Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Lemon Of Troy

Episode Date: January 10, 2018

Look behind that lemon-shaped rock and you'll find this week's episode (and maybe someone's attractive cousin). In this classic episode, we venture to Shelbyville in search of lemons and friendship, all while learning about Roman numerals and why you shouldn't join a violence gang. So grab your lemonade or rootmarm cuz there's a doings a transpiring!

this week's episode is brought to you by patreon at patreon.com slash talking simpsons not only you get access to every episode a week early and ad free but we have tons of extras including our two newest interviews we chat with mike scully about his time executive producing the show i ran it through seasons 9 through 12 which I always characterize as the four most consecutive seasons of the show. And we talked with writer Mimi Pond about what it was like to write the first episode of The Simpsons. You know, and I get to be the turd in the punch bowl every single time I tell this story,

because nobody wants to hear anything bad about The Simpsons. You can find all that and more exclusively on patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Lemon of Troy. Look at the weak little baby. You're stupid, you stupid weak baby. What a burn. And it aired on May 14th, 1995.

And as always, Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh my God. Yippee-ki-yay-yay, Bobby. Because with Crimson Tide and Die hard with a vengeance in theaters men have no shortage of movies to watch soap opera as the world turns puts the simpsons to shame with its 10 000th episode and look at san diego there's a crazy man driving around with a murderous rampage in a tank oh when that happened oh my god the guy that's the guy who Built his own tank right oh No it's the guy who snuck Into an airbase and Went on a rampage I don't think that anybody

Was killed they did a whole king of the hill about That that's right and I think it spawned several Grand theft auto missions it did yes And part of the reason why I had So much fun looking into this because this is You're a little kid maybe you're not paying Attention to police chases but this is like what The fuck you can just do this yeah a human can just do this i remember there was a police standoff with a katana some guys like a katana blade standing off against

the cops i don't think anyone was killed this is a tank be wrong rolling over cars so part of the reason because it was such a low speed chase the tank topped out at 30 miles an hour so the helicopter it looked awesome it was everything a local news, San Diego news team could ask for. That tank didn't realize the Grand Theft Auto cheat of you shoot backwards to then propel yourself faster. That's right. It wasn't loaded, so it couldn't be shot. It's just common sense. But a dude snuck into an army base, crowbarred open the locked doors of several tanks, got to this one, and was able to start it and drive it off the base.

That seems complicated. It's not like driving a car. There's all those buttons and knobs and levers. Yeah, and what you don't want to do is look into the person who did it. Uh-oh. Yeah, he had just lost a lawsuit with a hospital over his medical bills. Okay, so not a tank company. His girlfriend had died of an overdose.

His tools had just been stolen so they couldn't work. And he wanted to kill himself. And I have a feeling a lot of people looked at this problem and thought man, we should really lock up tanks. The problem is in health insurance, opioids, mental health,

tort reform. It's like America.jpg or something. I mean, like, death by cop via tank is how i want to die look look into the two weeks before his doing this and like yeah i can see calling it quits in an interesting way well on king of the hill and he was murdered he was murdered by the police oh well they'll do that he got what he wanted that yeah well but on king of the hill bill dotreve did not die but he he accidentally thought that the army had given him like this uh had tested something on him that turned him into a fat-balled loser a walrus man a walrus man yes yeah and then it was

later uh hank found out like no you were on the placebo thing for this you're this is only your fault and somehow didn't get in trouble because he pretended it wasn't a drill yeah he was drunk i think he got drunk inside the tank. Yeah. He also, well, I think something exploded and then he had carpal tunnel and then he just broke his wrist. Yeah. He's like, see, my wrist is all better.

Oh, and in a controversial hot take, Die Hard with a Vengeance is the best Die Hard movie. Yeah. It's really good. That ending with the helicopter is the one thing I'm like, eh, it's not. Like, the last 20 minutes aren't good. That was the, what speed brought to the world was the one thing I'm like, eh, it's not. Like, the last 20 minutes aren't good. That was the speed. What speed brought to the world was the second ending. You can't just end the premise you promised people

and have them leave. But Sam Jackson is the perfect foil in there. It's also a great Lethal Weapon movie. Totally. And yeah, Crimson Tide, a really great film. Like, an underrated Tony Soprano film. Like, James Gandolfini. Oh, sorry, yes.

A bit part. So Tony Scott and Tony Soprano like James Gandolfini. Oh, sorry. Yes. He's a bit part. So Tony Scott and Tony Soprano in the same movie. A real death march there. A real battle thing. Before we start, I want to tell our listeners I am sick

and I will be sick in the next episode so I hope I get better after that. If not, there will be a new host but I just want to let you know I'm not going to be firing on all cylinders

which is a shame but I made it. I'm going to record and I will survive this recording. This is a really fun episode. This is a true classic. It really is. I love pointing out how old I am to our listeners,

but I discovered this episode in the episode guide. I missed its initial airing. It is yet another one of those that did not appear in syndication, and I read about this episode for, I think, three years before I was able to see it again. You missed a great one. Well, Dave Rudden, who really wanted to be here today but couldn't, this is his favorite episode.

And he said it was a similar thing. It's really good. He missed it. And his friends told him, like, there's an episode where they go to Shelbyville. They're like, what? No. It felt like a lost episode, like a script that didn't get made into something because of how no DVDs and no internet made it impossible to see. Now, this is one of my all-time favorites.

It's great. The rival town of Shelbyville, which was first seen in Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? Okay, I thought so. On the map, right? Well, no. It's where Herb Powell had been adopted. He had been adopted there and then moved to Detroit. That's where he was, at the Shelbyville Orphanage. Read between the lines, you fool. Yes.

But Shelbyville was just a place. It wasn't the rival town. Yes. That, I think, was really set up in Homer Loves Flanders of the big game in between Shelbyville and where Lisa says, like, we burned down their city hall, they spiked our water supply. I believe that's when the true rivalry began. Yeah, Lyle Langley.

It's more of a Shelbyville idea. Well, yeah, that was season four. He did, but Shelbyville was equal to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haberbrook. Like, so it wasn't exactly a rival town. But it was still the Simpsons-like noodle incident. Yeah. It's mentioned constantly, tons of backstory, but you'll never see it. And in the PTA Disbands, It wasn't exactly a rival town. But it was still the Simpsons like noodle incident. Yeah.

Mentioned constantly, tons of backstory, but you'll never see it. And in the PTA disbands, Principal Valiant was from Shelbyville. Although their school looks very similar to Springfield Elementary. Yeah, the real secret to Shelbyville, we learn in this episode, is that it is exactly the same as Springfield, except you can marry your cousin. Yes. Other than that, it is the same city. I don't know if everybody can relate to this, but if you grew up in a small town, there's a small town near it that's exactly like it that your town has made up a bunch of awful rumors about. Oh, yeah.

Ours was Struthers, Ohio. It's nuts. It exists everywhere you live. Middleburg was Orange Park, Florida's enemy territory. Gainesville. Oh, Tallahassee beats you. This episode, too, is a great children's adventure that involves the parents like all the kids have there was a problem and i'd say in the mike scully

seasons that they got too into the kids having kiddie adventures that almost like boarded on like a rugrats plot yeah but this this is an intense kids' adventure, but it does capture so many things that when I watched the episode, I was like, oh, I did that as a kid, and now I realize that was stupid. It's very observational. Yeah, it's great. And though I've never written my name in cement, I don't know about you guys. I have not.

This is for the ages. Like Stonehenge, this site will forever be a mystery. Who was Bart, and how did he manage to write his name in solid cement? He must have been much smarter than his sister Lisa, about whom we know nothing. Let's bring him back to life by using technology.

Ay carumba! Whoa! What's normal to him amazes us. He will be our new god. Ah. Oh, good, somebody's shadow. I'll just turn and brag about my work. Hi. Bob, you've graffito-tagged

public property. It was an accident. I love all of the super on-the-nose comments by the future people in Bart's imagination. It's beautiful. What's normal to him amazes us. About his sister Lisa, about whom we know nothing. And I've stolen the line using technology several times.

And I want to make a controversial take. Go for it. Futurama didn't exist yet, but it's a good look at what that would look like. I immediately thought of Futurama in this post-Futurama world. But you might agree with me on this too, because this is a cartoon nerd thing. It looks really inspired by

the end of One Froggy Evening. Visually. You are so right. I forgot about that future ending. It's one of the first cartoon futures that I can remember, and it's only for like 30 seconds.

The only other time I can remember a cartoon future is when they went into 1990 in that Bugs and Elmer cartoon. From Being Babies. He breaks a bottle

over a baby's head. That's right. Yeah. And that one froggy evening flash forward, don't they take him out of concrete? Yes.

He uses a space gun to get him out of concrete. It's concrete related. I think layout wise somebody was definitely looking at one froggy evening you're totally right i think you're right though the guy who says what's normal to him amazes us his head thing his headpiece i think is the cloud city employee from empire strikes back the who's maybe a robot look i'm if kat bailey was here she would say exactly what that person we call that a reverse geordie laforge i love frank on his rocket cycle he's basically dressed as super dave i i like that he has like his a flair for the dramatic he didn't just build

evil maybe okay that's right yeah super dave was just dressed as evil and marge's graffito tagline pretty great too all right so then marge explains why she was so pissed off at bart whatever happened to good old-fashioned town pride it's been going downhill ever since the lake caught fire now just a darn minute this town is a part of who you are this is a springfield isotopes camp when you wear, you're wearing Springfield. When you eat a fish from our river, you're eating Springfield. When you make lemonade from our trees, you're drinking Springfield. Mom, when you give that lecture, you're boring Springfield. Bart, you have roots in this town and you ought to show respect for it.

This town is a part of us all. A part of us all. A part of us all. Sorry to repeat myself, but it'll help you remember. This town is a part of us all. A part of us all. A part of us all. Wow, that does work.

So as a former Ohioan, I was born there and I lived there for 28 years. I have to talk about the whole lake catching fire joke. That's a reference. It has to be to in 1969 when the Cuyahoga River caught fire. It was really a giant oil slick on the river, but it caught national attention. This happened many times before, but that was the one time the rest of America was paying attention. I think I saw that mentioned in the film about how Cleveland are losers in sports and how everybody makes fun of Cleveland all of the time. And they had even this clip of Reaganveland all of the time and they had like even

this clip of reagan making fun of the of the water catching on fire they they turned it around but there is a great pale ale called burning river uh that's based out of cleveland that is based on that event but this is referenced in pop culture all the time because it was like pre-epa like pollution is a problem rivers are catching thank you richard nixon yes he's way better than trump i'll say right now way better than trump but meanwhile like uh well it's just a good thing that now we have to no worries about polluted water in in america never gonna happen nope breaking the fourth wall of joke structure is something this episode does i think a little better than most other episodes and it gets to start with marge or no sorry it starts with who

we know nothing about it. I love that there's so many acknowledgements that this is a dumb joke. We're setting up a silly premise and we know it. I mean, The Simpsons has done

a scene in which a character remembers something and then it gets repeated. So The Simpsons is guilty of doing the sincere version of this, but then Marge makes fun of how that happens

in shows all the time where the character will hear the words echoing over and over. And I like that Marge is the one who gets to have the town pride. It gives something for Marge to do. I feel like

other episodes they would have like, Homer has town pride and Marge just says, that's nice Homer. Faith is a woman's thing. And I love the way it's set up too. The structure of this is amazing. Like in this example here, Marge says Springfield isotope caps,

fish from a river, lemons. Those are the three things in a row Bart runs into. It's so subtle that all of a sudden Springfield has native lemon trees, which he says it from the beginning as a defining characteristic of the town.

It's beautiful. And I also love the sound of hucking fish at cars. Like the Nelson... The German light infantry. Hey, your voice is perfect for Nelson. Yes, I can be a real Nelson sound alike now. Just the foley of that fish hitting that car.

Just like thump. And that's the only reason he's fishing. Not to eat them. Not to throw them back. To mess up cars. And I also love Lisa's pity glass of lemonade, too. Bart's finally feeling some town pride. But other kids aren't. This town ain't so bad.

Good friends, lots of lemons, numerous angel sightings. When you get right down to it, Springfield's a pretty cool place to live. Springfield sucks! Hey, stop talking bad about my town, man. Why don't you make me? I don't make

trash, I burn it. Then I guess you're a garbage man. Well, I know you are, but what am I? A garbage man. Oh, I know you are, but what am I? A garbage man. I know you are, but what am I? A garbage man. Takes one to know one.

Chuck mate! Hey, kid, stop wearing your backpack over one shoulder. We invented that. Copycat. You copied us. Step over this line and say that copycat uh you copied us step over this line and say that i'll kick your butt mad nintendo yeah wonderful love that line wonderful the the the designs of the bart in millhouse of shelbyville are great it's great yeah i like that data's tagging along too because i love data's voice unlike matt geraning who hates it he gets

it's this is like his only other time to shine, really, in the first ten seasons. My belief is that when they did Bart's comment, Mac Groening complained so much about Database, they're like, okay, what's the next episode we're working on? We're going to put Database all over it. Trolling the boss. Totally. I think they've done many decisions that are just to troll Mac Groening. It's kind of bizarre to see him here, because whatever Datab whatever database embodies Martin and Milhouse can accomplish on their own.

He has too many nerds on his team, that's for sure. But I also love that, like, we can't spare a single one. And then they're throwing lemons at him. I think it's all nerds except for maybe Nelson. And Bart is kind of a nerd in his own way. Bart is definitely not as tough as the Bart of Shelbyville. Yeah, that is for sure. Yes, but then we finally, finally get to hear the origin of Shelbyville,

which, as a Sims continuity nerd, I loved this moment so much. Yeah, and I think Shelbyville, Manhattan is a funnier joke than Jeb Jai of Springfield. Yes, yeah. It's a great, it's such a great joke. It just sits there. Though, the scene is very different when you think about that he's secretly Han Sprungfeld the entire time. Oh, you're right. Did you know this tree dates back to frontier times?

Wow. Shut up! It all began when Jebediah Springfield first came to these lands with his partner, Shelbyville, Manhattan. People, our search is over. On this site, we shall build a new town where we can worship freely, govern justly, and grow vast fields of hemp for making rope and blankets.

Yes, and marry our cousins. I was... What are you talking about, Shelbyville? Why would Yes, and marry our cousins. I was... What are you talking about, Shelbyville? Why would we want to marry our cousins? Because they're so attractive. I thought that was the whole point of this journey. Absolutely not. I tell you, I won't

live in a town that robs men of the right to marry their cousins. Well, then we'll form our own town. Who will come and live a life devoted to chastity, abstinence, and a flavorless mush I call root marm. Root marm. So there are several, there are at least a few season one callbacks in this episode. Have we heard Jebediah Springfield talk since the Telltale Head?

I don't think so. Well, there were definitely pictures of him in the whacking day episode but there was not a flashback to him i think i think this is our uh first hearing of his voice since the voice in bart's head we've never seen jebediah springfield in any other context which is still the same voice but i think a little more stern in that episode he sounds a little more jim henseney in this one yeah well because in this in this he's a funny joke machine. Best fields of hemp. Yes, which I think is a reference to every pothead I knew in high school

is just like, you know, hemp's great, and actually George Washington grew hemp, and it's awesome. And it's true that the destruction of the hemp industry is because of big business and paper. It is the only, as a character, the only Jebediah Springfield other than whacking day since the telltale head that you've heard him talk yeah wow that's it's really it's impressive and i think too this gave i love them going into jebediah springfield stuff i mean obviously the

uh least of the iconoclasts is probably the best one of not only meeting han sprungfeld but seeing troy mcclure play Jebediah Springfield in a film and it basically destroys any chance of Jebediah showing up again in the future being taken seriously

I do love the joke that they planted a lemon tree to celebrate that sweet moment lemons being the sweetest fruit available at the time this is a really

fucking funny episode every line is great I love this episode so much and then Shelbyville Manhattan started an entire trip across America to be like we had to marry our cousins right that's like what i thought that's what this was all about you can do that in several places still i don't want to over explain why shelbyville manhattan is the best joke in the universe but he has the name of the most notable

town in his name already and he's the only person who has the what the the vil i mean it is it is a better version of the jebediah springfield joke it's like having your last name be springfield it's crazy it could be like jebediah spring and then like this will be springfield but yeah oh having your first name be something vil bob vil but uh yeah the marrying of first cousins it's it's kind of different across countries in America. Kissing cousins? It's something every southern town presumes about the town they think they're better than. Yeah, they all marry their cousins. Being from one, you're not.

I love how sleazy and dumpy Shelbyville looks. Their statue has slutty cousins on it. Yeah, he's carousing with like floozies, cousin floozies. with his, like, statue. It has slutty cousins on it. Yeah. He's carousing with, like, floozies, cousin floozies. There's, in the Stephen Colbert book, the first one from the Colbert Report, he has an interesting section where he argues pro-first cousin marriage. He's just like, if you're looking for love,

it might be as close as your other family tree. And he's just like, look, I've always been pro first cousin marriage. And you know what? Let's look in the Bible. Is it wrong to marry your first cousin in there? And you're like, nope, not in there. Totally cool.

There weren't many people back then. Most people were your cousins at the time, I think. When I've met my first cousins, I've never been attracted to one of them, I have to say. Maybe, hey, out there. Who knows? That's nature's test. I always had little kid crushes on my family members but they were all dozens of years old well if they're the cool ones you're like oh they're

they're buying cigarettes what cool guys like yeah uh but i also just love that abe takes on the nameless old man trope of telling this story it just kind of appears god damn i love we need to see more of shelbyville manhattan i feel like he has shown up in other flashbacks in more recent seasons. We do get a Kerboppel's Roman numeral class. I fucking love this joke, too. It spoke to me as a kid because the only reason I knew Roman numerals were from clocks and movies. Yep. That's it.

When I bought a VHS tape of Marvel cartoons, my parents paid 20 bucks for one 20-minute episode of Spider-Man. A terrible episode of Spider-Man. That's worse than anime pricing. But I wanted to know what year it came out, but it was always

Roman numerals because they were so terrified of like, if you knew this cartoon was from 15 years ago, you wouldn't buy it because it would be old. Oh, you think so?

That was the boy? Because if you didn't have a VHS or DVD, you didn't have any way of knowing what year a movie was made. Yep. And even as a little kid, you may have had Disney movies. It's either buried in like legalese copy. They don't want to tell you, you're watching something from the 1940s. Please ignore the smoking.

They're afraid kids will not want to watch something that feels old and musty. But now in the post-IMdb era everybody knows what year a movie came out you can't hot you can't hide it through the legal bullshit of saying like oh this movie came out in mclx x11 and i still to figure it out i have to think wait what final fantasy was that exactly final fantasy is still teaching the kids roman numerals thank you final fantasy xv i was pretty mad when i had been waiting as a Roman numeral fanboy. I had been waiting for Super Bowls to reach 50, so it would be Super Bowl L. But then when it was 50, they did regular numbers.

L isn't sexy. They did XL, which is as good as you got. They did XXX. But yes, let's hear. Nelson has no time to explain. I love this. Class, please. If you don't learn Roman numerals,

you'll never know the dates certain motion pictures were copyrighted. Everybody come quick! Something's happened! No time to explain! No, children, no. Your education is important. Roman numerals, et cetera, whatever.

I tried. Smoking at a desk. Are you sure it wouldn't be faster to just tell us what happened no I said there's no time to explain and I stick by that the lemon tree's gone and the tracks appear to lead into Shelbyville oh look a clue

a candy bar wrapper oh they're always eating candy in Shelbyville they love the sweet taste. We gotta get that tree back. Ah, you mean going to Shelbyville? We'll never make it out alive. God, how could you hate that voice? Oh, look, a clue, a candy bar wrapper.

Candy bar wrapper. I kinda hate it. I think Database is lucky to be here. It reminds me of Dexter from Dexter's Lab almost, without the Russian accent. I love Database database too obviously i think if you mix together millhouse martin and database that's me they might have changed his design for this episode i don't remember i don't remember him having an untucked shirt that untucked shirt like the nathan drake thing he's got going on

oh god but it's the first no time for to explain joke that made that whole premise corrode for me. Such a great point of just like, no, the time cut you have there, it's for drama, but it reminds me of the... It's to not explain it to you, arrive at the setting of what you're talking about, which is impossible to do in real life. It reminds me of the perfect joke in the

Brad Goodman episode of like, well, he did agree to go to his self-help seminar. What an odd thing to say. The Sentence will be right back. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance,

I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. We care about you. We 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.

Care, care. Did I mention that we care? There's a doings a transpiring over at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. In case you haven't heard about it, Patreon is where we are supported to do this show every week. It pays Bob and my rent,

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and we are going to be doing a live podcast recording january 28th 2016 at the piano fight bar you can look it up online for more information and the tickets are free so if you can make it why not if you're there wouldn't it be cool if you were wearing a Talking Simpsons t-shirt that looks a bit like the Ion Springfield logo drawn by the wonderful friend of the show, Nina Matsumoto? Well, you should buy one for yourself. It's shirt-sickle, like Popsicle, but with shirt. Or head to tiny.cc slash talking shirt, and you can get one of your own. Starting in 1999, it's shipped somewhat internationally. Check it on out

there and we'll see you at Talking Simpsons Live January 28th. on Lazer Time. This week on Lazer Time, the internet's seventh leading pop culture podcast, the gang is tackling a brand new topic. I tried to find a negative review of Citizen Kane. One star,

it had no color. It was utterly depressing. The camera angles were okay, but the acting really wasn't too good. All the actors were always interrupting

themselves or each other and it just didn't flow well in my mind. And this is my favorite line of all time. It's just like the Blair Witch Project. I he's right it's just like the Blair Witch Project a lot of people watch Citizen Kane because of the hype and find themselves disappointed sad but true Citizen Kane was a real disappointment totally unoriginal plot bad lighting cheesy sets boring too and gosh what is this rosebud thing? That was freaky. Whoa, dude.

Anyway, this movie was whack and mad boring. It was a bummer too, that it was all black and white and all the guys looked the same because they all wore suits. That's Laser Time, new every Monday on LasertimePodcast.com, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. I like that even Nelson cares. Like, Nelson normally would just be like, nah, who cares? It's worthy of just ducking out of school. That's true.

Bart announces his plans, which Marge takes the wrong way. Where are you going, Bart? Mom, you won't believe this, but something you said the other day really got through to me. And now I am going to teach some kids a lesson. I choose to take that literally. Death to Shelbyville!

Yes, Bart's a tutor now. Two-ton, son! Two-ton! We missed it, but I did love Bart's a tutor now. Tutan, son! Tutan! We missed it, but I did love Bart's remark. We'll get it back or choke the rivers with our dead. Yeah, that's a great line. And then I was absolutely like Milhouse of thinking like, if I buy a children's spy kit or something like this,

I have superpowers. He's a real Cheshire Cat. It's beautiful. I never wore camo clothes. I wanted camo so bad and I didn't know my parents were rescuing me from looking like the white trash we lived around. They never let me have it. So when I became an adult, I wore a lot of

camo as a hipster idiot. It makes good pants. I'd never wear a camo top. I love camo top. I don't know why. It goes great with a rat tail in the 1980s. And Bart describes his team. Again, him being very trope-no-y. Okay, here's how it goes.

I'm a leader. Milhouse is my loyal sidekick. Nelson's a tough guy. Martin's a smart guy. And Todd's a quiet religious guy who ends up going crazy. I wonder how Todd got roped into all of this. It's true. It was, into all of this it's true it was for plot purposes it's why flanders comes yeah but there's no reason why the littlest

flanders boy would come because he's not in bart's grade he's not as far as i know wouldn't have run from the school yeah i mean flanders doesn't really address the fact that todd is there at all ever no not really i think he would help them naturally just by being a nice guy. It may feel old-timey, but I know my friend's kids now, they can't go anywhere unsupervised at this age, but I did all the time. I did too. Yeah, it's true. I mean, this episode

wouldn't work as well now because everybody's just like, what was it, some woman got arrested for her kid being somewhere she's not supposed to be. Or like a father. What was that story? That father who was busy working and they're like, you weren't taking care of your kids.

You're going to jail. There's a mom who left her kids in the car while she had a job interview and then she was arrested for that. I just would go in the woods and walk as far as I could all the time. I mean, come on, parents. We live in a surveillance state. There's a camera trained on your child at all times, even when you're not there.

I think when I was such an awful kid, my parents loved it. Please walk as far as you can in that direction. Be back by dinner. If a stranger offers you a ride, I say take it. Work out that energy. But yes, then they're walking the streets of Shelbyville, and I really like how, for lack of a better word, how queer Martin is in this episode

he very they they like doing this with Martin it on a certain level it is gay jokes and Martin but also I never read Martin's never held down by that well he's happy being himself no I understand your read and agree with you I just never read it that way before but it comes together to paint an even more Waylon Smithers picture for Martin. When he's happily the queen of summertime, it's like, you know what the writers mean by this, but still, I love him here. Here's a tip.

Put a pinch of sage in your boots and all day long, a spicy scent is your reward. Oh my gosh, look. The fire hydrants here are yellow. This place is starting to freak me out Danger coming Behind us What is it, boy? Is there something behind that wall we should beat up?

No time to check it out now We've got lemonade to sell Radical They're getting rich off us. And that kid with the backpack said radical. I say radical. That's my thing that I say. I feel like I'm going to explode here.

Rod, I love the little animation. Rod actually thinks he's about to explode and takes a step back. And the fact that Nelson is freaked out by the different fire hydrants. It's like when you're a kid, you only know the town you grew up in. It's like, oh my god, they've got a Hardee's here. And I remember being just, we had yellow fire hydrants, but all cartoons told me they're red. Yeah, yeah.

I was Shelbyville. Or seeing that they had a different name for their convenience stores than Little Champ. I was like, no, we have Little Champ in my town. We don't have the kangaroo or whatever it is. Or Junior. Or Singstorm. I just realized that Nancy Cartwright voices most of this crew.

So Bart, Nelson, Todd, and Data are all Nancy Cartwright. And they got Tress McNeil in to play Bizarro Bart. Bizarro Bart. And Roosie Taylor as Martin. Yeah, the Simpsons are in a final fight game. You'd be beating up Shelbyville residents. Yeah. Little tiny palette swaps and take off his glasses.

They totally have to do that. They should do that. But though the Shelbyville kids are tougher, they're ready to beat them up. Like they would lose. Nelson can only do so much to fight. They'd lose otherwise. I say Shelbyville's a bit trashier,

a bit more street smarty than Springfield. Those highfalutin Springfielders. Marge finding out Bart has joined a violence gang. I love that line. The term violence gang. It's almost lunchtime. Do you know where your brother is tutoring? Tutoring?

The only thing Bart's teaching is guerrilla combat in Shelbyville. Well, do you have a number where we can reach him? No, Mom, Bart and some kids ran off to wage war on Shelbyville. Homer, come quick. Bart's quit his tutoring job and joined a violence gang! And then she finally realizes he's not a tutor,

like the way it looks. 95 was a big gang violence scare era for white families. Remember a Goofy movie we just brought up not too long ago? The main plot point in that is that Goofy thinks Max

has joined a violence gang. Is he a crip or a blood? When really, he was extra gay dressing up as a singer at school and doing a very long, pronounced musical number. That rumor that you're not allowed to wear in Tallahassee, Florida,

don't wear red or blue. Those are Crips and blood killers. You don't want to get involved, kid, in the suburbs. I heard that at school. It's just like, we're not... I could wear a red bandana and I'm fine. Don't wear British Knights.

It means blood killers. You don't want to be killed by a crip i've never even seen a crip if you all you must attend a double their screening i heard the thing of like if you if you're driving and somebody flashes their lights at you if you flash back then they're going to kill you and shoot you because that's a gang initiation just the rule man we never i never heard about the knockout game, which is the other racist myth that's like, black kids play the knockout game all the time, which is, they just walk up to a random white person and

punch him in the back of the head and knock him out like, that shit doesn't happen. So easy to scare white people. I have prestige in the knockout game. But yes, then they walk by the classic statue of Shelbyville, Manhattan, with his sexy cousins. I love that. With his sexy cousins. I love that. And then they decide to split up, which ends up

with Martin and Nelson as a team. I just love them so much. This should be a whole episode. It is not the first song Martin has composed for a best friend, either. That is true. Ah, the trail has become indistinct. I suggest we split up to cover more ground. Good idea. Milhouse, you and

me will be Omega Team. Todd, you and Data are Team Strike Force. Nelson, that leaves you and Martin. Team Discovery Channel! Your wussiness better come in handy. So, did Discovery Channel face Channel Drift?

It's showing Mama's Family and Dog the Bounty Hunter now, or what? Dude, it is not. It is the American hot rod Mythbusters. Like, it is not the boring channel anymore. I think it's just called Discovery now, right? Yeah, and there's like, do they have a tattoo reality show? They might. Oh, Ink.

I mean, this is like 10 years old. LA Ink or something? Yeah, but Discovery Channel used to be like, it used to be like old BBC reruns of government commission science programs. It did. They got sexy with Shark Week. Yeah, the one goofy thing they did was Shark Week, but it was still like shark science shows. Oh, man, remember GamesRadar?

We did Week of Sharks. We did Week of Sharks because we couldn't call it Shark Week. Legally, like some dumb lawyer in the company was like oh they could sue us like who fucking cares to talk about jaws unleashed endlessly it's a wonderful game i love the games radar how many times we're just like i mean this might be illegal fuck it who cares like let's just give let's just get we had to make some some poor kid fill out like five forms to send them like a 50 game because they won something yeah but anyway. Let's interview Shirley Phelps Roper about Bioshock. That interview was great.

You really got her with that question of like, well, could I join your church? Like, no. Anybody who wants to hear me talk about it again, I'm happy to do so on Twitter or something. She is a phony. She drums up her own anger and they don't there's no there's nothing they want other than to hassle you yeah uh it's completely unrelated now the parents are very concerned about the kids in shelbyville okay folks look i called the police captain in shelbyville he says he hasn't seen our kids but if they show up in the morgue he's gonna fax us oh man i hate those

shelbyville jerks honey i, I was born in Shelbyville. Man, it tears me up inside. This is my fault. I tried to teach Bart about town pride, but the power of my words filled him with a sort of madness. Now, Marge, you can't blame all of Bart's problems on your one little speech. If anything turned him bad, it's that time you let him wear a bathing suit instead of underwear. And let's not forget your little speech.

I love that joke, but it sounds like every part of the sentence was recorded in a different room at a different time. It's a new joke. It's weird. In audio form only, it's even more obvious. Like, yo, you recorded this in two different places. In the 80s, your bathing suits were allowed to be way cooler than the shorts your mom would buy you. So I always tried to get away with wearing

bathing suits instead of my shorts. And also, that's the start, I think, of Luann and Kirk's problems. It's like, oh, her being from Shelbyville is the root of his problems. Later in the episode, I was looking at the adults, and it's like, man, The Simpsons doesn't have a good enough stable of suburbanite adults. Yeah, how many of the adults do we actually see in the RV? Kirk should have been there. Kirk's not there. It's new one yeah i guess databases parents and martin's parents

they never show any parentage yeah we've seen martin's parents before yeah the fat camera yeah moment fat little secret but it's just homer and net you wouldn't make a scene uh yeah just tell well i mean it's already packed with kids in that thing so it's like Homer if you have more characters in Homer and Ned then it's really too packed with interesting people yeah that's true and and we you I can understand not wanting to bring what Nelson's mom that's that's a bunch I don't want to write a bunch of these jokes we'll meet her later I think we've we've seen oh we haven't met her yet no no we haven't seen her yet it feels like more of a mike scully thing yeah just in the uh broken down horrible mother of uh nelson but yes i i love this scene of martin's confidence when he has nelson backing him up okay piglet start squealing where'd you get the lemons for

this lemonade uh this is country time lemonade mix there's never been anything close to a lemon in it. I swear. Hey, nobody hassles my little brother. Hey, and no one manhandles the bosom chum of Nelson Muntz. Spring forth, burly protector, and save me! Aw, jeez. I never hang out with him. Normally.

Park to the tail of Nelson and the boy he loved so dear. They remain the best of friends for years and years and years. That's so great. I'd be lying if I said I didn't identify with that in my childhood. I read it as much, much care than I ever have in the past. The boy he loved so dear. He's in love with Nelson. It's like there's no other way around that. Is there a musical reference for that? Not really. Much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much, well, he stands up in the bus and says, like, Bart and I are friends. Right.

Which is also quite gay. He's also very happy to have a friend, any friend. I talked about it before in the pool episode, but I read a great article that, like, no, Martin never feels shame for his, like, he gets beat up for it and bullied quite a lot, but he never feels shame for how queenie he acts all the time he's he doesn't think there's a problem with it i i i was just thinking about that like when i was a kid i had a rather effeminate southern accent and uh me too it kind of got ground out of me by society not just by not just by bullies but just like littler ways how people act i was like oh you're you want me to talk more in a monotone yeah i was when i became a teenager like why does every gay guy think i'm gay it's just the way i talk uh i had to change it uh but yeah i also like bart i i had assumed reading lips

couldn't be that hard yeah i did all that's i i can't i can't articulate it well enough but it's something you did as a kid a lot you You assumed you'd be good at this. Dad, I remember begging my dad for weeks, you've got to get me a unicycle. I know. I know I'm good at this. I know it doesn't require years of practice and focus. I'll just be good at it immediately. That was me before I stepped on a skateboard.

I was like, I cannot do this. This will not work out. So we have one other. There are some season one stuff. There are some season one stuff. There's some season one stuff peppered in this episode. The other thing we see is Flanders RV from Call of the Simpsons. That's right. His mega awesome RV he bought on credit because he makes slightly more than Homer.

Yeah, which, well, that was pre-Leftorian. So I think he makes more now. I hate to derail this, but I think I've become Talking Simpsons' lead researcher of shitty foods. Yes, go for it. Country Time Lemonade. Oh, I was going to talk about that. Oh, yeah. I never made it. I made Kool-Aid all the time. this but i i think i've become talking simpsons lead researcher of shitty foods yes uh country time lemonade oh i was gonna talk about that yeah i never made it i made kool-aid all the time i never drank country time this episode exposed the lie because i was like yeah you know what it's just powder i didn't know until this until this record this viewing that that's true yeah that

that there are there are three ingredients in lemonade and it's very easy to make yes lemons sugar and uh water uh water uh there are 12 ingredients in country time and lemonade none of which are lemon yeah it's it's citric acid which is also gets a shout out in this episode but there are no lemons in country time lemonade it technically you're making lemonade easier but you're paying more for lemonade than you ever need to pay yeah and i have not seen Country Time lemonade in a long time. So this, this episode destroy them? No,

they're very much around. They're part of the Dr. Pepper food brands. They're fighting the yum brand. And if I had to guess, like, I think it had a better name than it had a product and I'm pissed off about it because now laser time can not do a Scarborough show.

I wanted to call country time. Yeah. Speaking of that rv they arrive in shelbyville and they hate springfield i think more than springfield hate shelbyville even well it's friendly springfield hello there neighbors you know we think some kids of ours may be missing in your town missing children sounds like springfield's got a discipline problem. That's why we beat him at football nearly half the time, huh? Every one of those characters has a different accent. Yeah. To me, I love that. Yeah, he's got the main, I'm sorry, I just watched Pet Sematary, so sometimes that is better.

Herman Munster says that, right? It's just so beautiful, too. They take pride in winning football probably 46% of the time. Nearly half the time. It's the second. Oh, yeah. That joke is so subtle. Nearly half the time.

That's great. And I like the editing or acting on it that Ned is about to say another thing. He's like, Springfield, some of our kids are here. And then they cut him off. I really love that, too. And they're drinking FUD, which was last seen in Sp spittle county and it made hillbillies go blind yeah but they're in trouble but now it's been brought back it's just yeah shelbyville doesn't drink duff they drink food and uh another thing i wish it'd come back but i guess it's a merkin thing baron von costume

i love that that's the baron in me baron von he's so name of that brand. You leave that to the Baron and me. Baron Von Costume. He's so proud of that. Yes. And that also that the Shelbyville kids, they start growling like dogs at the thought of a Springfield boy. And they're ready to beat him up and throw bugs in his mouth.

And yes, then Bart is put to the test of spray painting Springfield sucks. His can control is excellent. Yes, and that wig makes him look a lot like one of the Beatles. That's right. The stranger who walks amongst you is me,

Bart Simpson. You know Bart Simpson. From Springfield? He's from Springfield! Get him! So one minor animation error I noticed is like, that wig makes him look like one of the Beatles. It's delivered by the other Milhouse,

and that's not his voice. He sounds more like this. I love all the kids' voices so much. And it was a clever thing that of Bart's's Springfield sucks between Springfield rules sucker. It's one of those jokes that could not actually work because they're all just standing and watching him. They all have to look at each other for six seconds. But it is true. Bart can't beat them up.

But his skills in spray painting and skateboarding the skateboarding actually are superior that's feels like another season one callback actually of like this is an el barto moment bart spray painting things it's an i am wiener moment and that doesn't spray paint you don't question that bart's good at graffiti yeah and that skateboarding scene is amazing this is a jim reardon episode yes it's yeah jim reardon fucking rules in this episode and the the skateboarding scene, I have no clips from it. I have a bit from right before that. But the skateboarding just looks awesome. I'll use these spray cans as jetpacks and fly to safety.

So long, losers. You're dead. Hey, look. Someone's attractive cousin. They're just into the idea of cousins in general, not even their own cousins. It's like that is a cousin of someone. Well, it must be one of our cousins. Yeah. Very attractive.

So they like that they even like brush their hair or tie it up like, ooh, my attractive cousin. And also, yeah, that was a very another kid observational thing of like well in a cartoon i've seen people use spray cans as propulsion or like a video game totally and then it just turns bart's feet green for one moment yes it's gone it's washed off quickly they they drive by sorry they escape by all of the bizarro springfield things including uh a joe's tavern and and mo was just a guy with like a bandana and long hair there's an there's an asian quickie mart speedy mart speedy mart and the the woman groundskeeper willie for the first time i realized what she was saying she was calling them sidewalk surfing cube

gleamers i know as in gleaming the cube wow yes i never i only saw that this time too of looking at frankie act yeah because was like, that's weird. What is it? Christian Slater's Gleaming the Cube. Isn't Tony Hawk his stunt double in that? You could be right. I would believe you. Yeah, it's one of the first notable skateboarding movies from the 80s.

Gleaming the Cube. Slow down your sidewalk surfing, you gleamers. And then we get a great callback to the start of the episode again. Just a tightly scripted episode. Yeah, Cement starts the journey, and Cement, you know, is his downfall, ultimately. Uh-oh. What's Cement? I could sure use that flying motorcycle now.

You had your chance. Well, hi, then. So much more funny in audio. Great sound there, though. Well, hi, then. I like the very boring name he gave it, the flying motorcycle, not even a jet bike or whatever. That's true. So, yes, then Bart is caught in a tiger trap or in a tiger thing at the zoo.

The tiger feeding area. Yeah, which, it's a very video game, like adventure game kind of moment, honestly. Yeah, and I just love the one safety precaution is a flimsy piece of paper taped up. That's true, yes. Is this still funny in a post-Harambe world? Well, there'd be too many tigers to take out at once.

Bart is looking for help which this i don't know this might be my line of the show well actually no there's a couple later that are my it's one of mine millhouse what's that in roman numerals i'll tell you bart but you really should end each transmission with the word over over correction the only thing that's over is that transmission is this the untimely end of Milhouse? But Milhouse is my name. But I thought I was the only one. A pain I know all too well.

So this is what it feels like when dumbs cry. Yes. I like to think they fell in love there. But at the very least, Milhouse has never had anyone who's his equal or friend or anything i wish they keep in touch so the line comes from the movie uh little caesar and it's not about the pizza it's about a criminal and this is where is this the untimely end of millhouse comes from mother of mercy is this the end of recall so that was uh edward g robinson i want to watch chief wiggum himself edward g robinson all day long now you filthy animals wow i did not know that was from a film

like uh that was that specific a real gangster picture you could tell how ancient it is because it's just like they're talking into tin cans talkies were new at the time yes uh so when bart finds his way out of there that was how i did it too like it feels like such a dated joke now because no sequel is numbered they don't number any movie sequel anymore let alone put a prestigious roman numeral i think i remember that people made the hangover crowing about like, no, we made it a point to put the word part and a Roman numeral because no one does

either of those anymore. Oh, that's great. Final Fantasy VII, Aerith's Revenge. Yes, it came together, though actually the seventh Rocky movie is Creed.

It's Creed. It's Creed. Another thing Simpsons vaguely predicted, the seventh Rocky. Whose revenge is that? It was Apollo's revenge. Apollo Creed's revenge.

From beyond the grave, he gets his revenge. Adrian is dead in Creed as well. As of this recording, Sylvester Stallone has mysteriously exited the director's chair for Rocky 8. Creed 2 or whatever that is. Well, he's hiring another. If that was one of the best moves for Creed, that Creed is about an African-American boxer, and they got Ryan Coogler, and it really felt like an African-American-led film. 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.

Bowman Auto Insurance, personalized to your needs. level to tell our clients that we really care about you. We care about you. We 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. Care. Care. Did I mention that we care?

And it was very, it was much better than if Stallone had directed it. If there had been another Rocky-focused movie, turning him into a side character was amazing. And that'll probably continue in Creed, too. Please kill him. Stallone was teasing that Brock Lesnar could be Dolph Lundgren's son in a movie. Why don't they turn him into Mickey and make a movie about Mickey? He's Burgess Meredith. He is pretty much Mickey and Rocky in Creed. Isn't he he like as old as virgin meredith was in that movie i think maybe yeah

age a lot harsher back then yeah much more of a bum yeah i i felt i did feel bad for rocky that he did rocky his first lie that he didn't win an oscar for creed he did good in creed but what that's the real seventh one and then we get a great i love nancy's take here uh yeah this i fucking love this it's no use i'm never gonna find that tree this whole raid was as useless as that yellow lemon shaped rock over there wait a minute there's a lemon behind that rock the tree that is a great take chris yes it's so there's a lemon behind that lemon shaped rock but you know nancy had to understand that joke it's not a flat reed yeah it's it's so great a million a million stories about that same moment of like uh it's useless the thing wait it's the

thing i've been looking for but instead it is really a lemon shaped rock and there's a lemon behind it's a very murkiny joke i love these jokes uh yes but and right around when they discover where the tree is which is in the impenetrable fortress of suburbia a impound lot that's when homer re-enters the picture and it couldn't have come at a better time because Homer versus Shelbyville Homer. I would call this entire exchange line of the show. I would actually say line of the show is not even a word at the end of this. On the wiki, he's called Shelbyville Homer. Oh, wow. You kids are in big trouble running away from home like this.

But they stole our lemon tree. I don't care what excuse you've got. Nothing's going to stop me in the middle of this speech. You're going to lemon tree? That tree's been in Springfield since the time of our forefathers. Give it back or I will bust in there and take it. Bust in here and take it? You must be stupider than you look.

Stupider like a fox. Great acting there. I'm okay. Don't you get it, Springfield? It's over. You lose. Now if you'll excuse me, all this talk has made me hungry. Yes. That is the source of so many

Simpsonship posts. The smished up the shrunken face yeah his lemonized face i want to give that best yeah the face that's the joke i'm down this may seem obvious but that is hank azaria doing homer's season one voice so it's basically uh it is so perfect because it's walter mathau's voice with a jackie gleason delivery it's perfect it's not just walter math perfect because it's Walter Matthau's voice with a Jackie Gleason delivery. It's perfect. It's not just Walter Matthau.

It has the Jackie Gleason like, ooh, at the end. That's perfect, Sam, because that is Hank Azaria's whole way of thinking. It's just like, no, it's a bad impersonation of a famous person. I meant to mention it earlier. There's two Hank Azaria's Shelbyville voices that sound almost exactly like his Brockmire character, which he doesn't really do on the show that much, but I love the show Brockmire and hope it comes back for a second season.

Really good. God, just his whole... I love Shelbyville. That he has Homer's muzzle too, but not... It's yellow. He doesn't have the five o'clock shadow. He's got hair.

I never ever noticed until this viewing that this is where the title of the episode comes from. Yep. This one single moment, Helen of Troy moment. As a kid, I did not get the Trojan horse reference in Homer saying, nobody's as smart as ever thought of this.

Man, because usually the Simpsons titles are puddled deep. There is nothing to get. But this is buried in the plot, a reference to sneaking in with a Trojan horse. It's beautiful. Behind enemy lines. And they get the lemon tree,

but then somebody, well, releases the hounds, actually. Yes, the second giving dogs meat joke. I fucking love this. In a suit. I'll get the gate. That's okay, son. I'll take care of him. Faster, son!

He's got a taste for meat now! Ha ha ha. If only Bart had wieners to give him quick energy to escape. I just love that sound. Yeah, it's very astute. Those are like paper-thin, tinfoil, corrugated tinfoil doors. And it's another thing Merkin loves of just like, here's a cartoony moment, but what if it was realer?

Yeah. And I think they do it again later in a way. I really appreciate it. Yes, yeah. They attach the tree to the top of the RV. They need to make their escape

with the slowest closing gate of all time. One thing that we missed that I love, it's very subtle. I love Homer's fascination with all the novelties inside the RV. Like that you can shower inside of it, you can cook

chickens inside of it. He's ready to shower and it's like, nah, I'm gonna shower right now. Why wait 20 minutes to get home? I'm gonna shower right now. But yes, same deal here. He's cooking four turkeys? Yes. Something's draining the battery. Get out here, son! There's a doings

a transpiring! Let's shut the gate and seal him in. Got it, Flanders. It won't start. Something's draining the battery. Sorry. Sorry. Eat my shorts, Shelby, though. Eat my shorts. Shelby, now!

Eat my shorts! Yes, eat all of our shirts! Oh, you lousy Springfield, you shake harder, boy! There are like three lines of the show in there. I love Flanders just trying to fit in. Shake harder, boy. A doing to transpire in, and shake harder, boy. A doing to transpire in.

That did remind me in my notes that this is, I think, a really good parody of an old sitcom premise. It's something we don't really see this anymore, but this character is a perfect parody of a rival town guy. It's in a ton of Twilight Zones, the Andy Griffith shows. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It was kind of like a con man almost. Yeah, it's sending something up, but it's a storyline we don't see very often. Oh, God, and just shake on them all.

The impotence of that. I just, and yeah, a doing's a transpiring. A doing's a transpiring. And half the tree is wrecked by the Springfield Arch. Yeah, they fuck it up more than the Shelbyville. And that's the sound I appreciate. My girlfriend brought it to my attention because she's from Wisconsin,

where everybody has like a garage behind their house. But the childhood sound of your parents backing out of the driveway. And there's a specific reverse sound for a car that's different from a car driving. And I just love that they like the tinfoil door fully. It's a fun reverse sound. And a slow beeping just to highlight their communication yeah and i just love that we end with a story from both grandpa and shelbyville grandpa as well which i hope that guy is actually the father of shelbyville homer i want him to be

that and with that a mighty cheer went up from the heroes of springfield they had brought the sacred tree back to its native soil and old Flanders was stuck with the impound fee He could easily afford it More lemonade, Bart? Absolutely Say when There are over 14 parts of the lemon that are And with that, a mighty cheer went up from the heroes of Shelbyville

They had banished the awful lemon tree forever because it was haunted. Now let's all celebrate with a cool glass of turnip juice. Gross. So sour lemons were their sour grapes. Yeah. Oh, God. I just love the idea of how history is written by both sides in this they're just like uh actually we won by losing that lemon tree it's we were better off without

it because it was haunted apparently there were never lemon trees in shelbyville until they stole one it's true they've never had but they had country time that yeah that's i guess that's their only way of having lemons they have to get the country time but god damn i i also i wish i caught it but we already had like 21 clips in this but the uh the way he's like his reaction to them parking in front of a hospital like oh somebody parked in front of hospital like it's and he even does the because jim reardon he does the uh homer finger twiddle which i believe required double the animation frames for every finger twiddle in Twitch. It's a lot faster, yeah. It has to be 22 frames a second instead of 11.

You feel like that's something they don't do anymore on the show. Or haven't done in a while on the show. It would be a lot easier to do now. Yeah. But also the effort the kids put into squeezing juice out of a turnip. Turnip juice. The only good turnip is in Super Mario 2. That's it.

You're supposed to throw them at people, not eat them. And they have faces on them. God damn, this was such a good episode. So good. It's only outdone by the next episode. It's unfair, almost, for this episode to be so close to the season finale, which is great. I'm guessing that's why it got... I don't know.

Why didn't this get rerun enough? Why was this a lost episode I had to seek out? I think it was your market. This was teaching Floridians a bad lesson. They removed it. I'm dying to know, of course, if you had the same experience. Listener, let us know at TalkingSimpsons.com. Well, I also, another thing I felt about this episode, too, my own personal excitement was,

when this episode aired, it would be the next week that who shot mr burns aired and the commercial for who shot mr burns aired during this so i bet i read a tv guide or some news story to know that it was coming it was pretty heavily promoted but so to see the promotion during watching lemon of troy for who shot mr burns it even overshadowed it in the moment for me i was just like yeah like this shelbyville episode is funny but the crazy season finale is gonna happen which will be so dramatic so it though whenever i did my caught my many many many many rewatches of who shot mr burns to look for clues i did rewatch lemon of troy almost every time i wouldn't go back too far. I wouldn't watch Springfield Connection as well, but I'd watch Lemon and Troy every time

because it's so, so great. It could have been a season finale. It's so good. Going to Shelbyville, establishing Shelbyville was great. They didn't really go back to it for another like 10 years almost, and it was much different then. It would have made a great season finale,

like showing you something that's been talked about and never seen. And in fictitious worlds and cities that are built in sitcoms i i always love the rival town stuff like in i forget the rival town for riverdale and archie comics but also the biggest recent one to me is in parks and recreation pawnee's greatest enemy is eagleton but eagleton gets everything nice while pawnee is where fat poor people and King of the Hell is McMaynorberry

oh god that's right McMaynorberry I totally forgot about them is that the town that's so close to Oklahoma or is that a different one you're thinking Wichita Falls that's right but McMaynorberry I love how that became every city in its sitcom needs a Shelbyville now.

Yes, it's beautiful. Yes. And I think this episode helped to hasten that. Yes, so great episode, everybody. Thanks for listening. Thanks for putting up with my sick, awful voice. I have been your host, Bob Mackie. Find me on Twitter as Bob Servo.

My other podcast is Retronauts every Monday and occasionally a bonus episode on Friday. It's a classic gaming podcast. Go to retronauts.com or look for Retronauts on your podcast device we've been around for over a decade there's got to be something we talked about that you might like and these guys have all been on it so please listen to it at some point i think we just did a holiday episode with yeah kids are gonna like oh yeah speaking of animation it's barely animated but we just did an episode about the donkey kong country-unquote holiday special, and it's miserable. It could be the worst thing.

You guys say Sonic Christmas Blast is worse. I don't know. I can't decide. Well, but, Bob, these banana cream pies are so tasty. Oh, and barely look like pies. All right, but also you can follow Talking Simpsons on Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons, where you hear every episode a week early and ad-free. And I want to tell you guys again, in previous recordings, we teased cool interviews. Now I can name them because we recorded them. One, we interviewed Mike Scully, a Simpsons legend and controversial figure who was a writer for seasons 5, 6, 7, and 8,

who then became a showrunner for seasons 9, 10, 11, and 12, and still works on the show to this day in a smaller capacity. Yeah. And he talked to us for a whole hour, was super friendly. Bob and I, live on the air, apologized to him for being mean to him as Simpsons fans. And he was gracious about it. He's like, it's passion. I appreciate passion. It's great.

And the other side of that coin, Bob was too sick. He couldn't make it. But I interviewed Mimi Pimi pond the writer of the first ever aired episode of the simpsons simpsons roasting on an open fire and she has some uh tough medicine about simpsons history to swallow but it is a really good interview and i would say it's it's an important part of simpsons history that does not get explored on any commentaries or anything so that sounds really fucking cool yeah it's really good and you can hear the full interviews on the patreon patreon.com slash talking simpsons which is also home to the just finished talking critic series where we have now gone through every episode of the critic

yes even the webisodes which they're awful we ended on a sour note but no one will ever have to watch those again they're buried in time they're buried on a dv, but no one will ever have to watch those again. They're buried in time. They're buried on a DVD. Just listen to us make fun of them because they're wretched. It really sucks that our last episode is like, this clip show fucking sucks, but these web episodes really suck. They're bad. It's tragic. But it was part of what? Like a grand experiment to get content on the internet in the pre-YouTube days.

It was the growing pains. It's Adam Films. It was like an exclusive. Adam Films. Yeah. There was that like Mondo, Icebox. Icebox. Several organizations.

And it really wanted to give you a boner, the critic webisodes. Yeah, they're a bit randy. And Laser Time, if you're into more podcasts, Laser Time's a topic-based show with a lot of these guys. We've talked about many things. Simpsons-like, I would say.

I believe by the time this airs, we have just posted our best of the year so far. Spoiler, The Simpsons like I would say I believe by the time this airs we just posted our best of the year so far spoiler the Simpsons is not one of them it's weird I don't even think of it even if the season was great I wouldn't think to put Simpsons as the best TV show of the year but yeah you can support us at patreon.com

slash laser time we do appreciate that bonus shows every week all around movie commentaries out the wazoo I'm out of plugs oh and we're just a few weeks at the time you're listening this we're just a few weeks away from our january 28th live show in san francisco via sf sketch fest just look it up talking simpsons sf sketch fest and as of this recording i roped you guys into streaming the horrible itchy and scratchy oh yeah for uh let's see see if we can make it to 15 minutes.

I don't think so. It's going to be rough. You'll see it on the Lazer Time YouTube page. YouTube.com slash Lazer Time. That, and we've done almost every Simpsons game, and I think I've discovered the worst. I still need to play a couple more, but it's got to be Bart versus the Jaggernauts. Really bad. Really bad.

Call me when you play Bart meets Radioactive Man. Oh, that one's really fucking bad, too. That one is the worst. At least it's different pain. That's true. not the same pain over and over again with one song. So thank you so much for listening, folks. We'll see you next week with the season finale and perhaps the best episode ever, Who Shot Mr. Burns Part 1. See you then. Wow. Infotainment.