Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - $pringfield With Nick Wiger

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

In an episode that's alternately titled "(or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)," we welcome back Nick Wiger from the podcasts Doughboys and Get Played! Armed with TWO different original scripts for the ep, we dig into all the details for this ode to Gamblor. How does Marge get addicted to gambling? Did this predict magician injuries? Are we all covered in disgusting germs? Was Robert Goulet's manager really named Vera? We've got all the answers in a podcast that's at least as funny as an injured Irishman! Support this podcast and get over 150 bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod!

This podcast is brought to you by Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Head there to check out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talk King of the Hill, the What a Cartoon Movie Podcast, and tons more. or product. Ahoy, ahoy everybody and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast that's no longer immoral. I'm one of your hosts, the escaped lunatic dressed like Santa Claus, Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons. Who is here with me today as always? Henry Gilbert Gilbert a better

Podcaster than the breakdancing robot that broke down and who was our special guest on the line? It's me Nick Weiger reminding you that's a right triangle you idiot and this week's episode is Springfield or How I learned to stop worrying and love legalized gambling Bringing you the world of current events! This episode originally aired on December 16th Christmas 1993, Bobby. The Pelican Brief tops the box office. Kids are asking Santa Claus for a Super NES, Genesis, or a Talk Boy. And Shannon Doherty is fired from 90210. Oh, I blame that villain Ian Ziering.

Well, Bob, you're a real Beverly Hills 90210 expert. You've watched a lot of it lately. Yes. I mean, RIP Shannon Doherty, of course, but she was a real bad girl on set, and I think everybody was tired of dealing with her, which is why towards the end of her run on the show, there are plots where, hey, Shannon, you're going to be doing a bad French accent for about six episodes. How do you feel about that?

We hate you. Wow. So that's why she's like, get me out of my contract. The way it was reported at this time, it was just, her contract has not been renewed, but we wish her well kind of talk then. She had her sights set on Hollywood, the future of Kevin Smith.

She was going to help pave every gold brick in that road with mall rats. I think I remember Kevin Smith saying, like, everybody said she was going to be a problem and he said she was fine on the mall rats said that was that was I recall him saying that but yeah I think later in life she talked about her own like substance abuse issues and and rocky relationships at the time but then you know like five years later I think it was she's on charmed and leaves the same way and it's a bad scene there, too It was she I hope she found peace later in life Shannon door. Well, I think famously She had a list of people who weren't invited to her funeral

Oh, really? So she loved she really loved grudges and you know hats off to her for that. That's a good move I like that move real power move. We, I guess this tells me I need to make a disinvite funeral list as well, just as a backup, just for safety's sake. We'll record it as a podcast. Patrons only. Yes, the Christmas gifts, you guys happen to recall what you would have asked for Christmas of 93.

When I looked at the list, I was like, well I think I was aged out of a talk boy. I never had the talk boy, the recording thing from Home Alone 2, but... Hi, kids. We're home early. I've seen that commercial too many times. I think it was probably the X-Men Genesis game. That was on the list for sure. Sonic 3 is months away.

They weren't able to get it done in time for Christmas, so it wasn't that, so I'm kind of scratching my head for what my 93 Christmas game was. We were a super Nintendo household. So I'm looking at the list of 1993 video games. It looks like the big seller. This was obviously cross platform was Street Fighter two turbo. So maybe it was the SF two turbo port, unless that was only an arcade at the time. And that was that the port wasn't out yet. I was lucky enough to get a Super Nintendo as a surprise birthday party gift close to launch. So I had a Super Nintendo I want to say in 1991 was at the launch year.

Does that sound correct? That's right. I already had the system at that point. Yeah, I'm seeing also Star Fox could have been Star Fox could have been on there. Oh, Mario Kart. Actually that I have a distinct memory of playing Mario Kart with my brother and my cousins at our place on Christmas day.

So it was probably actually Super Mario Kart for Christmas 1993. Yeah, I was looking over the 1993 games list as well and I saw one game that I did get, Link's Awakening. I didn't get it for Christmas. I bought it with Christmas money. We went to the mall and I remember buying the game and then reading the instruction booklet at McDonald's where we stopped on the way home.

A magical experience. That game rules. So I never had a Game Boy as a kid. I didn't have a portable until a Game Boy Advance. And so I missed a lot of those great Game Boy games, including the, you know, Pokemon Red, Blue, and Pokemon Gold, Silver. But I did play the Link's Awakening remake for the Switch and had a nice time I'm not sure how it's a great remake yeah it rings pretty true to the original yeah it's so

faithful to the point where the remake is also a four-hour game but it's a perfect four hours of Zelda mm-hmm I you know I did get I did get a lot of X-Men toys I do remember that in 94 it was Spider-Man toys, because the Spider-Man show debuted, and I think my mom diligently went to the trouble of getting me, I think, every Spider-Man toy that was in the first wave of the animated series, Spider-Man toys, so that was up there.

And lastly, yeah, the Pelican Brief. This is what used to be number one movies, like legal thrillers starring great actors. That was the number one movies at the time. Man, I wish they'd just make more of those. Like, you know, Juror number two, I'm not sure if you all saw Juror number two, which I call like, hey, it's a pretty good movie.

It's a solid movie, but it's just like, hey, they used to just make like adult dramas. And then that would be like a thing that they give a wide release. I guess Conclave is the closest that came to that this year in terms of just like, hey, this is just an adult drama. Doesn't have any action sequences or anything. This is just sort of like a thing

that we'll just put in theaters and people will go out and see it. It's a bummer that it feels like a throwback that those movies even exist. The other one in recent years, oh man, now I can't even remember the name of it, but there was a Tommy Lee Jones, Jamie Foxx legal drama that came out last year that was an Amazon prime movie.

So barely got a release. I'm gonna look it up right now. But I was like, this is again, this is like the Pelican brief. This is like the kind of thing that used to get a wide release. And now it like becomes this little sort of niche thing to try to sell subscriptions or streaming service. By the way, my paranoia that everything's listening to me, I went to IMDB and a huge splash screen of Jamie Foxx is what appeared. Wow. Well, he does have a new movie coming out with Cameron Diaz. That's true. So

maybe that's just coincidence. Yeah, my wife and I had to hunt for a screening of Driller Number Two when we found one in the tiniest theater in Vancouver that had just one screen and there was not a non-gray hair in the house. The audience was so old that when we were leaving, I saw someone on an oxygen tank. I think Drurid number two could have been their last movie. I've had the, the movie was called The Burial by the way. Good movie. Fun, fun watch. Uh, Maggie Betts is the director and yeah, Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones. I've had this experience where, yeah, for instance, like for me, it's specifically, it's going to like live jazz shows where I'm in my 40s

and everyone there will be older than me and they'll be like, oh, it's nice to see some young people here. And I'm like, I'm not young. I'm like, I'm old as shit, born in 1980, but yeah, thank you. I just have a t-shirt with a picture of a thing on it. This is when I'm young.

Yeah, yeah. I had that experience going to East Indies. The Lauper concert last year where it was mainly women over 50 who were having fun that night dressed up how they dressed in the 80s when they listened to the Lauper and gay men over 50. So a lot of silver hair there and I got to feel a young 42 in the audience there. But that's everything that happened Christmas time of 1993

when this Simpsons episode aired. And joining us once again is Nick Weiger from the Doughboys and Get Played podcast. Welcome back to the show, Nick. Thank you so much for having me. An absolute treat. I really am a fan of this episode and I feel like I've gotten to it could just be that the seasons that we're that we've been covering there's a lot of bangers but I feel like I've been able to gotten the privilege of getting to talk about some episodes that I really enjoy and watched a lot certainly in syndication as a kid. Springfield I think is with a dollar sign obviously for the S. Springfield the episode title.

It's not one of like the best episodes of the season necessarily, I'm not sure how y'all feel. But I do think it has some of the best individual jokes. It's got some really solid comedy. Even if the plot is maybe a little threadbare. Yeah, I agree. It's super confident. It's got a lot of good jokes. And it is a story about the town to the point where they open with a solid minute of no recognizable characters, which is still pretty daring in early season five. Yeah, I'd say that this is Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein

doing what they do best, but now in the Merkin era, and the guiltiest thing I can label this episode of being is that it is like a sequel to Marge versus the Monorail in construction of like Act One. The town is in trouble, what are we going to do construction of like Act One, the town is in trouble. What are we going to do? End of Act One, everybody leaves with the solution of this big new thing they're gonna do

and then problems ensue from there. But I think that this leans on what Bill and Josh are so good at, which is like old timey things and social commentary. Yes. And also it's chock full of David Merkin's hate of sitcom tropes and attacking it. Yeah, including breaking the fourth wall.

I guess what you're saying, Harry, is like the exact same format is used in A Star is Burn's, the critic crossover, which is the next season, I think. The town's in trouble, we gotta do something and we got some big new plan and then it falls apart by the end. It's what Bill and Josh do, do so well. And on top of that, they also have Wes Archercher He was one of the top directors and like originators of Simpsons art style So he's doing a lot of really creative stuff in here They I think the only knocks I have against it are just that

When Bill and Josh under Merkin in continuing season 5 and especially season 6 They get even more confident at what they're good at and finding things that they aren't even like sticking with the format of a monorail episode to do their own thing. And also it's like the B stories that would have been in traditional season one Simpsons, I've noticed this a lot where it feels like this feels like a James L. Brooks suggestion that they are now executing of like, well, it needs to be grounded in Lisa and Marge and her emotional feelings. Or what if Bart, instead of becoming a general of elementary school kids, what if Bart became a casino boss of elementary school kids?

But they don't really engage with those as much as they would have in, say, season two with that idea. Yeah, they even both don't even really get a resolution. They just kind of like, you know, play out to the end point, kind of like a sketch. But I do think I think all this casino stuff is super funny. And the individual gag of Lisa's costume is just like such a great site gag. I mean, that's just like immediately recognizable. The Florida, the

misshapen California, you know, costume that says Florida misspelled with an orange tape to it. It's great. Yeah. As far as we know, Bart's casino is still open in the backyard. Yeah yeah yeah. They didn't really resolve that in this episode. Because we know that that Burns' casino stays open until season 10 when they explode it. Yeah but. Oh yeah. Implode. And why do they move it when they move the whole town at the end of the 200th episode? Doesn't make sense.

But yeah, I think this is a really great episode full of like gambling things that are as I grow up. I come to enjoy gambling too much and well, I don't have a Marge type problem, but we're going to Vegas a few months for the first time in a long time. My husband hates Vegas, but I'm like, but the colors, the lights on the, I am like margin loving slot machines in particular. Yes. So do you like playing slots? Cause I do like playing slots, even though I know like I'm slowly losing money, but I understand that's what this is. I understand that I'm kind of like, you know, I've gamified. This is like the most direct version of gambling.

I'm I'm put, I put money into this and I slowly lose a percentage of it over time. It needs the video game elements to me of like, honestly, the ones that pull me in, like I probably lost 50, at least $50, maybe 100 on a Jurassic Park machine because I was like, but I have to get the multiplayer, like the multiplier super game of will the Raptors get out I have to see it I kept sticking around to see it yeah that's what's what's amazing about those licensed games is that they all are like like they just have like you know last time I was in a casino they had like full-on dune ones with like likenesses of all the cast and because there's

just so much money in it that they can just afford to go all in with these licenses I like the DB dunes I like the dunes. So I was kind of underwhelmed because it didn't have all of like, you know, I'm sure y'all have discussed, maybe we've even discussed the Simpson slot machine, which is really well done. It has some great like bonus rounds and lots of clips. It has the illusion of interactivity, even though all that stuff is obviously, you know, very tightly controlled by gaming regulators. But that's what I want from one of those slot machines. Like, I want to sit down at the back to the future slot machine

and have just like a little mini game where I can race Doc Brown or whatever, you know. And we covered this in Lisa the Greek, but all of this gambling conversation of the early 90s is so quaint now because now there is no shortage of ways you can gamble. We don't need to go over it. But now they're finding places previously you couldn't gamble and putting gambling in there.

Recently, a few days ago as of this recording, Delta Airlines has now partnered with DraftKings so you can do gambling from your seat back. You can now go bankrupt while flying to your dead grandma's funeral. Wow. How does that work? Because I mean, it's like, it's regulated by state.

So is it like when you're flying over different states or does it have some sort of international water sort of thing when you're midair? I wonder what the jurisdiction is. I didn't really look into it, but I believe there's some new federal statute that says gambling cannot be declared legally on a federal level.

So now it's just a matter. I'm not really sure of the logistics. I just know that it's everywhere and everyone is always doing it on their phones. Children are doing it a lot now. I'm hearing from teachers. It just a matter. I'm not really sure of the logistics. I just know that it's everywhere and everyone is always doing on their phones. Children are doing it a lot now. I'm hearing from teachers. It's a nightmare in California. You can't do it legally off of your phone. So like you can download like the fan door, the DraftKings app,

which I think we probably both have advertised for on doughboys. You can download those, but you can't actually gamble on them. You can just like play fantasy sports. But yeah, in other states, yeah, you can just go on and you can be placing real money wagers like in live betting, like as a game is going on. Is there any sort of bob up there north of the border? Is there any of that present in Canada? Is it still pretty tightly regulated?

I just know that whenever I'm at a bar, sports are always on and every ad is for the gambling apps. Yes. And the gambling apps always say, we have a little reminder built in to let you know if you're gambling too much. And it's, I think it is the Smithers coming up to you. It is.

After 72 hours. The little disclaimer at the end of podcast ads where it's like a, like in New York called 1-800-GAMBLER.com. You know, it's like, they all have like a long, like gratitude. I've read that copy before and it's so long and it's so dense. And I'm like, what is this really accomplishing?

This is essentially the Smithers thing. This is just a ceremonial bit of covering their own backs, covering their own hides. It makes me confident for the future of the American empire that every ad is about gambling now. Well, I'll also say as a sporto, as someone who likes watching sports, particularly basketball, it's like, it's so omnipresent

that it becomes like oppressive. It becomes like, I just want to watch this to watch it. The commentators are reminding you like mid game because they've got all these integrations that like right now you can live bet and get these odds on this. Like Bob was saying, every ad in between is like an ad for one of these sports books, these online sports books. It's like everywhere. And it just kind of smothers the actual product and makes you realize, yeah, a lot of people are watching this as essentially a get rich quick scheme, instead of just watching it for the fun of enjoying the sport.

Bob mentioned this is based on then current. This is them rip from the headlines because by, by 93, this was all over the news that the timeline goes that Iowa was the first US state to re-legalize or bring back riverboat gambling in like a loophole of, well, if you're doing it on the water or on a boat that's in motion, it's technically not the same as if you built a casino on the ground.

And so, Iowa first in 91, Illinois and Louisiana followed soon after. It's all like on the Mississippi River as well. Like that's part of the like trick for it. And so in 93 Mississippi, Indiana and Missouri all legalized it as well It was all in the news of like well and this will bring in tax money and all that which I talked about this one We did the dog of death episode that's all about the lottery in the first act these things that say like oh This is tax money. it brings in tax money. It just creates a pile of money

that then you move old money away from it. Like it doesn't increase a school revenue or budgets. It just becomes a school budget and they take away the old money that used to be that and move it to another thing. Yeah, I love like things like, oh, it's legal, but only on the water. Like the thing I know in some states,

they have like the racino, which is like, you can only there's casinos, but only at places where there's also horse track betting. And I guess that's like to keep like operators of horse racing, you know, tracks this, this sort of dying thing happy. But then there's also ones where it's like, there is a racino and there are slot machines, but you can only technically bet on horse racing. So the slot machines are abstracted. So they're using the results of horse races to determine your outcome.

Like it's like, it's like, there's all this weird, this weird odds making that, that comes via all these, you know, again, weird loopholes. At a certain point, they're just going to say, fuck it. Yeah, you can do anything anywhere. And then it's really going to go crazy and a bunch of people are going to lose a lot of money. But what are you going to say, fuck it, yeah, you can do anything anywhere. And then it's really going to go crazy, and a bunch of people are going to lose a lot of money. But what are you going to do? I trust that the Mormons who control Utah will always prevent it from happening in Utah.

I can't imagine that's the one state. It feels like maybe Utah and Hawaii, there were two states where it was still, every kind of gambling is illegal. And I think it is Utah and Hawaii, perhaps. I wonder how Hawaii has kept it away, too. I mean, also, as well, to talk talk about from a political angle, nobody wants to increase taxes, especially in the nineties.

Like that's a big thing that hurt HW Bush. So you create these things that legalized gambling is a regressive tax that hurts the poor far more than the wealthy. So it's why it was popular. It got repopulized into you don't call it a tax. Like if my parents had their lotto numbers, they played every week. And if they were told every week you get charged $10 as you know, the state tax, they wouldn't have liked that. But playing in the lottery, like that's fun.

Yeah. Gambling is fun. It's just like, that's the other thing. I think this episode does do a good job of, of the way it characterizes Marge's slow slide or I guess actually rapid like hyper accelerated slide into full-fledged gambling addiction is like yeah, it's really even if it's a thing you try once you can very quickly see the appeal. This episode is has a lot of cut content in it I'll be talking about so we can get into it now let me tell you that on Internet Archive you can find two usually you're lucky to find one table draft there are two table drafts from this

Wow on Internet Archive the one that is dated is May 30th 1993 just to give you an idea of when the production began on this one. Now Henry I know we have a lot to cover in terms of celebrity connection that didn't happen with this episode do we want to cover that up front or wait until later? You know what actually let's do it now it now. Let's talk about it now. So this comes in later in the episode. When these characters appear, it is after Burns' casino is opened. But this was supposed to be, at one time and in the first draft of the script, they were going to have the heads of Planet Hollywood come to Springfield and open Planet Hollywood in Springfield. They were going to have Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ambrose Willis, all in the episode.

Wow. What was the context exactly? Like, did they open it in competition with Mr. Burns' casino, or was it a replacement for Mr. Burns' casino? Do we have any idea? So the overall structure in the first draft version, so the Planet Hollywood is not in the table draft,

only in the first draft. And the overall structure is Burns isn't the only guy who opens a casino in town. Everybody opens a casino, so Planet Hollywood is part of that. They're opening up a Planet Hollywood branch there too, and they're gonna do it next to Burns' casino. And so Arnold Sly and Bruce Willis all show up,

and then first they have trouble buying a spot, and they meet Springfield weirdos who make it difficult. Then the joke is that once Planet Hollywood is open, they're the wait staff, and they're cooking behind the counter with a lot of jokes about Terminator. Honestly, I'm glad they cut it. Arnold says, I'll be back after somebody makes an order.

That's, Simpson's is better than that. Yeah. It's funny, Henry, I remember this fact about the episode and then did my prep and then this weekend we just happened to be at the former location of Vancouver's Planet Hollywood. Now it's just a bunch of boring businesses in there but I lay a single rose right in front of the door.

Oh, that's nice. Nick, you live in Planet Hollywood, but did you ever go to an actual Planet Hollywood? You know, I'm realizing that I don't know if I ever actually dined in in a Planet Hollywood. I certainly remember the phenomenon and remember thinking it was like, oh, that's where celebrities eat.

Like, not at all understanding, you know, that was how they got in there. But it's like, I don't know if I ever actually had a meal at one. And it was a three scene story in the script too. So they, they open it, they operate it, but they're having trouble. And then act three, I believe is then a story point they repurpose in the radioactiveactive Man episode, which is all the small town slicksters are ripping them off. They get like weird taxes and Planet Hollywood closes down and they have to leave town penniless is what happens to them. Yeah isn't that like that is the Radioactive Man thing. Yeah that's I was

thinking of the wrong episode when I said earlier referencing the critic episode. That's what I was thinking it was Radioactive Man. That's the one where they've got like the town needs money. We got to do something. Hey, let's get people to film in Springfield. And then they learn that the production there, yeah, that they have a tax on wearing a puffy director pants. I mean, not wearing puffy director pants.

And then like, yeah, by the end, they have the lean on me going back to Hollywood, where people treat each other right. Yeah, it is. I do like that small town, the joke of that episode. That's interesting. That was originally in this one. Now, though, Nick, you were right. The it is I do like that small town the joke of that episode. That's interesting that was originally in this one. No though Nick you were right the critic crossover also has that it's yeah both of them. Oh it is the same structure with the towns in trouble that's why we need to have a film festival. And here's how Matt Groening in a 2007 playboy magazine interview explained how it happened. We were told the investors in Planet Hollywood Arnold, Bruce and Sylvester

Stallone, whoever, were willing to do the show if we mentioned the restaurant. We wrote a script for them, but it turned out some publicist made the whole thing up. We got our vengeance. We slammed Planet Hollywood on the show, which I'm assuming he is referring to the planet hype joke when it's opened on the waterfront.

Right, I guess season eight? Yeah, that's in My Sister, My Sitter, right? Yeah, that's when they really established the Squid Port. Yeah, so yes, I mean, that probably happens in Hollywood all the time. Even, I've heard of it on podcasts as well. People joke about unnamed celebrities who like their representatives reach out and say,

oh, we'll have you on this podcast. And then they reach out to the celebrity and they've never heard of this podcast. And this is that, yeah. 100%, yeah, no, I would like, the celebrity and they've never heard of this podcast. And this is the- Oh, 100%. Yeah, no, I would like, the most concrete example I can think of is I used to write for this Comedy Central show at midnight.

There's now After Midnight, which is the same general idea. And that was like, basically it's like a panel show disguised as a game show. Publicists would get celebrities booked on the show who would come in just thinking it was a talk show and not knowing that it was a game show. Publicists would get celebrities booked on the show who would come in just thinking it was a talk show and not knowing that it was a panel show and they had to have a bunch of jokes ready to go.

And they'd get there and they'd like freak out or they'd like try to back out of it. And it's just like, man, it's kind of crazy that it's your client and you're still like, we're gonna trick them to get them in the door cause that's the only way they will do this. Where I would think like, wouldn't your job be to like, I wanna clearly communicate to them what they're in for so's the only way they will do this. Where I would think like, wouldn't your job be to like, I want to clearly communicate

to them what they're in for, so I know whether they're game for it. It's so strange. But yeah, that definitely happens with podcasts as well. You'll hear from a publicist like, hey, the celebrity loves the show, they really want to do it. And then you'll meet them, they'll be like, what is this? Them finding out they wouldn't actually do it must have happened between the two drafts, because there's no Planet Hollywood happened between the two drafts because

there's no Planet Hollywood stuff in the table draft from the end of May. So it's funny. Also there was a Duckman around the same time where they, right Bob? Yes, I was going to bring it up Henry, but you beat me to it. I'm glad someone brought up Duckman first besides me. I think they reached out to Duckman as well and it was also a hoax or just the publicist trying to get them into things because they did a Planet Hollywood joke on Duckman with caricatures of the three main figures, Stallone, Willis, and Schwarzenegger? They were the main three? I feel like something similar was going on behind the scenes there.

Yeah, maybe the publicist's like, you know, Rial Politique move is to be like, I will tell them that they want to do this, so they'll write a script with them in it and then it will show the script to my client and be like, look, they wrote this thing for you and them that they want to do this. So they'll write a script with them in it. And then it will show the script to my client and be like, look, they wrote this thing for you. And then they'll want to do it. Like maybe that's kind of like their thought process, but it's very strange. And so there's the background.

There's also a lot of other deleted scenes in this episode. That's a major plot point that got cut from the original draft. And it caused a lot of headaches for everybody. So the episode begins with a newsreel. It's not exactly a Citizen Kane reference. I guess it's not not a Citizen Kane reference in opening with a newsreel, but it is. Now I wonder if all of the jokes about like corporation news, is that is that a joke about their then

parent company News Corp? Hmm. Or Corp? I always call it News Corp. It's Corp. There were a lot of different jokes in multiple versions of it The only one I'll mention is of the Amos and Andy guy, which I like that joke Nobody feels any shame about showing like hey, here's the white guy who's from Amos and Andy Right. Although I think he looks surprised when he's caught by the photographer or something It looks like he's not ready But he does he does launch into that that fun voice in the animatic The joke is just this guy was relieving himself into the plant

that's in the background, and then he's turning around and zipping up and seeing he's being filmed. That was the original, or that was the joke in the animatic. You can see where that got changed. I do like the joke of the family being scared of the tiny train and like a parody of the classic train coming at the screen, early movie thing. Good joke. I also just like the sepia tone sort of that's used for both the news reel

and then also the flashback that it goes into. Yeah, this is, I mean, this is perfect Bill and Josh thing too, that it's like an old-timey like voice set up, all of these old jokes about like businesses that used to exist, like Professor Rubbermouth and and as well, like the... Vinegar parlor. That's supposed to be Joseph Kennedy handing out the award for Springfield

being one of the growing cities. Oh, wow. One of the 400 fastest growing cities. And Nick, you recently found out you're up there with Professor Rubbermouth, aren't you? I do have a very large mouth. I saw an orofacial pain specialist because I'm having all this jaw pain. And he said I had, I was in the top 1% of mouth size, but I'm, I'm more like vertical

as opposed to horizontal. I don't know if I could quite do have the professor rubber mouth cheeks where I can wait, don't they also do, they do that joke with another about fitting billiard balls in your mouth. They do that joke with like a lawyer later on, right? Or is it an earlier episode? It's their Alan Dershowitz parody. I think it's in Round Springfield because Lionel

Hutz introduces the dream team of lawyers. Right, right, right. That's so funny. They did that. I someone just saw that in the Guinness Book of World Records and thought it was funny. It's just like, let's just use this again. It's like the two fat twins on bikes, the guy getting shot

with a cannon. They're all in The Simpsons. Every, every funny picture from 1920. This is what nerds could upset that when they didn't have forums to just fall into and or Reddit pages or anything like that. Every nerd just had the yearly Guinness Book of World Records and you flip through it to see like that's why now nobody does jokes about the world's longest fingernails

all curling up and everything. Yes. We learned that Springfield used to be the galoshes capital of America, so this is also a joke about deindustrialization. This is about the bad economy of the early 90s too. That's another thing this is rooted in. Originally it was a tooth powder factory,

though galoshes, both funny. I mean, galoshes is a funny word. I like it. I like the aqua cars. And also we get to hear, watch out Utica. Bill Oakley loves jokes about upstate New York. And this is the first time. I think they jammed that in here because people

assume Springfield was in New York around this time. So they wanted to put in a false flag, basically, to trick people. Definitely learn the existence of the city of Utica through The Simpsons. Yeah, same with Albany and all the ones from the Aurora Borealis sketch. But the news reel ends.

We get to see Jasper and Abe walk in and leave in the theater. They cut a really funny joke from the script that is, you see it on the marquee that says, you know, Ray Milan, then conquer the mighty Hudson. But in the original script, it wrote below it, also newsreel, cartoon, short subject, sing along. And then grandpa says, leave in the theater,

six hours of fun for 15 cents? What a rip off. Then we see that in the past, the streets were literally paved with gold and everybody sliding around on them. It's very dangerous. Though now I have to say this, now I feel old in that I feel like I saw this fade in my life. Like I got to see Berkeley, California, where I lived for almost 20 years. This transition fade happened. And I now am old enough to think, this used to be good, now everything's closed. Yeah, instead of the movie players playing Sperms of Endearment, they're now gone.

Yeah, they're just not open. Yeah, they walk through a rough part of town, they pass by. Sorry, those are both James L. Brooks movies, right? It's Sperms of Endearment and I'll Do Anyone. Yeah. The porno version. That's another thing where it's like,

that's the thing that makes me feel old is like remembering when porno titles were puns. And then at a certain point they just got lazy and were like, let's just, let's call it Not the Simpsons, a triple X parody. And you know, they just started putting the actual name and then putting not or this ain't in front of it. Kind of a bummer. Well, a man has to go just took over and it's just a description of events is the

title. Yeah. The Simpsons will be right back. I'm trying to teach the baby to gamble. When Springfield opens a casino... I think you may have a problem. I won $60 last night. Problem solved!

Everyone gets gambling fever. Lookin' lucky. Hey, what's happening? Robert Goulet guests. Oh, I'm sorry, kid. On The Simpsons, tomorrow at 8, 7 Central. tomorrow at eight seven central. Vera said that no, I did Henry Gilbert. And I say thank you for listening to this week's episode and a big thank you to our guests.

Nick Weiger from the deal boys and get played podcasts. We love having Nick back on and talking about all the stuff we discussed the last time we saw him when we were on the Dill Boys podcast last year. It's always awesome to have Nick on and we thank him so much for his time Please if you're not yet a listener of Dill Boys and get played you gotta check it out Thank you so much again Nick for your time And if you enjoy this podcast, you should know the Talking Simpsons is ad free if you're a listener on the patreon That's right

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What a cartoon a movie podcast our premium extra long animated feature discussion Well, that's basically three podcasts in one us going super in depth into the history of an animated feature film this month We're talking about the 15th anniversary of DreamWorks is how to train your dragon a great movie that has a very interesting history to its Creation and you can hear us talk all about that for over five hours on patreon.com slash talking Simpsons at the $10 level. The month before that we covered Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a ton of history on the first Disney animated feature film. And we've done six full years of it.

We've done 75. What a cartoon movies. That's over 200 hours of exclusive podcast. In addition to all the ad-free $5 stuff I just talked about we've covered a ton of Disney classics a ton of Disney Renaissance films a bunch of studio Ghibli films Even live-action films like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Little Shop of Horrors We've covered so many classics on there and even some junk like cool world Shrek and Space Jam You can hear the entire back catalog of that

and the $5 things at free and early at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. So please see everything you're missing by going to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons now. And also to really drive it home, they made sure that the unhoused man they run into is the James L. Brooks design, the unhoused man. Although now I really take issue with the social security jokes in these early episodes because we're all self-employed gentlemen and we all know the giant axe that comes down on your income because we have to pay into social security or we don't have an employer that takes care of half of that on our behalf so

right that's money that you are giving to the government they will give back to you so it's not free money yes to ruin this joke i think this gimme gimme gimme thing and money from the gummy mint like that was a big Conan O'Brienism. I want to say that the more charitable reading is that they like it in that they're complaining about old people who would say, oh, everybody wants a handout and then they get a handout. So it's more hypocrisy. It does seem like John Swartzwell to really hated Social Security. Yeah. I don't want it. I don't need it. But if my check doesn't show up, I'm going to raise hell.

I don't think Bill and Josh are pro-privatizing Social Security. I don't think they're that. Yeah. It more reads to me as the entitled senior citizen who complains about these lazy, everyone's lazy these days, but then also is just, you know, taking every bit of every dollar they can, which is of course they're right. But it's like, yeah, I don't know if it's necessarily like that again. I don't know. There is an element of sometimes you're watching these Simpsons episodes and yeah, particularly through Swartzwalters like, oh,

this is kind of a conservative sort of talking point. That's the punchline. I think a lot of it was Conan O'Brien, especially he's still on the show. These are his final weeks of working on the Simpsons. He was particularly vicious towards old especially. He's still on the show. These are his final weeks of working on The Simpsons. He was particularly vicious towards old people. He'll admit that. His comedy from this era was really about making fun of old people. So you would find any angle in which to attack them.

And now he's nearly a senior citizen. I'm sure he's reflecting on all of these old jokes and thinking, wow, I was such a little shit, wasn't I? I remember when they used to have a character on Conan, Carl Oldie Olsen, who was just like a very old man. He's a very, very funny character actor, but it's just like the whole joke was just like, look how old this guy is.

Yeah. And he would often bring out Abe Vagoda just to say, here's a really old guy you probably thought was dead. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then we cut from there to a toilet, Homer whistling through the restroom, and I got to give it to Wes Archer and his team.

That shot of looking up at Homer from inside a toilet after he says, there's something you don't see every day. What a wonderful like drawing that makes such a disgusting image appear in your head from Homer's viewpoint. It's so funny. But, but what does Homer find in that toilet in our first clip here? Hey, there's something you don't see in a toilet every day. Anybody lose their glasses?

Last chance. Woohoo! The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side. That's a right triangle, you idiot! Thank you so much for visiting our plant, Dr. Kissinger. It was fun. Well, I'll let you know if your glasses turn up.

Uh, yes, well, I'm sure I left them in the car. No one must know I dropped them in the toilet. Not I, the man who drafted the Paris Peace Accords. Mm-hmm. Mm. Ha! Mm. Mm. Hm. Sir, bad news from accounting. The economy Ha ha ha. Mm. Mm.

Mm. Sir, bad news from accounting. The economy's hit us pretty hard. Tough times, huh? I've lived through 12 recessions, eight panics, and five years of McKinley-nomics. I'll survive this. Well, even so, sir, we could stand to lay off a few employees. Oh, very well.

Lay off him, him, him, him. Better keep the egghead. It just might come in handy. Oh, so much great there. Though, first I'll say that Burns' flipin' firing of people honestly seems incredibly human and real of that they even bothered to point at people. He's being really hands on.

And I will say, going back to the finding the glasses, if you want a cheap laugh during any screening of Wizard of Oz, just say that line out loud after the scarecrow does his little Speech about the algebra trigonometry, whatever that is. Yes actually have the I have a brief clip of that Some of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side Oh joy, Rapture! Now I realize that's why Stimpy says, Oh joy, Rapture, isn't it?

Oh yeah, it's gotta be that. Oh wow. He always had that wrong. Then the Simpsons turned it into a joke of they finally correct that. But this is also in the previous episode, the last temptation of Homer, there's also a joke about the knock-em-bagans glasses. So this was a lot of jokes about the glasses of war criminals at this time in the Simpsons.

Because Bart gets glasses, right? That's the whole thing he has to get the glasses and the orthotic shoes and what have you and the hair gel. It's Harry Shearer doing Kissinger, right? Oh, yeah. It's a good Kissinger. Oh, it's great. It makes me laugh.

Yeah. And boy, so many times we talked about Kissinger on the show and we're like, how is he still alive? No longer do we have to say that. Right, right's great. It makes me laugh, yeah. And boy, it's, you know, so many times we talked about Kissinger on the show, we're like, how is he still alive? No longer do we have to say that. Right, right, finally. He lived till 100 though. Yeah. And yes, a clip of this is in the trials of Henry Kissinger,

the serious documentary listing his war crimes. And I think now since then, like, I do think his reputation in the public is pretty damaged. Like, Hillary Clinton can't share in the public is pretty damaged. Hillary Clinton can't share photos of shaking his hand anymore. Obama doesn't want to hang out with him, at least from the liberal media. He's not as aggrandized as he used to be. Yeah, I mean, he was viewed as an elder statesman for so long.

But also, he never really had any sort of accounting for any of his war crimes. I mean, this is the grim reality of our world, is that monsters die in bed, usually. You know, it's like, it's, but, but, yeah, whatever. Good riddance. And weirdly, the, the Conan, the, the Simpsons connection is his son is an executive for, or Konako works for Conan. So that's, that's really strange. Not long after Conan, like within years

of leaving the Simpsons, Conan will start a very long working relationship with David Kissinger that I believe is still ongoing. Yeah, I think it still works there. It still works for Team Coco. Maybe evil skips a generation. Yeah, hey, if he's bringing his negotiating tactics to the Team Coco podcast world,

maybe that's how he got such a good deal out of your wolf. I don't know. But also a Bill and Josh thing I noted here. I think this is the first time that this would officially make Burns over a hundred, I think. Yeah. I had it in my notes when we covered this originally. I think this is, they're drawing the line in the sand because McKinley was president from 1897 to 1901, which would put Burns back before the turn of the century. So I think they're working towards making him 104 right here. Was McKinley-nomics even a thing or did they just like invent a portmanteau because that's just like, you know, because based off of Reagan-nomics.

I think it was just an invention, but I do like that even back then they were just adding nomics to a president's name. We live lived through Bidenomics apparently recently. Yeah. It does make sense that Burns would be friends with Henry Kissinger for sure. Right, now of course. But even he's kind of bored with him. What a great wasting of time, like 10 whole seconds they just stand there waiting for him to leave.

And credit to Harry Shearer, every murmur from Burns and Smithers has intent. And I like just hearing it isolated without the motions and the movement, you can tell like at what point of being bored and annoyed they are before they walk away. So there was another episode where Homer's, something Homer does in the company bathroom affects his relationships with Burns, right?

So like here he finds the glasses in the toilet and it saves his job. But there's also the him playing golf in the bathroom leads Burns to go, who is that lavatory linksman? That's the episode where Marge gets the suit, right? Yeah, that's the Chanel episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, the toilet is, I mean,

it also represented the advancement of his career when he got hair in Simpson and Delilah as well. Oh yeah, executive washroom. This is also where they cut a small Lenny and Carl story because you can spot it in the cameras. He points at Lenny and then he points at what I assume is an off model Carl because he's wearing a hat that,

like a hard hat Carl doesn't normally wear because Lenny and Carl are fired in the episode of the original script and they're commiserating with Homer at Moe's bar afterward, at Moe's Tavern. Wow. Letty and Carl, when they see Homer wearing his glasses, they compliment him on it, and then Homer does a very intentionally corny and lame version

of Dana Carvey's Bush impersonation, and everybody loves it. So that was also cut. Weird, that's weird. So then Homer heads, after everybody else get fired. Homer leaves and we see they cut another scene where Apu is also complaining about the unemployment affecting his business too. And then as Lisa takes away Homer's new glasses, which the Bart and Lisa all abstract.

What a great drawing. Love that. Really great. And then here we get to Scott Christian, which Bill and Josh love Scott Christian. But enjoy him while he's last listeners, because in a couple more appearances, he's basically mothballed after that. Wow.

I guess they would just cut out the intro if Kent was on location. They wouldn't have someone introduce him and then cut to him. Yeah. Always a nice treat to see Scott Christian, because yeah, he doesn't pop up all that often. Bill and Josh, they were the first Simpsons fans

to be hired to the Simpsons. So they would be the nerds who would say, well, obviously, if we're going to have Kent on location, Scott Christian has to be at the desk to throw to Kent. That's just the universe rules. And Scott Christian also in late 1993 had a big part in the Bart Robb of his Butterfinger contest.

Like he's the one who also probably because Harry Shearer didn't want to do the commercial. Oh yeah, in my head I was thinking, well why oh right Harry Shearer didn't like to play ball with advertising. Got it. But yes, we cut to Brockman giving a news report of Economy is Bad news reporting,

which I assume is every time I watch local news which is only when I visit my mom and stepdad because they put it on and they're like we're watching the news and it's just pure fear-mongering and horror stories all of the time. Yeah. I feel like these the economy is bad and here's like examples thing these these stories are probably every day still to this day though the Bob you love this there's a line in this that you love. I hear you. Oh, joblessness is no longer just for philosophy majors?

Oh no, and I put the blame squarely on you. Oh right, right. Oh yeah, very funny. We have done that many a time to our nice listeners. We hear about why the economy is bad in Springfield and part of this is from the closing of the local army base, which this also is pulled from the news at the time too because look it up, it's the 1993 base realignment and closer commission under Clinton, which was

a big negative news story against Clinton at the time, which was unbelievably, there was a time when we cut back slightly on military spending and closed some bases. Yeah, so I'm from Lakewood, California, which is right next to Long Beach. I went to middle school and high school in Long Beach. And Long Beach had a naval base that was closed as part of this 1993 act. So like this like very much like resonated with me even at the time when I watched this episode, because I was like, oh, yeah, that's what's happening. They're closing the naval base. You know, the generation that's like, you know, my parents'

generation and the generation before that, it was a big Navy town. There was a lot of like, like people who were just like in the Navy, and that's why they live there. Or they worked at supporting industries, not liquor and prostitution, as in the Simpsons, but like, you know, there was a bunch of like shipbuilding, there was a bunch of aviation there. And what was the naval base is now a like, literally got turned into a shopping mall. So it's like, it's just kind of crazy to see that all these, again, it's just sort of a microcosm for the nation, like, you know, transitioning from this,

this war footing and this this manufacturing based economy to the service based economy, where now like, yeah, this this where there used to the service based economy, where now like, yeah, this, this, where, where there used to be these big airplane hangers and where they used to be, you know, the, the naval bases, it's, it's now all the infrastructure for the Navy. It's all not just places you go to shop. And I, it was definitely used in the culture war against Democrats at the time, but Hey, don't worry. They now both sides agree there should always be trillion, at least a trillion dollars spent on arms in the military.

And hey, if you're in another country, we'll help pay for your military, it's great. Yeah. Yeah. It's really awesome. So, yes, we see that Barney actually has a long history in dance, which is great in the original script and in the animatic that's on the DVD, there's a not as good joke

where Barney goes like, he says, how are you looking for a job? Ken asked him, he's like, looking. And he's just like, that's just the obvious Barney thing. Him having a background in dance, better joke. And I'm sure there are still unemployment offices, but the last time I was unemployed, which was 2013, they just sent me a postcard every week and I would fill out five of the 20 jobs I applied to

that week and send it back to them. That was all there was to it. I wonder how appified the system has become now. It's been years since I filed for unemployment, but I remember doing it online. It's well over a decade ago. But yeah, I think it is. I think the days of going and standing in a queue

like it's the DMV are kind of behind us. Also in the original script, they cut a joke that in the wax museum closed down and Homer bought the wax figures. And then it is just the joke about the wax figures that appears in BART of Darkness. So they didn't waste it. So then we go to the town meeting.

This is where it is like, oh, and now after all this talk about the trouble in town, now we go to the big town meeting and this is Marge versus the monorail. So much so in the original script, they have a joke about that this is the newest thing they're voting on after voting for the monorail. I guess, you know, Oakley and Weinstein

still younger, fresher writers, and they're going with the format that works. Yeah, and it works great. It's, well, and here is where I have my first audio of a deleted scene in here. This is in the animatic. If you pull up the animatic on the, I don't know if they got it to color,

but on the animatic, this is a deleted scene with Lionel Hutz and Dr. Hibbert. They interacted in this scene here. Wow. This happens right after Quimby opens up the meeting. Before I flee this sinkhole with what's left of the town treasury, do any of you losers have any bright ideas? I think we should declare bankruptcy, default on our loans,

and hide any remaining money in a numbered Swiss bank account. Well, that doesn't sound too practical. Hey, it worked for him. Perhaps the town would like to hear about your nervous breakdown. Eep. Excuse me. There, that's working. So Phil Hartman, is he in any other part of this episode? I don't think so, no. So the joke there is they're just both violating confidentiality.

Yeah. Got it. That's funny. It also creates a new background for Dr. Hibbert that they would have had to embrace if it appeared in this episode that He is going on under an assumed identity here Yeah, there are elements that make dr. Hibbert seem not quite dr. Nick, but like a more like acceptable version of shady I feel like it's kind of like a running gag

Yeah, I felt like they eventually phased out dr. Nick because dr. Hibbert was getting all of the shady doctor jokes applied to him as well. Why do we need a bad doctor? We just have Dr. Hibbert here. We can have Dr. Hibbert offered to sell a baby for Marge. We don't need Dr. Nick for that. We see that Quimby's going to leave town. We have a very cute scene of like, oh, the kid gives their piggy bank up.

Though it seems too naive for Lisa, but I do love Quimby just saying out loud he's gonna use that to tip the sky caps when he leaves. I think it's really funny anytime an idealist is like immediately undermined by someone who just like does not give a shit. Like it's like, I think that's really funny. As everybody is strapped for ideas,

this is where Skinner stands up very, at first unrealistically, which even he comments on, but he brings up that it's because he can see it as making money. Oh also then Ava pops up, but it's him doing the inverse of what he did in Monorail of saying like we got some gumption he falls asleep instead of starting to complain and everybody celebrates it. After Skinner suggests it, everybody quickly gets about the gambling. What do you think, Reverend? Once something has been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.

By building a casino, I could tighten my stranglehold on this dismal town. Well, now, are there any objections? Probably Marge. Actually, I think it might really help our economy. Very well, then. Instead of fleeing this town, I'll stay here and grow fat off kickbacks and slush funds. Yay! This could be a whole new beginning for Springfield. And you know what the best part is?

We've really done something for the children. I'm mixing this town hall scene up with so many other ones, and this one is still good, but Henry and I are covering another episode in a few days, and there is a town hall scene with people going, yay, at very pedestrian comments. So funny. Man, the bit, Skinner pitching it for the school, it makes no sense that Skinner would think about gambling. But man, that line, once something

has been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral. I love that line. Really good joke. Yeah, it's great. I think that going back to what you were saying about the Monorail episode, I think they landed in the correct place where they don't overtly reference Marge versus the Monorail, they just reference Marge being like a killjoy.

That indirectly makes you think of that. I think it's well played. All the murmuring about Marge is very funny. He just sees little eyes, probably Marge. I just saw's well played. All the murmuring about Marge is very funny. Just these little little eyes of probably Marge. I just saw these grumbles. Oakley and Weinstein realized the one key element missing from Marge versus the Monorail was Mr. Burns, who I assume is in that episode a little bit.

It's been a while since we covered it, but he is all over this one. He's instrumental to the plot and they love him. And he makes his episode so great. After Burns escapes as Mr. Strub, we don't see him again in that episode. That's right. We see he shoves the barrels in the tree and then the town gets money. Since they don't have a Lyle Lanley figure for this one, it's just Mr. Burns can just be that.

Though in the original script, there are competing casinos with Burns, but in this version, Burns is the only game in town as he tightens his triangle hold. Also, I mean, everybody looking at Marge, as a viewer, you're going, all right, what's Marge gonna say? Like, nobody, Marge doesn't like this. Merkin does say on the commentary he was trying to turn, I don't think that's a very good idea into Marge's catchphrase,

and it does pop up throughout seasons five and six as the thing she would say. Also, them all running out of the building. This is, it's like a one frame scene, but I've seen that meme so much. There's a crazy off model Homer running out of there. There's a really wild Homer that you're really not supposed to see.

He's tied with the super funky Nelson in the tree house towards the end when Goulet is performing. There's a ghoulish looking Nelson in that front row. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Though that's something I love. And Wes Archer, he's one of the artists who always wanted to keep the flaws or the weirdness. He's the one who Bill and Josh, they joke about it later,

that in the Bart Sells His Soul episode, they were arguing of like, Wes Archer was like, no, Moe is missing a tooth and I'm drawing him with a missing tooth. And Bill and Josh are like, I don't think he's missing a tooth, he looks weird. And Wes is the one showing them the model sheet of like, look, missing tooth right there.

So they legalized gambling through just a series of cheers, no vote needed. And we head to the waterfront, which I guess is where the Squid Port will later be. Just the idea of like, there used to be a waterfront. Now it's going to be rejuvenated. I guess that was happening a lot in the nineties too, I suppose. Yeah.

I mean, again, that, that was the thing that happened in Long Beach. There's this whole, um, Pike place or it's not, it's not called Pike place. That's the, that's Seattle. It's called something like that. Why can't I remember it? But yeah, they, they did a whole rejuvenation. They put an aquarium in. It's actually a really nice aquarium.

And then they, uh, they, they built a bunch of new retail and restaurants down there. Yeah, I feel like a bunch of waterfronts today are mostly breweries and artist studios and small businesses and things like that. Yeah, it's just called the Pike in Long Beach. That's what I'm thinking of. There's a great bit of Burns starting to remember his childhood. And, you know, I just remember the funny payoff of it, but the setup is so great too,

that for a second you think it's like, Burns loved his childhood all the way, he loved riding in the bumper cars, and it's like no, he only loved crippling an Irish immigrant, a poor Irish immigrant who couldn't say no. Yes, I just love how he immediately cries out like, who will look after me wee ones, when he's immediately ruined,

his family is dead because of these actions. Carry on. And just as we are laughing so hard at it, Burns is laughing for a full day about it. And I love that time cut over elongated laughing. We've seen that joke quite a lot, but that Burns, even then, once he forgets,

once he remembers again, starts laughing all over again. He can't stop. Yeah. Now, Josh Weinstein tweeted about this in 2020, but in their original pitch for this, when they made it in 92, in late 92, the idea was there were gonna be competing casinos all over town, and the idea of these themed casinos

like Woodstock and Britannia, they were going to be the competition for Burns and Springfield, and when that part got cut, Casinos like Woodstock in Britannia, they were going to be the competition for Burns in Springfield and when that part got cut they just turned it into the pitching session. Themed casinos like this like they were the rage in the 90s. I was looking up the timeline. I'm thinking this is inspired by Excalibur that opened up in 1990 in Las Vegas. Right they had a you know Circus Circus I think already existed but yeah they started they came up with Excalibur which is basically like a medieval time sort of concept. There was also a treasure island around the same time, which turned into like a more adult resort, but originally was like meant to be like, hey, this is like a family friendly. This is like recreating like a Disney sort of family experience that also has gambling. So yeah, they were going for more that there were more gimmicky concepts. Even the I think it was the Mirage that opened, which has the big volcano show outside of it.

And that was another thing that was just meant to be like an attention grabbing thing for people of all ages. Do you have a favorite themed one when you visit Las Vegas, Nick, of the themed casinos? Wow, you know, I do remember wanting to go to Excalibur so badly. And then I went there and it was just like, this is kind of dingy. It's just like, you know, it's like this just stained carpets. And yeah, I remember when I ultimately went there, it was something that will let down.

But I did enjoy the circus, circus, because you know, especially in a pre-Cirque du Soleil being everywhere, it was a place you could go and just sort of see circus performers, which was fun. Now I can't think of British waitresses without, where should you drink, Captain America? Yes, yeah. Unflattering portrayal.

Now every beautiful actress is from the UK, and they're all fake in those accents. Yeah, and they have great teeth. We talked about this when we covered that episode, too, with Eva Anderson. But the British people love The Simpsons, but they do hate that Simpsons along with Austin Powers in the 90s, popularize the misconception that British people have bad teeth. Oh, yeah, big book of British smiles. That was like my first I think that was

maybe the first British people have bad teeth jokes. I remember a joke I remember seeing. And yeah, that definitely stuck in my head. Something that I think is like, when they research it, it's just like demonstrably untrue, right? It's like British people actually have better teeth than average. Yeah, I think we did a British teeth joke corner on whatever episode that was. Oh, last sex at the Springfield. There we go. Yep. Yeah. You can you can learn the whole study on that one. But yeah, they then Burns is total hate and instant throwing out of the hippie pitching Woodstock, also a great joke. So funny.

Oh wow, man, let me just get my head together real quick. No. Okay. And then the sea captain comes in and I think this is a lesson for everybody who has a pitch meeting, you know, just ask for five minutes, even if you came in with a completely wrong thing, like,

give me five minutes, you can adjust. Don't give up. Him pitching like a 17th century sea voyage though is so funny. I mean, it's just like, it's just one of those things where they're like, oh yeah, this is a cartoon. They can just be that silly. And I love them embracing it. That's one of my favorite jokes in the episode. That's also where Bill Oakley on the commentary mentions how like they were in love with sea captain at this time. Every script had a sea captain joke But soon Cletus will appear and take up all the oxygen We just covered a Boy Scouts in the hood and his catchphrase from that episode is I don't know what I'm doing

Yeah, yeah Which is clear from his many appearances. He's a bad sea captain Nick yes, you mentioned the Simpsons slot machine This was the point in the episode where I was like, wait, didn't I hear about that? It debuted in 2017, but it had a very short life. Like it within three years when Disney took over Fox, Disney doesn't license nothing for slot machines. So the Simpsons slot machines are gone. Like I went to a Reddit page of like people asking, Hey, where can I find a Simpson slot machine? And the slot machine enthusiasts of Reddit were very clear of nowhere.

It was taken back by Disney. There's no old slot machines there anymore. That's wild. I mean, that makes total sense, and I never pieced that together on my own. But yeah, that's good context. I wonder, you probably can't even buy one on the secondary market, right? Let's put a slot machines on a thing that gets sold. Probably not those fancy ones, though you can see on YouTube there are dedicated, much like how there are people who open toys for YouTube videos, there are people who play slot machines and film it.

So you can watch all of the fun features of the Simpsons slot machine. It was a really well done machine. I remember just having a lot of fun just sitting with my wife who also loves the Simpsons. I grew up with the Simpsons and watched this episode with me and remembered every joke. It was a great bit of just full-fledged fan service. And yes, it's a bummer it doesn't exist anymore.

From what I saw, it was full of original animation and lots of jokes that seem written by Simpsons writers. Yes, for sure. Said by Dan. Dan and Azaria are in it. Kesslin and Azaria are in it. I don't know if anybody else is. I just want a new pinball game.

It's been now 20 years since Simpsons Pinball Party. It's been too damn long. Wow. I'm hopeful with the delisting of Tapped Out that 2025 is a new era of Simpsons video games. I'm hopeful. Let's get a new Simpsons wrestling. It's overdue. Yeah.

We can make skateboarding good again. Burns realizes what they need. He knows exactly a logo with his catchy name and sex appeal. Mr. Burns is casino, and him is a sexy mermaid. And they cut a little scene here. Did you get to this one, Henry? The secret scene? I do.

OK. After that, the reason mr. Byrne says catchy name and and have sex appeal is to set up when Homer and Smithers are looking at it after the cutaway which has this little line What a catchy name and so sexy Pretty funny, and that's like two seconds. I'm shocked they cut it. I mean, I guess the joke works on its own. Like, the design is funny enough.

Yeah, I guess you kind of just get the punch on the reveal. And then it is kind of a double beat. It is just kind of underlining the same joke. But yeah, when they also, like, so much time is spent with, you know, which we'll get to the Rain Man scene or, you know, earlier Kissinger get to the rain man scene or, you know, earlier Kissinger and Burns and Smithers all murmuring. It's like, you know, there was some fat that could have been trimmed to fit something like that in.

Well, I mean, speaking of like apportionment of time, we've just spent, you know, two full minutes really with Mr. Burns. And now it's finally time to get back to the Simpsons dinner table. All right, the Simpsons. What are they up to? So first we get to see the start of the story for Marge and Lisa, which is that Lisa needs help with her costume. Marge pitches Florida. This is so quaint to me as a Floridian, as somebody who lived in Florida then and would

live there for the next 13 years of my youth. These jokes about Florida are just like, yeah, it's oranges and old people. That's all that Florida has, right? Yeah. I don't think it was until later in the 90s or maybe the early 2000s where it kind of became like the... The first thing I actually remember was an Adam Carolla bit, which was Germany or Florida just talking about... Adam Carolla used to be on the radio. He hosted Love Line and then did Morning Talk out here in L.A. That was the first time that it was like, oh, Florida is like a den of sin

or Florida is like this place where like it's just like a bunch of rednecks doing crazy shit. I remember that that didn't used to be as much in the zeitgeist, the kind of kind of fan boat Hicks side of Florida. Yeah. And I believe the aughts sort of brought about the Florida man phenomenon because of certain Oh, yeah, Florida man, right. The sunshine laws, which make your identity and crimes

visible to everybody. So crimes from that area are widely propagated because they're just way more visible than other crimes. Thanks to the sunshine law, it makes it very easy to be a news reporter who's just like, well, I need a wacky crime. Well, fortunately, in Florida, you can learn about every crime. I'm sure

crazy crimes similar to Florida happen in every state, but the people who get arrested for them get some level of being anonymous and don't have to be internationally humiliated with a story. Right. Yes. No, I don't. I mean it's not like good policy. No, no, no. All this stuff is, you know, is public. And also this is before the 2000 election, which would make it a key part of every American election as well. Yeah, 100%. This is also where Bill and Josh remember the great runner of Homer's lifelong dream, which is,

Lifelong dream is to be a blackjack dealer. Marge reminds him his lifelong dream was to be on the Gong Show, which I love that Marge puts it specifically in 1977. And Homer is an adult in that scene, which would make Homer at best in his early 60s now, if that was true. And if you don't know what this is, it was basically a trashy American Idol. It was from the late 70s to the early 80s.

And since we last covered this, I learned that there is a Gong Show movie, but it was pulled from theaters almost instantly I think because a it was bad but B it opened the same weekend as the Empire Strikes Back and The Shining oh wow that's wild that is nuts I did not know that the like not a biopic on Chuck Barrett's but a like yeah the Gong show is a movie well I didn't see the movie but apparently it's a day in the life or a week in the life of Chuck Barrett's as he's the host of the Gong show the a movie, wow. I didn't see the movie, but apparently it's a day in the life or a week in the life of Chuck Baris

as he's the host of the Gong Show, the things he sees, et cetera, et cetera. Directed by Chuck Baris, that's insane. Wow, I was looking it up because I was like, oh yeah, there's a new Gong Show, right? And then that aired in 2017, that was the one hosted by Mike Myers as a character. But that was, I was like, man, that was eight years ago.

That's crazy. 2017 isn't allowed to be eight years ago. No. Also, if you freeze frame it, you can definitely tell they drew good caricatures of Chuck Barrett's and I'm assuming Paul Williams and the woman I really can't, I mean, Farrah Fawcett was my first guess, but. There were a number of women on the Gong show as panelists Although the middle person could be Chuck Barres, but it looks like Jamie Farr from that era as well

And he was a panelist too, so it's a little bit more Paul Williams is clearly Paul Williams Yeah How many of the homers lifelong dreams like your lifelong dream was blank because the other one I remembers your lifelong dream was to Run out on the field during a baseball game, and you did it and then you get the headline, idiot ruins game, Springfield four foot pennant or whatever it is. And it's like, I was like, that's what I thought the joke was here on this rewatch.

And I was like, oh wait, no, this is the, this is the gong show one. Are there any more that come to mind? Like those are the ones I can think of. Previous to this one, there was also the world's biggest hockey. Oh, right. Yeah. Oh, and the car shaped like a bowling ball.

Yeah, I have a list of some of them. So there's manage a beautiful country singer, eat the world's biggest hoagie, be a monorail conductor, and own the Dallas Cowboys. I believe there are six or seven of these throughout this era of the show. Oh, yeah, so that one's coming in Scorpio's episode. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, that again, another of this like, oh, this is a monorail sequel episode. He's even mentioning his lifelong dream to have the job of the character of the new business that opened just like it. Probably almost, maybe even to the minute at the same point in the episode too. And we come to the Burns' Casino

and we get our first guest of the episode Hello, I'm retired heavyweight boxer Jerry Cooney. Welcome to mr. Burns casino If there's anything I can do to make your visit more enjoyable, please just let me know. Yeah, great See ya. Don't forget to apply for our VIP platinum club for special discounts on hey, is it bug off? Hey, is that bug off? Let's see 1827 35 dealer bus looks like y'all win again Homer I want you to have my lucky hat. I wore it today Kennedy was shot and it always brings me good luck Thanks senator looks like my shift is over. Uh-oh.

This, that all rules. The Jerry Cooney, real boxer, he's most famous for losing big fights late in his career, very quickly to Michael Spinks and George Foreman. Before that, his biggest fight was against Larry Holmes, where he threw a few low blows in it. He, it was kind of a, he fought a little dirty in it, and mainly he was remembered

as like, you know, he was remembered as a not great white fighter in it who was would face African American opponents. So because you know, he gets knocked out by Otto, like is that joking on his reputation as a boxer? Like that must be like, Oh, this guy had a glass jar or whatever. Like that kind of makes me respect Jerry Cooney that he'd agree to be made fun of in that way. Yeah I believe it is referencing how he was kind of known as a loser but I guess a charming loser who still had a lot of wins under his belt because I guess he famously lost to George Foreman in two rounds in 1990 but

I think they're doing what they couldn't do with I believe Wade Boggs because in the softball episode Barney was supposed I believe, Wade Boggs because in the softball episode, Barney was supposed to knock out Wade Boggs and I believe someone associated with Wade Boggs called the show or went into the show and said, but Wade Boggs does not get knocked out by Barney, which is why- No, he does knock out Wade Boggs. It was Joe Frazier. Joe Frazier, that's it. Sorry, Wade Boggs does get knocked out, correct? Yeah.

Okay. But it was Joe Frazier that his, I think it was like his son said he does not get knocked out, correct? Yeah. Okay. But it was Joe Frazier that his, I think it was like his son said he does not get knocked out by the town truck. Right, that's it. There's a long history of who and who cannot be punched on The Simpsons. If you look at Jerry Cooney's boxing record, like he actually has an admirable one,

like wasn't at championship level, but he wasn't like a nobody, like hired. Yes, yeah. Though he is literally, like I didn't know he was a real guy until later in the 90s when I saw the Samuel L Jackson comedy the great white hype where he is Jerry Cooney is brought up as an example of oh yeah we need to get some loser white guy to face the champion and play into a race angle that'll make us a bunch of money like that is the that's the plot

of the great white hype and they literally bring up Jerry Cooney is like hey we should do that again as as the example in the movie I like that movie Jerry Cooney a man I learned of through the Simpsons I think I kind of inferred that he was a real man just from the performance which I think he's good but it but it is clearly like not an actor you know and he's still with us it's 68 so wow I think he's even like a podcaster or a radio host. At least I believe.

I think he's a radio host. More importantly, though, debut of the rich Texan happening right here in this scene. Amazing, isn't it? They they got wild. They got rid of the lore that he was a senator, unfortunately.

But I love I love the implication that he was some part of the Kennedy assassination, I think. He has not started dancing and firing his guns in the area. That will take a few more appearances, but he's here. In the original script, he is called Big Texan, and it's indicated as Foghorn Leghorn Voice. So, and who would have thought that he'd become

like the 30th most appearing character in the series, I'd say. And like many of the characters who were mostly known by descriptions like Comic Book Guy, Squeaky Boy's Teen, he now has a name. His name is Richard Texan. I don't know when that came about, but the wiki does say that. I'm glad it at least doesn't undo his name, unlike Snake E. Jailbird, I think, is the something like that. Or Jeff Albertson. Eh, I hate that. Jeff Albertson. I hate that pisses me off. I hate that Wait, who's Jeff? That's a comic book guy Wait, really they named comic book guys in the teens. We covered that one right Henry Wow

We haven't got okay. Maybe it's even this season when he's about to marry Edna. I choose to forget that one It's coming very soon in any case. Yeah. Well first we see Abe Simpson It's coming very soon in any case. Yeah. Well, first we see Abe Simpson failing to throw dice and annoying everybody, wasting a lot of, an old man wasting time, more of season five. And now it's time for, did the Simpsons predict this? I'm leaving this call right now.

No, no, no. We address this, I can't go back into the whole thing again. We address this very clearly in our our predicted live show but yes it is kind of funny that the flamboyant magic of Gunter and Ernst a parody of Siegfried and Roy has a specifically a white tiger attack both of them it's funny because we're about to cover a season 15 episode that starts with a crocodile hunter parody in which he is killed by an animal. And on both commentaries, they're right after the event

and saying, oh God, we're sorry. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like, to put it in time, it was October 3rd, 2003. So it was within a year of them recording this commentary that it happened. Now, yeah, it was Manticore, the white tiger. And I wanna say, to be fair,

they were nice to the cat about it. They didn't blame the cat and the cat later died of natural causes I believe at 17. It was a very respectable thing of Roy Horn that when he was, what could have been his last words, he was saying don't hurt Manticore, like don't blame it, don't hurt it, like he had no hate in his heart for it.

I read a long article on the event and definitely he is like the Tiger King or the other big animal freaks from that. And I say that with no prejudice at all. Roy Horn was like those types of guys. He loved the animals. Siegfried was not the animal guy. Like Siegfried was the magician, the pure magician and Roy loved to do animal tricks. Another part of the manticore thing was that Roy, Roy insisted that manticore didn't mean to hurt him and that Roy was like having a stroke

and that manticore wanted to help him. That's what Roy said. Even in the article on that, it said, multiple animal experts refute this and say, no, definitely not, it was crying to kill him. Yeah, I think the initial bite was what might've caused the stroke. And then he insisted that Manticore was trying to drag him away to safety.

But, I mean, we can never know what a tiger's true intentions are. Yeah, but animal experts were like, no, it's more likely he was dragging you away to kill you farther from the crowd. Like, that was the plan. And, you know, they both punched out around the same time since we last recorded this episode, recorded a podcast about it, because Roy died in 2020 2020 from COVID and then Siegfried died in 2021

from pancreatic cancer. So they were still, they were pretty old. So it wasn't incredibly tragic, but they couldn't live without each other. Oh, and one more sad aspect of Roy Horn's attack that happened that day. It was his birthday. Oh, that happened to him. Yeah. It had a party that early. There's a party tonight. Maybe there was a party tonight that night too, but he was ripped apart by it. That's too mean. But on the commentary, they're like, yeah, people saw this coming. You're bossing around a wild animal.

Like, it's bound to happen. Even more unfortunate, it happened right before the debut of Father of the Pride. Yeah, that would have been- Oh, they had like a show, right? Yeah, it was, yeah, Jeffrey Katzenberg created an animated sitcom that was kind of like, what if lions were Shrek, etc. Sorry, Nick, I didn't jump in. You're about to say something. No, no, I'd forgotten about that. I totally memory hold that. Yeah, they had a, wait, was that computer animated?

It was. Was that like that? Yeah, I think even Donkey made an appearance. That was a very early computer animated TV show. Like, that was the, or think it was. It was, okay. So that was like one that, that was a very early computer animated TV show. Like that was the, or when that was still kind of a novelty. Yeah, the, I do think it's really funny how the tiger is,

they're like much more, much better than the savagery of the jungle. And then the tiger is napping, like just like the most tranquil sort of scene, just like napping on the savanna. And then they go to the trouble of waking it up before shooting it with a tranquilizer dart like completely unnecessary It's really funny and just seeing that flashback in the Tigers head even though it's referencing a unknowingly referencing a future occurrence It's still like a funny bit in isolation

Yeah, there's a cut bit of animation the initial take was the tiger like rolling around on its back and kind of twitching and freezing And it looked a little too painful So they went back and did another take where the tiger like rolling around on its back and kind of twitching and freezing and it looked a little too painful So they went back and did another take where the tiger just kind of goes back to sleep After yeah hit with the dart Matt Mac ranting in particular does not like animal violence. Like he really tries to hold that back Fortunately these guys they're they're doing well enough that later they can be picking up a country bumpkin. So They're not too badly hurt. In my notes, I have the term grooming a hayseed. Ha ha ha!

Ha ha ha! Then we cut to Bart. He wins a small amount of money on a slot machine. This joke and the episode of Full House made me as a kid be like, could I play a slot machine and get away with it? You remember that Full House guys where it's Stephanie, right? Yes, yeah.

She pulls the lever on the slot machine. She wins a lot of money and they think they're rich, I guess richer than they currently are. And then it's revealed like no, you're a child. This is not valid. Well, they try to pretend Uncle Jesse did it, but they get caught. In my teens, underage, I did do that at a casino in Reno.

I was walking around the casino, I'm like, okay, I'll just put a quarter in. This was back when you could do just quarters and machines. So I put a quarter in machine, I'd play it, I'd walk away if it didn't win, always on the lookout. And then I won a $200-ish jackpot on one, and it spit out enough quarters to like $170 until it ran out of quarters, and they were bringing, a person was coming by to like restock the quarters, and I was like, uh, you can keep the rest as a tip, I gotta go! And I just like ran off, but I kept my money.

I have enough quarters, thanks. Wow. You actually pulled off what Bart attempted. That's wild. I bet I was the age of squeaky voice teen in this scene. With a squeakier voice, though. Worse dressed and heavier. Is it squeaky voice teen? Or is it like a close to squeaky voice teen character?

Voice wise, it is, the voice. But yeah, character model, it is not the, I mean, I don't think they've yet formalized, this is the character model that is the only one you use for squeaky voice. Right, right. Don't we all dream of when your enemies literally will see something you did and say,

well, he certainly showed me? It's so funny. I love that he does exactly what he says. And it's after Bart starts his casino is when the Planet Hollywood storyline begins in the episode. Oh, wow. Yeah, that would probably be overstuffed if that was in there. Oh, one other bit they mentioned I forgot to say when explaining Planet Hollywood is the bill on the commentary mentions that Conan helped a bit with that

because Conan had all of this funny Arnold stuff he had done for the Hans and Franz movie. Oh, I guess he was writing it at that point. They talked about finally Arnold Schwarzenegger brought so low that he has to do a podcast, but he did he did the Conan one. But they tell a story about it on there. It sounded Arnold was up for it. I don't know why it fell apart, but he was going to do it. After all that, here is a big deleted scene that everybody probably knows

because it's maybe the most memorable deleted scene on the 138th episode spectacular. I think the robotic Richard Simmons part has not aged well, so I think this could be one of the top contenders. That's true. You can hear it without the sound effects in it, but a fully mixed version was done for 138, so let's give that a listen here. 20. Your move, Mr. Bond.'s give that a listen here. I didn't lose. I never lose. Well, at least tell me the details of your plot for world domination.

Ho ho ho, I'm not going to fall for that one again. They do a better version of this in the Scorpio episode of Homer Causes the Death of James Bond. This in the Rain Man thing feel a little critic-y to me, where Homer is just encountering movie characters at his job. Sure, yeah. I could definitely see that. I do think it's better than the Rain Man game though. Oh, for sure, yeah. And I'm kinda like, maybe it was just less contemporary, but I was like, I'm kinda surprised they cut that one, cause I think it's pretty, it's very funny.

Beyond any sensitivity concerns of the Rain Man one, this scene is a funnier joke about, James Bond has been spoofed a lot, though maybe too, this was a fallow period for Bond, we're a few years away from Pierce Brosnan kicking it back up. Right, so it just kind of feel like maybe like a horror-y reference.

But it's like the joke here is on Homer's ineptitude as a dealer, which is what's so funny about this scene with the introduction of the rich Texan. Though now if you're playing Balotro, you want to get all the jokers handed to you when you're playing. I think they say that they pronounced it James Bond in the scene, but I don't hear it. I hear Bond in the Scorpio scene.

The Scorpio one, the Bond is very pointed. It's like, well, you Mr. Bond. But this one, yeah, it sounds like Bond. Though I think they're implying on the commentary that despite the protections you have over parody law that the owners of the Bond franchise are particularly litigious about parody of the character So it might have just been Fox was scared and said cut cut this scene It's too it's too obviously James Bond that could be it the broccoli family is very litigious and they're just worried about that

I know like the Rolling Stones are famously like super duper productive about their catalog and so yeah most people like it's not worth the trouble to do any sort of Rolling Stones reference. This is where it comes in for I haven't done one of these in a while Bob but it's the the Gilbert family tale of the tape. Okay. Which is me talking about a problem that happened when we were taping this episode when originally or which was the Gilbert family must have been out doing something holiday related because we missed this episode. And certainly I wouldn't have agreed to this,

but it had to be done. So we set it to record, but something messed up and it missed the first act. And so I will always associate this great joke about remember at the town meeting with my childhood frustration of not understanding this callback because I didn't see the first act. Well, Henry, you should have thrown a tantrum.

You could have watched the first act in 1993. I mean, certainly as a kid, I never threw tantrums. Honestly, my parents were probably, they probably had like five other tantrums they would have to go through about the Christmas toys that week that they were like, all right, we're not listening to this one. They built up a tantrum tolerance.

It's great that in the original script, they literally say that Homer's recollection, as he's trying to say, strike three, Marge. In the script, it says, Homer's memory resembles a find the mistakes cartoon. That was entirely intentional. Oh, that's funny. Homer's vision of Marge with green hair and a blue dress

and shaking a rolling pin. Yes, multicolored pearls, right? Yeah, her shoes are the wrong color, her dress is the wrong, everything is wrong. There's so much detail packed into that. Yeah, and he's got the big guns. I love Homer's pride of saying, like, strike three, Marge. Merkin loves, in this time, any joke about how,

in real time, a fantasy is experienced by characters. Marge walks away from Homer as he is recounting this. She doesn't care. Very realistically, Marge, you know, it is very quick, but she plays one quarter, it wins her a dollar. She steps away for a second and then goes straight back into the room. Now, you guys are talking about gambling. I was conspicuously silent. I don't like it because it makes me feel bad back into the room. Now, you guys are talking about gambling.

I was conspicuously silent. I don't like it because it makes me feel bad most of the time. And the only gambling I do is crane game machines in Japan. And last time I went, I spent about 30 bucks and won like nothing. I won this little slime guy. That's basically it.

Hey, that's pretty good. But this time I went back and I had the Marge experience where my wife was doing something. I was on my own at a mall and I saw a crane game machine full of ape escape guys They're about I don't know two feet tall and I played it I nudged it close to the hole and I realized oh shit I could get this and within two more tries I got it and the feeling I got was so Thrilling and satisfying. I thought I have to leave immediately

I just felt like I have to get the fuck out of here before this becomes a compulsion. So I mostly stayed away. And then I won another big thing only in a few tries again later in the trip. So I have to just kind of keep my distance for the most part, because now I realize just like what the thrill of winning is.

Yeah. Right. When I have been up, it has only caused me to lose more money. Like my last trip to Vegas, I think I started and had like, I walked away from machine on day one like, oh, I'm up like $100. That's great. Next day, that $100 turns to $50. And once you've lost $50, it's like, well,

now I need to keep gambling more to get back to $100. And then eventually, I'm at negative 50 by the third day. Yeah. The only way I can keep the only way I'm able to manage it is okay. I have this amount that I'm bringing that I'm budgeting to spend bottom line. Once I reach the point where I hit my threshold of what I would I'm willing to lose for gambling, then I just have to tap out completely. I always end up getting there. Like I almost never like leave what where I'm where I'm actually like up. Like I'm just like, okay, well, I am up.

Well, okay, I should keep playing and win some more. You know, it's such a perverse psychology. Have the Dill Boys gone to Las Vegas yet for a show Nick? We have not done a show in Las Vegas. We did review the Margaritaville in Las Vegas. We haven't done a live show there. That would be interesting. Vegas is kind of a mecca for chains.

I mean, basically every chain restaurant is available somewhere on the strip or nearby. And then also of course, every celebrity chef has a restaurant in a casino, a flagship restaurant in the casino. So it's definitely a place where you can get a lot of good food options. Nick, you could pull a Joe Rogan and move your podcast to Las Vegas, and then all the

others are going to follow you, just as... Call your compound you build in Las Vegas some spin on the mothership, the father ship. There you go. Call it that. Yeah. But okay, so Marge, her addiction begins. This is where we go back to Bart's Kids Casino, which it's a fun little bit.

I mean, I always love seeing Millhouse get ripped apart and hurt, everybody likes that. Then this is where there's another deleted scene. You saw it too, Bob? Oh, I don't think it came up for me when I was, whenever I'm pausing a lot, they usually just pop up naturally, but this time it didn't.

So while we're going around the games, we see there is a roulette wheel that is on a spinning bike, lacing on the spokes of a bike, they're the roulette wheel, and Martin is doing very good at it. And this by the way is uh it's it's cheap Martin, Pamela Hayden Martin for this one. Budget Martin. Budget Martin yeah. The air nozzle on this tire causes it to stop at 34 a high percentage of the time. Lose him. I hardly think it's fair to inject a patron simply for discovering certain statistical anomalies.

Nelson throws him out of the casino for catching the anomalies. So yes, that's it. I want to say that Pamela Hayden is great. It's when they don't want to pay for a Roosey Taylor who's not in their regular group. And you can really tell the difference there. I mean, RIP Roosey Taylor. Yeah, I guess they had two scenes back to back of gamblers

figuring out the system. Oh, that's true. Yeah, it's a redundant bit there. Oh, and maybe also they're like, well, we could bring in Roosey for this, but that makes this scene cost like $ thousand more dollars or something, so. Right. First off, the sight gag I do like

is that they've got the Millhouse, and then it's like coming up on evening with Jimbo. I like imagining what that is. But it's another magic act where someone is mauled by a cat. They do that twice in the same episode. But yeah, everyone just applauding with enthusiasm as Millhouse gets torn apart is so funny to me. Then after this, we see the lesser comedy movie parody

scene of Homer. And yeah, I mean, I said this with the crying game, but Rain Man 2, like, parodying this movie was your cheat code in comedy back then for making fun of certain groups of people that you wouldn't make fun of without it being a movie parody. There were so many characters in kids' cartoons that acted like Rain Man had the Rain Man voice.

Yeah, like, well, my first thought is Rita and Runt. The Runt in there is Rain Man. Basically, yeah. Well, but it's like Runt plus the Reb. It's George. Oh, Lenny, yeah, from A Place in Man. Though I just think of that as a Looney Tunes voice, not the classic novel.

The Rain Man scene, I mean, the joke is that Homer has similar brain problems to Raymond, I guess, is the issue there. Them screaming back and forth, but it's just so corny. Although I will say great caricatures of both celebrities, very unflattering, but that makes them funnier. I like the giant nose on Tom Cruise.

Oh, and reminder that in 1988, the highest grossing film of that year was Rain Man. That's how big Rain Man was. I remember seeing Rain Man in theaters as a kid and not being too young to understand it. Yeah, it was just like, oh, this is the big thing to go see. So it's also like, it was so ubiquitous,

like the reference of, it was a pre-meme meme of just like, excellent driver this is the big thing to go see. So it's also like, it was so ubiquitous, like the reference of, it was a pre-meme meme of just like, excellent driver, I'm an excellent driver. Like everyone was saying that, even at school. And back then it was also like your cheat code for, oh, a great acting performance is to perform a disability of some kind. Right, right. Which is now seen as like, you know, gauche,

to say the least, I'd say. I do think Tropic Thunder killed it I think that's what mainstreamed the the end of those types of roles that and the other big one of the era was Daniel Day-Lewis in my left foot that was the Academy Award winning performance was someone Characterizing that and yeah, you're right. It's kind of gone away. I remember our pal drew Mackey from gayest episode ever I'll credit him for this He mentioned that the writer for Rain Man was the uncredited writer Barry Morrow for the Super Mario Brothers movie yes Wow and he basically made a Rain Man variant but with Mario and Luigi to the

point where internally they called it Drain Man and I think a lot of the budget was tied up in paying him initially to write a script is that crazy like that's why Mario Luigi's relationship is like a found brother. And Luigi is a little simple, I guess. That's the closest you could compare. Now this episode is so refreshing to me because I think if you write a Casino Comes

to Simpsons episode now, you bring in Fat Tony. It's the mafia casino. It's just natural. It's so much funnier to instead pull from the real life of Howard Hughes and make it about Byrne. Yeah, I agree. And this is where I learned about Howard Hughes' eccentricities.

One more Long Beach thing, there was a Queen Mary docked there. And then also, and I don't know if it's still there, but the Spruce Goose under a dome is like a tourist attraction That was just on display in Long Beach. I remember touring it as a kid So like yeah when he brings up the spruce moose here, I was like, oh, okay. I know what that's referencing I know how our Hughes is but I didn't know any of the stuff about Howard Hughes having all these eccentricities at the time the story is that at Thanksgiving

all these eccentricities at the time. The story is that at Thanksgiving 1966, Howard Hughes rented out the top two floors of the Desert Inn Casino in Las Vegas. He would not leave, and instead of leaving, he bought the casino, along with several others, and stayed there for four years, usually nude, surrounded by piss jars, and would never allow anybody into the room.

I think he just ate nothing but ice cream. I want to know more about this. So about 20 years ago, I read a book by piss jars and would never allow anybody into the room. I think he just ate nothing but ice cream. I want to know more about this. So about 20 years ago, I read a book called Citizen Hughes by Michael Droznin. Now keep in mind, he is the guy who made the Bible code famous, but don't hold that against him because that book, Citizen Hughes, is very good.

It details all of the things happening in his final years of life, what his routine was like. And he was the world's filthiest man, but who was still obsessed with germs. Like he never bathed, but had to make sure he was like lying on top of tissue paper at all times. Everything had to be placed on napkins. He would watch, I believe, the same movie

like over and over again. I think it got something about Ice Station something, Ice Station zebra, does that sound familiar? That sounds familiar, yeah, yeah. I miss when crazy, when rich guys went crazy. I wish they went crazy like this now, instead of just becoming culture warriors, I suppose is what happens now. Yeah, I'm glad we don't have to read like an archive of Howard Hughes' posts.

I like that it's just like, hey, this is a, he was being a freaking private. God bless him. Piss jars are now just posts. That's the... Yeah. Yeah. And the Desert Inn would become the Wind in Las Vegas, owned by a certainly not comparable crazy rich asshole, Steve Wind. Oh, and it's also the Desert Inn was the first place

where Frank Sinatra performed in Las Vegas. And there's no other interesting facts about Frank Sinatra, are there, Nick? No. None I can think of. No. But I love how Smithers freaks out interesting facts about Frank Sinatra. Are there Nick? None I can think of. I love how Smithers freaks out of how he's hiding his reaction to burns like microscopic germs and he's like, no sir.

What a rad bit of animation. Henry, you texted me a gif of this and yeah, the slow push onto Smithers' face and then the microscopic germs emerging and becoming, you know, visible to the naked eye for Burns. It's so cool looking. I mean, it's disgusting, but it's really well done. It's such a Bill and Josh move to like pull up like, Oh yeah, Mr. Burns, our old timey guy goes old timey crazy like his contemporary Howard Hughes did. Like it's so great. Then we cut to Maggie getting into some pacifier mischief,

very shorts style, and almost gets mauled by a tiger. And yes, this is where, grooming a hazy, that's such a great life. Barney saves the day, and Oakley and Weinstein, big fans of season three, which is why I think Barney still thinks Maggie is named Bart, because in Homer alone, Barney shows up to have like a bro out weekend with Homer when Marge goes to Rancho Rolakso,

and he goes, well if it isn't little Bart, when he sees Maggie. It's a great joke that sadly, it becomes realer to me all of the time as a childless person who thinks that babies don't age, and I see somebody with a new baby, and I think, but that 10 year old over there was a baby. Why aren't they still a baby?

So you think Gooter and Ernst find a different bumpkin every weekend at the casino? Oh sure, they're busting. Yeah, well they're just having fun with him. No, so then Barney sees that Marge is unfazed by this and just places Maggie back down. Barney, even he thinks Marge has classic impulsive behavior, that he drinks a bunch of quarters and how long he coughs him up is very funny. Yeah, this guy's paying off. Just before that, I do like the line of dialogue he has when

it says to Marge, your boy Bart almost got eaten by that pony. Yeah. To see the world as Barney sees it must be magical. Yes. That's not just like you're a functional alcoholic. That's also like there's something deeply wrong with you. You're just perceiving things as different things. It's because Barney is a throwback drunk

that he is a pink elephant's drunk. That's what's great. I guess so, yeah. It's not actually like how alcohol manifests itself, but that's the kind of drunk he is. It's a cartoonish Like, that's what's great. I guess so, yeah. It's like not actually like how alcohol manifests itself, but that's the kind of drunk he is. It's a cartoonish drunk, and it's more fun that way. He's like the guy from Harvey. Yeah.

Yeah, sure. Then we cut to Krusty's performance. Now, in the original script, Krusty actually owns his own casino that's competing that is circus, circus style. And that's where he's performing stand up. But they just kept the stand-up bit, which you can see a lot of stand-up in Las Vegas.

Usually it is just very famous people who either are there for high paying gigs or literally live there and own their own theater. This is a bit that I think is definitely cut for syndication, right? I don't remember seeing this when it would replay. And yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of great jokes in this episode. I think the whole herpes thing, and we're I don't remember seeing this when it would replay. And yeah, I don't know.

There's a lot of great jokes in this episode. I think the whole herpes thing and we're going to sit in silence is kind of like, all right, whatever. Kind of like the piece with the Rain Man one for me of just not quite a, not one of the higher points here. Although I wonder if Barney knows that his ex-girlfriend, who is a Japanese performance artist, is in that audience.

Yeah, right. That's a little Easter egg that she's just sort of sitting there next to the guy who's heckling him. That's great. Yeah, I think I do like that the heckler, they just all decide, fine, we're not even gonna heckle anymore, we're just shutting down.

Like, everything's shut down. This is where we see Burns going crazier, and when the germs say, Freemasons run the country, which this is the starting point for the Stonecutters episode that will be coming. Whenever I see the, I mean this episode

taught me about Freemasons, I didn't even know what they were, I just knew that Burns was afraid of them, so now whenever I see the Masonic symbol on a building, that line echoes through my head. Like what we had on guests from QAnon Anonymous on, I wonder, I should ask them, what do the QAnon Anonymous on I wonder we should ask them what do the QAnon people think of the Freemasons?

Are they part of the Q conspiracy on some level? I feel like they have to be but I feel like they fall on a prominence now. Yeah they're kind of they feel kind of quaint like the Freemasons and the what are the other ones that they're their secret societies. Oh well that's calling bones at Yale. Yeah, sure. Right. It also just feels like, Oh no, all the Freemasons are like dead now. I don't know.

It just feels like they were all old men when we were kids and now they're all just gone. Right. Amazing level of detail on those there. And we then head over to Marge. She is not moving. This is where Homer, we end the act with Homer greatly misunderstanding what's happening here. You're just mad because everyone in this town loves gambling except for you. Well that's just sad.

It strikes me as a very David Merkin touch. He's bringing a lot of Get a Life to the Simpsons, where Homer is not aware of what the plot of the episode is until the finale. Yeah. He has a misunderstanding as to the situation he's in within this comedy. He thinks Marge is shutting him out because she hates gambling that much

that she won't leave with him. In this animation of Marge just robotically pulling the lever, I see this clip, not this clip, but something similar to it online. Have any of you seen the clip of the entire line of old people just like jamming on the slot machine button? Oh, I've seen pics of like, I don't, this specific meme I don't know,

but I've seen videos of stuff like that. It's just the oldest people you've seen, just hundreds of them just jamming on the buttons over and over. Once you got rid of the crank, like now it's just a button, it makes it too fast. Like that is my problem with it, that just, it's like button, button.

And obviously they want it to be too fast. So you spend money faster, but I miss the slow, like the crank, the time it takes to crank that, you can press a button four times at that time. Yeah, I guess it'll heighten to a point where it's a neural link between, that's directly linked to your checking account, you know? So you don't even have to take the step

of putting a credit card or or bet slip into the machine. Because there used to be the mechanical action of having to take a quarter, put it into the machine, pull the lever, you know, and now all that stuff has just gone away. Also, I love Julie's noise just to ride. Right? Right? Like, she's so good. Then we come back from the commercial break for the start of the last act.

Smithers is here, at first seemingly showing some compassion for Marge, but instead he is following his legal obligation for every 75 hours. So Marge has stayed there for at least 75 hours. I think just making sure she doesn't die from a blood clot. 75 hours is really funny. How that got negotiated as legislation of like, we're not 72 hours, 75 hours.

I Googled this by the way, and it led me to a very depressing Quora about how at least in Las Vegas, there isn't a law like this. And the people answering for it, or this is if Quora is true, which everything on Quora is true, so I don't know why I'm saying it. Yeah, I think so. But what was depressing about it was a couple of the answers were from like experts who were just like well You can really just stay in one place for a week pretty much And then they start to get weird about it

So you have to kind of move down the street and move to a different place like oh my god This is a strategy of how to live in a casino Yeah, jeez then we we cut to the Simpsons family and they are struggling Do you get the feeling this family is disintegrating? I mean we haven't had a meal with Mom all week, and she hasn't even started my costume for the geography pageant. Pipe down, sister.

I got to book a new act for tonight. Turns out that Liza Minnelli impersonator was really Liza Minnelli. Ooh. Ugh! There's nothing to eat for breakfast. You got to improvise, Lisa. Cloves, Tom Collins mix, frozen pie crust.

Maybe Mom just doesn't realize we missed her. We could go down to the casino and let her know. Aw, come on, Lisa. There's no reason to... Let's go see Mom. Mm. Marge, we need to talk. You're spending too much time at the casino, and I think you may have a problem.

I won $60 last night. Woo-hoo! Problem solved! You're spending too much time at the casino, and I think you may have a problem. I won $60 last night. Woohoo! Problem solved. I think I've taken some bites of a thing I've cooked with a horse grocery mall. I see people online trying to recreate some food like Skittle Brawl, moon waffles.

I don't think I've seen people try to make this lemony pie crust and clove stew yet. Yes. Sounds really revolting. Is Tom Collins mix a thing you can even get anymore? I looked it up. Apparently you can. It's not a popular cocktail.

It feels more like an elderly person's cocktail. But it's still around. Our pals in the band Sloppy Boys, they tried to repopularize the Tom Collins with their song. But I don't think it hasn't caught on enough yet to bring it back. Yeah, I mean, Cloves too, as a kid, I didn't know Tom Collins makes or Cloves, but. No, yeah.

My mom had to explain why that was especially disgusting. Also a great dodge of a joke, like a bad joke in a sitcom then would have been, turns out that Liza Minnelli I hired last night was actually a dude, like that's a bad joke. Yeah, sure. They turned it into a mean but funnier joke about, oh, I accidentally hired the real Liza Minnelli, who is worse than an impersonator of her.

Yeah, or just a nightmare to work with. Yes. I think that's good. One of those unnecessary bits of violence that are sometimes sprinkled in of just him getting blasted out of the frame with the fridge door opening. Oh yes, yeah, that's great. You hear that too at the end.

Yeah. That's great. I don't recall that being in either of the scripts I read, so I could see that as just Wes Archer seeing a new chance for a joke of like, oh, well Homer's line comes in so fast that if we're laying out the scene, Homer opens this thing and hits Bart.

That's just a great extra gag there. This is where the animators make things funnier. Then yes, we get the introduction to the Spruce Moose, which this taught me about it. And then I saw the Martin Scorsese film, The Aviator, in 2003. And that's when I finally learned the real story of it. Like I knew it was like,

oh, this is some sort of real thing, right? And the flight of the Hercules in The Aviator, that's the end of of it. Like I knew it was like, well this is some sort of real thing, right? And the flight of the Hercules in the Aviator, that's the end of the movie. That's the major plot point of the film. It's a good movie. I haven't seen it in a while, but I remember being good. I like Aviator, yeah. I do know, Nick, that you mentioned

where the Spruce Goose lived as something in LA because they built it there. They also had to build a hangar big enough to hold it, which then became a film soundstage, one of the biggest in Los Angeles, but is now owned by Google. You can see it in Playa Vista in Los Angeles. I always assume Burns saying hop in is in this scene, but it's in the later one. This is to establish he doesn't think it's a model. Yeah. And yes, again, Burns is old. He thinks New York's International Airport is still called Idlewile, which has not been its name since December of 1963 when it became the JFK airport.

And meanwhile, the Belgian Congo stopped being that in 1960 after it gained independence is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He kind of lost touch in the 50s. Yeah. Yeah. Two great anachronisms. It's really funny that he... I don't know why an airport would be enough, but then having the double joke of the Belgian Congo is really, really good. You know, this fits in with that Castro joke years later where he's just like, so Bautista is gone.

Like he... Burns stopped paying attention to the news in 1959, I want to say. Which, uh, would never happen to me with pop culture. I stay current all of the time. We then cut to Homer. I'll just play. This is like such a great scene. God damn. I love this scene.

Lisa, what's up? I just had a bad dream. Oh, sure. You just lie down and tell me all about it. Well, I know it's absurd, but I dreamed the boogeyman was after me, and he's... Ah! Boogeyman! You nail the window shut! I'll get the gun!

Ah! Art, I don't want to alarm you, but there may be a boogeyman or boogeymen in the house! Ah! Ah! Ha ha ha. Oh. Oh. Ah.

What happened here? Oh, nothing, Marge. Just a little incident involving the Boogeyman. Of course, none of this would have happened if you had been here to keep me from acting stupid. Oh, I'm sorry. I have been spending too much time at the casino. I'll be around more from now on

Does this mean you'll help me with my costume? Sure, honey. I promise Thanks mom Just like on TV Every part of that is great though Nick you're not as involved in social media these days, but this is one of the best memes of Simpsons memes out there. Oh yeah, Homer leaning over towards Bart,

I definitely have seen that memeified. The detail I like, I mean, it's such a funny sequence, but the detail I like is just how much Homer's trembling when he brings the shotgun up over the mattress. And you see Marge through a blasted hole in the door, he has fired this gun. Yeah. mattress. And you see Marge through a blasted hole in the door. He has fired this gun. Yeah. Yes.

It's also great that Homer frames it as like, if only you hadn't been here to stop me from acting stupid. So it's your fault, Marge. Like, this happened because you weren't here. And then also that Lisa, she's old enough to think it's stupid to be scared of the boogeyman. And then she explains it. Homer just loses it. And just, yes, the to think it's stupid to be scared of the boogeyman. She explains that Homer just loses it.

The timing of it's why it became such a popular meme. The way it's timed of Homer kicks in the door, gets right up to Bart's ear and tells him and then Bart screams and wakes up. The camera slowly pushes in as he's saying there may be a boogeyman or boogeyman in this house. Wes Archer credits a lot of assistance from Brad Bird, and he had good suggestions for laying this out. Nick, you might not know that Brad Bird was,

while he was trying to make a movie like The Iron Giant for years, he was executive creative consultant on Simpsons, which basically meant he just hung around where they hung around. This makes it seem like he was barely doing anything. But he basically was just general help on, and like look at episodes as they were being storyboarded

or laid out and be like, actually, what if he tried this? That was his job. Yeah, I know Brad Bird worked on The Simpsons, but I never get clarity on what exactly his capacity was on the animation side. So yeah, that's clarifying. He would take on directing jobs as well, but he wasn't one of the main directors.

Right. Man, it's lucky. I feel like Family Guy would have topped that joke that Peter Griffin would have just actually have killed somebody before. Yeah, sure. I guess they added that in the sound mix, the gun going off, because it wasn't really a joke before.

Grating didn't seem happy with it, I don't think. Actually, in Rosebud, when Homer shuts the door on Barney, the gun goes off when we hear a woman scream. So we've had a similar scene like this earlier in the season. That's right. Actually, death has happened before. This isn't exactly the same.

We see it onscreen death at the very start of this episode with the atomic bomb testing. That man, as his teeth falls out, he's dead. Yeah. Yeah, it just keels over. This is a great gag, too, of Merkin loves to joke. He does it even better in the Homer and Appu episode where Homer looks at his watch a couple of times

and be like, much earlier than usual. But this is the fake out bad sitcom ending. Like on, on Full House, when one of the characters of the girls on the show develops an eating disorder, they have a scene like this and it solves it like that. They just like, well, don't have an eating disorder. We're friends. Just stop doing it. Yeah. They just like, well, don't have an eating disorder. We're friends. Just stop doing it.

Yeah. Yeah, it resolves everything. It's back to normalcy, back to our baseline for the, in time for the beginning of the next episode. And Homer actually seems in pain from doing the Dick Van Dyke fall. Yeah. This also is where our other big guest star

of the episode comes in. Hi, you from the casino? I'm from a casino. Good enough, let's go. The star of the episode comes in. Hi, you from the casino? I'm from a casino. Good enough, let's go. I'm afraid Robert Gulley hasn't arrived yet, sir. Very well. Begin the thawing of gym neighbors.

Are you sure this is the casino? I think I should call my manager. Your manager says for you to shut up! Vera said that? Ugh. Oh! Ugh. Good old Robert Goulet, the late Robert Goulet. Passed away in 2007, so not too long after this episode.

Well, I guess 15 years later, so. I watched, so, you know, because when Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice came out, I rewatched Beetlejuice and he Robert Goulet is in Beetlejuice. And he's so good in it. He's just like, he's just a really, you know, most more known as a singer, but just like a really funny comedic actor in that. And this performance is so great. So here's my thing, I think I can say, without hyperbole, for me, Vera said that is like a top 10 Simpsons joke. That's like one of the funniest jokes that like just like that coming off of Nelson.

It's so great. And then just the implication that like he's just taking that literally like he just like he believes him. And that that's enough to coax him into doing it. I think it's a really funny performance in this and then that that individual joke is so strong He's like Vera said that should be him going like she would never say that but instead he accepts. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, he just believes it. It's great. And that is his wife Vera Goulet was his manager So that is also accurate. That's so funny.

I think she's still alive. At least if the website that maintains his legacy, that seemingly stopped being updated in 2018, is anything to go by, Vera Goulet is still around. But I also love that he's great at making fun of himself. He knows he's corny. Yeah, for sure. He was in Scrooge for a great joke too,

and like basically just a sketch of the opening of Scrooge of him doing the Bayou Christmas. Right. Right. It's just, you know, there was a Will Ferrell, had his Robert Goulet character as well. But it's like the actual Goulet was, yeah, you're right, so good at self-parody and was so good at just

like embracing the joke of, the larger joke of like, that could be made about him. And it was very, very funny and very funny this. Original script calls for Wayne Newton. This was an upgrade. Absolutely, yeah. 100%, yeah. This also leads to another,

Jim Neighbors was on the brain of The Simpsons too. Yeah. He passed away since we last recorded about this episode. He passed away, I believe in November of 2017. Yeah, it's great that 31 years ago the joke was, you know, he must be frozen because you never hear of Jim Neighbors at this time. So they must need to thaw him from the cryogenic tube

that they keep him in. Though now my new favorite Jim Neighbors joke in The Simpsons is that Jim Neighbors is way cool from this season, I think, or 14. Oh yeah, I think it's Spelling As Fast fast as I can yeah yeah that's a great one but we then cut to Homer blankly watching TV Lisa runs in and to remind us that just because an addict says everything's going to be better and I promise it actually isn't true and she just didn't show back up again so this

is TV lying to you to, like Merkin loves to fuck with you as if you were to be like, TV can lie to you, don't believe what TV tells you. Right. And we learned that Homer is doing Lisa his first favor since the day she was born as well. I love him hurting his hands no matter how he does it. But this, again, as a Floridian, a line I heard many times

to refer to a Florida in this next clip But dad if I don't show up in a rubber suit shaped like the state of Florida I'll be the laughing stock of the whole school It's always something isn't it first? I have to drive your pregnant mother to the hospital so she can give birth to you and now this oh Oh Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! No, Lisa. The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother. I call him Gamblor, and it's time to snatch your mother from his neon claws! Mark! Where are you? Damn this casino!

I've always enjoyed that Homer takes the metaphor that far to give Gamblor a backstory and lore and a physical description. Yes. So great. I call him Gambler. It's too serious if Homer just says, the only monster here is gambling. No, he has to describe Gambler.

And in the 31, two years since this episode aired, I've seen many a Simpsons fan replicate the Florida costume, as well as Ralph's I'm Idaho costume. Yes, yeah. And I'm not a state, I'm a monster. Comes up often about Florida as well. Yeah. The gambler is so good.

We used to say that at school, like, just reference gambler. Just me and my Simpsons fan friends. His neon claws. I loved him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But just the name is great. The listeners aren't seeing this, but Bob has it on our video call. Oh, yeah, my name in the Zencastle window is Gambler.

I completely forgot about that. Talk about PlusUp in rewrites. In both versions of the original script that are online, Lisa just needs help with baking cookies for a school bake sale. This is so much funnier. Like this. So much better. Yeah, I just love the idea like dissecting the idea of a pageant where you dress up as a state is very funny because you're not learning

anything about the states. No, the shape of the state is really not that important. Sorry, Dick. Oh, no, it's just the kind of exactly kind of dumb shit you would do in elementary school, like for no real reason. Like, I guess I have to, but it rings true. Cause it's the complete sort of project that yeah, you would offload to your parents. And then, yeah, what, what is the educational value?

Also Lisa crying and putting it over the edge. That's not in the script. Homer just finally realizes they're out of food. And that's why he chases after Marge, which is not, I, I prefer that he actually is crying because Lisa's crying. Yeah, I agree. Then Burns doesn't want to fire Homer. He just wants him out of the casino

as we wrap up his story as well. Smithers, I don't want that unpredictable lunatic working in my casino. Fine, we'll transfer him to the nuclear plant, sir. Oh, my beloved plant. How I miss her. Bah! To hell with this!

Get my razor! Draw a bath! Get these Kleenex boxes off my feet! Certainly, sir. And the jars of urine? Oh, we'll hang on to those. Now, to the plant! We'll take the spruce mousse! Hop in! But, sir... I said, hop in.

I love that cut away. There's no resolution you could get to that. So it's just, you're just going like, how either Smithers was shot dead, and this is the last time we're seeing Smithers, or somehow he hopped in a way that pleased Mr. Byrne. That's a line my wife and I share with each other all the time, whether it's getting into a ride vehicle or an Uber.

I said hop in. That's really funny. Though I also, I love Burns going like, let's hold on to those. Like just the, he's not giving it all up. He still enjoys the urine collecting aspects of his previous life. Also everything Homer does to try to disrupt the casino

just makes it work better. And everything's, everybody's having more fun. A shot of Burns seeing Homer, it doesn't need to move in camera, but it does. It makes it so much better. The realization Burns is having is in animation camera move. Yes. Smithers just sends this unstable crazy man back to the nuclear power plant, not firing

him. Originally in the script, this does happen, but there's no spruce moose. Instead, Burns gives up because the casino's not making as much money because Shelbyville and other nearby cities also legalize gambling, so they're not as special. I guess there is no reason outside of him saying, to hell with this. And as we see, we learn later,

oh, it's been open the entire time. They just never go there. Right. We go to Homer, finally confronting Marge in a both sweet and nonsensical rambling scene. You promised Lisa to help her with her costume. You made her cry. Then I cried. Then Maggie laughed. She's such a little trooper.

Oh, Lisa's costume? Oh, Homer, I didn't realize. I'm so sorry. Marge, I want you to admit you have a gambling problem. You know, you're right, Homer. Maybe I should get some professional help. No, no, that's too expensive. Just don't do it anymore.

Very American fix to that, obviously. Yeah. Yes. I guess it is weird that we leave this scene and then come back for more of the finale. Yes, yeah, it's timed out differently. They could have called back the Bart one a little earlier, but it's like this time in plotting,

they decided to wrap up all three threads at once instead. Yeah, I mean, also it's just the way Dan says that gibberish and then is able to slow it down and still be the same thing he just like, you're getting over red outer. I transcribed it as you're getting further red outer. I've had moments of being upset and just saying it slower and having to be reminded to think before you speak.

And also another great camera move is Homer points at her like another like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad they did this episode just a couple years before another Scorsese movie Casino came out because would have just been full of casino references oh I didn't even think about that hey they got a great episode of parodying Goodfellas so I'm not saying it wouldn't even been bad. Casino is not really a go-to reference point as much as Goodfellas is I think Goodfellas just took over that space there is enough in

casino where they would have reference, they would have been like, you know, Homer getting in a car and exploding or something like that, you know, they would have found a way to reference something. Put Milhouse's head in a vice, perhaps? Or somebody... Yeah, yeah. I mean, Casino is just good fellows too, and I love it for being that, but... For sure.

It's a little redundant. It's a little redundant. It's Gamblefellas. Though it's funny hearing the guys try to not, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro trying to do characters that are distinct from their Goodfellas characters. So it's like Pesci is like, oh, I'll do like what? It's like a Philly accent or something.

So he's not exactly sounding like his Goodfellas character, but it's the same guy. Just going back to The Simpsons, the Mr. Burns casino, obviously you get the, the mermaid kind of cheesecake image of Burns with his head on top of it. But that is so present throughout the casino. Like it's on every slot machine and then there's just like posters of it too. It's just kind of funny that it's just everywhere. The Simpsons design team really knows how to spread out logos at this time. Yeah.

They make a great design and they know how to implement it so well. Then we get wrapping up the rest of the stories all altogether here. First we see as a kid, I didn't get Robert Goulet's loud lizard bit, but I did love hearing him sing the Bart version of Jingle Bells, which obviously that's what I think it is. I never heard it before, Bart. This is the one with the demon Nelson in the front row. So pause your DVDs, your Disney Pluses.

He's looking really, he's way into it, but he's been possessed by Satan, I think. Now in the original script, they actually did wrap up Bart's story, which is there's a police raid during this song. Like after the song ends, Wiggum and the cops raid the casino for being an illegal casino and Bart doesn't

have a casino anymore. So it did get resolved in the original script, but it's not needed. I never watched this thing. But what happened to Bart? No, him swirling the microphone around and hitting Millhouse in the face is all you need. Especially because Goulet's performance of, I'm sorry, like it's so, it's earnest. He really, he drops it. It's so earnest. And he's fully committed to the Jingle Bells song too. It's not like, it's not like, oh guys, I gotta do that.

He's just like completely selling it. Now Henry, in this next scene, is this the first true Ralphism? A very pithy, stupid comment that they're working their way towards what Ralph would become in Lisa's rival next season. Is this the first real one? Or did I, am I forgetting one?

Definitely in the Valentine episode, he's not smart and he says like, look in the tongue, but he doesn't say things just randomly. Like he's, it seems like, like when he's like, oh, I glued my ear to my shoulder. It's not said like vacantly. He's like, I glued my ear to my shoulder. Yeah, I think this is the first like vacant Ralph-ism.

He can also have a conversation. Like it's not like my cat's breath smells like cat food, just like a thing that's out of nowhere. Yeah, like in I Love Lisa, he would say stupid things, but there was some shame to them. And now he is just saying stupid things, just happy and vacant. So I think we're working our way towards

what Ralph would become right here. Yeah, I'm trying to think in that episode, the closest is him saying like, it says B and there's a picture of a B on it. Like, it's sort of a pronouncement, but it has a point to it. Yeah, he's referencing the thing in front of him. Well, I guess he is here too,

but just it's clear that he's Idaho. He almost becomes too dumb to have experienced heartbreak Like the later version of him is almost just like yeah, like you're saying completely vacant Just all can only speak in non sequiturs. Yeah soon enough. He won't even know when he's being bullied Yeah, right. Yes. Let's hear all of the stories wrap up succinctly here Jingle bells Batman, Robin laid an egg. Batmobile lost its wheel, the Joker got away. Hey, thank you. Thank you very much. Oh, I'm sorry kid. And special awards go to the two students who obviously had no help from their parents, Lisa Simpson and Ralph Wiggum. Yes, of course you are.

You know, Marge, for the first time in our marriage I can finally look down my nose at you. You have a gambling problem. That's true. Will you forgive me? Oh, sure. Remember when I got caught stealing all those watches from Sears? Well, that's nothing because

you have a gambling problem! And remember when I let that escaped lunatic in the house because he was dressed like Santa Claus? Well you have a gambling problem! Homer, when you forgive someone you can't throw it back at them like that. Aw, what a jip. Remember when I- Homer? Oh yeah, I forgot already.

Another very murkety thing, Homer still doesn't understand what the point of anything was. And he's immediately just becoming a vindictive asshole. A sign of a healthy relationship when one person has a flaw and you bring it up to them. It's like, well, that excuses everything I ever did. Yes, exactly. So Gullet, when he's singing the song, the staccato delivery of egg.

Oh, yeah. Always makes me laugh. It's just such a funny Robin laden egg. And I will say that I actually did win and I made it myself award once as a kid, I won it in cub scouts. There was like the one that I didn't get help from my parents. So basically like a designated award for that that predates this episode. But I it was in cubouts and this is behind what Derby. It was for like the mine with Derby racer I made.

And I will admit, my dad helped me super glue that Lego man to the Derby car. But I think I become the award wasn't like, hey, say that like it's on the honor system or whatever. They just did it based off of a visual assessment of whatever you made. Like this is kind of backhanded, you know, it's kind know? It's kind of like, oh, your thing is shitty enough where a kid must have done this. Well, we pray that the soapbox community does not hear this episode.

Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. The way Lisa's face looks, I think you're supposed to treat this as a happy-ish ending for her, because she doesn't seem like sad. She's not sad at winning the booby prize or whatever. Yeah more just disoriented maybe I don't know. Yeah yeah there look on her face it's it's hard to tell and yes in the original script this is where the the the last scene is all the Planet

Hollywood guys are walking by the Simpsons impoverished because it failed and so instead of Homer just rubbing it into March for that long of a time, you're passing by Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis one last time. But I prefer the happy sunset ending over what is actually like a bad relationship moment. Also I love, Homer seemingly did the film what like Silent Night of letting an escaped lunatic dress like Santa Claus. Yeah, right. The Planet Hollywood stuff I did not know.

I think if that was in this, it would be so overwhelming that it would be like the Planet Hollywood episode, right? There's kind of like, if those three stars kind of at the height of their relevance and fame had agreed to be voices in this, it would have been like the Michael Jackson episode. Like it would have been the kind of thing was like, well, there's no way this isn't going to overtake the A story

and then just become about these, these, these characters. So yeah, I think it probably was for the best that this one ends up being its own thing. Yeah. I think on the original script, it's like eight pages. So if you take it to me, like a minute per page, I guess it wouldn't be that extreme, but that was at least like five minutes of your episode. You're losing so much gold to make room for not as funny jokes about that are worshipful celebrities, which would never be true on any later Simpsons episode. I guess if we're doing Final Thoughts, I love this episode. I love Oakley and Weinstein's contributions to the Simpsons, obviously.

They're not as confident as they would be, but this is still a nice mix of their business, their old timey stuff, their specific jokes, and Merkin's hatred of sitcoms and humanity. And I love that blend. It's what makes season six so great. And I love to see them getting to where I want them to be. So yeah, big fan of this episode. I also love this episode. I think probably season five is my second favorite Simpsons season, which I don't think is probably that distinctive an opinion. As far as where it ranks, like, you know, it's, there's so many bangers here. I mean, I'm just looking at the whole list and it's like, I still feel like

it's like, you know, maybe towards the top end of the middle of the pack of, of season five, just like as an episode, but some of the individual jokes and sequences it has are so strong that, you know, even if it doesn't quite have like maybe the, it's not as holistically fully formed as something like Cape Fear or Rosebud, it's still like, even if it's less of a story focused episode, the jokes are so strong, the gags are so strong that it's one I really, really enjoy rewatching. Yeah. I think writing wise, you've got Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein writing to their strengths of satire, old

timiness, Mr. Burns. And then you also have David Merkin balancing it out with his kind of devilish attitude of the form of television and sitcoms. And I think they really do bring out the best in each other. And also like Bill and Josh are Simpsons nerds, which I love about it, but Dave Merkin also, he brings this chaotic spirit of not caring about Simpsons nerds, which I love about it. But Dave Merkin also, he brings this chaotic spirit of not caring about Simpsons nerdery and blowing up conventions.

So yeah, it's a great, oh, and the direction, Wes Archer, amazing, yeah. Yeah, really well directed episodes, some great bits of animation. Again, I love Goulet so much, he's so funny in this. Well, thank you again, Nick, for coming on the show and sitting down with us for another two and a half hours. Please let us know where to find you online and more about Doughboys Get Played and whatever

else you're up to. Well, what a treat. Thank you so much for bringing me on the show. Let me talk about this episode at Lake, the really, really, really fun convo. I got two podcasts. I got Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants, and it's me and my co-host, Mike Mitchell. There's a great episode we did last year with Talking Simpsons. We did our crossover episode in the main feed and we reviewed Krusty Burger at Universal.

So if people haven't listened to Doughboy, that's a perfect jumping on point for fans of Talking Simpsons. That was a ton of fun to discuss and to review. Henry informed me of Forrest Tucker, the character actor from F Troop, who has become a new obsession for reasons that you will hear on that episode. And then over on the, I have a video game podcast called Get Played. It's me and Heather Ann Campbell and Matt Apodaca. It's just sort of become a general sort of video game

news slash conversation podcast. So that's a fun, chill time if you're into that. Now that Doughboys was a dream come true. We loved doing it, Nick. Such a treat. It was great for us to bring a new well-endowed celebrity into your focus. And I want a text chain about this filth.

Yeah. That's part of the fun. Also, I was just told recently that me and my brother don't have many phone conversations. But I heard that he watched that episode on YouTube and saw me. So, you know, it's mainly how me and my brother communicate now is through Doughboy's appearances. So...

That's me and a few members of my family, I feel like. All we end up talking about is me being on podcasts. But yeah, that was really fun. When y'all are back in LA, we got to figure it out in studio. We had to do that one remote because like three of us got COVID, would love to have you here when there's not a plague or a natural disaster. Yes, of course.

We're praying for that only to make it so we can be on a podcast. Other benefits, who cares? Yeah. But thank you very much, Nick. Of course. Thank you once again to Nick Weiger for being on the show. Please check out Doughboys and the Get Played podcast.

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Good old fashioned gumption! There's nothing here a little elbow crease won't fix, so let's roll up our sleeves and