Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Midnight Rx With Luke Savage

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

"Because of the Xanax, I'm not overanxious about being a Simpson anymore. I am a little anxious about being on Xanax, but the Zoloft covers that nicely." - Lisa Simpson Mr. Burns cancels the company's prescription plan, causing the disease-ridden Simpson family to seek a Canadian solution to their very American problem. But when Homer and Abe's drug-smuggling operation goes bust, the two find an unlikely friend in a certain 104-year-old Springfieldian who owns an aircraft perfect for a wild, third act caper. Our guest: Luke Savage from the Michael and Us podcast Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Bluesky and Instagram!

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exploration of the simpsons who is here with me today as always Greetings wage donkeys, it's Henry Gilbert. And who is our special guest on the line? Ah, Luke Savage here, and I just sand it down my fingertips to be on this U.S. podcast. And this week's episode is Midnight R.X. Well, well, if it isn't my favorite employee and his spouse. And these must be children. Have a ginger root.

This week's episode originally aired on January 16, 2005. And as always, Henry will let us know what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Street. Happy New Year 2005, folks. Coach Carter beats Electra at the box office. Resident Evil 4 is released on the GameCube, and The Daily Show's America the book is number one on the New York Times bestseller list in nonfiction. I wanted to start with The Daily Show 1 because that does tie us into political commentary of the time. I had this book as well as the sequel book, The World, though it was the annotated second printing of it that I think came out in 06 or late 05, I want to say. I think we all had this book, America, the book. And actually, this caused some scandal with a few friends of mine. To save money, they decided to live with a relative while they were in college for a semester instead of staying in the dorms.

When this unnamed aunt saw a copy of America of the book, they were kicked out. And I'd help them move back into a dorm room. So this book caused at least one state of semi-unhousedness. Well, they weren't quite as ubiquitous up in Canada, but they were nonetheless everywhere. they were a very prized item when I was in high school. The John Stewart Daily Show was that airing regularly in Canada? Oh, it was huge. Yeah, I mean, he got big. The 2004 election is the, and I think there was a tie-in book for that as well. I would have been in grade nine or 10 for that election, and everyone

was talking about it. There were even people, you know, you'd see people sporting John Kerry pins and a few bushpins as well, though, not as many as you can imagine. I am almost positive that book is behind me, but I don't want to delay the podcast to find it. I'm almost positive. It's on my oversized bookshelf, but I'm pretty sure I still have it. I remember being funny. The audio book was good, too. It was also the tie-in to the 0-4 election, I remember, it had like going out for drinks with the two candidates. So it was like, they make up a fictional account of like getting a beer with Bush versus getting a beer with John Kerry stories. And I remember being funny. And in the Canadian spirit of this, I remember Samantha Bee had a funny. I remember Samantha Bee had a

funny section in most chapters about how things are different a little bit in Canada compared to America about whatever subject the chapter was about. Yeah, and I believe either some Walmarts or perhaps all Walmarts would not carry this book because within the book there is a section that depicts all of the Supreme Court justices nude. That's right. They consider that pornography. The Walton family was having none of that. I guess not. Well, this era in Canada was like, I mean, the Bush era was kind of peak Canada being smug about itself era, you know, which was really funny because then in 2006, we elected a conservative government. But for a precious few years, you know, everybody was feeling very, very smug about the fact that you guys elected this dumb, fake cowboy from Texas. Well, that would never happen again, the Canadian smugness reaction to America election.

And Resident Evil 4, I mean, that was one, the GameCube 5, not to get too video game nerdy here, but that was a big event. played it on the GameCube and we're like, oh, it's only ever going to be on the GameCube. So the GameCube 5 were they brought to Justice Henry. Are you thinking of the Capcom 7? Was it the Capcom? I thought of them as a Capcom 5. Now, we're getting way into the weeds here, but I believe it was the Capcom 7 and only five of those games actually that were released.

Okay, so it's P.O5, Killer 7, Resident Evil 4, Beautiful Joe, and then I'm forgetting others, but those are the four, they're coming to mind. The GameCube was already a few years old at this point, right? It didn't come out in like 2002 or 2003 or something? It was 01. At this point, the system was digging its own grave. Yeah. Because weirdly, I didn't get an N64 until like two or three months before the GameCube came out.

And literally my parents got it for me. And then two months later told me they were getting divorced. And I've always thought there's probably a correlation between those two events. But then on the launch day for the GameCube, my brother got it. I think it was his birthday or something. So we had, like, I remember like playing. We just made our way through like the entire. of Luigi's mansion on the first day.

And I think we had like Pickman as well soon after that. This does show that Luke is 10 years younger than us because my post-divorce gift wasn't NES. Henry's parents got divorced when he was like 35, so there were no video games under the tree that year. We just took a trip to Las Vegas altogether and learned it there again.

Resident Evil 4 is also one of the most released video games ever. I mean, there's honestly no, it's probably like Sonic the Hitchalk, but Resident Evil 4 has gotten a lot of, it's been on many platforms. Yeah, it still rules. I put together an episode about the original and the remake for my other podcast Retronauts. The remake, I would not say it's the better version, but it's just as viable of a version with all of the updated stuff you would want in a modern video game,

and it rocks. It's so good. So it felt like a mistake to remake this game, but they made all of the right steps, and that remake is so good. And yeah, the box office, we've got Coach Carter, which I've never seen. I remember the trailers a lot. It's your classic, like, the tough but fair coach comes to town and teaches people a lesson and it's based on a true story. Samuel L. Jackson is the eponymous coach Carter. I recall that. And he dunked on Electra at the box office. Oh, Electra. Now that one I saw in a very empty theater this week. So I know in this online space, we have two viewers of Deadpool and Wolverine. Was Elektra in that film? Bob, I don't want to spoil it for you. Just say yes. I don't honestly, probably. I don't remember because like that,

movie was a fever dream. Like I lost all of my sanity points when it came out of that movie. It was one of the most insane things I've ever seen. And Will Sloan and I saw it. If memory serves a few weeks after like it had debuted and we saw it like a midday screening at downtown Toronto where as I recall, the only other person in the theater was like one guy who I think was in costume and was so excited to see it. So the energy in the theater was so off because like there was this attraction repulsion thing where Will and I were just like, we could not believe how shitty the thing we were seeing actually was. But then the only other person in the theater, it was clearly like the best day of his life.

It was a very strange experience. Well, God bless him. From what I know about that movie, a large portion of it is customer service for movies that got a poor reception. And I think a lecture is included in that section of the film. The plot of that film, you cannot make sense of it unless you know about like real world mergers and acquisitions at various large entertainment conglomerates. Like the conglomerates are part of the text of the movie.

It is one of the most insane things I have ever seen in my life. The movie is saying, you see how you scum. Well, it's a business meeting more than anything. I mean, it ends with a tribute to all of the Fox films because you're supposed to know that this exists because of a Fox merger. And yes, a big surprise in the middle of the movie that was not advertised is that several characters from canceled or unpopular Fox films appear. and you're supposed to know, like, well, one, when Blade meets Deadpool,

you're supposed to nudge your partner and say, like, did you know that Wesley Snipes hated working with Ryan Reynolds on Blade 3? Like, you're supposed to not, which I, of course, did. I say this making fun of the person who's me, who nudged my husband. All of the partner's arms were bruised and bleeding at the end of that film. And same with Channing Tatum playing Gambit, because, like, he agreed to make a Gambit movie.

And so then Elektra comes in, and it's Jennifer Garner and shits her going like, My Electra movie just got dumped into theaters in January and was trash. And it was trash. Like, it's not a good movie. They agreed to it when Daredevil came out two years earlier, or in 03, early 03. And they're like, oh, this actually was a hit. We'll do an Elektra spin-off because Jennifer Garner's hot.

And so it didn't work out. It's not a very good movie. It's cheap. It's under. And they never mentioned Daredevil once either. I don't think. But, of course, I doofly went, because I did see how I was scum. They put it out, I'm showing up.

Anyway, that's what was happening when this episode of The Simpsons aired. And joining us once again is Luke Savage from the Michael and Us podcast, and Luke last joined us for season 13's The Parent Rap. Welcome back to the show, Luke. Oh, it's so nice to be here. It's been a minute. We had on your Michael and us co-host, Will Sloan, for the episode where the Simpsons go to Toronto.

And it was like, okay, well, this one, the next time they go to Canada, we got to get Luke on for the matching, of that one. And here they go to what, Winnipeg? They go to general Canada. Like later they go to, I think they go to Manitoba, don't they, I think? There is at least one reference to Saskatchewan. One of the

Canadians they meet in an early scene mentions Regina, but I couldn't really like place it geographically. And that's actually one of the things I found interesting about it because it's just this kind of like broad pastiche of Canada, but there's not really like a sense of place. It's an

interesting Canada. It's just generally about America versus Canada. I guess just like how the Simpsons live in a general American city of Springfield with no specific area, the Canada they go to is just kind of all of Canada. And weirdly enough, written by Mark Wilmore, who is not one of the two Canadian Simpsons writers of this era. I think that is Joel Cohen and Tim Long. The late Mark Wilmore, the brother of Larry Wilmore, who was on the Daily Show, I think around this time, actually, as we mentioned it. and he's, I believe Mark Wilmore holds the distinction of being the first on-staff African-American writer for The Simpsons.

And he was one their better writers in this era of the show. And this is a funny episode that it does feel a little like The Simpsons is trying to be South Park a little bit. But if that pushed them to be fun social commentary, I'm giving that a thumbs up if it's tried to be a South Park style show. And as you were saying before the recording, Henry, these issues are still irrelevant. and they've gotten worse. Yes, in all ways they've gotten worse. And listeners, you're hearing this like a month after we record it. I bet it's way worse now than when we're recording this now.

Canada versus America stuff, I thought it was heated when it was the Bush era, but it really seems pretty bad right now. It's quite possible that by the time this drops, like Toronto will just be like the free Republic of Toronto and there will be like columns of like American tanks advancing from Detroit. Yes. I mean, I'm not a citizen yet, but I've made my decision. I will have to fight and kill American soldiers if it comes to that. I'm sorry, Bob.

It's going to have to cut it. This could jeopardize our future of the podcast, but because of course I will side with America. No. Trade agreements get worse all the time. It looks like Canada is pushing to join. I don't know. Everything seems, plus, it feels like every other day there is a post from the hilariously memed accounts of the president talking about how. it's about to become the 51st state.

Like, great time, great time. While also many Canadians, you know, don't want to come to America. And I don't blame them. I don't blame any of them, for sure. Yeah, early last year when Trump was first getting this stuff going, there was a lot of talk about, you know, like a really large-scale boycott. And I mean, at the time, like Trump was threatening like 100% tariffs. And then he would like pull the rug out from under his own policy, like two minutes before midnight when it was supposed to

kick in. And like, I'm glad that didn't happen, but I remember at the time thinking, like, if that even happens for like a day or even like half a day, it would be the biggest single disruption in global commerce in the history of civilization. It would have been an interesting experiment. Anyway, fortunately, it didn't happen. But yeah, people were talking about boycotts a lot of US products, which it's very difficult to do that here, partly like because our economies are so integrated, but also because they're integrated in ways you wouldn't expect. So I don't drink a lot of American beer, generally speaking, but there is one American beer that I like. And I don't want to boycott it because it's actually brewed by like union workers in New Brunswick.

You know, like if I boycott it, I'm also boycotting them and I don't want to do that. A lot of that stuff has kind of fallen off. But the one thing that has really not fallen off is Canadians are not traveling to the United States in anything like the numbers they used to. And like Florida in particular has taken a pretty big hit because obviously it's. economy is so dependent on tourism. And I don't know if the expression like registers the United States, but in Canada, people talk about the snowbirds and what they mean is like senior citizens with disposable income who fly to Florida in the winter. That is just absolutely tanked. I was just listening to the recent Michael and us you did about the speech that the prime minister

of Canada had recently given about, you know, just throwing up his hands like, yeah, this was all a joke. Why are we pretending that like there was international rules based order and all these things? Now that America is bullying them on top of, you know, the third world countries who deserve bullying, apparently. Yeah, I mean, when I moved here about two and a half years ago, everyone was saying, you know, it's not perfect. And I'm starting to think, I don't know, guys. I may be the stereotypical immigrant who fell in love with a new country, but it feels like it's perfect to me. Well, Bob, we're very happy to have you. Let's not change anything.

Yeah. Well, you know what? One cultural export, though, in 2026 is trying to thaw the prostate relationship. intentions and tensions. And that's heated rivalry. And hopefully, hopefully it is helping Americans return to a love for Canada. The next time I see two hockey players walking on the street, I'm going to make them kiss. I was unaware of the hockey stretches that are done until I saw it done in the heated rivalry TV show. The getting on all fours kind of stretch that would look suggestive, perhaps. I've still never seen it, but it does seem to be a genuine sensation like multiple

politicians, including the Prime Minister, are doing like heated rivalry memes. I actually just today, Prime Minister's office, posted a bunch of photos of like him, Mark Carney, with like one of the cast members. So yeah, it's clearly a big deal. But yeah, I have not seen it. Bob, you mentioned there are fun things on this commentary with the Canadian Simpsons writers. Two of the Canadian Simpsons writers were on there and getting bullied quite a lot on it. They're really getting roasted. I think it's just because Obama just got reelected and they feel like everything has been fixed. yeah, there is a level of pride. And look, I could listen to podcasts I recorded right after Obama

got elected. And I bet I was very full of myself too. So I can't judge them too much for their excitement on the podcast or commentary. Yeah, but this episode, though, not a parody of Midnight Run, as the title would have you believe, but it is a parody of the horrible for-profit insurance industry and drug tourism, as it were, that American seniors would do going to Canada and back and buying cheap prescription drugs. Yes, I shared it with both to you guys, but I found a couple of old news stories from then in New York Times piece about it. And another 2004 report, which I found that said, for example, seniors were saving up to 58% on medication by bringing it across the border. Though also it was like, you know, it is technically illegal from the U.S.

side of things. One reason they said was like, oh, FDA shouldn't, doesn't approve every pill or medication. But obviously it was big pharma and not wanting people. to know that things are marked up very heavily in the U.S. compared to other countries with more socialized governmental medicine. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy because prescription drugs are much cheaper in Canada, but our health care system, which is, you know, it's not like the British National Health Service, like the government nationalized health insurance, but like the medical profession itself sort of, it still operates quasi-independently, but like within the confines of this public system. It doesn't include a comprehensive pharmaceutical program. Like,

people still get, as in America, pharmaceutical coverage or some of it, you know, through their workplaces, through, you know, private insurance plans started a change because of some legislation that went through the last parliament. There are now some drugs covered in particular provinces have, like, individual plans for certain things. But even the drugs that are not included in those plans are much, much cheaper. Because, yeah, when you remove, when you take out so much of the profit, dimension that exists in, you know, as exists in the American system, just everything gets cheaper because there's no value at from that. It's just profit. It's just a parasitic industry profiting off sick people. I can speak for my own experience. I've only been living here for about

two and a half years. And the biggest thing I've noticed is $6,000 a year goes back into my wallet because I'm not spending it on the bronze plan where you go to the doctor and they yell at you for coming in and wasting their time. I can see why these news stories, you know, got where the hot thing in, say, you know, the New York Times crowd back then because, you know, that there's a kind of comedic irony to it of like, oh, you know, it's Americans who are illegally going across borders to take things, except it's things that are like, you know, not exactly contraband. It's the nice older seniors who are doing it. But also it did allow people to have some way to talk about the extreme price disparity and the things that like Lisa brings up in the episode, because

Lisa's always right, so she's the one who gets to just say the things that are the correct bits. And, you know, it highlighted disparities in health care costs that I'm sure the Democrats will run on with rate success for the next 20 years after this episode aired. It occurred to me watching this and, you know, seeing the date that it aired, that it was around this time where discussions about universal health care were becoming quite mainstream within the Democratic Party. Like, I think it was in 2005, possibly 2006. It was within a few years of this episode anyway that Paul Krugman. published his bestselling book, The Conscience of a Liberal, which was about a bunch of things, but like the main argument or the major argument of the book was the next Democratic administration healthcare reform is like the totemic thing that it needs to accomplish.

And Krugman said, you know, single-payer health care is the best, but like a public option is probably the most like realistic thing. You know, that's remembered as the universal health care book. It's kind of like, he does this kind of very emblematic like retreat from the idea that he himself is saying his best. But regardless, in 2008, I believe all of the sort of main Democratic candidates at least tried to sort of pretend that they were running on universal health care. And at the time, you know, I didn't know as much. I remember thinking that like Obama just supported like Canadian style health care.

And in 2010, when they did the Affordable Care Act, I kind of thought like, oh, America just has like our health care system now. No. Yeah, I guess it's similar to, you know, we got to see another version of that in the 2019. 2019, 2020. Many people said they were for Medicare for all. Medicare for all who wanted. Yes. Oh, yes.

And I also found an interesting update on this situation recently about it. In general, when I was looking up the news of like, well, how does this compare to now? Everything's worse, of course. But here's one interesting bit about it that the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services can allow importing from Canada of prescription medications under special circumstances, like they can allow it. And it can happen on a state basis. And over five years ago, the red, very red state of Florida was one of the first to get such permission to import cheaper medicine from Canada and then supply that to Floridians. Now, it got all this news then, and I was like, oh, then what

happened? As of December 2025, not one pill has come in from it because there has been a mix of like FDA approvals waiting on it, Big Pharma pushback to try to delay it, and as well, as I don't blame Canada for, they're like, we will only sell you a surplus of medication and what they are deeming as a surplus is not

what they're wanting to sell yet. And so there have been like empty warehouses in Florida that are costing millions of dollars that we're supposed to house all of these Canadian pills and they have not gotten any of them yet. So it was something Ron DeSantis ran very hard on,

I can't believe he failed his constituents. Incredible. Yeah, we're talking about Midnight RX today. I forgot that Trump RX is around the corner. If you go to TrumpRX.gov, he's going to find you the cheapest prescription drug prices. Oh, yes. That's also the executive order delivering most favored nation prescription drug pricings to American patients was also signed last year.

And part of it was trying to, instead of making things cheaper for us, by us, I mean Americans, is to make it more expensive for Canadians. Like he wanted to raise the drug prices for Canadians, as they put it as sharing the fair share of the R&D price, was how Trump positioned it. And surprisingly, Canada was not amenable to that idea. So yes, that's just the history, a recent history, of where importing or attempts to import Canadian drugs and medication stands.

Oh, you know what? I had one other question for the commentary. Actually, I wanted to ask, Luke, because they have a lot of, little fun on the commentary with one of the Canadian guys. So I want to ask you this question that they asked the Canadian writer on it. So, Luke, there is a sticker, right? The item is spelled D-E-C-A-L. How would you pronounce that? Deccle, is how I would pronounce it. There it is. Okay. An American would say decal. So they have fun with their Canadian writers because they also say Deccle. People in the Midwest say bagel sometimes instead of bagel. What's going on?

I had never heard of this Deccle thing until the commentary for this. I had only ever heard DeKal. Listen, I live with a Canadian. I have to hear about pasta all the time. I don't know what she's talking about. I say pasta, but I'm not the most representative because my dad is British. And so I think that probably made its way into how I pronounce things. I don't know.

It's also a rare commentary where the director Nancy Cruz is on it, though she doesn't have much to say, which is too bad. I think she just lets the. She lets the work speak for herself. It seems like they're trying to get her to talk a few times in it. I guess she was working on Reckett Ralph while recording this commentary or did it just released or something like that. Yeah, yeah. Recit Ralph was still to come, I think, then.

And yeah, they were probably, she was worried about her job because they were making jokes about working for Disney then. And she was like, I can't, don't get me in trouble, guys. I think was what was on her mind. And also, this is the last one of production season 15. So that's how long they had leftover episodes from production. production season 15 into season 16. They made it to January without airing a season 16 produced episode until next week.

A brief update on Nancy Cruz, though. She was head of story on what is now the highest grossing animated film that was not made in China, Zootopia 2. Wow. Man, I know she worked on the first Utopia. I should have figured she was on Zootopia 2. I hate that Disney only wants to make sequels, but every time they put out a new sequel, it breaks every record every single time. I can't believe it.

Well, nothing's going to beat Nayshah, too, which is the highest grossing animated movie all of all time, with $2.2 billion under its boat. Yeah, that has to be more than at least the third avatar, if not the second one. It's almost as much as my podcast. So this episode, though, begins first with a couch gag of Homer being hurt in silence. Then we begin with, you know, the Simpsons go to a thing,

and this is the Simpsons go to a corporate party, partially inspired by the Simpsons' own show parties where they have rented out science, in the past. Our pal and fellow podcast co-host, Drew Mackey from Gayest Episode Ever, he's attended a couple of these. He got to go to at least one of the ones where the Simpsons rent out the Springfield area of Universal Studios Hollywood for the season premiere events.

I think Disney's been slashing the budgets on those lately. I think they only rent like a movie theater these last couple times. And me and Bob have performed actually a Dunnife podcast in a Science Museum as well. It was weird. Do we know, do you remember the name of that science museum? Oh man, it was like the kids' exploratorium or something. It's in San Francisco. It's at the Golden Gate Park.

It's the exploratorium, I want to... It was... Well, it just taught everyone don't have a podcast festival where a science museum was one of the venues because it's not really wired for acoustics, for podcast acoustics, at least. Yeah. But we did get to chat with Dana Gould there,

and he was very nice. But this is where Burns is also very nice. He let Smithers be on the banner for this event, too. I'm surprised to see Smithers getting to smile on the banner with Burns there. You know, I liked about Burns in this scene. So obviously he does that thing where he like comes up to the Simpsons and he says like, oh, you know, if it's not my favorite employee and his spouse and these must be children.

Here, have some ginger root. You know, it's like the thing where, you know, the runny thing of like Burns never remembers his interactions with the Simpsons. But then later in the episode, when Homer gets arrested in Canada jumping ahead, like you hear the Canadian news broadcast and he's described as former American astronaut Homer Simpson. And I love that. It's like the past both doesn't exist, but it also does.

Yeah, there's a few very strange bits of continuity in this episode. I like that Burns now doesn't remember anybody in the family and just passes in ginger roots. This has some new history in that as Homer is like embarrassing Marge with acting like a jerk at the party, this is where he meet his supervisor who we've never seen before or since, this unnamed supervisor. I like that they're just dropping that on us. also Homer acting out I have been to my husband's company Functions a couple times at fancy venues

I have not embarrassed to many I live myself to a couple beers The close I've come to embarrassing him is maybe that I have stayed at the bingo table too long And he used to leave until I win And he's like, honey, don't you want to like do this other fun game I was like no I have to win a bingo game Let me just come back in three hours

Now Henry you drink a few beers I've never actually seen you drink a beer With it have pineapple in it What's going on here? talking to me. Okay, when I say beer, in this case, I mean a hard cider. Yes, Henry is stealing beer privilege, or excuse me, beer drinker Valor, and I will not have it. I did drink a beer in Japan. You saw the picture of it, that promotional beer, only because it was branded with Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, the classic Amongan anime. But it did not turn you into a beer drinker. It did make me stumble around a train station for a minute until I ate some curry too well.

You've never even had like a novelty duff beer. I assume those exist somewhere. Oh, I've drank it with, Bob. in Universal Studio. They serve you Sam Adams in a duff cup. Not even a duff cup, it's just a plastic cup with no branding on it, I guess. And so Homer, we also see that Bart has no other male role models than Homer and Burns, which is like, what about Krusty the clown, Bart? Come on. So soon he forgets.

In our first clip here, we get a nice little Mo joke here. Always fun to have a mo joke. Nice. Tucks, Mo. Yeah, thanks. I bought this for my funeral. It ain't got no back, so don't make me turn around. Hey, I'm paying for a silk-lined coffin, and damn it, I'm going to feel it.

Since the dawn of aviation, man has built museums dedicated to the history of flight, and created audiovisual materials to orient visitors to those museums. From the hand-drawn flipbook at the Wright Brothers Museum to the IMAX movie at Cape Canaveral. Aviation Museum audiovisual materials have taken patrons and docents alike on a rocket ride to comprehension. This is the story of those materials. A tribute to the videos that are playing at museums. It's kind of predicting Deadpool and Wolverine, isn't it?

They're walking the tricky line between being very boring and very funny, but they are nailing it with this. I like how someone waves over another patron to watch the video. They're really into it. To talk about me and my husband opposing behaviors here, when we go to the museums, I am like, well, no, it's a video. I have to watch the whole video at the museum.

He usually wants to move on to the next area. It's why when I went to the Tezica Museum in Japan, he was like, you can do that all day today. Why don't you just go do that? Boy, did I watch every video you possibly could watch at that museum. But seeing Mo's butt, that is also very funny. Yeah, a joke about Mo thinking about his funeral always makes me laugh. It was interesting to me. Yeah, this joke was awesome.

And like, it's interesting, Mo saying, like, you know, he's going to. this silk-lined coffin and he wants to like, you know, feel the silk after he's dead. I noticed, like, there's a little bit of continuity here with that really quick joke when, like, the yokels are standing outside and they can't get in at the rope line. And they're like, well, at least we got this like really soft velvety rope here. So there's like two very tactile jokes right off the top of this app. Poor people only want to feel the luxury of submaterial. They love high thread counts. It's such a funny design to a mo and to imagine that he's just walking around like,

air-assed all night at this event. This is also where we see that there's a Byrne style walk-around theme park character with a giant head on him, which is a very funny-looking design. I like when Homer asked him to act like Burns. He just starts to flex and disco dance as well.

Yeah, there's a limited body language with those characters. Yeah, when they can't talk, you know, it's why, Bob, you do not like interacting with those characters. No, no, I just think of the poor person inside who was forced to pretend to be my friend. When my little brother was really young, he actually had, like, his deepest fear was people in those costumes. Like, anytime we went to, like, a, like, dressed up people, he called them at age three or four. And he, like, we went to, like,

a, I don't know, like, a county fair or, like, whatever. Anywhere there were people like that, he had to, like, run away. Like, hockey games, if there was a mascot, terrifying for him. Pleased to report he's since gotten over that. I don't think I have. It's not a straight-out phobia for me, but something kind of irritates my lizard brain whenever one of those things get close to me and I don't like to be around them. I don't really like them either. There's something uncanny about it. Like the fact that it's like you know there's a person

in there but they can't emote with their face and they have to be in character and like most mascots are kind of there to be a little ridiculous right? So they're kind of like a heel. They're not like a heel that's like they're a dehumanized heel. I don't really like to me either. There's something kind of irksome about it.

At that same universal Hollywood trip, I remember pointing for you and and Nina your wife to say like, guys, look, there's Shrek over there. Let's get a picture with Shrek. You guys weren't up for it. No, no. Or grew. Or grew. Yes, or any of the minions.

This little scene here is also where there's one of two deleted scenes on the DVD. And I have a clip for the audio here just to let you know that the act out continues until Burns walks up to it and it has questions. That's him to a T.

Good Lord. It's that son I had by Gloria Swanson, but you were sealed inside the walls of my summer house. Unless that plasterer betrayed me. This is getting a little weird for Lenny. The head is removed from the character, and it's revealed Lenny was inside. I like this joke. It felt like the mascot joke was leading to something large, a bigger payoff. I feel the same way about the Agnes Skinner thing we see next, where I feel like there's not a big enough joke other than she is that old to have participated in this sort

of stunt show. Now, that one must have like, not been deemed funny by them because it's not even in the deleted scenes. It definitely feels like there should be a deleted scene of Agnes there. To hear that, I love that. Like, Burns had a son with Gloria Swanson who he seemingly murdered at some point

and now he's being haunted by a vision of that son of his. Very good, dark joke on Burns' part. I liked the, like, I agree with you that the Agnes Skinner joke, yeah, it feels unfinished. It feels like it maybe would merit a little bit more. But I do kind of like it as,

texture to the character because I feel like we never see her young. Like she's just like Seymour Skinner's like, you know, like decrepit, overbearing mother. And I kind of like this, like now she has this backstory where she was this like very like vital young woman who was tap dancing on like the top of biplanes. She used to be fun. I feel like we need a comment from either her or Skinner in the present to kind of sort of finish the joke. And of course this joke inspired Tom Cruise to do his big stunt in the most recent Mission

Impossible film. But no unicycle. Then we get another, on the commentary, Al Jean does reckon with like, yes, this is the second time we've done this kind of joke with Mr. Burns. But there's 11 years in between. We'll give them a break on it. But this is where they run into the plywood pelican. Well, a wooden plane. It's about time.

Trees were good for something. Instead of just standing there like jerks. The plywood pelican was larger than a football field. It weighs more than the state of New Hampshire. It was only flown once by its creator, Mr. C. Montgomery Burns. I flew it at an altitude of six feet for a distance of four and a half feet. Then we discovered rain makes it catch fire. Then the furor fired me.

What a magical party this has been. Mr. Burns is a great man. I've got a bad feeling about all this. Come on, March. This place is great. Free admission, great grub. And we got to use the best. The bathroom of the future.

Homer, that was Apollo 12. So the spruce caboose and the plywood pelican can exist in the same universe, although I don't know who made the spruce caboose, but Burns did make this plane for Hitler. Is it not? Sorry to be pedantic here. Like, you guys are the scholars, not me. Is it not the spruce moose, or is this one of these like Berenstained Bears kind of things? Oh, well, the spruce moose is, that's the real plane, right?

No, no, so the spruce goose is the Hercules. is the spruce moose is the one that burns builds the model of that's not a model that burns his casino one and then the spruce caboose that's from marge gets a job wow you guys really are undefeated that's why you're the best this is all we can do but i mean it's it's only fair to mind more harvard hugh's material but didn't the aviator just come out around this time like 2003 it was probably still in theaters in that january it was an oscar hopeful it was a 2004 release yes The Aviator, which when I saw The Aviator, which I think is a really good movie, I like the part of the fun for me was saying like, oh, this is, finally I get to learn the story of The Simpsons joke that has confused me for so long. Burns with his model of his spruce moose.

Fox tonight, you asked for it, and boy, are you going to get it. Stanley Guy is back. Tonight at 9-8 Central on Fox. Buller's thumb. Pot belly. Peabring. Let's operate. This is not good. It's Operation, where Homer will tell you just how well you're doing. Operation the Simpsons Edition, batteries not included. Still confused about where to put the maple syrup in this podcast, it's Henry Gilbert.

Thanks again for listening, folks, and a huge thank you to our guests this week, Luke Savage, from the podcast, Michael and us, as well as his great substack. We have links to it in the episode description, and we always love having Luke on, especially for an episode. of so much about politics and Canada and its crossover with the United States, which is certainly a hot topic these days. So thanks again to Luke. Love to having you back on. And if you enjoy this podcast, you should know the Talking Simpsons is brought to you every week, ad-free and early.

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That's the What a Cartoon, movie podcast that we've been doing for years where we cover an animated feature film just as in depth as we cover The Simpsons. Last month we covered Shrek 2, the gigantically successful weird film from 2004. And the month before that, we cover the Disney classic 1959's Sleeping Beauty. And that's just the most recent stuff that we've done. We have covered years and years, hundreds of hours of what a cartoon movies, covering tons of Disney, Renaissance classics, tons of Disney original classics, lots of Pixar films, lots of studio Ghibli films, and so, so many more.

Our longest podcast ever on there was six and a half hours about who framed Roger Rabbit. Sign up today to check it all out. You're missing so many awesome podcasts, and you get all the early and ad-free things I mentioned before. It's all listed for you at patreon.com slash talking, The Aviator a good one. Again, they refused to give Leo an Oscar, and he'll just keep hurting himself until they finally gave him one

when he's covered in like bare fecal matter, I think, was when they finally gave it to him. But in the movie, the Hercules does fly. Like, they presented it as like, whoa, what a triumph. Like, that's where the movie, like, that's the climax of the movie is that his Hercules plane, which Howard Hughes built it for the American Air Force. It just never flew or did anything for them.

But to hear that Burns made it for the Furntz made it for the Furious. is pretty great. That directly following that, that's when Homer goes like, wow, Mr. Burns is a great man after hearing that he worked for Hitler. And for the second time, Homer took a shit in Apollo 12,

which I feel like he was doing a lot of using the bathroom in places that aren't bathrooms at this time in the show. So this is where Burns is finally excited for what his real plan was the whole time as he presents it to the employees. Greetings, wage donkeys. Is everyone happy and content?

Yeah. This is great. I would die for you. Is your sense without rage dulled? Bill it, super boss? Very well. Effective immediately, the employee prescription drug program is terminated. What?

What? In these days of rising health care costs, blah, blah, blah, lip service, lip service. Get out! This must be the nasty surprise he mentioned in the invitation. No! Get him! Why, you fool? I tried to explain to you, sir, this thing.

has never actually worked. Smithers, you must believe. You know, this can go one of two ways for corporations, because I remember when I worked for a big corporation, we had a very nice company retreat at a very nice resort hotel in Northern California, and then two weeks later, 25% of the company was laid off. I was one of those people.

And then when I worked with Henry had a big business, all the layoffs happened, and then they canceled a party. It's like they wanted us to come to work with guns. I mean, I think it was like late November when the layoffs happened, And it was, so the holiday party would have been just a few weeks away. Yes. Yeah.

They did cancel Christmas. That was a rough one. And, yeah, I think this is where, I mean, Burns can't even bother with the corporate prattle of like saying, oh, this is to, you know, right size our business. There's us to be more flexible or ready to deal with the industry or blah, blah, blah, blah. Like now he just cuts straight to the blah, blah, blah. But he really, it's, Burns likes to make everybody suffer on this for sure. Also, that he sent out an invitation that promised a. nasty surprise. That's great. I love that reveal, too. It wasn't even fine prints. It was the second

page of the fold-out imitation. They fly away on one of those ridiculous flying machines that's not supposed to work that you see in all of those like old black and white stock footage. And this was also a runner at the time where Burns-like is thinking if, you know, our two employees going to hook up at this. His investment in the office politics stuff in just a few episodes before this, when Burns buys all of the media. He's talking with Smithers of like, did you know that Bubarella is the daughter of Bill in accounting? That's true. I didn't know that was a runner. I totally forgot about that joke. An ET reference in 2005 that is really pushing it, but I will give them credit because the special edition of ET had just come out on DVD in 2002, and then Spielberg did the right

thing and buried that alive. And we never have to talk about it again. The walkie-talkie cut is the rare one now. You have to probably work to find it. I prefer to call that the ET the bathtub cut. Oh, sure, sure. I wonder, too, if it was meant to be a reference, or if it's just because I just watched Lord of the Rings films. But when Byrne says, fly, you fool, that is what Gandalf says, fly you fools in fellowship. I think so. I think so. Then Smithers turns back around and we end the first act. This is one of the shorter first acts in the series. It's only five minutes if you include the intro. Like, normally it's more like seven or eight. We've even even see nine minute act ones, I think, right Bob?

I think up to 10, almost 11 minutes sometimes. So we come back from the commercial break and the family is standing around their medication, which seems like a lot of medication, though I don't know. Everybody's pretty medicated these days in America. There appear to be at least 60 prescription bottles. I feel like the Simpsons have too many diseases. Marge is worried about how many they'll have to cut back on. Does this also, Bob, feel like a callback to the early, the back-to-basics era of Al-Gine,

where Marge has out the family budget and he's working it out in paper. Except it ends with like a very bizarre joke instead of an actual plan to reduce their expenditures. The joke you're referring to is I liked it, but there was also something I kind of disliked about it. This is Homer imagining himself, like as bringing some new revenue if they need like a new friend on friends

and I could play the Irish cousin. I like this, but it seemed more like a family guy joke than a Simpsons joke. And like secondly, it's one of those top of, references that doesn't quite sit well with me in context of the Simpsons. Family guy, that's kind of like what all of the references are. But with the Simpsons, I don't like the idea that friends exist in the Simpsons universe. For reasons I can't quite explain in earlier seasons where there's topical references, you know, in like the B-sharp's episode where, you know, you have

George Harrison at the end. I have no problem. I can like acclimatize to the idea that the Beatles exist in the universe of the Simpsons. I don't like the idea that Friends does. Yeah, I have the same feeling, Luke, because the Cheers characters exist in the Simpsons world. I have no issue with that, and that was a contemporary reference. This is also contemporary. The show had just gone off the air, I think the previous may, but something does feel off about it. I think they at least future-proof it by having Lisa say that shows off the air because then it was recently, well, not cancel, they chose to end. It was less than a year out from it.

But now, you know, anytime you watch the episode after it airs, friends will have always been over and off of the air that Homer, I wonder if it is partially, I view it as a perhaps small meta joke because the Simpsons voice actors in 1998 held out together for a raise and they were inspired by how in 1997, the Friends cast worked together and said,

you give us all a raise to the same amount together and then the Simpsons actors replicated it. So when it's about the Friends Plus trying to get a job, That's where at least my brain makes a connection. Maybe not an intentional. Was Hank Azaria on Friends? He had to be, right? Or is that just mad about you?

He would definitely a regular man about you. I don't know if he got to be on Friends. He was Murray. No, sorry, he was the Dogwalker of Murray the Dog. That's who he was. First season of Friends, there's a love interest for Phoebe. That's not Hank Azaria. God, who is that?

Somebody from The Simpsons. It's going to come to me and I'm going to be embarrassed because it could be obvious. Oh, yes. By the way, he was on Friends playing the character. We all remember him. David, right? Oh, David. That sounds like a boyfriend of the weak name.

Yeah, playing this character in seasons one, seven, and nine in five episodes. So I feel like he was just available in the must-see TV orbit if you needed a handsome guest star who wouldn't take up too much space. You pull in Hank his area. And as we know in our star snoop sections, like he was a good friend of the late Matthew Perry as well. This is then where we head to the employment agency when you need to show the state you tried. back when there was more social welfare programs but Homer is going for a second job it's hard to immediately my mind thought like right

Homer got fired from the nuclear plant like no no he still is doing his job this is the second job he's looking for and him listing things the list of things Homer won't do I thought that was funny enough but the cut to the employee just playing a first person shooter on his computer

was gave me a good chuckle some kind of weird doom parody is going on there this is the year HALA while they would have made it the year Halo 2 came out. And so they're living in the past. That's a very like quakes and Doom style. It's very like 90s era shooter reference, isn't it? Yeah. Though Al Jean admits on the commentary, they're always 10 years behind with any video game reference they do in the show. I'm going to say that could probably run on whatever computer they give you when you work for the state. You're not

going to be running Halo. You're going to be running Doom or Duke Nukem 3D perhaps. That's true. If this kind of bureaucrat, you're probably still on Windows 95, even in 2005. I like when Homer hears the the clip of the game saying you saved Fobos. He's like, Bobos, that sounds like a good place to work. As often happens in their social commentary episodes, we get a news report that shows the thing that happened to Homer is actually happening all over Springfield. So they can give other examples.

Krusty, who could afford his own private health insurance, though, you know, Krusty always is wasting his money and low on funds. So I can see why he'd be needing to beg children for lithium dioxide. We mentioned earlier they're bringing back. some old runner, some old references. They're bringing back Smart Line in this segment, but Smart Line was typically a debate show, but this is just a normal Kent's reports,

but the Smart Line graphics are behind him. I don't know why they decided on this, but it is a return of Smart Line, which I think was last seen in Lisa the Skeptic, so it's been seven years. Wow, I miss that, Bob. That's a great catch. Yes, this is, they put back the Smart Line branding for it

when normally they just, at this time, you just see Kent on the TV. they don't need to present it as anything. It's just like, well, yeah, it's the news with Kent Brockman. Also, Dan Castellaneda does a very good job of the crying and laughing of the bipolar clown of Krusty. This is also where we see that Ralph is taking a lot of drugs, unknown drugs. He's cuckoo for contraband. And then we get a joke about the drug company lobbying, which I like about how the, you know,

American doctors are often very heavily paid off by it. I'm not the biggest fan of what they do with Hibbert in this. scene here. Some of this is true. I'm the son of a nurse and my mom would always bring home all of the swag the doctors would give her that they would receive from drug companies. So I was bringing like the latest herpes medication pens with me to school. I mean, that's fun. That's fun. I wish doctors just walked around with all of the logos on them of what they're getting paid for. But I mean, yeah, we talk about this so much in this season, I think, how many obvious needle drops they do. And sometimes I think they're trying to be funny, but like 2005, you say 2005 ET reference, a 2005

use of baby got back. It's not even ironically funny anymore. It's so overused. I think though, Sir Mix-a-lot was really coming back as an ironic celebrity because I remember Tim and Eric had him on Tom Goes to the Mayor around this time. Well, yes. And we all have the My Big Cups song. Like they got him to sing a new song about Big Cups. But also it's like, I mean, Hibbert is one of their few major black characters in the show and having him like, I don't know, the actouts they have from him and this feel a bit much to me. I don't love it. I got to say. He has his own fly girls, though. That's another dated reference. And you know what? They were being economical because two of the dancers in it, I caught this, they were reused of the sexy lady designs that

were done in the Catholic Church commercial that was in the Super Bowl episode in season 10. Economical. Him saying like that'll lead to a troubled marriage. Like the Hibberts do have a bad marriage. You've seen in many other future episodes, though that was funny enough. But then him just like checking out, ogling the girls and going, damn, with a big damn, I was like, no, I don't love this stereotypical acting on. It's a little too far for him. This is then where we get another scene that does, this was a scene to me that felt the most like a South Park where it's like in South Park, Stan and Kyle or whoever, they visit to the people and just say like, well, why do you do? It's a classic South Park scene. Margin Lisa getting to do this at a big pharma thing feels, I mean,

I mean, Simpsons didn't not do stuff like this, but to me it feels more like a South Park scene. Let's hear what Big Pharma has to say to Lisa and Marge. Well, let me start out by saying that it is always a pleasure to sit down with a mother and a daughter who have snuck past security and burst into my office. I just don't see why one little pill should cost $30. Drugs aren't so expensive in other countries? In other countries, families also lie on the floor and eat bugs. What countries are those? You ever been to Norway?

No. Well, they do it in Norway. And that's why I personally, thank God we pay too much for drugs. I mean, the right amount. I mean, not enough. Here, watch this video. The Mighty Amazon River. The natives had a word for it.

Then we got rid of the natives, and no one remembers that word. But here are some words everyone remembers by Ui Lewis and the News. Yeah, and the song plays. for two law. Yeah, and they basically just recreate the music video. That's seen of him cracking the ice cubes and sticking his head in the sink and the camera is shooting up at him sticking his head in the water. That's all from the music video for I Want a New Drug

by Hugh Lewis in the news. A faithful recreation of that classic music video. I think they realized they had already written an educational video narrated by Harry Shearer, so they decided to just turn this into a non sequitur or like just barely related to what's happening here. I mean, I love the joke about colonialism

and forgetting the name that the natives called it. That's a good thing. But I mean, Luke, you're an expert on the career of Michael Moore. How similar is this to a scene from the film Sicko? Oh, man, it's been a decade since I've seen that. So actually, you're going to have to jog my memory. I'm embarrassed to say. Well, in general, I mean, he confronts a lot.

The Sicko I didn't see, but this talk about the overseas, like, differences in other countries. I did see where to invade next, which he, again, and I think he did make good points in the silly setup of going to European countries and comparing it to America. doesn't visit Canada, does he? Not in that one, though. You guys make many great points about like the Michael Moore vision of Canada, as was peddled to Americans like Bob and me. Yeah, there's the classic thing in Bowling for Callum by right, where he's walking around Toronto,

and he's just like going up to random houses and like the doors aren't locked. And like, I mean, I get what he's trying to do there. And it's definitely true that like Canadians who live in major cities, I think aren't as worried about their, you know, security as Americans. Like it's a less, I mean, it's a much less. you know, it's like a much less gun-obsessed culture, among other things. But like, people in Canada definitely lock their doors. It's just not true to say that they don't, you know.

This bit here, though, playing so long, Marginleason, and Lisa just kind of have to look at each other. Like, I guess the scenes just go. It keeps going. Famously, I want a new drug. This is the song that, I guess, is it Ray Parker Jr. supposedly ripped off for the Ghostbusters theme? I'm not sure if that was intentional, but there was a lawsuit involved.

Oh, yes, yeah. I have heard of the stories about this many times that they, wanted to hire Huey Lewis to do the Ghostbusters theme. He turned it down. They then hire Ray Parker Jr. And yes, people say that, uh, who you going to call? I want a new drug. That bit especially was them ripping off the Huey Lewis song.

Though another aspect I learned about it was there is a non-disparagement agreement because I listened to a podcast with Huey Lewis on it and that somebody asks him and Jimmy Kimmel was on it with him too because Jimmy Kimmel is a very good friend with Huey Lewis apparently. It's good to know. They ask Huey Lewis about it and he says, I cannot answer that. And Jimmy Kimmel's like, let me tell the story about what I've heard from other people

because Jimmy Kimmel can't be sued for disparagement of Ray Parker Jr. like Huey Lewis can by telling the facts of the story for it. So, yes. I think Huey Lewis has had to like pay Ray Parker Jr. for disparaging him by saying he ripped off I want a new

drug for the Ghostbusters thing. We then head over to the Springfield, retirement castle where the elderly are being handed their pills and each pill is not a pill. Abe's disappointment of watching his pill fly away is I think my favorite. And these things do strike seniors first, which you would think, you know, the seniors have a lot of voting power in America. There's a million jokes about that on The Simpsons. And yet, even they can't get medication prices down in the U.S. This is where I also love that as far as Abe remembers, he died in World War II. Yes. It is a living corpse, I guess.

he then runs off and we see Homer confronted by Abe in their home as they make a new plan to cross the border. Abe doesn't say, you know, what border he's going to cross. Homer then just decides he's going to sand off his fingerprints very painfully. The joke after this is that audience is supposed to assume, I guess, that they're going to Mexico for this, which is something Americans do quite a lot too. I found a 2019 NPR story saying the U.S. government estimates that close to a million people in California alone crossed to Mexico annually for health care, including to buy prescription drugs. So that type of health care tourism is very alive in Mexico.

I think it is pretty gross for Americans who love to demonize Mexicans and Mexican-American immigrants for all of they do. But we want free access to cross their border to take whatever is good for us and beneficial to us. But, I mean, that's difficult American attitude. So this is where Homer learns what border he's actually crossing. Hola, signor. We are gringoes who wish to spend much de Janeiro in your country. Splendid. Welcome to Canada.

Do! Okay, here are your fake Canadian health cards. Take them to any pharmacy, and you'll get enough drugs to make Regina look like Saskatoon. That's a good one, Johnny. Thanks a million. Johnny, in appreciation, I'd like to give you this DVD player. What the heck?

Where do you pour the syrup? Did that offend your Canadian sensibilities, Luke? I'm just not really sure I get it. So is the joke, like, Canadians don't have, like, DVD players, like our video playback technology, is light ears behind? Is that the joke? I took it to mean if you're Canadian, you naturally would put syrup on everything, on or in everything.

I mean, there's some truth to that. When they head in, there's a sign that says, now Celine Dion free. To put this in perspective, starting in 2002, Celine Dion had begun her Las Vegas residency. She was living in Las Vegas basically as a caged bird in a golden cage singing for everyone. I never got a chance to see it. Kathy Griffin had a very good comedy bit about the surreal experience of Celine Dion doing the same act every night while acting like it's brand new because she's a performer, darn it, that's Celine Dion. And she's probably making like $50,000 an hour or something, right? So good for her.

You know what? She's been back in the news lately. She's been very public about her struggles with stiff person syndrome and struggling to basically relearn how to perform back in 2024, made a return, singing as part of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony and performs a little bit there too. But in 2005, we were all hating on Celine Dion. It was one of those like approved punching. They really need to give stiff person syndrome a less hilarious name. Well, it used to be called stiff man syndrome, which I think is even, yes. I guess they downgraded it.

Well, also speaking of sign gags for the time, veterans of one war, because this is when Canada disgustingly did not join in with us on the invasion of Iraq. Horrible, horrible choice they did there. Calling them cowards for only apparently taking part in World War II, which also I don't think gives the Canadians credit for the Korean War. I don't know. Also, though, this seems to imply that Abe's friend, he never says it, but Abe's friend must be a veteran who he knew in World War II, right? Yeah, they don't establish this. Also, Canada, they fought in World War I, right?

I think so. World War I, World War II, Korea, and Afghanistan, but not Iraq. I passed, like, not a ton, but enough World War I monuments to know that, at least. Very much so. World War I is, like, very important in, like, I mean, it's like, you learn. a lot about it in public school because it's kind of like when the war begins, Canada is still very much like its self-conception is still heavily British outside Quebec, obviously. And like by the end of the First World War, that's increasingly changing. And I think it's about 10 years on from

the end of the Great War where Canada ceases to be a dominion, if I'm remembering. It's been a long time since public school. But yes, Canada very much fought in World War I. But hey, now, you know, Canada is helping us with providing like arms to say the IDF. We're all friends again and then warm-on-gring. That's true. Our parliament last year passed like an arms embargo resolution. No more weapons to Israel. But as I understand it, weapons can still be sold to the United States and then and then just

sold to the IDF anyway. So it's still happening. Well, Luke, the friendlier question, how different are Regina and Saskatoon? Well, I've been to neither. Regina is the capital. Saskatoon is the second largest city in the province. I don't know. Both of those places were at one.

time hotbeds of socialism. People may not know this, but Saskatchewan actually elected the first socialist government anywhere in North America in 1944, and that is where the push for Canadian what is now our healthcare system. That's where it began. Wow, that's awesome. All I have to offer is that Regina is funnier than stiff man syndrome. There's a lot of stiff man syndrome in Regina. In Canadian references here, they then go to Dudley-Due drugs, which, Luke, you're a little younger than us. Were you excited for the Dudley do-write feature film starring Brendan Fraser? Oh, yeah. I loved it. And a funny detail that just popped to my head is, I think on the VHS, it had like, you know, it said breaded Fraser. And I think it said somewhere on the box, special appearance by Eric Idol, which I just always liked.

Like, it's not featuring Eric Idol. It's a special appearance by Eric Idol. I love that movie, but I don't know if it would hold up, to be honest. Like I was excited by it because I really liked Rocky and Bullwinkle. So the idea of like a live action Dudley Do Right seemed very exciting. But I don't know, it's probably a shit movie, right? Kids love parodies of films from the 1910s. That's all I know. As I recall, it was very poorly reviewed and did not do very well at the box office. I was, I was tempted to watch it, but the reviews were so bad because I did really enjoy Georgia of the jungle, a different J. Ward adaptation starring Brendan Fraser. And in that one, he was teamed up with the voice of John Cleese.

So also a different Python as well. So Brendan Fraser plus J. Ward cartoon plus Pythonite equals box office gold, you would think. And I'm checking in with Roger Ebert, two and a half out of four stars. And he says he kind of sort of liked it. Okay. Three paragraphs. He wasn't that invested in writing about it. I remember hearing that like in Rocky and Bowinkle histories that they would always say like,

In Canada, they basically call it the Dudley-Durite show. He's the star there, and Rocky Bullwinkle appear on his show. They start to go shopping. This is where we do have another very on-the-nose. You know, it's a drug song, a classic drug song, except they use it in the case of, like, prescription drug. Yeah. It's a joke.

It is a white rabbit by Jefferson Airplane. A classic. Actually, between watching the episode and recording, I hadn't heard a Jefferson Airplane for a while, and I threw on Surrealistic Pillow, the album that that was from. I don't think I'd listen to that since about 17, but I had fun. I should check that out because I only know Jefferson Airplane 4, like, the radio hits.

I have not heard much of their work. I think I've only heard this song. What's the other song? There's somebody to love, and then there's an instrumental track, which, like, if there are any guitarists in your life, lots of them, like, embryonic journey is a classic. It's a second last track on that record. It's like a classic kind of, I don't know, thing that, like, guitar players play. I play it.

weirdly this is like very much a digression but because it came up earlier in the episode the very last episode of friends which i have not seen since it aired in 2005 or 2004 whatever that was they made one of the weirdest stylistic choices i can like think of in the history of tv where the last thing you hear on the finale of that show is embryonic journey by jefferson airplane like instrumental acoustic psychedelic song from like the 60s i've never understood why they did that. I don't think it works, but that show really jumped the shark at that point. Yeah, I'm starting to realize I only know these songs through ironic usage. When you said somebody to love, I immediately thought, oh, yes, the cable guy. Jim Carrey sings that song in full during a very

extended karaoke sequence. That's right. This is where Homer then gets in contact with the American side of the border crossing. And he meets up with, you know, everybody's favorite, the American Border Patrol Agency. They're what great guys. This guy, obviously, he seems to be suffering from what we hear about these days, the PTSD from being mocked, followed around while kidnapping or assaulting.

Too many whistles. He's got whistlebrain. The whistles are hurting their ears. It's torture for these poor Border Patrol agents. Homer's compliments get them back in, and this is where then everybody is loving having these drugs. Anything to declare?

I declare that you have the most beautiful brown ice. Why, I do believe you're smuggling. A heart as big as all outdoors. Now get in my country, you big lug. Did he have a passport? Yes, to my heart. Drugs! Various drugs! Be sure to read instructions.

Uh-oh, where'd I put the instructions? Now who's next? I got pills to make you sleep late, coagulate, eliminate, and copulate. In that order. Grandpa, we would like to thank you for all you have done for us. Please accept this Operation Dumbo Drop souvenir jacket. Look, they used the same D for Dumbo and the drop. Ah, unbelievably, only three were ever purchased.

It's return of the souvenir jacquitos. Yes. established in The Old Man in the Key? They're like a gang of elders who compete with and race with Abe in that episode. Now they're nice enough to offer him entry into their gang. Just like before,

the coloring of their souvenir jackets resemble the ones worn by Simpsons guest stars who are gifted them as most famously seen to our listeners probably by Susan Sarandon at various left-wing protests. That's so cool. So if you guest her on the Simpsons, they give you a special jacket?

In the past. Back in the day, back then. I think that ended a very, probably that ended in the, around this period, it seems like. It was standard for not only do you get the jacket, but every year they would make a new patch for you to sew on to it that would indicate in the newest season. Like, oh, this is this season's patch is this character. And so as Susan Sarandon did a whole interview about this saying, like at some point, the patches stopped coming. And so, but she wears it around all the time, apparently. A nice knock on Operation Dumbo drop.

A good pull of a forgotten film. from 1995 that nobody would have thought of in 2000. It looks more like a crew jacket than a souvenir jacket. I'll give it to him. Crew jackets are pretty cool also. I've stayed away from buying one. We have a friend, previous Talking Simpson's guest, Nick from the Found Footage Fest,

who is a professional collector of crew jackets. I think he's definitely up to at least a dozen. He's shown the videos of it. And this is where Homer comes home and they're celebrating him with a Hawaiian themed party. They put a lot of work into it too. and we hear that Lisa is both on Prozac and Xanax, which levels her out. We don't hear what Bart is on, but he had his own prescription drug episode.

So I assume it's focusing or whatever that was. Right. One thing that was kind of curious about this scene to me is the first part of the episode is really leaning into satirizing the American health care system. But then this, it's like, oh, no, they really were just doing drug tourism. Like, they're going and they're getting all these, like, prescription drugs. And then it's like they're just getting high off of them. Like, it's not that I didn't. didn't find it funny, but it like, does this maybe blunt the satire a little bit? I don't know.

Well, an Hawaiian-themed party just is kind of out of note. I feel like they just did it so Homer could say that if you go to Hawaii, you get beat up if you leave the hotel, which is really defaming Hawaii. Barts and Marge are taking unnamed pills. And Homer needs a lot of pills. He just shoves, uh, he settles his stomach and then eats the joke about the balloons out through his mouth and then one balloon has a sandwich in it. I like that. That's true. I like that's good. Then we, we, see that Homer is getting known for all of his drugs, and he's got a request from a couple of pals. Oh, look, it is Mr. Homer, my favorite customer. Please feel free to paw through my play dudes and tell me to go back to some country I am not actually from.

Why does sweet talk, Apu? Are you after some cheap drugs? Please let me come on one of your smuggling runs. My eight babies are driving me crazy, with their coughing and sneezing and general oozing. My janitor and a drug. The rum is afraid to come out. What does that mean? I don't even know. That's the kind of bad joke I am making. I am so tired. Help me out, Homer. My little Roddy needs his insulin.

Break my heart to watch him Jones-Didly ownsing. Anders? I don't know. I mean, you haven't done anything for me since you let me that $5,000 yesterday. I don't claim to be the perfect neighbor. If you let us come, I will give you 10 minutes alone with my squishy machine. Do what you will. No cameras.

No. I... No cameras Always love jokes about joke writing And I feel like someone in the room Did pitch this janitor in a drum joke And then they realize Well, this is a product from the 70s

We are not putting this on our 2005 TV show It's stupid And then Apu reflects upon that with his comment after the fact My first feeling was like Was that his area just making up that second part I'm like that joke sucks And I'm doing a bad joke because I'm so tired I also do like in this area

We've talked a lot about Apu and all the nuances are complexities of that performance, everything. But I said it before, but I really do like that they use Apu in the post 9-11 era to talk about, you know, generally Islamophobia or xenophobia that was going on in America at the time. And certainly Indian Americans like him were facing it even when they aren't Muslims. Like he still is facing the bruntled. Yeah. I think though he is now still being defined as the very tired father instead of like the shrewd but Flucky immigrants. Yeah. What they didn't have time for

was a joke about his wife hating him. They didn't do that one thing they kept doing with Apu. But now I guess Rod is canonically diabetic. Is it Rod? Yeah, I think Little Roddy, yes. Yeah, that's a weird,

well, I mean, Ned begging for the money or begging to do it after lending him $5,000 is a good enough joke. But I think they discovered something they should have, I could have missed a future episode, but I feel like they never,

they stumble upon that Apu and Ned are funny together here. I don't think they really did much with them after that. And this is also, speaking about post-9-11, rewritings of characters or adjustments, this is Ned in the George W. Bush era when he is a much more close-minded, you know, conservative Christian than he is in the 90s,

including trying to convert Apu in the car as they're driving around. Yeah, they have this funny, like, back and forth where, like, Apu is saying, like, oh, I don't worship one god. I worship many gods. Like, Flanders pinches in my God. I guess. And then as Homer nearly crashes the car as he's being the put-upon parent in treating

them like kids, that's where Ned says, why don't you just ask Hawkman for help? That they credit to Kevin Curran, the late Kevin Curran for that joke. They also drive by a sign for another place that I did not know existed. Gimley, Manitoba, I did not know about that place. Speaking more about the fellowship. Yeah, I was thinking, is that a reference? I have not been to Gimley, Manitoba. I could not tell you. I googled it on the Wikipedia page for Gimley, Manitoba. It apparently dates back to like Icelandic settlers, like hundreds of years before Tolkien was even born. So I think it's just from the same Nordic word that also Tolkien was pulling from for naming the famous dwarf in his fantasy series. Then they get a big knock at Winnipeg, which like

now entering Winnipeg, we were born here. What's your excuse? Like, ouch to Winnipeg. This is the second meanest joke to Winnipeg this year. Yes. Back to Winnipeg, I guess. The drive was long. We didn't hear a lot about the city itself. But clearly Cape Canaveral is better than Winnipeg. You know that from that joke. But this is where Ned gets to meet Canadian Flanders in a fun little scene. Cohen, doodle, doodley, idly, idly, tibooly, doodley, boon. Looney-oodley, noodley, dooddy, dutley, dutley, dutley, dittler, Etner.

Maple Adelaily, didle, dilly-dily. Say, would you like to puff on a reefarino? It's legal here. They warned me, Satan would be attractive. Let's go. He also says, he mentioned circle cut bacon, which that's apparently a very, is that different from back bacon or is that the same thing? That's Canadian bacon, correct? The circle cut bacon? Well, I don't know. Like, I just call it bacon, whatever it is. But then when I go to Britain, I think what they call bacon, I would call pea meal bacon, circle cut bacon. It's all Greek to me. What is that? Yeah, I think it is like literally Canadian bacon, which it looks to an American like a slice of ham. But,

a lot thicker. Right. When he calls that circle cut bacon, I was thinking like, well, so what then is, I mean, how available are strips of bacon than in Canada, curious. I think you guys would find, we're a lot more in harmony, we're a lot more synchronized on the bacon front than you may have been led to believe. I'm not

shopping for bacon very often, but we have the strips. Strips confirmed. Henry, you are my porkloff and pal. I expect you to know more about bacon different kinds. Well, the circle cut bacon, that was the one I was like, oh, is that like a special? But that's just another joke name for Canadian

Bacon as we've called. The Michael Moore film, Canadian Bacon. That's right. Starring the previously mentioned John. We're tying it all together. In that John Candy documentary, maybe we said that, we were talking about that off Mike, sorry, but listeners, but in the John Candy documentary, I will say they speed through

the bad movies before he's almost dead. Like, they do not touch on Canadian Bacon much at all in that movie. I loved Canadian Bacon as a kid. I don't know why. Michael Moore himself does have a funny cameo in that as like a proto-maga guy who's like cheering on the like john candy militia that's defending niagara falls new york from the kinnock hordes there's some funny bits in that movie

also we asked like oh is there another vietnam going on there was two of them and we will soon lose those in the u.s afghanistan and iraq this bit here i shared it with you guys too me and bob we did a whole live show about this simpsons predicted it's what runs the clickbait industry yeah and this led to another i don't think we included this news item, but there were just so many of them. Yes, yeah. I didn't know it from a Canadian perspective until I was reminded this was mentioned on the Wikipedia page for this episode, which I always try to check just in case I'd miss anything. And so this did, the headlines were like, Simpsons predict Canada legalizing weed in

2018 when recreational marijuana use was legalized on a national level in Canada. It's everywhere now. Like, though dispensaries are like they are as ubiquitous, maybe even more ubiquitous than Starbucks, which is really funny because like the way the legalization worked is like your province, in my case, Ontario. It's like a single buyer. So it buys all the different kinds that are for sale. But then like different private companies will like purchase them and then just like basically they just like create brands for them and names for them. So there's like millions of names for like actually a pretty small number of different strains and like the dispensaries themselves like the other innovation, I guess, is people have figured out, how do you design a dispensary if it's going to be in

like a posh neighborhood? And it's like they figured out pretty quickly, well, you market it as like a wellness product and you lean into like the CBD angle and you have like the layout be really minimalist. But then in other places, you just lean into like the classic pre like legalization, you know, Bob Marley's shit. They're everywhere. I mean, I haven't had it since high school when it was illegal. I've failed to take advantage of this new regime. Well, what looks has is correct in my neighborhood too in Vancouver, I think I pass four weed stores and two shroom stores before I get to a Starbucks. That's not even counting all the smoke shops that don't actually sell you the weed. They sell you the things that you smoke the weed from. Though just like with other ones of Simpsons predicted

it, people are forgetting the context of the joke of when it came around because in the scene, the character does say it's legal here, but I do believe this is responding to the widespread medical legalization of marijuana in Canada that dates back to 2001. And I believe in 03 and 04, the liberal government of Canada at the time tried to and failed to pass a general decriminalization of cannabis back then. I mean, one thing about it is even when it was illegal, I don't think the criminal penalties for possession and stuff were, I don't think they were as harsh as they are or were in many American states. And even where they were, they were not prosecuted with as much kind of ferocity. It was very lenient in many places and obviously less lenient in other places.

But if you're a white high school student, it was more taboo than illegal in practice. And this is where they head to the border and on the Canadian side, Apu is offered up a coffee that's hotter than a Fox News weather skank, which is a shocking line to hear from. Yeah, Ned is really feeling himself in this back seat here. And it's funny, like, I misremembered the thing he does with Apu as something he, like, I feel like he felt like he's. he was setting Apu up to be arrested, but it's all a coincidence that he turns Apu into what a border agent would see as a threat. Yes. First, Apu drinks it and starts screaming from the pain of the hot coffee, except it sounds perhaps like a scary Muslim thing would happen. And then to cool him down, he has a towel placed on his head that then it activates a violent

and racist border agent, which again, satire has been outstripped here in realities of 2026, though, These are Canadian, these are Mounties, actually, I guess, based on design. These aren't just any old border agents here. Well, yeah. And I mean, you know, this is one of those things where Canadians like to be really smug. This hit a peak during the early years of the, like, the Justin Trudeau era in 2015, especially, you know, after Trump came in in 2016. I remember once there was this viral image of like Mounties greeting asylum seekers at the border.

And it looks like this really warm interaction. And like the Mountie is like picking up the kid with this big smile. And that went viral. and it's like, yeah, all those people were taken to detention, like immediately after. Like, you know, our border services are not as harsh as their U.S. equivalence, but people should not idealize, I mean, particularly now, because the Carney government's actually passed some pretty right-wing border legislation that's been criticized by civil liberties groups. So don't worry, guys, we're catching up to you. Well, yeah, I mean, the same with, like, police violence or genocide or all those things. Like, it helps Canada, I think, in a way that they can be like, well, we're not as bad.

as Americans. I returned to what I said earlier. Perfect country. Oh, sorry. It's perfect. Bobba's the fervor of a recent convert. I love it. Homer then tries to calm things down,

but when opening his door, a giant cascade of pills falls out. Pity B to the animators who had to draw so many distinct pills in that pile of pills falling out of his collar. And it happens again with the plane later. You're right. God. Man, maybe that's why this was such a long holdover.

It took them extra time to draw those pills. and get them animated properly. Homer is arrested as are the rest, and they are then taken to a Canadian jail, and we get an update from Canadian News and Lost Mitten Update. Today, Mounties busted a major American drug smuggling ring. Former U.S. astronaut Homer Simpson was taken into custody. Oh, my butt looked so huge during perp walks.

We've confiscated your car and its contents. We've confiscated your car and its contents. We have confiscated your car and its contents. You may leave Canada, but never return. You have permitted to quit the Canada, but you have no right to return. I am a big, fat French idiot.

I'm a big, great, great, hey. The dual-language joke, you finally got one of those in there. They didn't do that in the Toronto episode. It ruins every DVD and Blu-ray package. That requirement to have the French title on there sometimes. It does.

It'll say like, you know, version French inclusé or something like that. Bilingualism is one of the, things like if you grew up in Canada, I mean, you just get used to, you know, bilingual signage and stuff like that. I mean, the places where it's like the places where bilingualism is like a lived reality as opposed to just something that's like, you know, on signage and so on, not that many. It's like Ottawa is like bilingual, like parts of Quebec, especially Montreal. Like Montreal is like a proper bilingual city. But like this joke actually reminded me of like,

when I was in university, I used to watch as a masochist a lot of like proceedings in the House of commons and in the daily question period where it's like the opposition gets to question the government one of the absurdities of that like it's all very theatrical but like because film cameras are there they've been there since the late 70s and the quebec reporters need to get their clips as well it's very frequent that you'll see like they'll do an exchange in english and then they'll just perform the same exchange word for word in french after kind of as if they're saying it for the first time it looks very strange when you watch it. The news, though, there is not sent from a log cabin, I would guess.

No, no. Honestly, it looks like the news is coming from an episode of Red Green. That's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. Wow, you guys know about Red Green? I'm impressed. You know, PBS was a gift to 90s comedy nerds like me and Bob because they would import stuff like Red Green for us to finally watch it. Oh, that's so amazing. I feel in these turbulent times, I suddenly feel so much closer to

my American brethren. I grew up on that, too. PBS had everything from Red Green to Red Green to Red Dweb. Wharf. That's right. Now, meanwhile, if I want to watch heated rivalry in America, which is full of Canadian content, I got to watch it on HBO Max, which people mistakenly think it's an HBO Max show. They're not giving the Canadian broadcasting standard Crave proper credit for it because it's their show. Yeah, Crave, which is owned by Rogers, one of the two telecom companies that owns, like, most major sports and entertainment in this country. I don't know enough about like the Canadian evil rich guys as much as I should because I enjoyed the film Marty Supreme and then I learned

one of the main actors in it is like a rich Canadian asshole. Oh yeah, I haven't seen it yet, but yeah, that's Kevin O'Leary. He was on the show Dragon's Den. Yeah, he's kind of like a minor. It's like an airsatz Donald Trump. I mean, he's like he's probably worth about like $20 million or something. His thing is that he kind of plays a rich guy. He had a really unsuccessful foray into politics. I think in 2016, 17 when he tried to run the leader of the conservative part. And actually in my job at that time, I was an investigative reporter back then. And I remember I filed a story. I like figured out that he'd spent like, he spent half the time when he's running for leader just like down in the States,

like promoting his like shitty wines and stuff like that. But yeah, he's having a bit of a revival because he's in Marty Supreme. I mean, he very good at playing an evil piece of shit. I'll give him that. We got that a shark tank here. Is that right? You know what? You know what?

I'm actually getting confused. So I think maybe he's not on Dragon's Den. Dragon's Den is like the Canadian equivalent of Shark Tank. I think Kevin O'Leary was actually on Shark Tank. So thank you for, I stay corrected. I'm more afraid of dragons. Better title. Although you can reason with a dragon.

You can't reason with a shark, so maybe I'm wrong. Metaphorically, I think a dragon's den. Sounds like it makes more sense because they're sitting on a pile of gold and are evil. And it's about them, can you get a dragon to share its gold as opposed to like, well, oh, I'm jumping into the shark tank. Sharks aren't known for having money. And Tank implies the shark is captive. No respect for that shark. That wouldn't even work anywhere.

Yes, Homer is banned from going to Canada. This is continuity. Unlike bringing up him being an astronaut, like you mentioned, Luke, this is continuity that does not stay because the Simpsons have returned to Canada many times, or at least a few times, including in season 30s Doe Canada, well, I think was their most recent Simpsons Go to Canada episode, which the only thing I remember from that is that they said that everybody from Newfoundland is like Ralph, is a Ralph type.

Strap play from that, what you will. Fun fact, I was actually born in Newfoundland. land in St. John's. So yes, Homer is banned. Seemingly they keep his car as well. So Homer heads back to the U.S. He's lost his privilege, and he's at least thinking Abe, as he says he can only do it without drinking.

It's the first time he's done it without drinking. But, of course, Homer is secretly drinking. In the Algin' era, Homer is a full-on alcoholic. That's just the joke in the show, an unrepentant one, too. Then we have a joke about a brown bag that confuses Wiggum, which, you know what? I think this is not meant to be, but it reminds me of the wire was on at the same time

as this. The Hamster Dam season has a whole bit about the Brown bag in it. I just assume cops have no object permanence when it comes to placing an item in a bag. Oh, sure, yes. Any mean thing to a cop in the show The Simpsons has done, not mean enough. Not mean enough.

So seemingly, this is the end of our adventures despite having a few minutes left in the episode. But that's when we return to Mr. Burns. Uh, there's nothing like canceling an employee. drug plan to make one feel so at peace with the universe. I agree, sir. Shut up. I'm so sick of you, Smithers.

You're toying, your complete agreeability. You're gasping on the floor. Whack! Smithers! This is some sort of hijink. Stop it immediately. Sir, my thyroid is swelling up. Come, fondant, men.

I need your throat clear and ready for perjury. When you castle the drug plan, I couldn't afford my thyroxin anymore. But before I die, for words, I've always long to say, sir, I Fear not, smithers, I'll move heaven and earth to save you. It's still easier than teaching a new assistant my filing system. So yes, the problem

comes home for Burns, and he actually wants to help Smithers. As later it will be pointed out, why doesn't he just institute the program? But you know what? He already is off on a wacky adventure instead. We are in like crazy act three territory, but I feel like it's a logical extension of what was set up earlier.

so it's not out of nowhere. At least they set up plywood pelican. At least they do set it up. Also, as Homer imagines, I love that Homer imagines like, how can we get back in? He thinks of King Kong walking them across, and his King Kong is being shot by planes. He thinks I was like, planes, that's a good idea. Drugs in a plane, that'll never work. Also a good joke.

Drugs are brought over on planes a lot. That's the joke, guys. So then this is where Burns appears. Homer first thinks it's Catherine Hepburn. They're going to team up with him. When they get on the plane, this is where the second deleted scene is, is there's a few more lines on the plane as they're flying. At last, my plane shall be used for its original purpose

to subvert the laws of the United States. Wouldn't it be easier just to restore the employee drug plan? Too late. I've already donned my goggles. Now, while we cruise at 20,000 feet, my flight attendant will be pleased to serve you drinks and snacks. What flight attendant? All I see is a skeleton in a dress. Poor Mildred. but she never could find the exit room.

I'll show it to her now. And then he tosses a pile of bones out the window. I like these cut jokes. One of them is about him walling up illegitimate son in the walls of an abandoned mansion. And this one is about, I guess essentially killing through negligence, one of his flight attendants. In both cases, it's abandoned somebody to die, isn't it?

Yeah. Him saying that it's to circumvent the U.S. government is also a right line. Both these deleted scenes, they had to have been for time because they're both good jokes and good Burns jokes. and good Burns jokes, which those are at a premium these days. So they head into Canada, they land back there, and Abe's helping them with Abe's veteran buddy. It's helping them with one more delivery.

And this is where there's another very dark joke. Looks like your plane's pretty fully. Don't want to overload it. Typical Canadian wimpiness. That's why you have snowballs and we have the H-bomb. We really appreciate your help, Johnny. Is there any way we can't? can repay you. Well, I've always wanted to see a man with the IQ of a child executed by the

state. We don't get that up here. Really? In America, we do it four times a week. You come on down and I'll get us front row seats. I'd like that. Ooh, that's a dark joke. That's a dark joke. This is very much in the news back then. I think people became more aware of it. This was happening for a long time in America with our wonderful death penalty. But it being done by George W. Bush in the run up to the 2000 election, I think, made it more well-known. You can't have more murders under your belt than the governor of Texas. He had an unfair advantage. I'm famously right.

There was the case. I'm forgetting which primary in 92 where Clinton was down in the polls, possibly because of, you know, Jennifer Flowers' stuff in the news. And he flew back to Arkansas to execute Ricky Ray Rector, whose brain was so badly damaged that he didn't even understand the charges against him. Just absolutely gruesome stuff. It's a bipartisan move to kill to look tough on cry. And then W had done it with at least one. Some anti-death penalty people said it was probably as many as five that he had killed,

who were below the measured intelligence to fit for mental disability. Though that's part of the question too. I looked into this case law thing. In a 2002 SCOTUS case, Atkins v. Virginia, ruled 6'3. that the death penalty cannot be used on the mentally disabled. But the gray area was, well, what defines it? Who gets to define it? Each state gets to define it.

And unsurprisingly, states that favor using the death penalty make it a lot harder to qualify a death penalty recipient. That's a wrong way to put it. Death penalty, let's say. Yes. To be fair, you know, death penalty recipient sounds like the kind of language that like, I mean, the U.S. government's only about like five to ten years out. for like that kind of language, I would imagine. It was all over the news then.

There was another SCOTUS case that tried to contain it more about 10 years ago. This is where it's like, wow, this could change by the time the episode comes out. But right now, as we're recording this, the Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in a new case, Ham versus Smith out of Alabama that is now challenging whether you can kill someone with a 70 IQ or below. I wonder how the current Supreme Court will rule. on that, I wonder. So it's sadly back, just like with the prescription drug prices, I was like, well, how's this going these days? And it's like, oh, worse. It's worse. And we have nothing funny to say. I'm sorry. This has been talking Simpsons. Yeah, I'm all out of riffs there. But seeing that

like a Canadian old man, like wants to see that at Homer's like, oh, we do that four times a week and that you can get a front row seat to it. Like, it's a spectator sport. Hardly satire. Yeah, I mean, as an American, I've spoke with a lot of Canadians. You can really tell a lot of horror stories for things that are just the norm in America that seem outlandish in Canada, especially when it comes to health insurance. After all that fun talk about the death penalty, they get back on the plane, they're flying home. It's too heavy for the plywood pelican. There's some fun, fluid animation of Homer trying to do jumping jacks or star jumps for just a little bit. In Canada, in the British parts of Canada, they call them

star jumps or do they call them jumping jacks? Jumping jacks is what I grew up. Star jumps. Star jumps. Sounds quite exotic to me. Yeah. I've heard British people use the term star jumps. Sounds like a move in like a, I don't know, like a mid-2000s like Super Mario Sunshine or something. I'd expect them to call him like jumpety slaps or something like that. Well, I mean, the comments could be full of UK residents and listeners who are telling me I'm getting this wrong. And if I heard it in some British comedy and thought it was a real thing, I apologize for getting it wrong, listeners. This is where Burns runs off with the parachutes, two of them for his nephews.

are they like related to Larry Burns, his only actual living relative? But this is where Homer is having to crash land the plane and does a pretty good job of it, only bumping into Wiggum's car in the middle of the town square. But Wiggum is none too pleased. Oh, but it's very well animated, I should say. Complements to Nancy Cruz and their team. Having to do like a giant plane crash in the middle of this huge episode of political commentary. All right, go under arrest.

On what charge? Making a police chief go... Bha! Get in a car. And don't touch those guns. I just loaded them. You'll have to arrest me, too. Abe Simpson brought the propitia

to keep grass on Willie's field. Cured my Lumbagu. Thank you. My diaper rash! My glavinoids are not so hurtful. Thanks to his lactose intolerance pills, I can drink this crusty brand milkshake. Terrible!

Well, Simpson, you have helped a lot of people. So, like it says in the Springfield Police Handbook, if you can't beat them, join him. Chief, you know, I've been checking the handbook. A lot of the things you say aren't in there at all. Yeah, well, look a little closer, Lou. The list of maladies is interesting there. First off, why doesn't Willie use that propitia on his head?

He wants to stay bald on the top of his head, have luxurious chest here. It's classic Willie. Not thinking things through. And I like the cadence of Lombago. Thank you. Well, we're talking about callbacks. A crazy callback right here is Mel mentions he's lactose intolerant. We first heard that in Bart gets famous when Bart is passing out the sandwiches. He gives Mel something with cheese in it. And Mel makes him stand by the bathroom door so he can yell at him while he's vomiting or pooping,

whatever was going on in that stall. And seemingly, he was mistaken for dead by Krusty. He was in such a bad situation in that. It's an amazing callback. They remembered that. I was surprised at hearing that. Nelson also very proud of his diaper rash. So yes, if you can't beat him, join him.

They let him out. It's a happy ending for Abe at least. We'll see about Homer. But then we go back to Burns's layer. They say it was Jim Brooks, who suggested that Smithers being a glass coffin like Snow White at the end of the Disney film. We did a whole, what a cartoon on.

Bob did a great history on that one. Thank you. Yes. She famously had the glass coffin. So this is where Smithers is saved in our final clip. Sir, you saved my life. Yes. Spathers, I was a stingy old fool. But from now on, I'll provide drug benefits to all my full-time employees. Great news, honey. Mr. Burns made me a freelance consultant.

Hey, what's this lump? That is the perfect ending because that really is the shell game corporations play with you, where you get hired. But, oops, you are scheduled for 39 hours this week. How did that happen? or like you're hired, but technically you don't work for us yet. You work for this contracting company. If you work here long enough or for them long enough, we will make you salary.

But until then, no benefits, you pay more taxes, you have no rights, no sick days, et cetera, et cetera. It is just like, I don't know how it's legal. Like many things, I don't know how it's legal. Yeah, it's like the probationary period is the first two years you work there. And you don't get like benefits until that's over. And then if you maybe finally get benefits, then layoffs happen within. the year. The exact same thing happened to me.

I was finally made salary. And then, like, eight months later, that's when 25% of the company is laid off. This is the last episode of The Simpsons, because Homer dies from that tumor, as we all know. And that's the end of the series. I love Homer's entry of, like, good news. He made me a contractor. And there are no GoFundMe's in 2005, so he's screwed. We all get one GoFundMe.

I already used mine, so that's it for me. But I moved to another country, so I'm fine now. Canada made you promise you weren't sick to take advantage of things. I wasn't sick yet. is what I said. Ah, okay. And then I was like, give me,

give me, give me. It's always a good Simpsons where they can end with the bell tolling for one of their characters seemingly dying.

And also Smithers really got to enjoy a life-saving kiss for Mr. Burns there too as his thyroid is calm down there. So it's a fun that takes us to the end of the episode. A fun episode that sadly it does make me

wistful for the political situation of 2005 instead of 2026. Yes, I know. It's like on the Michael and Us podcast when I listen to it now, I was like, boy, that was like, I often, it takes me back to the mid-aughts when I was, you know, very politically aware then two and just thinking like, these things, they all sound very quaint now. Yeah, 2016 and 2005 were a much more innocent time, which is a really funny thing to say because they were, neither was an innocent time at all. This episode, though, I think it's a very fun Mr. Bird sandwich, like a lot of Mr. Birds sandwich, like a lot of Mr. Birds in Act 1, a lot in Act 3.

And then the issue they're talking about, I think it's very smart commentary that, like we said, there's nothing funny to say. say about this, but it's as relevant today as it was back then as things continue to get worse. So I feel like, yeah, this really does hold up as a good Simpsons from this era. Any final thoughts, Luke? Do you have anything profound to say about this one? I don't know. We can probably leave it there. I can't think of any, like, any wits to put in there.

But super fun. What was the last episode I came on to talk with you guys about? Because I feel like I enjoyed watching Midnight RX more than that one. That was the parent rap. That was when, I believe, Homer and Bart are tethered together. and that's the introduction of Judge Constance Harm, the Judge Duty Parody Character. Oh, yeah, yeah.

What seasons that one from? That's 13. We're in 16 now, like the very beginning. Okay, you know what I'm doing? I was conflating it because we did a Simpsons episode probably two years ago now on our podcast. We watched one of the, like, something more recent, possibly like the one, I mean, this is probably 10 years old now,

but like with Elon Musk, I think. There was one that had some sideshow Bob stuff that, like, it was all callbacks, and the callbacks were funny, but it was still like, ah, but I. I would rather just be watching the thing that's being called back to, you know? Well, this is the rough thing, though, too, when it's season, season 16 Simpsons is old Simpsons now, not New Simpsons anymore. Yeah. So it's, that's crazy.

And the Simpsons movie was before or after this? When did that come out? That's like two years later. This is early 05, and that's July 07 for the movie. So they're working on the movie right now when these episodes are coming out on TV. How far have you guys actually gotten in the, how many episodes have you? done now. I mean, I guess they're giving you guys lots of material, but I imagine like there's some seasons that are kind of a slog. Well, we've signed up for this. Well, we were aware of the mountain we were climbing.

We're going in, we're going in order. Eventually we'll get to the Simpsons movie, which we did cover on Michael and Us a while back. That's true. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Luke Savage, thanks for coming back to the show. Please let us know more about Michael and Us where we can find you online. This was awesome, guys. Yeah, thanks so much. Yeah, patreon.com slash Michael and us. If you like this show, you'll probably like that one. And actually, Henry and Bob have been good enough to guest a few times, actually. So we really must do that again. I'm also on substack now, Lukew Savage.com. So, yeah, that's where you can find me.

Well, you have a recent book, too, don't you? From last year or two? Man, was it 2024 of the book? Book came out at the end of 2023. But yeah, that was my second book, co-authored with former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. It's called Seeking Social Democracy, who's a really interesting guy, the late Ed Broadbent, like a really fascinating example. of, I don't know, just a really intelligent and principled politician.

And, yeah, it's a most remarkable thing I think I've ever worked on. Yeah, that's one of my two books. The other one is The Dead Center, which came out in 2021. A lot of stuff about how the Democratic Party is annoying in that book. So again, if you like the show, you might be into that. Well, thank you very much, Luke. Cheers, guys. Always a pleasure.

Thanks again to Luke Savage for being on the show. Please check out Michael and us. We love it. But as for us, if you want to check out more of our podcast and get them all ad-free and also access over 200 full-length bonus podcast. That's right. Go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons sign for $5 a month. You get everything I mentioned.

Ad-free podcast. We do not have ads on the Patreon. And also we have access to a ton of mini-series about things like Futurama, King of the Hill, Mission Hill, Batman, the animated series, and The Critic. And that five bucks a month also gets you a new episode of both Talking Futurama and Talking of the Hill every month. And when you sign up, you get over eight years worth of bonus content immediately

at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. and we also have a $10 level. And when he signed up for that, you get access to all the $5 stuff, but also access to one immensely huge podcast once a month. What's going on there, Henry? Bob is mentioning the What a Cartoon Movie Podcast. And if you liked all the movie talk on this one, I know you love that one because it's basically three extra podcasts you get

that are also ad-free, just like the other bonuses, where we cover an animated feature film, Crazy in Death, just like a Simpsons. We give like four, five, even six hours of history and behind-the-scenes facts on them. If you're liking all of the mid-aughts talk in this episode, we're talking about in February, we just did Shrek 2, a very mid-aughts film, one of the most successful films of the 2000s. And the month before that, we covered classic Disney in the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty.

And those are just the most recent ones of years of what a cartoon movie podcast. Hundreds of hours of them in the back catalog are yours, along with all the ad-free extras that you get at the $5 level, Bob mentioned. It's easy to look through all of the list of the stuff you're missing out on at patreon.com slash talking simpsons. So head over there today to sign up and check out what you've been missing. And I've been one of your host, Bob Mackey. You can find me on Blue Sky and Letterbox as Bob Servo and my other podcast is called Retronauts. It's a classic gaming podcast all about old video games.

You can find that where you find podcasts or go to patreon.com slash Retronauts and sign up there for a bunch of great bonus stuff as well. And Henry, what about you? You can follow me on Blue Scrainton. sky and Instagram as Talking Henry. And I'm also on letterboxed as well. And don't forget if you're following me and Bob on social media. There's also the official account of this podcast at Talk Simpsons Pod.

That keeps you up to date when new podcasts come out on our free feeds on our Patreon for what a cartoon as well and any bonuses. You know when it happens if you're following at Talk Simpsons pod. And don't forget the Talking Simpsons.com is your home for all of our previously released free podcasts. Thanks so much for listening, folks. We'll see you again next time for season six is Treehouse of Horror Five, and we'll see you then. Well, it was a pretty good party.

Do you think Carol from payroll and Mike from shipping are going to hook up? He's married. Change course. Carol must be warned.