Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Natural Born Kissers With Merritt K

Episode Date: July 10, 2019

We end season nine with one of the show's sexiest episodes, and we welcome back writer/podcaster Merritt K to take us through this sexploit! Marge and Homer find new life in their marriage through exhibitionism, while Bart and Lisa goof around with a metal detector for a subplot you probably forgot was in this episode! All adds up to Homer and Marge streaking through Springfield, so listen now and finally think of the children!! Support this podcast and get hundreds of bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron!

attention talking simpsons listeners we have a special mini-series just for you we're going through the entire first season of king of the hill and you can only hear it if you're a five dollar and up patron at patreon.com slash talking simpsons we're giving the talking simpsons treatment to all 13 episodes of king of the hills first season and if you want a free sample you'll find the first episode available for free in the talking simpsons feed patreon.com slash talking simpsons it's the only place you'll find the first episode available for free in the Talking Simpsons feed. Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. It's the only place you'll find the first season of Talk King of the Hill. Made you go click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click. It's real easy, man.

I heartily endorse this event or product. Ahoy, hoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, where we poke fun of life's little foibles. I'm your host, the drunk on love and beer, Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons, who is here with me today. Fan of yellow fatty beans, Henry Gilbert. And who do we have on the line? this is cold faithful merrick k and today's episode is natural born kissers if you look to the left side of the aircraft you'll see homer and marge samson who are celebrating with us today their 11th anniversary today's episode aired on May 17th, 1998. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history.

Oh, my God. Oh, boy, Bobby. The final episode of Seinfeld airs to some controversy. Oh, my God. Murphy Brown also ends its time on the air to less dislike. And 10 days after this episode airs, Phil Hartman will pass away in a murder-suicide by his wife. So this is the last episode to air before his death. Yes.

Because it's a season finale. Yeah, this is a season finale uh he uh he will he passes away on may 27th it's uh very sad uh and his uh his final episode appearance is in the second episode of season two third episode of season two about the mother yes yes he's playing troy mcclure in an educational film. Yes, yeah. But, boy, sorry. I don't want to bring everybody down with that. It's sad. That's simply just sad.

But that Seinfeld finale, huh? Yeah, that explains the chalkboard gag, and there's another Seinfeld connection with the writer of this episode. Oh, sorry, Merit. Yeah, no, I was just watching this episode. I was like, oh, this is immediately dated for me. I know exactly when this was, but I didn't realize they had timed it to be with the finale.

This is an interesting time where, like, in the next episode we do, in the history section, it's like the premiere of that 70s show. And we're just getting to see the eras of television that The Simpsons arc through the entire way. And it's like the end of Murphy Brown and Seinfeld, both of which were, you know, referenced in parody on Simpsons.

Murphy Brown more than Seinfeld. Like now they're both ending while Simpsons is not even entering the end of its first third. Yeah, they both began around 88, 89, right? Seinfeld and Murphy Brown.

Yeah. Yeah. I was there. I mean, I think it was just event TV. Everyone was there for the Seinfeld finale if you're old enough.

I was there and I definitely wasn't old enough wow but i was being babysat by my cousin and she wanted to watch it and so i sort of got some of it and was like i have no idea what this is it was really made just for fans of the show because it was nothing but callbacks and i guess because of that there wasn't a whole lot of substance but i felt like it was weird that everybody hated it i get it why but it was a love letter to people who watched Seinfeld for nine years. Like, here is every character you remember from the show just coming back to remind you of their bits. I think people disliked it because it seemed like an indictment of the show

to just say, like, no, every person you liked on the show was awful, which was always the point of the show to Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, but that they were like, no, these are selfish monsters who did bad things. And if you were to actually list in court the things they did in previous episodes, this is criminal behavior done by awful people. They deserve to go to jail. I don't think most people watch Seinfeld in chronological order. You just watch whatever episode is on TBS or whatever. But I did that about a decade ago. And I noticed that in the final two years without Larry David, the show did get like very, very mean and cruel. It happens to a lot of shows where you wonder why the

characters even can stand each other or even around each other, because like you clearly just want to kill each other. But the one thing I remember from this finale of Seinfeld is before the finale, there was a, an hour long special about the show. And it was the last time you could use the green day song. Good riddance in parentheses, time of your life, non ironically,

the last time I remember that. Yes. Yeah. Well, and it felt so weird because the show, they even said it in that documentary about their rule was no hugging and all that. And then they're like, well, then the hugs were behind the scenes.

We need to let you know that these people love each other. At least I remember just liking it at the time, even though I think, you know, the next day, unlike today's show or other things are like some people didn't like it. And it was more of a slow reaction, unlike the instantaneous or really like a month beforehand negative reaction to the game of thrones finale from recently i was not trying to do a me and intellectual reaction to the seinfeld like actually i liked it but i was surprised to go on online and like gradually over time see that narrative unfold like it was this famously hated thing when everyone i talked to who was in my high school and around my age, we all enjoyed it. And we're kind of sad to see Seinfeld go away. Does anybody remember the last episode of Murphy Brown?

Before the comeback season they just did. She finally made it back to Meepos. So in Murphy Brown, the final episode was interesting at the time because it was like an anti-finale where they imply that characters are moving on or retiring or whatever. But instead of like, like nah they're not doing that they they just uh like that one of the guys the old anchor who worked with murphy brown he's like oh i'm gonna retire and then he met one of the 60 minute guys who's older than him he's like i'm gonna do this for another 10 years and so dan fontana stuck around it was an anti-finale i watched a lot of angel finale oh yeah yeah i just Angel finale. Oh, yeah. They just keep going. They just keep doing it. But I will say that I'm of

the age where Murphy Brown to me was, or not Murphy Brown, but Candice Bergen to me was mainly the Sprint lady when I was growing up. She did ads for Sprint in the 90s. That's mainly what I remember her from. I think there was a picture of her on my internet login screen because we had Sprint. It was the first dial-up connection we ever had. And that's sort of, I associate her with the internet and like the phone, not with like any of her like acclaimed television appearances. Wow. I watched a lot of Murphy Brown as a kid, as a precocious kid. And I did enjoy it, even though I didn't get a lot of it. But while watching it, I thought,

this is teaching me about politics. John Sununu, I know who that is now though I didn't get a lot of it. But while watching it, I thought, this is teaching me about politics. John Sununu, I know who that is now. I've learned so much. George Stephanopoulos. Yeah, I mean, the Phil Hartman stuff, honestly, why don't we save that for Barth the Mother and not get mired down in sad things right now? We've had that ticking clock over our head for about a year now. I think we've talked about it almost every Phil Hartman episode, probably. So you've heard enough, gentle listener. Why don't we talk to our guest instead hey what's up hey merritt welcome back folks uh might remember you from previous episodes the other larry burns episode burn baby burns yeah uh that's the rodney dangerfield episode and i wanted to say that

since i was on that episode, I've been out to karaoke and done Rappin' Rodney twice. The last time we did it was actually last week as of this recording and my roommate requested it. But about six months before that, the KJ was just like, hey, anyone remember this classic hit? And we were just like, yes have it we have a record of it so like yes absolutely we're gonna do it no rapping in this episode um as far as i can tell boy i never rodney i never looked for rap and rodney at karaoke now i want to yeah i mean i think it's probably sort of a rare a rare find uh this guy is just a real rodney head did it go over well the karaoke performance i think people liked it.

Yeah. It was one of those karaoke bars where it was like all like musical theater kids who had their own tambourine and were doing like just the most beautiful renditions of songs that really makes you want to like punch them in the face. Get out of here. Go on Idol. What's the matter with you? But and I think watching this episode, no, I I've

watched since, since the last time I was on the show, but not a whole lot. This, this was sort of a, the first time in a minute for me. Would we be wrong to call you a sexpert? Oh my God. Okay. Um, what are my credentials? I did write a column for a while for a site called Mel Magazine, which is a very, very good website. And yeah, it was a lot of advice. And a lot of that advice was about dating and sex. So yeah, I guess I have been paid to do it. So there's that. A big reason we wanted you on this one because me and Bob are sex negative. We don't like it. It's good. It's bad. It's filthy. But yeah, this is like the sexiest, kinkiest episode of The Simpsons I think maybe ever.

At least to me. I think it's a tie between this and Grandpa vs. Sexual Inadequacy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I had that episode written down because I definitely have the two confused in my head because the premise is like very similar. They go off in different directions because the Grandpa episode like very similar they go off in different directions

because the grandpa episode ends up being about more about him and homer but i definitely thought the aphrodite inn was in this episode yeah and also grandpa plays a major role in both episodes at least in this one is a b plot weird b plot yeah it's bizarre as a kid i well like 14 i guess this was maybe one of the first things i watched that introduced me to the idea of like bad death in a marriage and finding kinks to spice things up. Though this is, I mean, on the spectrum of kinks, I guess their exhibitionism is a light one, I suppose. I guess it depends on who you ask. Yeah, that's true. We have a kinkometer here.

I mean, should they be thrown in jail for it some people would say so also i want to note really quickly that this is the first episode that shows marge's butt um and i know this not because i poured over everyone but because of the simpsons wikipedia i i kind of wonder whether this is the episode that spawned sort of the genre of like Simpsons porn, which I don't believe that anyone has ever experienced as anything but like an ad on the side of another website. Yeah, I can't click on this. Don't you want to see like Marge naked? I'm like, Oh, really? I mean, I choose to believe I mean, I choose to believe it does not exist beyond that ad that I'd send you to like piracy town and virus. Yeah, I mean, I choose to believe, I mean, I choose to believe it does not exist beyond that ad.

That ad sends you to like piracy town and virus. Yeah. I, yeah. I mean, obviously anything people want to, but like, I wonder if this was like,

someone was like, Oh wow. Yeah. That's my thing. Or it at least told the people who make those banner ads, like this must be somebody's thing. Right. Someone's like,

there's money to be made here i say if you really want to catch the eye use a less uh use a less popular show like alan gregory characters doing it at your porn hub planners i mean you'll just you'll confuse people they'll be intrigued like i kind of remember this after glee watching some of this after glee they'll click on it you'll just feed them viruses and you'll get their bank account numbers if i had to pick between the simpsons ones and the family guy ones i'd go with simpsons yeah yeah just barely they're all they're all they're all really bad to see yeah not to yuck anyone see them but oh no boy boy like one of the things actually that struck me and i don't know if we want to just take it from the beginning of the

episode because i'm jumping into things now. Oh, I mean, we'll go scene by scene, but feel free to jump ahead right now. So there's something like really weird to me about Simpsons porn, because like in this episode, like that in this episode, there's the scene where they're in the what's the name of the airplane buffet? Oh, up, up in buffet. Yes, they're sitting there and they're kind of like depressed that this is their anniversary and they had meant to go to the gilded truffle which is across the

street and they see this couple like feeding each other melted cheese oh fondue yeah and the couple is drawn in the style of simpsons characters that are meant to be like hot but and it cuts back to marge and homer and like this couple has like eyes that look more like eyes. They're sort of like wearing makeup in a way that you can tell. And like their bodies look a little different. And it's like whenever there are hot people on The Simpsons, basically the way they do it is just make them look more like people and not have these like huge goggle eyes. I think the issue is that over time they would design new characters that look more like people and have people like regular people's anatomy but if you look at everyone designing like season one and two they were all these

grotesque monsters that are just like painted the weirdest colors and have the weirdest hairlines and beard lines but after that if you look at guest characters over time they gradually become more human-like in realistic yeah and i mean also obviously with celebrity guests they are really getting very close so you can tell at a glance, but like, they're not really in some style. So it is this weird kind of like divergence over time. But even just in that scene, like, oh, these are many more curves to her. Like she, in her natural design, she's not exactly a tube, but there's not many curves to her. No, no. But in several shots,

even when she's clothed, it's like, I've never seen Marge like that before. But I have to say, what is sexier than sex is job security. And nobody knows that more than the writer of today's episode, Matt Selman. So he is, this is his first credit episode. Let's do a little bit of a bio on Matt Selman. A lot of these guys, I got to jump around IMDB, read interviews. With him, it's very easy because

he's worked on this, The Simpsons. So a brief bio, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, not a Harvard guy. He went to Los Angeles to enter the world of TV writing. According to him, his first job in the TV world was as a quote-unquote lunch getter on Ellen's sitcom. That's funny. That's extra funny because one of our previous guests, Kate Raft, talked about being Matt Selman's lunch getter once upon a time. The lunch getter becomes the lunch getted in the tv world so his tv credits are in 1996 he got a story by credit on a Seinfeld episode it's called the wait out and the a story in that is that George accidentally breaks up a married couple that both Elaine and Jerry were

waiting out because they both wanted to date each partner and there's a b story about Kramer having very tight jeans yeah uh so matt selman got the story by credit with the other writer but he did not do the teleplay so he does not even have it like a written by credits before the simpsons he definitely seems like the type of dan graney told us in in his thing i just remember that phrase all the time scully's years were the d harvardifying yeah and i mean that's the type of hire that Selman is. Like, he's also, he was 26 at the time of hiring, so definitely on the young end of Simpsons writers then, too.

He went to a state school? I spit that word out of my mouth. I went to state schools. He still works at the Simpsons, by the way. He has 29 credited episodes, second only to John Schwartzwelder's 59. That is according to the wiki. I think it counts individual segments,

so it could be a little bit off. It's like three or four tree houses. Yeah, yeah, but still, he's got about half of Schwartzwelder's. Yeah, which honestly, though, I think he would have surpassed the Schwartzwelder thing, except he moved up the ranks to co-executive producer. Yeah, a long time ago.

So that meant he stopped getting written by credits on there, even though his is is impact on the show only increased from there i think swartz welder's number will never be beaten because he stayed on that long as a writer and never graduated to another place or to a higher position that would make him not right for like 14 years yeah yeah so that seems unlikely that anybody will pass it it's it's funny to hear him on this commentary talk about being in the junior position when he wrote this one because by even the time they recorded it

and now he's like so major a part of The Simpsons. So he did a lot for the video games too. So this era of The Simpsons is when they actually started getting writers from the show to write the game. So the first game that he quote unquote wrote was The Simpsons Road Rage, which was the Crazy Taxi clone. Oh, yeah. And and after that he wrote all of the games of the aughts with

another simpsons writer so things like uh hit and run and the simpsons game were written by uh matt selman and somebody else from the show which is why the writing on those games is very very good unlike everything that came before where they just had some programmers say what would bart say something yeah like um you know all the nes games like bart versus the space mutants and uh simpsons bart simpson versus the world where he fights mr burns his relatives i think yeah that's right as the simpsons show became less liked by fans the video games only increased in popularity with fans because it was finally seemingly being written by somebody who not only understood what playing a video game is,

but also all of the Simpsons references. I just watched friend of the show, Matt McMuscles. He's doing a bunch of, you know, gameplay things with classic Simpsons games. And we did Road Rage. It reminded me of like, wow, they had a million jokes in here, like eight billion references to episodes. Everybody remembers that it feels like even a good, good Simpsons game like Virtual Springfield didn't really come at it from a fan's perspective like Selman and the other people who worked on it did. He's never left the show and he's sort of like unofficial co-showrunner at this point with Elgin. Yeah. So he runs his own rooms uh for some episodes like so i think it's like a 4 to 18 mix like that aljean is the showrunner for 18 episodes and matt selman's the showrunner for four other ones and that's about

as much power as you're gonna get before aljean retires in the simpsons but i think that his era on the show really shows how TV changed and TV development deals changed because up until this point, every writer was leaving for the fat development deals where they just pay you to make things that don't work. They pay you to make a bunch of pilots that never get picked up. At this point in the time,

TV is changing where they don't just throw a ton of money at somebody just because they're a writer for The Simpsons. And that's why he stayed on the show for so long. I'm sure he enjoys it too too but you see tv is changing so much that former writers are just coming back yeah to cling to the rock that is the simpsons this is this is the era where al jean is finding his way back to the show after getting one of those fat disney development deals what was he doing he was working on teen angel yeah oh my god seriously yeah he did the critic first and then i'm sure uh

he and mike reese did a bunch of pilots or pitched a bunch of shows but teen angel was the other one that they worked on before i was a uh like a one season tgif yep oh yeah oh yeah i remember watching that so also though i think selman uh he's another interesting bit of the new era of simpsons because i think even more than bill and josh at the time of the writing i think he was more plugged into what the hardcore simpsons fans were saying online than a lot of other writers were partially i think thanks to his youth but like he uh he doesn't shy away from controversy he wrote that 90s show oh yeah and uh didn't wait what oh sorry the simpsons episode that 90s show which was

the one that retroactively changed the canon of the simpsons for marge and homer going to school in the 90s and and having part then it's not a great episode and now that show is uh over a decade old yep they have to make a 2000 show one now. But one other thing for this episode before we get started, the director has only directed one episode of The Simpsons. His name is Clay Hall. He worked on the show from seasons three to seven, and he was hired away for King of the Hill, where he would direct episodes until 2003. Notably, he was one of the many great talented artists on the Mighty Mouse, the New Adventure show, which is sort of like the crucible through which all modern great tv animation was formed also john k was part of that for men and stimpy but people like tom minton and jim reardon and like all of these people who are just would go on to become animation legendaries they all worked on um the new

adventures of mighty mouse sorry mighty mouse the new adventures one the jim reardon connection is an interesting one with Clay Hall. He also worked with Reardon, I believe, on Garfield and Friends, too. And he worked on Bobby's World and Family Dog before Simpsons. Oh my god, wow. And yeah, Clay with a K. He joined up on The Simpsons. His earliest credit is on Homer the Heretic with the production season four first episode.

Though it also seems like if he was working on Bobby's World and Garfield, that means he was in the film Roman on bobby's world and garfield that means he was in the film roman staff so i think he like transitioned over there and he worked a ton with reardon before he reached the level of assistant director he worked out with a bunch of different of the major directors but when he became an assistant director he worked he was an assistant director on basically every jim reardon episode for like three years. And then when Reardon became supervising director of the show, that's when Clay finally got his first directing full director's credit on Simpsons with this episode. At this point in time, he was full-time on King of the Hill,

but I think he was just available and in the film Roman building to make an episode. Because at this point for our miniseries, Talking of the Hill, we talked about a lot of episodes that he directed, like The Company Man and Order of the Straight Arrow and things like that. He just had an open slot in his schedule. It seems like it, but it's a good episode. And he'd graduate to be a supervising director on King of the Hill for the 99 to 2003 seasons, I saw.

He's an interesting guy, this Clay Hall guy. And then, of course, there's what he has most recently been working on. Director of Planes? Yes, Disney's Planes or Pixar's Disney's Planes. clay hall guy never and then of course there's what he is most recently been working on director of planes yes disney's planes or pixar's disney's planes uh they're like cars they go up in the sky sometimes yeah that movie was so interesting just because it was like disney sneaking a pixar sequel out they're like it's in the world of cars but they're planes what about i can see it now bikes this summer and he and he also worked on the tinkerbell movie but

he kind of i think got lost in the shuffle of like disney sequel division was kind of getting phased out by the early 2000s they they were transitioning to like uh now i think it's funny we all made fun of their direct video sequels for stuff but is that more or less like uh artistically bankrupt than remakes of lion king and aladdin like i mean i think the uh the direct video stuff is like that's still sort of happening right to a degree the tv series and stuff too there's that series about or those movies about like the kids of villains oh yeah they have those adaptations but they don't have like direct continuations anymore that are oh right no direct sequels yeah

yeah i just heard about the descendants and that's because i was staying at a disney hotel uh a couple weeks ago and it was just running on a loop and my husband had to tell me like no no no this is the third in the series of musicals starring the children of disney villains it's basically uh disney runaways i i felt eight million years old learning about this i mean i think it's a really good promise but i like i hey the kids i've never seen it it seems like a good idea i i can't care about that because right now we're going through a bonkers renaissance so uh everything else is off the table. Finally, Disney recognized their failed TV show Bonkers by releasing a pin. And I asked for one online, and Henry got me one, but then I got two more.

So now I have three out of the 4,000 made Bonkers pins. Oh, my God. So there you have it, folks. Bonkers. Wow, yeah. I hate Bonkers, by the way. People are like, do you like Bonkers? No.

I hate Bonkers. But this thing called irony exists. I'm a fan of that. Can I tell you what it has on IMDb out of 10? I'll saykers. But this thing called irony exists. I'm a fan of that. I'll say 3.8. Henry? I'm going to say 5.3. No, it's a 6.9. What?

That feels like a joke. Yeah, no, it's... Anyway. That's totally nuts. I'll say a joke, not made by me, but ACAB, all cops are bonkers. Oh my God. I wish. Okay joke, not made by me, but ACAB, all cops are bonkers. Oh my God. I wish. Okay, let's talk about this instance.

This episode's B plot too was inspired by George Myers' metal detector that he owned as a kid too. We just found trash. This is another one of those episodes that in my memory, the B plot was entirely separate from the A plot. You remember the nudity and then you remember the metal detector completely separate from all the naked fun i guess grandpa is just watching the kids because margin homer are having so much sex is that yeah they're pretty distinct like they could be two different episodes scully's episodes really had a lot more b plots than uh than the bill and josh years before, like that exists pretty independently from them.

It feels almost interchangeable. Like, well, we've left five minutes of space in here for a B-plot, pitch on the B-plot. And usually they're not all that connected. Why don't we begin with a happy anniversary? Look, honey, I clipped on my tie all by myself. And you look as handsome as the day we were married. Oh, happy anniversary, Marge.

Hey, look what was in here. A program from that guy's funeral. You mean Frank Grimes? Yeah, him. Whatever happened to that guy? What are you doing? Playing Hot Wheels. Ow, that had a guide pin in it.

What happened to Grandpa? He Hot Wheels. Ow, that had a guide pin in it. What happened to Grandpa? He was supposed to babysit. Now you got her, Bart. Jump, Lisa's king. I'm not Bart. I'm Rod Flanders. There you go with that smart mouth. Lisa, run outside and cut me a switch.

Yes, sir. I guess we'll have to take the kids with us to dinner. Yay! Those are definitely the 60s, 70s era orange Hot Wheels tracks, which I didn't really grow up with. I didn't have Hot Wheels tracks either as a child. I was more of a Micro Machines kid because those also came with Star Wars figures. But I do love the realistic depiction of kids will turn anything into a weapon and they will not play with it the way they're supposed to. Can I say that this is the beginning of something that continues on into the episode?

But the Rod and Todd deliveries in this episode are very, like, very choice. Like the yes, sir. And then later on, when we get to the mini golf, there's like another really well delivered line. Oh, yeah. We learn all about a small girlish hands too yeah todd is so excited to uh get that switch yeah i think he's just excited to see punishment happen to an older brother yeah there's some resentment boiling under the surface with rod and todd there's a little bit you know the flanders aren't as cheery in this episode as they usually are there's a couple couple little moments here. But I like too that Rod

fully says his name like, I am Rod Flander. They rarely identify the characters in the scene because I think they forget who is Rod and who is Todd. I know I do. Yeah, it changes up quite a bit. I know it's she and Scratchy, but not Rod and Todd. But Todd is the little boy, the little smaller one.

Tiny Todd. Bart's age, right? Yeah. Well, yes. Yeah, kind of. They did compete against each other in Dead Putting Society, which todd is the little boy a little smaller one tiny todd bart's age right yeah yeah well yeah yeah kind of they did compete against each other in dead putting society which implies they're the same age yeah yeah i also like uh this is another of the many jokes in this season about feeling the weight of the series that you know almost a year to the date later homer's like oh yeah frank rhymes we went to that guy's funeral and it's just such a funny line to say like whatever happened to him after his funeral i like that they they found it interesting in they've done so many episodes about margin homers marriage troubles but coming at it from just like well it's

just your 11th anniversary it's uh you know it's happening again it's just kind of boring though i think marge uh didn't mean to but i think it is a joke that she says handsome as the day we were married that implies he was less handsome then and yeah also that the the kids have to be taken on their parents like uh that i say many times that this feels like scully putting his real experiences in there but i definitely feels like uh an adult of, I just wanted to have time with my wife. If you bring the kids around, it ruins this thing. I feel bad for all the married couples out there with children because of the lack of free time you get. Because to me, I could just hang out with my girlfriend when I want to.

There's no special arrangements that need to be made. But I often see, I think it's very cute that a couple that's been together for, I don't know, hang out with my girlfriend when I want to. There's no special arrangements that need to be made. But I often see, I think it's very cute that a couple that's been together for, I don't know, like over a decade, they're just celebrating date night. Like we have date night. It's date night tonight. And it's just like, God,

time must be so precious when you were raising children. I also like the continuity that they keep of the Gilded Truffle being the go-to fancy restaurant of the Simpsons universe. It remained unused for so long and now they're just drilling down on it, which is like, why did it go out of use for so long? It's the perfect name for a fancy restaurant. I guess it was Dumbbell Indemnity this season.

Yeah. First time they brought it back since Lisa the Greek in season three. I think they got to into the Pimento Grove instead. Oh, right. That replaced it as the fancy restaurant. There are a lot of uh you could tell the writers are in la writing the show and uh there's a joke coming up later in this in the scene at this restaurant where i'm like this restaurant would not have valets you're all

in la yeah yeah the valley gag i'm not the biggest fan of it yeah it feels like a very stereotypical joke about hispanic valets as well yeah yeah but they're doing their best that's what i do they're like you know we're trying but also yeah there'd be no valets at up up and buffet the simpsons wouldn't have also that like valet their car either but yeah they you can't take the la out of these things scully says this was based on a real restaurant from his childhood of a oh a theme restaurant based on a plane. I've never been to anything like it. I think he said actually it was by where they were writing the show in L.A.

It was called Dive. And it was a submarine themed restaurant that was in the shape of a submarine. And apparently it was a real mess because kids would just be playing with the elevator because I guess he took an elevator down to get in the submarine section. Yeah, there was a thing in LA at some point. If you've ever been to Dive, I really want to know. Number one, really cool name for a submarine restaurant. I like that.

Yeah, is it Fodive? I want to know. No, it's just Dive. You know, as a kid, we didn't go to these kind of themed restaurants. I guess the wackiest one we went to was like a spaghetti factory type place that had you know crazy crap on the walls you get to eat in like a uh yeah san francisco trolley or whatever yeah

across the midwest and i just saw one of these i was visiting my old stomping ground of kent ohio there are a lot of restaurants that are just like decommissioned trains you just eat in the dinner car of an old train that no one is using anymore i I have been to a bar that's like an old barge that they just put on land. It's in the UK. It was horrible. I've had some very bad times there. I know in Los Angeles, there's the Queen Mary as well in the LA area, which is like a decommissioned boat that you can have parties on.

I love the concept of up, up and Buffet because what is a bigger nightmare scenario than being on a plane with children and then you're surrounded by them for dinner and that you're choosing to go to this place. It just seems horrible. It's so awful. They draw Marge and Homer looking so sad as they eat their burgers in an airplane.

Like, ugh. The Simpsons will be right back. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier and your world brighter.

Find our Net Zero Hub at electricarland.ie. This week's Talking Simpsons is priceless and not like a mother's love, the good kind of priceless. And that's all thanks to our special guest this week, Merritt Kay. Thanks so much for her coming on down to the show once more and giving us some insight into this classic episode that closes out season nine. And boy, what a season it's been for the Talking Simpsons podcast. And we're only getting started, folks.

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Then they also, that's when they view the sexy young couple. And I love the designs on both of them. They both look like the sexy dates of characters in Friends or Seinfeld at the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're very specifically late 90s hip and cool. I really like the extra sexy detail, too, when the woman is leaning over like her hair gets slightly out of place, too. There's a lot of sexy detail too when the the woman is leaning over like her hair gets slightly out of place too like it's uh there's a lot of sexy detail yeah very observational so when they come back from up up and buffet they and they still weigh their arf bag which i love that that's very cute

it's the name of a doggy bag but also a barf bag like you use on a plane. If I must aggressively explain the joke. That's the joke, yeah. So then they get to wedding cake and freezer stuff, which I didn't know this was a real tradition. My parents didn't do it. I'd never heard of it. Oh, really? Yeah, no.

Though I did do it with my own wedding cake. But I thought, as it was told to me, you leave it in there for a year. You don't leave it in your freezer forever, like for 11 years. It's not some kind of like talisman. It's not like, oh, when you eat the last piece of cake, then your marriage is over or Satan comes to drag you to hell. It's like Beauty and the Beast. Right, yeah.

With the last layer falls. Actually, Henry's toppers are not in the freezer. They were by his TV, the Mario and bowser amiibos yes yeah in their uh wedding tuxedos we my husband proposed to me officially we had been talking about anyway but the official proposal was on the release date of mario odyssey so what a romantic day yes yeah hey you notice that the uh the toppers in this one they changed like three or four times i think they uh yeah i didn't i didn't notice that the toppers in this one, they change like three or four times, I think. Yeah, I didn't notice that, but they're pretty inconsistent or they can be in it. I really despise but also think are funny in a sick, dark way the wedding toppers that insults one of the or both of the members of the wedding party.

Where just like the wife is dragging the man away from his Fortnite game or she's like attaching a ball and chain to his leg. These are real. I think there's like one template of the woman dragging the man away and you can like put a thing in front of him that's like what he actually enjoys in life. Oh no, no, no,

no! It's real. It's real. This is going to send you down a Google image search. Oh no, I hate it. Lots of people. This is going to send you down a Google image search. Oh, no. I hate it. Lots of people pattern their marriages after sitcoms where it's like, well, naturally, we despise each other and each other's interests. And this is what the rest of our life will be. If our wedding is full of jokes about how much we hate each other, it'll make everybody

happy. Yeah. So upset. Now to prepare for a life of calling each other babe. But, yes, Homer and Marge have different feelings when reflecting on their wedding cake. Well, maybe our next anniversary will be more romantic. Oh, look, homie. Our wedding cake.

You mean there's been cake in our freezer for 11 years? Why was I not informed? Look at this little plastic couple. So full of hopes, potential, dreams for the future. Hey Marge, wouldn't it be weird if they had little parties at night?

Wee little parties? I'm going to bed. Gotcha! Yeah, I like the catalyst for this story is very clever. It's Homer trying to catch their wee little party. Well, I mean, somebody who has anxieties about remembering, like, did I close that door kind of thing, seeing this even as a kid, I was like,

Homer, you left the door open. Close it. It stresses me out. I had, well, actually, I just, I've been taking care of Bob's bird a little bit lately, and I usually have to check, like, three times, like, did I check twice that I closed the door on that bird? Okay, I've been taking care of Bob's bird a little bit lately, and I usually have to check like three times. Like, did I check twice that I closed the door on that bird? Okay, I did.

Or even your freezer door. Me and Bob both have sneaky freezer doors that want to open if you close the fridge door. I didn't leave you too many Flanders vacation home notes around the apartment. Though I do have some interesting continuity and slash continuity errors in this cake bit here oh well first off the time frame they say 11 years that does fit that marge was at least in her first trimester with bart when they got married in i married marge so bart is still 10 let's assume that he's like 10 in six months or 10 in seven months at this point when they have their 11th anniversary so that fits but the cake thing they did not have

a cake at their wedding across the state line wait wait what about okay they did have fudgy the whale i was gonna say if i object but that does not that is not the wedding cake that's in their freezer and they clearly just ate it then so you could say that maybe homer got that wedding cake when they did their new vows in millhouse divided but they did say that cake's been in there for 11 years so i think it's just some discontinuity there unorthodox for this sort of error to happen on the show. There's a deeper error later in this episode that they even cop to on the comments. Yeah, that I forgot about until I heard the comments. I'm like, oh yeah, they're right.

I want to get to that though. Yeah, we will get to that. But then we get a very like frank and sad and real scene of a long-term relationship. Yeah, and the awkwardness, they just allowed Dan and Julie to improv, because they're both in the improv world. They both grew up in that world, and Dan especially, and they were both on Tracey Ullman together, but they just said

have an awkward attempted sex scene together, and it sounds kind of too real. Yes, yeah. But very funny. As a kid, it made me uncomfortable, because I thought is this how my parents do it? But now as an adult, I'm just like, I'm more shudder from recognition, if anything, of this. But yes, let's give it.

This is a great one for an audio clip because it's pretty much all in the voice acting. You know, it is a special occasion. Yeah. We probably should, you know, rock the Casbah. Yeah, seems like the thing to do. So, you gonna... Oh, oh, did you want me to... No, no, I'm the guy. I'm supposed to, uh... No, no, no, I have my part in this, too. I know, but let me get you started first.

All right, How's that? Homie, you got your elbow in... Oh, sorry. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Do you want me to... No, don't do that. What we used to do.

I know, but I don't like it. That's the best line. Look who's here! Oh, who's a good boy? He's the best line. Look who's here! Oh, who's a good boy? He's the best boy. Oh, yes he is. Yes he is. Hey, Bud, wasn't that great when the dog came in here? Oh, yeah. He's really special.

I love that dog. I love him, too. Good night. Good night. The best line in that is, I don't like it anymore yeah yeah just homer homer is so big in so many line readings that in this one he's just like no i don't like it like that's yeah and it's great that it all takes place uh sort of off screen in a way you can just imagine what's what's trying to what's happening where yeah yeah well it is very filthy in fact uh i think mike scully said in all of his years of running the show this is the one time the network was like maybe don't do this after the table read like

maybe just don't do this episode yeah actually yeah for a bunch of things in this episode but i think they i think pretty much everything made it in from what I read. I think this one, they were safe in just the lack of detail. They just leave it to your imagination of what Homer means about getting started or his position as the man. Like, yeah, it's just so awkward for both of them. You just feel so bad. And then when the dog comes in, that that like oh my god we both welcome this distraction yep hey and santa's little helper is just like so excited like oh my god everyone's paying attention to me i love this he's never paid attention to any other time this is a dated

show in a lot of ways but i do like uh i guess the sexual politics of the simpsons at this point in history where uh i mean marge has been known to be horny on the show before and it's not like the very tired device it's like well the man wants to have sex and the woman doesn't i like that they're both like uh they're both sort of like disengaged like what this is what we should be doing if we're a couple i know julie cavner in the past has said that she likes playing marge as sexually attracted to homer instead of somebody who's like disgusted at him or just saying like oh i never want to have sex with somebody who's like disgusted at him or just saying like, oh, I never want to have sex with him or whatever. Like that, that's such an easy place to take

jokes. Like if you wanted, if you wanted easy jokes on your comedy show, just do that. But like, it's, it's tough to think of scenes where she's fully disgusted, like an unsexually attract, not sexually attracted to Homer for that that reason like yeah i remember at the end of uh colonel homer where he just uh it's the way he is undressing sexually for and she just loves it even though they the comedy is in that many people would not find homer disrobing attractive but i'm not judging yeah i also like that's the first of each act in this episode has a Rock the Casbah reference. That's the first one, which I like that that's there out of all references to make about having sex. To call it Rock in the Casbah.

They could not clear as time goes by, but they cleared Rock the Casbah for this episode. Quick history on that song. 1982, The Clash. The tune was actually written by the drummer, though as the story goes, when Joe Strummer, the lead singer, saw the guy's lyrics, he just crumpled them up and threw him behind him.

And he wrote his own lyrics for it. And an annoying thing about the song is that, of course, any song that has references to Arab or Islamic culture will obviously be taken up by racists and people who are islamist phobes so i saw on the wiki it said that national review listed it as one of its like top favorite conservative rock songs which is like oh my god you would ever call joe strummer a conservative in your fucking life is insanity like is that

we're going to be calling uh bombing iran rocking the casbah oh god i it was it it literally was painted on bombs that were dropped oh boy overseas my joke is a real thing i mean i feel bad well when they ran out of bombs over baghdad references they had to cut a little deeper why can't they just draw bugs bunny and daffy duck on bombs like we used to in the war that we won or Or Betty Page. So when Homer wakes up the next morning, he goes downstairs, he slips and falls. And I like how painful it is to him, though in the previous episode, his head was crushed by a drawbridge and he was fine.

Well, it did hurt more than he let on. Yeah, that's true. And it's also weird that Homer describes it as like, that's queer. Like it's, it felt. That delivery, it reminds me of like the earlier line of like wee little parties. It's Homer using old timey phraseology. Like, yeah.

I guess in 98, probably there were some people who would use queer in that context. But I don't think so. They knew what they were saying. Yeah. Does anybody else have a broken fridge story? Mine's kind of boring. Thankfully, I've been saved the terror of the broken fridge. You're lucky.

Yeah, please, go on. Well, mine was just a broken, I only broke the freezer part because I had, when I moved into my old apartment, as Bob remembers, it was a old apartment. Like I had to light the stove every time I used it. With a lantern. And the freezer was the same, too, where it was slowly getting more and more permafrost.

I just chipped away with a screwdriver until eventually I hit it so hard that I punctured the thing and all the freons. You struck freon. Yeah. Cash that in. My landlord replaced it at no charge to me because I think they had to sheepishly admit that I should have been given a new fridge when I moved into the place. Then I got a fancy new fridge that

didn't have permafrost on it. So I felt like I was living in the future. Okay, but can we talk about the whole fish that's sitting on the floor? Yeah, what the fuck? Okay, so I think to me, this is like in cartoons when someone's like buying groceries,

like the things that are like easily identifiable as food are like a baguette. Oh, baguettes. Apples, an entire fish, maybe some kind of meat. How like a celery thing of milk and so just to have this like entire fish with like it's just a fish like it's it came out of the lake it's not like fillets or anything and like homer is just like clutching it like screaming to the heaven and it's beautiful it's like the fish died or something yeah it was alive i think they just pulled an old fish out of their prop packs they're like we

don't need to make up a new fish here's the fish but yeah it's like why would it's very easy to buy fillets of fish at the grocery store even in 98 like it'd actually be much harder to buy a full fish, perhaps unseen in this episode. Homer went fishing days before and was keeping his fish in the fridge. I could see that, but that I, the joke would work the same with holding like a steak or whatever or pork chops. But I guess it is funnier to have like a dead eyed open mouth fish in his hands. They head off to their next sexy date date which is driving near their new refrigerator motor when we got married is this how you thought we'd be spending our saturdays driving out to the boondocks to trade in a refrigerator motor

yeah i never thought i'd live this long folks is your marriage stuck in a rut? Can you even remember the last time you felt the thrill of romance? Well, maybe you need a divorce. Call the divorce specialists now for a consultation and free tote bag. Oh, there's the term! My line of the show is, I never thought I'd live

this long. It's very glib. Glib and dark. I'll play the jingle, though. I have one other I'd say is tied for me, but I do love it. That's the joke. I think it tells you so much about Homer's worldview that he's like, no, I plan to die young. I didn't make any plans in my life. I think at this point he is 38.

Yes, yeah. He saw no future beyond that but boy that like that says so much about him but it's also like a very like nihilistic comedy writer line too yeah i never thought i'd live this long like i i think at a certain point i'd made no plans for like what if i'm 48 what do i do then like yeah that seems unlikely i'm sure it'll be fine if that ever happens if i if i reach 48 i'll i'll figure it out but i mean the the planet will be on fire by that time anyways learn how to swim that's i need to work on my backstroke that's what i need to do but that divorce ad is so fucking good too because so many times in simpsons episodes a thing on the radio will tell them what their next plot point is and say go here do this like honestly the scene is

very similar in the aphrodisiac one to uh paul harvey telling them go oh yeah together or like in season one i mean this happens a lot in the, but they're having a fight as a family. They see the ad for couples counseling or family counseling. They immediately do that as a solution for the episode. But in this case, the ever-present powerful radio voice that tells them the next plot point tells them to get a divorce. And so they have to switch it off because they're like, no, no, no. We can't pursue that plot line. Not yet. not at least for another like 15 years yeah yeah i you know i haven't seen that episode where they get separated and he moves in with a character played by lena dunham i have not seen that one that's we'll get to it when i'm 48 we're both 48 that's when we'll get to it as as they oh yeah the divorce ad too

it reminds me of um i've stopped listening to this wrestling podcast, but on a certain podcast network that hosted it, they had multiple divorce dad ads. They were just like, it told me like, oh, am I? Is that what they think I am as a listener, that I'm in the market for a divorce? They were all about defending father's rights in a divorce too. I'm glad my other podcast is not on that network.

Then there's some great animation of Homer digging in deeper in the mud. I just love that he's like, no, just keep flooring it. And it just goes longer and longer and longer. Very good sound effects on that. As Homer and Marge are contemplating divorce, Lisa and Bart make their own

discovery. And that's why today bananas are called yellow fatty beans. Questions? When are Mom and Dad coming back? Bored, are ya? Lisa, go cut me a switch. Oh, there's gotta be something to do around here. Hey, are they pulling the plug on anybody today? Nope, everybody's paid up.

What a weird-looking vacuum cleaner. What are you, Simple? That's my old mine detector from the war. It was my job to clear the roads of enemy explosives. And that's how I earned the Iron Cross. Can we borrow a screw-up? Sure, she still works. That's my brass knee.

Steel hip. That one's my brass knee. Still hip. That one's news to me. I didn't know what an iron cross was when I was first watching this episode, but it's funny to think that he was commended by the Nazis. Oh, for blowing up tanks accidentally. Killing all those allied soldiers. On the commentary,

Matt Groening says, this joke makes me sad, so I want to believe grandpa is just demented this never happened macarney hates nazi jokes yes yeah i this uh this comes from the same dimension that spawned abe's story about him being a cabaret style performer oh my god yes who tried to kill hitler yeah that i cut out a little bit there but it was just a long sequence it was funny that they kept the heroic army design of abe from the hellfish episode except it's just him being terrible at his job of sending men to their death for abe's character to keep some semblance of respectability you just have to imagine he's lying and yeah iron cross story i you know as a kid i think i thought like i'd probably like

a metal detector that would be fun but when it came time to like ask for it it was easily more expensive than a video game system which i would have definitely preferred to have as a child i feel like it was one of those things that like a lot of kids that i knew like it was just like something from tv that was like oh we could there could be treasure everywhere around us. So like, if we buy this thing, we will be rich, uh, like in a Disney movie or something, but no one I know ever actually had one. No, I, my closest contact with it was, uh, this guy on the beach. So for a few times a year, I'd go to the, uh,

the beach with my mom, uh, in, in Jacksonville, Florida. And we, a couple of times we met this guy who always walked beach with my mom in Jacksonville, Florida. And a couple times we met this guy who always walked around combing the beach with his metal detector. And then one time we put like a quarter in the ground to see if he'd find it. And then when he found it,

he's like, you guys put this here for me to find. And he gave us back our quarter. He was a little bothered by it, I think. But he seemed to be having a nice time. My mom, she would comb the beach, but for shark teeth. And she's collected, I'd say, like seven mason jars full of shark teeth. That's how much my mom loves collecting those shark teeth. Recently, there's been a really bad article being passed around about,

it's written by a Gen Xer, not a boomer, a Gen Xer. But I believe the title is like, my kids love Fortnite, but Have They Ever Had a Fortnite? And he's talking about just the glory of imagination and building a blanket fort with your best pal and sharing stories with a flashlight and just way better than video games. There has not been a Kids Today of Minecraft,

but what about MyCraft of using a metal detector? That's a good pitch. Yeah, I can sell that to the post for like $500. Which like, yeah, I mean, in the 90s and 80s, I wasn't having that kind of fun. I was watching whatever was on television or playing a video game. And that, this is going off on a tangent here, but that that writer was born in 1971 video games existed when he was a child in fact all children were playing them by the time he was a kid yeah something suspect with this guy yeah anyway fortnight's better than playing outside kids so they get their metal detector then we cut back to marge and homer

they're running in the rain uh they see a barn, and so they go for some shelter there. That's when Marge becomes very sexy. Almost immediately. It's like a switch. The hair comes down. It's like the hot girl transformation in a teen movie. The glasses come off and take out the ponytail.

They draw a lot of sexy wrinkles in her dress, too. Yeah, when her hair deflates because of the rain. And so they draw her in a very sexy pose inspired by Jane Russell in the classic film The Outlaw. If you've ever seen a picture of a sexy old dame sitting on some hay, that's Jane Russell. Or a tribute to her. Is that a pre-code movie? I think so.

I recall it being very sexy. Wasn't it the one that Howard Hughes did in The Aviator where he talks about how... No, I think that's a different sexy movie. I think he was keeping

a lot of eyes on how much cleavage she was showing in that movie. Yeah, with the Hays Code. But she was rolling in the Hays. They were watching the Hays Code.

Sorry. Anyway. It was the Howard Hughes hay. They were watching The Hays Code. Sorry. It was the hard-to-use one. Okay, thank you. Yes, I do remember correctly. As they're hiding out, Homer gets worried about a pitchfork. I gotta say, the dirtiest thing in this episode is serious ass-forking. Yeah, that actually was a line that Fox had issues with. I can't believe they let it on.

Like, it's rare enough they get to say the word ass on the show. Serious ass forking. Ass forking. Yeah, well, let's hear it ourselves. Save the last. Shh. We're trespassing. Some of these farmers have pitchforks.

Hey, Teresa, Steve, now who let you out? It looks like we've got us some intruders. Who's in there? If somebody's in here, you're in for some serious ass-forking.

They were having fun with that line yeah i like his bayonets yeah pitchfork bayonets work on a shotgun like oh god it's good uh that's so that's so writerly to me i'm just like that they'd say like well do i write that he picks up his shotgun or he picks up his pitchfork why why not both i guess it just dawned on me that he never actually fired the shotgun it's just an extension of the pitchfork. It would probably mess up your pitchfork if you shot your shotgun. You're giving up a perfectly good pitchfork that way. And he also has three pitchforks just on his gun rack type thing, but for pitchforks.

Homer was right, though. Some of them have pitchforks. Homer has learned a lot about farmers. He grew up on a farm. Oh, that's true yeah it's true so that's another thing this episode has in common with uh grandpa versus sexual inadequacy a farm scene yeah something in the writer's room they heavily connect like sexuality to farms it's yes someone has like a weird thing that they are they didn't really realize until they'd written

all these episodes after the farmer misses them with his uh does not ass fork them he uh he then heads off to check his media room which that was funny that's a funny word yeah and teresa and steve the pigs and after they realized they would narrowly avoided getting caught homer and march have never been more turned on in their life and that cow's getting a show that turned on cow noises i was so good i like how it looks at the camera like hey it's such a good like cutaway guy yeah well that it's so funny that you see an eye through a knot hole that you think it's the farmer or somebody else and it's a cow of all things a cow watching him so we come back from the commercial break homer has fixed the fridge and it's really cute like marge says my hero which really feels like she's trying to sound like olive

oil to me and then homer kisses up her arm like gomez adams does even saying karamia which gomez adams that's a that's a positive they're embodying a positive kinky couple uh married couple in the in the adams just like a positive head couple i think too like god you want to talk about like good families adam's family is like in every incarnation basically they're the number one head couple to me i'd say i'm excited for this dysfunctional sitcom or cartoon family it's true i'm excited for that new cgi movie that's coming out the designs look awesome okay yeah one well though in a live action film charlie's throne and oscar isaac could play mortician gomez like it almost it's too much of a tease to hear them doing the voices when it's

like i'd want to see you guys in live action like i mean i guess we were lucky that like raul julia was like the perfect angelica houston perfect perfect couple in that then we have a pretty cute joke about the kids discovering their new sex lives hey public display yeah what's with the love thing let's just say the country air did us good. Bard, I told you not to leave that TV on. They got a huge laugh out of me this morning while watching this. I forgot about that joke. I love that gag

because it's them knowing they're writing a normal sitcom joke. So they're punishing themselves with sitcom sound effects. I feel like we don't get those juiced up audiences anymore because it's all like a mathematically designed algorithm of the Laf-O-Tron.

Yeah. So it was always fun to hear that on things like Married with Children where it's like, Kelly's coming in. Big hoots, big hoots and hollers, everybody. Come on. It's like, this is a little... Wa-oh.

Yeah. I like that Bart kind of sadly walks back into the room too. Yeah. It supports the wa-oh very well. He didn't get an aww. Though Married with Children is over at this point. It's a year done. Though this was all sitcoms then.

Simpsons was still a standout at the time by not having a laugh track in it. I really love Bart's interpretation of what pirates are. What are we looking for anyway? Pirate booty, what else? Arr, now we bury the treasure. Uh, Captain? Captain, I know we usually bury the treasure, but what if this time we use it to buy things?

You know, things we like. Perfect. We'll dig up the treasure in seven yards. I've drawn a map on this cracker, which Polly will hold for safekeeping. So you see, there's treasure everywhere. Bart's brain wrote a very clever series of jokes. Is the treasure everywhere thing a Calvin and Hobbes reference?

Oh, it might be. It wrapped up like three or four years before this. Yeah, that collection came out a couple years before this. And the title is that exact line. I feel like this is two very good Farsight jokes back to back, too. It could be like two different jokes about buying things we like and giving the parrot the cracker with the map on it. They say it all came from George Meyer, this whole bit here, which is just it fits with George. One of his best things is where he just he's so great as a deconstructionist of just like, oh, this joke like he on the commentary for Trouble with Trillions, he had a

great point of like, well, if they find Homer's tax package on the floor of the post office, they won't mail it for him because it's on the floor. He's very fun in commentary. He's just deflating the bad logic of any episode. Yeah. He's his own worst critic on those things that it's very funny. And so, yeah, this whole gag here about saying why the idea of pirates burying treasure is stupid. According to Wikipedia, they say it was very, very rare that pirates buried their treasure.

Apparently, like Captain Kidd is one of the very few that historical record proves that they did it. Though I would counter to Wikipedia that wouldn't pirates lie and say they didn't bury a bunch of treasure? Yeah, is your source on this a pirate? Bob, what's your approval or disapproval of this parrot here?

It's a pretty good parrot. I have a parrot, by the way. Peanuts are the number one parrot snack, though. Cracker is just a stereotype, although he does like crackers, too. But he turns down some crackers, he will always have a peanut. What's his favorite brand of cracker? Ooh, boy. I think he just likes the standard saltines the best.

Oh, okay. Yeah, he's kind of boring. He's a real herb of a parrot. No, he's a wonderful parrot. I've grown to appreciate Bob's parrot so much in these last couple months. He's quite a nice little boy. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance,

I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we care? Anyway, enough about parents. Lisa meanwhile just finds a

bottle cap and wonders if it's jewel encrusted. It is not. And then we cut back to the Homer and Marge story and Lenny and Carl, this is the season of Lenny and Carl. Yeah. Hey Homer, see you at Moe's? He put new electrical tape on the cushions.

Sorry guys, Marge and I are spending the weekend at a bed and breakfast. Oh, trying to jumpstart the old marriage, huh? Can I come? Nah, it'd just be awkward. Well, with the sex and all. Yeah, I always figured Marge would be a dynamo in the sack, you know? Oh, boy, she's

got legs from here to yaya. How do you do, ma'am? Hope this evening finds you well. Oh, knock it off, you perverts. I like, you expect her to be like, oh, you men. Yeah. I took that joke to mean that Marge knows that they're overcorrecting. She's like, what were they saying right before I drove up here?

As it's one thing I never liked about office life was dudes are like, let's talk frankly about our sex lives. Like, no, I don't want that. No, thank you. Opting out, opting out. Though is Lenny asking to be in a three-way with them? I think the line, dialogue, can I come, was written deliberately. Oh, my God. I think someone wrote that line on purpose.

To quote a future episode. Wait, so wait, is Lenny the bull? Oh. God, no, we can't go there. We can't go down this road. This is part of our regular segment. Who's getting cucked? Now we're writing the porn we talked about earlier in this.

Yeah. We're writing the banners. You'll see them soon. I can't imagine that anyone is, like, drawing porn of Lenny, though. Like, that seems unwholesome to me. I don't know. In a way that, like, I can't imagine, like like weirdest of perverts doing he's got a weird season one design too with his beard line and his weird hair and his big uh bulging eyes i gotta

think somebody's done lenny carl's oh yeah i'd only want to see him with carl i would not accept that like him and marge like you don't want to see that but him and carl all accept i've seen something close to that it's a tattoo of uh carl and marge like in a portrait with their arms around each other and beneath them in the picture is gerald from hey arnold yes yeah uh if they made it he would be their son i think it makes sense uh and so they head off to their bed and breakfast snuggle cove i've i've never stayed to bed and breakfast it doesn't seem i mean every apartment's at bed and breakfast now henry oh actually yes the economy we've booked a week

in a bed and breakfast in los angeles in a couple weeks now yeah i've never been to a fancy old tiny bed in breakfast though with the doilies and whatnot i uh i don't know i i think it would be nice to at least uh enjoy like a scone in one of those places, like for a couple hours. Seems creepy. Too many ghosts or murders for me. But you've got half a chance you're going to be in a murder mystery if you stay there. As long as you're not the victim, it sounds fun. Yeah, I know. If you're investigating, I guess. Yeah, that's true. I'm kind of more of like a weird motel kind of person. That's sort of my vibe.

Yeah, I like, you know, the bed and breakfast seems classist. It seems too elite for me. All those Harvard types. Yeah, it's called Snuggle Cove, which seems to go more to Homer and Marge's old style of less kinky, more vanilla sex. And I guess it is a pirate theme. It's Snuggler's Cove. Oh, right. That's even better. But I think it's the one appearance of this establishment.

I also think, it's a little later in this scene, but those people definitely know Homer and Marge are fucking all around. Oh, I think they're enjoying it. It's the most excitement they've had since that donkey puzzle was finished. But yes, as Homer and Marge are fucking all around. Oh, I think they're enjoying it. It's the most excitement they've had since that donkey puzzle was finished. But yes, as Homer and Marge arrive in their room, they're having trouble rediscovering that spark. Are you ready to rock?

Because here we go. Should we get started? Um, no time like the present. Hmm, something's not right. Does this bed feel lumpy to you? Well, yeah, kinda. Did that butter churn just move? Cause if it did...

What's wrong with us, Homer? Have we lost the spark already? No, no, honey. Maybe this will help. Hey! Look at that! Oh, good lord! Ah!

Ah! Ah! I'm so sorry. I saw everything. Uh-huh. Sorry, baby. My heart's beating like crazy. Mine too, just like back in that hayloft.

You know, the fear of getting caught is kind of a turn on. There's that dirty girl I married. Come on. I have a disgusting idea. Homer tries to get dressed, but it's too late. I've already seen it. I've seen it all. I've seen everything. Yeah, I love Marge's reaction to it where she's trying to keep the enthusiasm up, but she's like, hey, look at that.

I mean, after 11 years with the same person, like seeing them in any state of undress, it's like, well, yeah, I've seen this eight million times. Nothing is uncharted. But I love that she's trying to stay positive. Like, hey! And also, it's a fun scenario because it feels like a reversal of situations. Normally, it would be like the woman who's like, oh, I'm going to take my top off, huh? Exciting now, right? But instead, it's Homer,

who then also covers his nipples in a very... Ah, that's a great pose. ...demure way, yeah. with the teacups it's great and yeah i think the woman who works there was totally trying to turn them on more of like i saw everything she wanted them to know that it's a very clever way for them to realize they like exhibitionism and especially i love homer's reaction, there's the dirty girl I married. I love that line. Very sex positive there. Well, I mean, their relationship involved a lot of public sex previously.

Yeah, it's true. We'll learn more about it. I mean, we'll reflect more upon it later. I do like, too, when they're doing it as people are making puzzles, the very definitely ADR line of, oh, it's a donkey. I just love that. It's very funny because the piece is put in, it's clearly already a donkey. The piece that they add

is not any more donkiness to the image. It's been so clearly a donkey, and wouldn't they know it's a donkey when they opened the box? George Meyer mentions that he would have been happy to have found a license plate when he was searching for shit.

He said pipes were mostly what he found. A lot of old sprinkler pipes. And then Bart makes our second Rock the Casbah reference. Whoa, excellent haul. But it's all trash. Exactly. Now there's nothing left out there but treasure. Hello, everybody.

Hey, you're back. Did you rock the Casbah? Bark! Yes. Do you know you have your hands in each other's pockets? It's okay when you're in love. And married. To the sweetest guy in the world. Oh. Eskimo kiss.

You guys are sick. You don't think there's anything wrong with what we're doing, do you? I don't think anything I've ever done is. Yes. Apparently that was something Dan Graney wrote. We did an interview with him. I love it. According to Matt Selman, he wasn't pitching anything.

He just says that all the time. I love that line. I love it. it tells you everything about homer it tells you that he that he goes through life thinking that everything he does is the right thing to do so that's why he is such a selfish selfish man so definitely when i was watching the episode i didn't realize that they actually said the line rock the casbah like multiple times yeah and hearing it now it's just like upsetting upsetting just hear it like did you rock the cas like Bart turns directly to the camera like you have sexual intercourse yes yeah that's uh

it's kind of creepy when Bart says that I I think they are able to walk back from that by Lisa and Bart being so disgusted that there are PDAs. But yeah, it's very weird. And Homer is right to his first reaction of like, Bart! But then he has to let Bart know, like, oh yeah, I scored. That's right. I mean, I used to despise the PDA couples. Now I've become one or part of one. And I know I've become what I hate.

But you know what? Living it up. You should enjoy it. Don't feel bad. Don't feel... You know what? People go outside, they're going to see things. Yeah.

There's some stuff that I want to bring up later on. Because this episode is kind of relevant to some things that have been going on on this month uh on the internet oh oh yeah i i really like their cute little hands and each other's pockets things like that that feels like such like a 70s going steady kind of thing early 80s like definitely from their childhood and the same with the eskimo kiss thing it's uh oh wait no is that eyelashes or nose uh nose eskimo kiss thing. It's a, Oh wait, no. Is that eyelashes or nose? Nose Eskimo, eyelashes, butterfly. Okay.

Yes, I have. Yeah. I've done, I've done it all, but Jesus is getting filthy. My, my kink doesn't go above handholding.

But yeah, Bart and Lisa storm off. I, and they, they then make quite a find of the lost ending to Casablanca, which that was a big shock. Weird curve ball in this episode. Really comes out of left field.

Out of all things, they, they also bring them on the commentary that it's Bart has an incredibly strong knife that he can just pop open a box with that. Apparently there really was like in script form, a happy ending, a happier ending to casablanca but they never actually acted it out and then as that moves along homer and marge head back to their old stomping grounds of the mini golf course first seen in dead putting society though this is used

more in the context of the episode i married marge and unseen since this whole mini golf area has not been back in about six years it's so cool i love the design this mini golf course i wish real life you know that's the next level of simpsons things happening in real life you know not any of this food or making a car build the full golf course from the Sir Putzalot. Yeah, I mean, I think these kind of putt-putt places are more of a relic of the 70s and 80s. In the 90s, you had that sort of indoor glow-in-the-dark space putt-putt. I did putt-putt a couple years ago. It was pretty fun, though it was the usual just like, you know, curves and stuff and moats.

Like, nothing exciting, no giant dinosaurs or anything i miss i miss that era of putt putt design which i did where you grew up do you guys call it putt putt or mini golf i was more putt putt i think it was putt putt i'm putt putt yeah okay uh let me know where you grew up if they called it mini golf, listeners. But this is the biggest discontinuity here, actually, isn't it, Bob? And where they have sex. Although there is some wiggle room. So in the episode, I Married Marge, I just checked it out this morning. And Homer's job, very, very funny, is turning the crank in the windmill.

And that is some job security right there. But later in the episode after getting drunk on champail they go to the castle and homer makes the joke don't worry it's impregnable and then someone hits a hole in one which signifies that homer knocked up marge so technically to conceive bart they had sex in the castle but they could have also been having sex in other places in the mini golf uh area yeah yeah yeah you can't assume they had sex in other places in the mini golf course too yeah but though homer does in this next clip refer to it as where where bart was conceived oh you're right about that yeah

and i always remembered it's a castle just because the great line of Marge saying, remember when we joined the castle club? And then Homer in shock squeezes all of the cookie dough out of his tube. Let's hear them reminisce about their incorrect memories. This is so naughty. Coming back to our old love nest. It hasn't changed since that magical evening when i knocked you up oh we drank so much that night yeah i thought bart would be born at dimwit yeah well this time i'm drunk on love and beer.

Very good. Yeah, I think it's very cute how excited they are about it. I also love the way he's pretending to tell Marge when to swing, and it's really just them running off. I guess the coast was finally clear, that there was nobody in eyeshot to see them run into the windmill.mill yeah this has got to be the biggest day for this mini golf place every notable figure in town is there is crusty there is crusty missing like skinner is there mo is there edna's there like everybody is there i don't recall crusty okay but he's the only one missing he'd be perfect he

did the perfect lewd joke i think they missed missed that. Well, when they got Moe, it's lewd enough, I guess. Oh, and the design. Sorry. The design on the mini golf course. It's a lot of old ones reused, but the astronaut with the mop is so great. It's just so great. Very good. So on the commentary, it's brought to Mike Scully's attention that they messed up and did a windmill instead of the castle. He didn't realize it. I think they did just get mixed up.

There's a windmill joke and a castle joke in the same episode, but they, Scully has a funny gag on the commentary where he says like, well, there was no way we could have checked at the time, which one it was. We just could, there was no way.

As Homer and Marge get down to business, I was shocked in my memories i didn't think they ended it in act two but the beast plot ends right here that's it yeah i i think they just wanted it to be all nudity all the time in the third act so hardcore nudity uh but yes here comes two! Louie, I think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship. Look out, Rick! He's packing heat! Good work, Sam. Come on, I'll buy you a falafel. Not so fast, you schmartenheimer.

Hope you don't mind my dropping in. Not at all, sweetcakes. You know what to do, Sam. So I like that they use heart and soul instead of... Time goes by. It feels like they just had a worse version of the song in the final version of the movie. But it should need to be said, it's a very obvious point, but Casablanca is a very good movie.

And if you think you don't like old movies, watch it. It's really, really good. And to me, this entire scene, actually, this entire B-plot is basically one big build-up to one sight gag. And that is when, what is that character's name?

Who was the guy who produced the original or the uh the other casablanca ending oh old jewish man yeah he doesn't have a name at the end of the scene when he's like i'll pay you 20 bucks to go bury that again and this one too and it's just it's a wonderful life killing spree ending like i guess uh george bailey could make so many jimmy stewart jokes i i mean that's very observational that story could have went one of two ways that he's broken by his reality and decides to kill him to turn instead of violence against himself he turns against the town instead that gag reminded me of the snl alternate ending sketch from 86 was when it aired but yeah

actually this whole bit reminds me of an episode of the critics so go back to talking critic we talked about it back then i think that was the uh duke phillips gets a disease episode what was that one called again jay's oil jay's oil something like that i don't know we did the episode about it but duke phillips invents phillips which changes movies to make them more palatable and one of the things he changes is he makes a different ending to Casablanca in that episode of The Critics. So they're very, very similar. Yeah, it's a similar every happy ending with Sam there to play it again. Though in that one, I do love the line where his new ending has Sam say, stay tuned for the local news and Magnum P.I.

Yeah, it's a slightly better joke, but my biggest laugh in this scene is not only the question mark on the end, but the little mystery sting of music. Yeah. It leaves it open for a sequel. Oh, I really, my favorite gag is that Hitler

sounds like a Looney Tunes Hitler. Yeah. Also good. That's two nazi references yeah it's quite a lot matt graney was working on futurama so uh they're lots of fun so what was the episode with um talking about nazis uh mel gibson where they remake that other jimmy stewart movie is that uh not that's mr smith goes to was Washington is a movie. Yeah. Oh, it's Beyond Blenderdome. Yeah, that's a season 11 premiere. We're a year-ish away from that.

Well, six months. They remake another Jimmy Stewart movie, and it also ends in a killing spree. Oh, boy. Yeah, they had Jimmy Stewart killing sprees on the brain in the Mike Scully writers. My tideline of the episode, though, is Here Comes Two. Here Comes Two is very good. My tied line of the episode though is Here comes two If you're watching Any kind of countdown with friends And you see the number three

You have to say Here comes two It's the law Bart and Lisa Hear from old Jewish man And they get a nice little dig At television executives Unbelievable I'll say Wasn't it great and they get a nice little dig at television executives.

Unbelievable. I'll say. Wasn't it great? And the question mark leaves the door open for a sequel. I've seen that movie ten times, and I never get tired of that ending. Oy, oy, oy. Where did you get this, you shrunken old hag, yeah? I'm just a little girl.

My studio produced Casablanca, all right? We tried to tack that happy ending on the picture, because back then, well, studio execs, we were just dopes in suits. Not like today. What are you talking about? I loved it. Ah, you're a sweet old gent to say that. This should be in a museum. Look, I'll tell you what.

I'll give you 20 bucks to bury this thing again. This one, too. Dopespes and suits not like today anytime simpsons can crap on executives i'm a fan of that but the it does feel like an extra joke though to make old jewish man a former studio executive too which again it's a lot of it's a lot of young jewish men this joke, so I don't think it's like intentional anti-Semitism or anything, but I think that's another component to the gag. That's the total end of that plot line there. So I guess, you know, Bart and Lisa, they got 20 bucks for it, so hey, it ended up being that positive, that metal detector.

And then we head back to the pitch and putt, and there's a joke I didn't get until now. Oh, me too. Yeah. Well, first we get Ned kind of – I really like – they showed it on more of this with Maude where Maude was like not hitting into the windmill. He's like, bingo. She's running out of steam with it. She's like, you know what?

I don't have much more patience for this, Neddy. She'll be dead soon. Oh, God. So grisly, this episode. But yes, the ball rolls into the windmill and then doesn't come out the other end.

That leaves people with some questions. Now, the secret to the windmill hole is to not hit the blades. Bingo. Woo! mill hole is to not hit the blades bingo that's odd it didn't come out the rear end rod you got small girlish hands reach in and fish it out a hand A hand. Ow, Daddy, something attacked me. Oh, now, Roddy, it's just a stuck ball. I'll get it.

Truant ball, eh? I'll help you. Oh, quit showing off, Seymour. I'll get it. There's something in there. Feels like a hefty bag full of meat. We're trapped. Why can't they just play through?

So I don't think it's too blue here, but the ball did not enter Homer's butthole, but it at least graced it. It kissed his butthole. I think that's the implication. Yeah, yeah. It's a very specific scream that Dan does, and then it didn't come out the rear end is the next line. So I feel like it's a ball going into a butt joke.

I didn't get that joke as a kid. I only got it now. And yes, that scream definitely is like, at the very least, the ball rolled into a tender area for Homer. Fox is right about this episode. It's his filth. I also think that Homer was so stupid to smash Todd's hand as he reaches in there. I love his girlishish like eek notice in the animation that the hole that the ball is supposed to roll out of looks normal at first but for everybody so reaching into it it has to grow by like 10 times

it's huge it's so big i don't want to talk about expanding holes here but it is it is what happened sorry sorry but uh and then as they're all reaching in and touching homer graining has a very good point on the commentary of like some of these people know they're touching yeah like you as an adult you know you're touching bare human flesh i would think the description of a hefty bag full of meat that's a funny that's a funny line too yeah edna gets a few zingers in this one. She has no other place in this episode. I guess she was playing there with Seymour. Yeah, that makes sense.

Or Seymour was secretly meeting with her there because Agnes is there, too. Ah, you're right. I just love the incredible ridiculousness of everybody. Like, well, let's all reach in together. Truant ball, eh? And so we come back from the commercial break. Everybody is still reaching around in together. Truant ball, eh? And so we come back from the commercial break. Everybody is still reaching around in there.

And then we get to a line that was cut for UK broadcasts, which was Mo saying that he wants to kill what's ever in there and monoxidize it. Well, that was cut. Wow. Why? I mean, it's a rather dark joke, I guess. Yeah.

Maybe it's also, well, it's already an a rather dark joke i guess yeah maybe it's also yeah it's already an imitatable act of like any kid well i'm just wondering maybe had like someone are like recently been killed in like a high profile maybe yeah at the time maybe i feel like it also feels like an extension of most suicide uh humor where you would leave your car running in the garage to kill yourself. Of course, he knows all about the tube. He keeps that tube handy. Oh, God. Yeah, why else would he have it? Yeah, why would he have that tube?

Oh, my God, yeah. I mean, he does kill a lot of rats in his bar, too. Those are his rats. He can kill those rats if he wants to. But apparently this episode just, in its first air order in Australia didn't air. It was just deemed too dirty for regular Australia broadcastings. Marge and Homer are about to suffocate in there. So they have to jump out of there.

As they run off in the smoke, nude, they have to leave their clothes behind in a sexy, dangerous game for the rest of this episode. And I do think Ned, at the very least, should know what Homer and Marge's clothes look like. Yeah. They never change their clothes in this world. But yes, the reaction to finding the clothes is pretty funny. It was people. People soiled our green.

And now they're out there somewhere, naked as the day God made them. Boy, I tell you, they only come out at night. Or in this case, the daytime. You've got to catch them. Think of the children. Won't somebody please think of the children? All right, all right.

Here you go, boy. Get the scent. That's a shame. He had one day left till retirement very good to give mo the uh helen lovejoy line that was so funny yeah and they decapitate lincoln too and they knock over i think that's why they went with the windmill because it would allow the like helicopter decapitation gang but yeah so they do you get a few shots of marge's butt actually if, if you go to the Simpsons wiki for this, there is like a frame-by-frame detailing of every shot where you can see Marge's butt or breasts in a shot.

Oh, my God. So I think it's an interesting line they have to deal with there because Homer's been naked tons of times in the show to this point. And same with Burns. They can get away with it because it is in no way sexual yeah not the way they draw it or no sensor would view it as such with marge though it like it is sexual they draw her as having an attractive body so you know you can you can only get like four frames of her butt every now and then in this but even that would be like totally out this whole episode by nipple gate would be completely outlawed they joke on the commentary too that they're like we couldn't do this now but this airs at five o'clock in yeah

every station it is a post nipple gates uh era that they're recording the commentary we're talking about janet jackson's nipple obviously if you uh if you're not that old her covered nipple come on you know i don't laugh too much at animal cruelty jokes but man that's funny that dog destroyed by smelling his underwear and that that it comes with a later line on the newspaper that says dog clings to life yeah yeah this is uh actually it was just a couple episodes ago we were hearing about how horrifying homer's underwear was oh right yeah because he only has one pair and so they were gray i guess he had to buy a new pair of underwear after this adventure though they run off and then we get some very like uh austin powers nude bomb kind of hidden nudity comedy comedy here which this was another thing that

made me feel old because i thought this episode came out a year after austin powers like austin powers was summer in 97 and this was may 98 i actually always in my head was like no a simpsons episode i love must have happened before austin powers right but that's just how old austin powers is now it's 22 years old. I mean, to their credit, they didn't do an entire extended sequence of things covering up their privates. Just like one side guy, which is funny.

Hidden nudity comedy is a fun, classy, burlesque, sexy fun that you can get away with in cartoons. I mean, the funniest one in Austin Powers was when she just holds up a picture of breasts over her breasts. I think that was my favorite. And I think Mike Myers just liked being naked. Oh, I mean, he wanted to hang out naked with beautiful women. So he wrote, he's like, is this funny?

It's every other page, Mike. I think, I mean, I brought up the nude bomb, the very bad Get Smart movie. I've never seen it. I know of it. Not good. Not very good. No, I mean, I think what's most interesting about it is that they, in Bond fashion, they get rid of his wife, 99, from it. And instead, he has a new love interest who was the star of the sexy Emmanuel film.

Oh, weird. It was like her american debut i just know because that is one of the like the biggest box office bombs of all time the nude bomb was but anyway i really do love the drawing of homer and marge uh behind the lawn ornaments that's a really really great drawing and they they get away like they draw side boob on marge there it's true they really are getting away with something. Homer gets a little titillated by it, but Marge immediately shuts it down. Like, no, the public sex acts are over for now, Homer.

They keep sneaking around. They head to the used car lots where prices are sky high. Oh, boy. So, like, Gil was introduced in this season about halfway through, and he has been completely, fully, 100% flanderized, where he was a desperate salesman who had a home because he brought one of the walls from home to make his cubicle. And then he was having tax problems.

Now he lives in a hot air balloon, and he's making payments on a hot plate. Oh, God, it's so funny. You can't go past that, but they love him so much. Every time you see him, he's degraded more and more. But now he is homeless and cannot afford a hot plate. And hot plates are like $40. I mean, you can pay for a fancier hot plate, but they are known for their cheapness.

They've really degraded Gil already. Though he's not yet on the phone with his wife and the man is uh adultering with they haven't done that joke yet but yeah this is really i also like that homer knows it's gill where it's like do you just remember him from the irs like it's it's weird that it's always like gill it's you like it's like you guys don't have much of a relationship to this point but dan castellaneta owns his Gil every single time. And even the vocal performance is so extreme, too. Like, this is where Gil would be for the rest of his life.

Gil, thank God it's you. You gotta help us. Well, that's what I'm here for. I mean, you're young, successful, you're naked. You want a car with a radio, right? You kids like music, right? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, don't go! Ah, no, not today,

not today. I could taste that sail. I was in the zone. Alright, man, those nudies are here somewhere. Fan out. We're surrounded, Marge. Maybe we should give ourselves up. But think of the scandal.

Yeah, the British tabloids will have a field day. There's only one thing left to do. Grab on to the handles, Marge. Got him. Oh, they stole the balloon. I've been living in there. Well, you know, just till things pick up. Oh, Lord, my hot plate.

I only had two payments left. So, poor Gil. But I like how his sale pitch is just like, you're young, you're naked, you like music, right? Yeah. We don't have Gil living in the U-Story yet. Not yet. I forget when that happens, but it's coming soon. I also like that when the cops arrive, they have their guns pulled out to shoot them.

They've escalated it quite quickly. It also reminds me, too, of the Simpsons movie when Bart got arrested for his nudity, too. That's a lot of public nudity arrests for the Simpsons family but I really like the little detail of like the two dimples above Homer's butt crack there right I like that that was good good detail work on Homer and the first time love handles have been used as actual handles I feel like that British tabloids joke is in the shadow of the death of princess. Uh, for British listeners out there,

you might not know this, but like, I think for, I would say at least for me, I wasn't aware of how awful British tabloids are in their own specific way, different from American tabloids until princess die was pretty much killed by paparazzi. Like that's, that's only when I think my generation got aware of british

tabloids they head off in the balloon which like that's pretty awesome that it's a functional hot air balloon at the yeah car that burns i don't know whatever they burn uh i guess uh hydrogen i've never been in a hot air balloon it terrifies me oh god i don't know if someone's like oh hot air balloon date like i would think they're trying to kill me this is your plot for the perfect murder it's like if someone offers to take you out on a boat alone don't do it you need other witnesses there nothing good ever happens in hot air balloons and tv shows or movies no no it's always a caper or uh some sort of accident you know i think I was terrified of them from the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, which

about a third of it takes place in hot air balloons. What Muppet movie opens with hot air balloons? I believe that's a caper. Okay, yeah. Great Muppet caper. That's what I thought. That made me nervous for all the Muppets in those balloons. It's so dangerous for those Muppets.

I love them searching for clothes, like Homer grabbing the plants and then flying out and this the great drawing of homer as he's looking up at marge holding on to the rope like he looks like so sad and desperate there and though it's in another they have to find every angle they can to draw homer without showing his pelvic area it's a dangerous game with Homer. But his gut can obscure a lot. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you. Home and auto insurance personalized to your needs. Weird, I don't remember saying that part. Visit Desjardins.com slash care and get insurance that's really big on care. Did I mention that we

care? And then I don't know how Marge creates that giant flame, but it's a funny line of Homer telling her like the thing by the thing yeah the fact that it burns him outside of the basket area it makes no sense but it's just funny yeah yeah it's funny it does not everything has to make sense but uh then we get another great scene of the episode of homer being dragged across glass which i think this scene also probably activated some kinks for some viewers. This is a parody of a real cathedral. I think they even give it a parody name.

It's also the Crystal Cathedral, which was some mega Catholic organization that was created by a televangelist. Basically, he did a thing called the Hour of Power. Oh, this weekly televised thing. I think his son does it now. Anyway, there's a long history to it. I didn't find any scandals, but I'm sure there are

if you build a $19 million church. A televangelist with scandals? I don't think so. But it is actually in Orange Park, California. So if you want to go there, it's still there. All right, when you said Orange Park, I grew up in Orange Park, Florida. So at first I was like,

it's in Orange Park, Florida. No, they floated to California. Well, and the voice of the guy in this is also, I didn't know until re-listening to the commentary, that Dan based it on real-life televangelist Robert Shuler. Oh, that's him, yeah. He was the guy that did The Hour of Power and had the megachurch. Okay, so that's why Dan's doing a voice like that, too.

Yeah, yeah. If you look at pictures of him, he's dead now. He died... 2015, I think it was? Yeah, semi-recently. But it looks like him. It's him. Yeah, yeah. If you look at pictures of him, he's dead now. He died 2015, I think it was? Yeah, semi-recently. But it looks like him. It's him. But as you listen to this clip, be in thoughtful prayer and stare at your floor.

Now let us thank the Lord for this magnificent crystal cathedral, which allows us to look out upon his wondrous creation. Now quickly, gaze down at God's fabulous parquet floor. His wondrous creation. Now quickly, gaze down at God's fabulous parquet floor. Eyes on the floor, still on the floor.

Always on God's floor. Hang on, homie. I'm going to try to set her down. Thank you. Wow, a lot of people have pools. Hang on, homie. I'm going to try to set her down. Thank you. Wow. A lot of people have pools. Honey, my shoulders are separating. Okay, okay. Here we go.

Dear Lord, look at that blimp. He's hanging from a balloon. Can we not land here? Honey? Baby doll? I really enjoy that the church is so expensive, but the floors are just parquet floors. Oh, yeah. It's like cheap linoleum. I didn't get that show.

Yeah, yeah. That's really great. And they spent all the money on the walls. I'm sure every comment on Patreon will be telling me about all the scandals. I'm sure there are many, but I think the Wikipedia article for that was pretty biased. Oh, yeah, I think so. Somebody needs to update that Wikipedia article then, but I just love that in the background of your home,

it's like, Oh my ass. Yeah. And I also really like in all this like nude silliness, Mars just has a one-off line. I'm like, a lot of people have pools. Well,

she wonders what she's missing. Is it just like a repeating landscape? Because it seems like just like a few stock things. And like, that was the joke I thought. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Maybe. Oh yeah. They're just going over Hanna-Barbera stuff style, but she's like, oh, they all have pools. That's weird. Marge is always wondering what's happening under her feet and cars and blimps.

Glass bottom boats. Yeah. I, I love when they arrive to the line from Mel of like, Dear God, look at that blimp. He's hanging from the balloon. That's such a good little gag. Mel is a good proclaimer of information

in the show. And the shot of the balloon rising over the football game, that's from the 1977 film Black Sunday, which I have seen. Is that about a terrorist event? Yes, it's what if Irish terrorists attack... You know what? Actually, no. I think they're a group

of different nationalities terrorists. Oh, that's nice. They work together. And their plot is to explode the Goodyear blimp during the Super Bowl over the game. And I think it's also kind of... It's got like nails in it and stuff. it's like also kind of it's got like nails in it and stuff they're gonna find out

it's a good little afternoon movie to watch I've seen it a couple times Homer and Marjorie Lanning Homer not only do they get the humiliation of being seen naked by the entire town but Homer also makes the isotopes lose the game the ball has been blocked

by a big fat ball guy another repeating joke here. Well, Homer didn't turn into the ball. Yes. It's good that Bart did that. But yes, so Homer and Marge fall to the ground. Everybody is aghast at their nudity. And then start taking pictures of them too because it's free camera day at the football game.

It's better than dart day. Yeah. Which Homer and Marge, that's why they have to cut to the newspaper because Homer and Marge are probably arrested directly after this. Even if they didn't mean to, they did kind of expose themselves to children. There had to be

some children in the audience there, too. I do like that Marge and Homer just kind of let it go like, eh, whatever. Let's just wave. Enough shame. Let's just enjoy it. There's like, eh, whatever. Let's just wave. Like, enough shame. Like, let's just enjoy it. There's no exit from the situation. And they cut back to the newspaper. That's where there's the dog joke on it.

But also, until this time, I didn't get the gag is that Homer's breasts are censored as well with a black bar. Oh, you're right. That's a good joke. Yes. Just like earlier. Yeah, that in this world, Homer's chest is obscene.

Why don't you take a picture? It lasts longer. Oh! It would have to be camera day. Wow. Hey! I don't mind you reading those awful scandal sheets. Uh, I was just trying to find Dave Barry's column.

He's great. He pokes fun at life's little foibles. Because I want to explain about the stadium. You see, sometimes moms and dads get a little, well, accustomed to each other. Dads especially. So they need to explore new ways to express their love. Scary ways. But we never intended it to end like that. With thousands of people staring at our naked bodies.

All those eyes just leering and leering at us. Who's in the mood for miniature golf they're gonna feel so silly when they realize they forgot us it's great that lisa is just quietly aware of the sex yeah this just keeps happening yeah you should assume that just quietly aware of the sex. She knows. This just keeps happening. Yeah. You should assume that for the rest of the series, they're often having sex in public places, secretly,

not in front of people intentionally. But yeah, I mean, to you, a professional in this area, Merit, what do you think of their love? What do you think of their love? I'm trying to find the right way to say this. Making bacon on the beach. do you what do you think of their love uh what do you think of their love i i try and find a right way to say this but making bacon on the beach there's a few ways of talking about it um i think it is this episode is just like a very like in ways obviously like it goes into like a cartoony place but in ways it just is kind of very down to earth um and realistic i think

in that like wow 11 years is a long time to be with someone. It's like twice as long as I ever have been. And we know like scientifically that there are different kinds of like attraction, right? And there's like limerence, which does go away after time. It kind of is like truth in television. And that is, I think, when you see a lot of couples doing things like this. And the thing that I was talking about before that i was alluding to was uh there has actually been i've tried to avoid it as much as possible because i don't like to get into discourse on twitter anymore but there's been these huge debates about public sex on twitter over the last month specifically around pride so it's sort of a different thing okay i have seen a little of this uh people who have

never been outside are like have i picked up this idea i think from conservatives that uh pride parades are just like free-for-all um sex fests which like not true it's more like t-mobile is telling you to get their 5g plan so you can use grinder or whatever um it's interesting because like there's this conversation like about like in the episode when characters are like, think of the children. And it's like, yeah, like how do we think about sex in public? Should that automatically be something that we're like,

oh, you should be in jail for doing that. And is there a difference between like doing something like, like I think there is a pretty clear difference between like doing something like in a place that is quote public, but not like in the street and just like being nude out in the street, but like, man, it's complicated. There's all these questions around like public space and like who owns what, and like, are certain combinations of people like more inherently obscene than others? Like, you know, if I walk down the street and see

straight people doing stuff, there has always been, I think, because of homophobia, this kind of assumption that gay people doing anything is obscene, right? Oh, yeah. And this idea of like, oh, I don't want to see that. And so then when people are like, well, I didn't consent to seeing that. And there's this really interesting use of like, consent language here of like, these people are doing something in public that I didn't consent to. They're exposing me to their kinks. And it's like, well, when you go outside, you're going to see things. And that kind of argument of like, I didn't consent to seeing this, like, that's kind of what homophobes have been saying for a long time yeah yeah how do i explain this to my kids no i didn't want to see this yeah um yeah that is a well that is something i don't like about how i think consent and all this conversation is so important but sometimes people use that language for yeah conservative purposes to be like oh let me let me start using this kind of consent language just to

put you more in the closet or to get this out of my face. It's like a sneaky kind of way. And I don't even know that they always realize that they're doing that. I think a lot of people, especially younger people, are coming from this place of like, no, I am crusading for this thing, which is really important. And these are things that I see as bad. So it's not necessarily this kind of calculated move, I don't think. And also, wow, I'm getting really serious on a podcast about a comedy cartoon.

This is, those are the kinds of things I think about and sort of talked about in that column for Mel. I think this is probably fairly common. Like I'm surprised there wasn't like an airplane kind of a bit episode. I think that would be harder to work in probably, but I could see that also as being the place where it starts or whatever. Well,

I think, I think in, you know, at least American sociology, like there's, there's still a feeling that like nakedness means sex. And so I don't like there's that wrapped up in it too. I,

I can just say as a, like a 37 year old cis gay man, who's been to a number of pride parades, I've definitely seen some stuff at some pride parade at the San Francisco one though. It's not like every place you look or whatever, like it's, it's there, there's still kind of rare incidences. Right. But, but I'm definitely personally much more skeeved out by seeing like Lockheed Martin at, uh, yeah. Yeah.

Or like even just like going to the mall and like, not to be like all like 70s feminist, but like, have you seen ads before? Like perfume ads or anything? It's just like soft core, like straight porn. Yeah.

Yeah. So that, that, uh, and I mean, I, like straight porn yeah yeah so that's that uh and i mean i i think that is more damaging to children than seeing like i don't know a topless member of dykes on bikes for instance or whatever you know like i i i don't know bob do you want to weigh in on this as a straight uh

my people have said enough about this yeah i don't know like is there i really hope the answer is no like i'm really hoping as i'm asking this question is there an episode where homer and marge start doing like snm stuff you know i think there's definitely jokes i i believe there's like a hot candle joke definitely but i don't think they go too far into that i think you know there were definitely references to say like the gimp in pulp fiction but i don't think anything even regarding like close to actual snm chat yeah thank god um but i guess that is like a question right like how do you maintain a relationship and i guess people come up with different answers to that some people the answer is ignore all the problems until one of us dies or we get divorced another answer is like well we can see other people and another one is like we find ways to make it more exciting i guess um and maybe for some people

it's not even an issue well i mean if you got rid of this problem you'd kill the cosmopolitan magazine industry yeah oh my god yeah exactly right two words everybody to solve every donut around his dick oh god two words to solve every problem we're talking about here uh sex dice go down to spencer's gifts for eight dollars you'll have sex dice let the dice decide what the night will hold there is there is a simpsons sex dice thing right oh man i can't think of a sex man there There is a Simpson sex dice thing, right? Oh, man. I can't think of a sex.

Man, there must have been a sex dice joke. I don't remember. Oh, probably. Maybe it might be something. Maybe it might be a different show. I definitely remember something that's like, lick, nose. Oh, yeah. Yeah, man.

Oh, lick. No, no, no. I think it is The Simpsons. Lick, eyes, spank, hair, whisper into ass. Oh, right. Whisper into ass. I don't know if this is from The Simpsons. I remember that joke going around, the whisper into ass one. I do remember that. But God, it's just in the comedy reference slurry in my brain. They did have a joke about Dave Barry, which felt very badly lip synced, too. Towards the end of that line, Bart looks afraid.

Yeah, it's very odd. I wonder what he was saying originally, but we always do. But making fun of Dave Barry is like the column equivalent of making fun of Family Circus or Marmaduke. You're just like, eh, it's a comedy article that exists every week. Nobody likes it. I read a lot of dave perry correct i uh i was tempted in the comedy section at bookstores to buy his book but i was like i could read comic strips and it'd be more fun than this uh and yes then we end the episode with Rocket and the Casbah, which just takes us out of the season. It's end season nine, which, you know, the way I taped episodes off TV, I would live with the finales much longer because they would be, I'd rewatch them even more over the dry summer months of No Simpsons, New Simpsons. And so this one always struck me as like, oh, this is a weird one to end the season on. Like it's a big moment for Marjorie Homer at the

end. Yeah, yeah. It's not quite as of a low moment as the one that ended last season, which is the military camp, military school. They really should have ended the season with Frank Grimes, but maybe they didn't want to have too negative a feeling there. Yeah, no, that military school, and this is a better

finale than the military school episode. But in a few months, you'll have your rare summer episode with The Simpsons. Yeah, yeah, all the way in August. They have to time with the premiere of that 70s show. That's why it went out then. But that's a story for next week's episode. So definitely the sexiest Simpsons episode I watched in my youth, too. And, I mean, it came out at the time as the internet pornography was growing as well.

So I think it showed many people the way to an AltaVista search engine and so many possibilities. Lycos for me. You know, AltaVista had better... No, no, let's not talk about that. Yeah, I know what you mean. Any last thoughts on the episode? No, I just, I can't get over the fact that this i really feel like you could do a whole like youtube deep dive on the timing of this

episode with the growth of the internet with showing marge's butt for the first time and uh really just chart the history of that kind of simpsons like porn in ads um but again i i'm not actually confident that anyone has ever like actually sought out but everyone knows we all know it we all know like an oral history of simpsons porn banners someone write that yeah this is like the genesis so mary you're a special guest today can you tell us where we can find you i know you've been doing some video game stuff lately i was watching some of your e3 coverage yeah it, it was really cool. I'm doing game stuff now. So I'm a managing

editor at fanbyte.com. That's byte with a Y. And yeah, we do all kinds of fun stuff. We do game stuff. We do some TV stuff, some movies. Right now, mostly games. And I am writing sometimes. I'm mostly editing. I was doing some video stuff

because I went to my first E3 this year, which was, let me tell you, a big mess. I mean, it was fun, but also just like, wow, that show does not know what it is. I was there to do my job, and there were gamers whose badges said gamer on them who were upset that

people like me got to go in to see a Borderlands trailer before them. They paid to be there that sucks like because priorities i haven't been there in four years and you're not making me miss it that shows mistreating gamer americans we did get some good videos out of it though so um check out our video stuff at uh i don't know how youtube links work. It's just fanbyte on YouTube. Yeah, that works. Just search YouTube fanbyte.

You'll get there. Yeah, then I'm on Twitter too, at Merit K to R's to T's. Well, thanks so much for coming back, Merit, and sharing with us your sexpertise as well. Yeah, thanks for having me. This was fun. So thanks again to Merit for joining us today.

Make sure you check out all of her stuff online. Again, her E3 stuff is really funny. The videos are great. Oh yeah, tons of fun. But as for us, if you want to support us and get every episode of this and What a Cartoon one week ahead of time and ad-free, please go to patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons and for the low price of five bucks a month, you'll get just that and all of our content behind the $5 paywall, including all of our limited miniseries, the most recent of which was Talking

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and the season wrap-ups and so on. There's so much stuff waiting for you. If you sign up at $5, you'll get access to everything we've done up to that point and everything we do into the future until the sun burns out or until the ocean levels drown us all henry and more positive news yes what's going on at ten dollars well for our premium patrons at the ten dollar level they get access to our monthly what a cartoon movie podcast where me and bob talk for up to four hours about a different animated feature film once every month this month was tiny tune adventures how i spent my vacation the summary direct video film that we go deep deep deep into

the history of three hours 40 minutes long and you can only hear the full thing if you're a ten dollar and a patron so sign up at that level or bring up your pledge from five to ten and you'll get access to that plus dozens of hours of our previous what a cartoon movie again that is patreon.com talking simpsons if you sign up today you'll get a nice little code you can drop into whatever you use to listen to podcasts or you can use the patreon app to download listen to all of our podcasts either way you can fit us into your podcasting lifestyle so as for me i've been one of your hosts bob mackie you can find me on twitter as bob servo my other podcast is retronauts it's a classic gaming podcast every monday and occasionally on friday please go to retronauts.com or look for retronauts in your podcast device find the podcast and subscribe to it we have a lot of episodes

waiting for you there henry what about you you can follow me henry gilbert on Twitter at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. Whenever new stuff goes live, either on the free feed or the Patreon, I tweet about it first and you will learn all about it if you follow me there,

as well as my many thoughts on animation politics and the like, all at H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G on Twitter. Thanks so much for joining us, folks. We'll see you next week

with Lard of the Dance, the season 10 premiere. Thank you. Rockin' the Casbah, rockin' the Casbah Shalina Maggot Rockin' the Casbah, rockin' the Casbah By order of the prophet We burn that boogie sound Degenerate the faithful With that crazy catwalk sound The better when they brought out the electric cat and drum

The local guitar pickin' guys keep on breakin' down As soon as the sherry Never swear They began to win The sherry, you don't like it. Rocking the cast ball. Rocking the cast ball. The show,

you don't like it. Rocking the cast ball. Rocking the cast ball. Now over at the temple. Oh, they really got to win. In crowds, it's cool To take this job, same thing But as the wind changes direction

And the tempo back to five The crowd come on the wheel It's like crazy Can we put a shot? The crowd come on the wheel It's like crazy, kill the punch Yeah! It's Shari, the Magnet Rockin' the cast, man Rockin' the cast, man

It's Shari, the Magnet Rockin' the cast, man Rockin' the cast, man The king called out his jet pilots He said to better run your plane Drop your bombs between the minarets Down a cat bar way Soon as the Shire ring shook what was rare

The jet pilots tuned to the cockpit radio blare. Soon as the shirry comes out of their hair, the Jet Pilots wave. The shirry don't like it. Bump, gasp, bump, bump, gasp, bump. The shirry don't like it. Bump, gasp, bump, bump, gasp, bump. The shirry don't like it. What? That's queer. Homer, don't look! What?

The food! Why did this happen? Why? Someone left the freezer door open and the motor burned out. We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it.

We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it. We can fix it. Why did this happen? Why? Someone left the freezer door open and the motor burned out. We can get a new one.

Okay. It was just a shock at seeing all that food on the floor. Plus, I'd just fallen on my back, which hurt more than I let on.