Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Realty Bites With Adam H. Johnson

Episode Date: March 20, 2019

Marge gets a new job, Homer gets a new car, and Lionel Hutz makes his final speaking appearance in this very eventful podcast! And we're joined by the funny and informative Adam H. Johnson of the Citations Needed podcast! We chat about owning a home, getting arms cut off, and enjoying government social programs all in this eventful episode! Celebrate Phil Hartman with us and listen now! Support this podcast and get dozens of bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! This podcast is brought to you by the streaming network VRV: home to cartoons, anime, and so much more! Visit VRV.co/WAC to sign up for your FREE 30-day trial and kick a little money back to your friends at the Talking Simpsons Network!

hey everybody right before the show wanted to let you know we have an update to our patreon a brand new monthly movie podcast is available now for ten dollar and up patrons at patreon.com slash talking simpsons you want to hear me and bob talk all about mask of the phantasm the best batman movie of all time you can hear all about that in our long almost three hours long podcast patreon.com slash talking simpsons i heartily endorse this event or product product. Ahoy, ahoy, everybody. Welcome to Talking Simpsons, where trying is the first step towards failure. I'm your host, vicarious living subscriber, Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of The Simpsons. Who else is here with me today?

Henry Gilbert, and it gets easier every week. It really does. And who do we have on the line? I brought that wall from home, Adam Johnson. And today's episode is Realty Bites. But there's the truth and the truth. Today's episode aired on December 7th, 1997. And as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history.

Oh my God! Oh boy, Bobby! Bob Bell, the first bozo, passes away at 75. McDonald's opens its first restaurant in the Arctic Circle in Finland to be closer to Santa Claus for Christmas time. And Good Will Hunting debuts in theaters to service all them apples. So Bozo the Clown, important in American history,

in the history of clowning, but he's also important in the origins of Krusty because Bozo, he was a soul clown, and then there were regional Bozos that would spread their clowning across the country and host their own kiddie cartoon shows. Yeah, put together all the cartoons and local ads they could. And former and future Simpsons showrunner Al Jean was sat on by a bozo as a child.

Yeah. And the Good Will Hunting, that was an all right movie at the time. I mean, now to hear about it later, I've soured on it a bit because Ben Affleck and the other guy. Matt Damon? Matt Damon. How can you forget? They were very open about, about like we wrote this to be an oscar winner like this is what when they it was very like cynically written as a vehicle for them to win oscars and they wrote the robin williams character

specifically to win that that actor in oscar whoever would play it. And it worked. Then it's also hard to look back on it now because it's one of many Harvey Weinstein films as well. I think I've never seen it, and I passed the window where it was cool to see the movie. Oh, okay. You didn't even want to see it because of its connection to Kevin Smith? No.

I mean, I was a View Askew Universe fan, but that was too far for me. I wish that movie had won Best Picture because then Kevin Smith would be an Oscar winner as an executive producer on it. Oh, you're right. I think they were, Matt. So more View Askew Universe lore. We were both big Kevin Smith heads. Right now he's making a new Jane Silent Bob movie.

I've seen pictures. Come on. And I'm going to say I would be against it, but he almost died. So let that man do whatever he wants to do. He was mad. When they were filming Dogma, they won for Good Will Hunting. Oh, that's right. An Oscar for something, right?

Screenplay? Screenplay. They did not win acting Oscars. And things were pretty sour on the set because they did not thank Kevin Smith. And he was mad about that. I didn't know that. That's on the Dogma commentary, which I heard a lot when I was like 22 years old. Commentaries were the first podcast.

They really were. Anyways, enough about Kevin Smith. On the line, we have Adam H. Johnson of the Citations Needed podcast. We've had his podcasting partner, Nima Shirazi, on before. We needed to complete the set, so he's here to talk about Realty Bytes. Hello, Adam. Hi, how you doing? Good.

Well, yeah, Adam, we're both big fans of Citations Needed. It's one of our favorite political podcasts because you guys are so well-researched and you have such interesting topics, but you're also two funny guys who have a lot of pop culture knowledge that you sprinkle in as well. Thank you. I'm wildly insecure, so I need all the validation I can get when the dopamine rush of Twitter validation isn't enough. Oh, boy. I was going to say your tweets are just pure fire. I'm jealous.

I'm an angry man. It's not a shtick. I actually am angry 24 hours a day. People are always surprised to learn. They're like, you're just – some people are different. They're like, you're just like you are in real life on Twitter. I'm like, yeah, I know. It's a little man. life on twitter i'm like yeah i know and one citations needed is already i think i don't know

who listens to it uh who's like in power but i swear when they started talking when i started hearing like aoc say things that i've heard you say on the show i'm like boy this feel it i feel like it's you guys are changing the conversation yeah it's hard to tell because we you know we we're we are some we are derivative in many ways, right? We're not doing a ton of original thought. Mostly it's, we do some original thought, but a lot of it's sort of curating and presenting in sort of moral terms, a lot of these arguments that have been around for a long time. And I think that to the extent to which you can, the show is obviously marketed to a certain demographic of like curious liberals who are

sort of interested in like maybe more left-wing sort of ideological content. And we sort of try to market it in a way that's palatable to that without being, you know, sort of overtly dogmatic or too lost in our own jargon. I think to the extent to which we do sort of lobby your impressionable liberal and even to some extent, you could argue, I would say you're impressionable, kind of vaguely embittered or sort of dispossessed, even libertarian or kind of like centrist. Yeah, I think that's kind of what we try to do. I suppose the goal is to sort of move the conversation, right? We are fundamentally propagandist, which I think is sort of important to everyone in politics acknowledge. The question is, are you intellectually honest? Are you fair? Are you thorough? Or are you sort of, you know, kicking the ball on the rough or

on the fairway? And I think that we try not to do that. Like all left-wingers, we like to make golf analogies, apparently. But anyway, we, we, yeah, we've been, we've been doing it now for what, a year and a half. We were on episode 69, which thankfully is a very light topic. We didn't want to do like war crimes in Yemen episode 69. So we have Ashley Feinberg on and we're just going to dunk on Republicans. Oh, good times. Adam though, what's your history with the,

as a, as a Simpsons fan? Well, like every red blooded American, I, I grew up watching the Simpsons. I was, I'm old enough to remember when it was like edgy,

when it was like your parents wouldn't let you watch it. Cause they, they said hell and damn, but I don't know. I was a huge Simpsons fan growing up. I, I practically had every episode memorized uh up until season nine and then i really i nine ten i stopped watching it we got you just under the wire yeah no it's actually it's actually funny and i still thought it was super convenient you

got me this episode because i i i like i like this episode i've seen this episode many times before and as i discussed offline i'm i'm a i'm a huge uh i'm a huge fan of Glengarry Glen Ross. And it basically has about 10 different Glengarry references. Oh, yeah. That actually worked out well. You happened to pick this episode. It had a lot of the pop culture references I got, which was fortuitous. And your life is politics now.

Do you think The Simpsons helped shape your worldview in any way? I'm actually somewhat critical of The Simpsons politics. Okay. But I'm also sort of a buzzkill. I think they insert, and in fact, fact indeed in this episode at the oh yeah they insert kind of weird sort of right-wing pot shots i i think they viewed that as like you know not not to use this excuse but they were a product of their time and a lot of the writers of course were like ivy league they were it was very sort of the mantra of comedy was always kind of take shots at all sides i i think they were not immune to that but there's a lot of anti-union shots and anti-welfare

shots that are sort of thrown in now and then oh for sure yeah there's some great vintage like the big billionaire and then you know they they you know their cop is like a bumbling idiot who's like corrupt and fat and like they're not overtly right wing but i you know there there's a joke at the end of this episode that i'm sure we'll talk about. Yeah, there's there's some great like vintage 90s centrism and it's very rare when it's not everybody gets it. Like, I think maybe Muchapoo About Nothing is one of the rare cases in which they have one direct argument they don't try to undercut. The vegetarian one is actually, you know, I'm not a vegetarian anymore, but I was for five years and I'm only not a vegetarian because I'm morally weak. I actually am a sort of I actually think it makes a lot of rational sense. I thought the vegetarian episode was actually one of the only mainstream,

mainstream, like sensitive pro-vegetarian, pro-animal rights arguments in pop culture that really went against the trend at the time. You know, the edgiest joke you could make, and even today you could make, is like, lol, vegans, they're the worst. And it's like, oh, wow, like that's, wow. You are really punching up going after vegans. No one's ever done that before. You know, South Park, they all have vaginas and so forth. But I thought the way they handled Lisa's vegetarianism

was actually pretty fair and mature. Yeah, I guess the meanest joke was that like the alternatives to meat don't taste very good. That's as far as they'll go. And they're more unhealthy for you somehow. They price the fat. Yeah, which in the 90s was true. Vegetarian food has gotten much better.

Oh, it's so good now. Yeah. I was a vegan for five years from 2003 to 2008, and I would try vegetarian food now, and it was much better than when I was. They can make anything into a hamburger. I'm a vegetarian, by the way. They can make sunflowers into a hamburger. They can make mushroom protein into a hamburger.

You name it, it could be a burger. Another very political episode the simpsons had was the watergate one the sideshow bob roberts like that one is i mean the democrats get it a little bit but the republicans are an evil group run with vampires on it like yeah but then that then i think that's sort of you know i don't know to me and perhaps i'm being ungenerous but that sort of goes to the goes over the other side to being like oh this is like a sort of parody of how people review republicans although it's not it's probably way more accurate than that's true and it's like it's sort of you know it's not really i think the satire is kind of caught up with it i look at a photo of shelton adelson he's a vampire yeah

so i guess i guess one last pre-show topic is uh lionel hutch should we cover that now or yeah yeah this is uh the final appearance yeah the final speaking role and i was about to ask what if when when was phil hartman uh killed he was killed in 1998 may of 98 yes and i'm sure we'll have like a special or something a little bit we'll do when we get to the time period where in which he is dead but so yeah yeah i mean he he dies a couple weeks after the season finale of season nine and his final appearance on the show is as troy mcclure in barth the mother in season 10 a posthumous appearance and it's only one posthumous appearance but this is the last appearance of lionel hutz which it's very sad that we're, he does have a non-speaking appearance in Lost Our Lisa at the end of this season,

but this is the last time he speaks. And it's, it is a real bummer like that we are out of the Phil Hartman years. I just think like when you think of the show going downhill, I feel like it would have been less so if they had phil hartman around just to be funny in scenes like just they could count on a troy mcclure scene to save there's multiple episodes of the of like the classic years for us where on the commentaries they say this part wasn't working until we had troy mcclure host this video yeah yeah for sure based on his appearance

here i feel like mike scully had different plans for lionel hutz in his run of shows where they working until we had troy mcclure host this video yeah yeah for sure based on his appearance here i feel like mike scully had different plans for lionel hutz in his run of shows where they were kind of tired of courtroom scenes and you could see that at least the skeptic they they avoid a courtroom scene immediately instantly yeah and i feel like they wanted him as like an everyman for sleazy jobs to work in a sleazy job this is just one of them previously when he wasn't a lawyer he was the babysitter uh in marge on the lam so he can do other stuff and i feel like he was uh scully was going to fit him in to different sleazy jobs but obviously life got in the way of that decision yes or lack thereof yes yeah he um he i mean obviously like he punches up everything he's in

i mean he's a he's a fucking like you know he's a he's a comic genius and they and they they clearly started to just jam him into like yeah any random job you're right there was a lot of courtroom scenes now that i think about it there was a lot of courtroom scenes in the first eight seasons also find it eerily tragic in this episode that uh the murder house and this famous murder and it's where i can hear him say murder yeah it's uh yeah i'm completely unintentional but that's what's eerie about it yeah it makes it a little harder to go back to in that regard this also is episode is kind of like an unintentional passing of the torch to gill because the first appearance of gill gill takes on a lot of hutz or Phil Hartman character type jobs.

And so it's almost like they would have known that Gil would be taking over all these scenes that Hutz once would have been in, that then they have them in the same scene as a handoff. He's got all the desperation under the false bravado of Hutz. Well, this episode too, it feels like one of those stealth pilots that you see on other TV shows. Where you wonder, why on this episode of Seinfeld are they hanging out in a garage or a car sales place the entire time? Or there's an episode of The Nanny where they spend the entire episode at a beauty salon. Oh, yeah. Or here's Al Bundy's friend you've never seen before all these stealth pilots so the creation of so many like new characters and setting up this office it

it has the spirit the red blazer this feels like it's pitching a red blazer realty spin-off show my all-time favorite backdoor pilot was walker texas ranger sons of thunder um so i grew up i grew up in texas and i have i had a very christian grandmother we we were with her every saturday night we could only watch walker texas ranger and uh and touch by an angel there was like it was like a christian programming lineup on saturday night like walker was like the last one it was like kind of violent but always had these like very conservative themes and uh anyway they have they have the most contrived backdoor pilot ever where they tried to show the start this show called sons of thunder about these like two young texas cops

and they just like come in and like inexplicably take the show over for two episodes and like when like walkers you know like you know like like modern day seagull movies like like seagull doesn't actually do the action anymore they bring in some stud to do it and he like sits there but they need to like put him they need to put him on the dvd cover so he's like he's like there but he has like one fight scene and it. So he's there, but he has one fight scene and he's literally sitting down and fighting people. There was a real behind-the-desk era of Walker. Yeah, and then so they bring in Sons of Thunder

and they were trying to make it a thing and it was terrible. Anyway, I sadly also have... You guys want to start a Walker Texas Ranger podcast. I'm your guy. I think as I was starting to be more politically awake and that was when my friends and I would like joke watch some Walker, Texas Ranger.

No, it's the best irony watching you can do. I, I've, I've irony watched probably like 30 or 40 episodes in my later years. It's so, it's so fucking lazy. Like it is the late,

I actually, true story. I went to film school in Texas and there was a gaffer. I used to know, I forget his name. We're getting to the W I forget anyway. And he would, he would say that they had an expression on film sets in Texas, and this may be bullshit,

but this is what he told me. He said they would call it walkering it. Like, whenever you wanted to, like, do a shoot and you wanted to do it really fast and half-ass it, you would walker it, which was, like, high-key lighting, like, lazy outdoor shoots, you know. Everything in Dallas is shot, like, in the same winter months, so it always looks really drab and visually uninteresting and so like walker was code for

like just getting a shot done really fast like that's how fast this show was but it's like it's super lazy it's very racist it's like it's it's sort of not it's it's they recycle plots the the blonde dda i forget her name she gets kidnapped like 17 times a season like it's it yeah it's that last it's the last vestige of a sort of pre-24 like formulaic like Matlock type show you know they would always have the tag at the end where they were at seats you know CDs bar like I mean it's just it's it's actually I think it's very good irony watching I I if you if you have a uh if you have some bourbon and some friends who are really sarcastic and and and hate themselves do I put it put it put it on and it's good shit.

Yeah. And the best are the ones where they try to do this Republican messaging. Because Kate Bailey Hutchinson was on the show, the senator from Texas. And they would have youth programs. His solution to crime is always to bring in a bunch of African-American and Latino kids and teach them karate and condescend to them. Anyway. american and latino kids and like teach them karate and like condescend to them anyway one of my favorite uh endings of one that just it's politics came out of nowhere was uh he'd save the day but he was like convalescing in a hospital bed and then he said something like well one of

these days these politicians will think more about the rights of the victims instead of the perpetrator that's what victims rights like that was it oh yeah they're obsessed with it but they have That was it. Yeah. They're obsessed with it. Every now and then, they would do the token episode where they would take on the KKK or the neo-Nazis. Once a season or once every two seasons. This is back when the Republican Party even cared about looking like they were. They would never have that episode today.

But then it was always this weird thing where he would take these prison groups and they would have to take the white racists and the black prisoners and they would learn to get along. That was the ending. There's not a Walker, Texas Ranger podcast. No, but now it is. It ended right before 9-11, though. That could have been a whole new phase for Walker, a whole new bunch of bad guys for him to go after.

Well, they did a Walker, Texas Ranger movie. Oh, no. It's hilarious. They tried to make it look like CSI because it was like, you know, Walker kept more or less kept its like early 80s or like mid 80s aesthetic. Like all the other shows tried to like catch up and make it more flashy and like take the camera off the tripod, throw a little bleach bypass on there, you know. But Walker was like, fuck it. We're just going to stay really drab. Our average demographic is like 86 years old.

Don't change the formula. If you move the camera, you'll scare them. Yeah, you get one decent action set piece, a couple roundhouse kicks. Anyway. Yeah, they tried to do like a CSI thing. It was really silly. So this episode of The Simpsons here. Oh, right. That's true.

No, this begins with a very funny moment of Homer realizing it's not really Saturday. I love these lazy Saturdays. It's Wednesday, Homer. Ah! Work! I love these real Saturdays. They're so relaxing. Not like that fake Saturday that almost got me fired.

Is this all we're going to do today? Absolutely. You know, Homer, I'm starting to realize life is short. It is? We have to make the most of the time we have. We do? Otherwise, we could wake up one day and realize we've wasted our whole lives. Oh, that. Even if you want to be lazy,

you still need to sit up to eat and drink. I think the Simpsons inspired me to try that a few times. You're still alive. What if I don't even move my hands to put popcorn into my mouth? It'll just, the bowl, I can get the right size bowl that I can level it on my chest and just stick it to my tongue and get it in there. It's a good lazy Saturday when you're doing

nothing all Saturday. I will admit to last night eating a bowl of cheese popcorn without my hands just because my hands are going to get all cheesy. I can eat like a horse. No one else is in this apartment with me. The one thing I did want is the donut feeder that he had in hell. Oh, yeah.

I would invest in that. I need more time to chew, though. That's true. But Marge is briefly reading Vicarious Living magazine, which you barely see and can barely read. And she picks up a different magazine later. So it's a very quick joke that's just hard to see. I like the idea of vicarious living. I mean, have you ever had a,

in your working life experience, waking up and thinking it's a weekend? And it's, I've had more the opposite of on a weekend waking up and thinking it's a work day and then realizing I was wrong. Well, the beauty of being a professional podcaster is you,

you have no concept of the weekends. It's like that scene in Downton Abbey when she's like, what is a weekend? Because if you're rich, you would have no concept of a weekend it's like that scene in downton abbey when she's like what is a weekend like i don't because if you're rich you would have no concept of a weekend like mr burns weekend right we're rich we're rich in time in that way yeah as pro podcasters that i in time but poor in life i love homer's oh that reaction in that he he acknowledges yeah he's like oh yeah of course we that he acknowledges, yeah, he's like, oh, yeah, of course, we all have the existential dread we've wasted our lives anyway. Like, back to the popcorn.

That Homer does think about that. It's just a thing that is in the background of his mind. You know, I'm lucky that my husband and I, we actually prefer doing nothing on a Saturday. Like, that is kind of our preferred Saturday. I have a feeling like you have to do something on a Saturday. It's almost I prefer the feeling of redemption when plans are canceled or a friend who is going to come over is like, oh, the baby did something, can't make it.

I'm like, oh, nice. The baby did something. You know what I can't stand? Where do you guys live? Berkeley, California. Okay, you're in California, so you don't quite have this as much. when you live in a place like chicago where i live or even new york city when it's cold like 80 of the year whenever there's like a really beautiful day there's this really like oppressive social pressure to like do something outside and it's like i'm normally for

that but you know some days it's like nice outside but you kind of don't want to go do something like go to the beach go to the park and then there's this weird social thing where people like what do you what do you mean you just want to stay home and it's like i don't know i don't you know i don't want to contrive a fucking la vitra commercial where like i'm in a canoe and i'm fucking mountain climbing like sometimes i just want to stay home you know what i mean i don't know i get it i mean i grew up in ohio and there were impulses like it's 43 degrees and it's march get your shorts on we yeah we have to like do something yeah it's like look man like i didn't get all this encyclopedic pop culture knowledge by going outside all right um let's be honest here

there's some really good animation in this bit too whereas marge is thinking about going outside she walks to the window i like the camera moves with her she walks the window and even goes through the window which you can't do in live action it's a nice touch yeah we uh we talk sometimes we say that how the animation to kind of goes down over uh in quality as the series goes on but this that was a really good camera move like swindle scott and his team on this one did a really good job and there's a cool fight later so the last episode was lisa the skeptic both this one and that one start off with homer getting a vehicle from the police in some way. And one is a trick. So I confuse the openings for these two all the time. That's right. Yes. One is a fake police award and

the other is a real police auction. It is pretty funny that that's Homer's idea of a fun thing is to go to a police auction. Now I've never been to one. Have you guys ever been to a police auction? I didn't even know about them until this episode. i feel like i only see police auctions in movies they must be real right i'm sure they're real but i it's what i just it's one of those things where i've never i've only seen it as like a device because if you need someone to get like a character to get something really cheap that's like interesting i guess you would go to a police well there's definitely a lot of political motivations behind asset forfeiture and that whole policy in in some for some police precincts yes usually usually like most uh actions done by the police rather racially enforced too yeah they uh they a lot of county sheriffs have uh not all of them but some of them they'll even

have a thing where they they use asset for forfeiture for like general police expenditures and then those police expenditures will be used like on, there's one sheriff in Alabama who used it to buy himself a beach home. Ah, yeah. Those are the sort of more extreme versions of it. But there's very little actual like standardization of asset forfeiture. And they oftentimes will use the proceeds for like,

you know, essentially it's for police stuff, but then police stuff could be stretched to mean a lot of things. Pizza parties. Yeah, I mean, yeah yeah they can do things like like parties have events i don't know guys i saw cops dabbing on twitter i think i like cops now they're fun they're pretty cool yeah i would say that the the simpsons does have the most accurate portrayal of police um except they're not they're not racist but other than that they

they've uh they got they got they got the basic gist down. I think Johnny D was profiled. But yes, let's take a listen in on that police auction here. These prestigious wrought iron security gates are bulletproof, bombproof, and battering ram resistant. Now. Then what happened to Johnny D? He forgot to lock them. Now. What am I bid?

One kilo. Sound. Aye, aye, ay, my gates. Ay, Johnny C. gave me those. Tough break, amigo. Next item up for bids. Oh, no. Oh, hey, look.

They're selling you car, man. Boy, he's nice. Oh, I will totally kill they're selling you a car, man. Boy, he's nice. Oh, I will totally kill whoever buys Little Bandit. Sound! Woo-hoo! You bought a car without consulting me? I don't recall being consulted when you bought that hat.

I found this hat. Then what are you complaining about? You got yours. So Wiggum is accepting drugs as payment for the gates. Very openly paid in kilos. That's pretty good. This is Johnny D's only appearance in the show. He thought he should have entered into their regular rotation of crooks. Like Jimmy the Scumbag.

Yeah. Johnny Tight Lips. And he has a nice chemistry with Snake. Like even Snake should be hanging out more often I think that's obviously Hank Azaria master of accents they wouldn't do that today that's interesting

they would pretty much do none of this today there's a couple of characters in this they wouldn't do today that's for sure is he doing his birdcage character? close to it there's also great little animation moments in this bit here too of like when Wiggum is talking about the doors, like you can see him look down at his notes and then look back up.

Like there's nice character actions there that you're thinking about. I was wondering where Marge's hair was going under that hat. It wasn't like pulled back or anything. The hat's a little off there for her giant hair. Maybe that's why it flew off so easily. it should have sprung off yeah and she found the hat which is very sad it's uh it is very sad out of the garbage i feel very bad for marge like homer this i think i'll say this every season nine episode but homer's a real jerk in this one he's a real jerk he really really is like he it's great that they hide it in a cut because there is no way that the Simpsons can afford a car.

So you can't have Homer actually say an amount of money for that car. You just have to cut to Homer having bought it. Yeah. Because they can't afford it. There's no way. So a little bandit. That's why you got to use the police auction gambit. It's a nice device.

Bought a house for $15. And you're like, okay. I guess that works. Or a factory for a dollar. Yeah. I mean, Wiggum would sell it for $15, that is true. He'd be that dumb. The Sentence will be right back. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner and greener.

At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our net zero hub at electricireland.ie. If this was your podcast, you'd be home by now. Hi, everybody. It's Henry Gilbert. Thanks again for listening to this week's episode of Talking Simpsons.

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You should check it out at patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. Check it out today. So Little Bandit is not Snake's car from separate vocations. We checked. That car has a roof. It is a new car. I think that will pop up again and again. It's in video games, too.

But I love the decal. It's not just a rattlesnake. It's a rattlesnake with a gun. It's a very, very nice joke. Snake's jumpsuit has the episode code for his first episode appearance on his jumpsuit, too. Which one was that again? The War of the Simpsons. Oh, okay. Got it. That was his first episode appearance on his jump. Which one was that again? The war of the Simpsons. Okay.

Got it. Got it. That was his first appearance. And so I like, uh, they, they have a nice little nod to him there. And apparently this was Homer getting a car like this was because multiple

Simpsons writers were going through like, uh, let's say early midlife crisis, the crises, and they were buying expensive cars with their big time simpsons money which i don't give a shit about cars classic or otherwise like i i also haven't owned a car in 14 years now i don't yeah well they were all in la and driving is everything think about yourself sitting in a nice car stuck in traffic for hours you guys don't need cars in berkeley we do not no pretty

nice it is i haven't had a car in 12 years uh I lived in New York for 10 years I've lived in Chicago for a year yeah I haven't a car I haven't had a car in a long time that's one of the things I don't get I can't go back I don't get the rich people with all the cars the one billionaire thing I would do is buy a sports team yeah having a car is so necessary in pretty much every others 99% of America, but where we live, like in LA, you have to have a car. You have to have a car, yeah. Honestly, Chicago, you sort of kind of need one.

But we make it work. You've got the L, right? Yeah, but it's like this whole swath of the city, it just doesn't really go to. It's not like New York, which is, I think, far more connected. Anyway, not to compare it to people off. In the San Francisco area, there's the bard in enough buses that they'll also, me and Bob, will sometimes just go like,

screw it, let's just take a Lyft, let's just do it. There's no ethical consumption. We got to do something. Yeah, I'm not above the Lyft. Anyone who says they are is lying. Or they have a car. So as they drive away, it is a great little hat spin as Marge's hair flies away there too. And this is, again, like Homer is such, like one, such a dick here buying a car without,

if you're going to make a major purchase like that and you are married or in a long-term relationship like that, you do need to consult the other person unless unless you know a car purchase is somehow a small amount of money in your relationship which i don't think that's uh likely well i learned from those lexus commercials that you can you can unilaterally buy your wife a lexus and as long as you put a big bow on it and wear a christmas sweater it's totally fine you're never like what the fuck is this yeah what demographic is that marketing towards i like i i think it's i think it's probably not mark i think it's just aspirational but the only demographic where that would apply has got to be like multi multi millionaires like because even like your average millionaire would

just buy a lexus without consulting their wife like that's not yeah it's it must or maybe they're like weird mormon relationships where the wife has no say in anything anyway. Multi-millionaire Mormons. That's their demographic. So Mitt Romney. And the Romney family. I bet Romney's done a few Lexus with the big bows in his time. And then gave a very friendly hug

to his wife. No, no, no. A handshake. A firm handshake. Homer is being insanely reckless. It's good stunt driving, though. It is, but it's such like a dick move. I have been with friends who obviously don't do cartoonish things like this, but I'm the passenger in a car, and these are dumb high school friends.

I'm like, you're driving too fast. They're like, no, this is too fast. And they go 20 miles an hour faster. And Homer is very unlikable to me in this sequence here of just being so reckless when Marge is screaming at him to stop. I don't know if there are seatbelts in this scene either. I mean, they're not in any other. They're not in a later scene. So yeah, I think it's seatbelt free,

as classic cars were when it wasn't the nanny state with all their seatbelts. Yeah, before the liberals took over and made me not fly through the window. Stupid Ralph Nader, wanting me not to die as a child. Saving tens of thousands of lives in his time. But yeah, so Marge gets out, and Homer just abandons her in the middle of nowhere. He's just like, but I love it! Again, they're getting a lot of comedy out of Homer being awful.

They really are into that, which, I mean, it is funny, but it makes him increasingly unlikable, Homer. It is. But as Marge is left behind, she runs into her old buddy, Lionel Hutz. I'm not getting back in this car until you drive like a sane person. Okay, bye, love ya! You know, if you lived here, you'd be home by now. Mr. Hutz, I didn't know you sold real estate.

You didn't? We should talk more often, Marge. You see, the law business is a little slow, and since most of my clients wind up losing their houses, this was a natural move for me. Helping people find homes. That must be really rewarding. Yes, the money is good. But the beauty is you get to stay in the house until it's sold.

Come on, guys. Let's go for a swim. I guess the dogs are part of the house it's a package deal he just collects dogs like he's like a hoarder with dogs i think that's lionel's secret there uh it must be hard to keep those red blazers clean of dog fur i'd have to think lionel has a uh real estate agent makes makes sense because they are also very shifty as well like a lawyer it's all about lying yes yeah and uh and stealing money as well i there's a great gag on his that i only noticed in pausing for the first time here just like you'll go nuts for lionel's huts that's that's a funny gag yeah i like that it's very cute uh now as a millennial living in the Bay Area,

I have never even thought about home ownership. It's nothing. I'm also a millennial living in the Bay Area that never plans to have children. And you know what? You can't take it with you, that property. So I'll throw my money into that fire just to stay warm at night.

Give it to that landlord. Childless, yuppie California. You guys are like Fox News. oh no come on we are we are the demons that keep up the boomers at night i am a man of the people salt of the earth chicago um i hate the city um all right i'm kidding i love it don't send me a email it's very cold i have to live here all right um so sorry yeah no i i, I think the real estate gag setup is good because it gets us to the inevitable Clint Gary Glen Ross setup.

And I guess there's certain industries that are sort of shorthand for sleazy, like lawyer, real estate agent, that they have to jam Lionel Hudson to. Although, yeah, he said he was a babysitter that one time, right? I mean, he was a drug addict. He was Miguel Sanchez.

Drug dealer, keeper, awayer. Yeah. Oh oh he was an agent too too that's right keeper away it's a great little thing too when he's saying the dogs to come in with him you see in the door to the house there are two dogs already in there waiting for him too like that's right they ever do they ever revisit that gag like does he have a lot of dogs i never know that's weird it's just to show that he's like treating the house like shit yeah though swimming with the dogs in the pool lionel loving having all those dogs it's not there's no background for that with hudson maybe there was some antecedent dog thing and uh that marge marge is just so innocent with reacting to lionel too like oh that's it's so nice like the money is good yes she's she's not getting how uh cutthroat and hard the uh home

the home selling world could be she's marge is a bit innocent here yeah owning a car or owning a house just nothing this i am a complete outsider on the subject of this episode. I've heard from people, so we live in apartments because we are evil millennials who will never grow up, but people I know that have moved from apartments to houses saying, you know what, it's time to grow up. I you save on renting you spend on everything else like property taxes maintenance uh you have to do things like upkeep on your lawn it just it's you're screwed no matter what if you want to live in america it sucks no matter what well i'm i i briefly thought maybe about getting about trying to buy a house because i'm i'm i'm getting married in october i'm not married yet but like chicago as a market is actually like not unreasonable it's not like new york or or the bay area right But everyone I've talked to says, don't do it because you know, your mortgage payments are roughly that the same as a, as rent, you know, you're not paying more really, except for the

down payment. But you know, then you, then you're tied to the property for, you know, who knows how long the market can take so forth. So I asked around and I, a lot of, most of the homeowners I talked to say, don't do it. It's not worth it. Um um and i made a deal with my my fiance that we were never going to live in the suburbs ever she refuses to live in the suburbs like i'm i'm sort of not pro suburbs but i'm not like i'm like whatever not gonna happen she's it's you know it's not gonna happen so like if you if i wanted to buy something would have to be you know on the more expensive side so it's probably not gonna happen because let's be honest uh podcasting's not the most lucrative industry but it's but it beats the hell of real work but the point i'm making is that like

i'm constantly looking for like apartments to rent in chicago and uh it's a huge pain in the ass and they're all scumbags you know if you if i bet if you guys submitted your podcast like the heritage foundation or i think you guys have a shot at that house you know i gotta tell you man being a right-wing grifter is the easiest fucking job in the world i know right and if i did if I didn't have any, if I didn't have like the tiny little slice of soul that I have, I would have gone. That or making Christian movies. Because, you know, like the way like the Christian movie system works is it's built on like free labor. Like all those Kirk Cameron movies, like Fireproof Left Behind, they use like church labor. And then they, and the company, the Pure Flix or whatever, like they they make they make so much money and they just pump out these shitty christian movies

every five minutes excellent gift i'm being like a libertarian provocateur you know some of the mercers or cokes will just basically pay you two hundred thousand dollars a year to like tell you know tell people to stop being snowflakes i guess the downside is you have to live with yourself but more money would help with that and that's what i was that's what i thought i thought maybe you know you get you know you just get like a really awesome uh drug you know addiction uh something really cool and expensive like one of those really exotic cocktails that like you know elbows was on where it's amphetamines and downers and you like you don't have to deal with your demons because you're just fucking high all the time and then you have a die of a heart attack when you're like 52 but who

cares because whatever so look out, Joe Rogan. No, he's on DMT, man. He's going to outlive all of us. He's one of those guys who's obsessed with living forever. Like, no, I'm the one who's going to live forever. Like, yes. My third eye is open, baby. Well, you could also do the Rogan route where you're not overtly a right winger, but you're just a huge gatekeeper and a gateway drug for right wingers.

You just like interesting conversations. That's all. And mixed martial arts. Yes, yes. yes yeah fighting and logic together at last you could beat people up and you really like to have jordan peterson come on uh well so so uh as marge is entering into the world of home ownership and selling homer is showing off his car to mo and mo's never really been a gearhead ever since this. This is just like a one-off scene that Moe knows anything about cars. No, the first two things he names are real.

You don't need to know what they are. They're real. So they're actually real things. Yeah, a six-pack Holley carb and an Edelbrock. Those are real things. But Meyerhoff Lifter is not so real. Though I did identify with this scene just a little bit with Homer in his I see. I have taken the gamble of when a friend would say, have you seen this movie?

And I go like, yeah, yeah, I have. And they're like, what about this scene? Yes, that's not in the movie. I see. I like how he doesn't change his affect, though. He's still kind of cocky, you know, laid back and cocky. I got to tell you,

I think this, this joke right here is the, what is probably the top three Simpsons joke. I always remember. Cause every time I hear someone talk about cars, I think it seems, I wouldn't know the first goddamn thing about it. And I'm always like,

I'm like, yep, that's right. Six point blaster facilitator. Like, I don't know. I don't know what's going on in there. I don't,

I don't know. That's not my thing. I want to, I want to though though i want to be more handymanish and more daddish you know you go through this you go through this phase how old you guys are what you've been 30s yeah okay when you get to a certain age you sort of want to be more competent at those things um or at least i do i don't know i bought the ikea toolkit i'm ready yeah and so i i try to do more home improvement stuff around the apartment it doesn't it's always a fucking disaster yeah when i i actually want to take i'm gonna try to take classes though because you know i we're trying to have kids you know i gotta become a dad i gotta like i have some sort of dad like qualities i gotta like be able to you know

do things like now and then not to be too heteronormative but like you know i want to i want to be able to fix things you know so forth without having to call someone that's something that i think one should try to do and i like i nothing. I can't. I don't know shit about cars. I don't know anything about, I don't know how to fix things. It's bad. I need to learn those things. My stance is I can edit a podcast.

It's better than fixing a million toilets. You know, I think we're braver than the Marines. It's true. People should clap for us on planes. I think we should have our own Super Bowl. No, no physical movement or exercise either needed for that no no no which is funny because like people make fun of gamers for being you know sitting around which is true to some extent but like a lot of like the top tier gamers they're like they're like

pretty good athletes you know because they keep their mind sharp they go work out not needed for podcasting actually no uh well again like i think most gamers could beat us up, let's be honest. Rogan is the buff podcaster. He is pretty jacked, yeah. And he's more popular than us, so maybe he's on to something. Blood clots will kill us all. He's way more popular than us. But so, we head back to the home. She's reading over her book.

She's decided she's going to get a new job. I wonder if a little of this plot came... They don't say this on the commentary, but job i wonder if a little of this plot came they don't say this on the commentary but i do wonder if a little this plot came from just how the uh very male simpsons writer's staff have wives who don't need to work but then get a new job and they kind of view their that that sometimes are real estate and they just view it as like oh cute my wife has uh has a little job or something i wonder if it comes a little bit from that. Well, the show is sort of vaguely feminist, right, this episode. It sort of tries to acknowledge that she's taken for granted

and that she has more to offer. But you're right, it mostly just sort of uses it for a gag. I mean, in future episodes, nobody who wrote on this episode but Matt Selman in Commentaries jokes about supporting his wife's like restaurant he's just like my wife in a restaurant very resentful about it in a way that makes me uncomfortable oh yeah okay yeah maybe they're just so chauvinist it seems like at first you think okay because i was thinking about that i was thinking what the sort of feminist read is on the show i'm i'm you know i don't want to do the thing where a guy explains feminism but i was like okay that's kind of you know she wants to go out in her own during thing and sort of assert herself but then at the

end she just goes back to being housewife and it's like that's the gag uh but they did make a shot about you know how they take her for granted and you know homer's like you know now you can clear the plates yes yeah now that they all they all see her as just like some wuss who's just a mom but i mean the thing and if she doesn't know what a dwelling is that does seem like who's just a mom. But, I mean, then again, if she doesn't know what a dwelling is, it does seem like she's maybe a little underprepared for this. But, yes, the kids are going to help her out, and this is a cute scene. It's very cute, yes. So you're married, and you're looking for your first house, Mr. and Mrs. Superman.

Oh, don't listen to my husband. He's just an idiot. Now, I'm a veterinarian, and I need to keep lots of sick animals in my house. Is that permitted? Not in my damn house. Well, this neighborhood is zoned R3, which allows dogs, cats, phone-answering monkeys,

and... oh... I'll never memorize all this. When I had to learn about the Magna Carta, I made up a song. In 1215 at Runnymede, do-da, do-da, the nobles and the king agreed, oh, do-do-da-day. We should have lived together first. On the closing day, the escrow agents paid.

Taxes, lends, and interest too, thanks to Fanny Mae. They back your bank. You're all nuts. I love Bart's line. I'm a strong believer in that. Are people still uptight about that whole cohabitation thing? Cohabitation, Henry. I don't think so.

I don't think people are... Well, I guess I don't have a really good measure for that because my mom already has to get used to a gay relationship, so there's no there's no normalness to that anyway I'm a society a society I don't I'm not sure but that phone answering monkeys thing I think that is uh where you know they do that stuff where it feels like oh this will be a script later the root of mojo I think that's the beginning of mojo later to be seen in girly edition someone heard about a helper monkey and they were ready to make that a b story it's i mean it's a funny idea i it was a long time before i realized what fannie mae is and i've never i've never had to have a loan from fannie mae so i'm very happy about that they changed their name or something uh do you know

anything about this adam like what is fannie mae now is still fannie mae i thought fannie mae went tits up during the recession i thought they were because they were basically like the government subsidized home home loan oh okay i think i think you're right yeah they were they were there was mortgage-backed securities i know that they had a huge yeah so they did get tits up then they came back ah okay they're models yeah they they do they they back i think they're part of like a like a federally subsidized like they're like they're not public, but they're quasi public. That kind of underwrites mortgages. And they were I think they were one of the key players in the meltdown because, you know, the Bush administration was Clinton as well. But there was this obsession with getting people to buy homes that this was the thing that was going to, you know, there's political upside to people buying homes.

There's tons of studies will show you that people who buy homes are less likely to engage in subversive political activity. They're more likely to pay their taxes. They're more likely to – you can make a sort of generalized argument that it's good for the social cohesion of society. But generally, the government has always incentivized people to buy homes. And then when you did that, when the government underwrote it and there was massive fraud and the economy tanked, it wasn't the best idea in the world. I only have student debt, which I feel blessed that there's no other debt on top of that.

But every two years, it'll be like, here's your new master. We sold your debt to someone else. I had no say in this. It doesn't matter. Make a new account on this website. You're fine. This song bit, too, is fun for nerdy kids

who grew up just doing like songs that you make up in the living room and sing to your parents and to usually a father who is like this is stupid why i think at least have a mnemonic device via song is a very dorky lisa thing too now that feels very on brand yeah it feels definitely written by by people who attended harvard definitely i would think a lot of them had written those songs for all their tests. And they go to take the test, and the test taker is weird. He's just voiced weird. The test giver, I should say.

The proctor, Henry. Oh, sorry. The proctor is actually – I love keeping track of these side characters that are unnamed. They're just background people that are occasionally used and voiced uh he is the guy at the hall of records or whatever in mother simpson when homer goes in to get his uh death certificate revoked although he's voiced differently in that episode so he's still civil civil servant yeah okay we see that martin's prince's dad is taking that test which it implies getting out of the uh the stock market and getting into home. He got greedy. The test taker's

mouth movements are really weird there, too. Clearly there was a different line. I assume there was. But Marge passes, and the way she walks into the room with her pass test also really reminds me of the framing of when Homer announces he passed his GED in the front. I was thinking of the same thing.

There's several bits in here that feel like borrowed poses on the animation side. And when Marge passes, this is a brief scene, but I love Homer's line here, actually. It's great, yeah. I passed! Yay! Way to go! Mm-mm. Oh, thank you, Bart.

Thank you, Lisa, for all your help. What about me? You didn't thank me. You didn't do anything. I like being thanked. That is a great line. I think a lot of dads feel like I liked being thanked is all the reasoning they need to be thanked. I mean, I went through this with my dad a little bit because as a kid, when it was christmas time or birthdays it was my mom's

responsibility uh it was certainly not an equal partnership from from my view of it but it was my mom's responsibilities for birthdays or christmas to get the presents for me and my brother and eventually as we got older we knew she was the only one doing all the work we were we would if we told our dad we wanted this for Christmas, it wouldn't get bought. We knew we had to tell mom. So when we'd get the gift, we would thank her, and my dad would be mad. He's like, hey, thank me. And he was a very I-like-being-thanked vibe.

Though in his opinion, it was his money as well being spent on the gift which meant he a thank you was due he is technically correct so when march goes into red blazer realty that says they're the six percent commission people which i don't really get that joke because when i looked it up like six percent is apparently a standard commission for a realtor so i'm not really sure what the gag is maybe that's the joke that it's just normal that it's not remarkable i don't know interesting yeah adam could be right i don't know if it was higher in the 90s but the joke could be they're not special it's true i was looking at them being not special is funny but it could also just be that like the current day house market things is completely incomparable to buying a house in 1997 yeah like there's there's no there's uh this is a very clinton era feeling

of just like oh i'll buy a house you were just driven you're just given a house the keys would show up in the mailbox and like oh i'll go to my new house but this is where gill enters the picture right yes this is the bit i said really feels like a stealth pilot. But yes, before we get into Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross roots here in a sec, but let's meet Red Blazer Realty. Welcome to the big leagues, Marge. There's over 50 years of real estate

experience right in this room. And 42 of those years are Gil's. Marge, it's a real pleasure. You got any leads? I need some leads, please. Help me. That's enough, Gil. You got any leads? I need some leads, please. Help me. That's enough, Gil. Don't drag her down with you. That's Cookie Kwan. She's number one on the West Side.

Hi, Marge. Stay off the West Side. And there's Nick Callahan. A headset telephone? I thought those only existed in the movies. Booyah! Guess who sold the Whitman Place? I've been working on the Whitman Place for 21 years. So, number one, Gil, would become a major character, have episodes about him.

By the end of the season. Yeah. But it's funny to see how low-key he is here he is i mean he is quietly a very desperate man he feels more like of the oakley and weinstein era of pathetic men then later he would be living in a storage unit valuing his hot plates uh being just like like seconds away from homelessness suicidal a lot of times too too, yes. Glenn Gill's fall is very fast. Yeah, and obviously Gill is based on Shelley the Machine Levine.

Yes, Jack Lemmon's character, which they already had Jack Lemmon play basically that character in an episode the season before. But they clearly are obsessed with this concept of Gill, which is sort of this like, it's also sort of more of a generalized trope too, where it's the old washed up salesman

who's sort of way past his prime, but is, because the character in Glenn Gary is the sort of heart of the story he's so pathetic that you're just constantly when he's talking to kevin spacey and he's and he's like because there's a running bit in that uh in that movie where he's he's trying to look after his he's he's trying to raise money for his daughter his daughter's sick uh that's what motivates him and then he says and he turns to kevin spacey when kevin spacey spoiler alert uh when kevin spacey finds out that jack lemon stole the glengarry leads jack lemon who just gives this awesome performance he looks at him right in the eye and says but my daughter and kevin spacey says fuck you and it's the most mammoth exchange very much so ever but it's

exactly but it's this constant like pitiful face of like my daughter like you know it's sort of gill is always like he's just completely like out on his luck he didn't save any money for retirement oh on that scene where he's trying he goes to that man's home and is trying to sell him on it just the flop sweat on him he's like oh well i talked to your wife he's like yes yeah my wife but i really don't have time he's like oh hey well let's go get it together we can drive in my car his uh he's a he's trying his old razzle dazzle but it doesn't work and both Nick Callahan and Lionel Hutz are sort of playing the Alec Baldwin first scene

character a bit because Nick Callahan is Alec Baldwin in his appearance but then later Lionel Hutz basically does the coffee is for closers thing with Marge a mixed bag of Glenn Gary references 2004 in college we did canvassing for the john carrey campaign

which is where we go door-to-door and try to raise money and you'd make like a pittance you make a little bit of money yourself it was a job but like really it was kind of about you know god i can't believe i i did spend so much time trying to get john carrey elected he's a bigger loser john carrey or gill yeah incidentally it didn't end up working but we were like obsessed with that movie we We would constantly make references to going out and closing and so forth. I was quite a Carrie booster in 04. It's just you had to do it. It was, what else were you going to do?

Emergency situation. There was no Ralph Nader voting that year. All hands on deck. Yeah. One character, though, that is a recurring character in this scene is Cookie Kwan, which I do enjoy the jokes about her as a ruthless businesswoman, but it kind of sucks that the one representative of Asian women on The Simpsons

is this like dragon lady character voiced by a white woman. I think, I mean, we talk a lot about Apu but we don't really talk about Cookie Kwan. I guess she's not as, you know, used as often as Apu is. No, I mean, she wasn't in the golden age of The Simpsons either

so that's also why she doesn't get as much chat. How often does she come back later? A bit. Fairly, I would say like every six to eight episodes after this, she'll have a speaking part. Yeah, this character is obviously a very broad stereotype. I think too, like Tress McNeil, I love Tress McNeil. She's great. She's doing a very broad, you know, Asian voice there too. And again, like you said, there are no other Asian women really on this show other than like a –

Barney's girlfriend. Yes. Yoko Ono lookalike. Or the hostess at the sushi restaurant. Yeah. And even she doesn't come back for another line. They give those lines to Akira. He's a hostess, the host later at the show.

Asians are more or less just used as punchlines yeah yeah well and she's yeah dragon lady is a good way of putting it too that she's just very later she is like proudly childless so she's not really a tiger mom no no i mean later tiger mom instincts i'll say yes yeah well her push to succeed like it is very much the uh model minority stereotype too of just like many Asian Americans feel a lot of like shitty pressure about like, no, see, you're the good minority to be used by racists to say to other minorities,

why can't you be like them? Like I think King of the Hill, even though the character is voiced by a white man, Kahn, Supa, Noose, and Phone is a better exploration of that sort of trope. The very sort of ruthless business person living in America as an immigrant, like what their life is like.

It's not just a punchline. Yeah, I think that's fair. And yeah, Cookie Kwan, like her later appearances will be that she went to camp with Marge. She's in one of the flashback episodes. I believe in one episode, she offers up a three-way with her sister

to a character as well. All right, cool. I mean, they sell out every character. She's not alone in that. Nick Callahan doesn't come back as much as Gill and Cookie, though. This is his only other appearance, or his only appearance. Well, so Glen Gary Glen Ross, like, as a film, I haven't watched it in a very long time.

It feels like one of those films like um wolf of wall street that just it feels like it's supposed to be a critique of these people but then the real life assholes just love it well yeah so it's interesting david mamet was a huge influence of mine when i was when i was in college i i did playwriting for a while that was my first thing i i loved and uh he wrote a book called true and false which is sort of a book extensively about acting and playwriting but it's really sort of like self-helpy and you you realize you watch his like his his movies where that's always sort of very tough macho men doing tough macho things i mean glenn gary's an all-male cast right all all white male cast you know obviously lots of

sort of verbal violence is sort of his thing a lot of like fuck you uh a lot of f words so forth it's not surprising in retrospect that david man himself became very right wing uh david mamet was sort of supposedly doing this criticism of like hyper capitalism in the 80s and i'm sure he was coked out of his mind there's no way you write glenn gary when you're not on shit loads of booger sugar and so he he um and then later around 2008 2009 when he became like more of a hardcore archer like arch scientist and very pro israel and very pro sarah palin he became very conservative and it's you go back and you're right you look at those works and and it's clear that a lot of what he's saying you know a lot of what the alec baldwin

character is saying which is very sort of you know fascist right sort of i'm all about my watch i'm all about success you know i could go out there and make fifteen thousand dollars in two hours like uh which is sort of supposed to be this kind of critique of capitalism. I think it's on some level, maybe some sort of subconscious tweaked out level. I think it's something that really Mamet believes. If you read his books, if you read his life advice books, they're very sort of hyper-masculine, hyper-individualist. He seems very influenced by Ayn Rand. Funny in retrospect, like how Glengarry is sort of seen as this satire, but it's in many ways, I don't think he's being too satirical. I think he sort of likes the sort of the bloody competition of, of, of masculine combat of, of, of selling, of selling real estate.

I knew something was up a little bit, probably too late when I was watching a lot more movies and I rented what was then his newest movie, which was called Edmund. I don't know if you've seen that before. I haven't seen that one. I don't really watch David Mamet because he got so right wing. Yeah. I had no idea, but I I don't really watch David Mamet because he got so right wing Yeah I had no idea but I was like oh David Mamet The smart writery guy I should watch all of his movies So that was the newest one and I rented it

And it's about William H. Macy's This feckless white guy And the entire plot is he goes to the city And everything is scary And that's basically the story Everything is scary And that was it so I was like boy i didn't like this this felt made me feel very strange yeah he he has a very specific a lot of his movies are

about yeah kidnapped white women uh they're about like strong men doing like sort of forcing their will uh on society you know it's it's the kind of stuff that's very appealing to like a you know a 15 year old oh yeah but oh actually sorry i sorry. I was looking at the plot summary. At some point in the movie, in the big city, this character is arrested, and then he's sexually assaulted by a black person in prison. Oh, even better. It's got everything. Get the whole family in the room for Edmund. Yeah, around the mid-2000s, he went pretty full-fash.

I'm not quite sure exactly when his conversion happened, but he was always very anti-method. That was his whole thing he thought the method was kind of the the peak of kind of solipsistic liberalism and and did a lot to distract and he's very he's you know he says actors are tools and their their job is to hit their lines and save their lines clearly and that uh nobody nobody gives a shit what they think on the inside um which which i i think he was responding to like a real kind of there there was you could argue there was a sort of hypersaliv system in a lot of acting methods but i think he was he kind of took it too far into his his it became like a sort of life um it emerged from acting advice to sort of

like a cult because you know william hbc came from his his his theater school as as a lot of other actors did as well so it's it's um a little bit of a tangent not related to something sorry a little david mamet color there for you we're all about tangents here i thought yeah well i mean glenn gary glenn ross is uh i mean now it's almost impossible to go back to if you are uh lefty just in that you know if you know what david mamet is and then on top of that you've got kevin spacey in a prominent role in it. Not to mention, like, Alec Baldwin's a pretty big piece of shit, too. Like, not like Kevin Spacey. It's not comparable in that way. Well, it's like there's, you know, the toxicness of this real estate agency.

It doesn't really come through here. Nick Callahan's the most of it. And even he doesn't have many lines in it. Like, Marge is never made to feel out of place like by being a woman there so much just i guess well i suppose when she's rejected for her inability to sell that definitely feels like uh girls can't sell uh they don't have the killer instinct that a man would have to sell unless Unless there's some broad Asian stereotype. Yes. Well, one of the guys type too. That is what Cookie is as well.

It's cute too that Marge thinks hands-free headsets are only in the movies. I like little mom moments like that. Yeah, that's cute. So when they put on Marge's red blazer, I love her reaction to getting it. The camera swing around her is very sweet. Conference room C is very important.

And Cookie's gold tooth that's only visible in that one shot there. But yes, here's her getting her first blazer. And now Marge, I'd like to welcome you to the family with your very own red blazer. From me? Nice little spin around here.

I give her a week. Are you guys talking about the West Side? No, Cookie, I swear it. I give her a week. Are you guys talking about the West Side? No, Cookie, I swear it. I'm scared of you. That was a Jerry Maguire reference. Oh, really? Which had come out the previous year. Yeah, I'll give him a week. Oh, okay. Jay Moore says that when he comes in

and does the memo thing or whatever. I completely forgot that. Thank you. I never watched that movie. I'm sorry. It's a good movie, actually. It's dated, but it's a good screenplay. If I was teaching screenwriting, I would probably play that movie. People would watch that movie. It's well done. It's probably the only Cameron Crowe movie that actually works.

It's the only one where... He's hit or miss, and he pretty much had one that kind of really worked, and then the rest are kind of doing weird versions of it and never quite hits. But I'm a fan of German Wire. I said it. I went there. It's one of the most human times Tom Cruise has appeared in a movie.

Right. And Tom Cruise is, yeah, he's a very charismatic guy, but he always plays these kind of like. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels and much more. Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter.

Find our net zero hub at electricarland.ie. Like non-human entities. Because Tom Cruise is not human. He's not. Tom Cruise is like the most intense fucking human being that's ever lived. He's the least self-aware human being on earth. Which is what makes him a good actor because he's not self-aware at all. He's not self-conscious.

If I was like Tom Cruise's like guru I'd be like Tom Cruise you can jump off this roof he would probably believe he would try and he would die I mean he's approaching 60 and he refuses to admit that yeah he taught himself to fly a fucking helicopter for Mission Impossible 7 or Mission Impossible 6 you know what insane it is

to like say I want to be my own helicopter scene so he took like six months and learned how to fly a fucking helicopter. I know he can never die, but celebrities need to stay away from aircraft of any kind. It's a mistake. It's a big mistake. I think he's a true believer in Scientology. Definitely not ironic.

Anyway, that's my Tom Cruise theory. So we come back from commercial, and Homer's driving around the kids, and we get this butt lumber joke is one of my favorites in the episode. Whoa, Dad! Doesn't this car have seatbelts? Seatbelts. They kill more people than they save. That's not true.

You're thinking of airbags. There it is. Wow. Your own billboard! Check it out! Gee, that picture makes your butt look big. I thought so too, but they said it sells. Works for the Lumber King.

Lumber. We need lumber. Homer loves that lumber guy's butt. Did that lumber guy's butt. Did that lumber guy invent twerking? Boy, twerking's out of fashion now, but 18 months ago, he would have been number one. As Homer said before, lumber has so many uses. They need to, you know, for all you writers on the internet out there who did Simpsons invent this, did Simpsons invent twerking? There you go. Edit your bad articles now and the margin there they definitely do draw an extra sized butt on her

and i think she's also drawn to look she looks a lot more like a season three simpson character with like bigger cuter eyes i think too homer's thing about reckless driving and the airbags kill like when lisa says you're thinking of airbags I believe at the time that was a, you know, urban legend. But I actually wanted to show off for our citations needed pal here. And I did the research on this. You got your own citations. Not needed. According to the Chicago Tribune, quote,

these devices have been responsible for saving more than 1,800 lives since that time. And this was written since that time being the 1991. Conversely, the Tribune reported that only 62 deaths can be attributed to airbags. And the majority of the individuals killed in those cases were not properly restrained with seatbelts. So the airbags do save more people than they kill. Yeah, a little bit of hashtag fake news there. with seatbelts. So the airbags do save more people than they kill. Yeah. A little bit of a little bit of hashtag fake news there. Yeah.

That, that line from Homer was the very glib answer. I would hear from people who didn't want to wear seatbelts growing up. Like, ah, they kill more people than they save. Then you find out when, like when you read like which celebrities die in car accidents,

you find out like none of them were wearing seatbelts. They could all be alive now. No, it's just seatbelts are the ultimate no brainer. Seatbelts have saved so many lives. You can't even calculate it. I can get it for, like, my dad hated wearing seatbelts. I think he often wouldn't. I guess I could understand for him that he didn't wear seatbelts growing up, and so he just tells himself, I don't need them. I'm alive now, aren't I? I think if you're under 50, you've lived with seatbelts your entire life.

So if they don't feel normal, I don't know why. They're just like nothing to me now. If I put it on, it just feels like I'm sitting like nothing at all. Well, Henry and I are big shots. We take a lot of lifts. We get driven around everywhere. And occasionally, because lift cars go through a lot of use, you'll get into the back of a Lyft and the seatbelt won't fasten. Whenever that happens, I'm like, this is where I die.

This is the ride where Bob Mackie is dead. And in a Lyft, that'd be embarrassing. Yeah. I want to die by my own hands, damn it. Yeah, they drive off and then Marge starts her attempts at selling. She goes to Moe's shack, which looks exactly like it did in the Critic crossover. Except his screen door has been upgraded to a real door. So he got a better door.

And he isn't financial distress. Yes. Well, maybe he's buying too many fancy car parts. True. He's going into debt on that. Then, meanwhile, Marge tries to sell some houses to some people who actually could afford them. And here we have a lovely gourmet kitchen with gas range, central can opener, and foam under flooring for enhanced standability. Why, isn't this kitchen horribly cramped?

Why, yes, it is. Well, I suppose we could get used to it. Yeah, but you shouldn't have to settle. You know, I've always loved the house you're in now. Really? Well, maybe we should stay put. Thanks for your honesty, Marge. My pleasure. If you ever need a prescription, no questions asked. Good shot, Barbara. I can't believe it. A house with a bowling alley. Do you bowl often? Actually, this is our first time.

I mean, I didn't really care for it. Oh. Well, then you have to ask yourself, is this the right house for you? I suppose not. I guess we were just captivated by this delightful plaque. Does Barbara come back? Mel's a very attractive wife.

There's actually a deep history to Barbara Van Horn. Really? Well, so if you recall, Krusty was once slapping Sideshow Mel and said, I told you to stay away from my sister. That's right, yeah. And Barbara Van Horn, according to the wikis, they treat her as Krusty's sister. And I think that's backed up by the coloring. Like, there's no reason for her to have Krusty's blue hair color unless it was.

I don't think the writers thought of that, but I could see an animator actually giving a shit and be like, well, we did say it was with Krusty's sister. Treat Barbara Van Horn as his wife, though she's never seen again. Though they will refer to Mel getting broken up with, but then Mel reconciling with his wife. So there is continued references to Melvin Van Horn's wife. Actually, I just found she makes one more appearance. She's mentioned outside of this appearance, but she actually appears in the season 25 episode, PayPal. Actually, I just found she makes one more appearance. She's mentioned outside of this appearance, but she actually appears in the season 25 episode

PayPal. Oh, okay. So you have to wait a good, what? 16 years. 16 years to see her again. So I have a question. Obviously, all our experts

on The Simpsons. So obviously, they have this kind of increasing, growing, sprawling cast of these side characters who become part of the show. That's the sort of

main appeal of The Simpsons, obviously. To what extent do they map that they just they do they need a character for like a gag on the show they they introduce them and then that character becomes part of that universe depending on the fan reaction or like what is how thought like how thought out is that or do they do that like how beforehand do they do that i think with gill internally they were like we love gill we love dan's performance let's write more things for Gil. With Barbara, I think the joke is like, yes, Mel has a wife.

She has a name. Here she is. And she's hot. They're like the show Bible they created. Oh, no. Yeah. If by season nine that Bible has not been milked, I'd be surprised. Right.

Yeah. It's all very like natural outgrowth, really. It just goes, I don't think it's even much the animator. Well, animators, if they draw a character well, then it makes them more attractive to come back to. But really, it seems like you can tell they write, say, Disco Stu the first time, and then a writer who gets a script six weeks later thinks, man, that Disco Stu guy is funny. I'll put him in it. and then a writer who gets a script like six weeks later thinks man that disco stew guy's

funny i'll put him in it and then they even kind of go like through disco stew fever or like uh there was a patch there where it felt like seven episodes in row had a scene with groundskeeper willie even though it wasn't integral to the plot and auto died after season three pretty much in terms of use he's pretty rarely used on him they milk they milk groundskeeper willie well and speaking of characters and like hibbert was always supposed to be the sober good doctor and here he is really giving free scripts out offering them up to tomorrow that used to be a dr nick joke yeah of him in medical school no i don't know maybe this is just the uh the thing they've always dreamed of getting.

I mean. If I could befriend a doctor, he'd give me free drugs. That kitchen is bigger than mine, and there's an island. I'm into it. You want that kitchen? My kitchen is a hallway with a stove in it. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah.

It's a kitchenette. We both have kitchenettes. Mine's a little bigger, though. Yours is twice as big as mine. That's very sad. I'm showing off here. My big kitchenette. Then we come as mine. That's very sad. I'm showing off here. My big kitchenette. Then we get to Homer.

He's driving around. And Skinner is clearly driving his mom's car, since, as we know, he only aspires to car ownership. And his story of Debbie Sue, that sounds like something that happened to Armin Tamzerian. It fits in with his background. Armin's background, right? Yeah. That's a dark scene. armin tam's area not to it fits in with his background armin's background right yeah that's a dark scene yeah yeah that he's just reflecting on the death of his uh well i like that her name's it's it's dark but that seemingly his life was a uh 50 song about the advanced curve or whatever

i mean yeah wasn't that um i was out on a date in my daddy's cart with nothing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was 1964. Who was that? Oh, boy. Very far. Anyway, and then Pearl Jam covered it. Oh, I mean, being that girl that waved the handkerchief in the 50s was a dangerous job. It was an important job, though. Yeah, somebody had to signal the start of the drag race.

I think people did. You know, I used to drag race in high school. And, I actually, there was a people in my, yeah, there was someone in my high school who was killed by a drag race. Wow. I got, they're dangerous. I mean, not to be,

I know I'm getting old and daddish, but no, I, I agree with, I agree with Skinner too. They shouldn't be doing drag races. Debbie Sue was right. He,

or Debbie Sue was wrong. That'll be fun. It's not fun. The streets are for regular driving, not fancy driving. I remember when I saw Fast and the Furious 1 in the movie theaters when I was a senior in high school,

junior in high school. I came outside and there was people doing little smoke wheels and trying to race right in the parking lot. I bet if you could calculate how many people that movie killed, it's got to be at least a few, at least a few dozens, more than cigarettes that year.

It makes it look so much fucking fun. Like, it's like my theory about back to the future, you know, like where he, he, he, he rides in the back of a car and I'm like,

how many people, if I, if I had some way of knowing this, if I was like God or whatever, and I could like ask like how many people were killed by back to the future, it's gotta be at least like 20. I know I've gone 88 miles per hour just to see what it would do in my

car. The skateboard in the back of the car. Oh, that's who. Skitching. Yeah. It's got to be at least like 20. I know I've gone 88 miles per hour just to see what it would do in my car. The skateboard in the back of the car. Oh, the sketching. That had to have killed a lot. When I was a kid, I was like, that's the coolest shit in the world. I can't wait to do this. I think my brother tried it once and scraped his... That had to have just murdered children. It's cool until the car

stops suddenly. It's funny. Hollywood's like, oh, whatever. It doesn't matter. It's just a movie. it's like i don't know man kids are really impressionable there are no friendly guys in mountain dew hats to pull you along gently yeah it's like you know the car is just coasting at 15 miles an hour it's no big deal and uh it also this is a weird uh feature of springfield that the prison is in the middle of town. I don't think that's where most prisons are. They have county lockup in Chicago,

right downtown. They have it in Baltimore too. Actually in my, uh, county lockups are typically in the middle. It will be in the middle of the city. Yeah. Okay. In my beautiful hometown of Youngstown,

Ohio, the prison is the largest, most prominent building, the super max prison. Oh, nice. Yeah. I love this country.

That has to be the top employer in Youngstown. Oh, it's gotta be now. The top employer prison. Oh, nice. I love this country. That has to be the top employer in Youngstown now. Oh, it's got to be now. The top employer in a lot of cities in the Midwest is either a prison or a casino. But yes, so this is when Snake finds out about what happened to Little Bandit.

Hey, Skinner, want a drag race? My high school sweetheart was killed in a drag racing accident. Come on, it'll be fun. That's what Debbie Sue said. Come on, you stupid. All right, get going. Whoa, that's Lil' Bandit, and she's in pain.

Screw the honor system. My car needs me. Hey, you're ruining it for the rest of us. Stop, that's my car. Hey, that smells like regular. She needs premium, dude. Premium! Premium! Dude!

I love screaming dude to the heavens. That's a nice exit there. The honor system joke is fucking gold. There is a really good state sketch about the honor system prison. Oh, really? Yes, it's worth looking up. It was before this then, right?

Yes, probably like four or five years before, but it was like an entire bit about what it's like to be in the honor system prison. And the guy escapes from prison and then comes back years later after having a family. It's very funny. I wonder what Kearney did to get in prison. Yeah, they're keeping up the jokes of him being an adult. Yes, yeah. He's proved his adultivity.

I was actually wondering that. I was like, do they have mixed populations oh no he's uh he is an adult he's lived through the uh the bicentennial so yes at this point kearney is is read as an adult their ages all ages are all static obviously until somebody says they're older than but yes otherwise nobody ages yeah like what characters have aged i mean uh the babies grow like actually while maggie didn't age at all apu's family will uh apu's wife will get pregnant and give birth to babies that then look to be about one year old like that's so there is time passing in that case and marge and homer age as the writers of the show get older at least they

used to so marge in the first season she's 34 years old by the writers of the show get older, or at least they used to. So Marge, in the first season, she's 34 years old. By the end of the 10th season, I think, Marge and Homer are both either 38 or 39. They were 34, and then in season 5, Homer says he's 36. And then by the time we get to season 11 or 12, Homer says 39. And he could be a little bit over that by now, but they keep subtly aging him up, up certain point in time so there's there's so that but obviously lisa and bart are stuck in this like perpetual hell where they never grow yeah it's mainly about writers being uncomfortable with the characters being way too young for them are they i feel like they should at some point maybe i don't know let them age would they ever do that have they talked about that they create they have

at this point done so many possible future episodes that that's where they kind of can get away with their here's the kids aging kind of thing those are not internally consistent right those are those they actually started to become uh they about five or six years ago they invented a future that they keep going back to and it's the same but before that no not the lisa's wedding future of nine years ago yes the lisa wedding future and then the is different from the lisa becomes president future which of course had the president trump reference in it right so when the lisa becomes president i thought was like a was it was that a real flash forward or was that an i thought that was an imagination thing that was a story told by well technically it was an imagination thing. That was a story told by a Native American?

Well, technically it was Native American mysticism that brought it to life. Yeah, that wasn't really canonical, was it? No, I mean, the canonicity of all of them is kind of out there. Okay, fair enough. I thought there were sort of degrees of canonicity. And I guess Lisa's wedding was a psychic vision.

Yeah, that's what I thought. Which is not technically a flash forward, not to come on your show and explain to you enough um i like uh snake's design really feels season two to me i didn't i never really noticed until this time how out of place his giant hoop earring is like oh yeah by season nine they never design a character with a with such an affectation on him but he's very fixed in time yes after homer drives, yeah, unleaded versus premium. Like, when I did own a car, I only ever put unleaded in it.

Like, I don't, what's the difference, really? Right? Gearheads, tell me out there in the listenership. Why should I spend the extra, like, 20 cents a gallon on premium? I'm sure we're going to get, this just got us 30 comments about it. You moron. Sorry. gallon on premium i'm sure we're gonna get this just got us 30 comments about it you moron sorry meanwhile we go back to the office and uh this is i think this is my line of the episode hutz's

description of the truth here do you agree bob i like it yeah the reading is great yeah so let's let's give it the official line of the episode jingle that's the jokege, I had a lot of calls about you. Customers love your no-pressure approach. Well, like we say, the right house for the right person. Listen, it's time I let you in on a little secret, Marge. The right house is the house that's for sale. The right person is anyone. But all I did was tell the truth. Of course you did. But there's the truth. And the truth. Let me show you.

It's awfully small. I'd say it's awfully cozy. That's dilapidated. Rustic. That house is on fire. Motivated seller. That's a beauty. Forget about that house. That's the murder house.

Oh, I remember. Mrs. Astor was very lucky. Well, no one expects you to sell that house. But you better sell something. Because cubicles are for closers, Marge. Anybody who doesn't sell a house their first week gets fired. I probably should have mentioned that earlier. So one of my very first

well-paying professional writing jobs, so not writing about video games, I was a writer for the real estate magazine Christie's Great Estates for a summer in 2010. and we learned all of the adjectives of course none of the houses were on fire all of the houses were like multi million dollar houses that we would never set foot in for research it was like here are pictures write about these granite countertops how do you think they feel and everything like that

but we were given like lists of adjectives don't use these use these very much like it's not this it's this but they were all glorious glamorous homes owned by famous people formerly. You don't have to use much lying there, I guess. Yeah. Right, but wow. You really got the truth in the truth message there. I understood the truth. And the truth.

That's the first time Lionel Hutz has been sinister. He's quite sinister. Yeah, he becomes Alec Baldwin for one line. But it's got to be hard to sell a house in one week i would think that that seems like a difficult right of passage for people at that office i think we're gonna get a lot of comments about the the process of buying a house i'm interested in that because it's something i don't think will ever happen with me uh this also reminds me of my at my job job, when I entered into the office business world, just the moment of like the scales falling off my eyes like, oh, this is what business is.

It's not about doing your best or it's not. It's what I thought my job was, was not my job. Like that, that feels like the kind of, you know, dose of poison that March is being fed here too. This is what taught me that cozy is the, a bullshit term and nothing nothing is cozy once i mrs aster thing uh i didn't know this until i looked it up the uh that is a reference to the titanic really that uh the apparently it is a a this was a very harvardy joke but the famous new york time headline about the titanic uh, wreck it in it. It says, uh, status of miss Astor unknown. Okay.

And so it, it really stands out when you're like, well, you want to know how many people are dead and you don't know who miss Astor is, but for some reason there she is in the headline of the New York times, a hundred and plus years later. Uh,

so this is their callback to it of like, in this case, the Springfield shopper lets people know mrs aster is okay okay it's it's a very like uh very nerdy weird i had no idea about that and this is pre-titanic too so actually just barely but they're writing it far before oh yes yeah we go to the dinner scene and that is where kind of i guess a little bit the the the feminist message comes in here i'm just like the whole family misunderstands marge and just yeah if we go to the dinner scene and that is where kind of i guess a little bit the the the feminist message comes in here i'm just like the whole family misunderstands marge and just treats

her like no you're yeah you're just a wussy mom like you can't do this job though i mean it is a very uh naive thing that she says like but lying i just don't know uh so marge has to sell a house and she has the perfect people in the Flanderises, which I think they don't even make enough out of. The Flanders are wanting to buy a new home. Like, they've decided to move away. It's kind of a big move for the show. Upon first watching this 22 years ago, I assumed that, oh, no, are the Flanders actually moving? Will there be more stories about them and their new neighbors?

I really didn't know. I should have been more savvy about this, but I didn't. I wasn't. But this, actually, this is another line of the episode here where Marge is showing off some homes. The first house I have to show you is a handyman's dream.

Because it's so dilapidated. Well, nothing's perfect. I sure hate to make you come out here and not buy a house. Now slow down, Nettie. The homebuyer's course said always look inside the house before buying. Well, there it is. Please don't tell anyone how I live. That could be like tied for the line of the show.

We don't play the jingle jingle again but that's a lasting meme from this episode about anyone's living situation if you're uh ashamed of how you're living or feel pressure to live better that is one thing you say they really they really dump on these like peripheral characters for being like you know i mean you know we just we just we just said mo uh we saw how uh millhouse's father lived. They do these gags where people, these sad individual bachelors are just hanging on by a thread. There are a lot of sad single men in the Simpsons world.

Previously, we've seen Lenny in a, I wouldn't say an extravagant house, but an okay house. When he's hosting the poker night in Secrets of a Successful Marriage, it's not a bad house, but I think we've all as single as single men have had the please don't tell anyone how i live oh yeah no totally i i'd like to it's usually way messier

and less sparse though yes yeah it's it should be more like piles of garbage or just like uh it should be like sad little like fast food bags oh yes he can't afford fast food he's eating beans out of the can that's true there's there's different there's different genres of like washed upness uh and well it's easy to put on a front at the office or whatever to pretend you you live like an adult but if one of your friends from work comes home you do have to kind of like ask them to uh to a blood pact of like please don't don't tell anyone how this is i do enjoy the the homebuyer's course is very rudimentary. Just like look inside the house first.

And Ned, I like the characteristic of Ned being too nice instead of being too Christian. He's like, we came all the way out here. Let's buy the house. Yeah. We hate to make you go all this way. So when you know later that Ned knows all about the jealous jockey murders. It's interesting that he doesn't recognize the house on first vision, even though he knows everything about it later, but does not recognize the house when they get there.

I will say, Henry, that they probably went to great lengths to disguise the house's true nature. And also, I could tell you a lot about the John Wayne Gacy murders. I don't know what his house looks like. Oh, that's okay. Or what the crawl space looks like. That's true. It probably just looks like a house. Like a Midwestern boring house.

As Marge is showing them around, she knows the truth. These jokes here, as Marge is lying to him, get a little grisly, I gotta say. These are very dark. Oh, my diddly eye. Will you look at this place?

And the price has been slashed repeatedly. It's sure built solid. The kids could scream bloody murder and no one would hear. Well, I'm just gonna spill my guts. I love it to death. I'm gonna give you a deposit this minute. Unless you can give me a reason not to.

Is there anything else we should know, Marge? There's the truth And the truth No! No! If you don't sell a house, you're fired Fired, fired No! Well, Marge? No No, there is absolutely nothing else to tell you about this house.

That's good enough for me. Purple drapes. All my life I've wanted purple drapes. I do. They got to ring her in for that scream. Who knows what's doing that scream? Yeah, it's a quality scream. And it's a callback to the running gag that Ned has the voice of a woman when he wants to.

Yeah. I mean, my perspective is, as a weirdo, if it's a good deal on a house, you could just have a million murders have taken place there. I don't believe in ghosts. I would think people have died everywhere. My apartment building is over 100 years old. There has had to be at least 14 murders and 23 suicides in that time period alone. I think there are laws. I was actually wondering

when I was watching this episode. I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I think there's laws that you have to disclose if something material like that happens. Not because it'll necessarily affect the house or it's haunted or anything like that, but because if I buy a house that there's a grisly murder and I don't know that, and then I turn around and try to sell it five years from now. I have heard that. I have heard that.

Where it's a problem for other people. Yeah. I think anything that's sort of material has to be disclosed or it's fraud. I think grisly murders are probably up there. I like the acting on Marge of her stifling the truth. She's like, no. No, there's not. And in the scenes before this one, she's like, it's really cozy because it's so cramped.

She can't not say it, but this time she can finally keep it in. It's her selling out finally. And these are such ridiculously funny lines of just saying like, I think it's green bloody murder slash repeatedly. And they'll get even sillier as they go. And I double checked this on Frankie Act, but yes, his scream, even the posing on it, is the exact posing they use

for Bard of Darkness. Okay, that's great. I like that they kept that the same way. It's just framed tighter on Bard of Darkness. And I mean, it's just a very funny emotive scream to like just a little horror.

His arms up to his face. It's funny. He loves purple drapes. Who doesn't? And yeah, so when they sell the murder house, this is again another just great scene of Red Blazer Realty. It has one of my favorite like just mumble background noise lines ever. Oh, me too. Yeah, me too.

Attention. my favorite like just mumble background noise lines ever oh me too yeah me too attention ding ding ding ding ding ding listen up everybody marge simpson sold her first house the murder house wow you must have told a whopper to unload that death trap. And what'd you use, Marge? The old buff and bluff? The Hail Murray? The Sasquahanna Shuffle? Huh?

Huh? Huh? No, no, no tricks. It was salesmanship, that's all. Sure, Marge, salesmanship. But it was. Sure, Marge, was. Look, just because everyone who lived in that house was hacked to bits doesn't mean the Flanders will be.

I guess you're right. Who cares? Well, whatever happens as our newest closer, you're entitled to wear the coveted closing blazer. And you get a third wall for your cubicle. I earned that wall. Don't push your luck, pal. You're hanging on by a thread. I brought this wall from home.

That guy in the audience is right. He just points out there are no stakes. I guess you're right. Who cares? Marge has a very good point. You obviously can't hear it, but there's for those listening, they drop Gil's family pictures off the wall. Yeah, that's right. He's shaking them off yeah which is such a funny visual gag because it's so heartless yeah i mean that was like the sort of prime simpsons joke was when they were like

really when people were really cruel to other people and they were sort of just really glib about it so he got that wall from home yeah he brought in his own wall he's down he's been down to one raw wall already if he hadn't brought one from home. He's that close to it. Though now, you know, that's a, God, every office feels like an open layout office. You just have no privacy. I would kill for those three walls. Living in the Panopticon.

Just where anybody can bother you at any time and with micromanagement. But yeah, and Marge's double blazer. I love her wearing two blazers at once victoriously so now we get to quite a scene in simpsons history here this is kind of my line of the show but it makes no sense outside of the context outside of what happens next so it really can't qualify for line of the show there's a lot of great lines in this one though i uh so in a very looney tunes layout right with the acme box even and and the do-do-do-do-do piano. Yeah, a little tiptoeing.

Yeah, it's a piano wire is stretched out across a tree and some hijinks ensue. Okay, Baldy Boy hits wire, head comes off, Lil Bandit rolls to a gentle stop. Everybody wins. Man, the air feels good on my neck. Whoa, gumball. Oh, why do I even bother? I told that idiot to slice my sandwich. Ow!

I love that joke every time. That's a dark joke. It's great. I like Kirk setting up his own joke, too. But then they go back and they fix it at the end. He's fine. It was a pretty clean cut. You're not too worried because his arm comes back. Yes.

I mean, if they had never shown it again and he was fine the next episode, I probably, as a viewer, would have just accepted it. I'm glad that they have a shot at the end of the episode to show that he's fine. And they just took a little bandage. Yes. I mean, arms can be reattached, but not that easily. shot at the end of the episode to show that he's fine and they just took a little bandage yes yeah i mean arms can be reattached but not that easily it was a very shocking joke for the show in 1997 we're in yeah like wow i did they went there in previous years they would have done the joke of

it slicing that setup is perfect of like he could easily just cut the sandwich and he's like oh nice like but his arm is sliced off you see the bone through his sweatered arm they've killed the hans moleman enough it's time to kill kirk van houten but oh but god yes the setup the setup of like i told him to slice my sandwich ow leave it and it's it's a ridiculously planned out joke too because that wire nobody's head goes above your car windshield so like the piano wire isn that wire nobody's head goes above your car windshield so like the piano wire isn't going to cut the front of your car so that your head has to be above the car windshield which nobody drives that way uh the flanders move out homer

being incredibly uh mean to ned for what he thinks is the last time i'm not even bothering to try and the family leaves and they there's no reason for ned to describe them as about to rest in peace yeah just uh just fun ridiculousness and this is written by dan grady who loves a very arched line and silliness there the arm getting cut off it was a george meyer gag that sounds like one they uh they describe it on the commentary of like another george meyer one that they're like but we can't put that in the show, can we? And then they did it. Or can we? Yes, they can. Actually, Homer reflecting on the old Flanders place is pretty funny too.

He's just like, that old Flanders place gives me the creeps. The second they're gone, he's afraid of it. So Homer's cruising around in his car and he is singing Luca, which is the 1987 Suzanne Vega hit. It's about an abused child. Yep. Yeah. And it's funny that Homer is, that's his fun joyride song.

Yes. Yeah. And did you know in 2014, Vega did a sequel song to that? No. It's called Song of the Stoic. And it's about Luca as an adult. Things turned out okay, right? Yeah.

He's a survivor of abuse but uh he's he's he's doing okay yeah it's uh liz if you want to hear the rest of the life of luca listen there like uh vega she told it it was just her a man like she saw a kid uh who didn't show signs of abuse as a uh but just walking down the street she's like you know what if what if that child had a horrible life and then a hit song was written from there. And I also, I'm impressed that Ned, the leftorian must be doing really well that they have $10,000 sitting around

for a down payment on a house. But Marge can't take it. Like it's just driving her crazy. And so. How we use electricity can be smarter, cleaner, and greener. At Electric Ireland, we can help guide you there. You see, our new Net Zero Hub has all you need to know about smart meter plans, EV tariffs, solar panels and much more.

Making your usage clearer, your trips greener, your home cozier, and your world brighter. Find our Net Zero hub at electricireland.ie. She has to confess to Ned's family, which is when she gets, this is why this next scene starts with a scream, because seemingly they're all murdered already. Oh, hi, Marge. I guess we gave you quite a start. We were painting Todd's room red. Pretty messy work. And then we came out here to take a break.

Must have dozed off. Red room. Red room. Over there. Well, I'm just glad you're okay. And I have something to tell you. Stop it. Come on, let's hear that snap.

It's an intense fight. Yeah, it's pretty violent. Homer, I'm not used to Homer punching somebody that much. It's not a comedy fight, really. An uncharacteristically violent episode, no? Yeah, an arm is cut off, necks are being snapped, or attempted to be snapped. Yeah, Snake's plan is to break Homer's neck and, I guess, throw him onto the side and just dump him like it's it's quite it's uh homer's a lot more like popeye in this episode i'd say because like homer has often been shown to be um so out of shape that running

two steps makes him be winded but in this one he uh he can have like a a brutal fight for like 10 minutes straight it's really great animation this seems like a a little bit of a of an escalation in there sort of a devolution in there sort of they got more and more goofy right like they sort of they got the gags got less character based and more about like getting a laugh because this isn't really like a homer bit really it's sort of absurdist well it's like an episode of manics or something yeah with all of the music too it's a family guy gag right like i mean of course of course they did it much later, but... Oh, yeah.

Actually, this is not unlike a chicken fight from Family Guy. Oh, you're right. That's true. And, well, it's a great little animation gig thing, too, of his shoe flying off so it can land on the gas just so they're driving as well the entire time they're fighting. And also just, God, the way he holds his face and is punching him and the way Snake goes, ugh, like it is brutal. It's just like realistically observed violence. It's not like a comedy punch or whatever.

No, it's not. It's actually pretty brutal. Yeah, it's pretty brutal. But the Flanders find out what the murder house is and their reaction is uncharacteristic for them in a funny way. This is the murder house you mean the infamous jealous jackie murders of course this must be where he dropped the dagger and this is the butler's pantry where

mrs astor concealed herself and right here's where they found the torso heap in front of our very own fireplace. Oh, just think, Nettie. We're part of Springfield history. Look, Daddy. I'm the jealous jockey. I'm a torso. I'm glad you're not mad, but I lied to you, and I

won't feel right until I return your deposit. We appreciate the offer, Marge, but I think we're going to be very happy here. It's a great stunt. Yeah. They open the door. It's so great when A and B plots run directly into each other. Literally collide, yeah.

And when they open the door, Homer is standing on his on the on the front of the car kneeing snake in the face it's so ridiculous i mean net is like 20 years ahead of the true crime phase it's sweeping the nation i mean people love true crime podcasts right now ted bundy is breaking hearts on netflix that hunkarama irama. I don't know why people say that. He's not a hunk. I mean, he's more attractive than a normal man, I suppose. If you like Republican businessmen who kill women with logs, you'll love TenBuddy. Yeah, they do a good job feathering the plots there. Although it's, I don't know, it seems a little goofy to me,

especially because they already wrecked a house like five minutes earlier. Oh, yeah. But I don't know. know yeah i guess they needed a payoff there they needed to kind of connect to because otherwise the homer the homer plot is a little a little thin it's a good yeah there's no there's no escalation it's more of a sketch than a plot well meanwhile the flanders have to move back like they can't actually live away from the simpsons well right exactly everything more or less everything has to come back to where it starts like the first rule of television writing uh or rather i should say sitcom rating unless they kill

off you know flanders his wife but um we're two years away from that am i not allowed to give that away no oh no no spoilers no but i think that was a rare example where things didn't go back to where they were that's what i'm saying yeah that was everyone assumed there would be some gag where she came back and i was like wait it's not too late. They can still do it. The modern-day Simpsons script pitch, the Flanders start a true crime podcast. I'd be up for that. You know, it is weird to see how much, like, true crime. I have met my sister-in-law or stepsister-in-law, whatever my the daughter the daughter of my stepfather a relative

relative she is so into true crime stuff she went to crime con she went to the real crime con like it's uh you know wait what's crime con it it is a true it's a true crime convention like crime convention are you how old is this uh i don't know how long it's been around but how do i not know about this i mean i uh i love true crime i love true crime podcast but it's something i don't like to talk about unless i know someone is into it as well because if you're at a party you'll be like this reminds me of a true crime thing but i can't say it it seems a little glib though right um you know you know what's funny about all like this sort of true crime shows is that like whatever they do they did this for they did this for both serial and also like making a murder where like the first one is sort of very like sober and like analytical

and like rich and like it really tries to get into the weeds the evidence and does a lot of like original research and those become hits and then like whatever their update is is always like very tabloidy and sensationalist and like you know very tawdry like it's it's like you start to feel dirty watching it you know like like the second making of a murder was just like super gross and like not very thoughtful and like they had a lot of sensationalist blood splatter like stuff that didn't really you know what i mean yeah i was like because the first one's like inspired and journalistic and then after that that's so they just fucking print money and there's so much pressure to make a second one that they just become like they just become super

tawdry once a documentary like that is a hit and there's the demand for a second season oh yeah you don't have the there's only so much there's only so much meat on the bone you know there's only so much like true crime shit you can get out of one crime yeah when collecting new evidence and interviews that takes the kind of time you don't have to produce a second season yeah there's a there's a lot of red herrings and you know and you and you take five seconds to even google and see the guys the asshole you know the poor guy's still in jail so it's like it's not like there's any great reveal at the end you know you could just go on the uh wisconsin state you know criminal registry and see that he's still there it's not like there's now the true the yeah the true crime stuff i've enjoyed

i've been i'm not a junkie of it but it but i've enjoyed some of it i can get the appeal but it is interesting that like uh there's it is uh it is a true joke that uh podcasting is a very male uh thing but the most i've seen so many especially women fans of true crime podcasts i think it has a a larger uh demographically than other genres of podcast yeah i know that the demographics of of crime shows skew female like that like like your law and orders i think they're probably like i think something like 60 40 wow i inherited a love of law and order i mean they're they're junk and i i i stopped watching i'll watch a vanilla law and order but svu is so exploitative of for some reason when it's

oh i can't watch svu it's that's it's too it's too sleet it's too uh it's too tabloidy yeah it's nothing but salacious like there comes a certain point where you're like all right this is just gross like it's all it's a very fine line between like interesting crime drama and like just pure voyeurism into people suffering and i don't quite know where that line is but i gotta imagine that line's crossed when you go to crime con which you know someone made a really interesting point once where they were it was like a murder victims family advocacy group that was talking about the ways media depicts murder in a really like glib way and she was like you know we have a we have this visceral you know protection of certain crimes and justifiably,

but you wouldn't go to the dinner theater and watch a rape mystery. Yeah, that's true. And I was like, and of course we're glib about rape in other ways. It's used as a punchline. It's sort of deprioritized from sort of because of the gender politics, but it's true that we're like,

we're very glib about murder in a way that's like, doesn't apply to other crimes. And I think the reason why that probably is is because the person who has standing is by definition dead but i don't know i thought that was an interesting point like with all the sort of crime true crime stuff and it sort of crosses the line from like journalistic to really just kind of being salacious i think that i think that was an interesting point i hadn't thought of that i mean uh it's true it's a fact

that we won't we won't all be murdered but we will all be dead at some point so maybe it's a way of distancing ourselves from that. Well, but the 90s also had this thing that I really look back on is just so ugly. And the comic book Sandman, actually, the Vertigo comic made a commentary on it too, was just after Silence of the Lambs, it became like, oh, the interesting murderer,

these people who kill people. Oh yeah every every every serial killer was like listens to classical music and like harvard educated yeah it's just like no they're somebody who like has brain damage or was molested as a kid or just an internet weirdo yeah they're just they're not interesting people they're not urbane like the serial killers suck like yeah we we love we loved the sort of classy killer yeah that's about one percent of the cases and they always want them to be classy or like handsome or swap yeah usually they're just creeps usually like it's like btk he's like he looks like milton from the office yeah

over office space you know what the office space sorry i will say this about btk his he had the official serial killer glasses and he was ahead of his time because now everyone in fucking brooklyn wears those glasses oh man trying to be as cool as btk i don't think so there's a hipster like wore them like 2011 or whatever and i used to uh a bartender i work with and always call him btk uh when the house collapses i really do like the animation on it it looks very realistic you hit the center of it and then it kind of collapses into itself in the front of the sides. Good sound editing on that, actually.

The sound mixing and sound editing on that scene is very good. And I like, too, that they have another very reality-breaking joke of, everyone's fine except for Snake. No one is hurt in this house collapse. Homer's body should have just exploded on impact. He was on the front of it like there's nothing that would have protected him and just him landing on bubble wrap like that is them the as the expression goes hanging a lantern on how obvious it is he should be dead but

i do like you know snake has tried to murder homer so there should be a uh there should be some you know karmic uh payback for that so i do like how Snake is giving a non-clever out of the scene. It's just like, I'm badly hurt. That's all he gets to say. It's not even clever or a joke on what happened. He's stating that he's hurt badly. He really is. He'll be fine the next time we see him, just like Kirk Van Houten.

Here's the last sad here, but this is the final spoken dialogue by lionel hutz ever in the show so listeners savor it here and it's a it as as last scenes go this is a funny one of him somehow becoming a lethal weapon style police chief uh dressing town marge it's pretty funny that's a weird gag. Oh, wow. Lucky thing we landed on this bubble wrap. Hey, quit hogging. Oh, I'm badly hurt. A smashed hot rod, a wrecked police cruiser, a destroyed house.

I've had it with your renegade ways, Simpson. You're a loose cannon. And what really fries me is you returned his check. I'm sorry, Mr. mr hutz but i just can't lie to people you're one of a kind march and nobody deserves this more than you oh and a fire jacket that's also pretty mean. His whole, the animation on his entire rant is great, especially his kind of angry shaking his fist to the sky, like, returned his chair.

He's got to do the Lionel Hutz, I'm trying to sell you something voice and also be mad at the same time. It's a good performance. I was just thinking that we're listening to that, that like watching it without visuals and just audio, God, Phil Hartman was so good. Yeah.

I mean, there's such great comic timing and his voice is there. watching it without visuals and just audio god just phil hartman was so good yeah i mean he was just there's such great comic timing and he just his voice is there he nails every line like i don't man it's just god what a shame yes yeah it's uh what you we all took him for granted then like and you go back yeah you go back and you watch the 90s snls and it's like he carries every sketch he's in like there wasn't they weren't that funny but he makes them funny he was called the the glue correct yes yeah oh is that what he was yeah that was his nickname held together every scene like you put him in there and the scene will stand yeah he was somebody you just underappreciated when he was alive because he's just like hey he's in everything like his and he also was a very he felt it seemed like he was a very giving comedic performer too like he's uh a classic snl

scene from his era was the matt foley scene yeah and he plays the straight man he's a straight man in it and just like okay kids like he's he has to introduce it he is there like he supports the reality of it far more than you know david spain and christine applegate laughing which i would do in that scene too a bunch of fucking amateurs phil hartman would never laugh yeah seriously and he didn't have any like standout characters there were a few characters he did play but there were not like wayne and garth or any of the ones that were were like on t-shirts or whatever like the anal retentive chef is like one of the characters i can think of and like an okay bill clinton impression he did yeah no he yeah it was a good bill clinton impression but he always in every

scene he was in he was overshadowed by the crazier like that like dana carvey or chris farley or adam sandler like he's but he was uh it was just amazing and same on this show like they the simpsons used him as just an all-purpose guy it's i kind of wish they'd gone back to they that they hadn't stopped after season two or three of having phil just voiced like three characters an episode when he was the guest yeah yeah i miss those days too when he when he voiced the uh jimmy the greeks and lines or whatever or homer's uh stockbroker or evan conover yeah yeah it was that was i think the last time he voiced a character that wasn't troy or uh lionel and uh i mean this character

even could have just been a new character played by phil hartman but making it lionel hutz yeah like in these deliveries that he still is being the lionel hutz voice while playing the the mean boss like he's his character wasn't invented to be a mean boss he was meant to be a shyster like that's his character being asked to do a lot and he's doing it he's doing all of it uh so we come to the end here and i'm especially interested for i'll play the scene first but i am especially interested to hear uh adam's thoughts on this one. $300 for doing nothing? I feel like such a crook. Don't worry. Gets easier every week.

Yeah. I guess I'm supposed to make it not a sort of right-wing or anti-poor joke because they have George H.W. Bush taking the check, but I'm not quite sure. I enjoy the shot at Bush, but it is a very... Also, unemployment is money that you earn. Not everyone gets it because not everyone has that benefit. Yeah, it's not even, not that it would matter if it wasn't, but yeah, it's insurance you pay.

So it's your money, like you're not being a crook taking it. And that sentiment, I fear that this was coming around the same time as South Park was getting started. And so to have a scene telling the youngsters, like, oh, no, this is theft. You're a crook. You're not earning money by collecting unemployment. And it's not a funny joke. I mean, most right-wing jokes, by definition, are funny. People don't like to punch down.

It's human nature. But it's not even funny. It's like, OK, there's a George H.W. Bush cameo. I don't know. It seems kind of throwaway and lazy and like both sides ish i mean i'm personally annoyed that presidents collect income after they're done being president like they get enough money for speaking and they get private uh security the rest of their lives i guess at this point george hw bush would have been on welfare would have been on unemployment for seven years something like that yeah six years i guess yeah

i suppose the joke with bush being the one there is that one that he still lives in springfield apparently yeah but the second that such a conservative guy is a hypocrite would be a hypocrite collected for himself like i guess that's the the that feels like yeah the both siding of it was uh your citations needed episode on actually duo episodes about, quote, welfare reform, unquote, it captures what was the spirit of the time in, like, 97. It was a Clintonian thing to be against social programs like this, too. Yeah, there was a general bipartisan consensus that people were lazy, living high on the hog. Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of that at the time. Thankfully, our supposed liberal party did everything to reinforce that, as did a lot of the liberal media.

So I would think they weren't even thinking they were being conservative too much with this gag because that was what the Democrats were running on then, too. That's probably true. It was more or less just like a lazy, I don't know, pot shot. And yeah, this antisocial program gag now as an adult really just brings me down. I don't like it. Yeah. And I would tell everybody to listen to another two of my favorite ever citations were the welfare reform episodes you guys did. Those were very, very good. Why, thank you. Yes. Welfare is an interesting topic. We're going to try to do it again at some point. Excellent. And though there is at least some good little character gags in there,

just that these are characters who were previously fired or unemployed in the series' history. Larry Burns is there. You've got Larry Burns. You've got Kirk Van Houten, who also got fired from the Cracker Factory. George Myers, the writer of The Simpsons, but also who was fired from Itchy & Scratchy

in the Poochie episode. And even Lurleen is there in her washed-out, drunken gutter look that she had in the monorail episodes. I think I missed her. Okay. Yeah, so I like a good joke about the pause for a laugh at the end of a 70s cop show. That's at least a funny topper to it. But yeah, just the sentiment of the negative feelings towards unemployment is, I don't like where that's coming from. I really don't. It is stuck in the past.

It's a bummer to leave this episode on. I'm sorry to opine that, listeners. So we've talked for a long time about Realty Bytes. Any final thoughts? Adam? Overall, solid episode. I don't, you know, I don't have an encyclopedia

knowledge to reference to measure it to other episodes. A lot of great Lionel Hutz gags. The truth and the truth is obviously classic in a sort of good summation of how sales works. So I don't know.

I think it was good. I would give it an A minus. Interesting. The last thing I'll say is that the title is based on the movie reality bite oh yeah age worse than that unemployment joke yeah yeah it's not age well at all i saw i saw i saw it last year it does not age well i haven't seen him forever i mean i would think now as a child when i saw it i was like oh i want to be as cool as these people and now i feel like i would hate every single person in it I think I think this is a really funny episode that goes to some extremes like a lot of extremes and it's they're getting uh dangerously close to the later season Simpson spirit of uh the joke is that we didn't care to write something better but this the impact of uh

of the extremeness of jokes like Kirk getting his arm cut off or like the blood and the screaming like it's I do like that and there's just so many memetic meme worthy moments in here like uh please don't know and how I please don't tell anyone how I live like these these great moments and this is still a classic episode I I think. And it's a good, it's a really good send-off for Lionel, as is it a great introduction to Gil, who will be with us quite a lot in the future. Very true. So, Adam, thanks for joining us.

Before we let you go, can you tell us all about the great podcast, Citations Needed, where to find it? And you guys have a Patreon, too, you should tell us about. Yeah, it's called Citations Needed, with an S at the end of citations. There's another citation needed, which sucks. Don't go to that. Unfortunately, I spend a lot of my time explaining that, although it's not as bad anymore. I think SEO-wise, we're pretty much the first one there.

Yeah. Yeah, SEO dominance. That's all that matters. We do media criticism. We do media analysis from the left. We go after what we view as being sort of centrist or liberal media of the right as well. We try to approach things in an original way. We try not to say things that people are already saying.

And we try to do it in a way that's sort of well-researched and informative but doesn't waste your time. We try to keep it tight, get in, get out. We view writing like a heist. It goes fast as you can to get out. So that's kind of the show. It's been going on for a year and a half now. Like I said, we're approaching, we're on about episode 70.

You can find our Patreon at patreon.com slash citations needed podcast. It's got the black and gold logo. The Patreon itself has about, I think I've been saying 20 hours, but I actually think it's like 15. I think I actually misspoke. It's about 15 to 20 hours of like patron only content.

But the show itself is free. We have all the episode itself. We just do some some extra stuff for the for the Patreons. Yeah, I think people have described it as on the media if it was good, which I take as a compliment. We try to be a little bit more a little bit more direct in our point of view. And I think people can sort of appreciate that yeah even if even if they don't necessarily always agree uh they know that we're coming coming at it from a point of view where we're trying to be as honest as we can

another another of my favorites if i can compliment one more of them was the jake tapper one and uh about the jake tappers of the world yeah yeah uh but especially uh jake tapper it was only after your episode i i found out that jake tapper draws a cartoon each week and makes people animated for him like political funnies and they're they are so painfully unfunny i can't believe he makes people animate this like shit like that that is a mental problem yeah deeper sort of a a good example of kind of what we go after which is sort of your your kind of vacuous serious middleman um you know someone who he sort of goes after trump but for the most facile things like trump doesn't mention john mccain while signing a defense bill you know the the biggest defense bill in history up 20 since

2016 70 billion dollars more than it was just two years ago you could by the biggest defense bill in history up 20 since 2016 70 billion dollars more than it was just two years ago you could by the way pay for the entirety of all public education with that money missiles weapon systems selling uh weapons to all sorts of you know despotic regimes all these sort of important angles that jake tapper can take on it but what does he choose to do he chooses to highlight the fact that he didn't mention john mccain and then he apologizes to john mccain on air uh and then McCain. And then he apologizes to John McCain on air. And then he says, and on behalf of everyone at CNN, I'd like to thank you, Senator McCain, for your service. I mean, this is sort of quintessential Jay Tapper, right? You

sort of take the most vapid right-wing criticism of Trump you can possibly come up with. And it usually involves some sort of military worship or some sort of national security orthodoxy because it's sort of the safe, cheap, and easy way to kind of build one's career, right? Everyone loves the troops, right? And so that's who he is, and he sucks, and that's what he should be. Well, thank you, Adam. Yes, thanks a lot, Adam. You got it. So thanks again to Adam. Again, his podcast is Citations Needed. It's great,

and we recommend it full-heartedly and wholeheartedly, too. Yes, yeah. We heartily endorse it. It's a really great politics podcast. And if you liked all this politics but fun and about the media conversations we had here, then you're definitely going to love Citations Needed. And check out our podcast with Nima Shirazi with that Springfield Files. Yeah, Springfield Files last season with his co-host.

It was a lot of fun. So to wrap up, as for us, we are part of the Talking Simpsons Network. If you want to help support the show and get a ton of bonus podcasts on top of that, please go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. And for the incredibly low price of $5 a month, you'll get access to so many bonus podcasts, exclusive series like Talking Futurama, Talking Critic, and the newly released Talking of the Hill,

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If you sign up right now and you're new to the Patreon, you will have weeks and weeks and weeks of podcasts to catch up on. If you like us talking, you'll have so many hours of that available to you on the Patreon if you're new to the Patreon, you will have weeks and weeks and weeks of podcasts to catch up on. If you like us talking, you'll have so many hours of that available to you on the Patreon if you're new. But Henry, we have a newer $10 tier with a new podcast on it that's super long and great. That's right. At the $10 a month level, not only will you get all of our classic video content that we did, you'll be able to watch me and Bob do live video commentary on all the original

Simpsons shorts, for instance. But as well, you will get access to our monthly What a Cartoon Movie podcast, where me and Bob talk about a different animated feature film for up to three and a half hours, like we just did with

A Goofy Movie. We go to town on A Goofy Movie. It's one of our favorite movies, as it turns out. I just found with a goofy movie. We go to town on a goofy movie. It's one of our favorite movies, as it turns out. I just found that out, yes. And not only that, but we've also done the anime classics Akira and Kiki's Delivery Service, and perhaps the best Batman movie ever made, Batman Mask of the Phantasm.

Those are only available for $10 and up, patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons subscribers. So please consider signing up at that today or upping your $5 pledge to the 10. Again, that is patreon.com slash TalkingSimpsons. That's how we live. That's how we make more shows. We want to make even more shows for you.

So please support us if you like us and we'll give you a lot of stuff for your dollars. So as for me, I have been one of your hosts, Bob Mackey. Find me on Twitter as Bob Servo. My other podcast is Retronauts. That is a classic gaming podcast about old games. Every Monday, go to retronauts.com. Look for Retronauts in your podcast machine. Check it out.

Download an episode about a topic you like and subscribe to it. I think you'll like it a lot. Henry, how about you? Hey, I'm Henry Gilbert. And if you'd like to follow me on Twitter, that's H-E-N-E-R-E-Y-G. Anytime there's new stuff coming out on the Patreon for Talking Simpsons, What a Cartoon, interviews, and any of the extra stuff we do, I tweet about it there, as well as my many political thoughts, too, if you like this politics talk here. Follow me on Twitter again. That's H-n-e-r-e-y-g thanks so much for joining us folks we'll see you next time with the third simpsons christmas episode miracle on evergreen terrace we'll see you then My name is Luca.

I live on the second floor. Give me my car, fatty. This is my car. And I'm not fat. It's glandular. Right.