Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Halloween Live Show 2023 With Bill Oakley

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

It's time for a very special live podcast for the Halloween season, as Bill Oakley (former Simpsons showrunner, Steamed Hams Society boss, and Sight Gags figurehead) joined us in Portland, OR! Recorded on October 14, 2023, Bill chatted with us about two of his fave Treehouse of Horror segments, Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace and Attack of the 50ft Eyesores, and shared many secrets from making the episode. This was a fun sequel to our 2018 live show, so listen now to get in the Halloween spirit! Support this podcast and get over 150 bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod!

Hey everybody, it's Henry here and I just wanted to say that this is our great live show that we just did in Portland, Oregon this previous weekend and a big thank you to everybody who came out to the live show and now folks can hear it and even bigger thank you to Bill Oakley for being our guest and Kelly Zalimpian in Portland, Oregon for hosting it all. One thing Bill didn't get a chance to mention on here is that you should definitely support his many awesome food reviews on patreon check it out at steamedhamsociety.com but also just launched this week is the newest vinyl figure in his sight gags line and you can pre-order that now go to sightgags.com that is s-i-g-h-t-g-a-g-s.com and you can check out the brand new figure he's got for sale there again a big thank you to bill oakley and all the folks out in portland who came to the show

and just so you know again this podcast is only possible thanks to the support of people at patreon.com slash talking simpsons who make it possible for me and bob to go on the road for awesome live shows like this one. Now, without further ado, let's hear us talk about some of Bill Oakley's classic Treehouse of Horror episodes with the man himself. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, Portland. And to a greater extent, Kelly's Olympian. Thanks for coming out tonight to the Talking Simpsons Halloween Live Show 2023.

We have not done one of these here in five years. So it's been a very long time. What happened in between that? No, I'm a 50-foot eyesore, Henry Gilbert. Hello. I assume everyone here is familiar with what we do. So yeah, we're going to be talking about some Halloween episodes

of The Simpsons, some Treehouse of Horror segments. And you're all familiar with what we do, but what we do is we play clips of the show and we comment on them. We explain references. We piggyback off of jokes of other writers and build a career off of that. It's worked out quite well. And to set the mood here, we're going to play one of the scariest clips ever to be put on The Simpsons, just to get everyone in the Halloween mood, to let you know what you're in for. So, Henry?

Hello, I'm Elon Musk. Dad, no! Elon Musk is possibly the greatest living inventor. So, I thought we'd get the crowd on our side. I hope they're booing at Elon Musk.

Yes. Sorry. That's too scary, Bob. That's too scary. It's good we cut the clip off there because that was right before he called Homer a pedophile. And I guess not on that note. Let's bring out our special guest today. Who would never have Elon Musk on

his TV show. Absolutely not. Let's bring him out here, Bill Oakley. We obviously know Bill as a Simpsons writer and a Simpsons showrunner. Also a Harvard graduate. I went to a state school. We've covered this five years ago. And also, of course, the head of the

Steamed Hams Society. And also, head of the Steamed Hams Society and also who got their Steamed Hams lager for tonight. Yes. By the way, yes, thank you for purchasing this beer. It's very hard to come by these days. This may be the last of it. You will see, although we're working on a Steamed Hams winter ale to be coming out and probably, again,

will only be available in the Pacific Northwest. So drink up. Wow. But, Bill Bill thank you so much we've way a lot how has the last five years been for you since it's I remember being in this very room five years ago and it was it was a lot of fun it was it was you know as they say the before times it was a very different type of vibe but I think we're we've recovered amply to soldier on. We're all drinking more. Yes.

Bill, you were on The Simpsons from one of your earliest ones was on the season four Treehouse of Horror. That was one of your earliest credits there. Yes, yes. You know, I actually have come to dislike all the non-scary credits. You know, having watched these, I'm like, everybody should have been forced to do, like, objectionable, I don't like that. Everybody should

have been forced to come up with scary ones, at least for the first ten or so years. And you'll see in these other ones, there's so many, half the credits are these ones that kind of are underplaying the joke. And you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. That credit, like, you guys came in pretty late,

so that would have been like on the rewrite of Treehouse 3, the one with King Homer. That's right. We were there for the rewrite, and this was, again, you got to pick your own Halloween credit, and when Josh and I finally came upon the late Bill Oakley and the estate of Josh Weinstein later, then we decided

to use that one every year because it's so perfect first of all it rhymes a late an estate second of all it's appropriate given the death theme of it and then also it always got people from my high school to call up the show and ask if I died it's really was scary the scariest Halloween nickname that treehouse 3 it is full of so many changed lines. So it seems like that was probably a pretty active rewrite on that one. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that,

as I recall, this, again, was probably one of our first weeks on the show. I don't think it was because it was bad. It was just that there was a lot of stuff that people had seen over and over and over for months. And Mike and Al at the time were of the opinion that every joke had to get a loud laugh

every time or we needed to replace it, which was a very legitimate way to run things. And so that was, I think that was probably the principal cause of the rewrite,

but you'd have to ask them. You guys didn't do as much of the like recycling old animation thing on your seasons, right? Like using a shot from an old episode.

We did not do that. Once in a great while, but it wasn't, it wasn't necessary to the extent because the thing about the shows and we're going to get into this later mike and al's episodes were always came back short because they were so they really trimmed everything to the bone whereas josh and i were so in love with our own material that we let everything drag on and on our episodes are always long which is where 22 short films came from because we wanted to do little those little tags at end of the episodes, and we never had time.

So we said, what if we did a whole episode filled with nothing but little tags? And that's where that show came from. Well, you know, you first were writers on Treehouse, then when you got to run your own Treehouses, did you bring a new approach to it when it was your turn on the Treehouses? I wouldn't say there was a new approach. It was just that the Treehouse is the funnest thing to write of the year because you get to break all the rules. Matt Groening has a lot of real specific rules about the show and the reality of the show,

which is you can expand a little bit from time to time for certain jokes. But the fun of the Halloween show is that all the rules are out the window. So everybody was always jockeying to write one of the segments and it was, the rewrites were fun because you weren't like, generally you didn't have to worry about the emotional content of the episode or whatever. So it was a good time. And Homer can kill people. Yeah, exactly. More than normal. I mean, our first segment we're looking at starts

off with some real Matt Groening aggravating jokes. Oh, yes. Things he normally complains about. Types of jokes. But within the context of Halloween, it's all fine. Yeah. Why don't we show our first clip and then we'll ask some questions about it.

The two segments we're going to talk about tonight. First one is the nightmare on Evergreen Terrace. Okay, boy. Catch the frisbee. Good catch, boy. Thanks, Bob.

Air hot lock. Yai, yai, yai, yai, yai, yai, yai, yai. Ah! Want to rake your acquaintance. It was only a dream. Bart, is that you? Yes. Take out the garbage. I'm glad you mentioned the strict rules of the animation because when I watched that the first time in a while to prepare for this, I was like,

wow, a wild take from Bart and a talking dog. Those are both very cartoony moves that you don't do in a regular episode of the show. Yeah, that's the whole nature of that opening is that it's supposed to be, it's a combination of Warner Brothers and Tex Avery style cartoons from the 40s and 50s. And it's supposed to be clear to the viewer

in a subtle way, we're not in the regular universe. And it becomes more clear as the jokes go on. But even from the very first shot, the backgrounds are all different. They're all hand-painted watercolors, which is, our backgrounds were never like that. So the intent was to indicate to the viewer something weird is up right now. And this one was written by Steve Tompkins, which you've said in the past, Bill, he's one of the more unsung writers of the show. Yes. I mean, Steve was only there for about a year and a half, and he was a friend of ours.

And he wrote a lot of really good stuff that some of it has become very meme-worthy. Like, a lot of the stuff in that Milhouse Divided episode, including one of everyone's favorite things, I don't recall saying good luck, was definitely Steve. That was his whole script. And he was really, yeah, he contributed a lot. He didn't write a lot of famous episodes, but he did contribute a lot of stuff that everybody loves. And this segment is among that. He also wrote the steel mill, right?

Or it was his concept, the steel mill? Yes, it was, yes. That was originally a whole different ending, too. There was a big contest. There was some sort of incredibly complicated contest between Homer and, I don't know, it was Steve's idea, and it was very much him,

that whole steel mill thing. I can't remember what it was, but he fixed it with this steel mill idea. Well, also, the episode, it's got three directors on a segment. You guys were still doing that on that season. I think Kirkland's the, oh, no, sorry. That one is Bob Anderson on

the Nightmare segment and it's Kirkland on the second segment we're doing from the episode. All very talented guys. No, well, Tompkins was a classmate of yours too, right? Yes. Yes. He was a friend of ours and a classmate of ours and a guy we always wanted to have on the show because he was so talented at really just writing jokes but you know he could he could deliver but so okay where'd the freddy uh like it was just you guys wanted to do a freddy thing in general or it will seem like a natural okay yes first of all just to state the obvious for anybody who doesn't anybody who gets who's under 30 this whole thing is a parody of a nightmare on elm street the entire franchise not just not just the first one. But I suspect it was,

I don't even remember where the idea came from, but it's so natural. The whole thing was written for us in advance by the writers of Nightmare on Elm Street because the whole story is right there. The story of Freddy Krueger is that he was the janitor and the parents ganged up and set him on fire because he was doing creepy stuff.

Then he haunts their kids in the dream. That's the whole story. And it fits so neatly into the Springfield universe that I suspect as soon as someone pitched it, we were like, yes. How hard was it to write the puns? I appreciate the pun work you guys did in this because it's so hard. Okay, let me tell you. They all had to be landscaping related, right?

Okay, even in a non-Halloween segment, the absolute most arduous things to write are Willie's remarks and Sideshow Bob-isms. And every time we had to do a script with those characters, it was like, oh, God. And people would be in the room and think, okay, we're going to have to order dinner because it's a groundskeeper Willie

and he's going to say two lines and it's going to take two hours a piece. And that's the only other time we had that was with Rodney Dangerfield when we wanted to write those jokes that sounded like they came from Rodney Dangerfield and you think those jokes are easy to write but they're so damn hard.

Yes, so this was, when I watched this I'm like those puns that he's saying really aren't that good but they're as good as we could have possibly done. I watched like an hour compilation of Freddy puns and I'm like, those puns that he's saying really aren't that good, but they're as good as we could have possibly done. I watched an hour compilation of Freddy puns, and I was like, you guys worked much harder than they did on those. Yeah, he really got lazy

after movie two. Well, once he learned that he could just say bitch at the end of things, he's just like, you know, you're paying attention to bitch, not his pun on the word primetime. He really hits that bitch hard. Yeah. Hey.

Okay. I didn't mean it like that. When I said that, it was in quotes. That word. Well, actually, our next clip has some of my favorite puns from the episode, as well as, like, you didn't have as much blood in yours as compared to like merkins are some of the bloodiest uh ones but but this is a pretty gruesome death in in the episode this i

will say more than anything i've worked on people said this scared the shit out of me especially when i was a kid and like i think whether or not you as a kid had seen nightmare on elm street this is pretty scary and it's certainly very scary for a prime time show that kids were the primary audience of, at least on that day. I am the wondrous wizard of Latin. I am a dervish of declension and a conjurer of conjugation with a million hit points and maximum

charisma. Aha! Morire to die. Morit he she or it dies. Moris, ye, die. You've mastered a dead tongue, but can you handle a live one? wheel him out quietly it's best to kill him I'm just getting it out of here

not into the kindergarten I think we really need to give it up for the late Lucy Taylor who probably just came in from recording a Minnie Mouse album did Martin dying her screaming late russie taylor who probably just came in from recording a mini mouse album and then did martin dying her screaming oh like well it's like the gurgling man yeah it's shocking still yeah i mean we always tried to get russie russie did martin prince but generally we also people when we couldn't get russie pamela hayden did martin prince but we were always big fans of getting

russie back in because i think she gave the character a certain something that otherwise you didn't have i will tell you about this particular clip every time i see this i wish i don't like that the latin word for you die is maurice because i think that it sounds like he's calling martin maurice right right for the longest time i thought it was him calling him maurice until i noticed on the chalkboard it's written under all the other words yeah mors but everyone, just people listening at home, at least half the people in this audience are nodding up and down when I say that Maurice thing. So there, okay, it wasn't just me.

It was too smart for us. Also, is that a D&D reference with maximum charisma? Okay. Yeah, of course. Why, you know, there weren't many D&D references on TV back then. This is even before, like, Freaks and Geeks was on TV

doing, like, their D&D episode. I mean, you just have to remember that people, D&D wasn't even invented during the, you know, the youth of most of the people who wrote this show. I think that, like,

you know, I played D&D briefly in 11th or 10th grade when I think it was first becoming popular. So it wasn't widely known to the writers of the series at that time, I don't think. As the mystery deepens in the show, then this is one of the longest clips in the year, but I couldn't clip around it any

because this next scene has some of the most meme stuff, including something that's become, I think, the hottest meme in Simpsons right now. I know what it's going to be. It all started on the 13th hour of the 13th day of the 13th month. We were there to discuss the misprinted calendars the school had purchased. Oh, lousy, smart weather.

Do not touch Willie. Good advice. Our next budget item, $12 for doorknob repair. Nay! Recharge fire extinguishers. This is a free service of the fire department. Help! Please help me! Well, please, Mr. Van Houten has a floor.

I, for one, would like to see the cafeteria menus in advance so parents can adjust their dinner menus accordingly. I don't like the idea of Milhouse having two spaghetti meals in one day. You'll pay for this with your children's blood! Oh, right. How you gonna get them? Skeleton power? You better strike, or you cannot protect them. In the house.

Yes, spaghetti meals and skeleton power. There's a lot to unpack in that clip. So much, yeah. Well, yeah, I guess let's start with the spaghetti meals. I want to work my way up to the spaghetti meal. Okay. Let's start with the spaghetti with lousy, smart weather.

And do not touch Willie. I never quite, and I still don't understand what he means by good advice. Don't touch Willie. And even at the time, everyone was laughing in the room. And I was like, okay, just put it in. People, do not touch Willie. Good advice. We know that Willie is a pun for penis.

But we don't quite know what is meant by that or what Homer's thinking, good advice. We know that Willie is a pun for penis, but we don't quite know what is meant by that or what Homer's thinking, I think. And it still bothers me to this day, but we should move on. Otherwise, this whole thing will be about that. Okay, then let's also say that the members of this Springfield PTA, they really murdered groundskeeper Willie.

Unlike, I mean, in the movie, the parents were sort of justified in murdering freddy krueger here by sheer force of their own stubbornness and they they murdered this poor scotsman who's just trying to play the bagpipes in the basement it's terrible and uh and also they vote down both the doorknob repair and the freeze the free recharging of the fire he says this is a free service of the fire department they all go nay and then homework that's the brilliance of the director there adding homework going nay just a little bit later

than everyone else okay so I'm just repeating what we saw but it makes me laugh and then the two spaghetti meals yes I think I think that I said that I'm not sure because it's my nature to think that every hilarious thing was made up by me. But it was.

We're like, what's the blandest thing that somebody could be going on about in a PTA meeting while a man is burning to death in the corner? And I think that was it. And it's taken about almost 30 years for people to recognize the brilliance of that line, whoever made it up. Now it has become the hot new simpsons meme i'm seeing it it's the new steamed hams of it being recontextualized it is and i love it and i think that scene uh there's a deleted scene or deleted tag on that scene that actually names kirk finnhouten for the first time yes i remember that i remember kirk i remember when it was come up with and again i think it was by me but i'm not sure i mean kirk's a perfect name for

him you guys you guys turned him into, he was already pretty funny before your seasons, but you made him into the most pathetic guy in town, I'd say. Yeah, well, he married his own sister, apparently. Right? Like, that's where he started. His troubles started when he married his own sister, and they had a kid that looked just like him.

But yeah, no, he became a well, as I said with Steve Tompkins, this episode in The Millhouse Divid no, he became a well, as I said with Steve Tompkins this episode in The Milhouse Divided, he became a real font of humor that we hadn't previously realized. So with Smarch, by the way, I've heard people mention when it's March 13th,

they're like, oh, it's March 13th. But I always point out that it's like, no, it's the 13th month, meaning it would be January 13th, right? Because if the 12th month's December, then a misprinted calendar for Smarch, that'd be then the next month after December. But we don't know where the fake month is. We know the fake month is named Smarch, but we don't know where it comes on the calendar. We know it comes in at snowing.

That's about as far as we can go with this, I think. Okay. All right. Okay. Well, I still celebrate Sm March 13th in January 13th. That's when I observe unfortunately all the Simpsons calendars are accurately printed Yeah, that would make it official at least no I didn't but yeah I guess that also the Dan's castle is screaming like he man I'm surprised at some point and go like you guys have enough screams, don't you? We waited.

Usually with that kind of stuff, you wait until the end of the day. And we don't record. We record one or two screams, and we wait until he is ready to go home. And then that's what he does right before. He couldn't do that at the beginning of the day and continue to perform all this stuff all day long. And those were also not even like comedy Homer pain screams. Those were like bloody murder. Agonizing screams this it goes to making this whole thing scary i

mean i can see that like you know as i watch this i'm like this was really terrifying especially to you know to kids uh who didn't weren't expecting it to be quite so scary uh so then in our next clip uh it's uh time for bart to force a final showdown. And this has so many amazing, like Bob Anderson and his team did so many great animations on this. The transformations especially. When they're, I mean, you'll see it in a sec. But like the plaid transformations. Like it's not only that it just changes shape, but it's also plaid. So all the lines have to match up as well.

You missed a spot. When I'm done with you, I'll have to do a compost mortem. That sucks. That sucks so much. I like it. Sinky son. Go, go,

help, help. Lily's gone for good. Mickey's son! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Help! Help! Oh. Willie's gone for good. Now I can get back to my normal dreams, me and Krusty winning the Super Bowl. Bart, there's two seconds left. Now listen up. It's your basic Statue of Liberty play.

With one quiz, you throw it to me. Newt Rockne called it the forward pass. Now, the clock's still running, so it's important we start this play as quickly as possible. Oh, boy. Don't dream about me no more, kid. That's another great joke that

they always do the Statue of Liberty play, and now they're finally going to do the most basic move, the forward pass, as invented by Newt Rockne. I like compost mortem. Okay, pass. As invented by Newt Rockne. I like compost mortem. It's alright. Thank God. I remember this and I was like

every gardening, we've done so many gardening puns, so many rake puns in this thing and it's like compost mortem. Put that in. Let's move on. It's okay. Who likes compost mortem? Thank you everybody. Many of the hands in the audience are raised for those listening at home.

That was 95% of the audience. But yes, then as usual, Maggie, well, she's a killer, I guess, really, I should say. She shoots people, but here she uses her deadly powers for good. Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I don't know, Bart. Something tells me Willie's still out there and that he could come back any time in any form and kill us in ways we can't even imagine.

Pew! Ha-ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha gun on the seat! Hey! Wait here, please. Oh, jeez. There was a real trend in Yakety Sax humor

in the mid to late 90s, and I think this could be the first time I saw it on TV, because I know Mr. Show would later do it in Upright Citizens Brigade and other showss and I think this could be the first time I saw it on TV because I know Mr. Show would later do it in Upright Citizens Brigade and other shows but I think this could be the first. Hadn't it been on The Simpsons already two or three times? I mean this is all from Benny Hill. People don't know Benny Hill these days but it was a British comedy show that aired

a lot in the US in syndication at night and everybody, it was really silly and they did a lot of things with Yakety Sax and I think we were enamored of it as were many comedy writers in that era. So it's just another Benny Hill thing, because you have people run off. They play Yakety Sax with sped-up footage of people running around. But this one, Alf Clausen did his own Yakety Sax spin-off.

Right, with a Simpsons theme to it, yeah. I also love seeing Willie, after all those great transformations, that then he's now stuck in the real world and has to follow all the Simpsons rules of just making what faces he can yeah and it's like let's just say it's extremely arbitrary that Maggie was able to kill groundskeeper Willie with that thing too because we just make like that doesn't happen your bag pipe doesn't explode if it gets clogged up and like but but again it's like all the rules of the freddy krueger universe are that arbitrary too like whatever is going to kill him and this thing is could could have easily not killed him a few minutes earlier whatever so

that's why it seems to work and nobody questions it but when you think about it for too long you understand the problem also you understand the problem at the very end you understand the problem of doing jokes about shoes in the Simpsons universe because the shoes don't look right when they're not on the character's feet. And that's like, he lost a shoe, and I think people understand that that's his shoe because you can see his bare foot. But still, it just doesn't

look right and it never quite got there. When Homer adds his shoe off, sometimes it looks just by itself like a cloven hoof really. Yeah, exactly. Or a steam iron perhaps. But okay, so that's shoe off it does sometimes it looks just by itself like a cloven hoof really yeah exactly or or steam iron perhaps but uh but okay so that's that's uh the first of the two but in between i have something that bill i i surprising you with here i don't think you may not have seen this since uh in at least 20 years oh my god let's. Satan, I cast thee out.

The power of faith compels you. The church of Springfield compels you. The young people's outreach committee compels you. I remember that. Because I was thinking about it. I thought it was attached to this Halloween episode, to six, right? But it was attached to seven

and I didn't know what it had ever become of it because I know what happened was it was one of those things where everything was too long and we just cut it right out and then we just have like

there's a graphic that says Treehouse of War 7, right? Or whatever. But I remember writing that and even when we were writing it I was thinking this is going to get cut.

This is going to get cut. And it did but it lives on, I was thinking, this is going to get cut. This is going to get cut. And it did. But it lives on, I see. Yes, yeah. It's a hidden deleted scene on the season 14 DVD set. So you have to really dig for it. But so, yeah, I mean, now it couldn't be more timely. Everybody's loving Exorcist, whatever, the new Exorcist.

Right, right. Yeah, no one can see this at home, but I'm seeing all the t-shirts. No, I also, it was quiet on the thing, but Yardley does a really good job. She has a little like, sorry, over the clothes. It's too bad it was never put in color, though. I wanted to see what color green they would have used for that. Yeah, it could have been good.

But yeah, so that was my question. It was just cut for time like it's uh yeah i mean the treehouse is you always like i i feel like no matter what showrunner talks about it they always say not enough time for for every joke in the treehouses it's really hard to fit three complete stories into that tiny amount of time and much less with like in the early seasons of treehouse they had a wraparound that well they had marge come out and say this is to be scary, so your kids shouldn't watch it. And then they had a wraparound with like, it's a Halloween party or everyone's in the Treehouse or whatnot. And then by season six, we were like, we've got to get rid of all that stuff. There's no room for anything.

It's hard enough. And then the problem, and you'll see, I think as we watch this next one, the stupid opening credits go through two-thirds of the first segment. And it also makes you think, like, maybe we shouldn't have had credits in this episode. But you'll see. So, yeah, the time was always a huge issue with this thing. And they would never give us more than an extra 30 seconds at most. Well, I guess, yeah, that takes us to our next one. Yes, we're moving on to Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores.

And, yes, directed by Mark Kirkland, written by Simpsons legend John Schwarzwalder, which I'm sure, Bill, you answer many questions about his life. Yes. Every day of your life. And we know he comes from an advertising background. Yes. In fact, you'll see that in this very, the name of the advertising agency is the one he worked at.

Okay. Well, hey, that kills a question I had later. Oh, shit. I'm sorry. No. Oh, no. I thought that was like, oh, you guys must have stayed up till two in the morning doing that.

But no, it's just where he was. Yeah. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance

that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? No, well, yeah, so I was curious and Schwarzwalder, again, he's a real guy. Some people still seem to think he's not. I mean, he got a new book out yeah he's on twitter promote and that's actually his twitter account promoting his new book yeah it's what the mountain of dead detectives something like that yeah i'm looking forward to that but yeah it's i i also wondered how much or if at all george

meyer was involved in this because i i recently just read a george meyer interview where he said am i going to say this quote exactly? He says, if I could eliminate either advertising or nuclear weapons, I would choose advertising. I'm sure he was involved extensively in this. I mean, anything that you get in The Simpsons that's kind of like an anti-consumer type thing or anti-advertising thing probably came from George to at least some extent. And he was definitely in the room for the entirety of this. Bill, I meant to ask this. Your background in advertising is with cartoon spokesperson Joe Camel. Yes.

This is not from this episode. No, no, I'm sorry. I just wanted to have a visual representation. Yeah. The first, this is actually something that we discussed at the Mission Hill shows, which is why you know this. Yes. Josh and I's first job in any kind of writing thing was working for Young and Rubicam,

advertising agency in New York, writing stuff for Joe Camel. Now, people who don't know Joe Camel, let me explain to you. It was the most insidious advertising campaign of the 20th century, designed pretty much to make children smoke. And I think it worked pretty well, apparently. But anyway, it was a funny, it was a camel, and he had smooth character was his moniker. He was used in hundreds of different advertisements.

And Josh and I, for the time that we worked there, were the writers and editors of Smooth Magazine. It's a magazine that was all about Joe Camel and his life and his family and his ancestors and stuff. And it was inserted into People magazine. It would be like a thing in the middle of it, like an eight-page supplement. And furthermore, they made books of matches

that you would get at bodegas. And that was the highlight of my life and still remains something that I cherish are these matchbooks with Joe Campbell jokes on them that we wrote. So yes, and then obviously that went on to great infamy a few years later we tried to find a copy of smooth magazine we got other results now that was so amazing to know that you guys built so much of the lore of what's

probably on the joe camel wikipedia page well certainly his ancestors going all the way back to ancient egypt were entirely our creation yeah but okay sorry yes uh let's see our first clip for real here ah the miracle mile but value where the neon sombrero and there's not a single church or library to offend the eye there it is the chain that put the fat in fat southern sheriffs. I want a colossal donut, just like the one on the sign. Donuts! That's false advertising! Sorry, sir. No refunds.

I paid for a colossal donut, and I'm gonna get a colossal donut. You don't scare us. I've seen that Orlando and Hollywood yes and not only that do they have Lard Lad but you can buy an actual big pig donut that actually is somewhat colossal I'd say yeah I guess we want to know Bill I assume you've been to Simpsons World? Yes

it's pretty impressive. How many of your jokes have you seen? Lots of them I think to repeat a theme that always happens to these things, I think I also made up Lard Lad. I'm not sure. But yes, there's lots of them

and you don't get... I think if they had developed Simpsons World, I don't know, in 2015, it might have been included, maybe? Yeah.

Well, they developed it in when? 2012? 2007? 2008? You know, the ride opened in nine, but I think it was,

I think the Attached Cities was like a couple years later. Did you pay $9.99 for the Big Pink Donuts when you were there? No, I didn't want to get all full and tired while I was trying to enjoy the amusement park. I think I had the

Cletus's Chicken, whatever it was. It was pretty good. From everybody I've heard, the food is pretty good there. I love the big fiberglass Lard Lad and Wiggum and all that stuff. It's cool. That's nice. I wondered what it's like to just walk around seeing all of your jokes all around. Well, you wonder why you're not getting any money from it.

That's the thing. That's the thing. And it really is. That's the nature of intellectual property. We didn't make this up. Matt Groening made up this universe, obviously, with the help of Sam Simon and Jim Brooks. And they designed the characters. But there are a lot of specific jokes that appear on the walls or the menus or whatever that we made up.

But that's the nature of entertainment for hire. Those things are not your property anymore. So the first segment was an obvious parody. Where did this idea come from? I can't remember at all. I know that the title is based on the attack of the 50-foot woman, right? That was one of those posters that everybody had in their dorm room in the 80s. There was one of those, like, there's a few posters that, like, people that were very popular in college campuses.

One of them was attack of the 50-foot woman in the 80s. So I know the name was in everybody's head. But where the idea of giant advertising characters rampaging came from, I don't know. I know in it, too, you have the, you just have the Godzilla sound effect, which you should know. Yeah, for Kent Brockman, yeah. Yeah, I think on the commentary, Silverman's like, hey, you guys just used it in the show.

We asked to use it in the Monsters, Inc., and they told us no, but you guys just did it. We had very liberal lawyers. I mean, that was the thing about The Simpsons is that lawyers let us get away with almost everything because they said it was parody, you know,

and it could fall under parody. So the lawyers for Monsters, Inc., being Disney lawyers, were hard asses, I'm sure. I wonder, man, I wonder now how hard the lawyers are on Simpsons these days. Good question. The new regime is nice. They just buy the things that might sue them, right?

Yeah, that's right. I was going to point out that this aired in October of 95, I believe. Toy Story was November of 95. You had both a revolutionary 3D segment and inanimate things coming to life in one special. The things come to life. This is when

we get a bunch of parodies together here, but let's see in our next clip fellas where you're going at this hour, don't scratch up them heads. Good morning, everybody. Panic is gripping Springfield as giant advertising mascots rampage through the city. Perhaps it's part of some daring new ad campaign, but what new product could justify some carnage?

A cleanser? A fat-free fudge cake that doesn't let you down in the flavor department like so many others? Ah! Let me get... No! I love that one. Morgan's screaming there, too. and let you down in the flavor department like so many others. Ah! Let me get... No! I love that one.

Morgan's screaming there, too. That fudge cake line came right out of George Myers' mouth. I remember the moment. He was like, put it right in. That's exactly the kind of thing that he would specialize in, is that kind of satirical jab. But these other things like, you know, the Neon Cowboy was famous for being the mascot of Las Vegas for about 50 years at the Frontier Club. I think

it was downtown. And then there was a Budweiser commercial that used it right around this time. That's funny you mention that, Bill. Actually, yes. I have some clips here of the things you guys were pulling from. Yes. Luckily, I remembered a beer commercial that aired when I was 12. It worked on me. It worked.

Yeah. The Pioneer Club. That's right. After midnight, we're going to let it all hang out. Cold-filtered Miller genuine craft. After midnight, we're going to let it all hang out. The cold one. For those who discovered its smooth craft taste, the world is a very cool place.

That's not the only one you referenced. It has to get past the big guy. The little man with the hammer was born in 1931. Since his inception, that distinctive little man has taken many forms and for years has been a famous representative of our company. Nothing pleases my planters. He's dead now. Many moments.

Three best friends your car ever had. How many of these have we lost? That's well done. That's fantastic. Yes, you found the sources for all of those, especially that one from Western Exterminator, which people never know what that is but it was pretty prominent for a while

which is the guy with the mallet I feel like exterminators don't advertise their smashing brats anymore they've been cancelled the Western Exterminator at first I always thought of what people might see and think

oh it's the Vegas cowboy know, the Vegas Cowboy. But you have to see that real commercial to be like, no, the beer crushing the people is referencing the commercial too. Yes, entirely. Yeah. And also when you see all the original clips, you can see all the little ways they were made, you know, legally distinct. Exactly. Exactly. Like how the Zip Boys aren't exactly Manny Moe and Jack.

Right. And Professor Peanut is not the same as Mr. Peanut because he has a mortarboard rather than a top hat. Even the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, which are already I would think public domain, but your version in the episode are wearing glasses.

Yes. I guess we had questions about the giant hat. Yeah, it's like a big Tam O'Shanter, but I can't tell what it was. That one I could not find it from. I think that one was supposed to be like the blob. You Yeah, it's like a big tam-o-shanter, but I can't tell what it, that one I could not find it from. I think that one was supposed to be like the blob. You know, that was

the nature of that one was that it was a different, it wasn't a humanoid. Okay. So in our next clip, though, this is when you guys have a pretty good fake-out of what seems to be

the end of the episode, or the segment ending a little early. Hello? Yes? Oh, uh, if you're looking for that big donut of yours, Flanders has it. Just smash open his house. He came to life.

Good for him. Help me, Lord! I told you, Flanders has it! Or Moe. Go kill Moe. No, just give him the donut. Once he has it, that will be the end of all this horror. Well, okay.

If it'll end horror. Don't you ever get tired of being wrong all the time? Sometimes. I guess that is the trick with a Halloween show. You don't know when the act will end. Because when the act ends, the story's over. So that was a good fake out. I love it. And Homer's finally looking for his excuse

to kill Flanders and Moe there. The thing about it is that Lard letterly treats Homer with a lot of respect. Like, he rings the doorbell. He didn't smash the door open. He rings the doorbell twice. As opposed to what he did to everyone else. Then also, like, the dog didn't i

don't think i discussed this with you guys but i just did a podcast about the prohibition episode where the cat there's a cat put in at the end in the catapult and launched off over the horizon this was the antecedent of that with the dog being kicked by lard lad over the prison which you know it's not funny animal use is not funny but reason, in this context, it does make me laugh. Let me put it that way. But yes, because the dog is barking at him, and the dog's not dead, but it's angry. I'm sorry.

I'm going to start cracking up again. But I think maybe you're not going to show the clip that's going to make me break up like I did last time we were here. I guess I'll find out in a minute. The dog doesn't... I don't want to laugh. I don't want to laugh at the poor dog. No, I mean, the sound is fine.

In the next scene, he was breathing comfortably, right? Yeah, exactly. No, also, I mean, I think it probably helps. It's not Santa's little helper. I mean, it's so small, you can't tell. But it'd be worse if it was Santa's little helper. Oh, yeah. No, it's a nons i mean it's so small you can't tell but it'd be worse if it was saying it's a little help oh yeah no it's a it's a non-specific dog that we know we had any affection for also i like at this point in the show marge knows like she's always wrong for comedy i love that i use that i have that thing i have a freaky act uh gif of

that thing that i use on twitter or i used to use a lot more on twitter to right-wing republicans and saying don't you get tired of being wrong all the time. I stopped doing that after a while, but it was really fun. I mean, Marge is like, sometimes. Yeah, you know, I always wondered why it feels like, too, they missed or something I cut, like the Simpsons

house look kind of smashed up in the shot when he has the donut over his head, but I couldn't tell that there. But all right, so in our next clip here, this is when Lisa does some investigating. And again, this guy, this ad agency guy, feels like another classic Bill and Josh

kind of weird old man from the 60s kind of guy. I think this is a Schwarzwalder thing. I mean, yes, he wrote it and we birthed it by making sure the animators drew it and that Harry voiced it appropriately. But I mean, it was his idea. The advertising agency created all those giant characters.

You must know how to stop them. Well, sir, advertising is a funny thing. If people stop paying attention to it, pretty soon it goes away. Like that old woman who couldn't find the beef? Exactly. If you stop paying attention to the monsters, they'll lose their powers. But people can't

help looking at them. They're wrecking the town. You know, maybe a jingle would help. Don't watch the monsters. Well, it'll sound a lot better coming out of Paul Ankin. We'll get to it.

We'll get to it. We'll get to it. But yeah, I mean, he feels like he's one of the Sherman brothers, like just with his piano in his office, just pitching a tune. It's very much of the old school 60s. Yeah, I mean, Bewitched, Larry Tate, advertising agency, McMahon and Tate. But that's right from Schwarzwalder. And I'm glad in a way

that you didn't show the clip that would have made me totally lose it, which is the one where Wiggum shoots the captain of the high school basketball team.

I just figured maybe people didn't want to see a cop shoot a teenager tonight. That was why it's like, you know, maybe. I mean, I love that. That was a really wise

decision because last time we did this five years ago, I totally lost it at Wiggum saying, whoa, ah, you know, babe. I mean, I love that scene. That was a really wise decision, because last time we did this five years ago, I totally lost it at Wiggum saying, whoa, whoa, slow down, egghead, after Frank drew a square. That's the clip that always makes me lose it. And I think you're right that this is not the time or the place for it. No. No, but I mean, the way he says, like, he was turning into a monster.

Yeah. But before I play... Oh, wait. So Paul Ica. Let me talk about Paul Ica. Oh, yes. Yeah. So this is one of the things about this show being...

There you go. Oh, you knew it already. Well, I figured, yeah. So I'd heard that it was because of this line that... It was because of that line. Rex Harrison and Paul Ica rolled into one. Okay. So just a little bit of background here.

We at The Simpsons, because the Simpsons audience, when it was broadcast back in those days, was almost all people under 18 and like, you know, .01 people over 30. We never got any free stuff mailed to us.

And so, but we had the friends at Seinfeld. Every time Seinfeld would mention, you know, Junior Mintz or whatever, Nike shoes, they'd get a crate of that stuff

for free and all these, they'd get invited places and flown places and fuck that shit. We never got any of that. One time we got mailed a box of Stridex pads after the season four episode thing that said I'm in pizza face paradise.

Remember that? Nothing ever than the ever, ever, ever, ever from anyone because no adults were watching the show. So after this, and this was an episode in that this was in the sextonic one. You see, the joke was that Marge's cultural references are all from 1962, which is like our parents, Rex Harris and Paul Anka. Paul Anka very graciously wrote us a really nice note on his really fancy stationery. And it was like, thank you. He was flattered to have been mentioned

in this context. And we were like, he seems like a good guy. Let's have him sing that song. So that's exactly how we got on this thing. And then also we never got to have been mentioned in this context and we were like he seems like a good guy let's have him sing that song so that's exactly how he got on this thing and then also we never got to have marty ingalls on but if you may recall in the episode where crusty fakes his own death crusty talks about shirley jones and marty ingalls new year's eve party and missing that marty ingalls sent us a box of cocktail liqueurs and we were so thrilled um that was pretty those are the only two things we ever got a A letter from Paul Anka and a box of cocktails from Rudy Ingalls. That's why we remember them. I would figure this episode is why

anybody under 40 knows Paul Anka. They don't know she's having more babies. He did a great job. He was a very pleasant guy. He was extremely professional, very funny, obviously very talented and he didn't hang around very long.

There was no John Waters who hung around all day. Paul Anka got into his line and left, but he was very nice. But yes, here, feel free to sing along, everybody, with a tune for our times. Hey, Springfield! Are you suffering from

the heartbreak of monsteritis? Then take a tip from Mr. Paul Anka! To stop those monsters, one, two, three, Here's a fresh new way that's trouble free, It's got Paul Anka's guarantee. Guarantee void in Tennessee! Just a look, just a look,

Just a look, just a look Just a look, just a look Oh, God, I love that song. That's such a great song. I mean, and I've seen it referenced quite a lot in our social media age right now. Oh, for sure, yeah. But yeah, no, that tune is great. And also, it's a great, I love the drawing,

especially his wink and point is perfect Paul Anka. Yeah, yeah. They're smashing things more when they're not being paid attention to. That's so good. And well, I mean, for the animators, too, they did such a good job. Like, scale is not easy to do. Like, giant characters, they did such a good job. Scale is not easy to do. Giant characters, they did such a good job. Same with that willy as the giant bagpipe spider willy

coming out of the ground. That, too, was just amazing. It's extremely creepy. And such a good long shot, too. But yes, also in the episode, one of our second to last clips here is the only deleted scene that's on the DVD of it. Maybe you could give us some background on that.

Something. Remember the story. We're newlyweds on our way to Earth's capital. No, Shazbut. We've come at a good time, Kodos. Society is in chaos. We could hardly ask for better conditions to mount our invasion. Gone, Sonic Kang.

You know, the ticket was $20, but you're saving on DVDs. Yeah. Really, in the end. We saved you about three DVD prices, I think. I don't remember that at all. Oh, wow. I know that the thing is, the only reason Kang and Kodos are in there, and it's still kind of a weird appearance by them is because it was mandatory

that they appear in every Halloween episode for one reason or another so we stuffed them in there and then I can only assume we animated this and then said

okay one appearance by them is enough because it's like it's distract one is like a joke two is like is this a plot point it's confusing

so that's I'm sure what happened there and I don't remember that in the least wow and see yeah if you've in the regular episode as aired right before the paul bunyan walks into the screen you can see the spaceship come into the shot even like it's there but uh well okay because that even looked like temp animation there of the or the the free and Koda. So I was not sure. Okay, well, all right.

But we just have one more clip here that I think, well, we updated it a little. Even as I speak, the scourge of advertising could be heading toward your town. Lock your doors, bar your windows, because the next advertisement you see could destroy your house and eat your family. Disney Plus for kids now.

That's the ball for Disney stockholders. So let's all celebrate Disney Plus as it reaches year number two. As long as... How'd that get in there? How'd that get in there? My wife's in the audience. I'm sorry I forgot our plus-iversary. But no, I mean that, well, you know, now though, Bill, the intention of that original joke with the, you know,

it cuts, then it cuts to the commercial. Now it could be, you know, now that there's an ad version, a version of Disney Plus with ads, that joke can work again with an ad played after it. Thank God. Unlike the joke about Cromulent and Abigand, which are both in the dictionary now,

completely ruining that joke for future generations. Yeah, I didn't even think, yeah, man, Dan Graney's got to be kind of pissed that the word doesn't work anymore. Well, also, now that word is a copywritten word by Disney that they use for their Miss Marvel character, too. Like, she says him big and all the time now. I don't know if you know, it's in the Marvel Cinematic Universe now.

Yeah, I'm sort of stunned to hear that. We invited Bill on stage to upset him tonight. Yes, sorry, yes. Well, it started as just a fun reference uh this little comic book corner here uh and for the miss marvel character in the her original appearance the writer uh is a simpsons fan and so when she like grows big she says embiggen but you know it started just a fun little reference but now she just does it in the marvel it's now it's now on toys and everything Wow like her move in video games is called in big it so

yep okay but yes it's been a fun night of clips let's give it up for Bill Oakley and Bill thank you Bill it's not on our screen here but you've got a patreon you've got your

own society oh yeah people okay so some of you may know the reason that I'm not the reason I'm often depicted in this chef's jacket, which is the only way I allow anyone to depict me these days, is because that's my, I'm a big food fan, I'm a food influencer by some standards, and I have this club called the Steamed Ham Society. You obviously already know what that is. The beer has the same logo. They're kind of somewhat affiliated. Steamed Ham Society is for people who like to talk about food all the time

and let people know about this amazing chicken sandwich they found or this recipe they tried or this terrible new flavor of Chex Mix that you might have heard about. Anyway, that's the kind of thing that we talk about. Go to steamedhamsociety.com if you're interested. Join up. We have a Discord. We have a newsletter.

We have live streams. These guys were on our Simpsons live stream last month. And we have merchandise and we have a newsletter we have live streams these guys were on our simpsons live stream last month and we have merchandise and all sorts of stuff it's a fun club if you're interested in talking about food 24 hours a day which i like to do it was it was so fun being on your on your live stream we really appreciated that you had you had some tough questions for us i know you guys dodged them very artfully uh you know, hey. Everybody works so hard on things. Yeah, it's what nobody expects. You can't, you guys, obviously I can't.

I tried to corner you guys into criticizing the show, but you wouldn't do it. And God bless you, because this is your livelihood. You have to be slightly diplomatic. Yeah. Well, I mean, we played that Elon Musk clip at the start because we loved that episode, and it's so funny. Yeah. And everybody who worked Musk clip at the start because we loved that episode. It's so funny. Everybody who worked on it was so great.

They were so smart to get him on the show. It doesn't reflect poorly on the show. It's not a stain. You're doing this to yourself now. It's not my fault that you guys are shooting yourselves in the foot. We should probably stop. Yes.

Thank you so much, Bill. Thanks for coming, everybody. We'll be signing posters in the back. We should probably stop. Yes, yeah, no. But again, thank you so much, Bill. My pleasure. Thanks for coming, everybody. You'll be signing posters in the back. Thank you. This is great art. Yes, that wonderful art. Thank you so much, everybody.

Thanks for coming. We appreciate it. Thank you. Wow. Infotainment.