Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Homer and Apu With Mike Mitchell

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

"Silly customer! You cannot hurt a Twinkie!" - Apu Nahasapeemapetilon Apu receives a well-deserved spiritual depantsing when he knowingly sells Homer tainted meat and ends up in the unemployment line. But with the help of his oafish friend, and benevolent Hollywood superstar James Woods, he may find himself back in the good graces of the Kwik-E-Mart corporation.  Our guest: Mike Mitchell, co-host of the Doughboys 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. I hardly endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast that can see through time. I'm one of your hosts, the former pathetic single man Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons. Who is here with me today as always? Henry Gilbert, aka the cantankerous old geezer.

And who is our special guest on the line? Mike Mitchell, podcasting, that's your job. I was trying to remember something from the episode. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. And this week's episode is Homer and Apu. I need one 29 cent stamp. That's a dollar 95. I want two dollars worth of gas, please. Next episode is Homer and Appu. This episode originally aired on February 10th, 1994, and as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh boy Bobby, Viacom acquires Paramount for $10 billion, blank check in My Girl 2 can't

touch Ace Ventura at the box office, and Jack Kirby, the king of comics, passes away. Wow. It was an eventful week. Yes, Mitch, you're in shock at that, I've seen. I just, it just as time goes on and you just feel ancient, you know, it's just as if funny hearing all this. My Girl 2 at the box office is just a movie I forgot existed until maybe this moment. I'm familiar with My Girl.

I don't know what could happen in My Girl 2. Does Macaulay Culkin come back to life and get stung by bees again? No, no, I think they did get everybody back, like Ackroyd and Jamie Lee, I think they're both back for it. But no, I did not see My Girl 2 either. I also did not see Blank Check as well, which has been the curse of our pals on their podcast.

Everybody think that that's what their podcast is. I had a chance to tell Griffin to his face that I thought the Blank Check podcast was a podcast about the movie Blank Check, sort of like that one podcast that watched Grown Ups 2 over and over and over again. Before I knew those guys and knew what the podcast was, I had the same thought. I did not, I thought it was about the movie Blank Check. I think in My Girl 2, they hunt down the Queen Bee and they kill the Queen bee that that's responsible for Macaulay's

Death I remember my girl one my mom was like I wanted to go see it and my mom was like just so you know This is like a more of a serious movie because I was a Mac fan You know, I was Macaulay Culkin and I still am who doesn't love who doesn't look back. He's he's correct Yes, actually Mitch the full title is my girl to vengeance When blank check I also always get it mixed up with like Big fat liar like they're the same movie in my mind to though obviously I'd rather see the one with Paul Giamatti You're not or they a lot of the movies at that time were the same movie But you know what those movies don't even make it to theaters anymore, I feel like.

So it makes me nostalgic for a time when Disney or whoever would put the slop in the theaters. I like the slop being in the theaters. I just recall, I mean, I was 12 when Blank Check came out or about to turn 12. And I remember seeing trailers and thinking it had a weird sexual energy because a lot of the movie is if I'm a rich child and adult women will want to fill in the blanks. I'm 11, I don't know what the rest is. It definitely, there's a lot of stuff from that time where like a little kid has like a crush on like a 30 year old lady. It's very bizarre.

And I guess the blank check is $1 million. I'm looking at the Wikipedia description of the movie right now. $1 million. That was it at the Wikipedia description of the movie right now. $1 million, that was it, huh? That's like what a studio apartment costs. That was the check is for $1 million. Okay, I didn't know if you were saying that was the budget either. I was like, wow.

No, no, sorry. I guess the blank check is metaphorical. He finds a briefcase with $1 million in it, which I guess where we're from, Henry, you could buy half of a small home in Berkeley, California from our previous living space. If that, yeah. It would start financing it. Yeah.

See, of those upsetting movies back then, Milk Money is the only one I remember watching. I was a Milk Money renter, and I seem to have some blank check vibes. I have a buddy who was in Milk Money. I won't dox him. I feel like a lot of people know who he is. But he finds a million dollars in a suitcase. milk money. I won't talk to him. Just I feel like a lot of people know who he is. But um, he finds a million dollars in a suitcase. That's yeah, that appears to be blank. Yeah, I thought it was a blank. There's no he doesn't. I thought the guy hands him a blank check

and then he fills in a million dollars on it. And then I but I mean, I haven't seen this movie. So I you have the wiki in front of you, Bob, I'm assuming. I'm seeing mention of a check, but I don't want to take a break to read this. I'll get back to you guys. But paragraph two, he finds a briefcase with a million dollars in cash. People are gonna be yelling at us in the comments.

The blank check fans are coming out of the woodwork right now. Oh, I'm sure. Oh, wow. Well, speaking of lots of money, yeah, the paramount being bought by Viacom for just 10 billion seems small now by today's day. That's like Candy Crush prices, right? Yeah.

That would, yeah, I mean, now Viacom is like selling Paramount, sort of, right? The Skydance people bought it, along with some other venture capital monsters, I think is where Paramount's at now. Yeah, that sounds about right. Whatever is happening is holding up season three of Beeps and Butthead which we were told by the head writer is coming in 2025 so I'm just annoyed about that. And yes RIP Jack Kirby I had only just

gotten into reading comics when he passed away and he lived a life full of cigars and late nights drawing comics, so it's unfortunate that that's what happened, that he didn't live long enough to see so many of his things get popular, though he lived long enough to see that he did not get to become a millionaire, as other people did, off of his many, many, many, many creations. If you liked the Marvel Comics character that wasn't Spider-Man or Daredevil from the 60s, Jack Kirby created them. I mean, I like my comic. You know, my comic writers like cigar chomping drunks. That's what I love. So I guess I'm not sure what the new generation is. We have no more cigar chomping drunkards. You know, there's not enough cigar chomping drunkards in any industry

now, I feel like. I think just modern cigars are unchompable. They're just, they're not enough cigar chomping drunkards in any industry now, I feel like. I think just modern cigars are unchompable. They're just, they're not made well enough. You can't just chew on a wet cigar all day anymore. But anyway, that's all the things that happened this, the week that this episode of The Simpsons first aired. And yes, joining us once again is Mike Mitchell from the Doughboys Podcast and the Peacock Series Twisted Metal.

Welcome back to the show, Mike. Guys, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be back. Look, at the last second I threw my quote out there, which is podcasting. That's your job. He doesn't actually say mowing the... I knew going into it. Look at me, I'm falling all over the place here. I knew that it was a misquote, but I had to throw something out there, so I went with

that. But that was a line that I hadn't recognized when I watched this episode of when when when when a poo is mowing the lawn and he says but that's your job I believe it's but that's your job I think is what he says yeah I love that joke but only upon you saying it again did I realize it's from this episode well it leaves you in a rough position being the third one who has to go after me and Bob have both said like three lines from the episode. So we've I know I know we've left some guests with like you said mine.

Oh, sure. Yeah. No, this was just me being unprepared. But I that that that line this watch through made me made me laugh quite a bit. It's just funny. And Lisa's job is to cut the wood. Well Mitch, not only do you have like the new season of Twisted Metal coming out, which I'm really looking forward to that, also you guys have live shows coming up

on Doughboy, so a lot of them are sold out already. There's tickets still available? Yeah, tickets available. I don't even know if I could say the URL. It's a, you know what, I can say the safe one. You can swear It's fine, bitch. It's where if you go to bird fuck com That you can find our all the touring info. Also, we're gonna be touring in May in DC and New Jersey and then in Boston the Doughboys are and then I'm not sure the twist of metal does not have an official date yet But it's coming out later this year. But also more important than all of that, I got something for you guys that I thought you'd be excited about. Oh, a surprise.

I don't know if you can see this here, but hey, I got I got this T-shirt. I ordered it from Etsy. Oh, wow. He's wearing a genius at work shirt. That's right. Oh, that's great. That is great, Mitch. I had been re-watching some of the show before even we talked about, actually we talked about doing this maybe a while

back, so I don't know if it predates that. But I remember Disney, there was an article about how Disney is going to just do all Simpsons all the time. Like there's a channel on the Disney Plus app where you can just turn it on and there'll be a random Simpsons, which I think is great. I think that is like a fun way to watch the show, though I'm such a first, you know, eight seasons of the show guy that I was like, I'm going to miss like all of the seasons I truly

love and grew up on. And so I turned it on and it was, I think, at season eight and I was watching just episodes of season eight, which is, I think, is where Genius at Work is it, because it's Homer and it's Pucci, right? It's the Scratchy and Pucci Show. Yeah. Yeah, it's the Pucci one.

Yeah, I think with that 24 hour stream, they're at first doing them all in chronological order. So you could be trapped in an era you don't understand for days and days. Yes. If you tune in at the wrong time. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I also have one of those genius at work shirts, Mitch. I wore it when we were on stage with Talkin' Poochie with Bill Oakley last year. Oh, I love it. Oh, that's fantastic. I got to send Bill a little selfie with the shirt

on. It was fun to-watch some of season eight and I hadn't watched it in a while. And I remember being like, I'm like such a stinker with my opinions on it that I'm like, eight and nine is like, nine is not even, I know that they're good episodes in season nine, but everyone is always like, the first 10 seasons of The Simpsons,

and I'm like, one through eight. And I love one and two, and I think one and two don't get the, you know, the the credit they deserve but I've always been like eight is kind of where you see it slide a little bit this is me being nerdy and annoying and I know that there's episodes from every season that are good and great but um watching season eight I was like oh this is like it's still firing on all cylinders here there's like this is this episode is fantastic you know everyone that I was watching I was just I was going through the stream and I and I was I was digging all

Of them so yeah, I think now since there's going to be 40 seasons It was announced today like right before we recorded I think people are opening their hearts more towards seasons 9 10 11 etc Sure, these are now becoming classics because now these are all becoming 20 plus years old seasons are now becoming classics because now these are all becoming 20 plus years old seasons. Oh god, which is also wild. It's the hell we deal with every day on Talking Simpsons. I saw on Doughboys, you marked a thing we marked as well, which is we are now in the past the point where the movie is now older now than the movie was right in the first episode.

That is so, that is crazy to me. I and that's right when I started working at the show as an assistant to the writers is is right when the movie was coming. I went to the premiere with Tim Kallpakis, which I think I've told you guys before I saw Lloyd. Is it Lloyd from the office in the premiere getting a deep fried Snickers? These are the only things that are coming back to my memory. And yeah, I started right around then. Though I don't know if one of the episodes that I was working at the show during the time it came out, if that came on during the...

I don't know if I would recognize that either, but I was there for almost four years. I worked there for a good long run. It's wild that I'm now on like the back half of that the time I worked there is almost in the back half of that show which is crazy. You can start saying I worked on early Simpsons soon enough. That's insane. You know the Golden Age season 17? Well Mitch as well not only on Simpsons, I was curious, what's your experience with one Greg Daniels? My experience with Greg Daniels, I actually wrote some of this down just to remind myself.

I don't have a ton of Greg Daniels stories, but I do actually have something that's kind of interesting that ties into today's episode. But Greg Daniels was gone by the time I got there, and I never really, you know, the office was also in full swing when I was working at The Simpsons. I auditioned for the office. I was a comedy guy. I didn't audition for the original cast. I auditioned for the episode where it's Michael Scott's nephew in the office.

It was originally Kathy Bates' nephew. I went in and I read for that part on The Office. And that was kind of, that was my own. And then later there was a pilot for the show called Friday Night Dinner, which was a UK show. I think it was maybe a BBC show. I'm not sure exactly. But Greg Daniels was remaking that for NBC.

It was kind of his like, you know, his big follow, like, you know, not follow up show. It was while The Office was airing, but it was like his big show and the hilarious Gil O'Zary was cast in that show. And I remember I went in and read for that show and like John Heater was there and Greg Daniels was there and it was like a big, you know, one of those big back when Hollywood was kind of still happening in a way. You know, it felt like it felt like a time where there was actually auditions and stuff like that.

But I never he Greg Daniels is like a guy who, like, because even when I was there, Conan came in one day and I met Conan and he made fun of me. Called me an asshole. He kept calling me an asshole throughout the day every time he saw me. But Greg Daniels I did not have to, you know, didn't have a huge connection with. But Terry Green, who was a dialogue editor for the show, he gave me a basketball at one point and I still have the basketball. And it was the basketball that Conan, Greg Daniels, and Rich Appel would use to just, you know, play basketball

in their spare time over there. And all three of them signed it. And then much later, I did a funnier die sketch with Tom Brady and I had Tom Brady sign that basketball. So now that basketball is signed by Conan, Greg Daniels, Rich Appel and Tom Brady. So I have that basketball. But more so the connection I have with this episode is this episode stars Hollywood's favorite James Woods. And I was working at the show Shark.

I was a CBS page and then Dave Ferguson, who was in my sketch group, the birthday boys, he was working at Imagine Entertainment and they produced the show Shark, which starred James Woods. And he was like, hey, there's a post-PA job opening up. And so I applied for that and I got that job as a post-PA on the show Shark, which was on the Fox lot. And then the 2007 writer's strike happened. You know, they used that strike to cancel Shark.

And I was at Fox and I looked up, I would always drive by the Simpsons bungalow and it was like, to me, someone who was like, part of the reason I'm out here is that show. And just driving by there I would be like, oh my God, that's it. This is where the magic happened in this legendary place. And I sometimes would use their restrooms, which was like always mortifying. Like when I remember I used their restrooms

and like the show got out. So I was just silently sitting in like a bathroom stall as like my heroes came in and out of the bathroom. It was horrifying. But I found their number on the Fox law. I like looked it up and I called and I was like, hey, are you guys hiring at all? And they were like, actually, yes, we are. And so I wrote up my resume and I sent my resume in and then I had Tim Kelpakis, who

actually was working at Gracie Film, put it on Lorena Adamson's desk. And then they called me in for the interview and they thought Tim Long had put that resume on on her desk, which is more of a reason to call me in and then they I got hired from that and I never I never corrected them when they when they when they were saying it was They're like so Tim Long put your resume on the desk. I never said anything. I was like, uh-huh I just I just went along with it. And so shark James Woods Show is the reason that I ended up working over at the Simpsons, weirdly. Wow.

Yeah. So, that's my weird... So, I don't think you guys... You guys didn't know any of this, I don't think, when you... No, no. Yeah. So, this is just a... What a weird coincidence. Well, we thank you for joining us on this one, Mitch, because it has no baggage. It's a poos-for-sp for a spotlight episode and it stars James Wood. So nothing uncomfortable or there's nothing to unpack there. But this is Greg Daniels first episode as a Simpsons writer. Of course, he was on the staff earlier this season. This is his first episode that he is writing.

We normally do a writer's corner separately away from the guest, but this one is going to be very brief because there's just a few things to mention about Greg Daniels career. So we have a sister show called Talking of the Hill that's on our Patreon. Check it out at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. We've covered up through like mid-season four King of the Hill, so we talk a lot about Greg Daniels on that show. But in case you're wondering about how we joined the Simpsons, well he started at the beginning of production season five with Rosebud, and he'll stick around through the end of production season seven. Though weirdly enough, he is a co-executive producer on the satellite episodes of broadcasts seasons eight and nine. The things like the Sherry

Bobbins episode and Simpson Tide and I think the Springfield Files. Greg Daniels has some hand in those, but I think he is also doing King of the Hill at the same time, which is what he leaves The Simpsons to do. I mean, if I'm Gene Enriis, I want Greg Daniels, my Harvard pal, who also is one of the best writers to write on the show, but I would try to get him on my smaller satellite staff for writing four extra episodes of Simpsons. And before The Simpsons, he was a writer on not necessarily the news, Saturday Night Live, and he also wrote an episode of Seinfeld as a freelancer. That episode is The Parking

Space, a very famous one where I believe it's George who is fighting over the parking space. Right. God, yeah, that's such a great one. Man. It's a great episode. I think this was in Mike Reese's book, but he mentioned, I've sold this story before, I think, that Mike Reese said that Daniels and Conan got hired the same day on a job, and that it was the best deal in television history because they were a writing duo at the time.

Oh, I forgot that, so Conan and Daniels were a writing duo. Not on Simpsons, but on, I think, necessarily the news, or one of their previous works. Probably SNL, I'm guessing, right? Yeah, that might be it, yes. Okay, that sounds right. I guess my last interesting fact, I think it's interesting about Greg Daniels is,

so right before this, the first job he had on a sitcom was for the Fox sitcom circus, and you probably haven't heard of this sitcom because it never aired. Two episodes were filmed, and then there was a big dustup between the show's creator Kevin Curran,

Future Simpsons writer, and a Fox exec. The Fox exec canceled the show completely, so there are a bunch of writers who need a place to go at Fox. Those writers are Greg Daniels, Jace Richdale, and Jonathan Collier. They all go to The Simpsons, which again, everybody leaves after season four.

They're welcoming new writers from this abandoned circus project, which as the title implies is about a circus, which is why Fox did not want a Krusty the Clown show. They're like, no more circus things. We have a bad history with circus-related programs. So if you want to watch circus, you can check out one episode online. Someone who worked on the show actually kept one of the episodes that they recorded, and you'll see Greg Daniels listed as the executive story editor of circus, his first sitcom that only shot two episodes.

I want to watch that. I love Kevin. Kevin Curran was at the show when I was there. I loved Kevin. Rest in peace, Kevin. Voice of Buck the Wonder Dog as well. A great, a crazy guy. And I mean that in a loving way, a crazy guy who was like, I remember Kevin Curran always like singing songs

about the mummy and Frankenstein and stuff as he was walking around outside the offices. But a great, great guy. I loved Kevin. Yeah, Circus is basically married with children but at a circus because Kevin Curran came from married with children, like you said, Mitch. And he did not get along with the Fox exec, so he got his project canceled. He'll eventually be on The Simpsons in the early aughts.

But yeah, the show inherited all of these circus writers. They ended up being some of the best writers for The Simpsons in the early aughts. But yeah, the show inherited all of these circus writers. They ended up being some of the best writers for The Simpsons. Also, here's an interesting fact. Kevin Curran, basically, if you ever watched Bridget Jones's diary, I've never seen it, but I just know this for a fact that Kevin Curran is basically the basis of one of the two guys who was vying for Bridget Jones. He dated the author of Bridget Jones' diary. That's right.

Yeah, Helen Fielding. I believe they had the children together or they were married or at least both partners for- That's why Fielding's in season 15 of Simpsons too, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A great guy and it does not surprise me that he did not get along with Fox execs in the best, also in the best way. I'm sure that they were very annoying and Kevin probably pushed back on them, I'm sure.

Yeah, it was, it's a small part of the critic history we talked about in our critic episode as well, because it's partially why they didn't do a crusty spinoff that then turned into the critic. Listeners heard it, you've heard it, listener. I promise we will get to Homer and Apu, but I think we need to do a little Apu corner here because a lot of things have happened since we first covered this episode in May of 2017.

So in 1994, it was very crazy for Apu to have his own episode, but he was rising as a B-level Simpsons character and it was about time for him to get a story. So this was groundbreaking for the show 30 years ago. Fast forward to the 2010s. The last episode where we heard Hank Azaria as Apu was 2017's The Surfsons, which aired in October of 2017. And his last real episode was 2016's Much Apu About Something. And I believe it was 2019 when Azaria announced he'd no longer be voicing Apu. And of course, the 2017 documentary, The Problem with Apu, really got the conversation going. And I completely forgot about this,

but Henry and I recorded an episode about that documentary when it aired in November of 2017. So check out the Patreon for that episode way back in the archives. But yeah, the last time we heard Hank as Apu was actually before that documentary launched on I believe True TV. Wow.

Yeah. That's how long we True TV. Wow. Yeah. That's how long we've been doing it. Yeah, that's crazy that how much is, well, I mean, I guess changed in that also, like not only has Apu not appeared in the show anymore, but every character on the show that was a white actor playing a character who isn't white has now been recast with more ethically appropriate actors.

So the change, even with Apu not appearing since we cover this episode, the characters have gotten new actors in many cases. Yeah, which I, you know, a good change. It's that funny thing of like, you know, the spoiled child in me is like, oh, I miss Apu, but also I don't watch the show anymore. And I think it was the right thing to do It's funny that this is like, you know, this episode is, you know, the kind of the first Humanizing episode about a poo, but then also at the same time there are still stereotypes in the episode you know what I mean, it's it's a

Both things are going on at once and the world has changed and I think you know it has in many ways changed for the better in a lot of cases but I loved this character as a kid you know and I love especially loved this episode so much but rest in peace to Apu if I could go back in time I would tell him to not take a bullet for James Woods yes yes big mistake on his part but yeah I mean speaking as a white man with no skin in the ground here, these episodes make me miss Appu. I love the character. I love how he is the immigrant who realized when you're in America, you have to rip everyone off. It's just what we do in America. So that's his game plan. And I feel like a potential

way out of the Appu mess, and I understand why they don't want to use the character, I feel like a way out could be recast him and give him a different job. Because if you recast him, you're still stuck with him being the stereotypical convenience store clerk. And I know that's an issue as well. But I feel like when you get rid of Apu, you get rid of the Indian character and there could be no more stories written for an Indian character. And there's no other Indian character slotted in to be the platform for those stories. So I think you're also taking something away from the show and from people of that culture when you take away Apu.

That's just my own thoughts about the issue. I get that completely. And I, you know, I a hundred percent understand where you're coming from too. It's such a complicated thing. And like you're saying, as like a big white guy. I'm like I don't know what I'll add to that conversation but he was a character as a kid who I loved and does that mean anything? No, it doesn't you know but I do think that they do a poo justice in the show and at the same time there's also you know like in India on

the top of the hill There's like a giant quickie mark, too. You know so it's like yeah, it is that sort of thing of like It's it's a tough thing to balance but I will say that his character in this episode who has a lot of heart And he is like like a bowl and they I think they do a good job with him in this episode for sure So yeah likeable and I think they do a good job with him in this episode for sure. Yeah, and Greg Daniels wrote this and I see a lot of King of the Hill in Appu's character in that Appu just lives for his job and Hank Hill is very much the same way. He takes his job way too seriously and he's filtering what he knows about his job through

all of his actions in life. I can see a little bit of connective tissue there in terms of what Greg Daniels would go on to do later. Yeah. Yeah. I also think in the immigration episode, Immigants, that much a pull about something. It humanizes him more than this one. And I do think him kind of becoming like, let's just say a butler for Homer is also maybe a little like tokenizing of him perhaps. But I think it comes from a nice place. But again, yeah, like we're all saying here, this is my white guy perspective on this too. And listeners,

if you haven't gone back in our archives, please check out the ones we did for both Muchapoo About Nothing and his wedding episode, the title that escapes me now. We did have on our friend Shivam, who's Indian American, and also an expert in Hindu religion as well, and had a lot of interesting stuff to add to his perspective on Apu, I would also say that. Yeah, and I guess we could potentially see how an issue like this is handled

when we learn more about the King of the Hill reboot. By the way, we're recording this a month in advance, so we're not sure what's going on. All right, yeah. They have to handle the character of Khan, a Laotian character who is voiced by a white man, Toby Hus, and they have not addressed how that will be handled quite yet.

Definitively, there's been no statement as to if the character will appear, who he'll be voiced by, et cetera, et cetera. And that's another character I would hate to lose because Khan is so funny and great and a big part of that show. So I guess we'll see if they handle it in a different way, a way different than just getting rid

of the character entirely. Yeah, and I've heard a million different perspectives on this and like you were saying, does getting rid of the character completely, is that the move to do? And my answer is, I don't know. I mean, I have no idea. And selfishly, I like Apu, but I also don't even watch the show anymore, so I can't be like, I need, I don't watch the show as regularly, but I'm like, I need to have him back, because

that's not the case either. But you know, watching episodes with Apu, I do like the character and he makes me laugh. And I do think, Henry, you made a good point that he does basically become a servant for Homer, which is also not a great look, but I think that he has a lot of heart in this episode and I think he's done well in a lot of ways. The Simpsons are eating Indian food and Homer's enjoying it, you know what I mean? And there's things like that of they're trying to bridge a gap maybe a little bit, but for the 90s, 1994 or whatever

this is. Yeah, it's probably the first episode of anything about an Indian American that I had ever seen on television. Probably most people. Yeah, it's just crazy. The Simpsons will be right back. Math is easy. Let's say you have 15 Butterfinger BBs.

And I take five of them. What do you have left? One less, sister. Crispity, crunchity, Butterfinger BBs. They're new. Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger babies, they're new! Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger. Welcome to the break. It's Henry Gilbert cleaning the cheese out of my microwave and a big thank you to our guest this week, Mike Mitchell from the Doughboys podcast. We love having Mitch on.

All of his stories about where he worked in Hollywood that were connected to this episode were so fun And if you don't know the doughboys podcast, you really should be checking it out. He they are so great every week on there They're about to go on tour. They're on tour right now and you're listening to this and don't forget He's also in the cast of the twisted metal TV show which season 2 is coming out very soon So thanks again so much Mitch for your time We always love having you on and by the the way listeners, me and Bob did Doughboy's last year check out our review of the Krusty Burger at Universal Studios Hollywood. And if you enjoy the Talking Simpsons podcast you should also know that it's only possible because we have many great supporters

at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and you should join them. For just five bucks a month not only do you keep this podcast going, but you also get a ton of bonuses. You get ad-free early podcasts. You can hear next week's episode right now and with no ads like this one in them. Not to mention, each month you get an episode of Talking Futurama and Talk King of the Hill. It's just like how we cover The Simpsons, but for Futurama and King of the Hill. You get the whole back catalog of over 200 exclusive podcasts of us doing all the previous episodes of Futurama and King of the Hill. You get the whole back catalog of over 200 exclusive podcasts of us doing all the previous episodes of Futurama and King of the Hill, every

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well-known classic Indian films like in Bengali language from Satyajit Ray and I finally watched the first film in the Apu trilogy. I had not watched them until now. It's all on the Criterion channel if you're a subscriber to that. And yeah, it's called Pather Panchali and it is amazing. When I watched it, I was like, oh, it's just, and to know this is his first film, Ray's first film with almost entirely non-professional actors and it is like gorgeous and stirring and highly influential on the medium. Like it's, I give it a huge thumbs up. I gotta, I gotta fire up a Criterion channel after this. That's, that sounds fantastic.

I didn't watch that movie, but I did browbeat Henry into eating Indian food. Yes. I also had Indian food this last week as well for the first time in a little while. And Bob challenged me to eat vegetarian added to, which I did. Here's a crazy fact. The first time I ate Indian food was at the Simpsons. I mean, I'm from Massachusetts and it's funny when I was younger, just, you know, when we got Chinese food or something that would, you know, that's as, or even Mexican food. I think that's like the most exotic quote unquote, our food would get. And then as I got older, you know, like I remember my parents having sushi for the first time, you know, I never didn't have Indian food for any sort of reason.

It's just, you know, just exposure to it. Really. I went to school in upstate New York where there definitely was Indian food, but I didn't, you know, I, I never tried it until I was in Los Angeles, and I'm pretty sure at the Simpsons, which I was still a relatively young man when I started working there. I was 24 or so when I started working at the Simpsons. So that was the first time I actually had a chicken tiki masala, and I loved it, you know what I mean? Things like that, which I had never had before. I wish I could remember the restaurant that we would

order from at the Simpsons. Yeah I think I grew up in Northeast Ohio Mitch is similar situation I don't think there were even any Indian restaurants but I did not have Indian food until I was 25 and in graduate school I didn't have Chinese food until I was 18 and if we had Mexican food it was from Taco Bell and now I found out that my stepdad loves sushi and I'm just thinking where was your open mind in the 90s? I could be trying all of this food Instead of having Arby's every weekend

Man yeah, I know I love Indian food too, you know, like that's a it made me sad to realize how much I liked it when I tried it and and you know some garlic naan and Chicken chicken tikka masala is I think probably the whitest version of Indian food, but I still do love it. I'm a huge fan. And this episode has, there's over two minutes of deleted scenes from this one. More than just, there's the famous one that's in the 137th episode, 138th episode. Fuck, I can't believe I said 137, it's 138. But there's that one, but there's like 90 seconds of extra, which is a lot of extra animation. And there is also a table draft dated June 17th, 1993 on Internet Archive,

and I'll reference any of the big changes there. Really, there's only one major change in it, and we major change in it. I will get to it. Yeah. This is the one that changes the up who can in the deleted scene. Yes. That is a huge change in it. You're going to be shocked at this up who can and when you hear this deleted scene. I don't know if I know this info. I'm excited to hear. Well, the episode begins with the little clip we had at the start of the episode of surprisingly expensive, which is a scene so funny that when Hank Isaria was doing his bits for James Lipton on Inside the Actor's Studio, he did this run as Appu live.

You can watch him do it live for James Lipton. Everything's marked up these days. Actually we're recording this on the day of the tariffs being announced. So everything's in the market. Tariff Thursday or Wednesday. Oh, wow. It's all coming together in this episode. It's Tariff Thursday, James Woods episode.

It's perfect timing. An early 420 reference from famous drug user Greg Daniels, right? Yeah. What's happening here? When you see Greg Daniels, he looks like adult Milhouse. So it's weird. I mean, I know other people wrote for this script, but it's weird to see this is a 420 joke for those in the know in 1994. The markup is 420. Like that's very intentional. And Apu is drawn out of

character. Also, they can rip his vest off later. And also because you always can assume he's just a franchise owner of the Quickie Mart franchise, not just an employee, but for the sake of this episode's joke and plot, he has to be an employee of Quickie Mart who can be fired, not a franchisee who owns his own store, which is, I believe, pretty much normally the assumption you should make with Apu, as he's the store owner of it. Oh, and I should mention this episode was a pitch

left over from Gene and Reese. Like they had the pitch of up who loses his job and then he moves in with the Simpsons. And David Merkin says, you can tell it's an Al Jean pitch because it's about eating bad food and being sick. The Homer and the sub thing from what, Selma's Choice? That was inspired by Al Jean having a tainted sub from Subway. And I guess those memories filtered their way into this as well.

As someone who bought Al Jean's lunch and dinner for many years, I believe all of it, basically. Mitch was Al Jean's taster. I basically was, yes. I would hope by the odds he's not eating as much spoiled food and he can afford new food Oh, no, there was no spoiled food at all He was he was doing really well in the mid-aughts And we we just talked about it millhouse doesn't live here anymore

But more about the indestructible Twinkie which the the theory of it has so many preservatives. It can't be destroyed as a man angrily leaves the Quickie Mart and it goes back to shape perfectly. How many Twinkies, Mitch, have you guys reviewed on Doughboys at this point? We haven't reviewed Twinkies enough, honestly. I think that we have eaten them before, but to do a big Hostess episode would be fun to do. It's funny that that is food. Just speaking from the perspective of a guy who didn't have Indian food until he was 24, 25, it is that funny thing of, oh yeah, I had Twinkies and those existed so much.

And it's funny that they're like, they still do exist. Twinkies do still exist. It seems like something that would go away, but they'll always be with us, I feel like. I think I've only had maybe 10 Twinkies in my lifetime, but if I just concentrate hard enough, I can summon the flavor. I can just experience the flavor. That's got to be bad, right? I think yes. Sorry, Mitch, I did interrupt you. Oh, no, no. I had nothing more to say. Your body, it is, your body knows that taste. And I think

it's such an unnatural taste that just remembers it forever. It's like when, you know, like that animalistic thing of like, Ooh, that berry is poison. I'm going to remember the taste of it and never eat it again. But it feels like a dated reference, like smushing up a Twinkie. And I'm like, but it's not, it's not dated. It still is. I guess kids still take them to school, I'm sure. Twinkies are unchanged. The only difference now is that they get promoted by the minions compared to them. And yes, here, this joke just turned 36 years old now, but it was only a five year old ham back then, right?

I am noticing new details upon watching this again the ham is not in a refrigerated case It is just hanging up next to pen on this pegboard The ham has a lot of problems in this episode Poo notices that the ham is expired. He marks it down and puts it in the sale section He thinks like even he's gone too far this time It's also funny that he his exclamation is Jim. Like that, that is also funny just to hear Appu say, I think just contextually, why would he, why would he say Jiminy Cricket of all

things? Not that he has a funny voice and it's funny to hear his accent saying, I don't mean that. I mean, contextually, why would Appu say Jiminy Cricket? Of all the things he could land on, why Jiminy Cricket? I love it. By the way, I have a question for you guys, and I wonder what your thought is here. Like you were saying, does that ham, does the age of the ham change?

Like, you know, like, Simpson's supposed to kind of be modern day, right? Do you take it that way? Is it like, Bart in this episode is in 2025, or do you think that this is now, the gag changes that the ham is 35 or 36 years old or do you think it is is are you watching it in a time capsule what is your thought boy expired in 2020 is not as funny so I

like to think that this is 36 year old ham I like that I like that it has 1989 on it I also I mean there in the episode, we're doing Lisa versus Malibu Stacey. I love that he says, I'll see you at StaceyCon 94. Like I always want it to be 1994 that they call out as the year there. And Homer teleports in with magic sitcom powers set up by the setup line to come in for the punch line. He teleports in to eat the ham.

Which is, there's some teleporting in this episode which is great. Grandpa teleports later too which is a great moment. He savers the ham. He eats half in the store and waits until he gets home to have the rest. Well and Mitch, would you say that Homer has a case of the rumblies in this episode? A thousand percent, Homer. I mean, I've been there, but it doesn't seem to affect him. He still wants to eat the thing that's, even while he's on the ground, he still wants to eat the ham.

I don't eat garbage like I used to, though I definitely had, even into my thirties, I had Homer moments of, this thing that I ate that I like couldn't be the thing that made my stomach upset. I should eat a second time. It'll be fine. Oh, I can't stay mad at you. I mean, the way Homer is clenching his stomach, like he's he's about to have a violent episode here at balance. And yet he still has to finish the meat. He's like, that's me with like, if I ever eat popcorn nowadays, it like destroys me.

It like hurts my stomach so much. And I just can't, I can't quit it. I can't quit you, popcorn. I still, if I go to a movie theater and it's, you know, I need to have it every so often, but it's, popcorn destroys me. I can't, I can't eat it anymore. But I get, I get Homer's perspective here. That's all I'm trying to say.

So Homer is taken away from a rancid meat attack. They reuse the ambulance shot from Triple Bypass in here. Oh, thank you. I was wondering where that was from. Anytime there's a quick ambulance, do do do, it's just so funny. It's classic editing comedy. And here we learn that Patty and Selma, they've

been focusing on his eyes. So it's not voodoo. It's not a voodoo curse. And then Homer, he takes it to Appu, and Appu buys him off with five, no 10 pounds of shrimp that just happens to smell funny, that's all. It's not frozen in any way. This is where Homer is set down once more more and this is where in our first clip, oh boy,

do I love this introduction to the news. Oh man. What do you buy? That dog can sell anything. Good evening, here's an update on last week's nursing home expose, a geezers in freezers. It turns out the rest home was adequately heated. The footage you saw was of a fur storage facility. We've also been told to apologize for using the term geysers. Now, coming up next, the case of the cantankerous old geyser.

Oh, rancid meat attack. Stupid parasites. Is there no way I can find justice? If you have a consumer complaint, just call this number. Boring. Dad, you should blow the whistle on the quickie mark. And now a message from the Church of Latter-day Saints.

Ruff, ruff, ruff. Daddy, listen to me. Lisa, the dog is barking. What? Aw, suck it. The barking dog, it's such a layered joke, because I realize this time there's an extra level to it, because the dog barks out the words,

bite back with Kent Brockman, and there's a tiny pause where you think it's over but then it barks out the rest of the of the words. If they had to cut the good deleted scenes in this to make room for this I'm fine with that because the barking I could take another like five seconds of barking it's just God that's so fun and and I love that Homer doesn't realize he's in a TV show that the TV is telling him Here's your next step Homer. This is the thing you should do. And he's like boring He's gonna change the channel on the thing he's asking for

It's so good It's just so effective that you can listen to the the barking and the pause between the barking just in audio form And it still is so so funny. It's so good. They were good. And yeah, the Church of Latter-day Saints bought time and each of its churches message is going to be barked out by the dog. Which I love, you don't even see it, yeah. I don't know if this is true today, but in the 90s there were a lot of Church of Latter-day Saints ads on syndicated TV during the afternoon. You know, I think after Book of Mormon just made Mormons just the name, I think they just call themselves Mormons now.

I had that like moment in my teen years of like, wait, Mormons are the Church of Latter-day Saints? The rebranding worked on me. I thought that like Church of Latter-day Saints was a whole separate thing from Mormonism. I'm not sure about the whole, I saw Book of Mormon, so I should know more, but I'm not sure on that. But I do think it is funny that this episode starts with Homer basically deciding to be a narc. A narc on a, like, you know, he's going to sell out a poo, but they just do it so well

and he's so nonchalant about it that you're like, yeah, sure, why not? It works. And there were also a lot of these consumer watchdog segments on local news, famously parodied by mr. Show with their scams and flams segment. Yeah, oh sketch that is that's perfect It doesn't get much better than scams and flams out there And hey, we're talking to somebody who appeared on with Bob and David I am in the mr. Show cannon I know I'm very lucky I mean what that was a dream come true You and the other birthday boys play the the geeks of mr. Show fandom who asked question. That's right

Yes, do we play the we play virgins, right? I think we are I think we're labeled. Oh, that's right. You're virgins Yeah, these the scams and flams thing is fun I only watched local news when visiting my mom at the holidays and it's horrifying every time I see it, but they never do these scams and flams when I'm watching it. But they like literally did like a paid content of they are talking to somebody that they pretended it's an interview and it's just a guy selling something. I was like, I had low standards for local news and I was shocked to see them just going like, you've seen it on Facebook.

This guy's miracle thing. And I was like, this is just an ad. I can't believe it. Hey, local news ain't paying the bills, Henry. They don't have giant hat budget anymore at those places. Oh God, the hat. This is one of the best things. I mean, they are reusing the design of the hat from Whacking Day, which is one of the funniest drawings in Simpson's history, is Homer wearing that hat with a big smile on his face and the air horn. But that oversized novelty hat full of a camera that it's so small it can fit in. Oh, that is great. It's I mean, that poor man with his bent neck too. I mean, it's so great. I just, you know just shout out to the storyboard guys and everything

for the hat POV shot is so funny of a poo just watching as Homer is kind of like lumbering towards the front door, which is good that Homer gets the hat off in the amount of time that they say. He gets it off pretty quick. They're really doubling down on their hidden camera joke from I think it's Marge versus the monorail, where Lyle Langley asks,

is anyone in this room from 60 Minutes? And there's a guy with a giant turban that has a camera lens sticking out of it. Yes. Also the animation on the weight of him holding up the hat, like it's so, I mean, Apu is also quite stupid here. He's to not know what's going on, but Homer,

I mean, just go about your daily routine like I'm not wearing the hat. Like, oh God, I love that line. It's one of my favorites. But as soon as he's told he has a bee in his bonnet, he just drops it, throws it off. He thinks, oh, a bee, no! Stomps on it.

That thing had to cost thousands of dollars in the original script They cut a joke where Homer also shoplifts while wearing the hats and starts reading an adult magazine And they have to admonish Homer like Homer I'm fine with that cut. I don't like horny Homer as much I didn't need a horny Homer moment in this episode How long had the hat been with the station? I didn't have been with the station for... Oh, well, you know what? I've got the clip right here. Oh, great. Don't be alarmed, Apu. Just go about your daily routine like I'm not wearing the hat. Your headgear seems to be emitting a buzzing noise, sir.

Perhaps you have a bee in your bonnet. You have a bee in your bonnet. Bee! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Ah! Homer, that hat's been with the station for 20 years. He had one day left till retirement. La la la la la. Well, time to replenish the hot dog roller. La la la. Oop. Oh no.

It is encrusted with filth. Oh well, let's sell it anyway. Now this is just between me and you, smashed hat. Hot diggity dog, we've got him Mr. Simpson. Now let's- Mr. Simpson? One hot dog please. I feel like we were robbed of another cut to the ambulance. That just needed a...

Oh, I would have loved one more ambulance cut. I mean, God, it's so good. That's such a funny moment where Homer's back buying the dog immediately. Though the next cut is to them watching the TV and the barking has resumed. So that's a pretty good cut as well. But, and that Appu did it perfectly just between me and you.

Smashed hat. There's no reason he should be narrating his crimes, but then he just directly addresses the hidden camera. It's amazing. Now Mitch, you guys, I forget, how well did 7-Eleven Hot Dogs rank in your hot dog tournament? I forget. We actually, we're pretty nice to 7-Eleven hot dogs.

I, a big bite isn't bad every so often, but the hot dog close up, it has like that little bug on it. It's so disgusting looking and I'm like. Band-Aid, I think there's a Band-Aid too, right? That's a Band-Aid, Jesus. But we're big bite fans. I used to, when I was a kid, again this will make sense from my earlier story, but when we were hanging out late, I remember getting 7-Eleven roller food all the time.

There was a pepperoni bakery stick I really loved at 7-Eleven. As a teenager, 7-Eleven roller food food I ate I would say not consistently but kind of often I would get it quite a bit you know I manned a roller not in 7-eleven but an AMC concession stand we kept it very clean I'm gonna tell you guys it's and those things also they get really hot well you've got to be real careful around those things I I think I bumped into one once and learned my lesson. I was also, I worked, that was the closest I got to food service was, I think it was

General Cinema and then became an AMC. It's still there at Braintree. There were people who manned the hot dogs and things like that who were like in the back room and I only did like popcorn and soda and candy That's that's all I could that's all they would allow me to touch basically And the I'll say the hot butter bags that you put in the in the butter dispenser also very hot I don't know if you remember that Henry. Oh, yeah, they're dangerous and the smell never leaves you It's why I never even when I do get popcorn at a movie theater, I don't want that butter. Not for like health reasons, but like the scent of it like disgusts me now.

You know, I go to the movies pretty often now. I don't know if I see hot dogs, but to me they were always ornamental. I never saw anyone actually ordering and eating a hot dog at the movies. Nachos maybe, but never the hot dog. You know what? I still occasionally will get a hot dog at them

if I like haven't had dinner or something. I mean, especially like the Vista or something like that, they have a good hot dog, but an AMC hot dog, Henry, I don't know how you feel, not bad. They're pretty decent. They were all right. They were all right hot dogs. I'm also just used, I'm now in my mind's eye,

I'm smelling the steam tray of it when you would make extra hot dogs to be ready for a rush There's a steam tray under there where you keep your your extras as well Like the just the scent of it and making sure that steam at tray was full of water, too That was another my many jobs Well, we've been hitting all of the Mitch words of hot dog and Well, we've been hitting all of the Mitch words of hot dog and But yes, I poo thinks he came off pretty well as everybody is watching him freak out But you know what when his bosses show up? I'm glad they don't fully sell out up who up who doesn't want to poison people He just does his job to the letter of the law

His his real crime was not selling out Sanjay, who does exist. He is referenced in this episode, so they know he's around. That's true. Yeah, there's no Sanjay in the deleted scenes or the original scripts. You're right, Bob. That's the goat or sacrificial lamb. Yeah, and Sanjay has a daughter at this point in the show,

so I think Apu's, I can't ruin this family man's life with my own problems. Oh, that's right, and he has little John Shed too. Oh, that's right. Yeah two kids at this point It's noble of a pooh to to fall on the sword himself And so he gets his badge torn off. He has to turn in his gun and he even wants to kill himself by eating a hot dog The battle over the hot dog is a great scene too. I gotta credit Harry doing a very funny voice for just a nobody, just like a suit basically.

There's not a voice that's really notable in any way, but I just like he found the right mode for this guy to be in. Yeah, I feel like you're not hearing Harry Shearer these days do a two line voice character anymore in the show. No. And there was a kind of funny bit in the original script where Wen-Apu is considering suicide. He is visited by deities and it's like a play on the angel and devil on your shoulder thing,

except first it is the deity Ravana who says, end it all. Then Krishna shows up to say, always have hope. Then Kali shows up to say, weave some cloth. And then Ganesha shows up to say, gather the harvest grain. Leading up who to say, so many gods, so little time. So you know, there would have been more cultural, at least library amount of Indian culture or Hindu culture put into this.

Yeah, I mean, they cut that, they animated it, then cut the Bollywood joke, which I think is very funny. Is the Bollywood joke come later, or is that already? That's when Apu moves in, yeah. Yeah, it's when he moves in, but then they'll later show the joke on the 138th episode clip show. Oh, okay. I like them just going straight to the hot dog

suicide attempt, I think that was a good cut. They made a good choice And so a poo walks by a bridge he may contemplate things on and you know what? I think it's sweet that the hobos tickle each other. That's that's adorable Who needs podcasts when we got feathers that should have been my opening line that's good he also visits some laughing monkeys and That's good. He also visits some laughing monkeys and then we get another classic moment of him coming upon Homer laughing himself and This let's give it a listen

This is all because of Homer Simpson Yo check this out black guys drive a car like this. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Yeah, but white guys, they don't drive a car like this. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Ah! It's true! It's true! We're so lame! It is time to settle the score.

Huh? Don't kill me! I didn't know there was film in that camera and that hat! I was unaware! I was unaware! Mr. Simpson, you misunderstand me. In my village, this is the traditional pose of apology. Oh. You know, now that I think about it, it may be a little confusing. Many have died needlessly. You know, to his credit, Greg Daniels on the commentary said he did a lot of research, and the Apu in the strangling pose is funny, but they do kind of turn him into Balki from Perfect Strangers where India can be a place where anything goes or any rule can be created or any custom can be made up for the sake of a joke.

And I think Greg Daniels does a much better job writing for different cultures on King of the Hill or making sure there's some degree of authenticity behind them that informs the humor. Yeah. By the way, is the King of the Hill reboot? They're like grown up, right? Like time has passed. Yeah, it's a time jump. Yeah. At the time of this recording, that one picture of Bobby leaked and Pamela Adlin has admitted like, oh yeah, it's going forward. I saw that in an interview, but hopefully we'll have more information soon. But yeah. I kind of love that. That's interesting. Though you're right, Bob. This is definitely like the, it's may as well be talking about me posts and the many, uh, different weird things

bulky does on perfect stranger. So I love that Homer screams all the way through the commercial break. That's why I wanted to keep that little break in there too, just so you know, the scream is supposed to be that he screamed the entire commercial break. And it's also such a perfect like, F-U of like, why is Appu who, you know, have that look on his face if he's like, this is the apology position. Well, he admits it's a pretty dumb custom. Oh no, no, yeah, exactly. The people have died over it, it turns out. Yeah, he should know better. But the thing that throws me on this, and I'm sure you guys feel the same way, what is the setup of the house here?

He's looking at him through the window on the side of the house where the kitchen is, basically. I mean, where the dining room is, basically, right? If I can remember, I'm pretty sure that lines up with the flexible blueprint where that's the TV room. I'm pretty sure. Okay. It's not the den, it's like the TV room, I'm pretty sure. It's not the den. It's the, it's like the TV room.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Although I could be wrong. I'm just operating, but they will often like shift the rooms around for whatever will make a joke funnier, but I know like they have been in the room with the TV and we can see outside to the streets. Wow.

I think it's the same window that Ned like pops into, uh, when, when Homer and Ned become friends later this season. Also, it's funny here. We talk about the casting and all this, and then here for this joke about a black comedian, they did get Michael Carrington, a writer for the show and an African-American man, to do the voice, so that is racially sensitive

in this Big A Poo episode. I loved that joke so much as a kid. I feel like that was like, oh, they're kind of making fun of stand up in a way too, but it is actually genuinely funny. It was like a great, it was a great moment for me, which is overshadowed by, well, I'll say it when we get to it. Someone on this writing staff really hated Evening at the Improv because we have the joke in Lisa versus Malibu Stacey, Evening at the Improv Stacey, we have this joke. And then in Homer, Batman, he intentionally watches Evening at the Improv because we have the joke in Lisa versus Malibu Stacey, Evening at the Improv Stacey, we have this joke,

and then in Homer, Batman, he intentionally watches Evening at the Improv because he says they don't reference anything beyond the 80s, I'm not sure, whatever the joke is. Right. Mr. E.T. Yes. Well, you know what, in the original script,

Homer instead is watching Home Alone 3, and honestly, I prefer this joke to the, this is a good punch up I'd say of this comedian. Oh he's watching what happens with Home Alone 3. In Home Alone 3 Kevin's parents are arrested for leaving him alone so many times and he's placed in the care of a social worker that's the joke in the script. Okay. So Homer is he laughing at this? Yeah it's the same gag that this is, Homer's laughing very hard at this instead. Got it. I'm trying to think of who were standups at the time,

if there were any. Scully's working on the show at this point, is he or no? Maybe he hasn't been hired yet. He will be soon, very, very soon. He's late five, but he is in five, yeah. Scully is like a comedy store guy, but I'm wondering who else on staff was like a like an improv or I'm pretty sure Merkin

Yep, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he started in the 70s LAC and for sure Yeah, but Homer is told by Apu that he wants to you know, make it up to him and help him I will say in the original script, they hit on it a lot more of calling it like Homer's got a butler now. Like they literally call Apu his butler. To me, it reads like how Seinfeld made fun of bad sitcom plots with the, well, he's my butler. Joke in the show within a show when they did that on Seinfeld. So I don't, I'm just saying it adds even more baggage when you talk about like, oh now Apu becomes a servant, but I want to say that it comes from a point of making fun of bad sitcoms.

It does feel like they're making fun of that kind of hackney plot in line because David Merkin hates regular sitcoms and it was trying to like elevate the sitcom wherever he worked. So I feel like he is the the claws are out for this kind of a plot line, I think. So this is where we get Mitch's reference at the beginning where he's watching Appu do all of the work outside, which is Marge's job. It's also funny that it implies that Homer is giving his family horrible jobs.

Like Lisa has wood chopping to do like they're a farm all of a sudden. But this is where Homer accepts it if he has a Chipwitch, which you know what, I was more of a Choco Taco kid than a Chipwitch. Chipwitch is unavailable in my area. I didn't really know what this was. I made the assumption like it's probably like

some kind of ice cream sandwich, but not until I moved out west did I actually see and have a Chipwitch. I'm Googling Chipwitches right now. And then Henry, we lived in the Bay Area. They had the It's It's. see and have a Chipwitch. I'm Googling Chipwitches right now. And then, Henry, we lived in the Bay Area. They had the It's It's, which was the famous ice cream sandwich that is ice cream between two cookies.

The hardest cookies you'll ever try to bite into. That's my problem with It's It's. You got to let them melt for like 10 minutes. And it's a test of my patience as somebody wants his ice cream, right? By the way, first experience with It's it's, uh, what is it? It's, it is it. So it's it's it's it's it's my first experience with it's it at the Simpsons.

Uh, and I used to buy a million of those for the freezer. Wow. So that's what they're having instead of chip, which is in the Simpsons writing room. Oh yeah. Yeah. I would weekly just buy like, you know or three boxes. The Mint, there's like a Mint, it's it too, you know, I'd get every... and they are very good, but I was, Chipwitch was more of in Massachusetts, at least, or some version of the Chipwitch. They're good too, I get why it makes

Homer happy. So they accept Apu into their lives. He makes them dinner. This is where we get the Indian food stuff we were talking about, which yes, as a kid, it scared me as just like, oh, it's so spicy. It's impossible. Though I should have learned a better lesson from the episode that it's like, no, everybody loves it eventually. Though yes, recently what I had was potato vindaloo which was not so spicy to see through time and also a doll todka I think is I'm sure I'm butchering it but it's that like a lentil soupy kind of thing it was really good I give you credit Henry but potato barely a vegetable you need to move beyond the potato the cauliflower try the okra try the chickpeas well that wasn't the tall

dot it had other stuff in it, but it was just, the place I ordered from, it was either lamb, chicken, or potato for vindaloo. And I really did, after doing Red Dwarf, I really wanted to get a vindaloo. Well, I am still giving you credit. Thank you. Oh, and butter naan for dipping was also very tasty too.

Mitch, have you guys reviewed much Indian food, on Doughboys? No, and you know, I think a part of that is also, you know, Indian food hasn't had that huge fast food slash chain restaurantification, at least in the states. I can't think of like a fast food or chain restaurant that's Indian food, but I love it and I know Nick loves it too. And I'm sure that there's like a kind of a local place with a few chains. Oh, there is, I know there is, there's one spot, begins with an A that is kind of like

a chain in LA at least that we could probably review and I forget the name of it. But it's more local chains. Oh, this is also where we learn where Appu's hometown is. Ratmatpur, which is from the Nadia district of the state of West Bengal, India, which I definitely knew off the top of my head and didn't like copy and paste off of Wikipedia. That's Apu lore that's rarely ever cited. Yeah, I don't think it's ever, Ramatpur has ever been referenced again in the show as Apu's hometown. Oh wow, yeah. Also, Homer's outrageous is such a hilarious line too.

Outrageous. And so this is where we get to two big deleted scenes in a row. One is from 138th episode spectacularly. Though if you want to hear it with no music or sound effects, that's on the season five DVDs, which it's much better to watch the 138th version of it. So they juiced it up a bit to air it on TV. Yeah, I mean, there's no music or sound effects, so when the guy crashes through the window in the movie they're watching,

there's nothing there either. I'm glad it got rescued because I do really love Homer's line, their clothes are different than my clothes, and he thinks that's why it's a comedy. Yeah. It also, it does remind me of how Bollywood is, which is, you know, legitimate and all of that, but it is, it becomes just the only type of Indian film most Americans have heard of and I think it gets overused as well. I like, I felt really bad for Kumail Nanjiani

in Eternals that I believe I had read that it was like a late rewrite that his character became a Bollywood star. That was not what he had signed on for at first. Not to put words in his mouth. Oh, interesting. Yeah. I believe I read that he said like, he was offered the role, it's like, don't worry, we're not just gonna do the corny Bollywood thing

with your character. And then it's time for reshoots. And they're like, so, we need to do a dance sequence here. It's funny with that, Eddie, because Homer like, kind of culturally accepting in this episode. You know, there's not too much stuff that gets pointed out, which is probably a good thing for this episode. But there's a lot more episodes where he's a lot more hard-headed, I feel like, and he's not too, too bad.

And based on reading that table draft, either Greg Daniels or or somebody else on the staff, it reads to me like it is phonetically correct Hindi being written in there. So I do think somebody bothered to get like they are saying real world in the script are the things the guys say in the musical on screen. So I think somebody bothered to try though obviously I don't speak the language so if they're saying words all wrong or if they're not really saying it please please let me know. But it reads like they're trying to do it correctly. I believe it. I would 100% believe that they would they would go that the the extra mile and do that for sure. So that was the the first deleted scene and then directly after it comes a major deleted scene the one Bob was teasing earlier. Yeah. Well, we learned that Appu's hair

is not all it's chalked up to be. Oh man, I can't believe they're letting Appu have my room and I have to sleep in here. You're lucky I let you. How long is he gonna stay? Did you know he wears a wig? Yeah, check it out That's up who motioning to give it back at the end of the scene from the way from the door So up who is bald and his hair is a wig.

That was the joke they originally had. Macarena was there to shut down any toupee comedy. He hated it. Skinner designed to be wearing a toupee. There's a few slight references to that. But in the show, I don't know if they ever revealed that is a fact about his hair. I mean, especially because Apu is just a ladies man,

as we find out later. He's kind of Appu is just like a you know a ladies man as we find out later. You know he's kind of like he seems like a swinging bachelor in his single days at least. And I don't buy it as much if he's a guy who wears a toupee. I think they made the right choice here. I'm happy this isn't canon. Yeah and you know when we had when we had Shivamani talked about how just like even Appu's haircut is kind of a stereotype of Indian immigrants to America in the 70s. His haircut is meant to be like, oh, this was a fashionable haircut. His hair already has baggage attached to it, apparently.

Yeah, he's supposed to just look a little out of date for when he was created in 1988 or 1989 or whenever. But they cut that, so it's not canon. Ah, Poo has hair. Thank God. Thank God. And also, not a lot of Bart in this episode. Bart has like three lines in this entire thing, right?

He doesn't speak a lot. It's very light on Bart. Yeah. But what it's heavy on is the big guest star of the episode. So why don't we head over to the Quickie Mart for an interview. All right, why do you want to become over to the Quickie Mart for an interview. James Woods. Previous job experience? Ooh, uh, true believer, uh, Salvador, Onion Field, uh, The Hard Way. Wait, wait a minute.

Those aren't convenience stores. That sounds like the resume of a Hollywood movie star. Yeah, well. James Woods. Why would you want to work at a quickie mart? Well, to be honest, in my upcoming movie, I'm going to be playing this tightly wound convenience store clerk.

And, you know, I kind of like to research my roles and really get into it. For instance, True Believer, I actually worked in a law firm for two months. And the film Chaplin, I had a little cameo on that. I actually traveled in time back to the 20s where, well, I've said too much. Welcome aboard. Despite what we know about James Woods, he is a very funny voice actor, right? We can only say that. Yeah, I mean, it sucks that he's so good in this episode. Yeah, yeah. And I didn't know anything about him as a kid. I'm sure, like,

Hades in Hercules really put him on the map for me, but all the movies he's mentioned I have not seen. And he did not mention Videodrome, which feels like a conspicuous snub of Videodrome. Yeah. Yeah, I think I eventually saw Salvador, but yeah, it felt uncomfortable enough in 2017 when we last covered this to be complimentary of James Witts. He's ten times as shitty now than he was even in 2017 when he was a horribly shitty guy. Actually, I was doing the prep for this and I thought it'd be funny if I read his most recent tweet and I kept scrolling and I thought, I can't read any of these.

They're just full of hate. Nothing is funny about this. Let me tell you, in 2006 or 2007 when I worked on Shark, not a great guy then either. What? guy then either. That's a what? He was already it was so funny. You would see like, you know, we'd get dailies of the show and they would cut, you know, like and James would just be like, my fucking motherfucker, like just like like swearing to himself. And you're like, Jesus, this guy's not a happy man, but he he is damn good in this episode. It is. you know, I'll admit it, he's great in the episode.

So the scene of him scraping the cheese is true to life, pushing out the microwave? 100%. That is like my experience from Shark, is basically when a scene would end, he would be like he is scraping out that microwave. And if you're wondering where James Woods was in his career, the following day, you could see him in The Getaway,

which was an adaptation of the classic Jim Thompson crime novel starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. It can't be good, which stinks because I've got it on that bookshelf right behind me. I have all the Jim Thompson books, but I know most of the movie adaptations stink. Now you're sounding like the critic. It stinks. But yes, it's a 94 movie that literally

released the following day. That's amazing. This is Thursday, comes out on Friday. I'm sure it was a really relaxed set with James Woods and Alec Baldwin together. Oh god, that poor woman. At least no one was, well, we've seen what happens on Alec Baldwin. 100%, yes. Yeah. Oh, also, here's another deleted scene, just a quick one. The James Woods interview was cut short just a little bit. Well, Mr. Woods, to be honest, we've had bad experiences hiring movie stars. Barbara Streisand stole hairspray, Judge Reinhold sold liquor to a nine-year-old, and Wilfred Brimley spit in a squishy machine.

I won't sell liquor to minors. You know- That's a good read. That's a great read. Yeah. He's really setting me up for a joke about James Woods mentioning minors. But you can connect the dots yourself, listeners. I'm Googling James Wood's girlfriend right now.

Yeah, that's a good audio poll to just have on hand to tweet him or something. I, the whole thing about just the quickie mart executives realizing it's James is so funny is they're like, that sounds like the resume of a Hollywood movie star. And then he says, well, and I go, that's when they in the cartoon logic, that's when they recognize that it's James Woods is so, so, so funny. This is kind of the Simpsons crossing the Rubicon though, because it is now what has become standard for a Simpsons guest star where

they appear, there's a real muppet show style celebrity name and they kind of give the resume in this case though I think they do work very hard to justify his presence in the show Although it feels like other showrunners might have had him play a character and not just appear as himself Although this was supposed to be Michael Caine and Michael Caine said no and a lot of the jokes about Michael Caine were rewritten And the the whole point of it was that Michael Caine is not researching a role. He'll just kind of do anything. And this is one of the things he's doing. Man, Michael Caine would have been fun.

Yes. In that July, 1993 table draft, it's all Michael Caine. It's all written for Michael Caine. The joke is about how Michael Caine works too much and that he basically is like, I have a month free between filming. So I like to keep busy. So he just wants it as a part-time job and they also have a lot of jokes about Jaws the Jaws movie he was in. The Revenge right? The Revenge. The Fifth Jaws Five.

That's right and yeah that's why in Burns is Air they make fun of Michael Caine. That's why he's the guy who's pretending to be Homer. I bet you I have that the Homer and Apu table read draft in my basement as my guess. Oh wow. Is that I probably have that downstairs. I'm also, I have an old Simpsons email where I still was getting emails of scripts just recently. I made the email for the show and I used to be able to just request any script and I wonder if I could still just get a script At least it would be the digital version of it, but I don't know are those like readily available Can people get those scripts online or are they hard to get your hands on?

Some very nice people have scanned their scripts and put them on Internet Archive and I've pulled up everyone I can and saved them, but in the classic seasons, I'd say it's about 60 to 80% depending on the season. Sure. But after season eight, many people have kept their scripts to themselves and have not uploaded them. Oh wow, yeah. Crazy enough, so many of those files were on floppy disks even in 2007 and until through 2011 basically they were still on an old computer and on floppy disks. We then cut back to The Simpsons home. Homer is nude in front of Apu, but it's nothing he's seen before, hasn't seen before, except for the lollipop. He has not seen that before.

The lollipop does come back in a deleted scene, correct? That's right. Uh, yeah, it's, uh, and it's funny, but, uh, then we get a joke about putting away groceries, which sometimes I think about this too of like, I forget about things if I just put them in the back of the fridge and I don't, I'm never going to move the spinach that way. I just love also Bart and Lisa's delivery of like delicious corn. Well goodbye. That's so funny. The canned corn on the counter is great. One of three of Bart's lines is how much he loves corn. I imagine they're just eating cold corn out of like wet

can. Also in the script there's a couple other Homer has a butler deleted scene where basically Appu goes with Homer to the nuclear plant and does his job for him. And then there's a joke that Burns recognizes Appu but cannot remember Homer's name still. I like that. That's good. But this is where Marge offers to first go to the Quickie Mart, but that's the scene of his spiritual deep dancing so instead they're gonna head to Monstro Mart where shopping is a baffling ordeal and

Costco and stuff was pretty new then I think yeah, yeah, I have to say I have recently joined the Costco family Thank you my wife and I have I let her in under my membership and If you are a person with no children and no car, you can buy about three things at a Costco before it's time to go. I do think of the joke about 12 pounds of nutmeg when I see like, I want that ketchup, but 90% of it will rot before we use it in our household. It's a sad thing as a single man going to Costco. It just is, it is like worthless for me basically. But I did the thing where I like, there was three packs of chicken and I pulled one pack off and went to the front and they're like, you need to buy that as a three pack. And I had

to do like the walk of shame back to get the other two and buy it as three. A lot of fun Costco stuff there though. That Monster Mart is great. And Monstro Mart loves all of us, so. That's so good. Well actually, now I need to pitch this to Matt Selman, so pass me along his email, man. Sure. There needs to be Monstro Mart guys now. That's the new season.

Oh. We need a Simpsons parody of the Rizzler? Yeah. Is that what's happening? Honestly, they can get the Rizzler. They can get AJ if they just. Oh, they can land the Rizzler. Unless it goes to the family guy first and they're screwed.

Oh shit. Right. I would not be surprised if the Simpsons have the Costco guys on soon. It seems right. It seems perfect. You guys have reviewed Costco a few times as well. You're pro the Costco hot dog and chicken bake, right? The Costco food court is great.

And I mean, Costco is, you know, Weigar shops here regularly and it's just, you know, he and his wife that, you know, that are getting food. So I don't know how he, I think maybe he just does do the food court more than anything, but the food court is good and it's reasonably priced. The hot dog and soda deal for a buck 50 still is,

that's phenomenal. Yeah, I usually get the cheese pizza and it is basically just like, like Boboli or DiGiorno style pizza but it's still very very cheap. That pizza is not bad very cheesy. Yeah one place where a slice of cheese pizza has more calories than a slice of pepperoni pizza. Yeah I think the single slice of cheese pizza is maybe like 800 calories it's crazy. Yeah well after you have that you're gonna need both Pepto Bismol and beer like Barney is but. This joke with Barney though I love that it reveals that he has killed a

woman. We're just gonna move past that as soon as the fun cranberry tidal wave happens. It's dark history also I love that he's looking for lampshades. It's the one accessory he's missing for whatever he's got playing with the giant cake of beer. I mean the way she falls over, the giant Mrs. Butterworth, falls over and it leaks out of the top of her head like when he says it's all happening again it's like, oh, he cracked a woman's head open once. That's what Barney is seeing. To his credit, it does at least sound accidental, but yes, it sounds like you accidentally murdered a lady

Yes for the sake of Barney's character. Let's just say that that was like an alcohol induced like thing He imagined he actually doesn't have the blood on his head. Let's just say he thinks that I guess they're still making mrs Butterworth's in the woman-shaped bottle I wasn't sure about that. I didn't know if there are any connotations about the character I didn't know but yeah, apparently you can get the bottle and it's the features are less defined though If you buy the bottle today, that's a shame You know when I was a kid, I I always read her as as white as not not the same as Aunt Jemima Type character.

Yeah, I liked that the bottle was shaped like a lady. I thought that was fun. I can't even speak to how the actual syrup was, but the fact that it was shaped like a lady, that just won a dumb little kid over. Poor Barney. But hey, you're right. That cranberry wave washes everything away and it's very, it's very fun. And as a kid, just the idea of like riding through cranberry

wave seemed like a blast. It's like an ocean spray commercial came to life. Well, I have a feeling Henry has this clip and I swear to God in the past 31 years of grocery shopping of I've done in my life, I think of this next bit whenever I get in line. And I just did before I did prep. I thought of the pooh strategy and it always works. Here, let's give it a listen.

Excuse me, ma'am. Where are the lampshades? Ma'am? No. I've killed her. It's all happening again! Help me! Help me! It's fantastic! Hmm, it's crantastic! Ha!

Look, Mrs. Simpson, the express line is the fastest line, not always. That old man up front, he has starved for attention. He would talk the cashier's head off. Ah, there's an interesting story behind this, Nickel. In 1957, I remember it was. I got up in the morning and made myself a piece of toast I said the toaster to three Medium brown let's cut to that line, but that's the longest

Yes, but look old pathetic single men only cash no chit-chat It's perfect it taught me to look at the people in line, not the line, the status of the line, like the length of it or the express quality of it. And even though I've been happily married for over four years, I still shop like a pathetic single man. No chit chat, just tapping my phone, moving on with my life. Oh yeah. Except if you go to cafes, and there's a ton on my street, I like to pick up just a black

coffee sometimes, you will get the chatty person at the front of the line asking too many questions, and they'll just be tying things up for five to seven minutes saying, now with scone, what is in that? Now, are those sprinkles on there? Now, I have a gluten thing, is this, are there any not, like just all the questions are coming

and you just think, can there just be a line for the black coffee people? They need the pathetic single man line at the Starbucks or the local coffee shop. Sorry, Mitch. Oh no, the pathetic single, I just feel seen. I very much identify with the pathetic single man. It's so funny that Apu is just, because I believe Apu is single at this point. So he is, he's a part of that pathetic single man line. But same thing, Bob, is I genuinely think I learned this from The Simpsons. It's like when I see a bunch of dudes just standing in line with baskets, I'm like, that is the line to take. The only

thing that doesn't work really is the fact that it's a Costco. Because the pathetic single men, I feel like they don't do Costco as much. But I think the rule- They're not welcome at Costco. They're not welcome at Costco. But I think the rule holds everywhere you go. I also just love grandpa warping in here, and that's the old man at the front of the line. Megan Marge doesn't even comment that it's grandpa.

It's her father-in-law is the one who's holding everything up. And for whatever reason, Dan Castellaneta is making Abe sound a thousand years older in this scene and then in the Who Needs a Quickie Mart song. I don't know what his choice was, but he has aged Abe up maybe 15 years and just for this episode. I just listening to that, I was just like, Dan is such a good voice actor. And I set the toaster to three and I just hold like, you know, like holding out the three and it's so funny and like I and I wonder how much of it was written and and how much

of it was just him, you know, improvising and telling a story. But he's he's so, so, so good there. It's so funny. You know, as a married man, I still bring that pathetic single man energy to I learned it to it's too ingrained in me. I was I was a pathetic single man for so long that I can't chop any other way. But helpful accessory as an adult these days is you can also just have headphones in just to be like, okay, really, I you pop one year out, obviously, you're not gonna be just rude and keep your

headphones in the whole time with the cashier. But you just pop one out like, yeah, I don't want to talk, you can tell right? Though now I guess every, I mean, most of the places I shop at, like the Safeway that's nearby, the H Mart, that has only cashiers, but a lot of places have just self-service now anyway. Yeah, who are our elderly going to talk to if they can't talk to a clerk? Oh, gosh. That's sad, man, I'm sad. Talking to talk to if they can't talk to a clerk?

Talking to computers just talking to like yeah the robot at the grocery store so much sadder And so then we cut to James woods as he meets another James 90 and a dollar. Thank you and come again. Hey, wait a minute. Can I just ask you a question? Did you believe that? I mean, the way I gave you the change, did I sound like a real quickie mart kind of guy? Actually, I thought it was a little labored.

You've got to lose yourself in the moment, man. Yeah, OK, great. OK, let's just try that again. OK, come on. Hey, come on. Hey, hey, hey, Yeah, like, yeah, okay, great. Okay, let's just try that again, okay? Come on, hey, come on, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, get over here! Okay, now you're you, I'm me. I'm me? Hey, don't jerk me around, fella. That's so good.

That is a great scene about an actor trying to find their, like an insecure actor, just trying to find themselves. And also there, that's a scene between one of your meanest people you worked with, Mitch, and one of the nicest people you worked with, Pamela Hayden. That's right. Pamela is one of the best of all time.

She, I still talk to her to this day. She made a great documentary about her life that I hope people get to see. She's just the best. And you know, I had no real interactions with James Woods, luckily for me, I think. But I would have to still probably say he's probably one of the worst people I probably had to work with just by seeing the way he acts online and the way he acts in his life. But Pamela is just one of the best.

She's great. And me is so funny. Yeah, as of this recording, we don't know what her characters will sound like, who will be voicing them. It's still a big mystery. And I'm really wondering what will Millhouse be like and Jimbo and all the rest. Yeah. Oh, she's so talented and so great.

Also this is showing is thank you come again. Is that a quickie mart slow? Because James Wood says it here, right? That's true. It was maybe it's enforced upon him. Is this a part of? Yeah. Is this a part of like corporate is like you have to say thank you come again.

I have no idea. I mean, the way they edit him or don't edit him and just keep in all of the like pattern that is the stuff that like made Hercules, his character of Hades and Hercules work so well too. I think I think Silverman says it on the commentary, but I would have to assume somebody on the Disney side of things knew like, oh, he actually was really good on the Simpsons. Maybe we should get him to apply for the now. We did a whole history on Hercules. We did a whole podcast about it. It was originally written

for Jack Nicholson, but he wanted too much money. Yeah, Mitch, you'll like this, because he, you know, Jack, got a lot of money, tons of money from being the Joker, because he got a piece of the gross and then the character sales. And so when he tried to get him to be Hades, he's like, so I'm getting part of the toy sales of this too, right? But he inferred it and Disney's like, no. Of course, Disney wouldn't allow it. Yeah, no of course good for Jack I love it I'm glad they kept in all the weird beats and pauses in his acting because you didn't really hear that kind of

naturalistic acting style in animation especially then so it really stands out oh yeah and this is where we see that everybody's happy that the Bart knows how to contort himself that Lisa has learned how to play the Shani which is a type of oboe from the Indian subcontinent made of wood with a double reed so you know what Lisa knows how to do a reeded instrument with the saxophone so it's not impossible she can learn it and hey we got to hear that Grandpa Simpson album what's going on there? Yes, that's a great line. Worse than the album Grandpa released. Wow, Lisa and Nick Weiger. Nick was a double-read player,

so my co-host of my podcast. And another of my favorite Homer lines are just the animation of the fat leaving his heart and sitting on top of his brain as he says, a poof friend to be good. But this is probably the most memorable moment of the whole episode, right? This musical scene. Oh yeah. And I listened to this a million times on the first Simpson soundtrack CD, Songs and the Key of Springfield. So it just embedded in my head, except on the album version,

they cut out all the grandpa stuff so whenever it appears in the animated version I think it feels out of place and weird but it was originally part of the whole sequence just these added jokes with grandpa getting abused getting knocked over. The cane up who has is just Abe's cane that he stole. Hello! Another great example of warping here. The grandpa wasn't even at the dinner and then he's so funny. I love that it comes back twice. He pulls his cane and then pulls the chair away. And the editor can drop in the song right here.

Thank you all for the kind praise. Well, you deserve it. All these vegetables are really clearing the cholesterol out of the old heart. Oh, a poo friend me good. I think what my father's saying is you're like a member of the family now. I feel that way too. You see, whether igloo, heart, tolintu, or a geodesic dome, there's no structure I have been to, which I'd rather call my home. Hello! When I first arrived, you were all such jerks, but now I've come to love!

Your quirks, Maggie, with her eyes so bright, merged with hair by Frank Lloyd Wright, Lisa can philosophize, the depth that spinning lies Homer's a delightful fella sorry about the Salmonella Hehe, that's okay Aaaaaaah! Who needs the quickie mart? Now here's the tricky part

Oh won't you rhyme with me? Who needs the quickie mart? Therefore's a sticky mart They made that sticky mart Let's hurl a quickie mart? Their floors are sticky mart. They made that sticky mart. Let's hurl a bricky mart. The quickie mart is real- Who needs the quickie mart? Not me.

Forget the quickie mart. Goodbye to quickie mart. Who needs the quickie mart? Not me. Goodbye to Quickie Mart, who needs the Quickie Mart? Not me. But yeah, I have to give credit to Anker's area too. He has this silly, very stereotypical kind of voice he's doing, but he's able to sing in it great.

He is a fantastic performer, his area is. It's funny seeing how short the song is just like now that I'm an adult. I mean when I saw this as a kid it was like a revelation to me. You know what I mean? I mean obviously I was a kid and you know they're singing and dancing but just it's just happening in the middle of the episode. You know what I mean? And that's what I love so much about the Simpsons but the sorry about the Salmonella is a great

line and let's hurl a brickie mart. The quickie mart is real. mark the quickie mark is real It's so good and it wasn't until I got the internet that I was able to look up a geodesic dome Yes, yeah, it's a real mouthful now a question for both of you This feels like an important moment to me because it feels like it's the first Spontaneous show tune on the Simpsons like an important moment to me because it feels like it's the first spontaneous show tune on the Simpsons. So previously we have had songs, but they were done in the context of a performance. The last big song on the show was the Monorail song, but it's Lyle

Langley who has a piano with him and has a song prepared. This feels like it is a true musical moment where everybody knows lyrics, sings along, and doesn't question the reality of the situation. I think you're right. Yeah, I think because the music man, it being a music man thing, it is the Trouble in River City song, which is sung in character. It's not a spontaneous song in the musical. And so that's how it's being used in Monorail. The pure comedy of this is how unnatural it is and how everybody just sits back down when it's over and doesn't even comment on like, yep, we all just sang a song. They think the episode is over now?

Homer looking at his watch, a little early unusual, and then he turns on the TV implying that they're just going to watch TV for the rest of the episode and you're going to watch them watch TV. I love that. Wrapped up much quicker than usual. It's so, so funny. Like I said, this blew my little fifth-grader mind when I first saw this. I love that. Wrapped up much quicker than usual. It's so, so funny. Like I said, this blew my little fifth grader mind when I first saw this.

I mean, obviously right at the point of really appreciating The Simpsons. I watched it even from the first season onwards, but just singing this around the schoolyard and stuff like that, it really blew my mind. And it's still so great. It's still such a funny, great moment in the show. I love the little shots of him, like the camera angles on it too, like everybody looking up at him

and also the way he hits the long me, like it holds it like that is, it's so good. And then when he has to sing the sad version of it, he also hits those notes great too. That very long dooo at the end is incredible. Oh, and it's like he's howling at the moon. Like the drawing is great too. He's like framed wonderfully.

Oh yeah, no, I always thought that there were wolves that howled with him, which was just me. I think it's just because he sounds like a wolf when he's howling there. I've said this before, but they got incredibly lucky by hiring all these people who could sing, and Julie. Because when they were hired, they didn't know they'd have to sing in these crazy voices.

They can all kind of do it, and they find ways for Julie to do it as Marge, in a way that does call attention to how crazy her voice is. And he lied to us through his song, I hate when people do that, is another of the greatest like lies in the show. That's so, so funny. And that's a note, so we don't talk about the syndication cuts, but that is a big one that always annoyed me.

They do cut out that part in syndication, but I don't know if those episodes are still being aired anywhere in that form, so it's kind of irrelevant now. They were cut at him saying, I do, is that what happened? They would just cut there basically? They would fade at I do to the commercial break, but not include the he lied to us through song I hate when people do that so it kind of ruins that joke but syndication cuts did ruin a lot of jokes on the show by the way can I can I point out that when he's looking at the quickie mark there on the roof it's the it's the Nicky Mart it's K and

IK I feel like I'd never noticed that on an SD tiny television in my youth, but now very clear. Yeah. So they've, uh, they realized the story's not over and that Apu isn't all happy. He's even though the story seemed to be wrapped up in the story is up. Who doesn't need the quickie Martin anymore. His character has changed. Now we come back to the third act of like, no, I'm who needs to be back to where he started the episode? Like this is a sitcom and his character can't change and quit his job. And this is where he explains his plan. And I like how in the foreground Bart's just reading a comic book with headphones on like he doesn't care.

Bart is checked out. He's not part of this episode. He saw the amount of lines they gave him and he's done. Also in Greg Daniel's credit, which he said on the commentary in 2004, he's like, he did not want the zaniness of Homer who makes so little money is able to fly to India for no reason with no problem and it causes no money issues for them at all. But Merkin's the guy who sent Homer to space. Merkin prefers zaniness to groundedness. Yeah.

Well, which I don't know. I mean, this is another like moment of cross of like, once you lose it, you can't get it back, the groundedness with Simpsons. Yeah, I mean they do include a joke where a poo pays for the tickets, so I think that's their out, but in the future they wouldn't really care about that at all. And hey, we love the the season seven and eight, but there it's home to the joke of Homer just pulling nine hundred dollars out of his wallet and handing it to Bart. Like, that it is a similar, uh, just like, well, we need money for a story. Yeah, I'm not sure how I feel

about the last bit of this episode, but there's still funny moments in it, of course. There's stuff that I really like. I think we're kind of saved by the fact that they don't really spend a whole lot of time in India. I feel like they could have made some jokes that would have made this episode a lot uglier than it is, if they had like lingered there for an entire act. 100%, yeah. When you think of episodes that are like

the Simpsons go to blank, this is never on people's list because even though there are like, there are jokes, but like it feels like they barely go there and that's the point of it too is that they barely go there though I have to say from obviously this isn't the canon in this episode but for Appu to be a guy who's in the US on expired student visa he should not leave the country because they're not going to let him back in yeah yeah it's a darker joke now guys? I know. That's it. You look at it through a different lens on Tariff Wednesday or whatever the hell it is. Exactly. Yeah. And they will do a real India

episode in season 17. Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore is the name of the episode. Right. So yes, they, Homer only realizes how long it is when he's told in kilometers, and they do a Lawrence of Arabia joke, which is just to set up that they didn't even really go there. So, yes, they get on the plane, and this is where we do get to the joke about, are we there yet? No, no. Wait, yes, we are,, Greg Daniels is quick to point

out a then recent movie ripped him off with this joke. Shrek 2? Was that the name of it? Yes, it's Shrek 2. Shrek 2? Yeah, which is when he says it, he's like, Shrek 2, Shrek 2. He's like, it's right in his brain that like Shrek 2 ripped off this joke of his. This is during the DVD commentary for this basically is right when you're on it. Yes. The joke in Shrek 2 was new in 2004. So if you're looking for the scene it is when Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey are headed to far far away and Donkey keeps saying are we there yet and then it ends with them going like yes, yes we are. I think that's funny. And annoying, kind of an annoying, you know,

not my favorite joke in the episode, but it is, in that moment, it is funny. Well, originally, it had a different joke while Homer was on the plane. Let's hear that deleted scene. What the, what the? Miss, miss, excuse me. This magazine is broken.

Sir, it's written in Hindi. Oh, here's a little something. Keep your mouth shut about this. This lollipop has chest hairs on it. Ha ha! I like the lollipop callback. He gave her the lollipop? That was his bribe, yes, not money.

This magazine is broken is a pretty good line, too. And the animation is the same because it's just words over the plane. I also like Homer in like the here's a little something, keep your mouth shut. It's like such a funny weird little Homer to hear there for a second. But you know, I don't know between this and Are We There Yet? I don't know. Maybe I like the magazine is broken. I like better. Are We There Yet was a runner with the kids and now Homer gets to say it. So it's, it's, uh, it's using a runner in that regard. Yeah.

And then we, we also cut to James woods as he's learning that his character that he was researching has changed in the original script. This was when, uh, Michael Caine was on the phone saying, how can the shark in jaws come back again for this script they're sending me? And then he's like, oh, oh, okay, that makes sense. Not just come back, but come back and up through his toilet. Yes.

Yes. Boy, is it just funny here? I die, yeah, but him battling the cheese. Now I think of it as just him off the cuff in the like talking about something else while recording the episode. It's a pretty good explanation is yeah that's still it's a you're right that just like it does feel very much like the reality of it and him just kind of not being edited in like the standard

guest star way is is great. And yeah he's like he's talking to his microwave. He talks to his microwave a lot. So yeah, then we, we get some more India funnies. I like as a reversal joke of that the Christians are what everybody's sick of seeing it. I would guess cause this is like a, it feels so dated like a Harry. Yeah. I didn't live through the Harry Christians at the airport phase of history. I've never seen them. I've only seen one recently in Vancouver in my entire life. And he seems pretty happy. Yeah.

I feel like I get like, uh, culturally I get this from comedies. I watched as like airplane and you know what I mean? Like, I get those references more than I saw them in real life or whatever. But that's what I even wrote down. I was like, Hare Krishna joke with the Christians? I was like, I think that's what it is. I much more often see black Israelite surrounded the places than the Hare Krishna folks.

Yeah, I don't know if I've seen Hare Krishna folks before, but I never, not in this way of like them, you know, trying to sell you on, you know, their religion or whatever when you get off a plane. But I love they're sick of the Christians. They just can't, everybody to sell you on, you know, their religion or whatever when you get off a plane. But I love they're sick of the Christians. They just can't, everybody in India is like, Ugh, Christians, what is this? There's also another joke cut from the script

that is kind of funny, though I think it's good they cut it where basically a Homer ignores a man begging. And then the guy who's begging, Homer then says, hey, I used to be Cat Stevens. And then Homer replies with, I know. And then, wow. Oh my God. Yeah.

What a slam. Yeah. Now you'll like this, Henry. I just watched Rushmore for the first time in 25 years, and I thought, wow, Cat Stevens, pretty good. Yeah, he is. I love Cat Stevens. He's one of my favorites.

I mean, I love his name, that it's Cat. I'm a big Cat guy anyways. Huge Cat Stevens fan. And I'm happy they cut that joke too. I don't like the Cat Stevens slam. Also, why would he be, I don't know. I have Cat Stevens in India that also just feels very like he's, it feels a little prejudiced.

I don't know. I'm just glad they got rid of it. Just because he converted to Islam, I guess, right? That's the connection. Yeah, at the time he was just going by Yusuf Islam. Now these days, he goes by Cat Stevens and Yusuf. So it's both. Both are accurate. And I know from his song, The Wind, Being in the Holdovers, that he makes a lot of money from licensing his songs because Cat Stevens' songs are not cheap, according to the director of the Holdovers, when he talked about getting

it in the movie Oh, man. Oh, what am I saying the class like you guys did a whole month about this director Why am I not saying his name? Oh? Alexander Payne Pink and juked our show is so stupid There's also kind of the problematic train bit. I mean, I don't know if it's problematic, but I'd say borderline problematic.

It's just like an over, cliched overpopulation joke. You would see the footage of people clinging to the sides of trains, but it turns out they're all passengers and they're all gonna move to the dinner cart together. That's the joke in this one. Yeah. You know, speaking of Wes Anderson, I much prefer his, the Darjeeling limited jokes about trains

because it's just about trains are nice. They're really good in India. You want to ride a train. Yes, Bob, you're like Freshmore, all right. That's in my top four on Letterboxd. But it seriously is like I saw it at the exact age of the character in the movie. Sure, yeah. Henry was a prep school kid with a dead mother and a crush on a female teacher. It all lines up for me. Well, my name was Max and I did get my feelings hurt

and was mean. Was mean as a result to people, but I feel. How many plays did you stage, Henry, while in high school? You know what I like about Max Fisher is that his plays are all rip-offs. Like like he's just he does movies like that He saw and makes him into plays. He's not an original guy. Yeah, but he's like 16 So I again I cut him a little slack

I saw Rushmore in in Jamaica for the first time really and I got mad at my sister for renting it because I was like I wanted to like probably see like some Wayne's Brothers movie or something instead. That was, I remember I went when we saw Royal Tenenbaums. And this is, so this is like my group of friends back in Quincy, they had a heightened sense to be like, let's go see Royal Tenenbaums in the theaters. And me and one other guy were like, we're going to go see how high I believe it was instead.

How high killed that movie at the box office. It was either how high or Jason X, whichever one it was, not a good excuse to be anything. I love the Royal Tenenbaums. Such a great movie. I love Rushmore as well. Now, Royal Tenenbaum's co-star, Ben Stiller, was a producer on one of your shows. He was. Did you tell him that you didn't watch his movie over over how high? I have not ever shared that with him and I, I never, I never, ever will. But I also just started watching Severance. So I, and I shouldn't tell him that,

that I only just started watching Severance, but I, uh, I watched the first episode last night and I'm going to try to make my way through both seasons in the next week or so. I need to watch it too. I'm a big Zach Cherry fan. He's the best. I need to watch it to see it for him. Yeah. Do you know what was in theaters the same time as Royal Tenenbaums and Jason X? What's that? Zoolander! Wow! So he was taking away from his own box office. Zoolander was killing Royal Tenenbaums itself. So it was, it was Jason X. That's even, that's even maybe worse than Howe High,

honestly. And unfortunately both of these films launched in the shadow of 9-11, so. But Ben Stiller, he's there to lift our spirits, right? You know, when I said wow, I should have said, oh wow. There you go. Hey, Rushmore, co-written by Owen Wilson.

Yes, yes. When he wasn't traveling through time with Jackie Chan, he was writing movies. I mean, if I ever meet Owen Wilson, I only want to ask him Rushmore questions. That's what I want. Honestly, if he sees me walking up, he'd be like, all right, the Rushmore questions are coming.

You're a big nerd, I know what your questions are. God bless Owen Wilson, I love that guy. A legend. And now he's trapped in the Marvelverse like all actors. Oh boy. He seems, look, he seems happy. He's in the Loki show. He seems fine. Yeah, if he's happy, I'm happy. I love that guy. He's done enough to make us happy. So yes, this is where Homer and Apu, there's one more deleted scene as they are traveling up the mountains And I get why they cut this it's kind of like it's just more killing time as they approach their destination

This is them around the campfire Tomorrow we will be at our destination You have been a true true friend Homer. You know Apu we've come a long way together You're a true friend, Homer. You know, Appu, we've come a long way together. First we were clerk and customer. Then we were butler and master. And now we're just two badly dehydrated guys having the time of their lives. You want some water?

Probably should. Wait. Come on. Stop it. So they literally bring up the Butler thing like as I guess. Butler and Master. That sounds a lot worse. Yeah, they really hammer it home there. It's a good cut, but again, just marveling at

Dan Castellanetta's voice work there. Just like the perfectly dehydrated voice into the But again, just marveling at Dan Castellaneta's voice work there. Just like the perfectly dehydrated voice into the drinking noises. He's so, he's so good. God, he's so good. And this is where they end up at the not very convenient convenience store, the first convenience store.

And this is where there's one other major change from the script here, because, well, first of all, if they have more jokes about it being a training center for the Quickie Mart where they're training people how to like send Sprite to Mexico, Quickie Mart's or upping the price of milk based on the area. But then the other one is the owner of the Quickie Mart is not this man, it is Mr. Burns. That was the script. It is revealed that Mr. Burns, they go like,

Mr. Burns, you own the Quik-E-Mart, he's the guy they meet. And he says, yes, he bought it after selling nuclear secrets to either India or Pakistan. He can't remember which. I guess they just really wanted to work him into everything. They loved him so much. And the way he almost fulfills Apu's request, but then he notices Homer's there and he's like, wait, you should be at work instead. Get out of here. And then so he doesn't give

up who his request. So Homer ruins it the same, but Mr. Burns is so heavily used in this time, but I miss any Mr. Burns. Well, meanwhile, this guy's funny and all, but it's a pretty big cliche of the like, goo type guy. Yeah. I mean, it is very funny the way Homer burns the three questions very quickly, but yeah. Yeah, I mean, that is funny.

And I love the topper when they're outside and Homer says, was he really the head of the quickie mart? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. And then he's like, oh, hey, it was much your fault as it was mine, Appu. He thinks Appu's apologizing. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Also, oh, hey, it was much your fault it was mine, Upoo. He thinks Upoo's apologizing. Also, Bob, you're from Ohio.

How many Stop-O-Marts are there? Oh, the Stop-O-Mart. Haven't seen one, but there's some regional chains there, some regional convenience store chains in Ohio. I love a regional chain. My regional chain in northern Florida suburbs where I grew up was Little Champ. That was the one. It was like a little boxing guy. We had Quick Stops and it blew my mind when I watched Clark's. Although the Quick

Stops in Ohio are different than the Quick Stops in New Jersey. So different companies entirely, but it was still called Quick Stop. The old man is funny, but you're right that it is cliche. And the sign I like positive to see was like, oh, the combination, they don't have the combination to the safe. It was kind of like, there could have been something more here, but him cutting them off and just saying, thank you, come again after Homer asked the three questions. It's like a funny moment, but like we were saying, this whole trip to India doesn't feel like maybe it was even worth it, but that's also what the whole point of it is too, is that it's a quick nothing, you know?

So I don't know. Yeah, the cut where they fall down the mountain and then the next scene, the door opens immediately and they're there is just a hilarious shoot. I don't know, 90 seconds left in the episode. Mergen calls it a straight up screw you. Like he's like, yep, we did this intentionally to waste the audience's time.

It was completely meaningless that they went to India. It has no bearing on the plot and it just resets everything. Well, he's right. I mean, that is funny. Screw you to the audience, it's funny. And it's also great that Lisa tries to call back and she's like, who needs the quickie? Marty's like, please.

I'm not in the mood. But yeah, I mean, if we're talking about the stereotypes in this, the idea of like, oh, it's like a monastery in India, except it's all a convenience store. Like, I get, you know, I get, it's as an age the best. But I take it as more of just a Looney Tunes, shallow approach to it, not from a place of hate, just to cut them a ton of slack, which obviously

I need to do for rich white guys like Greg Daniels. We need to cut them a lot of slack. Well,. Well I mean on the commentary in 2004 on the commentary Merkin is aware of criticisms of this and the character of Apu but he says it's a very 2004 stance but he says we make fun of everyone but no one is worse than the white wasp that's the biggest villain on the show. Yeah. So he feels like that kind of clears him to do anything else but we've learned their different approaches to things. Sure. Yeah. I also, Hey, Homer sums it all up perfectly.

I think here. Yes. You just wish Flanders would die. Life is one crushing defeat after another. And so, uh, a poo has to give up. He knows he needs to just settle things at the Quickie Bar and he's going to head back there. And it's good because they're out of Lucky Charms.

So this is where we get quite a meeting here with, I would think normally James Woods does not react this way to meeting an Indian immigrant, I would think. He's not so friendly and happy. Well, based on his recent tweets, I don't think he'd be as friendly to Appu as he is in this episode. Hell yeah. So yes, let's hear Appu's return to the Quickie Mart.

Hey, hey, you're Appu Nahasapima Petalon, aren't you? I mean, you're the, you're like the guy, you're a legend around here. Can I ask you, is it true you once worked 96 hours straight? Oh yes, it was horrible, I ask you something? Is it true you once worked 96 hours straight? Oh yes, it was horrible, I tell you. By the end I thought I was a hummingbird of some kind. Oh yeah, you know, I studied your old security tapes. Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?. Alright you, hand over the cash and don't try any funny stuff. Hey pal, I assure you, if I tried any funny stuff, you would be in hysterics.

Hey, you're James Woods! Oh, thank you, yes, thank you. Well Mr. Woods, your new song is gonna be number three with a bullet. Yeah, I'm not a singer. Shut up! With a bullet yeah, I'm not a singer shut up The seating kiss of hot lead how I missed you I mean I think I'm dying Hey I get that one little thing of like a like it's a nice little James Wood noise and yeah I mean I hate to bring this up on tariff Wednesday, but

This scene is now very popular online or like a image from this scene in which the robber is labeled valid criticism the poo is labeled weird nerds and James Wood is labeled Elon Musk. So if someone is defending Elon Musk, you just post that and be on your way. That's great. It's perfect. I love its use. I love that it is like just losers are defending a guy who needs no defense. And APU shouldn't have taken a bullet for James Woods either, but it's nice that it's looking back on it. But this also does pay off the long

running gag up to this point of a poo gets robbed a lot and has been shot many times. Like one of his first memorable jokes is, I've been shot like four times, I think he says, and I almost missed work. To which Chief Wiggum says, cry baby. It's interesting that the robber isn't snake here, maybe because he actually shoots a poo, I guess is why they chose it to not be Snake. I don't know why they made that decision, but it was always interesting to me that it's not Snake. They said on the commentary, the Snake is not a beloved character, but he is a character

who will return. You don't want to see the man who shot a poo on screen. That makes sense. That's fair. They point out that since then, Snake has definitely shot a poo on the show. Many horrible things, but they didn't want to do it then. Yeah, it's uh, and you can forget sometimes without poo, but when you see him shirtless, typically he is drawn with bullet wounds on his chest. Like he, he has been shot.

It's visible on his character model. Um, by the way, the, way, the one thing that when Apu comes back to the Quicky Mart, I love that he points out scumbucket with fly, like a singular fly, and then the do not accept checks from list and Homer J Fong is one of the people on the list. There's like a bunch of obviously Homer attempting multiple times to cash bad checks. TG That scumbucket with Fly thing really made me laugh because we don't see a poo on the screen when he's describing it. And it really feels like a Hank Azaria ad lib. He and Dan are a lot

of ad lib and a lot of the funniest ad libs they've done have made it into the show and are now classic lines. Yeah. When Azaria's Moe says, that's right, I rob people now. That is one of my favorite Azaria adlers. Which I wonder was him just being like, what the hell is going on here? Which is maybe, you know, when was that? What season is that? Yeah, it's like season 11 or something. Sounds right. I think he was just commenting on, what is Mo doing now?

And that hummingbird footage was supposed to be black and white guys, so imagine it, they meant it to be black and white, came back color. And hey, if you would like to see that story of the 96 hour shift expanded into an eight page comic, then you need only get a copy of 1995 Sin's Comics number 10. Wow! It's a backup story. It's the story of his 96 hours. That rules.

I kind of do want to read that. That sounds great. It goes for not a bad 10 bucks, I think, for a mint copy on eBay right now, if you want. Ooh, all right. That's not bad. And yes, Apu missed the searing kiss of hot lead until until he realizes he's dying And yes in in pure American fashion though We find out that actually he was saved by the fact that he had been shot many times before her

Bullet ricocheted off You think it would hurt him the other bullet being driven further into his body would hurt him, but no just harmless It's like a shield, I guess. He made him bulletproof in one inch of his chest. So in the original script, it was basically the same too. It's just that Michael Caine gets him his job back in the same way and then leaves with the same kind of exit line. Though they don't have the let's hug him again ending. Instead, Apu goes back to work and it's back on the job and he gets shot one more time.

And after being shot, he says, thank you, come again. And that's the last line of the episode. Oh my God, man. I like Apu getting hugged twice. Yeah, I like the double hug way more. Wait, so Michael Caine goes to fight aliens and he says, yes, a movie, Yes. That's how I believe it's the same. Yeah, that that line's essentially the same for that's very that is a great and it's a great

James Wood read, sadly. But here we get an ending that ends a little too early for the characters. Well, you are a very lucky man, Appu. You see, the bullet ricocheted off another bullet that was lodged in your chest from a previous robbery. Appu, you saved my life. And as a small token of my appreciation, I got you your job back at the Quickie Mart. Oh, oh, Mr. Woods, you're... But as for me, I'm off to battle aliens on a faraway planet.

That sounds like a good movie. Yes. Yes, a movie, yes. Hey, let's all hug our poo. Awwww. Hey, there's still time. Let's hug him again. That perfect little pacifier suck in there too is great. And James Woods, such a good actor, he's making me believe James Woods cares about after.

Yeah. It's a sweet scene. It's such a sweet, tender scene. He actually wanted to help a guy and then, uh, do a nice thing for somebody else. Very unlikely. Uh, but that's, he is a good actor. It's, I also, I love any of the meta jokes about this being a sitcom that Merkin puts so much in his series, but I love that it's a sweet one that they're

like, you know what, oh, that hug was too short to get to the end of the episode. So let's hug him again It's great. I hope James woods or the quickie Mart is gonna pay his medical bills for this I feel like he's at least got a lawsuit on getting shot in the quickie Mart, right? Possibly maybe that was part of the the welcome backpacking But I'm glad you know what I'm glad they hugged him twice instead of shooting him twice as was the original ending. And also just like you were saying that the meta thing of earlier in the episode being like, Hey, things wrapped up like quicker than normal and still at the end, still having time to kill is great. Which is funny for an episode that had two

minutes of deleted scenes that actually they, they, they had to cut those scenes to make jokes that they ran short in the episode. That's great. My final thoughts on this one are just yes, there's some data stuff in it and a poo is written better in other episodes that have a little more empathy for him. But Greg Daniels is showing why he he'd go on to be one of the best Simpsons writers in his tenure and King of the Hill rules and he's part of that and I don't think anybody else could have made an American office better than he did. I was going to the American office of like,

oh, I love the office, Ricky Gervais is the funniest man in the world, I thought then, and Americans will screw it up. Totally wrong and that's all on Daniel's too. And so, and his skill is totally on display in this very early script in his career. Yeah, I'll make my final thoughts quick. I'd like to welcome Greg Daniels to the world of sitcom writing. I think he's going to go far. And in case you have not been paying attention, there are an incredible amount of Greg Daniels television

shows happening right now. He is, he's baking so many TV pies for everybody. And I would like to recommend once again, upload the fourth and final season will be hitting Amazon at some point. I think it's a very overlooked show that it's, it's pretty good. I do like upload, but obviously we love King of the Hill. And if you want to hear more about Greg Daniels, check out our Patreon mini series. We're covering all of King of the Hill on that one. We had on comedian Mike Lawrence, who was a writer for upload. He mentioned that when his first thing when he met Greg Daniels or early when he met Greg Daniels was

asking him to clarify the Brazilian man going back in time joke from an episode he wrote. Look I own Greg Daniels basketball. I've been a fan of his work for a long time. I like this episode a lot. I think like you said Henry like a poo probably does get humanized more in episodes later on. But is this the first kind of humanizing episode with Apu, or is there one before this? Or is this kind of the start of it? This is really it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

You get a credit for that, you know, in a way. But from beginning to end, it's just such a funny episode. And I love it. There's not much for me to say except that it's great. And it was good to see my old coworker James Woods again. Well, it was great to have all the fun stories you had about as well, Mitch. Oh, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, it was Shark. I'm not sure, I don't know the quality of the show, Shark. I honestly don't know if I ever watched the show while I worked there, but yeah, it was my, it got me hired over at the Simpsons, so for that reason, it holds a place in my heart. And everyone I worked with there were great. By the way, did you already talk about the,

is the couch gag original in this episode or now? Oh, what was the couch gag on this one? Oh, it's them jumping behind the couch, right? They pop up from behind the couch, and then Maggie emerges from the middle cushion. I think that is the first time this one airs. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It's a cute little small one. That's nothing but more than the couch gag even is the chalkboard gag. What did Bart do to the kindergarten turtle? That's the only thing that I question is, is he's writing something about the kindergarten turtle on there.

And I, and I don't like it. I don't like it at all. I don't like it either. It seems like they're painting Bart as a potential serial killer and it's not fun. Yeah. I don't like it at all. I don't like it either. It seems like their painting bard is a potential serial killer and it's not fun. Yeah, I don't like it at all. They have a better joke with that in an earlier Chalkboard Gag, or maybe it's a later one of like, I will not spin the turtle. Like, that's at least a funnier use of classroom turtle gags. Yeah, yeah, this one seems kind of mysterious and I don't like it. But I love this episode and who needs the Quickie Mart is just forever burned into my brain and was such a huge moment for me watching The Simpsons. Well, thank you, Mike Mitchell, for being back on Talking Simpsons.

Please let us know more about Doughboys and can you tell us anything about Twisted Metal Season 2? I hear it's coming in 2025, the year we're currently in. It's coming in 2025. I'm not sure when it's gonna come out. It's gonna come out I think sometime in the summertime or maybe a little after that. I'm not sure.

They're not telling me yet at least. But Doughboys, you can listen to wherever you find your podcasts and we do a Patreon episode every week as well called the Doughboys Double. You can find that at patreon.com slash doughboys. Give it a listen. It's a stupid show. It's we're on our 10th year of doing it, which is insane. But my co-host Nick Weiger is a very funny man and we have some great guests on the show.

And we've had both of you guys on for, have we had you on for a mainline episode or yes? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I did. That was in, I think, it recorded in July of 2024. It aired in November. Geez. After the election, yes.

Perfect timing. You guys were making a lot of episodes though, so we didn't take it personally. Well, listen to the episode with the Talking Simpsons guys. That's a good place to start if you haven't listened to the show before. We both are big fans of you guys and we love you and I'm always down to come on the show whenever. So thank you for having me. Oh thank you Mitch.

And listeners, don't forget if you're in Washington DC, Boston or a third city. Right. New Jersey. New Jersey, DC and Boston. Yeah, in May. The Doughboyz Live, yes. Tickets at Birdfuck. The Doughboys live, yes. Tickets at birdfuck.com.

Birdfuck.com or Birdpluck. We can promote Birdpluck, which just re-navigates you to birdfuck.com. And if they're sold out, tell them we set you and then see what happens. We don't know. Thanks again to Mike Mitchell for being on the show. Please check out the podcast Doughboys and also Twisted Metal coming sometime in 2025 that second season. But as for us, if you want to check out more of what we do, get all of these podcasts ad free a week ahead of time and also access a huge back catalog of full length miniseries episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and sign up at the $5 level you'll get those ad free podcasts one week at a time, but also you'll access so many mini series episodes We've covered shows like Futurama King of the Hill Mission Hill Batman the animated series and the critic and if you are a $5

Patron you will get an episode of talking to the hill on an episode of talking Futurama every month And again, that is all happening at the $5 level only at patreon.com Talking Simpsons and there is a $10 level to Henry on.com slash Talking Simpsons and there is a $10 level to Henry. What's happening for the $10 level? That Bob is where we have our What a Cartoon Movie podcast which is basically a triple-length podcast you get once a month in addition to all of the ad-free bonus content you get at $5 level. Just this last month our $10 and up subscribers got to hear us talk about the live-action animation hybrid Looney Tunes Back

in Action, which has a very complicated production history that was a lot of fun to chat about. And that's just our most recent out of nearly seven years of What a Cartoon Movies, us covering Disney, Pixar, Studio Ghibli, other international films, superhero films, so many great things. And our longest podcast ever about who framed Roger Rabbit, six and a half hours of history there, you get the entire back catalog when you sign up at the $10 level to hear it all ad free,

in addition to all of the ad free bonus mini series Bob mentioned before. Please check it out again at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. And I've been one of your hosts, Bob Mackie. You can find me on Blue Sky and Letterboxd and a bunch of other places as Bob Servo. And I have another podcast, by the way, it 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 two full length bonus episodes every month. And Henry, how about you? You can follow me on Twitter as still H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G, but I'm much more active on Blue Sky as Talking Henry, and I'm also Talking Henry on Instagram. Follow me there, please. And if you're following me and Bob on those social media channels, you should of course follow the official account at Talk Simpsons Pod in all those places, at Talk Simpsons Pod on Instagram, Blue Sky, and Twitter. That keeps you up to date when new things happen in our lives, when we have stuff on the Patreon

live shows, any of that cool stuff. You hear it first by following at Talk Simpsons Pod. And don't forget that all of our previously released free podcasts of What a Cartoon and Talking Simpsons are available at TalkingSimpsons.com. Thank you so much for joining us folks. We'll see you again next time for season 15's The Ziff Who Came to Dinner and we'll see you then. I Have come to make a mentor at first I blamed you for squealing But then I realized it was I who wronged you so I have come to work off my debt. I am at your service You're selling what now? I'm selling only the concept of karmic realignment. You can't sell that!

Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos. He's got me there.