Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Mayored To The Mob With KC Green

Episode Date: September 18, 2019

Professional cartoonist KC Green (check out his new Kickstarter!) returns to talk comic conventions, Star Wars, The Mafia, and more for Mayored to the Mob! After a dangerous comic-con for Mark Hamill, Homer becomes Quimby's new bodyguard, which somehow leads to rat milk in the streets! Luke, be a Jedi tonight and listen to this week's podcast! Support this podcast and get dozens of bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! This podcast is brought to you by the streaming network VRV: home to cartoons, anime, and so much more! Visit VRV.co/WAC to sign up for your FREE 30-day trial and kick a little money back to your friends at the Talking Simpsons Network!  

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Made you go click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. It's real easy, man. I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast that's more refreshing than a glass of rat milk. I'm your host, devotee of the lively arts, Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today?

Henry Gilbert, and I am still trying to raise awareness on the differences between Amazing Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man. That's very important. And who else is here with us? My name's Case Green, and that's my head shot up there next to the pepper steak. And today's episode is Mayored to the Mob.

Are you sure this is a sci-fi convention? It's full of nerds! Hi, Lisa! Hey, Lisa. Welcome to talk. Hi. Today's episode aired on December 6th, 1998. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Oh, my God.

Oh, boy, Bobby. You've got mail tops the box office. DMX is flesh of my flesh. Blood of My Blood debuts at number one on the charts, and Congress officially votes to impeach Bill Clinton as we close out 1998, which is referenced into the chalkboard gag of this episode. Thankfully, they can... I'm sorry, that's what I wrote down. I was like, President did it. What happened around this time? Yeah. I looked it up and it was just big letters impeached thankfully they can write those jokes the last minute i think it won't be until season 11 or 12 that we actually get clinton impeachment jokes in animation oh yeah

yeah it uh i think they were still they were starting to feel the pressure in late 98 of south park being so much quicker on the draw with uh with jokes than them you know that's what made south park the cool show to simpsons being uh the the aging television series so dmx did he make a christian gangster rap album that's what it sounds like no i think it's about his kids or something okay it's it's the one if you i just know the song slipping from it i don't really know dm oh and also uh the first track which which I cannot say the name of. Oh, right. Okay. But the cover of it is, I believe it is

the one with him shirtless and covered in blood, if you've seen that DMX cover. And man, You've Got Mail, I saw that in theaters. It's an evil film. It really is an evil film. I only knew about it from We Hate Movies, the podcast. I never saw it. I was not into this romantic comedy.

But it's sort of like a spiritual remake of Sleepless in Seattle, but it's also a real remake of The Shop Around the Corner, this Jimmy Stewart movie. Oh, yes. Yeah, but it's about how corporations are good and you should sell your company to them. Yeah, yeah. The guy behind it is charming, right?

Mm-hmm. If he's a handsome and charming guy, if Tom Hanks ran Barnes & Noble, then you should happily close down your bookstore for him. It also was way ahead of the curve of realizing that books are dead anyway. Also, Tom Hanks, they should do a sequel to it where Tom Hanks falls in love with a new woman who works for Amazon and closes down his book-selling company. I just missed that nice man who told me I had mail.

Yeah, it's so weird. They're like, email's a thing. What if two random people, because the plot is too that Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, they are anonymous email buddies, but then they meet in person and hate each other and don't realize it's the same person they're talking to in emails.

And also there's a bit in it where Tom Hanks has a long conversation with her about how men understand the godfather and can quote it constantly which i'm like no they don't like maybe one specific generation of men but by like 1998 it was goodfellas all the way not godfather and now it's uh the big lebowski unfortunately lots of people have ruined that uh very good movie i'm the only one who gives a fuck about the rules here? Shit about the rules. That's like, fuck, I fucked it up.

At every hipstery restaurant or bar, they'll have the dude's burger. You don't like this burger? That's just your opinion, man. Just like, oh, come on. It was a good movie. And I think You've Got Mail was the first. No, I bet I saw a stand-up, but I don't think I connected it. It was the first time I saw Dave Chappelle in somethingup but i don't think i connected it that uh it was

the first time i saw dave chappelle in something all right they're always trying to make him work in fact there will be a joke on an upcoming simpsons about that correct yeah have you thought about dave chappelle i think the line is which yeah in the late 90s for a little bit they tried to make him the new friendly black guy who's and stuff and then he i think in response to that once all those failed he then went back to comedy central and got dirty again and became the dave chappelle we all we all love yeah i i heard his story where someone asked him like what was it like filming that movie like this was from friends of mine who they went to one of his like eight hour stand-up shows that

i don't think i'd ever want to go to those. But he's like, well, okay, you guys got questions? And somebody did ask, you've got mail. And they said that he frowned and was just like, all right. Is it better than Men in Tights? He had nice things to say about that because he learned so much from Mel Brooks on it, he said. I enjoyed Men in Tights as a kid. But for You've Got Mail, he said his experience was watching the lighting people work very hard to make sure Tom Hanks looks wonderful, and then saying, Dave, get in here. Just get over here. Here's a paper towel. Wipe the grease off your face. That was our treatment when we were filmed at a certain website.

Yes, yeah. Wipe your grease off, boys. It's time to go. But today's special guest is Casey Green, the brilliant comic artist. Hello, Casey. Hey, guys. thanks for having me and the last episode you were with us for was the curse of the flying hellfish which was probably about a year ago in our timeline and wait uh three years ago in the simpsons timeline man that's about right yeah yeah but uh for listeners who miss that one casey green is an amazing cartoon artist uh you see his art all the time online sometimes even credited to him but

he's uh but no you're you're brilliant uh and i mean you're the creator of the this is fine dog that's that's yeah that'll probably be like you know that that can be the first thing people will know of that's fine but you have an ongoing uh project you have a kickstarter right now collecting a webcomic you did correct yeah after gun, after Gun Show, which is where the This Is Fine dog came from, I started another one called He Is A Good Boy about a little acorn who left his tree

and is just dealing with stagnating through life and getting drunk about it. It's kind of like half horror, a lot of comedy. It's great. Yeah, we're kickstarting it right now to get the full story made,

full story book printed out. And you can go to make that thing.com slash good boy to see more about it i'm definitely gonna kick start that i'll join in on that now i just uh i can't i supported your last one i'm gonna do this one too for sure and unlike all the video games that kickstart if it meets its goal it'll actually come out i'm looking at you unsung story whatever you turn into. Yeah. That's the nice thing about Kickstarter and comic books is they pretty much come out within a year. Yeah.

We just need the money to get it printed. It's ready to go. This is a whole other conversation, but I think Kickstarter has been such a great boon for comic books that I've seen so many web comics that I feel like would have never even gotten a meeting with an you know even b-level comic publisher to publish their collections now they can just do it themselves and they're they're making more money than a lot of uh comic book creators who work for one of the big two makes yeah it could be a great boon for like small small publishers also before we talk about

Simpsons I did want to man we just did a rocko's modern life movie yeah that's right oh yeah and i just want to ask like what was it like doing official rocko comics uh it was fine like there isn't much to it there isn't much to it when you call it official rocko comics it's still like you know half unofficial i don't know it's not like the same as doing the actual stuff but it was fun to actually play around with the the drawings and characters because I watched the hell out of Rocco as a kid even though like I don't know it's one of those things that I take for granted but it's definitely like inside my DNA of of art and writing so much that I that I forget about it sometimes so like

drawing Ed Bighead or Heifer and his grandpa were the two side comics i did for them were just like oh this is this is coming out so easily from me this is so weird the comics are so great i wanted to ask did anyone from nickelodeon have to sign off on them like well heifer wouldn't say that or rocco would be more like this in this scene uh i i think maybe there was probably like a they might have had to like just put this through some kind of big machine that said, you know, Nickelodeon on the side of it. Um,

but I got no, I got really no notes like about like, no Rocco wouldn't do that. Or I didn't draw Rocco or Heifer wouldn't say that or whatever. And I got to do like a really creepy Timmy, the tooth where he goes crazy with fever. Oh my God. That's it.

Yeah. That tooth one, I have dentist phobia. Oh my God. That's it. Yeah. That tooth one. I have dentist phobia. And so that one really got me. And I think after watching the movie again and some old episodes, I do think as far as funny drawings, Ed Bighead is the funniest drawn character. Oh,

absolutely. He's the great put upon, uh, you know, neighbor. Like he's, he's awesome. Especially because his mouth is like 90 of his

body when it's open yeah his head can do anything it's it's uh but anyway simpsons fan demand so did casey we talked a bit about your simpsons background before but did uh did you see this one live when it aired in uh it over your christmas break in 1998 no no i didn't catch a lot of simpsons live It was a very rare opportunity for me to ever sit down and watch it. It was always in reruns or watching the DVDs or something.

I don't know if I ever actually... I remember the opening comic book stuff, but then when it got into the Bodyguard thing, I probably maybe checked out as a kid watching it, like, you know, reruns or something on like five in the afternoon on fox i was talking with henry about this before the recording and this episode so casey the last episode he was on was curse of the flying hellfish it's one of the

coolest animated episodes of the show like so much great action and direction i feel like this is a strangely bad looking episode i don't feel like it's the fault of the director i feel feel like it was sort of mangled overseas. It could have been a bad overseas director, problems in the pipeline, whatever. But there's a lot of weird timing errors, a lot of awkward animation, just a lot of mistakes in this. And I've always thought of it as, oh, this is one of the ugliest episodes of the show, just in the way it is animated. And I always have said in the past, I hate when they put glasses on the characters for a prolonged period of time because it creates... I could not look at that every time Homer took his glasses off. So if you look at the characters from the front, like front-facing Simpsons, there is flesh between their eyes.

But it's weird, so you rarely see them from the front. So whenever you see the characters, usually from a quarter-angle perspective, and their bulbous eyes are always overlapping. But for whatever reason, when they draw these sunglasses on Homer, they make a weird strip of flesh between his eyes and it bothers me. Really? Yeah, sorry, Henry. Yeah, I think of those sunglasses

as like they're lenses that squish down his eyes and make his bridge of his nose visible. That's what it makes me think. Like when a frog's eyes sort of go back inside its head. And somebody out there on Twitter, I think I complained about this on a previous episode. Somebody out there on Twitter

tweeted about it and got a ton of reception. And they credited me, of course. So thank you. But I think people out there are on the same page. And I also feel like with a character like Homer,

who's very wild and expressive, having sunglasses on him for this long of a time really limits the amount of funny things he can do. It's just an interesting choice they made that didn't really pan out in animation yeah we went a lot into this into dots bus i never even thought of it until you uh on that one talked about it and that our uh friend and official simpsons artist nina matsumoto uh she brought it up because i never thought it looked weird that you know millhouse has a bridge of his nose visible always because he has glasses on and i never thought like why don't you see

barts like that it just it's one of those realities you don't think of her like in the drawing of me in simpson style that nina does like i never think about like oh yeah i have a strip of flesh there that that bob doesn't have it's true yeah in this case especially it's happening so much. Homer is taking off and putting on his glasses like five or six different times. And then you put that weird action into the hands of what seems to be an animation team that isn't doing their best work this week. Like, it's weird. It does take you out of it a little bit.

Well, and this also is like their first time going back to a comic conventions since the 1992 episode three men in a comic book and i think this really shows how they gauged comic book conventions changing over the decade of the 90s and and growing and becoming a little more socially acceptable yeah i think and i think at this point simpsons writers had been going to comic-con and similar conventions uh maybe this is all sort of new to them, these bigger convention spaces. And I think this is really when these conventions were really taking off in the late 90s. Well, and Casey, you've been to your share of comic book conventions? Of course. A lot of the times I go to more indie comic-focused shows like Toronto Comics and Arts Festival,

TCAF in Toronto, or SPX, which is upcoming in the DC area. Those are more like indie and comic focused. But I have been to my share of conventions, you know, like all types of stuff, not just comics, but you know, entertainment and stuff like that. I remember going to a one in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because it was just like, why not? Me and a friend went and we saw Peter Mayhew there. In Tulsa, Oklahoma with his big chair. God rest his soul.

R.I.P. Yeah. The first convention I went to was probably in 94, 95. It was basically what the three men in a comic book convention was, where it was just a ballroom of a hotel that pumped $300 into the economy. And I was like, oh, I can finally see what happened in issues one to nine of Bone.

And it was really for filling out my collection because I couldn't go on the internet and just order back issues or get the digital comics online. And can you actually buy comics at a Comic-Con? Sometimes. Yeah, I think the last time I went to san diego which was san diego comic-con uh was about three years ago and there was like i'd say about four or five tables all

kind of squished together that were like we're selling collectible comics here like we are the guys selling amazing fantasy 15 or whatever here we've got the copies but other than them no there's not a lot uh there because it's uh it's just the marketing has taken over so much like it's just so uh i mean it was always a commercial space it was always like you see in here that they were accurately doing what a late 90s con looked like which was just a booth to advertise things. But it wasn't as gigantic and manic as it is now. It's just crazy now. Waiting in line for 16 hours to get into Hall H to watch your fucking Marvel trailers

five minutes before somebody uploads it online and you can just watch it there. It's crazy. Yeah, I've never been to san diego comic-con nor do i really want to ever don't don't yeah the closest i've been to in that kind of big convention was new york comic-con which is like you know nintendo goes there you know it's a it's a huge convention but there's always comics there too like i could always find someone selling classic stuff or people like me selling their own stuff there well yeah that's uh new york comic con is interesting because that the javits center

like it's they have to section it all off like so they have here's the ads a section oh did you want to go to artist alley and meet artists that's like a long walk away from there yeah i remember doing an artist alley in a separate like building and it was nice because they were like there was windows light was coming through uh i remember doing pretty well there too uh that one time but it was just it was so but i also remember doing one in a catty corner next to like bootleg shirts and some other assholes who cares that we did not do as well and uh you ever meet anybody on the fame level of mark hamill while working at these conventions i did get to meet peter mayhew oh nice and i did this is going to be a fun story uh i did do one in calgary canada which is kind of

like the midwest of canada reminded me a lot of Oklahoma. Um, and I was there early and was taken a number two bathroom as was someone else. I was washing my hands. The guy who was also doing his thing left immediately. And he was obviously he, without washing his hands, he was,

he was obviously someone who like, who was supposed to be at the show who was supposed to do stuff and i was just like i was like who the fuck so i followed i walked just around followed him i saw him get into his little booth and it was neil adams whoa and he was at the shake neil adams hand pavilion i go and tell my friend that and they're like oh yeah Neil Adams was like a coast to coast guest like like a weird like possibly conspiracy guy but like a classic comic book creator too wow also a filthy filthy man I mean he might think it's a chlorine in the water he doesn't want to yeah as soon as my friend told me that, I was like, okay, the puzzle just made sense as to what this man is about. That's so funny.

I knew Neil Adams. He has a lot of good qualities to him. When he was at his most popular, he was a big booster of guilting DC into giving any kind of money to the creators of Superman. He really helped shame DC into that, which is great. Well, good on him man but just just wash your damn hands sometimes no he really uh that you know i now i judge him poorly this in the uh the measuring measurement of a man's life yuck this episode i feel like going back upon watching this a lot of the comic book and comic book convention stuff is pretty stale but

it was you have to remember it was new in 1998 like things like this and the mission hill episode where they go to a convention that was a fresh set piece to use in a comedy show i love these jokes at 98 like because they were very my local convention in florida was megacon and i loved megacon or i went to megacon often yeah i had good times there was uh it's a very Florida, air-conditioned, crazy. I mean, you get to be in Orlando. So if you want to also go to Disney World, you can. 90% of my convention experience has been anime conventions. That is still too obscure for The Simpsons to parody.

I think there is a joke the next time they go to some sort of con. Well, no, I think the next con joke is the wizard did it xena stuff yeah but i a little after that bart watches an anime at a convention or something the girl that turns into his shoes it's in the it's in the web cartoon episode i think ah yes but you uh have not lived until you've been glomped against your will ladies and gentlemen i was glad i didn't like it wait Wait, what? My apologies. Someone runs up to you and screams random glomp and they hug you and it's funny.

It's just a form of assault. That sounds... Would you rather get that or yaoi paddled? The yaoi paddle is really just to attract attention. Man, we're getting too inside now. Last pre-clips story i wanted to tell

was i have seen mark hamill at conventions like he you could pass by him but i i wasn't spending the money or waiting in line long enough to get a signature i mean mark hamill was as a child my favorite justin star wars and then i don't think I knew it immediately when I started watching Batman, the animated series. But soon enough, when I found out it was the same voice as Luke Skywalker, that made me 10 times the fan I was of the guy. And I've been a big fan of him ever since. And now it's funny that he's 20 years after this episode came out. Now he's been the star of two of the biggest films of all time at least in money ways uh thanks to returning to the character of luke skywalker uh but you can still he's a convention constant my my husband actually did get a photo with him at a con because his friend

paid for it and so he hung beside his friend to to meet mark hamill and i mean uh you know i could see that eventually driving you crazy meeting 800 people a day and shaking their hands but the idea of being paid somebody handing you like 80 and saying you're a genius and the greatest person that's ever lived that sounds nice in the vacuum when there's a pod con in 30 years people can meet us we're telling the stories about meeting everybody here that's uh yeah i uh so mark hamill also is a real nerd like he is uh he's he's not a fake gamer guy he's he really is like there's a story that before batman the animated series came out he was campaigning to be a voice on it just because he had heard they're doing batman right

ahead of time like he knew about it beforehand and was campaigning for a part on the show and he replaced tim curry who had originally voiced the joker for like two or three episodes they just re-recorded those whoa really i never knew about that yeah the no tim curry audio is out there they never have released it but tim curry i mean i it could it could have been a great joker because tim curry is great but But Mark Hamill is my Joker. And in fact, I came to Star Wars much later than Henry. So when I first saw the first Star Wars, maybe 1997 or 8, maybe even 1999, I think I watched the first Star Wars after Episode 1. That's how backwards I am.

I was like, oh, that's the Joker. Neat. And yeah, Mark Hamill makes a lot of interesting choices and this is also when he was not doing star wars things uh which on the commentary he kind of chuckles at i think him and lucas did not have a good relationship or something and so he never did official star wars things until disney bought it but he was always active and like he also but he does weird stuff if he feels like it like right at the same time he was being in star wars films when the new flash tv show asked him to resume his silly role

of the trickster all right that he played in the 90s flash tv show he's like hell yeah put me in a stupid costume right now i'll start giggling like and of course he was i believe cock knocker and jay and silent bob strike back yes he was and when he, Cockknocker in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Yes, he was. And when he comes on the screen, the movie stops and a big subtitle comes on the screen and says, It's Mark Hamill, kids. Yes, yeah. And they wanted to cheer. People in the audience cheered.

Good times. Yeah. Good times, yeah. But this episode written by Ron Hauge, I think one of the strongest writers of season 10. He's really great on all the commentaries, too. He's just a funny guy. He's a very funny guy. Of course, former Ren Stimpy writer, come to the Simpsons.

He wrote a few great Seinfelds, too. And I think, you know, the animation's not great, but the only thing I'd say I don't like about this episode is how violent Homer is to his family. Yeah. He really takes me out of it now. It's funny. I mean, it's horrifying that he's like knocking out a little girl in this episode.

But everyone on the commentary is laughing uproariously, even Matt Groening. So it's just like they are getting a lot of fun out of watching this. But it is, if you think about it, it's like even more extreme than him strangling Bart is knocking out his children and wife. The only like saving grace is when he does it to himself and then million-dollar babies himself on the side of the table. Yeah, at least he gets it the worst. Yeah. But now with what we know about concussions and everything, it's far worse. You know now what he's doing to them.

Oh, yeah. It's still just a tiny bit of the jerk-ass Homer. Oh, yes. Well, we call him mean Homer here. We're an anti-jerk-ass Homer. Mean Homer. We're him Mean Homer here. We don't... We're an anti-jerk-ass Homer. Mean Homer. We're breaking up in the paradigm. The Simpsons will be right back.

We're just a bunch of crazy guys and dolls here, and we really appreciate you listening to this week's episode of Talking Simpsons. And a big thank you to our guest, hilarious cartoonist K.C. Green. We thank him for all of his insights on going to conju. Please check out K.C.'s Kickstarter for the collected edition of He is a Good Boy. You can find links to that on his Twitter, or just search through Kickstarter for HeIsACoodBoy. And you know what? We're good boys at Patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons because you guys can hear so many exclusive podcasts and every episode of Talking Simpsons and our sister podcast, What a Cartoon, a week ahead of time and ad-free for only $5 a month.

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this podcast has a quality side in our $10 and up premium Patreon level at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. For folks who pledge at that level, they get access to our monthly What a Cartoon Movie podcast, our most recent one. We did Rocco's Modern Life Static Cling. We had another awesome one coming in September. And if you sign up at the $10 a month level today, you'll have access to over 24 hours of bonus content from our what a cartoon movie podcast podcast about films like over three hours long sometimes even four hours long podcasts about films like Aladdin Kiki's Delivery Service Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse Secret of NIMH a a goofy movie, Akira, and tons and tons more. Too many to list.

You gotta check out our premium level at $10 a month. One more time at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. so this episode begins with like i think it's the fourth episode in a row they have the full opening i think they yeah they're really running short a lot in these in these uh episodes uh which is funny because the seven and eight, they had nothing but content. They're like, we got to cut everything. It's too full. But a lot of Scully episodes, they are running short in the same way

as Al Jean and Mike Reese's were. At least Scully doesn't have them watch an unrelated parody on TV to fill time. Al Jean and Mike Reese would do that a lot. And a lot of those are funny, but it was a lot of time killing. Well, this one does start with one. Oh, you're right.

It is a bit. I'm such an idiot that the Titanic thing is an unrelated parody. Wow. Though it's only 30 seconds, so at least that... But it's pretty funny. I'm just going to play the entirety of Roger Corman's Titanic. And now, the conclusion of our

$1,000 movie, Roger Corman's Titanic. We're safe now, Clarice. We made it away from that cursed ship. Now I can relax and take off this stifling bikini. Look out! Behind you! We'll return for the remainder of the conclusion after these messages. Well, I'd rather get a message than see another lousy commercial.

I love that they faked out, like the way they cheated of saying it out of the conclusion. And we'll return to the conclusion after these messages. I won't harp on the weird animation constantly, but one of the things I noticed in this episode was when the Titanic hits the iceberg, I'm sure in the script it was like in a bad, shitty movie. It's not very convincing. But the way it actually hits the iceberg in the animation is just weird and confusing and awkward. It's just very

strange. Yeah, I think that it didn't look as bad as Roger Corman would have made it. Yeah, I like that in sound effects they it to sound like they painted a car to look like the Titanic that then hit a big styrofoam glacier. If it was something like a SpongeBob episode where they could cut away to a different medium, they could just cut away to like a toy boat in a bathtub or something. But they can't do that on this show. No.

Thanks to MSD3K, I knew who Roger Corman was. Yeah. Otherwise, I think it probably confused most viewers of like, who's Roger Corman? Though we know from watching bad movies, Roger Corman is hardly the worst film director of all time. He's the most successful bad filmmaker of all time. Well, his B-movies are always like, they're at least entertaining. And they have like a sheen of trying, at least to them opposed to like uh i don't know coleman francis oh yeah or like tommy y so yes yeah uh james dewayne is the birdemic guy i believe yeah and roger corman's claim to

fame will always be discovered like martin scorsese and peter bucktonovich gave them all their first uh directorial jobs this did did strike me at the time as good. Like, a Titanic joke a year later is late, but there were so many direct-to-video Titanic ripoffs in, like, Walmart or Blockbuster you'd see. Yeah, and I believe Corman would make a lot of Fulia movies to put in the VHS stores, like Carnosaur, I believe, was a Corman movie. Yeah, yeah. Just like, what, okay, Titanic is a big movie, let's make our version of uh fulia movies to put in the vhs stores like carnosaur i believe was a corman movie

yeah just like what uh okay titanic is a big movie let's make our version of that with nudity and that's more trashy he would do that a lot with popular movies he was the anthem films of his time uh i also i do love the line of like now i can relax and take off this stifling bikini that she's this woman is like oh this bikini is too much clothes for her. And I think the design of the fake DiCaprio is the handsome male date from Natural Born Kissers when they're looking at the Gilda Truffle. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I think I just pulled that out of the character pack. And then also that Homer is only offended by commercials, not messages. The message doesn't bother him at all.

But yes, then we get to the great, I really do love the Bybon Sci-Fi Con commercial. I think, though, in the animation, they, in the design, wanted the aliens to look more like guys in masks, and it doesn't really come through so much.

People of Earth, we have traveled all the way from space to attend the most astrotastic event in the entire universe. You said it, Phil. It's the bi-monthly Springfield Sci-Fi Convention. That's right. It's Bi-Mon Sci-Fi Con. Come meet all your favorite stars. Mark Hamill, Elf, and many more. Plus tag team robot wrestling!

It's the mighty robots of Battlestar Galactica versus the gay robots of Star Wars! Stop! Please save me, R2! Oh, you stupid little tramp! You're so boring! I hate you! Remember, it's Bi-Mon Sci-Fi Con! Be there and be square! Are we, are these some of the first, the robots in Star Wars are gay jokes?

Are we at the cusp of this? I think this is the first one I remember as a, as a child. I bet people called the C-3PO gay for a long, longer than the Simpsons. Yeah, I guess the, it was 20 years before that of calling C-3po gay for a long longer than the simpsons yeah i guess the 20 it was 20 years before that of calling c-3po gay yeah it's just so it's just so like official the way they say it like oh and the gay robots are here too i you know it is kind of used as a pejorative but i really love the delivery of and the gay robots of star wars yeah like battlestar galactica is so much more cooler yeah which that really dates the writers too because like when they even showed the

battlestar galactica robots i didn't know who they were like those were never rerun where i grew up anyway are we still before the reboot series oh yeah okay that was like early 2000s yeah something yeah that's uh that's when the Cylons got sexy and uh yeah these Cylons are the they the Cylons are cool I'm not saying they don't look cool though I mean they're just like what if a stormtrooper was chrome that's pretty much their design uh though this also is like one of the last pre-prequel Star Wars jokes that we as a universe could celebrate together. Yeah, they're really giving it to Star Wars in this whole episode. Yeah.

We didn't get any Alf in this. I bet Al Jean, who was on the staff kind of at the time, did not want to bite the hand of the mercurial Paul Fusco. Oh, Paul Fusco. I do love that shot of Alf's head spinning next to Mark Hamill's head. It's so great. Yeah. It's so fucking funny, especially because the extra layer to the joke is that when they were making the commercial, they had no other confirmed celebrities. So they just had to go like, and many more.

Just spin around. The heads continue spitting. I like the joke that it's called the bi-monthly sci-fi convention, which can mean both twice a month or every other month, which is kind of odd that they would have a comic show every other month or even twice a month. There are so many nerds in Springfield, though. My voice speak as I said that.

There's so many nerds in Springfield. And the characters of the actors in the alien suits, I love that, too, that one, voiced by by dan is very method and he's like humans and the other guys is like that's right phil you'll see like that i'd say i love that gag too i think dan castellaneta does a really good anthony daniels as the fussy anthony daniels he's doing a lot of impressions of sci-fi characters in this episode

yeah yeah why is he the primary guy on this one i mean i guess he's the best direct impressionist of the three guys that normally handle those things uh he's uh he's doing quite a trump these days oh it's uh i i don't i it'd be weird if they hired somebody from outside the show to do it but i don't like his trump but i feel like he's the only one in the show on the voice cast that would do it yeah well that it would also do it for internet videos as opposed to like if you i feel like they just get spit in their face if harry sheer if they asked harry sheer to do could you do extra for the internet like he wouldn't touch that yeah dan's like the more down one to do this stuff but yikes to that video yeah yeah well in general his trump is just kind of weak i

mean it i prefer it to say alec baldwin's i think he actually does it better than uh the terrible alec baldwin but otherwise not great but this is gonna date it we're making fun if you guys don't know what we're making we're sighing about when we're recording this, the West Side, West Wing Side story, I believe it was called. No. No. I think that's the official name of the video. But it's a West Side Story parody of the four congressional women that Trump called un-American. They're telling him, like, we're, they take the immigrant song from that and parodically have the women sing it to him

and tell him he has his nose up Putin's ass, which is funny. Yeah. I will say that I'm sure we'll talk more about it on August, talk to the audience, but I do feel like that is not the parody to go with. If you're going to make this, don't parody a 60-year-old musical

that I only know because things in the 90s referenced it. If ask people what do you think this is a parody of i think maybe 90 would be like uh it's a parody of something it's a parody of trump duh it's a parody of the good feathers oh yeah perching on scorsese's head right i want to porch on scorsese's head that's right those fucking birds that know it's Scorsese. Stupid birds. But anyway, yes, I do like his Anthony Daniels thing. And it was also funny to hear on the commentary, Mark Hamill, who is incredibly fawning of being with the Simpsons folks. He's so happy to be there. He had a little giggle at Anthony Daniels' feminist.

I don't know what anthony daniels uh personal life is or his proclivities but i mean as 3po he was always playing this you know fuss budget you'd at least say and his his relationship with r2d2 is one of a uh uh he could be seen as somewhat gay sure they're just friends being pals robot pals but i you know what struck me now listening to it they got the r2d2 beeps like exactly right but chewy later is just like a bear like they didn't even try the chewy i guess at the time fox uh still owned star war so maybe they were able to steal the sound effects if they wanted to yeah because they used to be litigious even about like the term lightsaber didn't they oh to yeah because they used to be litigious even about like

the term lightsaber didn't they oh yeah yeah you'd have to have like laser sword this isn't a lightsaber well yeah well it was a complicated thing because fox always fox worked with lucas but they only owned the first star wars and lucas owned all the rest uh and then disney now disney owns it all anyway i mean when we watched this 21 years ago, we definitely didn't think they'd both be owned by the same company, and that same company would be Disney of all of them. But that's how it is, man.

They will own, I see the future where Disney owns all fiction and all the other companies own everything else. I hope they provide me with health insurance in the future. Only if you swear allegiance to them. Maybe if you get like a Mickey face tattoo. Ooh. A Mickey tattoo.

Maybe they'll have like tiers of stuff like, you know, Mickey's the highest, Goofy, Pete is the lowest or whatever, you know. I only have... They'll make it fun

and commodify it. I only have Goofy level insurance. I'm trying to get up to Donald. I've got Claribel Cow, which means they'll bury me if I die.

You get Oswald. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit's the worst. I think in later episodes when they go to a con, they would have had a justification of Bart or Homer or whoever saying, I love Star Wars. I want to meet this person. Or I love this series. I want to see that.

But instead in this, it's just, yeah, beats work, beats school. And they just go like, yeah. There's no reason they go there. I think they didn't want to. They did want to keep a clear divide between nerds and regular people like the Simpsons, even then in 98. But yes, they arrive at the Bayman Sci-Fi Con with set phasers to fun, which that's not the most clever joke. I feel like i've heard that joke a million times me too but the sci-fi con they draw is so piddling compared to the

monolith of ads that is my san diego comic-con like yeah it did remind me of that one i went to in tulsa with peter make you uh i miss i do miss that level of it. Now, I would rather go to San Diego Comic-Con than E3. I actually would, even though there's more people. But when I went to E3, I had to be super focused on just video games. But when I would cover San Diego Comic-Con, I could tell people, like, you know, I'm not just video game boy. I've heard of these cartoons and can interview people, you know? So that was nice. It was the times I actually, it was the first time I got to meet a friend of the show.

Ian Jones. Cordy was, uh, was when I covered San Diego comic con. I think it was more like they still didn't respect your skills, but like this sucker can do more work. We can hire one less person. Henry,

you're our man. Yes. Uh, but yeah, so they arrive at the con. Chewy is not allowed in and he's told, and that's when he has just his bear shout instead of his actual... Well, look, I'm not Harlan Williams. I'm not going to imitate the...

That's what he did, right? Yes. That's all he did, really. I feel like Harlan Williams was always Jim Brewer's understudy, but Jim Brewer never quits. You need a slightly less high-looking guy. Who would you say is more famous now? Oh, Brewer, probably. He got SNL.

Well, what's Brewer even doing these days? I think he does have a podcast, and Harlan Williams doesn't, so that would put him in the top 10. So there you go. There's your answer. I have seen Harlan Williams stand up, and it was a sad thing, because this has nothing to do with this episode.

But me and my friends went to University of Northern Florida, because we wanted to see his opening act, Mitch Hedberg, the late Mitch Hedberg. And that was great. But then we all felt like, well, we drove all the way here. We should just stay for Harlan Williams. Harlan Williams was there for an hour and he had 30 minutes. And so watching the other 30 minutes where he just had to stretch and yell at the audience and just go like, what else? What else? What else? It was it was real sad. What's in the newspaper today uh yeah it uh and it felt extra sad because then

afterwards all the dudes at this college came up to them with him with their half-baked dvds which is just like who fucking remembers he's in half-baked he's like the fourth most interesting guy in half-baked anyway the the opening gag uh we the opening clip we played of lisa being a nerd magnet i did really like that show. Yeah, and Lisa's a different kind of nerd, but we do get a Futurama t-shirt on Uter, which is nice. So right now we are three months before Futurama premieres, or four months. It was March. Yes, yeah.

Though I wonder if when this aired, they knew they weren't getting the Super Bowl premiere, and that sweet plum was going to Family Guy. We're just a month away from the premiere of Family Guy in Simpsons Timeline with this episode. But that shirt, in-universe, that must be a bootleg shirt. But I wonder if that was ever the logo of the show because it doesn't look like the logo of the show. It's like a light blue oval with futurama written over it maybe it

was just very similar but on the not the final logo i didn't i didn't directly compare that yeah i mean maybe it was the okayed logo in like early 98 when they did it or the like we said there's animation problems all over this one yeah i was excited as someone who was reading about futurama like oh man a new macarooning series it looks so cool. I was ready for Futurama, so I was excited upon seeing Uter in the show. Yeah, I was more tuned into that, like Futurama about to come out, because I was like, oh, something new from him. Cool. I was like, Simpsons still going? Oh, come on. There's still so much fun in the Simpsons case. No, like, I like this episode after watching it. I just, as a kid, I a kid i just i tuned a lot of it out yeah a new show with new characters was exciting yeah and though i it wasn't until i watched the dvds and heard matt graining shout out the futurama t-shirt did i

even notice that was there i never noticed it in my in my early viewings of this we get a little gag of the many people who are signing at it, and then nobody cares about Neil Armstrong. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin goes to stuff like that. Neil Armstrong was a bit of a shut-in. First comes before seconds. Buzz Aldrin was on the show. Neil Armstrong never was, and he died in 2012.

I wonder if they thought they could get Neil Armstrong for this show. Maybe, maybe. Buzz Aldrin was more of a character in Deep Space Homer, though. He's not just some guy who yells about, I'm going to kick your ass. I mean, Buzz Aldrin appears in anything. He's done a lot of cameos and stuff. I think Simpsons was maybe one of his first comedic appearances. But back in 98, this Doctor Who reference like really deep cut to me like because at least

for our british listeners it might feel different but in the 90s if you were an american fan of dr who you were the biggest nerd of the nerds like you really were like even i looked at them like you can't watch fucking anime you watch this like this ancient old show it may it uh actually liking doctor who that because this is probably about three years before the true doctor who reboot uh came out of the bbc when it finally started getting big in america and this was before i knew that all dr smith jokes were pedophile jokes oh boy, boy. Yeah. Yeah, I was wondering, was that based on anything, or was it just a pedophile joke for the sake of having it? Well, I do remember there was a clip of the actress from Lassie in Lost in Space. June Lockhart?

June Lockhart talking about Jonathan Harris's portrayal. And she was asked, like, boy, that's a pretty gay part, isn't it? And she's like, oh, yeah, with him chasing the little boy around all the time. Pretty crazy, huh? So I think when they were making it, they even kind of knew that they were making gay pedophile jokes with the character. Cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And apparently, I learned from the commentary, Jonathan Harris was from Brooklyn.

That I love. He wasn't British, just affected. Didn't they say they tried to get him, which is just like, you're doing a joke that he's trying to molest Bart Simpson. You asked him to act it out? It seems like, well, I mean, I don't know if he'd be down with that,

but he was pretty funny on the season two of Freakazoid as Freakazoid's manservant. He's so good, yes. Doing the same, oh, the pain. Aren't you that guy? That's right, he was that guy. Aren't you that guy? That's right, he was that guy. Aren't you that guy from Lost in Space? Oh, let's just hear the scene here.

Hey, wait. I saw that Lost in Space movie. You are not Dr. Smith. Oh, the pain. The pain. The pain of it all. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. You have still got it, Dr. Smith.

Silence, you nickel-plated nitwit. My dear boy, I'd be happy to show you my resume if you'd care to meet me later in the food court. Danger, danger, Bart Simpson! Uh, it's, I mean, it's funny to hear him say danger, danger, Bart Simpson, and that actually is Dick Tufeld. Yes, Henry, death jingle time.

Oh, no! We got a dead man on our hands, and we didn't kill him. Death stalks you at every turn. There it is. Death. So Dick Tufel, the voice of the unnamed robot from Lost in Space. They never gave the thing a name. The robot.

The robot. He died in 2012 at the age of 85. Wow. Yeah. Man, made it that long. But yes, an odd guest star for one line, but that's him. Yeah, not getting the other guy. Yeah, and he's not Robbie the Robot.

That's a different robot. I was about to name call that guy. I was like, is that Robbie? What is Robbie the Robot from? Nothing. No. Everything. He was from Forbidden Planet.

Oh, Forbidden Planet. That's it. Yeah, yeah. But he was also just used in everything, like Columbo and everything. He battled the robot in an episode of Lost in Space. He was just a prop that got passed around. Yeah. But Gort is from the day the Earth stood still.

Yes. In this episode, yeah. Klaatu Barada Nikto. Which I only heard first said by Ash in Army of Darkness. Then I learned that was a Gort reference. My dad really liked that old movie, Day of the Earth, and when they said Klaatu, I was like, oh, that's from Evil Dead.

Like my father knows that. You guys are two generations of geeks unable to understand one another. You really kind of are yeah i think twofeld would just do whatever like he'd he did well you could hear his voice on the thundar the barbarian what a cartoon we did because he was the announcer for the show he was the guy who said thundar the barbarian all right yeah great pipes on him and also right after this with the scene with comic book guy we get a nice reference to Roswell, the Bongo comic series drawn by Bill Morrison.

We interviewed him for the Patreon. In case you don't know, he did a ton of the drawings for Simpsons merch back in the day. And he was also a huge part of Futurama, designing characters like Bender and a lot of just the look of the show. Yeah. He has a major hand in that show and didn't get enough credit for it. No, Bill Morrison is such a big deal. I think a lot of Simpsons fans don't really know. I knew him.

You know how the story of Carl Barks, the creator of Uncle Scrooge, he was known as the good duck artist before they named him. I thought of Bill Morrison as the good simpsons artist because if i'd see official simpsons art or the comics the best drawings were all usually done by bill morrison like or nina matsumoto yes actually she is the best okay and i will not take any criticism about that comment well i'm talking about in 1993 but but back then he was uh he was the best artist and he everything was on model he'd make every character look right especially his bartman drawings were great and this is some real like

a nice favor to put in his creator-owned work roswell in the show uh like that he must be right behind comic book guy selling his wares of roswell and yet that we found out in our interview which you can hear on the patreon in that that how much work he had done in designing like that uh just the look and coloring and everything of futurama that like he he likened it to mac reigning telling him the idea of lila and then bill morrison would sketch something and then matt would go well maybe more like this and then he'd sketch it so like his fingerprints are all over that and he was very humble he said at some point he was like maybe i should start getting paid for all this work i'm

doing on futurama and then he did uh yeah yeah and uh oh one last bit about the lost in space thing though is that the layout of that joke is very similar to their Adam West joke they did at the car show. It is true. Yeah, of saying, I've seen the recent remake of this. You're not the real version of this character. And no one remembers that movie. Yes. I do.

Matt LeBlanc said it. They're space monkeys. And the problem with that movie is that the Dr. Smith in it is not gay enough. He should have been gayer. That was their mistake in that movie he is just outright trying to kill uh the the entire family like yeah he was the he was the bad guy wasn't he yes yeah yeah well also the bad guy was a future version of yeah the robinson boy again i only know it through Movies episode, so I'm glad I missed it. That movie really is four episodes

of a Lost in Space TV series shoved into a movie with a pretty good cast. And now there's a new-ish Netflix series, but I can't watch anything, I'm sorry. All I know about it is that people say the robot has a nice behind in it.

I've seen people say that. Okay, let's talk about this joke. I have never felt more attacked by the show than in this Spider-Man joke here. I made a note of it. It spoke to young Henry. It did. No, in 1998, I literally was sorting through my Spider-Man comics and making sure every title was in the correct issue number order. And that definitely Amazing Spider-Man was separate from Spectacular Spider-Man, as well as Web of Spider-Man, the 1990 series Simply Spider-Man, which by 1998 had been renamed to Peter Parker, Spider-Man.

Was it called Simply Spider-Man? No, it was just, quote, Spider-Man. And then suddenly Spider-Man? There's also a Spider-Man Unlimited at the time, too. Not to mention countless Spider-Man miniseries that I also had to categorize in my long boxes the correct way. So when I saw this joke in 1998, making it the gag of the biggest loser in the world would be somebody who cares about this, I did feel hurt a little bit by The Simpsons.

But they're correct. I don't care about these things anymore. Now all of my carefully ordered Spider-Man comics are sitting in my mom and stepdad's garage up in Northern California. Appreciating value. Oh, yes. Yeah. I stare at them and I think sometimes I should really just let my mom throw this away to have more garage space. But I think back to me at 14 swearing to myself that I wouldn't be like the nerds of the generation before me, I'd hold on to all my comic books and not throw them away.

But now it's like an albatross around my neck, these comics. I will say, in 1998, as a nerd more into video games and anime than comics, the idea of a cute nerd girl who had my similar interests did seem like science fiction. But now they're out there. They're everywhere. Yeah, I think I like this cute nerd girl design. She is an early version of that manic pixie nerd girl that is all the rage in Bazinga Town these days. Bazinga Town.

The working title for the Big Bang Theory was Bazinga Town. I think the only problem with her is that she's into Little Lulu instead of Wonder Woman. There's a better girl comic stereotype to give her if you're gonna give it and this uh little joke gives us the age of uh jeff jeff albertson the comic book guy don't i hate you saying that name we don't say that name 45 uh but kc did you uh did you carefully order your comic books as a child no absolutely not i wasn't super into like marvel or dc or stuff at the most i would like find sonic or archie at the like the local albertson's grocery store i i was always just a very fastidious and organized nerd and i would

alphabetize everything like everything in my room to the point where friends would comment on it and i would silently judge them like all those books are just in a pile oh they're gonna get alphabetize everything, like everything in my room, to the point where friends would comment on it. And I would silently judge them, like, all those books are just in a pile. Oh, they're going to get all messed up. How would you know which one goes first? Now my comic books on the shelf are, they're more sorted by series and not exactly alphabetical. I think what broke me from the boredom of alphabetical ordering was working at video stores and keeping everything in alphabetical order. And there was a time where I knew I could close my eyes and walk to where a DVD case was on the shelf. I knew it that well. And I think that broke my brain. It gave me too much of that specialized ordering, let's say, that I was doing.

But yes, why don't we hear the closest thing to happiness that comic book guy will ever get. Someone has mixed an amazing Spider-Man in with the Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man series. This will not stand. Pardon me, but I wish to tender a serious cash offer for this stack of water-damaged little lulus. A, that is not water, it is diet, Mr. Pibb. And B, I... Tell me, how do you feel

about 45-year-old virgins who still live with their parents? Comb the sweet tarts out of your beard and you're on. Don't try to change me, baby. So sad. Mr. pibb is the funniest

soda name yeah yeah they like how quickly that ends just don't try to change me baby yeah that he's like the one time a woman has ever responded positively to his advances and when she has one note of like you can look how you look. You can have a comic book store. You can be a 45-year-old virgin. You can live with your mom. Just don't have literal candy stuck in your beard right now. Just a treat when you're making out. Oh, God. But see, the differences between me and comic book guy end because I married a person who knows the difference between Amazing and Spectacular Spider-Man.

Gotta lock that down. Though when I say that, he canonically, Comic Book Guy, does get laid. He has sex with Skinner's mom, with Agnes. And I think... Edna Krabappel? Yeah, my Big Fat Geek wedding is the end of the Skinner. I'm not a fan of that. End of the Skinner and Edna Krabappel yeah my big fat geek wedding is the end of the Skinner and I'm not a fan of that end of the Skinner and Edna storyline

that does have a great joke of Matt Groening saying do you want a lock of my hair I'll draw a drawing right now for you it's another comic book convention episode yes oh yeah and Skinner's in a Catwoman suit I thought this was Catman oh boy

I like that joke it's okay i love skinner was uh the the little bit of like weird sci-fi noise and the lighting a reference to anything when he was looking at her it definitely felt like star trek like definitely a star trek kind of the pacing of it and like the like yeah it felt like original series Star Trek especially how I know on Star Trek they just take like five seconds to show you a static shot of Spock or Kirk looking at something like what like so that's that's what I think it is but I like that the sparkles are coming off of her braces. Braces, yes.

And then we get to meet the big star of this episode, the Mark Hamill. Welcome, futurists, cyberphiles, and the rest of you dateless wonders. And now to push this convention into hyperspace, the man who put the star in Star Wars, a real bird on the Darth Vader's saddle, Luke Skywalker himself,

Mark Hamill! Hey, thanks, everybody. You know, I'm here today as Luke Skywalker, but I'm also here to talk about Sprint. As you can see, you stand to save up to 17 cents a month over the more dependable providers. I talk about Star Wars! You stupid nerds!

He's trying to save you money at long distance! I love Data so much. I don't like any character that starts with, like, ugh, or ah. Any character that starts with like any character that starts with just like a hesitant anxious uh noise talk about star wars uh and that's the perfect line to give database of all characters like they could have given that to millhouse or martin but to give it to him i think that's my favorite nancy cartwright voice i just love hearing it you know quimby the running gag in the old times was he didn't know who radiation man was yeah and that he thought spock was one of the little rascals but in this case he actually

knows a lot about mark hamill's resume i want to think that he literally thinks uh darth vader is a cowboy oh yes and that's just not And that's not just a metaphor for Luke being a problem for Vader. Mark Hamill comes out in his 1977 costume of Luke, which I doubt he'd ever wear in real life. He even has his old lightsaber, which somebody on the

animation side actually gave a shit because it's not just a tube. It really, as somebody who just considered purchasing an accurate recreation of that lightsaber for 150 that is a very accurate version of that lightsaber uh i do also love the gag he's knocking over stormtroopers but they clearly didn't have a fourth stormtrooper standee so they just put wonder woman in there instead yeah uh and on the commentary ham Hamill definitely,

he, well, he has a lot of laughs at the idea that like George Lucas does own him. Like he, as in he owns his likeness rights. He does. But on top of that, he didn't want to play himself.

He wanted to play another character, which is why he does do a second voice in this episode. But he, like Mark Hamill doesn't normally play himself in stuff. And he, because he, he actually on the commentary is really geeking out a lot about the craft, the acting of being a voice actor. I think, I mean.

Yeah, I love him as a voice actor. He's so great. And that's really what I know him best for. But I think this episode was made at a time where you could still be insecure. Like, do people know who Mark Hamill is? Which is why I think he's almost always in his Luke Skywalker outfit. Just for the sake of of the audience i mean that is the also the gag

but i think it's working with the idea that people might not know who mark hamill is i mean mark hamill himself doesn't have an exactly distinctive face and yeah and also he hasn't had he hasn't had that 70s boy haircut since then either like also for most of the time in the well for a bit of the 90s he also had to go t and he's had to go t or a beard for for most of the 2000s as a as a mark hamill super fan and i have been database in those audiences though i don't say it out loud but i've just you're going to see you, say some comic artist or some writer you really love, but they're talking about a new thing that they are excited about, but you're like, I don't care about your new thing.

Talk about the old thing that I liked. I don't know. I feel like I might scream if someone started talking about Sprint. I like the line, like other more dependable companies. He's putting down Sprint a little bit. I've never had Sprint. Is Sprint a little bit. I've never had Sprint. Is Sprint good? Bad?

I've never had it either. This was the era of when long distance mattered and was a thing. But it's also the, well, the collect call wars are coming real soon, too. Oh, yeah. The David Arquette versus... Ed O'Neill. Ed O'Neill. Chris Rock was in there, too.

Oh, yeah. The Simpsons were part of this. I mean, who shot Mr. Burns was in there, too. Oh, yeah. The Simpsons were part of this. I mean, Who Shot Mr. Burns was a collect call promotion. That's right, yeah. Stamos, that was another one. Old Stamos. But Mark Hamill then offers people to come up on stage, and that's when all hell breaks loose.

Star Wars, huh? Well, let me ask you this. How many of you have ever dreamed of being in that movie? All hell breaks loose. Star Wars, huh? Well, let me ask you this. How many of you have ever dreamed of being in that movie? Well, you're in luck. Because we're going to act out a scene, and I'll need a volunteer to play Obi-Wan. Kenobi? Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, pick me.

My whole life has been leading to this moment. I like how it has. If anybody's going to play Obi, it's me. All right, step away, you foolish amateurs. Just keep back. Keep out of it. The role is mine. With the acting and the groupies and the Luke. Luke, save me. With the lightsaber and the vwing, vwing, vwing.

That's not how you vwing. God! God! We're doomed. Doomed! Oh, God, can't this town go one day without a riot? Y'all, gadzooks, where are my bodyguards? Is there anything fluffier than a cloud? If there is, I don't want to know about it. Well, screws, use your lightsaber.

Go on, break it. You know, George Lucas makes me pay for these. It's important to note that Skinner is a big Star Wars fan. Go back to Lisa's rival. And I love that joke. They're all here, you know, the entire collection of action figures. Because I always point that out to people as that describes what the Star Wars fan was viewed as in the 90s. In the early to mid-90s where Star Wars is this obscure thing for nerds. Nobody

actually cares about it, and so obviously Skinner would be a fan. You're a giant weirdo if you actually can name all those characters. Now Star Wars is just the default entertainment movie loaf you're served every year with your side of superheroes. I still

like those movies. I mean, it's fun, but now it's just like there's one every year, and it's the movies we all see. As a true nerd who really was in the trenches for my entire life, it's always fun to see, like, oh, I'm such a nerd. I love Star Wars. Or, like, I'm such a nerd. I've read every Harry Potter.

It's like, you're just a normal person. It's okay. It's like in the 40s, somebody saying, like, I read Gone with the Wind. I'm such a book nerd yeah man uh well actually you know the timing of this i didn't even think of it in proper perspective 1997 was when the special editions came out so star wars fever had begun again by the end of 98 like that was yeah millions of people had seen him on the screen again recently. Yeah, and that was all part of the plan of George Lucas to hype people up with the special editions, and then two years later he's putting out his first prequel.

I wonder, too, of that gag of C-3PO's head flying by. If that inspired George Lucas to have the hilarious headless C-3PO section of Attack of the Clones. Remember that when his head just bounced around the robot factory? No one remembers it? I've only seen the Riff Trax version of that movie, so from what I remember much fun was had about that scene. Yeah, you just see his head bounces around

and his head is put on a robot shooting droid. Oh, so funny. I like the little hand motion they give Mark Hamill and he says dreamed like his little like squeezing hand also edna is dressed like barbarella that's if you're curious what the reference is there that's uh that was the sexy before there were sexy anime girls there was sexy jane fonda as a sci-fi boob lady. Sci-fi boob lady. I love her one line in this whole episode.

Oh, yeah. Eh, nobody cares. Yeah. That's all they got Marsha Wallace for. That's all they need her for. But I like that she's standing, Edna's standing next to Seymour in that bit. So they went there as a date.

I like seeing them together in the background. It's cute. After the season eight episode where they got together. Also, I think some some u.s animators snuck in the madman t-shirt the uh the black with the lightning bolt exclamation point i saw it for like four frames and i owned that shirt and wore it with pride and everybody's like oh it's shazam shirt i was like no it's mike all red's madman haven't you read this comic that's not on sale anywhere if i wore that it'd be like oh yeah cool lightning bolt or whatever no one would know it

was shazam or madman or anything and then they'd uh they call you a slur yeah probably they do that first cool hey f slur a cool lightning bolt then i get shoved uh but uh yeah i also quimby instantly sacrifices mark hamill to the nerds he throws them to them as him to them as a distraction uh mark hamill calls them get away from you freaking dweebs which again is funny because he is a real nerd like when uh it doesn't feel as authentic as say william shatner saying get a life to add that classic Saturday Night Live sketch and Homer basically turns into Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds yeah so this is something how he talked about that he thought it was a good match for Homer to be a bodyguard because he's like boorish and violent but I kind of prefer the characterization that Homer is so out of shape

that he could never do this kind of violence. Though I mean, this is definitely more the Homer who gets into a giant fight with Bart's big brother in that one. He has a lot of stamina, but not a lot of power. But here, it's

not as good as the classic one from the college episode, but I do like how Homer screams nerds in this one here. Poor Mark Hamill. That swarm of nerds is going to kill him. Nerds! Get out of there. Mr. Hamill, Mr. Mayor, come on.

Who are you? Homer Simpson, Nerd Buster, and I'm getting you out of here. I can't, Homer. I twisted my ankle. You guys go on without me. Never! Homer then picks him up and carries him, not unlike in the film Bodyguard, which sort of is referenced a bit in this.

Not as much as you think. Just the shot of someone being carried by a bodyguard it's just that's the movie oh they sing the thing twice too yeah they do do that yes yeah which uh man that movie i watched a couple clips of it uh ahead of this what a forgettable film but and the most ridiculous thing is that kevin cost like i just can't imagine a world where someone who looks like whitney houston and who and who is basically Whitney Houston would ever fall in love with a Kevin Costner guy. I'm guessing, have you seen the movie? No, just clips.

Maybe people out there can let us know how chaste is their romance, because I feel like in 92 or 91, having an interracial couple on the screen, there couldn't be kisses or hugs. The film does end with them kissing. When the song plays, because I wanted to see how the song is played in the film just to compare it to this episode. And it is played over.

So he takes a bullet for her and they have like a sad goodbye of like, well, I guess I'll never see you again. And then she's driving away and she's like, stop the car. And then she runs out to him and they kiss and there's a big camera like circling around the shot and that's when the movie ends so they do kiss in it they do and she leaves him to die the yes i mean then she's like oh it was nice kissing you once, bodyguard man, but I do have a career. I got stuff to do. You did your job.

You've got to go. You know, one change I would make is that spaceship that he comes out of should be an X-Wing. I wish it was an X-Wing. Is it like a close encounter ship? Yeah, I mean, it's just your classic saucer, flying saucer ship. There is some cute little freeze frame drawings in the crowd pan. I definitely feel like some uh animators drew themselves into it for sure and uh i think to the hamill saying like oh

the thing when hamill reveals he wasn't hurt and he just wanted to be carried by homer and then just goes like think about that is yeah it runs away that almost feels a little too stock a joke at this point for simpsons of like i I have no explanation I run away. Yeah, I feel like they maybe couldn't pitch anything better, but I wanted a better joke. Yeah, but then Homer, as we find out, this episode really isn't about comic conventions,

it's about Homer getting a new job. Oh my god, someone has to go back in for Maggie. Forget Maggie, she's gone. I've got Maggie. Wow, that was close gone. I've got Maggie. Wow, that was close. Well, thanks a lot, Homer. Well, it's... Hey, I thought you twisted your ankle.

Oh, yeah. Well, see, the thing about that is... Hey, boss. We were just talking about you. You call yourselves bodyguards? You're fired. Fired, huh? Who else are you going to find to take a bullet for you?

Or have his genitals hooked up to a car battery? I'll tell you who. Him. Woo-hoo! Homer, I don't think you were listening to what he just... I said woo-hoo. Stands by his woo-hoo. He's like, I ended this act by saying woo-hoo! Stands by his woo-hoo. He's like, I ended this act by saying woo-hoo.

We're going to do it. That should have been the cut. Don't worry, thanks. But yeah, that car battery joke, I think that's because the film Three Kings had come out like a year before this and told people that that's the new hot thing in torture. It's all you need.

It's electrodes to your balls. Yeah, that was like a classic torture reference. It's a home torture kit. I'll tell you what, I learned a lot about car batteries recently because we just did the What a Cartoon for the series Mighty Max. And that is a very popular brand of car battery. Oh, okay. It's also a

very popular brand of everything. There's a lot of things called Mighty battery. Oh, okay. It's also a very popular brand of everything. There's a lot of things called Mighty Max. That's bullshit. Car batteries. I haven't owned a car in a very long time. Think of how bad the diehard battery ruined the SEO for that movie. The first thing is the TV series. Then you get down and then you probably can get to the... I saw a similar thing happening with...

As the time we're recording, there's a fire in the Amazon right now. But if you want to search for news on Amazon Fire, you're only going to be sent to... Ooh, an Amazon Fire sale. Yeah, well, to buy an Amazon Fire, the newer Kindle. It's just... Thanks, Google. It's fun. I love it. You you know those bodyguards are pretty funny I kind of wish they'd uh they'd gotten more after this yeah the line we were just thinking about you yeah very uh thoughtful uh bodyguards who really aren't good at their jobs uh that's what their emotions though yeah they're very sweet I feel like they're supposed

to almost be seen as a couple. They're closer than friends, these two guys. I do like that Homer very easily just goes, Maggie's gone. We got to move on. There's no... It's like in the New York episode, forget Maggie. Yeah.

Well, I mean, all he does is forget Maggie. And yeah, this is another of the episodes where they don't even say Homer took time off from his job or anything. It's nice that Mark got to play another character, but I don't know if we need this Academy because it's just like a minute worth of jokes and there's no other characters there with Homer to do anything. Well, they needed the long opening for this one, so clearly they were short on time. So they did need to spend almost two minutes at a training montage. So Mark Hamill plays a Lee Vell, I guess his name is and his design based on the commentary.

They said it is based on the guy next to Lee Harvey Oswald when he's being shot by Jack Ruby in that photo. I don't know who he is. He's probably like the governor of Texas or a sheriff in Texas or some sort of authority figure. I'm sure it's easy to find out, but I couldn't find it in a quick search but he looks just like the guy that's holding the arm of lee harvey oswald as he's being shot in that famous photograph well the grassy hill joke is even

funnier than that is true yeah yeah i just don't know why they landed on that guy because he was maybe he was uh the bodyguard of harveywald. Yeah, maybe. I do. Hamill really loves playing the Texan drill instructor kind of guy because he says it was much more freeing than playing himself. Yeah, I loved hearing him. I was like, is that? It is. They got him to do something else. That's cool.

And also that the training academy is a subsidy of Ray Band. I like that, too. Is Princess Kashmir a part of that group who's there? It's just some random woman. I didn't think it was her. I did recognize Ruth Power in there. Yeah, Ruth Power's Gil. Van Houten's in there.

It was an attractive lady, but I couldn't tell. If she's out of her Kashmir outfit, I don't recognize Princess Kashmir. She looks so different, but it almost reminds me of her.mere outfit. I don't recognize Princess Cashmere. Yeah, she looks so different, but I was like, it almost reminds me of her. I felt like there was more to do, especially if you involve some of the other characters.

Like, what would they do at this place? But it was really just Homer's jokes were part of the set piece. I didn't even know what Ray-Ban sunglasses were until around when this episode aired because that was the Men in Black sunglasses. Yeah, Men in Black put them on the map for me. But yes, Homer learns how to be a bodyguard. As a bodyguard, your only loyalty is to your protectee,

not to your family, not to your country, not to Muhammad. You've been doing Ramadan? Shut your sasshole, boy. These melons represent your protectees. Throughout this course, you will protect your personal melon as if it was paying your salary. What? Okay, listen up.

My goal is to assassinate that watermelon. Your job is to take the bullet. Go! Go, go, go! Pow! No! No! Well, your dive wasn't bad, but I just didn't believe you.

No. I mean, you got to sell it. Remember, your no is what gets you your next job. Now drop and give me 20. No. Better. Lots of quality Ann Landers jokes in The Simpsons. It's a boring old bitty.

That of all people Homer could pick, he picks Ann Landers jokes in The Simpsons. It's a boring old bitty. That of all people Homer could pick, he picks Ann Landers. But then he also eats, one could say he's eating out Ann Landers there. Hell Jesus. Sorry. Can't trust a pig with melons. You know, at first I thought Al Gore was just a silly choice. But now I think it's a gag to indicate that they want to protect the guy who's about to become the president after they believe Clinton will be impeached. Yeah, and there's a joke in a year or two where it's a shot of the White House Oval Office and Al Gore is measuring for new drapes.

So they're like, yeah, he's going to be next, obviously. Everybody figured it. Boy, we got that one wrong, huh? Yes, also that Homer knowing the practices of Islam was as funny, too. And the way a Texan pronounces Muhammad. That was as funny. Yeah, Mark Hamill was like just, he was having a lot of fun with that character. Just the way he pronounced this thing.

Shut your sass hole. Also, Mark Hamill has one of the most iconic no's in film history. So he knows his nose. Not whiny enough in this character. No! It's not true. It's not possible. And then after that scene, we head to the berating room,

which I like they have an entire room for that. And, man, Mark Hamill talking about going for it. He really goes for it here. He says this was one take. They did not do it a second time. You ladies are without a doubt the most sorrowful clique in the dance. Not one of you fit to guard a Russian rock band. However, your checks have cleared, so you all graduate.

Congratulations. Yay! And now, in honor of your achievement, here is the theme song from the hit motion picture, The Bodyguard. And I, yeah, yeah, I will always love you.

Yee-haw! I like that he adds a Texan yodel to the song. And that he takes his hat off like, I had assumed he was bald. And then you see this crew cut underneath. It's extra weird, too. I feel like there was something missing in between those two. When they just went into the room and everything was covered in watermelon and stuff. Yeah, that's weird.

It feels like there should have been... Just a small joke or something. Yeah. The joke about taking the bullet and how Homer somehow goes into slow motion when he passes by the sites, I did like that joke a lot. That was one of the few

that really is executed well in animation. I agree. There's another bit that I thought they actually effed up on which was when homer's fighting his way to mark hamill i meant to say this earlier he's punching people and you only know it from sound effects but he punches one of the standees of the stormtroopers and that's supposed to be the joke that he's punching i totally missed that it has the crumple sound effect but they don't animate it like it's a standee.

They animate it like it's a person. So that was a joke that kind of got lost in there. You know, it's funny to me that in my mind, I think to our generation, that song Will is always identified with Whitney Houston, you know, even though it is a very personal song to Dolly Parton written by Dolly Parton. It's an original, and it's a song made for her old manager as a farewell to him. I didn't even know that until much later in life. I learned it from Drunk History. Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston's very... It's not a competition. They're both great, great songs.

But one of them survived. She really outlived Whitney. It's sad. Whitney Houston's life was a sad one it was very sad yeah but man you couldn't in the 90s you couldn't escape her ballads like they were everywhere it felt like the soundtrack of me walking through a movie theater it was just some whitney houston ballad was playing yeah it just it's a um it's extra sad when the last thing you do in your life is just a tragic reality show that shows what a wreck you are yeah yeah and that the seemingly your abuser husband outlives you too not good yeah not not so fun fun things but dollywood's fun yeah dollywood's lots of fun uh so then homer has now become a uh a fully trained bodyguard. This is when he's got his sunglasses on, and it is very distracting.

Now I can't. My eyes are just focused on that strip of flesh. That disgusting strip. But this is some of the most violent Homer has ever. So he has been given a Vulcan nerve pinch. I don't know how real these things Actually are I think bodyguards would really just literally Choke you

Do a real sleeper hold When Marge calls it a sleeper hold No it's a nerve pinch Yes that he does that to the children And knock them unconscious for 30 minutes Homer treats it as very surgical And Marge is just like Homer Not like

The real version would be She would scream and be like, I'm taking the kids right now. They're not safe here. Running out the door. That's not as funny as an act break. I think this is the first time maybe, and I'm sure someone will comment on this, I might be wrong, that Homer on screen has inflicted violence on Lisa intentionally. Intentionally? Yeah. on screen has inflicted violence on lisa intentionally intentionally yeah yeah i think we did joke about how in when you dish upon a star homer accidentally almost chops her up with

the motorboat yeah but that wasn't him with action like they talked about how they i remember an old story they told in like the early seasons was they wrote in a script a scene where homer strangles lisa and it played so horribly just in script form they're like don't draw this we're not doing it just cut cut cut yeah i think you're right this is the first direct violence homer has given to lisa and i mean uh it's it's a bad double standard in our brains that it's like oh well when he strangles part i mean you know he he was asking for it strangling part's a little rascal he's a fun cartoon character i mean yeah so it's cartoon violence in general like it's not no actual person was hurt but you know if there was a scene where

marge told homer now homer you didn't take out the garbage and he punched her in the face and no one would like that scene. I don't even think Family Guy would do that. I think they would. Yeah, actually, they would. I think they have done that. P-Dad, you didn't do this punch in the face yet. We could probably find it.

I know he's punched Meg. I think he kicked Meg down the stairs at some point. So, yes, that has definitely happened. And also, now that we know about concussions and also just the danger of making an unconscious person fall down and that kind of brain damage, you don't do that. You shouldn't.

But that's the joke. Homer hitting himself in the head on the way down did make me laugh. Yes, yeah. I forgot the shockiness of, like, oh, yeah, he does the Bart, but then I was like, oh, and Lisa, too. Like, wow.

And I appreciate, Casey, you're using the verb of million dollar baby as well. I mean, you know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But also Homer's like pig is in the poke. Like, that's a really mean thing to say to Marge, too. After Homer showed off his stuff around the house, oh, yeah, and the violence he does,

he, like, dives on her and shoves her to the ground. Lots of diving. Yes. But then he's having his first day with the mayor. It's a real honor to be guarding your body, sir. Just remember, you represent the office of the mayor, so always comport yourself in a manner befitting. Quick, honk at that broad!

Good work, Simpson. I couldn't be happier with the way that went. Hey, Homer, I told you not to come around here no more till you paid your tab, or at least cleaned up that mess you made in the bathroom. Mayor Quindy? Homer, why didn't you say you was with the mayor? Shove off, puke holes! Get out of there! These stools are reserved for the mayor and his cronies. Here's a couple of Duffin Brows on the house, of course. Mmm, semi-imported. Keep them coming. Your generosity is greatly appreciated, especially during this health inspection season.

Oh, yeah, yeah, right. Health inspection. That reminds me. Your change, sir. We're working on that roach situation, I swear to God. Yeah, you should see the hospital. Ooh, semi-imported. I also like Moe saying situation. Yeah, you should see the hospital. Ooh, semi-imported. I also like Mo saying situation.

Yeah, yeah. Also, this time they've got the missing tooth in his character model. I spotted it a few times. I wrote that down. Somebody either got the wrong character model or Wes Archer did a power move. He was working on King of the Hill and was like, use the toothless, Mo. At the very least, his mouth chart is missing the tooth. Yeah.

We pointed out on Bart Sells' Soul that there was a big controversy on the commentary where they were like why does mo look like this and wes archer was the one to stick up for the missing tooth mostly that's what he looks like on the model sheet that's how we put him in this episode so i think he personally was a big fan of that mo i like that i mean, make anything to make Moe uglier. I am pro that. I love the sound gag of Homer with all the duff brows in his jacket as they leave. Yeah. Just after the clip cut.

And the drawing is such a great gag, too. He's covered and he just put all the beers in there. He could have just kept him in the case. What would have stopped him doing that? I think he was trying to be like Covert about it Like he was getting away with something So semi-imported is a made up terminology

Right? Yeah I guess it's like if you're in America And you drink a Canadian beer It's semi-imported I mean that's a joke but it's not really imported We're in the same continent I mean imported beers became all the rage then Right?

Is Heineken big around this point maybe maybe i think people were just starting to drink good beer we're not in the craft beer revolution when beer actually got very good but uh i think the idea of like ooh a corona ooh festive i'll tell you how stupid i am uh with beer that i didn't know that stella toile was owned by budweiser it's just budweiser i think owns almost every domestic beer now anheuser-busch company so stella is like the fourth tube coming out of the tube of duff yeah yeah uh but they but the advertising got to me like oh this is the fancier beer i'm not a i'm not some loser drinking Budweiser or Bud Light. I'm drinking Stella Atois. I wonder if it was Homer's idea to go to Moe's even.

Maybe. But you know what is another Moe catchphrase? It's like, that reminds me. Oh, yeah, yeah. He says that so much. It's a very funny, stagey joke setup thing. Yes, yeah. Just like it's wah right up there.

How many times has he said it like oh the deer hunter that reminds me well he's trying to get the plot moving along though also this joke is just like his syringe in a mai tai joke with the inspector yeah which that actually predated that was uh in lisa sacks a season ago I kind of like the roaches walking the money away. That's funnier to me. They're going back to Moe. They're like, we belong to you. Those ain't your roaches.

And also the woman they whistle at, she looks like she's from season two. She has very outsized body design that I don't think you'd see in a new season 10 design. I think you're right about that. She also just, I mean, she has like a two inch waist or something. It's just a very like, it feels more like a claskey chupo waist, I'd say. And yes, Homer doesn't understand what bribes are.

And he also brings up another thing I didn't understand until I moved to California, the concept of a double-double. Oh, yeah. Is that like In-N-Out? It's In-N-Out. Animal style shit? Yes, yeah. It's all about the off-the-menu ordering at In-N-Out. The secret menu, that's one of their uh their big thing apparently they

make a good grilled cheese at in and out it's pretty good yeah it's the only thing i could eat there and i guess french fries i'll tell you when you move to california all the californians are just like in and out's the best it's the best and i when i've had it this is just getting us into burger wars territory here but when i had it i'm just like it's good it's good if somebody said do you want to go to mcdonald's good it's good if somebody said do you want to go to mcdonald's wendy's burger king or in and out i probably would say in and out but it's not it's nothing special it's nothing special but then again i'm one of the people who is wholly all in on the popeye's chicken sandwich mania that's go that's storming the nation right now that's just

a collection of breading between buns. I dare you to find chicken in that sandwich. I saw a picture of it. I've had it. It's a good sandwich, Bob. Well, look, the reason I like it is because it's the Chick-fil-A sandwich without the homophobia guilt. Interesting. Oh, is it? I was about to be like,

I remember the Chick-fil-A sandwich is awesome, but like, you know, fuck Chick-fil-A. Exactly. That's why Popeyes, which is just like a wholly apolitical giant corporation, they make a good chicken ripoff. Don't look into what they do. I can eat this without worrying. I'm not kidding. It is going viral now of people saying, I tried to go to Chick-fil-A and get this sandwich, and it was sold out. Or I opened up Uber Eats to order this sandwich

and it was marked as sold out. You couldn't order it. That's how popular the Popeye's sandwich is. A chicken sandwich is the easiest thing to make. It's not a new invention. I just don't understand it. I just don't get it. I like Popeye's chicken

and it's rare that I get to it. I can get a chicken sandwich anywhere. But if it's like Chick-fil-A, now I'm interested. I should be getting Quimby-style bribes from Popeye's for this kind of ant I stuck in here. But their biscuits are still secondary to KFC. I prefer a

KFC biscuit to a Popeye's biscuit. This is our Doughboys minute. It's almost lunchtime minute Yes, actually, that's what it is When you leave, Bob, I'm going to be opening up My Uber Eats app as soon as you leave As Homer is telling everybody about his bribes

And his double, double, double, double That's when Lisa is correcting him And she's going like, well, actually All these studies find. And this one feels crueler than his other one. Yeah. He really is just like, shut up. Shut up, white girl.

Knocking out a pedantic nerd. Yeah. Which, yeah, that trains run on time thing. Homer is using a thing people said about the Gestapo, but in a positive way. Like, well, Hitler makes the trains run on time. I guess it was said first about Mussolini, I in a positive way. Like, well, Hitler makes the trains run on time. Or I guess it was said first about Mussolini,

I think it was, not Hitler. Yeah, I think it's Mussolini. Yeah. But that's not as easy a go-to reference of a fascist. That's more of like, that's like the Bob Dylan

to Elvis Presley. That's true. Homer does not realize what bribes are in this clip. And after Moe's, we went to Krusty Burger and the mayor got some more change. And I ordered a double-double, but they gave me the double-double-double-double. And then Apu gave the mayor lots of change for... Dad, don't you see what's going on?

That change was a bribe. Oh, honey, don't be so naive. That's how the world works. Sure, the mayor takes a few bribes, but he also makes the trains run on time. No, he doesn't. Trains are regulated by the Federal Department of Transportation, and recent studies have shown that, uh... Homer! Marge is a little miffed by that.

Homer! She's just a little bothered by it. I guess we interviewed Dana Gould About 18 months ago And he talked about there was a real chloroform Oh yes Where people were being chloroformed a lot And that eventually James L. Brooks

Had to put his foot down Of like you can't keep doing this Especially not Homer doing it to Marge It has to stop And then we head over to the Legitimate Businessman Social Club Which we haven't seen since Bart the Murderer. Wow, okay. I mean, we've seen Fat Tony a ton.

But not the actual club. I guess we've seen the outside of it, but this is the first... Sorry, we have seen the inside of it since then. But seeing the exterior and the joke name of Legitimate Businessmen's Club, I believe we have not seen since its first appearance in Barth the Murderer in Season 3. We get to hear, man, this is a star-studded episode. We got Joe Montagna as well, back again as Fat Tony. Thank you, Mayor Quimby, for honoring us with a school milk concession. Well, the good children of Springfield need their milk, and I need my...

Please accept this kickback as a token of our esteem. Thank you, Fat Tony. However, in the future, I would prefer a nondescript briefcase to the sack with a dollar sign on it. So, why don't you get the nickname Legs? Well, that's an interesting story. It seems President Kennedy's father was...

Ooh, mini cannoli. Hey, I called that. I saw it first. Come back here. Mmm, milking room. I hope you cows are decent. Crap on a crutch! They're milking rats! Milking rats milking rats

rats I'm outraged you promised me dog did he say crap on a crutch I thought it was crust I heard crutch yeah the phrase is Christ on a crutch oh okay

man I've never heard Christ on a crutch before. So I always thought it was crust, and it was just like shit on toast or something. That's shit on a shingle. Okay, man, I don't know any of these things. Well, now I've learned something. I always heard it as crust, not crutch. I love a good gag about a dollar sign bag with money, a money bag with a dollar sign

on it. Yeah. I mean, Homer doesn't understand bribes. Go back to Bart Carney. It's a ring toss game. He's like, he did. Yeah. I like the gag about mob connections and the Kennedys is about to just be revealed to him

reflexively. And he's like, yeah, nevermind. I'm interested in this mini cannoli. Because Joseph B. b kennedy yeah what does he have legs for joseph i mean uh he blags is way too young to have really known him but uh joseph kennedy was involved in organized crime as like a bootlegger and things like that so yeah maybe legs inherited it from uh previous legs yeah out there uh that's the most we've ever heard about legs before louis has a Yeah. Maybe legs inherited it from a previous leg. Yeah. That's the most we've ever heard about legs before. Louie has a bigger part in this episode than legs. Louie is great.

I do like how his name is legs. And then when Louie gets onto the, the dance hall or later on, he's the one who has like, you know, the moves. Yeah. I think that's why for a time I,

even when I was starting to watch this episode, I was like, I thought of Louie as legs because he's so good at dancing. Yeah, I had to go back and be like, is he legs? I like, too, that when a rat steals a cannoli, Homer still wants to eat it. I feel like if a rat gets something, it's like, that's all yours, buddy. Go to town, Mr. Rat. You know Homer.

He wants that. I like how excited Homer is at the prospect of a milking room as well. Hope you cows are decent. I don't think we mentioned this before, but I thought it was legs. But apparently some guy was suing the Simpsons because he thought they stole his likeness to make Louie. Oh. In 2014, the story from thehington post says you probably don't remember frankie carbone and martin scorsese's good and martin scorsese's goodfellas he was a minor hood

who looked tough and kept quiet and that is the guy i guess the drawing was based on though on the commentary for barth the murderer they said he was based on joe pesci yeah he i mean he looks like a taller skinnier joe pesci but uh I mean, the film, he does look a little, I think I know the actor you're talking about now. You said Goodfellas. But I mean, that guy is just like your usual Goomba in central casting kind of thing. So I don't know if he's got much of a case there.

Yeah, it's a weird story. So in 1989, the actor said he lived next door to writers for the simpsons in an apartment complex what and at the time he was hard at work perfecting mannerisms of frankie carbone so he's claiming that he lived by writers who saw him in real life i don't yeah it's a weird name the writers that does he ever say who they were it was an apartment complex at sherman oaks california so like who was living next to this goodfellas actor i mean i would Can he name the writers? Does he ever say who they were? It was an apartment complex at Sherman Oaks, California. So who was living next to this Goodfellas actor?

I mean, I would figure any of those non-union writers who were just getting started on The Simpsons in 89, all they could afford is a Sherman Oaks apartment next to a struggling actor like Carbone. Apparently he just sues people who try to rip off Goodfellas stuff to name sandwiches after his character and things like that. So I think he just files Goodfellas-based nuisance lawsuits.

That's his job. So he's like a patent troll, but for Goodfellas. Way to make a living. I really like the design of Louis. I was appreciating it even more just his carved into his face cheekbones, like those harsh cheekbones.

Hatchet face is a good descriptor. That sounds like straight out of one of those classic books, Noirs. I can show Henry a picture of Frankie Carbone. You can look it up at home, but it kind of, but I mean, you can do a parody. Oh, yeah. Boy, I'd say that is like 70% Louis.

Yeah, I think on the commentary they're wrong, and they were trying to draw this character, but it's parody. They're parodying gangsters, so tough luck, Charlie. That's what I say. I'm 83 years old. I do like Quimby's anger like being told dog or higher. Yeah.

And then we get another Soylent Green reference in the series of Homer running through the city trying to warn people, warn them that it's rat milk. Which, when I think about it, George Meyer makes a point on the commentary of just like, what makes milk from a different animal somehow more disgusting than drinking the secretions of a cow? You know, how is that grosser per se but all hypocrites there's a great calvin and hobbes comic that's really just like a 90s stand-up joke where calvin is like who decided to squeeze cow udders and drink what comes out of them who was that guy uh but but i also think like from a cost perspective i don't know you wouldn't get much milk out of a rat you got to get way more rats than you need of cows. I guess once a rat dies,

you just toss it and get another rat. They're easier to mass produce. But I mean, do you also only get rats that had babies recently because then they are actually producing milk? It's weird. The logistics of it. It's like it would cost too much to farm all those rats.

I say it's just the idea that it's rats. It's like, Oh, you rats. I love my, my the idea that it's rats. It's like, oh, ew, rats. I love... My new thing is cashew milk. I'm still... I'm an almond guy. Sometimes a soy. I like

silk. I'm a soy boy. I'm a soy boy. I do silk. Silk lasts longer than regular milk. That's the best part about it. Yeah. I mean, that's the only reason I ever have silk, is because I don't have to buy any for a while. Yeah yeah it always bothers me every time when i buy milk i won't use it for like two weeks and then it's usually over at that point so i might have to also i kind of hate the taste of milk like whole milk disgusts me so the the milk I normally drank when I had actual milk was skim anyway.

And so why am I even bothering with such watered-down milk? Just have the nut milk that's out there. Our parents were all poisoned by the dairy industry because when I was growing up, there was always a gallon of whole milk in the fridge and a stick of butter on the table for every meal. Like, you must eat dairy products. There's nothing more important than dairy products. Just like beef. Beef is so good for you. Eat more beef. You must eat dairy products. There's nothing more important than dairy products. Just like beef. Beef is so good for you. Eat more beef.

You're living in the Midwest. That's paying for all the schools, man. You've got to respect the dairy and beef and corn subsidies as well. You've got to respect all those things. Yeah, that's what we salute to every day. See, in Florida, you saluted like an orange tree.

In Atlanta, everything was peaches. It was peach town. We were so far off topic, but I was thinking of the great YouTube channel Pop Arena. Yes. His video on Mr. Wizard made me realize the idea of cereal for breakfast is just corporate propaganda. Someone had to invent the idea, like, you must eat cereal for every breakfast meal. You have to buy cereal now. And it was just propaganda put onto early tv shows yeah cereal is good for like just a late night snack yeah now i mean if you want a bunch of carbs it can't do worse than cereal like

i'm back on my diet and part of that was cutting out cereal because it's just like when i finally started reading what the calorie count is and actually measuring what that is, I'm like, oh, I never have a cup and a half of Rice Krispies or Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Yeah, a bowl of cereal is like three servings. Oh, God. I'm going to look at my cereal and be like, oh, no. I don't mean to ruin it for you. Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the best cereal. That's my favorite cereal.

Well, I don't go for like the big, big sugaryast Crunch is the best cereal. That's my favorite cereal. Well, I don't go for the big sugary stuff. I got Honey Bunch and stuff. That's good. I mean, I think Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the only child cereal I still eat. I will say that. Apple Jacks, Fruit Loops, those are out of rotation. I just joylessly eat a protein bar in the morning. Well, now I'm more on the Greek yogurt kick, which is also

heavily advertised to me as the healthy thing to eat, but it's an easy one serving, and I know it's 120 calories, and it also is full of sugar, but it's pretend sugar that's better for you. Anyway.

Where are we again? That was milk chat. Homer busts into the school Stops Bart from drinking the milk I love his crazy straw though I hope when Bart says he traded his math book for it That he got the straw in that trade Because one tiny thing of milk for a math book Is pretty bad

That's a bad trade I love the shot of all the kids Simultaneously drinking the milk no child drinks that much milk at a school that's more gross than the fact that it's rat milk for some reason and i love the fact tony puts his face on it like it's his brand yeah squeaky farms oh is that a squeaky from joke i think it is I just thought of that. I didn't realize that now until you said it. Squeaky, huh? Squeaky Fromm, now the big star of the recent film

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Not really like the big star, but she has a lot. She has a number of scenes. Ooh, boy, does she have a big scene of them. Former would-be assassin of President Carter or Ford? Who did she try to kill? Oh, wait, that was Ford. She's not Manson family.

Yeah. This is a lady she's not Manson family. Yeah. This is a lady who's like Manson family. Yeah, okay, that is, all right. Her old. So Squeaky Fromm was in the Manson family and also tried to assassinate Gerald Ford. She did it all. Yeah.

Man, that's squeaky. She's a triple threat. Oh, yeah. Boy, was she. Man, yeah, she's in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Her character is or the person is? The character. Okay.

I was confused. She's out of jail now, but why is a 70-year-old former Manson girl in a Quentin Tarantino movie? That'd be kind of cool. She needed to do something. She needs to work. She could actually be in the movie, too. But I believe she is played by Dakota Fanning in the movie. Yeah.

Finally, a copy of Squeaky Frome to call my own. And again, they sell out Lisa by making her have drank the rat milk. And Homer going like, ew, get away from me. She's never wanted to kiss Homer more in her life. Yeah. She should be pretty pissed off that he knocked her unconscious twice, too. And I do like that homer just like tells millhouse to go nuts drinking rat milk that was that was pretty funny uh like that millhouse had to had to ask him like can i do it yeah yeah i'm in this scene you know uh i don't think it's the

intention but it could also be he's like i want to drink the milk lisa drank oh indirect kiss he's been watching anime homer heads over to let the mayor get a piece of his mind, and we learn about the dangers of having a treadmill in front of an open window. Mike, stop! Hey, my milk. I traded my math book for that. Dad, what a nice surprise. Get that away from me.

Kids, I don't want you drinking any more milk. Ever. Can I still drink it? Go nuts. All right. You monster. How could you do that to the children? Those wacky gangsters. What are you going to do?

And to think I respected you and defended you! You wouldn't leave me alive if it wasn't for me! Ah! Okay, we'll call it even. So the previous episode is kidney trouble, right? Yes. There's a lot of poorly placed windows back to back on the show. It was window joke time in the writer's room at this time.

I just can't believe Quimby would ever be exercising like that. You would think he'd just be hungover from the night before. But yeah, Homer shooting him out the window is a very cartoony moment, that's for sure. But it's also one of those fake outs of like oh is he dead uh you tune in make sure you watch until the commercials to then find out if he died i really yeah that seems like a lame plot point yeah i really hate to be a joke doctor but god when he's hitting the the treadmill it's so obvious what they're leading to that there's even like an insert shot of his fist coming down next to like the speed up but i wish he would have just hit it once and he would have done it would

have been like oh a surprise but it's just like we know i think it was like way too telegraphed and i don't know why yeah they uh they're losing a little faith in their jokes they had that in just the last episode too where homer is squeezing bart's kidney and we all know what's happening but then they're like yes tickling it's just like no just like, no, no, no, we get it. We get it, guys. And even Mike Scully cops, too. Like, yeah, I didn't give the audience enough credit. Yeah, you know, it's hard to make jokes all the time.

I get it. But yes, if this show is anything, it's Monday morning quarterbacking all of the jokes. For 20 years ago. And also, speaking of jokes, a lot of stuff dated when they come back from the commercials we get a weekend at bernie's reference we get a joke about harassing interns uh it's all there to really put it in the 90s like uh i think far more jokes about weekend

at bernie's have been made than people who have watched weekend at at Bernie's. It's true. Stay tuned for Weekend at Bernsey's, which is not a Weekend at Bernie's parody. No. But yes, there's also some real, some of the biggest animation flubs, I think, happen with the magical window. The window is just floating in space from where Homer is and where Quimby is and then where the window appears to the intern's bathroom.

It's just, it makes no sense in space. But Homer gets Quimby to agree to stop with the rat milk. And after Quimby harasses a woman in the bathroom, he then busts the Goombas. Freeze, Goombas! We're shutting you down, you filthy Italians! Fee-fee-tallion-Americans. Ah, right, right. Filthy Italian-Americans! Gentlemen, if you would simply consult my dear friend, Mayor Quimby, I am confident this can be...

Not this time, Fat Tony! The mayor's office is not for sale! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Can you, uh, edit out the laughs? I am not so much disappointed as I am blinded with rage. Ooh, the mafia guy's all mad. Oh, what are you going to do? Call your godfather? Huh?

Oh, godfather. The disdainful look Homer gives him after he says that is such a funny drawing. Yeah, he just, it ends. He's just like, I'm sick of you. Homer doesn't realize why you should be afraid of the mafia at all. Homer also doesn't understand the mobs. Like, the mob

did something for me only to expect something in return? Oh, fat Tony. We have a callback to oh, fat Tony at the end of this episode. Oh, that's true, yeah. Homer's disappointment in a horrible mob character. And then it always works on Tony.ony does feel shame if homer makes them i will go now these jokes about political correctness with italian americans like it's it's a little corny it definitely feels like you know it's written by writers who are sensitive to being told they

can't do jokes about italians but this some a similar thing to this actually did happen on news radio where they did in the first season they wanted to do a bit where the secretary bought a hat from a mafia guy who forced her to get it and they had written him as you know a classic italian mobster and the network forced them to change it to a non-italian mobster guy and make his name green instead and so there there was pressure up top of like hey don't do a stereotypical italian mobster on some shows so this isn't completely out of left field and it's not just the usual like oh you can't even call italians italians anymore you have to say italian american uh but the gag too on the break-in where he's like can you cut that laugh and they're like just shakes the head nope can't do it back to the italian thing we're also in the era where

fredo is a slur oh that yes we just passed that it'll be forgotten forever but i did everything happens too much but yeah no i don't man i didn't want to get too much in that because the guy making fun of Cuomo, Chris Cuomo, with calling Fredo was some right-wing douche. Yeah, terrible person. Yeah, so fuck that guy. But also, I defend the use of Fredo as what you call a loser son. It's what you call a rich fail son, is Fredo. I don't think of it as an Italian slur. And certainly not the N-word of Italians

as Chris Cuomo called it. Yeah. I mean, he's not even going to say the N-word. Yes, yeah. Al Jean, his era was really

making fun of the Irish. I think they are really about making fun of Italians because we have Here Comes the Grace Ball and Filthy Italians. In a few seasons or maybe next season,

Homer mishears something and he goes, Intelligent Italians, eh? Yeah, they were going a little harder on the Italian stuff. Well, they deserve it. Also, there's Luigi, the walking pizza box drawing.

But hey, Joe Mantegna says it's all in good fun. I do like that Wiggum even just calls him Goomba. That is closer to the N-word of Italians than Fredo, I would say. And yet they're the adorable little enemies in Mario. Yeah, that's why it'll never go away, that phrase. When I heard it in some mob picture, I was like, wait, I thought those were Mario's enemies.

I thought that was a Japanese thing, Goomba. No, the mob boss is a Koopa, right? Yes. Or is it Capo? Capo, Koopa. Well, as you said you you broke the case though that he's really bowser because of shauna yeah that's my theory uh but yeah so they bust up the rat milk wigum uh like he's testing cocaine rubs the rat's nipples on his teeth and it's pure

that's maybe the grossest joke in the episode. And then as all the rat milk gets poured into the street, Fat Tony has some words for old Kent Brockman. And so as the rat's milk is returned to the sewers, the circle of life is complete. Fat Tony, do you have any comment? I don't get it. Everyone loves rats, but they don't want to drink the rat's milk.

Any words for the mayor? Hello, Mayor Quimby. I would like to remind you that accidents will happen. Like the killing of you by us. Aren't you scared, Dad? I mean, if I were fat Tony, and God willing, someday I will be, I'd just be stewing in my jail cell, getting madder and madder. Oh, don't worry about that, boy.

He's already out on bail. Well, I'm off to work. You're guarding the mayor tonight? After Fat Tony swore revenge? It's my duty, Marge. Besides, those mobsters don't scare me. Bart, would you go start Daddy's car? Homer!

What? There's nothing to worry about. Well, then you start it. All right, fine. I'll take a cab. So he tried to kill Bart there, too. It's an easy way to get rid of Bart and solve his problems. I love return to the sewers.

Oh, yes. The rat milk has returned to the sewers. Circle of life. That's a great... I also like when just Kent's little reaction to tony's but they don't want their milk people love rats yeah like okay something to think about and then also that uh in all ways tony does not understand what being the mob is because he just directly says uh to a camera i will murder the mayor. He just says that. He always plays dumb because he has to,

but then when he's mad, he'll just completely drop it and no one catches on. Yeah, also his line before that where it's the inverse of the I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. Instead, it's like, I'm not disappointed, I'm blinded with rage. Yes, and Homer, I love that homer's comforting of bart is like oh you don't need to worry about that he's already out on bail uh though bart clearly doesn't

remember that he did become fat tony and was on trial for murder right right as as part the murderer he did become them but yes and this is where we really enter the uncanny valley of homer's eyes because he uh as he's going to work he puts on his glasses and just the strip of flesh just zips onto him and his eyeballs are pushing to his skull i'm never gonna not think about like that imagery uh so homer goes to pick up quimby quimby is very sad that he's Going to have to stay in with the The wife Not used to that That does feel also like a Clinton joke there too

But I mean just about philandering Politicians in general Especially Kennedy They were making jokes about him cheating on his wife Way before Clinton Yeah though I mean cheating on wives That is a bipartisan issue Of presidents They all love to do it jokes about him cheating on his wife way before um clinton yeah though i mean cheating on wives uh that's that is a bipartisan issue of presidents they all love to do it except i guess not w and

obama they're the the ones in recent memory who did not that we know of hw definitely did oh yeah and reagan i guess i would assume anyway i'm not trying to spread mud about, fling mud at Ronald Reagan here. We all respect him. I miss him. I wish he was here. He was our president now. Darn it. These are jokes.

Anyway, so Homer takes Mayor Quimby to a place where he won't think about the mafia at all. Homer, I'm not sure it's wise to go out right now. I was thinking of a quiet wise to go out right now. I was thinking of a quiet evening at home with the, uh... wife. Oh, I get it. You're worried about

those mobsters, aren't you? No, no, I truly do want to stay home with the... wife. You gotta snap out of this funk, Mayor. I'm gonna take you

someplace where you can relax and forget all about gangsters. Excuse me Niels Do you have a table for the mayor? Niels Why do you talk that way? I had a stroke

That's so great You wanna call that line? Yeah, that's the best line of the show Yeah, yeah Alright, let me play the jingle. That's the joke. So yeah, that is an imitation of Frank Nelson, a comedian who made that character type popular

on the Jack Benny program. And in fact, I was thinking, we had to mention him before. I remember looking up clips of him and playing them on the show. We did back in Bart Sells' Soul. Because Milhouse goes, yes. That's right, that's right.

So they did a joke based on that kind of performance before. And Frank Nelson would go on to play that character in I Love Lucy. It was just like a stock snarky salesman type. Yeah, and on the Lucy show too, that's where I saw him. Though he's not Mr. Moody. They're different characters.

But I love this guy. He would come back. It's funny that they just give his origin story. You feel like that would be the third or fourth joke with him. The stroke joke, that finishes off the character, you would think. But they got Yes Guy Fever. That's his title according to the wiki page. Though also it's Frank Nelson nelson voice they call him but he's yeah they on the

simpsons wiki they credit with him to now appearing in about 19 episodes plus in the movie like he's with like speaking lines and a lot of them he's he's in a crazy amount of episodes for a guy whose joke is just saying yeah it's a funny voice to get another Dan Castellana impression in this episode. But, God, the way he just says, I had a stroke. That's sad also, but so funny. But has anybody here attended dinner theater in their lives? No. No.

Oh, man, boy, just me here. Jinx. You guys are so uncultured. Yes, I've been to dinner theater once. It was an Oklahoma production. Hooray. Yes, it was a nice time. I'm more of a state fair kind of guy in Oklahoma.

But the peach cobbler is the only food I remember there. I was like, man, that's good cobbler. All the sound of clanking silver would be very distracting during a performance. Well, that's the lowness of dinner theater. It's that it's people, you know, that's why it's a joke that you're not seeing. King of the Hill had the joke that Jason Alexander did dinner theater. Yeah. That's how low it is.

Because, yes, you don't want people to be eating while you're performing. Like, that's not very fancy, is it? So when you just hear like, or someone asking for water from the waiter or whatever, it does take you out of it. But Oklahoma was a nice time at the Jacksonville Dinner Theater we went to. Well, I've had dinner at a theater before, one of those fancy movie theaters. Does that count? I mean, that's the... Oh, Alamo Draft House, yeah. Something like that.

That's the dinner theater of today, yes. But those, I mean, those are just distracting. I've gotten used to it now, but the thing I like least about it is that when the check comes, you know the movie has 20 minutes left, and it kind of takes me out of it. And also, it's just like,

what if we gave you gourmet popcorn that's somehow even more expensive than just regular popcorn? I'm getting hungry for that popcorn. Well, again, this is a lunchtime recording. It is, yeah. I'd drink a glass of rat milk if it was in front of me. Now, this Guys and Dolls stuff is very funny. Love it.

I wish they wouldn't have pointed out that a character knows the lyrics are wrong and the song is incorrect. I wish they would have just went with it. Yes, this is Guys and Dolls. This is what all the songs sound like it's a very funny joke but i'm kind of sad to give it away that someone is aware that this is not the performance yeah it's uh that does sound like less trust on the joke but uh i feel like it's more of a a say on mark hamill having to do this still and he's just like none of this is right and they're just like shut up and do it luke that he's playing nathan detroit at a place that won't even pay for the guys and dolls songs in their performance of guys and dolls which uh yeah it reminds me so much of also the uh

streetcar named marge joke where at the very end it's just like uh what's the last song you can always depend on the kindness of strangers just some just some horseshit that's not even like a good song yes yeah that contradicts the entire point of the play yeah exactly one in a similar situation legally they could only do like three lines from the play or something before they'd be uh going on copyright law and that's the same deal here so they they don't sing any... The two songs they sing, one is them just saying guys and dolls

over the tune of Hooray for Hollywood, which first premiered in the film Hollywood Hotel from 1937, but I only knew that from wicking it. The only reason people know that song is they just play it in the Oscars and other award shows. And in lots of Looney Tunes cartoons. Oh, yes. Yeah.

It was a Warner Brothers standard. So this next joke. So I was recently talking to somebody about being a Simpsons podcaster. And I say now that when I watch an episode and I don't get a joke, it is my job to now get the joke because I am now a joke detective. So I had to look up this Othello with Peter Marshall thing that Flanders is praying for. I think it is a blackface joke. I think so, too.

I think they're implying that former Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall played Othello in blackface, and Flanders did not like that performance. I think you are correct with that, yeah. I had to Google who Peter Marshall was, but yeah, that's what I think, so, too. And he's still alive. You know what? We are on such thin ice right

now. He's 93, yeah. I gotta play the anti-death jingle just to be safe. Do it. One second. Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim!

Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Jim! Blessed I get the death and the anti-death jingle. Oh my God, it's happening in one episode. Yeah, and I want to point out we're living in the aftermath of hearing about Peter Fonda's death, and apparently our curse has hit once again. If this curse is true, I would up your Patreon pledge because we have powers. You don't want to make us angry. If you're at five, consider 15.

This is our version of Tony's bribery. By the 90s, I don't think people did it anymore, at least in American productions of Othello. But there's a film where Laurence Olivier plays Othello. It was just normal to do that role in Blackface instead of hiring a black actor. And I mean, part of it is that I think back then, maybe there weren't a lot of famous actors

who they would cast in the lead role in a film version of Othello. And I'm sure segregation kept black actors out of certain circles. Oh, and especially in something as snooty as Shakespeare troops. I feel like the doors are probably closed to a lot of African-American actors there. So I think even freaking Orson Welles played Othello. I was going to say that. No, he organized one of the first all-black performances.

Oh, my God. You just interrupted me, Henry. I was trying to say it. I'm sorry about that. He just organized. He just did it. He's been dead for 25 years now. And before he became a movie person,

he was a theater person and then a radio person. And he organized one of the first all-black performances of othello that kind of put him on the map yes before a war of the worlds i know you're excited no i didn't mean to interrupt you bob i was just i felt bad that i had just demeaned orson wells by saying he did the opposite he did a much worse thing yeah i feel bad so that's why sorry uh but yeah the now fortunately like in the 90s that uh that pretty it seems to have stopped even then like the the othello film that uh kenneth brown made he played iago which is a media role anyway uh and meanwhile othello was played by lawrence fishburne which and that's a really good movie that othello uh if you're gonna if you're gonna watch a version of othello that's a good one though i mean if you're a real shakespeare

nut it isn't it's abridged it's not unabridged like the only i mean unabridged shakespeare films are three and a half hours long like braunish hamlet which is unabridged uh but anyway uh homer is scanning the place right after that Peter Marshall joke. And that's when he calls Lovejoy what's-his-name, which I like. And also, Burns should have a better table there, too. Yeah, it's weird. He's too far back. And then Fat Tony instructs Homer to give something to Mayor Quimby.

Dear Lord, please make tonight's production better than Othello with Peter Marshall. Okay, Mr. Burns, Fat Tony, what's his name? Fat Tony! Alright, Fat Tony, if it's trouble with Quimby you're after... Please, I am only here as a devotee of the lively arts,

but I do have something for the mayor that perhaps you could deliver. Mayor, Fat Tony asked me to give you this. You moron! That's the kiss of death! Oh, no! Wait, maybe I didn't do it right. Never mind that.

Just go patrol the perimeter. Ah, au gratin potatoes. That's a quality side. That's a quality side. That's a great line. Every time I see O'Grotten Potatoes on a menu or at a buffet or something, I say that line to myself. I just can't. Though it feels kind of rare to see O'Grotten Potatoes on things.

I never had them as a kid. My mom didn't make them. Did you guys get served that as a child? It was like a Thanksgiving thing. Yeah, I guess. Is that different than scalloped potatoes? They seem so similar to me. I don't know. I believe El Gratin is more with creamy

stuff on top. But they're more cut up into slices and shredded down. I mean, they seem nice. My mom was more of an instant mashed potatoes kind, but she was a busy lady. She didn't have time to

fully grotten a potato. Every time I see it, I think that's a quality side. I think they are the same. Scalloped and not grotten. Okay, yeah. My grandma would make scalloped potatoes. They were fine. I just don't... I have potatoes once a year on Thanksgiving, and I make my own black garlic mashed potatoes. So good.

I look forward to being wrong. Oh, man. The scalloped people. There were some Nazis online. Can't wait. So then it hits Homer that he might have poisoned the food. So Homer does the no take a bullet for you,

but instead takes a bite of potato to protect Quimby. And then a lot of the steak. Yeah. I love how he looks at Quimby in his eyes. He's eating the steak. And also Homer is very lucky that in that jump, he didn't stab himself in the mouth with that fork. Yeah, it just jumped into his mouth very easily.

But that's why he's a professional that's how good homer is but uh yes here we then get the opening song to guys and dolls which as we all know the real opening song to guys and dolls is fugue for tin horn sure uh well but you guys do know this song it's like i got the horse right here his name is paul revere can do can do this guy i don't think i I got the horse right here. His name is Paul Revere. Can do, can do, this guy. I don't think I've heard it. You've never heard that? I was looking at all the songs from Guys and Dolls. I don't think I've really heard any of them or remember them. Oh, come on.

You must have heard Luck Be a Lady. Luck Be a Lady. Yeah. That is from Guys and Dolls. Okay. So they actually did do a Guys and Dolls song, but a parody of it. Yes. I didn't know. Okay. Yeah. I do know that one. That's the musical. I've never seen a performance of the musical. I've only seen the movie.

So starring Sinatra and Brando, which Brando, of course, doesn't do his own singing because he's not a singer. So if you want to watch Marlon Brando dubbed over in singing, watch that one. Here is their version of the opening song to Guys and Dolls. Guys and Dolls We're just a bunch

of crazy guys and dolls Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Guys and Dolls This is a conceptual nightmare. I mean, Nathan Detroit would never wear this. And this song isn't even in the show. I don't have time for this.

I got 75 shortcakes to strawberry. Now get out there, Luke. Guys and dolls. Just a bunch of crazy guys and dolls. I want the mayor dead. I want his wife dead. I want his cat and his dog dead. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Who was before the cat? Just killed him, me. You're not mad at me, are you? That was a reference to The Untouchables. Like, I want his wife dead.

I want his family dead. It's a lot of reference density there that you have Luke Skywalker in a not guys and dolls performance singing a not guys and dolls song and then you have an untouchables reference on top of that and that's the i guess recent untouchables by that i mean 89 or 90 ish i think it's like 80 70 okay yeah yeah 90 i think you're right it's yeah uh the laziness of yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah guys and dolls i do want to hear there are more more lyrics after or just a bunch of crazy guys and dolls that aren't yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I kind of want to know what they are, but dialogue covers up so much of it, I can't make it out. Yeah, it's hard to hear. Maybe on one of the Simpsons soundtracks they released the untouched one. I'm going to look that up. I don't think it was on Testify. That would have been the one they would put it on. I also like Louis' very sheepish... You're not mad at me.

That's how it feels with a boss. You're like, are you mad at me? But if you're asking your boss that, you've already lost. Who does the voice of Louis? Dan. The way he says that just reminds me of some other voice he's done before

it sounds like he's doing an impersonation of uh lenny yeah yeah that's exactly what it was which is harry shearer i uh i also like on some not on this commentary but on other ones when dan is doing it and louis on there he jokes that he's likeing his Italian heritage by playing Louis. But yes, there's... So then Mark Hamill sings another song. It is pretty cool that they have Mark Hamill on and they make him... He's in Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. And they have him sing two songs. He's really earning his pay this time.

He didn't give them 20 minutes or whatever. Some guest stars gave him. But yes, here's Luke be a Jedi tonight. Luke be a Jedi tonight. Just be a Jedi tonight. Do it for Yoda while we serve

our guests a soda. And do it for Chewie and the Ewoks and all the other puppets You'll be a Jedi tonight Hey, you're in this number Get out there and shake that money maker But I'm just here to kill

I'm just here to kill That guy with the knife sure can dance, huh? He looks awfully familiar. I think I saw him in Rent or Stomp or Clomp or some piece of crap. That has the stink of a writer who was forced to attend a show by his wife. I think you're right. I think you're right. Or some piece of crap. They're probably thinking like, I spent all my money

on this stupid play just to see guys stomping on garbage cans or whatever. It reminds me of a very funny line from a future episode where Smithers

in the Malibu Stacy musical and we cut to the audience and the guy's like, this is better than a movie, how? Oh, yeah.

It's better because they're all doing it live in front of you.'s harder yeah but i will say for as bad as the animation is in this episode his tap dancing is very well done and very funny with how like manic it is yeah yeah he's he just dives right in he's like i gotta do it he's just so electric and it's how quickly he gives away his plot like i'm just here to kill yeah like uh what if you're an assassin don't tell somebody that you're here to kill the mayor. That's probably going to hurt your ability to assassinate that person.

But also, I got a wag of the finger to Simpsons World, which I watched this on. They have their, like, you know, trivia sidebar thing on there that is, you know has some stuff, but I mean, it's all things you know if you're a guy like me. I'm a guy like me. They say that the guy who tells him, I've got strawberries to shortcake or whatever,

they credit that to Mark Hamill. It's like, no, that's Hank. In fact, that voice is so eerily close to Moe's, it's distracting. Yeah. On the fandom wiki, it also says Mark Hamill plays. No way. Sorry to bring up fandom.

They're sleeping with the switch again. Well, I mean, it's what you get with free labor. Yeah, yeah. They also say that he is the dinner theater director. And I'm like, that guy? No, that's obviously not him. Yeah, that's Hank. That's the same voice he gives for the torso shoot guy.

Like, it's just, it's his gruff guy. Same with, like, I saw people say Carl. Carl Wiedergott is credited in this one. And I was like, well, who did it? IMDB says he is one of the bodyguards. But no way. That other body, it's Dan and Harry. Those are clearly Dan and Harry.

So I don't know who Carl Weidergott is in this I hope someone did get fired for that mess up Fired from their free labor on a wiki Nothing makes me angrier than when a wiki has false information Because that is irresponsible It's all people have now It is the reference of today But I think I really like Mark Hamill's acting there.

It's good acting as he is forgetting his lines. It does feel like he really did like, and all the other puppets. That's a good line. Though, I mean, as far as jokes go, rhyming Yoda with soda, that was pretty overdone by an idea. We're bubbled all the time, just like a carbonated soda by odia yoda uh i do though like that guys and dolls of all

things it actually does work for a plot point because that's how louis is able to get so close to the mayor because he does in in his classic design he looks like a 1930s gangster not a modern day one yeah if he was being a modern 90s gangster he would be wearing a track suit like all the guys in sopranos true a nice chain but so louis is uh stopped by luke or he stopped by mark and he's reminded like hey that's my head next to the pepper steak and don't you forget it And then Louie correctly tells him he didn't even finish Jedi school, which he didn't. Oh, wow. He's a fan.

At the end of Empire Strikes Back, Yoda tells him you have to complete your training, so don't go off and save your friends. And then he leaves. So that was him quitting jedi school now some nerds out there might say well clearly in the year between empire strikes back and return of the jedi he went back there and completed his training ah but yoda said he still hadn't completed it until he faced his father darth vader and i don't think he ever officially did complete his jedi training at least in the jedi school manner That's for the extended universe to worry about. But I just wanted to see how long people would listen to me talk about Star Wars information. I appreciate

you guys. I almost left. You're the host. I have to be nice to you. Thank you. That's our policy for guests. You have to be nice to us. A rant joke on The Simpsons, that's another one that really sets the time. Oh, new-ish at this time, right? Oh, it's real new in 98, yeah.

I think it had won the Tony by this point, but soon in two seasons, Homer will have his position. Where is the rent? I must pay the rent. Homer then realizes it's Louie's, and he needs to stop that knife. Hey, pal. That's my headshot up there next to the pepper steak. And don't you forget it. You're all talk, Hamill.

You never even finished Jedi school. Show's over, man. Get out! Give me that knife! Oh, it's mine! Homer, use the four the force the forks use the forks i think a joke is a little forced mark uh on the commentary he's like you guys found you guys had that joke first and then wrote backwards from it use the force but they corrected him as like no that was actually a joke in the rewrite room oh wow so they didn't write it first but i love louis going no it's mine it's like

dan's doing a lot of work in this episode yeah he's louis homer he's um quimby like he's playing all these characters up front here yeah it's uh homer doesn't often talk to dan characters as my other than his dad he talks to them a lot but usually they make sure to surround Homer with characters that aren't played by Dan. But Dan is so good at it, you never even know. Like, Hamill compliments him on the commentary of just, like, you're talking to yourself all the time. Like, Hamill is usually one guy in a thing he's cast in, so he's not talking to himself. So it's an extra skill as a voice actor i also like when homer uses the forks that he stabs his tie down but he acts like his hand

got stabbed oh yeah that's right everyone's real scared of the forks i mean i wouldn't want to be stabbed by a fork either so uh and then homer thinks he saves the day and turns around to see uh tony very just blatantly bashing the mayor with a baseball. I love that. I love that reveal. Look how that resolves itself. He gets his revenge and that's it. Tony decides, you know what?

I don't need to kill him. I just need to beat him with a bat. And then I'm good and I'll just walk away. Forget it. And then same with like, you see how savage his beating is. Then Mark Hamill will tell me like if doctors tell me he's fine so don't even worry like really i think also the beating with a baseball bat is another untouchables thing oh yeah totally yeah yeah which they already did a joke

about with the threshing of a lifetime uh but yes let's have the bodyguard ending here. I checked with the doctor. He said Mayor Quimby's going to be fine. And I was electric as Nathan Detroit. What did you think of me? I'd say you were luminous, magnetic, incandescent. Cheer up, Homer. I think you made a great bodyguard. Really?

Would you say I was magnetic? Absolutely. Aw. I think you know what to do. Shoot, I forgot my lightsaber. All right. Oh, wait. Here it is. Poor animators having to animate Homer kicking his way through a giant crowd. Yes. And back.

I love it. I like how those guys stay down. Once he kicks them, they may as well be dead. They're just motionless. Yeah. You know, when I was writing video game reviews, sometimes when I was thinking of superlatives to give, I think of this scene of like, have I used luminescent yet?

Or electric. That's always a good one. They say iridescent. Iridescent. Yeah, that's a really good one too. And then, yes, I do like the gag that all Mark cares about is his reviews not that the mayor was beaten yeah uh but uh also wants to be magnetic as well yeah yeah who doesn't want to get those fancy um tv reviewer uh praises uh but then and then homer yes he just i guess homer needs to fail as a bodyguard too. Well, they don't even say out loud like, oh, Homer lost his job as a bodyguard.

They don't even feel like they need to do that. They just assume, you'll know Homer won't be a bodyguard next week. Yeah, by default, because his person he was guarding was beaten with an inch of his life. If the figure, he lost that job. And I don't like that they did an i will always love you joke twice in the episode but i do like that uh they paid for the real song yeah it's on the dvd and everything too it couldn't be cheap couldn't be cheap to get the original whitney houston especially to get it on dvds that probably i would bet that might have been their most expensive license for that dvd i

think that's why it's been a struggle to get new dvds i mean season 19 was just released i think they could they will always make money but uh al jean loves himself a montage and those later seasons are so full of licensed music that um i feel like that's that's the problem really i mean the recognition of licensed music does take you out like that it improves a joke in a lot of times or at least like makes you feel something in the scene you might not feel something otherwise this is how the bodyguard ends too he saves her one last time and that song plays over the credits so that is the closest like one-to-one bodyguard joke here and i do like a casual mark hamill design too that it it looks

like him when he was doing interviews in 1978, very specifically. And also, a couple times when he was throwing around his lightsaber, winging it around, I guess. I think some animator had some fun. There's some good motion blur to it, and it actually looks kind of cool. Yeah, there are some cool instances of animation in this episode. I think it was just Star Wars nerds on the staff going, like, finally animate a lightsaber i'm gonna animate the hell out of this when star wars jokes were rare on television yep it's this this felt like like yeah this was like such a mark a moment before like it just like the floodgates opened for star wars jokes this one is kind of

the last of the star like clone phantom menace will be out five months after this aired so uh i mean the star wars wave is coming and it pretty much never ends after that it never will end ever right they say they're taking movies off for a little bit after episode nine this year but like they've already announced three shows for disney+, so it's not like there's not going to be no Star Wars. It's just maybe not in movie theaters for two years. Bob just shook his head. I'm just thinking like, oh, these are more things I'm going to have to know about.

Sorry. You're going to have to when you want to have a nice dinner conversation everybody's just going to talk about it. Did you see the Mandalorian? Is that a Star Wars thing? That is. That's the premier Disney Plus original series. Oh, no wonder it was in my head. See, I already know about it.

I'm sorry. I will not talk with you about Star Wars unless you talk with me about anime. It's only fair. You must watch 800 episodes of One Piece and then talk to me. Well, I won't do that, but I will talk about anime with you.

I pay that price. That was a funny episode. Yeah, yeah, I enjoyed it. It gave us the yes man. So out of nowhere, a big surprise for me. I was like, oh yeah, he's in this. And I do, the Comic Con stuff is my favorite stuff in it. I think the bodyguard stuff is just the usual

Homer gets a job. And some of the best jokes are also the cruelest of him trying to kill his children or hurt them multiple times. Give them brain damage. They didn't have to hang a lantern on like a hang a light or whatever you call it on. Like the fact that this is another Homer like scheme, a job episode, Homer scheme or whatever.

They just sort of went with it. And as much as I have always, you know, I'm always kind of the, you know, nine is kind of the threshold of when I feel like Simpsons lost it or whatever, but this was actually really funny. Just jokes.

Just jokes wall to wall, and that's fine. Season 10 is stronger than I remember having watched it. I'm hoping that's how it'll be with every season as we keep going. I was just looking at what else is left in here, and this has the Tokyo episode, so can't wait to hear that one. Yeah, it'll be good times but

oh and last yeah mark hamill a great guest on this episode like one of their uh you know a lot of times they get celebrity voice actors like say kim basinger and alec baldwin who didn't feel like they were trying all that hard but um oh yeah that was what was that that's just like six episodes ago i'm a little behind on re-listening to my talking simpsons but i'm like oh i can't wait to hear that one ron howard is great in it he's great yes yeah so casey green thanks for joining us for another episode can you please uh replug all of your cool stuff you've got going on kickstarter anything else that's happening right now well uh the kickstarter is the big thing right now it's again you can go to make

that thing.com slash good boy. And that should take you to the, uh, the Kickstarter, which should still be going by now. Uh, we, we just launched it yesterday as of this recording.

Ooh. So, please help us or get, help us, help us in any way. Um, I currently, I'm also still doing comics here and there.

Uh, my newest one is probably fuck off, which, uh, is just like a gag, like a one is probably fuck off, which, uh, is just like a gag, like a joke on gag comics and its own, uh, single panel gag comics.

Uh, it doesn't have a site yet, but you can still go to Instagram.com slash F O F F, uh, TM and read them there. Those are great. I love, I love the fuck off comics.

It's such a nice treat when I see them in a tweet. Thank you. Otherwise, uh, just hit when I see them in a tweet. Thank you. Otherwise, just hit me up at CaseyGreen.com.com and you will find my work. Awesome. Well, thank you, Casey. Thank you, guys. Thanks again to Casey Green.

Please support his Kickstarter, which is new as of this recording. But if you want to support us and get every episode of this show one week ahead of time and ad-free, please go to Patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. If you sign up for only $5 a month, you'll get just that. You will also get our sister podcast, What a Cartoon, one week ahead of time and ad-free,

and also all of the podcasts behind the $5 paywall. All of the bonus podcasts that we've done in the past two-plus years of TalkingSimpsons will be available to you. All of our miniseries, including our most recent miniseries, Talking of the Hill, and a new miniseries coming this fall, only for patrons that will vote on which series they want to hear us do. But Henry, what is happening at the $10 level for

big spenders out there? And remember, we have the power to kill with our podcast. You're going to have to give. Man, you'll get so much for protecting our power to kill, which is for premium $10 and up subscribers at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons, you'll get so much for protecting our power to kill, which is for premium $10 and up subscribers at patreon.com slash talking simpsons. You'll get the What a Cartoon movie, where me and Bob talk about a different animated feature film once a month.

Our most recent one in August was the Rocko's Modern Life movie, Static Cling. We had so much fun with that. We talked about it for almost four hours about a 45 minute movie uh but we loved rocco that much and we did if you sign up you'd get access to all of the previous what a cartoon movies which too many amazing ones to list but i guess if you love mark hamill we did batman mask of the phantasm you'd hear him in that too very good so please sign up at the ten dollar level and get everything that's amazing there at patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. So I've been one of your hosts, Bob Mackey.

Find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. My other podcast I do is Retronauts, a classic gaming podcast. Please check it out at retronauts.com or just find Retronauts in your podcast machine. We should be there. Henry, what about you? You can follow me on Twitter at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. Anytime new things go up on the Patreon,

I am certain to tweet about it and share it with all of you. So please, once more, follow me on Twitter, H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. Thanks so much for joining us, folks. We'll see you next week for Viva Ned Flanders.

I hope life treats you kind And I hope you have all you dreamed of And I wish you joy and happiness But above all this I wish you love And I will always love you I will always love you I will always love you I will always love you

I will always love you I will always love you You You Darling, I love you Oh, I'll always I'll always Love you Yes! Nobody messes with the mayor when Homer Simpson's a... Oh, crap.

Oh, fat Tony. What? What did I do?