Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Marge Gets A Job

Episode Date: October 19, 2016

As the title suggests, Marge starts working at the power plant to Homer’s chagrin, Bart cries wolf, and most importantly, there’s a very indulgent Citizen Kane reference, all in this week’s podcast…

today's talking simpsons is brought to you by bark box and you can go to get barkbox.com slash laser time to get a free month of doggy delights i heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we blame everything on Tibor. This is the Lazer Time Podcast Network's chronological exploration of The Simpsons. I am your host, Bob Mackie, the $80,000 man. Who else is here with me today? It's me, Henry Gilbert, and Adibu Kazini.

And, of course, headless brakeman Chris Antiston. That's right. And today's episode is Marge Gets a Job, which aired on November 5th, 1992. Chris will tell us what happened on this mythical day in history. Jesus Christ, Bob. Jerry Garcia has recovered from his bout with exhaustion and goes back on tour with a grateful bed and will surely live on for decades. Exhaustion in scare quotes, right?

In scare quotes, exhaustion. For years to come, Magic Johnson retires from the NBA to focus on his HIV, and Roseanne tops the ratings with almost double what The Simpsons gets. I think we've had like five Roseannes in this week's Simpsons history. I'm not complaining. We have to spread the news thin because there were two episodes of The Simpsons this week.

Roseanne was huge. I know this episode got 13 million viewers, so Roseanne must have been in like 30 million. And in lighter news, Bill Clinton is elected president, but we discussed that in the last episode. That happened, right. And one of the little rascals dies. Was it Moe? Not the original Al Falk.

Yeah. No, no, that was years ago. I just watched that Eat True Hollywood story. He stabbed for $50. Man. Over a lost dog. That's almost how Doc Brown was killed in Back to the Future 3. But I digress.

So this is Marge Gets a Job. And I want to say this is the first episode written entirely, well, at least the first draft, by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, who are my favorite Simpsons writers and my favorite Simpsons showrunners who had run season six and seven. They were very respectful showrunners. They're known for being the first Simpsons fans really hired to be writers. It is true. And they believe that season three is the ultimate season and they based

their own work on that season and what it did. And I feel like this might not be the best episode to express how great they are but I feel like it has a lot of their idiosyncrasies and a lot of their tics. Definitely. I mean when you watch their episodes, if you were to just watch

their credited written episodes back to back to back you will see a lot of recurring themes pop up a lot and in fact or hating old people oh they love old people yes jinx uh yeah we're also like baby gerald only appears in their episodes at first yeah the one i brought baby and uh and also one of my favorite things with them is that they're very approachable. Oakley and Weinstein on Twitter, they all reply to stuff. They love fans. They really are. Especially Bill

Oakley. I will say my one claim to fame, not really. My one achievement in life is getting Bill Oakley to favorite my jokes when I write on Twitter. I'm like, oh my god, this guy that I love so much, favorite my joke. I feel so special. And I would love to have either of them on a podcast.

Yes, we know you're listening, you guys. Come on, drop the charade. They've done other Simpsons podcasts. I like Mission Hill. Mission Hill is great. Mission Hill. Yeah, that was their one where they tried to make the anti-Simpsons and as they would find out, that's not popular. It turns out they made anti-popular it turns out that's popular when shown to the

right people in adult swim yeah where the show eventually did find an audience by then it was way too late i believe it was one of those uh animation boom things was like okay we spent 30 million dollars and we showed two episodes fuck it let's throw the rest away well i mean it's no sammy though again if anybody has any copies of Sammy, Bob and I are after it. Still looking for Sammy. Even on the WB, the Mission Hills,

like, jokes about masturbating and followed by gay men kissing each other and then... The first real consensual gay kiss on TV was on Mission Hill?

Is that true? That's what they say out there. I don't know. But then I've heard, like, Will and Grace said, oh, we did it first in their episodes. I was like, I know you weren't first. Like, no

offense to Will and Grace. Yeah. Maybe it was Soap. It had to be Soap, I think. No, actually Soap was terrified of making Billy Crystal's character gay. Like, he only, I think it turned into a joke. I wonder if it was like a writer joke on that show that Billy Crystal's character only had sex with women. Like, he would always apply, like, I'm gonna

date men. And they had sex with like four different women on the show. And by the end of the series, he had a bonk on the head and he thought he was an elderly Jewish man and he never got out of it. Sounds like a Billy Crystal character he wanted to play. I know everything about Soap. I'm going to tell you that. It's weird. It is weird. Talking Simpsons.

I also do love about... It'd be a shorter show. We'd be done by now. About Oakley and Weinstein, I also love on the season six commentaries that season five and six ones that you get a palpable feel that they didn't like that season as workers on it as much.

Like, I think they definitely... There's some friction between them and Merkin. Like, Merkin jokes about how on the deleted scene for Who Shot Mr. Burns where they rewrote it to make it look like smithers did it dave merkin said i think that's the only joke of mine they ever laughed at oh wow i forgot about that commentary with them yeah and then also on commentaries in their seasons when merkin's not there they won't say it but they're like

they definitely believe when homer went in outer space it broke the show a lot of people do matt graining i think even thought so. They really hated that episode. Even though that episode is awesome. The episode's awesome. It's great. It broke the show, but like years later. Because it allowed them to do anything.

It was a point of no return, but it was a hell of a toboggan ride. Anyway, we should get on to the episode. Less shame, please. Because, once again, my mission is to capture every single Phil Hartman appearance. Here we go. And this is so fucking funny. He's appearing in this slanty shanty.

The Homer, the Simpsons house, the foundation is slipping. Rightfully, Homer doesn't want to pay the thousands of dollars for a professional to fix it. I love the opening

of Homer drinking dishwasher fluid. Yes. What are you going to do? And then, I noticed this on my second viewing of it. In the first four minutes,

they have two dream sequences where they're like, well, then I wouldn't have to work. Dream. And then he's like, then I wouldn't have to work. Dream. He accepted himself. It's kind of repetitive.

But Troy McClure teaching how to fix foundation. Did anybody look up these terms to see if they were real at all? They're all real. They all come from a time-life guide to foundation repair. Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein did their homework. Hello, I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such instructional videos as Mothballing Your Battleship and Dig Your Own Grave and Save. Now over the next six hours, I'll be taking you through the do's and do not do's of foundation repair.

Ready? Ready. First, patch the cracks in the slab using a latex patching compound and a patching trowel. Hand me my patching trowel, boy. Do you have extruded polyvinyl foam insulation? No. Good. Assemble the aluminum J-channel using self-furring screws.

Install. What do I do in case... After applying brushable coating to the panels... Wait a minute. You'll need some corrosion-resistant metal stucco lath. Wait a minute. If you can't find metal stucco lath... Uh-huh.

Use carbon fiber stucco lath. Oh! Now barge the lath. These are all real terms, and for some reason... Barge the lath? So I love that Homer is having a conversation with the tape. Yes. He's trying to interrupt to ask questions, but he's also wearing a lucky red hat for some reason the lab so i love that homer is having a conversation with the tape yes uh he's trying to interrupt ask questions but he's also wearing a lucky red hat for some reason i did not understand why it's just his workman hat of like this will keep the sweat off

my face he doesn't want to muss his two hairs and i also like the way just the little way that bart looks at homer of like i don't know like they're both like pitying each other like we're in trouble here part of the lab and t. And Troy McClure in the Dig Your Own Grave and Save. I love him doing the miming of digging. It's a very great piece of animation. This is the only time he's ever informed in any of these infomercials.

Yeah, he's really owning this. I think he had a knack for foundation repair. I did love all the jokes about the stuff falling off the house. There's tons of great jokes out of the Slanted House. Like Kent Brockman leaving the vice

president in charge and now leaning tower of pizza eat your heart out and move over this is one story that's not on the level

it's such a hack news feed that is in my brain and by the way the clip does start and the vice president takes over that's a wonderful

joke is there like an explosion next to the white house or something I think that's the premise for the new Keith or Sutherland show. It feels like the first

ha-ha in a long time is in this too when Santa Claus falls off the roof. Ha-ha! It felt like a million years since we'd heard a ha-ha. That is true. Why it had to be at the expense of Santa Claus. So we did see a little bit of Mr. Burns during the Halloween episode, but here is when it really kicks in season four. I feel like they were trying to be at the expense of Santa Claus. So we did see a little bit of Mr. Burns during the Halloween episode,

but here is when it really kicks in season four. I feel like they were trying to be have some self-control, but now it's just like Burns, Burns, Burns. And Citizen Kane Burns is back. Tonight, we've all come to honor a close friend of ours. Boring.

A man who provided the Burns Corporation with 45 years of faithful service, Mr. Jack Barley. Boring. Boring. So I guess Homer really pushing the idea that Burns never recognizes him. He's doing this to his boss's face. Yeah. And that all felt very added in afterwards. We need to remind people first that Homer is here.

At a retirement party for some some fell at the plant well especially the way they like cycle the boring animation it felt a bit post-production yeah like like the halloween episode i noticed a lot of the uh adr lines in this episode not as much as the as the oh not nearly but someone's that really stand out for me for sure and yeah the, they really... One of many Citizen Kane references. There is a man. There is a man. A certain man. A certain man.

A man whose grace and handsome face are known across the land. You know his name. You know his name. It's Mr. Burns. It's Mr. Burns. He loves a smoke and enjoys a joke. Why, he's worth ten times what he earns. He's Mr. Burns.

I'm Mr. Burns. He's Monty Burns. I'm Mr. Burns! He's Monty Burns! Mr. Burns! To friends he's known as Monty, but to you it's Mr. Burns! Burns! Burns! Do you mind if I say a few words? Oh, me, me,

me, I need all the attention just because it's my party, eh? So, yeah, I mean, as a kid I had some idea of what Citizen Kane was, and I kind of had a vague notion like, oh, they're referencing this, but with this scene I had no idea it was from Citizen Kane until I saw the movie for the first time in a film class when I was

18, and when this scene came out I was like, oh my god! I mean, I said that to our friend Brett, too, when he saw Citizen Kane for the first time. You're going to get like 16 Simpsons references you never got before it's kind of why you got to watch it twice the first time

if you're a mega Simpsons fan because you'll just be focused on oh that's that scene I had a revelation watching that film again this year because I did watch it in film class it was homework and now it's become something I revisit twice a year and I think to me that movie is a comedy a really subtle good comedy very dark comedy very very dark comedy because

i don't know it came from a cab driver like what kind of movie is a citizen kane i'm like i don't know i think if you read the history books every kind it is every kind of movie and this is the most involved citizen kane reference to this point but But by the next season, they will top it at the start. Like the Burns is Bear, the Bobo scene is perfect. Even though they're rewriting that and his mother is Amy Schumer. I don't like that. They get the camera angle so right. My favorite one is when he's like ten times what he earns.

It's behind his back with his arm moving across. It's perfect. The animation is a little off-model, but that makes it even better because it's so fluid. And the scene of Burns laughing with the women, I made that into an animated GIF recently. It cycles perfectly.

It's so great and expressive. And you can hear, you really hear Nancy among the singing. Oh, for sure. Nancy Cartwright really comes through. The restaurant they're in is a G-Realty. Yes, the Spruce Caboose.

The Spruce Caboose. In reference to the Spruce Goose, the mega plane built by Howard Hughes. Burns will be referenced later when Burns is Howard Hughes. Yeah, which I didn't even know it was anything other than Spruce Goose until i saw the film aviator he's like the colossus the colla i that movie is underrated scorsese there was a

reference to the spruce goose and tailspin uh before this so that's why i knew about it oh yeah that's right but uh i think it did fly in that episode and i love the design of the headless brake man because it is they didn't draw a headless person they drew a person wearing a costume right this way over their head by the way doesn't 8500 to fix that their slanted house seem like a really like a bargain like a bargain yes i feel like in 92 money reading about homeowner being a homeowner which i am not and don't think i'll ever will be and kind of i'm leaning towards never being one. I'm there.

My parents have mildew under the house that they built in 1988. And it's like five figures. Like, you could have rented something for years for the cost to fix this one thing on this thing you're saddled to and own. You can't take it with you. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like repairing something as essential as a foundation for a building is not something you should ever do yourself. How is that even possible for a person to just go in there and, like, patch it up? How could Surly Joe even fix that?

The way it's tilted, like, that's a team of, like, eight men. You need, like, hardcore machinery and, like Henry said, a team of people to do it. No, men. I said men. Only men. I'm referencing my own memory. Chris, that's why your clubhouse didn't work we like built a little a little hole that uh like a two like a floor could

sit in and just like the more you walk on it the more you push down the dirt until eventually this thing that was like sort of underground is wobbling yeah and i learned that's how i learned about foundations anyway so i love the please don't make me retire speech, too. It's a great sad thing. I'm not finished! Oh, yes you are. Yeah, so Jack Marley retires from the plant, which makes there be an opening, apparently. Maybe I should apply for that job. Forget it, Marge. We already

live together. We shouldn't work together. As the Bible says, thou shalt not horn in on thy husband's racket. Where does the Bible say racket? I miss that runner of Homer making up Bible quotes. They did that, there were several of those. It's the only book he knows to reference.

Thou let moochers into thine hut. And then Bart just falls out the window. They have to, like, show him standing up, like, oh, he's fine. He's fine. There's great foley of just things, like, sliding across the room, especially in this conversation. I don't blame you if you didn't grab it, but like, Marge and Homer are having a conversation, but something is like sliding across the room and breaking like a vase or something like that, yeah. Yeah, and

this episode had two things that like super dated it for me. Like, first when Homer pulls out the yellow pages to look at the foundation of repair, and then the start of Act 2 is Marge and a typewriter. Yes, yes it is. I love Lisa padding her resume, though.

Chauffeur? Seamstress? Curator of large mammals? Marge, have you seen my lunchbox? Oh, I see. Mom, I expect you to lie a little. Worked for the Carter administration. Well, you voted for him twice.

Lisa, shh. Someone might be listening. One of the many Simpsons anti-Jimmy Carter. I think this is the first of the anti-Jimmy Carter. Yeah, it's not March forever, but apparently Al Jean really dislikes Jimmy Carter. I don't know why. So somebody there does. Yeah, yeah.

It was Al Jean is the big one on it. It's a funny thing on the Malaise Forever episode where Marge goes to prison. In that one, Al Jean is like I hated the man. I always hated the man. Matt Green is like wait, no, I love Jimmy Carter.

If you were born in the last 30 years, it is impossible to hate Jimmy Carter. He seems like a real class act. Those commentaries were recorded during the George W. Bush era., it is impossible to hate Jimmy Carter. He seems like a real class act. Yes. Especially those commentaries were recorded during the George W. Bush era. Every year he looks dead, Jimmy Carter. And he looks dead while building a house and curing malaria. He has cancer.

He's the perfect ex-president. It's one of those things like, why do we hate him? Watch the documentary. Is it A Man from the Plains? It's a good documentary about Jimmy Carter. I haven't seen it. I mean, it's implied that he was just seen as like he was a wuss like he's technically the best president we've ever had as hick hill said he wore a sweater he talked about lust in his heart they're really negative to jimmy carter so until this viewing i didn't really get the joke as my assumption as a

kid was implying that marge marge is is saying, don't say that out loud, saying that she cheated and voted twice in the same election for Jimmy Carter. Now I obviously get the joke as anybody who voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980 should feel shame. And that was the feeling then. It's like saying you voted for Nader in 2000 like I did.

I never hear anybody talk about that. But shouldn't anybody who got Reagan elected be ashamed at this point? Anyway, enough of that stuff. Wait, we missed one thing. I felt that when they were looking up Shirley Jo in the yellow pages, there were no other jokes on the page. There were no jokes at all. Like when they looked up the In obedience school for a little helper, there were jokes on the page. I felt like that was a

missed opportunity. It was a little lazy. The great punctuation on the resume joke, it cuts right to Smithers reading it. I thought Muddy Waters wrote that song. This resume is very impressive. Let me be the first

to say, Kadibu Kazini. Welcome aboard. I guess my Swahili is not as good as yours. This was before the internet, people. You could just lie on a resume, and unless they called somebody, they were like, I guess that's true.

I think you still can lie. Yeah, you can. It's very easy, actually. Not that I have ever lied on a resume. You know, I recently got a new job a few months ago, and this just reminds me of the interview process for that was a weeks-long thing multiple interviews and this was just like i showed you my resume cool you're hired boom like it it's that easy here and it is for plot contrivances purposes and they kind of drop it

but the marge when she talks about how lazy homer is and homer is super lazy but Marge is no business doing this job. Yes. She is endangering people even more than, or well, to the extent Homer endangers people in the same universe. It's good we actually don't see her doing much at this job because she knows nothing about this field. I think this is the one time Homer has an advantage over her, especially when he's talking about the tube. And Tibor? Now, Marge, just remember, if something goes wrong at the plant, blame the guy who can't speak English.

Ah, Tibor, how many times have you saved my butt? So who is our favorite SNPP immigrant, Tibor or Zutroy? Or Stuart, the duck. Stuart is the best. Back to work, Stuart. I like Zutroy working for that penny. We actually see Zutroy.

We've never seen Tibor. Tibor, he just talked about. The Simpsons will be right back. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care?

Hi, Talking Simpsons listeners. This is your buddy Chris telling you that this episode is brought to you by BarkBox. You know what BarkBox is? If you don't know what BarkBox is, it is committed to making your pooches happy. And they work with local and independent businesses to do this. For you humans out there, BarkBox is a delivery of four to six natural treats, super fun toys, and they're all curated around a surprise theme each month. BarkBox ships to US and Canada, and the boxes start for as low as $20. We all love our pets, and sometimes we forget to show them love. Now imagine if the gift

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maybe BarkBox is for you. And once again, Talking Simpsons listeners can go to getbarkbox.com slash lasertime and get a free month. Are you already tired of 2016? Jump into the past with 302010, our weekly pop culture time machine podcast. Here's something you may remember from 1986. My Pet Monster was a toy phenomenon that had no backstory. He eventually got a cartoon show where it stars a monster and his monster friends. This movie's about a little kid who's transformed into that My Pet Monster, the popular toy from American Greetings.

My Pet Monster was a roughly child-sized doll that was full of stuffing and had a cuddly body and arms, but his face was hard plastic. You could break a tooth on his teeth. It was not messing around. On his big old dick nose. The cartoon is him as a monster being a monster. Hey, my very bestest friend. And then this movie is, what if a little boy became a monster? It's not the direction I expect them to go.

I expect them to be like, he finds a monster and the monster's his best friend. What is this? Actually, that's my pet monster. It's grotesque, isn't it? It's disgusting. You can tell it's 1986 because the music is from 1956. Well, he's my pet. He's my monster pet.

My monster pet. It's he's my pet. He's my monster pet. My monster pet. This movie stars Wacky Pet. I do have the commercial here for the toy. My pet monster. He's bigger than big. When he fights battles, he always wins. And he's your friend, too. He breaks his chains.

Put him on you and break away, too. With my pet monster, you're busting loose. He's big. And scary. And helps people, too. And he's your friend, too. Grr! With my pet monster, you're busting loose. Grr! He's big. And scary. And helps people too. And he's your friend too. My pet monster plays all day.

Tough. Awesome. Looking great. I want to transcribe that commercial and just make that my resume. I help people and I scare people

and I break about all the handcuffs. And I got PowerPoint too. Be careful, somebody could accidentally hire Gamera. That's 3020Ted, a weekly look at what happened in pop culture 30 years ago 20 years ago and 10 years ago every thursday right here on the laser tab network at the dinner table when they're talking about march getting the job there and how she's you know boring jehovah's witnesses which i never met a jehovah's witness to that point as a kid

now soon enough i'd be annoyed by him but uh and then then they have uh what has to be the most family guy joke in the whole series of just like, the Curies. And then it's just a Godzilla riff on the Curies. That was so fucking funny. Yes. It's great. It's very family guy. But it's so family guy.

It's like nothing. It's just like, what a weird time filler. Like, oh, you said the Curies. It is an inspired joke. It's like the Curies famous scientist meets meets Godzilla in a 60s monster movie. No, Bart has probably never seen a picture of the Curies, and yet he imagines them exactly as how they look. I think someone should get fired for that.

You claim Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. I bet they wrote every word of this, Chris. Well, they love old people. They love old people. On both sides of the coin, it's a bunch of old jokes at Byrne's expense. While Marge is at work, Grandpa is babysitting Maggie and, to a lesser extent, taking care of Bart. Right. And it's all old jokes.

Whoa! You must be sick. Let's see. What's all Doc Washburn prescribed? Do you have dropsy? The grip? Scrofula? The vapors?

Jungle rot? Dandy fever? Poor man's gout, housemaid's knee, climactic boobo, the staggers, dum-dum fever. I looked up all these until I got tired. Climactic boobo. Yeah. And like scrofula's real? Jesus, okay. Scrofula, that's right.

Count scrofula. Swollen glands, a form of tuberculosis. Scrofula is a real thing that I guess we just haven't seen as a society in years. Yeah, I mean, this really underlines how much they love old people because, I mean, they wrote this. They wrote Lady Bouvier's Lover. They wrote Grandpa vs. Sexual Inadequacy. And all of their guest stars from season six and, sorry, season seven and eight were old people. Really?

Most of them. Jack Lemmon. Jack Lemmon. Kirk Douglas. Kirk Douglas. Jack Lemmon. Every old man. Well, here's another credit to Unclean Weinstein.

They didn't have the internet for this. They had a book. They got a book full of those things. Yeah, I googled Captain Washburns or whatever. I didn't find anything, but I have to imagine that's a reference to something very specific. Some sort of old-timey almanac, I'm guessing. I was hoping it would be one of those snake oil salesmen. Like from Peach Dragon.

Didn't make it into the remake. So we have a Bart... I completely forgot this. Yes, it went way over my head. Bart gets something of his butt. Good news, boy! I found a pharmacy that carries leeches. Well, it wasn't exactly a pharmacy.

More of a bait shop. Look, Grandpa, I'm fine. I really don't need any more home remedies. Oral thermometer, my eye. Think warm thoughts, boy, because this is mighty cold. I didn't even give him time to bend over. I think he just pulled his legs up. As a kid, I don't think I ever got that.

I maybe had one rectal thermometer ever. I was just going to ask. You had one? I never had any. I had a doctor's. This was before the thing they just put in your ear. Do you remember why? Huh?

Do you remember why? Well, why I had it in my butt? Yeah, was it just something this doctor specialized in? No, I think it was something was wrong. Okay, wait. It was related to, I had strep throats. Dropsy? They couldn't get it in my mouth.

There was something preventing it from doing it in my mouth. So they're like, fine, up your butt. I assume as a baby it happened to me, but I have no memories of this. I remember a lot of people who can't close their mouth. I have a lot of buried memories of things going in my butt, but no thermometers. None. Lots of suppositories. I mean, now that joke is...

They look like uncles. I feel like they couldn't even get away with that joke now. Just like, oh, then Grandpa shoved something up our spot. Well, I just... The concept of a rectal thermometer was so foreign to me, I didn't even know what it was. Well, and I... But I totally get the idea of, like, it is in no way sexual to Grandpa. He's just like, this is how you...

This is the right way to do it, and I'm going to do it. My mom would threaten me, because I hated taking pills because they tasted bad, that if I didn't take Tylenol when I had a cold, I'll put them up your butt if you're not going to take them, and now I'm gay. Well, threatening your children with unwanted anal insertions. I mean, I think the only people into anal thermometers now are just for kink play. Okay, so if we cut back to Burns, this is the first time

I remember very clearly getting a movie reference because you can't not. But I think, did they do this more than once? Yeah, they did it a couple times. Jack and Apes. Lolly Gaggers.

Noodleheads. Enchantress. That woman, she's so captivating. Smithers, my heart's pounding like a jackhammer. I must have her. Smithers, zoom in. Closer. Closer.

Closer, damn it. Too close. That's Byrne seeing Marge for the first time, falling in love. But they gave him the Imperial March more than once, I want to say? Yeah. I think so, yeah. I'm sure we'll discover But they gave him the Imperial March more than once, I want to say. Yeah. I think so, yeah. I'm sure we'll discover it later in this podcast. But that's clearly the Imperial March as done by the Simpsons House Orchestra or whatever.

That's not the original song. It's not a needle drop or it's not a sample of it. They've recorded it. And in hindsight, it's very on the nose, but this was me losing my mind when this came out. I know that. I actually know that song. Didn't get the Citizen Kane, Mr. Burns show. The Star Wars one. Also, zooming a camera doesn't I know that. I actually know that song. Didn't get the Citizen Kane, Mr. Burns joke. The Star Wars one. Also, zooming a camera

doesn't work like that. No, they admit the joke doesn't work on the commentary. And also, I love Burns' black heart. His heart is literally black. It is so great. It is beating like a jackhammer. One thing I was disappointed in right before that was the tubes joke. Oh yeah, the tubes was funny,

but when they do the cutaways of the tube going through, I was like, these should be funnier visual gags. The payoff isn't really worth it, I think. If you've seen Brazil, they have way better tube jokes. Again, I love this episode and I love Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. But I feel like the Burns falling in love with Marge thing happens too late and doesn't really make sense. Yeah. And this episode is about Marge getting a job. It's not about – I mean, it's named Marge Gets a Job. I feel this comes in way too late and doesn't really make sense. And this episode is about Marge getting a job. It's named Marge Gets a Job. I feel this comes

in way too late. It tackles sexual harassment in a very clumsy way. There would be an entire episode about that kind of concept and idea, but it happens in a very clumsy way. I'm not blaming them, but it feels like Well, it was their first script. They even say how this should be called Bill and Josh Get a Job.

That's the most important thing that happened in this episode and it also wasn't their pitch it was conan o'brien's pitch that's right and all the old people stuff strikes me as conan for some reason oh yeah i mean i think a thing that unites the writers of early simpsons is they all like mocking the elderly in some way uh but also the third act i believe originally was supposed to be something about homer being the plant mascot Mr. Adam. Mr. Adam, yeah. And then in the rewrite, they turned it into Burns falling in love. And it could be them just break glass for Burns for emergency. We're like, this Mr. Adam thing doesn't work as much.

Let's get more Burns in here. Even if the audience hates it, we love it, basically. Hello. Mr. Burns. No need for alarm. I just came to give you the orchids and fragrant bath oils

I lavish upon all my employees. Oh, aren't you nice? Gee, this makes me wonder why morale here is so low.

I just, the woman drinking in the moose hat is my spirit animal? Like, the hat gag with the Tom Jones song is so funny and dark

mine is the guy going i am the angel of death which i don't think i'm the crying guy then but that woman has like despair resting face yes like in the middle of the day in the office it's just like she stopped she's out of tears she's just like and just staring off into nothing but still being able to perfectly pour a shot over and over. Or like a gaping mouth. I don't have a line in the show, but that gag is my favorite. This joke is a little edgy, the guy running off with his shotgun. I feel like there have been, like,

there's like a new spree killing every day in America. This was a different era where it was like, oh, that one guy at the post office. Yeah, exactly. There have been a couple people who have shot up their office. Somebody helped explain the postman going crazy thing. One of our patrons works for the mail. And he's just like...

Because people don't use the mail frequently enough. Every time they come in, every price and activity is a giant surprise. And they feel like they're being overburdened for something they've never done. And they always take it out on the employees. I think it was actually a process, an automation process, that was implanted into the post office system that made people kill each other.

Because it's like, we will turn you into robots. All you do is stare at numbers all day. There is no other action you do. Bob and I go to the same post office. I try not to. It's one of the worst. I hate going there.

You guys both eBay dynamos? No, and I go there there like only when i'm forced to this t-shirt i got was actually waiting there for me because they didn't deliver it they're like here's your pink slip go there and so i go there and like the employees there really suck but even then i just like i buy my tongue i'm like they probably have it horrible and in the they're in like the middle of where every homeless dude hangs out in downtown Berkeley. And they all probably walk in and have yelled at them and pissed on them.

I'm sure they've gone through so much. Everybody who goes to the post office wishes they wasn't there. They think everything costs too much and is too complicated and they don't realize you're sending a parcel across the country. It requires dozens of people and vehicles and $3.50? It's just highway robbery. Show me your manager and everybody's so angry there. across the country. It requires dozens of people and vehicles and like, $350?

That's just highway robbery. Show me your manager. And everybody's so angry there. You're so right about that. Every time I'm in line at the post office, I see people openly sign, like, why won't they open another window? Oh, I can't believe I'm here.

It's like, this is almost magic. Yeah, think about how the post office works. I would never pitch a business like that. That seems crazy. I think it was Louis C.K. who had that joke about, everyone in line at the post office feels like they're on the same team. Of hating the person who's at the window like you're taking too long. But then when you're at the window, you're like, no, they've all turned on me.

Yeah, I felt that way when I used to sell a lot of things on eBay. Like having a giant handful of 30 packages. Like now it's my turn. I mean that's how I felt just using the automated machine when I've sold stuff on eBay. I just look back behind me and I think, well, there's three of you guys, but I don't care. I got 12 things to ship. I ain't waiting for you.

Let's move on. What's wrong? I'm used to seeing people promoted ahead of me. Friends, co-workers, Tibor. I never thought it'd be my own wife. Well, maybe you'd get promoted if you worked a little harder. Are you kidding? I work like a

Japanese beaver. Oh, really? I came to see you three times today. Twice you were sleeping, and once you were kicking that ball of electrical tape around. I won't sleep in the same bed with a woman who thinks I'm lazy. I'm gonna go right downstairs, unfold the couch,

unroll the sleeping bag. Good night. So the joke about losing the donuts, like the donut battle was really beautiful. One of my favorite Simpsons song fragments. Oh yeah.

Swinging a chain, I think. Lenny gets hit with a chain and just smash through the... Anybody else want to be here? I meant to look this up, because this is more famous to me from the 138th episode of Spectacular of whether or not Smithers is gay, but this has to be a reference to something specific, right? I dreamed about her again last night, Smithers. You know that dream where you're in bed and they fly in through the window? I love his groan there.

It's so fucking sensual. Just like the priest and the little mermaid, people thought that Smithers' knee was his boner. Really? And censors wanted it to be cut out of the episode completely, but I guess they argued for it. You've seen that little mermaid thing, right? It's like, that's his dick. It's like, no, it's his knee.

It's his knee. It's very clearly his knee if you look very closely, which you couldn't do on VHS with the CRT television. No, no. I mean, if you want to see a dick place, it's like, I agree that the- Watch the Simpsons movie. Yes. I agree that the Lion King's thing definitely says sex. It doesn't.

It says SFX. Yes. It's a reference to the FX house. It says good. It says SFX. Yes. It's a reference to the FX house. It says good children take off their clothes. Oh, that one is so fake. That's a good tiger take off.

I've ruined many a party from people quoting that meme. No, that's not true. I was absolutely that person too. I was so happy when Snopes began. Oh, I love it.

And they just had the clip. I was like, see, look, there's a fucking Snopes. Here's the script. He doesn't say that. He doesn't say it. But Daddy Long had the clip. I was like, see, look, there it is on fucking snow. Here's the script. He doesn't say that. He doesn't say it. But Daddy Longlegs is the most poisonous spider.

They just can't bite us. But anyway, yeah. Also, speaking of gay jokes with Smithers, do you think him being assigned to the bathrooms was a gay joke? He was surprisingly happy for the demotion. That feels like a very, like, 70s gay joke. Like, gay men love hanging out in bathrooms. Yeah, gay men love men, so they'd love to hang out with piss and poop like a very, like, 70s gay joke. Like, gay men love hanging out in bathrooms. Yeah, gay men love men, so they'd love to hang out with piss and poop.

I didn't see it as a gay joke. I just saw it as Spindler's making the best of a bad situation. There's that, too, in kind of like a perky gay way. I can see both reads. I can see both reads. But how about Burns won a party? I want you to arrange a party for two at my estate. Marge, me, and do you think you could dig up

Al Jolson? Uh, do you remember? We did that once before. Oh, that's right. He's dead. Yandra the Pungent. The rest of that night is something I'd like to forget. All right, then, bring me that crooner she likes so much, Tom Jones. Tom Jones. I love that Al Jolson

joke so much. I love it, but it has that recycled animation problem. It's so awkward looking. But it's also like three jokes about the same thing. Yeah. It implies a time where Burns told him, get me Al Jolson, and he dug up a body and gave it to him. There's like a rotting skeleton. Yes, it's so...

I love that. I feel like it's just not the right escalation to that joke. And I love a good Al Jolson joke. Yeah. Because I'm surprised I get those references. Thank you, Looney Tunes. Only because of this and Looney Tunes. And Smithers captures Tom Jones in the same way he captures one of the baseball players with the suitcase full of gas.

Suitcase full of gas. I forget which one. I'm speculating Smithers is immune to. Yeah. Because he wears no gas masks. He built up a resistance to it, probably. He's done it so much. That's kind of a prisoner reference, right?

In the prison where they gas people quite a lot. Was itacks not steve sacks whoever was hunting was no no no he didn't gas any of those i thought he gas somebody with a briefcase i'm sorry no he had a briefcase that he offered money oh the briefcase played into it right i'm sorry and uh there's it actually there's another briefcase joke later in the yes i'm confusing all the briefcases i'm sorry everybody in hindsight i had a line in the show. I just didn't get it. But it's from this sequence that is,

I don't know, it's a B story that Bart is faking sick and Grandpa is taking care of him so Bart can go to the test. But he learns that faking sick and being with Grandpa is worse than being in school.

Oh, my ovaries. The crusty show sequence. Great animation. So good! Yeah. Loud! This is a story element. The Krusty Show sequence. Great animation. So good! But this is a story element. Here we have an Alaskan timber wolf. He weighs 240 pounds and his jaws can bite through a parking meter.

He does get spooked by loud noises. Loud? That's our secret word for the day! I love the sound design. But it's the bird attacking him on the head I only ate one I only ate one that's my favorite line of the entire show

the bird laid an egg in his studio and he ate it ate a raw fuck egg claws are really digging into my skull that's it's one of those things they bring up multiple times in the commentaries, like, what show is Krusty's? Because every show... I think this was Al Jean and Mike Rees tapping into their Johnny Carson times.

Oh no, I mean, this is totally a Carson reference. Yeah, they were. I believe an episode coming up has the urine monkey, right? Like, why is this called a urine monkey? Oh wait, I just found out. This was something you saw back before talk show guests just like played hopscotch or sang in cars with people this the the go-to easy thing was

like okay bring in jack hannah or his cheaper substitute and he'll bring silly animals from the zoo and then they'll scare you and then you all touch the host in the dick somehow yeah yeah and they'll climb all over you and like it was actually on the show the comeback the lisa kudrow show the comeback i love that really fucking good by the way i didn't discover it till two years ago her great her favorite her beloved moment was being on the tonight show in the 90s and then a monkey peed on her on the couch but it's the best joke about that is the Mr. Show joke, which cuts to a blooper reel

from talk shows. And you expect the monkey to pee on someone, but it's just the host who pees himself on the monkey. It's fantastic. So I guess you don't have clips

from the Bart vs. the Wolf segment. I don't. I feel it's a pretty weak B-story. I mean, the animation's cool, but... The animation's really good, and I do like that

as a climax for a Bart story, but it's difficult to get sounds of. Yeah. Don't beat yourself up. I was excited at the prospect of Willy fighting the wolf. That was fun. And then remembering that Willy is a monster

strong man. We're skipping over like they forgot about it too but they do fix the foundation and then just Homer's reaction to Surly Joe It's really good. Marge get my gun. So one thing I wanted to point out for the wolf segment is they changed a joke that has changed on the DVDs. Krabappel is going through all of Bart's different fake illnesses, and she brings up his bout with rabies, and he's like, shove it, witch, and he's like snarling. That was Tourette's syndrome.

It originally was Tourette's syndrome. That's what I heard and what I watched. You can see her mouthing Tourette's Syndrome and the joke doesn't make any sense because they changed it apparently I saw Tourette's Syndrome in the version I have originally like on VHS it's not a DVD it's not on DVD it's rabies but on the VHS

and like on the original airing it was Tourette's and apparently a child watching it had Tourette's and he was offended he wrote in Mike Reese was like we did make a mistake we're sorry but fucking pc police man ruined our great jokes about tourette's conversely i thought like you need to follow up on that joke like when i heard it in i i bit torrented a pack of them it's easier for me to get clips of yeah i do own the dvds uh but i did hear tourette's and like sorry that needs to be there's a topper

to that joke we're not hearing because you can't a kid, I wouldn't have known what that was. And Bart should have done something like... Well, Bart is like twitching and swearing, and that was their interpretation of Tourette's. But saying rabies and having him act like that makes no sense. And that's why I don't want to offend people with Tourette's Syndrome. I'm sorry. But just leave the joke in.

It's part of history. Don't change it. I mean, they could have changed it for another airing, but why is the original not on the DVDs? I think it's still funny to fake Tourette's Syndrome. For a kid to fake Tourette's Syndrome to go to class. Yeah, Bart is clearly in the wrong, and he's bad for doing it. But, yeah, it's weird. I think people with scrofula feel.

Ever since I heard him say, please don't let me swallow my tongue, they gave me a complex as a kid. That every once in a while I think, what if I swallowed my tongue? That could happen. You could swallow your tongue. They gave me a complex as a kid that every once in a while I'd think, what if I swallowed my tongue? That could happen. You could swallow your tongue. Learning about what an overdose is, I always thought it was poison. You get poisoned by too much drugs, but an overdose usually means you've taken something that is confusing your brain and your

survival instincts don't kick over. Most people, when they die of an overdose, it is their tongue not getting out of the way of their breathing. You choke on your own mouth. Or vomit. Yeah. And like, I don't know. I just always thought it was poison until I had friends who OD'd. Hooray, adulthood.

Bummer. Let's talk about Tom Jones. Yes, please. I was impressed. Not to jinx it, but Tom Jones still going strong. Yeah, at 76. 76. He's not dead.

Whenever I see Tom Jones, I think about the Dana Carvey joke about what a huge penis he has. Is that a Hollywood myth? Legend, rather? This is just from the Dana Carvey. His 96 stand-up special, I think it was, or mid-90s. Critics' Choice? Critics' Choice. Yeah, and it's the same one where he talks about his kids walking around naked and Irish mother-in-law or whatever.

But he talks about how going to see Tom Jones and that women are still throwing their underwear at him and then he's just saying, he just sees this snake in his pants. He's like, are we all pretending we don't see this? Look at this thing. I remind me to get tighter pants. That's Jon Hamm of today, I guess, in comparison. Actually, I was wondering if you were free

for a little get-together tonight? Dinner, dancing, and Mr. Tom Jones. Hello, Modge. That's it. Big smile. Everybody's happy. Oh, my goodness. My husband will be so excited.

You have a husband? Yes, I can picture him now. Rugged, good looks. Sweater knotted about his shoulders. Curly locks shining in the sun like spun gold. This is, by the way, Burns is describing me. Just in case the audience can't see. Please don't tell them.

Very accurate. I love Burns in that beginning that scene. His hand sliding off of his freshly waxed skull. Why? That was so funny. That's such a cartoonish gag that's not in The Simpsons. And the way he tries to, like, recover from, like, that didn't just happen. I'm fine.

It's all fine. It was so great. I think he uses that as an excuse to check Marge up from her feet up. But also, it's funny that Smithers is, like, complicit in this when he's been knocked down to bathroom cleaner and Marge has his office now. I'm putting you where the action is. Only crime being in love with Burns. And that Tom Jones getting his head hit by the automatic door is just a great joke and a great escalation to a horrible situation. It's a real Three Stooges sound effect, too.

So then Burns fires her. This is the most sexually harassy line. This would be used in 1990s videos about sexual harassment. You're fired! You can't fire me just because I'm married. I'm going to sue the pants off you. You don't have to sue me to get my pants off. She would be so wealthy.

So wealthy. That's another ADR line. The animation is very awkward for that line. That reminded me of the... To me, it became one of the next, I've fallen and I can't get up, which was like, that's sexual harassment and I don't have to take it. You all saw that commercial. Yes, I mean

we are all now super woke, of course, because we're living in 2016. Nothing we do will be judged by the future. It is funny that this was a new idea. You can't talk to women like that at work. What? I can't call this woman a slut but i'm at work i can't try to have sex with this woman yeah this is one of those situations where i read how old the simpsons is because like you can do a sexual harassment episode but this is so fucking on the nose yeah and like she would completely win i mean the later one oakleyley Weinstein's Malibu Stacy episode

is much more hashtag woke than this one. Yeah, for sure. It really was ahead of its time of putting feminism topics on mainstream television. But! We get a legal situation. That means... Before we get to that,

I did love Burns drawing on his monitors as Marge is packing up her box. And just the animation on his laughing is amazing. I did also want to say the animation on Krusty says, loud. It's so good. That whole sequence is amazing. And the wolf looking around while the lights are flashing. It's all really great.

But Lyle Hutz has really gone downhill. Oh, boy. And he has one of the more animated reactions I've seen from any character on The Simpsons. Mr. Burns, we've got witnesses. Press it in in a paper trail a mile long. Yes, well, I have ten high-priced Louise. He left his briefcase. Hey, it's full of shredded newspapers.

Well, I guess that's it. People like us can't afford justice. Come on, homie. Let's go before he fires you, too. No. Mr. Burns, I'm not leaving until you say you're sorry for what you did to my wife. You love her, too. Damn right.

Homer, I want you to show this woman the time of her life. Gotcha. Marge, we're getting some drive-thru, then we're doing it twice. Very big of Burns. I think that's sort of the situation when you're in love with somebody who maybe isn't reciprocating that, like, you should... If you truly love somebody, you should be happy

in where they found their love. Yeah, but I know this can't happen because it would change the premise of the show, but Marge should get her job back. Yeah. She shouldn't be fired. The foundation is fixed. She doesn't want to work.

This is kind of unsatisfying to me, and I love this episode, by the way. I think there's a lot of great jokes in here, but it's like Burns folds instantly when he's like, oh, you love her too. That's all it took for Burns to just fold and then put on a concert for both of them at his house. I read it as sweet that he loved her that

much. I don't see Burns ever being that sweet though. Time is running. Let's just say he was on ether at that moment. But I used to want all of my ex-girlfriends executed by somebody who's not me because they live in a world and harbor my secrets. Used to. And now whenever I

see anybody I've been that close to, I'm so happy. And when I see them, she's getting married, I could not be happier. I so hope I'm invited to your wedding. This took like fucking three decades of maturity to kick in because this was not always the way. That was my read on Burns. If you truly care about somebody,

get rid of all the petty jealousies. Maybe Burns realized it was just lust that he had in his heart. I don't think he knows the difference. He's too old-timey. But also the Hudson right before that where they go to his office and he's just drinking in the morning. Belt of scotch. Just the way he's just chugging the scotch. Would this season have brownest of the brown liquors?

Yes. I mean, it's bookendable. And Miguel Sanchez in season five. Miguel Sanchez. When you think of this episode versus Marge goes to jail, like they're kind of like opposite ends of the spectrum they're both like Marge in new situations and how the family deals with it

and with similar jokes so that one just ups the Lionel Hutz thing so much. I think this is the first one that really puts his personal life at rock bottom. I mean we see his professional life but now it's like you're drinking at like 10 in the morning and you will soon have no pants on in court.

It's the bottle that only leads me to believe, oh, this is new animation. Otherwise, it would have been just another Lionel Hutz scene. If you compare this Hutz to the somewhat somewhat, well, he's unprofessional, but he seems to be good at being an evil lawyer

in The Bar Gets Hit By A Car, but then this one,'s like just lost yeah he's not even competent at being sleazy he's just a drunk bat at his job and there's a it's a very dark moral of people like us can't afford justice yeah i didn't forget that either that um that hit home very true yeah that ending the the ending of the episode felt very critic again i'm just gonna say that all season but it can't help but feel critical like yeah yeah just call interpol love anything and i don't know i guess tom jones was always popular but this felt like it was led to a somewhat career resurgence for him in the early 90s like after this he was in mars attacks yeah like other tv shows he covered lenny

kravitz's i'm are you gonna go my way on the Boys soundtrack. That is the most 90s sentence I've ever said in my entire life. That's really 90s. But I feel like it was The Simpsons always calling back to the 70s and them being slightly out of date intentionally. I feel like that's why this choice was made, Tom Jones. The only Simpsons guest star my mom loves. My mom loves him, too. I think it turned on our entire generation of moms. At least white middle class moms.

It was your mom's panties being thrown 30 years ago today. And I would harbor a guess that Tom Jones was originally animated singing a different song because the animation is way off. Oh, I didn't notice that. Unless they needed to cycle it just to get more fun. They got two Tom Jones songs in there. Can't be cheap. So you got more money for that.

Wasn't there a Tom Jones song in the series earlier? Homer sang, is it in the War of the Simpsons? Right. What's the new Pussycat? Yeah. No, what's the new Pussycat? Oh, that's in this episode. God, which one was it?

It's sounding very uninformed. Let's not dig deeper into it. Oh, it's Tom Jones songs. Jesus Christ. I don't know what gets grandladies wet. But also, Homer sings his song Delilah in the shower. Right, right. In the previous episode.

Wow. Though just enough that it seems like they probably didn't have to pay him for that one. No, you can't copyright four words. And yeah, so please, Tom Jones, don't die in the three weeks before the test. Not to hang a lantern on this, but we're praying for you, Tom. We're rooting for you. We have killed before.

Gordie Howe, your blood is on our hands. This has been Talking Simpsons. We will kill again. Gordie Howe, your blood is on our hands. This has been Talking Simpsons. We will kill again. I've been your host, Bob Mackey. You can find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. I also host the Classic Gaming Podcast Retronauts every Monday at retronauts.com or usgamer.net and I write for Something Awful and of course usgamer.net.

Henry, where can we find you? Excuse me, hey. Wow! I'm on H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G on Twitter, and you can also find my work on Fandom.com, where I'm the senior games editor, and I write a lot about video games all the time, but of course

you should follow me and my wacky friends at LazerTimePodcast.com, and support us through Patreon.com slash LazerTime time that's where for just five dollars a month or more you can get access to tons of exclusive things we've done especially for listeners to this they all want to listen to the first season of talking simpsons as well as our season two and season three wrap-ups full of tons of exclusive deep deep secrets of

the simpsons it's, and this is October, and we do a little thing called the Monday Night Movie where you basically watch a movie with everyone that can participate at a certain time, and it's really fun if you can make it. And it's October, so we're going to do a bunch of Halloween stuff. I'm excited. Almost every week in October, every Monday in October,

so check that out. Check out laterthedimepodcast.com for the details. Check out our YouTube channel we have that some stuff from the Simpsons up there the 1992 and Simpsons games the worst time for those games ever but I did wrangle these these who came over the house for the Nintendo 64 20th

anniversary we battled right in Mario 64 spoilers the Wii U gamepad sucks for Mario 64 I don't know what kind of game it's built for I'm guessing everything on Xbox PlayStation and that didn't happen that's a gamer slam that Simpsons fans don't necessarily need to hear there's more that I'm video game

apocalypse later times weekly video game show Henry I want to talk to you about a laser time idea I know at some point we did a epic episode on the most confusing timelines I think the Simpsons is reference but that's not really one of those things in pop culture

history X-Men Fast and the Furious Zelda yes fuck that Castlevania as well Bob is too well acquainted Star Wars I'm so it's so it's been I gotta tell you my revelation I had it made

me really mad what's that I'll tell you I'll like or on that episode podcast calm and you can join us next week for a brand new episode where Bart's that? I'll tell you on the off mic. Or on that episode. Please do. Please do. Podcast.com. And you can join us next week for a brand new episode where Bart falls in love. We'll see you then. Wow. Infotainment.