. I think though Bart did spend money on that ring. I'll give him credit for that seemingly. Or he stole it. Perhaps he stole it. And this is a future where robocops are real and every cop is a robocop and has been turned to him. And they all have space. Or I guess,

Only if you're a fat robocop like Wiggum, do you have space for a rotissory chicken? The rest probably just have pretzels hanging in there or something. Ooh, pretzel steamer tray would be nice. Now it's only a matter of time, I guess, before, you know, they do another future episode. And Wiggum is just one of those dog robots or Waymo or something. Well, man, they did like two years ago, they did a flashback of like three years earlier. and Marge and Homer, like, take an Uber in that. I'm like, oh, God, it hurt to see.

Is that the episode where we find out what room is above the garage? Yes, yeah, that was the Christmas episode that explains the window above the garage. Yes, and it turns out Todd Flanders was born the same year Bloodborn was released. Excuse me, yes, oh, Todd Flanders, yeah, Todd. Right, yeah. Well, and also another future one that just happened was

it's where Marge dies before Homer, which the episode agrees of like, that's ridiculous. And everybody misreported that in the news. March Simpson dies. Her hair. That's right.

I mean, if you're one of the remaining human writers at a media website, it is your job every new Simpsons episode to misinterpret the plot as this changed everything in the Simpsons in this episode. Have you guys seen the new video game related clickbait title for an article

where it's like, new Fire Emblem Game, unplayable by millions of gamers. And the story is it's unplayable because you need a switch too. If you've got to switch one, you can't play it. So you click on that, you're like, why I ought to, I'll show you Nintendo. And then you realize like, oh, this is a big scam.

Wow. That's a terror. That is a new low. That feels like a new low. Yeah, whatever people bought Polygon and many other websites, they're making them right this slop. And I hope it's a robot doing it and not a human. Articles feel like popsicle stick jokes.

No. Hey, this is why you have to go to Patreon-supported things to hear actual humans who write and develop things now. So we come back from the commercial break. Bart is still eating his chicken in the scene that they're watching. And this is where we get a TiVo joke, which would have been pretty fresh in 2005. Yeah, yeah.

All the sound effects, I guess in the menu system is a TiVo parody. I miss this era entirely, the TiVo era. I only know it through jokes. Like, I did not have a TiVo. I don't think I had any friends who had. TiVos either, but yeah, it's just that little poop, pop, boop, boop, that just little boopy thing. Yeah, essentially it was, I think, if I'm

describing this correctly, it really was the 10-year bridge between cable TV and streaming. It was a way to get around ads, and then now we really have finished the cycle of like, okay, we get a TiVo to skip ads. Then we don't even need TiVo. We sign up for a streaming service

and those don't have ads on them. And now it then goes to, okay, well, some ads are coming to streaming, but you can just pay a little more to not have ads. And it feels like the next step is they just say, like, the ad-free tier is gone. We're done with that. I think it's coming. I look forward to streaming just being cable TV entirely the same, except much more expensive.

But on the TiVo list of things, we have Maggie's DUI and Lenny's SuperPet, which just is Crypto the Dog, which was a deep reference back in 2005. You had to be a big nerd to know Crypto the Dog. now he's a star of three different movies, three different movies. Wow, yes. I forgot how much play crypto has gotten lately. And now crypto's a bad word. Oh, yes, right. If it's spelled with a K, it's the good boy crypto.

Well, I don't blame you for forgetting the film Supergirl from this year. I think I'm the only person who saw it, it felt like. Right here, buddy. Okay. Though I think in this modern age, I think people would be all for a Lenny-focused episode. He's kind of built a cold falling, at least from my eyes over the years. People love Lenny. Yeah, we've learned a lot about Carl recently in the past 10, 15 years, but Lenny is still mostly a mystery.

We need to find something about Lenny's roots that make it like as interesting as Carl's background as coming from a family of like cowboys and ranchers and going back to that. That was an interesting background for Carl. Lenny should come from like, let's say, Scandinavian immigrants. How about that? Yes. Although I think maybe the major issue is Lenny's voice. voice actor would not want to participate in an entire episode about Lenny? Seems like Harry Shearer will do one full episode of one character a season, I think.

But now that Harry Shear is doing Monopoly Go ads, who knows? Maybe he's had a change of fart, I hope. That's true. It seems like we still have the theory that he must have signed some new deal that makes it like more worth his wife. Maybe when they signed a deal of like, you'll do the second movie. Sorry, the new Simpsons movie. When he signed up for that, he agreed to ads too in that, perhaps. he said oh very well

I have a question for you guys too just like tangent speaking of those Monopoly ads who's Mr. Monopoly is that Will Ferrell it's Will Ferrell okay yeah we're just at this point now

we have celebrities doing voiceover for ads it's move over feature films yeah I mean recently all of there's one match three game that is just throwing

their money around to get a lot of celebrities on board it's not candy crush but I was seeing ads on Instagram where it was the three ladies from friends all on the plane talking about this new match three game, and you don't need to be online to play it. It's so great. Well, how invented a game that you can play offline? I can't believe it.

What will they think of next? No, but it's probably owned by Saudi Arabia. Yeah, yeah, that's true. I've heard the doughboys talk about this to another improv comedy actor or comedy actors of their stature that they used to be able to count on ads like those being a great source of income and early job. They're like, oh, if you're a star in an ad that people start to remember, you actually might even give a boost to your career. And it's like, no, every movie star just takes the ads now and does all the ads. There's no way you can be a mid-level actor and get to star in ads anymore.

Yeah, I watched a bunch of these episodes on Disney Plus, and I just had to subject myself to all the Billy Bob Thornton T-Mobile commercials because I'm on the shit tier, I guess. And I was like, oh, I guess you could do a worse performance. than Princess Monono Okay. That is saying something. I enjoy the work

of Billy Bob Thornton. Yes. Oh, and then in the original script, Flanders' Revenge instead was Flanders marries Liza Minnelli, which would be a joke about her many marriages

to men who act very effeminate, I believe. Or who maybe later come out of the closet. Hey, I love Liza Minnelli. She can marry every gay guy she wants.

I love her all the same. So we then cut to Homer's underwater house, which explains, this was the thing that pushed it over the edge, that he spent all of their savings on an underwater house that takes a three-hour bathosphere to come to and out of. Yeah, and you would think this was fueled by divorced dead energy,

but no, he bought this when they were married to each other. And in the script, his trash is being piled for through by sharks, but in this instead, it's a bunch of flounders are taking his lawn furniture away, which sets up another good pun. the start of our next clip. Yeah. Stupid flounders. Hey, I've got a great idea.

We'll find some new lady friends. Come on, boy. We're hitting the town. After decompressing, of course. So what do you do to kill time in here? There's a DVD player, but it doesn't work. Why'd you buy the first hover car ever made? Didn't you know it'd take time to work out the kicks?

Ha, ha! I know! All right. You guys are my new best friends. wish, loser. And that was the first time we had seen Bender in almost two years as Fox viewers. We have to remind listeners, this was during a time where it was assumed Futurama was dead and gone and never coming back. Though probably, by the end of 2005, I think they would have announced the movies by that

point, right? I forget when they were announced, but they would not be out until late 2007, so we could be a little early on the movie announcement. I wanted to ask you guys if you saw this as kind of like a cynical joke that Futurama was dead. I'm sure it made me angry. And also the episode was called Future Drama. So it felt like it was really like rubbing salt in the wound.

Though like at this point, 2005, it is thriving on adult swim. Oh yeah, for sure. It is like one of the highest rated shows next to Family Guy at this point. Were the DVDs already out or was the adult swim? Did Adult Swim kind of give it the bump to get DVD releases? I believe, because we did a history on this, I think the DVDs came. out right around the same time as the initial adult swim run

of Futurama, airing of the reruns. By this point in time, when this episode goes live, all four seasons are out on DVD. It had been a hit, but they weren't recognizing it as a hit there. The cackling laughter of Homer saying, like, you wish,

and essentially killing Bender on screen, that does feel like the Simpsons dancing on the grave of Matt Grating's second animated series. Future is unkillable, as it would seem. Yes. So I have some real dates for you guys, by the way.

So Futurama begins airing on Adult Swim in January of 2003 and the DVDs launch in March of 2003. And I believe around that same time is when Family Guy starts airing on Adult Swim in spring of 2003. So it's all coming together for these reboots. Back when physical media success could bring back a series. Yeah. And also the Family. Guy, North by North Cahog episode, is about to air on Fox, and that is the reboot of Family Guy. The November beforehand was the release of Stewie Griffin, The Untold Story, but

this was finally like, yeah, no, Family Guy is back on Fox and we'll never, ever go away again and get up to, like, it still blows my mind to, like, American Dad's 400th episode, like, they're past that now. Yeah. Can you guys explain why they chose this song? It just seems inexplicable to me. It doesn't seem to be, like, necessarily that popular of an 80s song. It doesn't really fit the scene either. It's the 19802 song, What a Beautiful World. Yes, I can tell you that it is the song that is called for in the script. In the

script, it says when they drive through the quantum tunnel, they play in the script, they call it the other name for it. I-G-Y by Donald Fagan. Both are correct name for it. But yeah, I was like, wow, why? They don't say why they call it. I guess like, what a beautiful world. It would be like, it's sort of talking about being in the future,

I guess. Oh, man. Am I the one that did the research here. Oh, Steve, please. This is a reference. Because I'm one of those weird millennials that like Steely Dan and Yot Rock. I do like this song. It's talking about like a post-war period. Damn, where did I have that wiki? But basically, it's about this period. Sorry, it's the international geophysical year that was July, 1957 to December 1958. That I just copy-pasted from Wikipedia, but I didn't think of deeper than that. It was basically just like it was this optimistic, from the western side of the world, but optimistic view of the future.

It's like, oh, now like the war's over. We're going to start having really cool technology and all that. We're just going to be moving forward. Okay. The more I read about it, I'm like, oh, this is why they. I guess you're hearing this song while you're seeing horrible signs about future innovations. The quantum tunnel is cool. It's like you go through the solid mountain instantly, thanks to the quantum tunnel.

I guess Bender's hiding in there. In the original script, in table draft, no Bender. In revised draft from a month later, about a month later, Bender's in it. So they made the deal for Bender late. It is pretty cool that John DiMaggio gets to be on the Simpsons. He gets his Simpsons credit. He's on the commentary too.

Though I was feeling for him on the commentary when they're talking about Rekit Ralph, they're even complimenting, oh, Rich Moore did a great job voicing it. And Laura McMill is like, yeah, there's a lot of great voices in it. I was like, no one's going to say John DiMaggio is a lot of. voice in Reckett Ralph. Even he isn't saying it for himself. I was like, come on, somebody say he's a voice actor. Maybe you didn't even remember but. Yeah, I think it wasn't like a very

minor role in that movie. He's beard Papa in that movie for... Oh, that's right. That's right. But yeah, it'll be another 10 years before the episode Simso-Rama, which is the Simpsons Futurama crossover. That happened. And DiMaggio is funny on the commentary. He's round,

no, he's red Johnny with the round guy. He's not round Johnny. He's red Johnny. But then he eventually became round and there was confusion between the two. It's his story. But he's a big party animal on every commentary, and he's having a great time on this one, too. I really like how Al Jean starts it in a surprising way of complimenting him for, like, his appearance playing Steve Balmer in a TV movie called Pirates of Silicon Valley about Microsoft and Apple from the 80s and 90s. Yeah, yeah, I think that was like a late 90s TVS movie or TNT or something like that. Yeah, it was from 99, and he plays Steve Balmer in it, which then they ask him like, oh, have you ever made it?

Microsoft executives. And then DiMaggio again, like opens up old memories in mind where he's like, well, yeah, I have men Microsoft executives, but that's never come up because they're more just thinking of me as Marcus Phoenix at this. And he's explaining the character of Marcus Phoenix in Gears of War to Simpsons writers, who I'm certain have never, ever played Gears of War or thought about it. And there's a new, he's voicing Marcus Phoenix in a new video game that comes out this year. But nobody even, like there was a new Halo game this year, and nobody talks about it either. That's how much Microsoft is like killed all of their brands. They make new ones and no one thinks about them.

I heard Halo is going to be on PS5 and I was just like, wow, it's the end of times. Or whatever PlayStation's coming out. Also, in the script, it wasn't Patty who gets the tail. It's Lindsay Nagel. I think either is a contender for a furry. I don't think either. I was going to say, Bob said that these are a lot of really horrid developments in the future, but I know a few people who would be down for the furry tail.

Yeah, yeah. I do like they're embracing furries in this future 2013, more than they did in our 2013. Oh, yeah, for sure. And what give Apes the vote, you won't regret it bit that is a planet of the apes joke, I have to think. And then we get to Mo's in the hover car as it falls apart as soon as they stop. And we see that Mo has cloned himself at least once, but they're both each is forgetting who the clone is. And this is where we get to see Homer on the prowl, which much like doing stuff between Marge and Homer, I think they could have done an episode just about Homer and Marge dating. Like, that could be the A plot of like, what if they got separated in the future and then they dated?

But the episode is so focused on Bart. There's not a lot of space for post-separation dating story. Yeah, it really just lingers on Marge and Krusty, and even not that much. But first, we have to have a gross joke about ladies Homer and Bart to try to pick up. Boy, I think I see my two favorite letters of the old. E, Z. You moron! Why did I ever think I needed a clone?

I'm not the clone, you ought to clone. Oh, please, not this again. Hey, he-he-he-he-he-he. Son, say hello to Edna. Dad, that's my fourth-grade teacher. Oopsie. Hi, Mrs. Kay. This is sure weird, huh?

Wanted to get... Weirder. Uh-huh. I don't think so. Good call, Bart. We can both do better. I wish I could talk to my fourth-grade self just once. I'd say, work hard.

Don't be such a screw-up. This time is so precious. Don't waste it. Bart, maybe you should listen to this. No, now I have to start over. Since they killed her with the passing of Marsha Wallace, it makes me sad to see old Edna in the show now. It's got more modeling tone to this.

scene than he used to. Because I have seen this future trilogy, I assume he was going to go home with Ms. Hoover, because that's a joke in a future episode, and it leads to like a very dirty mislead where you cut to them in bed together, and Bart says, wow, now I know why they call you Miss Hoover. You pull out and you see there's a vacuum cleaner

next to the bed. You've been vacuuming for hours. I have seen that on many a listicle of like, you know, or just a post of like, how the Simpsons get away with this thing, but only of the I know why they call you Miss Hoover, not the extra apart of it, not the punchline.

Though then, I have to remind myself, but he didn't actually have sex with Ms. Hoover. That's during his in his computer fantasy sequence. I see, I see. Canon. Though, I mean, yes, he does, but he does. It's weird. They take everything back in that episode.

Bart has a, just an imagined future where he gets over Jenda as part of an eternal sunshine of the spotless mind type brain erasing thing. And part of it is that he imagines that he hooks up with bunch of ladies and gets his life together and that helps him get over gender. Complicated.

This bit here of Homer laughing like, he probably thought Edna's name was Crandall still, I think. And Bart obviously isn't going to listen. I feel like my child self wouldn't list to my adult self either if I heard it anyway. I probably would have been playing a video game or reading a comic book, not trying to do card tricks, but similar story. I'm not sure if this classifies as magic, but I think Bart has to be a little more patient. He's got to wait for science to kind of, you know, mend the bridge between the. the two. And I wouldn't call this a card trick. He's just tossing cards in a top hat.

That's true. That was a Groundhog Day bit that like Bill Murray's character, Phil at Groundhog Day, it's one of the things he mastered with endless time. I remember. So after that, we go to the breakfast table the next morning. Bart is sadly remembering the prom video of him with Genda at happier times and then also in his prom video we see that after Martin bothered Chum Chum killed himself on the dance floor There's a couple of suicide jokes in this episode

Oh, that was my biggest laugh The second suicide joke, yes Yeah And we see that Lisa broke up with Millhouse off screen Which that was again where I was like Well wait, I thought Lisa was only going to prom with Millhouse out of pity And that they weren't even dating

But now she's broken up with him off screen And he's hulking out Yeah, it doesn't really track. It felt like it was a one-time Millhouse pity reward for the saving her life thing. Though credit to Pamela Hayden, she hulks out very good as Mill House. She affects a great future Millhouse voice. She usually does, especially like just the screaming as her screaming as Millhouse throws off like five robocops at once. It was like, ah, great, very good. They don't touch it in here, but something I do like, starting, I think, with holidays of future past,

I feel like in that episode, they make it a joke that, oh, Lisa got a girlfriend in college, because that's what girls do when they go to college. But now I think it is the more progressive message. I think there's been multiple futures where Lisa just has a girlfriend or multiple girlfriends and is like buy or pan or queer and even like a thruple. I prefer to view it as in the progressive way of like Lisa is just a queer woman in embracing that. Sure. The joke in the Christmas photos

I think is the first time of like Oh Lisa It brings home a girlfriend And then brings home two girlfriends And then in the next holiday photo It's Millhouse and it's like Oh what happened Yeah in that case it feels like a dated joke

About like oh she went through a phase You know kind of a patronizing joke This is where Bart is starting to go into a spiral And Lisa is comforting him about it After he shows off his armpit farting abilities We then see both Marge and Lisa trying to comfort Bart. Look, my point is, show Genda you want to be successful and she might take you back.

It's never too late for love. Oh, I am so glad you think so. Kids? I want you to know I've started seeing someone. He's from Springfield. I think you know him. Hey, hey, Krusty the clown is dating your mom. Ha ha!

When Jenna hears about my great new career, she'll definitely take me back. The spot! Yes, Mr. Geat. I'm on loop, you racist cracker! But I need you to make a delivery to an elderly shut-in, and to get there, you must go through the forbidden zone. Which one? Radioactive, smallpox, eternal midnight. No, no. The one with the Uniclamps. We've been commenting on how they've been changing the character designs.

Krusty has a lot of neck waddle around his collar. And I like how with Apu, I think the joke is they kind of gave up, and they just gave him a very long beard for no explicable reasons. I assumed it was having to raise his octoplets has aged him like 30 years in eight years. Though they pointed out of the commentary on the octoplets, they look more like they're five than eight. It's true. It's true. And yeah, the Krusty neck, like I do love.

the Krusty. I like him as old groucho in the wheelchair. I think that's my favorite future Krusty, but this is a good future Krusty. It's less depressing. Yeah, it was a key part of Selman's pitch of like Marge dating Krusty, though nobody talks about, as we just covered in Homie the clown from season 6,

Krusty and Homer look the same. So Marge is dating just an older version of her husband who I guess has more money. Yeah, that's what I wondered if the joke was, but yeah, obviously they didn't play into that. To me, it kind of just felt like they spun a wheel. It's like, oh, who's Marge

going to start dating and it landed on Krusty? I guess that was part of the original pitch, but they didn't do a lot with it, so I feel like that evaded their grasp, whatever they wanted to do with this idea. Although they did deal with it a little more in the deleted scene, the only deleted scene that's on the DVD

as Krusty, like you're saying, Steve, I feel like there are multiple scenes this episode as like, well, you cut so fast. The scream into Bard in front of the Quiky Mart feels too fast. Well, it actually continued with more of the crusty scene. Oh, hey, I like Marge because she's a sweet old-fashioned girl,

which is just what I need. After all the taxi dancers, burlesque performers, adult entertainers, nude review participants. Okay, we get it. Your experience. Well, kid, all I'm trying to say is don't give up on love. What if the girl you love thinks you're a loser? Then make yourself a winner. Get a job.

Work hard. Show some initiative. Is that how you became a success? Nah, I stole a girl. dead clown's makeup chest and his triple tank. His widow sued me. Unsuccessfully.

Wow, I like what this is adding to the episode, but I also like how in the finished product, the finished episode, it just ends with them screaming. We move on. I thought that was just oddly abrupt, but it made me laugh. I do like learning this new background for Krusty that he just ripped

like all things he does. He ripped off the clown persona from a dead clown and that the wife unsuccessfully sued him. Though the list of people, like again, the part, just like the bit of Homer going like, why does it freak you out? I thought they wanted to engage more with the kids don't want to hear about their parents dating in it, and it creeping them out.

I also took what Homer saying that earlier, as it like, you know, psychologically damaging the kids, you know, which leads to a bunch of pitches for animated movies later about, you know, just generational trauma. That's what I thought the joke was. I'm like, or am I giving them way too much credit? Simpson's predicted generational trauma cartoons. Bob, am I remembering correct that it's Selman who invented the octoplets and calls them the eight monies?

Yes, because you get to character payments whenever they appear. Perhaps that's why he wrote in a scene of, what about the octoplets? What happens when they help run the quickie marks? Yeah, we see that in the future there are many problems, including uniclams, which, again, until I really looked closely at this, my first watch, even back in 2005, I don't think I read this as clams with unicorn horns on it. It just kind of flew by me.

To me, they were very apparent, because it's the one thing they're adding to these clams. Do they have wings, too? Yes. Or they're just floating. Okay. And so Bart is, also, Simpsons predicted it, Uber or DoorDash?

Simpson's predicted Dordash here, because Bart is delivering food to somebody, and is going to get stiffed on a tip, he thinks. Though this is where Burns is tied up and helpless. I'm assuming he's 112 by this point, right? Yes, and it just made his lips wrinklier. This, though, reveals he's not tied up for any old reason. Snake, who has aged terribly, is holding him hostage to rob him.

And it's funny that Snake calls him teenage Bart. Like, he knows Bart. He calls him Teenage Bart. Snake is aware of the storytelling devices they're using here. And they, I think, sell me. is the one who says that him arguing about what his order would be is just parodying the Simpsons writing room who only think about ordering lunch every day.

So Bart, while he is distracted on his cell phone gun, Bart knocks him out and frees Burns, and Burns is a very thankful person. Oh, blessed urchin, how can I reward you? Uh, with a diamond? No, sorry, my diamonds are going to be retro-morphed into coal, the most valuable substance on earth. I know.

I'll send you to Yale with the Monty Burns Scholarship. I can't take your scholarship. It's going to my sister. It would break her heart. Don't be so quick to say no. The ladies love an Ivy Leagueer. They do? Oh, yeah.

Once I home-invaded this Princeton dude and he was like totally married. Well, I guess an intensive four-year Bachelor of Arts program is the easiest way to get Jenda back. Hello, Smithers. Nice of you to drop by after my life was saved. Sir, you knew I was on a date. Mr. Smithers, I thought you were, you know.

No, I'm straight. As long as I take these injections every ten minutes. I love boobies! That exclamation by Shearer does make me laugh. Yeah, yeah. I wish there was something a little more clever there, but maybe that's what they're going for. It's just as blunt as possible.

Although plenty of gay men enjoy breasts. We've learned this. It's funny that I mentioned how in later future ones, that it seems more progressive that they accept that like, oh, like you can be more openly gay in the future, or at least Lisa can. But in this future, they're like, actually, they cured being gay for Smithers with chemicals.

And I guess he's so gay, he needs to constantly take this injection. His gayness has to be defeated every 10 minutes by a shot to the arm. This is the future where Dr. Venture was allowed to make the cure for the gay gene. Right. Those protesters hadn't showed up. And a good joke that in the future, diamonds are less valuable than coal,

and you want to turn them back into coal for money. I hate to admit, the biggest laugh this episode got on me, was like the light little sigh or grunts that snake made when he got hit in the back of the head with the diamond. I don't know. It just tickled me in a way. Bart also could ask Burns, could you just pay for a second scholarship?

But obviously then we wouldn't have any dramatic problems in the episode. Yeah, it's strange that this just means Lisa gets hers taken away, but whatever. It also makes sense that Burns would pay for Yale, because as we know, as heavily established, Burns is at Yale. That's his alma mater. He's going to be out. I guess he graduated back in sliding timescale would have graduated in like 1922 at this point, I think. That sounds right. We cut to Lisa making her vegetarian breakfaster trying to, and we have a joke that this feels like it is a

pre-joke about a season 17 episode that's also written by Selman, girls just want to have sums, which is a rather dated episode about how women are bad at math commentary from the time. And I guess the joke here is that men are no longer allowed to study science at Yale. It feels a little like a conservative, lower-case C, conservative joke about that gender studies, maybe I've just heard too many jokes in the last 10 years, jokes, commentary on going to get your gender studies degree

but it feels like a gender studies joke Yeah I mean the Simpsons would I don't know In recent years they have done the like woke campus jokes Man I feel like it was like now it's like a 2017 episode or something but where Burns goes back to Yale and is annoyed at how woke all the college

students were I remember that I feel like it's like 31 at the most recent It was a weird episode I saw Yes actually it was 2017 It was called the Caper Chase Okay, thank you, Bob. All right. I've been taking a lot of shots in the dark in this one, and this one paid off.

You've hit so many bystanders, Henry. You're under arrest when this is over. So many have been wounded. This is where Bart announces the good news for him, bad news for Lisa. He reveals he's going to Yale. Lisa doesn't want to be at Yale with Bart, which is good because she's not going anymore. And then she starts strangling him. And it leads to a good act break of in the future he's being strangled.

And in the current day, Lisa is strangling him for what he will do in the future. Believe me, two years ago, we really were hoping that I'd get to be able to do this when my husband could have gone on a business trip to Hawaii. But that didn't get to happen, unfortunately. So San Francisco's good, too. So we come back from the commercial break and we're at graduation with everybody with their floating mortar boards. And the designers in the show had to design older versions of a bunch of parents in there. In this future, we see that Luann is still with Pyro. You know, I missed that in the audience.

Yeah, you'll spot Luann sitting next to Pyro. She's not back with Kirk yet in the show. I think my eyes were distracted by the welcome, sorry, the parents section banner, which because it's 2013, the future, there's a futuristic font on the banner. I thought that was very funny. Yes. They had one for Costingtons too, right? Where Millhouse is smashing the window.

It's saying, like, get your own dog cats in it too, right? Yeah, and in the future, we have to change all the fonts. You also see Uter's parents are there, which I think they're just happy he's alive, I think. You know what, sorry. Yeah, go back to that Millhouse. rampage scene. Sorry, Steve, this is going to be a five-hour podcast, but I do want to touch on this. Get your own dog cat. At that point in time, we had cat dog, and then it made me think about the remarkable unpopularity of cat dog. But Henry knows this, you can confirm this, Henry. There is now

a cat dog scented candle you can buy if your cat dog memories are that strong. You did not buy it. You did not buy that one. I bought other Nicktoons candles that were on sale. I bought the Rocco one and the general Nicktoon splat since when it was like $8 a cat. candle, but I just couldn't, even I at the discounted price on Cap Dog, I was just like, Cap Dog was like the first one where I was not instantly on board. I got pulled back in again pretty soon for the Nicktoon being SpongeBob or. Yes. Yeah. Steve, I want to know what you think about Cat Dog because the apocryphal story is, I think it's been mostly verified. Nickelodeon was really hot on Cat Dog, the brass there. They thought this is our next huge cartoon. This is our next

Ren and Snippy. That would be SpongeBob the next year. They didn't know that. So immediately up front, I think they buy like 100 episodes of Cat Dog. They ended up not making all of them. I was like reveling in this factoid because Cat Dog feels like a distant memory at this point. But I remember it. It had a short in front of the Rugrats movie too. Like that's how much they're pushing. Was it as late as 98?

Cat Dog. 1998, yes. April 4th, 98 is the debut of Cat Dog. Wow. Yeah. It's just can't help but laugh considering like, yeah, SpongeBob was the next year. and SpongeBob is Nickelodeon at this point. I just can't help but laugh at it.

I don't know. It's a show I've never gone back to visit. I don't need to. I have no nostalgia for it. Cat Dog is a fun design, but I think it kind of just, I think it begins there and like ends after the intro for me. I think that's like all give.

This may not shock you, but a lot of the last season was not aired, a big chunk of it. And they actually air the final. episode in June of 2005. So as of the airing of future drama, all of Cat Dog has not been on TV yet. Man. That's it.

Sorry and I'll waste everybody's time. We will never talk about Cat Dog again. No, it's crazy to me because I thought like, I thought Cat Dog already would have been a deep pull in 2005, but there were still airing episodes that obviously were long finished, but they were airing in 2005. God. And the strangest thing is, and yes, we're going to keep talking about this. Right before Cat Dog, Nickelodeon had another Nicktoon called

Cat Scratch. Yes. That's the Dougton Apple cartoon. Don't Google him. He's awful. But yeah, they just saw, sorry, that was after Cat Dog. I apologize. Cat Dog 98, Cat Scratch, 2005.

I think they just saw a future in a cartoon that began with the word cat. That was early testing program, I guess. Well, I guess, too, you see that how interested they were in Cat Dog or investing at it. I think it's the only Nicktoon where they paid for Jim Cummings. Like, they mostly did not. It's like the only one with Jim Cummings as a regular audit, who usually is priced at Disney levels and Nicktoons wasn't paying that then.

Yes, I believe Jim Cummings is the cat and Tom Kenny is the dog. Correct. So that dog cat joke, I think they just, maybe they just wrote a joke about a dog like a dog cat, and then somebody had to tell them, well, you know this is like a Nicktoon. You've never heard of it. You don't have kids, Simpsons writers, but. But hey, if you go back to that Fly versus Fly segment of Tri House of Horror, I think the Simpsons actually invented cat dog because they send the pets through the time portal

or whatever, the space portal, whatever it is. And one comes out as a cat dog and one comes out as just the two asses stuck together and Bart says, you could be leases. Right, right. And this is where they have, their only real joke with Homer and Krusty interacting of Homer pretending that he's over Marge

and then instantly starts fighting with Krusty. And Moe is just waiting in the background to make his move, which that is a recurring joke in the Jenda trilogy. in the third part of the Jenda trilogy where Homer keeps dying. Every time Homer dies and before the clone shows up, Mo shows up to make his move on Marge

and then the clone Homer gets in the way. And we have a third Moe in play here. Yes, actually, just like the idea of the fly, some spider DNA got in this cloning machine and a spider also who's coming in from above, though I don't know what he is stuck to, just shows up. In the original script,

there is a joke about Lisa quickly filling out programs for her safety school, implying that she is just going to go somewhere else other than Yale. But they make it darker here that it's like, no, she simply can't afford college, period. And so she has to go to Hot Dog on a stick management camp. No other opportunities for Lisa. This Burns thing was basically her only way out of Springfield, and that was it. And it should be known again. Like she is 16.

She actually could just take a whole year off to apply to colleges and go to college. Now I wonder if her going to Yale at 16, do you think that was like some sort of internal reference to how Al Jean went to Harvard at 16? Oh, it could be. He actually mentions going to Harvard at 16 and that he had a bad mustache. People thought he was Hispanic. Oh, right. That was a funny story. This is where Lisa is announcing to the class that she's not going, despite being valedictorian, she's not getting into Yale. And this is where Janda notices it too.

That's odd. You get into Yale and Lisa can't go anymore? Hey, what can I say? I love learning. Bartholomew Simpson. What? Come and get your diploma. Why don't you mail it to your butt? Bart, now that you graduated, I can finally say this. You really press my cider.

Ah! You Bart! Good you see her back with Jenda! Hey, Nelson. What's up with your girlfriends? Oh, they each had twins. Listen, girls, I'm going out for a pack of cigarettes. Isn't that what your father said the day he left you? Yeah, I never understood why he did it.

Till now, I'm coming, Papa! So yes, Nelson completes his circle, except he should by now remember that his father had a tragic peanut allergy accident that made him have to be impressed into servitude like the elephant man in a local circus. That's true. They worked really hard to give him that canon. Backstory. And now they just threw it out, that very important and great end to an episode that wasn't ridiculous at all. And now they're just throwing it out to go back to like, no, no, his father left him and said he was picking up cigarettes and never came back. Yes, Nelson realizing like, oh, yeah, I want to abandon my children too. This is too much responsibility for me.

Another good dark joke, too. It also seems like Cherry and Terry don't mind sharing Nelson. It seems like they're all just going to live together. They don't have that much to say about the situation, even though Rissy Taylor is in this episode. And Skinner finally gets to tell off Bart, finally tells him that he really presses his cider after all these years. Even Krusty was taken aback. They never heard such vulgarity.

I was going to say, this was also the moment in the show, I realized, I'm like, oh, future Nelson is just good future Bif Tannen. His outfit is Bif Tannen. Yeah, you're right. It's the jumpsuit, isn't it? Yeah. Well, also, Homer is being the cool dad, like how Amy Poller's the cool mom and mean girls, by letting a drunken house party of 18-year-olds happen at his house.

Though they all had to get in the same. Seems like it took a lot of setup to do that house party for them all to get into Bathysphere together. Yeah, I wonder if they get the sober up before they return to the surface. See, now, this is where Jenda. Genda was like, that's odd. It seems like their agenda cares that Lisa lost out on her scholarship. but for the next scene, she does not care at all about it. And this is where Bart goes over to Millhouse,

who's still crying about the breakup. He's not the first guy to get a nosebleed during his slow dance. And Bart described that he has become an emotionally crippled mini Hulk. It's another good line. That is the stage direction for when we first see Millhouse in the episode. Millhouse is now an emotionally crippled mini Hulk with weak calves. That's where Selman comments on these working out stuff, which is funny because it's like his most.

recent appearances on podcasts. On the Staying Alive podcast from a couple months back, half of it is him talking about his gym routine. Like Matt Selman is very, he is addicted to the gym in 2026. He's got some good pointers on this commentary, though, in that legs are big calorie burners. If you like eating and drinking beer, get on the cardio machines, work your ass off, and you will be able to eat a lot within reason. Though it was crazy. And that staying alive

performance, he's turned his back on that slightly just in that He has cut alcohol out of his life, apparently. And he- Coward. He tells the story. He's like, when I recorded a podcast with John Sina, John Sina told me like, dude, why are you drinking beer? You're erasing your gains, man, that's stuck with Matt Sellman.

At that point, are you even alive? I don't know. When you're as rich as Matt Sellman to then deny yourself all that, and the only thing is that, like, you just spend it all on having like 18 gym memberships all over L.A. Yes. I mean, I support his choices. They're fine choices.

And yes, drinking alcohol is poison. It ruins your life. It makes you worse in every way. But working out sucks. I work out to do things that are fun later. It's just like, okay, I worked out all week. It's the weekend. Now time to eat slop and drink beer.

And then like it feels like a reward. So if you're doing all that to starve yourself of these vices, I don't know. Maybe when I turn 60 like Matt Salman, I will understand. When you're a 60-year-old millionaire, Bob, it'll feel different. I'm sorry. I think he's like 55. Sorry, Matt. Also, this is where I do like that Bart is trying.

to just help his friend Millhouse feel better. And then Millhouse then talks his way into like, oh, wait, actually, Lisa is probably so depressed that she will accept a loser like me because she'll be really sad and feel like there's no other option. And Bart's like, uh, I guess. Millhouse heads off. Then we cut to Jenda and Bart walking around. Now, before I play this clip, when she says,

you seem distracted, how about this? In the script, the joke. The joke is that when she tries to get his attention, she lifts up her top and shows him her boobs. And then the joke is Bart looks at her boobs and there are Lisa in Millhouse in place of her boobs and he's feeling guilty. Okay.

So just imagine that in this moment where Bart is distracted. Bart, what's wrong? You seem distracted. Oh, I was just thinking about Millhouse and Lisa. What are you thinking about now? Hey, that run-down old house looks familiar. That's where Dr. Frank used to live. I never had this problem with Todd Flanders.

This machine lets us look into the future. Wouldn't that be romantic? I'll tell you what would be romantic. Making love for the first time. Totally. Right after I fiddle with these dials and levers. You know, I was thinking of taking a poetry class at the community college. community college. Forget it.

I had to sell all my marrow to pay the light bill. I didn't have much marrow. I can't let that happen. I got to go. Listen, Bart, if you leave me now, I can guarantee one thing about your future.

I won't be in it. You're right, Bob. That scene now as hearing it, sounds like Bart does not want to have sex with Jenda. Yeah, yeah. And on the commentary, they do point out Jenda is very attractive and she's way out of Bart's league, it seems. Because Bart has Homer's body from the neck down.

He's his horse body. Oh, that's a funny thing to mentioning how he looks like Homer that it's in the script direction and in the storyboards but not the animatic. Bart's hair is similar. It's just shaggy in their original design. But he's supposed to have Homer's muzzle. He's supposed to have the muzzle stubble of Homer in the original. Which he does in Lisa's wedding, correct?

Yeah. Yes. it does look a little weird on Bart I want him to have Homer's muzzle when he goes like hey look at that old house while he's making out with a girlfriend that he would seemingly want to have sex with you would be yeah Bart not interested in

sexual relations it could be he's become religious and that's what's happening off screen or just too distracted by the B plot here but it is a fun dark joke where we've seen all of these interesting new character designs like oh here's what Wiggle looks like here's what Homer looks like and you might be thinking what does Frank look like well he's dead

yes his skeleton is hanging from a noose in the lab. It's seemingly not too long. That skeleton's been up there for a while. It feels like he's been dead for like five years or something in the old abandoned house that used to be his place. Like just his skeleton from a noose. I just wish they didn't have to put the name tag on him that says Frank out of a fear of people might not get it. Like I wish that was, that's my assumption of why Frank he has a name tag.

Yeah, but it is great that present day Frank has nothing to say about this. Yes. seemingly Frank has watched all of these futures so already since he's told them about it he's just like oh well haven i'll kill myself in three years this is not even like infinite possibilities kind of thing like as for all these characters know this is the future and they keep referring to as such but i guess like he's made his peace but i guess bart and lisa didn't visit him enough yes now like genda i feel like this is where genda really gets sold out not just because

because they think it's going to be their sex for the first time. But when she says, I didn't have this problem with Todd Flanders. It's an okay joke about how like, ha, ha, she had sex with, who would be unexpected to have sex with Todd Flanders? But I feel like it also implies of like, she's lying to Bart that she's saying it's her first time, but she's had sex before and that Bart hasn't.

And so it's already making her a liar. And then it's like, I was getting flashbacks to like the critic pilot and other Al Jean Run episodes of just, a mean woman gives a man a sexual ultimatum of sex versus his principles. And she's just a bad person here who doesn't give a shit about Lisa. And just is like, no, you have sex with me right now or I am breaking up with you. You know, at the risk of sounding gross, I will say, Bart, this is your first time with a woman.

You have an extra 15 seconds before you can go stop Lisa. That's all this is going to do. He can stop Millhouse and Lisa together. But it's like, you know what? You're right. The ticking clock, they have just enough time. to be like, well, I guess they wouldn't look at their phones in this future, but they have, you know, 15 seconds, then five minutes to look at phones. And they go like, well, it might happen as he's taking his clothes off. I mean, who knows?

Also, Jenda should be more creeped out to be surrounded by Frank's bones while she's going to bone down. It's a cruel ultimatum by a mean woman, which again, then in the Jenda trilogy of things, Bart doesn't learn his lesson here. he gets back together with Jenda, then has kids with her in divorces, and then tries to get back with her again in another future episode. So Bart learns no lessons. But yes, in this one,

we see Bart is thinking about it while Lisa is on a date with Millhouse. Lisa, she just goes on a date. It goes to prom with Millhouse, even though you would think she wouldn't want to. And now is easily talked into things by Millhouse, which I'm just saying, Lisa, I feel like loses a lot of,

her own willpower in this episode. I think so, yeah. Let's see Millhouse selling himself to Lisa. Not going to Yale isn't the end of the world. Yeah, I'm starting to see that. No, I mean, you're screwed. Your only hope is to clutch at straws. Straws you've always loved you.

Really? Really. Can I kiss you? Have you eaten onions lately? No. And it's really hard because I'm on an all onion. diet. Okay.

I guess this is my destiny. What are you doing? Keeping Lisa from destroying her life. Come on, let her destroy it. Sorry, we're ghosts now. Our spirits live in those two trees. Or maybe we're alive, and we just feel like jerking you around. Well, maybe we're one of each.

Fun future for Lenny and Carl. I choose to believe Lenny is the ghost, and Carl is the, a jerk. And clearly there's something going on because they were a contraception point together at night. Oh, yes. Or they could just be perverts who want to

watch the teens make out. Boy, yeah, they could be perverted ghosts, too, who like lingering around there to watch the teens make out. Hmm. I couldn't help but imagine these two as like, is it like the fox and Tanuki spirits?

I'm like, they'd be good like Temple Guardians or something like that. They just need to have, like, God, I learned the name of it for my neighbor Totoro, but the Shinto blessing, like, rope belt paper things on there, on the trees. They just need that for it to be complete. So, again, this joke is Lisa's life would be ruined if she was with the middle house. Why did they not learn this lesson from this episode for Future One? Okay, I promise, last time I complained about it.

I just hate her being with the middlehouse so much. It's bad writing. I don't like it. I mean, they were smart enough in Lisa's wedding to point out, like, well, this is not. the future. And also, they had not really explored the Lisa Milhouse thing too much by season six. Now, that flashback in the flash forward in Lisa's wedding would fit with this of like, okay, you could see Lisa's first time could be with Milhouse in both of those futures. You could see that. And that she would also tell this millhouse, I just don't see myself ever getting married. She could say that to both

this version of Milhouse. So Bart saves her in the, it's a good callback. He saves her in the hover car from earlier or two. He borrowed his dad's hover car. Now, this is where we get the sweet ending of Bart and Lisa. They come together, and we also get to see that it's a happy ending for Homer and Marge, too. In our last clip, which, don't worry, I cut

most of the song that's in this joke here. I'm not taking the scholarship. You're the one who deserves to go to Yale. Oh, that's so noble. But what about Jenda? Hey, I'm waiting till I find a girl who likes me for me.

And you will, at the age of 83. You die one minute later. And my brain is put in a... Popper's grave. Well, Bart, I really appreciate what you're going to do for me. Hmm. But what happens to our parents? Marge, I thought you'd never take me back after what I did to Krusty.

You mean get beaten up by end? Exactly. And I'll admit, it is kind of romantic under the sea. You don't know the half of it. Oh, this sucks. I want to see Vice President Cletus. You want me to attend the funeral of the Sultan of Brunei? Well, I would consider it my honor.

Hey, Brande, pack my evening, Bridget. We're going to Brunei. And so that was song number four in this episode, The Sea of Love by Phil Phillips 1959. I think Henry and I have found that they usually, this is still a lot of songs, but they usually max out on four. four songs per episode now if they have a lot of song money to spend and boy did they in this one like

sea of love it's a cute little ending though i like that bart even in universe is like i'm sick of this this ending's too cute and cuts away from the three-eyed whale i mean this is 2013 every scene should have carly jepson playing in the background i almost thought i wasn't sure if the credits were actually worked into like the future vision at first i wasn't sure if they were We were going to do a gag on that. But no, we were just getting mid-credit scene. I like that Bart is sick of like, I don't want just the music to play over the whole thing.

Stop this. Show me one more joke. And we also see that Blinky, the Three-Ead Fish has experienced a Pokemon-style evolution is now a whale. And like a huge blue whale, right? Like, it's a giant one. Also, hey, did Simpsons predict the future?

A Hillbilly vice president? Gosh. we were currently living in that era at that point. Yes. No, see, Cleetus is an actual slack-john Yolk, not a fake one who just bated a story to get into Yale

of all places. See, Lisa would have been classmates with J.D. Vance in this future, so I think it's good. She didn't end up there. Or wait, no, she does end up there. So it's bad. Yeah, I take it back. It's bad. So here's the last bit that was changed from the script.

I'll mention here is that, I think this is a telling one. So in that version, Marge comes to actually like Homer's mistake. Like Marge realized it's just such a weird thing. Marge broke up with him because of that thing. And she's like, actually, I want to get back together with you. And I do like this thing that made me divorce you or want to divorce you. In the original script, Homer and Marge get back together,

but it's at home because a giant octopus took over Homer's house and he was forced to come crawling back and leave his underwater house behind. And it just feels like very much of a... it's time of like, Marge apologizes a Homer basically, or it was just like, oh, you know what, I'm glad you bought this underwater house. Like, it's an odd choice in it, I think. Yeah, yeah, despite how sweet the song is in the end

and the nice effect for the jellyfish, the jellyfish that are glowing and they're flying across the screen, it's not really selling me on this. I guess you could say, perhaps like in the Secrets to a Successful Marriage, Marge watching Homer get beaten up by Frosty made her pity him enough to go back to the old dependence and pity spiral that they're both stuck in.

And learned nothing. Just or how to take a punch, I guess. This is the George W. Bush era of America. You don't change horses midstream. He famously said that. So this is what March is deciding on. And I did get a good laugh too out of Bart's searching for some hope of like, and my brain is put into a popper's grave.

Yes. Bart in an unmarked grave, immediately dying after he finds love. Not a great future for this kid. You know, that's the kind of like stark cruelty of a future that Frank throws out there that leads him to take his own life, you know? Work on yourself there, Frank. Come on. I just realized I remember that in Lisa's wedding, Frank is a blinkie in that. He's like a fish at one point. I wonder if he just like jumps out of the water. Yeah. That's all we see. Is that the better future? Would he be happier? Hmm. Yeah, yeah. Maybe just there's a lot. I mean, who knows if Blinky as predators,

but it feels like that's a better faith than what he experienced in his basement. Hey, they can both fit together. He could have killed himself after putting his brain inside of a fish or sharing his brain with a fish. Both could work. We don't know, yeah.

I have an overarching, all of the futures fit together theory. I'm still working on. I'm still working on. Lots of things are pinned with strings tied to them. Yes. Connecting each other. So me, personally, I came to this saying,

like, oh, I hate the gender trilogy I hate or I dislike where it leads to, but I don't want to punish future drama for the things I don't like in the ones that follow it up or the bits I don't like in those. I think this is a fine, hardly as good as Bart to the Future or Lisa's wedding. But I do think I had a good time with some of the meanest jokes in this were my favorite, even if it is a little sloppy. I remember disliking this when I saw this, but I was 22 and full of hate. Now I'm full of less hate, still a lot, but this did not anger me.

I know Bender made his return a few times, so I didn't feel like they were spitting in my eye. And I like the ambition of crafting this future trilogy, especially after Lisa's wedding is so beloved. Of course, it cannot possibly capture the magic of seeing those characters again in the future for the first time. But I feel like they find interesting things to do in this future world. I like that there is some sort of connectivity between these three. I'm looking forward to actually exploring more of these in the future. Any final thoughts on this one, Steve? I liked it a lot more than parts of the future.

I know Bart to the Future was always disliked for so many years and kind of going back and just it felt way more cynical than this one. I was charmed a little bit more. Now, I think I'm just reaching his age. I'm out of my 20s and I'm a little less hate in my heart and I just want to be entertained for 22 minutes. I guess I'm reaching that point. But I enjoyed it, though I think it does fall apart in that third act.

I think it just needed like some work there. I think maybe the whole Genda and Marge both of their decisions it could have just came from somewhere else. I feel like gender could have just left Bart just because Bart was going to take the scholarship. I think you could easily work that in,

but I don't know. Dare I say it, maybe need a woman's touch here. Well, there's only one on the staff at this point, so she's wearing a lot of hats. But yeah, for what it is, I enjoyed my time with it. I think in design, it's very ambitious.

But in terms of story, It's pretty much like I think it's just on track and it doesn't get like way too crazy. And I think it's, yeah, it's a solid episode. I was surprised to see that it was the one they pitched for the Emmys. But I think it was worth it. I haven't seen too much of season 16. But from what I've seen so far, I'm like, oh, this isn't bad. Well, Steve Yerker, thanks for being on the show once again.

Let everybody out there know where they can find you online and what you're working on right now. Sure. You can find me online. my socials are usually just my name Steve Yerko, so it's not too hard to find me. I am a storyboard artist and Rick and Morty. Please check out the whole show, but especially seasons five through nine. That's what I'm on. Also, you can listen to me on the One Piece Podcasts where we talk about the now very popular state side manga and anime One Piece with my friends. And I also do Let's Play channel. I co-host with sung one show over at ProzodyD plays games over on YouTube. You like video games and if you like

people playing them terribly, go check that out too. And in recent One Piece News, Steve, my wife and I made the journey to a local McDonald's. First, we walked two miles, which made us hungry for McDonald's. And then we each bought a happy meal that was brought to our table, two million at us. But we got some of the new SpongeBob, One Piece crossover toys. And because they're free, essentially with your meal, they are the cheapest things ever, but I appreciate how weird the idea is. So I have Patrick and SpongeBob in my bathroom right now. I got me talking about Happy Meal Toys again. I was the biggest skeptic of those at the time

because I was convinced they weren't real. I could go on this whole thing. I'm like, this SpongeBob drawing is off model. I don't believe it. It just felt so crazy. But yeah, I did see your pictures. And I'm like, well, it was finally seeing them at a different angle. And I'm like, wow, they're so real.

But it seems fake. But the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. And then I was thinking about it. It's okay if SpongeBob eats a different. devil fruit because he's stuck under the sea. He doesn't need to come above the sea. And he can't drown. Yeah, exactly. He's good. Yeah, that's only one of like 20

one piece collapse that have been announced in the last month. But I'm happy you've got some good polls there. Well, in Canada, got to get it first because we're still with the Hello Kitty Godzilla at McDonald's right now, which... It's true. And the One Piece is up here. Spoilers, everybody. That's where they're going to land next in the series, and they're going to find it.

Of course it's in Canada. Well, yeah, Steve, you're the One Piece is up here. podcast is great. Your videos on the Pro ZD channel are tons of fun too. I just got to see you and Sung Wan were at a convention in the Seattle area back in the summer and I got to say hi to you guys too, which was really cool. Yeah, that was loads of fun. And yeah, I should just say if someone is guessing at a convention, it's high probability. I might be there with them, helping them out. So yeah, if you just happen to go see someone at Khan, you might just see me there. So feel free to say high. And the One Piece podcast has been going so long that like, were you guys before Mark

Marin, too, or was it like, because his was 09, I think it was, right? Yeah, we were 09 as well. So I think we're all the same graduating class. It was funny spread around when he announces retirement and Stephen Paul, who, as the official translator of the series, he said, that's one down. Yeah, yeah, like we said, we can't quit. If you're writing and drawing One Piece, if you're podcasting about it, you have to do it for life. Yeah, I've done it for this long. I have to stay with it. It would be weird to just back out now. But thank you so much, Steve. Once more. Yes, thank you, Steve. No, thank you so much, guys. It was absolute pleasure to be on once again. Thanks again to Steve Yoriko for being on the show. Please check out the One Piece podcast. We love it.

And we love One Piece. But as for us, if you want to support our show and get all these episodes add free and one week ahead of time. And also a ton of bonus stuff on top of that. Go to Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. And sign up for five bucks. month, all these podcasts will come to you without ads, our entire back catalog of podcast, all available to you on patreon.com, along with our bonus podcast, over 200 miniseries podcasts covering things like Futurama, King of the Hill, Mission Hill, Batman, the animated series, and The Critic. And you'll also get one new episode of both Talk King of the Hill and Talking Futurama every month for your five bucks a month. It's an incredible value. You immediately unlock

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McMullen about working on Rackett Rowell. We have an entire five-hour-plus podcast about the history of Recit Ralph that we have done in this summer as part of our summer of Disney 2010s. When we talk about all the Simpsons connections in that one, as well as Zootopia and all of its Simpsons connections too. And our most recent one at the end of this month is we're getting the spooky season started right by covering the live action adaptation of the classic cartoon 1991s, the Adams family. And that's just the most recent one out of eight full years, basically, of what a cartoon movie podcast, hundreds of hours at your fingertips. Disney Renaissance Studio Ghibli, Cowboy Bebop, there's so many things in there. It's too many lists. I can't list them all. But you can hear all of that in the back catalogs with a new one each month, hours and hours of extra podcasts at patreon.com slash talking simpsons.

Sign up to get all of those ad-free bonuses. and whether at the $5 or the $10 level, if you sign up for the annual subscription, you get 10% off. And I've been one of your host, Bob Mackey. You can find me on Blue Sky, Letterbox, many other places as Bob Servo and my other podcast is called Retronauts.

That is a classic gaming podcast, all about old video games. You can find that wherever you find podcasts or go to patreon.com slash Retronauts and sign up there for some bonus stuff as well. And Retronauts will also be at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this year, so come out and see us there. Henry, how about you?

You can find me. on Blue Sky and on Instagram as Talking Henry. I'm always posting fun stuff there. And if you follow both of us on social media, definitely follow the official account of this podcast network, which is at Talk SimpsonsPod. At Talk SimpsonsPod keeps you up to date. Whenever new podcasts come out,

whenever we've got stuff happening on our Patreon, whenever we've got cool stuff happening, you stay up to date by following at Talk Simpsons Pod. And all of our previously released free podcast for both Talking Simpsons and What a Cartoon can be found at talking simpsons.com. Thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you again next time for season six is Bart versus Australia, and we'll see you then.

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