Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - I'm With Cupid With Nick Prueher

Episode Date: October 30, 2019

It's Simpsons' second Valentine's Day episode, and we've got a great guest: Nick Prueher from Found Footage Festival/VCR Party Live! We talk about Nick's nostalgic tribute to VHS and his intriguing history with Simpsons, then chat about Apu's troublesome Valentine's adventure! We talk about love, chocolate, rope belts, Elton John, breakfast at Tiffany's, and so much more! Listen now for some lovable podcasts! Support this podcast and get dozens of bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! This podcast is brought to you by the streaming network VRV: home to cartoons, anime, and so much more! Visit VRV.co/WAC to sign up for your FREE 30-day trial and kick a little money back to your friends at the Talking Simpsons Network!

attention podcast listener we've got an exciting new podcast coming just for patrons of patreon.com slash talking simpsons talking futurama season two part one has begun exclusively for our five dollar and up patrons on the talking simpsons network that's the first 10 episodes of futurama coming to you once a week so just sign up for $5 a month at patreon.com slash talking simpsons and you'll get Talking Futurama season two and all of our limited miniseries, including the entirety of Talking Futurama season one. That's 13 episodes.

That is patreon.com slash talking simpsons. Now, please enjoy the rest of this podcast. I heartily endorse this event or product ahoy everybody and welcome to talking simpsons, recently featured in Scullery Week. I'm your host, Sir Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today? Henry Gilbert, and this podcast will be tough because my ears are filled with nougat. And I'm one heck of a blacksmith. I'm Nick Pror. Excellent, and today's episode is I'm with Cupid. You're appealing. Let's never split.

That's funny,. You're appealing. Let's never split. That's funny. Because they're monkeys. Today's episode aired on February 14th, 1999, Valentine's Day. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh my God. Happy Valentine's Day, Bobby. Prince just got a divorce from his wife message in a bottle is number one at the box office a film i absolutely have no memory of and bill clinton is celebrating quite a valentine's day because the senate

has just acquitted him in his impeachment trial. What was Message in a Bottle? It definitely starred Kevin Costner. And it was some sort of romantic comedy. Yes. I don't believe he's stuck on an island or it's about him receiving a bottle. That's all I know about Message in a Bottle. I didn't care to look up information. I know Prince was religious.

He was a devout Jehovah's Witness, but it's weird to think of him as like a creature that can get married. He's like this otherworldly being. I don't know how long that marriage lasted, but the woman was 25 and he was 39. So maybe it was just an age difference problem. But I didn't know the whys and wherefores as a 17-year, 16-year-old when this episode aired of Bill Clinton's impeachment.

But it's not like that really ended anything for Clinton, probably. No, no. And I want to check in with everybody. This Valentine's Day, 1989, lonely or not lonely? Me. Oh, lonely. So lonely. Next year would be my first major heartbreak of my life.

So, yeah, 99 lonely. How about you, Henry? So lonely? Lonely. And our special guest, Nick, 99, what was your Valentine's Day like? I need to know. Also, Lonely, I believe I just got out of... Oh, no. I wasn't, actually.

This was a rare instance where I wasn't. Cut his mic. I was in a relationship. Sorry about that. This is a show for losers. I know. I apologize. And I like both my parents, too. So this isn't going to go well. No. This is terrible. For the record, I do as well.

Sorry about that. Well, yeah. Well, Nick, then I guess you weren't watching this episode then if you were in a relationship. No, I always made it a priority. No matter what, on Sunday nights at 8 o'clock, I was watching The Simpsons. So throughout college, I always made it a priority no matter what. Well, man, Nick, thanks so much for coming on in case uh listeners don't know of your your pedigree as uh as an entertainment expert i guess like we're big fans

of found footage fist but but tell everybody about yourself yeah i grew up in wisconsin my buddy joe and i um this was a small town so we collected vhs tapes as a hobby and not movies i know a lot of people collect horror vhs but you know 1991, we were looking for stuff that would be in the special interest section of a video store. So like the Mr. T educational video, Be Somebody or Be Somebody's Fool, people's home movies that would still be in camcorders at Goodwill, training videos and exercise tapes and all those things that weren't meant to be shown in public. And since 2004, we've been doing a comedy show called the Found Footage Festival, where we show off our greatest VHS finds from the last year of collecting. And we've been doing it for 15 years now. I'm a big fan of found footage, and I have been for about a decade. And what I really respect that you guys do is that you will take like a 60 minute video

and find maybe the best 20 seconds or the only salvageable 20 seconds and expose that to the light of day. And that must take a lot of work and a lot of patience. Yeah. I mean, it's a needle in a haystack because, you know, the other day we were watching, I think, a two hour cash register instructional video and found zero redeeming footage in it. And, you know, you don't get those two hours back. So it's, I mean, I'm really looking for a pat on the back for sacrificing so much to entertain people. But yeah, the show is basically a 90-minute Tales of the Tape.

So I thought, yeah, I mean, that's kind of what it is. Yeah, well, so I was curious, too, with your VHS love that you must have been taping The Simpsons, right? Yeah, of course. But here's my biggest regret is I would edit out the commercials live like I think you did. Just like me. You're both fools. Yeah.

And so and now, I mean, of course, that's the valuable part of those tapes is it would be the commercials because The Simpsons is so readily available everywhere else. So that's my biggest regret is I have a lot of alf and simpsons tapes that um i was too good at editing out the commercials especially like the regional commercials that are definitely not on youtube or saved by anybody like they're the ones that only aired in my jacksonville market for a specific like flea market or carpet store or uh used car lot like those jingles are still in my head and I want to confirm that they're real. Do you remember any of them? Could you spout off one of them?

Oh, uh, Claven, they're closer than you think. That's the used car lot. B&R Wholesale Tires, they're known by the money you keep. Beep beep. Yeah, that's impressive. I watch a lot of TV.

Somebody should do an oral history or how people would go in Appalachia and record these folk songs handed down through the oral tradition. We need just a master list of jingles. Regional jingles. I think that would be a great project. One final one that just came

to mind is one of the most beautiful female voices singing in this just great ballad tone, the words patio enclosures. And that was it. And I want to find it again, but who knows if it'll turn up again. I don't remember any of the songs. The one that touched me the most was that when I was in middle school, some local carpet store, the old man who owned it he started putting his grandson in the commercials to be like look at this stuff look at this stuff and the kid looked exactly like me so i had it like several times at school teachers mainly would be like oh are you from

the you on the carpet store right hey carpet boy oh man we have one guy that we found called bargain bernie from corpus christi texas and we met the daughter of bargain bernie and she gave us all these like three quarter inch tapes that was 10 years worth of local commercials where his wife was in it his daughter was in it and it was a a furniture store called decorators galaxy decorators gallery and his uh catchphrase was all i want to do is save you money and uh and at one point he they come back to him you're seeing the outtakes of it and his pants are around his ankles he goes uh-oh you caught me with my pants down but nobody

saves more on carpets or waterbeds all i want to do is save you money and he goes how was that and he just kind of instantly gets deflated with his pants around his ankles. He just wants to get out of there. Wow. All he wanted to do was save us money. What a guilt trip. I know. Well, Nick, one of your most famous finds, perhaps your most famous find, was the Winnebago Man. That's as famous as it gets of online found footage.

Yeah. We were working on commercials as PAs in Minneapolis. And whenever you're on a crew, you sort of share the stories of the worst shoots you were ever on. And we met a camera assistant there who told us about this Winnebago, you know, I guess it was an industrial video for salesmen from 1989. They shot it in Iowa and he said it was really hot and the host kind of got it over his head and so we just let the cameras roll in between takes because we couldn't believe his meltdowns and uh he kind of handed us like they the crew had made their own reel of his outtakes

and we had sort of the raw footage and cut together our favorite angry tirades from this guy jack rebney and it became this big hit at our first touring show in 2004 and then online. And yeah, then they made a whole documentary about the guy called called Winnebago Man. And it's fascinating. Actually, in San Francisco, where you are, we we met him for the first time and we're a little nervous because people have called him the angriest man in the world. If you've seen the clips and we didn't, he could have thrown a punch. We didn't know how it was going to go. And I think he was skeptical, but once he saw how much joy the video brought to people

in a live setting, you know, he was the Grinch. His heart grew three times its size that day. And he was hugging us. And I mean, he called it, in the video, he calls a fly, like a fly that was buzzing around. He calls him a goddamn jackass. And so I feel like if you get a hug from him, I mean buzzing around he calls him a goddamn jackass and uh so i feel like if you get a hug from him i mean that's kind of a career highlight you melted his heart that's

great yeah and you guys are still going strong not just on tour but also you do your uh your weekly live stream the vcr party i was just watching uh yesterday's with the Desert Storm Hollywood Parade. That was insane. Yeah, this was, I mean, yeah, they'd had a welcome home to the troops once all our Gulf War problems were over in 1991. And so they had people who were, celebrities mostly who were on their deathbed.

It was like a very frail Jimmy Stewart and Tony Curtis in the back of limos waving to people to welcome home the troops back. And it was sponsored by Taco Bell. The whole thing was plastered with Taco Bell ads and also an energy drink called Combat Cooler that they were shilling. Hosted by Bob Eubanks. And they had audio problems. And Tom Arnold was in it.

And we showed a clip of it on last night's show. Our internet show is called VCR Party. And Tom Arnold actually tweeted about it. And he was like, this might have been the moment where the troops were like, you know what? We don't need to be honored anymore. We're good. And so, yeah, I mean, we're always dredging up footage like that. And that was one of these old tapes where the audio is terrible, the video is really bad and and we did some research on this parade there's no record of it ever happening wow yeah it's almost like they tried to expunge it from the history books but we have a copy uh that's that's what's magical about what you guys do like there's so much that's just lost like tears in the rain as they'd say and that you guys just find it and and well there's another one that a recent video

you guys put up of the diabetes versus diabetes which was just amazing too yeah wilford brimley had his own way of pronouncing diabetes and even when a doctor pronounces it the right way he's stubborn enough to just still pronounce it diabetes and uh yeah we found a video where we kind of make them battle each other in pronunciation. Well, my theory is once Disney owns all content ever made, they will still not own podcasting and found footage. We're still safe. That's true. That might be the last bastion. So let's hold on to it.

A couple of the things you mentioned to me before the podcast, Nick, that I am going to delay talking about simpsons for uh me and bob would not be mystery science theater nerds if we didn't ask you a little about your work on that show too oh sure yeah i was an intern i i grew up too as somebody who you know me and my friends we grew up in a small town all we did was watch television and make fun of it i mean and when i heard that there was a show with a guy and two robots doing this not far from where I grew up in Wisconsin, I was intrigued. But I didn't get Ha or the comedy channel where we grew up. And so my grandparents would tape it for me. And then on Thanksgiving, I would get all the tapes and we'd watch them all.

Oh, so nice. And so, yeah, I was a big fan and then went to school for TV and radio and film near Minneapolis. So I applied for an internship in 1998, I think. And so this was the last year at the Sci-Fi Channel. And it was great. It was like a dream come true. Like, you know, I was doing craft services and copying scripts. And I think the job I was most excited about was opening the doors

for movie sign. It was me and another intern. We each were on a door. Yeah. Where there's, you know, wooden doors. And when they would shout movie sign, we would open them up and sometimes we'd have to retake it. Cause we wouldn't be in sync. It was, uh, and the other thing is they don't tell you about is you know you're on a puppet trench so it's like a good four feet up from the ground was where the the floor is so that the kevin and you know bill and all those the puppeteers could be you know behind it controlling the puppets and uh at some point an animal probably a rat had gotten in the puppet trench which is no and died and so whenever the lights would come

on to film, it smelled like death. It was, and they tried to root it out. They tried to find the source of it and couldn't, I mean, it might've been a single mouse, but for the entirety of the time that I worked there, it was, it just reeked as soon. And so the lights would go off as soon as a take was done to prevent the smell from getting worse oh wow so that was the final season of the show then it was i i mean the only like record i really have apart from like some scripts i saved was is that um in the quest for the delta knights episode um i was uh played one of the delta knights uh serving a pancake breakfast oh that's so cool that's amazing i was hoping you got to be a camera at least once in the show yeah at one point and it was cool i got to go to the wrap party and um you know i

played in between you know there's hurry up and wait and anything in tv or or movies and stuff so there's a lot of downtime and they had a video game lounge in there and um mike nelson was so obsessed with nhl hockey 98 it was that and hot shots golf were the two big video games that was were played and and you know how all the madden games in the nhl they kind of rubber band it so if you're behind they kind of will give you a shot to to win at the end and i i hadn't played nhl hockey at all but i was playing mike and i i you know he chose the worst team and I chose the best team or whatever. And I beat him and I remember him seriously getting pissed and

throwing a controller. And I, and then he apologized afterwards and I was like, Hey, you know, the game's not fair. I get it. I would be terrified of an angry Mike Nelson. Even now there might be, yeah, I don't know. I'm, I'm, you know, brilliant writer and, and nice guy to me but yeah that was uh he took his video game seriously that's an amazing story man though now when i watch like soul taker or another season 10 one i'm just gonna think of that it smelled really bad and all the host segment i'm gonna think i know one of the guys opening one side of that door yeah yeah i was always on the right door. So that was me.

And you also mentioned that you got to go to a Simpsons table read at least once. I mean, that's, I mean, that's the, that is the dream of a Simpsons fan. Yeah. I couldn't believe this. My friend Mark, like he was the audience coordinator at the Colbert Report. And so he, I guess he had gotten tickets for um somebody on the show and so they wanted to return the favor and said hey have you and a couple other people want to come to a table read so maybe like five years ago he said i have these tickets they have to be for next week and i was like whatever i don't care i i cancel anything i mean i didn't have anything going on but uh i would have canceled it for this opportunity so yeah we flew out there go on to the

the fox lot and i mean already you see like a giant homer statue and it was and the new york set you know we're walking through a snowy new york set it was like the end of peewee's big adventure you know you're kind of and uh so yeah we go in and sure enough there's i think harry schur was on you, doing it remotely. But everybody else was there. Yardley Smith and Julie Kavner and Hank Azaria. And you sit there. They have a table where they all sit around.

And whoever the, you know, I think producer of that episode is, is reading the stage directions. And it was the Harry Potter episode. I can't remember what the plot was, but it was a takeoff on J.K. Rowling, I think. Whatever that episode was from a few seasons ago. And it was so amazing. And people describe this, but when you actually see the voices coming out, you've heard your whole life coming out of people's voice. There's like no...

It's a magic trick. It was amazing. And I felt like I was a make-a-wish kid who didn't deserve it and when wasn't dying but somehow i got this incredible opportunity and one of the people there i think it might have been ian maxton graham said he was a found footage festival fan and now and i i was blown away and i and remember afterwards hank azaria and yardley stayed after to sign you know the scripts that they gave me to follow along. And I just had nothing to say.

I just completely like Hank Azaria. He said, oh, thanks for being here. And I said, it's just an honor to be here. And he goes, where are you from? And I was like, it's just an honor to be here. I still kick myself. I had nothing to say to them. But yeah, it was one of these highlights.

That's amazing. I'm extremely jealous. And there's got to be somebody listening who works on the show. Please grant us special favors. At this point, you have to get there. I will say we deserve. No, I won't go that far. But it'd be fun.

Who knows? I mean, who knows how many table reads they got left before something changes? You never know. Yeah. Make a push for it. Be more direct about it. We need a hashtag. Yeah.

I know. Man, I'm going to bother a couple people. We've talked to most showrunners. That's true. Maybe they can hook us up. Do it. I mean, they want it. They like it.

I mean, it's one of the few Hollywood favors they can do people. They can't really give out merch or anything like that so i feel like they're looking for an excuse to to give you a ticket why don't we get into the episode this week i'm with cupid uh you were still pretty diligently watching the show in in season 10 right i was yeah i didn't drop off till about like season 16 or 17 i think so yeah i was still watching every night and uh this this is an interesting episode just that it is uh dan grainy and bob anderson as a we've talked about them before but i realized that they both still work on the show in season 31 bob anderson just had another episode and we interviewed dan grainy on our patreons check it out there patreon.com

slash talking simpsons we didn't have one valentine's day question about it no he didn't want us to ask about episodes that he wrote yeah well because he kind of was uh he was interested in like you know there's a lot of jokes you write for episodes that don't have your name on it that i think he wanted to explore more than the episodes that had his name on them so yeah and this one is continuing the story that started in the two mrs nahasapima petalons in season nine yeah which um you know this is an apu centric episode and while i guess in this episode we may touch a little on the controversy of the character of apu i think we've really covered it in depth a lot in previous podcasts with our our awesome guest and friend shivan bat uh so i would suggest listening to the two Mstaspin pedalons and Much Apu About Nothing.

Thank you. To hear more insight into that. But yes, this is, it is the continuation of the Manjula story with Apu, which I think this, the feeling I get to the Mark on Scully seasons compared to the David Merkin or Bill and Josh seasons

is that Scully really comes from a married band perspective i think this is much more he sees homer through the eyes of i am homer or i'm a married man like homer when i think more like bill and josh came to it of just like well was my dad like homer or it's more yeah it's more observational where a married man could conceivably be uh upset that another married man makes him look bad this felt like a kind of a throwback to like a james l brooks style sitcom plot in a way you know like one other guy's making the other guy look there's a simpsons twist on it but it did have a pretty conventional sitcom setup anyway yeah this would make more i mean this this would totally work on like mary tyler moore show or or taxi one of the james o'brook shows of just one of the cast is showing up the rest of the cast in their uh gifts to their wives but uh yeah in this in this case it ends with a

big fist fight in the sky and a giant guest star to put the the season stamp on it wouldn't happen on cheers probably no elton John might have shown up. Maybe. Who knows? In the late seasons of Cheers. In those years, they just opened the door and a celebrity showed up. This is also the second Valentine's Day episode, too.

The Choo Choo Choose Me was like seven years before this one. And it's also unseasonably warm during this Valentine's Day. That's right, yeah. Well, they write it from a los angeles perspective they don't think about cold februaries anymore and i think too they knew that the the sunday was the 14th that year so they wrote knowing it would be viewed on valentine's day as well i mean i think valentine's day is a crock as an adult it's it's fine as a kid if you want to get like candy at school or whatever but well nick grew up in the midwest uh in ohio at least i grew up in the rust belt of youngstown ohio there was also like valentine's day revenge aka sweetest day oh i

never heard of sweetest day as well yeah people i remember um people talking about that in middle school and even at that early age with no romantic prospects at all, being like, that is a crock. Sweetest day is, you know, you get one love holiday a year. Do you guys have any memorable Valentine's Days? Oh, absolutely not. Not until last year. No happy ones. No, not until I guess now as a married man, Valentine's Day is interesting. It's like I am starting to see it more from homer's vantage point of like fourth valentine's day what to do what to do like but i i'd still try to make

it special but me and my husband like we well actually no this valentine's day we went to fucking conan o'brien what am i saying yeah and when i say we i also mean bob henry and i were in direct competition with each other because uh your got us tickets to Conan O'Brien. And meanwhile, I got my girlfriend tickets to Disneyland with me. Okay, so it was a double date kind of situation? It was a double date to Conan on Valentine's Day, but we gave Bob and his girlfriend their space for Disneyland. Yeah, those are both pretty good Valentine's Days, I think. I can't top myself.

Yeah. Three days in Disneyland, probably. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's the only memorable Valentine's Day, I gotta say. The rest are, well, I don't, it's not a mistake. I like when my wedding anniversary is, but it's the second of february so it feels like uh like this conan trip was kind of a continuation of a anniversary present into valentine's day got it yeah my and

my birthday is february 9th so i always kind of i would have a birthday party for friends but i would always do it the weekend of valentine's day and i i did this kind of like, I positioned it as if it was a magnanimous big get-together for everyone who didn't want to do traditional Valentine's Day. But it was a way to stave off the loneliness, I think, in advance. So it was kind of my cover was to throw this birthday slash Valentine's party for everybody. That's a good plan. That's a good cover.

Like, no, I'm busy. I don't care. I'm hanging out with the bros. Yeah, it was a good plan. To cover, like, no, I'm busy. I don't care. I'm hanging out with the bros. Yeah, it was a coping mechanism. Well, this episode, though, opens far away from Valentine's Day with a very sweet little story Homer tells Lisa in this first clip. The handsome prince realized he had to go to the bathroom really bad. But the evil ogre, Barney, had left the men's room in the most wicked condition.

So, the prince went out back to the enchanted alley. That's not a fairy tale. It's just something that happened to you at Moe's. Shh! Anyway, the prince passed out for a hundred years until he was awakened by the kiss of a noble raccoon. And thank you, God, for

the bad things adults do, which distract attention from stuff I'm doing. Amen. He's also thankful for your bounty, Lord. Good save, Mom. Night. Sweet dreams, honey. Um, Mom? Will you help me with my project?

I need to make a working model of the digestive system. Of course, honey. Thanks. It's due tomorrow. Tomorrow? Well, that's too bad, mister. I'm not gonna bail you out this time. You're right, Mom. Thanks. It's due tomorrow. Tomorrow? Well, that's too bad, mister. I'm not going to bail you out this time. You're right, mom. I understand.

All right. I'll get you the materials, but you're building it. Okay. Oh, I'll make the whole thing. So is that Lisa's only line in this episode? Yes, it is. Yeah, that is the only line. She's absent.

I think she yells at Homer for having him make the dog bring in the sunday newspaper later but that's that's kind of it that's it i mean the kids are kind of an accessory to a an adult romantic story that story homer tells is uh that's a new level of alcoholism for him of passing out in the alley and being woken up by a raccoon it's a lighter side of alcoholism that's i mean he tells uh a quite a cute story of a disgusting men's room and peeing in an alley and then passing out yeah public urination was part of the story yes yeah no this i mean uh we we say this a bunch but the scully years definitely had a an increase in scatological grossness for sure i mean there's a big example of that coming up oh yes yeah uh you know it seems quaint to see characters praying before bed now it really

i just don't think you'd see that in kind of any show now yeah that is strange there used to be a lot of scenes of like kids or adults praying for something and yeah you would not see that nowadays like your bedtime prayers i just uh yeah I guess I would assume across America, there's still parents watching over their children to make sure they say prayers right as Marge. I mean, all of the Fox animated shows from this era had characters go to church regularly, even Family Guy, King of the Hill, of course, this.

I grew up going to church. I was an altar boy and my mom was a Sunday school teacher and all this stuff. But I remember even like kneeling to pray by my bed and thinking, this is ridiculous. What am I doing? Like, I don't think anybody could really sustain that. You know, I think the found footage stuff that sometimes give me the most cringe where I just I kind of fast forward through it is the religious programming. Because it's just the the earnestness can just be too much for me

and sometimes well that's my favorite having a catholic school yeah we're gonna be in san francisco in um at sketch fest in january so if you show up you might want to just go to the bathroom during that we we have a montage called church training in our current touring show which is for some reason over the past year and a half, we found a lot of like training videos for people in the church, like how to be an altar boy, how to be a, an usher and how to be a reader. And, uh, they're all pretty great. I, you know, I sometimes wonder if, you know, 20 years from now, will there be a version of this for things people uploaded to YouTube and whatnot, because that it just feels like there's just too

much of it. But also I think people know too much about irony now. It wouldn't be funny in the same way or not even funny, intriguing in the same way. It's interesting. Yeah, I think that too. I mean, occasionally you'll find some unselfaware people, but the magic of the VHS era was that people didn't know this would ever be seen in a context other than what they intended it to be. Like they made a video called how to identify machine-made marbles which is an actual video i found they thought that would just be for marble collectors and uh that's the only people who would see that uh but but now anybody making a youtube video knows that it could be seen by the world and i think that's why occasionally when you find like prancercise or I remember a

while back, there was some people who like elderly people who had recorded themselves and not known the webcam was on. And that became a big hit because those are like some of the rare examples of unselfaware people in 2019. We know too much now. It's a burden of knowledge. Yeah, there isn't that sort of charming naivete anymore. It's, yeah, innocence lost. The Simpsons will be right back. Hope you're enjoying this week's podcast. It was done under the Sky Writers Code. And we have a big thank you to our guest, Nick Brewer.

Please check out all the found footage stuff and VCR Party that you can find on YouTube and other places. He was such a cool guy. We can't wait to see his show in January. And did you know that this podcast, Talking Simpsons, as well as its weekly sister podcast what a cartoon are both brought to you by patreon that's right me and bob can do this thanks to the support of our many wonderful patreon supporters just for five bucks a month not only do you get to hear every episode of talking simpsons a week ahead of time and ad free but the same goes for what a cartoon where we go through a different animated series once a

week you can hear next week's episode right now about the charlie brown halloween special just in time for the holidays not to mention you'll get access to our many exclusive mini series that can only be heard if you're a patreon subscriber including very soon the second season of talking futurama part one we'll be doing the first 10 episodes of futurama second season in the talking simpsons style and you can only hear that if you are a supporter at patreon.com can afford a chandelier in your private jet then you need to sign up for the ten dollar and up level at patreon.com slash talking simpsons you get all that stuff i just talked about at the five dollar level plus our monthly exclusive what a cartoon movie podcast me and bob talk about a different animated feature film once a month and

you can only hear that if you're a ten dollar and up subscriber these podcasts can go longer than four hours in some cases and if you sign up right now you'd had over 30 hours of podcast to listen to that you could only hear if you're a subscriber we talk about feature films like batman mask of the phantasm kiki's delivery service akira a goofy movie aladdin spider-man into the spider-verse the secret of them tiny tunes how i spent my vacation cowboy bebop the movie and for october in the halloween spirit we're doing the nightmare before christmas you can only hear all that stuff if you're a ten dollar and up subscriber at patreon.com talking simpson so please get on that now well i often tell stories about reawakening guilt on this show i feel and i i definitely felt this

in this very realistic dumping a science project on a parent moment. I did do this to my mom and I feel nothing but guilt about it now. For me, it was in middle school, we were assigned like, do your big science project for a month or whatever. And mine was going to be something that involved watering plants once a day and charting their growth. I was going to guess plants. I think by the third day, I just stopped doing it. And I knew, not unlike Bart, mom will just take care of it. I know she will. And she did. And I feel really bad that on top of her full-time job and also doing most of the parenting and stuff around the house,

that she also had to do a middle schooler science project. I feel really bad about that, and I'm sorry, Mom. What grade did you get? Do you remember? I think a solid B- on it. Bs get degrees. Well, don't feel that guilty then. Mom clearly didn't put in a ton of effort. She could have tried harder, yes.

But, man, that look Bart gives to Marge of just like, I know you're going to do it. Like, you're going to fold instantly. Did you guys identify with Bart? Like, I felt like I, you know, I feel like a lot of kids felt like they were sort of Bart Simpson. And those moments in particular were very, you know, where you could really identify stuff like that. Oh, yeah.

In the first years of the show from premiere i was eight and so i was just thinking about soon i'll be 10 just like bart and i'll i'm definitely like bart and i think until like 12 i still was like yeah i'm bart that's me i i definitely identified in with the most even though i'm millhouse or martin that's who i should have been identifying with i I was mostly identifying with Lisa, although I wanted to be like Bart, but even though I hated school, I was really good at it. So that explains who I am. I'm a podcast pedant right now. Yeah, and I've heard you talk about, too, how you kind of got lazy because you could kind of do well at school without trying.

So I kind of had a little bit of identifying a little bit with Lisa in that some things you kind of felt like above in school. But also I did. I think I did have that Bart like rebellious streak as well as a kid and sort of like the little rascal kind of guy. Well, it also is like a kid then things especially were just so gendered that the thought of identifying with a non-boy character was just like no you're supposed to identify with the boy you're a boy the the boy character is you yeah right can you imagine uh you know also in this bit here i have to blame edna for this assignment because like i would think like a college senior being given this project is too extreme yeah like a grade school

assignment like this would be making a potato power a light bulb or something like that or just like a shoebox diorama and most like on diorama rama day yeah just make the volcano you know with the the baking soda and vinegar i mean that's the level yeah uh but so marge has to head over to the quickie march which does have pig intestines available at 11 p.m. Tripe. Delicious tripe. But it's like so bloody, too. And after purchasing it, Marge and Apu have a friendly conversation. Well, when you have a free night, we'd love to have you two over for dinner.

Oh, please do not be insane. You hosted our wedding. The least we can do is have you over for dinner. It is payback time and this time it's personal wow that looks great mom some of your best work oh it sounds so real i didn't turn it on yet Based on this chili reference, I have to think that thing is filled with chili. Oh, the dioramia? Yeah, the model. Because the way it explodes, it's got to be full of something.

Even in the commentary, they're like, what was it full of? Yeah, it just explodes. And yeah, it seems to be some sort of brown liquid god that's so great i i also was surprised to see in this gag that they it feels an extra extreme for edgy for simpsons then to identify jimbo as stoned like specifically this underage teen is high on marijuana like that was an interesting they always kind of masked it a little bit with auto and his weed jokes but this is simply calling jimbo a stoned teenager yeah i don't like it it seems a little too on the nose i i don't know i like when they got to dance around it a

little more i think it should be auto yeah the joke's better but he said the joke set up his teenager so it can't be Otto. It should just be stoned guys. But yeah, you're right. Now, living mirror, calling aluminum foil living mirror. I do like that joke. That's funny. Yeah, I like that too. But yeah, no, you're right.

It is a little on the nose just to say stoned. It kind of removes more of the cleverness to the illusions of weed usage in previous episodes. Yeah, smells like Otto's's jacket i mean that became a band right called jacket like they're yeah that's that's clever but yeah you remove some of those restraints and then you know you got family guy now my shoes are talking the dangers of being family guy yeah yeah sorry to bring that up it's something we all try to avoid we're just a few weeks removed from having to live in family guy world previous episode yeah i i heard that and i felt your pain sometimes i think i was too mean to it then i remember that jemima's witness joke and i'm just like no that's the first joke

now as a married man who does work some odd hours um i can definitely see where the writers found inspiration in apu's workaholism causing strife in the marriage like for them too they were always working late nights uh are often working late nights on the rewrites and all this stuff and i know scully he worked really hard but he also did try to get the hours more normal i think dana gould in our interview talked about how like one day he's like it's six we'll just get back to this tomorrow and they just let people go home and if you interview with mike scully your most recent one he talks about how he unionized the simpsons led to the unionization of all the fox animated sitcoms so he clearly wanted there to be healthier

work-life balance on the show yeah yeah i think that i mean i used to i worked at the letterman show for four and a half years and it was like working for the Simpsons and that you were, I was there on Christmas day. I worked 80, 90 hour weeks and, um, I gave up my life for the show. And then I just quit without even having a job because I was like,

I can't sustain this. So I get it. I get the demand to make something funny. And I really believed in that show. Like I'm sure the Simpsons writers believed in that, but I think for mental health I love the fact that having since worked on shows that have a more healthy uh like hourly schedule it's just it's the work-life balances cannot and I think it makes you funnier too you have more perspective because you're living real lives yeah you know I

wonder if some of that comes from both on shows like letterman and the simpsons you know a lot of the writers come from you know the harvard lampoon in this college background maybe that it's just this feeling of like well in college we stayed up all night and just worked forever on this thing like it's that that's just the style of work you know like i mean we worked in on websites and that was kind of the feeling i still had i am trying to shake for myself of like well work never stops it's just always happening work work never goes away got time to lean you got time to clean and write this preview yeah i mean like and then you hear about all the the video game industry horror stories like i'm sure you are familiar with and it doesn't

have to be that way it really doesn't you can make a quality product and not kill yourself and uh yeah having since worked on on other shows it just really doesn't have to be that way and it stems from the top if your boss is a workaholic then he will or she will demand that of everybody else but if they're a little more reasonable then the show's more reasonable yeah i think uh I think they're putting a lot of themselves into Apu with this feeling that he can never leave his job. I mean, 18-hour work days and no weekends, that kills a person. But I do like that in general with Apu, they do jokes.

Jokes about Apu's background, some of the better ones are that come from this idea that immigrants think they have to work harder because of this lie that is the American dream. So like, no, I just have to constantly work, just be super, super working all the time. Like those are some of the best jokes with Apu, I think. Yeah, and they don't dip into that sort of exoticism or, you know, any of that part of being an Indian immigrant. Yeah, it's the good part of being a hardworking immigrant. Though I wonder what the,

there's some really off ADR on the jerkwaterberg line. Yeah, everything is fine up until jerkwaterberg, it seems. So there must have been a worse insult, but who knows. Yeah, I wonder, I wonder. Do you ever wish you could go back to a time where you weren't paying attention to the ADR line? A little bit, yeah. I feel like it's a superpower.

Like now you see how the sausage is made. So you can't paying attention to the ADR line? A little bit, yeah. I feel like it's a superpower. Like now you see how the sausage is made. So you can't go back. I just want to know what the original line is. It's all I want. And then I want them to change if it's funnier. Yeah, if I judge it to be funnier, just a series of choices. Now, I think the first time I really noticed,

I didn't have words for it until probably I heard the terms on a simpsons commentary but even in like the third or fourth seasons or on other cartoon shows i knew when the lip sync wasn't correct and it that kind of the friction of what was being said versus what it looked like was being said always caused problems for my pedantic little brain so yeah but now now i know way too much about it yeah it's hard to even when watching like shows that are kind of on the fly you know where they're they're doing sort of a verite style like the office and you notice they'll be on a reverse shot and you can tell like it was because the line was funnier on the this shot but we had to cover

it up because the lip sync was off and yeah you notice those things a lot more uh i also i am impressed with the continuity of apu bringing up that they got married in their backyard and that he's he's getting his revenge on that uh in a way well this time it's personal line i like there's also like a rare appearance of sanjay in this episode was he not at their wedding he must have been maybe like drawn in the background yeah yeah i kind of forget about sanjay he didn't have a line and well yeah only when you remember sanjay do you then find out like why doesn't he co-run this with apu all the time and yeah also homer's ooh chili line like i uh i definitely identify with that of thinking like but this thing made me sick but i still could eat another slice of this pie right now how could i stay mad at you i guess it is also a redo of that joke yeah so there wasn't rancid you just ate too much of it my most homer uh moment like that was i i um

had a pug and i was uh i had bought this seven dollar vegan chocolate pie and i got home and was ready to watch TV and I had it all set out. And I went into the other room and all of a sudden I heard a fork clank and I came back in and he had the entire triangle of pie in his mouth. And it's chocolate.

I have to fish it out of my dog's disgusting mouth. And I'd paid seven bucks for this pie. I was already tasting it in my mind. And so I sort of chastised the dog. And then I was like, wow, I can't let the pie go to waste. So I sat there and ate this dog slobbered on pie. And yeah, I don't think I've ever admitted that before. That's a dark moment.

Did you get sick? We need to know how clean dog mouths actually are. Well, yeah, that's always the fun fact, right? No, I didn't get sick we need to know how clean dog mouths actually are well yeah that's always the fun fact right no i didn't get sick tasting great you know so let a pug taste all your food first it could be poisoned my official taster yeah i mean that much you're spending that much on the vegan pie if it if it's still complete i'd at least eat the inside of it or at least talk myself into like the dog didn't seem to take too much of a bite of this part it's funny i just remember too that in college when you don't really know how to cook for yourself i i bought one of those pre-made rice mixes it was like a broccoli rice mix that you you know you only have a microwave to cook so i cook it for 20 minutes in a plastic bowl which

you know you're not supposed to do now and and i that's the longest i ever had to wait like i was used to instant gratification for food and it came out and I was so hungry and it was, it was just way too hot. And I dropped it on the floor of my filthy dorm room. And I took a fork out, laid down my stomach on the floor and just ate the parts that hadn't touched the floor. And my, I heard the code being punched into my roommate roommate walked in and caught me doing this. Oh, God. Definitely one of, if not my lowest, among the lowest moments. And it was a total Homer moment. You know, like... Flore pie.

Yeah. Exactly. That's what made me think of it. I get that way of thinking, though, that as long as it's not the rice that's touching the carpet, then the rice that's on top of other rice, that's as clean as the rice on top of the other rice would be in a bowl what i've done is if i order like an expensive beer somewhere like an eight dollar beer and like two sips in a fruit fly lands and i'm just like well you're getting out of here mr fly i'm drinking the rest yeah you can't be blamed for that uh well speaking of eating stuff the uh we get a little human centipede moment after this that's what i wrote down it's uh

they were way ahead of the curve there but they yeah they on the commentary they chastise the science of it and it's true if there is food in that that actually works that or at least there's food that is able to move through the digestive tract that march built why would it create more food that would then expand and explode it's breaking the law of conservation of matter. Can't work. Unless it formed gas, like real food would do it in a digestive tract. Maybe the gas made it explode. Yeah, but then Marge went the extra mile

of putting acids and enzymes in there, too. Yeah, there was a museum, I think, like a science museum, that actually recreated the human digestive process. I remember the room smelled like actual shit um and it would like yeah they had a mouth that would masticate the food and go through a track and and so it wasn't far off from this science project and uh the they really got away with something too of like nelson shoves the anus into the mouth yeah it's away with the soft world hunger and uh the answer to where do

i go from here for nelson is nowhere because that's the end of that side plot like when he said that i was like was there more of this side plot i'd forgotten and but no it just we do see uh bart clapping in his erasers as skinner says later in this episode yeah but who knows if he's being punished for uh not turning his assignment yeah then it pivots to basically the b sharps crew trying to get revenge on on apu you're right i didn't consider it it is the b sharps crew attacking we have to forget that history they have with each other well i was you know actually later in the episode i'm already thinking about it because of the grammy i but uh before that yes apu gets the night off thanks to Sanjay and the Homer and Marge

arrive for dinner. Stop worrying, Apu. The quickie Marti's in good hands. I'm not checking up on you, Sanjay. I am simply asking you how many pennies you have left. Seven. I'll be right there. No, he won't. Apu's entertaining tonight. If you need pennies, take them from Jerry's jar. This is why I married you. Ooh, what an outfit. You are one hot mama. You think so? Why could not let you in the store like that because you are smoking?

Oh, Apu. Maybe we should not answer it, huh? Doors unlocked! Oh, Marge! Homer! Welcome! Yes, welcome. What a lovely home! Oh, you are too kind, Marge. I am sure you have noticed the many small imperfections that fill me with shame.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. If anything, your home makes me ashamed of my home. Well, let us just say we both feel bad. Deal. That's the one non-cultural joke I do like, where it's just like being invited to someone's house, there's always an apology

off when you're in the doorway. Like, I'm so sorry, my house is dirty. No, my house is dirty. You should see my place. It's awful. It's sort of like the, uh, I think you should leave, uh, Tim Robinson sketch about the selfies where you have to say like how awful you

look. And you know, yeah, it's, it's one of the sketches version before the homeowner version of that. Yeah. The, the hook,

these, well now I don't apologize anymore. Bob, Bob's used to what my place is. It's, it's not so bad. It's, you know, I look look i need a new

dresser bob and i can't i just have too many t-shirts but i refuse to stop buying new t-shirts give me the t-shirt fairy aka goodwill i have a lot of uh i mean i collect a lot of thrift store items and so my apartment is kind of like a i guess what i wish my eighth grade bedroom would have been like if i had income then and uh so if you know if i've been dating and somebody comes back i always have to be like please don't tell anyone i live like this it has to be either there is a still an apology you have to have an nda for them to sign exactly yeah uh well this little dinner sketch that they have here it does feel almost like snl-ish and where it's just a bunch of uh indian his clothes are

different than my clothes style jokes a little bit where where my hot mama slamming the bead curtain shut just like they're different than me that's what i feel like all the jokes are in a kind of groany way that's that i don't feel like it's like malicious vicious or mean but it does feel like here are things white people watching know about indian culture let's do every version of those jokes like you know what the you kind of know what the food is like you kind of know about indian culture let's do every version of those jokes like you know what the you kind of know what the food is like you kind of know about uh you at least know mahatma gandhi and things like that so i feel like ravishank yeah yeah just all the touchstones yeah like a stand-up comics joke about everything's a different combination of chickpeas and lentils you know it's it's pretty basic but a little fairly innocuous i guess yeah yeah i i've never thought that the way the simpsons

writes up who comes from a place of like hate or anger but more ignorance if anything but yeah i so i i don't think it's it's too bad but i i would totally understand if other people were more offended on it than i would uh was of it but the but it's not great uh but the i do like i didn't know the jerry's jar reference until now that it's a jerry lewis charity thing jerry's kids i never had a jerry's jar at any of my local places it was like march of dimes much more than a jerry's jar in uh in florida calling somebody a jerry's kid was an insult in um for me oh man we didn't uh take advantage of that ableist slurring in school back then don't try it today i'd never heard of a

jerry's jar i thought maybe they couldn't say jerry's kids because of yeah you know they might get sued because of that so but yeah i mean you knew what they were talking about i guess it's a more informal thing also on a continuity note it's it's funny that apu is he's complimenting manjula's looks when it's her standard character model like she didn't they didn't change it or she's not drawn to be like dressing up for it whatever but this episode would have been the perfect opportunity to sort of flesh out that manjula character because you have jan hooks there and like you know what's her side of this and she's just kind of an accessory which is kind of a shame yeah jan hooks she does good with what she's given but she yeah she is very much like the

young uh somewhat nagging wife like she she's either romantically excited and deeply in love with apu or she's upset with him for lying kind of doesn't have much else going on i i do like that this episode has a rare moment of marge talking to another adult woman yeah but of course it's about housekeeping and men and men yes yeah uh but uh let's talk about that concert against bangladesh gag if we really want to get into it so first off the gag is it's about the concert for bangladesh that's what they're parodying in the title which short version is it's a one of the first benefit concerts done at madison square garden august 1st 1971 they actually did two concerts that day started by ravi shankar the a uh the indian musician and also george harrison one of his

best buddies who they worked a ton together on the in the beatles years and after and you know there was a lot of upheaval and you know military action going on in india in 1971 and with pakistan as well and so they wanted to get money that could be given to unicef that could then spread humanitarian aid there and like unicef actually owns the the album and the concert film, so it makes all the profit off of it. Though, the depressing fact I found out about it was that because they failed on some of their non-profit paperwork ahead of time for some reason, the IRS held a lot of the money for a long time that some of it didn't reach the UN and UNICEF

until the early 80s. That's how long they had to sit on it just thanks to IRS bullshit. That was very depressing to find out. But the album is a great album. I said it many times. It was one of my favorite things to play when I worked at a video store because i it was just music in the background just a fun concert film and i really like the joke of putting on the record because it's a fun mislead in that you think they're making a racist joke and he's like oh wait let me adjust the rpms and it's frank sinatra yes that's uh that was a yeah i was glad they did that they kind of had their cake and ate it too a little oh yeah oh yeah yeah but also concert against bangladesh with a mushroom cloud was a much more current reference to uh yeah because in 1998 pakistan was testing nukes and announcing itself as a nuclear power and in the uh in the

pre-911 years a big concern was what if india and pakistan go to war again but this time with nukes like so it's weird that apu would have that album yes it's an odd album for him to own and also at the concert for bangladesh a sinatra style crooner sings a song like that's on the album he puts on uh it's it's weirder the more you think about it yeah we get the chickpeas lentils rice gag i will say you're forgetting potatoes, cauliflower. There's so much going on. I mean, curry. Indian food's delicious.

The greatest, yeah. Oh, it's, I mean, maybe this is culturally insensitive, but I kind of think of it as the Doritos of ethnic foods if you're a white bread person growing up because I hadn't tried it at all growing up. We ate, you know, very meat and potatoes Midwestern and I moved to an actual city and tried it for the first time. And it's like your taste buds wake up. I mean, the spices are so incredible. It hits you over the head. It's so good.

Yeah, I think I had Indian food for the first time when I was 25. And I was like, who kept this for me? Exactly. And if you're a vegetarian, I'm a vegetarian too, and it's a godsend. It's just so flavorful. Oh, it's good. Now I'm hungry for Indian food. Me too. We got a couple good ones down the street from my place. But yes, over a meal of Indian food, Manjula learns the horrible secret of weekends. I'm so glad we were able to get together. Well, you know how hard it is to pry these two away from work.

Oh yeah, Homer's a real go-getter. Yeah, I'm going right to the top. What's an elt down? I don't understand, Marge. Doesn't Homer work a standard 18-hour day? 18 hours? Nobody works that hard. But he does work every day, right? Well, pretty much.

Except weekends. Weekends? Say, who's up for a game of Ganeshkanop? You told me it was an American tradition to work all the time and never see your wife. Yes, perhaps I stretch the truth a bit, but the quickie march, she is a harsh mistress. I think you just don't want to see me. Maybe we should just close the door. So I wanted to land on Ganesh Ganap for a little bit.

So that is apparently the Indian version of Gnip Ganap. And Gnip Ganap is ping pong spelled backwards. Oh, my mind has been blown. This is a 70s toy. I didn't realize that. Yeah. And so the people writing this are kids of the 60s and 70s. And I would hear on Mystery Science Theater and similar shows, let's play Gnip Gnop, like just a silly toy.

So I have a commercial for Gnip Gnop we're going to play. And you should look it up to see how it's played but essentially, this is the world before video games. It was a cursed world. We did not invent video games yet. But basically you're on one side and someone's on the other side and you're using these little plungers to launch your three balls through their three holes.

They're trying to do the similar thing to you and it looks very bad and tacky and not fun to play. But the commercial is fun. Parker Brothers' new Gnip Gnop is very easy to play. You simply try to Gnip your three balls through the hoops into the other side, and the other guy tries to Gnop his three balls into your side. But while you're Gnipping, he's Gnopping.

You're trying to out-Gnip him while he's trying to out-Gnop you. So Gnip down to your store and grab the new game from parker brothers before they're all gannopped from parker brothers gannip gannop so yeah wow who said ganesh ganop uh naming the of course the hindu deity but uh yeah again this is the world before video games i'm happy it was born to the world after video games yeah suffer through gannipping your gnop or whatever the rules are. Oh, I love vintage board games. I'm a big board game person. And I went looking up.

I thought Ganesh Gnop was like an actual game that they might have done some research. I totally did not get the joke. And I feel ashamed for not getting it. I think I got it for the first time, this viewing. But you have to know about Ganesh. And you have to know about Gnip Gnop. And you have to know about ganesh and you have to know about ganip ganop and you have to understand what apu is saying too so it's like a three if it's there

are three challenges to get this joke yeah well and because it's an adr gag too like the mouth or i think it is the mouth movements feel that way and so he kind of has to rush saying it like ganesh ganop it It is extra complicated. I knew Gnipkinop as a name of a board game or something, but I never looked into it until this podcast about what it was. We grew up with Pig Pong. Do you remember Pig Pong? It was little pigs that you could squeeze and they would puff air.

And then you had a little paper ball that you'd put over a net so you could play kind of volleyball on your table i guess and uh it never you could never get a volley going by squeezing air through a little pig it's it sounds more fun than it is sounds fundamentally flawed the uh the the amount of clacking and pushing yeah it uh that reminds me of hungry hungry hippos that's the closest i've yeah to launch those balls you're doing basically a hungry hungry hippos plunger push but the older you get like the more physical like that's only game for children too because unless the game is super weighted you're just going to shove it around the more intense it looks it looks very cheap

yeah it was funny that he referenced this apparently Indian version of an American game because two very famous games that we play in America, or at least classic board games, do have Indian origins, such as Chutes and Ladders, which was Snakes and Ladders, and Parcheesi, which was Pacheesi in Indian culture. And that's just a couple examples of it so he could have he could have asked to play snakes and ladders if he but that would be a more accurate joke perhaps not funnier but aren't jokes funnier when they're more accurate they should all be accurate yeah this joke was not for many people either so you know i don't think it would have

been much better or worse and i forgot that this episode was the birth of the Eltdown line. Like, what's... I swear I saw that on a number of Homer, Latter-day Homer t-shirts, like post-season 10 t-shirts. Like, what's an Eltdown? Was he looking at a pager? No, the pager aspect of it was not there. It was more like him sitting at his control station and says, what's an elk down? Which that joke doesn't, the joke is that a pager missed a letter. Like that's the joke.

Or Homer can't read. It could be that too. Yeah. We can all identify with a situation of realizing that you're ruining a lie that your friend had with somebody else where you go like, well, no, that's not what we do at the office we do that and then the the person's partner looks at them like wait you told me that this is what happened you're like oh no i ruined i ruined this for this person i destroyed their lie an example of that i remember was when i worked at a movie theater some woman came in asking if a co-worker like my assistant manager was there i was like oh no he's not there

i don't know where he's at she's like okay and she leaves uh and then when he comes in he's coming to the movie theater on a date with his girlfriend who is not this woman and i just tell him like oh hey by the way uh this woman was asking for you know where she's at and he's like like stares at me like what are you saying in front of my girlfriend like i don't even think he was up to anything but just the i created a problem by asking that in front of his girlfriend the mysterious beautiful woman was looking for you i had that happen with um my friend was having a birthday party when we were like i don't know maybe 11 or something or 10 and i i just didn't feel like going. And so I, I told him my, my, uh, I was at my grandma's and then two days later, my parents

were giving us a ride up to a movie somewhere. And, um, he said very deliberately, so how was your grandma's? And I was like, fine. And my dad goes, we weren't at grandma's the other day. And I was like, yeah, we were, don't you remember dad we went up just to visit and and uh and then the you know my buddy would not let it go and uh to this day he still references like are you sure you can come or you have to go to your grandma's today he will not let me forget about it yeah no one ever sincerely says don't you remember when we did this thing yeah it's a bit of a vaudevillian thing almost yeah apu and manjula get in a fight they are apparently speaking like legitimate hindi uh there like that they gave to the actors to say phonetically so uh i did look up uh from googling apparently please forgive me if i'm wrong on this

googling i'm sorry but from googling apparently the word Sala in Hindi can mean jerk or... And Jula does not mean spaceship. Homer's wrong on that case. But I do like the Homer's stupid presumption of like, I bet through context clues I could understand what they're saying. I bet. I've had that stupid thought sometimes of hearing people speaking in another language. I'm like, I bet i could figure it out uh and when

they exit it's kind of hard to tell if this if this is fiesta terra or not with a terrace where that's where apus lived before we uh the only other time we'd seen the outside of his building was when uh he was with princess cashmere in his uh true lisa's pony episode his apartment reminds me of how it looked in lisa on ice like the first time we saw the inside of it yeah the interior so i mean he can't afford a big place just yet i though i think even when he has octuplets he still doesn't move into a house he doesn't i gotta is speaking of like um checking off the jokes about indian uh society kama sutra joke here. Maybe we should leave.

Uh-oh, no way. I don't want to miss a word. You don't know what they're saying. I'm picking it up. Sala seems to mean jerk, and I think Manjula means some kind of spaceship. Uh, this could take a while, folks. Thank you.

Come again. I hope we didn't get Apu in too much trouble. Oh, they're newlyweds. They'll just talk things out and top it off with some lovin'. Oh, dear. Eva, put that book down or let me drive. Hey, they stole our idea. Homer has thumbed through the Kama Sutra before. Oh, yes.

By the way, it's not Karma Sutra. I get so furious when I hear that. But remember, I forget, it was Grandpa vs. Sexual Inadequacy? Yeah, when they were in the sex section of the bookstore. That's right before Lisa bought Al Gore's book. He says, ooh, this guy looks like a poo. Yeah. Out of context, that sounds really bad yeah uh yeah the kama sutra jokes i feel like they they went away because like people are just more knowledgeable about sexual positions and stuff

i think the two you know a more buttoned down american populace the idea of a book of all these different wild looking positions was really crazy but i i feel like sexual literacy in american culture is better now that you seeing a position in the kama sutra is not like whoa how do you do that i think it reminded me of a little bit of i forget who it was i was talking to somebody about the show night court and uh he had the observation that Dan Fielding, who was sort of the John Larroquette sex maniac character, it was always like a ninth grade boy's idea of what kinkiness was. So it was always like, oh yeah, with the peanut butter and the handcuffs, you know, or he'd be caught with the Kama Sutra. It's like the most basic understanding of what a kink is. And I feel like, yeah,

the Kama Sutra was that in this era. And I mean, after 1999 with the internet, we all know too much about sex now. Yeah, it's not funny. We all have instant access to every kind of pornography. And from what I read, millennials aren't having sex.

That's what I've heard, yeah. Or spending too much money on avocado. After the avocado toast, we're just like, I just feel nothing downstairs. I do like that line that it makes you wonder of like, what is this position that Homer and Marge think they invented? Like that. I like a joke that asks a question like that. They're very comfortable with each other in this act. And this is a sex positive Marge, which is always a good you know i feel like they're they're

pretty good with that so this is not the same march you shut down the the maison derriere yeah she she's uh crashing the car too while reading the uh kama sutra yeah i think uh you know another show would have done the joke of like you don't show me that or whatever but she marge just does like oh yeah like she's she's into it as much as Homer. And then without warning, it becomes a Valentine's Day episode. And the second act just smashes you in the face with like Valentine's Day headquarters, which was definitely, I don't think I saw the commercials before the episode. So would it be in my first viewing at 16? I was like, oh, I guess it is Valentine's Day.

Why ain't I out on a date i knew the answer to that this did take me back to um my thoughts of my dad never buying a gift for my mom maybe ever maybe maybe three times he just uh not a not a gift given type of guy my dad uh and certainly not on valentine's day so homer getting a card honestly seemed like oh that's better you know he actually bought a card the uh i think at least maybe one year he came in with the like convenience store box of chocolates maybe he bothered with that much gas stations do sell roses on valentine's day i think it's better to get the roses that are also underwear because you know it's practical to get the roses that are also underwear. Because, you know, it's practical afterwards.

They also sell those giant, like, three-foot by five-foot cards that play music and are always in cellophane. Which I think is the most romantic gesture you can do for somebody. Red cellophane, the most beautiful of cellophanes. And I don't think Valentine's Day cards have improved. I had to buy one last year, and there were no good ones so i picked out a a bad one and i think it was something along the lines of i like you more than i like pizza then you open the card it says and i love pizza and i was like well we both like pizza so uh she'll get it uh that's uh yeah i mean the monkey it's about on par with i had a job for a year writing greeting cards.

Oh, wow. Yeah, it was this place in Hoboken that did kind of the funny greeting cards you'd get at Spencer Gifts. It was those kind of cards. And I would write jokes that I thought were funny. And then what I realized is the tough part is to write the inside. So the inside always has to tie in with whatever the know, whatever the funny gag is on the front. And it has to be a little bit sincere. And it was this whole art form that I didn't know.

And I also found out that the greeting card industry is cutthroat. People stealing other people's ideas for cards. Oh, wow. I witnessed almost coming to blows at a greeting card trade show in New York. Wow. Yeah, a card that was the best-selling card

our company ever had, which was, I believe it was Santa putting up a sign that said, Missing Reindeer, and the reindeer was in his butt crack. And this artist had jumped ship from our company to another company and found out that our guy was still selling them,

and he kind of grabbed my boss by the shirt and shook him around. And this was at a greeting card trade show wow so cutthroat i think i might have seen that card or maybe the ripoff of it somewhere yeah there's like a missing dog you know oh yeah there's a missing cat version they made every permutation yeah i've definitely seen the the dog or the cat one of those yeah wow that's a we talk about how much things have changed but one thing that hasn't changed since this episode is like this is still how greeting cards are purchased at bro like cvs down the street from me or rite aid or or what have whatever your region has uh and i it's hard for me even after this joke on the simpsons making it clear like don't be like

homer it still is hard for me to resist like do i gotta search for where i grab this joke on the simpsons making it clear like don't be like homer it still is hard for me to resist like do i gotta search for where i grab this from and put the card back in my place like oh right yeah just make your own cards that would be my advice to everybody it's more personal it's yeah it's i can't imagine buying a greeting card for anybody anymore. I'd say an e-card. Sure. My mom sends me fun e-cards. She's done that a few times. Some jib jabs. Well, now what I do is if I buy something off of, say, Sherry's Berries, I just put a personalized note in there of, like,

Happy birthday, Mom. And so on. Well, hey, I at least change the typeface on it and like i don't just let sherry's berries decide that's my font how to say happy mother's day she can look forward to some sherry's berries coming real soon on her birthday i think her my stepdad really like it i think it's uh uh but yeah this this whole bit here with apu trying to figure out how to deal with Manjula, this does set them on a road that I don't think they've gotten off of since then, which is that Apu is a bad husband and Manjula is kind of a nag in reaction to that.

He's miserable either at being a father of eight children or in one episode he for real cheats on her. There's infidelity with a quickie mark delivery lady that feels like the end of their arc it's like a four episode arc where this is number two number three is when they have the kids and number four is when he cheats on her and i think they were channeling their hatred of having kids through that next episode yeah but i but though they still stayed together i always wondered like al jean on one of the commentaries i think he joked but half joking pitched of like well you know manjula could always divorce him and take the kids back to india and boom he got apu back to status

quo like that'd be easy to do but they never they've never done it like manjula still still around and now you don't see ap poo much at all right is that oh yeah well he's just gone now so you just don't the last four years or so i think they just don't have them around so yeah and problem solved yeah yeah i mean in that way it it avoids any problems but uh yes homer is uh hearing about all the problems at home morning up who still in hot water with his squaw? Worse than ever, I am afraid. My shameful neglect has made her feel unloved.

Now I fear she will leave me. Oh, she's not going to leave you right before Valentine's Day. That'd be like going to an air show and leaving before the plane crash. Oh, you are right. There's still seven days before Valentine's. Ah, seven chances to prove my love for sweet Manjula. Sweet Manjula. I'll be at Moe's.

So, Humber calls Manjula a squaw, which is a word I hadn't heard in a while, and he's confusing just what kind of Indian Apu is. I think so, yes. Because squaw is a derogatory term,'t use it but it was referring to a native american woman i think that was supposed to be homer being more of like playful well playful but in the way of uh ralph cramden or something of just i feel most of these scenes where homer talks with apu in this way it feels more like an old old like 50s style sitcom like walking in like hey what's uh going on with you but like that kind of situation there are a lot of buddy buddy scenes of homer and apu

and scully's uh years yeah it was sort of the uh ralphie boy and what was the what was art carney's character uh norton yeah yeah norton yeah alp was sort of the norton in these years i guess after they stopped homer from doing anything at the nuclear power plant, he needed other men to hang out with outside of Moe's. And to explain plot points too. And if he's not, well, he's going straight from the quickie mart where he buys all of his candy to the bar where he's going to drink everything. And thumbs up to the writers on their restraint that it took them a year of Manjula being in the show before doing the mint julep joke. I think you would enjoy a sweet mint julep.

It's, you know, I've had, I had one kind of recently at the Blue Bayou, the restaurant in Disneyland that's in the Pirates of the Caribbean. And it was fine. It was fine. I was like, eh, this mint julep's more trouble than it was fine. It was fine. I was like, eh, this mint julep's more trouble than it's worth. I'd rather stick with a less silly drink, I think. I know certain people can't divorce the mint flavor from toothpaste. So I know, I love mint ice cream or mint flavored things and mint soap and things, but a lot of people can't do it. That's me. I can't do it that's me i can't do it i can't yeah i can't eat mint chocolate in the same way with uh floral stuff like lavender

flavors it just tastes like oh there's soap in my mouth and i need to spit it out fun uh mystery science theater fact doing sort of craft services i brought uh i thought it'd be fun to bring cream sodas for everybody i got like a local cream soda and uh ke Murphy jokingly just kind of read me the right act. He's like, it's like drinking frosting. And I said, that sounds great. What's the problem? I mean, that's a selling point, but not a cream soda fan, Kevin. Kevin seems like a fun guy. I would assume he drank frosting at least once. You would think, but no, I guess not. He drew the line there. You know, I'm a pro mint foods kind of guy. I like it. I mean, it's not, is it the first ice cream flavor I would get? No. But if people offered it, it would be like the third level, third tier for me. My mom talked about that too, that she is one of those people who just thinks I'm eating toothpaste when I'm eating mint stuff but i i still love the i do love the taste

of it especially mint and chocolate that is a delicious combo for me so bob not even a shamrock shake for you oh no that's like drinking uh some kind of super frosting okay got it i i also there's some really funny drawings throughout this episode and one of my favorites is the duff calendar that you know up who's looking at the calendar but the calendar is surly duff in a car and a corvette like a red corvette yes so i love how joyless he is in that drawing you'd want that on a calendar it's just so funny because it's already the easy joke of like you know it would be a bikini girl calendar normally but instead it's a the guys in the seven duff costumes that nobody but the super fans remember that feels like one of those jokes that like the the animators draw

in because they remember how funny the seven duffs were yeah and later in life they had to make up the final three duffs because only four are named in that episode so i think aren't they all represented at simpsons land yeah there's topiaries up yeah i got a picture of me in front of surly looking surly i mean who would take a picture with like remorseful you gotta get it with surly yeah and uh yes we come into the sunday morning paper and which does actually i didn't realize it until now when they say the seven days of it it fits that's the sunday paper the sunday would have been the seventh because the next sunday is the 14th when that episode aired. It's true, but possible scandal, depending on how you count Apu's magical things he does for Manjula, I only counted six. It is

seven if you count the announcement, but the announcement says there will be seven. Well, so wait, are you counting the wildflowers on the bed thing? Yes. So I'll go over these right now i went over these uh i have notes here so number one is the bed full of flowers number two oh you know i just realized one of the surprises we don't see so okay uh number one is the bed full of flowers number two is the macaw inviting her to the opera so if do you want to combine those macaw opera is one surprise yeah i guess that we can count well but they were on the same day though it was it was more like introducing the surprise was from the bird so you count that

as one surprise then right if it's multiple well he promises seven days of love so if if there were 17 surprises on one day it would still only count as one day that's true okay so uh day three chocolate husband day four horse-drawn carriage day five we have skywriting and the sixth surprise is elton john but that also was the same day as skywriting so you're right there's like two there's two days of surprises unaccounted for there one of them has to be a deleted scene or something like that. Yeah, yeah. But again, accurate jokes are funnier, so I can't agree with this. Can I suggest a new

sound cue to play for when you guys are splitting hairs over a detail about this? Sure. The audience yawning. Let's define our terms here, gentlemen. Are we talking about redistricting or rezoning? That's great. The public affairs show. It depends on what you mean by crisis henry i'm gonna i'm gonna

steal that you know people can look forward to that in a future a future jinkle cannot wait what's to find our terms gentlemen are we talking about redistricting or are we talking about reapportionment also another very typical season 10 homer is cruelty though it feels worse when he does it to a dog like especially a very it sends a little helper being the most behaved he's ever been and then he gets shamed by homer is so me it makes me feel worse than a dozen strangulations of part they do feel bad on the commentary they're like oh he was a good boy uh but yes the the paper is here marge wants to uh read about uh scullery week so of course it's housekeeping related as well as homer is throwing away all the things uh right now by the way not many investment

opportunities in yemen no but i will make more jokes about that. In the 90s, though, booming. But yes, it's time for the personal ads. All right, the personals. Successful mayor type seeks open-minded, discreet cheerleader type. Oh, that's sweet. Oh, here's one. Desperately seeking suction. Hey, look at this one.

It's a poem. From Apu. Don't just gasp. Read it. My darling bride, Mandrula, I hereby mend my ways. I'll shower you with valentines for seven love-filled days. Oh, how romantic.

I used to take out ads like that when we were newlyweds. The only ad you took out was to sell our lawnmower. We sold it, didn't we i love how julie cavner says poem oh yeah she has fun pronunciations that are just the way she talks like i love how an itchy and scratchy lane she says vocation oh she does say yeah that's just julie coming through in the character where's she from but maybe i'm just equating her with the character she played

on rhoda but i would assume like you know new york classic new yorker yeah actually that's what i thought but yeah is it regional she's from los angeles what yeah i don't know where that accent comes from i don't know where her family is from but she's just a great actor that julie kavner uh man another la kid all these la kids in the in the entertainment industry disgusting that poem is long too because like that's that you pay by the letter in those ads so apu apu must be spending a lot of his savings on all of this for uh it which it's kind of self-defeating like he's in this problem because he works so hard to save up all this money and now he's spending thousands of dollars on all these valentine's day gifts well uh you know those

classified ads kept most newspapers alive. So now that the internet has destroyed them, they're all being bought up by right-wing conglomerates to be propaganda. Yeah. So that's the fate of most newspapers now. Man, it was the sex propping it up all the time or those ads that all the ways they had to talk around

being clearly a sex worker and not just like a massage or what have you deborah wants to spend time with me it's body work it's body work yes greek body work that's the uh i do like them commenting on marge's multiple gasps too that was yeah that's fun post-modern stuff but also that's a very accurate reaction of a kid finding some sexual thing accidentally. You're like, hey, look at that. Whoa. Desperately seeking suction.

Really very funny joke. I think I had that hey reaction recently when I was at my mom and stepdad's place in my, I guess you call them stepbrother and his sons or son and daughter. They were there and they're like five and three. And we just left HBO on in the living room during Christmas time. And the kids were... I then turned to see it is one of the most, the most sexually explicit scenes in Game of Thrones histories on the screen.

And they're about to turn the corner to the TV. I'm like, hey, what's over there? Like, where's your Transformer over there? Christmas is HBO's annual fuck fest. I know. It was, I couldn't believe it was on. I had kind of the opposite situation. As I was watching, Airplane was on HBO, which is a movie we had on Laserdisc.

It was like a favorite movie. But I knew where the boobs were in that movie. I knew exactly when there's turbulence and a pair of boobs come by. And my whole family was there, my younger sister, my mom. And this was like not terribly long ago, maybe like 10 years ago. So we're all adults. And yet when that scene came up, my dad must have remembered it and turned the channel and acted like he did it on accident and then turned and then turned it back you know after

that scene was done and and my sister's like hey what happened you turned the channel and i knew why but nobody else did and he kind of took one for the team and i was so grateful because i wouldn't have wanted to watch that with my mom and sister i do or dad i do recall a memory of my parents pretty permissive i was watching r8 movies when i was like 10 or 11 and we were watching the classic uh hot shots part due and there was a parody of the sex scene in top gun and i was like uh what's going on in the kitchen yeah they didn't tell me to leave i just like i'm very uncomfortable uh around my parents watching this but even with the distance of that being a farce you couldn couldn't sit comfortably through it, right? No, I had a lot to figure out. Yeah, it's like the naked gun when they're both in giant full-body condoms.

Like, yeah, I never wanted to be with my parents watching that. Well, so that's, what was it on our friend's show, the We Ate Movies guys, the chuckle dick is their term for that. Where it's like, well, this is a joke, but also, aren't you a little turned on? You can't mix the two. No. I never understood that. Like, Flesh Gordon, the movie Flesh Gordon, it's not funny, and it's not sexy enough to get the job done, so why does it exist, you know?

Yeah, I guess it was to satisfy at least one movie producer's own jollies on there. Yes. We have a video we found called uh from 1997 called how to have cyber sex on the internet and it it's ostensibly a an instructional tape but there's like topless women showing you how to do this so it is that fine line where it's it's too sexy to be genuinely informational uh and and not sexy enough for the other reason so you know it's it's one of these like it's for no one well for things in the era of like flesh gordon and the chuckle dick era we're talking about if you were an adult male you'd be like well i see a different pair of

boobs every five months so i would welcome them into my life sure sure or well you also in in that tapes case it's it's hard to discount the uh the existence of gag gifts and just like yeah buying a joke gift like uh you know like you give it to a friend at some work party and they tear it open like i bet you'd like that huh yeah i went to the garbage it goes and i worked at blockbuster too where they couldn't rent porn movies but they had the the sort of skinamax style oh yeah and some guy would come in and rent like five of them. And I just never understood because, but you know, hardcore pornography existed.

So it was like, are you just sort of horny today? I mean, it's usually all or nothing. He was working his way up to actual porn. Yeah. I think there might've been some guilt involved and maybe that's how they kept those in business. Well, cause then, you know, you'd have to, well, so I also am a former Blockbuster employee and yeah, I, my, my feeling on those would be if they, in where I lived, there was one porno shop like over the County line and you'd feel really skeezy if you went in there and you just felt, I think people had to get over that level of shame. And part of that was renting. The regular one in my place was the candid,

candid video ones, or which are also called, I think like, what do you say to a naked lady? Which basically were Alan Funt hosting candid camera, except the joke is a naked woman walks into the room. Hilarious. Always funny.

Well, that's why I think in the ways that you try to steal as many you know boobs things as you could back in that era i i that's why i appreciated the uh truly tasteless jokes reference with yeah with wigum i don't want to skip ahead but that that's what you would do to get some titillation is read dirty jokes that walled in books because it was as close to pornography as you could get this is all the stuff the internet killed you just can't you don't you don't have it anymore it was better the way that we did it when we grew up yeah our childhoods were the right one exactly uh but yes marge is already getting frustrated uh at the personal note but when she hears the reports of the romantic evening Manjula got, she gets

extra jealous. I feel like the luckiest woman in Springfield. Ah! Oh! He loves a nightlife. He loves Manjula. The man they call a poo. Oh, yeah.

He has trained a bird to sing to me. Limo out front, tickets to opera, front row lows. Just once, I'd like a parrot to say that to me. Then the bird sang I Love the Nightlife with clever new lyrics. Yeah, I hate that song. I do, too, but it was sweet. Women really like that sort of thing, homie.

Don't worry, honey. I got something really special planned for Valentine's Day. It's not that monkey card I found in the car, is it? Wouldn't you like to know? So Homer is not oblivious to Marge's disappointment. Yes, yeah. Well, I mean, I just recently, my husband liked all the gifts i got him for his birthday but i did have a couple monkey card fears in bed of like did i get did i get a lesser gift did i fuck up this gift is it not as good as it could be i was just happy to see a scene in a sitcom where a parrot is not injured after appearing bob the parrot owner loves pro parrot uh jokes

like well also nancy it's so weird like normally it'd be dan doing that voice it's so weird to hear an animal sound be from nancy carl but she sings great as the in the parrot voice yeah they didn't hire like frank welker to do it it was uh yeah i like that. So Apu has written like two parody songs in this episode. Oh, yeah, right. He does. Training that parrot, like, that probably had to take him a very long time. That was very involved. Not just to sing the song.

Talk about joke accuracy, to not belabor a point, is that it sounds like Apu hired a woman to sing to the bird. Otherwise, the bird would sound like Apu. Henry, you know my bird sounds just like me. Yes, yeah. Yeah, I mean, are we talking about redistricting or rezoning exactly they're different concepts what's to find our terms gentlemen are we talking about redistricting or are we talking about reapportionment i like that they both agree they hate the the one hit wonder song i love the nightlife as well i do too they're they're united in that and uh i just learned that the singer of that song alicia bridges she uh is a lesbian i

did not know that about her i do like when they take shots at it at a very specific thing like you know when it's all i have is an escapade you know i'm very very sorry like they just picked a song like that to take a shot at another excellent visual gag is homer reading a cereal box in bed like it's a book that's i didn't even think about it twice until i listened to the commentary it's like oh i guess he's reading in a cereal box in bed just took it to bed i think they you know a good george meyer take you know adding on to it would have been to dog ear it and then put it on the nightstand. I thought that would have been a good addition. Yeah, that would have been good.

They don't make cereal box backs the way they used to either. They're not as informational as they used to be. The Palshy Best Friends, I think, still tells you a little story. There's no more games on them. Oh, yeah. No, I think, though, I don't know. Even the backs are like Count Chocula or whatever. They don't have good enough stuff on the back of them, those limited edition ones.

I need more lore about the Count and his extended universe. And then we get to the Chocolate Apu line, which is, I do think it's, it almost is too sweaty, but I do like the name of the Baron Von Munch's house. Yeah. The chocolate place. I like that effort that it even has like a hot air balloon as part of the van. Oh, that's right. Yeah. It's mostly about letting Hank Azaria go nuts in this fun like ad libby take of Apu almost dying. A chocolate husband.

Oh, how darling. Help. I can't breathe. Oh, how darling. Help! I can't breathe! Oh, a poo! Oh, you are the sweetest feeling of all. Air. I need air. Oh, a poo. Oh, God, my ears are filled with nougat.

Oh, dear. There's a nut in my eye. So then the second salesman says, That's okay. I just ate all the hot buttered corn. You like that one, baby? Sarah, what's wrong? Usually after two or three truly tasteless jokes, you're all over me. Manjula got to see Lob-O-M.

Sarah, please. Sarah, it's $10 a pill. $10 a pill. That's the most dialogue from Sarah Wiggum I think we've seen so far. Yeah, she'll have a couple more lines at the end of this, too. So, Truly Tasteless Jokes was a book trilogy series from 82 to 84. And that joke, he tells, is probably one of the dirtiest things they snuck into the show. I only learned that joke like 10 years ago.

I only learned it like today. Oh, really? I could tell a cleaned up version of it without all of the details. the show i only learned that joke like 10 years ago i only learned it like today oh really uh i could tell a cleaned up version of it without all of the details so two hobos they're walking around being hobos they see a pie on a windowsill they're like let's go in that old lady's house and ask if we can have some pie and the one hobo goes to the door ask for some pie the lady's like only if you you know have sexual relations with me and the hobo's like okay, close your eyes. He finds a big ear of corn and does what you would expect him to do. And he throws it out the window.

And the lady's like, thanks a lot, here's the pie. And he comes out with the pie, and he's like, hey, other hobo want some pie? And the other hobo goes, no thanks, I just got some hot buttered corn. And that's the joke. I thought it was a joke about cum until I read the actual joke. Got it. Interesting. I didn't know that backstory. It's actually a joke about using until i read the actual joke man got it interesting i didn't know that backstory

actually a joke about uh using a ear of corn as a dildo on an old woman it's all consensual so it's okay boy that's uh that's crazy i think it was my uh my buddy joe who pointed out that all those truly tasteless jokes were were by the the pseudonym blanch not and i didn't get that that was a pun by like blanching as if, you know, I guess being embarrassed or something. And so you're not embarrassed by these. Wow, I didn't know that either. Yeah, and it's kind of, I mean,

they were bestsellers and it was kind of a big scam because the editor just crowdsourced jokes. They're like street jokes. So they don't really belong to society, I guess. Yeah. But then one person made money. Well, and all we have now is an abundance of truly tasteless jokes. It's so open, your availability of that.

You don't need to buy a book for them. You have more than you bargained for just going online every day. As soon as a celebrity dies. The corpse isn't even dead, isn't even stiff yet. And there's a million jokes about them. Well, and speaking of a truly tasteless joke, there's a nut jokes about him that's well and speaking of a truly tasteless joke it's there's a nut in my eye that always gives me pause i never thought of it that way uh but that that's really funny acting from his area with a hooks is is more just like reacting

she's not just giving him space to breathe with his lines no pun intended but the joke of just he's like neat air like me he's breathe like he's just in pain he's like i i almost died kind of fear there and was that one of the was it the first viagra joke on the sims that is the first viagra joke which in 10 episodes from this one or nine or ten is the line from marge like i didn't know you could fit so many viagra jokes in 30 seconds, which was them noticing that like Viagra jokes are so hacky. You don't do them, but they,

they were overdone by the end of 1999. But this one is pretty funny that Wiggum is, is more like his last ditch attempt is like, we really should get together just so this money isn't wasted. You know, like that. And now Wiggum is the MVP of this episode. I think, I mean, he has the money isn't wasted, you know, like that. And now Wiggum is the MVP of this episode. I think,

I mean, he has the funniest lines and just, you know, you hate to dissect the fraud, but the fact that he, his plan was to take Viagra, read her truly tasteless jokes and then do it. What a classy,

classy night. By, by the time I finished this third joke, both our engines will be revved up and we're ready to go and he's surprised that she's not into it yeah and i should know not the patent has expired generic viagra supports most podcasts oh that's right there are so many versions of it you can hear uh just via podcast ads i didn't realize that was why it spread so much these herbal viagra there could be a different reason but i think it's a patent issue. But I want Gilbert Goffrey to sell me

Blue Chew. Blue Chew. I hadn't heard of that one. It's the chewable bone herb drug. We haven't hit it big enough as a podcast yet to get those kind of offers, man. We need those big HIMSS contracts.

It'll fix your hairline and your wiener. But anyway. Could Sher sherry's berries start offering like boner pills too maybe like uh well they'd be shipped to your mom though they can't do that a boner sauce you dip the berries into for him uh but uh but yes as as valentine's day gets closer and closer everybody's getting intrabulated. And so with Valentine's Day one day away, all eyes are on the local Romeo, whose seven-day gift-a-thon has been delighting his wife and intrabulating the rest of us. Reverend Timothy Lovejoy says he's counseled a number of disenchanted wives, including Maude Flanders.

Everybody's marriage is falling apart except ours. See, the problem's communication. Too much communication. Homer, I've gone through seven years of receipts, and you've spent less on gifts for me than you have on temporary tattoos. Marge, it's worth it. Look, the Taco Bell dog.

Hey, where'd it go you just don't get it so homer apparently believed temporary tattoos were permanent that's a new level of stupid for him uh there's an interesting aspect there that they're saying that maude is upset with ned like they're adding this strife to their relationship that never existed before i feel like that's them building in a way uh for ned to be in with the gang it's always fun to be ned uh it's always fun to have ned there and being very reluctant and being just a very uh square guy yeah you're right of uh dorks he wouldn't it's hard to believe he joined in otherwise unless you had heard that maude and him are having problems that's true yeah i was just setting up that dynamic i think i love homer's line too of like the problem is communication too much communication that's such a good line and

that uh marge is love auditing him that's uh it's it seems a little petty but it's true homer has never bought her anything and if he if he spends more on temporary tattoos and gifts for her i think she has a right to be mad yeah also to really set this in 1999 after a viagra joke we get a taco bell dog joke yeah it is nice because it is homer uh making the joke because he would just think the phrase is funny because he's stupid yeah it's so the joke is on the taco bell dog being a lame joke so a dumb guy like homer would like it i feel like commercial humor is the most base you know the people who would go buy a dilly dilly shirt now at a gas station or

something like that's the same level of humor where would you put that compared to like a monty python reference humor oh i would say monty python's a higher echelon but only because i would quote monty python growing up oh sure sure well now it feels like an even more specialized taste because it's not it's not the comedy nerd currency anymore i think you know for when i was 16 if me and my uh incredibly nerdy friends would have like who can quote the most lines from holy grail uh competitions or whatever and and then you'd spill your ear medicine yes yeah right uh but i would i would think the teens of the the teens like that now they're they're doing it with like rick and morty quotes or something i think that's probably where it's at. Same thing, yeah. Yeah, or their favorite Twitch game streamer.

Yeah, what did PewDiePie say when he played this scary game? Markiplier was feeling quite randy. And he was heard to remark. But we then get to see all the guys complaining about Valentine's Day. This Valentine's crap has gone too far. Edna won't even let me clap her erasers. My Barbara will no longer

pleasure me with the French alts. The gal I'm stalking had me bumped back to 200 feet. That's too far. And ask yourself, people, who's to blame for all this?

Well, I guess we are. I suppose I do take Maude for granted. Yeah, I've done some of that myself. Will you stop it? It's easy to blame ourselves, but it's even easier to blame Apu. He's making us look bad.

And that's when we get the gift of the Shriner-backed horse-drawn carriage. It's a horse-drawn carriage with a violin quartet and a bed and Shriners following it. So is the implication they're going to have sex while going down the street on that bed? Is that what's implied? I don't know. I hope the Shriners aren't involved. I just assume that they won't follow any sort of parade-style thing moving down the street.

Yeah, it's like moths to a flame. Maybe once they get to the bed portion of it, they all just stop and leave. And they're like, all right, this is where the bed stays, and we'll give you guys some privacy. I don't think I'm going to ever see Shriners driving a tiny car in my lifetime. I think all the Shriners of that vintage are passing away. I think so. Or have passed away. I don't, you know, I haven't tried to join the Shriners or the Masons.

I don't think they'd have me now. There was, yeah, my hometown parade always had the Shriners doing like figure eights in the cars. And I always loved it. And then a couple of years ago, I went back to my hometown parade for the first time and um i said where are the shriners and the organizer said there was an accident during the parade like they ran into a pedestrian and kind of creamed out of control so they've been banned from our local parade oh god the shriner death count is rising yeah yeah no more shriners i mean those kind of old men, it's dangerous to the elderly driving in general, even in a small car. And the act ends with them deciding they are going to prevent Apu's love missions.

But first, they're going to go back in and drink. Drinking will help us plan, as Footnote says. Yeah. Hank Azaria is on it in this episode with all of his improv. He's doing great. And yes, they come back from the break they're uh basically doing a um stakeout on apu on this valentine's day uh it's it feels kind of random that mo is drinking an open mug of beer in there like it's not that's right yeah

rare to see mo actually drink himself he's i i guess it's still to note like this is the bartender he brought his beer that could be in case you forgot in case you're just tuning in between acts uh and then the great gag of homer saying uh i'll tell you what i'm driving the car and then the car starts driving away as he's yelling at mo that's that's also pretty great uh but as they're stalking him we get a uh another that there's a there's a lot of work to get to this punchline here. Maybe he's run out of romantic ideas. No, no, not our lover boy. If I know his M.O., he saved the biggest one for today.

Oh, gee, the man's just trying to show his wife he cares for her. How can we sabotage his labor of love? I don't know. Gasoline? Axes? I got some stuff in the trunk. Hey, there he goes. Let's roll. Homer, you're driving. Not yet,

I'm not. You'll know when I'm driving and it'll... Tiffany's, eh? Yeah, looks like Smoochie's gonna seal the deal with a diamond the size of a doll's head. Aw, man, he's making us look like a bunch of cheapskates. Whoa, whoa, my rope came loose.

There he is, behind that shopping bag. A croissant, what the? Ah, that's right, they have breakfast at Tiffany's now. Only till 11. What a weird joke. It's a very, maybe it was just my age group then but like especially thanks to the then popularity of the song by deep blue something that's that was my go-to like the second i see tiffany's i'm like breakfast at tiffany's was that's the only thing i think of

like i it would have been news to me at 16 that tiffany sold jewelry because i just think of breakfast being there well and also in in the movie breakfast tiffany's buddy hackett is playing a chinese man you know in an awful caricature and here you have a white person voicing an indian man and not quite so broad a caricature but it's a little i don't know something about that struck me during that yeah it's true that it was mickey rooney not yeah or mickey rooney what did i say buddy hackett he also did buddy hackett also did a horribly broad chinese character on his albums that's the reason for the confusion i see i will say that the character was actually japanese but i

don't think it would have mattered no oh god now i feel like this i feel like the insensitive one yeah no no no i honestly think it's like he wouldn't have changed the performance at all just like oh they're all the you know who cares yeah it's gonna be the same way yeah yeah it would have been like an egg foo young reference but instead of a sushi reference uh but the build-up to breakfast tiffany is that just it takes a while and i do like though at least as somebody who is pained by finding out that the breakfast hours are over at a fast food place i do like homer's knowledge of like only till 11 like that's uh though it's more like 10 or 10 30 i remember hardy's and i

lived in a hardy's town not a carl's junior town hardy's would do it till 11 even 11 30 i think on sundays but uh uh now you know i i've noticed that mcdonald's went to all day breakfast but they stepped it back. They decided they didn't want to do it anymore. They're not leaning into the McCafe brand anymore. That, I think, is what's making them any money, is just selling coffee to people. The last time I went in there, and big city McDonald's are notoriously awful because we don't have any social structure for homeless people. So they usually go to fast food places to ask for money and buy cheap food and hang around and stuff.

But when I went in there just for a small frat because I had a craving, they were playing classical music. And I was like, McDonald's, come on. What? What are you doing? Come on, no. I noticed, yeah, and Taco Bell serves breakfast. And I think we spend a lot of time on the road. And my buddy Joe was going to try one of their, I don't know, breakfast burritos or something.

And it was one of the Taco Bells that's inside of a gas station. And we're in the south somewhere, and he asked the gas station attendant, not the Taco Bell employee, like, you tried their breakfast? Do you recommend it? And he goes, it's all right if you want diarrhea. And I'll never forget one of the funniest line reads. And it was totally unprompted. Dissuaded us from the uh taco bell breakfast you know i i had read that mcdonald's got rid of their they didn't like the all-day

breakfast as much as they thought because they generally price breakfast items lower than they price the other food so when people get it they're just spending less when they go there so i think it caused it caused more problems than it was worth to them they could turn around listen to this what if they took a piece of chicken fried it and then placed it between uh two bun halves the world will lose its damn mind seemingly and charge eight dollars for it uh well you see that popeyes sandwich craze is still going strong these days i think people it's aren't talking as much about it but it's uh i think it really was just people wanted to be able to have the chick-fil-a sandwich

without chick-fil-a guilt that was that's really where the the mania came from which like who gets chick-fil-a at the uh like a breakfast chick-fil-a thing too their chicken biscuit was okay as i recall but yeah i remember i worked at the grill at mcdonald's i was the one like calling how many things you kind of got judged by how much food you'd waste you know if you if you like had too many egg mcmuffins in and they didn't get eaten by a certain time you'd throw them away so i got so good at if an old person came in i'm like put down two uh bacon egg and cheese they old people love the bacon egg and cheese biscuits and then as soon as 11 a.m rolled around uh and i'd see old people come in it i'd be like we got to put some fish in the fryer they old people love the bacon egg and cheese biscuits and then as soon as 11 a.m rolled around uh and i'd see old people come in it i'd be like we got to put some fish in the fryer they old people love filet of fish so yeah and they'd go from 10 30 wanting the bacon egg and cheese to the filet of

fish that's an i mean that's an amazing instinct you you honed at the they're just like profiling the person the second they walked in were there lots of catholics is that what was going on yeah and yeah definitely a lot of catholics that was part of it but yeah old people love fish that was a new stereotype for me well bob did you see that the um the burger king uh got shut down the the uh the one right by the civic center oh yeah yeah the the dark is that sound you made is because it is one of the darkest experiences of your life is going to that burger king which again i feel so bad for the homeless people they got nowhere else to go but i also feel really bad for the people who just

want to have a cashier job at a burger king and not have to deal with the people that our society can't take care of they become social workers for minimum wage. For minimum. It's horrible. And it's just, it's all so depressing. It's like, to go in there, you're just seeing these underpaid people having to deal with these poor people who there's no social services for. I'm just thinking about all the tourists that come to SF.

And Civic Center is where, you know, City Hall is and stuff. You could be a tourist. Like, you know what? I'm just going to grab a coffee. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it doesn't help San Francisco's reputation either. No, no. Unfortunately, now when you come to town for SF Sketch Fest, Nick,

you won't be able to eat at that Burger King. I'm so sorry. I know they got the Impossible Burger, which I've tried at a real restaurant and I quite enjoyed, but I just have a feeling burger king would ruin it so uh also another actually i think i almost want to give it line of the episode i really love my rope came loose like that's such a great encapsulation of a like dirty loser of just like oh my rope came he's ragging on your cord okay you're right you know what i can't i can't give in line the episode because it's similar to a previous joke extension cord uh is also funny but yeah

impromptu belts are just a funny joke and i gotta give it to the animators too that they draw that rope belt and all the wide shots of mo like it is a consistent character design for him so who's having quite the morning he's going out for a fancy croissant and then delivering pornography yes yeah uh yeah let's hear i love how the commenter they point out how this really sells out the sea captain character so that's it the crazy naughty wet and border a sloop well this is one love boat that won't delight and amuse wait see if he's not purchasing a boat. Yar. It's kind of you to deliver these copies of jugs. They'll keep my men from resorting to homosexuality for about ten minutes. Ha ha ha.

Look who's talking. Yar. Oh, this is turning out to be a total waste of time. Not entirely. Homer eats a sandwich. Geez, we've been following him for hours. You know, with all the energy we're putting into this sabotage thing, we could have written sonnets for our wives or learned to tango or lovingly restored one of those antiques.

At least I got a hunk of Moe's hair man that's smart that's a great uh super fast great cut love that yeah and you can hear you can hear a tear sound as he's thrown out of the car there too i didn't notice that till till listening yeah same here yeah i'll give that whole sequence line the episode actually because i uh i love this is one love boat that won't delight and amuse that was mine too that's the joke as far as i could tell i did some uh jugs research on my own time uh apparently it's still in circulation really started in 81 uh one of the funniest go-to pornography names if you're making a joke in a sitcom jugs i mean it's funny in its uh extremeness like just its directness there's no there's no uh extra fanciness to it like playboy

no playboy or even like hustler at least has like some level of cleverness i mean married with children already had the funny parody of jugs biggins see i thought biggins and jugs were both made up ones because of biggins like i never begins i was never in the market for jugs biggins see i thought biggins and jugs were both made up ones because of biggins like i never saw i was never in the market for jugs magazine so i did not i didn't know it was a real one i really love sea captains like bashful response to them saying like look who's talking like he he has the most gay sex on this uh ship as anybody is that in the steel industry yeah yeah the also it looks like homer only went to tiffany's when the lunch menu came on uh and yeah the tearing off of i never thought of moe as a guy who is incredibly hairy but i guess i never thought of him not having chest hair either

i think of him more as like sweaty that's that's the first sweaty and greasy it smells bad all the all the horrible parts about mo and also like they really just cast off the line that mo is a stalker as well like yeah he is menacing a woman he's used to stalking people and uh you know doing stakeouts oh yeah he's he's really helpful he should be better at this uh but yes we get some uh we head to the airport for some very like pre-911 airport things of just like, yeah, we're going to meet some... Well, I don't have a ticket. I'm just going to go straight up to the gate.

It's an airport. And that's where we get our guest star of the episode, which I'm going to play the anti-death jingle because he's still with us. It's 74 years old, Sir Elton John. So a really big guest for the show. I have to give it up. Mike Scully in his year has got some of the biggest guests. He really did.

You know, I think he learned that guests can really drive the ratings. Like it's, I think he was seeing it more as a promotional thing instead of just like a, what I would have done is what Bill and Josh did, which is it felt like they more had a wish list of celebrities they wanted to work with and put them in there and i do think scully did that a bit too in his years but he also is like well you two is the most famous band in the world they want to do the simpsons who am i to say now elton was i feel like he's always been famous like though this is like it seems like a 90s renaissance ish happening i mean we're right after uh he made it big by cashing on death i mean yes candle in the wind

was very recent this time yeah like uh within two years of this episode he double dipped on death i love that um elton john has a sense of humor about himself and you know he seems to by all accounts but i hate almost everything else about him. I just I when I the music in particular, like if if I hear if I, you know, I have classic rock on the radio or something and I hear Benny like that just is it nails or crocodile rock or goodbye. I can't do it. Some of his other songs are like I think after almost famous came out tiny dancer became a little more tolerable but i just i i have to say i'm not a fan i think he only dressed up like donald duck once and i just kind of want him to always do that sure be a caricature of yourself

that's fine that's how i see him i mean yeah well he's kind of you know i feel like it was like 30 years ago he just decided i wear a wig now it's, we all knew I was balding, but now I wear a wig. And this is just, he's kind of looked the exact same. He changed up his look so much from the 60s into the 80s. But from 90s forward, he's kind of looked the same. So that's why he feels a little ageless, I think. But I am a fan of Elton John's. I really like the campiness of him.

Though it is classic rock, but it does feel out of place sometimes on a classic rock station. Like Billy Joel. Yeah, just like Billy Joel. The straight version of Elton John. Yeah, I think too. But Elton John was huge. That was a huge kid. It's hard to say.

I think definitely Paul McCartney is their most famous musician guest. Oh, yeah. This is close. This is close. And both played on the roof of the cookie mart, right? Yes. Although, in this case, Elton John actually sings a song instead of Paul McCartney listening to Apu sing one of his songs. Right, right.

For some reason, British people go up on that roof and play. So nice. You can watch driving movies. And Elton John, as of this recording, just released an autobiography, and it's filled with the fact that he was a sex addict. Oh. And I don't want to know that. I want to see him dressed as Donald Duck. I don't want to know about his sex addiction.

See, everybody, when they put out their autobiography, they're like, I got to have a sex story. You got to have at least a couple. But yeah, that's really surprising. That much sex. I would. Well, that's, you know, I'm a big reader of wrestling biographies and pro wrestlers. And Chris Jericho's are really fun.

And they're very informative. But in his first one, it came to a point I was like, this is the seventh time you've bragged about how many girls you had sex with in japan i kind of don't want it i'm a little tired of it at this point chris elton was uh was ellen in it up before other people too like she he he is he's good friends with rush limbaugh like he played as one of his weddings yes yeah so uh and also he was in the news when i was looking up trying to find information on elton john's private jet if it just to say it definitely doesn't look like the jet that's in this episode the most recent thing that came up was like in august he was defending that some british royalty was using private jets or whatever which is just like i don't know i i literally

cannot care about british royals and i do not like when American media tries to make us care about them. It's just like, no, no, come on. But yeah, the private jet that arrives, I mean, I think rock stars, you know, if you can afford to take a private jet, I suppose it's a little opulent. But they got to get places. They got to be in a lot of places at once. Like, I don't think a private jet's so bad. Have you ever been on one no no i can't say have you no i haven't i i rode for i got a free first class upgrade once but that's

same here yeah yeah i think i've had two first class flights in my life one one a free upgrade and one on that video game press trip me and bob both took, which was a 90 minute flight at most. I would say 40 minute. It was from here to LA. Yeah. Yeah. But you ever see like going to Japan, did you ever see the, those like ones where you're fully reclined and get a blankie and all that? Oh yeah. I walked by those pods in the, in, on the flights there. And I just think if I had $9,000, if $9,000 on a flight was meaningless to me, I would absolutely pay that. Yeah, I think I rarely experience envy except when you're on like a 12 or 24 hour flight and you see people just cozy and laughing away and enjoying unlimited food and bevs. And yeah, you're in economy.

That's where class warfare starts on the plane. But yes, Al Jean recorded all the Elton John stuff. That lucky bastard. and yeah you're an economy that's where class warfare starts on the plane uh but yes uh al gene recorded all the elton john stuff in this lucky bastard yeah in new york i think right uh-huh and he and he even got elton john to do multiple takes of your song for the ending bit because they i mean there's a new lyric to it as well but also i think it uh it saves them a little money that they can have an original recording of it instead of licensing one it's one thing to get a musician on your show and have them you know act but it's another to even get them to sing like that does seem very accommodating of elton on that like he seems he seems pretty cool in that regard whenever i hear that song and this is uh my friend craig baldo is

a comedian has this great joke about your song and he says there's a line in the song where he goes what if i was a sculptor but then again no and he's like why even put that thought into the song why are you making me listen to the first draft of your song like just leave the part out about wanting to be a sculptor and i can't listen to that song and not think of that now yeah Yeah, I wasn't familiar with that song, and I looked up the lyrics for this podcast, and I'm like, oh, there's like a false start in this verse. Exactly.

Well, hey, give your complaints to Bernie Taupin. He wrote the lyrics. The music's just out. Of course. But yes, Elton John arrives in Springfield. It's Elton John! We had to make an emergency landing. It's that damn chandelier again. What's he doing in Springfield. It's Elton John! We had to make an emergency landing. It's that damn chandelier again.

What's he doing in Springfield? I got it, I got it. Our pool must have hired him to sing for me and Jeweler. Not if I can help it. And help it I might. Mr. John, I'm your biggest fan. I've tape recorded all

your songs off the radio. Oh, that's very sweet. Have a Grammy. Uh... Sir Elton, my noble friends and I would like to dub you a Knight of the Grand Concourse. Yeah, it's

for all your charity work, and, um, for, uh, you know, teaching us, um, to love again. Really? I did that? How the hell should I know? Just get in a cage. Oh, hazing the new guy, eh? You know, when I was dubbed Sir Elton, the Queen paddled me silly.

Hey, Apu's talking to a sky writer. So that was his plan all along. If he writes a message of love over Springfield, we're all screwed. Hello? Lads? Don't forget your old pal Elton. Can anyone hear me? Skycap?

So that's the second time that Homer threw away a Grammy. He was good. Yeah, that's true. One with his name on it and one that was Elton's. I looked this up. Elton at the time had about eight or nine Grammys. Currently has 11 Grammys, including a Legend Award. And we also have the strange return of Fantastic Dan.

Yeah. From Bart Carney. Last scene living in the whack-a-mole. They call me Spud. Oh, I knew he looked familiar. Yeah, okay. It's all coming together. i wonder if they wrote a scene with a biplane and they're like did we have a guy who flew a plane did we have that character at all

i don't think we ever saw him fly i think we just saw him living in the whack yes yeah but but he was still he was definitely a stunt flyer like he had the fly his you only saw him i think from like the shoulders up but uh he was he was basically dressed the same and dan was doing the same voice this oh tammy guy and his final appearance oh he never never came back wow that's a waste of a perfectly good dan especially i wonder if they called him fantastic dan as a tribute to dan caslanetta i want yeah this could have been a Gil-style character that could pop up, but no, this is his last appearance. One of two.

In season 31, give him this whole episode. Bring him back. I think it's time. It's time we pitch a Fantastic Dan episode. Disney Plus spinoff like The Mandalorian. The origin of Fantastic Dan. It should take place 30 years earlier and he's like friends with a young abe simpson oh man the story's growing already and verner herzog being that too yeah

oh god i'm so again i'm so jealous of meeting that they they got to meet dan reicher got to meet verner herzog at that uh at that table read he went to i'm gonna say get both of us in a meeting we'll make it happen you know a negative complaint i have on this era of the simpsons though is that this is really the beginning of wow celebrity name what are you doing in springfield and they they do that twice to elton john and this homer says oh elton john and then later up who will say wow elton john like it's just it's a lot i did like that the Apu saying it there's a joke on him doing that like that's my name well not really yes that is good I do like that you're right that at least earns a second use of it yeah and they tried to justify you know

they they got it wrong while he was in there like they thought he was there for the performing a concert for Apu so at least they kind of tried to justify it a little bit. But yes, as they confront Fantastic Dan, Homer is trying to give his climactic speech to Apu of just like, no, and the husbands of this town are not going to, hey,

and he has to run after the plane. And also the gag that apparently the Peace Corps had Saren. And there's no extra answer to that of like, why does the Peace Corps had Saren. There's no extra answer to that of like, why does the Peace Corps have Saren? But yes, Homer and Fantastic Dan battle it out. Hey, you with the scarf, stop skywriting. I have to deliver a message. It's the Skyrider's code.

I am so sick of that damn code. You won't stop, then I'll stop you. What are you doing? Don't do that. Oh, isn't that sweet? That must be for Manchula. Just once, I'd like a love note in the sky. Lous Nazi message.

Get going, you crazy fool. You kill us all. Correction. Kill us both. Get, get, get. That's a great joke, too. Yeah. It's always nice to hear a line from Bernice Hibbert or Felicia Hibbert, whatever her name is.

Oh, yeah. It's kind of all over the place. Yeah. felicia hib or whatever her name is oh yeah it's kind of all over the place yeah she's pretty good animation in there too with the um with the the background kind of spinning while the plane stays the same and pretty cool yeah it's uh they really they did some great animation there like it was almost like blue screened behind it or whatever like it's like dual layered or something to it it looks great and also like the the way you can see the scarf flapping in the air and all this uh the you can get a feel of the air going by him i did laugh at your setup for the clip because you're like as homer battles fantastic dan i'm just like i did not see the episode going to this mid-air uh fist fight on a biplane yeah i wonder the music kind of reminds me of mad man mad mad world it's biplane

comedy yeah god just them fighting each other i don't watching it in order like this i now think that it's meant to be a sequel to homer's fight with snake in the car oh yeah in realty bites the season before this well you all know that dan can take a hit to the head yeah so even more than homer they uh they're both tough and yeah that like i but god love homer saying correction kill us both but the and homer using his like cloven hoof shoe to smash the sarin canister that's great uh but yeah you wouldn't know that was hibbert's wife if she didn't laugh yeah their their fight continues uh really well animated and they even have the the line why won't you die which is what homer said as he was beating up uh snake as well okay yeah i was i was expecting him to say it but it was the realty bites homer that said that to the other guy yeah i got i had

mixed that up too i I was surprised when Fantastic Dan says the line, but as the canister explodes, the skywriting changes and it becomes kind of a Rorschach test for the women of Springfield. It's an angel. Oh, that's Nettie's pet name for me.

I love you, Poppin' Fresh. Oh, Clancy. I love you, Poppin' Fresh. Oh, Clancy. I love you, Ednike. It's a little run together, but that's what it says. I love you, Cactus? Blobby? Upsilon? Oh, who am I kidding?

Homer would never surprise me like that. I like Edna's deep denial on it. That's the funny part. A little run together. She's deluding herself and knows it. And yeah, there's unintentional foreshadowing of Maude being an angel. Oh, that's true. Give it another year.

Yeah, just about. I also think it's a really cute setup for Sarah Wiggum to be like cuttingph's hair in the backyard with a bowl on his head to to explain his literal bowl cut that's that's a clever gag yeah the pop and fresh thing is a little family guy but it's uh but yeah i did like the drawing of that if they did animation cells that would be a good one of her cutting ralph's hair with a bowl though yeah this is like the fifth pop and fresh reference in the show like homer oh i also think of on critic when they're like they poked jay in the stomach and he's like please that hurts i know i'm ticklish but that hurts yeah yeah though that can't top homer being poked in the eye and laughing no he's still pops fresh and meyer He's no Pops Freshenmayer. Pops Freshenmayer. And yeah, you're right, Bob, that Bart is clacking her erasers.

Oh, no. The euphemism that Skinner had used earlier in the show. Yeah, so the fight is taking a dramatic end as they almost kill Elton John and Apu on the runway. My humble love note is turning into a Valentine's Day massacre. You think you've got problems. I just chewed my way out of a dog carrier. Oh, Elton John.

That's my name. Well, not really. I hate to sound like a screaming fan, but that maniac nearly killed us. Shall I take you to the pilot? You see, because that is your song. I heard you. Yes, because someone saved your life tonight. Cut it out.

Well, well, the bitch is back. We know who is a fan of classic rock, though. So it makes sense that he would know all this. It's always a little alarming to hear bitch come out of a Simpsons character. That is surprising, yeah. But he's just quoting the song name. Yeah.

Take Me to the Pilot is also the B-side for your song, and was on the same album. And yes, real name, Reginald Dwight. That's his real name which well that's those are also two first names that's interesting i i mean reginald dwight does seem kind of lame by comparison to elton john and the fight in the sky continues with homer getting um horribly like dead like smashing his head into many things that would, at the very least, break your neck, if not kill you. But we're in Homer cartoon world right now with the violence.

But Homer comes to a rosy landing, let's say. Oh, oh, oh! Brickers, stop! Huh? Oh. Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh?

Huh? What in the world? Hey, roses. So many roses. Just when I think I have you figured out, you fall from the sky with roses. Roses. Oh, homie.

Oh, they're beautiful. I'm going to snuggle your brains out. Well, I think I have a collapsed lung, but okay. I've got to think that snuggle session didn't last too long. No. I think Homer had to go to the the hospital once mar discovers all the thorns yeah embedded in his flesh he looks bad enough with his clothes on and has to look uh his damage has to look much worse it's a very cute arrival

with the roses uh just the way he they all fling off his body i mean it's it's ridiculous but uh but it's a it's a funny fun looney tunes style gag especially i mean it's it's ridiculous but uh but it's it's a funny fun looney tunes style gag especially i mean it's already looney tunes enough with him uh with a on a biplane like nobody would do that now dan crashed right into a building i guess yeah and it was thorn valley rose bushes was it yes yeah yeah it's i mean also speaking of weird things out of context homer just screaming prickers is very out of context odd but uh but yes after homer gets his happy ending we get a sweet little musical finale here if i was a sculptor but then i can know our man Who makes potions in a traveling shoe I know it's not much, but it's the best I can do

My gift is my song, yeah And this one's from Apu. Oh, I can't believe it. You closed the Kwik-E-Mart just for me. Well, you and the health instructor. Champagne squishy? Oh, thank you. It should get you pretty darned hammered.

What a weird line to end on. Yeah. It's sweet up until then. Maybe Elton John knew Paul McCartney played there once. He had to one-up him. Well, I mean, he did, for all of Apu's corny lines, he did save Elton John's life. So I had assumed Elton is doing it to repay the favor.

That's what i figure it's from it wasn't like tom jones at gunpoint performing for homer and marge oh yeah i forgot that into pole very similar ending though though not as dark for yeah for elton there it's a sweet little ending there especially the overly i mean i'd say almost too treacle maybe they wanted to cut through the treacle there with the yeah it's pretty hammered because elton changing the line this one's for you to this one's from apu that's a little too cute yeah it's a bit cutesy a little lisa it's your birthday kind of we don't talk about that but that was i guess i was sincere all the way through yeah true yeah well the the farther you get from season one the less

sincere things are allowed yeah but well that's why i say this one reminded me of like a uh james l brooks episode because it did have that mostly sweet ending and it did have kind of the sitcom contrivances but still had some pretty sharp jokes in there uh oh and then it goes to credits that are blood red which i think were definitely a mistake and they they i they did it for valentine's but it just looks so damn ugly it looks just like a murder scene like blood red on uh black is not romantic it's more like the the halloween credits yeah yeah which i think on those they make them green they're green yeah but they could be red red red would be scarier honestly uh i i agree with you nick i think this uh has a lot more of the sentimentality of earlier seasons

though still with like the ridiculous with the cartoony violence and over the topness of later seasons plus a very celebrity driven finale though at the at least you know elton has a lot of plot action he does at the end there he's not as tacked on as some other celebrity guest appearances you could think of so he's a funny voice actor i mean he he's can deliver a line yeah yeah i thought he was good in this he's a much better voice actor than say stephen tyler or oh yeah or other i think actually i'd say he's a better actor than uh than bono too i think bono bono was a little flat. Yeah, it's fun to go back 20 years in time.

We're in the middle of the Pooh Manjula arc. It's like an anime arc or something. But it's fun to see what they tried to do with him before they just stopped really doing anything with him. So it didn't always work, but I did like them experimenting with with a poo outside of the quickie mart and after the uh you know after we got to see the children's valentine's day in previous seasons and another simpsons clip show oh god you're right that's also valentine's day but it aired in october but but this is an adult's view on valentine's day and so it it gave them a new a new place to go i this is hardly the last valentine's Day episodes of The Simpsons either. So more to come in the Talking Simpsons future.

And the King of the Hill episode by the same name would win the Emmy this year, right? Yeah, they talk about that on the commentary, that it was just lateral thinking. And so nobody was mad at each other. And it's a title which, like like back then you didn't know the title of episodes so it wasn't seen as joke thievery they uh i think it's um ron haugi on the commentary has a real interesting thing about that of like in your career as a comedy writer you'll be on both sides of that a feeling you had something ripped off or accidentally ripping something off and so he's like that's why you can't get mad about it. You just have to go like, well, it was my turn for this to happen to me.

Don't sue over it or whatever was Ron Hauge's feeling. It was an interesting thoughts to hear on that there. That's an evolved take on it because comedians are notoriously bitter, angry people. And podcasters. You know, maybe Ron Hauge had enough money by this point. He's like, yeah, I'm not offended. I'm relaxed now. But Nick, you've been a special guest.

Please let everyone know where we can find you, your Patreon, your YouTube, all the good stuff and live appearances. Yeah, we're foundfootagefest.com is where you can find tour dates and links to our Twitter and all that. And yeah, we are on Patreon slash found footage festival. We do a weekly YouTube and Facebook show where we, we just pop in videos kind of on the fly and have special guests like David Cross and people come in and hang out and watch old VHS tapes with us. Now that's a, yeah. VCR party.

I've been having a lot of fun watching those this, this last week I wanted to catch up. It's, it's so fun, especially like the kind of live atmosphere of it. It was just you, you guys hanging out. That's been fun. And I just wanted to say, I'm a the kind of live atmosphere of it. Just you, you guys hanging out. That's been fun.

And I just wanted to say I'm a huge fan of the podcast. And it's made me go back and watch Simpsons episodes. And as it gets later into the episodes and you might be more and more frustrated. It's, I don't know, it's good. I think it's good to remember because I always thought having watched since the Tracy U ellman shorts and ben felt lucky to sort of be alive at peak simpsons kind of like how if your parents would talk about how seeing the beatles on ed sullivan as a as a comedy nerd we didn't get to do that but this was kind of our pivotal moment like that and to live through it and um and the fact that it's still on it's it a little heartbreaking. Like I just watched last week's episode about millennials and was kind of like, ooh, this kind of stings a bit.

But I feel like there's one good episode in these later seasons that still kind of harkens back to the old days. And it might be diminishing returns, but those flashes of the old days or the brilliance of like seeing this show, you know, like the Beatles who started off singing love songs and it was just family, I'll quit it and stuff. And that was good enough. But then seeing like Lisa goes to Washington and it becomes this brilliant satirical show. And and so you kind of are hope maybe it's abusive, but you kind of hope for that that flash of brilliance. And so I feel like in these later seasons of your podcast you'll appreciate those flashes of of brilliance even more because it will be surrounded by a lot of mediocrity but oh yeah look look for the good parts oh yeah no that's you know these these episodes that i don't

remember watching as much or loving as much now i am like you know there's still a lot of good stuff here there's still so and i hope to always feel that way. It's a surprise. And yeah, as of this recording, we're coming up on the launch of Disney+, and I assume most people will just have it, which means you'll have access to 30 Years of the Simpsons. Maybe you bought the first six or seven DVDs and you just stopped,

but it'll just be there for you to use to accompany our podcast. So I think it'll all work out, and we can't wait to show you episodes you don't know are coming. Exciting ways. Yes. But thank you so much again, Nick. Exciting. Right. Yes.

But, but thank you so much again, Nick. And you know, we're, we'll also be at SF sketch fest. So we, we look forward to seeing you at that and in seeing you in person when you come to town. Yeah.

I'd love to see you guys there. So thanks again to Nick for joining us on this episode and please check out all of the great found footage festival stuff. We love it. But as for us, if you want to support our show and get every episode one week ahead of time and ad free please go to patreon.com slash talking simpsons if you go there and sign up at the five dollar level you'll get just that and you'll also have access to so many bonus podcasts over 100 at this point including all of our limited mini-series the newest one, Talking Futurama, season two, part one, is coming this October.

And you won't want to miss that. There is way too much to mention that's going on at that level, but Henry will tell you what's going on at the $10 level. Extra, extra long podcast once a month. What's happening there, Henry, for $10 a month? Yes, that is our What a Cartoon Movie podcast

where me and Bob talk for up to four hours, even over four hours, about a different animated feature film once a month we're approaching our 12th month of doing it that means 12 whole podcasts over 30 hours of content you can listen to if you sign up for it and this month in october we are in the halloween spirit indeed because we're going to be talking about henry selleck's nightmare before christmas you could even say this is halloween it is all you know though it is a film where 10 minutes of

it is on halloween and the rest is not on halloween it splits both holidays it's fine yeah but we're gonna have a ton of fun you know we'll talk a long time about it and you can sign up to hear all the previous ones right now plus you know nick mentioned the simpsons shorts from the tracy ullman days we did video commentaries on all of the original tracy ullman shorts that you can also only see if you're a ten dollar and up patron at patreon.com slash talking simpsons so i've been one of your hosts, Bob Mackey. Find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. My other podcast is Retro Knots, a classic gaming podcast.

Check it out every week at retronauts.com or look for Retro Knots in your podcast machine. And I would appreciate it. Henry, how about you? You can follow me, Henry Gilbert, on Twitter at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. Whenever new content goes up on the Patreon or on the free feeds for this,

you'll be sure to find out about it if you follow me at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. Thanks so much for joining us this week, folks. We'll see you next week for the episode Marge Simpson in Screaming Yellow Honkers, and we will see you then. I sat on the roof And kicked off the moss

Well, a few of the verses Well, they've got me quite cross But the sun's been quite kind While I wrote this song It's for people like you that keep it turned on. So excuse me for getting, but these things I do. You see, I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue Anyway the thing is what I really mean

Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen And you can tell everybody This is the song It may be quite simple But now that it's done I hope you don't mind I hope you don't mind All I put down in the woods How wonderful life is

While you're in the woods I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind How I put down in the woods How wonderful life is While you're in the woods We gotta stop that traitor, Apu. Yeah! Right after happy hour.

Yeah! Drinking will help us play.