Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Last Exit To Springfield

Episode Date: December 28, 2016

Lisa needs braces and Homer needs to save the dental plan in this week’s union-loving episode. We dig into it and it shall surely by the blurst of times on our podcast. D’oh, you stupid monkey…

this episode of talking simpsons is brought to you by audible and you listeners can go to audibletrial.com slash laser time and get started with a free 30-day trial and get a free audiobook i heartily endorse this event or product product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we bring you the blurst of times. I am your host, Bob Mackie, and I brought my own mic, and this is the Laser Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here is here with me today ah king of painful dentistry chris antistone uh henry gilbert and after this podcast i'll be socially unpopular more so and today's episode is last exit to springfield dental plan lisa needs braces dental plan lisa needs braces. Dental plan. Lisa needs braces. Dental plan.

Lisa needs braces. Wow. And this episode aired on March 11th, 1993, and Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real-life history. Oh, my God. Cult leader David Koresh declares war on federal agents surrounding his compound. Beavis and Butthead is pulled off the air for production delays. Yes.

And impotent white rage tops the box office with Michael Douglas douglas's falling down falling down i don't know how okay i here's the thing it's weird i enjoy that movie it makes a really bad argument but there's a lot of fun scenes there are these will actually use yeah i feel like the guy does a bunch of stuff throughout that movie it's about it's about a guy who goes insane based on the the plight of the white working man in america everybody am i guy who goes insane based on the plight of the white working man in America, everybody. Am I right? He goes insane on several instances. And some of them you're like, he's a little sketchy.

But in the end, he kills a Nazi. So I think we're supposed to forgive him for everything he does. I mean, that's how they define it. Like, well, he's not a Nazi. How do we know? He kills a Nazi and says, I disagree with you. Yeah, I would have got you. But he goes on this rant of like, there's so much wrong with the world.

This golf course should be playgrounds. and there's like a really long scene like this fast food doesn't look like the pictures yeah this coat costs too much as well as what if the complaints of a stand-up in the 80s became yeah became a melted uh white man i can't understand the guy on the drive-thru uh speaker what's what deal with this? And he pulls out a gun. It is a very striking picture of Michael Douglas with the cropped, very tight haircut, short-sleeved shirt with a tie

in the briefcase. The movie, I think, what really saves it for me is what could be cut out completely. It's the story of Officer Mick Last Day on the Job. It's literally the biggest cliche in every cop movie, and it's happening throughout. It's what I always think.

I've got a little lake house, going to do some fishing. Like, shut up! Jesus! Meanwhile, Beavis and Butthead, this isn't for fire or for the... It's the only reason I mentioned it. I know we talk a lot about animation, is that I forgot that Beavis and Butthead

succumbed to that as well, like not being able to get things done on time. And I think they started airing episodes and realized they were going to have to... We're not getting any more. Yeah, and Mike Judge famously hates a lot of the really early ones, and they are bad. And he won't let them be available on any format. He's like, burn them.

I do believe that changed. I think they announced a complete set finally. That has the movie, the most recent weirdo season 15 years after the last one. There was this one set in like 2005 was called The History of Usain Butt-Head

and Mike Judge had it pulled off the shelves because it had a lot of shorts and sketches and bits that he did not like. I'm sure he's less precious given how little money is left to make off

these characters. That's true. He's got the King of the Hill fortune though, baby. He never needs money again. Yeah. I love Mike Judge. I love him.

I love Beavis and Butthead. Even though we're living in idiocracy now, I feel like he rotted upon us. We just talked about it on 302010. Beavis and Butthead, Do America Discern 20. I love that movie. It's really funny and on Netflix right now. Okay, I will watch that tonight, I think. Speaking of a really funny episode,

this episode of Simpsons, as they mentioned many times on the commentary, is often in top five or top ten lists of greatest episode of The Simpsons ever. At the time of recording, it was regularly at the top of those types of lists, last Exit to Springfield was. And I don't know.

I think I'm with you on this. Well, it is so wacky yeah and so packed like non-stop with jokes that it hits so many of them perfectly but yeah it's not a story no the third act is like three minutes long yeah the third act is actually very weak but I don't know I still it's obviously amazing yeah direction I don't want to complain I feel like it's still a great episode, probably in the top 20, maybe top 15 for me. But there are so many episodes in season four I like a lot more. So I'm not sure what pushes this over the edge for a lot of people. I think it's, well, because it has taken on a life of its own.

So many things in this episode are now memed and remixed. That is true. And put into a ton of stuff. But I think this is not so much... In terms of coherence, it's not a great episode, but it's filled with moments and is one of the best cartoons

I've ever seen The Simpsons put out. It is super cartoony. Sometimes it feels like a Halloween special. Well, it's like movie reference into movie reference into movie reference. It doesn't take a breath. It's just... And this episode is credited to Kogan and walidarski it's their last episode they left

the series after that but i we've said it on previous ones i feel pretty certain that conan o'brien is the rewriter my so henry i was i was a conan truther like you uh but on the commentary they specifically mentioned things that they each wrote uh so maybe conan rewrote a lot of it like this was their last script and they were not on the show after this but then lg mentions i think in the clip show commentary that like even he was not doing the final edits on episodes towards the end season four that was like merkin's crew cleaning it up and editing and things like that so it's true well, like when you say the final cut, you mean the Merkin team who's writing season five is then doing the last edit on season four

just to get the audio ready. They're doing post-production. So they're making a lot of choices that are affecting these episodes. So I feel like once these were all written, everyone moved on, including Al Jean and Mike Reese. And I also feel like there are like eight, there are eight funny lines in here

that I'm just like, well, no, you read that mouth doesn't fit at all. There's a lot of them. There's a whole lot. I noticed them even more now that I'm doing this show and it's really annoying.

It's like, Oh God, what was that line? I think I originally like chalked that up to like, well, the technology wasn't there, not being reused animation, but you see it all the time now.

And also a hats off to Mark Kirkland. I don't think we give him enough credit. This is his episode. He did a great job and it's not just him, but you see it all the time now. And also, hats off to Mark Kirkland. I don't think we give him enough credit. This is his episode. He did a great job. And it's not just him, but I think we don't shout him out enough because a lot of... I mean, when you're working with, like,

David Silverman and Jim Reardon, it's hard to rise above the level they set, the standard they set. I think this is the best piece of animation The Simpsons has put out. Even, like, Wes Archer and Rich Moore went on to bigger things. But meanwhile, like, Kirkland's just been the steady hand of The Simpsons has put out even like Wes Archer and Rich Moore went on to bigger things but meanwhile like Kirkland's just been the steady hand of the Simpsons he's the he's the John

Schwarzwelder of the directors he's directed the most episodes even John left though so he's still sticking around Kirkland still is at it and I think yeah he's underappreciated for that reason because he never left and he didn't do a different thing you could really appreciate, and he wasn't the amazing animator that David Silverman is, or Brad Bird, or Rich Moore, or Jim Reardon. When you're working with those guys, you must just feel like shit every day, you know? Even if you are good. And also, in today's age of non-unionized anything, it's funny to see unions at the center of a story i have a lot

to say about that let's get started with uh this episode has some thoughts on you because the mcbain bit is so well done and it's so violent and so visual that we can't even play a clip from it here chris does not believe mcbain is an ongoing story but mcbain is avenging scoey's death and this is senator mendoza i know what you said before chris either explanation is fine either theory works but i want to believe they knew this and we're planning on a mcbain story mendoza who he kills at the end in the end of the movie in the herb powell episode that it's the same itchy and scratchy in every episode they're cliches that follow beats i'm just saying mendoza i i agree with what i i still believe what i said last time Which is that if the writers didn't care The animators did and they are animating

The same movie And they're already getting close to the point where There is a McBane film and they won't Call him McBane for a while They're going to start calling him Raymere Wolfcastle by the 100th episode That's when they're doing it There's a Christopher Walken action movie

Called McBane and Riff Trax has done it. It's worth watching because it's awful. And I'm like, this is what robbed us of McBain? I forget that you can just do that. Like when someone eventually wrote Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooey, because Bill Watterson never bought a copyright, the parody thing on his comic strip. But you can do that, too. So somebody did that?

Yeah. Oh, wow. I had no idea. They finally wrote that book. And I love the under-the-rad radar line of 10 times more addictive than marijuana that's such a great like because it's not addictive that's the joke that was also a change joke another adr line but it's a great line it's a great line i love it that's one of the few that i'm like i bet this is better than the one they replaced yeah and as a kid i probably believed that like marijuana is

bad i i don't know anything about unions other than what was in The Wire season 2 In this That is it but the whole episode really does kick off almost a great transition of Burns laughing So good I also want to say the McBain line of

Ice to see you I wanted to double check Arnold does not say that He says all those ice puns in Batman and Robin, but he doesn't say that. Much worse. I was going to ask that, too. The closest he has is, let's kick some ice. I love McBain busting out of that impossibly small Venus de Milo sculpture.

I didn't notice that was a joke until this time, I think. And then the line of, nobody's really that evil, too. It's great. This is also a mean episode. I do have that. Super violent opening. this until this time i think and then the line of nobody's really that evil too it's great this is also a mean episode of like super violent opening and then it's it's what the most violence i think i've seen on the simpsons yeah it seems more like a halloween episode people i've never seen that many frames of animation for someone getting murdered yeah and there's blood everywhere well there's blood everywhere then but that is in the fictional world i think that's how they got away with it but but then burns is laughing well let's hear it i love it

that is one evil dude it's just a movie son There's nobody that evil in real life. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! It's showing you what... This whole episode shows you how much effort Harry Shearer used to put into Burns. Burns is laughing at a window washer about to fall, and they're nice enough to close the window so you only hear him fall, but that man's dead. So that's one real-life death in this episode that just happened. It's actually all in this scene.

Three different deaths are mentioned. I think Burns killing him through inactivity is especially a cruel touch. Like, I'm not going to get up. But then the next dead body they talk about is the old union leader. Very clearly dead. A reference to Jimmy Hoffa. Yeah, so I looked this up. The corpse in the football field is specifically to where union boss Jimmy Hoffa,

who disappeared and who was the subject of a Jack Nicholson, Oliver Stone. Danny DeVito. Danny DeVito is the director. Yeah, that's right. Film Hoffa. So the urban legend was that he was buried in the Giant Stadium in New Jersey. Nobody was found, though, when they demolished the stadium in 2010. That's why I watched the Richard Kuklinski documentary, The Iceman Cometh.

And he's like, I don't know what happened to him, but I'll tell you what I heard. And then he goes on to tell the most specific story ever that I really want to believe that involves him being crushed up into the very cars he was doing something with and scattered out into the ocean. So the joke there is, which will keep coming, that unions are the most crooked thing and they're run by the mafia. That is the joke of this episode. It is very rooted in the 70s. And I will say, I think this show, it's not their fault. They kind of take unions for granted. I mean, unions are such a small fabric of our society today.

All the producers are part of a union. They're part of a writer's union. And they made a big stink when that union was challenged and things like that. You won't pay us for webisodes? Yes, exactly. And like royalties and stuff. But I have to say, as an adult, I have two degrees, right? As an adult, before I got this job a month ago, my new job, I had benefits at a job for all of 10 months.

That was the only time I had health benefits, dental benefits, sick days, vacation days, things like that. That is our modern reality. It is so hard to find a job that actually gives you vacation days, gives you benefits. And just watching this episode was like, wow, as a kid, I didn't get any of this. And I wondered if it was a lot easier just to find a job with benefits in 92, 93. I just, like, I don't know. I forget where I read the most about workers' unions of the early 1900s. Just where, like, the American worker needed a lot of defense.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, because, like, unions and... What, an 80-hour work week's not good enough for you? So, like, if you hate unions in activists and things like that they created your eight hour work day yeah they made it so children don't get work to death out of the womb they made it so you can take a sick day if your employer gives you one which is which you don't have to the reality is here people were for the opposite of that like they wanted they wanted the other way around but i this is the only level-headed one it makes me

laugh so much it's very dated it's one of my favorite things whenever i it reflects the 80s economy totally like being afraid of japan that's my last left wing rant by the way come on come on crack those atoms you turn out those pockets atoms and this is a flashback of burns looking back on his grandfather and the plants he ran in 1909 which which almost puts a very clear age on Mr. Burns. They make him only 90, I think. And I'm like, only 90? Only 90. I believe in the hair episode, he said, like, only 82.

Something like that, yeah. I love this clip, and I love this. This is squeaky voice teen. Yes. Come on, come on, crack those atoms. You, turn out those pockets. Atoms. One, two, three, four,

six of them. Take him away. You can't treat the working man this way. One day we'll form a union and get the fair and equitable treatment we deserve.

Then we'll go too far and get corrupt and shiftless and the Japanese will eat us alive. The Japanese? Those sandal-wearing goldfish tenders? Bosh!

Flimshaw! Flash forward. If only we had listened to that boy instead of walling him up in the abandoned coke oven. Well, I'm going to avenge my grandfather. We'll take on that greedy union and we'll get back our dental plan he pointed

it to like a name in the phone book yeah i'm like that's what i want to pick one thing to make the fight but i found that i found it fascinating as someone who worked for a japanese company and remembering let's call it the japanic panic uh of the early 80s i think it's literally called the yellow panic i think it is yeah i think I think there's some of that in 1942 comics that I remember reading something about. The Yellow Panic characters. Yes. In this case, it was more economic.

When I did grow up, my dad was really proud that he had a Sony TV because it was a little pricier, but it'll never break because it's the most quality, efficient item on the planet so were their cars so were their cameras so were their phones uh and i they were pioneering everything in video games and they were pioneering everything in animation and none of that is the

case now that's true i mean there's a joke in back to the future 3 which we just watched not too long ago where uh doc is scoffing at a thing made in japan and marty's like they make the best stuff they make the best stuff. They make the best stuff. And like it's very weird. That was the attitude at the time this show was written. There was also this great joke in one of my favorite movies, Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life. Oh, that movie's so good.

They're flashing back to mistakes he made in his life. And one of them was this guy trying to sell him Japanese watches, this watch, before coming in. Or Seiko watches, i think it was he's so it's like the casio watch was the finest watch yeah but but albert brooks is like yeah the japanese come on you know you tell me you got a switch watch swiss watch i'll buy that come on but they don't know what to do i'm sorry i'm not buying it no and it would he would have been worth 12 million dollars and we should point out that there is a nuclear power plant that Burns' grandfather was opening

decades before any atoms were split. There was no nuclear power in 1909. There's a joke there where someone is stealing atoms. It's an atom-smashing place of just guys hitting hammers onto anvils for nothing to smash atoms. It makes no sense, but it's beautiful. Maybe this is like a senile like deluded fantasy of Burns I'm not sure if it really happened but I love just like the individual drawings of Adams and the guys turned out pocket

it's great but the mouth movements for the corrupt and shiftless sign are all off they are yeah but his Japanese reply is fitting like that fits the mouth movement so I wonder what was changed love is inflected well he is alive and again they killed

that kid too he says they walled him up in the old coke ovens he starved it starved to death yeah he's dead too so in this one just scene they're like three real deaths happened in the world two killed by burns anybody have the coke oven it's uh a coke oven is like i think coke is like okay so a commenter is going to kill us for this but it is like like a kind of coal like a kind of thing that burns i believe burn yes so uh you don't want to be walled up in that i like how burns calls them the greedy union we're gonna get that i think that's why they make it's kind of the simpsons definitely in the 90s had a both sides suck attitude yeah you'll see that quite a lot in Sideshow Bob Roberts.

But it's in this, too, of, well, Burns is the most evil, bloodless billionaire capitalist in the world. He's horrible. But we can't just have – it's not funny if the unions are awesome. The unions also have to be crooked and run inefficiently by idiots. I think Homer is too stupid to be crooked, though, in this episode. He brags about being crooked. Got a flash of the beast story of the now painless dentistry, formerly painful dentistry. How often do you brush, Ralph?

Three times a day, sir. Why must you turn my office into a house of lies? You're right. I don't brush. I don't brush. Let's look at a picture book the big book of british smiles there's so many lines here that i ended up quoting forever and i think that's why it's that time why must you turn blank into a house of lies is something i've said a billion times i i have so many i have so much to say about this house of lies is now a

show on showtime i Well, not anymore. Oh, my bad. But the British teeth just became, I feel like I'd never heard of joke about bad British teeth in American stuff until this show. And it is a core joke to Austin Powers. It is like part of his costume, yeah. So this dentist character, does he have a name? No, he does not. He's delightful. But I do know the behind-the-scenes story, I think.

Please. Yeah, I mean, so this is another instance of a late season four episode that was supposed to have a guest star, but they couldn't find one, and they just did it anyways. They wanted Anthony Hopkins, you know, Hannibal Lecter, and they wanted Clint Eastwood. They both turned it down. And so then they wanted Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates in Psycho. Unfortunately, he died of AIDS. He died in September 1992. This was March.

It would have been so good. So I have a big book of British smiles story. I flew to the UK for my first time last year and the first person to greet me at customs could have been in this book. I feel so bad.

I'm thinking of a Simpsons joke, and I'm sorry about your teeth. But I think we Americans are more obsessed with teeth. We really are. I mean, the dental industry is bullshit. But, I mean, it's not. You need your teeth. Your teeth hurt as much as mine. I wish I had some dental insurance.

Swish with some gasoline, Chris. But, yeah, like in other cultures, like Japan also has kind of like, they don't care as much about teeth either. But it's not like the British Miles is a joke. It comes in the same place as the Austin Powers joke of just seeing films starring British movie stars. And if you look at their teeth, they're like, your teeth are fucked up. They let you on TV? Yeah, there's a weird feeling i remember christian bale talked about how to do american psycho he had to have a perfect body for it he was supposed to be this perfect vessel for a horrible thing and that

included he had to have perfect teeth so they fixed his teeth for it because he's that committed to it uh in an interview he uh christian bale's welsh and he's like i to it. In an interview, Christian Bale's Welsh and he's like, I miss my old teeth. I wish I had my ugly teeth. My teeth suck, but they're, and I've heard him be made fun of for it, they're about as bad as Ricky Gervais'. Oh. That's it. He's got kind of like a fang

kind of thing going on. It's because, in hindsight, I don't have any anger at my parents for almost anything except for the idea of like, why didn't I have braces? my teeth are fucked up i was gonna ask about that did any of us have braces chris has it i did i had i had perfect i had the entire works i had okay so first they put in a palette okay first they have to pull out a bunch of teeth and then they put in a palette expander which if you don't know it's this thing that sits on the roof of your mouth yeah it's meant to gradually spread open your upper jaw.

And so every day my mom had to put a little key in and turn it, so it would gradually push my teeth outwards. And then I had braces for about three years, and now I don't wear a retainer anymore, so I'm sure they're all shifting around, and I'm ruining all those years of work. But it was, I remember, like, I was born, in this era we were in the last days of, like,

the serious headgear that lisa will see later yeah i didn't know anyone who had that i there were like three four people i saw in my school headgear is i think partially inspired by al jean talks about how he wore that headgear that he on the three men in a comic book commentary executive producer al jean talks about how he felt the nerdiest he ever did as a kid when he was at a comic convention wearing one of those head pieces. But I never, yeah, I didn't have it. I like to think that, it's not that my teeth are perfect, like they are, you know, slightly to the side.

Well, now they look horrible. Don't even look at me. But I definitely, I always feel in my mouth like, well, this tooth is kind of to the side. It could be strained out. But I think, I definitely think my dad would have just said, nah, that's bullshit. Nobody really needs needs braces i'm not spending money on this i begged for braces because everybody else had them and i thought everybody had a cool dentist story and then there

was one dentist place in my area they were offering a free game boy for any kid who to any kid who got braces wow and like my parents wouldn't get me a game boy. Maybe they'll get me braces. So I begged and begged and begged and begged. Also I think most dental plans would not cover braces because it's like a cosmetic thing. I think they can argue against that now. But I know I can't get it because I tried when I did have dental insurance. But those are...

But then Lisa finding out she'll be so even more unpopular if she has braces. I'm so afraid little Lisa is going to need braces. Oh no! I'll be socially unpopular if she has braces. I'm so afraid little Lisa is going to need braces. Oh no! I'll be socially unpopular! More so. That does seem like it should have been Anthony Hopkins, Hannibal Lecter.

It would have been great. Why did he turn it down? I had it written down. He's delightfully sinister for no reason. Yeah, but I mean, that was my reflection as a kid in general. I was like, oh, this will make me more unpopular. I'm already at a deficit here. I don't need thicker glasses.

There's one kid I could pick on still. Part of that social deficit, Henry, was your love for wrestling. Ah, yes. Now stay tuned for professional wrestling live from the Springfield Grapplerium. Tonight, a Texas death match. Dr. Hillbilly versus the Iron Yuppie. One man will actually be unmasked and killed in the ring. I hope they kill

that Iron Yuppie. Thinks he's so big. Homer, Lisa needs braces. Don't worry. We won a dental plan in the strike of 88. That's where I got this scar. What do we want? More equitable treatment in the hands of management. When do we want it More equitable treatment in the hands of management When do we want it?

Soon Where's my burrito? Where's my burrito? Where's my burrito? That's not a joke I love But I see reference constantly It's something that phrase Where's my burrito?

That chant runs through my head Every time I'm waiting for food Every time One day it's just going to slip out And you'll look like a total dick Unless i'm at chipotle that'll be fine until i move to california i'd never seen a taco truck before this does feel like an la writery thing like a taco truck for them to pin it to 1988 too like that was the strike of 88 so that was 30 sorry 28 years ago and also i think there was a writer's strike in 88 wasn't there a writer's

guild strike yeah or i remember the writer's strike well and uh by the way in a real texas death match in wrestling that's what this is it is not that a character it is not that a wrestler is killed a texas death match is uh hard to say it's the same as a last man standing match, meaning there's no pinfall, no submission. It's just one wrestler. If one wrestler fails to get to a standing 10 count, he loses. So it's just about like clobbering the person until they're so unconscious they can't get up for 10 seconds. Standing 10 count means that one person's on the ground, the other person is standing. Not to say that there haven't been double count outs in a Texas death match.

Oh my word. Let's move back to the That's a matter for a cheap podcast I think. That tooth going through Lisa's head, one of my favorite visuals. I lost a tooth, I knocked it out, and I have a really weird tooth thing. It's all kind of painful for me to watch that I want to go to the dentist so bad.

But I just had to commit a light fraud to get health care just today. And I've never used a pay toilet like Homer did to get that. Have you ever used a pay toilet? I've never used a pay toilet in my life. They're all over the city. Yeah, they have those pay toilet booths,

but I'm like, there's got to be some serious shit going on in there. I can think of a billion better places to shoot up and jerk off. Why would I pay to... Or have a baby. I could either pay for this or get or get a 10 piece mcnuggets and they just share you know but let's move into the real this uh dental plan welcome

brothers a local 643 as you know our president chucky fits you ain't been seen lately we're all praying he'll turn up soon alive and well all alright, but seriously, we have to vote on Burns' new contract. It's basically the same deal, except we get a free keg of beer for our meeting. In exchange for that, we have to give up our dental plan. So long,

dental plan! Dental plan! Lisa needs braces. Dental plan! Lisa needs braces. Dental plan! Lisa needs braces. Dental plan. Lisa needs braces. Dental plan. Love this Zoom. Lisa needs braces. Dental plan. I can't deal with the whole thing.

It goes on for ten more seconds. It does. I don't know. So we are edging closer and closer towards the rake joke. I said rake joke, by the way. Yes. And it is funny because this is. No such thing as a funny rake joke, Bob.

There is at least one such joke, Bob. But it's funny that we treasure these moments so much, but really it is desperate writers running out of time and needing to fill time, and they just did this as an experiment, like, will this fly? And I believe Kogan and Wolodarski, this was in the original script,

and they said on the commentary, they had to explain to other writers, including Al Jean, why this was funny, because the other writers thought it was a typo, it was a mistype, but they're like, no, this is why it was funny. So they had to sell this idea to the higher-ups, to Al Jean and whatnot. Is it because, like, the

repetition is the funny part, or... Yeah, it's like, why would this repetition be funny? Did you copy-paste this too many times? The Zoom makes it funny, and it's the... I think I mentioned it an episode or two ago, but the escalation of Homer's brain trying to figure the world out is increasingly funny. Yeah, I mean, we had not released, I mean, at least in my experience, I had not seen a joke like this before.

At least this prolonged. He's still getting a nice butt crack joke with Homer, too. Dropping the pencil in there. There's still more of it. Lisa needs braces. If we give up our dental plan, I'll have to pay for Lisa's braces. People, stop!

We can't give up our dental plan. Lenny, without the dental plan, you wouldn't have that diamond in your tooth. Yoink. Hey! And Gummy Joe, where would you be without that dental plan? I wouldn't have old Chomper here, that's for sure.

You know what I think of this contract? This! Who is that firebrand, Smithers? That's Homer Simpson, sir. Simpson, eh? New man? Actually, sir, he thwarted your campaign for governor. You ran over his son. He saved the plant from meltdown.

His wife painted you in the nude. Doesn't ring a bell. That's almost the end of the Burns not recognizing Homer joke. I think they're trying to seal that up. And I think for this episode to work, Burns can't recognize Homer or understand that he's stupid, because every stupid move Homer makes is considered a power play by Burns. It wouldn't work if Burns doesn't know it, but this is also them fed up with doing the joke that Burns doesn't remember. Because they referenced real things, all real things that happened, and they haven't done that before. Who shot Mr. Burns is what kills it, because that is when he remembers, like,

who the devil are you? The baby that shot me. Yeah, he does remember all those people, but he needs to forget here. But also, going through all that stuff, first off, the logo for the union, that is the mix of the performing arts, plus bakers, plus the jazz dancers. I love that. And then Carl is the secret leader of the performing arts plus bakers plus the jazz dancers.

Yeah. I love that. And then Carl is the secret leader of the union. He nominates Homer to be in charge, but he is the leader. He is the one calling for votes. He is the one organizing the strikes. Carl, but he's letting the – I think he nominates people to take the heat. Yeah.

He is Homer's supervisor. Yeah, that's letting, he, I think he nominates people to take the heat. Yeah, he is Homer's supervisor, you know. Yeah, that's true. Homer! Homer! Homer! I move that Homer Simpson be our new union president. All in favor? Aye! All opposed? Nay.

Congratulations, Homer! Yay! Hey, what did your job pay? Nothing. Don't! Unless you're crooked. Woo-hoo! I love how the scene ends with two beer glasses, like, cl job pay? Nothing. Don't! Unless you're crooked. Woo-hoo! I love how the scene ends with two beer glasses clinking into each other.

Two beer steins. That's how I want to die. Being smashed from both sides of your head. What a great way to go. And that was the second yoink in two episodes in a row. We first heard in Duff-less. Now we're hearing it here. That was the first yoink.

Historically. Duff-less? Duff-less, yep. And this is number two and old gummy joe i miss him he never showed back up hope we never get to a place where prospector characters aren't funny yeah i mean that is a okay i know this it's a walter brennan impression so look that one up yeah he's he's a classic uh old cowboy old west actor one of my my favorite Will Ferrell things I ever saw was it was on the Will Ferrell DVD Best of SNL, but it was one that never aired. It was one of those dress rehearsal extras they put on there.

It was, welcome to the Army, guys. You guys are joining the Army, and you're going to send me on a mission, and we've assigned you the old prospector, too. They were just pretending that an old prospector is on every mission team in the Army. I've not seen this. Until at the end, they admit, like, okay, he's just an actor we hired. And, of course, Jimmy Fallon is giggling the entire time. Of course.

I've seen this. That's what he did. It's very good. I'm skipping ahead. I just, Homer and Burns. Innuendo, like the classic comedy jokes that come from Homer and Burns negotiating. This is pretty great. There are two scenes like this.

I like this one a lot, though. We don't have to be adversaries, Homer. We both want a fair union contract. Why is Mr. Burns being so nice to me? And if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Wait a minute. Is he coming on to me? I mean, if I should slip something into your pocket, what's the harm?

Oh, my God. He is coming on to me. After all, negotiations make strange pet fellows. Sorry, Mr. Burns, but I don't go in for these backdoor shenanigans. Sure, I'm flattered. Maybe even a little curious. But the answer is no. When Homer says backdoor shenanigans? Sure, I'm flattered. Maybe even a little curious. But the answer is no. When Homer says backdoor shenanigans,

he only means butt sex. Yeah, it sounds like just one big Tobias Funke monologue from Resident Evil. He really does. He is kind of curious about having sex with Mr. Burns. I love that.

When offered the chance, he's like, eh, maybe. It's fine to be curious, but with an 80-year-old man. Sex with old people is gross. You're going to have sex with a man. Why would Burns be here? He should have fucked carl there'll be no measure of tolerance that'll erase that disgusting and uh but yeah homer dreaming up his this the second act

is all movie references it is so many like it goes straight into just a scene from Godfather 2. It is the flashback where... A little tiny piece of that. That's a nice donut. And that's from the flashback in Godfather Part 2 where Robert De Niro, as Don Corleone, is going after, is stalking the old boss and he's going to kill him. And it's the same sepia tone and everything.

It reminds me back when Italians were a distinct culture. As an Italian. Welcome to Whitetown. That's the whole point of all this. We're honorary whites now. It's great. If only everyone could assimilate. I got a last name with a vowel, but it doesn't seem to affect me anymore.

Unfortunately, you can't... How about you move into movie references? i just love all the beatles being murdered i love a lazy beatles look fellas it's lisa in the sky no diamonds though look out for the campy drawing of queen victoria oh god help us help us i love it help us help us, help us. It's a beautiful sequence, by the way. This definitely inspired me to watch Yellow Submarine. And Lisa tripping for the second time in this season. And that moves right into, like, okay, let's be honest.

You didn't get, like, 90% of the Simpsons movie references. This is the first big one I got. The Simpsons did it more than once. The mirror. Hello? The mirror. The mirror. Hello? The mirror! Love it. I just, like, I never, Tim Burton's Batman.

That scene makes no sense to you. It doesn't. You didn't see the 1989 Batman. Yeah, but it's like like there were no other movie references that were referencing movies I had and watched regularly on VHS. But the scene in a few years where Krusty gets breast. Yes, the same thing. Does that reference this too? Yes.

Okay, I thought so, yeah. They really loved Batman 89. I think they saw it together as a team. They all saw it together. They talk about how that was how close they were in the first season. And they slowly grew apart. To show you how close they were in the first season, and they slowly grew apart. To show you how close together the pact this episode is, at the start of that clip,

you're hearing the reverb from the Beatles scene that just ended, like it plays into the next one. I do love this episode. I think there's plenty of great places for animation composition, especially in that scene, but it is fucking all over the place. The grounded heart of The Simpsons is nonexistentent in this episode and they talk they talk in the commentary to have a yellow submarine thing covered all their bases legally like no no it's a purple submersible yes and that's not a blue everybody lives in the purple submersible well that's again

arrested development jokes they like it did work yellow submarine, but who can afford that? A big yellow boat. A big yellow boat. The Simpsons will be right back. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part.

Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? Thank you guys so much for listening and if you like listening and stuff it's a good thing this episode was brought to you by Audible. And before I tell you more about it, know that you can go to audibletrial.com slash lasertime

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Are you already tired of 2016? Jump into the past with 302010, our weekly pop culture time machine podcast. Here's something you may remember from 1986. My Pet Monster was a toy phenomenon that had no backstory. He eventually got a cartoon show where it stars a monster and his monster friends. This movie's about a little kid who's transformed into

that My Pet Monster, the popular toy from American Greetings. My Pet Monster was a roughly child sized doll that was full of stuffing and had like a cuddly body and arms, but his face was hard plastic. You could break a tooth on his teeth. It was not messing

around. Oh, and his big old dick nose. The cartoon is him as a monster being a monster. And then this movie is, what if a little boy became a monster? It's not the direction I expect them to go. I expect them to be like, he finds a monster and the monster's his best friend. What is this? Actually, that's my pet monster.

It's grotesque, isn't it? It's disgusting. You can tell it's 1986 because the music is from 1956. Well, he's my pet. He's my monster pet. My monster pet. He was a wacky pet. I do have the commercial here for the toy.

My pet monster. He's bigger than big. When he fights battles battles he always wins and he's your friend too breaks his chains put him on you and break away too with my pet monster you're busting loose and scary and helps people too and he's your friend too my pet monster plays all day tough awesome looking I want to transcribe that commercial and just make that my resume. I help people, and I scare people, and I break all the handcuffs. And I got PowerPoint, too.

Be careful. Somebody could accidentally hire Gamera. That's 302010, a weekly look at what happened in pop culture 30 years ago, 20 years ago, and 10 years ago, every Thursday right here on the Lazer Time Network. I love the hired goons joke. Who is it? Goons. Who?

Hired goons. Hired goons. Hired goons? But I don't... They're bringing Homer back to Burns, but I don't understand the second joke at all. The second joke is Homer still doesn't understand that they were hired goons. I got this joke for the first time this time.

I didn't know you could have just called me. Oh, yes, but the telephone is so impersonal. I prefer the hands-on touch you only get with hired goons. Hired goons? I don't get it. He doesn't get it when there are two imposing men that are going to drag him away. And after they drag him away, he still doesn't get that there were two imposing men who did drag him away. It's just that he's so stupid.

I think it's the same voice clap of hired goons. Oh, we skip over, but the sugar daddy on Homer's's back i like that little joke i haven't seen a sugar daddy in years i love well so in the 70s sugar became a bad word so i think that shows you that sugar daddy was the was the gutter of candies because it was like no we're keeping our name we're sugar daddies it's designed to just tear out your dental work i was going to say enemy of dentists yeah and sugar daddies were like the trash. And sugar baby sounds racist. It does.

If I got a sugar baby or sugar daddy in my Halloween candy, I would certainly eat it because I was a fat little pig. But it would be low on the totem pole. But it was a lollipop you could manipulate the shape of. It was beautiful. Part of the family was like Mary Jane and Biddle Honey, like all the ancient candy that would just rip up your teeth yeah prospector candy yeah the same reason why old gummy joe has his brother oh this is almost my line of the show the monkey typewriter so good

this is a thousand monkeys working at a thousand typewriters soon deliver it in the greatest novel known to man let's see it was the best of times it was the worst of times you stupid monkey this episode feels so disjointed i follow a simpsons instagram account that i love simpsons ig it's just five second simpsons clips all day long and i've seen these a billion times and i can never attribute them to one episode because it's so all over the place and disjointed. They're not at all connected and this, I mean, going to Burns and South is just like, let's think of funny jokes that would be in Burns' A Rich Man's House.

Oh, you know this. The Infinite Monkey Theorem is what it's called. It is a long, popular way to illustrate the idea of infinity. According to the wiki page, the first person on record to bring it up is Emil Borrell in 1913. And in 1928, Arthur Eddington put it thusly.

If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters, they might write all the books in the British Museum. It doesn't mean that monkeys will. It takes infinite time to make it just through it's to explain that if you were to do anything randomly infinitely then it might happen but it means to say that just because something is improbable it does mean it's basically impossible yeah the wikipedia picture this has like logical proofs and like in like actual mathematical formulas printed out about this this is such a harvard joke then in the episode because uh my mom had to explain this one to me i had never heard of it before as a kid the just the

idea that it was supposed to i had heard all the works of william shakespeare yeah not the british museum yeah same here which they probably have i would say a little bit of shakespeare in there at least a few quotes but it's all leading up to another innuendo negotiation. Burns should not end the tour in the basement. I love how crappy it is. It's like everybody's basement. They're sitting at a ping pong table. I wish we could have afforded a ping pong table. I love those things. I didn't have one.

Now, let's get down to business. Oh, man. I really have to go to the bathroom. Why did I have all that beer and coffee and watermelon? Now, Homer, I know what you're thinking, and I want to take the pressure off. It doesn't take a whiz to see that you're looking out for number one. Well, listen to me, and you'll make a big splash very soon. Which way to the bathroom?

Oh, it's the 23rd door on the left. Nope. Nope. Nope. He wouldn't even hear me out. Find the bathroom all right? Yeah. So Homer pisses some random corner. It feels almost too dirty for the Simpsons, but the scene just happened with a lot of gay jokes.

Yeah. I don't know. More wild than blue. I think they were just giggling to themselves, like, we got to put all these pee jokes on TV. I don't mean to bash this episode. I think this is them finding that they can walk a really awesome line between heart fully is great yeah just listening to it like if i had to pee now i would really have to get up uh also the helicopter scene is so good like how like burn should be in traction the rest

of the episode but they just forget it they're just like it's funny like sound of his head hitting the chimney so yeah kogan and Wolodarski wrote Bart the Daredevil and they wrote this one. So it's a callback to that scene of Homer's like smashing his head on the gurney as the helicopter picks him up.

And also Marge getting her hair chopped off. Like it doesn't, it's just gone. It's fixed in the next scene. That is the fateful moment where if it was planned out as they had planned it, Marge's bunny ears would appear.

Ah, yes. And Mac Green seems slightly ashamed of that idea. And they're like, wasn't that your idea, Matt? He's like, yeah, before it was on out as they had planned it, Marge's bunny ears would appear. And Matt Green seemed slightly ashamed of that idea. And they were like, wasn't that your idea, Matt? He's like, yeah, before it was on Tracey Ullman, before it became popular in a series. I didn't actually do it. Or he says, did I tell you that? Otherwise, he's just like, did I tell you that? But Marge's bunny ears do appear in the Simpsons arcade game.

What is the deepest of cuts? How do they have this information? I don't know. Well, it's that in the original Ninja Tur arcade game. What is, like, the deepest of cuts? How do they have this information? I don't know. Well, it's that and the original Ninja Turtles game. They have no template to base anything off of. So anything on paper. I mean, the original DuckTales game, I think, is like that. A bit, yeah.

It's kind of a cheap joke, but I do just love, like, Homer punches Lenny in the back of the head. He says he's going to do it, and he does it. And just Lenny's reaction, like... And all that stuff is great. Like, I love this scene scene of picture day releases us to get her picture with braces Skinner as a great not none of those cowlicks

straighten that part uncross those eyes mister but I can't oh sorry quickly quickly we never saw quickly again but this is another line I said all the time because I again we said that in the religious episode that I hadn't really heard anybody express atheist sentiments. This is pretty subversive for 93.

Come on, honey, smile. I bet you've got a beautiful smile. Why don't you share it with the world? There is no God. Shakes the faith of that guy to the core. Poor Elisa. He screams it at an elementary schooler. It doesn't look that bad.

But also the dog running for her. I was like, oh, poor Lisa. In the A story, they have to negotiate the strike. They have to negotiate with Burns and it's not going to happen. Fellow workers, I've been meeting with Mr. Burns day and night and I've had enough. Strike, strike, strike, strike. All in favor of a strike? Aye! All opposed?

Nay. Who keeps saying that? It was him. Let's get him, fellas. It's a violent fight. I love how buff he is, too. I feel like you can hear Dan Castellaneta holding his cheeks on it. I think in the season four wrap-up, we should calculate how many times did Droopy raise.

Yes, sir. Droopy was the dog. Yeah, he's in this one. He was the conscience in Duffler. He's the recruiter for the communist party in Duffler. This is better than Dark Day. And again, Carl's the one calling for the strike. He's the shadow leader of this.

It's true. The puppet master. Steve Bannon to Homer Strump. So in the third act, I think Homer says two lines. He really kind of just falls back. That's true, yeah. The longest scene here I have a clip of because I love it. I did read something a long time ago about Strike Breakers,

and I love their outfits because it's all like... You mean the Pinkertons? Yeah, well, just that they look like... People stopped dressing like that after the Nazis. And they're all tattered, too. They pulled them out of storage. And this is an amazing... Smithers, get me some Strike Breakers,

the kind they had in the 30s. We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they call Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time.

Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.

I hope that's improvised. There's so many lines I like. They didn't have white onions because of the war. Which was the style at the time is another coin phrase I hear people say so much. And also what's great about this is that Burns is bored by this, and he's older than them. He's older than them. He should remember all these things. And in one sheet, I think this should have been addressed.

It's like, Smithers knows Homer is stupid. He never tries to intervene like Mr. Burns. He's stupid. You don't know this. He should just say, like, he really isn't this great negotiator. But Smithers kind of has to just stand back That's true One of my favorite jokes is their like

Adam West Batman-esque trip to the secret room Where the screen door is open And he kicks a fucking dog It's so good But also in the continuity of Simpsons Shelbyville's always been Shelbyville It was founded by Shelbyville Manhattan So it was never

Morganville. Also, I doubt American Currency had pictures of bumblebees on it. I'm guessing we should just say, well, it's just all it's the same as Grandpa thinking he invented the turlet. And the Kaiser stole our word for 20. Yeah. So, but as a kid, too, I was like, wait, Byrne should

remember these things. He doesn't need to be reminded they put onions on belts. He'd remember that. He doesn't know not to say cock. But also he should remember that he served in World War II with Abe on the same team. Yes. Continually he forgets this. He forgets all not all Simpsons, not Maggie. But he also forgets that you

can't say cock on network television. Look at him strutting around like he's cock of the walk. But let me tell you Homer Simpson is cock of nothing. Why, you and I can run this plant ourselves. I love the sequence of them running the plant by themselves. Was Smithers acknowledging that a gay joke? Yes.

Because it had the word cock in it? In hindsight. Hearing the word cock made him, he had to react in some way. It's him saying delicious. Speaking of forgetful, the writers are forgetful. They're like, Lisa's playing the guitar. She has never played the guitar before. And she's better, arguably,

better playing this guitar than playing the sax. Do you know anyone in your life who can play classical guitar? Or play the guitar? They can't play classical guitar. It's impossible. So we'll march day and night by the big cooling tower. They have the plans but we have the

power now do classical gas Boy, they kill a lot of time with this. So, Classical Gas, written by Mason Adams in 1968. The official title is Classical Gasoline. It's meant to be like a fuel for your guitar, like a standard for the guitar. It's an instrumental track. And apparently he was like the musical director on the Smothers Brothers show. Yeah, he would play it on the Sm's brothers comedy hour which popularized it it

became a standard like and it's one that gets covered all the time because no singer on it it's an instrumental track so anybody can cover it and i watched a youtube video for the fingering and easy i'll get him for the for the playing of the song and they get it as close as they can but to play a guitar you need five fingers or yeah you need five fingers so you can't oh yeah everything you can play a banjo i think right i i four strings yeah i mean just with a fingering on it like so i i couldn't tell if it was exactly accurate but again lisa i think the writers just want to like at least his musicals just play the guitar now that's in the commentary, I guess she can play guitar.

So do we have Homer's appearance on Smartline? Bobby, that is my... That's the joke. Line of the show, because it makes me laugh the most and has several dozen great lines packed within it. Let's hear it. On Smartline, the power plant strike. Argyle bargyle or foo-for-ah? With us tonight are plant owner C.M. Burns,

union kingpin Homer Simpson, and talk show mainstay Dr. Joyce Brothers. I brought my own mic. Mine too? Yes. Well, Homer, organized labor has been called a lumbering dinosaur. Ah! My director is telling me not to talk to you anymore.

Woo-hoo! Mr. Burns, you mentioned you wanted an opening tirade. Yes, thank you, Kent. Fifteen minutes from now, I will wreak a terrible vengeance on this city. No one will be spared. No one! A chilling vision of things to come. That was very who shot Mr. Burns-y this plan, I think.

I feel like it's his first thing that affects the entire town instantly. It is supervillainy. Yeah. As we classify. In any other world, ha-ha, a chilling vision of things to come delivered with that happy cadence. And we have one death, Chris. The guest star who got five words in one line. Dr. Joyce Brothers. Death stalks you at every turn.

There it is, death. Sorry, Dr. Joyce. you at every turn. There it is! Death! She died in May 2013 at age 85, and she was a pop psychologist authority when it was very hard for a woman to be an authority on anything outside of house cleaning and things like that. Dear Heloise! She was a constant on talk shows, an expert on just about

every talk show. It was her or Dr. Ruth. They'd get in either one of those. Dr. was way better at fucking, though. And she beat the $64,000 question, I think the only woman, and they were out to get her. They purposely chose questions that they thought she couldn't answer, so we covered that in an earlier episode. But she was not the original choice

for the voice there. Oh my god, you're right. And so, they originally had on the panel, or in the script, O.J. Simpson. The juice. And he turned them down, and they were forever grateful after say 1994 they were very grateful that he turned them down him or crispin one okay so they almost had in in another world he was on the simpsons i hope he dies before this episode comes out

if only uh yeah so he that that's they're very happy they didn't have it that lumbering dinosaur line i love it but like where like that's just made up like that or that wasn't in there that's what writers do yeah but i mean it's just they play the same two seconds like three times made up and timeliness like i've said sadly over and over again we'll we won't get another christmas episode time with Christmas here ever, but thank God this will release around the holidays. There's a beautiful Grinch reference in here.

Oh, Burns says he's going to enact his revenge in 15 minutes. I think not. Did he go from the smart line offices straight back to... You're in full comic book guy mode tonight. Straight back to the nuclear power plant and then walk through all that security stuff and then turn off all the power there's a good uh there's a good moby dick reference yes from hell's hardest abathy though it can also be seen as a star trek wrath of

khan reference because that's what khan says right before he presses the self-destruct button right about his ship so but could be either henry you want to talk stuff made up i think a lot of stuff burn says here is completely made up. Look at them all through the darkness I am bringing. They're not sad at all. They're actually singing. They sing without juices. They sing without blenders.

They sing without flungers, cap dabblers, and smendlers. Tell Simpson I'm ready to deal. I love how quickly, like, I've never seen a, like, let's end this joke. Yes. Well, I mean, this is the second time we've seen Burns become Seuss-ian. We saw that before in Blood Feud, when they're going up the escalator like,

a pentabulous, grabulous gift. It's true. Yeah. I love Grinch. And he just, he makes the perfect Grinch face. Yeah, and sorry, Smithers is Max, the dog. He's pulling on him the same way he pulled on Max's collar. Chuck Jones is alive to see the reference.

And Phil Roman worked on the show, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. He loved that they animated it. He really appreciated that. It is the special to watch, people. It holds up the best. By the way, in spring of 92, we're the LA Ri so i feel like they're that's why there's a riot i think they said as much on the commentary yeah and like uh they were far away from them but people would be walking in the office like you're still here go home there's riots and like we we're nowhere near where they're happening but i think they were sent

home eventually that that joke of like power outage flashing across the electrical marquee is something I never picked up on, but beautiful. And again, Homer says almost nothing. He screams, woohoo, and then runs in a circle. I love that animation. Great animation. I appreciate even the looping on it. Again, our second Curly in like two episodes. All right, Homer, you can have the dental plan on one condition. You must resign as head of the union.

Woo-hoo! Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo. Smithers, I'm beginning to think that Homer Simpson was not the brilliant tactician I thought he was. Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo. Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo. Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo. Go to hell. Go to hell. Go to hell.

Go to hell. Go to hell. That'll fill some time. Yeah. That should be my fucking ringtone. Did you, as a kid, did you ever try to do that yourself? Oh, yeah. I was filled with energy.

I could totally get it done. And this is one of two episodes in a row where the Simpsons end the show laughing in a medical facility hallway. I love it. Yeah. Oh, honey, you can hardly see your new braces. And that's the tooth. Oops, I left

the gas on. Few things make me happier than Lisa and Homer cackling. At the same thing, yeah. I love it. And man, now I wish that was Anthony Hopkins. Yeah, me too. We missed out on something. It is a parody of a lame sitcom closing joke, but it still is a lame sitcom closing joke. It's still pretty lame, yeah.

It is fun to hear them laugh together, though. But it is also them saying, like, let's just end's just end this like look we gotta get her these braces but they also have to explain that you can't see the braces because they can't change the way lisa's gonna be they're still there everybody uh right barney's hair or anything yeah and right before that is the fake vomit thing turning back on i did love that and the adam and adam movie that was funny too yeah the horny toad yeah so yeah this episode i feel like it is is emblematic of their kind of panicky senioritis towards the end of season four. And Henry and I were talking.

It's just like, they didn't act. The people who wrote these episodes didn't finish them. They wrote them, did some of the production and then left to do other stuff. And like season five, people had to come in and finish these. So they were just like, there's a ticking clock. They're going to leave, do other projects. Some people, maybe not. And you can feel them trying to be like we need to get these episodes done we're all overworked we're going to see that in the next episode which

is a result of them being overworked but yeah i mean uh but so much of this episode just lives on like the um the whole abe simpson you know uh story the grinch reference i mean even though it doesn't hold together as a story i feel like the parts that are salvageable are the things that are the most memorable from the series but it's not my i don't think it's the best episode in the show so it's so sweaty but in a good way like it's working it's working hard to just keep you entertained with constant movie references yeah like i think in a season two episode the pitch sounds like a season two episode homer becomes the union boss and goes to war with burns but the episode's like half interested in that and it just fills the rest with movie reference you're totally right about that yeah it was like a non-serious non-heartfelt approach to like

workers rights yeah i don't i don't think i'd put this anywhere near my top 20 at this point there's a lot of great references and a lot of great lines but this is i find no comfort in this episode anymore. Not the same comfort I find in almost everything else we've watched in season four so far. But it's not bad. No, no, not by any means. But not up there with Plow or Monorail to me of what we've watched so far, let alone to most season five episodes.

But Rosebud blows this out of the water for me. I totally agree. But I think this still has some of the water for me i totally agree but i think this still has some of the best moments in the series and quotable quotes i've said a million times like over a dozen unforgettable lines like i've said that a million times yeah what is the fucking title referencing uh the book last exit to brooklyn which is about a corrupt union boss getting his comeuppance i believe i had no you. I had no idea. No idea. It makes no sense. Whenever anybody says, like, what episode is that?

And I'm shocked. I would sometimes get confused with Springfield with a dollar sign, which is the gambling, the gambler episode. I call him Gambler. But also, with all this union stuff, it's shocking they didn't get something for, like, on the waterfront

in here. That's true, yeah. It'd be like perfect for it, but pretty good. Not my number one favorite. For sure. A lot are. Most are. Maybe, I promise, a shorter episode next time. Yes.

This has been Talking Simpsons, everybody. Thanks for listening. I've been your host, Bob Mackie. Find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. I write for SomethingAwful.com and Fandom.com every day. And you can find my other podcast, Retronauts, every Monday at retronauts.com or usgamer.net is a classic

gaming podcast. Everyone that you've seen on this show or listened to, rather, have been on it. And if you like old games or games in general, you should like the show.

Pick an episode based on a topic you like and you should dig it. Everybody else, where can we find you? Lasertimepodcast.com, baby, where we're doing shows like Laser Time 302010,

Talking Simpsons, VGA, VGA Apocalypse, and the Patreon-exclusive bonus time, patreon.com baby where we're doing shows like laser time 30 2010 talking simpsons vga video game apocalypse uh and the patreon exclusive bonus time patreon.com slash laser time is your gateway to another weekly show every day with people like us i'm sorry i don't know what else to do and i'm h-e-n-e-r-e-y-g on twitter please follow me there for all my political sadness and also it also tweets about video games and my political sadness. It also tweets about video games and my main job, though, is to write about video games, also for Fandom.com like Bob. And I want

to plug that this show and all those Lazer Time shows are made possible by the generous support of people on Patreon.com slash Lazer Time. I don't get any money from it because I already got a full-time job, but this is what pays for Chris and the boys to do this full-time. And just $5 a month not only helps them out,

but it also gets you access to the first season of Talking Simpsons and all the great bonus episodes we did for Talking Simpsons for Season 2, 3, and 4 wrap-ups. Yeah. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with the Simpsons Clip Show. Yes, we are doing it. See you. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with the Simpsons Clip Show. Yes, we are doing it. See you then.

Wow. Infotainment.