Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Lisa The Vegetarian

Episode Date: February 21, 2018

BYOBB on this week's podcast as we all marry a carrot and talk about vegetarianism. Lisa learns the power of a baby lamb while Homer imparts that people don't make friends with salad, all as a Beatle watches. So get ready for pigs to fly in this week's exciting podcast!

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 foremost 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. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, where you don't win friends with salad. I'm your host, Bob Lord Thistlewick Mackey, and this is the Laser Time Podcast, chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today?

Henry Gilbert. Yo, Goober, where's the meat? Who else? Bunley Goodness, Chris Antista. And... Fauxvine University graduate, Cat Bailey. Come in. You graduated. And today's episode is Lisa the Vegetarian.

You might say the extra ingredient is salt. And today's episode aired on October 15th, 1995. And as always, Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh my God. Hot damn, Bobby. The Million Man March is held this week in real world history. Oh my God! Hot damn, Bobby. The Million Man March is held this week in Washington, D.C. Mad TV joins the Fox family in a little film directed by Catherine Bigelow and written by James Cameron. Should have been number one at the box office.

Strange Days. Whoa, wow. I forgot about that movie. That movie fucking rules. It's really good. What is it? It's Murder Mystery in a World of VR, but not like hyper neon VR. One's really good. What is it? Murder Mystery in a World of VR. But not like Hyper Neon

VR. So like Lawnmower Man. No, no, no. It's better than Lawnmower Man. It's not like that at all. That's a tall order. I think it asks when you invent something like VR and you can simulate anybody else's situation what if that person wants to play a murder or play a rape or play a

sex scene and how do you film these things? And it's like the only thing I've ever seen like Ray Fiennes in like a mainstream movie. Oh, yeah. It was one of his first movies. He saw everything in the mid-90s. Oh, yeah, definitely. Strange Days is really good, though. Watch the trailer. It's the most 90s thing you'll ever see in your life. Yeah, it really is.

I just love movies like that in general from the mid-90s where they imagined VR was going to be and what our future was supposed to be. VR is actually a bunch of knuckles being racist in a chat room. Sadly, yeah. Or it's having sex with... With knuckles.

Yes. It's all knuckles-based transactions when you're in VR. But yeah, the Million Man March scared the hell out of white people. Oh boy, I heard about, let's say, conservatively 50,000 racist jokes generated by this. They're all marching because they don't have jobs. Yeah, but Million jokes like that. I remember the joke on SNL for the Million White Guy March,

and that the speaker at it was Hootie of Hootie and the Blowfish. The best joke about it is the Chris Rock collector's figure set for the one million action figures. You get one every month, including the brother in the lime green suit. We watched that sketch. Is it just like spray-painted G.I. Joe's? It's all G.I. Joe's dressed up like people at the Million Man March, and there's one million figures.

Well, now I need to see the Spike Lee joint, Get on the Bus. Get on the Bus is one of my favorite Spike Lee movies. I haven't seen that one. It's really good. I've seen about half of his movies, but, well, half of his movies up to 2004. She Hate Me, I think, was the last one. Or, no, it was Inside Man after that. You mean like Chi-Town?

What was that movie called? Oh, yeah, the Chi-Town. It's hard to watch. Crooklyn. Yeah, not a fan was the last one. Or no, it was Inside Man after that. Like Chi-Town? What was that movie called? Oh, yeah. The Chi-Town. It's hard to watch. Crooklyn. Yeah. Not a fan of Crooklyn. This episode.

So I want to say, first off, like season six, Fox wanted more episodes for season seven. Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein were not robots. They needed help. So David Merkin ran two episodes. He ran this one and Team Homer, the bowling episode. Okay. Yes. So that's one of two. Theer the bowling episode okay yes so that's

one of two uh yes i love that episode and this one i think you can totally tell it's back to murkin because homer is a bit more cruel than he was in the last couple episodes and skinner is no is back to the mean uh control freak not the uh the pathetic loser yeah and though also this episode is written by david x then s cohen his first full episode that he wrote for the show he would later go on to create futurama and i just think of this in the last episode which was written by greg daniels the wtf interview with the late sam simon which is really great. Sam Simon actually has this kind of crappy statement in it where he says, Mark Maron says, oh, and tons of guys left the Simpsons to do good work. And Sam Simon's like, did they?

I don't know. None of the guys really made other stuff after like. Greg Daniels. Yeah, Greg Daniels. David Cohen. Conan O'Brien. Brad Bird. Wes Archer.

How deep do you want to go? David Silverman, yeah. I think Sam Simon was being a little mean to his old play, saying, like, none of you writers. Like, sure, there are failed writers who left The Simpsons. Like, there aren't every sitcom. Not everyone goes on to create a sitcom. They just live off the residuals.

So, yeah, this episode also won an Environmental Media Award and a Genesis Award. Like, Wacking Day won a Genesis Award, I believe. Wow. Yeah. And Merkin, he thought that Cohen was buttering him up with this pitch because Merkin had just become a vegetarian when they were working on the episode. I think a vegan.

I think he's a hardcore vegan, too. He says he's a cheating vegan on the commentary and that he has cheese every now and then. Cheese is so good, though. So the elephant in the room is- Well, yeah, let's talk about it. Like half the people on this podcast. Yeah. Kat's just so good, though. So, the elephant in the room Well, yeah, let's talk about it. It's like half the people on this podcast. Yeah, Kat and I are both vegetarians.

I'm actually a pescatarian, but I don't say that because that will extend the conversation. I eat dairy and fish, no other kinds of meat. And I was vegetarian for almost 10 years.

Oh, wow. And I always flirt with going back. I'm on my 13th year now. Kat, how long have you been a vegetarian? I've been a vegetarian now for 15 years.

Wow. I went vegetarian in 2003 at the urging of my girlfriend, and I haven't looked back ever since. Same here. Watching this show has given me a lot of flashbacks and a lot of memories. Oh, me too. And I want to say this show, in a way, it plays both sides where it reinforces the stereotype

that vegetarians are loud and in your face about it, but also that they get a lot of backlash for their choices having been on the other side i do not agree at all um having been on the other side i don't know what you're saying chris i i get nothing i got nothing but shit over it that's what i'm saying and it's like i feel like if you're if you're young like lisa and you discover an ism you're all about it you want to tell everyone about it you want to evangelize i was in my 20s when this happened so i was like this is my private choice. But I would get things like, oh, yeah, I'll just take this.

I don't eat meat. Oh, you don't eat meat. Why not? People want to. You wear leather, don't you? Exactly. They're like, look at your belt. Every meal becomes an interrogation.

Yeah. And I will say, as the person who's never been a vegetarian at a stable, it was a feeling I had to fight by having a friend in my 20s who was a vegetarian as well and i was that asshole to them who was just like ah by announcing your vegetarianism you have now engaged me in a debate i'm not saying exactly i think there's i don't know of many other things in the world like that i mean if you say you're going against the group people really freaking like meat and if you say'm a vegetarian, you're essentially to them saying, you're judging me for my choices. I'm like, I'm not judging you. What am I doing wrong?

Well, it's similar if you were to say like, oh, I don't shop at big box places like Target. Or I don't buy shoes from this company. You wouldn't say it in a judgmentally way. Just like, no, I don't eat at McDonald's. And then everybody else would be like, why the fuck? Are you I don't eat at McDonald's and then everybody else was like why the fuck are you judging me

for not for me eating McDonald's is your life choice to slam on me the most angering thing that happens is when

people get angry at me and other people I saw a twitter thread about this when someone was like talking about substitute hamburgers

like what are the best kinds people act like you just played a trick like you said you wouldn't eat me but you're eating a kinds, people act like you just played a trick. Like, you said you wouldn't eat meat, but you're eating a fake hamburger. Why don't you just eat a real hamburger? And I will tell you it's a sandwich. It's a warm thing

on bread, and it tastes good, and there are many kinds of fake hamburgers. I will say they don't really taste like meat. Fake chicken does taste like chicken. Fake hot dogs taste like hot dogs. Fake sausage. I would say food is so processed in America. I have to say that meat has a very meaty taste that is absent in the fake stuff. But I think I prefer the non-meaty taste.

But I will say, all of you friends out there who want to try a good fake hamburger, try the Impossible Burger. I don't know how hard to find it is, but when I bit into it, I'm like, holy crap. I have to make sure they didn't give me real meat

because this tastes like a hamburger and I have not had one in 14 years. There's a juicy texture to meat that is the closest replicant is like a well-cooked mushroom like a well-cooked portobello well i i have an interesting query for you guys since i am going to debate you now but yeah go for it no i i just remember seeing in the news uh a few years ago about this thing called a shmeat that they were growing. It was basically scientifically made through stem cells, meat that is grown cruelty-free, as in it's just like, say,

cow cells, and it just grows what would be the equivalent of the meat just in a petri dish. Nothing dies. Nothing is killed by it. Would you eat that? No, because it would make me sick. Because I've not eaten meat in so long that I don't have the enzymes in my stomach anymore. And frankly, I'm at the point where I'd be like, yeah, sure, I'd eat cruelty-free meat.

Except that I just cannot be bothered to restore the enzymes. Because if I eat meat, I am going to be violently ill. It took me three years to ingest pork. It did not work. I would immediately shit my brains out. I also remember we had a co-worker at our old job, me and Chris did, who, she's a vegan, and

I remember one of the stupidest things told to her about why she should start eating meat again was a guy said to her, like, I eat blood to make blood. I think that's proven untrue. Was this person Donald Trump? It sounds like his kind of science well this was a berkeley rich kid who seemed to think like oh i i'm i'm super hippie

but i also own property i own like three buildings in berkeley so it feels like every other day on reddit i see a thread on the front page it's like on average vegetarians go back to meat after 10 years or something and the subtext of every one of those threads it always seems to be you'll be back yeah or have you been told that hitler was a vegetarian oh yeah in this episode too i feel like the stereotype is oh vegetarians only eat salads i'll tell you what when i stopped eating meat i started eating everything else like things i would never try before it actually expanded the amount of food i ate it and i i ate you think a lot more about yeah first of all like what you are eating and you're thinking a lot about what you're getting in terms of nutrients and everything because it's something like oh how do i get protein now this is an interesting challenge it's very easy to be like i'll take a hamburger a lot

pepperoni pizza just like very stock things that put you in a comfort zone i started on the fast food version of that like bean burrito oh shit burger king has a veggie burger option they're like the only place that has one that's something to the bay area that my old roommate she was uh big time vegetarian and i knew her in florida and it was a pain in the ass for her to get vegetarian food anywhere but you move here it's like every place or there's just vegetarian onlyonly restaurants here. I actually find that I have a much easier time finding vegetarian stuff in Portland

than I do in San Francisco. Oh, really? Every vegetarian restaurant here is extremely Asian fusion-focused and overly expensive, where in Portland, every restaurant has a vegetarian version, and I love going to their brunch

and getting their vegetarian sausages. I love vegetarian sausages. Berkeley has more vegetarian options, and I love going to their brunch and getting their vegetarian sausages. Berkeley has more vegetarian options perhaps. If you go to a middle-brow restaurant like an Uncle Moe's Family Feedback, for instance, it's impossible to get anything that's even just fish. Maybe you can find fish and chips. That's where you get the pasta.

The danger of being a vegetarian is you fall into the pasta diet. I remember we... oh, totally. We learned with our vegetarian friend. We went to Panera Bread. That's a chain, right? Yeah, that's good. And she's like, can I get this without meat?

And I'm like, oh, no. What? What do you mean no? It's like, no, this is assembled here. This is all – It's just a sandwich. Yeah, it's a sandwich made and frozen and shipped. The only time I've ever found a place that literally did not have something I could eat

was I was in Austin, Texas, and we were in an airport, and I was on a company outing, and they were like, come to this barbecue place. I'm like, okay, whatever. I can get fries. I was like, do you have fries? No. Do you have a salad? No.

Do you have soup? No. What do you got? Meat. Meat. I was like, I guess I'm just drinking. And then I got very, very drunk. Rich and Bundley goodness. One last anecdote.

We're going on about this. I remember being at Denny's after becoming a vegetarian and all of the Grand Slam breakfast, all the breakfast things have meat in them by default. And I remember asking the waitress, instead of getting the bacon, can I just get another egg or something? And she was like, it's never happened before.

I don't know if you can. I'll have to ask. You don't want no meat. I broke her fucking brain. Jackie Robinson of vegetarianism and dentistry. A man came in here and he didn't want bacon. Bacon is hack as fuck. It's not funny and it doesn't taste good.

Also, stop putting it in everything. It does come from the same wonderful animal. It's the most American condiment. I's not funny and it doesn't taste good. Also, stop putting it in everything. It does come from the same wonderful animal. It's the most American condiment. I'll say this because it ties into podcasting. Being a vegetarian and being a podcaster, those are the two things in my life. Whenever I say that, I have to explain myself. You eventually just develop a spiel.

I would say to people, there are plenty of moral, ethical, and health reasons why you should not eat as much meat as you do. And since the whole world eats meat with every meal, the whole country, I'm deciding to eat less. And guess what? I eat whatever I want, and I do not gain an ounce other than that. And like, whoa, really?

Like, yes. Every single piece of this meat is fattening you up so goddamn hard. Now all I have to think about is just a not meat. I don't exercise. I'm not healthy. And I'm skinny as a rail. It's wonderful. And I feel good.

We just went full preachy vegetarian. No, no. Call me selfish. It doesn't have anything to do with me being better towards animals. I have opinions on that. I'm happy to tell you about them. I heard an interesting lose weight, no exercise. How about that?

I heard an interesting vegan fact recently about how feeding animals is also killing tons of animals too because you have to all the meat that goes into like dog food and cat food and then if you were to make vegan replacements for that for animals then

you would save tons of lives like tons of animals and then you get pounds of shit which is the leading cause of water pollution in this country never mind not gonna talk about it you know we're already getting a one-star i never get the soapbox i thought the show was about the simpsons and i'm not even a vegetarian all right well you know what else about this episode is the Beatles. This is finally the episode where they get the last remaining living, then living, Beatle. And David Merkin is a big Beatle fanboy, though so is Keenan Reese. That band? I feel like every show, David Merkin engineers to meet an attractive woman or a musician he likes.

That's basically David Merkin's MO, which he admits on the commentaries. He's very clear on that. And they were able to get him thanks to stumping for vegetarianism like we just did now. Well, David Cohen was like, oh, I mean, what if we had Lisa being a vegetarian? And David Merck was like, we could use this as an excuse to meet the Beatles. Yes, exactly. Well, because he missed out on the other two Beatles. They were before his time on the show. If he was going to meet any Beatle it had to be

Paul McCartney the best living Beatle at the time if you're a Simpsons fan it's the biggest change in a character on the show at this point ever but I mean we saw it in Lisa's wedding yeah she was a vegetarian so

now let's get into the episode the Simpsons are on their way but where are we there yet vegetarian there. So, now let's get into the episode The Simpsons Are On Their Way, But Where? Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No. Where are we going? We're going to Storytown Village, Grandpa. It's an amusement park for babies.

Oh. Just leave me in the car with the window open a crack. That depends. I think it's nice we're doing something Maggie will enjoy for once. Besides, I'm sure story town village is also fun for everyone from eight to god only knows this is the first time they admitted they're like we don't know how old grandpa he's whatever age he needs to be for the joke to work i think it's also the first time they've literally done shit on behalf of magg. Yeah, it's the only time. I love, in the next clip, Maggie's excitement at it.

Oh, the furious clapping. She's into it. She's perched on Marge's arms. She's like a one-year-old. She's not going to remember anything. But still, you go to a baby store or a goddamn, I don't know, baby drowning lessons. She's still in handbag mode. Yeah, I got to say, if I was Bart, I would have said, like, this is meaningless.

Like, who cares if Maggie likes it? She's nothing. Like, this is me. Like, let's go to a place that's fun for us. I also... It's like taking a baby

to Disneyland. Or the movies. There's a place in Oakland called Fairyland that I am legally not allowed to go into without a minor. Wow.

And I've brokered a deal to help take my friend's kids there because I want to go see cheesy storybook dioramas, big dumb mushrooms that you can sit on. It makes me really happy. I also do remember that experience of going to places that I had become too old for as a kid and now thinking like, this is lame. This isn't a cool thing anymore. Nobody wants me at the Discovery Zone.

Come out. Come out. Or I'll blow your house in. Not by the hairs of our chinny-chin-chin. What a load of crappy crap crap. Bye, boy. I have a feeling the bad stuff is about to go down. This is where the wolf blows down the pig's house. He blows all right. He blows big time.

That's it, honey. Get into the spirit. Yay. That was good, but not great. Somebody's been sleeping in my bed. Somebody's been sleeping in the car. Grandpa got over being in the car. I have to imagine this is the Chuck E. Cheese joke.

It is. In the Disneyland. Senior B. Varady again. Well, it's just like, there's a great documentary called Rock Fire Explosion, all about the robots that used to sing to us at Happy Time Pizza places. A friend of mine restored those robots. there was there was like one or two or three there was a small group of people who could fix those robots so i think for chucky cheese for like a year one guy just like clank clank doesn't work i just love that that's a

perfect sound coming out of the broken wall they worked really hard on that. It was perfect. And yeah, the animation, too, of it takes hard work to animate poorly moving things. They have to be sure of like, no, you animate this bad. You can't animate this bad. Can I get more wires on the wolf? This episode is directed by Mark Kirkland, the journeyman of the Simpsons directors. He does a good job. Yeah, they apparently just left Abe to die in a car. That was his decision.

He said, leave me in the car. Yeah. The visual gag of Bart's first limboing under the thing. Oh, good animation on that. And then smashing into Paul Bunyan's crotch was hilarious. And then the children cheering when Mother Goose gets in her head. I loved that part of it. It's the exact opposite reaction.

I forgot that was coming. It's beautiful. But yes, Kat, you were saying beforehand, you're from the land of Paul Bunyan, right? Well, Paul Bunyan's claimed by Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maine for some reason. But we all know that he's from Minnesota. Yeah, of course. Because when it rained in Minnesota and he was walking, he created all of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. This is fake news.

Let's not spread this. There is a statue of Paul Bunyan in Brainerd, Minnesota, which is where Fargo takes place. Yep. You see that statue like eight times in the movie. They drive by it. I love the movie Fargo. It might be my favorite film of all time.

I could watch it any time. The Coen brothers' name is kind of mud in Minnesota because you do not make fun of Minnesota. People are like, we don't talk like that. We're not like this. This is not our culture. They saw a little bit too much of them. But when I was growing up, Paul Bunyan,

I mean, we did like a freaking school play about Paul Bunyan. Paul Bunyan is a big deal. He was like your false god. Fine, but Florida gets Babe the Blue Ox. She's ours. I was more of a Johnny Appleseed guy. I was like, apples are nice, and I'd walk around with them. I could do that.

I could walk around with apples until I die. They both have great Disney cartoons. Yeah, I love them. Oh, man, in the Disney cartoon, the fight between Babe the Blue Ox and Paul Bunyan is beautiful. Like when he's grabbing his horns and shifting the mountains around. You can't really find it anymore, but yeah, they are great. Stupid Pecos Bill rolling a cigarette and lighting it with lightning. God damn it.

They had to cut that out. They intentionally removed it so he's just doing nothing with his hands and mouth. That seems obscene. Just don't show it to kids. kids should know about pecos bill anyway like it the kids need to know about say well i was they're teaching in schools like they should why i guess it would teach kids about like petticoats and whatever the well the bustle on her don't even know who pecos bill is i've heard the name but it's like... He was the wild cowboy

of the... He was the tall male one. He like roped the mountains or something? Yeah. Did some cowboy bullshit? It's beautiful. It's American mythology. I dig it. Want it back. The Simpsons will be right back. dot com slash Talking Simpsons. That is the home of this podcast and it supports me and Bob doing this regularly. And just $5 a month gets you access to every episode of the podcast

a week early and ad free. Not to mention a ton of extras including every episode of Talking Critic exclusively on there. A bunch of interviews that we did with tons of experts in the world of The Simpsons and so much more and

coming very soon talking futurama we're gonna do the entire first season of futurama exclusively on patreon in the talking simpsons style you're not gonna want to miss that again just five dollars a month and there's tons more cool stuff a common patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. After you've married a carrot, go to audible trial.com slash talking Simpsons. That's where you can sign up for your own, a free audio book to try out the service of audible, the audio book platform. That is super duper cool. I say this from experience. a free audiobook to try out the service of Audible, the audiobook platform that is super duper cool.

I say this from experience. I've actually been a user of Audible for years now. I love all the books on it that I've gotten. It's great listening. It's totally worth it. And at audibletrial.com

slash TalkingSimpsons, you can sign up for a month free trial, get a free audiobook that you get to keep and help support the show as well. If I make a suggestion if you love our talks about old animation you probably would have watched in the 90s dr cats well did you know dr cats is back as its own audible exclusive you can give a listen to the audio logs ofz, brand new Dr. Katz episodes, only at Audible. And you can get your hands on that with the trial at audibletrial.com slash Talking Simpsons.

Hey, this is Sideshow Luke Perry. You're listening to Talking Simpsons on Lazer Time. This week on Lazer Time, the internet's seventh leading pop culture podcast, the gang is tackling a brand new topic. Today we'll be talking about comic strips. Comic strips! How do you get sound effects for comic strips? Well, we're going to talk about certain

criteria for comic strips, but mostly about these stealth pilots that you never saw as an excuse to talk about comic strips. So what you're going to end up hearing is maybe these characters you know by name but have never heard speak before in your life. People you've known for 30, 40, 50, 60 years talk for the first time. Are we going to hear Lorenzo music in this episode?

No, not once. I don't have him at all, but you'll figure out what this is from. Yeah, Dad. Vanell! So it's hard to know how far a comic circulates. I would say there's a substantial portion of newspaper readership who doesn't see the comic page. Is it there for the fucking news? There are so many things in newspapers that it's like, this is for one niche group and no one else.

Little League scores? How sad. How sad is your life? TV Guide? No. Bridge. My newspaper was small enough that they ran the bridge column on the comics page.

So it was like this weird little... It's like the games page. The jumble was there too, right? It was like the raisin in the Halloween bag. That's Lazer Time. New every Monday on LazerTimePodcast.com, iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

But yes, now they get to the petting zoo part and everyone can enjoy it. Aww. Aww. Aww. Aww. Aww. oh you are so cute yes you are you all right just love you see it was a good idea to come here after all. Attention, families. This is Mother Goose. The following cars have been broken into. And then when they pull in, the back window's gone.

Yeah, I didn't catch that joke the first time as a kid. Like, it took multiple viewings. But I just love the successive awes, and Homer's crossed arm, aww, after shoving the lamb out of the way. So last year I went to the California State Fair, and we ended up going into one of those petting zoo type pens with all of the barn animals.

And admittedly, they were cute. But at the same time, I was just like, I'm going to catch some kind of horrible disease from these things. It just smells too much like shit. You know you're surrounded by animal shit. And meanwhile, the llamas are glaring at you, and you're like, geez, what are you thinking?

I'm not blaming the animals for shitting. They need to do that, but it is a byproduct of it. I have seen the thing of Homer shoving the other lamb out of the way made into a meme several times.

Every single holiday season for the last three years, it's like that game nobody wants. Yeah. It gets shoved aside as a sheep. Was it Overwatch

and that game Battleborn? Yes, Battleborn. Poor Battleborn. I agree. It's a Lisa Simpson of online shooters. I agree with Homer's consternation at an animal not doing its stereotypical thing like eating a can. Eating a can, yeah. I was like, come on.

That's a great goat. He was going to kill that goat by eating the can. Jeez. It's heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking for me to learn that it wasn't a real thing. I feel like he brought a tin can from home. I want to see if this works. Also, it's pretty terrifying what happens to Maggie.

Maggie was dead. She was trampled by animals. Marge's reaction was not severe enough. She's like, oh dear. And it was also nice to hear Tress McNeil voice in it. She doesn't get a lot in these early seasons. Not until

Lindsay Nagel becomes a regular on the show. And more Agnes. And more Agnes, yes. They come back and the Flanders are having a good, jolly old time. This is great. Radley, Diley Yeah Flanders

How do we know, neighbor, we know Shut up Holy moly Ned, you're having a family reunion and you didn't invite me? Oh gosh, Homer, this is strictly a Flanders affair I got family here from around the globe Here's Jose Flanders Buenos ding-dong-dilly-dia, senor.

And this is Lord Thistlewick Flanders. Charmed. Eh, a googly-doogly. I can't believe you didn't invite me. After I painted those cool stripes all over your car. I know. I'll throw my own barbecue. The greatest barbecue this town has ever seen. And I'll only invite who I know. I'll throw my own barbecue. The greatest barbecue this town has ever seen.

And I'll only invite who I want. That'll show you. Can I come? Sure. Go! That painting stripes on your car line obviously was replaced. I want to know what the original joke was. You don't see those as often in these years, but I'm still curious.

Have we established yet that Ned's parents are hippies? Oh, yeah. So they must be real outliers in this family. Have we established yet that Ned's parents are hippies? Oh, yeah. They're beatniks. So they must be real outliers in this family. They're the black sheep of the Flanders flock, I'd say. So Ned came back to the family. I think they died from heroin or something in 1962. I like to think that.

Yeah, I mean, there's a reason why they're not around. I just love all the Flanders designs that are just variations on the theme of Flanders of pink and green and brown. Those should all be action figures. Where's that Playmates line? It's the same with the Simpsons. Later on you see like the No, I want those Flanders to hang out with these Simpsons men who are all Homer. I shoot birds at the airport.

You shoot birds at the airport? That's one of my all-time favorites. Everybody hates birds. Hates birds That's wrong It's also revealed that the neighbors Mainly see the Simpsons at court hearings And class action lawsuits That's right

I also like that Marge Marge who already has been set up as not very good With spices She even admits like The secret ingredient, salt, which does make anything taste better, quote unquote. I'll let salt.

I'm good salt. Not as good as hobo spices. But this is when Lisa comes to a revelation, which I actually love. This episode really handles well these staggered realizations about meat in your life. At least for the first time for me,

I think it was the first time vegetarian was handled as more than just a punchline of a pretentious person doing something like he's not eating meat. It was a conversion story. Please, Lisa. I thought you loved me. Loved me.

What's wrong, Lisa? Didn't you get enough lamb chops? I can't eat this. I can't eat a poor little lamb. Lisa, get a hold of yourself. This is lamb, not a lamb. What's the difference between this lamb and the one that kissed me? This one spent two hours in the broiler. Oh, but sensible bites. All right, Lisa, if you don't want lamb chops, there's lots of other things I can make.

Chicken breast. Rump roast. Hot dogs. No, I can't. I can. Rump roast. Hot dogs. No, I can't! I can't eat any of them! Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Lisa, honey, are you saying you're never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?

No. Ham? No. Pork chop? Dad, those all come from the same animal. Oh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal. Apparently that came from a speech by John Schwarzwalder where he was holding forth on the wonders of the pig. That he gave earnestly.

He was like, yeah, the pig is awesome. It gives you all those things. He did describe it like an Okja kind of character. I think he just eats nothing but meat, John Schwarzwalder. I want to think of that when I see him. Well, that's why they gave him the least environmentalist episode, because he hates environmentalists. I think Merkin calls him a fascist. Because he is.

You're right. I'd never call myself a vegetarian, because my goal at the time and is now to eat less meat, because it's just good for my body and good for everything. Everybody else, but lamb chops. Once a year for Christmas, I love lamb much i don't love i don't love lamb i don't think i've had lamb chops more of a i if i were to have uh i'd have deer and duck before lamb oh no no no lamb lamb and i love having it once a year i never cook with meat but uh yeah i don't want to close it off it's delicious i had a similar experience to lisa when i quote unquote came out to my parents as a vegetarian. So I did not become a vegetarian that willingly because I really liked meat before I gave it up.

But I was willing to give it a shot. And I thought, well, I'm going to go home for the summer and I'm totally going to eat meat again. And so I'm home. My parents have made a pasta. The pasta has a meat sauce. The pasta is put on my plate and and I look at the meat sauce, and I realized I cannot eat this. I can't actually eat this.

And I was like, and that's where I admitted it, and the absolutely stricken look on my parents' face were like, what? Well, you came back from college like, oh. Oh, yeah. I came back from college. Just like Sean Hannity said. And at the that time my parents did not like my girlfriend very much and you didn't have to do a double coming out at this

meal you weren't like i'm also i'm also a lesbian pretty much oh boy here's a good time just thought of american beauty somebody throwing a full plate of food at the wall now i i think this scene really encapsulates how people dissociate themselves from meat. Like when Homer says, this isn't a lamb, it's lamb. Well, they do. And people don't want to think about where their food comes from. No fucking way. I don't want to see the butchering. I hate seeing...

It's not just the butchery, it's the factory farming. Oh, factory farming is worse than one butcher killing one animal. Most of the horrors of farming I found out through reading books about deregulation and all the shit the Bush administration is doing. Oh, factory farming is disgusting, for sure. And yet, I am not stopping eating that food. I am part of the problem, for sure. I just get annoyed when people get sanctimonious when other cultures eat things like dogs. It's just like, well, guess what?

You eat everything, and they're all just as smart as each other go to japan and describe what it's like to eat a turkey while you do it well i i saw this uh south park sometimes gets knocked on the show but they actually one of my last more recent favorite episodes they did was parody of the whale where wars show yeah because stan gets really into anti-whaling in these mad at the japanese for killing whales and dolphins like stop killing whales and dolphins it turns out that america the the reason they do it in the south park world is that america tricked them into thinking whales and dolphins did hiroshima not america and so then the episode ends with them tricking the Japanese into thinking that cows and chickens killed them. And then they start killing cows and chickens instead of dolphins and whales.

And they just go like, ah, now they're normal. Like, that's the end of the episode. They're like, see, now they're not killing whales anymore. They're killing these animals. That's a much better message than the one I can think of in which Stan becomes a vegetarian and starts growing vaginas all over his body because being a vegetarian makes you a pussy. You eventually turn into a giant pussy.

Tofu has all this estrogen in it. I've been called a soy boy online. In Parks and Rec you have Ron Swanson who's like... He is John Schwarzwald actually. He literally only eats meat and gets very angry when vegetables are put in front of him. And there are people like that. I said all the bacon and eggs you have i remember when he eats turf and turf a steak on top of another steak one cut of steak on top and that's the kind of shit i won't deny

myself kfc double downs by the way hot dogs rats raccoons pigeons and a shoe that's what makes i mean it's not not totally inaccurate but i I come from the Midwest, as you may have heard, and we take our hot dogs extremely seriously. You do. How seriously can you take a hot dog? I'm confused. Well, yeah, brats. I mean, brats are amazing, and it's not about the actual meat.

It's about the spices you put on it, which is the secret to a lot of meat, because a lot of meat is actually pretty tasteless and not that great. Yeah, it's the secret to a lot of food. That's why meat is actually pretty tasteless and not that great. It's a lot of food. That's why fake sausage is really good because sausage is all about the spices and you're getting the spices with a different kind of material wrapped around them. Do you remember at the Libertarian hot dog place

I took you to once? At that place, the vegetarian hot dog was called the weenie because they were finally forced to have a vegetarian hot dog and so they had to make fun of people for it. But they're about freedom of choice. If you eat meat and you eat vegetarian meat, it does taste different and very weird.

It took a long time for me to come around to that kind of stuff. I make chili and pasta with exclusively the vegetarian crumbles. Oh, it can be really good. I don't detect a difference at all in that. Yeah. But like a burger, yes.

I also love the animation of Homer and Bart fighting over the lamb chop. It's a great act break of just Lisa looking dumbfounded at them like, Jesus Christ. A reminder that Bart is very similar to Homer. Well, so schools give kids shit about vegetarianism all the time.

So I do like this moment in the class here. First, pin them down so they don't fly up and hit you in the eye. Um, asshoover? Yes, Ralph, what is it? My worm went in my mouth and then I ate it. Can I have a new one? No, Ralph, there aren't any more.

Just try to sleep while the other children are learning. Oh, boy, sleep! That's where I'm a Viking. Lisa, what did I ever do to you? Why does it talk like a lamb? Uh, Miss Hoover, I don't think I can dissect an animal i think it's wrong okay lisa i respect your moral objection independent thought alarm i love that independent thought alarm yeah murkin does many jokes about schools being conformity factories but i think that's my

favorite the independent thought that's that's what that subplot in team homer is all about the school uniforms that's an episode that he show ran but yeah he points out on the commentary and i never really thought of it this way like schools like teach children that animal cruelty is okay by making them take apart dead animals yeah i i don't know if kids still have to do that dissection stuff in the 90s i did i had to do it with a frog yeah but we started we had to dissect an eyeball oh yeah like a cow's eye but like second graders would not be dissecting things. They had to stretch it a little. Oh, a worm?

I mean, come on. I don't think that you give a second grader an X-Acto knife and a worm. The sixth grade with a worm. Yeah, sixth graders, yes. We built ourselves up to bullfrogs. But that stuff now seems so like barbaric to me because it's like, you have computers. There's ways to see the parts of an animal. Yeah, and like in better quality too.

Maybe there's like kind of an old school thing where it's like, well eventually you're going to have to learn how to butcher a hog so you might as well get started now. I feel like it's something, the same thing that those like conservative douches who complain like, we're getting rid of dodgeball and making kids into wusses. Same deal of like, oh kids are too

scared to cut up frogs anymore? Fuck that. We gotta be tough. Dodgeball will make your kids into wusses. Same deal of like, oh, kids are too scared to cut up frogs anymore? Fuck that. We've got to be tough. Dodgeball will make you a real man. Here's what I'll say to not offend any educators out there. There might be some hands-on learning potential that comes from this. Perhaps so. Maybe a future veterinarian learns what they want to be with that.

I just don't really understand what you're supposed to learn from that, that frogs have guts. I mean, it's like an you're supposed to learn from that. That frogs have guts? I mean, it's like an anatomy lesson that's not on a page, but still, it's kind of gross. I mean, I did it too, and it's just like, well, wow, these organs aren't color-coded. It's all a gray mess in here. I don't like this. Yuck. No, I definitely gagged a bit

during it. Well, because for the frog, it smelled so terrible. It was full of formaldehyde, or some preservative. They got like a bucket of frogs shipped in. Okay, so you better enjoy this scene because this is the third to last Once Lady Doris appearance here.

Um, excuse me. Isn't there anything here that doesn't have meat in it? Possibly the meatloaf. Well, I believe you're required to provide a vegetarian alternative. Yum. It's rich in bunly goodness. Do you remember when you lost your passion for this work? Uh-oh. Two independent thought alarms in one day.

The students are overstimulated. Willie, remove all the colored chalk from the classrooms. I warned you! Didn't I warn you? That colored chalk was forged by Lucifer himself! So I had that experience when I was in college because I used to eat at the school cafeteria all the time. And so I'd go down and I would look at the options and I'd be like, so what's the vegetarian option?

And they came to really not like me because initially they would be like, there's a vegetarian option. I'd be like's literally peas can i have something else a bowl of peas or they would be like here's the spaghetti and i'd be like do you have non-meat sauce and they'd be like so they had to go open up the the can with the sauce and heat it up for me you never got the oh just pick out the meat you can do that that. I got that a lot, too. Yeah, yeah, I got that first. So when she puts the, what was it, the bun? The bun on, just drops

it on her tray. I mean, I could definitely identify with that, yeah. Did you notice that a hot dog is in every act of this episode? Oh, you're right. It's a very hot dog episode. Were they paid off by the armor company, perhaps? The armor thing finally paid off.

Hot beef injection. Oh, gosh. That's right. There's so many hot dogs in this episode. Hot dog is a great comedy food, let's be honest. I am starving. I love that Skinner is such a scold in this, too, that he thinks that colored chalk is like,

nope, they're too free, too much creativity. It's like an element of Willie's weird religious superstition that comes in, which I love. It's one of those things Willie's weird religious superstition that comes in, which I love. It's one of those things I think, and there'll be another one coming up, is a chalkboard still in a classroom? Have they been replaced

by dry erase boards? I think it's dry erase boards. Let's walk onto the campus of some local elementary school. Yeah, let's just walk into school. I hate chalk. Oh, me too. I'm thinking about touching it.

Well, you know what also is gross? This itchy and scratchy was a pretty gross one to me. I love it. More so than the needle in the eye in the last episode. Just him eating his own stomach. Oh, God, yeah. They actually reused the gag that was cut from an earlier itchy and scratchy. And I forget which one it was.

Oh, really? They cut the scene where Scratchy's head explodes after seeing a doctor's bill. They reused that joke that they never aired in this scene. Yes, that was in the Goldfinger one where his tongue unplugs him from being neutered. And then he's shown the doctor bill and he actually blows his brains out. His head does not explode. It's a similar bill-based suicide. For fans of Marvel zombies, Captain America does the exact same thing as a zombie.

Notice that he can eat flesh and then have it pop out of his stomach and eat it again. Well, because that was cosmic flesh from the Silver Surfer, and it kept them... All right. The more they ate flesh, they stayed... They kept their brains wits about them. The Marvel zombies comic is really good, but also disgusting. It's Robert Kirkman, the Walking Dead guy. Yeah, he did the first two and then quit because he's like,

you guys are getting rich off me. I'm getting rich off my own zombies with Blackjack and Hooker. Boy, I almost would say this is the line of the show, except the next part I love even more. Oh, yeah. This is one of my favorite undercutting of a sitcom expectation gag. Cartoons don't have messages, Lisa. They're just a bunch of hilarious stuff, you know, like people getting

hurt and stuff. Stuff like that. Look, kids. I just got my party invitations back from the printers. Come to Homer's BBBQ. The extra B is for B-Y-O-B-B. What's that extra B for? That's a typo. Dad,

can't you have some other kind of party? One where you don't serve meat? But all normal people love meat. If I went to a barbecue and there was no meat, I would say, yo, goober, where's the meat? I'm trying to impress people here, Lisa. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad.

You don't win friends with salad. You don't win friends with salad. Mom! I didn't mean to take sides. I just got caught up in the rhythm. We have a limbo dance and a conga line in the same episode. Man, they're really feeling the rhythm in this. The conga line. I just episode man yeah they're really feeling the rhythm in this conga line i just love homer is quiet like just open judgmental is like all normal people love me

so blunt i also like the yo goober line i use that a lot but i think it's one of the lines no one remembers like yo goober where's the blank something should be there yeah i think of that and just the the how long they make you wait for Bart to get hit with a door. And you're like, that door's there. He's going to get hit with it. That's a door that never existed except to hit Bart in the head. Sorry, just an open frame. There's no door to the kitchen.

And just Homer's posing afterwards. It's just like, eh? And also, though, in this episode, which has such a message in it that Bart says, Cartoons don't have messages. That's another great addition to the gag. I just love all that. But, okay. Well, I'm going to have to indulge you.

Oh, please. Like, we set it up? Yeah. So I'd say this is the best Troy McClure ever. I would totally agree. That's why I want to set it up. Like, this is, like, per pound the most, like, joke per second rapid-fire delivery. I would totally agree. That's why I want to set it up like this is like per pound the most joke per second

rapid fire delivery. It's so great. Good morning class. A certain agitator, for privacy's sake let's call her Lisa S. No, that's too obvious. Let's say Elle Simpson. Has raised questions about certain school policies.

So, in the interest of creating an open dialogue, sit silently and watch this film. Nothing beats a stroll in cattle country. Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such educational films as 2-3 equals negative fun and Firecrackers, the Silent Killer. Mr. McClure? You may remember me from such educational films as 2-3 equals negative fun. And Firecrackers, the silent killer.

Mr. McClure? Oh, hello, Bobby. Jimmy, I'm curious as to how meat gets from the ranch to my stomach. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Jimmy. You just asked a mouthful. It all starts here in the high-density feedlot. Then when the cattle are just right... It's time for them to graduate from

Fovine University. Come on, Jimmy. Let's take a peek at the killing floor. Don't let the name throw you, Jimmy. It's not really a floor. It's more of a steel grating that allows material to sluice through so it can be collected and exported. Oh my god, yes. That buzzer has got to be the family feedback buzzer and the scream buzzer from Marge Gets a Job.

Yeah, god damn it. I just love... First off, that Skinner is like some agitator. He's taking a personal interest that one kid is interested in well is questioning the school they all will so you have to watch this thing to be have your minds fixed when i tell a story about someone i'm kind of gossiping about i'll do the skinner line with their name let's call him this no that's too obvious at least just picked up on the line in order to create an open dialogue sit quietly watch this movie really good and yeah t Troy McClure, perfect in this.

Jimmy is destroyed. This scars Jimmy for life, filming this. He's done so many of these, he doesn't know the kids' names. Like, you must be Billy, because I've done 50 of these. They're all Billy. We all grew up watching crappy film strips in school. Crappy educational film strips with the bad music and everything. It's hard, Kat,

it's hard to know watching Pee Wee's Playhouse and Dream On and then Mystery Science Theater 3000 whether I was forced. I just watched a lot of industrial films. Sure. And I don't,

they can't still be playing these things in classrooms. No, absolutely. Not anymore. I mean, we had literal film strips like the projectors and everything. Yep. You gotta turn the film strip at the big sound.

I always got so agitated when the teacher was one thing ahead or behind and no one knew but me. I was like, let me do it! It fills you with a certain anxiety. Those are my favorite things to watch Riff Trax and Mystery Science Theater 2000. I hope they do more in the next season.

Setting up a room is maybe the best one. That's most of what Riff Trax puts out now are the shorts. They're so good. They're so good. Or the paper bag one. That might be my favorite. Wonderful indoctrination with horrible production values. I could sit happily and watch it all day long.

Their latest short is called... They're so earnest. They are, yes. And their latest short is called Drawing a Square. Yeah. Well, also, I can never hear about the video game The Killing Floor without thinking of this

scene as well it's not an actual floor I hate that game and we didn't put out the whole Partners in Freedom thing because this is a relic of the Cold War

this short you could sell anything by wrapping it around patriotism that was that was what Posture Pals was that's right yeah

there was a bald eagle at the start of it. Yes, Young American Pictures. Young American Pictures, yes. And I think Tiny Toons had a similar gag to this that was also about anti-factory farming where they see how a cow is butchered, but off-screen, but Plucky sees it

and it destroys him. Wow, Tiny Toons was really much preachier than Animania. Am I wrong for thinking that factory farming really came into the public consciousness in the 2000s? I think post the book Fast Food Nation, I think that's kind of what made people aware of it in the larger sense.

I mean, Fast Food was really targeted, I feel, in 2000 with Super Size Me and things like that. You know who it makes the most miserable, the irony of all of it? The farmers. Have you ever seen one of those docs on the farmers who have to work? I hate this. I think it's called Food Incorporated or something like that. It destroys them to work at it.

It is soul-crushing to work in that kind of environment of just literally a slaughterhouse as opposed to a time where you're feeding fewer people and you could make more money just by raising these animals. Well, at the very least with these factory farms, nobody's starving, right? We've got all the food we need. No, that's a joke. Just me. Just me. Starving. Yes. Alright, so

If I could know you further, I only had a kale shake today. That's all I've had. What the hell happened to you, Chris? That's all I have. So part two of the Troy at meat. Getting hungry, Jimmy? Mr. McClure, I have a crazy friend who says it's wrong to eat meat.

Is he crazy? No, just ignorant. You see, your crazy friend never heard of the food chain. Yes, bad picture. Just ask this scientician. He'll tell you that creature invariably eats another to survive.

So, that food chain image is my favorite image from the whole episode. It's a lot like Mr. Burns. Yes, I think of that all the time. Yes, whenever you're... I think of that anytime somebody poorly sources something like, just ask this science titian.

He'll tell you. I frinky-act that crazy friend thing on Twitter. I wrote, during the fall when there were a lot of protests happening, he's like, I have a crazy friend who thinks anti-fascists and fascists are the same thing. Is he crazy? No, just ignorant. Your crazy friend never heard of fascism. Goddamn. no just ignorance your crazy friend never heard of fascism god damn the food chain is every

animal coming in that is like the perfect Simpsons visual joke that image alone is so perfect and they're lying to children this much also the gorilla being eaten by a shark is great I love that so much the gorilla eating the shark

the bird of prey picking up a whole sheep Being eaten by a shark is great. I love that so much. The gorilla eating the shark. The bird of prey picking up a whole sheep. And also... Next to the gorilla being eaten by the shark. That's my second favorite. Yeah. I also just love the word science-tition. It's so great. Which apparently is a realish word from...

According to Webster defines it as. Well, the Simpsons embiggened its signal. Mid-19th century. Earliest uses in the literary gazette Form of scient Plus ishan Like physician, logician Mathematician, etc

So it wasn't just a made-up word I heard it from Michael First who used it to describe Tara Reid's career In The Alone in the Dark movie where she plays a doctor She is a scientist So describe Tara Reid's career in A Little in the Dark movie where she plays a doctor. She is a scientist. It's great. Yes.

So, all right, last bit of Troy. Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about. Wow, Mr. McClure. I was a grade-A moron to ever question eating meat. Yes, you were, Jimmy. Yes, you were. You're hurting me. They can't seriously expect us to swallow that tripe.

Now as a special treat courtesy of our friends at the Meat Council, please help yourselves to this tripe. Stop it! Stop it! Don't you realize you've just been brainwashed by corporate propaganda? Apparently my crazy friend here hasn't heard of the food chain. Yeah, Lisa's a grade A

moron. When I grow up, I'm going to Bovine University. It's weird to think of... Can we just give that all That's the joke It's weird to think of a bunch of little white kids Getting excited about eating tripe I realize it's part of other cultures Normal cuisine

But if someone showed me all that organ meat Glistening organ meat I'd be like oh no I guess that's the extra fun If it's free tripe they'll eat it I love this joke so much that the kids are immediately parenting everything they heard in it. They were so easily indoctrinated by corporate propaganda, which is so perfect. It's what kids do.

I mean, not all of them. Grade A moron, my crazy friend here. They're saying it all just like they're supposed to. The kids are supposed to be impressionable. It's terrifying that kids would. It would work. That is how it would work. Yeah, David Merkin loves these kind of messages about indoctrination.

But it's not one film strip. It's many, many, many film strips and cartoons and TV shows and radio. It teaches you all the things you're supposed to think. So that grade A moron line, that was the brief return of Ham? Yes, that was Ham because he enjoys Ham radio. Jesus, really? Yeah, that was him. That wasn't you, though?

No, or close eye, and it was Ham. It's funny, it's sad that he turned on his old super friend Lisa like that. That's true. Making fun of her. Also, Ralph's Bovine University. Such a great little line. At the barbecue scene next, they purposely reuse the scene from Treehouse of Horror 1 with Homer spraying all of the lighter fluid into the grill,

but they change the joke. He goes back for a second squirt with a second case, but instead of it flaming up really high, it lights perfectly. It lights correctly. Do you think that was him drawing a line between like, no, that was a Halloween episode. Homer can't really do that. I think it was him drawing a line between like, no that was a Halloween episode Homer can't really do that

I think it was Dave Merkin recognizing let's go with the less obvious joke you think it would be a giant fireball let's not do that Again, if you were listening to the show in that period it's one of the jokes I remember my dad losing his mind over the idea that we both had the same favorite show was very important to a nine year old kid

It lingers, I love the spray the spray and how it looks and the sound and it lingers i love the spray the spray and how it looks in the sound and it lingers so long the spray goes too and you can tell when he is putting more pressure on it especially on the second one to speed it up he's squeezing it so hard that it is the whitest spray across it and you can tell when there's no more gasoline in there that it just drips a little bit yeah a very self-referential family guy joke, though. That it's such a specific reference to Treehouse One, yeah. They don't say it out loud,

but it's so obvious that it was a reuse of that gag. There's no joke at all. It looks like everyone's having a good time at this barbecue. Wait, Dad! Good news, everyone! You don't have to eat meat! I made enough gazpacho for all! What is that, anyway? It's tomato soup served

ice cold! Come back to Russia! I think Barney is the perfect guy to say go back to Russia. That is great. Actually, I knew about gazpacho before this because it was a major plot point in an episode of Red Dwarf. Yes!

I think it was one of the first episodes when Rimmer is talking about his fall from grace on one of the characters. He got to sit at the captain's table, and they all had Gazpacho soup, and he sent it back because it was cold. And then they knew he was too low class for the captain's table. They were all laughing at him eating hot gazpacho. That's right.

Yeah. I knew about gazpacho because my parents make, my mom would make gazpacho and I hated it. Sounds gross. I hate gazpacho. Cold soup is an abomination. Okay. Cold soup is supposed to warm your insides on a cold winter night. Cold soup, no.

Was that Punishment Cat? It's like Cats from Bad. You're already in the frozen Minnesota. They're making you eat cold soup. Well, this is the middle of the summer. It's a summer thing. The same shit they had in the Rugrats Passover episode. I can't remember the Jewish grandpa making some kind of gazpacho.

I thought it was matzo ball soup, as the kids would call it. But meanwhile, the adults are all laughing at a nine-year-old eight-year-old girl yeah go back to russia especially barney yelling go back to russia maybe certainly because he's had nothing to drink because he brought an empty keg when it clearly told him to byob b i didn't i that's what taught me the phrase byob as well this joke flew over my head completely my parents had to tell me i've never seen the phrase BYOB as well. This joke flew over my head completely. My parents had to tell me that. I've never seen the phrase BYOB used sincerely. I've only seen it used as a joke.

Maybe it was bigger before this. I heard one of my favorite comedians and comedy writers, Jessica Chafin, on a podcast. She joked about how she was mad at this famous actress who invited her to a party who was much more rich than her. But the actress told her BYOB. She's like, you're on a sitcom. You have so much more money than me. Just buy beer for the

party. So I just want to make a quick observation. I know that this is like Homer's party and everything, but it is a little crappy that they deliberately exclude Lisa and are like, nope, you can't eat anything here. Marge could have made something for her. Lisa had to make a Spacho.

Marge really has no opinion on this matter. Yeah. No, she's kind of standing back waiting to think Bart did something. You've got corn on a grill, a roasted portobello. And I would like to add that this has happened to me. I went to Thanksgiving with my parents and they were like, oh, right. Yeah. Well, eat turkey or just eat sides.

And I was like, I guess I'll just eat sides then. At least you had sides, I guess. It could be worse. You could eat a tofurkey. But literally, they only had meat. It was all meat at that barbecue. I was going to say, tofurkey could be better. The best is corn. No, I mean.

Q-U-O-R-N. It's real good. The tofurkey Thanksgiving turkey. I'm fine with the fake sliced meat, but the fake, awful, can-shaped turkey that they have? Oh, the full turkey? Yeah, it's gross. Gotta get that corn loaf. All right, now the next hot dog scene in the episode.

But I just love... Neither of them gets what they're saying here. It's so beautiful. Ah, diagnosis? Delicious. I've got the prescription for you, doctor. Another hot beef injection. Hey, Homer.

Wing me another one of them burgers, will ya? Can't quite seem to stand up under my own power anymore. One whopper for the copper. Another burger, Dad? Here you go! It's bad enough they're all eating meat. They don't have to rub it in my face. Oh.

Oh. Oh, horrible. This has to be burned horribly. Yeah, that's true. It's right off the grill. I mean, also, Hibbert should associate Homer with hot beef injections because of the tonic he bought in the earlier episodes. I'm guessing a wonderful reference

to Breakfast Club, where that phrase was used by Judd Nelson. Bender. But very, very sexual, so I don't know where Homer would have got it from. I feel like a lot of the slang

in that movie is made up by a 40-year-old man. But it's just so funny that he is offering a hot beef injection to Hibbert and neither realizes he's making an N man. But it's just so funny that he's offering a hot beef injection to Hibbert and neither realizes he's making an NUS dose. So fucking funny. Wiggum have the

meat sweats now or something? I feel fat just watching him. The way Wiggum talks, I'm just like... He's a good barbecue person. Yeah, Homer was feeding everybody. Homer didn't have to have to. He's a good host. It did make me want to...

We don't... None of us have backyards, but... Absolutely not. Dope-ass barbecue. Well, actually, no. Our friend Michael, they... Michael and Diana have a backyard. It's like a pirate ship.

He invited the whole town, too. Everybody was there. And also, I thought it was weird. I wonder if there was a deleted gag there that Otto is sitting with the cops, which is just like, why is all the cops at the table and Otto? I don't think Otto should even be there. You can also see Appu. Yeah. Oh.

I missed that. But yeah, all that grease on Lisa's face looks so painful. It's a very realistically drawn gristle. Ouch, yeah. And if you never, they have a quick gag to let you know that Chief Wiggum's nose looks like a pig. You should never notice that. That's great.

And that has to be Lisa's nose. Lisa, that has to be Flanders riding mower that she's riding. That's right, yeah. It can't be. It came out of nowhere. But here's another of my favorite lines. It's just a little dirty. It's still good. it's still good it's still good

it's just a little slimy it's still good it's still good it's just a little airborne. It's still good. It's still good. It's good. I know. You know, Smithers, I think I'll donate a million dollars to the local orphanage. When pigs fly.

That's a good one. Will you be donating that million dollars now, sir? No, I'd still prefer not. That's great. I love how Homer's denial ends instantly as soon as it hits too far. I know. Lisa, you went too far. I know that you're angry about the thing, but I mean, it's not cool to do that.

Not cool. Speak with your words. Don't destroy his poor giant pig. Lisa thought Homer was literally throwing meat into her room. Yeah, she had reason to be angry. It was a misunderstanding. Understandable anger. But, oh, God, just the little air board, it's still good.

I've heard that memed a bunch, too. It's a classic one. It's just a little blank. It's still good. And the great animation of the pig going to the pipe in the water, building up behind it. It's really beautiful. And the sound effect of the pew! Yeah. Of the shot pig and just the vision and the water building up behind it. It's really beautiful. And the sound effect of the pew! Yeah.

Of the shot pig and just the vision of it flying through the air. I'm glad they use it one more time at the end of the episode. It's a great image. And even in one tiny scene, Burns is hilarious. Yeah, yeah.

I think it's a visual reference to the Peter Frampton's Inflatable Pig, which will then come back. Oh, you're right. Do you feel? That was all in the delivery with Mr. Burns because if you look at it, it was kind of a crap joke, to be honest. Because it's really obvious.

But Harry Shearer really kind of like, he delivers the hell out of it. No, I think not. It's good to see Burns for a little bit. Yeah. And then I also like that you come back from the commercial break and Homer is still looking in the sky for the pig. I forgot about that. And throws away. I forgot about that. And throws away.

He's so angry, he throws away his binoculars, too. He just throws them in the trash. I totally forgot about that gag. Some say the pig is still flying to this day. Yeah, I'm sorry, Chris. I talked it over. You're like, the flying pig from Kids on the Wall. Oh, my God. You're right.

Oh, God. Hey, look at me. What a lineup. Sorry. Wrong show. Wrong show. So then Homer and Lisa are not speaking. Marge, since I'm not talking to Lisa, would you please ask her to pass me the syrup?

Please pass your father the syrup, Lisa. Bart, tell Dad I'll only pass the syrup if it won't be used on any meat product You dunking your sausages in that syrup, homeboy? Marge, no, Bart I just want to drink a nice glass of syrup like I do every morning Tell him yourself you're ignoring Lisa, not Bart Bart, thank your mother for pointing that out Homer, you're not not talking to me

And secondly, I heard what you said Lisa, tell your mother to get off my case Dad, Lisa's the one you're not talking talking to me. And secondly, I heard what you said. Lisa, tell your mother to get off my case. Dad, Lisa's the one you're not talking to. All right, go to your room. Why don't you just eat him, Dad? I don't need any serving suggestions from you, you barbecue-wrecking know-nothing know-it-all. That's it!

I can't live in a house with this prehistoric carnivore! I am out of here! Dad said, go to your room! Great timing. So if any of you guys, I guess Kat's been telling stories of family strife from being a vegetarian. Bob, you ever have any? Not really. My mom was just worried I was not eating enough protein or whatever.

Then I had to reassure her, like, I'm eating all the soy, which will turn me into a woman. It's true. I remember I came back from San Francisco and was like, you're not eating meat, so I want you to drink this whole glass of milk. reassure her like i'm eating all the soy which will turn me into a woman it's true i remember i came back from san francisco like you're not eating meat so i want you to drink this whole glass of milk and i'm like wow i haven't had a glass of milk in like six years oh gross drink it and like that was unsettling and then just right when i'm leaving the house like 20 minutes later i fart and just shit down my leg this is a whole glass of milk at exchange gross this episode is rated tv y7 yeah jesus well my parents did eventually come around and now when i go home they do make me a vegetarian alternative

for the turkey that's nice and they make sure that i have something to eat so it's still okay i you know that thing of the parent being worried about protein that's what my aunt i saw that too my aunt with my hippie and she's actually kind of hippie too my aunt but she still eats meat but then two of my cousins they became vegetarian and she was still worrying like look just eat this egg okay this egg's fine like you gotta have protein i worry about you just like i mean you don't get enough protein i actually monitor it pretty closely and i have to go out of my freaking way to get protein. What are the alternatives to this?

Like peanuts? Bread and cheese is a good way to start. Not complex, but, I mean, it's a start. And then, well, soy will get you proteins. But we also eat fish, so that helps. Oh, yeah, you fishy cheaters. We'll get you proteins. But we also eat fish, so that helps. Oh, yeah. You fishy cheaters. We're cheaters. It's a lot harder if you

cut that stuff out. I mean, fish are just bugs. Who cares? That's what they are. I like your scientific classification. Fish are bugs. Well, bats are bugs as Calvin and Hobbes taught me. That's true. Also, undercut there is that Homer drinks a glass of syrup every day, which sounds deadly.

That scene in Super Troopers is one of the grossest things I've ever seen. It's just sugar. Homer is obsessed with sugar, though, as we saw when he became a sugar baron. And he puts ketchup on his salad, as we've seen. And he's on ice. What's up for that? It's way gross to be shitting down my leg. You guys' reactions are all wrong.

It's true. Okay, so if it wasn't for Troy McClure, I think actually this would be my favorite scene of the episode. Look, it's Mrs. Potato Head. She has a head made out of leather. I can't believe I used to go out with you. Are you going to marry a carrot, Lisa? Yes, I'm going to marry a carrot. She admitted it. She admitted she's going to marry a carrot, Lisa? Yes, I'm going to marry a carrot. She admitted it.

She's going to marry a carrot. I can't believe it. That's great. So many flashbacks. Oh, my gosh. Well, I think of, yes, I'm going to marry a carrot. Every time I have, like, I think a very clever comeback to a bad joke at my expense on Twitter. I was like, yes, I literally

meant that. He admitted it. He said he does do that. The greatest people in bad faith will take a joke you wrote and take it literally. And then you can respond with that. I think of that Mary Carrot every time. I'm like, yes, I'm going to marry a carrot. And it's the perfect childlike response

because I'm pretty sure that all of us have run right into that and you're thinking that's so stupid but you can't get around it when you have that you try to have a clever reply like yeah because what if you say no i'm not then you're still playing with their game can't win so if you say like yes i'm gonna do that like she admitted it's like i can't it. Meanwhile, Ralph is making fun of, Ralph is getting one over on Lisa. I can't believe. Did you just assume he like struck that from his memory? It's a nice callback to him having a crush on her.

But yes, this is the same kid who in this very episode dreams of being a Viking, which has to be one of the most like rando, Ralphph isn't smart gags in the show and also eats his worm is that how you interpret that joke yeah it's him remembering i used to go out with you no no no that ralph is dreaming of being a viking oh yeah that is my interpretation is like a special person joke that's where i'm a warrior that's what i always thought that i'm really strong yeah i'm excellent that's the way i always use it so whenever i I've made that reference, it's just gone completely over your head. I imagine he is a Viking, like he's a Viking with a horned hat and stuff,

but it's where he's empowered. He's not getting yelled at. He's not in trouble. He understands things. That's where I'm a Viking, to me, feels like from the same place as like, he tells me to burn things. In Ralph's dreams,

he's constantly disappointing fans in the playoffs. It's enough sports. So Lisa looking around at the world telling her to eat meat. First off, the beef-flavored chicken. I looked into this. Actually, I was like, was this ever sold? KFC never officially served beef-flavored chicken. But in 2009, when they were selling their new healthier grilled chicken.

Tell yourself that. Fine. It was. I said healthy. I know. I know. Which is just like, look. Didn't Michael try that and get salmonella from the Wendy's?

He did that when he got the grilled chicken at Wendy's. It's just like, if he had had the fried chicken, he'd have been fine. Poor Michael. He was fine. He came out okay. He did go to the hospital. Spoiler, he's alive. Anyway, 2009, it found out that the grilled

chicken is being flavored with beef so it was kfc selling beef flavored chicken gross and also weird in this is they have to give kent some lines to say as he's eating chicken on the air it is him in the next episode saying the warning about that your ads could come alive and kill you okay it's they just they pre-took a line from the treehouse of horror the next episode that's amazing i didn't look into what he was saying it's so weird yeah actually i'll cut it in here your windows the next yeah see it's it's so odd you guys agree with me i proved it this is a question i have too are vegetarian hot dogs more unhealthy than regular hot dogs or is that just like a cheap joke i don't think so i mean i think at this stage uh this was the very

early stages of vegetarian replacement meats and i think they were having problems morning star farms you can go to hell by the way and dave merkin knew all about this because at this time he had actually gotten into vegetarian meat in fact he told a story of when he went and met paul and linda mccartney he brought his favorite turkey substitute to them and apparently they loved it so much that they were eating it straight out of the can and were wondering where they could get more and he was like i'm starving and he was like oh my god i was afraid that it had spoiled in on the flight and he was afraid that he had just killed them it's slow acting you know it's also not mentioned on this commentary with all the simpsons and vegetarianism that sam simon was such a staunch right developer of the show was he that open about it? In the 90s, maybe not, but he always was. He always was.

I love him, at least from when he was famous. In his Marc Maron interview, when he talks about it, he's like, oh yeah, no, I'm a huge philanthropist, gave all this money to food banks, but he insisted, like, this is vegan food at this food bank.

And his defense of people is like, why are you making these people eat what you want them to eat? He's like, well, first off, they don't have to eat a free meal if they don't want it. And two, if I'm going to buy this much food, I'm not going to kill more animals to buy it to feed people. This is what I'm going to get on my soapbox. I can't eat meat, but you can eat vegetables. You don't have to eat meat. It's okay.

Yeah, totally. You should probably eat less. I don't like eating my veggies. Yucky. So Lisa gives in and takes a bite of a hot dog, thinking that she's given up. She did what the world wanted her to do. There! Is everybody happy now?

I take it from your yelling that you like my tofu dogs. Tofu? Oh, yes. No meat whatsoever. And only thrice the fat of a normal hot dog. I made the switch and nobody noticed. But why, Appu? Because I'm a vegetarian. Haven't you ever seen my T-shirt?

That's cute. Don't have a cow, man. that shirt though in the world where bart didn't become famous for saying that phrase it's kind of random like what's it based on that's true i don't know if bart invented it though i think it was a previously existing thing but i like this because in these years especially we see oakley and weinstein uh trying to add more layers to a poo who at this point in time the stereotype has gotten old like what can we do with his culture that would be respectful and reflective of someone who actually you know is an indian american or how do you say that east asian

southeast asian yeah there's yeah there's i want to make sure i get it right but yeah i think that's right yes once again i'm starving the The sign outside of the store said, ate hot dogs for 99 cents. I'm so hungry. Or made hot dogs. But yeah, I just like the observational thing. Of course, a poo could be a vegetarian. It could be a reflection of his culture.

I actually have a friend. A good friend of mine is Hindu, and he is a religious vegetarian. And he had the best time going to Japan, which is a Buddhist country, but fish is in everything. Yeah, you can't avoid. I couldn't time going to Japan, which is a Buddhist country, but fish is in everything. Yeah, you can't avoid. I couldn't imagine going to Japan.

He gained 20 pounds only eating Indian food and pasta. Oh, geez. Well, I agree with you, Bob. This has to be the most sensitive portrayal of Apu to this point. Oh, yeah, that's true, yeah. And I think, too, you can get, I think at least some of the credit goes to David X. Cohen because he not only wrote this episode, but the next episode, he writes, will be the immigrants episode.

Oh, that was him. Yeah, he wrote that one, which was another sensitive, like, understanding portrayal of Apu as well, I'd say. And he mentions on, I think, that commentary that he had several, in being in computer sciences, Oh, for sure, yeah. He had several, he knew several in being in computer sciences. Oh, for sure.

He had several, he knew several Indian people and Indian immigrants. So it perhaps informed it. So at least, you know, it's not just the guy, Indian man works at seven 11 gigs. I think the don't have a cow man shirt was one.

It's something I has one of his Hindu friends had. Oh yeah, that's true. That's right. Yeah. But, uh, oh yeah. So then we's true. That's right, yeah. But, oh, yeah, so then we get

our big guest star who I do have to play the death jingle because half of these people are gone now. Death stalks you at every turn. Ah!

There it is! Death! The always respectful death jingle. Man, I was present for the death jingle finally. Yay! We're all cheering

the death of linda mccartney oh my god she only died three years later too yeah yeah 1998 at the age of 56 super young yeah breast cancer so sad and when she passed she passed away the week of the airing of the trash of the titans episode the 200th one so they put an rip thing at the end of it which i think was the first in the tradition of if a former guest star dies they they put an rip thing at the end of it which i think was the first in the tradition of if a former guest star dies they then put an rip thing at the end of the most recent episode yeah i think so i mean i'm sure she'd be happier if she was alive but i think she'd she's happy she'd be happy knowing that being a vegetarian is so much easier now for

people than it was in 1995 and or in the 80s or the 70s. And Paul and Linda absolutely agreed to do this because it was vegetarian propaganda. Paul McCartney doesn't need to do anything he doesn't want to do. He knows, though, as famous as he is, if he can speak about vegetarianism to Simpsons fans, he'll indoctrinate

a whole different generation of kids with this. Does he outfit the venues he plays with, like, no, no, only vegetarian food? Oh yeah, he's still a big time vegetarian. I just looked up the story about his vegan wedding that he had. His condition

was that Lisa had to be a vegetarian forever. And that him and Linda would record with a lot of room tone in a different studio. Yes, they were in London. They were also drawn with brown eyes and blue eyes. That's weird. Which is very distracting.

It seems like a very famous person's insistence that they had to go with. Just make our eyes as cool as all our eyes. It'll be so nice. I mean, you can barely tell with Paul that it's brown. But with Linda, it's just very weird. I thought his looked red on whatever version I was watching. He looks like she's blind in the world of The Simpsons. Anyway, here's Paul and Linda part one.

Or an alien. I know it is not easy to be a vegetarian, Lisa. That's why I ran away from home. What? She's leaving home? Wow, Paul McCartney. I read about you in history class. But where's your wife, Linda? Right here, Lisa.

Whenever we're in Springfield, we like to hang out in Appu's garden in the shade. We met him in India years ago during the Maharishi days. Back then, I was known as the Fifth Beatle. Sure you were, Appu. You know what, Lisa? Paul and Linda are vegetarians, too. In fact, Linda has her own line of vegetarian entrees. Appu, I'm sure the last thing they want to talk about is...

We weren't satisfied with the other vegetarian meals on the market. You'd be surprised how often you'd find a big hunk of pork in them. Ew. Linda and I both feel strongly about animal rights. In fact, if you play Maybe I'm Amazed backwards, you'll hear a recipe for a really ripping lentil soup. So we got it wrong. Her name is actually Linda McCartney.

Linda. Yes. Yeah. And I knew this about them when the show aired, but I've is actually Linda McCartney. Linda. Yes. Yeah. And I had to look. I knew this about them when the show aired, but like, I've never seen Linda McCartney's food because it's only, it's mostly in England since 1991. Still going. I have her cookbook. Do you really?

Okay. I'm sure there's more than one too. It's easier to ship all that food around England as opposed to America. Like it's, there's tons of shit you got to ship around America. But this, like Merkin is so fanning out on the commentary. He is so excited. Like, I flew to London. And Matt Grady's like, you left me.

Like, I didn't get to go on this trip. And Merkin is talking about, then Paul McCartney showed me all of his stuff. And like, this is a guitar where I played this song. He played a harpsichord for me. I know. So I know nothing about the Beatles. Everything I learned about the beatles i learned from the beatles rock band and uh this is the first time history what's that it's pretty good it's pretty good if it's like a total like baby boomer wank fest but hey they deserve it i guess but i gotta say that the

she's leaving home thing that's the first time i got that was a reference yep yeah she's leaving to a wing song right yeah uh yeah yeah well now that a beetle song yeah i believe it is a beetle That was a reference. Yep. To a Wings song, right? Yeah. A Beatles song? Yeah, I believe it is a Beatles song. But also, that was Octopus's Garden in the Shade as well, which was a weird one to reference because that's a Ringo song. Like, Paul wrote so many songs. Do a Paul song. Yeah.

I will say I like the Beatles rock band. I want to go on a soapbox about this. I did like it, but it reminded me of the movie Forrest Gump, where I got the message like, these were the best times to be alive, man. And if you weren't there, fuck you. You don't even know. It has the best intro and ending. We're doing that right now with this very show. Well, our times were the best times to be alive.

I just read a funny tweet saying that Forrest Gump is ready player one for Baby Boob. Yes! Oh my god, that is totally true. It's one of those things I want to withdraw. That movie looks totally awesome

and I wish the whole internet would shut up. This is like the ninth time you've had this talk, Chris. I know, I know. I just can't stand it. I will play back all of these when it's bad.

I can't stand it. I agree, Forrest Gump does look pretty awesome. It is pretty awesome. So I didn't pick up on that. He says if you play it backwards you'll get a recipe for lentil soup. That's in this episode.

It is. We'll play the clip soon. Okay. And also, Maybe I'm Amazed is one of the many great songs that came out of the Beatles breakup. All of the Beatles did solo albums, and a lot of their first solo albums were songs they wrote during the breakup of the Beatles. Maybe I'm Amazed came out in 1970. They broke up in 69. solo albums were songs they wrote during the breakup of the beatles like maybe i'm amazed came out in 1970 they broke up in 69 and the song is about how much he loves linda mccartney and their children and so it's a very sweet and specific one for him to bring up uh in regards

to linda and their vegetarianism too and the last merkin story i loved on it was him saying that he joked with paul like well now that we've had all three beatles on and we could even create a beatles song with your voices saying that paul was like what the what that's that's not true no more this freeze a bird shit though my my favorite post-breakup beatles song in the solo was george harrison's wawa where it's him writing a song about how he's sick of paul song in the solo was George Harrison's Wawa, where it's him writing a song about how he's sick of being in the middle of Paul and John

arguing about stuff. He's like, don't give me all your Wawa. Was this the Beatles anthology era, like when they were really coming back and selling things to people again? I think it was before Free as a Bird. Like two years before that. They definitely are ready to cash in some more

checks of trying to sell the Beatles to kids in the 90s, which totally worked on me. Totally worked on me. Yeah, me too. I just bought one. That was enough for me. It is most of the best songs. I was listening to the songs all the time. I was watching Yellow Submarine. I was a big time Beatles fan even

before seeing this. Here's Paul andinda one more time with their lesson on uh live and let die when will all those fools learn that you can be perfectly healthy simply eating vegetables fruits grains and cheese oh cheese you don't eat cheese apu no i don't eat any food that comes from an animal. Oh, then you must think I'm a monster. Yes, indeed, I do think that. But I learned long ago, Lisa, to tolerate others rather than forcing my beliefs on them. You know,

you can influence people without badgering them always. It's like Paul's song, Live and Let Live. Actually, it was Live and Let Die. Whatever, whatever. It had a good rhythm. I guess I have been pretty hard on a lot of people. Especially my dad. Thanks, you guys.

Lisa, before you go, would you like to hear a song? Wow, that'd be great. Okay, take it, Appu. I'm Sergeant Pepper Slug Hearts Club Man. I hope I will enjoy my show. Okay, so another...

That has to be the most high-profile F.U. That is great. You're totally right, yeah. That's so perfect. That he got Paul McCartney and denies you a song, looks you in the face and is like, oh, you thought we were going to have Paul McCartney sing? Fuck you.

I like their happy, weird, synchronized bopping in the background. They love hearing a post cover the Beatles terribly. So a related Paul McCartney vegetarian story is that Weird Al has a parody of Live and Let Die called Chicken Pot Pie. He was not allowed to record it for his album because it was about a meal with meat in it, but he performs it at concerts. Wow. So we have a lot to dig into here. First of all, I want to play the only version of this worse than a poo. It's Bill Cosby singing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Clubland.

It sounds like a Bill Cosby impression. It was 20 years ago today that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. And they've been going in and out of style but they're guaranteed to raise a smile. So may I introduce to you the act you've known for all these years. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band.

Hey, turn it off. Turn it off. Whenever I need a smile, I put that on and forget about all the rapes and just laugh my head off. Not Dan Castellaneta doing that voice like that. That was so... It's Bill Cosby doing a Bill Cosby impression.

That's fucking... Okay, so you did get this stuff. We did a whole podcast, actually, on bad Beatles covers. Dan Amrick, a Beatle maniac. And listen to that on Lazer Time. So the whole thing about putting backwards messages in Beatles songs comes from this conspiracy theory. And I'll have Rolling Stone explain it to you. Yes, they were once not a failing

website. On the track Revolution No. 9, it begins with a voice saying, No. 9, No. 9. If you play it backwards, you can hear the words saying, Turn me on, dead man. And if you listen to the spot in between I'm

So Tired and Blackbird, and you play that backwards, you can supposedly hear John Lennon say, Paul is dead, man. Miss him, miss him. Famously, at the end of Strawberry Fields Forever, you hear John saying what seems to be, I buried Paul. However, he was actually saying cranberry sauce. So yes, the Paul is dead theory happened in the 60s. It was a conspiracy theory in which it was posited that Paul McCartney died November 9th, 1966 in a car crash. He was replaced by Billy Shears, who looked and sounded exactly like him.

Paul thought it was funny, and fans kept looking for clues. Oh, that's right, because Abbey Road, he has no shoes, because that's how you bury people in England. And he's wearing a patch for some Canadian police squad,

but they thought it stood for something else. There's a ton of people looking for significance and non-significant things. The original truthers. And so over the credits, they did record it backwards, which let's give a listen to that now. I will say,

it's almost impossible to make out. So give me something to set up. I don't know what I'm setting up. So this is it with no background. So I didn't even know this, but I went to this trouble and then I'm clicking around the DVD and I'm like,

oh, they just have the whole thing isolated for you on the DVD. It's like the only place they have that. Okay, let's... All right, so this is it without having to hear maybe I'm amazed backwards over it. Lentil soup.

One medium onion, chopped. Two tablespoons of vegetable oil. One clove of garlic, crushed. One cup of carrots, chopped. Two sticks of celery, chopped. Half a cup of lentils. One bay leaf. One tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley,

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, two and a quarter cups of vegetable stock or water. There you have it, Simpsons lovers. Oh, and by the way, I'm alive. That's great. What a goofball. That was the non-backwards, obviously, version he recorded. And that sounds pretty good, but I've got to say, my problem with Linda McCartney's recipe is not spicy enough.

Having bought an Instant Pot, it's a great pressure cooker, pretty cheap, and it makes great meals. I've got to say, any recipe by a white person, I automatically double the spice. Automatically double the spice to make it good. You can't have a bottle of sriracha inside of it yeah i like spicy food so i do love apu being very honest of like oh no i'm you're a monster you're a monster but you know i tolerate other people lisa lisa is discovering that there's always somebody who's holier than you are Literally holier than her in this case, but she's getting prepped for college.

And yeah, but I like that she learns a lesson of her own, but also Homer thinks he's learned a lesson, but hasn't. Also, just him screaming in the baby stroller is quite a great image. Lisa! Come back before everyone finds out what a horrible father I am! Hi, Dad. Looking for me?

I don't know. Are you looking for me? I don't know. Are you looking for me? I don't know. Oh, Lisa, I was looking for you. I wanted to apologize. I don't know exactly what went wrong, but I know it's always my fault. Actually, Dad, this time I was wrong, too. While I was gone, I got some really good advice from Paul and Linda McCartney. Rockstars. Is there anything they don't know?

I still stand by my beliefs, but I can't defend what I did. I'm sorry I messed up your barbecue. I understand, honey. I used to believe in things when I was a kid. Come on. I'll give you a piggyback ride. Oops. I mean a veggie back ride home. Come on, I'll give you a piggyback ride. Oops, I mean a veggie back ride, ho.

Come on. And that ending felt like a sequel to Lisa's Pony. You're so right, yeah. In that she rides on his back after leaving the quickie mart in both of them. Except he's pretending to be a pony in that episode, and now he's a veggie in this episode. Yes, that's right but a cute ending of her and homer realizing that they can coexist even if she's still a vegetarian and that homer i love homer's like kind of shitty message but of a cynical grown-up like i used to

believe in stuff when i was a kid and i was an adult nothing matters and i eat meat whenever i feel like it and his reaction to lisa meeting the beatles is very much his reaction to seeing george harrison as a performer he doesn't care he's like where did you get that brownie much more interested in brownies and he homer just does not care about the beatles same he also didn't know who ringo star was really he's like yeah star guy you're painting like he's homer was somehow unable to learn about the beatles that's very strange he was very engaged with his own things didn't he listen to like the who and that kind of the doodle town piper starland vocal band he got drunk and uh listened to queen and he also listened to uh uh yummy yummy yummy i got love in my tummy when i think his mom's happening

would probably be more into the beatles So, it seems like every Lisa episode involves her clashing heavily with Homer and then ultimately making up with him with a very sweet moment at the end. Lisa's wedding happened. Lisa substituted this episode. Yeah, it's a reliable formula. Lisa on ice.

And it works. It works on me every time. Yeah, it works every time. It's very sweet. I think, too, it is the male writers of the show going like, I wish my child would forgive me like this or something like that. I wish I had a good relationship with my parents.

Yeah, that, too. I wonder later would learn to get more stuff out of Marge and Lisa conflict as well, which they wouldn't do a lot of. Oh, yeah, no, that's true. A mother-daughter relationship like these dudes probably wouldn't really kind of understand that. It doesn't immediately come to them, I don't think, no. But, yeah lisa and homer is always sweet it's always it's always lovely and this was a sweet ending to the then

goes straight into maybe i'm amazed with a backwards uh it's the original cut we were listening to that actually and my partner who was watching with me goes i think i can hear it over the like it's inviting you to try and play it backwards. I'm like, my third viewing of it, I definitely was like, wait, I think I hear something there. I never heard it. I think they really did do it backwards. It's great. It's a great little gag that, like, Merkin was invested in and put the extra effort into it and got Paul McCartney to read all that stuff.

I love that Paul McCartney is such, like, a goofball. He's like, eh, Paul McCartney. You can't tell anymore. Is he a weird old man? What's this? It's a video game called Destiny. You're going to make a music video. Whatever you say.

He always seemed like kind of a chill, hippie type guy, whereas John Lennon was the firebrand. I forget what famous person I heard tell the story, but he told the story of his family was like family friends with Paul McCartney and he wanted to geek out with Paul but he said it was very clear to him that like Paul McCartney, he was like

well, you can either be a fanboy to me or we can be equals but you can't be both, like you can't fan out at me. He's a voice on BoJack Horseman Yeah, he showed up for one gag on BoJack Horseman Maybe he, he showed up for one gag on BoJack Horseman. Maybe he is just a cool dude. I think so. I think someone described the relationship

between him and the world as everyone he meets is someone that is meeting Paul McCartney. And that's his relationship with everybody. And then he rewards them by being like, well, alright, you get Paul McCartney. This is your five minutes with Paul McCartney. I'll be that guy. Like, every woman it must, like like how could you not

go insane if your life was every time you met someone very likely they were in awe of you of just like well you're the greatest human being of all time and i can't believe i met you of like how do you live life let her just describe it as a way everyone should live their life it would be awesome if everybody got that that was talking simpsons folks uh thanks for listening great episode by the way and i've been your host bob mackie you can find me on twitter as bob servo my other podcast is retronauts it's a classic gaming podcast every monday at retronauts.com or look for retronauts in your podcatcher of choice we're on all of them i think and recently we did an episode about animaniacs games and spider-man games basically we've been around

for 11 years, so look up Retronauts, find a topic you like, and then download that episode. I think you'll like the podcast. We do a pretty good show. There's like a Paul McCartney band on the run game

from like England that we probably covered some time. Oh, dear lord. And hey, I'm H-A-N-E-R-E-Y-G on Twitter, and you can support this

by going to patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons where you'll find tons of exclusives on there including interviews with people who worked on the show including our most recent live interview with Dana Gould from our Sketch Fest show.

Thank you Dana. Please talk to us again. It's been one thing to have phone interviews with Simpsons heroes but to be sitting next to Dana Gould as he tells funny stories about working at the Simpsons on 9-11 or writing the first suicide into the Simpsons

he was very relaxed on that show I was envious like oh yeah you have been performing for like over 30 years not like us so it's all there patreon.com slash talking Simpsons $5 a month supports us and sorry yes our special guest Kat what about you? now that you know that I'm an atheist vegetarian you should follow me on twitter at the underscore cat bot where i don't usually

talk about those things i talk about sports and star trek and gundam and it's a very eclectic mix so i i recommend it why did you think of steamed hams as a gundam episode that was pretty funny yeah that's it is pretty brilliant i gotta say i love the memification of steamed hams because i believe that the steamed hams bit is my all-time favorite gag in uh in all of the simpsons but also yeah so gundam and steamed hams perfect mix i can't get beyond steamed hams and danganronpa it's the best it's so perfect thank you whoever made that you can also find me at us gamer which is a video game website that I run, and we do a lot of really cool stuff over there.

And also, I have a podcast called Acts of the Blood God. Please subscribe to us. We talk about RPGs, kind of like retronauts, but with RPGs, and I'm on it, so you should listen to it. And if you like podcasts and stuff that Kat's on, Kat, you joined us for a laser time about the extended Star Wars universe

right when it was retired. Yeah, that was so much fun. Yeah, like you know way more about that than anybody else I know. I mean, all of my misspent youth spent reading Rogue Squadron and Heir to the Empire and all that. Finally got to be put to good use. I could

take this Meseeks figure and make a little Thrawn out of him with a nice jacket. Hey, Thrawn's canon again. We're all cashing on Wasted Childhood. I mean, that's what this is all about. Yeah, we have a bad Beatles cover episode with our buddy Dan Amrick

whose band Palette Swap Ninja did an amazing Star Wars Beatle tribute. Oh, yeah. I don't think I've ever seen... Mark Hamill even praised it. Yeah, I'm not sure I've had a friend

go that viral ever. But yeah, Dan's a great dude and he's on that episode. Also check out 302010 where you look 30, 20, and 10 years ago to that week in the past it's been really fun

we were in the 88, 98, 08 periods so I'm telling you Roger Rabbit someday we gotta talk about some Miyazaki somewhat recently yeah

and also check out Vigilium Apocalypse our weekly video game show slightly retro slightly current Bob talked about Monster Hunter recently oh yeah

I love Monster Hunter I still love it so much thanks for listening folks see you next week with Treehouse of Horror 6 Bob talked about Monster Hunter recently. Oh, yeah. I love Monster Hunter. I still love it so much. Thanks for listening, folks. See you next week with Treehouse of Horror 6. Maybe I'm amazed at the way you pulled me out of time You hung me on the line Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you Maybe I'm a man, maybe I'm a lonely man Who's in my bed and wants something That he doesn't really understand Maybe I'm a man

Maybe you're the only woman Who could ever help me Baby, won't you help me to understand Ooh guitar solo Baby, I'm a man, baby, I'm a lonely man Who's in the middle of something That he doesn't really understand Baby, I'm a man, baby, I're the only one who doesn't ever help me Baby, won't you help me to understand

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh Baby, I'm amazed the way you're with me all the time Baby, I'm afraid of the way I leave you Thank you. ស្រូវានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ Thank you. That's it. Go to your room.