Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Lard of the Dance With Kallie Plagge

Episode Date: July 17, 2019

Season 10 has begun and Gamespot's Kallie Plagge is back to help us with back to school shopping! This week Lisa deals with a new kid being way too grown-up for Springfield Elementary, while Bart is forced into the grease business by Homer! All this and Marge's plans for an emu farm in this week's podcast! Listen now and DMY!! Support this podcast and get dozens of bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! This podcast is brought to you by the streaming network VRV: home to cartoons, anime, and so much more! Visit VRV.co/WAC to sign up for your FREE 30-day trial and kick a little money back to your friends at the Talking Simpsons Network!

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I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, where there's plenty of Milhouse to go around. I'm your host, North Killtown's own Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today? Shut up! I'm Henry Gilbert. Hello! And who is our special guest in the studio? I'm Callie Plagey. I have an achievable chest. And today's episode is Lard of the Dance. Look, Dad, they've got every kind of paper. Loose leaf, graph, unlined.

College rules. Can't you just write on your arm like I do? And today's episode aired on August 23rd, 1998, a rare summer episode. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. And today's episode aired on August 23rd, 1998, a rare summer episode. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh, boy, Bobby. That 70s show debuted bolstered by this new Simpsons that aired right before it. Blade ice skates uphill to number one at the box office. And Pearl Jam's Do the Evolutions freaky animated music video

debuts on 120 minutes on MTV. Yeah, so this episode was a special event to launch that 70s show on Fox. And what a show. I think it was a secret psy-op by Scientology, in my opinion. It definitely paid for a lot of Scientology buildings,

I think. I liked it when it debuted. It's now just like a goofy. The weirdest thing to me on the show, isn't even all the Scientologists, is that after all that, Ashton Kutcher ended up with Mila Kunis. And they're still together.

Wait, really? Oh, I didn't know this. Yeah, yeah. Henry's reading Star Snoop again. Well, they were just in the news the other day because they made some weird video responding to rumors that they had broken up. And they were joking with each other, like, oh, did you read we're broken up oh man i guess i get the kids huh and they just are joking about it but yeah weird yeah ashton he dated around uh he was married for a

time to demi more uh but they got divorced about 10 years ago and then eventually he ended up with mila after she left left some other famous jerk. And they've been together ever since. They have kids and stuff. It's crazy actually. Wow, I do not pay a lot of attention to that. My favorite thing about that show is that all the episode titles are Zeppelin themed. Oh, I didn't know that. Wow. Interesting. They're all Zeppelin songs.

I like that it starts in like 1975 and it takes like 10 years to get to 1980. I mean, didn't Happy Days last for 13 seasons? Yeah. Yeah. My favorite thing about Oron High School Host Club, the manga, we'll always joke about like, ignore how many springs we've had, but a new spring is happening.

Don't think about how no one's graduated. Well, Fox did make that 80s show and it did not last. It happened around like 2001, I think. I think. Yeah. But it didn't really stick around for that long. And now we don't have that 80s show, and it did not last. It happened around 2001, I think. I think, yeah. But it didn't really stick around for that long. And now we don't have that 90s show. Wait, I think there are a number of streaming shows that are just that 90s show. Oh, off the Pen15 clause?

Pen15, yeah. There are definitely shows that just take place then. There's tons of shows set in the 80s, not just Freaks and Geeks or The Goldbergs, that show also. Like, I just heard a story on a podcast about how on The Goldbergs, for some plot point, they needed a mint in box Castle Greyskull toy. And they spent like $6,000 to get it as a prop for it just to buy one on eBay. I got to try The Goldbergs as an 80s show. But also we talked about Blade in the intro here, right?

Yeah. So it was a weird time in the world where it was a crazy idea to make a comic book movie that wasn't Batman. And let alone a very obscure character, too. Blade is very obscure. I didn't know Blade was a comic book character until Wizard Magazine told me. I never saw Blade in anything. But this is a really good movie. I didn't see two or three.

I heard those are not so great. Yeah, they're not so great. I mean, Wesley Snipes is a weirdo, too. So there is that. But I mean, he is a movie star. movie i didn't see two or three i heard those are not so great yeah they're not so great i mean uh wesley snipes is a weirdo too so there is that but i mean he is a movie star like he has movie he has superstar appeal to him he has so many great one-liners in that first played movie like the the one i quoted there was some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill and then right after he says that he kicks a dart into a dude's head that makes him explode. Like, it's really fun.

And they go hardcore on R-rated. Like, everybody talked about how, like, oh, Logan and Deadpool. Wow, it's R-rated. Like, Blade did that 20 years almost ahead of them. Yeah, it was funny that before the wave of Marvel movies and X-Men movies, there were, like, basically two summers in a row that were big superhero movies with black characters. Spawn and this. Yeah.

And those were the comic book movies that we had. Well, that shows you, I think, how fallow comics were at the time that they were just like, let's try this weird stuff. I mean, Marvel, too, was just in 98. They were desperate. They were in bankruptcy.

So if New Line Cinema wanted to just make a Blade film, they sold it as fast as they could to get it made. And then you had to wait 20 years for Black Panther yeah yeah for free Marvel to finally have the guts to try a black superhero film of their own yeah so long after blade yeah Oh Pearl Jam yeah the Pearl Jam do the evolution video it's it's a creepy video I just watched it again like this what does that like is there a special artist behind that is that that like Todd McFarlane? It's Todd McFarlane and Kevin Altieri. I thought so.

It's the Spawn animated team doing an animated video. I mean, it's about the march to death and destruction of modern society pretty much. And it has very fascistic overtones to it. I don't mean that it's like pro-fascism. I mean that it's making a pointfascism i mean that it's making a point that that is the direction of the world i think but it's uh look at it's uh debuting on 120 minutes is like the perfect place for that kind of music video i just remember it freaked me out so this is officially the start of season 10 of the simpsons we're here we're in

season 10 although internally I think they considered the next episode that would air on the traditional season premiere area. That would be their internal season 10 beginning. That's when they had

their premiere party. That's like, I think even TV guy was like, it's the premiere of the show. But this is like one of three special summer episodes that they aired.

We'll talk about it next week, but they were this one. They were Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes and also Blood Feud. Just like occasionally they would try to run an episode in the summer to be like do people watch tv in the summertime well this big get bigger episodes or not this first one episode but uh but also yes

welcome back callie yes thank you for having me back man how long has it been we just had the it was the yakas episode oh boy that was uh quite i mean we're recording at the same time but it's like blindingly light outside instead of pitch black outside. So it's been a season or two. Yeah, it's been a while. Yeah, we finally were in a season where I was like old enough to be watching the show. So we made it. Yeah, actually, how close in age were you to Lisa when this episode came out?

Pretty close. She was like really my idol. Wow. And this is quite a Lisa episode. Like with King of the hill we just did an entire mini series about the first season called talking in the hill on our patreon this episode uh like that series is all about anxiety over millennials like the millennials are be slowly becoming teens and adults and like what will we do with these millennials they're getting

phones they're interested in boys it's very scary for these parents right now yeah i mean like from my perspective it was very much like i was so lisa like i really didn't want to like wear makeup or have you know talk on the phone i went as far as a.i.m when that came about a couple of years later and like i yeah so i don't know she she spoke to me throughout all of those years lisa lisa's in an interesting spot in this episode because like in some scenes, she's like, I just want to be a kid. In other scenes, she's like, you guys are growing up too fast,

but she realizes that from a overly mature place. She comes off as like the previous generation of kids watching these kids grow up now and thinking like, you kids need to slow down. Yeah, absolutely. And like the fact that she's organizing the school dance like she's mature enough to take that on but can't handle the social pressures of the like you say millennials like that's the kind of kid i was though like i would have been like i'm volunteered to do this task principle i will do it but also i

don't know how to talk to people my own age. So it's like both realistic and also a perfect way to do the commentary. I like how they basically have to craft a friend group for Lisa in this episode because she normally doesn't have friends. So Allison Taylor from Lisa's Rival, normally never voiced, gets a few rare lines in this episode. Like someone, probably Maggie Wiles while doing it, when they're on a ride or impersonation or something. Whatever's happening there. It sounds a little like Pamela Hayden to me. I think it's Pamela Hayden, oh yeah about season 10 even though it is a continuation of the Mike Scully year it is second year it is a year of major transition for the

Simpsons 2 because not only is there the tragic loss of Phil Hartman that completely changes like their ability to ever do jokes with two of their funniest characters ever. But on top of that, in months into it, Futurama will debut. And it did make Simpsons a little less special because it was concurrent with another Matt Groening show that looked the same and had similar jokes. And it also felt like a large number of their great writers from Simpsons left for Futurama.

Also, that split Matt Groening's attention too. And we already have been saying a ton of times on the show, like, would Matt Groening have let this through or split Matt Groening's attention too. And we already have been saying a ton of times on the show, like, would Matt Groening have let this through? Would Matt Groening have let that through? I don't think there's anything on this one that made me go, like, would Matt Groening approve of that? But yeah. I think a lot of people mistakenly assume that he just rubber stamped things or just collected money, but he was always there, like, looking over everything, like, sitting in the writer's room, making sure, like, he was the safeguard that made sure a lot of like homophobic jokes and sexist jokes did not get

through like he made the show a little more timeless ableist to like i've said it a million times but you found that uh that his noted storyboards where he said like guys don't do this joke unless it's going to be specifically a reference to the film elephant man don't just make it the joke about her this person's date is ugly and then he called himself like sorry pc max like yeah i think i was sharing those when the problem with the poo came out saying no they were always worried about this stuff yeah uh and also an interesting thing in season 10's production is that it's famously the year the voice cast got a big, big raise. But not quite as big as it eventually would become. And I will say up front, they deserve all that money. Yeah, yeah.

Even though Disney will replace all of them in the next, let's say, 15 to 20 years. I mean, Father Time will do that for us. It's a sad fact. But yes, they've been operating on similar pay scale, I think, since season one. Maybe a little higher, slightly, but they were getting like $30,000 an episode, which, hey, I would never turn down $30,000 an episode right now to do voices, but when you're the stars of a billion-dollar cartoon show, that's pretty cheap, you know?

Yeah. So they were able to up their pay then in 1998 to $125,000 per episode. That's a huge jump. And they moved it up quite a bit more the next time they had their conversation about it. And I think they were even auditioning, they being Fox, not the producers of the show, auditioning new voices to scare them. To say, we can replace you. So I don't know who those people were, but there were potential scabs willing to sit in for Homer and the rest of the gang. But I think ultimately for Fox,

it would have cost too much to replace every voice because think of all the voices that Hank Azaria does and think of all the voices that Harry Shearer does. I think they were just too cheap to replace people. Yeah. I think I remember reading Maurice LaMarche said in some interview, he's like, I knew that they were looking for recasting

and I said I wouldn't do it because Maurice LaMarche could probably handle a lot of the roles on the show, and I really like his solidarity with his fellow voice actors like that. Yeah. I guess we'll get into this a little more in Homer to the Max,

which explicitly references this situation. And no one can tell the diddly difference. And the last bit of major change, I think, this season is that Al Jean returns to the writer's room of The Simpsons. He's sneaking his way back in. With mom and pop art, that'll be his one as just a writer. And within three years, he'll be back on as super showrunner, super showrunner. I mean, he's had the job for 20 wait how many years now 20 uh boy from

13 to now 17 oh 17 yeah yeah 18 to 31 yeah which is crazy and then two years before that he also had it so this is his 20th year of show running right now but yeah so that's the season 10 is ahead of us is also a shorter season than all the last ones, I think. So like 22 instead of 26. 22 instead of 26. I think it is that Fox finally realized, like, you know, we got enough to syndicate. We don't need a big extra push for like three extra per season anymore. We got this Family Guy show.

It's way cheaper than you coming out. So don't worry. I wonder if that's in the back of their minds. I think so. I think so. I think internally they were saying, like, we always were told this show was way cheaper than yours. It's way easier to produce.

People seem to like it more. We won't get into the Family Guy Simpsons war until that day arrives. It's a Super Bowl premiere. It's halfway through this season, right? Yes. Wow. So Futurama has already happened. Was it 98 or 99?

I should know this. No, it was March 99. 99, right. Because the fourth episode 99? I should know this. No, it was March 99. 99, right. Because the fourth episode aired on Columbine. Columbine, bam. Yeah, okay. I produced the entire series. I should remember one date, but yeah, it was 99.

It was a lot of podcasts ago we did talk about. Yeah, there's a lot going on there. That's probably 300 podcasts ago for me. Yeah, also new writer alert this time, right? Oh, yeah, Jane O'Brien. And guess who she's related to? I'll give you one guess he's got red hair it's very tall conan o'brien yes that's that's her all right and uh

henry you've done some uh digging on her right oh yeah she's got the dirt on jane o'brien she's uh she's a really interesting character jane o'brien i mean yeah so she is one of uh conan o'brien's sisters though not another sister of his was a co-star in the film the fighter with um christian bale and mark walberg that movie yeah they well because in that movie they wanted like people who looked like real irish catholic bostoners and his sister really looks like that so if i know what conan looks like she probably is not much different yeah i can imagine conan has joked that she looks like him in a wig too i've seen a Conan up close. We both have.

He's very Irish. Oh, yes. He's 100% Irish. Like 23andMe said it. But so, yes, his sister Jane O'Brien, she also got into the comedy biz like him. She had worked in some writing staffs and writing workshops. Also was around the improv community of L. of LA with the Groundlings and all that. In the sixth season, I believe it was, or in the David Merkin seasons, she worked as an

assistant to the writers, meaning like a lunch getter even, a person who just helps around the office. And they would often transcribe things before that was easier to do. Yeah, we heard a lot of insight on that from our guest, Kate Raft, in her episode. She is a former Simpsons assistant to production as well. I don't know the official title. So Jane was working in there while also honing her writing skills. And then in, I believe in the eighth and ninth season,

she has like associate producer credits or like she's in the writer's room, but in a more junior position and this is her only writing credit on the show this one which uh came from you know her and mike scully talking about oh you know girls today it feels like they're pushed to grow up too fast or well what do you think of that and so when scully was coming at that from a father of five girls so he was seeing it from that angle. And I think his girls were around Lisa's age at this point in time, maybe a little bit older than that.

And so Jane O'Brien, she wrote this episode. And then this was her only episode. She was a story editor for production season nine as well, too. After this episode, she would leave the show. She didn't do season 10. And she would work in the writing staff of Futurama, though she didn't have a credited episode she wrote, but she was still on the staff of the show

for the first couple seasons. Okay. And after Futurama, I honestly don't know what happened to Jane to a degree because on IMDb she has one other credit of some BBC game show. That's her only other credit for a produced show in 2007 she there was a news story that she had been hired to write a screenplay adaptation of uh some book

i'd never heard of uh but that film has not been produced since that article was written she does seem like she's uh you know balancing career and family she talks about she's having her second kid while they're doing the commentary for this. Well, not during the commentary. Well, you don't know. On the commentary, she said, my kid is due in April, which would be April 2007. So her kid is now 12 years old. So old enough to hear the commentary about his birth. Whoa.

She has such a funny joke on there. It's like, do you want to say anything to your kid for posterity? She's like, please stop kicking me. It sounds like she maybe just got out of the hollywood world or is like working on it less after her time at futurama i mean we talked about aljean mike reese left hollywood after the critic yeah and after actually after his simpsons episodes with aljean when he came back to do a few more after that he was not a tv writer officially like on like regular on a staff holly's not for everybody. And he had a lot of money, too.

That'll do it, too. And also this starred Jane O'Brien's friend, Lisa Kudrow. So I guess not the only friend to be on The Simpsons, but Matthew Perry was on it for one line in, I think, a few years in a Halloween special. Yeah, I had thought she was the only Friends cast member, but Matthew Perry basically called in. You played the clip for me. I was like, this is over the phone. Yeah, but she's, I'm going to say right here,

the best friend. I'm not even a Friends fan. She's my favorite. I'd watch her in anything. No offense to the rest of the cast. I think the rest of the cast is all good in their own ways of Friends, but Lisa Kudrow is my favorite, too, I think. Yeah, I really like her. I've liked her in other things that I've seen her in, too.

Courtney Cox is really great, too. I've watched a few episodes of Cougar Town. I was like, man, she's still really good. I watched quite a bit of Cougar Town, actually. I liked her in it. I followed it. Well, she also had a good guest stint on Scrubs right around Cougar Town because the productions were happening at the same time. I think even the writers hated that name for the show.

Cougar Town, oh yeah. Because the name is very stupid, but it was critically acclaimed. But a lot of people would not watch it because of the name Cougar Town. Yeah, it's like an embarrassing thing to say you watch. But I did watch quite a bit of it. It has its emotional moments. Yeah, but Lisa Kudrow's great. I had a similar situation to that with the show crazy

ex-girlfriend because i've heard that from people it's it's actually a really great show full of musical moments it is a very feminist show by two women showrunners and it's also like really intersectionalist and everything like that but when you tell people like crazy ex-girlfriend's great they're like oh that title like woof yeah yeah oh but yeah kudrow so funny like there's more than a little of michelle weinberger in this too in the character of alex like she's playing a lot of her romey and michelle character oh yeah you're right it's weird that david merkin did not get her on the show because he would direct romey michelle's high school reunion i i mean kudrow she's just ready to have fun. She guest stars in so many things. She's so also, Bob hasn't seen BoJack yet,

but her guest stand on BoJack is so good. Begin the BoJack shaming of Bob Mackie. Oh, man. BoJack is heavy. Good luck with that. That's why everybody thinks Bob would like it. He's like, come on, it's depressing. Go back in time a few years.

Call me when I'm depressed. I'll watch it then. I'm happy now. I don't want to be reminded of what being depressed is like. And a horse. I watched it when depressed. Yeah, it's. I'm happy now. I don't want to be reminded of what being depressed is like. And a horse. I watched it when depressed. Yeah, it's a good pairing for sure. When I'm depressed again, I'll put it on my queue.

Then when you're in a happy couple, you need to watch the other show from the co-creator of BoJack, the Toucan Birdie. That's just a fun show. Well, not just fun. It's got some heavy stuff too but it's not about like you know wallowing in depression like uh Bojack is I think and also I the comeback what a funny show and that's like her show like she's like an executive producer on it too it's just such a it's one of the best mockumentary tv shows I've ever seen like she's so fun and her one of my favorite characters on it is her just intentionally boring and uninteresting husband, played by Stu the bus driver from Pete and Pete.

He's so good at it. That's right. He's on that. Yeah. Were the friends on Friends making a million per episode yet? Was it a million? Was that the, was it two million? I don't think they got up to a million yet.

But they, not unlike the Simpsons actors, they had solidarity as a group. And they negotiated together to get everybody a raise. they not unlike the simpsons actors they had solidarity as a group and they come uh they negotiated together to get everybody a raise like how can you act together on a show where you're all supposed to be equals if you know that like one of you guys is making more than everybody else that's uh that's just dangerous yeah i mean lisa kudrow so funny i i think kudrow is how you're supposed to say it like oh really may i could wrong, but I've heard on other podcasts people say it with such intentionality. I'm like, that sounds right. Wait, who plays Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Sarah Michelle Gellar? Gellar. That's Gellar? Yeah, apparently officially, but you know what? Screw that. Oh, that's like Chrissy Teigen. Everyone says Teigen, but it's Teigen. Teigen, yeah.

It is? It's super German, right? I am learning so much here. Yeah, or like my name. Everyone says Plague, but it's not. That's why, yeah. It is. It's super German, right? I am learning so much here. Yeah, or like my name. Everyone says Plague, but it's not. That's why I made sure to ask you before I said it out loud. But anyway, yeah. So this episode, I'm glad we have you back too, Callie,

because me and Bob don't know really about navigating the world of female friendship. And so that's a lot of what this episode is about. I think it's tough in shows like this where they always have to, women just can't be friends in so many shows. Oh, yeah. I mean, famously, every female character on the show has no friends. Marge has no friends. Lisa, friends are invented for her for this one episode that normally don't hang out with

her. Yeah. I mean, I didn't have any friends. I didn't have proper female. All of my friends were boys, which is such a cliche thing to say, especially for someone who works in games. But the way that Alex treats Lisa in the episode is so much like the way my quote unquote friends would treat me. Like, oh, you could wear you could totally wear this if you lost five pounds. I have one friend.

I am still self-conscious about my legs because I had a friend in high school who told me I was afraid to wear shorts. And then I saw you do it and i felt way better oh my god man so burn it is a very realistic thing it's it's one of those things it's like it's it's definitely a manufactured issue but it still affects a lot of of girls and women and and pretty much all of the women i know who now work in the video game industry have said you know like i really didn't have female friends until I started working in this industry and found a bunch of other women who never had female friends. Wow. Yeah, I don't think the commentary on this show, though, and you're not saying this, obviously, but the commentary on the show is not like women are catty and bad to each other. But

would you say like, you feel like women are socialized to be negative towards each other? Like, where do you think it comes from the difficulties of those kind of friendships? Yeah, I think like a lot of it, wearing makeup the perfume the getting days for the dance that kind of element is very much like uh your value being staked upon how men see you or boys see you your popularity is like oh she's the prettiest she's more popular so the girls with like like me like i have an ugly name so like nobody liked me is how i felt but like the girls who had like really cute names and who like did cute activities like dance, whereas I was like, I want to play baseball. I don't want to play softball.

Like I was one of those. Those girls were the ones who were really liked, especially in middle school. Like in high school, people kind of grow out of that a little bit. But I think it's, yeah, the where's your value as a woman? It's often in your desirability. And then also the just every movie you see is women not supporting each other. You know, like even if it's not intended to be that way, you're just that's why the Bechdel test was a thing. Even though it's a very, you know, it's a limited. It was just to prove a point, the Bechdel test. But like the fact that like women don't really communicate with each other or compete with each other for male attention in a lot of media, I think, is a really easy way to create that kind of discord in real life dynamics. At least that's how I interpret it. I know it's different for everybody,

but... Well, and The Simpsons isn't known for, you know, it's viewpoints on women or like having a lot of female views in the room too. So that's, I think I was really happy to know that a woman wrote this one at least, like though she still isn one, at least. She even jokes about on the commentary, like, oh, I wasn't there for that rewriter. I wasn't around. She had moved on from the job at that point. So when they keep asking her, like, oh, did you write that? She's like, I was gone when that got added.

But, though, I mean, she needed to be in that Futurama writer's room. That's where she went to, I think. That was also a man. And Al Gore's daughter. She joined, like think. That was also a man. Yes, yes. And Al Gore's daughter. She joined season two or three or something. Oh, okay, yeah. I don't think she was a season one-er.

I don't think so either. Though I wonder if Jane, you know, with the Harvard mafia on the show, I couldn't find out if she went to Harvard or not. Oh, if Conan did, I think she just got in. I'm sure she's very talented, by the way, but it feels like Legacy, the O'Briens are getting into Harvard. I'd like to hear more from her about her career, but it feels like she's, I don't know. A little off the grid.

Off the grid, yeah. I don't think she has a Twitter either. It didn't come up in my search for her information about her online. The Simpsons will be right back. Stop planning your emu farm and welcome to the break. It's Henry here. And first off, I want to thank our special guest, Callie, for coming on back and giving us insight into this episode.

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Some disgusting Homer story. Something truly gross and zany. And that is what we get with the grease. Boy, oh boy, do we get it. Woof. Yeah, the end of this episode may be a little queasy, I gotta say. So gross. I was eating, too, when I was watching it.

Yeah, no, you can't eat watching this episode. I made a mistake. But this episode begins with a little back to school-iosis. Christie, speak and say. S is for shiksa. S-H-I. I think there's a T in there somewhere. Ah, look it up.

Lisa, stay cool, hi Lisa. Did you have a nice summer? Don't you hate that we have to go back to stupid school tomorrow? I like school. Me too. We have so much in common. You have a pen glued to your cowlick. If you don't like it, it's gone! You want

this? No. When was the last time that we saw Milhouse in love with Lisa? Was it Day with Density in this season? I think it might be Density, yeah. Which was technically last season. Yeah, in the Lord of the Flies one, they're around each other, but they don't do anything about a dumb

crush he has on her same with lisa the simpson nothing there either so yeah i think this is the them picking back up that storyline which totally fits with the nerds on the show writing it to like just all funneling their uh stupid crushes into one character it falls in with that line of him saying to himself if you do anything she says she's bound to respect you yeah the wanting to look cool and taking your glasses off thing i have tried that uh and it's uh you're just blind like at least for me like i i have i had that not into trying to look cool thing but uh the last time i went to disneyland in the last month when i rode space mountain i just take my glasses off for it because i'm worried they're gonna fly off and once i'm already disoriented once i get off for it because I'm worried they're going to fly off.

And once I'm already disoriented, once I get off of it, I'm like, this isn't lit well. I pump, pump into this. I can only ride Space Mountain once per trip to Disneyland. I think I did it six times on my last trip. Jesus Christ.

I love Space Mountain. I'm nearsighted, and I can do okay without my glasses. If I'm going on camera, I'll take my glasses off because I don't like the reflectiveness of studio lights and stuff with my glasses. Unless I'm really trying to do

a Megane anime character kind of deal. But I always end up like I was on a stream today and I had to read Mario Maker codes. It's like a live vision test. I know, I was like, why? Second line, please. Question mark.

Yeah. Smiley face. Not necessarily to look cool, but I get that feel. These are some good observational back-to-school stuff about college-ruled paper. Yeah. As an anal-retentive kid, I love back-to-school shopping because all my things are fresh and new, and all my notebooks are new and they smell nice and everything will be perfect for

a week at least. The most Cali story I can tell you is in third grade I was so excited because on the back-to-school shopping list was a binder and five divider tabs. And I pre-organized my binder with math, science,

spelling, or whatever whatever i thought the subjects were going to be and i was like ready on the first day and on the first day the teacher was like okay like we're gonna organize our binders the first tab needs to be this and like all of my tabs were wrong and i had a panic attack oh god oh man and he had to call my parents because i had a panic attack on the first day because my binder was wrong. That is the most Callie thing that's ever happened. So that's just to illustrate why I relate to Lisa so much. When she's like, college ruled, I'm like, yes, girl.

Way to escalate to that level. When I first got college ruled in elementary school, I didn't like it. I was like, this is too tight. Well, I have bad handwriting anyway. But once I got used to it, whenever I go go back i'd see wide ruled paper in like middle school i was like what am i a baby come on with like the giant dotted blue line in the center of the two big pink lines oh yeah yeah um but yeah i mean i think i what i loved was getting like the coolest pens and pencils like mom these ones are made out of recycled blue jeans. Oh, I loved my blue jean pencils.

Yeah, yeah. Though eventually I just switched to mechanical. Like, those are my new school day pencils. I was drawing a picture with those once, and the lead snapped off and flew into my eye. Oh, boy. I almost had a panic attack. My grandma got it out with a Q-tip,

but it was terrifying. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I could never even touch them again after that happened. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. I was pressing down, and it popped up completely And just perfectly landed right in my eye

That's horrific Sorry to gross anybody out with eye stuff There's more eye trauma coming My eyes are fine I had no eye damage, no more glasses or contacts They're coming You lucky mother I remember too when this first aired

For my district I think it was like the weekend or within a week of the first day of school so seeing it I was like oh man yeah school the kids are going back to school just when I am though this was what sophomore year no freshman

maybe freshman of high school I think I don't know you're probably a year before me then Henry I'm guessing because I was 2000 you're 2000 oh I'm 2001 yeah this would be, you're probably a year before me then, Henry, I'm guessing. Because I was 2000. You're 2000? Oh, I'm 2001. Yeah, this would be my junior year.

Okay, so sophomore for me. Yeah. At this point in my life, I did not like school. And I missed a lot of school. So I was not excited about having a reminder that school was approaching fast. I was Lisa. I was like, I like school. I mean, I was dreading the start of my freshman year.

By sophomore year, I was like, okay, I understand the start of my freshman year by sophomore year i was like okay i understand the prison of high school better now like so yeah by senior year i was not showing up so i eventually i eventually turned into bart but for a very long time i was like until freshman year i was having the bart philosophy of school will be fun and i was friends with everybody in grade school middle school it's like we're all friends and getting together and getting along, right? No. High school, no, absolutely not. Oh, God.

That's not how that works. No. And when Homer does the joke about, why don't you just write things down on your arm like I do, I thought it was going to be the Lenny equals white, Carl equals black joke. Which one is that? It's actually not until season 12's Tale of Two Springfields. But yeah, I totally forgot red equals meltdown joke.

That's funny, but not as good as Lenny equals white, Carl equals black. I think Marge is being a little too trusting of Bart saying that those are the correct school supplies. What was it, paperclips, rubber bands, and staplers? Staplers, yeah. Everything's done with computers and staplers. He's really good at those staplers. Oh, yeah.

I wonder what kids today can bring to the classes. Can they all just bring laptops or a tablet that works as a laptop? I mean, if you can afford it. Or do they tell you not to because then it would reveal who can afford laptops or not? I wonder. Do you guys remember Computer Lab? Oh, yeah. I love Computer Lab.

I don't know if they do that anymore because towards the end of my school year, K through 12 years, they would bring a rack of laptops in. Whoa, wow. So they would have laptop racks that were enough for one class and then the next class would use them.

But I don't know what they do now to be quite honest i think my cousin my little cousin had to get a laptop for school my my aunt was really mad oh they like the aunt had to pay for it it's like well you want me to drop two grand on a laptop i think we like just live in computer lab now so before it was like you go to this one room where computers exist and you've touched them but now it's just like there's computers everywhere. I use a computer to buy my groceries and I use a computer to see what time it is. So, yeah. And I'm not in the Jewish community, so I don't know how offensive shikse is or not.

I heard it kind of is an offensive term. It's for non-Jewish women is the term, which I learned from Seinfeld. Yeah, but it's not spelled S-H-I-T. Ms. Krusty slightly sneaks a shit joke into the show. She did. It's S-H-I-K-S-A. Yeah. But yeah, I learned it because in the episode Serenity Now,

Elaine keeps meeting Jewish men who find her very attractive, and she's basically told she has kind of like a curse, like she is the curse of the shiksa, they call it. I think, again, I'm not part of that community either, but I think it's mainly used to like other, the non-Jewish people. Yeah. Just to separate yourself from that.

Like, oh, he's dating a shiksa or whatever. I only see it in a negative context. Yeah, yeah. I think so too. Like a pejorative context. Yeah, yeah. But again, I'm speaking out of ignorance and Seinfeld. Yeah, same.

Yeah, to be clear. The part where he rips out his hair and says, if you don't like it, it's gone. It reminds me of on the new Netflix sketch show, I Think You Should Leave. I still need to watch that. Me too. Oh, God.

All right, well, the first sketch of the whole series is him trying to, he's leaving a job interview and he thinks it went really well. And then he pulls on the door, but it's a push instead then he pulls on the door but it's a push instead of pull and the guy's like you know i think it's you have to push he's like no no you can pull it i i know you can and he just keeps pulling and pulling while not breaking eye contact with the guy and he breaks the door open he's like there see you can pull it he just leaves

it it just reminds me of the the commitment to like no no i'm not wrong everything's fine yeah that's just not working out let me i think you should leave is so goddamn funny it's my favorite uh sketch show i've seen in forever it is like uh yeah not just the creators are great but they also have tons of great guests who if you're a sketch fan boy you you know them like one one of the best sketches in there is with Tim Heidecker playing the new boy. So it's like a party night.

It's an adult party night. Everybody's just hanging out playing games. And he plays the new boyfriend of one of your friends and he's the worst new boyfriend. And everybody's like, God, this guy sucks.

He's so good at playing assholes. Yeah, he sure is. Who is actually a nice person. And the asshole he plays in this is so specific because they're playing a game of, like, guess the celebrity, and he only put in the names of obscure session musicians for jazz.

He's like, come on, guys. You know, he played for these people. Like, it's so funny. And it's just six episodes. They fly right by. Also, I swear, one sketch was filmed in that Mexican restaurant we ate at the last time we were in L.A. Oh, Los Compadres? El Compadre.

Yeah, El Compadre. It looked just like it. And you know they were filming around L.A. Anyway, that's all off topic there. So Scully really likes in his seasons to have scene starts with Homer walking into the Quickie Mart. Like very sitcom-y. Like, how's it going, Apu? And generally getting information from Apu that will give him an idea for the B-plot.

Like Apu informing him of some new thing he wasn't aware of. A helper monkey. A gun. All these things. Yeah, the gun. A gun. And yes, in this case, Homer learns all about grease Yo, Apu, give me the usual

Yes, sir, one cookie dog, one bubblegum cigar And the latest issue of Success Magazine Hey, this hot dog tastes different Yes, I just cleaned out the machine, sir So the snack you are enjoying has not been soaking in putrid grease. Oh, yeah, but without the grease, all you can taste is the hog anus. I'm so sorry, but I sold it all to the rendering plant. People buy grease? Oh, yes. They use it to make products such as soap, cosmetics, baby food. Used grease is worth money? Then my arteries are clogged with yellow gold! I'm rich, Apu!

Rich! Money in the bank. So in the next episode, Homer quits his job. It's implied here he just doesn't go to work, right? I think so. They don't care anymore about Homer having a job. I also like Apu is pretty relaxed about Homer having a heart attack in. They don't care. I also like how Pooh is pretty relaxed

about Homer having a heart attack in front of him. I think he's seen it before. Yeah, I would think so. He often does that. I'm pretty sure this episode is the reason I didn't eat hot dogs. I haven't had a hot dog in like 20 years. Boy, I'm still a hot dog fan.

It's more like at a baseball game, it'll be what I'll have. But that's also because I'd rather spend $6 on a hot dog than $15 on chicken tenders. Veggie dogs are good. It's basically the same chemicals that give hot dogs their flavor, but not on meats. It's just like, here are all the hot dog

flavors. Because it's all fake anyway. Right. I think you hear the pig anus or there's bugs in it or whatever. And I just like all of that coalesced and I just didn't eat hot. I still don't eat hot dogs. I think those hot dog facts are still true. Possibly.

The hog, I will say the hog anus line in this and other jokes like that made me want hot dogs less once I knew it. But I fell for the hot dog company trick, which is when they advertise them as all beef hot dogs. I'm like, all right, if there's an anus in here, it's at least not from a pig. Okay, that's good. As a tip for you Vancouverites, I've been spending a lot of time in that city, and I will say the bar slash restaurant, What's Up Hot Dog, is a very good hot dog

place. And they have veggie dogs there too, and veggie sausages. The thought of one of those hot dog rollers without grease on it, it does make you feel like a clean hot dog. It's been a very long time since I've had a 7-eleven hot dog i don't say that i don't actually see them at 7-eleven i see taquitos which i think are safer to just leave on a roller all day because and also probably less risk of food poisoning well hot dogs are just dead as a popular thing i mean like when you walk around manhattan i was, you know, a little, a year ago, year-ish.

And, you know, you can still get, like, a hot dog from the carts, but they really are just kebab stands, which I'd rather have kebabs or just halal stuff than a hot dog anyway. If I'm going to be eating cheap street meats, I'd rather that. The exoticness of a kebab. The L.A. street meats are still on the hot dog circuit. Oh, yeah? Okay. Well, I mean, I think the last episode Callie was on was right. Like not your penetration has reached a hundred percent

in America. You can't get away from, uh, and I actually did work with hot dog rollers at the AMC theater I worked at. Uh, I, uh, and I don't remember ever cleaning a grease trap at that thing ever, but that was above my pay grade. I mean, you could have been selling that grease on the side that I'd have been caught. I, I did steal, I stole as much as I could from that place,

but I couldn't steal grease. Also on Amazon, you can still buy bubble gum cigars. Like you can find it, but the packaging looks a hundred years old. Oh really? Yeah. I think it's just,

you know, you can still go to places that sell old-timey candy that's like made for collectors or whatever. Collectible candy. You can buy basically

this like pink enveloped bubblegum cigar that Homer buys. I was just at the Mall of America. Yes, that's what your Patreon dollars are going for.

And I was at a candy store there and they do have many kinds of candy cigarettes complete with the Indian guy on the cover. Whoa. Yeah, so those are the ones that I bought. Wow.

And they're not bubble gum. They're kind of like chalky pink candy. Oh, yeah. I had candy cigarettes once. They tasted very wintergreen, the ones I had. They're not good. They didn't have any indigenous people on them, though. I was missing out.

So the recycling grease business is bigger now than ever uh since this episode aired i i read a uh really interesting 2018 popular science article on the grease business and how it's only grown thanks to the increased use of biodiesel these days so there's even more demand for it so nothing to do with food production it's all uh things that run on yeah it's mostly that not not so much food they uh and don't though if you're weak of stomach uh there's some pretty gross details in there about to say what happens to the grease you wash down the uh sink instead of getting rid of correctly or also the uh that fry industrial fryers like the one that quit at the crusty Burger later, their grease traps store up to 225 pounds of grease.

Like that is heavier than most people, that much grease is in one of those machines. I mean, eventually they make bacon in this. I've been a vegetarian for 15 years now. But I forgot that like when you cook meat you have to have like a collection of grease under your sink like a little canister of grease and it was always so disgusting when i was growing up like this white congealed mess i don't cook meat at all i really don't eat a lot of meat and that is just a foreign concept to me i was like i i literally before you said that there's a grease business currently i thought it was just like a funny they made it up.

Man, this is another pro-vegetarian statement there then, that we'd stop polluting with as much grease because it creates like blockages in sewers it collects so much. It's called like a greaseberg, an iceberg of grease in the sewers from not correctly disposing of grease. It's real dangerous for the environment just in that regard. Also, I agree with him on the commentary.

It is crazy that Homer isn't eating that bacon himself. He's frying up bacon to get the grease, but then he just gives it to the dog instead of eating it. Is this so weird? That's off-brand. He does have a one-track mind, though. He's more focused on getting the grease, not realizing he's throwing away delicious bacon to the dog.

So I think maybe that could be part of the joke. Homer should be eating it, but he's too involved in this get-rich-quick scheme to want to try it. And poor Santa's a little helper. It's animal abuse. He's just so huge. And then Homer says, do for another squeeze.

And I'm like, oh, God. That's probably the grossest thing in the episode, if you think about it. You don't think about it. That's the thing you have to tell yourself. And Marge is funny in this episode, but they really demand her to be such a mom, and there's just not much.

Like her complaining about, that was for my bridge game. That is such a 50s mom complaint, too. I mean, she is dumped on a lot in the next episode, so it's nice to see Marge be very sweet in this one later on. Yeah, I do like that she was going to just serve bacon to her bridge game.

Maybe like little finger sandwiches. Who knows? Okay. I read that joke just as she was going to just bring out a plate of bacon while they play bridge and be like, eat up, people. You'd ruin your cards with all that grease true yeah you can mark your cards with that grease so maybe marge's plan is to cheat she is a gambling addict as we know

homer prevents bart from going to school which mark should really not let that happen but he puts bart into the grease business and just Bart doesn't go to school, which that's a pretty funny gag, too. That's a whole episode. The theme is like Bart actually wants to go to school and misses it. It's a clever situation for Bart to be put in. And he actually just ends up at school at the end. Yeah, they don't explore it as much as they could. It's true.

Yeah, I mean, like he was so prepared to go with all his pranks. Yeah, he had all the staplers planned out. Like, shouldn't i go back to school uh i'm not the biggest fan of lazy eye jokes but i do that they also bring up on the commentary that it's the second time in three minutes that they did a joke about a visually impaired character smashing into something that's true oh my god it's uh i think they were a little ashamed just of the repetitiveness of it. But while everyone's talking about what they did on their summer vacation,

Lisa gets a special assignment. Attention, please. I need a volunteer for a thankless chore. Shall I assume the only hand in the air is Lisa Simpson's? Thank you, Lisa. We have a new student, Lisa, and I want you to show her the works. The lunchroom, the tree. But when you get to the trophy case, give her some cock and bull story.

They're out for cleaning or whatever. Don't worry, I'll help her out. I remember how hard it was to be an outsider, always trying to fit in, never quite feeling like... Lisa, I'd like you to meet Alex Whitney. Your name's Lisa? Shut up! I love that name! Did she just tell me to shut up?

Take it outside. I think there is also some higher concept thing going on here where Lisa, in terms of how she is dressed, she's a character outside of this time period. Not even from the 80s, like from the 50s or 60s, like a little girl in a dress with pearls and she's encountering a girl from the 90s, like from the 50s or 60s, like a little girl in a dress with pearls, and she's encountering a girl from the 90s, and not knowing how to really interface with her. It's not been too long since she was made

uncomfortable with John Waters' character going, like, pearls on a little girl, it's a fairy tale. She's like, eh. There's a running gag in this episode that Skinner simply doesn't hear Lisa's words. He just does not listen to her and just misses her statements. It starts with her heartfelt talking about her problems at school, and Skinner's like,

I want you to meet this girl, just cuts her off. Yeah, I mean, that's a very Lisa situation to be in, though. Just speaking reason or speaking to a true emotion and people just not registering it at all and also yeah her her volunteering for it actually makes her the worst to show somebody around school because it means she's actually the nerdiest and can't can't really introduce this new kid to uh the realities of springfield elementary yeah and i also like that she frames that frames it as like she was an outcast in the past instead of currently. That's true, yeah.

She has not stopped being an outcast. Yeah, like literally all of her friends are like, you're not her friends. And this, yeah, this is the first of many winks with her line about Lisa. I love that name. Like that, such a clever little gag there. They go a little harder on the second reference that comes right after this one that almost felt like come on you guys had one good wink you don't have to do two winks so close together but yeah when she just shows up it totally is just like

you you know instantly what alex's deal is like she is a mature eight-year-old like also just feels very like la style kid too of the growing up too fast or being too plugged in kind of thing. She's the kid of the Range Rover mom. Yeah, yeah. I mean she could be the sister of, no that's Caitlin is the sister of Gavin. I also just love her

saying shut up which is just a normal thing and Lisa's like what? Did she just tell me to shut up? That would have been me. I also didn't understand sarcasm. I really like, just Lisa is just my absolute hero. She's very sincere, yeah. And it's dangerous to be too trusting of a kid

in school who doesn't know sarcasm. You get tricked a lot, as I learned. But yeah, Lisa then starts showing around her new buddy. Is that perfume? Oh, don't be such a Phoebe. It's Pretension by Calvin Klein. Want to try some? Okay, so what's the haps in Springfield? What do you guys like do for fun? Well, you'll definitely want to get yourself a good doll.

The new Malibu Stacy has an achievable chest. Dolls, really? Okay, what else you got? Oh, jacks. Jacks are big. They went out for a while, but then they came roaring back. Uh-huh. You mean that game with the little rubber ball?

Oh, don't worry. You'll pick it up fast. Once you get to foursies, you're in the zone. Uh-huh. Isn't a trophy case supposed to have trophies? Uh, they were all wiped out in the big trophy fire. Uh-huh Isn't a trophy case supposed to have trophies? Uh, they were all wiped out in the big trophy fire Ah, I see the trophies are still out for cleaning Eh, Lisa? I think that is the last joke allowed by law

About Calvin Klein's obsession Oh, yeah I was looking to see when that cologne or perfume was created It was 1985 Whoa And there have been so many jokes in pop culture From then until now in 98 I was looking to see when that cologne or perfume was created. It was 1985. Whoa. And there have been so many jokes in pop culture from then until now in 98 about a fancy cologne with a one-word name. Before we had Meryl Streep's Versatility. Right. Yeah.

Which felt fresh then. It's been so long since Obsession. I forgot that pretension was a joke there too and like homer's uh commercial mr plow was like a calvin klein commercial joke when they were just before they were filming like underage people leaning against ladders they were filming like uh weird like desert scenes and uh stop motion or sorry fast motion things i don't know for i'm i am not a cologne or perfume person so i i'm out of that world i did wear ck1 as a teen. Probably too much of it. No, I think even Axe body spray, I just not. I mean, I use like scented deodorant, but you know.

You shouldn't feel bad about not wearing Axe body spray. Like, I'm sorry, guys. I just can't. I can't do the Axe. Axe effect is not happening with me. Yeah, like I tried to get into perfume. And at the time, like when I was like, I'll try perfume, it was Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume. And I tried it and I like didn't understand. I was like, I don try perfume. It was Marc Jacobs Daisy perfume. And I tried it and I like didn't understand.

I was like, I don't want to smell like that. And then I just, I, I, the only perfume I own is one that comes in a bottle. It looks like a grenade. Oh, that's pretty cool. So that's where I'm at with that. I, and yeah, Alex's outfit does remind me of when i was like in late elementary school or middle school seeing the girls who like were wearing clothes that seemed too old for them too but like uh there's there's little moments like when alex pulls out her perfume and sprays

it on she gives a little look to lisa like see how grown up i am huh like that that's definitely what alex is going for she wants people to know like she is so mature and grown up. She doesn't want to feel like an eight-year-old at all. I mean, as a boy, I definitely felt like a version of that of just saying like, I'm not a baby. I'm not a little kid. But I didn't know to like show it through like clothes you wear or whatever. I still basically dress like I did when I was 11, if I must be honest. I wouldn't have worn this cool Sailor Moon pink shirt, though. I wouldn't have the guts to wear that then. whatever i still basically dress like i did when i was 11 if i must be honest i would have but i

wouldn't have worn this cool sailor moon pink shirt though that i wouldn't have the guts to wear that thing i did mean to compliment you on your shirt thank you thanks i was hoping you'd don't yeah also yeah the calling her a phoebe i'm like come on guys we got it we know what the guest star is it's fine that though that i guess is more of the scully style too that they he pushed a lot more of like you need to know who this famous person is like it's not just about them being here it's that i mean the next season premiere is mel gibson playing mel gibson like they went hard on that which at the time that is what you do with mel gibson one of the most famous men in the world

used to be more fun yeah oh man it was so, it was so funny. Like, wow, Mel Gibson can laugh along with us. What a cool, funny guy. He's probably a great father. He is America's heartthrob. Yes, yeah. He's what women want. This is all that...

Ugh, God. Shudder. I also like that Lisa and Skinner are not on the same page with that trophy excuse. Though Skinner did tell her trophy out for cleaning before

she should have remembered that yeah trophy fire less believable and lisa's back into malibu stacy i guess maybe that move on achievable chess showed that they made a change in their management and they weren't as uh uh sexist as they were before i just love that line so much yeah it just got me she's so happy it's an achievable chest, finally. Wasn't the joke in Homer's Barbershop Quartet the one where the breasts put the children's eyes out? Yes, yeah. It was based on a real Skipper doll or whatever

where the breasts would grow when you flip a switch or something? It was like the 50s Malibu Stacy with pointed breasts. Yeah, I think Malibu Stacy... Well, Barbie's still around. It's still happening. Barbie's woke now, right? I've seen clips of that show.

They made different body types for Barbies, and then they have the Barbie YouTube show, which is super like is on point for what it is. I've seen clips of that on Twitter. It seems like, wow, there's good stuff coming out of Barbie. I haven't seen this Barbie YouTube show. Woke brands are a funny thing, but I do like that they piss off the right people. So it's like, I hate, I don't like praising corporations too much, but it shows just how little effort it takes from those brands

to piss off assholes on the internet. Absolutely. But so Homer, meanwhile, is failing at his, he cashes in his grease for the first time and his grease is worthless. Okay, boy, this is where all the hard work, sacrifice and painful scaldings pay off. Four pounds of grease. That comes to 63 cents. Dad, all that bacon cost $27.

Yeah, but your mom paid for that. But doesn't she get her money from you? And I get my money from Grease. What's the problem? Wow. Look at that load of grease. Boy, if we're ever going to earn paper money, we have to expand our operation.

Um, I don't know how much more school I can miss. Oh, you'll miss plenty. I have a feeling this business is going to consume our whole lives. Lots of Homer and Bart adventures in season 10. Yeah, I like, though, that Bart is the sensible one for one, too. You know, often the Homer stuff is Bart tricking Homer into going farther and pushing him farther. But this time Bart's like, can we not, please? Like, this is stupid.

It's like it's very it's a backwards dynamic, but I find it really enjoyable. Like finally, Bart's like, you know what, dad? I don't know about that. Even he can do the math of like, you're losing money. This is wrong. This is stupid. I don't know about that. Even he can do the math of like, you're losing money. This is stupid. But yeah, 63 cents for six pounds of grease. That's not so good. It's a little cheesy, but I do like acne grease instead of acme.

That gave me a little laugh. It's cute. It's not hilarious, but it's cute. Yeah, especially as someone who gets dry skin acne. It's not always the oil. No, well, actually, this acne gag for me in high school really hurt me because I had pretty bad acne in high school.

I'll talk about an upcoming line that offended me. Oh, I know the one. It also made me sad. I was greasy. We'll get to that. I also like that Homer reads reads bart saying i don't know how much school i can miss as like a challenge like oh you'll miss plenty he just does not understand that that's a bad thing the cheerful like ominous uh tone in his voice it'll consume

your entire life and uh so then we head back to the school lunchroom lisa is uh introducing alex to her friends and i wonder if they like intentionally brought back allison because they're like well that was the last time lisa got a new friend so let's bring back her old new friend to hang out with her new new friend and i think you can see a timeline clash there too because they definitely when they created allison taylor in like 94 or, they were trying to show like, oh, this is a cooler kid then, though, or at least more realistically designed. And now Alex is so much more beyond what Alison's outfit is. And I think when she means Sherry and Terry, that's also a Friends reference in that she played twins on that show in Mad About You. Oh, you're right.

Yeah, you're totally right about that. Ursula was the evil one of the two twins, as we all know. But again, they are inventing friends for Lisa because Sherry and Terry are in Bart's class. They're not in Lisa's class. So it's like, what little girls have spoken on this show? Three of them? Wait, is Janie there too? Janie is there.

Yeah. I mean, Sherry and Terry, maybe they befriended Lisa on that island, you know, that their Lord of the Flies experience maybe brought them all together. Could be. But no, they just had to pretend Lisa had friends. They much prefer, I mean, it was just like two seasons ago, they were doing Summer of Four Foot Two, where the entire plot is no one likes her and no one signs her yearbook. Though her yearbook friend should be there.

Hang out with those nerds. Oh, yeah. They live in that town that's hard to pronounce. But Alex makes quite a first impression. Guys, this is Alex. Hi there.

Hi. Ooh, twins. Which one is the evil one? Okay, I'll go get our lunches. So, Alex, will you just a sec. Hello? Huh?

Oh, yeah, like I'd be seen with a Discover card. You have a cell phone and a purse? That's it. Don't be shy. Now maybe a little joke to break the ice. Or a big joke. Careful now. Nobody likes a show-off. Where are they going?

Hey, wait up! They left without me. Elisa! I've got an extra seat and you've got an extra lunch. Catch my drift. Milhouse, lower those eyebrows.

And the other one. That's the only character with eyebrows on this show. Yeah. He can do that. I love that gag. It's not a lines per se, but just the way his one eyebrow still stays up and then he sadly brings it down i love that yeah that sticks out to me like outside of the episode it's just a very very funny gag i mean most of i uh millhouse's eyebrow acting are gifable moments oh yeah like a day with

density of him like waggling his eyebrows and as Nelson looks back at him. Yes, yes. But Lisa, seeing her friends just walk away, they remark on it on the commentary, and it is true. They walk away from that table so fast, they are instantly gone just for pacing purposes to get to the commercial. But it's funny that Alex is like, hey, let's all leave right now, and they just slip away. Which that is like they are being

shitty to lisa they are abandoning lisa when she was going to get lunch which uh that definitely happened to me a couple times at school i didn't like that yeah it happened to me too for sure it won't happen when you eat alone in the bathroom right edge there yeah no the worst time that happened to me was on a school trip to Universal Studios Orlando, where I was with a group, and the group ditched me. That sucked. I found another group and just hung around with them all day. And we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, and we had an okay time.

But man, that sucked. And so I can totally feel Lisa's pain here. And then on top of that, she has to feel all this abandonment pain, and then has to deal with this loser Milhouse still not getting the hint that she is not interested. Milhouse is definitely

in the Urkel wearing her down type of moment. And you will. I don't like that future chronology. No, I do not recognize the future where her

and Milhouse are together. No. It's all about lesbian Lisa. I prefer that, definitely. I also don't like Lisa ending up with anybody she knew as a child. That's not Lisa.

Meet a new person in your life. Those are just sitcom rules. You have to know each other for life. Well, that's how shipping works, too. Nobody's allowed to just leave town and make a new friend and fall in love when you're 25. That's not allowed. Not in the ship world. So we come back from break, and Lisa is telling the problems to her family.

So there I am, being nice to Alex, and she takes all my friends and ditches me. I'm sure they didn't ditch you, honey. Maybe they won't have to plan a surprise party for you. Oh, yeah. Good one, Mom. They only like her because she acts so grown up with her perfume and her cell phone. Oh, and get this, Mom. She drinks iced tea.

Lisa, I can't imagine anyone being more likable than you. But apparently this new girl is. So my advice would be to start copying her in every way. But, Dad. Uh-uh. Think. Is that what Alex would to start copying her in every way. But dad! Uh-uh. Think. Is that what Alex would say? That's a great twist.

From him being reassuring to just starkly realistic. And Homer's advice is so bad of becoming a sycophant for her. That's what you gotta do. Your personality needs to go away. Which, that is a horrible thing to tell your kid. But that's why it's funny yeah and doesn't work i like even the we'll get to the clothes shopping thing but like i was so i was

such a goth in middle school like i was definitely like i'm gonna listen to lincoln park and not care about anybody but i shopped at abercrombie and Fitch because I thought if I wore what the popular kids wore, they would like me. It doesn't effing work. That's sad. Yeah, it's a sad realization you all have to come to. Eventually, my rejection of society is a goth was wearing my Shinji t-shirt to school and be like, I'm Shinji. Please, I have a heart of glass. Leave me alone.

That was my announcement. But nobody watched Evangelion, so they didn't know the reference I was using. Is that some kind of Goku you got on? That's pretty gay. Are you gay? Like your gay cartoons? Yes, I do. I do like my gay cartoons.

It's called Yaoi, and it's fun. I love Marge's pitiful attempt to smooth it out to like, surprise birthday. But what else can a mom do? She basically says that later of like, I have to believe this. And Homer's delivery on that line, the best part is that they keep in like a very, like lip smack as he takes a breath to say,

so what I think you should do. Like it adds so much more like impact to the gag of his turn there. I love that. That was a good call from the audio editors, keeping in that stuff they normally cut from the audio. It's a nice beat to leave in, I think. I mean, Dan Castellaneta has amazing comedic timing, so can't blame him there.

And so Lisa is back at school. Alex apologizes, but in a very uh like condescending way for sure her uh though she also reveals that she pierced her friend's ears which like oh boy i i've never pierced my ears i don't know what is the right age to get your ears pierced but uh growing up there was not like a rite of passage just like every girl just had their ears pierced from like uh babyhood i think like a lotite of passage. Just every girl just had their ears pierced from babyhood, I think. A lot of parents pierced their little girl's ears. I feel like your kids should be able to agree to getting their ears pierced before you pierce them.

That's how I feel. It's a thing in some cultures, for sure. I got my ears pierced around Lisa's age just because it was a big thing. I don't wear earrings anymore because they poke you when you go to bed. I don't like it. I got my ears pierced at the Piercing Pagoda and it's still at the mall

that is just rotting from the inside. I was just there. Wow, I can't believe you're still there. A lot of my male friends who got piercings, they did it at Claire's. I did it at Claire's. I thought you might be at Claire's one. Actually, the Claire's. had friends who worked at spencer's gifts and they did piercings there too though they never did the piercings at it it was like one person on the staff was trained to be the piercer who could do

like you know a septum piercing or whatever not just the regular ear ones yeah well i i had a friend who she was she was very proud of her downstairs piercings as well she uh but she said it came to a point where she could not remove them. And now it became a problem for her. So they were just regular rings on each side of her special area. And I think it just ended up getting like rusted or something. I don't want to say rusted. There's a lot of body horror in this episode. Corroded?

The class would not reopen, basically. So they couldn't be removed. You need stainless steel anywhere on your body. Pliers? I think it might have come to that eventually. I stopped being friends with her whenever she eventually got rid of it. If she did, she could still have them. I don't know.

Were you like, you're not cool anymore? I can't be your friend? No, yeah. We're just not pals anymore in general. We had a falling out. But, yes, that was the most extreme. To me at the time, what freaked me out was

just the idea of you let some piercing guy see your junk? Get that close? That was the most surprising part to me. I had a friend who did corset piercings. He pierced her back so she could lace it up.

Not through the skin, obviously. They were the barbells or Man. Yeah, so that, like, not through the skin, obviously. They were, like, the barbells or whatever. Oh, okay. But still, wow. I don't want to shame anybody, but anything that's pierced that doesn't dangle, it kind of makes me wince. Like, a piercing, like, through, like, your hand. The snake bite.

Oh, I've never seen a snake bite. Yeah, or, like, through your neck. Like, they're just, like, a non-ear, non-nipple, non-belly button, non-genital piercing. I can't get down with that. It's a lot to think about, the snake bite ones especially. They can look cool on the right person. I'm way too much of a dweeb for that. I feel so old.

I've never even heard of these snake bite ones. Man. No, again, I'm a wuss. I've never had anything pierced. I want more ear piercings. I like the idea because I always tuck one side of my hair behind, so I'm like, oh, I should have some piercing for my ear and look cooler. But then I'm like, without makeup, I'm like, I don't look cool at all.

I can't pull it off. My goal is more tattoos. But Alex has her own plans for ear piercing, which is stabbing kids with thumbtacks and then picking it up with toilet paper it's also a really cool shot i could only appreciate it really this time but you see lisa's inside of her locker has all these very kitty stickers on it like the return of the happy little elves is there for one thing uh but also like a kind of lisa frank style like dolphin

riding a rainbow so it's it's So you're seeing her kitty inner life. And then when she closes the door, then right behind it is the maturity or growing up in the form of Alex and her pals. That was so subtle, I didn't notice it. It's very well done. I only caught it this time. That's really smart.

But after Lisa sort of gets an apology from Alexlex after being kind of like i mean you put them on your dolls i'm just kidding hey uh when you're older like that was still being told oh i was just kidding after being insulted is like no no no no definitely a thing definitely uh doesn't feel good no they're interrupted in their conversation by Principal Skinner. Oh, Lisa, I was hoping I could count on you again to spearhead our annual school-wide apple pick. Absolutely. Apple pick? Yeah, it's great. We have pony rides, sing-alongs, apple bobbing, apple picking, apple everything.

Oh, you forgot apple bobbing. No, I didn't. Didn't our old school have apple picks? No, we weren't big on fruit. We were more into, like, dances. You know, things that are fun. A dance? Great idea, Alex.

Yeah. Principal Skinner, can we have a dance instead? Oh, yeah. Great. We can do it. Well, we've never had a dance before. Lisa, you'd be doing all the work. What do you think?

I don't know. The ponies might be startled by the loud music. Well, there wouldn't be ponies. Then, at the risk of being unpopular, I think I'm gonna have to say... School dance? I didn't approve any school

dance. Yes, you did yesterday, right by my locker. Oh, yes. Yes. Carry on. I like it. Skinner is like having, he needs to take some ginkgo or something. He's having a time. He's not very involved in this whole dance affair. Same too, he's just like, you forgot apple popping.

No, I didn't. I think one thing is that alex is wearing a different outfit in like almost every scene pink yeah yeah no she's uh also more of a real person in that she wears different clothes which is also like changing springfield too like she's just introducing to all of the students you could wear other clothes not just the same clothes every day and i also just like how she liked her mean girl way of saying, you know, things that are fun.

Though now in my age, I'd prefer all that Apple stuff to being in a dark room to dance somewhere. It's just like, man, no. Apple sounds way tastier. I was just thinking about my favorite part of the year was the Halloween fair, which has a similar vibe as an apple picking kind of thing you know you know petting

zoo that kind of stuff we know lisa's obsessed with ponies yes yeah that tracks that also feels like a real call like malibu stacy happy little elves pony stuff like this is old lisa here for sure they're pulling from yeah like the history of l. This is not who she's been for a few years now. Who is Lisa? Trying to figure out what characteristics she has. There's a great line later from her that really shows the balance they're doing with

Lisa. Is Lisa's problem that she doesn't want to grow up or that she's older than the rest of them too because of how well read she is? What is Lisa? Most smart kids, she just doesn't fit in in where she lives yeah like i said earlier it feels very real to me even though it's kind of ridiculous because i think in some ways like the kind of person lisa is and the kind of person i always viewed myself as can be both things like childish

in many ways but also very much i don't want to say beyond because that sounds arrogant, but just like at a different level. It's like, oh, my reading, like I'm at an eighth grade reading level, but also I love watching cartoons. You're just like, you're a very weird dichotomy of a person. Yeah. Well, like in school I did have like, I've read more books or seen more movies than you guys. Or also I, in high school, I got really angry that it felt like I had read more Kafka than my teacher had. Can I do The Trial? I want to do that.

It's my year-long book project. But my teacher wouldn't let me do it just because she hadn't read The Trial. I had to do Crime and Punishment, which was really great. I actually love Crime and Punishment. I just got mad when teachers would mispronounce words I knew. I was like, I'm a child and I know

this is wrong. Yeah, I remember being in fifth grade and we were like, you can do a, they called it a hero report, I think, and you could do like a report on any person or any book. I chose Little Women. I read all of Little Women

and did a project on it. Everyone else was choosing like, I don't even remember, like definitely not Little Women. They read all of Little Women and did a project on it. Everyone else is choosing like, I don't even remember. Definitely not Little Women. They were actually fairly average-sized women. It almost feels like an act break there, too, when he's like, school dance! I don't remember that. Oh, carry on. And he walks away. I thought a commercial was coming right then, but I knew it

didn't, but that was such weird pacing, too. But that's a lot of the Scully years that it feels like oh i thought the commercial could have gone before or after this like i i wonder how much is up to them and how much is up to fox and when they want to put commercials in and i think skinner would not normally okay children to have a school dance but i i read it very like uh impressed by uh not allison alex yes yeah i think he was feeling very overwhelmed and challenged in a way he isn't normally yeah yeah i mean alex is intimidating

to adults even too you know it's not just elisa yeah also we know that skinner gets easily intimidated by women in his life it's true yeah the bullies can't scare him too much but women can boss him around pretty well, it seems like. As all that's happened in his school, Bart is taking Homer to the real home of grease. When you want grease, go to the source. Good old Krusty Burger. Oh, I'll say. Look at that redheaded kid.

It must be $20 worth of grease on his forehead alone. I was thinking more of the deep fryer. All right, we'll try it your way. Can I help you sir my god you're greasy Mom's gonna kill you if she didn't want her car ruined. She should have done a better job hiding her keys hey what the hey hey you're taking our grease it's our grease now we run the grease racket in this town hey that's my shovel we also run the shovel racket so yeah the uh my god You're Gracie line.

Not so funny to me in 1998. I'm funny now. I mean, back then I was about 80% acne. Now I'm around 3% to 5% acne. It never stops. It never stops. I've aged out of acne pretty much, I think. It's nice.

I tried everything, but only... I don't even know if they still do this anymore. Accutane was the scorched earth policy. It made people suicidal. There were all these side effects that destroyed your liver. I survived Accutane, but it got rid of my acne. Jesus. Mostly got rid of my acne.

Yeah, Accutane's dicey. I do so much research. My acne was so bad. I couldn't move. The lower half of my face was so painful. Oh, wow. Oh, man. Of course it happens at your most physically awkward time of your life.

It really doesn't help the dweeb status that you already have. No, I had really terrible acne too. But when I finally went to a dermatologist, he was like, he didn't want to try Accutane. He's like, we could, but let's do this cream first. And the cream did enough that I was like, okay, no Accutane. He's like, we could, but let's do this cream first. And the cream did enough that I was like, okay, no Accutane. But I definitely needed a dermatologist

prescribed thing to deal with. I was thinking of my dermatologist drawing the blinds and telling me about Accutane. Mine was really bad. This is the body horror episode, but I had really bad body acne where I hurt to sit in a chair because it was all over my back and it was

really just swollen and painful. That's not a problem anymore, thank God, but just existing hurt, just physically existing in a space hurt my body. Now I feel lucky that my acne was just above the neck. I didn't have it in bad place anywhere else, but I just felt so embarrassed by it. I used the over-the-counter stuff so much but it felt like I'd use you know a pad and then like 10 30 minutes later

my face just felt greasy all over again we're gonna get so many acne stories in the comments oh god I you know keep them g-rated comments guys I feel for you I'm not watching dr. pimple pop around no no I saw I saw a Facebook ad for that show that is just showing surgeries.

I don't want that. Yeah. No. I still have scars from seventh grade. I don't get acne on the side of my face. I haven't since middle school, but I still have scars. Most of my problem, I've eliminated 95% of the acne on my face, but I still deal with scarring.

That's my new thing. I'm like, I don't need to deal with the pimple popping anymore. I just want you to, like, I need a microdermabrasion. Yeah,

I've got some scars too. Oh boy, geez. I like Homer's delivery of, my God, you're greasy. But you know who's a hero to all of us acne sufferers

is Bill Murray. He was allowed to star in movies with a face that scarred up. That's true. God bless him. Edward James Olmos as well. They proved he can do it. They both still get to appear in things.

I also love Homer's way of thinking of just like, well, if she didn't want her car ruined, she should have done a better job hiding her keys. Shoveling grease into her hatchback. It's so gross. This is jerk-ass Homer for sure here like it's uh the joke is constantly on march being treated

horribly but you know homer is immediately beaten by thugs so he got his comeuppance the shovel too but just imagine that the garbage grease soaking the inside of your car like that uh you would just burn your car you're done with your car then yeah like i'm like i think you've all left a fast food bag in our car for like overnight oh yeah it's like that times a million you get in the car you're like oh it smells like a mcdonald's it'll smell like that for six months this is why i uh well i mean also the scent of like working at a place like when i When I worked at the AMC concession stand, like the scent of it never went away. And it's like, I never want to spend money at the concession stand ever again. I, though my husband is still like, no, no, let's get popcorn.

I'm like, fine, but I just can't. The scent, I just hate the scent so much. Then the last great gag in that scene is it does say on the back of their thing, acne grease and shovel. They are in charge of the shovel racket. They really branched out. Which I guess are the only people who can deal shovels in all of Springfield. And they steal your shovel if you have it. That's an insane idea, the shovel racket.

So then we go to the mall. There is a sign gag I did not get until now either. Donner's Party Supplies. Didn't get that. And it's the Winter Madness Sale. I will say I love last podcast on the left. They did a great three-part series on the Donner Party. Oh, I haven't heard that one. It is just a

joke we all tell ourselves, but the actual story is totally harrowing and awesome and amazing. They tell it very well. Yeah, good podcast all around. People just love cannibal jokes. that's just it's easy saying donner party just easy cannibal jokes instead of going though into the party supply store they head into dingo junction which is a very like um i think well-observed 90s mall store for girls as far as i know i never i didn't venture too far into those Forever 21 type places then. One weird reference is that

the mascot for this store would later be used for the Crash Bandicoot parody. Oh my God, right. It's the same Dingo? Yeah, Dash Dingo. Wow. So there is a Crash Bandicoot parody

later this season and Lisa gets a great episode, by the way. But I guess they just like that character design so they just reuse him in that video game. I knew, like, my brain was like, dingo.

There's another dingo somewhere else. It's such a cool dingo design, and it also fits with, it reminds me, gosh, the California something, the one that had the ape, the surfing ape on it. Oh, TNC Surf Design? Yeah, that's the one. It reminded me of that kind of mascot for it.

Though I guess maybe Dingo Junction is also supposed to be a kind of Banana Republic, I suppose. I think it's supposed to be like a Forever 21 or Wet Seal, like one of those fashionable mall stores for women. And if you want to look up the song that's played in there, the song is Positive Vibrations by Mark Haley and Ray Flowers, which was just released on an album of easy dance tunes. So I think it was just a cheap thing that sounds like a pop song,

but wasn't one. Maybe they blew their pop song licensing budget at the end of the episode. Is there a different song every time the door opens in this episode, in the third act? I think they just bring it up more. No, no, no. It's the same. I think it's the same song.

Oh, okay, no. It's the same. I think it's the same song. Oh, okay. Yeah. But yes, as all the gals are trying on their hot couture and having some real Spice Girl vibes with their outfits too, I think. Especially Janie's hat really reminds me of a Spice Girl type fashion. Yeah. Lisa, meanwhile, isn't into it. I am not wearing this.

Oh, come on, Lisa. It's totally you. Just, you know, add some accessories, lip gloss, maybe drop five pounds. Aren't we a little young for makeup? And what do you mean five pounds? Well, you want to look nice for your date. Date? Hello.

For the dance. You guys have dates? Hello. Stop saying hello! Okay, calm down, Lisa. DMY. What's DMY? Don't mess yourself.

Ew. Yeah, that's why we changed it to DMY. Don't worry, Lisa. There's still plenty of time. You'll get a date. I don't want a date! And I don't want to wear perfume and cocktail dresses. Am I the only one who just wants to play hopscotch and bake cookies and watch the

McLaughlin group? Hello? Hello? Oh. I feel like if that had been made today, she would have said hello. That's the vibe it gives off. Hello.

What the O-W-O emotes? O-W-O. What's this yeah uh poor poor lisa just though yeah the mention of the mclaughlin group that's the one thing it's just like they ought to show that lisa isn't just a little kid like she also is uh overly mature too like the same girl who wants to join mensa and stuff yeah uh though i mean the mclaughlin group nobody should watch that. Well, they can't anymore. He's dead. Yes. They can't watch it now. Don't watch reruns, but it's just like there's better politics outlets for you.

It was just yelling at each other and gatekeeping a lot too. It's identical in my mind to the McNeil-Lehrer hour. I don't know the difference. Which one was parody on SNL? I think it was McNeil-Lehrer Show show show here we go

And yeah Alex even calls her fat What a fucking jerk And I also love Lisa's demand of like stop saying hello It's just like she's so sick Of kids today saying hello She sounds so old then

She hates the slang it's like i just love the the very 90s like it has like the as if kind of vibe i keep saying vibe i also forgot to mention that this is in the shadow of clueless as well this episode i which probably had a big uh impression on the writers or at least from a design standpoint too which uh that was that gave me a real insight into the the world of ladies i think like well this episode too made me think like is is dm why a thing kids say no they made it up for the uh show but um it's like both of that and clueless but sorry both this and clueless have a joke where the joke is a young person has a cell phone and that's the joke joke. Yeah, yeah. They shouldn't have it. It's 1995 and 1998, respectively.

Yeah. I mean, I didn't have my own personal cell phone, I think, until, like, 2006 when I moved out here. That's when I got mine, actually, yeah. Yeah, I think I got mine in 2006. Wow. Wow, though you were a teen then, though, right? Yeah, yeah.

Okay. I got, it was a little bit early because my mom was always terrified I was going to get kidnapped or whatever. Ah, I see. So mine was, like, one of the, like, it was a little bit early because my mom was always terrified i was going to get kidnapped or whatever so mine was like a uh one of the like it was a very uncool cell phone because it was like a safety cell phone for like only i only call my mom on it my uh my mom was worried too but i didn't uh i that's when i got one when i moved out here because i also uh it was the first time i had my own apartment i realized like am I really going to get a landline in 2006? Or will I just have a cell phone that the people I applied to jobs for call?

But, hey, it all worked out. But I didn't get a smartphone until, like, 2012, I think. And now I think kids, all kids have phones, I think, or so many do. When I was in high school, I babysat. And these kids were using the early iPhones, like their parents' last iPhone. Just handed it down? Oh, wow.

Yeah, instead of turning it in, they would have it. And the kid could connect to the Wi-Fi. I babysat a kid who was a year old and knew how to look up garbage dump truck videos on YouTube because he just loved watching dump truck videos. Wow. So into that. I'm scared of how computer literate this generation will be

and what they're going to end up like. Finding all the wrong videos to watch. Well, hey, that's what the YouTube algorithm does. You can't change that. That's a free market. You see kids on TikTok that have incredible editing skills. And I'm like, I'll never be able to edit a video on my phone like that ever in my life. I only have text editing skills.

I mean, that is a skill to get them ready for the future. You need to be your own video editor in the future, kids. Way more than knowing how to write a sentence. No one taught me how to edit a podcast in the 90s when I was in high school. Yeah, and all the grammar rules I learned. Useless. I just say words out loud. Incursive.

Go to hell. Incursive. So when we come back from break, Marge is comforting Homer about how sad he is with this stupid grease thing. And I do love that Marge is trying to get him distracted with a new plan. Oh, I can't believe those goons muscled me out of my grease business. with a new plan. You could raise some emos. Emos? Really? Oh, that's pretty crazy. Nah, I'd only fail just like I fail at everything. Hey, Dad, I've been thinking.

What if instead of giving up on Greece, we go for one last big score? Wait a minute. The boys' farm? I can't quit now. Aw, you always know just what to say to cheer me up. Emu farm? You're priceless, Marge. I like that Marge knows she can't talk Homer out of being crazy. So her new strategy is give him something crazier to do.

And there's a lot of running gags. They have this in the next episode, too, of like Marge basically is trying to pitch ideas in a writer's room yeah and then is told like that's not a good idea no and then that could have been a failed subplot yeah uh though i mean why is her is her emu farm any worse than a grease collection thing i feel like that could have led to a funny story too yeah poor marge she's she's such a good wife she's like bark comes through and is like nah yeah that's it's also a real insult to marge that homer's like bart you know just bart just says nothing and he's like you're right part we're not giving up i'm doing this they even give him the music behind the words too the music transition

is so it's like really like makes the scene too it's a real epiphany he seems to have yeah uh and then we go back to the school first nelson is talking about his love of huckleberries last heard of in the episode this little wiggy and yeah that i like that when skinner shows up he's not he's enforcing the social order of like no you should be a mean bully don't talk about huckleberries with these kids also enforcing gender norms i feel yeah yeah that too yeah which uh i've never had huckleberries i wonder how good they are that's one of my favorite scenes in the the episode though just because like nelson has been proven to have like a soft side i just i always find it so great when he's he's gone and then he's talking about the confectioner sugar he wants

delicious wine and the kids he's talking to all are the nerds he beat up especially database and ralph like yeah like the last time he talked about huckleberries was the episode where he bullied ralph and stole his uh key their conversations about berries are interrupted by Lisa in a surprising outfit. The thing about hunk of berries is once you've had fresh, you'll never go back to canned. So anyway, I kicked the guy's ass. Now, if the berries are too tart, I just dust them with confectioner's sugar. Good secret. Oh, good secret. Hey, guys.

Hi, Lisa. Are you all right? No doubt. Can't a girl fabulize herself before the big dance? Your earlobe's bleeding. Oh. So, I guess major muffins like yourselves all have dates, huh? You better believe it. Really?

All of you? Ah, we all have dates, Lisa. Everyone does. Even me. Ha! Unbelievable. Whoa! Ralph can't even believe it.

Yeah. I think thease is the most unbelievable. Everybody has Database. I like his voice. It's so great. That's another reason. We know MacRaining is gone because Database is coming back. Yeah. He hates Database, famously.

Famously to us, at least. Well, speaking of sounds of characters, Wendell's all wrong in this. It's not like he was. Goodbye, Lisa. Yeah, he was. He's kind of like a duh-duh duh duh idiot that is not wendell is the queasy kid yeah he's supposed to feel like uh like stressed out or like oh no like that's him yeah that didn't even occur to me but that that is very not him when i was going over the sounds

i was him me like wait that is wendell. That's all wrong for season one superstar Wendell. He just did it for one joke and was in the opening for a while and then nothing else. Yeah. I think the last time we saw him was at Martin Prince's party and he was like thrown up on. So it was like he wasn't even the throwing up kid at it. Milhouse stole his bit. Yeah. Pretty much every problem of a nerdy kid

Just all got funneled to Millhouse So instead of doing it with different kids They just were all jokes about Millhouse's expense Yeah But yeah, Lisa, you know She thought she had a sure thing at that table Especially like she's got two guys Who she went on dates with before

That's true But somehow they all have dates Which makes no sense. I guess Alex is already taking over the school with her maturity fever. Everybody thinks they're supposed to have a date. I was scared

of the concept of dating at like 14. I can't imagine 8 year olds agreeing to a thing called a date. I didn't date until college. I was like really really slow on that. I didn't go to... I went to prom with a friend and he asked me to prom in binary.

Oh, wow. That's so sweet. Yeah. Well, that's funny. We talk about how mature we felt in classes except of like, well, but kissing, ooh, no, no, thank you. That's illogical. I don't know about that.

That sounds like germs. That's a good way to catch a cold. Enjoy your germs, losers. So Lisa thinks that she's at least got one surefire date left. Another wedgie? Hang on, I'll get my forceps. Oh, hurry. Milhouse, I've been looking all over for you. Listen, you've always had a crush on me, right?

Well, this is your lucky day, because you're gonna take me to the dance. Pretty great, huh? See ya. Oh, but I can't. I already asked somebody. So unask her. But that one's... You're taking me. You got that? And it's gonna be a

magical evening. What am I doing? This isn't me. I'm sorry, Milhouse. I'm free next weekend. There's plenty of Milhouse to go around. I like that he's so confident while his armpits

are still filled with his underwear. And that it is so extreme that forceps are needed to get the witch out. Poor Milhouse. I don't know if dating Milhouse would bring her much social status. Well, if Database and Wendell have dates. That's true, yeah. If she has no date, I think Milhouse is preferable to no date. Yeah.

If that, if just. Yeah, I mean, later he calls her, like, you don't want to be the dateless wonder. Exactly, yeah. Everybody's owning her for not having a date. But I do, you know, now I really appreciate the maturity of Milhouse that he's like, no, I've asked out this girl. It'd be wrong for me to just break off the date with her just because you said to.

Yeah, Milhouse is equal parts admirable and just so punchable. He really just oscillates between the two at all times. In the Lord of the Flies episode, he was just hateable. Just a detestable pig. Yeah, he can go from that kind of episode

to a respectable position on something. And I like that Lisa does apologize to him, too. That's good. Instead, she could have just run off, but she actually apologizes. But yeah, him refusing to break off the date with his crush, to go to the dance with a crush, reminds me of an episode of My So-Called Life. Did you guys ever see that show? I do, but I have no memories of it uh on the episode the life of brian where it was the voiceovers were all done

by the nerd who has a crush on claire danes on the show um he gets a date with this new girl who you know is she's she's a little nerdy but they they both are and they they make a real connection and they're like yeah we're gonna go to the dance together and then claire danes's character asks Because she's a little nerdy, but they both are. And they make a real connection. And they're like, yeah, we're going to go to the dance together. And then Claire Danes' character asks him to the date as like a friend, not as a date, but to the dance. And he then breaks it off with the girl who he was going to go to the dance with in a very heartbreaking scene. And all for nothing, because Claire Danes wasn't into him. She was just using him to get back at some other guy too but jordan catalano yeah f him man uh yeah so that

i mean that's jared lato so i really f him but he's damaged uh but yeah at least millhouse knew better than brian in that episode of my so-called life like you don't you don't be a cat and break off a date uh when you've already made the the deal with somebody even if you don't you don't be a cat and break off a date uh when you've already made the the deal with somebody even if you don't want to be there which like that's pretty rude to do anyway yeah the vision lisa has of herself in millhouse's glasses that's a good little shot too i like that it's very well done sobering moment for her so we come back from commercial breaks bart and homer have built like a mad max style grease mobile with just like uh vacuum tubes that lead into drums to put grease in but nothing is tied down yes yeah uh which oh yeah there's

drums of grease it reminded me of a gag i meant to mention earlier the grease guy they were selling to in the background there's like this little visual gag that I just caught this time. He has a swimsuit calendar like you'd see at a brake shop or whatever. But it's clearly from the grease industry. So it's a swimsuit model posed over like a gross leaking tub of grease. Oh, I totally missed that. Yeah, I missed that too. It's so fun. It's such a clever idea.

Like it's the industry swimsuit counter, all pretty women around Greece. So on this recording day, we also recorded tomorrow, next week's episode. And they both have a third act with Homer and Bart going on a nighttime caper. Oh yeah.

To break into someplace. That's true. They're really in a nighttime caper mood in the writer's room. And Homer prays to God for help. And he knows, Homer imagines that with god's great power that he's watching women undress though too uh but bart knows it's not going to trick god so they

decide to just go without god and drive off and uh great animation on the drums just falling off of the side of his car too uh so then we come back we get a really sweet scene between lisa and marge i just oh it's just so cute like marge marge has to be such a mom in this show but they at least get really great jokes in this episode of her being a comforting mom who knows how things go in the real world she makes homemade pepsi oh so great look how viscous it sounds. It's a little thick, but the price is right. So you can... There's a wiki how of how to make your own Pepsi. It involves so many ingredients that

it is completely unnecessary and you really shouldn't do it unless you have like a feel adventurous one night like, you know what? Let's see if we can make Pepsi taste the same. Yeah, I have nothing else going on. People who make their own Pepsi don't have anything else going on in their day.

They're making YouTube videos about making their own Pepsi. That's it. If you want to make your own, it's out there, but you have to buy a lot of stuff to mix into it. I feel pretty certain it won't taste like Pepsi. Not really. At that point, it sounds like it would be more expensive

anyway. Yeah. Just make Kool-Aid. The same deal with the grease and the bacon. Yeah. No, Marge probably, well, Marge seems to think she did not lose money on this Pepsi, though. I think she is at least better with money with her home fixing ideas. But yes, this scene of Marge is so cute. I especially think of the song at the end here often.

Yeah, it's really good. And the dancing. Lisa, I especially think of the song at the end here often. Yeah, it's really good. And the dancing. Lisa, I made you some homemade Pepsi for the dance. It's a little thick, but the price is right. Thanks, Mom, but I told you I'm not going. Oh, so you don't have a date. You can still go and have a wonderful time. You don't understand.

I don't belong there. The other girls are already into fashion and makeup and dating. They make me feel like a little baby. Oh, honey, a baby couldn't have organized a big school dance. Unless it was especially skilled. Or one of those super babies from Brazil. Forget it, Mom. I'm not going. But they're counting on you to take tickets.

And if you sit there with a brave little smile and a festive bow, why, you could be the bell of the ball. Mom, you can't possibly believe that. I have to, honey. Or you can stay here and we'll have our own dance. Every Simpson dance now. Bomp, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. I'll go.

It reminds me of her bonding with Bartz. I'll crump with you, sweetie pie. Her dancing has improved more since her, by the time she crumps in the show. I was thinking of the last example where she's like, well, I'm no Harvey Globetrotter.

Oh yes. Yeah. That too. Yeah. Watch out for the check attack. I said, watch out. Yeah.

It's very sad. i love her using her um embarrassing mom powers to force lisa out of the house like yeah especially like her chickity kind of posing to it like the way her leg lifts up on one of them so funny was she at the gay steel mill is that where she learned that song that is the last time we heard that song yeah oh my god yeah it's uh i mean that's a it's a dance classic of the 90s, for sure. Speaking of dancing, I really love the animation of the paramecium dancing together, seemingly just despite Lisa, too. Square dancing. I also like that she's just looking down a microscope with her, presumably Friday night.

Well, that reminds me, too, of her reading her Gore Vidal book and saying, let's kiss more boys than I ever will. And Marge had a similar moment of coming in and saying, no, boys kiss girls least. Also, Super Babies from Brazil. Is that a Boys from Brazil reference? I think it is,

yeah. Marge thought it was real. Which that movie, Spoilers, is about cloning Hitler plans. That's what Boys from Brazil is about. Which is basically the, if you watch the show Archer, that's the background they gave to the character Krieger as well. That's right, yeah. He is a clone of Hitler.

That makes a lot, I didn't know about the movie. Okay, I understand now. Yes, yeah. I think, I mean, it was a hit film when the writers were growing up too. It's barely referenced now.

Yeah. And when Hitler clone jokes should be all the rage these days. I guess our Hitler jokes have moved in other directions now. But Marge has to give it to those super babies.

She's like, she respects them. But it's also, I really like the acting on lisa and yardley if you're saying like makes me feel like a baby like it's so it's so real i i had those moments too of just admitting how i actually why something really upsets me to somebody and not wanting to admit like no this is why i'm upset this is why it actually hurt my feelings then uh bart is leading homer to their big score and i like that he's almost like a heat style career criminal like like one big score homer oh man i've been looking at score for so long uh at least part's really

into all this grease nabbing stuff that is uh distracting him from his schoolwork. He takes them to the school, which Bart says, I used to be my school. And we get the best visual gag of the episode of a industrial vacuum cleaner ripping Homer's face and causing his eye to bulge out in an extreme way. It's not the first eye bulge. No, I think it's the most extreme in the show. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. There will be another one. It is not the first eye bulge. No, I think it's the most extreme

in the show at this point. There will be another one. It is the first. Yes, yeah. I mean, it looks straight out of Ren and Stimpy, the kind of extreme eye bulge they gave him, which was just like Ren's normal eyes. His angry eyes.

But yes, then Lisa is the dateless kid running the thing. That also felt very like real, ripped from the lives of the writers who were like on school commissions, which also meant that they got to watch kids have fun while they were the people manning the booths. I like the effect of the door opening and you see kind of the shadow hitting Lisa and the music getting really getting really loud and then kind of slams shut like a prison door almost it's a very cool effect yeah she can't hear it at all through the door yeah and and the uh the little star stamp feels very like real too like that's what you a kid would use as their uh uh i guess door check kind of thing to stamp that you've come in. And the joke of Milhouse's date, I'm glad they don't comment on it

or she doesn't say anything. It's just like, when you see her, you're like, okay, that makes sense. Just like, yeah. Yeah, it could have veered into a bad direction pretty quickly and they avoided that. The headgear is enough of a joke. Yeah, the headgear is just a visual.

She's on Milhouse's level, I guess, is what they're trying to say. She seems pretty good on her own, though. I mean, she's not embarrassed to be with Milhouse. Also, you feel like a girl who'd go on a date with Milhouse would be a character you'd see again in their lives of like, oh, a girl who actually wanted Milhouse? But not the case. I don't think we ever see that character again in any major thing.

Maybe she's in some background shot. Alex will appear in occasional background shots after this, too. But that's more just economy of not wanting to design a new kid. I think that kid with the headgear is too distracting to reuse. She's there for you to see once as a joke. If she was just in Hoover's class, it would just draw your eye completely away. You wouldn't be hearing the funny line Miss Hoover was saying. It's probably a lot to draw to.

Oh, yeah. Complicated. So they climb through the air ducts Bart and Homer do, land in the kitchen for the never-taking-out grease of the school cafeteria. And so is the joke of the tail wagging thing on Homer, is he farting into it? Oh no, I didn't think about farting at all. I didn't take it as farting, no. Okay, but what makes it

move then? He's just standing still. He's just so excited. Yeah, he has a tail and he can wag it now. Sure. Okay, alright. You made this dirty, Henry. My immediate thought as a kid was like, is Homer farting into that tube to make it weird? I didn't read it as the cartoonish

language of a dog wagging its tail because he's excited. Definitely, I was like, oh, tail wagging. But it did occur to me that it could like, if we're talking about the logistics of it, it would probably be farting. I'm sorry to bring it there. This episode is all about body horror. I wouldn't

want suction that close to an opening in my body. Oh, yeah. Honestly, anywhere near your butt would not be good. It would disembowel him. No, no, wait. Gut him. But as they're stealing the grease, and Bart is just sad about his school and Homer not understanding that,

Ian walks this surprisingly nude Willie in a tiny towel.'s uh in a like a tiny towel it's very it's so weird that the rest of the episode he's like beating up homer and uh and falling into greece in this like perfect olympian body of his yeah ripped and the towel doesn't fall off or anything he's like prison ripped no it's crazy yeah uh and like this episode reminded me so much of uh sweet seymour skinner's badass song because it involves willie chasing someone through uh a duct and grease is involved so grease me up woman is what he says and he falls out of the duct too in this in the same gym yeah that's true yeah although the ceiling is not nearly as high anymore yes yeah i guess they lowered the ceiling since then.

And when Willie enters here, the song he's whistling is the classic Scottish song by Jan Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond. Oh, we know that one. I'll take the high road and you take the low road. That's the part everybody knows because Bugs Bunny would sing it. Yes, yeah.

That's why we know it. But here's Willie's version of it. So, is this your school? Well, it used to be. I mean, what are you doing here? We're a new foreign exchange student from Scotland. Saints be praised. I'm from Scotland. Where are you from?

North Kilt Town. No fooling. I'm from North Kilt Town. Do you know angus mcleod wait a minute there's no angus mcleod in north kilt town why you're not from scotland at all ah don't be daft i was born in what the my retirement grease my red diamond grease no you thieving grease pundits I'll kill ya Homer isn't being clever he just forgot what the argument was about he believed in his lies so much

that he just thought it was real I love Willy catching himself like eek I mean what are you like he remembers the word he's supposed to say as a Scotsman he shrieks in English then in Scottish and his body is so like ripped and perfect He remembers the word he's supposed to say as a Scotsman. He shrieks in English, then in Scottish.

And his body is so ripped and perfect that he showers with Ajax and Brillo pads. Yeah. Pete Michaels and Dominic Palcino, they're the animators on it. And Dominic Palcino is the director. This is the last one he did before leaving for Family Guy. And he talks about how they worked on the Bart Falls Down a Well episode, which established that he was buff. So they always make sure to remember, like, no, he has a perfect buff body. That's what Grant... And because they reused that same joke for Flanders,

Flanders also has a perfect buff body, despite his, like... They're all pear-shaped men until they take their shirts off. Yeah. I like that when Apu took his shirt off he has still the same body yeah at least they stuck with that with one guy but i as far as i know there is no north kilt town in scotland though any scottish listeners if you correct me uh but yes homer i love also just homer and willie they almost never share scenes together i like dan doesn't often talk to himself in scenes, unless it's Abe and Homer, I guess. But otherwise, crossover like this of Willie and Homer.

Because Willie's world is such the school that they don't interact. And yeah, his retirement grease, that implies, I love that. Just that little line there lets you know, like, Willie cares about this because he knows how much grease is worth. And he's been saving it until it's time to cash out. There's a reason it has not been emptied yet. The grease racket has permeated the entire town. You know, maybe that's why he keeps the retirement grease hidden like that, too, because he knows the acne company will steal it from him

if he tries to make a move on it now. Oh, very good. As they run away, I love the animation on Homer and Bart's feverish scooting. Like, just the little scoots they're making. And they're just like extremely round butts. Oh, yes. And then Willie says he doesn't want to beat Homer, but his fists have been drinking all day, which, man, he's beating Homer so much and then strangles him so hard that his eye bulges out. And then he even, I love Homer's command.

They did a lot of jokes at this time of Homer saying, like, please stop beating me. This really hurts. It reminds me of Homer saying, like, why won't you die? Or you're going down, punk. They loved a brawling Homer in the Scully years, for sure. As the strangling's happening, Lisa gets a special message from Skinner. Not so fast, boyo. Hell, if it was up to me, I'd let you go.

But the lads have a temper, and they've been drinking all day. Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop pummeling me! It's really painful! All right, fine. I'll strangle you for a while! Oh, good, good, good. Oh.

Oh, that's a juicy side. Lisa, I have to run home. I need you to keep an eye on the dance. Oh, I don't want to go in there with all the happy dancing couples. Normally I wouldn't ask, but it's an emergency. Mother has a June bug cornered in the basement, and she needs me to finish it off. Come on, chop, chop.

All right, all right, DMY. I know what that means, young lady. And that is piping through the music there. That's All For Ones, I Can Love You Like That, which was actually a cover of a song made famous earlier in the year by John Michael Montgomery, the country singer, which I didn't know until this. So they were for different markets.

Yes. Different channels. I knew All For Ones quite well. Oh, me too. I heard it a lot. I didn't know of the original version until my mom started watching a lot of CMT. And that came up. I was like, there's another one of these?

I mean, All For One, they did, I think, a few covers. But they were of the boys to men era of just soulful R&B from earnest men who just describe all the ways they're going to make a woman happy. Often with a spoken word segment. Oh, yes. With a very deep voice, man. When I say forever, forever's what I mean. A good use of a modern-ish song when they did it here. It was three years old at the time of this episode airing,

but still, it was not too often Simpsons used current day songs or then current songs. I mean, I was in middle school in 95, and these were at my middle school dances. I did not go to high school dances, but I thought it was odd, even as a 12-year-old, where it's like, they're playing I'll Make Love to You, and we're at a Catholic school dance. What's happening? That does seem too far. When Lisa goes in, when she thinks she's going to see this hop and party she's missing out on, instead, the kids are on two opposite ends of the dance floor, all being wallflowers, because they're scared.

And I would have been that exact kid, too. I was like, contact with another person? No, thank you. That's scary. This wall and this punch bowl are so much more comfortable. But yes, Lisa is shocked as much as Alex is here.

Oh, Lisa, it's terrible. Okay, this dance has gone titanic. What happened? Well, the boys and girls are like afraid of each other. They're acting like a bunch of kids. I know. What is up with that? It's because they are kids, and so are we.

Come on, Alex. We've only got nine, maybe ten years tops when we can giggle in church and chew with our mouths open and go daze without bathing. We'll never have that freedom again. Listen, you can giggle and stink all you want, but

I have a credit card, so on you. That's a great rejection of a change of heart moment there by Alex. She is right. Once you learn that you should shower every day, then why would you want to not do that? Yeah, you really don't go back from that unless you have a depressive episode. I enjoyed bathing a lot as a kid, but I was like Lisa where I wanted to put off adulthood. I think that's why I was in college for about nine years. Like, no, I don't want adulthood.

Please keep it away. And yeah, I had moments like this where I assume all through our lives, my friends and I would play video games and watch cartoons. But when high school rolled around, like, that's gay. That's gay now. But I want to watch cartoons with you oh they reject it bob yeah yeah they uh yeah it's sad i oh also the designs of the party going kids uh my favorite is uder's sweater i like his like sweater it's a good look for him this is like a green sweater with like a orange stripe on it. No lederhosen. You know, I think his pants are still lederhosen. Okay.

Yeah, that Alex too, like she just dumps on Lisa like a real girl, a real kid I think at the time would have like, I'm not learning a lesson. Just throwing an old raspberry at her. Which is, it's so funny because she's like, I have a credit card and then immediately goes for the

raspberry. I'm mature, but also I'm definitely still a child. And then we get to the disgusting ending. So as Homer is being strangled, there's a grease explosion flooding the vents sending, it's really clever

how it sends Homer, Bart, and Willie in different directions. It splits off. The fight ends that way. Yeah. And Willie is just knocked unconscious, which I think that is better than him just crying about his grease. Homer

is the only one who gets sad about the grease. Willie is just unconscious in a room full of children, basically naked, covered in grease. He's going to jail after this, I think. Not through any fault of his own. I mean, I, you, it hit me at the end of this episode now,

like, oh, Willie just lost all of his money. Like, his retirement grease is gone. It's going to be, like, hosed off of the floor here. He's not getting a 401k at Springfield on the Mentor. No. My favorite line in the next scene, though, is, like, the most obvious Punch and Judyy set up the nelson line yeah with luigi i i just think about horrifying that would be if he actually took it sincerely just walking with free pizza i feel so bad for

luigi he is right like i'm giving you kids a free pizza normally luigi is very caustic and angry at his customers this is the time he finally opened up his heart to these kids and it's been thrown back in his face. I also like the implication that Luigi has heard about the school dance through the grapevine and decided to deliver pizza. Lisa didn't think that far ahead to provide food for the dance.

That's true. I guess it wasn't in the budget. If she's bringing homemade Pepsi, then there's no dance budget. oh so nice of luigi and here he's getting called names but i it made me feel bad i wish instead there would have been just a moment he's like oh no there's grease okay i'm not offended yeah but he had to see all the grease uh but god the hamburger milkshake i'm close to retching thinking of these kids clawing around all this well here. Well, next episode we have hamburger

earmuffs, so a lot of things are happening with hamburgers. That's more sanitary. The catching the grease on their tongues like snowflakes just, oh my god. That is the grossest thing. But that's also part of being a child. You don't think of all the grease you're eating and what

that's going to do health-wise. You're just like, oh, I eat disgusting things. I'm a child. All I want is fat and grease. But yes, here is the disgusting, greasy ending. It's like a hamburger milkshake.

Here comes a grease ball. Hey, Luigi, bring your kids a free pizza. Why you have to make it a fun, huh? That's my grease. It's mine. Give it here. You're playing in grease? Yarg. Oh, at your age.

You are so dead. Ow! There was bacon in that. And that greased your brain for that 70s show. Yes, yeah. After all that grease, I'm sticking around to for that 70s show. Yes, yeah. After all that grease, I'm sticking around to watch that 70s show. I do like that Lisa gets a little comeuppance on Alex with that grease ball thrown at her. But then her gag, though, is that she's like, no, this is a fun snowball fight.

You're supposed to throw it back at me. It's not all L-intention, but she is getting back at Alex. I want to see all the parents freak out when they have to pick up their greasy kids and drive them home. You can see the patches of grease. It's so gross. When Homer's putting the grease in his pockets

to save it. It's seeping through. Also, the parents have to be very upset. Those are some rental tuxes those kids are wearing. It almost feels one missing beat here is, I feel like there should be a song. I mean, they could have even brought back

I'll Love You Like That over the credits here. They could have brought back a song from Grease. Yeah, they also could have. I'm surprised they resisted using a song from Grease in this whole series. Sorry, this whole episode. Maybe they did feel it was just too obvious. Probably pretty expensive, too, I'm guessing.

Oh, yeah. Well, Greece had just passed its 20th anniversary at the time, so Greece was all back in the news. We talked about it before, but that Greece mega mix was a big hit. Oh, you're right, yeah. So it was the hardest time to afford any Greece music. Oh, but God, that ending. Yuck.

The snowflakes taste like fish sticks and then hamburger milkshake. It almost feels like you should choose one of those. I think they couldn't decide on which one to kill. I mean, they're both funny and disgusting. So, I mean, good, good pick, but Jesus. Oh, so gross. Yeah, it's starting to warm up out here.

This episode reminds me of the summertime because of when it aired. I remember being a hot, sticky August night. That's also when you don't want to hear about Greece and you're just like hot and sticky watching Fox. Yeah, especially I grew up in Southern California and so like nowhere has air conditioning. So if it got hot, it got hot.

Yeah, that's what we're enjoying now. Boy, I'm hoping in our Airbnb in LA that it says it has AC, but there's different levels of AC that you can chew. They've come around in recent years to adding AC to places in LA. My parents got AC like a couple years after I moved out of the house. Oh, they waited for you to be gone. My parents said to me, we live in Ohio. We needed it more. But they got central air after I left.

Like, God damn it. Now, in Florida, I was lucky as a kid growing up. I had central air pretty much everywhere I lived. I think only one night ever did the power went out all night. And so we got to feel what real heat was, the actual heat index was. I was like, I want to die. I can't do anything like this uh no one should live in florida that was uh that's what god is telling still true to this very day

so this episode any final thoughts i think i guess season 10 has two season premieres yeah and they're both very very good episodes like i feel like they are super funny and uh i was still like super on board with the simpsons at this point. And I really like this one a lot. I don't have a lot more to say about it, but it's a good Lisa story, and I like all the grease. Now that I'm no longer covered with acne, I'm not offended by, my God, you're greasy. Yeah, I like this one, too.

I still look back on it as a fun one to watch at the start of a school year. It always got me in the mood of, like, The Simpsons are going back to school. I'm going back to school. We can both do this'll make it and uh sure we did yeah ultimately we did i made it out of high school i graduated it got better eventually yeah like i said earlier like i like this episode because it did feel very grounded in in reality to me like that is a i've had very similar not with the grease but very similar, not with the grease, but very similar experiences outside of the grease, um, which I just learned as a business. And, uh, I don't know. I love Lisa Kudrow. It definitely felt like very true to a, who I always

thought I was because I saw so much of myself in Lisa and then vice versa. Um, so I love a Lisa story and I'm just really happy that you asked me on for this episode in particular. Oh, no. Well, we'd love to have you back anytime, Callie. Thanks so much for coming back.

Yeah, please promote. I know you're still at GameSpot. You've got a Twitter account. What's going on with you? What can we find? Where can we find you? My Twitter account is, ready,

inkydojiko, I-N-K-Y-D-O-J-I-K-K-O. The new thing I'm working on really is GameSpot may be launching a podcast. We are working on it. Not about The Simpsons, though, right? Not about The Simpsons. Not about cartoons at all.

Although anime will probably come up. We got a strong weeb contingent. We will allow it. We're the governing board of cartoon podcasts. One day I will invite you on my podcast. Oh, I want to do it. Yeah.

Uh, so that'll be fun. I mean, right now we're just kind of doing these like pilot episodes, um, for fun, like after work. Um,

so it's just kind of like a, a fun project. Um, but yeah, I still, I'm the reviews editor there. I don't at me with any complaints about our reviews. Thank you very much. I don't care for the

font on the numbers. Please change it. You got some hot reviews coming up soon. I'm looking forward to your Fire Emblem thoughts for sure. I am very excited for Fire Emblem. I'm going to be doing that one myself also. I can't wait to make all of my soldiers kiss.

I used to love Fire Emblem just for the strategy. And now the dating elements are actually what I like more than the turn-based strategy. And funnily enough, this one is a school year. You're a teacher at a school. I forgot about that. It is a very Cal experience. I'm very excited to play that.

July is pretty bare. We'll be looking at some indie stuff. But Wolfenstein Youngblood also, speaking of teenage girls again. So yeah, stay tuned for more teenage girl stuff and strategy dating. Oh boy. Sounds fun. Thanks, Kelly, for being on the show.

As for us, we are part of the Talking Simpsons Network. If you go to patreon.com slash talking simpsons and sign up at the $5 level, you'll get every episode of this podcast one week ahead of time and at free. And the same goes for our sister podcast, What a Cartoon. At that $5 level, you'll also get all of our podcasts behind that paywall.

Our most recent one is the miniseries, Talking of the Hill. It's an entire first season exploration of King of the Hill, and you'll also have access to our previous miniseries and the next one that we do in the fall. And Henry, what is happening at the $10 level? There's a big podcast this month. Oh yes, for $10 and up patrons,

you'll get access to our monthly What a Cartoon Movie podcast where we do a different animated feature film once a month only for our $10 and up patrons. Last month, it was Tiny Toons, How I Spent My Vacation, perfect for the summer months. And in July, our newest one will be

Beavis and Butthead, Do America, another classic summer road trip one, actually. Yeah, perfect. We're doing two summer road trips in a row, Plucky and Beavis and Butthead, both tour America. So you'll only be able to hear that full podcast, which sometimes does go up to four hours long. You'll only be able to hear that if you're a $10 and up patron at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons so i've been one of your hosts bob mackie find me on twitter as bob servo my other podcast is retronauts uh find that by going to retronauts.com or looking for retronauts in your podcast machine it's a classic emmy podcast if you like video

games and are old you might like it possibly henry what about you you can follow me on twitter at h-e-n-e-r-e-y-g That's where I share all my thoughts on video games and comic books. And whenever new things go live on the Patreon or the free feed, I am sure to let everybody know about it first on my Twitter. Again, H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. Thanks for joining us, folks. We'll see you next week for The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace. And we will see you then.

I never make a promise I don't intend to keep So when I say forever, forever's what I mean Well, I know Casanova, but I swear this much is true I'll be holding nothing back when it comes to you. You dream of love that's everlasting. Well, baby, open up your eyes. I can love you like that. I would make you my world, move heaven and earth. If you were my girl, I would give you my heart, be all that you need, show you your everything. That's precious to me. If you give me a chance, I can love you like that

Yeah If you want tenderness I got tenderness And I see the root To the heart of you If you want a man Who will understand, you don't have to look very far. I can love you.

Girl, I can. I can love you like that. I can love you like that. I would make you my world, heaven and earth If you were my girl, I would give you my heart Be your all that you need Show you your everything that's precious to me I can love you like this, I can, I can love you

Always kissing, hugging. Loving and loving. Baby, be my. My one and only girl. I can give you my heart. My heart. My heart. My world.

Show you your everything. Oh, you're everything to me. Loving and loving. I can, I can love you get Loving, and you let me Loving, and you let me My one girl Oh, oh, oh Show you you're everything

Then the doctor told me that both my eyes were lazy, and that's why it was the best summer ever. Thank you, Ralph. Now take your seat. Hey, Blindy, have a nice trip. Ha-ha!