Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - King-Size Homer

Episode Date: March 7, 2018

Homer becomes a big fat dynamo to get out of working in an office, but is it really as great as it seems? Homer learns the joys of mumus and fabric softener, all while we chat about the episode with special guest Dan Ryckert (Giant Bomb, All Systems Goku)! So press that "any" key and get to listening while you wash yourself with a rag on a stick! Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons!

exciting news at the top of the podcast here folks talking simpsons is doing another live show in san francisco march 17th st patrick's day 5 30 at the piano fight bar we are going to be doing it again the same place we did our second live show back in january march 17th 5 30 p.m the piano fight bar on st pat Patrick's Day. Bob and me going to be chatting it up, talking Simpson style. Admission is free, so come and have some fun with us on St. Patrick's Day.

I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, the only podcast with three kinds of softness. I'm your host, the drought and famine resistant Bob Mackie, and this is the Lazer Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today? I'm Henry Gilbert, and I do something with computers. Who else? Mister doesn't find me sexually attractive anymore, Christopher Antista. And we have a very special guest today.

Please let us know who you are. I'm Dan Reichert, and I don't have an episode-specific joke. That's okay. We should have briefed you on this. Sorry about that. That's all right. And today's episode is King Size Homer. I'll see to it you don't get apricot

wine. I had an apricot scone this morning. Today's episode aired on November 5th, 1995 and as always Chris will tell us what happened at this mythical point in real world history. Oh my god. Oh Baba Booey, Howard Cern's Miss America becomes the fastest selling book ever.

Goldeneye becomes the greatest ever source material for an eventual video game and a new program debuts in my all-time top five. Mr. Show with Bob and David. Whoa. Man, I kind of want to talk about all of those in depth. I've never heard Howard Stern's show. I picked up Miss America at a

friend's house and that's the only reason I knew anything about him because the show wasn't aired in my territory. I watched the E! News show. That was the worst. Well, you got to see blurry naked people. I want to say to the Simpsons, Mr. Show is my second most quoted show but kind of only with Henry

and Brett and that's about it. I think I've been showing Mr. Show quite a lot. I love Mr. Show. I do. I mean, so Gold and I 18 months from now, people, you will get a video game. It's not quite the day and date thing we're used to at this point in history with video game adaptations. Still maybe the best movie to game ever? Yeah, probably. I would think so.

It's up there. Maybe Little Nemo. So Superman Returns, the video game, was about to come out. And we were at the old GamesRadar office radar office and i said this game is coming out way after the movie it's gonna suck and then brett was like um that happened with goldeneye too and that didn't suck did it i was like all right five once that happened one i remember everyone thinking that the mission impossible game for 64 was going to be like the heir apparent to goldeneye yes like lightning was going to strike twice. Mission Impossible just as good as GoldenEye.

It was a big spy game. It was based on a popular movie, and it was on 64, so how would that not work? And that didn't work, and then Tomorrow Never Dies, since people didn't understand developers and publishers when you're in junior high,

thought, oh, it's the new Bond game on 64, and Super was not GoldenEye. Yeah, in about four years from then, I think everything would be riding the GTA coattails. Like, it's by Rockstar. Yeah, it was published by Rockstar. State of Emergency is not a GTA game. I'm sorry.

And we sold so many pre-orders. Dear God. Mr. Show, it may have premiered in four glorious episodes. Even though it technically premiered here, I didn't see it for another four years probably. Oh, really? Until a friend got hbo is just like watch this show it's me it's the greatest show ever friend taped it and i want to

hear about dan's experience with the simpsons in general my experience with this episode and i blame things like mr show by well one my friend taped it we all became obsessed with it and didn't know in the days before the internet we didn't know that there were only four episodes so we were just you want to come right out on friday see if Miraculously Mr. Show appears on HBO again? Like, yeah. We were obsessed with it. And I remember in 98, I hadn't watched The Simpsons in one summer in like six months. I'm like, I don't even think I like this show anymore.

And I just turned on syndication, and the episode that was on was King Size Homer. I'm like, no, this is great. The show is still really good. Well, yeah. So Dan of GiantBob.com, what is your history with The Simpsons? I mean, it was kind of the bedrock of things that I found funny as a kid. I mean, it was right up there.

It was probably number one as far as earliest things I remember just making me laugh my ass off. Also up there, I'd put Dave Letterman, Conan O'Brien. I really liked old SNL. Late Night TV and Simpsons, basically. I was never a big traditional sitcom guy. As sitcoms moved forward and stuff and got out of the three-camera thing and we had Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development and everything,

I got more into it. But I could never get into the standard laugh track sitcoms of the day. And The Simpsons, obviously, was such a different field than all of that. So, yeah, it was in syndication at 6 and 6.30 every day in Kansas City. And when I started watching, it was probably around season 2 or 3, I want to say. I was really, really young. And so obviously, as I was getting old enough to appreciate it, it was kind of those glory years. And like most people, I think I fell off probably around season like 12 or so.

Yeah, that's pretty much where I fell off too. Yeah, you know, like everyone points to that Skinner episode where he's the imposter. And I probably hung on for another year or two after that. But yeah, yeah, it started going downhill. And as Homer became more of a parody of himself, I started falling off and missing episodes. But before that, I mean, not only did I see every single episode, I had a VCR in my room, and I had all these blank tapes, and I wanted to get every single episode without commercials. So I could just go back to him anytime. Yeah, I would record them. And every time I cut to commercial on syndication, I would stop

and I would I would make these big labels and everything and I'd have them all archived and written down, you know, if I want to watch the lemon tree episode, I know it's on tape six. So I kept all of them. I bought all the books, all the written down you know if I want to watch the Lemon Tree episode I know it's on tape six so I kept all of them I bought all the books all the games you know I loved some of the mini games in Virtual Bart like so many references like I love movies but most of the things I know about movies are from

like Simpsons references and movies that I would come to love later I would go back to a Simpsons episode and be like oh shit, when Bart goes to go grab those cupcakes, that's totally a Clockwork Orange thing with that camera angle and the music and the way he collapses on the floor. I really learned to appreciate The Simpsons

on a deeper level as I realized all the references I didn't get the first time around. I think Simpsons fans our age might have the common experience in a film class in college like, why are you all laughing at this Alfred Hitchcock movie? Oh, yeah, yeah. It was the North by Northwest with the plane thing. The Psycho, Psycho, Vertigo, all these references I didn't get from The Simpsons.

One where Bert's with a broken leg in the window. Yeah, so much stuff like that. So, Dan, I really want to know, who at Giant Bomb are big Simpsons heads, and who do you torture with confusing references? Definitely the one I hear the most is Alex Navarro, and he's out here on the East Coast with me on the Giant Beast cast. And so he's big on saying the

references during videos we do and podcasts, and I don't really say them as much. I just kind of quietly appreciate them when I hear them say it. I'm just like, yep, okay, I know what you're talking about, or I'll just shoot him a glance from across the table. So yeah, I don't really say a lot of them, but I definitely pick up and appreciate Simpsons references. It's so easy to just do on a stream of like

simpsons line fits in this moment here yeah it always works including many from this episode i would say it is weird to meet people who have never seen the show or kind of are very casual fans because then i think how do i talk to you? We have no common ground here. Right. Well, I mean, Dan is like, he's even a faker because he didn't watch from day one. You're not a real fan. I was born in like 84. There's no excuse, Dan. I wasn't watching the Tracy Ullman show when I was like four years old.

You're officially on trial now. Okay, all right. So we should get started with our episode. I do want to talk about the writer. It's the first episode credited to Dan Graney, another part of the Harvard Lampoon Mafia. Fucking Harvard guys, man. God damn. He was in Harvard Law School, and he was a practicing lawyer, and I guess he really wanted

to stop doing that. He submitted a bunch of ideas to Bill Oakley. I guess they were friends. They went to Harvard at the same time. None of them stuck. Bill Oakley gave him the idea for this episode, and thanks to George Meyer putting in a lot of good jokes, Dan Graney was hired. These are all by his own admission, by the way.

It's like George Meyer wrote all the best jokes in this episode. Dan Graney would later coin the phrase in Biggin. That's right. That's his biggest thing. And that he would work on really not much else, like the U.S. office and... Oh, nothing big. Okay, yes.

And Borat. Who forgets the Michaelael richard show oh yes but it isn't just the simpsons with the harvard guys back in like the late 80s early 90s i just finished a book about letterman uh and you know they're talking a lot about his old late night show on nbc and it was just this revolving door of you know brilliant harvard comedy writers and they were trading off with simpsons and SNL, and when Lorne Michaels left to make his own show, they were all just, like, trading this pool of brilliant Harvard comedy writers.

Yeah, I think it's in the Harvard rules that if you attend their school and graduate, you do get to run your own TV show at some point in the future. Right. Well, I also, this episode's directed by Jim Reardon, who we've talked about a lot before, but I just love, I love Jim Reardon on the commentary, because they are praising him so much, and Jim Reardon is a man of some heft as well. And they talk about how his Homer is like the fattest and the funniest Homer, and that

he's perfect at it. He has some great jokes in there about how his wife probably wishes he wasn't as fat and funny. I mean, pay attention to this episode throughout. Homer is always very happy to be extra large. He's always quietly smiling to himself. And that's all Jim reared in. He's like, they want to make sure Homer is very happy with the choices he's made.

The terrible choices he's made. His daydreams are so happy, too. Like, Homer's running up the hill and eats the pig. He's just smiling the entire time. I also love that they made the rule of like well homer doesn't once he's king size which i just love the phrase king size that once he's king size he does not eat on camera anymore that's right is other than his ice cream cone that's the one thing and even in the writing he's always positive about it on the commentary they talk about one line that made george meyer

and bill oakley laugh a lot is hom saying, I feel bad about myself, which was the one line that Homer identified that he has made a bad choice, but they cut it out completely. But it would make them laugh endlessly because it is a line for writers. Like, no character should openly state their exact feelings about themselves in the moment. Well, and as a king-sized individual myself, this episode is kind of a, was a tough one for me in my youth. i've had up and down weight i should uh i but it's difficult for me at times to think about like oh poor homer he but

he's also choosing to be fatter he is fat but he's choosing to be fatter and now and now that i'm married i actually this episode meant a different thing to me now because I take more into account Marge's very real concern that her husband is shortening his life and she doesn't want that. I see it affected me in a different way, this viewing. Yeah, this episode kind of wants to have it both ways with fat shaming. It makes fat jokes, but then it looks at the experience of being overweight and how people will dislike you upon just seeing you. It's odd Homer had to weigh just a little more than our president in order to be hurt by fat jokes. It never hurt him before.

He only gained 61 pounds. I think the bar is much higher in 2017. Once again, I weigh more than Homer does. I can't stand this. Not king-size Homer. Okay, so this episode starts with Homer being forced to exercise. That one. Someone's in here! King size Homer. But okay, so this episode starts with Homer being forced to exercise. That one.

Someone's in here. No! No! No! No! Oh, but I love him! Boy, I've never seen a man so desperate to get out of five minutes of calisthenics. One, two, three, four. Up, down.

This new exercise program is great. Yeah. Every muscle in my body's getting a workout. Especially my big fat mouth. Yeah. Especially your big fat... Holy... So that gag is...

It's Lenny beating Homer to the joke he's about to say about Homer, right? That's what it is. And aren't most of Homer's clothes are off at this point that we see, right? He's, like, losing all of his clothes. He's in his underpants, which is like, I have never been in a job where everybody would be fine with you stripping to your underwear to exercise. I really love the idea of Burns being the guy who's running this fitness seminar

because at any other point, at least in the early parts of the series, did we ever see him doing anything physical, much less leading physical activity? Yeah, and he also delegates everything usually too, but he is very hands-on with this. But it's very old-timey. He wants more Teddy Roosevelt and less Franklin Roosevelt, so no polio sufferers out there, please.

I had to look up the Iroquois twist. The Iroquois twist. A sadly fictitious racist exercise movement. I feel like if you listen to Talking Critic, we go into great detail about the tomahawk chop, the Atlanta Braves, also racist kind of exercise. Don't give it to the Atlanta Braves.

That's my alma mater, Florida State. They invented it. Oh, man. That's where I went. I had a friend's mother hurt my arm because I was doing that as a child. I was staying over at a friend's place, and I grew up in Kansas City, and the Chiefs did that. And my friend's family were all big Broncos fans.

And so at breakfast one day, I started doing the chop thing, and she grabbed my arm and twisted it hard behind my back and sprained it. It hurt my arm, and I wasn't allowed to go to that friend's house anymore. Jesus. That's a good reason. Yeah. She was offended only from a sports position. I know. I was like, wow, that mom was pretty woke.

I must have heard. Just a Broncos fan. And also, yeah, I love his old school calisthenics, like lifting barbells or tossing medicine balls around. So you don't get sand kicked in your face. And this was the first time Burns is a Yale-y. You'd never seen a sign he was a Yale-y of someone who went to Yale. But he was wearing his Yale sweater, which would later be a plot point in Burns, Baby Burns with Rodney Dangerfield.

Going to the reunion. Yeah, we almost missed it in the bathroom scene. This era is very famous for its freeze frame jokes. And you see this for about two frames. The label on the toilet paper is bathroom tissue extra coarse. So Homer has barricaded himself in the bathroom. I also, this is my first viewing

where I noticed the stick figure on the door has an overbite. That's great. I did not notice that before. I wonder if that Yale bashing is just, it's those Harvard jerks making fun of Yale. They make the most evil guy a Yale-y. But so Homer is trying to get out of it.

This is where they introduce the idea of the disability, which I got to say, I have slightly political issues with it. Well, so look, there are people who abuse programs like disability. And there's been stories of lawsuits of people who are caught like well you said you were hurt at the job but here's video of you like running to uh something like you're fine one of my briefest jobs was filming those people for my friend's dad for real so i mean that's you're a class traitor i know i feel terrible but that so yes that stuff does happen i'm not saying it doesn't but i feel like especially the stance in here of saying like well this is a lottery for idiot for stupidity is it takes all the blame off of a job that actually is unsafe and should rightly be filed sued for disability and as we've seen in the past the nuclear plant is very unsafe you have to fight a spider at some point there should be many people who sue it for disability there was a sign that said careless workers above when he

was trying to get injured. Exactly, yeah. Maybe that covers Burns for lawsuits. Like, well, we did warn you, it's careless workers. And I also love the, I don't have the clip for it, but just the visual gag of Homer sliding through the plant and then being shoved back on the same

frictionless glide. Burns has a lot of energy to just shove a 239-pound man across the plant. That's how frictionless he is. I think the broomsticks in Springfield are very powerful. That's true. Homer learned his broomstick stuff from Burns. He's got a reaching cane in that scene. But I actually just went through this bit here where Homer discovers his obesity thing

where I'm now on my husband's insurance. And so filling it out, they have all these things of like do you have this do you have this and i swear one of them was like do you have carpal tunnel and i was like achy big pelvis no i could not say it carpal tunnel syndrome no lumber lung no jugglers despair no No. Achy breaky pelvis? No. Oh, I'm never going to be disabled. I'm sick of being so healthy. Hey, wait. Hyper obesity. If you weigh more than 300 pounds, you qualify as disabled.

So the cover of that pamphlet is a reference to a very specific case. Phineas Gage, he was a railroad worker who got an iron spike blown through his head in an explosion. They were blowing up rocks. Spike in my head. It exploded. Spike in my head. And it destroyed much of his left frontal lobe. And that case actually helps scientists discover

what the parts of your brain do because it changes personality. Because as you should know, your frontal lobe is where your reasoning and emotions and personality come from, not your lizard brain. So that's what that part of the brain does. brain don't put a spike in it yes avoid that at all costs the the inspirational pig is just so great he's like and the continuity that homer

since brush with greatness in season two has been officially 239 yes i'm 239 and i'm feeling fine i would take bill oakley just tweeted out the reference for that. And then he deleted it. But I found it. It was a National Lampoon cover. And that the pig was from Josh Weinstein, the other writer. He has he had like an 1890s hog feed bag that had that fancy pig on it. How did he delete that?

I don't know. Bill Oakley deleted all of his tweets from like over two months ago. Weird. He's destroying Simpsons history, Phil! Being a museum of tweets. And yeah, especially since you just saw that Netflix movie,

Stupid Fuel Gesture, I think you can see that cover in the movie. Oh, okay. I like that Bart is on board with Homer doing this and he wants to help him. I think it's nice when he's inspired by him instead when the joke isn't just like Homer is a terrible father to

Bart. You also know it's a bad idea if Bart is on board and willing to help. I like how he's only helpful to his father when it's something that's inherently damaging him. So I wonder, yeah, is it Bart likes to see Homer injure himself via obesity

or that he just is inspired by it? To get one over on the system, fake his own death. That's right. He will help him fake his own death. He also gets to eat all this trash food and everything. I remember as a kid one of my all-time favorite gags was the rubbing the, what was it, the fish filet on the wall and the actual wall becomes transparent. It's beautiful.

It's two great gags in one. It's glorious. Then the bird hits it. Empty vitamins is a good one from that scene too and the way lisa does a dramatic chair turn but in a beanbag chair is pretty great the scream is home or scream is it's different it's a new screen it's a new scream and the way homer like gilts are into not tattling on him to marge of just like, well, I guess I just care more about her than you do. But the visit to the two doctors is pretty fucking great. This is a long clip, but worth every second. Obesity is really

unhealthy. Any doctor will tell you that. Oh, yeah? Well, we'll just see about that, little miss smart guy. My God, that's monstrous. I've never heard of anything so negligent. I'll have no part of it. Can you recommend a doctor who will?

Yes. Hi, everybody. Hi, Dr. Nick. Now, there are many options available for dangerously underweight individuals like yourself. I recommend a slow, steady gorging process combined with acyl horizontology. Of course. You'll want to focus on the neglected food groups, such as the whipped group, the congealed group, and the chocotastic.

What can I do to speed the whole thing up, Doctor? Be creative. Instead of making sandwiches with bread, use Pop-Tarts. Instead of chewing gum, chew bacon. You could brush your teeth with milkshakes. Hey, did you go to Hollywood Upstairs Medical College, too? And remember, if you're not sure about something, rub it against a piece of paper. If the paper turns clear, it's your window to weight gain.

Bye-bye, everybody. I like that Dr. Nick is very much falling into his old role as an infomercial host, and Homer is very much the regular person they have on the show asking questions. So, Dr. Nick. And Hibbert kind of goes back and forth on safety because he's so aghast at this idea, but he seemed like almost giddy to hit him with a surgical 2x4 in the boxing episode. This episode really sums up Hibbert's role in Springfield is that he is the responsible

doctor, but for a joke he will still send you in a bad direction. He just won't directly do it himself. Or suck you into a tube. Yeah, also suck you into a tube if you can't pay for something. Also, asshole horizontology Asshole horizontology!

Chocolatastic. Yeah. And Hollywood Upstairs Medical College. Those are all like three in a row of some of my favorite things Dr. Nick has ever said. Yeah, I always use Upstairs Medical College to refer to a bad school or someone who had bad training. You went to Upstairs Medical College, too? That is the perfect response to somebody who did that. Oh, God.

But that he even has an office is a real step up for Dr. Nick, I have to say. Yeah, then we get a cool little montage of Homer's weight gain. And I like him, you know, those weight gain powders, the eating of all the sandwiches. Thank God this doesn't wake. The fake food. Ham Ahoy is my favorite, I think. Bill Oakley, the executive producer for this episode, loves Tub. And he imagines it as Oreo filling you eat with your hands.

And Uncle Jim's country filling, which I just ground up Jimmy Dean sausages. And don't forget, serve cold. Cheesus H. Rice. Jesus! That's pretty good. These are all great sign jokes. So did any of you guys, after hearing it on this episode, try to make a sandwich with Pop-Tarts?

No. I'm surprised they didn't, because that actually doesn't sound half bad. I'd not be up for it. Like a peanut butter sandwich, I think, would be all right with Pop-Tarts. Cookies and cream Pop-Tarts, maybe? Yeah, or strawberry Pop-Tarts with peanut butter in the middle. The Pop-Tarts are much more unhealthy now than they were in the 90s because they, it wasn't.

They weren't all frosted back in the day. No, now it's just, could you even, can you even buy unfrosted Pop-Tarts anymore? It's like frosting and sprinkles, but I will say that sounds better than the Twinkie Wiener sandwich from UHF. That's true.

I would not add meat to that equation is what I'm saying. Well, you're a dirty vegetarian as listeners know. Dave tried to recreate that when we did the commentary for UHF. Did he throw up all over the room? It turns out it's harder to find cheese in a squeezable cheese nowadays, especially in San Francisco. You can get an easy cheese still.

Go to Safeway on TerraVol. They've got plenty of easy cheese. I should have gone to Safeway. Trader Joe's is never going to accommodate that crap. There's got to be a bodega around here with a 30-year-old can of easy cheese somewhere covered in dust. Congratulations to the Dallas Cowboys. Enjoy the squeezy cheese. I also just love the montage.

All the like, Bart is looking at Homer with such admiration as he eats. Like you're doing it. And yeah, when he points out the nutrients, it's just such a little great animation thing of Homer winking at Bart as he starts eating around the banana. I think one of the greatest drawings is Homer triumphantly approaching the clerk with the weight gain powder in one hand.

He's like smiling so proudly. He's like, this is going to do it. Yeah, because Bart does start actually fantasizing about living that life himself with the great rag on a stick line. That's right. Yeah, he's that inspired by it. You mean my line of the show? Also, the fish sandwiches at McDonald's, they are a bit greasy, I will say but they would i would never get them i'm not a catholic so there's no reason nothing is not greasy but i will say another deep cut from oakley and weinstein back to season three

we have the phineas q butterfats 5600 flavors ice cream parlor last scene in homer alone i think it was in the background of the boy who knew too much i love that when they they say well the scene is at an ice cream parlor well we've he's definitely been to an ice cream parlor before we don't it also saves them a joke they don't have to make up a new funny name for an ice cream block just dig into the references uh and then we get homer's fantasy which this is another aspect of this episode that really gets me now more than when i was 10 or 14. The idea of what working from home is, the fantasy. Here's your lemonade and here's your beer. Oh, you're such a vigorous young go-getter.

When's your next coffee break? Anytime I want. Boom! Ow. Hey, Flanders. Bad day at the rat races? Yeah. A crazy guy shot a bunch of people and a subway ran over my hat. Yeah.

Hey, Lise, come look at this. Neat. Even Lise is into it. I'll say it. Working at this. Neat. Even Lisa's into it. I'll say it. Working from home, overrated. I think it's the best. But you don't work from home. I do.

You go work in a cafe, which is good. You can do the same thing, Chris. I can't, Francisco. Not with all this media horseshit. Buy a fucking laptop. No excuse. Powerful. Editing video and audio.

Fuck that. And besides that, working from home i find myself constantly making excuses like i don't think we have band-aids and then i go and annoy the lady at target by talking trying to start a conversation because i haven't spoken to a human being since the first person i spoke to at 1 p.m not having enough lemonade and beer yeah maybe you'd enjoy it more you're in the bad line at Monstromart. Oh, I hate working from home. And also, just in Homer's fantasy, Ned

has both the concerns of a 1960s office worker and a 1990s one of like, I'm afraid that there will be a mass shooting at my office from an disgruntled employee, but also my hat got run over. Oh, drats. A spree killer on the same level as your hat getting ruined is pretty funny.

At this point, is he at the Leftorium or is he doing something else? Oh, no. He's been in the Leftorium a long time. Homer is not thinking about the Leftorium in his fantasy. It sounds like he's thinking of the post office. And then also just the animation on Homer dancing by himself happily in his giant cloak. It looks like Marlon Brando in the Island of Dr. Moreau. Yeah, in his fantasy.

You're right. It is. Well, or just Marlon Brando in The Island of Dr. Moreau. Yeah, it's fantasy, you're right. Or just Marlon Brando in general when you see him. His glistening white suit. So he's trying to gain his last ounce. Okay, did any of us eat Play-Doh as kids? No. I think I tried it once just to see. I'm sure I bit it at least once.

I gotta know what it tastes like on a child. We made our own Play-Doh one time, which is just literally dough, and you can't eat it. They used to have the ones where you would pull the lever down and it would make spaghetti. I'm sure I tasted that at some point.

It does look delicious now that I think about it. I remember I didn't have it, but a friend had the one. It wasn't to make spaghetti, but it was the hair grows out of this guy's head. Play-Doh has an odd smell. Maybe put there on purpose so you don't eat it, but it's just like the thought. It's uncooked bread.

Yeah, I mean, I can think of the smell of Play-Doh, and I'm kind of gagging right now. But yes, Homer's getting some help from Play-Doh. Oh, honey, that looks just like a real donut. Dad, it says non-toxic. Well, that's a plus. I did it! Dad, towel rack. Oh, my.

So Homer actually gained 78 pounds. Not just 61. He's at 315 right now. Also, the callback to the Talrak great gag. And right before that, the Play-Doh gag is my favorite of the whole episode. It's non-toxic and his mouth is already full. That's a plus. And then also, I don't think, I'm sure I've eaten something that has tarragon in it,

but I have never purchased tarragon or know what it tastes like. Jesus, of course you have. It is an herb. Yeah, it's in a ton of Indian stuff. I'm sure I have some tarragon at home, I just never use it. The Sentence will be right back. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

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I suggest going to Shirtsickle.com and checking out the Talking Simpsons t-shirt, or you can find it at tiny.cc slash talking shirt. Designed by friend of the show, Nina Matsumoto, with the Talking Simpsons logo redone in the Ion Springfield style, and in a beautiful sky blue. You can check it out and get it for starting at $19.99. It's shipped somewhat internationally as well, and comes in tons of different sizes,

so be sure to wear it to live shows, perhaps the next time you see Talking Simpsons live. So check it out. Again, that's tiny.cc slash talking shirt. Hey, this is Hank Azaria. You're listening to Talking Simpsons on Laser Time. I didn't know that was a thing. And so, Homer is now officially working from home,

and we get some more fun Burns-isms. I'm pleased to dedicate this remote work terminal. It will allow our safety inspector here To perform his duties from home And so, excelsior to you Mr... What's the name of this gastropod? Simpson, sir, one of your chair moisteners from Sector 7G Yes, Simpson!

Thank you for your pity Mom, were you ever planning to step in And put a stop to this? Normally your father's cramp pot schemes fizzle out as soon as he finds something good on TV. But this season... I love the Smithers putting the handkerchief on Homer's shoulder so Burns does not have to touch him directly. Yes, and the employee worker newspaper headline was, Burns avoids Shut In.

I thought they were slamming Fox's new season. I wonder what it is because it is... I looked it up. Well, it was a bad season. It was the follow-up to Friends Being So Successful. Fox made like three Friends rip-off shows. Partners, Ned and Stacey,

there was Claygorn debuted. Oh, Claygorn. The Claygorn show the alan cleggorn show she left snl for her own show this i forgot that happened holy crap the single guy uh cbs's dweebs uh space above and beyond i will say single guy had ming na win on it she was good like all this stuff and there was also drew carey show and jag yeahG. But on NBC where they canceled it. But we also talked about this a little bit in our season six wrap-up that the guy who canceled The Critic was also the guy hired by Fox to make it NBC. They're like, we're tired of being sexy Fox or the racy Fox. We need normal shows.

The joke was written like eight months ago so but they did predict like almost everything introduced was canceled that year well they all work in hollywood let's have a moment of silence for models inc didn't make it past the summer i thought my first watch of the episode i thought marge was commenting it was a self deprecating joke by the writers of like in this season of The Simpsons, Homer is being written worse. That was how I read it at first, but I think more so it's them saying, this box sucks, and the TV

has gotten so bad it can't even distract an idiot like Homer. Homer hits to the fat store, which... Wait, I want to comment on the computer. Oh, yes. Because that computer is about ten years out of date. My theory is that, well, one, Burns is cheap and got a cheap computer couldn't but two if it was a good computer then homer wouldn't do his job he would just surf the

even in 1995 he'd surf the windows 95 came out last year and i haven't i have when was the last time you saw a green screen computer we never had one it's that old maybe like 86 i had one yeah i'm like a friend of mine had one. Played Lode Runner on it. So when did tech catch up? Because the whole run that I watched, they never had smartphones. There were very few references to the internet. Maybe later on, like season 12, 13. But now, I don't watch it anymore, but I know they have smartphones and everything.

So when was that turn where they actually were like, fuck it, all right, sure. I think in season 9's DOS bus, that's when they actually were like fuck it all right sure i think in season nine's dos bus that's when they first get a computer and homer wants to start an internet business and bill gates buys him out so i think that's the first time they actually had an internet ready computer in the house yeah but it was a one-off i think even on the commentaries into the teens they said they fought the idea of just having lisa open up her laptop and find an answer to something and then they felt i think too was when they they kept with it being stuff got more affordable i think in the 90s they

thought like well the simpsons are supposed to be upper lower middle class they can't afford a personal computer that's too expensive i shouldn't have obsessed over that joke but i did because it doesn't even it looks like it looks simpsonified but an old-timey computer and i went looking up models nothing looks like that. Well, I mean, when I worked at a college campus in the early 2000s, we used a very similar kind of workstation to look up records. And it only had that information, and it was all green. If you watch that Rock-A-Fire Explosion documentary,

those Chuck E. Cheese robots still operate on floppy disk systems. But I always imagined it was the writers trying to take that away from the show. It keeps, when I was catching up on Seinfeld, like every episode, every dilemma can be solved by a cell phone. Yep. Every single one. It's really hard to get into wacky accidents now when you can just immediately text somebody like, oh, what happened? My parents are going to be there and I don't know what to do. I've got to pick them up.

Call them. Call them. Just call them. That's why I only read old mystery novels, like pre-computer mystery novels. Because now, like, how can you even write a mystery? Art's not going to find it immediately. Or a surveillance camera. So they go to the fat store and the vast waistband, Bob, that is a reference to something.

Is it not? Something specific. It's a direct reference to a 1961 speech by the FCC chairman at the time, Newton N. Minow. It was called Television in the Public Interest, and it was really just him complaining like, there's nothing but talk shows and game shows on TV. It's terrible. But this clip has the line, The Vast Wasteland. When television is bad, nothing is worse.

I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland. What a funny guy. Have you even seen Gilligan's Island? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. I hate his opening. When television is bad, nothing is worse.

Maybe war? There are people alive who remember life without television. All their friends are dead in Korea now. Sounds like something Homer would say. So this is like a real reference-heavy scene. So we have some figures Homer passes with the guy as they're looking at clothes. The first one is Robert Earl Hughes. He lived from 1926 to 1958, was the heaviest human in

recorded history during his lifetime, at 1,069 pounds. That was beat by John Minock. He lived from 41 to 83, and he weighed 1,400 pounds, but is also on record for having lost the most weight at 923 pounds. Holy shit. So he lost

almost 1,000 pounds in his lifetime. And then he got down to just 400 pounds. Yes. And Oakley and Weinstein... I can't lose these love handles. Some guy lost 900 pounds of those. He lost a baby elephant. Jesus. Oakley and Weinstein explain, like, when you were a kid in the 70s, you would just read the Guinness

Book of World Records, so you know all these things. But Henry, I think you can explain the second set of twins that show up a few times. Those are the McGuire twins, very famous for their photograph riding Honda motorcycles, which look tiny under them. And they are technically professional wrestlers. Technically. I mean, I don't know, Dan, you're also a big wrestling fan.

You know that they, you've heard the stories of them as wrestlers, which is really like they would stand, they could maybe stand. Honestly, I just knew them from the photo in like the Guinness book and stuff like that. I never knew that they were wrestlers. Were they just like Territory Day guys? Oh, yeah, Territory Day guys, they go to Territory to Territory. It's just a spectacle, just like Andre the Giant of like, you weren't going to see a good match, but you'd never see a man that two men, twins.

They don't hold the record for biggest, fattier, smallest motorcycle or best mustache. It's like it always involves the pair of them. Yeah, heaviest twins. There never will be heavier twins than them. I don't think so. But, of course, they were a carnival act, especially even in the 70s. Pro wrestling was a carny business. And I didn't know they were

wrestlers until on a jim ross podcast he told a story about working with them wow 70s and he said that he saw them in the showers it was a sight to see i bet and you know one of them died 20 years before the other one i'd be pissed if i was the other guy like we had an act here you died you did in a motorcycle accident too oh you're right yeah the other one, like, we had an act here. You died, you dick. In a motorcycle accident, too. Oh, my God, really? Yeah, the other one. He died in, one of the brothers died in 1979 from a motorcycle accident. The other lived to 2001 and died from the much more predictable heart failure. Yeah, I was going to say.

I assume that one guy just took out whoever was in the car that collided with him or whatever. But Jim Ross said in the showers, you know, they were regular sports shower, locker room showers. He said that they loved those because they needed three shower heads next to each other to wash themselves properly. I think they just didn't need a prison shower room to just run around in a circle, you know. Well, run, I mean. Oh, well, I guess roll. They'd ride the motorcycle around in circles. Oh, my God.

That could have been part of their act. Though I did feel subtweeted still by this joke as a heavy man who works with computers. I'm looking for something loose and billowy. Something comfortable for my first day of work. Work, huh? Let me guess. Computer programmer? Computer

magazine columns? Something with computers. Well, I use a computer. Well, this connection must be the non-stop sitting and snacking. Well, sir, many of our clients find pants confining, so we offer a range of alternatives for the ample gentleman. Ponchos, muumus, capes, jumpsuits, union sheets, muslin body rolls, academic and judicial robes. I don't want to look like a weirdo.

I'll just go with a muumu. Yes, so Bill Oakley and the writer David S. Cohen collected pictures of computer columnists from computer magazines at the time, so that's how this joke got in. It's like, they all know that they're all kind of big. Yeah, yeah, I believe that. Well, I'm bigger than Everest from working from home. Though it's not exactly that case in the video game magazine writing world.

No. They were a little skinnier. Yeah, in fact, one guy, i won't say who he is i was at an event i was like your posture is too good to be a video game writer like you were a fraud sir but i also just love the pride homer has leaving that place wearing a dress like he he doesn't care that everyone is gaping at him of like look at this giant man in a dress this is insane and i homer doesn't care i did dig into the etymology of muumuu yeah it means cut off in hawaiian because there's no like yoke piece that's stitched around the neck so it has a very loose neck i see i was gonna say

otherwise not very sensitive to ladies like my mother who wear them constantly they're nice outfits i feel like homer's a trailblazer and men wearing mooboo let's name it after the only thing a cow says that's you know maybe not the best thing for a heavy set individual as long as you don't buy it at dress barn i think you're okay and just the the design on it is perfect the the flower floral pattern i remember i don't know if they still sell it but at one time in threadless's Simpsons shirt collection, they just had a shirt that was just that pattern. Like, it didn't have a joke on it. And I wish that fat guy clerk would come back.

He did not return, though. I mean, why would they return to the vast waistband? It really is Harry Shearer doing the Charles Bronson guy, almost. Yeah. Is it the same as the, like, fridge too far? Is it that guy? Yeah. Well, yeah, it's the same intonation, but a different actor.

Yeah, a different flavor of Bronson. And I just love, then you get the animation of Homer jumping out of bed, and Marge doing her best to deal with this unhappy situation of Homer becoming hugely obese. And just the animation of his happy jump out of bed in his underpants is just like, it's so good. In this next scene, I have worked from home most of my life because of the different jobs I do, and I think of this scene whenever a girlfriend or a roommate is leaving for the day, and I'm just still playing video games or having coffee and just relaxing. I feel this every morning now.

On a pine in the sky with a morning commute, traffic this morning is as bad as it gets. Due to a fire at the army testing lab, a bunch of escape infected monkeys are roaming the expressway. Despite the sweltering heat, don't unroll your windows because those monkeys seem confused and irritable. I pity those poor suckers

on the freeway. Gas break hog. Gas break hog. Hog hog punch. Gas gas gas. I don't know how you feel, Dan, about commutes, but when Henry and I left our jobs recently, we got like two hours of our day back, and those two hours are glorious. Just like, these are mine.

You know, I actually kind of like it, because my entire day is just spent staring at screens of some description, so when I take the subway, it's just kind of a second to where, like, I know I could be on my phone, or I could bring my Switch along, but I don't even listen to podcasts or anything. I just kind of sit there, and it's just this nice little built-in

30 minutes to and from that I can just sit there and just kind of be a human being for a second. I kind of see it as a break of sorts. The only thing I miss is having time to read. It's the time I can get all my reading done, but I can find time for that.

Dan, you love the subway as an authentic New Yorker. Yes. Famous New Yorker, Dan Riker. He's always telling people where he's walking, I've heard. Here. Yes. Yeah, I hate driving. I grew up in the Midwest, and in Kansas and Minnesota, you had to drive everywhere. And so starting with San Francisco, I sold my car and then being able to take the Muni

and then now the subway, I actually like it way, way more. Yeah, I feel like if I ever were to move out of a city, I don't know where, other than New York in America, I don't know where else I would live that I could count on

not needing to own a car. I don't know, Martin, Atlanta, and the Chicago train. I think most of our listeners think we're all freaks because none of us own a car in this recording. None of us.

I even was looking at like, so if I move back to Florida and like, oh, I think most of our listeners think we're all freaks because none of us own a car in this recording. None of us. I even was looking at like, so if I move back to Florida and like, oh, whatever I'd save on my rent in San Francisco, I'd put into a car and insurance. Yes. It's ridiculous. I thought about it the same theoretically with moving to L.A. that if I ever moved to, say, L.A. for a, if I got hired to be the new writer on The Simpsons, I'd have to buy a car and learn how to drive again. I haven't driven a car in 10 years, and I do not miss it one bit. You don't want to drive in Southern California. I've done it.

That's why I don't drive anymore. Yeah, Dan, how real is this to you in the work-from-home stuff? I mean, it can be a pain in the ass. Like the subway, there's all there's all sorts of delays and everything, or you're shoulder to shoulder, or, you know, there's some horrible thing happened, or the police are at some station, so there's delays and stuff. So it is kind of a pain in the ass. But, yeah, I only work from home one day a week. So Tuesday is my day where I just kind of, like, play games at home and get stuff prepped for Giant Bomb.

And I do like Tuesdays a lot. I just don't know if I could do it every day. Because even on, like, Tuesdays, I kind of feel like I have to get out and at least, like, I'll take the dog to the park or walk along the river for a little bit. If I sit around the house too much, I start to get a little bit antsy. Patton Oswalt said this joke that he's, like, working on his laptop is difficult

because his work machine is also his entertainment and pornography machine. It's true. If I could go back to a tabless browser, I think I'd get a lot more work done. Well, you know, speaking of computers, I've got to say, and tabs, this gag defined geek jokery about computers in the 90s. I heard this, I think, probably on every morning DJ show when they do a joke about computers in the 90s. I heard this, I think, probably on every morning DJ show when they do a joke about computers. To start, press any key.

Where's the any key? I see ESC, Kataro, and pickup. There doesn't seem to be any any key. All this computer hacking is making me thirsty. I think I'll order a tab. Nope, no time for that now. starting check core temperature yes slash no yes core temperature normal not too shabby vent radioactive gas no Venting prevents explosion This is hard Where's my tab?

Okay then, yes, vent the stupid gas So that any key line How many millions of people made that their Windows 95 startup sound? Millions It would be that Or a quote from Mitchell The episode of MST3 Mitchell

Any prompt on his computer that actually requires him to say no? No, he needs a yes for everything. I wonder if that was like Smithers or whoever made the program idiot-proofing it, just like, all you have to do is hit Y. It's very much

like Homer's job turning the windmill. It could easily be replaced by a mechanism, a very simple mechanism, as we see later in this episode. Or Desmond from Lost. Though also that Homer is still a nuclear safety technician. That's still officially his job in this episode.

And that his job at work is just like, well, then just make sure this one thing vents. That's all you gotta do. It's a lot of responsibility for one idiot, though. Yeah, well, especially as we will see later, nobody cares if he's, nobody's monitoring him. They just assume Homer's doing it right. It's his

problem. And I love, this, I think, might be the line of the episode in this clip. So yeah, let's play the jingle. That's the joke. I need to have to go to school while I get to stay home. Nya-nya-nya-nya-nya.

I like school. Well, why don't you live in it then? I would if I could. Not me, sister. When I grow up, I want to be a lardo on workman's comp just like Dad. I wash myself with a rag on a stick. Eww, Mom! That's one of the most perfect laughs the show has ever given me.

He becomes Southern. Also, we need to make a list of the Bart fantasies that are dark and awful, but he thinks are cool. Yes, this is at the top. Along with Drifter or dying, oh no wait that wasn't his. Bang Bang Bart? Yeah, Bang Bang Bart was Homer's fantasy. Yeah, that's right. But just his, yeah, they become

Southern, which they point out on the commentary that when Lisa fantasizes about being fat as married to Ralph Wiggum in the Dumbening episode she also gets a Southern accent. They're not kind toiggum in the Dumbening episode. She also gets a southern accent. They're not kind to her friends in the South. I tried to look it up,

but if you were growing up around this period, this is clearly based on all those news reports of that really fat guy. You can't get out of bed and not even wear a shirt. I have such a vivid memory. Yeah, you can't get out of bed. It needs a forklift to go to the doctors. The thousand pound man.

Eventually, it was like half of TLC's programming. I was going to go to the doctors. The Thousand Pound Man. Eventually, that was like half of TLC's programming. I was going to say The Learning Channel about the mid-aughts. I was obsessed with the shows about the ultra-obese people

and their lives. It just became the freak show network in general. It really was. Although they were like, no, these are documentaries. Like, no, they're not.

No, they're not. Why does that guy sit like that? It looks like his legs are just poking out of a trash heap. I just got a wash myself with a rag on the seat. It's the applause.

The applause. They're so proud of him. Like, yay! It's like polite applause. And the great animation on Bart, current day, miming washing himself, including the last one is the washing of his butt and then pointing it at Lisa. Threatening Lisa with an invisible stick.

I didn't get a clip for it, but I do love Marge's little... I love the implication that at one time Homer had a detective agency because he bought a Sherlock Holmes hat and just being laughed at once with that made him quit his detective agency. And that Marge recognizes

she has different flavors of a nagging voice which I think that's the writer saying like, yeah, Marge recognizes she has different flavors of a nagging voice, which I think that's the writer saying, like, yeah, Marge just always nags Homer in these. We've got to get away from that or at least have her recognized. Those are all great different readings of Homer of Julie Kavner. Yeah, it's great. They're all very different, but the last one is the least nagging one. Homer of the three.

It's hard not to be on Marge's side in this in the pros and cons. I know Homer is the fun hero in this, but she is very right. Homer, we need to have a serious talk. You dragged me all the way from work for that. Let's quietly and calmly discuss the pros and cons of your controversial plan, shall we? Con, you're endangering your health. Pro, I'm drought and famine resistant. Con, you're setting a bad example for the children.

Pro, I don't have to go to work. Con, you're setting a bad example for the children. Pro, I don't have to go to work. Con, you're running the air conditioner nonstop. It's freezing in here. Pro, uh, uh, I love you. Con, I'm finding myself less attracted to you physically. Marge, this is everything I've ever dreamed of Right here And nobody's gonna take it away from me

You never had faith in me before But let me tell you The slim lazy homer you knew is dead Now I'm a big fat dynamo And where's that cake? There's no cake I really wish that was the act break if i go back and change this episode this great episode if i would dare change it yeah well i mean the explosion is

a good tension for an act break too but yeah just i love how homer homer says and nobody's gonna take it away from me he's like hugging his fat like you're not taking my fat for me it's beautiful the phrase big fat dynamo has stuck with me for a while. Big fat dynamo! It gave him confidence. It is great that Homer's body actually made him being more unhealthy gave him more confidence. It's pretty great.

For some reason when he said big fat dynamo I thought that it was going to go into the fantasy of him being huge and golden but which episode is that? I can't remember which one that was. That's in Dog of Death when Homer imagines what the lottery winnings would do for him. Right. Look closer, Lenny. Look closer.

All hail King Homer. He's so, his pride, it's just great. Though also Marge's flat saying, like, there's no cake. And then Homer, though Homer doesn't eat any, again, we never see him eating stuff. He should be eating all the time, but they don't want, like, he needs to eat to just maintain that level of fatness, I would say. You need this slow, steady gorging process. I think it was about giving Homer some dignity, though,

not making it, like, nonstop fat jokes. I also like that I missed it a little earlier, but when Lisa says, I would if I could, like, the way she kind of squints when she says it, just like, ouch. Like, ouch. It hurts. Quite a barb. Yeah. And the drinking bird appears, who we last saw in Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?

Drinking the water! Drinking the water! In another season three reference is Search for the Sun, the soap opera, which we played in the beginning of the episode. We had not seen the soap opera Search for the Sun since. Homer Defined. And yeah, it was great.

But this is the real working from home stuff of just like, alright, no one's watching me. I could just slack off and watch garbage. Or I'm playing too much attention to the dog or or the mail the mail is here so one thing i've trained myself to do when working from home never turn on the tv for any reason before five o'clock but my phone is a tv no i know everything's cheating totally cheating vent radioactive gas y-E-S. Sound alertness horn?

Y-E-S. Decalcify calcium ducts? Well, give me a what? Give me a... Hey, all I have to type is Y. Hey, Miss doesn't find me attractive sexually anymore. I just tripled my productivity. Good, good for you.

Y? Y? Let's see, so many letters to choose from. I'll pick Y. I just tripled my productivity. Good, good for you. Why? Why? Let's see, so many letters to choose from. I'll pick... Why? Why? Why? What the heck are you doing over there?

There, you found a floor. Why, why, why? Why? Why? Why? I'm going out. I run errands during the day. Could you pick me up a lemonade and a beer?

Poor Homer. Then the tension, yeah, it is. The lemonade and a beer shows you Homer's fantasy is dead now. And they don't really talk about it too much, but part of his fantasy was spending time with Marge. He wanted to spend more time with Marge. And dancing and snuggling and all those things. And now Marge is He wanted to spend more time with Marge. Dancing. And dancing and snuggling and all those things. And now Marge is

completely turned off to him. Just like her. It is a little too real of like the tension of when you're having a fight with somebody you live with. It's just like, I'm going out to run errands. Like, okay. Cool. Please come back. Please come back.

There is a thing that's great about working from home. Errands. Remember having to do all your errands at like 7.30 at night? Or if you're... Well, I've found with errands, I'm like, well, I really need to complete this thing for work. But, I mean, this laundry has to be washed. You can just procrastinate through doing errands, I've found. The mail is here, too.

Nothing gets me more excited than when I've received an Amazon package in the mail. The mail! The mail is here! An urgent plea from Edward James Olmos. Lisa Simpson, can you afford to miss another issue of the Utney Reader? Kids. Free sample of fabric softener? Woo-hoo!

I can feel three kinds of softness. Dad, what are you doing down there? Watching my fat guy hat, honey. So the fat guy hat, two guys wore that hat. Yes. Dom DeLuise and Paul Prudhomme, the Cajun chef, the guy who always said, I guarantee. I always thought that was Dom DeLuise on those shaker bottles. I'm sure Dom DeLuise is on some shaker bottles at some point in his life, but yeah.

When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care did i mention that we care i don't know the point of that maybe to distract the the viewer to make you look at the fun hat on your head i don't know make them like if you're looking up at the top of their head not at the below the jawline at their weight if you watch some like serious 70s movies that hat was

totally popular in the 70s and some some people just didn't let it go. It was just a cool hat, but Fat Guy stuck to it. Then Homer defines it as his Fat Guy hat. Yeah. I'm washing my Fat Guy hat. And also, it's the only thing he washes. He didn't wash anything else. I've never used fabric softener, by the way.

I don't know if you can feel. Did your mom not believe in it, like Milhouse? Pretty much, yeah. I mean, it was just a waste. We would just, look look we had the we had the fat well i mean are the things you put in the dryer sheets or that is that fabric softener also okay then we did use it and the got any reader is real i'm just learning this yeah yeah it's for well i love that homer thinks it's the name of it's like a funny made-up kids word like

oh it's highlights or whatever but it is a very serious magazine of record on politics and pop culture but i think you had some edward james almost wisdom for us yes so if you're wondering when edward james almost made pleas which he is a very charitable actor here is him in the 80s doing one of his pleas for help more than a million kids at over 1100 boys clubs across america are beating the streets doing something positive with their lives for them the boys club. We need your help. Support your local boys club. Remember that commercial with the hands and all?

I do. Denzel Washington does them now. That is a sinister re-like. I know. Support the boys club or I'll fucking kill you. Or I'll finger you, kid. Not turn you in. Don't go stoolie I know. Support the boys club or I'll fucking kill you. Or I'll finger you, kid. My time, you're in. Don't go stoolie on me.

Support the boys club. Well, I mean, he also had made, I mean, one of his films, Stand and Deliver, was kind of about don't join a gang, learn math. Like, that was the point of it. It might have been the first one of those, the Teacher's Day to See Inner City Schools. I had to watch eight million of those in schools. Like, they make those to show on rainy days at schools like that's that's what it's for the one more thing about getting the mail excitement is that is echoed in a later mission hill episode in which andy is unemployed

and if you think work from home sucks unemployment is the dark side of that i've been unemployed a lot in my life and i will tell you that is like the again the dark side of working from home what if you work from home it had no obligations and everyone thought you were a loser i'm conflating the two i'm conflating the two just when when i got laid off like there was a little bit what do i do now and then like i noticed all of my behavior is like an excited dog my girlfriend comes in at six o'clock hey hey hey we got mail we got mail and then and then we can go watch this and i haven't talked to anybody yet i also love the bit of homer gives up even doing anything he will watch a soap opera and just smack his computer with a broom because

he can't get up to press why i gotta say uh that broom is much like goku's uh power stick or whatever it can extend across the room there's no way that broom is long enough to reach across the room and hit the window but i'll hit the y key from that trajectory and uh this is i mean them looking at him through a window is also a reference to another famous large individual, the woman who played the mother in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Oh, you're right. What's your dad's job again? He's a nuclear safety technician.

What's he doing with that broom? What isn't he doing? I heard that guy's ass has its own congressman. Hey, leave my dad alone. Just because he's overweight doesn't mean he's bad. He's a sweet man and he has real feelings.

Hey, what are you kids looking at? Hey, look. He's trying to get up to yell at us. Don't make me close that shade. Don't make me close that shade. I also like that Bart says nuclear. Yeah, the easy read on that is great. Does Homer say that?

Yeah, he said it other times. Sometimes he says nuclear correctly, sometimes not. That's nuclear. But, you know, Jimbo deserves to high five. That was a very writerly joke. He could have been on Frickin' Standa. He could have been on Pardon My Zinger. But that reminds me, I meant to say it during the bit about Marge saying it's freezing in there. Whenever I think of a place that's too cold, I think of that story they tell a million times of

David Letterman would have his studio freezing when they would film. I've read that in like 18 different biographies. Yeah, he would reference that all the time on the show, too. I think it wasn't just that he sweated a lot. It was that I think he thought it would keep the people on edge. My understanding is that when you're not filming, all studios are extremely cold because when the lights turn on, it heats up the room by double.

Well, yeah, you're under a heat lamp, really. That's what those lights are for. I also love that the... So he goes to see Honk If You're Horny. And this was confirmed for us by Bill Oakley. This was intentional. So Faye Dunaway is starring in Honk If You're Horny with Pauly Shore, which is way below her station as an Oscar-winning actress, so she's done a lot of bad movies. The reason they do that is because they had asked her to be a guest voice.

Bill Oakley didn't say what the role they had for her, but they asked her to be a guest voice, and she turned them down in an unfriendly manner, apparently. She really did. I mean, in 1995, Pauly Shore would be headlining a movie, and Faye Dunaway would be in a Pauly Shore movie,

because she was very hard to work with. Yes, if she was given a paycheck for it, she probably would have done it. So, but she did, she's in a mystery science theater movie this, in the last season of it, Avalanche. That was a Roger Corman film. She is an Oscar winning actress. She should not be in a

Roger Corman film. If you listen to Talking Critic, wasn't this the era in which she was going to be in Sunset Boulevard musical? Yes. And they had to shut it down. They lost millions of dollars because she couldn't sing. She couldn't sing good enough. Yeah. There were two jokes in The Critic about that, in case you're wondering what the hell they're talking about. So this is kind of mean to Faye Dunaway.

But, you know, say yes to The Simpsons. You should be so lucky that The Simpsons will watch you, I guess. Especially in, like, the mid-90s. Yeah, when he's too busy playing Chevy Chase's wife. Well, he said the problem they always had is if the actor or actress they want doesn't have kids or grandkids, they could never get that. They could almost never get them.

If they got somebody old, they're like, well, my grandkids will like this. That was the secret. But I've got to say, A Fridge Too Far, I don't think is that funny. I guess The voice doesn't. Oh, gee. Just a minute. I have to check with the manager. That overweight guy wants to see the movie.

I'm terribly sorry, sir, but I'm afraid our facilities are not equipped to meet your needs. What are you talking about? What I'm saying, sir, is that a man of your carriage couldn't possibly fit in our seats. I could sit in the aisle. I'm afraid that would violate the fire code. Hey, fatty, I got a movie for you. A fridge too far. Shame on all of you. Give me my dignity. I just came here to see Honk if you're horny in peace sir if you just quiet down i'd be happy to treat you to a garbage bag full of popcorn just may surprise you but you can't buy me off with food i'm sick of all your stereotypes and cheap jokes the overweight

individuals in this country are just as smart and talented and hard-working as everybody else and they're gonna make their voices heard all they need is a leader i like that bit because it implies the third act is going to be about Homer leading a fat rights group or a body image group instead. So you think part three is going to be Homer leading a group of overweight individuals

but instead it will take a complete left turn after that. Maybe that was in the original outline for this episode until they added the explosion, more exciting explosion part of it. I like it because if you're an obsessive fine-tooth comb nerd, what about a fridge too far? It's got the Bronson guy, but it comes from off screen, then you clearly see it's a pet shop guy.

He's standing there. So it wasn't ADR, though. I wonder if he had a different Bronson voice line because they hold on Homer almost too long. Yeah. This actually reminds me of a real-life incident maybe four or five years ago with the director Kevin Smith. Yeah. Who was very angry he had to buy a second seat on a plane because of his largeness.

And I don't know how that resolved, but he made a huge think about it. He made a special out of it. Well, his insistence was that he has fit in those seats before that he is not too big for them and that they were being discriminatory to him saying that he wouldn't fit in those seats but he has since lost a lot of weight anyway yes though it's hard to tell i mean what his weight is that because he's so just billowy his clothes those jorts make him look even bigger homer should have gone with jorts and a hockey jersey. That should have been a good idea.

I don't know why he still insists on dressing like a shrunken kid. That's what he's comfortable in. Like in 1992. Yeah, he does. Like John Cena let himself go. Yes, exactly. I love that he got tired of wearing his, like, branded, like a King's jersey. Not a King's jersey.

New Jersey Devils. He'd wear that. He's like, no, I can just make my own hockey jerseys. tired of wearing his like branded like a king's not a king's jersey new jersey devils you wear that he's like no i can just make my own hockey jerseys and sell them to people i'll be the universe ones he knows how to merchandise himself he does but yeah the i i also love the acting on the manager that is very manager speaky of like sir if you would please like it. Appeasing him with a garbage bag full of popcorn. I don't know. That's pretty nice. He doesn't have to give him any food. You work at a movie theater.

Garbage bags full of popcorn were your trade. Yeah, actually, I dealt with a lot of garbage bags full of popcorn in my day. Didn't smell so great when they were mixed with soda that people throw away. That scent, yeah, sorry, Dan. Did you ever work at a movie theater? Do you know that scent? Oh, yeah. I worked at an amc from about 99 to 2003 i was a supervisor for the olathe kansas one yeah yeah man i got up to i believe i got up to supervisor assistant manager was next on the

list after that i did not get that far i got demoted at some point and then quit uh yeah i think 2003 no yeah no i quit at the start of 2004 because i remember the week i quit the last film that came out was the passion of the christ so i remember it was february of 04 i have to eat popcorn at the movies and one time a friend told me you know how much that really costs and i'm like you know what they don't have a microwave here for me to use to bring my own bags okay i mean all the food is a rip, but it is like a nickel of popcorn. But the smell of fresh popcorn is great, but when people throw away the

popcorn they didn't finish along with their soda they didn't finish, it is a very distinct smell that I will never forget and nauseates me to this day. And happy eating cheap hot dogs. Yeah. Which I'm shocked somebody wouldn't finish those hot dogs. I'm like, that is a $6 hot dog you bought.

Like, eat the entire hot dog. Now we go to Alamo Drafthouse and order entire dinners during the movie. This is not about Homer standing up for overweight individuals. It is that he has failed and the core is about to explode. And I love the act break on him saying, Flanders. But he failed to get Flanders' help. But Homer tries every fix. This is so great that they check off a box pretty much of,

okay, what's everything Homer could do before going to the plants? And they kind of deal with them all here. Oh, my God. The plant's going to explode. Hey, that thing's going caca cuckoo. Who cares? It's Homer's problem. Wait, I know. Vent gas. Pressure too high.

Tank must be shut down manually. Oh, stupid bird. I never should have put you in charge. Why you... Who am I kidding? It's all my fault. I gotta call the plant and warn him The fingers you have used to dial Are too fat To obtain a special dialing wand

Please mash the keypad with your palm Now So yeah, Oakley and Weinstein got the official voice Of the phone company Who was previously seen in the first episode of Home Sweet Home She's the one who says you negligent bastard. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Wow, that's the real person.

Joe Kenley, the real woman. They flew her in just for that line. That's dedication. And now, I don't know, kids today, they don't hear any of that. They don't make a phone call. You don't hear that voice anymore. You will miss automated voice messaging. I miss it too. Jokes about excuse me stuff.

That reminds me of, remember that viral video of the person who got a ride from an Uber or Lyft driver and they say oh do you know who this guy is? And he goes, you've got mail. It's like it's the you got mail guy. He's my Lyft driver. Which also tells you like there's no

IOL did not give him a pension for saying you got mail one time. He's also the door-opening guy. He opened that door when your buddy signed on. If it wasn't for rag on a stick, this next bit would be my favorite line of the episode. This is, I love Homer's sign of give me a ride or everybody dies. Everybody gonna sell your car now?

Let me in because I'm a big fat guy and I can't go anywhere because there's gonna be some poison gas. I mean, there's gonna be really poison gas. Everybody's gonna be dead, especially me. The ice cream man. Hey buddy, you gonna let me in your car and drive me to New York? Take anything you want, man. Take it all. Hey buddy, you gonna let me in your car and drive me to New York?

Some asshole in our community named himself what Homer says. And we have to read his name out every week. It took a while to get it that his name was Hey buddy, can I have your car? In case you missed it, this is the Fudge Brothers ice cream truck. Which is a new sign. Sounds like a Brooklyn slur for homosexuals.

Kind of. Kind of. It does. Dan Gaslanetta is acting on saying all that stuff fast in the Homer voice. It of. Kind of. It does. I just love it. Dan Gaslanet is acting on saying all that stuff fast in the Homer voice. It's so great too. And just the visual of him breaking every mode of conveyance he can find.

Just this sweaty large man in a dress saying like, come on, give me a ride. Well, I just love the immediacy of Lisa saying that he's not some food crazed maniac immediately pulling up just like scarfing down raspberry ice cream. Having stolen an ice cream truck. The world

Lisa all she wants to do is fight stereotypes and say these stereotypes are real and reality just smashes and you're like nope here's their stereotype it's very real. At some point it's implied that Homer stopped the ice cream truck to get ice cream and then got up out of the seat and started up again.

This is the one time he eats anything post-gating weight. But yeah, I also love Ralph's joke. I heard your dad went into a restaurant and ate everything in the restaurant and they had to close the restaurant. Hey, my dad may have gained a little weight, but he's not some kind of food-crazed maniac. Oh, the trash berry. What's right?

I love when he first leaves the house, and he says, like, Fat, don't fail me now, and he jumps in the car, and they just immediately, like, all the tires collapse. It's like when he raises the landing gear when he's flying the plane in that other episode. Yes, you're flying. I also love that he did add a cape to his fat guy hat. So, Moo Moo, fat guy hat, and cape. It's so beautiful.

And, yeah, I also wanted to compliment a wonderful artist who we met at our live show. Maddie C., or, oh, that's Raspberry, is her handle on Twitter. Oh, my God. Raspberry is her handle That makes perfect sense On Twitter Oh my god But O-H Well actually it's the letter O Then that's Raspberry on Twitter Thank you for the taser face Yeah that was great She has drawn

Multiple cool versions of Homer In that art style But the first one she did Was Moo Moo Homer Eating the ice cream And it was great I would totally I retweet her art every now and then.

Her Simpsons art especially is great. You should give her a follow. She also does the art for Talking Futurama, which you might be hearing at this point in time. That's right. Who knows? Yeah, it's great. If not, coming soon.

Thank you, Maddie. Oh, and I want to get a shout out to whoever made one of my favorite sugar, sugar memes with the ice cream truck sequence. Oh! My dad's not just some sugar crazed maniac, and you can guess how it ends. Simpsons shit posting is the greatest. It really is. Not until my fourth viewing of this as a kid did I realize, oh, this is a countdown. This is the countdown clock that technically is not connected to anything.

It's very clever. I love how clever it is. Rookies, please, there'll be time for the frozen pudding wagon later. You still owe me ten more Iroquois twists. Ten, hi-ya-ya, and nine, hi-ya-ya.

Get away, damn it! Run for your lives! I'll take a rocket, Bob! What can I get for 30 cents? Let go! I gotta take a rocket bomb! What can I get for 30 cents? Let go! I gotta get to the cage! Heck, I can't decide without the pictures. That slow-moving truck climbing the cooling tower

was improbable, but also great. There's a person on the side that crashes. They kind of don't draw when he crashes. They're like, no, but also great. So there's a person on the side that crashes. They kind of don't draw when he crashes. They're like, no, Homer killed someone. But he saved so many, so I think it was forgiven in court. I love that almost childlike replies of all of them, but especially like, what can I get for 40 cents? I can't get anything for the ice cream truck.

But Homer is so driven here. He is trying to save everybody and i i also though love his his wish that he had his reaching broom which i think we all have had that wish at one time stupid switch i wish i had my reaching broom wait a minute. It probably is. What I love about that Homer line is we don't know what his backup plan is, and I really want to know what he was going to say before he was blown into the air. Also, the gas blowing him into the air as he rotates like Sonic the Hedgehog is great.

Yeah, that's true. It's beautiful animation, and that's a very sitcom thing. You think Homer will have realized a new thing, and that's going to in that the, yeah, that's a very sitcom thing that you think Homer will have realized a new thing and that's going to be the fix. Because you're like, oh wait, there's probably a second shutdown valve or there's probably something somewhere. But his realization doesn't matter because you seemingly have seen him die. Yes, and also the lower half of his body being surrounded by radioactive gas for a long period of time does not seem like to bode well for him in his future. This is gas that, when vented, killed an entire crop field. Like, Homer has seven kinds of cancer.

And he's extra sterile now. And also, did you notice he had stopped wearing underwear? I think he found underwear too confining. So he's like, nah, just moo-moo, no undies. Swing free. Whenever I watch this, I also remember that my brother ruined this for me. Not ruined, but you are supposed to think Homer's dead, or it's a mystery for about 20 seconds what happened to him.

But the second he fell off screen and the gas stopped, my little brother, three years younger than me, said, oh, he plugged up the hole. I was like, what? No! Oh, you ruined it! You guessed it before! Way to throw him under the bus on a podcast! If he wants to back it up, he should be on here.

My brother could probably tell... I don't want him to tell any stories about me on a podcast. My brother Sam is not invited. Not invited, Sam Gilbert. If you're listening, hey, I love you I should call you more, sorry Anyway, yes, then we're getting to the end I love Burns' little speech here

Homer, your bravery and quick thinking Have turned a potential Chernobyl Into a mere three-mile island Bravo! I think it's ironic that Dad saved the day while a slimmer man would have fallen to his death. And I think it's ironic that for once Dad's butt prevented

the release of toxic gas. Bart! We'll have you out of there as soon as our tech boys get you decontaminated. Thank you, Mr. Burns. It was pretty scary up there, but for a while I feared for my life. It's really making me think that, so Oakley and Weinstein have said they patterned season

seven after season three, and just like in Homer Defying season three, he prevents a meltdown by pure chance, by pure luck. You're right. He pulled a Homer in this instance. Wow, he did pull a Homer. Damn. I just, I love that they snuck in a very that was a very smart fart joke by bart smart fart joke still another still avoiding real fart jokes yes yeah

well that marge represents good taste of like don't do a fart joke on the simpsons don't they're too good for that and then homer's just his enjoyment of being hosed off his undercarriage being hosed off by these guys. How humiliating. They have to wear, they're wearing safety clothes. They're not, their skin is not exposed to it. Like, also the gas was so pressurized. Honestly, like Homer's insides just, no matter if the gas is toxic or not, not to get too, let's say this clinically, that gas would shoot up his butt and explode his intestine. Let's get into this

more. I think his ass is so large. Number one, it has its own congressman. Number two, it will seal shut around any kind of opening. It's so big. Okay. We all need to take a course in nuclear physics and asses. You need a doctor here. But the Three Mile Island is

still... I tried to look that shit up and like, I don't want to know how a nuclear reactor works. I want to know how bad the damage was. I mean, it's still the worst one that's happened on U.S. soil, but no detectable deaths, they said, though. I mean, come on. No deaths and not mandatory evacuation. Well, who's to say some dude didn't get

cancer in that city because of that? But it wasn't at Chernobyl, which we all know about from playing the chernobyl video game uh stalker stalker yeah did anybody go on that stalker trip to chernobyl dan did you do it oh wow when was that when the first game was coming out yeah it might have been before all of our times the age of expensive gaming trips which ended really quickly yeah what the fuck man i never i got to go to Japan like twice, which, I'm complaining I didn't go to Japan enough. I never went to Japan.

That's right, that's where I met you, Henry. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, me and Dan, along with our mutual buddies Tim Turi and Carolyn Goodmanson, we were in Japan all, I think, for the first time in 2011 for Tokyo Game Show, and I remember Dan and me got lost trying to find the train,

and then we, like, we asked a Japanese guy where the train was. And he was very friendly, but also he didn't completely understand. Somewhere back in America. Just leave me alone. And then I did the very dumb thing of like, oh, white guy on a train. You must be American. And I think I asked him, are you American? He's like, well, I'm Danish, actually.

But I do speak English. I was like, okay. Did you all take the year? I seem to I'm Danish, actually, but I do speak English. I was like, that's okay. Did you all take the year? I seem to remember drinking with you and you singing a lot of anime songs. Hell yeah. We sang the fucking Snake Eater theme together in our all-night karaoke. Did you both take the ill-fated Sony Vita Cruise where they wouldn't let you go off? Oh, I would love that.

Yeah, the Vita Cruise. That was, boy, that united everybody who took that Vita cruise. The Vita, quick story guys, the Vita had not come out yet. This was your first chance to play the Vita, but there were super long lines to play it even on the press days at TGS, but we were all told

well, don't even bother. You're going to go on this Vita cruise that Sony's doing to play Vita right there. And it took two hours to get to the fucking boat. When they get on the boat, they don't. The buses got lost on the way. The bus got lost both ways.

We get on the boat. They don't. They serve us food. And we're like three hours into this. We're like, are we ever going to play these games? They bring out like four Vitas. Two of them are broken. They can't play Street Fighter X Tekken.

And poor Seth Killian, a mutual friend. Every person who was on that boat was like, what the fuck is this? I did not touch a Vita. I got to see a little bit of sound shapes over someone's shoulder with no sound. Yep. Sound and sound shapes.

Yeah, yeah. But it united everyone who was on that boat. over someone's shoulder with no sound. Yep. Sound and sound shapes. Yeah. But it united everyone who was on that boat. And then I think basically we just, me and Carolyn, at least, for the Games Raider side of things, we played what we could and then just told our EIC, like, look, man, this was the worst thing we've ever been on. And I know we're complaining about, like, what was really, if I wasn't focused on doing my job, that was a great trip

because Sony paid for... You to eat, drink, and be on a boat. Eat and drink unlimited on a boat. And people just served us all the tempura you can eat. Just like, yeah, more tempura. I want it. Our buddy did take the Chernobyl trip. Dave and I's buddy.

Oh, yeah? Because Chernobyl is fascinating. It's a level in Call of Duty, blah, blah, blah. It's a bunch of games based off. But it had a huge... It's the worst meltdown, isn't it? I think so. And so the whole ground is irradiated but you can visit it so for this game for a fucking game they brought all these americans out there to show them chernobyl and our buddy pat

like said you can only you can go visit it but you can't live there yet it's still too irradiated uh and he said he was there for like two hours and then his nose started bleeding uncontrollably and they rushed him away from the game appointment. All the way out there for a game appointment. I know they thought it was cool, but it's like, well, but you don't know. Well, what is it? Two hours? Two hours and 15 minutes?

How long is it that I do get cancer? Like, when does it say? We'll find out in 30 years. One last thing, that boat trip. It was 2011. I'm guessing there were a lot of insufferable I'm on a boat references from everybody. Probably, yeah. I've been trying to make one the whole time.

I wasn't friends with the people who made those. I just remember looking with Destructoid's own Hamza Aziz, looking at the ducks in the water and saying, like, what the fuck is this? This is the stupidest trip I've ever been on. I remember Ben Gilbert standing on top of the boat looking at the ducks and just screaming because he was so pissed off because he couldn't see the Vita.

The sheer irony of all these problems and dilemmas stemming from bringing you to a thing that is portable. Yes! Yeah. And seven years later,

it's never been easier to see a Vita. It's not like being played by anybody. I heard through the grapevine that it was all Sony of Europe's planning and they were very

insistent on it. And when I think of the most op that it was all Sony of Europe's planning, and they were very insistent on it, and when I think of the most opulent PR that wastes the most money, I do think of the European PR. They still... When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing

20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you! Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? I would have friends I'd go on trips with.

They were from UK outlets. They'd be like, well, no, just drink whatever you want from the trips with. They were from UK outlets. They'd be like, well, no, just drink whatever you want from the mini bar. They're paying for it. I was like, what? Seriously? I remember the Call of Duty review trips they would always have in like Carlsbad or Palm Springs or whatever. It was always the European and Australian journalists that would show up. And they would just be like, oh, yeah, we just got massages at the resort all day.

Like, oh, they'll pay for it. Yeah, yeah, go ahead and get massages. Do whatever you want. Jesus Christ. What about the ethics? The Call of Duty appointment they flew people to in a helicopter. You got your own helicopter. That was Black Ops 2. That was the one before I started going on those, yeah. I didn't get to go on any...

I didn't get to go on any of the opulent Capcom trips either. It was no fun. We're complaining about not getting enough gifts. It's a good thing the people that make those games don't have a union. Yeah, yes. All right, so here's the end of the episode. Now, Homer, if there's anything else I can do for you,

please don't hesitate to ask. Mr. Burns, can you make me thin again? I guarantee it. One. One. One. But I'll just pay for the blessed liposuction. Woo-hoo!

I don't know why. That's the moment when I was watching The Simpsons Concerned I might not like it anymore because I'm into all this other subversive comedy and haven't watched it in a while and that was just that bit I don't know I love the far off shot

of him throwing down the megaphone and like this show rules it's very much Old Simpsons in that Homer wins by failing at something he solves the problem

he himself created that's true yeah and that it's supposed to be a good thematic close because homer avoided this all started because homer wanted to avoid exercise and now he is damned to exercise but they had to admit the like but homer actually won't exercise enough to lose the weight so just get the liposuction though apparently by the next episode mother simpson

homer is just back to 239 so the liposuction just got him back to being fat, not obese. And like all the skin surgery that would follow. Yeah. He's getting loose skin removed. But God damn it. I just love every shot of Homer moving his walking to the computer. Just God damn it. Such a great episode.

I don't think we asked Dan why he wanted to be on this one in particular, did we? No. Well, I think you gave me the option of this one, Mother Simpson, and 138th Episode Spectacular, which all three of those were right in my wheelhouse of golden years. And I almost wanted to do 138th Episode because of the little weird jokes I remember. I'm sure you guys get into it in that episode, but the hidden NRA forever and seeing Matt Groening on camera and everything. But then I remembered that a good chunk of that episode is just kind of clip show stuff. I like Mother Simpson quite a bit, but King Size Homer is definitely one that sticks with me.

The animation's the best. Seeing Homer. They did such a good job on Homer's design. His neck disappears. I just love it. I would love an action figure of King Size Homer. I thought in one of the video games you can transform into King Size Homer and drive the ice cream truck. That's a hit and run.

It's like one of those special costumes. Yeah, like there are different costumes for every character and the Moo Moo Homer is one of them. It's beautiful. The hit and run game, we got to stream that. That was after arcade, it was the first Good Simpsons game. Yeah, it's the only other good Simpsons game. It took 13 years. And Road Rage was after that, right?

Oh, no way. It was Road Rage, then Hit and Run, because they called it Hit and Run because you could get out of the car and move around. But I haven't played Road Rage, but I know Hit and Run does have the Moo Moo and Fat Homer, extra Fat Homer. Well, because Road Rage was just Crazy Taxi. To the point where Sega sued them. Yep.

As they should have, I guess. Anyway, yeah. Great episode. Great the point where Sega sued them. Yep, as they should have. Anyway, yeah, great episode. Great episode, yes. Dan is our special guest, I'll let him go first. With your plugs, Dan, we know what you do, but where can we find you? You can find me on Twitter, at Dan Reichert, it's R-Y-C-K-E-R-T

for the last name. That's kind of my main thing. I kind of plug all my other stuff on there, my books and side projects and stuff like that. Giantbomb.com and the Giant Beastcast is the main thing I do week to week. We also just started a TV podcast of our own where

we're watching all of Dragon Ball Z. Me and Jeff Gerstmann are hosting All Systems Goku. We are a couple episodes in, so that's a free podcast if anyone wants to check it out. We should have invited you on earlier than this, and I apologize for that. But what spurred me to finally reach out was like, god damn, I love All Systems Goku. Just in the first episode, I was like, this is...

Well, because I did watch them before I know about the anime, but you and Jeff coming at it from the like naivete of like well what I sort of remember this or oh this was a reference to that it's just it's beautiful really I love it we both spent years publicly shitting on anime and talking about how like we think it's stupid despite

the fact that neither of us had really seen much anime at all and so it's so fun to me that like we're actually giving this a chance now and we're both unironically loving it so it's so fun to me that we're actually giving this a chance now and we're both unironically loving it. So it's just us gushing about Dragon Ball every episode and it's just been a ton of fun. And already in the second episode you have to deal with Mr. Popo.

Mr. Popo's a whole thing. I've come to terms with the fact that they're not going to explain the dinosaurs. I know this story's going to go places for sure. Have you played a lot of Dragon Quest? Because if you play Dragon Quest you'll see the worlds are pretty similar. I know this story is going to go places for sure. Yeah, I mean, the world that you... Have you played a lot of Dragon Quest? Because if you play Dragon Quest, you'll see the worlds are pretty similar.

You know, I didn't. I was never a JRPG guy growing up. So, yeah, all the anime influence and everything, mine probably ended at Super Sonic, you know? Yeah, if you were to play Dragon Quest 1 now, I think you'll also be like, oh, this is all Dragon Ball. For sure. Dan is a podcast

and superstar. I am so glad you did our show. Thank you. I had a blast. Thanks for having me on, guys. As for me, I am Bob Mackey, the host of Talking Simpsons. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. My other podcast is Retronauts. It's a classic gaming podcast going on since 2006. Every Monday at retronauts.com

or look for Retronauts in your podcast machine. And you know what, Dan, we have not had a single giant bomb person on the podcast. So please pass the word along. We would love to have somebody on the, from your company on retronauts for sure. Okay, great.

And I'm H E N E R E Y G on Twitter. And if you'd like to support this show, we're supported on patrion.com slash talking Simpsons, where just for $5 a month, you get access to every episode of the show a week early and ad free and tons of exclusive content including our interviews with folks who have worked

on the show like Bill Oakley and Mike Scully and Mimi Pond and Dana Gould as well as our season wrap ups and every episode of Talking Critic

and very soon Talking Futurama. We're going to be doing it and it will all be exclusively at Patreon.com slash talking Simpsons and our new animation podcast yes our animation podcast coming

soon and if you're still after all that hankering for some more podcast there's laser time the whole stupid network but laser time the show topic based pop culture show we also have 30 2010 where

you look 30 20 and 10 years back in the past of that week movie games news TV and video game apocalypse our weekly video game show. Please enjoy that. Lasertimepodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next week for Mother Simpson.

I'm going to cry. See you then. Wow. Infotainment.