Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - She Used to Be My Girl

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

"She's taken my daughter to an erupting volcano? That's it! She's off the Christmas card list." - Marge Simpson An old high school chum returns to Springfield, and Marge can't help but feel insecure about her own lack of worldly accomplishments. Can she reclaim her role as Lisa's female role model and save her young daughter from an agonizing, lava-based death? Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Twitter, @TalkSimpsonsPod, not to mention Bluesky and Instagram!  

This podcast is brought to you by patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Head there to check out exclusive podcasts like Talking Futurama, Talk King of the Hill, the What a Cartoon movie podcast, and tons more. Event or product. Hoi, ho, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, home of the chore wheel that's both fair and wise. I'm one of your host, the Cuckoo Bananas, Bob Mackie, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons, who is here with me today as always. Henry Gilbert, and we must.

must wait for God to jack us. And this week's episode is, she used to be my girl. Ah, that's better. Anybody award. Well, I just made the bathroom floor smell like lemons. Where's the award for that? This episode originally aired on December 5th, 2004,

and as always, Henry will tell us what happened on this mythical day in real world history. Ken Jennings ends his record setting at Jeopardy streak at 74 games. Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic, to The Sith Lords hits PCs and Xbox, and both Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather announced they're leaving their spots of their respective news programs in some timely news for this episode. Was Dan Rather forced to leave?

Is that what the deal is with him? We talked about it at some point when there was a Dan Rather impression or reference. Yes, yeah. This was definitely in fallout of, in 2004, he thought he had a scoop of proving that George W. Bush had faked some records in his Air Force. A National Guard, right?

It was National Guard. Yes. Yeah. But it turned out to be false. It did appear that he went with a story with confirmation bias and incorrectly reported it. And while he did not resign like at that time, by the end of the year, he's like, I'm wrapping it up, guys. See you later. And he would stick around, you know, in random appearances. But yes, he was very shame.

Meanwhile, Tom Brocaulton was just like, I can't do the nightly news every night. I'm ending it in a few months. The rather thing is just so tiny and petty in retrospect. He wanted to prove that George W. Bush didn't do his homework. Yes, yeah. There were multiple times, look, guys, this episode, it reminds me of current day. I can't not. Yeah.

But multiple times, and this was one of them, yeah, you're just like, oh, wait, that was a scandal. These are not scandals anymore because the evil people realize they're like, I don't have to have any shame. And no one punishes me. So fuck it. Like, that's what everybody says. They learn to forget the concept of shame. And yeah, this is one of a few episodes from this production season that's about the news, right?

Yes. This is like the third one we've covered in the past years' worth of production episodes in which the news and, you know, Republicans' influence on the news is a focus at times. It is funny. This is such a like national news-heavy episode when, while there was the summer break in between, only four episodes or three episodes earlier was Lisa starting her own newspaper. And it was more about the monopolization of news media, which again, 22 years ago, much nicer than it is now, sadly, in comparison. It was bad then, worse now. Yeah, I guess there were no Bezos-owned news corporations quite yet in 2004.

Well, and same with like Dan Rather, our Tom Brokaw. And they were mainstream news who loved the military, would never complain about any, like, rich guy, really, for just being rich. They were hardly, you know, pinko lefty communist tearing down things, but their simple journalism standards could not exist on television in 2026. Meanwhile, yes, Knights of the Old Republic 2. Bob, did you play this? I did not. No, this is a very beloved game.

At this point in my life, I did not play Western RPGs. Actually, Fallout 3 was the first true Western RPG I really got into. And then it opened up my mind, and I realized it's not just the Japanese RPGs that are good. There are other ones. I eventually went back to play Cotor 1, but I think I played it a bit too late. I played it around 2010. At that point, it was a little creaky, a little dated, and I kind of enjoyed Mass Effect a little more because these are the predecessors to what would become Mass Effect.

There's a lot more role-playing in these games than there would be in Mass Effect, but you can see that Mass Effect is by aware making a mix of Star Trek and Star Wars without any licenses. I remember the reaction to Cotor 2 being less positive than the first one. Like it seemed, I remember people feeling it was rushed and saying, I don't bother with it. But I think there was an attempt at a reclamation project on it as a series. And now not only was there a like long running online RPG, the old republic, but also they just announced that a new Knights of the Old Republic with the same director as the original coming out eventually. Hmm.

Yeah, I looked this up and I knew there was a remake in the works that was a bit troubled. and as of December of 2025, the Cotor 1 remake still in the works. I guess Cotor 2, there are plans for a remake of that too. So I'd love to see these games refurbished a little. I love to play through them. I just watched the original trilogy again. I'm ready for take on that world.

That's not as much into the prequels or whatever you call the last three movies that they made. Just sequels? I guess you call them the sequel trilogy or the Disney trilogy. Or the Ray trilogy. Some people call them, yeah. The Disney trilogy. That's dark. Well, speaking of the dark, this was one of my least favorite times.

It made me swear off going to my local game stop anymore. Because when Knights of the Old Republic 2 came out, I had preordered a game and a few games at my local game stop in Florida. And the day that game came out, they used that information to call me at home to say, hey, Knights of the Old Republic 2 is out. Do you think you'd want to get that? And I was like, maybe, thanks. I hang up.

but I go like, well, I'm never going back there. They solicited me at home to buy a fucking video game. So that was a cold call. It was not related to anything else you had reserved. No, I had not reserved it. I believe I had, and forgive me, folks, I pre-ordered Fable. Like, we all make mistakes. Hey, you know what?

I like Fable, too. It's the only one of those I played. It was fine for 2008, I want to say. I pre-ordered the first Fable, which put me on a list of like, this guy likes RPGs and owns an Xbox, so let's call him. But yes, it was a cold call of a game I did not pre-order. of a desperate Xbox RPG fan. Let's get them. Yeah, I worked at one of those stores. We never would Cole call people about those sort of things. If we would call them and tell them their

game had come in, we'd say, oh, and this game is also available if you're interested, but we never were just seeking out individual game purchases. We were too goddamn busy. Yes, I mean, this tells me that that local store, and this was December, they should have been too busy too, but it tells me that store over-ordered Knights of the Old Republic, too, and And we're, you know, desperate, especially the Xbox version probably, and we're desperate to sell them. And, you know, Cotor is fun to say. It's not as fun to say as Cod Blops. Ooh, I'd rank Cod Blops above Cotor.

And by the way, Call of Duty Black Ops is what we're talking about. Case you're wondering. But Cod Blops, it's so much fun. And hey, speaking of long-running things, Ken Jennings, yes. He broke the record. He made $2.5 million, which that shows you 74 games. That's the most. Do you get like $2.5 million?

that seems quite low. And he became so powerful that he took over the game show and now dispenses the money. He basically owned it afterwards. You know, it's the record he still holds to this day. There have been other long streaks. And I think just via inflation, perhaps, people have made more money collectively in long streaks. But Ken Jennings, nobody apparently has done longer than 74 games on regular Jeopardy. You know, and I still have not recovered from Alex Trebek losing his mustache.

I have not dealt with his passing yet. I know it's been several years. I was just happy to Ken Jennings guy. It seems like he was the right fit. People love him. He seems like a friendly guy who like has not done anything cancelable online. They really tried to. I mean, yes, it was funny to watch May and Bialic like flop in it.

But even funnier was the guy whose name I can't even remember who was like a producer on the show who named himself as the host. And then everybody's like that what the fuck are you talking about? You're not the host. We don't like you. Ken Jennings only flawed, not Canadian enough to host Jeopardy. You know, I read him, his Mormonism or Mormon upbringing makes me view him as Canadian-like in his friend-office. Oh, right. I guess if you're a Mormon, you just become Canadian, naturally. Genetically, you become Canadian. And, hey, Alex Trebek was not even the first host of Jeopardy. He was the host of the 84 reboot.

So it's so weird that there was a diversion of Jeopardy before the Trebek one that we all grew up with if you're old like us. Which I would assume both of us are only aware of because, of the Weird Al video. I lost on Jeopardy. Yes. Which doesn't look like Jeopardy because it's not the Trebek version. Anyway, that's what was happening in this.

The Last Simpsons to air knew in 2004. So this episode, it's called She Used to Be My Girl and hey, it's our first recording of the new year. It's literally January 1st. We are not hungover. That's how devoted we are to podcasting. I had one glass of champagne last night because a nice person who lives on the same floor

me who is this young lady was coming home from like her tech job they were handing out party favors and a tiny bottle of champagne to be like a celebrated home this stranger said to me hey do you like alcohol they gave us free drinks and i don't want alcohol so i got to have free champagne last oh very nice i had a responsible amount of beverage meaning i split a bottle of wine with my wife and then i think i had a beer or something like that afterwards and then a shot of whiskey at new years oh that's nice i did make it too west coast new years other years i've gone to sleep because I watched East Coast New Year's, but I made it to the Pacific Times Zone New Year this year. So yes, welcome to 2026. It's going to be a fun year of Talking Simpsons and our many, many other shows.

But this episode in particular, she used to be my girl. So I have some preamble stuff that comes right from the commentary. And this idea came fully formed out of Al Jean's head. And if I tell you the details, you'll realize this is a very Algini idea because it is a kind of parody of the 1977 film, The Turning Point, which I've never seen. And it is named after a song from 1978. So those are two just very Alginne traits, pulling from his youth and putting it on the screen 30 to 40 years later. Man, I miss that turning point thing. That's a movie I hadn't seen. I would have at least looked it up if I had noted that from it.

It's parodying a 70s movie, like duh. It's just lightly reference. I think Al Jean says it once. So I looked this up. I've never seen it. Nobody I know has even reviewed this on Letterbox. So here is the letterbox blurb for the turning point. Quote, as Young's dancers, they were best.

friends and fierce rivals. Didi left the stage for marriage and motherhood, while Emma would become an international ballet icon. But when Dee Dee's teenage daughter is invited to join Emma's dance company and begins an affair with a young Russian star, the two women are forced to confront the choices they've made, the resentments they've hidden, and the emotional truths they must face at the turning point.

Wow, wow, man. Well, that also sounds like a movie with sexy results, as Homer will say. Yes. Yes, Lisa does not have an affair with a protege of Chloe Talbot in this episode. But we can see how the structure of these ideas are the same. We have two women who sort of drift apart after high school. One become successful. One is doing her own thing.

They come back together and the other woman takes the other woman's daughter in and there's conflict because of that. Are there any stars in it? Like anybody I know in it? Oh, you know what? I did not look that up. But yeah, I mean, it sounds interesting. It sounds like a sleepy 70s drama and

I'm not really sure who's in it. I'm looking this up right now. Many notable names, by the way. We have Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLean as the two women. Tom Scarrett as some guy in Mikhail Baryshnikoff, I assume as the Russian dancer. If he's playing like a cop in the movie, that'd be weird. Yes, that would be. I would guess Tom Scarrett is the homer of this movie.

Yeah, possibly. Possibly. But yes, this is a parody of the Turning Point. It did not win any Oscars. It's tied with the color purple for the most nominations with no wins, apparently. Wow. That's pretty cool. Well, now I'm in a real Shirley Maclean mood.

I watch two Shirley Maclean movies like, one, she just has a cameo in. But I watched Terms of Endearment and defending your life back to back. It's making me in a real McLean mood. I want to check that out. But wow, it's a good one to steal from while also placing it very heavily in the mid-aughts

American news media, which was all the rage, especially in an election year. Oh, yes, we couldn't stop talking about it. And by the way, one more thing about Turning Point, it is so obscure, so undercooked and unloved, that not even Chris Cabin from We Hate Movies has reviewed it on Letterbox. If there is a movie on Letterbox and only one person I follow has reviewed it, it will be Chris Cabin. Chris Cabin, asleep with the switch.

Yes. Yeah, you know what? If it is a studio release of any year, it is usually Chris Cabin is the one I see who has logged it. If it is a strange movie that is sometimes has a pixelated poster that I've never heard of, then the only reviewer is Will Sloan. Absolutely, yes. But when I am a sneaky little boy and I think I'm going to have the only review on my friends list of this movie. Bam, Chris Cabin gives it two stars or something. I'm like,

God damn it. Chris beat me to the punch. It is very rare. I can't even think of that either unless it's like, occasionally I will log a TV show that you can log even though it's like sort of a movie. Like I just did that last night on December 31st with the Stranger Things finale. It was the first in there, but that's because like my husband and I'm like, you know what, let's go to the movies. Let's see it. We did it. It was fine. It was fine. You know, hey, it's 1-1, and last night you were dealing with the character 11, so very appropriate. My mind is blown.

And that character, her actual age 45. Her children are 11 now. Yeah. How did The Stranger Things age 50 years and only a decade? We don't know. It is crazy to just, there's scenes in it where you're just like, oh yeah, I've watched these children grow up

except they're playing only four years older than they were in the first episode, which like, I know this is, everybody's made fun of it, but It is very distracting. Finn Wolfhardt is a giant. He had a real growth spurt. He can beat up that creepy crawley, whatever its name is.

The Vordagonts? Well, there's Vecna and the Demagorgon. Okay, Demagorgon. Got it. Yes. But, you know, it's funny, too, hearing them talk about how Al Jean remembers this episode because, like, his daughter was born with fellow Simpsons writer, Stephanie Gillis. Their daughter was born, like, when this episode aired, so she's 21 now, maybe even 22 soon enough.

And not yet a Simpsons writer. Not yet. She's working. I'm guessing he's waiting until she graduates. You know what? Now that he's not an executive producer anymore, does that make it more or less likely it'll happen? She could be a fellow consultant. Well, I want to know what these talented gene children are doing. How many of them went to Harvard? Definitely the gene child who went to college in the 90s, in the late 90s. She has to be nearish our age now. So she must not be in the media because I would have heard of her, right? We would have heard of her writing for Cindy. I think so, I think so. Like, we know about the Daniels kids.

You know, it's funny, too, that, like, they handed this one to Tim Long, and it was Tim Long, like, he wrote the episode with the joke of mocking sex in the city. That's also very funny to me. We'll talk about her, but Kim Cottrell is on the commentary. It is kind of fun and also kind of weird, and I want to get into that when we get to her character in this episode. It is a general downside. I always give them credit for when they try to get the guest on the commentary, because I do think it makes for, good listening in a way but I would always

put it with a caveat of then do a regular one without the guest that you're sucking up to or excited to talk to the famous person maybe do one with just the you and your pals farting around and talking about writing the episode yeah they would often do that in the past like here is our

joky one with Conan and here is the normal one without Conan that's why they barely he must have been when he mentioned turning point I must have been too enraptured listening to the guest star on the commentary to pay attention to it. And just like the Bart wants what it wants, this is another episode named after a song by the group, the OJs. They did the song in the 70s, used to be my girl. Right. So this episode corrects the spelling. It's always a problem I've

had of that song. And you could be confused that like Brian McKnight. It's like, oh, this is based on Brian McKnight song. No, he did a song of the same title in 2006, not referencing it. He could have even been inspired by this. Who knows? That's what I think. Spread the conspiracy theory. The episode begins with an actual chalkboard gag. I was like, wow, how often these happens? I looked it up. The last one they had done was 11 episodes earlier in the Ziffu came to dinner. It had been like half a year almost since one had aired with a chalkboard gag. Yeah, I guess we are approaching the era. I mean, we are now 21 years later after this aired, but we're approaching the era in which chalkboard gags are being phased out. And then in about 15 years, they'll start to phase out couch gags as well, unless it's like a viral thing they want to, you know, put online and have people watch outside of the context of the show.

Unless Epic Games pays them to have a couch gag, they don't really do it anymore. That's right. Al Jean's final episode has a Fortnite ad baked into it. Honestly, a great tribute to his time of working on a lot of advertorial content for The Simpson. I hope the writers get V-bucks as part of that deal. You know, I did learn that I looked it up for our talk to the audience, but it wasn't that. interesting, but I'll say it now that I learned that apparently it was Selman and Tim Long who did much of the work on the writing for the shorts for Fortnite. Al Jean was not involved in those apparently, not as much. Maybe Tim Long is a secret Fortnite fan on the staff.

I think Selman definitely wrote a lot of the video game stuff in this era of the Simpsons back in, well, the second half thoughts. But Tim Long, I think, wrote some of those too, I think. The episode begins with, you know, hey, it's family. family stuff. It's feeding a pill to a dog. Have we all done this? I've done it. I never had a dog. I've dog sat with ones that needed pills. And more often it was, our technique was cheese cubes that you would place it into. Well, recently within the past few years, I've had to give medication to my bird because he had like inflammation or whatever. And they showed me how to like grab his neck and squirt it into his beak. And I thought, I can't be that violent with my bird. So you can give it medicine with food. So I baked blueberry muffins. And I would like inject. a little into a piece of blueberry muffins until eventually he got sick of eating blueberry muffins, which was fine because the medicine had run its course. But I was giving him like little

medicine cakes. That is cute. Wow, blueberry muffins. I would not have thought of that is like, does he like those normally, like without medicine in it? Honestly, he's never had them, but I figured cake would be like a nice sponge and he likes sweet things and I try to have him not eat the sweet things, but hey, it's full of medicine. I saw your most recent update about him that he's mewing now, and it was very cute that video. Yeah, I don't know why he's me out like a cat, but he picked it up from somewhere, and he makes us laugh, so he keeps doing it.

It's good animation on the way Sanzl helper, like, you know, growls with his mouth. Like, it does look like a dog who does not want to be fed his medicine. Then we see that Homer instead eats the craft single, which, or, well, it's not branded, but we know he loves eating slices of American cheese. Yeah, the plastic-y cheese synthesis substitute. I guess when Homer says then,

came the heart attacks. Like, we know he's had at least four and open heart surgery. So, yes, it's true. Yeah, we don't see these nights of margin number feeding each other cheese, but I guess they were a regular occurrence. It was a nice zag when I thought he was going to say, because I thought it was going to be their usual, like, until stupid children came around.

But I guess this whole episode is about the curse of children holding you back from your dreams. So they don't need that children. This is the resenting the children era of the show. Then, as all the cheese comedy is done with, the story begins pretty quickly in Act 1. What's that rumble? It's a media circuit.

A mean. A different. BBC, CBS. Uh-oh. The Christian Science Monitor has a flat tire. I'll get the spare. No, we must wait for God to jack us. In Springfield today, a sex scandal is brought in reporters from around the world.

Why, here's Fox News. The cause of all this commotion is much. Mayor and suspected illegal immigrant, Joe Quimby, named today in paternity suits by 27 different women. Not my baby. Erase this as your own. Yes, the media circus is here. So my first thought I wanted to present was,

and I wish they mentioned this on the commentary. The production code on this episode is the 16th of the season. Like, this is airing way out of order. And I really do think it is that joke that the Fox News is advertising for Bush and Cheney, was supposed to air before the election to show that they're campaigning for them. But then it would technically count as like an equal time rule or whatever to do that joke. So they instead had to wait until after the election to do the joke. And then they added, we are the champions over it to make it work.

The actual joke police stepped in. I think it is. I really do think just like how they said they couldn't show that Giuliani scene while he was running for president. I wonder if it was like Fox told them they couldn't. It feels to me like, but even if they were, like, But even if they didn't know that when they were writing the joke, it feels like it was made to be modular because another song could be plugged in if Bush and Cheney lost.

That's true. And Al Jean really loves his songs and expensive songs. That Queen's song is not cheap either. Yeah, actually, I guess it could. Oh, boy, I'm sure they could have had a funny song about losing on that one. Or they just cut the joke. But yes, this was the joke I remember to the most from first viewing because it still stung quite a lot in December.

Yeah, yeah. the wounds were still fresh. And we have a joke about Christian scientists who famously don't seek out medical treatment. They use prayer instead. I'm sure that works out for them in some cases, although I was reading that they believe in legally required and important treatment, like a broken bone or dentistry, or we have to be vaccinated to go to school. They'll do that stuff. But outside of that, they believe in healing through prayer. And it is a weird rumor that I keep hearing. It persists to this day that that is why Jim Henson died because he was a Christian scientist, did not seek care. That is not true.

He just waited too long and a very normal thing killed him because he was too focused on work. That's the tragedy of it. You know, it's nice to have a scapego to be like, well, he was raised in the Christian in that tradition, but it's like, well, no, he was a workaholic who worked all the time and worked through an illness. That can happen to all of us. And it's a cautionary tale in that way, for sure. It just tells you, please take your health seriously as you enter your 40s and 50s, because a flu, just destroy you.

I remember back then I would, when I was reading like every review I could, like, oh, movie comes out, let's read reviews. I'd like reading the Christian Science Monitor ones just because it usually was a more conservative film reviewer. I now, of course, totally miss when like, oh, the conservative boogeyman of film reviews or media reviews is Christian Science Monitor. Yeah, I guess you just have a bunch of YouTubers, right? Pretty much, yeah, who only watch things to hate them.

And I don't know, I looked this up online. There was a Reddit of like, how objective is the Christian Science Monitor today? And they say it is relatively objective. Whenever he conservative news media now is so in your face that the Fox News joke in this episode is completely left in the dust. Like Christian Science Monitor is apparently relatively objective. I was looking at the map and these things are everywhere, but there is a Christian science reading room within relative walking distance of where I live. Well, okay, Bob, as long as you do it in the way God would want you to, without getting detreated in any way.

If I damage my eyes while reading in there, I will not go anywhere. I'll just sit down and pray. Also, this idea of the media storming the town over a news story, I'm sure it does still happen, but it does feel like they just read a tweet or they just say, here's a viral. Oh, instead of a media circus, they just show like a person online went to this protest or went to this assassination. and we have all the footage we need, you know?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is also pre-Me2, and it's also pre-the-death of Me Too. Right. So all this stuff exists in a very different context. Oh, yeah, I mean, Quimby having 27 illegitimate children, assumedly from consensual relationships with people like Cookie Kwan, but also it is like, well, nowadays, again, it's like, well, who cares?

It is just, we are so far beyond, well, I know that the president had said, with a porn star. Like, that's 800 things ago. Yes. You know. Did you just wake up? Yeah. We've moved on.

Honestly, having consensual sex with a woman of age is like, you don't think of that as a scandal anymore when it comes to presidents. Yeah, those are family values. That's progressive. Paying for sex with an adult woman is progressive. Though, you know, when they did that Sashes to Sashes episode in season 37, I was like, boy, they sure skipped over him having 27 children at the very least in this loving portrait of Quimby. I assume they were all adopted away to Shelbyville, let's say.

I do like the sash of mayor's baby on the Cookie Kwan's child. It's cute. Yeah, the stash seems to be like a vestigial piece of flesh that just emerges out of the mayor's body. And we see that Marge is enjoying this media circus. It's the most fun she's had since the juice was on the loose. And she's afraid the juice is still on the loose. Which is true until 2008 when the juice gets put away. and then he's out in 2017, then back on the loose.

And the juice has been put away for life, well, not for life, for death in 2024. So no longer- He's in graveyard jail. And there's no breaking out. Isn't it nuts the Simpsons has been on air that entire time, like from when he was just a beloved icon of sports to up through his death and no death-bad confession? A whole lot can happen in 40 years. This is then where also when Lisa says that, I was like, but Lisa, you were eight when, he was like a beloved star

and Nicole Brown was alive. That's true. Lisa did not live through the murders if she is eight in 2004. Yeah, if she's eight in 2004, like, she lived in a world where she was like born during the civil trial of Simpson, I think. Then we see that he's able to distract

people with a wonderful puppy. Again, like, they don't give you the puppy anymore. They don't even show you that. Also, the joke that they would libel him as an illegal immigrant. Like, that's just literally what happens to every non-white democratic politician, period now. Yes. I mean, especially if they're citizens, they don't care about that.

Yes, yeah. If you're full citizens, if you were born in this country even, they're still like, well, but I don't think you should. And obviously, no punishment for that either. Everything's worse now. But that is not dated satire. So that's still up to date. But this is where we get our guest star. Why do we hear from her as Kent Brockman is convinced, but somebody is not. I have a question. Chloe Talbot, Global News. News Network. Oh, it seems a big shot reporter from some major news outlet isn't satisfied. Well, if it isn't local news legend, Kent, Kent, run over any more pedestrians. Those records are sealed.

She's from Springfield. I know her in high school. I didn't think anyone's successful came from Springfield. What about that two-headed goat? Technically, he was born in Shelbyville. Yes, but he came here to die. One of you ate in cans? One of you ate health food. How you solved crimes I'll never know.

Mr. Mayor, you claim to be faithful to your wife, but I have obtained this exclusive videotape. Come on, baby, read my sash. You're the major! That's mayor, you fertile moron. Two things are certain. The mayor is in deep trouble, and the local newsmen in this town are idiots.

Channel 6 News rocks. A car chase every night Or the weather girl wears a tube top And if she doesn't You win a pizza Okay, so we have to talk about Kim Cottrell on this episode Oh wait

I want to Oh Bob who is that Oh Kim Catrall Oh Kim Catrall Kim Katrall Kim Kim Kim Kim Kim You were in Manikin

And that was a really good movie Kim Katrall Kim Katrall Kim Katrall Kim Katr That is Pro T robot Singing about Kim Katrall based on the episode about what city limits? Yeah, I think that's right, yeah.

Mystery Science Theater 3000. I'm not sure if we said that either. Even now, 30 years later, or more, if I hear the name Kim Ketral, I think of Trace Ballou as Crowe singing about Kim Ketral. She was charmed by that. Now, Kim Ketral is on the commentary of this episode, I believe, calling in remotely.

She's delightful, has many great stories, but I will say this is a 2012 commentary, and I think the writers are just a little too playfully horny for my taste. You can tell what men learned in the past 15 years about how to treat women, how to talk to women when you're on mic, that would definitely not happen now. I'm not saying she was being sexually harassed, but there are some comments on there, and I think, like, this would not happen today on this commentary. No way, yes. And it's a 2012 commentary, right? Yes, it's not even that long ago, but, I mean, listen to it for yourself. This is the kind of stuff that, like, Conan O'Brien would do

when there was an attractive female guy. He'd like growl at her and like snap his teeth and do like the cat poking, petting motion. And that's stuff that Conan doesn't do anymore either, to be fair. But there are a lot of jokes in this that are a little too sexual. And I'm no prude, everybody. At one point, they're asking her if she gets to take any of the clothes home from sex in the city. And she's like, well, I can, but honestly, I can't really pull any of those clothes off in my personal life. And then Tom Gamble's like, oh, sorry, I was just distracted by you talking about pulling your clothes.

off. Yes, yeah. They're looking for jokes. They're looking for raunchy jokes. But this is just a nice woman in her 50s coming to talk about her time on the show. And I'm sure she is sick of everyone seeing her in public and think, oh, Samantha's going to zing me. And really, come to trial, I have to take a monster shit. And a stranger is coming up to me and being like, oh, here's a sexually charged joke.

Give me some innuendo, Samantha. I'm sure she has to deal with that constantly. You know, I wondered if she at least. is like friends with Ian Maxstone Graham because they seem to be recording together in New York or they both just live in New York at the time. I'm not sure on that. But they're very for it. I feel like if another woman, just one other woman was in that recording booth in L.A. with the guys, they wouldn't have been making half the jokes they made. I will say Al Jean Innocent. He did not go there. I mean, I'm not mad or anything, but it just shows you, oh, things have really changed.

She would not have been treated in this way if she had come on. on a commentary that was released, I don't know, within the past couple of years. But it's kind of shocking now. I agree, Bob. I think I'm not a prud either. It's all in good fun. They're having a good time. But I definitely, I could see Kim Contraal maybe has been in a lot of interviews like that where

she just has to be like, well, what, am I going to cause a problem? And then I'm no fun. Or do I just laugh along with it? And, you know, like, there's a social pressure to not be offended. And I think it's very unfair for her. So, like, a lot of her responses are, oh, you men, you know, that kind of a thing. Which is, well, and I also think that's not very fair to her in general because she has done a lot of, like, not just sex in the city, but she was a sex symbol. She would do a lot of nudity in her films.

Like, and I do think people probably were, I don't want to say, like, they're treating her differently than an actress who did into nude scenes. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, for a long time, she was largely seen as a has-been actor whose time had come and gone because she was a minor sex symbol in the 80s. movies like Manikin and Police Academy and Porkies, that kind of a thing, which is why in 1993 it was fun to hear a robot singing a love song to this obscure actress who seemed a little washed up at the time. But in 1998, at the age of 42, she got a new lease on life by playing Samantha Jones on Sex and the City. And that's why she is on The Simpsons. And at this time,

I believe Sex and the City just wrapped up six seasons on HBO when this aired on television. Yeah, yeah. I feel pretty sure. That's how she gets to be a guest on this show because I think I've said it before about recent things, but I definitely think HBO had very clear rules about like, you can't do guest appearances or commercials or whatever if you're on an HBO show. Like, I don't think it's a coincidence.

She appears as a guest star only after it rapped. And I mean, to learn, I also looked that up, was like, wait, how old was the old character on the show when she first appeared? Yes, she was 42 and sexually active, which is of course disgusting for a woman. Grandma Hagsley, the fourth old member of the Sex and the City Gals. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to know what she actually thought about that show. It seems like she didn't like being on it.

She didn't like any of the other women, especially Sarah Jessica Parker. So when she's being asked all these questions, answering them politely, I'm thinking, well, I know what she really thinks, because I've read the Hollywood dirt on the behind-the-scenes of that show, and I know she was not very happy. And they drove many dump trucks of money up to her house to get her to appear on that. and just like that sequel show. She did one phone call cameo, essentially. I think at the end of the second season,

which basically let the audience know she will not be coming back, but she didn't have to be filmed with anyone. It was just basically her in her car on her phone. Yeah, I mean, it is such a funny, long, or interesting decades-long starfewed to read about if you like trashy Hollywood Gossip, which I do. So I've been paying attention to it for a while.

It is hilarious the guys on the commentary like, Oh, would you do a third movie? And she rightly says what most critics says. That second movie sucked. And honestly, I hated the first movie. Or I did not like the first movie because I don't know if you saw Bob, that. Well, for one thing, they took the two gay sidekicks of other characters and made them fall in love when those two characters to me had no chemistry. And they just shoved the two gay guys together to have a wedding.

Just to pair up the only gays? Well, like, they both had their own partners in the TV show. and then they like broke them up so they could have a gay wedding in the movie with Liza Minnelli singing the Beyonce song put a ring on it and it's just like boy it's like it sucks I hated that but I know the second one is infamously bad and I just was reading about the behind the scenes

on the show and everything and it seems like there were always tensions but some big tensions came when Cottrell did not want to do a third movie there probably would have been a third movie she was like no I'm out so you can tell in the commentary she says well I don't think that show is really conducive to a movie for that. If I'm Cynthia Nixon and I could have a giant payday for a third movie

but one of my coworkers is preventing that from happening I probably wouldn't like, and that would cause some bad blood too. I can see it from their side. I also though do see it especially in the regular series why Kim Cottrell would have been bothered that she wasn't making as much money as Sarah Jessica

Parker because Samantha's the best character in the show. She is the funniest. She's the one most people watch the show for and she did have talk about pre-me-2 and intimacy coordinators and all that the bulk of the nude scenes and sex scenes in the show are on

her, not the other actresses. As someone who had a girlfriend in the early arts, a few of them, I have watched a lot of this show. And she had like a nude scene every like three episodes or something and she had to stay in awesome shape to be naked all of the time

in her 40s. That was a lot of work for her. Meanwhile Sarah Jessica Parker, she just gets to wear beautiful clothes and do voiceover. Like, she doesn't have to do nude scenes. I think if I'm Kim Ketrel, I would be like, at least pay me the same as her. I am the star of this show. Man, that show bothers me now as someone who was a writer,

just learning about the premise and, you know, buying into it as a person in my early 20s, but then when I become a writer, I think she had to write one 400-word article a week about her friends. No, a month, I think, because it was for a magazine. Yeah, yeah. And she could have a huge condo in Manhattan with that. And all the shoes, every shoe you could own, she owned it. If I have to pick sides and I like Cynthia Nixon, and I'm certainly a Miranda.

Bob, what are you? Oh, I'm a Charlotte. You're a Charlotte. Neither of us are Samantha's, but I don't know. Kim Contral, she's a funny weirdo. I don't know. Some people say there were stories she was hard to work with on there. But again, it's like she was in Star Trek 6.

How can I hate her? That's right. Yes, yes. Just one of many roles that you would not expect her to pop up in. Did you happen to look up her voice acting career, which is limited. I only did it this time for it. No, they mentioned it on here on this commentary, but she did appear on the show again in 2009 as Fourth Simpsons Child in the episode,

Oh, Brother, where Bart Thou, just for a handful of lines. Playing herself, which Matt Selman has a sneaky little joke out there about like, oh, you're a good enough actor, you can play a character instead of just playing yourself, like bad actors. Yes, yes. I guess that's where they draw to the distinction. If you're a bad actor, you will play yourself on The Simpsons. So right before Sex in the City, Claskey Chupo got a two-for-one with her. She did the voice of Tammy in the season four episode of Duckman, I believe the Tammy show.

Then she also had the very important role of Chuckie's mom, Melinda, in the Mother's Day episode where she reads the tragic poem and all that, dedicating it to Chuckie. Oh, wow. So I guess that's what you're doing when your career is on the ropes. You are guest starring on Duck Man. before you become a sex symbol again in like you're in the middle chapters of your life. They jumped on her for late Duckman too, season four Duckman. Yeah, I wonder what came first. Was she there for Duckman?

Because they aired around the same time. Was she there for Duck Man and did Rugrats or vice versa? She also did a show I had never heard of before. In 2009, a two-season Canadian animated sitcom that sounds a little like Bojack Horseman. It's called Producing Parker about a TV-producing. producer. It's basically I saw it compared to 30 Rock. And the nightmare star of Parker who has to be worked on is voiced by Kim Cottrell. And otherwise, it's entirely a bunch of Canadians in the credits for the voice cast other than Kim Cottrell. And apparently she grew up in my province

of British Columbia. So she's, wow, I saw she was born in London. So she's a real international lady this Kim Cottrell. She's a Vancouver Island snob. Okay. We're from the mainland. We don't talk to them. And she was a narrator on How I Met Your Father, which I don't think lasted very long. And the last thing I liked about her on the commentary is that she mentioned, she watched The Simpsons movie with Daniel Radcliffe because they were performing in a stage play together in London. What an odd pairing. I mean, that's where Al Jean also said like, oh, yeah, Daniel Radcliffe listens to these commentaries. So he was trying to like Kim Katrall know like, hey, don't talk smack about Daniel Radcliffe, nor was she seeming to.

It seems like she had a good experience with him. Oh, and they also like, that's also an uncomfortable thing they do, not just the jokes, but they're also like, hey, what do you think of that TV show girls? Which, like, what, is she going to have badmouthed girls? Like, is that what they want? You can tell she's being very diplomatic, you know? But I feel like the commentary is unfair to her, and they would not treat a male guest or perhaps another female guest in the same way. They were not asking Delroy Lindo questions like this. Yeah, it's just, I mean, she took it well. She was being very polite, but they're making jokes about, oh, Tim Long went to record with you.

Did anything else happen? Things like that. You know, just like, come on. You know, when they mentioned that girls thing, I was like, oh, yeah, the HBO has tried to have a sex in the city like all of the time since sex in the city. Because it was a gigantic hit for them. If you didn't know that, like it was that and Sopranos were the combo that made HBO like the prestige channel of the odds. And like Girls was the one. Then about eight years ago, it was Euphoria.

Oh, right. It's technically isn't over yet, right? Oh, Euphoria. Yeah, that's where Sidney emerged from. She hatched from her egg and she delighted us all. Yes, which also, like,

she was the Samantha of that show and that she also was showing off. Her assets, quite a lot, too. Well, now the new show is I Love L.A., which is also about, like, sexy young ladies, except it's in Los Angeles instead of New York City. It stars, well, one of the stars is Pamela Adlin's daughter,

Olivia, who also is in Marty Supreme, just of like she's like the hot new thing I thought she was really good at Marty Supreme just kept getting hit with like right that's Bobby Hill's daughter right there I can't keep track of all these kids I just watched the Phoenician scheme last night I didn't know it was a little Winslet I was staring at only when I logged it on letterbox did I learn that that was

oh of course he didn't just discover a new actress it's Kate Winslet's daughter of course Do any friends I know have kids You know in that movie at least he did side with like you know what rich guys shouldn't own slaves We shouldn't do that like it's anti-capitalist enough My thoughts about that are I didn't like Kate Wendell's daughter in that movie, but I like to see her in a good movie. That's my take.

What if she wasn't a good movie playing a non-irritating character? I think it would go something like this. Wasn't it nice that it was under 90 minutes? Like, it was a quick movie. It could have been zero minutes. And some nice pictures. Take some nice photographs of these sets that you build. It's low on my ranking of Wes Anderson as well.

Though I gave it three and a half stars, so I still clearly enjoyed it. My official review, stinkeruny. I'm detecting luscious bite-sized gooey things. I will trade you this rare chocolate radioactive man for the box. Quite literally, mint condition. Not anymore. Oh! Ritzpitt sandwiches smores, fudging marshmallow graham crackers.

Now with Simpsons' faces. Fine. I will throw in Radioactive Man comment number one. Deal. Hello, this box is empty. You said the box. Worst trade ever. Oh, dear.

Ritz bit sandwiches smores. With the Simpsons, it's smore. fun. Welcome to the break, everybody. It's Henry Gilbert here to remind you that this week's episode was endorsed by Walter Cronkite. We thank all you listeners for enjoying our chat about she used to be my girl as we went super in depth into this Kim Cottrell focused episode. And we are starting 2026 again as a independently produced podcast. Thanks to listeners like you who support us at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Now in this new year you might be thinking, why do I have to hear ads like this one? Well, you don't. Because you can support.

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only for listeners like you. Only for listeners like you who subscribe at patreon.com slash talking simpsons. But if you want something even nicer than a jaunty ascot, then you need to sign up at the premium. level at patreon.com slash talking simpsons early in ad-freet podcasts are enjoyed as well as basically three extra podcasts. That's our what a cartoon movie podcast where we talk for five or even six hours about an animated feature film just as in depth as we do the simpsons. We've been doing so many of them for years and years now. We're starting up 2026 the way we started the last few years, which is with a classic Disney film and this one is sleeping beauty. And at the end of 2025, we covered peewee's playhouse Christmas and And My Neighbor Totoro, two classics of 1988. And that's just the most recent one.

We've covered so many Disney films, so many Pixar films, tons of anime films, even junk like Shrek and Cool World, our longest podcast ever is there. Six and a half hours about who framed Roger Rabbit. You're missing out on so many things if you're not at that premium $10 level. Sign up today at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. All right. That's all of the Kim Katrall corner I had up to. Yeah, we have a lot of cover here.

in this clip because I uncovered a very subtle reference. We see this sex tape of the mayor and it's Harley Quinn-style flusie. This is definitely a parody of, or a reference to the Paris Hilton sex tape because, I mean, other people have told me this, but it was a lot of it's filmed in Night Vision. Right, right.

I also have not seen it. And I've admitted listeners when Friends showed me the Pam Anderson sex tape. I'm not just trying to lie here. I was not interested to see it. But yes, you're right. There were jokes about it more obviously. in, you know, like scary movie-type movies

that did the joke about it. Like, oh, you're watching a sex tape, but also their eyes are glowing, right? Yes, I think that's the reference to the tape. But yeah, it's very subtle. They don't want to be too raunchy here. But if in 2004 you see a sex tape joke where it's filmed in Night Vision, this is Parasilton Town. Welcome to it.

And it's only going to last so long because then soon enough, Kim Kardashian's sex tape will be the next one that gets parodied. I believe that was not filmed in Night Vision. Right, right. That wasn't 4K. Again, this seemingly would end many careers, but not Quimby's or anybody now, obviously. Also, the Kent Brockman, not just doing ads, but also revealing that he killed somebody, like, or it's common knowledge he's committed vehicular manslaughter is shocking. Yes.

Hey, the records are sealed, so he paid off the judge or something. Unlike the records for Sarah Jessica Parker's husband. Well, we all know about that. Yes. Old hot rod and, what's his name again, Matthew Broderick, there we go. And this bit here of like Marge pointing out like, oh, she grew up in Springfield. Definitely I learned of all of the local celebrities where I grew up. Though, of course, for me, the number one one was Fred Durst and the rest of the limp biscuit.

They were the hot local act of my childhood. I mean, our claim to fame in Youngston, Ohio is Ed O'Neill for Married with Children. That's it. And modern family is even bigger. He was keeping it just as famous. Oh, sorry, and Jim Cummings. Oh, right, yes. Well, and now you basically live in a place where they feel.

film more TV shows than Hollywood does. So you're just pointing famous people all the time. And everyone's from here from Vancouver. Everybody is from here. You get bored doing it now. Oh yeah, that bit too about like technically he was born in Shelbyville. This is like a two-headed goat joke. It just reminds me of the disgusting one in Futurama a couple years ago.

Oh, the Pee Me Poohue You, whatever it was called. It's Puk Me Poo-U, I think it is. Yeah. Not the best foot to start off on with the new Futurama reboot, but they recovered. I mean, this empty hypocrisy, she's pointing out here, that used to work in media. It really did. It used to be. Like, that's entirely Jake Tapper's whole bid of just like a smug, a raised Iber.

I'm like, well, I guess our president didn't mean that when he met with this rapper. Giving people many Pinocchio's. Yes, yeah, yeah. Now, also it doesn't work anymore, obviously. You know what? I really love Tress's Harley Quinn voice. It's a really fun voice. You're the major?

She's fun. Yeah, I like this character. kind of recently invented. He's had many a flusie, but they're really focusing on this particular one with this kind of a voice. Yeah, I think it was like five or six seasons ago. Within the last five seasons, Tress did that voice for a one-off joke about the flusy he was banging, and they fell in love with it, as they should. It's a good voice. And so Chloe then is, you know, just by existence is making Marge a little jealous already. Again, I have felt that with people. I use. I used to work with sometimes, but honestly, now I prefer thinking of myself as the Chloe and making old

Florida friends feel bad by comparison. Where did these Florida friends rise to the ranks of? What organizations were they part of? You can speak broadly to not give away too much. They seem happily married, the good ones. Some even became managers. You know what? Best of luck with publishing a second comic book in 20 years, buddy. That's what I'll say. Whoa. I mean, yeah, I guess I felt some resentment, but my world was much smaller when I was, you know, working at a store, I thought, man, I wish I was the manager. And then I realized, well, the manager was making $13 an hour. I think there's nobody more famous in my immediate friend group. If I stretch farther, I'm like, no, that guy got more famous.

But then again, my younger brother, he owns a home and I don't. So who's really the sucker here? We need to figure out our cue ratings. You know, I have worked with people who are like, oh, yeah, that person went on to more fame than me or whatever. Or more popularity. But I have a healthy idea of that. just be friendly with these people. Like, not be, Marge isn't jealous at first.

I do think it's Chloe who is trying to make Marge more jealous. Yeah, a little bit. I think she is enjoying, you know, showing Marge, like, what she could have had. I also do love that the chore wheel joke and that it's fair and balanced when it lands on Maggie, who simply can't do a chore. Yes. Yeah, I like how it's like so professionally made. Yeah, it's like a double wheel, right?

Like, it's a good. March is built it very well. Certainly Homer didn't build it. Now, you said fair and balance. I think you're thinking of Fox News. Oh, yes, right. Lisa says a similar thing. Fair and wise.

For a second, I was like, did they make a Fox News joke? But then I checked the quote. Sorry, thank you. I was all jumbled up for the Fox News joke earlier in the episode. Yeah, I got so sick of people making fun of fair imbalance. It's like, yes, they're dunking on you. They know they're not fair imbalance. Stop pointing it out.

You're giving into their branding here, Al Franken. Yes, Al Franken wrote about 500 pages about that, that I bought the hardcover version of. Yeah, me too. You couldn't give those away. No, they were just kindling. But hey, it got him to be senator. That was the important part of it, honestly.

So yes, Quimby is... Bart also is trying to audition to be a Quimby child. He's worked on his impression since the boy who knew too much. Oh, yes, yes. I think he's just been studying Quimby. He's been shadowing him doing improv exercises. Back when he was trying to pretend he was Bart Bart. Yeah.

Yeah, he didn't even try to do an accent back then. Also, I love the look. It's a very funny... There's several very funny drawings. in this. The look on Homer's face of presenting Bart, that's a great drawing. So it's the next day and Quimby is being protested

by all of the expectant mothers. Cookie has a sign Quimby, you pay now. And there's also, I think the best is say yes to sperm limits. Yeah, Mayor McSlee's, I don't know, we didn't have Mayor McChese for a very long time. I didn't even live through the Mary McChese era.

I think I was like barely sentient when Mayor McChese had to step down. They had to make new room for the Fry kids. Like, they don't have time for Mayor McCheese, let alone Big Mac the sheriff. And Captain Crook? I don't even know that guy. And I love fish filets or filet-o fish. And what?

They're all gone, right? Like, because they got rid of Ronald. They haven't brought Ronald back yet since the scary clown epidemic. They will occasionally do merch. But yes, Mary McChese, he had to step down from office in 1985 when McDonald's became a dictatorship run by a clown. Just like when they brought back the grimace shake, it's only to be sold to the elderly like us who remember Grimmis.

Yes, Uncle O Grimmis, the Shamrock Shake. Yes, yeah. Also, they even had the regular, they had like the purple Grimmish shake last year or the year before. Then Chloe shows back up to ask a question. And when she does, she presents it his writing, then Quimby eats it and runs away. And that's the end of the Quimby story.

Like, he's able to get away with it with that puppy, too. The staging is very weird with the introduction of March because, I mean, this is not worth, you know, being too upset about, but Marge and Lisa are just carrying groceries past an active protest, or basically like through an active protest. That's how she meets up with Chloe. It's like, March has a car, and why wouldn't they just go around? It's very, very contrived, but whatever. Well, Quimby has to run out of the scene so it can reset to Marge and her talking, right?

Yeah, yeah. Lisa gets to talk to her new hero. Diamond Joe's got it. Mr. Mayor, will you answer one question? Only if it's admitted in writing. Checkmate. Marge, Simpson. Chloe!

Hi! March! Where are you living now? Evergreen Terrace. Paris? Just like you always dreamed. Terrace. Evergreen Terrace.

The street that smells like pee. This is my daughter. Lisa. Chloe, I really admire how you got out of Springfield and became such a success. Hey, only the Lamos day. And your mother, super lady. Well, it is good to see you, Chloe. Would you like to come over for dinner tomorrow?

Oh, I'd love to. I'm getting so sick of these greasy catered meals. You insult to me? You insult Italy. Which is shaped like a boot. Who knew? Yeah, I don't know. It does feel like Marge is immediately a little too defensive.

Although Chloe is just very out of touch. I think Chloe is just too out of touch to realize she is being offensive to someone of lower income who is less worldly. She just does not really hang out in this kind of world with these kind of people anymore. Oh, yeah, yeah. They're having good fun at, this is more at a New York or East Coast like news media type person than Hollywood people. But the joke remains the same of like, I'm sure the writers feel this whenever they visit family in their lame-o hometowns. is that they're like, oh yeah, I'm not a normal person anymore. Like, I am successful enough.

And it is easy to forget. Like it's something, even with our modest success, like it is something you try to not forget and end up like a Chloe constantly dropping names, which I would never do. I say how much I hate dropping names to all the great guests we've had on the podcast. I tell them all the time. If I drop these names, my family would not understand anything. When I shared with my mom the picture of me and you meeting Matt Graining, she just said, I had to tell. her that was Matt Graney. Why is Henry sending me a picture of him like next to some older man? I don't understand. Actually, that is the one picture I did send my mom. In the text I put, this is Matt Graney,

creator of the Simpsons. I should have put that in there. My mom, I had to tell her afterwards because she was confused. And I don't dislike this episode, but it does feel like a less thoughtful version of scenes from the class struggle in Springfield in which Marge is made to feel insecure because of her, you know, status in life. It's not necessarily about the fact that she had kids. It's about, oh, here is a wealthy, worldly person, and I'm immediately kind of insecure when I'm confronted with all of the possibilities I didn't have or didn't take. I like that Chloe, in this version of that story, like, at least Chloe gets to represent, like, I knew you in high school and we both had our dreams. I completed my high school dreams.

You got different dreams. And Marge, you know, eventually will learn that she doesn't have regrets. But as soon as she goes like, oh, you moved to Paris, your dream. and she's like, no, not there. And then to see that her daughter clearly is much more into Chloe as a role model than Marge. Like, that certainly hurts March. And this draws back a little to the way we was. I guess because March was studying French, we could infer that perhaps she wanted to go to Paris, wanted to live in Paris.

It is a very high school dream, I guess. March should say back to Chloe like, no, don't you remember? It was national news. I lived in Paris. and I escaped Alcatraz and moved to Paris and lived in Paris for a few months. And actually, my son was being held by two corrupt wine merchants in France, where he learned to speak French fluently, or Frunch, as I call it. Chloe shouldn't be so confused about March because she's made national news about 20 times since high school.

Yes, only the Lamos stay, though. Anytime we talk bad about our hometown on the podcast more, we need to just play only the Lemos stay. They don't know what podcasts are in my hometown. Every time I have met, my brother knows what a problem. podcast is. We listen to similar ones. Someday, maybe I'll see if he'd want to record something for this. But no, for my parents' family, I always have to explain what a podcast

is. Well, now, I mean, podcasters have become famous and infamous. And now that a lot of podcasters are part of the Donald Trump cabinet, I feel like people know. And I was looking into that because many people say, oh, Cash Patel, I can't believe this podcasters in this position of power. And I looked up to see when he started podcasting, I believe it's

2021. And I say, try harder, sir. That is not a true podcaster. No way. No way. There's other horrible reptilian men out there who earned their hours as a podcaster to be part of that Nazi administration. Yes, the great Joe Rogan actually put in the time. Ben Shapiro has been doing so many podcasts for years, hated all the time. If you were not working in the trenches with Mark Marin, as Uber drivers ask you, what's a podcast? You are not a real podcaster yet. It's like saying like a movie star who did like 18 months of a 30-minute podcast is a podcaster now.

So they invite her to dinner. This is where, is weird, they're in a weird area of doing jokes about Italian immigrants. I don't understand why they are doing this at this time. I mean, I guess they say in the commentary, well, Italians aren't mad when you make fun of them. And I guess the only joke is that Luigi only realized now the most obvious fact about Italy that everybody knows. In other episodes, they'll wave around him as their way of saying, we make fun of everybody defenses. certainly Luigi is used as a shield in the Apu conversation we were having 10 years ago. But this feels like the beginning of that.

But yeah, if they say in the commentary, this and the Irish joke in here, they're like, oh, they're the only ethnicities you can make fun of. They're white passing, I would assume, is why. And Luigi is still appearing in the show and still being voiced by Hank. So I feel like they realize, well, this lady in the tramp caricature, everybody is, I guess, cool with it, at least in 2025. Maybe that could change in the future, who knows. Hey, wasn't great

to have a side tangent too that I watched that new episode The Bumblebee Man episode The casting of him, Humberto The actor they cast as him is Latin American Homer. It was a really clever casting.

Yeah, yeah, I don't know if that I feel stick around the book So is he sticking around as the voice? I mean, honestly, he could record unless they do another Bumblebee man focused episode again, they could just temp him and have him record one day a year

and cover all bumblebee man lines for a season, I would think. I still have to see that one, but it's Humberto Veles. Thank you, Humberto Veles. And I believe also the Bart and Lisa Latin American voice actors as well have cameos in the episode. It's a fun tribute to, you know, Mexican and South American Simpsons fans out there to have them get canonical main series cast voice appearances. Yeah, it's easy to forget that these dub voices have also existed for decades alongside Dan and Julie and Nancy and Yardley. There have been some nasty, freaky headlines lately when a person who plays Marge in another country dies, and they get to say, like, Simpson actor of 30 years dies in headline, and you click on it. It's got me a couple times now.

So we cut to home. Homer is reading men's fatness, bad abs in six weeks. Then Homer gets a little flirty with Chloe when she arrives. I do love his response to barfing in the tuba. Yes, I believe that was the school's tuba. He's instantly getting defensive. He doesn't, other than the, I think, not funny bit later with the catfight, Homer's not too flirty. It's more like he's cheating in his heart about food with Chloe.

Yeah, and I guess when he answers the door, he's more like a little kid who is bashful and starstruck by seeing someone he's only seen on television previously. It is funny in general, this episode. The guys who hit on Chloe are pretty much all just like 10-year-old say like, garsh lady, like they're doing like goofy acting. Yeah. They're all being a bunch of bashful goofies.

They have some dinner, and Chloe is really putting on a show. Homer Simpson. I sought you on the television. I remember you from high school. You barfed in my tuba. I believe it was the school's tuba. Chloe, these kebubs you made are as good or better than anything I've ever had at this table. Homer.

Oh, Marge, I'm just being polite. Mmm. My back pain's completely cured. That was one too many. I got the recipe for these in Istanbul. More. I was writing a story for Harper's Magazine. Harper's Magazine. I have a picture of Louis Lapham on my binder.

Wow. Oh, but I've been yapping. about myself all night. Marge, what's exciting in your life lately? Well, we finally found out why the dog was scooting around on his butt all day. Turns out he had an impacted anal gland. Well, if you're waiting for March to say anal, there it is. Go to it, samplers. I'm sure it's been sample plenty of times. But yes, this is Chloe being very, I guess, one of the liberal elite, like we said, and

you know, just dropping names talking about Istanbul, talking about the editor of Harper's, which apparently this is true, the Lewis Lapham. He was editor for about 30 years. He retired in 06 and passed away in 2024 at 89, so a very long tenure at Harper's.

Yeah, I wondered what his, I looked up his background, I go, he was like a fancy boy who then became a very well-respected writer, but Ralph Nader had a very complimentary obituary for him from 2024. So I'm going to give him my liberal seal of approval there. I need to know the political background before I can like or not like a journalist, of course. Should you spit on his grave? We're going to find out. I don't know if it's meant to be an extra joke. Her over-pronunciation, let's call it,

of Istanbul. Like, is it a joke? So I looked online like, if you live, if you are Turkish, you would call it Istanbul. Like you would definitely not say ishthtanbel. So it's like she's overly pronouncing it, but also doing it wrong, apparently. Yes, I feel like I'm not sure if they know it's wrong, but it's just like, oh, I've been there. So let me pronounce it in the very affected way

that people there will naturally pronounce it. But it sounds odd to the American English-speaking ear, English-hearing year. Though also, isn't it, you know, was news to me, I feel like in 2025, that you're not supposed to say, the country that Istanbul is in, you're not supposed to say it

the way you're, like, it's Turkey now. It's not Turkey, apparently. Well, okay. Well, I mean, I mean, Italy's like Italia. So we have, like, all of these weird-ass names for countries with much, much prettier names. You know, we should be calling it Nihon and all that too, or Nippon.

I mean, like, this is the right way, but if you were like, oh, I went to Tokyo, sure, that's fine. But if you came back, like, I went to Tokyo. and I had some delicious sushi. Yes, yeah, especially if you're not fluid in it either. You really come off as, hey, look, again, I'm trying to learn in my new year. I'm trying to learn from Chloe as a Donnie don't here.

I'm not saying you do this, but it is sort of like, well, I've been there once, and here's how you say everything. I do try, after coming back from Osaka, I do try to hit the long O'O on it more, just to be a little more correct. I try not to do it in a snobby way, but it's like, it's a long, Osaka. I went to Osaka. Yeah. Oh, suck.

He's not like a baseball announcer at that point. Oh, Saka. He hit a dinger. I wonder if that impacted animal land is what Sanzlil helper was taking pills for earlier. Oh, possibly. Yes, this is the B plot. You know what? I also love the joke construction of where did you go recently and Marge goes Athens.

And typical joke construction, at least for an American ear, I think would be Georgia in the state of Georgia. Or perhaps it was an international trip. that she wanted to brag about. But I like the follow up to Athens, Athlands Boulevard Recreational Center. They didn't even travel to a different state in America. Went to a rec center. I think maybe Chloe would imagine she went to Greece.

And maybe it's more likely that Marge would have went to Georgia on a field trip. And this is where Chloe then interrupts Marge to just be like, oh, you know, like Chloe knows what she's doing here. She knows like, oh, my TV show happens to be on tonight. Why don't we watch it together? And Marge just gives her a weary, I guess. So Marge is not happy with the presence of Chloe in her home. I wish they had gotten just a little more into, if Chloe's resolution was different in an emotional one,

I think she could have at least said to Marge, maybe I was bragging a little too much because I wanted to make you jealous because I always wanted your approval or to impress you or whatever. But instead, they have a different resolution coming for her. Yeah, I don't really care for the ending. and the resolution between these two characters doesn't really happen. Yeah. And when I say a different resolution coming, I did not mean that as a double entendre sex in the city style. Stay tuned. Or Nuki in New York, which was the joke.

They confront her with that. They're like, you know, we made fun of it before too, Sex and the City on the commentary. They say that to control. I believe the joke is, it's where four women talk like gay men. Yes. Patty Orsama said that. And Tim Long wrote it. And also the joke, I rewatch that scene. I forgot the other mean joke they have about it is sex in the city, not just that it's

the women parodied are not drawn in any ugly way, so they're not personally insulting Kim Cottrell or the other actresses. But all they do is say, I just had sex, I just had sex. And then they constantly cut to other characters in the scene laughing at it. It's more that they just, I think the joke was the writers are too full of themselves and think they're very

funny. It's like a very self-satisfied show full of two smart characters. So we get to the Talbot report and And we see that she must have been in the same place on May 1st in 2003 when George W. Bush proclaimed mission accomplished as we completed the invasion of Iraq and no problems happened and it was fine. These jokes are really funny enough. We get three jokes, three stills of where she's been.

One is in front of that Mission Accomplished banner. One is in front of the White House. One is in space. I don't know. I feel like punching up could have been done here. But it's a very short segment of this little bit. Her being an astronaut isn't funny enough. And then it feels so criticy or like family guy, not in a good way.

This Bob Dylan thing, it's not funny to me. Yeah, this is, it's all a very long drive to a very dusty Bob Dylan impression, something that kind of everyone can do. And honestly, not worth it. And I knew this when this episode aired because I had watched the behind the music on Dylan, and they make a whole point about, and I think it was in other listicals at the time of like, Bob Dylan, he became born again. He was Bar Mitzvite.

He was Jewish. But then he became born again Christian, and they bounce back to Jewish. But it's like these are 80s jokes. Like these are Johnny Carson jokes. I guess like Bob Dylan recently was kind of notable because really the pandemic kicked off with his 17-minute song about JFK. That's awful. I forgot about that.

I would not expect anyone to remember this. I think that's when all the pandemic drinking started. Like I can't listen to this anymore. I thought it would be ironic. Well, and people were talking about him just a couple years ago because of a complete unknown is. bio-pick. Oh, yes. I totally forgot about that. I've heard that's really good. Yeah, I heard that, too. I haven't seen it. I did watch Inside Lewin Davis, which is about the people who were around him. And it sounded at least like a good biopic, too, because it sounds like they actually make him like an asshole in it. Not a hagiography, like seemingly the Bruce Springsteen one was similar. You know, I don't know a lot about those folks. I haven't listened to their music. And if Mark Marin asked me who my guys were, I would not name them. I mean, did you even know his real name was? Robert Zimmerman Bob? I knew that. Okay. You know, you think you would

know more about a famous Bob, Bob. That's true. Well, I guess we're both Roberts. We decided to choose Bob as our moniker later in life. And Al Jean makes a great point on the commentary. It's true. The same night as this episode first aired, they had

Bob Dylan on 60 Minutes on the exact same night. And it was his first television interview in 20 years when he was interviewed by the late Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes. So it was crazy timing for the airing of this episode with a joke about interviewing Bob Dylan. Did anything come out of that interview? Honestly, he is like very, he's mumbling and grumpy and then just like, you know,

Ed Bradley is clearly a big fan who grew up on his music, similar in age. And he's just like, well, you know, why did you change your name or all this? Like, yeah, names or names. When I looked up like on the Bob Dylan Reddit, why people remember that interview, they call it the chief commander interview because he uses that to describe God as like, well, I just do this because the chief commander tells me to do it. Like it explains the muse of writing music. He's still kicking at 84. And this episode goes live very soon. So I can safely say, I'm crossing my fingers. I think we added a whole another year or two as Zimmerman. Editor check Wikipedia before you continue editing. Thank you.

Does it say was or is? It's always important. Then we also see that Chloe not only interviewed Bob Dylan just like Ed Bradley did. But then she gives a tour of her old hometown. Hearing Kim Cottrell say the words comic book guy is just funny to me. It is. Yes, I think they chose the right characters. And also, Krusty, she thought he was dead.

She's big time in Krusty the Cloud even. She's big time in everybody. Though I wonder if she has any background with comic book guy just because clearly she likes bigger dudes in Barney and Comic Book Guy. Or at least she'll give bigger dudes pity sucks. Sure, sure.

at the very least. Is there any other kind, as we know? Okay, so then Homer makes everything uncomfortable because of his ankle bracelet, which he calls a conversation starter, which is great. His ankle bracelet also makes sense because, as we know, he was arrested five times in season 15. Yeah, yeah, I assume there had to be an ankle bracelet involved at some point.

You know, if Chloe really wanted to big time, Marci, she should just make her feel bad about being arrested for a DUI. She could just look at their many, many crimes. And so then there is a silly joke about choking on things. I mean, here, I'll just play the clip here because the audio is very silly to me. This is the dance the Chinese government makes dissidents perform before they shoot them. I yingo. I yingo.

I yingo. I junk so. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. What are you doing? I swallowed a chicken bone. I just so

Chloe, you've lived so many fascinating places Yes, but down deep in my heart I'll always be the girl who wanted to leave Springfield Gee, with all that travel, you probably haven't had much time to find that special someone Oh, I've had a few flings

Bill Clinton Orchenegger Oh, excuse me But not all of us can be as lucky as you, Marge Homer's a wonderful man I chung-to! Did you just swallow another bone? Same one.

Yeah, that's not worth it. I don't think this is a real Chinese expression spoken Chinese, Mandarin or Cantonese, whatever. But it does feel like it all boils down to the racist grandpa joke of how the Chinese language sounds like someone is choking on food. Yeah, it really does sound just like that Chinese language. Pretty crazy, huh? It's a bunch of gibberish. Like, that's the joke. Well, also the joke is China is a violently repressive country as well.

So you've also got that. You've got that jingoism there too, in xenophobia. I mean, hey, if they have the same amount of repression and concentration camps as we have here, at least they have high-speed rail. Yeah, hey, you know, it's their century. They can do what they want now. They've won. You've got to hand it to them.

Sorry, guys. We're living in the century of humiliation. And I had told myself, you know what, I'm not just going to, just because I love this clip of Kim Cottrell. It's no reason to play it. But since she is making silly noises, I do have to share with you. Bob, have you heard Kim Katrall's love of scatting and jazz? No.

Is this going to be like that scene from the naked gun reboots? I honestly think they're making fun of it. Okay. So it was a behind-the-scenes thing on, I believe, just like, one of the making of her career or maybe sex in the city. But the important thing is it's her talking about how her and her husband love to make jazz together. And so here's the clip you may have seen online. I read poetry and sonnets, and he plays the upright bass.

Yamakibio, Cerefekebo, Indar Latin, he quotes. You je, Savasaray! I see. Well, hey, Kim, don't quit your day job.

Whatever that is. It gave me more insight, too, into how she said she loves the character of Lisa because she's playing her saxophone. Because she loves jazz. This, I think, was her third husband, Mark Levinson, a jazz musician.

And she is now currently married to a man named Russell Thomas. They just married last year in 2025. Oh, isn't that? Hey, congratulations. She's probably cutting down on the scale. Scatting then these days. I hope so. I mean, she's almost 70. Skating is a young woman's game. I just love that Shivo Satsuri. It's been stuck in my head for the last few years since I first saw it shared online.

You know, I bet a lot of guys were Googling Kim Katrowski Skat and they were surprised by what they found. So hearing her have to make those, I mean, I also feel sorry for her like they shouldn't have asked her to make those silly sounds. Those are embarrassing unless she wanted to. But it's a silly borderline poorly aged a joke, let's say. I would say it has poorly aged. I didn't like it. Okay, you know, we're taking out of the borderline, yes. Yeah, it's crossed the border. Well, hey, talk about something that aged well, having affairs with Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Yeah, what, I mean, I feel like there should be a third comedy option because I guess now we know Schwarzenegger has cheated on his wife and fathered children, or at least a child with a domestic worker. But I guess the joke is at the time, like, Schwarzenegger was a relatively new politician. So she's already, like, having affairs with someone who just. sort of entered the realm? I am guessing that is like she only just had it with him because he's famous. And also his sexual escapades were already part of attempts to defame him ahead of the election, though he still got it. Right.

And his secret son was seven years old when this episode aired. Oh, how nice. I wonder if he saw this. The world only learned about him like the day after his governorship ended Schwarzenegger cop to it. And then within a year he had separated from Maria. as his mighty heart was breaking that. It really was. Yeah. You know, I've been watching a few Schwarzenegger movies lately.

I just saw Jingle all the way for the first time over the holidays, and I watched Terminator 2 recently, and I thought I really missed that man. Politics took him away from us when he was still a viable actor. He should have been acting more instead of, he would be president if legally he could be. I 100% believe that. I just saw he is also the likable Republican.

He is able to sell himself like that to me. He's very good at that, even though he is like, yeah, he is a gross guy with his stogie's, but I just watched a great interview with him. Last year, he and his son had like a one-on-one interview. And then the same day, Danny DeVito was recording an interview that same day in the studio. And just it was Danny and Arnold reconnecting and they're having fun together. I was like, oh, this just feels great. My two elderly uncles are being friends again.

I want a twins reboot now. Let's go. How is that still not? It was supposed to be with Eddie Murphy, right? Right? Is that what we've always heard? Oh, like triplets or something? It's like, oh, what if there was a third brother? Yes.

He'd be, at the very least, a legacy sequel, where each of them had twins as well. Now, of course, jokes about Bill Clinton having sex with an illegal of age woman, clearly unbelievable now, obviously. Also, isn't it crazy? I mean, when this joke was written in 04, a lot of these guys were paying advice from a certain New York businessman. That's true. Schwarzenegger innocent, though, right? I think so. I don't think he's on those lists.

I bet old Jeff tried to get him on that island. Well, and also like, he knew it wasn't cool, I think. It's only for nerds like Bill Gates. Yeah, no, also with the Epstein stuff, too, it's like we learned that the Cloys of the world were all going to dinners at this guy's house because he was a famous dude. And if you were the president of Harvard or whatever,

you'd be emailing him for dating advice. And not to mention, too, this stuff about, like, having journalists who undercut their, you know, integrity by having sex with people is, of course, was a huge news story of the last couple of years. Whoa, was Chloe like an Olivia Nuzzi figure? I think Chloe would write a much better book than Olivia Nuzzies. Man, I'm sorry for bringing her up. I think we all collectively forgot about her as the year transition to 2026.

Only people who bought her book were ones to make fun of it on podcast. Honestly, I think my book about Day of the Tenicle sold more than her book about a national political scandal. Congratulations. And you didn't have to have sex with a Kennedy to do it. No, or like a corpse-like horrible mutant. Yes. Oh, man. Actually, that's another thing.

Chloe seems to actually have had sex with her guys. Olivia Nuzzi didn't even, like, it was an emotional affair. It sounded like there was not even anything physical. Steamy emails. Around the same time, too. Barbara Walters in 2008 would reveal that she also had several affairs with politicians. She had an affair with a married Republican, African-American senator, Edward W. look. That's how far out

Barbara Walters was going as a journalist. Well, you know what? She had a lot to offer on the view. I'm sure all those affairs gave her perspective. And did you know she dated Ellen Greenspan as well? I'm not surprised. She was very old. Meanwhile, Homer is dying right in front of them

and nobody cares. They're used to it at this point. And so, they're cleaning up after Chloe leaves. Marge is getting mad, but even then she has to admit that the bowl even smells glamorous. This is when Lisa asked for the backstory, what happened? And we travel back in time to what could be 1974 or 1984.

Who's counting? She has her 70s look, and so does Homer when we see her. And Barney, when we see him. It's great animation of the transition from Marge's current look to her long hair of 1974. Yeah, I like that the background transitions behind her and her hair changes as we go to 1974-ish, wherever we are in this time period. They'll talk about inconsistencies. We saw Mo in this same production season at the summer camp with Homer. He's got black hair.

Meanwhile, we see this teenage Mo, or could be in his 20s even, he has brown hair or like almost orange. I don't know. Maybe they dyed his hair in prison. It was part of his trying to get a new identity. It was a toilet die job. He was mad. They gave him his first job out of prison. It was spitting in the soup.

And they narked on this ex-convict, which like, that is kind of funny. It's like, oh, what gave them their big journalistic success? They narked on an ex-con and got it re-arrested. He was an ungrateful ex-con. And speaking of continuity, they get an award from Mr. Dundlinger himself in our next clip. Ladies, it is my great pleasure to award you the certificates of merit. In this box marked Honorary, fill in your names. And over here, write in what you did.

I'll be back. You ain't tasted the last of my spit. That, Mo. But good for you, Mom. Why didn't you follow Chloe into journalism? Well, we both faced a tough decision. Go off to journalism school, or stay in Springfield with our sweethearts. Stay with me, Marge, and I promise we'll travel the world and perhaps outer space. Pugh, phew, phew, whew, phew.

I love you, Chloe. And I love you too, break fluid. Chloe left town as soon as Barney proposed. I would have followed her, but my plans changed when God brought me a wonderful little boy. Bart, stop that. This isn't what it looks like. He's sawing through the TV actively.

Now, this sets up a more interesting third act in which Mo could potentially get revenge when Chloe returns to town. Like, yo, you threw me back into prison, you sent my life spiraling, and now I'm a bartender in this crappy bar. Instead, it ends too similarly to days of wine and doses, which has the same ending as this,

which they do identify, but still, I kind of get these too confused in my mind because of that. And also, if they involved Mo more, it could then get Barney into it earlier instead of him being a day sex machina at the end of the episode. Instead, they had to reference Mount St. Helens. I mean, this, every time in the Nalgini, era, that there is a huge ending like this third act.

It does make me think it is a rewrite. This second act is setting up a third act that now no longer exists. Yeah, yeah. And I guess, to be overly pedantic, as is my job. My job to be pedantic. My job. Homer is saying, oh, when we go to space, do this, he makes Darth Vader sound effects, which in 1974 he wouldn't be doing.

I guess so. I mean, if you go back in time 17 years, this would be 1987. Oh, sir, it makes sense then But Bart was fathered on the night Of Empire Strikes Back Right, yeah We're losing control now of reality Oh yes, I know that, I know

But it's funny to think I do like the classic timeline Of like Homer and Marge We're high school sweet arts And then basically dated Normally from 74 to 80 And then Bart was born in 1980 Like I like that as their timeline

But this seems to imply as soon as Chloe left, Marge got pregnant at like 19 or 20 in, like right after high school. There's a big gulf of time between graduation and the birth of Bart. So I feel like that is fertile ground for future episodes. And I'm sure they have covered that territory at some point. But I really want them to freak people out by at least doing one new episode in the old continuity. Like, let's go back to 1984 when Lisa was born just to like mess with everyone's minds. Because I'm sure there are many things from that era that have not been explored.

and there's more stories could come from that. I feel like that'd be very fun because, I mean, you guys need ideas, right? You're 800 episodes in. You just did a bumblebee man episode. You must need ideas. Well, Bob, soon enough, we'll be talking about college age Homer and Marge

when we get to that 90s show in a little bit. Honestly, that's a misdemeanor compared to future continuity crimes. When we started this podcast, I would have said it was my most hated episode. I feel like I wouldn't, I won't have the anger ready for it when I'm 48 when we cover it.

Now that I know Matt Sleman wrote it to make us man, people like us. You're right. Then I don't, at the very least, can't give madselman the satisfaction. So yeah, Marge sets up that like Barney proposed and she ran off immediately. And I also chuckled another great funny drawing.

Bart sawing the TV is just a funny drawing. Pausing in mid-saw. If there were cells of this era, that would be a good cell to have. And Marge is then in the next scene cleaning the tub, sees that her disgusting husband, instead of cleaning it, has written in name in the gunk. And that's where we get the

opening sound of Marge at first in a fun drawing of her reflected in it is proud of it. And then Lisa comes in to say that Chloe just won a Peabody Award. First, I thought like, wait, did she win a Peabody Award while she's in town? No, the Peabody's announced their awards at least a month in advance. So it's not a nomination process. Well, we mentioned the show earlier, but Mystery Science Theater 3,000 could not win an Emmy, but it did win a Peabody, arguably more important to culture. That's how I learned what a Peabody was, because they would always present it as Peabody Award-winning Mystery Science Theater show. And you can watch the acceptance speech online.

And if mystery science theater freak like us, you will notice that like, wow, Jim Malin got to do all of the talking. Not surprised there. Oh, you mean the show's creator, Jim Malin? Yes. And then it feels like Kevin Murphy said like, let me at least say one thing. So he came up and did a joke at the end. But it's like it was all Malin doing the speech.

You know, I've never seen that in 92. And you can also online see from 1996. I have to think Peabody must say you only get a minute to say your words because why do we listen to one Matt Gratings except in speech of Peabody Award? There are lots of people to thank on The Simpsons. I will go very quickly. James L. Brooks, Sam Simon, Richard Sakai, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Mike Reese, Al Jean, David Merkin, Mike Scully,

and those are just the executive producers. Many animators, hundreds of them, and bootleg mask makers. I signed a Guatemalan Homer Simpson mask earlier. today. I'll end it there. Thank you very much. So if he's thanking Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, this has to be their error, right? Yeah, it's 96. They're nearing the end. His thinking of Mike Scully means that it's, Scully must have just been given, they must have just begun the production for his season.

This would have been June 96 when the Simpsons won a Peabody. So they're referencing an award. They won themselves, which honestly feels a little like a name drop as well. Well, if that's the case, they could never mention the Emmys. The Peabody brags that it's the oldest major electronic media award in the U.S. Set up in 1940, like older than the Emmys, not as old as the Oscars, but it is the National Association of Broadcasters. They give it to news reporters and entertainment makers too. So documentarians, it'll be a few months before we know who's the winner of the 2025 year of Peabody's.

Well, yeah, that's why the third act seems odd to me because Chloe, she might be have slept with a few people in politics, but she does not seem that unscrupulous to me if she's winning these awards and interviewing these very notable figures. I don't sense a dark side to this. Yeah, yeah. If she's winning it, she doesn't, I don't know,

she seems to actually care about Lisa, like we'll see in the other scenes. I think she actually does want to help Lisa, but yes, then in the third act, it seems like she is only interested in fame and doesn't care if a child dies, I think. And then Lisa leaves the scene, and then Homer enters the scene,

seen in a very silly fashion. Oh, naked on stilts, right? Yes, yeah. You know, he had to have passed Lisa coming in naked on stilts, so. That's true, yeah. Don't like that very much. I'm just thinking, Lisa knows to keep her head down. Eyes on the floor, always on God's floor.

Though Homer must be like, his back must be up against the ceiling to be on stilts in the house, though certainly Marge from her vantage point is getting quite an eye full of Homer on stilts there. I'm going to say that. So we go to the press club where Lisa is with Chloe. Oh, and also that's when Lisa puts on the ascot that Chloe is always wearing too, which she wore in high school. So it's not just something she's put on with age. It's covering her iconic pearls.

It shows that, oh, wow, you could read it as Lisa wears pearls to imitate her mother. But now that she has a new favorite, she's imitating her instead. I think it's symbolism. I'm with you. I'm with you. We then go to the club for, journalists where they have a liberal bias towards great meal deals. Which had liberal bias thing still persist to this day, which obviously it was 20 years ago, it is now.

It's just a thing you say to make news more conservative. Yeah, yeah, and it has become more conservative. They succeeded. They did it. Congrats. Congratulations. Yes, that 60 Minutes could be called too liberal and needed to be fixed in 2025. Shows you where things are at. Well, now they installed a propaganda minister to cut any 60-minute segments they didn't And like, instead of just having back in 2004 up to even last year, the expectation was like, well, yes, we're all like class comrades here.

We don't literally need a person from the administration here to okay these things. We all agree that we're rich and don't want to complain about certain things. But now they literally have an installed person to make sure it doesn't. I guess that's just how the things change. Everything's just out in the open now. Yeah. Fain it anymore. Again, we have removed the concept of shame from public life.

Yes. Nobody feels the shame. to like, well, I have to pretend I'm not doing this because I went to college with this guy or because I get tax breaks. Or I like, say, a genocidal ethno state. They don't have to pretend anymore. They just realize, pretending him being disingenuous is so much extra work. Who is the time? I know.

Jake Tapper's out there. They can pretend that they don't want to defend a genocidal ethno state, and it's just reporting facts. But the Barry Weisses don't have to pretend anymore. Now, I'm not saying what ethno state I'm talking about here. but you know, there's... It's the one you're thinking about. Okay, so Harry Shear, though, this is really about him getting to play Tom Brokaw,

because he seems to love it. All the kind of slurring he does, and especially when he says Koala Lumpur, I'm not going to attempt to do it in that voice, but that country was chosen for him to say. I wonder, when was the last time he imitated Tom Brokaw? When did that stop being a good... Oh, the news guy sounds like Tom Brokaw, a joke.

Yeah, I guess these guys just stepped down as this is airing. I'm thinking this is the last era of these known. newsman. Brokaw will be replaced by Brian Williams, who again, the scandal that took him down and then he came back anyway, nothing now, totally nothing. And these guys were like second generation of the TV newsmen, like Walter Cronkite and people like that, they were the first generation of like the stern but trustworthy TV newsmen. Yeah, it's funny. We'll also be reflecting about this in an upcoming podcast too, talking, I'm sure, when we get to side show Bob Roberts since that's the Watergate episode. And so everybody should,

guy around the pretty girl. Now, Bob, do you think that Chloe is just leading these guys on, or at least being like to leave them alone, have them leave her alone? She pretends to be interested, or do you think she is attracted to say Tom Brokaw? Maybe she realizes I can get something in return, something transactional from being associated with Tom Brocaw. I do think we have learned that most of these press people are very clickish in high schoolie and having sex with each other a lot. Yeah, I think she reconsiders it because she just abandons him at the end of the episode. You see, that joke I took her as like, oh, I thought you were going to ask me out of date, but you offer, like, you want to go to racquetball tournament? I'm out of here.

I think she just was not impressed by a celebrity racquetball tournament with a bunch of old journalists. That's true. They then cut back to reestablish the stakes as they always do, which is Homer and Marge in bed. You know that Expos 67 TV trace? That's pretty nice. That was in Montreal, by the way. Oh, wow. I'm even more impressed.

And though, okay, is Homer saying you're married? to King Stink. Is that a callback? I missed it. Is that just rando humor? It feels like random. Like I'm the king shit around here or whatever. It feels like a G-rated version of King's shit of Turd Mountain.

Okay. All right. I accept that is what the joke is. Okay. Otherwise, it just seemed very rando to me. And then Homer actually for a second seems to understand Marge's emotional issue and why she's mad. And then instantly goes like, oh, you know what a good name for Maggie?

Chloe. Yes. The perfectly wrong thing to say. Let's rename our baby after the woman. You're very resentful over. So then we head to the car with Chloe and Lisa driving home. Lisa is reflecting on morally safer having the biggest head she's ever seen. He was the longest serving reporter on 60 Minutes in its history.

He passed away in 2016. From a two big head. It just exploded. It popped. He had to get that head on TV. It could fit nowhere else. Again, now 60 Minutes is like ground zero of where television. news media is getting worse.

It really was a very respective institution for such a long time. I do think there's a little bit of emotion here when Chloe is looking at Lisa sad. And she goes like, hey, you know what? And invites her to the thing. Like, I think Chloe feels for Lisa. Again, she's not a bad person.

She's not disingenuous. She has no ulterior motive. She hears Lisa is going to be making a pilgrim out of felt tomorrow at school. And she thinks, well, I'll give you something more challenging to do, something that you'd get a lot out of. And there's no other motive. behind that. I don't think she's trying to steal the child from Marge.

I think Marge is a little too wrapped up in her own insecurities. I think Marge is often in the wrong in this episode, and she does redeem herself by rescuing them in the end. And to make the next seed work, I have the clip for. You'll find out later Marge drank half a glass of wine. That's how they have to

justify her being crazy. And that goes back to you only move twice. Right. She gets a glass and a half, and she just can't drink that much. But this is where we also get a very aughts joke about, well, catfights. Hey, I'm covering the UN Women's Conference in Capital City tomorrow. You want to come with me?

Oh, that'd be wonderful. Oh, I'd have to ask my mom. Well, you can ask her right now. She's glaring at us from the front lawn. Marge, it's my fault. We're a little late. How dare you show my daughter a life of fun and possibility? Hey, keep your dishwashing hands off the Armani.

For your information. Our electric dishwasher is on the fritz. Not that you care about the ups and downs of my appliances, do you? Do you? Oh, that's it. I'm going to show you some moves I learned from G. Gordon Liddy. I'm so sick of names. Successful.

Ah! My name! Ladies. There's no need to fight over me. No one. fighting over you. Oh, well then carry on. You don't know where to quit.

Yeah, Marge hits Chloe first. That's when Chloe really digs into her with the dishwashing cans joke. And I really like the I'm So Sick of Names joke that Marge pulls off in the middle of the scene because it feels like the writers are reflecting on the fact that half the jokes so far have been, the punchline has been, let's reference a famous politician

or journalist. Yes, yeah. Marge has so many funny pronouncements about jokes right up there with everything here is something. Yes. I want to request that we add this to the soundboard because if too many jokes rely on just an obscure celebrity name drop or something, I feel like we have to have Marge screaming. I'm so sick of names. Okay. If there are too many. I'm making a note of that. I'm making a note of that right here.

Make drop. Exclamation point. Okay. I won't forget it. And I mean, the G. Gordon Liddy one, an older class. of a professional Republican criminal. Like he actually went to jail. Yeah, what a sucker.

Yeah, fool. Back when there had to be fall guys. It's, yeah, the committing a crime actually sent anybody to jail is cute. And even his four years in jail or what I think it was, six years tops. Like, he was an FBI dude. I suppose he was like a strong guy or whatever. Sure. It's not like he did MMA or something.

Like most Republican, if you're an MMA star from America, you're likely also a Republican podcaster. criminal and criminal. And that goes for Irish ones too, if you're Connor McGregor. Well, speaking of the Irish. Yes, yeah. Hey, he's an Irishman used to black eyes, that's for sure. This joke that Starstop Act 3, my main note was, wow, that took a while.

And they do explain this on the commentary that this joke with the Shiner Be Gone that plays Tura, Lura, Lura, got a huge laugh at the screening. So they just kind of dragged it out as long as possible. This is basically like a 20 to 30 second joke. It's a fun song. hearing the whole thing from Bing Crosby. It's shocking. I like to see how long it lasts because it is shocking to see Marge with a black eye. It basically, same

with when in the rare times in a story, Lisa gets a black eye. It is always distracting to see in a powerful way. Yeah, I feel like we've never seen Marge's face this damaged before. It's a new image. Also, I played all of that clip because I was like, we need to appreciate the fighting

sounds that Julie Kavanaugh and Kim Ketraal both do in there. I'm like, mear, but that was an uncomfortable bit on the commentary too, right, where they, I think they call it the hottest scene in the history of the Simpsons. They joke. They're joking, but... Yeah, at least it's about the character and not Kim Cottrell, the human person they're talking to, but yeah. It was the era of sexy catfights in media. I know it as a watcher of professional wrestling in that era, too. I feel like there was a catfight every episode of a wrestling television show. Yeah, it was the end of the catfight

era, I think. I mean, I get it. Or I understand why it was a thing. Straight American man wanted to see in things because it was women rolling around but in a violent way. I feel like, well, can't you just watch lesbian pornography? Like, they like each other instead of hating each other. Once that was much easier to access, I think the concept of the cat fight dropped out of our memory, cultural memory. I guess that's in general about why sex in movies or TV shows or sex in the city dropped off a bit because people can just look at naked people on the internet and do often.

So Marge, after getting her Shiner be gone, goes. to talk to Lisa and apologize. And it is a fun turn of like, no. Like when Lisa tries to be like, well, do you think it's okay? No, March will still not allow it. Still not allowed. I don't know if this is the first use of cuckoo bananas,

but I like the recurring use of cuckoo bananas as a descriptor. I forgot that's our crazy. Okay, I'm going to be a cuckoo bananas watch going forward. It doesn't happen a lot. I think it's something that Matt Sleman's mother said and he incorporated into the show. But I like that as a new version of crazy, the word crazy. And so Lisa decides she's going to have to sneak out instead.

Very cleverly, she replaces her head with a Statue of Liberty head, which has the same pointed hair. Speaking on Matt Sellman, I was like coming up, I was out of loss as to what to call this kind of thing, the way you disguise yourself sleeping in bed when you sneak out, your Ferris Buehlering. He called this a shape-alike. Oh, shape-alike. That's a fun turn of phrase. I like that. Much as Bart has done in the past, Lisa sneaks out her window on the tree branch.

and this is where she kind of is questioning things and then Bart shoves her out the tree to speed things up. And this is where there's the only deleted scene on the DVD in this episode as Lisa, there's a little more explanation to why Bart shoved her. Thinking is for losers. Bart!

Thanks for helping me make up my mind! You were supposed to land in the pit I dug for you. Whatever, I got to go. Bring me back a donut. It's a little meaner than just having Lisa break Bart's fall. Yeah, yeah. It's a difference between like just quick thinking, manslaughter and murder, right? Bart premeditatedly dug that.

So, yeah, they changed up that joke. It's a hidden deleted scene on the DVD, which is why I bought the DVDs because I already own the Blu-Rays, but hidden DVD scenes are lost in the Blu-ray era. It sucks. And the other deleted scene is just over the credits. as I think it's the first time they do it, I think, of putting a deleted scene over the credits like that, which becomes a staple of this era.

We had that other one, though. I remember the Homer's Pie song, where he goes, what do I think of the pie? What do I think of the pie? And then he kind of wanders off and the song follows him. So at least one other time. When they were in Fcott, that's right, yeah. And so Lisa heads off

after learning thinking is for losers. And this is where yes, let's hear Tom Brokaw wrap his tongue around this strange word. Well, not strange word. It's a city that's not strange at all. It's a city in the world. Not strange.

Lally, I saw your report on Coado Lamport. Truly hard-heading. Thanks, Tom. I really appreciate that. So I, you know, I was wondering. Yes. Would you like to come to my celebrity racquetball tournament? I'll have to check my schedule.

I'll give you a first round by. Got to go, Tom. I'll think about it. Lisa? Breakfast? I know you're mad at me, but I hope you're not mad at Captain Crunch. Homer, we've got to get Lisa.

All right, while I'm gone, boy, you think about what you did. What did I do? You, uh, boy, you little... You need a reason for strangling. Fix your wagon. Yeah, it sounds like Chloe is just annoyed that she's being asked anything by this man. You know, the way Catrouse did, yes. Like, it sounded expectant to me.

I don't know. Like, she was hoping he'd ask her out or something. But, yeah, I mean, she doesn't want to do a racquetball tournament, that's for sure. And, boy, Bart gets strangled a lot this episode. Yes. They're really leaning into it. And the strangling will continue. They're keeping it up.

In the same season 37 bumblebee man episode I just watched, Bart gets strangled in it. And the joke isn't about, oh, we're doing a strangling again. It is just a strangle joke. I think they're leaning into it thanks to the fake scandal where, oh, the Simpsons is going woke, no more strangling. And then they had to come out and say, no, the strangling will continue.

In fact, here's more scenes. The fact that James L. Brooks himself directly commented on it makes me feel like it came from on high of like, Guys, we need to show we're not not strangling by strangling again. Though this one is great that Homer just did it for no reason. And he can't remember. And then he's strangling him again. He's just working on his strangling technique.

And also that Marge just, that it plays so long in the clip there because the joke is Marge just walks away from her husband strangling her son. Yeah, at first I thought she was leaving Homer behind, but Homer is with her. That's right. She was basically like maybe getting the car keys. and then getting Homer to come. And yes, like you said, Bob, then it just becomes a Mount St. Helens joke about the, you know, unplanned, unexpected explosion of an old mountain becoming a volcano with Mount Springfield. Yeah, it happened in 1980, and I think it's notable because I guess not a lot of volcanoes erupt in continental United States.

Yeah, yeah. I remember it being such an event that, well, it happened before I was born, but I remember it as an event because when my parents got a VCR, they had it when Mount St. Hedle happened, and we had like a tape of the taped news, and it was

that and Challenger explosion news. Like they were, like, clearly my mom or dad were like, oh, this is so important, we got to tape this news. We got to capture every disaster. And there was an earlier joke about Mount St. Helens in the episode that began with Springfield Squares because Charlie Weaver was killed by the

tidal wave, and he would not leave the there was another guy who would not leave his location on or around the mountain. He was killed instantly when it erupted. His name was Harry Truman, by the way. Well, he's dead now is one of my favorite lines. Yes. Not the president or the Twin Peaks character, but a different old man entirely. Yes, yes.

So this is where they also have a good, it almost feels like a sex in the city joke of setting up why the other guy can't make it. But I clip this one out because I really love here at Yardley's breed at the end. through this clip here. Hello. Chloe, forget about the women's conference. I need you to get over to Mount Springfield. It's about to erupt. Don't we have a reporter who specializes in natural disasters?

Yeah, he's busy covering Julia Roberts' last haircut. But seriously, he's dead. Now get going. My name's Chet. I'm your cameraman for this here Kano story. Let's see, I've been to Afghanistan, Serbia, Lebanon. Okay, okay, I lied. I shoot wedding videos.

Alice Fort Worth. Okay, okay. Just Fort Worth. Boy, they love Moe. Lisa is doing Moe's catchphrase. I guess what eventually became a catchphrase. The couch gag is the family

is a bunch of Moes. And Moe is essential to the Chloe and Marge story. Yeah, they can have even more Moe, but I forgot that was the couch cake too where Lisa is related to Moe and now here she is doing Moe's catchphrase. Like, Yardley, it feels fun

like Yardley loves Hank his area's delivery of what? And so she did one herself. It's so funny. And this has lost the time. This reference to a guy lying about his war coverage is a reference to the reporter Jason Blair from New York Times. I believe they've done another reference to this in the past, but he lied about exactly

what he did in Iraq. And obviously these things don't matter anymore. You say you cover anything and you get a job. Now he's a life coach, but I think if it happened today, he would just still be reporting. Oh, sure, sure. The only reason he wouldn't be reporting is because, like, media jobs are just shrinking in general. Also, the joke about, like, Julia Roberts' latest haircut is, like, such a good and lame joke to then lead up, like, but seriously, he's dead.

Anyway. Actually, I was like, what was up with Julia Roberts' hair in 2004? It was fine. I mostly got pictures of the events surrounding the movie Closer, which was her big movie in 2004. Sexy movie. That's a good movie. I liked it. It definitely, you could tell it was made from a play because it's just a series of long scenes of two characters talking.

Which obviously those movies aren't allowed to exist anymore, theatrically released. Unless you're Clint Eastwood. Or James L. Brooks. You have to be 90 years old. I remember liking closer. I saw it in theaters. I thought it was pretty good.

Have you seen it, Bob? I've never seen it. I give it a thumbs up. Clive Owen, I missed him in movies. I had forgotten that he's, like, been acting in TV shows I don't watch for like 15 years now or something. But he's still at it. Yeah, I just remember a lot of men my age were into the movie because I think Natalie Portman plays an exotic dancer or something.

Yes, though, you know, if you're looking for a nude scene of hers, I think, if I recall right, they don't really show any actual nudity from her. Henry, once again, the Mr. Skin of this network. It happened to get, yes. You put me into it. You mentioned her nudity for me. I didn't even say anything about nudity. I just said people were excited to see her all sexed up. Well, hey, speaking of sexy, another joke lost to time.

Well, I don't know. Sexy Asian girls talk about wage disparity as the sign gag feels like a joke about what was the popular porn a search term at the time perhaps? Yeah, I guess so, but if you look at all these AI girlfriends, they're all like Asian coded. All of the AI girlfriends men are creating. Well, that's true. The main one that Elon Musk keeps promoting

is very, it seems very specifically to me to be the, God, now I can't remember her name like Mimi or something, but the girlfriend from Death Note. Oh, I forget her name too, but so, wait, this is a like a pull from Death Note? Elon Musk, first, Elon

Musk got one of the many things he's been clown on. He got clown on for liking a sexy picture of that character from death notes. And then people have pointed out that one of the AI girlfriends he has promoted looks very much like that character. Okay, but it's still like an Asian coded digital character. Yeah. So that has not gone away. It just moved into like the digital space, the virtual space. So now if they were trying to make fun of current pornography, I think it should be sexy step sisters talk about waste despair. Women stuck in dryers and windows. Also, it's very, very fast lava that surrounds them,

I want to say. This is not, and I know it's not magma, it's lava, it's lava. They do point that out. I was wondering when I was making my notes, is it magma or lava, but then there's a joke about that later. And also talk about things that haven't aged very well, that going to a female-focused event is obviously about mean, butch women, hating men

and making them feel bad. You go there to get shamed and yelled at. By probably a bunch of women who are lesbians who hate you. Yeah, only this very butch-looking woman gets a line of dialogue. And all of the back background women are designed to be like, they were told, draw a plane and butch women. Like, that's who you draw here, which, you know, it's like a women-centric event is not the, being the home for ugly women who hate men.

Not the best age joke, I'd say. No, not suitable for 2004. So Marge then sees that Lisa isn't even there. She learns that they've turned around because Chloe very nicely gives Lisa on-screen credit as her camera person who is making sure that her boobs stay in the shot. Yeah, I guess the real villain in this is her editor because she is not equipped with the skills to cover disasters. She's just kind of playing things by ear and not understanding like, here's where you need to be,

here are the protocols for covering this kind of a thing. And Chloe seems to also think that, well, death is certain for both of us, but let's at least go out on our shield, as it were, reporting on this story. And assigns Lisa to death as well. I do love Marge's reaction of, She's taken my daughter to an erupting volcano. That's it. She's off the Christmas card list.

March, that's crazy talk. Yes. Homer, very watchful of this list. And also, at some point, they stopped for potato salad or he ate a bunch before they left. I assume that when they arrived there, before looking for Lisa, Homer's first stop was the food area. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm guessing it was catered. You'll often find a huge vat of potato salad at events like this.

And as Homer, he just can't please these dang feminists when he's trying to help. Nothing makes them happy. He's awful women. Yeah, it is rough in the episode where they have on the commentary some very sexy jokes with her and then make her do a cat fight for Kim Katrall. Then there are other jokes about women

are that a women's convention is full of angry women. Yeah, I was expecting a better joke than Homer getting booed for offering different ideas. He just ends the scene with, what do women want? These dang ladies don't make themselves clear.

They don't make no sense. They're indecisive, but then they get mad at me, a man. So then as they head out, then we have a pretty good joke about Wigam being angry that he's even asked to do this. Yes. It's like the lava isn't a criminal. It hasn't hurt anyone. We get a really grisly scene when he says that of a man burning to death, floating by in the lava, screaming horribly.

I was thinking like it's rare in a non-free house you have a joke that somebody dies. It does happen, though. But you know, in season six when Bart's calling Australia, That one guy falls in the lava answering the phone. It's just instant. You don't have to think about that guy screaming for a long time. I forgot about that joke, yeah. Well, because we were so distracted by the Hitler joke afterwards.

You forget. Right, right. And so Wiggum still won't help even when he's seeing a man in trouble. Marge then abscondes with the car, so Homer can't help. And she sees Lisa and Chloe both near death. And this is where Marge makes her move. Things more powerful than a mother's love. Hours before it burns down to my head.

Save my life. Chloe, when you left me, I was devastated. But I sobered up long enough to become a pilot. With you beside me, I think I could make it work. How about a half hour of pity sex? Is there any other kind? Good on half Klossin for copying the Sex in the City style of music there. It's perfect, yeah.

And yet this ending is very similar to, to days of wine and dozes where a Barney has to save Bart and Lisa from a forest fire. Right, and they're hanging out at the top of a tree to be saved just as Chloe is. Yeah, I mean, they're referencing the episode, but this is too similar.

Yeah, it almost feels like a sequel intentionally, but it just feels like late in the thing they remembered, wait, Barney owns a helicopter, right? Didn't we do that? Which, no, it's like Barney knows that a fly helicopter. It's not his job. And I think it is a notable episode because it did change the continuity.

So it's not like it's a forgotten season 11 or 12 episode. And this joke hinges on Barney being sober, which most of season 15 is done with sober Barney. But he's got his hair combed back. Clearly, he knew got to clean up and put out his best possible looks for Chloe when saving her. Yes. His one attribute he can speak of is, oh, I briefly got sober enough to get a helicopter license.

And honestly, I'm impressed that she can offer up 30 minutes of pity sex. No offense to me. Barty, but, you know, 30 minutes seems like a lot of time for him. We don't know what state his body is in, too. That's true. And you know what? Who knows what, you know, foreplay or other positions are going through? If this was Sex and the City, then Samantha could explain to us how the 30 minutes were spent. But here, we just see a helicopter Bob up and down. Perhaps Carrie would have some delightful take on it for her article that could be published in a

magazine. Also, we learned that she's friends with Walter Cronkite, who complimented her, who told her she's very smart, I think. great. Oh, I thought of a good carry line for her article about this. She could say, while Samantha was gaining altitude, Marge was losing her attitude. That's good. It's so fucking easy. I tried to look up. They asked him on the commentary. Like, did you have sex in a helicopter in the show? And she couldn't remember it. I don't think there is sex in a helicopter in the show. She does have sex with a fireman in the firehouse leading to a scene of her only wearing, actually

dressed like Leila in that recent Futurama we did of wearing the suspenders but to us. Yes, I have seen that one. And then, as far as flight goes, they definitely had sex with Navy guys in the Fleet Week episode of the show. I remember that one which that was another one where it just seemed to me

like, well, this just reads as gay. When the Navy comes to town, I think of the Navy having sex with other men, not with sailors having sex with me. Only when they're at sea. Yes. Okay, sure. When they come into town, that at Fleet Week, that's when the Navy men have sex with women.

Yes, and Marge is totally fine with her hair being on fire. Her hair is even great in the next scene. Only her feet are seemingly burned a bit from running on the hot lava. And all she needs is a big container of ice to stick her feet into. This is where we get a happy ending as Chloe has no more lines after this. She does not appear again. And this is where Kent Brockman takes back his position to wrap up the story. In the wake of the devastating eruption, one Springfielder proved herself a hero.

Marge Simpson. She's one of herself a free hero. Sandwich at Springfield Subshops. Extra charge for warm-ups. Mom, I want to be just like you. I mean the lava part, not saving Lisa. Pretend to care! Well, looking at you kids,

I know I made the right choice in life. I'm sure you did. But still, don't you ever wonder what might have happened if things had gone differently? Well... This is Marge Simpson reporting from Lake Placid Where the miracle on ice never happened The family just shrugs

They don't know what she's saying that Okay I'm a big sucker for any joke about a character Thinking something And then we cut back to reality And no one knows what's going on Always good That's what Marge really cared Marge is very invested in the American hockey team

Winning at the Olympics in 1980 Yeah, it's, okay, the third act I don't like the rescue, but this joke has stuck with me because Marge just imagined some kind of butterfly effect that through unknown reasons, her becoming a reporter would stop the miracle and ice for him happening. And somehow she has that knowledge that it should have happened. If she was a reporter, it would somehow domino to that. This joke did, the Bush-Cheney joke at the start and this one did stick with me in 2004 as well because that was the year I worked, last worked at a movie theater. And when I worked there, both the Miracle on Ice dramatized film starring Kurt Russell, Miracle, came out, as did the movie Butterfly Effect with Ashton Coutcher. And so, like, I relate to those two movies together in my mind because I cleaned up and watched the endings of them as an usher. Yes, that was a very famous hockey match from the 1980 Olympics in which the United States completely out of nowhere beat Canada.

Sorry, not Canada, Russia. And that led to the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union. Though Canada comes into it when they make fun of Tim Long on the commentary because they're like... Canada was on my mind because, of course, Tim Long would end his episode with a hockey joke. Also, he had that great joke. He said that he, like, recorded with her in Toronto, Kim Katrall, but when his family was in town in L.A. from Toronto, and he missed them, and his family was mad at them for visiting them.

I'm credited to Matt Nastic and his team, too. I think they drew funny drawing reactions on like Marge and Homer's strangely Bart reaction. I do think they are looser in season 15 than I gave them credit for in episodes not directed by Lauren McMullen. Yeah, I think she helped inspire them to try different things. They were not given the leeway she was given, of course. But I feel like she lifted everyone up a little bit on the art side of things. And I saw like storyboard consultant credit from David Silverman on this. So maybe also Silverman is like helping.

he sees what McMullen is doing and he's also like contributing like guys let's loosen up a little bit here please let's try you know another thing that reminds me in 2004 a joke about warming up a sub because double check this that we love the subs video from Quiznos that

commercial was in 2004 so that's when many including me learned that toasting a sub was a thing you could do at a sub shop they have a pepper bar was also one of the lyrics that was sung oh yeah I see I was so focused on the toasting I forgot about the pepper bar. Yeah, I mean, Subway was making it big with their pedophile spokesman, and Quiznos said,

what's the next best thing? Heating up your sub. Yes. What have you told? Hey, they don't have a toaster oven yet in Subways. Quiznows is still kind of around, right? I think so. I barely ever see them.

I think it's really fallen out of fashion. I'm seeing that this isn't not that bad. I'm looking at their Wikipedia. 148 locations in the U.S. So it could be worse. I think we looked into Howard Johnson's on Talking of the Hill, and there were maybe 40 of those left. As I learned from the Do Boys podcast, most of these places like Quiznos or even Subway over-expanded. It's really a real estate scheme.

It's not about food. And now, of course, it's even worse. It's just private equity like owns most things and makes that, including restaurants as well. Subways, though, still very, very ubiquitous. They're kind of everywhere. I haven't had Subway in a long time. And it is a credit to my self-control that I have a subway like less within my block. and I walk by it and smell those meatballs of the meatball subs that I used to eat far too many of.

And I'm like, oh, that's a different time. I can't have it anymore. That is circus grade meat, sir. I know. I look, I know it's bad. As a wise man once said, I love that garbage. Yeah, a very fun joke I like to do when my wife and I are hungry were walking around. I will say, let's eat it subway.

And that's a joke. It really has been a while since I have subway. Not that I don't eat trash, but not Subway. Hey, I ate a ton of Subway as a college student because they had a lot of Subway. because they had like $4 tuna subs during Lentz, I would go crazy. Man, that sounds nice. The $5 footlong ads are a long time ago in today's era. Yeah, Subway could not keep up with how poor everyone was going to get in the future after this point.

You know, see, that's two things that are dated about those ads, a $5 foot long and their spokesman. They can't air them anymore. So, yes, that is the end of the episode, but they have a deleted scene over the credits. of Lisa reacting to the news that they're surrounded by a volcano. Doing it there. Praying to Buddha. Jesus. Perhaps we should help.

Squiller. That's a great SpongeBob from Dan. I mean, not that accurate, but you get the idea of the character. And the laugh is very crazy. Tom Kenny should have been watching out then. He was going for it. Boy, there have been a lot of Tom Kenny interviews lately, thanks to the new SpongeBob movie being in theaters.

And he does, he still sounds pretty good. I don't like hearing Tom Kinney's voice sound any older to me. I think he's doing all right at SpongeBob still. They had no idea of knowing when they wrote this joke that SpongeBob would still be a going concern, many spinoffs. A lot of movies, a recent movie. And now they are, I think they started their 16th season in June of last year. So it's still going on. Multiple movies released in theaters.

Plus, directed, there was that Sandy Cheeks. even got her own movie and plankting out their own movie that was direct to streaming. Plus, many seasons now, I think, of the Patrick Starr Show. There's so much SpongeBob. And if you scroll through the recent SpongeBob episodes on Wikipedia, just looking at the titles and who wrote them, it's a ton of the original people are still on the show

writing and directing the brunt of these episodes. Of course, they're a new artist because it's almost a 30-year-old show, but still a lot of the old crew putting these out. They just got aware of SpongeBob on the Simpsons' writing staff when they're doing this. I think in a few episodes is Krusty the clown talking about his like bootlegs sponge bob stuff that he makes for the itchy show, I think. That's where they wrapped up the episode with their SpongeBob and Buddha. They also were into Lisa praying to Buddha jokes.

The cutaways to Buddha and Jesus does always feel a little family guy to me. Or no, South Park. South Park, yeah. As you said, Bob Kim Katrall would return again in season 21 to play basically a Samantha type in a Bart Dream sequence. And you know, it was nice here even say that she got a bunch of DVDs and she got the crew jacket, which apparently I'm thinking they don't do anymore and haven't done for a while. It sounds like they don't do it anymore.

But yeah, she never came back because of the writers, a bunch of creeps. They were ashamed now. Or they no longer found her attractive. That's why they only sent one up to Canada to record. Too many. Too dangerous. I think Kim Contral does a great job here. She should be doing more voice acting too. Like, as easier as it gets, especially to do it remotely.

Like, she should be getting hired for voice acting jobs, not just to be the narrator of the future version of some character on how I met your father. Yes. We have not seen the last of Kim Cottrell. Maybe she's going to branch out as she continues being a senior citizen into voice acting. Meanwhile, you know, she's proved it. She doesn't need to get on and just like that.

I think that series has finally, I think they are not continuing it with another season, I want to say. I think there was a general blah reaction to the second season, as I recall. Well, on the commentary, they do mention the Kim, Carrie Diaries, which was a spinoff of, I guess, young Kerry from the show. I don't know if that lasted very long, but that was something

that was happening in the early 2010s. No, I remember that it was the young Sheldon of its time about what I remember, too, because the Saturday Night Live around the same time did a very funny sketch of Sopranos in a similar style, like to parody the Carrie Diaries.

And then David Chase ended up just making that as his prequel movie, the many saints of Newark. So reality, satire outpaces, it gets outpaced by reality. Great idea, guys.

I'll take over from here. This episode, though, I don't like the third act. I like the Marge focus. I think we just recently had another March focus one. That was kind of fun. And it is fun to see Marge

just imagining what would my life be like without the family, although not as much rage is directed at the kids or Homer. So it doesn't feel quite as ugly as previous resentful Marge episode. So I like them

exploring that. I wish they would have made it more personal, not end with a goddamn volcano exploding, Algene. Have the faith ended on. Relationships also, I like that of the many episodes of Marge, you know, career versus family and feeling like

Lisa doesn't respect her being a homemaker and all that. Topics explored before, but this had a new avenue into it where it's also jealousy at a high school friend. And also, it's a rare time that Marge has very few female friends at this time.

I think they have been working on that in the more recent seasons, like where they recast Sarah Wiggum to be a friend of Marge's and more of a real character. But back here in 04, late 04, like, Chloe is a very rare Marge adult friend. I would say more of a frenemy. Yes. Wouldn't it have been nice then if at the end they became friends again? Instead of giving Barney a handy or whatever,

that she actually had a conversation with Marge and cleared their emotional states. It would have been nice if they could talk or something, but that's not what's happening in this era in these act threes. But that has been another episode of Talking Simpsons. Thanks so much for listening. And if you want to support the show,

get these episodes ad-free a week ahead of time and access to a huge back catalog of bonus episodes. Go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Sign up there for five bucks a month. You get everything I mentioned. So yes, ad-free podcasts, a week in advance, and also access to a ton of miniseries episodes over 200 to date.

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You can find it all and many other great things in our collection section two on patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. So head over there today. Once more, that's patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. And I've been one of your host, Bob Mackey. You can find me on Blue Sky, Letterbox, and many other places as Bob Servo. and my other podcast is Retronauts.

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Thank you so much for listening, everybody. We'll see you again next time for season six's Itchy and Scratchy Land, and we will see you then. The dog won't take his medicine. It helps if you wrap it in a slice of cheese. Free cheese. Homer, that was for the dog. What happened to us, Marge? We used to feed each other cheese and laugh all night.

Then came the heart attacks.