Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Lisa's Rival

Episode Date: August 9, 2017

This is future showrunner Mike Scully's first episode, and it features Lisa dealing with inadequacy, Homer trying to get the sugar then the power, and we also learn the name of Ralph's cat! Give a listen, you lovely patrons!

This week's episode of Talking Simpsons is brought to you by you. That's right, we're on Patreon now, so head on over to patreon.com slash talking simpsons. For as little as $5 a month, you can help our show and get all kinds of great extra content on top of that. We've got a ton of great bonus content waiting for you right now, so head on over to patreon.com slash talking simpsons today. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to TalkingSimpsons. And believe me, this is not a dream. I'm your host, Bob Mackie, one of the Blue Nose City Fathers, and this is the Laser Time

Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today? Henry Gilbert, and I just like to smell my lunch. And who else? Chris Antica's name is also Mittens. And today's episode is Lisa's rival. My cat's breath smells like cat food. That means he's healthy.

And today's episode aired on September 11th, 1994, a day that will live in infamy. Oh my God! In the news, former Vice President Dan Quayle, gearing up for a likely presidential run, calls for an end to government subsidies of out-of-wedlock births ever in touch. Finally.

MTV tries to raise money for its real-world cast member, Pedro Zamora, who has no medical coverage and is suffering from HIV. Andre Agassi wins the men's singles in the U.S. Open, and screen actress Jessica Tandy is dead. I'm sorry. That was so depressing. Man. I thought Dan Quayle embarrassed himself enough with

the whole Murphy Brown debacle. Attacking a fictional character on a TV show. He wasn't done with unwed mothers yet. America's biggest problem, unwed mothers. I know. I mean, I feel like that was a Hail Mary pass because he was such a joke even to Republicans that like Brit Hume made fun of him, which is just like, well, then you're done. If a hack like Brit Hume is making fun of you.

There are such easier targets like gay people, minorities. Come on, Dan Quayle, step up your game a bit. It's like someone elected that high in office. If you told me he was dead, I would believe you because no one has shown any interest in interviewing him. He has not come out of hiding. He's a living Mad Magazine from 1989 joke, and he'll stay that way until he dies.

Eleanor Sherman defended him very strongly, though, in The Critic. Listen to Talking Critic, folks. I love that. I love that rant. Sadly, things didn't go so well for Pedro. It's a bummer. In 94, there wasn't really... there weren't the meds

they have now for HIV and AIDS. Thanks, Reagan, for dragging your feet on that. When I first got to San Francisco, I would walk around with people and be like, oh, there's where Tom lives. Why doesn't he come out? Tom's sick. I think that stigma is gone. A little

bit. As long as you have the health insurance and don't have to rely on Max Crowley. How many times did Puck ask you for money? I've never seen any of those people. I just saw Pedro Zamora Boulevard. It's a very small street. It was my introduction to San Francisco. I think that, well, that and the Venom comic, Lethal Protector, where Venom moved to San Francisco.

That or Seekers. A classic. Okay, so this episode, I have to point out, if you're wondering why season five didn't have any Lisa episodes, this is a season five episode. It's another victim of the Northridge earthquake. Perhaps the biggest victim of it, I'd say. It was moved back the most. It was the 17th in production. So if you want to think about where that would fall in season five, that'd be right before Sweet Seymour Skinner's Badass Song.

So this was shoved all the way into season six, the second episode of season six. So this is the season five Lisa episode, pretty much. And it's quite a good Lisa episode, pretty much. And it's quite a good Lisa episode. I like, it's the most, like, weakness Lisa has shown, which kind of gives more interest to her character beyond being, like, either a goody-goody or a scold. I mean, there was, Lisa vs. Malibu, Stacy was

a Lisa episode, I will point that out. Yeah, you're right, actually, sorry. But this was a second one. They usually have more than one. Yeah, I guess I was asking myself, why was there such a shortage of Lisa episodes in season 5? and now there was no bob episode that's true technically i mean cape fear was the holdover blah blah blah production five what's also interesting about this episode it is the first episode written by mike scully and so this is when mike scully enters our narrative let's welcome him history so it is also might be my

favorite b plot of all time oh yeah i mean that both ways i'm not kidding i love this side story i think it overshadows the a plot uh so quick bio on mike scully before the simpsons he had been a uh comedy writer of uh honestly the simpsons was easily the biggest job he had gotten to that point he had worked on a show he'd worked on some rather unpopular shows his longest employment was on the kid's show out of this world which was really not good no no no that show sucked i wouldn't even watch that as a kid it was the worst version of small wonder like you're like well small wonder is bad right and like no out of this world these are bad syndicated sitcoms sitcoms with no network looking for a home. So cheap, too. I just remember the last episode out of this world where she tells them she's an alien and they all accept her and stuff.

The Simpsons was his big hire and he was one of the only writers on the staff with actual grown ass kids. Which I think really showed in his writing, for better and worse, that he was a parent really put his the experiences of a parent into stories including this one like this this gives you more of an angle on bart and lisa as students as siblings and you'd get in other episodes i think written by people who are childless like dave merkin and he has some weinstein at the time he has five daughters which is a different perspective it's just he's only raised girls so he has a lot to say about lisa and i want to say that um i will be a mike scully apologist i feel like we've come to forgive him over time but he was basically the scapegoat for all the simpsons problems but if you look

deeper into what happened it's not just him it's a lot of other issues that were happening around the time he ran his season but yeah i will say people retroactively look at this episode and say oh well this episode has the sugar plot and that just points to why mike scully you know ran the show off the rails into zany town but actually that sugar plot is was uh written by george meyer that's his contribution which is a bigger tell of what happened in the scully seasons because scully was the guy in charge but he also this is how i reflect on the seasons 9 through 12 which were the mike scully run seasons. He was the first showrunner to ever do more than two seasons as showrunner.

And he was the enemy of no homers club. And I didn't like him either. I've written plenty angry posts about him in my youth. I'll probably find it doing research. I think that Scully I walk back my blaming of Scully because I think was, he wasn't the obsessive that Oakley Weinstein before him were, and he wasn't also the controlling hand that Merkin was. He really, when you hear on the commentaries, he was the showrunner. But George Meyer and Ian McStone Graham both also had big hands in his seasons. And if I would call anybody guilty of the worsening of the Simpsons, it is Ian McStone Graham.

You're right, You're right. And to an extent, I hate to blame George Meyer because I both love and I love George Meyer. But I think he also took him into zany town. Yeah, I'm sure George Meyer pitched jokes in the Gene and Reese seasons and in the Oakley and Weinstein seasons where they would say, that's funny, but no, we can't put that in. You made us laugh, but we're not going to do it. But Mike Scully would. And I think that's the difference. He was less of a gatekeeper.

He was less good of a gatekeeper. The longer you work on a show like that, the more you want to get stupid. You care a little less, but you're also willing to take more chances, and you do get stuff that fans find controversial. The archetypal Scully-Meyer cooperation story to me is, they cut my sandwich. I love that joke. They forgot to cut my my sandwich and his arm is choked off. That is

great, but it also is extra cruel, universe-breaking, and then they're like, and his arm's reattached. Doesn't he show up at the end with a bandage around his arm? Yeah, I love that fucking joke. But yeah, I would say Ian Maxton Graham, the writer of the uh

alone again natural diddly the murderer of maude i would blame him more than any person for the worst thing of it because he also like he purposely doesn't give a shit like he actually antagonizes the fans of like oh did i forget that fuck you like was basically his saying i think when they interviewed him when he first started working on the show he's like well i never watched the show before i started writing and that's what all the fans would raise their fists in anger and all tv simpsons yeah scream his name which he probably enjoyed i get the feeling i don't know i would love to talk to you max stone graham so nobody tell him i called him the the ruiner of the show this will be but this episode so written by mike scully the the idea of Lisa getting a rival was the last gift Conan O'Brien gave to the show.

His final pitch. It sounds very Conan because I have to imagine Conan was a prodigy-y. Yes. And had a rival like this. Yeah. On his WTF, he talks about going to Harvard and being like, we're used to him just being this goofball on TV. But he was like a mega honor student. Excels in everything.

Yes. Yeah., yeah. And then the B-plot was by George Meyer, as you said. And I wonder if Conan would have written this were David Letterman not to move to CBS would Conan have written this episode. Maybe, yeah. And also, a thing I really noticed from watching this the first time is that structurally, this is very similar to Lard of the dance which was the season 10 opener guest

character lisa kudrow she is a new rival for lisa in a different way she isn't better at lisa than everything she's more popular and more mature than lisa then meanwhile at the same time instead of homer and bart discovering sugar they discover grease and start collecting grease. So the A plot and the B plot are both very similar in storytelling. And that was Mike Scully season 10 opener. He didn't write it, but obviously I wouldn't be surprised if they at least said, like, let's just take the structure of Lisa's Rival and switch out some stuff. And Lord of the Dance is a good episode. I like it as a good later episode meaning it aired 20 years ago yeah by being only 15 17 years ago it's it's a good new

episode that's all the the preamble yeah uh so lisa is practicing her saxophone she's looking for a place to practice her saxophone and getting shut down by every family member and it's it's a nice good early setup that lisa plays a saxophone and is very interested in that. And I also love hearing Skinner say spoilage over the phone. You spared me quite a bit of spoilage. That's very Oakley Weinstein. It really is. And I feel like they have a prank call in here, but it's Skinner. Bart can't call Moe again because of the Jimbo Jones incident.

Ever since Jimbo Jones, I'm shocked they kept with that. And then it felt like a very well-observed sibling thing of oh okay i'll just bother you from my room and yes i mean bart and lisa are we're separated by this my sister and i are separated by the same age gap as bart and lisa that's so fucking accurate same here but i was a younger kid and it's like i can get you on a technicality yeah it was it was more about like my sister doing something in total earnest and me bothering her because i have nothing better to do. And that's exactly what our relationship was like.

I felt very bad for Lisa watching this, judging by my behavior. And also, how do you learn how to play a musical instrument? Because it does annoy everybody. It really does. No, I was guilty of this on the other end where, like, when my mom – my mom loves community band. She was a band geek in high school. She would call herself a band geek. I'm not making fun when my mom my mom loves community band she she was a band geek in high school she would call herself a band geek i'm not making fun of my mom and 20 30 years ago when we moved to florida she then got into community band which is basically just getting to continue your fun in high school band as an adult and she's been in community bands over 20 years now and

she loves it and then so well she kind of goes between. She does bassoon. She does trombone. She's done the baritone, trumpet. I got a woodwind for a righty. Sorry, sorry. All right. But anyway. But I was a kid saying, like, Mom, stop playing your thing. But you have to practice more.

Until I got an electric guitar, it was embarrassing to play anything. Because I always played poorly at first. Of course for for months or years yeah and people have to hear you do it it is why like i was in band for two years and after that i was like i can't take this anymore like i can't be this bad for this long of this thing and also for me band was not the friendship i thought it would be it was it was getting abandoned at universal studios by my entire team and We were just like, we don't want you around. Band geeks are harsh.

They are, man. They are. Go play with Beetlejuice. Bart's reading Bad Boy's Life, which is a parody of Boy's Life. As the only Boy Scout in the room, I'm guessing. Yeah, I remember it, though. I read a ton of Boy's Life. What a terrible magazine filled with scams.

I sent away for two lizards. It was crazy. filled with scams. I sent away for... You could sell grits? I sent away for two lizards. Oh. And I got... It was crazy. I got a check back and, like, no longer in business. That's what kind of

lead time print had back in the day. This business can only exist for six weeks and then we got to beat, beat, beat. Yeah, the back of boys' life was all about, like,

just make a hovercraft, buy some lizards, and, like, I think they would buy, like, two years worth of advertising and, like, everything I sent away for, the check got sent back with, there's no one at this address.

This was before you could check your status of a shipment on the internet, kids. The magazine has been around since 1911 and still exists. But I mean, it's kind of like Game Informer, honestly. It has a captive audience. You have readership of pedophiles. Whoa. The Boy Scoutouts sucks by the way i have not read it from that angle yeah prove it if you're an adult man don't read boy's life yes and then we get some very jerk ass homer early of breaking the camera but i did like it the way

he's breaking it by hammering a power turned off power drill into the camera it was a setup man that's a very yeah but that's a very season 9 Homer there. Like, a season 7 Homer would not be that dumb. Yeah. Then we see why Homer's breaking that camera, and we get some fun gay jokes. Here we go. My, these seas are certainly heaving. Well, no

more than your bountiful bosom, milady. Does that earring mean you're a pirate? Kinda. Ah, the seas have quieted. And only in this sweet embrace of quietude can two lovers truly be as... Ooh, such noise. Ooh. Well, I'm done for the evening.

Yeah. Lisa, stop blowing my sacks. I mean, stop blowing your sacks. Your sacks. Stop it. Mom, I'm auditioning for first chair in the school band and I've got to practice. I'm sorry, but I sacrificed a very expensive camera just to get some quiet time. Marge spent $800 just to read a book alone. Yes, just to... Love in a time of scurvy. Yes.

It's just like the Maggie's other cake thing. I like that Marge, Marge knows she can't actually tell Homer to stop. She's like, I just have to distract him with a different thing to destroy. And the book she's reading is a, the title at least is a parody of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, which is not a, a bonus ripper. Yeah. Bodice. Bodice ripper. It's not a dime store, right? Yeah. Bodice ripper. Bodice ripper, there you go.

I've never said it. A real bean flicker. And even Maggie is putting, Maggie does not want any part of this either. She's putting pacifiers in her ears. The book is totally a parody of the dime store novels you'd see that always had Fabio on the cover. It got mocked because, like,

obviously the sexuality of an older woman is gross, and so we should make fun of it. But, I mean, it's what women read. It's not that. It's just, like, it takes... Lady Stroke fiction just takes so much time to endure. But we're missing the big thing here. There's a joke about the phrase butt pirate.

Yes. Which I have not heard since... Like, I have not heard that... Not even in high school was butt pirate being passed around. When she says, does that mean you're a pirate kind of as in a butt pirate that is oh i thought it was a joke about the ear no it was i never read the ear until until you mentioned it well yeah so that was as a kid i'd already been hearing on the playground and maybe because i was noticing what people thought was gay and what wasn't different to the way than you guys did i believe you were pegged as a total gay wad if i'm quoting i read i read a funny tweet actually

today that said the experience of lgbt culture is looking back on your childhood and realizing how super gay you were and that was and that was that that is kind of my memories of thinking like oh yeah i was i was covering it right and then I remember like, oh no, everybody, like that one guy shoved me to the ground and called me a fag. Yeah, no. Like a real Moonlight situation? No, it wasn't. It wasn't that bad. Only from watching Moonlight

because it seemed like everybody realized that he was gay before he was. Like the whole world seemed to be aware of it. But I wanted to ask about that earring thing. So I did look this up. Okay, please tell us. All right, so as I had heard on the playground back then, actually I'd heard it through New Kids on the Block

because one of the new kids had an earring. And the saying was like, is that everybody? We were so obsessed with like, but is that the gay side? Is that the gay side earring? So the idea of like a man shouldn't have earrings. That is what society tells us. And in the 80s, a man can have an earring, but idea of like a man shouldn't have earrings that is what that is what society tells us and then in the 80s a man can't have an earring but only on one ear or both ears yes one ear or both the right ear i don't know and so the saying from my research in in more

in more cultures in america too the right ear pierced only is seen as the gay ear if you have the left ear then you're not gay and that's that just really seems like a way to call somebody gay for having an earring. It apparently, in some gay subcultures in the 80s... It was like scarlet lettering yourself? No, it was more of one of those tells of if you're a top or a bottom, which is if you right ear means you're the bottom, left ear means you're the top. This was... It's only gay if you

take it you have to pair that with all manner of handkerchiefs and well yeah if you've seen the movie cruising before signals they explain all the handkerchiefs the handkerchief i've never done i've never done any we're an embarrassing movie i might do it today well there's also the works it was the same deal with the with baseball caps as well which is uh the pitcher and catcher if you get my meaning i was a catcher i thought it was just cool the pitcher and catcher, if you get my meaning there. I was a catcher? I thought it was just cool. A catcher wears his hat backwards.

So, yeah, see how gay you all were? Oh, man. What a breakthrough. So this was the Simpsons bringing in that joke here, though. When I looked at the guy, first, from the angle, he has the earring on his left ear. Oh, gay. And then he turns to Marge, and he has it on his left ear oh and then he turns to marge and he has it on his right which would then seem to show that he has two earrings which would ruin that

earring joke but then lastly when he leaves then he has no earring in his left ear so it's only in the right one i do believe they meant it to be a right ear earring of course i mean to say he was a pirate yeah i mean i got my left ear pierced in high school i don't think i don't think men do that anymore i mean i've seen big ass gauges in both years i don't know i know one i know one really cool libertarian who has a left ear piercing so that shows how cool he is but there was where there was like the anxiety like what if they pierced the wrong ear oh god oh god oh no like nothing says rebellions like an affectation you can get it clairs in the mall yes it was an eight dollar uh hole puncher apparently

the idea of why pirates had earrings back then was because if their corpse was found you could sell the earring to then bury them to afford the funeral that's that's that was also what i read but so that's the history of gay earrings thank you you. You're overshadowing, like, the filthier Marge jokes snuck in there. Her fantasizing about sex, but also the blowing thing I never. Lisa, quit blowing my sex. Lisa, quit blowing sex. Sex, just sex. Blowing my sex is like you're ruining my sexual fantasy.

You're blowing it. It goes into like a blowjob, like a vague blowjob reference. Yes, a little. I don't know. I never read it like that. Well, Marge, I also read that scene as like marge is she is enjoying this fantasizing but obviously she's not going to masturbate in front of maggie but she is going to store it for later that's how we're all later yeah and i and i love the little the shoe hanging off her foot affect oh yeah

really cute great bit of animation and yes in case you don't know Fabio, he still is a thing, but he was famous at the time of being on the most of those covers ever. And by 1994, he was quite a pop culture thing. He was, like he had put out an album, an album in 1994.

Only to be overshadowed by the greatest thing he ever did, get hit in the face by a goose on a roller coaster. That was the coolest thing ever. His crowning achievement. Paul F. Tompkins has this amazing joke about he worked at Tower Records and Fabio came in, and he said that he just laughed at seeing him, and then he realized how much it must suck to be Fabio

to just walk into a place and everybody just goes, ha ha, the very idea of you. You're not real. Well, the next scene we get after this is the Judgment Day scene where Rod and Todd think the Four Horsemen are coming or that influences them to thinking that. What I don't get about the pacing of this episode, it's a great episode,

but it's just like the first scenes, Lisa is finding a place to practice. Everyone else is hanging out at home. The next scene, she's in school. Yeah. Was that like the day before? I felt like it was oddly paced in that sense. I guess that was the weekend and then she's at school on a monday i guess uh i was paying too

close attention i was like wait why she's in school all of a sudden uh but ned thinking it was judgment day was kind of a sequel to the four elephants of the apocalypse joke all right ned in season five is very obsessed with revelations but yeah then we get to the school and Ralph is on fire in this episode. 45 seconds till pencil's down. Asa, what's the answer to number seven? Sorry, Ralph. That would defeat the purpose of testing as it means a student evaluation. My cat's name is Mittens. This is the birth of true Ralph.

I mean, he was creeping towards this personality before. I saw Snagglepuss going to the bathroom outside, things like that. But I feel like the more non-sequiturist he says, the more Ralph-like he is. This is the best use of Ralph's specialness to this point. There is a read on this. You can see that these are cheap jokes about a mentally handicapped child. In later seasons, they straddle the line a bit better with Ralph. Like, Ralph has problems but

he's not he's not exactly developmentally disabled but they can't it's george washington performance yeah that was a much different ralph yeah the right what man can tame her the revolution of ralph but not to spoil the ending, but this endeared Ralph to nerds in a way that no other character had ever received. Hoover says 45 seconds, but it's 22 seconds when she says time is up. And then she offers up an extra credit question, which I think it's wrongly executed. Because one, it's like, oh, only one student in the class can get the extra credit question right. Yeah. And then she won't let Lisa do it, which is like, well, then you're denying Lisa extra credit.

But there is somebody who has the answer. Oh, oh. Anyone besides Lisa for a change? Ralph, this better not be about your cat. Oh, oh, all right. Columbus was looking for a passage to India. Oh, correct, Allison. And on your very first day in our class.

And during a subsequent voyage, Columbus found what is now the continent of South America. Yowie. I never made Miss Hoover yowie. So that's Winona Ryder playing Allison Taylor. Almost unrecognizable. Totally unrecognizable. I forgot watching this episode she was in. They pitch her voice up. Is unrecognizable. I forgot, watching this episode, she was in it.

They pitch her voice up. I mean... Is that what... They do pitch her voice up? Yeah, they do a bit. I think they do the same with Meryl Streep in the next...

In this season as well, actually. It's season 16. I do like Allison in this episode. I feel like she's not given a lot to do. She just has to be

a pleasant, successful person because she is not the antagonist of this episode. She makes Lisa's brain turn on itself. Basically, just by existing, I really love that as a conflict. Like she is a pleasant person who just wants to be friends and wants to fit in and, you know,

just do her thing. But Lisa's like, no, this is a threat to me and who I am. My identity, this is how I define myself is going to have to be rewritten. I was, I could absolutely identify with that, too, as an advanced kid in school. I was a smart kid in class, but I also didn't work the hardest. I was just used to being like, yeah, I'm the smartest kid in class. But then when, say, the eventual valedictorian of the school would be in my class, I'd be like, you're smarter than me and you work harder. See, that's why I chose class clown. That's why it sucks when someone comes in like, oh, that dude's funnier than me.

The teacher likes him. You can go back to the Bart the Genius episode to hear our stories about how we were all child geniuses who were destroyed by being praised too much. Yeah, I think those advanced classes and those gifted programs that we were in, they meant well, but i think they weren't

handled i find it more astonishing remembering in elementary school that like certain kids who we were in class with together got shifted over to what was called sld slow learning development basically like just branding them yeah as the r word for us it was ld yeah now i remember sld in florida yeah it was and it is a stigma it I remember SLD in Florida, yeah. Wow, that seems cruel. It is a stigma. It's just like, yeah. Well, it also seems cruel, and I hope never happens, because I lost my first best friend to being skipped ahead of grade.

We were both the smart kids in class, and he moved ahead of grade, and it was like, we lived in the same neighborhood. I never saw him again. His caste system became completely different, and my girlfriend has the story of being skipped ahead as well, and she was always, you know, she's small, but like she felt like she was in school with giants, like people who went through puberty years ahead of her and like felt like she had no friends. I don't think you should ever skip a kid ahead. That's why I wasn't skipped ahead.

I could have started school in third grade. I don't know how that would have worked out. A, like a five year old in third grade, I would have been beaten to death. Yeah. It's, it's an unfortunate thing.

I had, uh, I feel like we've talked about this. I'm talking since before, but it was a while ago that i was i was the opposite of that in that i did first grade i had done it in arkansas but when i moved to atlanta i would have been the youngest kid in my class based on their age system versus arkansas my my parents felt that i shouldn't be the youngest kid in class because they were right. I can see now that they were correct that I would be picked on.

I definitely would have been and I still would be. But it really hurt me at the time to be, in my mind, held back to have to do a class twice. But then again, probably if I had taken, by taking first grade a second time, that gave my mind more time to develop and be ahead of other – Maybe I wouldn't have been in kid classes. You also need to be honest with yourself. You were a smart kid in Arkansas. I hope we have no Arkansanians listening. How do you say that?

Arkansans. Arkansans. There we go. But, yeah. But yeah, so Lisa finds out that Allison is both smarter than her and younger than her, which that's a very women in competition thing you see in pop culture. Like, you're younger and prettier than me too, which is weird to put on an eight-year-old, I have to say. I mean, that is an adult thing. But it's funny how Lisa talks to her just sort of to investigate, like, who is this person?

Oh yeah, when Lisa's shoved into the mud she says hi sarah mike scully said that was an intentional shout out to his daughter sarah and he's like his daughter sarah is is the bully but his daughters are also allison and taylor so yes he has five daughters and i think the other two were later characters in other episodes that is a thing that i came to like mike scully last four when i found that out. Just like, this show isn't your fucking... My brother should work on the show. Oh, my brother should work on the show. I should mention my kids all the time.

It should be my family that's running from the rhino in Screaming Yellow Hawkers. Oh, you're right. He put himself in it so much. I mean, I probably would. I probably would, too. But yes, Lisa finds out some more harsh truths from Allison. Gee, I never met anyone who skipped a grade before. I'm surprised

you haven't been skipped. You're obviously smart enough. Well, I'm sure I could have, but I'd hate to leave behind all my wonderful friends. I'm the rape brain queen! Hey, Sarah! Well, I gotta go.

I have to practice for band auditions. Me too. Hey, what instrument do you play? The sax. Me too. I'm going for first chair this year. Me too. Wow.

With so much in common, I'm sure we'll be the best of friends. Me too. Me too. I love how weary she is. The way her eyelids drop at the end of the day. Yeah, it's great. This is Sammy Yardley's best acting ever. It really does. And she is hyperventilating into her lunch bag.

And that's something you would see on sitcoms all the time, someone breathing into a paper bag. But you shouldn't do that if you're hyperventilating because apparently hyperventilation can be conflated with things like heart attacks and asthma attacks. And if you breathe into a bag, you can exacerbate that condition. Why was that even a solution? You're trying to recirculate carbon dioxide into your body. So you'll breathe slower. Yeah. It's what happens when you're breathing more carbon dioxide than oxygen in a room.

I know, but I just don't get it. Hyperventilating. I better breathe into a paper bag that smells like bologna. I mean, I probably did it because I saw it on a cartoon show just to imitate it. I was a brown bag lunch kid. And as my mom would jokingly say to me that I ate the same lunch for 10 years straight, which was PB&J, chips, and then some sort of sweet treat with it. But it was always PB&J. When I got to high school, I will definitely be mocked for walking around with a brown bag,

so I just didn't have anything. Oh, man, my favorite lunchbox was my He-Man. No, Transformers. He-Man and Transformers either. I had a Spider-Man one, too. Those were my favorite. The Simpsons will be right back. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you.

Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs weird i don't remember saying that part visit dejauden.com care and get insurance that's really big on care did i mention that we care hi-de-lee-ho podcasterinos and welcome to the sixth season of talking simpsons can you believe we've made it this far already well we couldn't have done it without you yes you the listeners to our lovely podcast not only do we thank you for all your support all your tweets at us all your likes on the social medias but also your support on things like patreon.com slash talking simpsons yes the show is directly supported there and your attention gives us hope hope that we can pay our rent by doing a simpsons podcast isn't that everyone's dream i know it's mine and i'm living, thanks to you folks. So, if you still aren't a supporter

though, you're missing out on some really cool stuff. What? Well, we just did our Season 5 wrap-up and special deleted scenes video slash audio thing. Yes, first off, we talked through all the big news and historical moments that happened during the

fifth season. Plus, we go over every deleted scene from the season piece by piece and comment on it and give it some historical context. And you can even see it in video form. If you pay $10 a month, it's really, really awesome. And Hachi Machi, that's just the beginning because now exclusively on patrion.com slash talking

Simpsons is talking critic our weekly exploration of every episode of the critic we did the first two is there on their own thing now since we hit the funding goal on patreon we are doing the entire series and it will post every friday on patreon.com slash talking simpsons so if you head there you can see it and there's tons more cool stuff coming down the line and we thank you very much for your support there now onward to the rest of season six hey this is jerry cooney professional boxer and official greeter of Mr. Burns Casino. Welcome to Mr. Burns Casino.

If there's anything I can do to make your visit more enjoyable, please, just let me know. Yeah, great. See ya. You're listening to the guys on Talking Simpsons. Hey, is that bug off? also this week's episode of talking simpsons is brought to you by audible go to audible trial.com slash talking simpsons for a 30-day trial of it including your own free audiobook what's so great about audible.com well i'll tell you as a user of it myself i love love Audible. I really do. I've been a subscriber for years. As somebody who loves listening to podcasts in his ears all the time, it's just as fun to listen to classic audiobooks and new ones, too.

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Ron Funches, weird Al Yankovic, and more. And all of the original cast is back to it's really fun. I really like it. And it is part of audible. So if you sign up for the trial, you can download all the episodes as part of your membership. And again, how do you sign up for the trial, you can download all the episodes as part of your membership.

And again, how do you sign up for that? audibletrial.com slash talking simpsons. It's a great way to support the show. Thanks again, audibletrial.com slash talking simpsons. You like Lazer Time shows? Then you might like Bonus Time, Lazer Time's weekly bonus We'll be right back. but she had a little 40th birthday jam. It was fun. I don't know how to talk about that because it's like people's children. The doggies didn't get along.

They got along, I would say, like 85% of the time. And then 15% of the time they would. I mean, I brought my dogs around other dogs. I think I've seen that like once. They got into it quite a bit. But then you would see they would like run around and just have fun. They would up until the bone and the hot dogs entered the equation. Yeah, I think any time there was a foodstuff or another dog around, then that would complicate things.

There was absolutely no injuries. It's all bark for both of them. It's like, yeah. And they get close. Scratch Michael. Yeah, sorry, Mike. It does create an awkwardness. I can't speak for Michael and Diana or your lady.

It would have been great if you took sides. Oh, I'm so sorry this happened. These are fucking dogs. There shouldn't be a moment of silence like, oh, this is an awkwardness we might not be able to socially recover from. I was hoping that it would come to a part where half the party

is siding with their dog and half the party... I saw it. She came at him. I saw it. Steve wanted it. Yes. And he wasn't going to stop until he got it. You're going to let Steve kick your dog's ass like that? Get bonus time, Laser Time's weekly, full-length, uncensored, and ad-free Patreon-exclusive podcast, as well as full-length movie commentaries, wrestling and cartoon video commentaries,

the first season of Talking Simpson, and more at patreon.com slash lasertime, starting at just five bucks. You'll help us live, and we'll do ourcom slash lasertime, starting at just five bucks. You'll help us live, and we'll do our best to help you never be bored again. Then meanwhile, we get, this is some jerk-ass Homer here. Hurry up and finish eating. You're steering fine, boy. Hard to the right. Hard to the left.

Cat. Shear. Old man. Jackknife sugar truck. Sugar? Don't worry, buddy. Here's a quarter. Call for help at the nearest phone.

I'll keep an eye on things here. If only the sugar were as sweet as you, buddy. Here's your quarter. Call for help at the nearest phone. I'll keep an eye on things here. If only the sugar were as sweet as you, sir. Homer, that was downright decent of you. We hit the jackpot here! White gold, Texas tea! Sweetener! So I want to say that the old man Homer runs off the road would have been Hans Molman, if not for the fact that Hans Molman was driving the truck.

Yeah. And they would have been hans molman if not for the fact that hans molman was driving the truck yeah and so they would have killed him too yes but it's extra funny that that abe he calls his father old man yeah and that homer homer forcing bart to drive is again very season nine homer this is actually ass homer season actually this season he has lisa drive uh side show bob roberts that true. He will do that. So, okay. It's not just – but at least that's a fun-for-a-moment cutaway. Yeah, at least he's a better driver than Bart. Yes.

And that Homer is sitting in the front seat. He's still sitting in the driver's seat. So, Bart can only move the steering wheel. And, yeah, it is also funny that Hans – it's a rare time when Hans crashes something and isn't dead. He can walk away from it. They let him walk away. And that white gold Texas tea sweetener is from the Ballad of Jed Clampett, the Beverly Hillbillies theme. White gold Texas tea.

Instead of white gold, though, it's black gold. Black gold Texas tea. Bubbling crude. We have to reference it before it dies completely. It's almost gone. No one will it dies completely. It's almost gone. No one will recognize that anymore. It's almost gone. And while a dated thing in this is Homer gives Hans a quarter to call somebody instead of just using a cell phone, which we all have all the time.

Here's a burner cell phone. You don't have the clip, Henry, and it's cool, but my favorite line of the show is, Lisa, I am nice. You can be a little nicer to Principal Skinner. Lisa's mad about not being skipped ahead of grade. We'll cut that in. We'll cut that in. I don't know, honey. I guess that's the school's decision to make. Well, did you ever talk to anyone at the school?

Make a few calls on my behalf? Maybe you could have been nicer to Principal Skinner, if you know what I mean. Lisa, I am nice. I also like the bit about Homer saying this town charter. They get a lot of work out of the town charter that the ye foodstuffs go to the village idiot. Yeah. Since I don't see him around.

But yeah, I like that Marge doesn't get that Lisa is telling her to give sexual favors to Skinner. But she's too naive to realize that. Or Scum has been in theaters. No, it's just a holdover. That's not a reference to that. But I like when it is like Lisa's like. No, it's just a holdover. That's not a reference to that. But I like when it is like Lisa's like hip movement

which goes like nicer. Yeah. Like it also is weird that Lisa is like yes, I want you. You could have had sex. You should have had sex

with Skinner for me. I feel like that would have worked. Lisa is already this desperate telling her mom to fuck Skinner to advance past Allison.

She's already that insecure after one day in Allison's presence. They've never made Lisa this unlikable. Homer makes a dinner of grey slop, which... So gross. Yes. Homer, I really appreciate you making dinner, but this food tastes a little strange. It hurts

my teeth. That's because I've loaded it with sugar! Marge, our ship has come in. I found 500 pounds of sugar in the forest that I'm going to sell directly to the consumer. And all for a low, low price of $1 per pound. But the grocery store sells sugar for 35 cents a pound. And it doesn't have nails and broken glass in it.

Those are prizes! Ooh, a blessing cap. Gross. That sugar meal looks like what was left over in my cereal bowl, like the gray slurry after you eat the cereal. When you've had Lucky Charms, the most sugary. But I love Yardley's reading of, it hurts my teeth is good there, too.

And then Homer already has a bag ready for sugar with his own logo inside and everything. I love Bart rolling his eyes when he goes, in the forest. Bart's just like, you don't have to lie. We all know you stole the sugar. Blasting caps are super dangerous. Yeah, you don't want to be chewing on one of those. It's such a ridiculous beer cup.

You could blow your hand off. You'll lose fingers to a blasting cap. Because Talking Simpsons is my job now, I can crack the books on some serious research. But the grocery store sells sugar for $0.35 a pound, Marge says. In 2017, the cheapest sugar I could find is $0.15 an ounce, which is $2.40 a pound. So Homer's sugar is much

cheaper than our modern sugar. Wow. So there you have it. You know, those out-of-touch Hollywood writers don't understand how cheap sugar is. Or you Splenda. Is that okay? There's always, like, every decade there's a new sugar substitute, and then the previous decade's one is like, what caused cancer? A decade later, you figure out why it's bad for you.

Yes, yeah. You can't take a shortcut around sugar. You should either just cut it out or be fat like me. It turns out there's no shortcut to moderation. I know. I was surprised that Uter had that error horn thing. That was his thing before. Yeah, the flugelhorn before Ricola ads were popular.

Okay. Those were big in the, in 97 was the earliest I could find the American. Oh, really? Okay. Ricola. I think it was earlier than that. So, well, that was the earliest one my research defined. It's one of the three most obvious references to pull from Uther's birthplace.

Yes, yeah. Like chocolate, the flugelhorn, and the lederhosen he's wearing. Actually, they'll fucking throw chocolate on him in this one, too. Oh, you're right. You're right. I begged you to let me go first. And then also the joke that Jimbo had been practicing his tambourine. Yeah. And then also the joke that Jimbo had been practicing his tambourine. That works better since it got delayed because this takes place right after Bart of Darkness.

So the summer is over. So he was practicing in the summer. A nice history callback of Martin having his loot as well. Was that from Bart's Friend Falls in Love where he's friends with Martin for a second? Oh, my body warrior. And we see Bart running away in the window. It's one of my favorite shots, and it's on Instagram. Speaking of children not knowing

they're gay, that's another one of those. That was all their jokes with Martin, which I just wish they are realistic in that the obviously gay kid would be picked on, but they do hurt my heart. It's cruel. And then there's some just great sex work back and forth between Lisa and Allison.

They sacrifice jokes just to have good animation and good sax work. And all the kids dancing to it, just rocking out. Yeah. This battle of the rivals, which is every story of anime ever, is a battle of rivals. This one, it seems to show that Allison and Lisa are equals creatively, but that Lisa just doesn't have the stamina that Allison had.

Allison had just a little bit more stamina and could blow harder for longer. Shut up. And beat Lisa at this. I mean, we don't hear a lot from Allison during this scene, but I wonder if she was thinking, oh, this is fun.

Like, I'm having fun. She was not as... Maybe what ruined Lisa's chances was she was so fixated on winning. That's true. That she psyched herself out. Now, there is a little moment of, you can see when Lisa continues going, that Allison looks at her with like, all right, yeah, go Lisa. She is positive and like the good rival in anime who's just like, I just want us, steel

sharpens steel. I want us to both be the greatest. We'll both push each other to the top. That is, again, the message of every sports anime. This episode's secretly an anime, folks. You heard it here. But then they have the best. Lisa passes out, and it's one of my favorite act breaks ever.

But it only works once. I hate that. It's like, I know it's coming now. That was a close one, Lisa, but you made it. I won first chair? No, you regained consciousness. Allison got first chair. Oh, it's just a dream.

That was a close one, Lisa, but you made it. I won first chair? No, you regained consciousness. Allison got first chair. And believe me, this is not a dream. Great screaming. Allison got first chair and believe me this is not a dream great screaming man and I love Largo says that for the benefit

of the audience he has no reason to know that Lisa had a dream previously and that it was the exact same it's just it's so weird

this is the most utilized Mr. Largo is ever yeah which is only strange because he's like he's one of the main authority figures in the opening of the show since it's beginning.

That's true. He probably has the ratio of appearance in opening to appearance in show probably the least. He really is one of those season one weirdos that probably should have been phased out but wasn't, that stuck around longer than the Howard's Flowers guy and the Candy Most Dandy guy he doesn't look right and and he kind of was like for cheap gay jokes or of like yeah and i think later they would oh no they'd say in homer's phobia that they had a joke of largo hanging out with smithers but they kind of cut that out okay i i think they've gotten more explicit in making

largo gay in later seasons. Really? No idea. Nobody loves a male house. That's like a shining moment up until right now. And I guess he only works if you're setting a scene in band practice and nowhere else. Yeah. And so we come back from break. Marge is being asked to compare her children, which again, that is, I think, a very well observed by a parent type thing of your children are constantly asking you, am I the favorite? Am I the favorite?

Who's the favorite? And Marge, you can't win. You can't say who's the favorite kid. Yeah, even if you try to qualify it, it never works. I really like Marge's advice to Lisa. Honey, if you get too competitive, you'll never be happy. No matter how good you are, there's always going to be someone better than you. I always thought I had the tallest hair, but that trip to graceland really opened my eyes but she's better than me at

everything that makes me special believe me honey she's more scared of you than you are of her you're thinking of bears mom that trip to great that is such a great show yeah i I love that joke, but it breaks a big Matt Groening rule that I've heard him talk about. To not acknowledge the hair? No, that no one, every Simpson is the most Simpson-y Simpson of Springfield in that no kid can have hair like Bart's but with more spikes. No character can be bald like Homer or have less hairs than Homer in that design. And nobody can have bigger hair than marge they intentionally never see it so i think they can get away with it but but the implication that there are people with bigger hair than marge is great and they're

all elvis fans which is perfect i love i do love that wonderful joke marge's point on like you know being competitive is a good thing but you do do have to recognize, like, there always will be somebody better than you. Like, you can't give up, but you also can't let that destroy you either. You don't have to be the best. Just stay sharp. Stay sharp. And after this, we have a scene with Skinner where I think the more antagonistic side of Agnes Skinner is coming out where she grounds Skinner for going to the door. Thanks a lot, Simpson.

Now I'm grounded. This is a very Bates Motel thing. This fits more with Oh, yeah, yeah. This fits more with Agnes being an unseen character and implying that, like, he murdered his mother a long time ago and he's pretending she's there. I do like the Tress McNeil just screaming unintelligibly in the background.

Just talking to the sugar man, mother. The sugar man. And Homer man the sugar man and homer just eating scoop fulls of sugar uh what was their sugar's name like simpson and son uh no it was homer's uh it was farmer simpson okay yes that's right then lisa lisa has already been replaced as the nerd in the class hey allison what's the answer to number nine i can't tell you ralph i can't tell you either ralph leave me alone i just love that leave me alone so now lisa is tired of of being replaced and she she needs to she's ready to go underhanded to do it yeah i mean for as sick as

she was of ralph she now needs this validation it's a very interesting mirror to the first scene we see. I like how this is written. Yeah, yeah. But Ralph should want her help. Like, Lisa's answers are still good, too. Like, even if she's second best in class, you'll get the right answers. She broke us on a national TV.

Fuck her. I feel like Ralph has completely forgotten this. Yes. That's what makes him peak Ralph. That part of his brain is dissolved. And then Bart. I like the Bart taking a voice memo thing. I think that was before Norm MacDonald was doing that on SNL. Yeah, he didn't say that.

Note to self. Did Bart say note to self? He would say note. He would say, like, note, buy fewer business cards. Germans love David Hasselhoff. And then we get a shout-out to the show America's Most Wanted, a co-show with Fox, which actually a year from this episode

produced a Simpsons tie-in episode of America's Most Wanted, which I want to do that as a Patreon exclusive commentary. Watch a lot. I'm there. Outside of American Idol, all of Fox's longest running shows are from their debut. Yeah. Like from their first or second year.

That's true. The Simpsons still on. If only Married with Children was still on. They were all like 50 or 60. Like Christina Applegate at 48 was still on the show. I mean, I do like the line, try to take him alive. Yes. This guy is tracking Milhouse.

And he's like, not again. They just smashed the jungle gym. They realize that seeing Milhouse in danger or hurt is very funny. People don't feel bad that a child is hurt when it's Milhouse. It's okay to hurt Milhouse. In the next scene, Homer, his major profit is finding a dollar in the parking lot or in the driveway or whatever. And we get a sense of how little Homer actually makes. He lost $40 by not going to work.

This was like a little over minimum wage in 1994 like man a minute that was yeah that was almost my first paycheck for that wendy's warming buns for eight hours straight my first real paycheck uh i believe was taco bell and that was for 515 which was minimum wage 425 that's how old i am yeah mine was in the four dollar range at amc theaters too and it's just god stretch that four dollars for me to take a bite for me to think of that now like i spent an entire day at a horrible job smelling popcorn all day for for fucking 40 bucks i'd just shit down my leg for that and the people at the top were paying lobbyists and politicians to get that down lower.

You deserve less, Henry. Hey, if there's no bottom, then there's no place for people to start, right? I mean, that's economics. Fuck you. Welcome to Talking Free Market. Okay. This is another hallmark, a bad hallmark of the Scully years, though. Homer not giving a shit that he's fired from work.

Him starting a job and not caring. It is exemplified in the great line slash horrible moment of Bart saying, do you even have a job anymore? I think it's pretty obvious. I don't. Right. I love that line, but it explains everything. It's just like, yeah, they don't fucking care. They used to build in scenes where Burns would be wondering where Homer was or Homer would be putting in a fake notice or something like that. Or his supervisor would give him time off to go to be the capital city.

Yeah, and he'd rip from a lever. Yes, all that stuff. But in this one, in future ones, they'd just be like, who cares? And the kindest I've ever seen any job like that. They said, if you don't show up tomorrow, don't show up at all. Yeah, don't show up again Monday. I don't think I've ever got that kind of grace period. Three-day weekend.

Four-day weekend. Oh, yeah. We get the second place memories, which I love this scene. I think this is my line of the show, which is, why would they show up just to boo us? Yeah. That's the joke. Hey, I am above average. So what if Allison's ahead of me?

There's no shame in being second. And now, Amos Renegar is proud to present the second best band in america will you welcome garfunkel messina oates and lisa singing their number two hit born to runner up why would they come to our concert just to boo us? Yeah, I do like Lisa questioning the logic of her anxiety, which just self-evidently should not make sense. Anxiety is things happening in your brain that don't have any logic. They're just there to torture you.

And she's just like, well, why would they do this? It's real fun to have those anxieties that don't make sense and then having to explain to people like, yeah, I know it doesn't make sense. I don't care. I need to turn this light on five times. It still doesn't, but people show up just to boo and act, only if it's free. Yeah, they do that for free. Or if it was like an improv everywhere stunt.

So we should go over the people in the band. Garfunkel and Oates, of course. And we have one I didn't get until now because I look it up. Messina. He was with Kenny Loggins. I had no idea. You'd never heard of Loggins and Messina? Yeah. That how much loggins overshadowed him yeah so loggins and messina were a folk rock act of the 70s early 70s their biggest hit was danny's song which uh this one's about danny i'm trying to never talk about danny it's the i'll put it in right now

even though we ain't got money I'm so in love with the honey And everything will bring a chain of love In the morning when I rise Bring a tear of joy to my eyes And tell me everything's gonna be alright Loggins is just so associated with the best of the worst 80s butt rock. So they broke up in 76, both to go solo.

One did better than the other. But they did reunite for some concerts in the 2000s. We did not notice. Messina needed it more than Loggins, but it was nice of Loggins to do it. I'm sure Messina did okay for himself. Yeah. Well, they sold a ton of albums back when that made you money. Yeah, I guess having one hit album in 76 or whatever would be set for life, I guess.

And Oates, obviously, Hall & Oates. Calling Oates. I love Hall & Oates. Hall & Oates. Calling Oates. I love Hall & Oates. Hall & Oates fucking rules. I love all their songs. Private Eyes. I love that. Sarah's song.

They're great. They are legitimately great, and you should listen to all their greatest hits, and they are a huge deal. But they're equals, and they never broke up. That's another thing, too. Unlike Garfunkel with Paul Simon, or Loggins and messina hall and oats

have never broken up oh she's just always listed second that was just always their deal that they were and and actually i read a quote of john oats bringing up that our albums never said hall and oats on them you all called us hall and oats every album is titled daryl hall and john oats they are not hall and Oates albums. For the longest time as a little kid, I thought it was one word. Hall and Oates. Hall and Oates. Good old Hall and Oates.

And the Avis rent-a-car thing. I didn't know this either. I didn't either. That I've never rented a car, so I don't pay much attention to any of that battle there. But the war of Hertz versus Avis has been going on for the longest time. And Hertz has always been number one. And Avis has always been number two. So much so that even 50 years ago, in a 1962 ad campaign, 55 years ago, they built their ad campaign for the longest time on that they are second place, and that means they're going to give you better service in their We Try Harder ads.

We try harder, Avis. A wow yes we don't they actually dropped the we try harder thing about five years ago and for a new thing but that was their saying for for 50 years of like we're not gonna settle for being number one like hertz and take you for granted we're're going to be obsessive and work extra hard to be the best. I can only think of O.J. Simpson after watching that documentary. He's like the first major black athlete with an endorsement. Which was running through an airport to

his Hertz car. Great looking commercials. They are, they are. It's poor Hertz. We do get the Milhouse fugitive scene after this. Yes! Hey, Wayne, there's nothing bad here. Yep, she's clean as a bean. But I did tip off the feds as to the whereabouts of our good friend Milhouse.

I'm telling you, I didn't do anything. I don't care. I'm glad. great sound mixing on the my glasses makes it perfect yeah you he survives you almost feel bad for him but if he says my glass is like a velma then you're just like ah it's also that his body just explode upon hitting the ground the the water. The shot is very specific to the fugitive. Nobody remembers the fugitive now, but in the early 90s, everyone referenced it all the time. It's going to be an upcoming Talking Critic. Well, it's a lot. Pie House Warehouse.

Because my favorite line from the film was like Richard Kimball turning to Tommy Lee Jones. He's like, I didn't kill my wife. I don't care. Yeah. It's like, it's not my job. Oh, please, please. I love this line. I didn't kill my wife. I don't care. It's not my job. Oh, please, please. I love this line. I didn't kill my wife. I don't care.

Look at his face. His face is awesome. It's my job to chase you down whether you're guilty or innocent. Tommy Lee Jones won a Best Supporting Oscar. Totally earned it. This is, to this day, I believe, the only television movie based on a television show to be nominated for an academy award now and that it holds up it

is really a really fun movie i watched the mod squad movie the fugitive is so easily watchable and even the sequel not a sequel u.s marshall's he is really good where he's just hunting down Wesley Snipes, who is another presumed innocent man. And that line, I don't care, was improvised. Originally, his line was supposed to be, so you didn't kill your wife. But then Tommy Lee Jones improvised that line for the best moment of the movie. That is great. And it was an ad lib. And he's so awesome in this film, for real.

I'm not even a Tommy Lee Jones fan, but he's great in this film. Totally deserved an Oscar. The perfect gruff cop. It's great. And they are in the same section, but he doesn't immediately jump off the pipe right after the I don't care line in the movie. And honestly, I think Hank Azaria

didn't do as good a job with, like, I don't care. Yeah, he didn't do it. It's a different reading. He probably was just doing it for memory. They didn't have the VHS in the room. It was probably recorded in like the fall of 93. Yeah, or you can see it.

Like the movie would have been really fresh at this point. It'd still be in theaters. But the animators, that jump. Yeah, the jump is very specific. The dive was perfect because it was, he is in the jump in the movie, Harrison Ford or the dummy or whatever is in a very fixed position

just like millhouse is a falling into the water look like at the very end of a cartwheel and that was in every every commercial for the movie forever and it was amazing yeah like it was i do like the visit to the very waspy taylor residence i i like it implies a lot more about her life and it may be maybe another reason why she's so much better than Lisa is that she has a better environment that is supporting

her intelligence. And an educated father who goes to his job. Who also is maybe letting her practice the sex whenever she feels like it. You know what?

I'm sorry I gave that line of the show because this is also my favorite line. He's so quietly patronizing. It's great of you to come over, Lisa. I really want us to be friends.

You're a wonderful person. Hi, Lisa. I'm Allison's father, Professor Taylor. I've heard great things about you. Oh, really? Don't be modest. I'm glad we have someone who can join us in our anagram games. We take proper names and rearrange the letters to form a description of that person.

Like, I don't know, uh, Alec Guinness. Genuine class. Oh, very good. All right, Lisa, um, Jeremy Irons. Jeremy's Irons. Well, that's very good for a first try. You know what? I have a ball.

Perhaps you'd like to bounce it. What a fucking asshole. Yeah, I mean, he has... When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part.

Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? There could have been a better way to handle that. But what I like about how well observed this is, it's not just that they're smarter than Lisa. It's also the class issue at hand here, which is not really pointed out explicitly. But it's something that I felt as a kid, upper-lower middle class kid with two working class parents going to a friend's house who had things much better than me and just feeling really insecure. And then getting home and being like, why is all of our stuff shitty? Like, it's not fair.

So the class thing is definitely part of the anxiety Lisa's feeling, I feel like. That's not explicitly pointed out by the show. And this would define Jeremy Irons for me the rest of my life. I'd always think of him as Jeremy's iron. I'm talking critic. I think I called him Jeremy's irons. Jeremy's iron a few times. But Allison also has a signed Bleeding Gums Murphy photo in her trophy room.

Oh, I missed that. Yeah, so it's like that's amping up the pressure on Lisa even more. Like, we have the same idol who will die soon. And from some internet suggestions for anagrams for Jeremy irons, my favorite three were mine's air joy, Mr. Enjoy's ire, and my iron jeers. Oh, you can't have any letters left over I'm guessing those have to use all of them two letters off from rearranging my name into Antichrist

Mr. Enjoys Iyer is my favorite and that does explain the character, him as a person I guess, just like genuine class does Alec Guinness was a grumpy dude, you could also call him mr enjoys iron yes but it's funny they're both like very uh very distinguished british

actors they're using in their word games too stars of movies kids shouldn't have seen outside of star wars yeah it's true i and and that alec guinness's entire life after star wars was telling dorks like read a book stop there's There's more than Star Wars. It would be a very kind of Mr. Bergstrom episode thing, but I wanted Homer to meet Allison Taylor's father just so we can compare the two role models in Lisa's life. I mean, Allison's role model and Lisa's role model, see how different their upbringing was.

Yeah, but unfortunately, Homer doesn't have that emotional complexity in this episode. He is Captain Wacky for sure. He's on another wacky adventure. I love that Allison is super into dioramas. I think dioramas are cool too. It's one of the only things I excelled at in school. I loved making dioramas.

Still do. They're really just about posing action figures, which is something I loved doing when I had an office. I make stuff out of clay. Yeah. I made one in college for being there. I put a little Peter Sellers in an optical illusion Inside a hollowed out black and white television set

Did you minor in dioramas Chris? I had just one of those teachers like Do whatever you want man Just make a thing Read this book do a thing And the Telltale Heart is I mean it's generous to even call it a short story It's like two pages

It's like a pamphlet Yeah and it was written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1843. And honestly, I give Lisa credit for doing stuff with Oliver Twist over the Telltale Heart. That's a big book. Oliver Twist is a monster book. I've never read Oliver Twist. I mean, like all of Dickens' works, it was published in serial chapters in newspapers. Written as a musical? Written as a musical.

It was written paid by the word. So they're long for a reason. Holy shit. Because he was a musical written as a musical i don't know well it was written uh paid by the word so they're long for a reason because he was writing for newspapers and magazines worth money i think he got paid more by the word than any journalist does today not even accounting for inflation i remember in tale of two cities there's like three chapters and we're like this is just you killing time like the whole point of this is this guy, he just learns that rusty screws come off of people who steal from corpses. That's it. Like, that could, it weighs so much fucking time. He made a tasty 500 pounds for that. Yeah, he bought a fine pheasant that day.

Then the follow-up of Allison's like, oh, I got away from you. You keep at it. He's got to be a real asshole as a teacher, like, if he's your professor. And then Homer channels Scarface. He's got to be a real asshole as a teacher, like if he's your professor. And then Homer channels Scarface. Thieves everywhere. The strong must protect the sweet. The sweet. Homer? In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women. All right, so that is directly from Scarface.

This country, you got to make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the woman. I kind of hate this movie Oh that movie sucks It's looked up to by the tackiest people ever I think it's ubiquity in the late 90s In every rap song

Every dorm room I had two Scarface posters So I'm part of the problem Because I love gangster movies But I think this is one of the worst Oh it is a cartoon of a movie I'll say that in 94 referencing scarface wasn't as hack as it would be of every character in say 1999 was saying say goodbye to my little

friend huh say hello to my little friend i was i was intentionally misquoting oh no because everybody does the way he says it it's like it's so fast say hello my little friend like very very fast and everybody slows it down you're right emphasizes that was such an overused reference in the 90s he's been so sick of it yeah it's just like everybody everybody loved it because it's like oh it's the honor among thieves thing see like i'm i'm a gangster but i have honor man it's hard to even look up to a dude like that he's such a piece of shit oh yeah redeemable piece of shit he's just for he's just in the story surrounded by more irredeemable people that he's like well he's the good one probably one of the only good jokes in the horrible movie dirty work

is uh i think it's norm mcdonald watching a scene of a scarface like massacre taking place you don't see any of the violence happening just him reacting to people shouting what's happening uh i don't know if you put that down uh there. All right, settle down, prostitutes. And then there was the British man just hiding. He's either hiding within the sugar or he pops out right behind him. I need it. And I'd do it again. I'd do it again. Love that character.

Just the fluidness of pulling him out of the sugar. He's the weirdest cartoon character in the whole show. But yes, Bob, you're right. This is the George Myers speech and quite a Homer speech it is. With animation by David Silverman. He saw this scene, heard the dialogue, and said, I must animate this. And this is some Silverman-esque drawings and poses. You don't need the commentary to confirm it to know.

Homer completely transforms from how he was one second earlier to be David Silverman. I want every episode to look like this. Homer, when are you going to give up this crazy sugar scheme? Never! Never, Marge. I can't live the button- to look like this. Homer, when are you going to give up this crazy sugar scheme? Never! Never, Marge. I can't live the button-down life like you. I want it all. The terrifying lows.

The dizzying highs. The creamy middles. Sure, I might offend a few of the blue noses with my cocky stride and musky odors. Oh, I'll never be the darling of the so-called city fathers who cluck their tongues, stroke their beards, and talk about what's to be done with this Homer Simpson. Look, just get rid of the sugar, okay? No! That was a real throw the goddamn bomb. It's just so great.

Anytime Marge is fed up with Homer, like, yeah, you talk for 30 seconds. Come on. it's just like the you can't handle the truth it's Chinatown scene she's like don't talk about being class okay except with this one Homer doesn't change he's like no yeah but also this isn't this isn't Homer directly stealing from

a bunch of movies this is right him giving a movie esque speech it's insane and I had to look a few of these terms up well just one I didn't know what blue noses were. They're just puritanical people, people that look down on the attitudes of others. Perhaps they're all filed away. Perhaps they hold their nose up so high

that it's turning blue from the cold. I'm sure that's the etymology. And then... This is the best line to show you're all wrong. It's the best sequence. It's good. That's the joke. Hey! Get off my sugar!

Bad bees! Bad! Ow! Ow! Oh, they're defending themselves somehow. Great scream by Dan. My favorite scream by... Fucking bee is in his eye. And he's not moving and screaming in pain. He's not getting away.

They're defending themselves somehow. It's one of my favorite jokes ever. For some reason, I thought that line was from Call of the Simpsons, the bee scene in that episode, but it's not. It's from this one. I should have learned those states. There's one thing you know everybody knows about bees. It's just the funniest dumb throwaway joke. Yeah, they're defending themselves somehow.

But just that, ow! Ow! That second ow! Let me hear it again. It's just sinking in that it hurts. Bad bee! Bad! Ow! Ow!

It's like, I can think of the thought process. It's like, oh, this hurts. Oh, no, it really hurts. Oh, no, it really hurts. Oh, no, this is pain. The pain is taking a while to get to Homer's brain, I think. I love that. I do love that so much. What I love also are the two very weird beekeepers.

Wait, before we get to the beekeepers, Lisa builds her all-in-twist thing and is basically punished by the fates for thing. Oh, you're right. And is basically punished by the fates for trying too hard. You're right. She made a better diorama than Allison. She outperformed Allison, and then it flies out the window just because she dared

to, she went too far. That was a powerful fan. So. And at Barts, the important thing is that we survived. She said that, I never read Oliver Twist. Oh, okay. Apparently, she says there are 75 characters. According the important thing is that we survived she said that i never read all of her twist uh apparently she says there are 75 characters according to spark notes there are only 37 characters and i counted in the diorama lisa only rendered 22 of them asking an animator or a uh artist to draw 75 tiny figurines they're all distinct pretty cruel yeah they drew 22 and

called it a day my headcanon is that lisa was so tired her count was off she said it nearly killed her and that she had worked all night on it maybe multiple nights with no sleep so maybe her count's just off on that for us professionals bart is about his pranks i love how it just is uh this weird nuclear option with a hose like we spray it we spray it with a hose giving her the splashing of a lifetime. Bart with the hose is very similar to Homer's plan of roll the dean up in a carpet and throw him off a bridge. That's true. And that Bart-esque is obviously an invented French word, but as a kid, I believed it was real. I was like, as a French say, Bart-esque.

I do like how splashback is really collateral damage in this French. It's what people will learn to talk about, say, the Iraq War. There's bound to be some splashback. I think I knew who the bee farmers are referencing, but due to the recent

passing of Adam West, it's so fucking clear and beautiful. I don't know who the Harry Shearer character is, but I love, oh, look, the bees are leaving.

Well, he's just supposed to be the normal person to react to make even more stark the Adam West act. Yeah, I got the Blu-rays and I've been watching. This is a really good Adam West from his area.

Oh, sure it's quiet in here today. Yes, a little too quiet, if you know what I mean. I'm afraid I don't. You see, bees usually make a lot of noise. No noise suggests no bees. Oh, I understand now. Oh, look, there goes one. To the bee-mobile! You mean your Chevy?

Yes. Oh, very clever, Simpson. Luring our bees to your sugar pile and then selling them back to us at an inflated price. Bees are on the what now? Simpson, you diabolical... We're willing to pay you $2,000 for the swarm.

Deal! Oh, wait a minute. The bees are leaving. No! My sugar is melting! Melting! Oh, what a world! And obviously that's a reference.

You cursed rat! Look what you've done! And obviously that's a reference. What an awkward scene in hindsight. I'm describing what I'm doing in case this doesn't read visually. I prefer the Futurama joke. Who would have thought a small amount of water would ever fall on me? Who would have thought a small amount of liquid would ever fall on me? That's great. That is the perfect parody of that. I don't know.

Adam West recently passed, and there's been a lot more eloquent things said about him. But I grew up with no cable and endless Batman 66 reruns, so it wasn't cheesy. It was just the first Batman I ever knew, and I fucking loved it. And I love that the writers, just that the show had been on so long, the writers are the same way.

They grew up with it. They grew up with it as well, and I just love celebrating Adam West like this. And as comedy nerds, they grew up to realize Adam West's delivery is perfect and makes everything funny. It went camp and like, oh, this is hard to do this is secretly genius adam west rules

r.i.p i love the beekeepers because if you pay attention to their conversation it's extremely boring and dull but what makes it sing is the fact that these two wildly different uh attitudes are playing off of each other just like one guy's asking another guy to clarify and it's just a very boring to the point conversation he says now i understand yeah now i understand and uh yeah then the the water falls on the bees the yard would be ruined by melting sugar oh yeah around like all that and i mean it's not gonna really gonna go anywhere just gonna kind of spread out and get all slushy and the the spit take of the british guy seeing the sugar disappear was a great callback, too. I loved that. I nicked it. And Homer giving up, and his moral from it is that, like, that's why God portions it out in tiny amounts and why he lives on a plantation in Hawaii. Plantation in Hawaii.

So in Homer's mind, God is a real person who owns a plantation in Hawaii. That's it. So the one reference that is barely a reference that someone just thought of in a minute and they put it on the screen is the bee capers work for goldsboro's honey and that is a reference to the song honey in parentheses i miss you by bobby goldsboro written by bobby russell and this is actually listed as one of the worst songs of all time because it is about a it's a very maudlin song about a kind of dull ditzy girl who does silly things. And then the third verse is, oh, now she's dead. And I miss her.

Jesus! Yes. So here's Honey, the song. And honey, I miss you. And I'm being good. And I'd love to be with you If only I could Yeah, it's really maudlin.

Yeah. You can pause the show. She wrecked the car. No, that's not how she died. Oh, this is just her being bad. The first three verses are like, these silly things my ditzy girlfriend did. And the fourth verse is like, oh, and then I got home

and it turns out the angels took her away. And now you know why I want to be with you again. They didn't break up, she's dead. Wow, man. That quavering wannabe Johnny Mathis voice. Was that a fucking backup woman or a theremin? It was one of the many

things times in the 60s or 70s where this wailing ghost noise would be in the background of a lot of pop songs. I kind of like it. I mean, that's her spirit shouting at him. You know, that is very bad, but I honestly think I might do that at karaoke the next time. Then finally, we are at Diorama, which is, I love that Skinner loves that. And it is his second favorite thing between hearing test Thursday. I think it's the

first joke i ever thought up on my own that made it into the simpsons i love diorama so much it was like just make dinosaurs out of clay look what i did it's jurassic park and the the nelson gallagher joke is pretty good i it recalls a simpler time of thinking of gallagher yeah and uh then of course because uter's a big fat kid he eats all the chocolate that's the joke there and uh two uter jokes in one episode yeah uter's getting a real scully got a lot of work out of uter because it usually was like we need a fifth kid to do jokes with all right uter well before he died yes yeah in the pta disband they uh thank goodness for permission slips man uh and then bart's fake diorama is just awesome. It's a cow's horn.

It's a cow's horn. But this is when it gets very arched, but I like it too. Hey, everybody. Whoa, look at me. I'm over here. Turn this way right now. Hey, it's Bart. And he's doing stuff.

Bart, stop creating a diversion and get out of here I do like the final call and Milhouse is okay everybody his glasses are broken and he's doing stuff and he's doing stuff what a resilient boy and yeah so I don't know why there's a trap door in the basketball court

but it's pretty great that Lisa hides that there. And then Bart acting as a crowd. I love how he squints his eye like, they're trying to make a monkey out of you. It's a very Bugs Bunny turn. Doing all those different voices. He becomes Bugs Bunny at the end of this. Also that he is able to...

Where'd he get that heart? Mark Sleaty-Joris. That's true, yeah. he'd been saving it since his uh since the valentine's day more hearts means more iron uh and then skinner i think skinner was just in a bad place because he'd been grounded by his mom for talking to sugar man but he just unloads on he's projecting his own insecurities too i love how it turns into that yeah uh at least have the guts to take the blame, girl. You're only compounding your folly by lying about it.

Right on! Young lady, cow hearts belong in a butcher's window, not the classroom. Maybe in an older student's biology classroom, but that's none of my business. Elementary school is where I wound up, and it's too late to do anything about that. So great.

I feel like that's a great skinner line i kind of overlooked because i was concentrating more on the allison part but it's like no he's turning this into being about him he's like why would no this is where i ended up yeah because the shots on lisa's not listening to him you can miss it uh and then yes lisa then has the exact ending of the telltale heart which is that he's in the telltale hearts. The guy murdered his roommate, basically, who was a gross old man and chopped up his body and saved the heart under the

floorboard. The cops come to investigate him. The cops have no inclination that it is this guy, but his anxiety is boiling up so much that he hears the heart beating under the floorboard and is sure they hear it too. So he must shout out. And this is the last line under the floorboard and is sure they hear it too. So he must shout out, and this is the last line of the telltale heart, it is the beating of his hideous heart.

Awesome. But Lisa changes it slightly, obviously, for context. It's the beating of that hideous heart I mean I think I hear something Why? Here's Allison's real diorama It got misplaced Or so it would seem God, Lisa goes through a huge range of emotions in that 20 seconds

I love it It's really good, good job Yardley Smith It got misplaced or so it seems And then it's a very Well, Scully would definitely do an FU ending like this in his seasons too, but this feels like a very murky FU of like, nobody wins. I do like it, it's just like the stakes are only

as high as the institutions that put them out there. So it's just like the institution filled both of them because they're just like this actually doesn't matter, kids. This is just busy work for you. It's also my favorite series of framing and lines. Well, this doesn't deserve to win. And then right, like, what time is it? Almost lunch.

And he just pulls up the ribbon into the frame. This is all great. Let's have a look. Get the ribbon ready. A little sterile. No real insight. What do you think, Miss Hoover? Eh.

Eh? This has been a very disappointing day. All right, on to Lisa Simpson. You're not shooing now, Lise. After the way I've behaved, I don't deserve to win. Well, this doesn't deserve to win. What? Oh, no, we're into the dregs.

Here's Ralph Wiggum's entry. Pre-packaged Star Wars characters still in their display box? Are those the limited edition action figures? What's a diorama? It's Luke. And Obi-Wan. And my favorite, Chewie. They're all here!

What do you think? I think it's lunchtime. We have a winner! So the stakes were never there to begin with. They were never there. Skinner, that Skinner doesn't care. He's like, these aren't very good. And then just goes for, the implication is that Skinner is a mega nerd because in 1994,

the only people that would care about Kenner Star Wars action figures from the late 70s and early 80s would be super duper dorks. Yeah. There was a rare period in time, and that's the time I grew up, where liking Star Wars was considered uncool. Yep. And Star Wars was kind of out of circulation. I said before on podcasts, I saw Spaceballs a million times before I saw any Star Wars was considered uncool. And Star Wars was kind of out of circulation. I said it before on podcasts.

I saw Spaceballs a million times before I saw any Star Wars movie at all. But now that will never happen. There will be a new Star Wars movie every year. You will get sick of it. You will start to hate Star Wars. They will have days of like, this is when all the new Star Wars toys are at Russell and Target. Go there! There's a great documentary about it called

Plastic Galaxy, which sort of chronicles Lucas abandoning Star Wars merchandise in 86. Just let's give it a rest. Who cares? And as a kid, I went to the free YMCA day camp. I love telling that story. And it was the Young Man's Christian Association. So everything was donated.

Giant sandbox the size of a swimming pool where somebody dumped a truckload of incredibly valuable every star wars piece of merchandise you could think of was donated by i'm guessing either people or stores getting rid of that inventory so being taught like i remember recreating the death star with licensed panels from the death star in a sandbox digging a trench and lining it with this death star lining and flying shit through it. With shitty piss soaked spittle. Those are probably the toys of kids a decade older than you. Yeah. This all predates us.

So I do find that story fascinating. But it's also. We were just as a nerd coming back into Star Wars love. Star Wars was pretty ubiquitous for me. I had a bunch of the discounted toys. None of the good ones. But I love Star Wars. This is the first real big pop culture Star wars reference that i can think of yeah and this was late 94 when the episode

aired it would be 1997 before the toys would return with the power of the force action figures from hasbro with the special editions which have officially existed for half of star wars and uh yeah and those and and those Mint in Box Kenner 2094 would be worth a lot of money. I think it's worth even more now. And I think at first it's implied Skinner takes them, but then Ralph has them. Yeah, he just wants to hug

them. He just wants to hug them, especially his favorite Chewie. One thing I want to point out is a very observational touch where Skinner's looking at her diorama, it's like all kind of sterile, no real insight. I feel like there's a certain kind of smart person who's really just good at school. And that's basically the kind of intelligence

Allison might have. It might fail her in the actual world applying it to things, but there's a kind of intelligence where she's like, I know how to work the school system, but I don't have a real creative spark or anything like that. Yeah, I've met plenty of people like that who are great at school and dumb in every other aspect of life. Yeah.

And it seemed like Lisa would get away with Allison not knowing she did it. So I was glad that Lisa admits to Allison that she had replaced the diorama and that Allison forgives her. It's a better heartfelt ending, the kind of stuff you not always get in episodes like this. Yeah, I like it. And then I just love the ending. Ralph gets a great last line. I beat the smart kids. I beat the smart kids.

I bent my war keys. Hey, Ralph, want to come with me and Allison to play anagrams? We take proper names and rearrange the letters to form a description of that person. My cat's breath smells like cat food. At this point, this was my favorite ending in Simpsons history. It's really cute. I like how Ralph breaks all of Chief Wiggum's expensive Star Wars toys into a box. So do you think he stole them from his dad or his dad gave them to him?

I think he just stole them. He just found them somewhere and he's like, I guess this is what a diorama is. I don't know. He didn't even know what a diorama was. Or he didn't even seem to know he was in a competition. I love the line, I bet my Wookiee. But it is actually in context. He actually did bet his Wookiee.

So it's not a crazy Ralph line. He's just commenting on what happened. It's the first time I heard Wookiee spoken on a show. I've heard lightsaber. I don't know. I think this was rediscovered like two years later by burgeoning Star Wars nerds. I don't know. I think this was rediscovered like two years later by burgeoning Star Wars nerds. I don't know. I love this and all the endings.

So fast, so good. Allison and Lisa unite in their superiority over Ralph. Let's stop competing and start making fun of dumber people. And as Mike Scully would mock on the commentary, like, only if we're the best. And Allison was never seen again. She would never be Lisa's friend. I mean, you see her in the show, but she never talks. She is in the character packs, but she is not a friend of Lisa's.

Like, yeah, she'll be in the bands when you see the band shots. She'll be in the cafeteria sometimes, too. Kind of like how Mindy, you'll see her every now and again, too. But it's just, she was a one-off character. And this is a really fun episode. It's nobody's favorite Simpsons but i this is a really quality one and a really good first outing for mike scully a lot of great a lot of great lines uh it's the thing i love it but i don't love almost anything about the lisa story like it's

everybody else i have the other way i can go without the sugar part i as much as i love the david silverman uh rant uh animated rant i feel feel that I wish Homer was involved more in Lisa's story. And they got Professor Taylor involved or whatever. It could be a stronger, just one plot. That B-plot could be grafted onto any episode. Yeah, and I noticed that going back, I was listening to season four of Talking Simpsons just on a whim. And I'm like, wow, a lot of season four episodes are just completely unrelated B-plot. It could be attached to anything. anything that's what this feels like yeah even in say lady bouvier's

lover where bart's stuff with the animation cell is pretty independent from grandpa except they do have a scene where bart gets the money from burns because of him dating jacqueline bouvier and this one there is no crossover lisa's i Hurts My Teeth line is completely independent from the Lisa of the whole rest of the episode. They don't cross over very much. But it's still a really good episode and hey, welcome to the show Mike Scully. Yes, we won't pick on you.

No, no, not like an Ian Maxton Graham. How I hate him. Please be on our show. So yes, thank you so much for listening. This has been Talking Simpsons. I've been your host Bob Mack. You can find me on twitter as bob servo my other podcast is retronauts go to retronauts.com every monday for a brand new podcast occasionally we'll have bonus podcasts on friday if you don't know about retronauts it's a classic gaming podcast every week a new topic if you've never heard it before just go to retronauts.com or look for retronauts in your podcast machine

find a topic you like and download the episode i guarantee you'll like it and we also have the talking simpsons Patreon, which Henry will tell you all about. So much bonus content happening right now. Oh my goodness. Hey, yes. You can follow me on Twitter at H-E-N-E-R-A-Y-G where I will talk about Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons all the time. But the important thing you need to know is

that not only do we have every episode from now on a week earlier on that feed ad-free, but also we are having a ton of extras we just had our season five wrap up and the season five deleted scenes special that is available to uh in audio form for five dollar a month or more and the ten dollar a month or more get the video version and on top of that we have now launched the talking critic limited series i'll call it as well we'll be posting every week

from here on out until we run out of Critic episodes. There are surprisingly few, but we'll do 22 or 23. 22. Well, we have done two episodes, so there's 21 left. And we might do the internet episodes. We have to do it, I guess. For completeness's sake, we have to do those Flash

episodes, but I'm not looking forward to that. But that's all on Patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. It would pay for me and Bob to do this full time. I spent multiple full work days researching all my upcoming podcasts, and I was able to do that because of people like you supporting us through Patreon. And I had to listen to all of that Honey song, and that was unbearable. It took years off my life. For the episode of Talking Critic, I watched O Calcutta, which is one of the worst crappy things ever. It's pretty bad. Chris, you got something to plug?

This was all inspired sort of by the Lazer Time endeavor, patreon.com slash Lazer Time. But you can go to LazerTimePodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Lazer Time is a topic-based show, a lot like this one, infused with multimedia clips and all that stuff. You guys have joined us a lot since starting your Patreon for shows about theme parks and Spider-Man's long journey to the big screen. Oh, my goodness. The best apes in the cinematic universe, which, of course, always bleeds into The Simpsons somehow, some way. But, yes, thank you so much for that. YouTube.com slash Lasertime.

I'll leave it at that. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with the worst Simpsons episode ever in my opinion see you then wow infotainment