Talking Simpsons - Talking Simpsons - Sideshow Bob Roberts With Chris Wade

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

"I'm currently incarcerated... Convicted of a crime I didn't even commit! Huh! 'Attempted murder;' now, honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel Prize for 'attempted chemistry?' Do they?" - Bob Underdunk Terwilliger Sideshow Bob returns and dabbles in the world of Springfield politics in ways that may remind you of Watergate and the 1988 US presidential election. But when he uses his new mayoral powers against the Simpsons, Bart and Lisa have to team up or else risk living in a motel that probably costs more than six dollars a night.  Our guest: Chris Wade, producer of the Chapo Trap House podcast Support this podcast and get over 200 ad-free bonus episodes by visiting Patreon.com/TalkingSimpsons and becoming a patron! And please follow the official Bluesky and Instagram!

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. Ahoy, hoy, everybody, and welcome to Talking Simpsons, the podcast that's myopic and intransigent. I'm one of your host, the No Longer Illiterate Bob Macky, and this is our chronological exploration of the Simpsons. Who else is here with me today, as always? No one say I don't also blow.

It's Henry Gilbert. And who is our special guest on the line? This is Chris Wade. And this week's episode is Side Show Bob Roberts. Because this town is under the stranglehold of a few tied-eyed tree huggers who would rather play hacky sack than lock up the homeless. This sounds awfully controversial. Lisa, you know I don't like controversy in this house. This week's episode originally aired on October 9th, 1994, and as all of the,

Always, Henry will tells what happened on this mythical day in real world history. The specialist tops the box office. Zach and Kelly get married in Saved by the Bell, wedding in Las Vegas. And DreamWorks is officially founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen. So the specialist sounds like a McBain movie. Am I around the area of what this actually is? I think it's close. It's a Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone action film, yes.

which I think this is, I believe, around all film reviewers start really turning on Sharon Stone, I feel like. Like, Quicken the Dead is next year. That's really when they really have the knives out for her. But this one I don't remember people liking. She really got a raw deal there in the 90s. Quick in the Dead whips. It's so cool. But I'm a huge Ramey head, so you know it's hitting for me. Oh, yeah. By the time this episode comes out, there will be a new Ramey movie in theaters.

I hope it's still there. I'm setting up a babysitter specifically so I can go see. Rachel McAdams, Sam Ramey lost on an island movie. Send help, I think it's called? Send help, yes. Yeah. I just watched a promotional little commercial for it where Rachel McAdams is, she is talking about what an honor it is to have Sam Ramey throw blood in her face for the movie.

Like, it's a right of passage for any actor. She rocks, and I'm always happy to see her getting to actually do stuff instead of playing a time traveler's wife in some way for the fifth time. Dr. Strange's Silent Pal in a film. Yes. But the Save by the Bell movie, I remember the Hawaiian movie more than this one, although I'm sure I did watch this as the finale of the entire story until they do a reboot for Peacock, like in 2020, around that time period.

Yeah, I mean, the new class still keeps the continuity going and you occasionally get like appearances by them. But yeah, this was, they canceled the college years. And so I believe in even the syndication packages, this is just cut up into multiple episodes that were like the end of Saved by the Bell. And I forget in the return series, like they couldn't get back. Zach's character is the governor off screen, but he's like not there. It's just, I think it's just Elizabeth Berkeley and Mario Lopez, I think, came back for it.

And there is a moment of silence for screech. But just for screech, not for Dustin Dider the Man. No. And he has a major change in film thanks to the Michael Eisner firing Jeffrey Katzenberg uncerimoniously and he's getting sued for it. And so he's like, you know what, screw you. I'm going to start DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and normal billionaire David Geffen. And they're going to make all of the movies like live action movies and animation and DreamWorks. Animation still exists, but the live action film stopped a long time ago for DreamWorks.

Thank God on this day in history. The seed is planted that will eventually grow and blossom into the Shrek franchise. I was going to say DreamWorks will later purchase Pacific Data Imaging, the company who made the home. Homer cubed shorts, or at least the animation for it. That's right. And that company would make Ants and Shrek and the rest. Wow. Yeah, if it weren't for that Homer short,

they might not have gotten the Shrek job, probably. They got the old Shrek job. The old Shrek job. But that's what was happening in the week of this momentous episode of The Simpsons first aired. And you heard him up front, but joining us once again is Chris Wade, producer of Chapo Trap House,

and Chris last joined us for our 2024 live show about Marge versus the Monorale. Welcome back to the show, Chris. Hello, guys. I am always honored to be here. And I feel like you guys are always throwing me some of the best episodes of this show. It's true. To have on the co-host of the Chapo Trap House, hell of presidents,

for such a Nixon-focused episode, though also a very early 90s politics episode felt like a perfect fit for you. Yeah, I was interested in how, I mean, obviously the Simpsons like pulls from a, of, you know, all of their Gen X and Boomer references and kind of a big mishmash of contemporary politics. But I was interested in how, like, weirdly resonant in this moment that this episode felt, because there's a lot of, like, about pardoning criminals and being tough on crime and wonder if you had a fascist clown running for political office, you know? To prepare for this, I listened back to your Nixon episode or the episode that included

Nixon and Hell of Presidents. as well as the classic poppy part two of the view on Watergate from the George H.W. Bush angle. Meanwhile, my audiobooks by Rick Pearlstein that I've owned for over a decade is sitting gathering dust, haven't listened to them yet. But I, you know what, I learned history from Chappo. That's all. Yes. Yeah. I guess in case it wasn't obvious, this episode is largely a send-up of Watergate, but less obvious is the fact that it also sends up a lot of the 1988 presidential election

because I feel like Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, born around 1966, that might have been the first presidential election they voted in. So they were probably very invested in that one. This also pulls a lot from the burgeoning anti-Clinton Republican movement that was coming out of H.W. Bush's loss at 92. Very specifically with one character in this. And, you know, I was also just thinking back that 1994, I think might have been the year. I learned that Watergate was a thing because in the summer, I was. would have seen Forrest Gump that has a Watergate choke in it. And then I see this in the fall. And I think this is when I, as a 12-year-old, I maybe finally understood that Watergate was something

important that happened in American history. This episode brings up a lot of like mid-90s memories for me. Because the Birch Barlow character, obviously riffing on a Rush Limbaugh type, you know, then currently like exploding talk radio celebrity personality. But not long after the, you know, but not long after this, I remember weirdly getting really into G. Gordon Liddy's show, who was like the even more insane Rush Limbaugh, like very much a proto-maga guy. And of course, I was like seven or eight at the time. I didn't really like understand the content. I was just kind of fascinated with the presentation and the conviction of this radio personality, you know, kind of the tone of it, which I mean, I guess weirdly makes sense for my eventual career path. But through that, when I was like, listen to

and finding this guy on a radio FM band and being like, who is this guy, mom? She's like, he was like a minor figure in the Watergate scandal. And so because of that, I was trying to read all the president's men in like fifth grade in 1998 or something like that. So that was kind of my intro to what Watergate was through these kind of mid-90s conservative radio personalities. Yeah, I might have known a tiny bit about Watergate, but I was extremely well-versed in Rush Limbaugh because I had a conservative family member. He drove trucks for a living a lot of time alone, a lot of time with the radio. So through him, I learned a ton about Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern. Yes.

So you take the good with the bad. My dad was a ditto head as well lightly. I think just a drive-to-work kind, not the read-the-books kind. The title of this one, of course, calls to the film Bob Roberts from 1992, which Bob and I, we watch for the first time this week in preparation for this. Yes, this episode has nothing to do. with that movie, except for one shot of Sideshow Bob wrapped in a flag, which is not in

the movie, that is just the poster. So if you're looking to get any references, you don't need to watch Bob Roberts, but it's a good movie. So potentially the writers had not even seen the movie, just the poster, but I assume that it wasn't thought. Yeah. That seems up the 1992 Simpson's writing staff's alley. I could draw a

not insignificant connection of like, the thematic connection of a charismatic newcomer is, you know, spotlit by the GOP machine and built up to be the new guy. That might be a starting point for it. But no, it's like it does not follow the plot

of Bob Roberts or the resolution. Yeah. Yeah, it's very, very hard to find. I watched a Vimeo link. Henry watched a YouTube link. I'm sure there was a DVD at some point that's out of print. And it's not available to rent digitally anywhere. And it is good. It is worth watching. I will caution people, though,

because you might wander into this movie thinking, oh, this is the politics version of Spinal Tap or a Mighty Wind or whatever. No. It is sort of like a mockumentary that's also a horror movie. There are some very, very light MPR chuckles throughout you might have, but it's more about the feeling of dread as this horrible man is ascending to power and nothing can stop it and it ends on a very, very sour notes.

I don't know if you've ever seen it, Chris. It's got Ray Wise. It's got Alan Rickman. It's got John Carlo Esposito, like an incredible cast. No, I have not seen that, potentially because limited availability. It is funny you guys talking about having to go through these, you know, out-sized means to see this movie. There's, like, that genre of movie that is impossible to find in our copious streaming environment, but probably exists in every single thrift store DVD bin in the country, you know? Yes.

Look at the checkout lane at your CVS or whatever. It'll be on a turnstile. Yes, exactly. And I want to point out, I also watch all the President's Men, which there's, like, two shots in this movie, in this episode that call back to that movie. That movie is fine. It feels like a homework movie. and I think there are too many swear words

that high school teachers were not really showing it to their class but honestly it is sort of like watching Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman do their taxes that's kind of what you're doing in that movie a lot of one-sided phone calls a lot of people like flipping through phone books the actual sausage like how the sausage gets made

part of Watergate is not as interesting as you know reading about it in a book or seeing the events depicted through multiple points of view I mean I remember enjoying that movie when I watched it probably like a decade ago because I do just like process movies but the main thing I remember of it is it has that like mid-70s Robert Redford like wet concrete sheen where everything is just like different shades of gray. I also think of like the great Gatsby remake from

around that time where it's like it's Gatsby, it's the Roaring 20s, everything should be like exciting. It's just like everything has, you know, overcast sky tone to it. Yes. Everything has just absorbed too much nicotine. Yeah, exactly. To be vibrant. Like even the mirror on the camera lens, it's just like too smudged with 10,000 cigarettes. And Bill and Josh took on this episode because they are big Watergate heads. They love Watergate as a, you know, major moment. Probably, like you said, Bob, based on their ages, they were, like, really young when it happened. So they've grown up with it their entire life and have studied its history quite a lot.

And then they're asked of like, well, we're doing a Rush Limbaugh parody episode and like, let's turn into Watergate. They bring back Side Show Bob for his first return since Cape Fear. A perfect could have been final episode of Side Show Bob. then they bring it back for an even better one. And also out there is two drafts of the script. One of them dated March 31st, 1994, and there's a few fun changes to the script and additions that were in there.

I'll add in as we come along to it, as I enjoy to do when I can find classic scripts online. But the episode begins very quickly because this is the shortest intro. Maybe they've done shorter intros in the last few years as they get rid of all intros on TV shows. But this was of Classic Simpsons. This is the shortest intro they ever had.

Straight through the Simpsons P to the MacRaining credit, and then boom, episode begins. It's very stuffed, this one. I thought something was wrong with my Disney Plus settings when it came through. I was, like, shocked to see an episode from this era with no extended intro. And this is where we quickly learn about our big new character in this episode in our first clip. Now Springfield's favorite conservative and author of the well-selling book, Only Turkeys Have Left Wings. Ladies and gentlemen, Birch Barlow. Ugh, that Barlow's a right-wing crackpot.

He said Ted Kennedy lacked integrity. Can you believe that? Yeah, switch the station. I consider myself politically correct, and his views make me uncomfortable. No, no, no, no, no, guys. Now, I'm not very political. I usually think people who vote are a bit fruity.

But for some reason, this Birch Barlow really speaks to me. Good morning, fellow freedom likers, Birch Barlow, the fourth branch of government, the 51st state. You know, there are three things we're never going to get rid of here in Springfield. One, the bats in the public library. Two, Mrs. McPhileys' compost heap. And three, our sixth-term mayor, the illiterate tax-cheating wife, swapping pot-spoking spand-o-crombie.

Hey, I am no longer illiterate. There's so much to go over. Just the specificity of everything they nail about Rush Limbaugh. The manner of the way he speaks, the Harry Shearer's impression of him. The golden microphone is there. His intro, I guess famously, was rock music because he was like the cool boomer conservative. So his intro in real life was the Pretender's song, My City was gone, which he used without permission for many a year until he was forced to pay the songwriter.

The songwriter then gave that money to Pita to piss him off. That's great. find the earliest one I could find on YouTube was from 1997, but here's a little bit of the real intro to a rush episode. And greetings to you, conversationalists all across the fruited

plane, as well as all of you single issue folks out there. We welcome you all. It's the Rush Limbaugh program, the excellence in broadcasting network. Underway for yet another exciting, busy broadcast day. Much going on out there, my good friends. Yes, there it is.

the real guy, the music they captured. I mean, also you hear the real asshole. And it's like, Harry Shearer captures this, like, is one of his best one-off character performances he's ever done? Like, as the creator of Leschot, this is right up his alley to parody Russ Limbaugh. It's amazing. He really gets the cadence.

And that, like, specific, you know, even just listening to a few seconds of Rush, you're like, I mean, you got to hand it to the guy. That was a capital B broadcaster. And just nailing that specific AM radio, like uber confidence but casual riff in it, you know? There's a lot of conservative shitheads who cannot match him as half the broadcaster. Yes, absolutely.

Like, baked into the impression, the stammering, the pausing, the lingering. That's because Rush Limbaugh was trapped in a booth alone for three hours, just carrying the entire show by himself. So he needed to constantly buy time. Yes. Every sentence is just spinning the wheel to figure out what the next sentence is going to be. I also just, like, there's so many jokes in this one little. clip. I really like the name of his

quote, well-selling book. Only turkeys have left wings. I mean, do you think how there had to be like 20 ghost writers on those things, right? Oh yeah, yeah. And his books had title, like the real Rush had books with titles like, see, I told you so in the way things ought to be. Just

very like inflammatory titles like that. Al Franken's books are all parodies of your typical Rush Limbaugh book title. Yeah. Which, of course, we bought dutifully as opposing Rush. Oh, I had lies in the lying liars who tell them. And I hate to linger so long on the first like 10 seconds, but

another important thing here, KBBL, now a talk radio station. Bill and Marty are quietly retired until they appear again in season 10 and then season 15 has their character finale essentially and we have covered that in recent years. Though it's not like Birch stuck around. They joke on the commentary of like

I thought we'd bring him back but they hate him too much. They don't want to have him around. Also on the commentary, it's fun they're recording it on May 4th, 2005. They specifically dated, which they rarely do, just so you know that they're able to make fun of Rush Limbaugh's recent drug arrests. So they can, like, you know, you can't sue us for it. Got convicted. It's a real thing. And we last covered this episode nine years ago, and currently Rush Limbaugh is in a

pee-pee-soaked heckhole. That's my source. He died a month after Joe Biden took the White House. That was he couldn't keep it going anymore. Chappo, the Chappo episode dedicated to it. I remember you guys had a great chuckle at the fact that he never had to. children. Like that's, just that it shows that plumbing wasn't working. Yeah. I mean, also, again, just like, I obviously I don't want to make it sound like I'm too much of a rush respecter. But it's like clearly that guy, the only thing in his life was his work, you know, like sitting in front of that microphone for what the hours a day that he did it was clearly like an almost psychopathic fixation. And there was no other life beyond it,

other than, of course, the drugs in Dominican sex tourism and or whatever. Yes. But, you know, it's clear like that he was a machine built to do that one thing. Bob, you mentioned the Golden Mike. Birch has got it. I wanted to look up what happened to Rush Limbaugh's Golden Mike. I found out that it is owned by Glenn Beck. It was gifted to Glenn Beck by the widow of Rush Limbaugh. Wow. I learned this because four months ago to honor a fellow fallen asshole, he pulled it out to dedicate it the excellence in broadcast. microphone to one Charlie Kirk. Aw. Wow.

Yep. I can't believe how much sense that makes. That is exactly where you would predict that that object would go and what it would do. My imagination is that it was like behind plexiglass at the planet Hollywood Mar-a-Lago. I think Rush would be disgraced because Charlie Kirk, he was nothing but a scumbag podcaster. Yes. At least Glenn Beck's on the real radio stations. He's probably on the Armed Forces radio just like Rush was.

Well, look, again, I don't want to make it sound like I'm giving too much credit to these guys. but respect the game. Charlie's podcast was always in the top 10 of political podcast charts. If you pay attention to those things, like I do. I feel like they get that little jab in it, Teddy Kennedy, just because they're, well, I mean, it is funny. But also, they're probably going to be accused of like, oh, you're just taking shots at Republicans this whole episode. I guess with Quimby, they also get in a lot of easy, you know, Democrats are gross potheads jokes. He's literally watering a marijuana plant as he's listening to it in his closet. I mean, you guys would know better.

Are there any other jokes in this series about Lenny being a squeamish lib? Hmm. This really could be it. I feel like Lenny has no real strong opinions about anything. Yes. It makes sense that Carl, of course, would hate it. Russ Limbaugh is not for the Carls of this world. Certainly not.

His list of things, too, like, the year he's a six-term mayor. I'm assuming in Springfield, it's a four-year term. So he's been the mayor for 24 years at this point. Like, I imagine Quimby in his 40s or something. that this would put him more in like late 50s, I would think, right? Here's a big bit from the original script that is a recurring bit through the whole episode, but I'll just explain it all here. When Birch says, why can't we get ourselves out of this Quimby Quagmire,

the explanation is because the local Republican Party keeps getting behind like a multi-time loser who they keep running and he can never beat Quimby. They make up a new character called Gaylord Pac-Man, P-A-C-K-K-R-E. M.A.N. And nobody takes him seriously. He's at a press conference and he says, like, please, let me stop laughing. Let me just introduce to my wife, Miss Pac-Man and my son, Pac-Man Jr. And everybody just laughs at him. Oh, that is good. That's like a critic joke almost. Yeah. Yeah. The name reminds me of the Democrat candidate in Bob Roberts' brickly paste. Yes, yes. There's some great Mr. Show slash Tim and Eric names in Bob Roberts. The funniest stuff in the movie are the character's names in many cases.

I mean, that also reminds me of when we, the Chapos, took our sojourn to CPAC, the conservative political action committee convention, which happens every year in Maryland's famous Gaylord Convention Center. And just like the omnipresent irony of being in like the bowels of the worst of the conservative movement at the Gaylord Center, you know, it soaked through that weekend. I mean, Rush was king of CPAC for decades, I would think. King of the Gaylord. Yes, the King of Gaylord. The bit about rather play hacky sack and lock up the homeless. It reminds me of Gavin Newsom as well, a Bob Roberts type guy. He put down that hacky sack and let.

I mean, that is my general problem hearing this episode of just hearing the ways he lists that a Democrats are bad. My entire life is paying attention to politics has seen Democrats taking those notes and be like, okay, we'll stop doing these things. You'll be nice, right? Like, it works every time. It works every time. That's why they keep doing it. So then we get the.

opening bit of Marge saying she doesn't like controversy at this house. Lisa is almost like a podcaster, hate listening to this so she can make notes about it. She's making content out of, you know, other people's content. This is proto-podcasting. I listen to a lot of Russian college, not for a project just because it was fun to hate listening to things in my 20s. Now I have no time for that, really. But I learned a lot more about Rush in the early odds. This is me going on my morning walk and listening to Pod Save America and pausing it every seven minutes to yell at them in my head. You know, in the original script, Lisa was listening to Birch because of a bigger plot

line that I'll just condense all here too, that the reason she keeps running into Quimby is because Lisa had an internship working on Quimby's campaign. It wasn't just research and also had in the original script a George Stephanopoulos type campaign manager that they wanted voiced by Phil Hartman to be there. And that also Lisa even like, how does she put it? and Marge asked, wait, I thought you didn't like Quimby. And she says, I don't like him personally, but he's the candidate of the party I believe in. So they really peg Lisa there.

Yes, she is a lib to her core. It's funny because by the end of this episode, Bart and Lisa are essentially interns for Quimby. But there's just no time in this episode to really explain it or give it a whole, like, backstory. Yeah, I mean, I guess the motivation of Bart trying to save his life by defeating Sajjo Bob makes it make enough sense that you don't need to go through a whole like, oh, Lisa has a summer job angle. Yeah, we don't need to see them approving the bumper stickers. Yes, exactly. Or her asking for getting her school credit approved.

I was also in shock reading the original script because when she's at Quimby's office, they have a joke that he is using an auto pen. And they use the term autopin to explain it. I was like, I thought I had never. These little resonances, you know. I had never heard that term before until it became a new thing like the Trump says Biden should be impeachable. Same here. Same here.

I mean, maybe I'm getting a little ahead. but when I was looking up some background info about this episode, I saw that Bill actually wrote an op-ed in the first Trump term about how Trump had basically made sideshow Bob's argument from this that attempted crimes aren't crime. His line, attempted chemistry is chemistry. But obviously Trump was just scatten and bebopin about this being like, I didn't actually do anything.

I just tried to do something. And like that happens in this episode. Well, since you mentioned, yeah, Bill Oakley was published in the, Washington Post with an opinion piece on this. And the thing he was referring to, like, it was literally 800 water gates ago of Trump. Yes. I could not. It was like, wait, quid pro quo for Ukraine.

It was saying that he was going to withhold aid to the Ukraine if they didn't give him or corroborate evidence of Biden doing something wrong. Yeah. Then he said, but then I gave them the aid eventually. So clearly like what, it was attempted quid pro quo. You can't get me on that. This sounds like the era in which he made the best phone call ever. was bragging about it? Yes.

Oh my God, there's so many of these little things. Too many. What was this precise phrasing? I forget what the... The greatest phone call they're calling it, the greatest phone call. There's a great little joke of Bart trying to brag about his actual assignment to do fireworks at school. And Marge takes it as a prank, wets his fireworks, and then toss it away. Even when Bart is actually like, Skinner and Edna are rooting for him.

He's screwed. Like, it's such a murkin joke of, like, just suffering for the character. I know. There's so many little asides. in this episode that don't have to do with the main plot that I think are so funny. I think that this fireworks thing is so funny. The Chinese diplomats there who are very disappointed that they don't get a fireworks show, Skinner being,

because even just like the implication of like Skinner being like Chinese people, we should have some fireworks. Who can help me with fireworks? Well, obviously Bart Simpson, you know, like, and then getting disappointed yet again. It's also a great mercenary joke in that the joke is a big cheat because Bart kind of stammeres when he's explaining what the fireworks are for and he should be confident about this.

He's like, uh, fireworks. He pulls them out. Then we go to Lisa driving with her dad and hearing Birch some more too. Again, this is another like, wow, this is in the original script thing. This is a complaint they cut of birches. And junk that vaccination program so near and dear to the bleeding heart of our own Mayor Scumby. So antivacs as well, yes. I mean, all this stuff has been brewing for, you know, 30, 40, 50,

years. Like, it just, it really has been a slow boil to bring all of these conservative peccadillos to the forefront and then eventually become like the dominant policy. Like, I mean, this is what time, resources and dedication will get you, the elimination of vaccination in this country. They stuck with it. Talk about another perfect joke. When you drive, you can pick your radio station. The drawing of Lisa driving with cars, Homer sits there, like, is one of the funniest drawing. It's the perfect song for Lisa to like in 1994.

This guy cracked me up. Lisa driving and listening to St. Elmo's fire is also just like the timing of it, just like the amount of it that you get before it it switches back and Homer's like that was a terrible idea. Perfect. Apparently that was a very big movie for Oakley and Weinstein because they grew up in the Washington, D.C. area and apparently that film

takes place in that area and they were teens when it came out in theaters. I have watched that with semi-recently within this decade for the first time just I don't know keeping up on 80s classics. And, you know, it's not a tremendous movie, but it does look very good. That's a great glass bricks movie. If you're into movies that have, like, neon lights and glass bricks, that movie has a lot of it.

And it's just like, yes, 80s DC yuppie vibes. I'm imagining a lot of shoulder pads among the cast. Yeah, if you want to marinate in like that. The writer of that song was the number one hit in 1985, John Parr. In 2012, he'd returned to that tune writing his own parody version of it called Tim Tebow's Fire in a tribute to Tim Tebow. Oh, boy. I also love.

Way Homer says, you know, oh, we got to change it. Like, it seems like he's just, he's not worried about Lisa's driving ability. He's just tired of that song. He doesn't want to listen to it. Yeah, it's not that it's unsafe. It's that the vibes are off. And so this is where we get a new phone call on the Birch show. All right, my friends.

Let's go to the phones. First up is Bob from South Springfield. Welcome to you, sir. Hello, Birch. Long time listener, first time caller. Kudos for bringing the public back to the Republican Party. It's high time people realize we conservatives aren't all Johnny hate mongers and Charlie Bible thumbs or even, God forbid, George Bush's. That sounds like sideshow Bob.

Yes, ma'am, side show Bob, jacking it up on the old jackbox. Dad, I'll spare you the embarrassment of admitting you don't know who side show Bob is. There it is. Kelsey Grammer back on the show. They had a one-off joke in the second Side Show Bob episode of him saying that he's a lifelong Republican and why he didn't like being in jail. When he gets arrested, he's like, the Democrats will be back in the White House and then I'll be out with all my criminal buddies. Now they're going full Republican with Bob. And as Kelsey Gramer gets older, his views align more with Side Show Bob's. Yes.

This speech, I mean, yes. As he has said recently about Donald Trump, he's one of the greatest presidents we've ever had, maybe the greatest. there's some things he still wants to get done and I think that's terrific but there is a big hill to climb so it's a recent quote from Kelsey here is the Frisier revival still on it's off yeah now that it's over I feel like he's going to only appear in movies they show at churches yes

grammar unchanged that's why I think he's thinking of like well the show's canceled I don't have to worry about it getting renewed so yeah you have like a speaking tour called like bad grammar or something like that oh it's good I mean David Hyde Pierce is never returning those calls no matter what he does. I mean, to give Kelsey Gramer of 1994 a good sport to go along with all of this rush bashing when I think he probably was a friend of Rush Limbaugh, or at the very least, been in a lot of

the same functions, I would bet. By the way, I could not find any proof of Rush Limbaver. You have to think in the 8,000 hours of content he made, he must have talked about them parroting him on The Simpsons, but unfortunately, archives of his don't go back past 2005, and nobody has uploaded any online. That's fascinating. Surely there must be some hardcore rush archivist, and I'm not talking about Tom Sawyer kind, you know. I feel like everyone was parodying him, so he couldn't keep track of all of them because he was such a popular media figure. I mean, I remember SNL sketches and Living Color sketches.

Beavis and Butthead eventually made their way onto his television show at one point. Yeah. Actually, yeah, you mentioned that too. He was not only doing like daily hours of radio, but also a weekly syndicated television show for years then. He was a very busy man. Homer's way of saying, yes, sir, he yacking it up on the old yak box. That's one of my favorite Homer things to say as like a mic test for one thing. I'm just yacking it up on the old yak box. I love his reading a little later on when after the clips of Side Show Bob's last appearances,

when Homer goes, oh, side show Bob. Yes. And at this point, the show feels the need to let you know who Side Show Bob is. I feel like they would stop this with his next appearance, right? Yes. They make it kind of a joke of just talking through it, like really speeding through it. But I like in this one, and not only is it like a clip package, but Lisa dates it as 1990s specifically when he framed Krusties. The year was 1991 or whatever it is.

And Bart is still 10. They rush home after this. Lisa Warren's Bart. That's where he turns on the radio and we get to hear another big celebrity in this episode, too. Dr. D.E. Mento. You're a big de Mento fan, weren't you? I barely got a chance to hear him because the viewer. of this episode for the first time was so surreal because around this time as a 12 year old, I found

our local novelty song station. Pittsburgh's Funny 1540, I think it lasted not very long. That wasn't an enduring format for FM radio. Unfortunately, not by 1994. We had lost our appetite for novelty songs. But I started listening to him thinking, oh, he must be a local guy. I have no way to look up to see who he is or where he comes from or how many markets carry a show. So weeks after listening to him, I hear him on The Simpsons, my favorite show. It knocked my ass over. The only Demento facts I know are related to being like a weird Al Yankovic listener. He just retired.

Yes, his show ended his 55-year run in October of 2025. And yes, the funny five was a portion of his show, which he would count down the five funniest songs of that week. And unlike Rush, he has a very extensive archive of all of his shows available online. So if you want to dig into Dr. Demento, archives, they are available as of this recording. Now, would Demento ever do, like, just pop's regular charting pop songs he thought were funny, or does everything have to be specifically a parody or a novelty? There were some sketch bits on there, too, but it was all novelty songs, parody songs,

or short comedy subjects. Nothing, like, I guess, legit in terms of music. Sunday, when Bart and Lisa go into politics, Hey, four-eye, vote Quimby. They'll uncover a scandal. No children have that. Never meveled with the Republican Party and lived to tell about it. Bigger than Watergate.

We're just like Woodward's friends. Except their dad wasn't waiting in the car reading Orchy Comics. Kelsey Grammar guest stars on a brand-new Simpson Sunday. Sunday, the Simpsons are run out of town. We're going to have to move into a motel six. Dad can't afford $6 a night. Kelsey Grammer guests on a brand-new Simpson Sunday. No!

Think Joddy Cochran's tough. Wait till you see Bart. We want the truth. You can't handle the truth. Give me a break. Simpsons Sunday at 8.7 Central. Hey, everybody. It's Henry coming to you from the Matt Lock Expressway podcasting studio. And a big thank you to our guest this week, Chris Wade from the podcast, Chapo Trap House.

We couldn't think of doing this classic episode about a ton of political intrigue in history without a presidential historian podcaster like Chris. It was awesome having him back on. Thanks so much, Chris. If you don't know, come on, you got to check out Chapo Trap House. Thanks again, Chris. Love to have you back. And if you enjoy our podcast, you should know the Talking Simpsons is only possible because of patrons at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. Supporters, they are to get every episode of our podcast a week early and without any ads like this one.

And that includes next week's episode, plus a ton of bonuses. The ad-free podcasts also extend to our monthly covering of Futurama and King of the Hill. We're deep into the Comedy Central years of Futurama and the fourth season of King of the Hill. and you can hear all of our previous discussions of Futurama and King of the Hill every previous episode in the back catalog too. Plus the $5 a month gets you access to all of our chats about the critic, Mission Hill,

and our favorite episodes of Batman, the animated series. Sign up today to check it all out at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons. But if you want something nicer than selling your future short, then you should sign up at the $10 level because you get all of the ad-free and early bonuses I just mentioned. But at our premium level, you basically get three extra podcasts a month as part of our What a Cartoon movie podcast. We cover an animated feature film just as in depth as an episode of The Simpsons.

Last month you heard us cover Sleeping Beauty. And this month you're going to hear us chatting about Shrek 2, two different sides of the fantasy animated film puzzle. And that's just the most recent stuff. If you saw on the free feed, you got to listen to our full version of Toy Story. That's what we do every month, something that long, four, five or even six. hours and we have covered tons of classic Disney. We've covered tons of Pixar tons of crappy movies too, like Space Jam or the original Shrek, even our longest podcast ever of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, six and a half hours long.

Check it out for yourself at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons for all the early ad-free and exclusive bonuses that we offer only to our patrons. Patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. We then cut to gripe at the Marinite, which more cities should have this, honestly. I do just also want to point out that I love the joke that not only does Dr. Demento exist in this, that when Lisa says your nemesis is on air, that BART is immediately like, oh, my nemesis, Dr. Demento. He has two mortal enemies at 10. Yes. This is also where they get, they were mocking seniors for a long time before this, but Bill and Josh, especially, we have done a live show where Bill Oakley has talked about his specific hate for Matlock.

and in general, the older shows, the older demographic shows that were taking away ratings from and beating the Simpsons in the ratings when he was running the show, too. This could be one of our last Matlock references, though, because Matt Lock, I think, off the air at this point, perhaps. Oh, I think, yeah, maybe he's getting some, like, TV specials, but I think you're right. I think the final season was last season.

We talked about that one. We talked about Malvestacey episode where they kill Matt Locke on screen in that one. Right. Apparently, the show wraps up in May of 95. So it's about to end. And now there's a lady Matlock. Yes, I guess the final acting role of Kathy Bates. Yes.

She's threatening us with that. We better watch it. I would love to see if new Kathy Bates Matlock is now beating still running Simpsons in the ratings. And if we could get a new generation of Simpsons showrunners who are doing Matlock jokes to bitterly complain about Matlock being back on. investing the Simpsons. You know, I'm looking at these ratings, and they're not bad. I think they actually are beating the Simpsons on the new Matlock show. Well, my suggestion, if any of the Simpsons showrunners are listening to it, bring that grudge back.

Yeah, take more swings in Madlock. Bring back Abe Simpson saying, Mattluck. Actually, the new Matlock is kicking the Simpsons ass. Like, The Simpsons? We're maybe getting like a two share, a one share sometimes with their episodes. Matlock is like getting a six share. Wow. Whoa, wow.

that's basically everybody who still watches television. Yeah, yeah. Quimby, another great bit is that Quimby, instantly goes like, oh, then we'll change the name. And you see his assistant already changing the name in the background. And I love the animation. Mark Kirkland's team does a great job on this, the animation. Like he looks back and sees, they've already written it.

He's like, oh, a Matlock Expressway. Yeah, we'll call it that, yeah. And I guess previously this was the Michael Jackson Expressway in an episode that no longer exists. Yes, and before that, the Dalai Lama Expressway. Yeah, yeah, that's true. This is where we go back to Bob on the phone and the attempted murder, and a crime I didn't even commit,

attempted murder, attempted chemistry. Perfect line that then became. Oakley also talked about this episode in general, feeling like a big one in the Trump one era because it lets you imagine that like maybe the crimes would be paid for and an arrest might happen to. You see, Birch, I'm presently incarcerated. Convicted of a crime I didn't even commit.

Attempted murder. Now, honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry, do they? Oh, really? Now, this is a personal call. My friends, isn't this just typical? Another intelligent conservative here railroaded by our liberal justice system, just like Colonel Oliver North, Officer Stacey Coon,

and cartoon smokesperson Joe Camel. Well, I've had it. I am going to make it my mission to see that our friend Bob is set free. Despite Bart's objections, the people of South Africa can now vote in free Democratic election. I also love how he brings up two horrible, horrible people in his list of people being railroaded by the justice system. Oliver North, Officer Stacey Coon, and smokesperson Joe Camel. People might forget, I mean, I guess a lot of people forgot who all over north is, but definitely Stacey Coon. This is one I always have to look up.

I looked it up briefly. I put it in my notes. I looked it up before we logged on, but I couldn't get the details. Who is Stacey Coon? This is like deep cut 90s lore. Oh, he was involved in the Rodney King beating, Officer Stacy Coon. Okay, yes, yes, yes. And that was back when we had due process, so we actually went to jail.

Yes, okay. For doing a thing that I see 80 videos a day happening of the things that he did in that video, he went to jail for two and a half years. and then got out and made a lot of money off of writing a book about how innocent he was. But yes, Stacey Coon's name is what I remember because I didn't know it when I watched this as a kid. A few years later, as a cool teen getting into stand-up comedy, I listened to Bill Hicks, and he has a whole bit about Stacey Coon and listing the names of the assholes. And yes, Oliver North, another treasonous guy who he did not even go to jail, right? Not for a second in Iron Contra.

Joe Camel, behind bars to this very day. I guess killed, right? He's no longer around, so he might have gotten the death belt. Unfortunately, Bill Oakley deletes his old tweets, and I understand why. But at some point, he had information online about how Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, one of their first roles as professional writers, they were behind the Joe Camel newsletter, establishing the lore, developing the characters, writing articles about them. Unfortunately, no one wrote an article about it, and Bill deletes his tweets,

so could not find an actual quote or anything like that. I remember talking to him about, like, either hearing, I might be making this up, like one of his a Chapo appearances or maybe talking to him when he did the Portland Chapo episode or something. I remember him talking about being an employee of Joe Camel at one point. In our live show with him for the attack of the 50 foot eyesores, I brought that up. And he told a little story about it there too. Yeah. If listeners want to go back in the archive.

Joe Campbell, early victim of cancel culture. We might not like cigarette smoking or mascots that push cigarette smoking on children. But you got to admit, Joe Camel, he's got a cool vibe. and I wish that he could just persist in the pop culture space beyond being a cigarette spokesperson. I just wish that, you know, he was out there like Fred Flintstone or something. Yeah, we didn't learn enough about the extended universe of Joe Camel characters because if you look at that artwork, it's more than just him.

Bill and Josh, I think probably were having a lot of fun building the lore of all of these characters. Then we hear that Birch takes the stance that Bob is a political prisoner. This is in a thing that Rush Limbaugh did and other like assholes. Like they took, and still to this day, they take, like, the spirit of progressive or left-wing movements to, like, you know, protest or boycott things to make political change. And now they take on that message as well, but for a two-time attempted murderer in prison. And Bart's reaction to it is a great one. I also just love the drawing of him wearing the headphones. Now, I bet you guys could guess the line about South Africa had to be a late change

because Hawaii is on the chalkboard. Yes. I was like, what is she drawing on the, Like what a thought bubble? What's what's happening? The original line in the script is Edna says, ahem, well, despite Bart's objections, Hawaii did become the 50th state in 1959. And then it shows that there's a Hawaiian transfer student who is very offended at Bart saying no to becoming a state. This is very timely because in May, the May before this aired,

that was when Nelson Mandela was elected as the president of South Africa. So they decided to rip from the headlines with the picture. Which does make Bart seem even more insensitive that he is approving of apartheid. Better joke. I am kind of morbidly curious about what the animators would do to signal a Polynesian student at Springfield Elementary to make the first version of this joke land. I feel like it would be as broad as the Easter Island kid on The Critic. He's going to have a grass skirts. Pooka shell necklace probably.

Then they cut to Mo and Barney showing what the demographic of Birchport. Barlow is. Mo and the rest of the bar patrons are like, you heard him, boys. Mo has a carton of grenades ready, ready for this moment. Passing him out, it's Barney who thinks about nonviolence grassroots political action. I love Moe's emergency grenades. Complements to them, as Dave Merkin says, he's surprised they didn't just have the explosion on screen. They just cut away. I do love any little glimpse you get of like Mo's interior life or ideology or, you know, beliefs beyond what he gives to Homer. So this is where the protests are growing and growing here,

and Mayor Quimby can't take it anymore. He then decides, all right, I'll do what's popular. He says, if that's the way the wind's blowing, let no one say I don't also blow. We get to learn a new bit of Bob lore as well, as we hear his middle name for the first time. They did not say, we learned his last name in Cape Fear, but we did not learn it until this episode.

By special order of the mayor of Springfield, you are hereby granted a full and complete pardon. Congratulations, Robert Underdunk to Williger. That's Anderdonk with two O's, Underdong. Yes, it's often spelled Underdunk with a U, but this name comes from the writer of a hymn that Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein had to sing in church one day, and they were just tickled by the, I guess, middle name of this guy. His name is Henry Ustick Underdonk. actually his last name. I'm going to guess that this gentleman was a, hey, Dutch Calvinist strain with a name like Underdunk. That sounds about right. The hymn, we've all heard it, it's called How Wonders and Great Thy Works, God of Praise. Of course. It's a little ostentatious

that title. I do like, like this segment, it's kind of a perfect and ongoing, you know, satirical description of the dynamic between Republicans and Democrats. where it is like you get a Republican media apparatus to create a false outrage around something preposterous that then moves some kind of public opinion on it. And rather than doing the work to affect public opinion, Democrats look at a bunch of polls and say, well, I guess this is where we should be if we want to continue. You know, we've seen it forever.

but they nail it in about 30 seconds in here. For an example I can think of pretty easily is the Donald Trump running on birth certificate stuff on Obama, and then the Democrats go along with it, and it leads him to like, primes him perfectly to run for president. Yes. We come back from the commercial break, and we're at the Republican headquarters. It's Dracula's Castle on a hill. Hail, brothers, coronin, Cilaria, Ozu, Mahook. Mahook.

No, no. Now then, gentlemen, the mayoral campaign is upon us. And if we hope to defeat this Joe Quimby, we need a candidate with name recognition and media savvy, a true leader who will do exactly as he's told. Monty, I'm way ahead of you. If you'll just open that door, you'll see the next mayor of Springfield.

What'd say? No, no, no. Bob, come in. A fine mhawk to you all. Well, he's even better. I agree. I like the human touch. It's pretty great.

Yes, I agree with David Merkin on the commentary. Not far enough. They didn't go far enough with this satire. More evil. Yeah. Now, of course, this is replaced with Mar-a-Lago. Like, that is what it would be. And the ghouls that are drinking blood in this episode,

they would have to have a lot of facial surgery done on them. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's like the change in the conception of the Republican elite, right? in the past 30 years is like in the 90s it's like the highest level of like stone faced businessmen and now you have to go like no no no this is like the tackiest plasticist

assortment of used car dealership owners that you could imagine putting there Rockefeller would be disgusted at having to be surrounded by these people. Yes. They choose a good assemblage of Republicans for the show though like we have Rainier Wolfcastle obviously Arnold Schwarzenegger a big Republican of the time. We have Hibbert's that makes sense to me as a wealthy doctor

Cosby, a little conservative. We have Mr. Burns. We have the blue-haired lawyer who is Ray Cohn. I love seeing the blue-haired lawyer there. He's one of my favorite recurring minor characters. Oh yeah, it's perfect that Ray Cohn is there. That's perfect. Yeah. Nosephrat, too, of course, and the rich Texans. So they find enough characters

to fill this room. In the script, they refer to that character as the fiend. That's what they say. A fiend drinks blood. And in case you're wondering what Mr. Burns is saying, they're all speaking inokian, or at least their approximation of that made-up a cult language. So they're also all Satan. Yes. A fine mahock to you all. An Anachian translation website or purports to be one gave me nothing for

Coroner Salaria Ozu Mahawk. Nothing for that. Well, I think they just made it up based on what Anacian sounds like. If the writers really had gall, they should have also put Flanders in this room. You know, by 2004, that's when they are firmly like, oh yeah, they recognize the Christian rights power, especially in the Bush administration. So like they give Ned lines in 2004 they gave lines they'd never give it in 1994 he's like oh i haven't felt this good since we stole the election i think is the line they give ned i mean it's funny like obviously there's been much said about like the evolution of flanders's character over time but you know if you start with the principles of where they were going from with him from like the earliest episodes and really

transpose it now like that guy would probably almost certainly be like a conservative values ticotker who's like making content out of his family and like going to a really obnoxious megachurch where they spend like $2 million on a Christmas pageant, you know? Hmm. Yeah, it makes sense. I guess after the first two seasons, he was always a parody of a social conservative,

but then they got extremely, like, radicalized after George W. Bush era. So, yeah, we have the term flanderization. I think it's a little unfair, but when you use it, everyone knows what you mean. Yeah, yeah. I think it's kind of an interesting lens to just, like, look at something that has persisted as long as the Simpsons to just be like,

you're trying to keep a character game consistent, but it is a cultural parody, right? And so it's like culture is shifting over time, so you do have to figure out, like, how that filter works in different contexts. And I would almost say, like, obviously they have to do a lot with Flanders to just, like, make jokes work and just, like, find new ways to use him over 35 years. But it's also, like, the lens that you're looking through is looking at something new as time goes on, you know? And this is where Birch introduces who they're going to run against him

and that you can tell that this has been his plan ever since he was saying, how do we defeat this Quimby Quagmire? He knew the second Sight Joe Bob got on the air. This was the guy to pick. And yes, as you said, Bob, when Sight Show Bob enters, he's draped to the American flag like one, the most famous poster of Bob Roberts. I love that they first think that it is the water cooler.

What did say? I agree. Like the human touch. Like, you know what, this man is a human. He's probably better to run than a water cooler. Important clue, though, we see Smithers serving them drinks looking very perturbed. So that will pay off later. There's more stuff in the original script of setting up that Smithers is against this.

Like, this is really the only tease of Burns is a more active character in general in the original script. But again, there's no time. This episode is so good. They actually cut funny burn stuff because they're like, we don't even need Burns to prop up this episode. And this in the original script wraps up the Pac-Man story as well because they say, well, what are we going to do with Gaylord Pac-Man? And they say, like, we'll send him where we send the other guys. And he's sent to a deserted island where H.W. Bush is. And they're fighting over the last coconut. I kind of want to see this. Even though I love this

episode is perfect. I feel like we missed out on Gaylord Pac-Man. I would like the extended cut, the 40-minute version of the, or the, I guess, like, 35-minute version of this episode. So we go to the first event that's happening A carefully choreographed media event From the script This is what they say Note to animators About the Bob's two friends in the background

They resemble H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman Circa in 1972 So yeah these two guys crew cut and baldy They never talk, they're always with Bob That's who they are Two of his closest advisors in Watergate's I think One went to jail and one didn't I think Or did they both go to jail?

Ah, I can't remember now I like that Skinner seems almost a little. He's extra aware of what's going on in this, that he knows it is a planned event here and carefully choreographed. This is where Sighto Bob reminds everybody that he actually is like a trained performer, like him doing his leaps and all of his schick. Like you forget that he was a clown sidekick. And he was the one who did all the tumbling as, of course,

Krusty phased all that out in favor of Dirty Limber. I think that the animation of Bob's clowning in this is so tremendous. like all of his little bits of like shrinking and doing his like sideways walk. It's like, it's so sharply conveys not only is he clown, but he was knowing what we know about Bob, probably a very highly trained clown. Like he studied in France under that guy who told Hillary Clinton that for a woman it is too hard. Even in these few moments of clowning, you see that he has like an academic knowledge of it. And also like this is the one like rewatching it, the moment that rewatching it that like really just blew me away giving the last like, 10 years is that, yes, what the people want is like raw strain fascism delivered by a

clown. That is the combination to like unlock the potential of a truly evil America is an entertainer. You know, a lot of people have this insight. This is also like David Foster Wallace and Infinite Jest and something. He's like, you need a person well known as a goofball to tell you that we need to chop the tall trees. Except in Bob Roberts, they make the mistake of letting you know. It'll be like a very handsome photogenic guy who's charming instead of a goblin pedophile who oozes slime behind him wherever he goes. It looks like a melting candle.

Yes. I guess I can say that in 1992, Barbara Bush came to my grade school to give a speech. She did not do any tumbling, and that's why they lost that election. No backflips. Just shrinking into her coat to look like a little person. She just gave a speech about libraries? I don't know why. Yeah, definitely you see, Mom Dani, Mayor Mondani,

he just did a bunch of, like, events with kids to speak out. Like, it's still very much a, on the local level, a tradition to go to schools and do political events. This is also where Bart says what is becoming a catchphrase for him of Eap, as he reacts to Sight Show Bob looking at him. He had last said it in Bart's Interchild, when the mob is all turning on him to chase after him at the Brad Goodman events. Lionel Hutt said it in Marge and Chains, Eep.

They couldn't sell any Epe t-shirts, unfortunately. So it had to go. Wait, speaking of one-off noises, I don't know if you have this in your notes for later, but apparently this episode is one of the origins of saying the word me is an expression of ambivalence. When the election official says me to Lisa, it's an early man. I think, I believe it's in season five or four where I think they credit Swartzweiler for it, I think. Yeah, I mean, at least from what I read, who said that somebody that he interacted with in his life, he used that.

But it is funny to think about, look, it's amazing. everything is Simpsons. You know, it's just like something that is like such a universal expression that I wouldn't even consider that it had an origin that could be plausibly traced back to the Simpsons popularizing it of saying me. I think Chris, you're on to something because like with Nelson's ha ha, we see many different approaches at meh, but they don't hit the M in MET until this episode. In Homer Shriple bypass season four, Lisa says, we're the MTV generation. We feel neither highs nor lows. And Homer says, what's that like? And she goes, eh, but there's no mm in the me.

So the sentiment is there, but we have not landed on me as a definitive term. Yeah, it's like imagining that there's like an origin for saying, huh? You know, which I guess you come to understand as a convention when you're talking of like, how do you get somebody to repeat something? But surely that comes from somewhere. But I would never think about that. I would put me in one of those words like, huh. But apparently Simpsons. I mean, it is strange to go back to the Nelson example.

example. It is strange when he does his first ha ha ha. It's like, ha ha, ha. And you're like, wait a minute. You didn't figure out ha ha ha this early. It took like a few more cracks to the bat to get to wah ha. So ha. Sorry. Not wah. This is where Lisa can tell that Quimby is floundering. And this is another thing I like about Lisa that she understands what like the lowest that she can play this, but she usually wants to take the high road and do better, more literate campaigning, higher, higher minded stuff. But she instantly goes to like the children. are our future to try to save Quimby just to make sure like Sideshow Bob doesn't start gaining ground. Yeah, I think it helps that you have the stakes of Bart's danger of being murdered

from Sajjo Bob that you can make Lisa be a little cynical without breaking the character. That Quimby doesn't even realize what laughing children are like or how it can help him. What are they doing? I'm being attacked by things. I also love Kid Brockman's response of like, more important than Cole? So this is where Bart gets pulled aside by Earleman and Holderman and implies that the Republican Party has murdered a lot of children, apparently. We're seeing it now. Well, speaking of another thing that I could rant on quite a lot here, but I'll just say, it's great.

This Archie joke, I love this joke so much. Just stay out of Riverdale, a perfect line. It's true. There's no reason for it to happen. It's ridiculous. It's like the Skinner joke with the Chinese diplomats earlier, that it implies like a whole world of shenna. Manigans that's going on somewhere else, but that, you know, it leaves it to your imagination. This feels quietly like one of the most world-breaking moments of the show in which the Archie kids are real.

And Homer then reads their comic book. Yes. That Homer can visit them. It's Archie, Moose, Jughead, and Reggie. And they're driving his joffy. And they just look like how they look. Like they're not Simpsonized in any way. They are straight out of their cartoon, the Archie's cartoon.

I do know that Bill Oakley is a big. I think he was a legit Archie fan because when the new Riverdale show first debuted, which now is over, like he was complaining about like, what? That's what they did to Miss Grundy? It feels like Archie Awareness was at an all-time low in 94,

so they were just like, have the characters, they could do whatever they want. This will sell some digests. And then this is where we get our first of the political ads here as Mayor Quimby is promoting all the good things about Springfield. We wouldn't have a tire yard or a mid-sized roller rake. We wouldn't have our gallows or a shiny big foot track.

It's not the mayor's fault that the stadium collapsed. Quimby, if you were running from mayor, he'd vote for you. Paid for the mayor, quimby for mayor, mayoral committee. Hey, four eyes, vote Quimby. Hey, Beirdo, vote Quimby. This time he's the lesser of two evils. Yeah, yeah, I love Grimby. Oh, could I have some more bumper stickers, please, dude?

the mummy's ready for his mystical journey. Oh, there's so much to go over. The Quimby ad is so great. And I like how he feels to need to remind people of the stadium collapsing in the video just to remind people it wasn't his fault. The drawing of him gleefully, like, looking through the gallows news, like, is so good. Like, God, they actually cut another line from there's extra lyrics, which are good, but I think it's great to end on the stadium collapse.

Quimby's done so much for you and you've hardly taken note. So show a little gratitude and give this guy your vote. I really love the slogan if you were running for mayor, he'd vote for you. I think you could actually make some hay with that in real life. Also, Lisa's, this time he's the lesser of two evils. Again, that feels like the entire pitch of the Democratic Party for the last 10 years. Yep. I mean, we've heard it that alongside this is the most important election of our lifetime.

Yes. As everyone is each time. And it's true every time. Well, and that also, yes, Lisa, that line implies that Lisa has campaigned against Quimby before, perhaps in Democratic primaries. And this time she's like, no, this time he's the lesser of two evils.

Normally it's the opposite. And the torturing in Millhouse, the mummy is ready for its mystical journey. Like him covered in Quimby, bumper stickers just fantastic. I'm really surprised the shopping cart does not explode in flames once it goes off road. But, hey,

He suffered enough. The animation of it rolling into the distance is really great. This is where there's a few big cuts in here. One is Burns doing a lot of direct work of promoting through the plant. He forces Smithers to place bumper stickers on every car in the parking lot, promoting Bob. Then instead of the conversation with seniors, Sight Show Bob actually goes on the Larry King Talk Show, which is when he gets the call in from Abe.

That's the scene of him in the diner. He also gets a call from Apu, hoping that he won't make it illegal to price gouge because he needs that. Bill and Josh tried to keep going. They're Luigi runner. They had a Luigi scene that got cut. They want to put Bart and Lisa go to put up the poster in Luigi's restaurant. And Luigi goes, hey, sir, hey, Savitor, bringing them the canoles that Papa sat on. And he brings him in that.

I love the posing of Bob talking to the seniors. Like, he's got this jacket off, sleeves rolled up. It's perfect. He's going Buttigieg mode. It does feel like Clinton-era campaign stops. Yeah. Or like the kind, well, that was after he got elected, but that perfect Phil Hartman McDonald's sketch of him too.

He also looks like Beto. It's the Beto costume as well. Republicans do this outfit, too. I'm sure Ted Cruz has rolled up his sleeves a number of times. I feel like, I don't know if it's true, but I feel like in the police clap clip, Jeb Bush is in this exact same outfit with the sleeves rolled up. Though I always imagine Jeb in a sweater vest, too, or like a zip-up hoodie. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. He's got like the, that also feels right for Jeb is like the tech guy like zip-up fleece. Sight show Bob says he'll keep calling at the Madlock Expressway, but also that he will listen to their most interminable anecdotes. That crimby fella promised to build us a Madlock Expressway. How are you going to top that, smart guy? Hmm. Well, how's this? I'll not only build the expressway

I will spend the remainder of this afternoon patiently listening to your interminable anecdotes. Hot jickety-exam! Mears! Not many people know I own the first radio in Springfield. Weren't much on the air then. Just had us in reciting the alphabet over and over.

A, he'd say. Then B? See, he would usually follow. I do love this bit, and I also love anything that implies that Abe is like 150 years old. And also, he definitely says hot diggedy dam, but in the script he says hot ziggity zam. I'm confused by that. Hot diggety was a burgeoning catchphrase for Abe before they retired it. I think it was a Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein thing.

And this is where we get the second political ad here about prison. reform. Mayor Quimby supports revolving door prisons. Mayor Quimby even released Sideshow Bob, a man twice convicted of attempted murder. Can you

trust a man like Mayor Quimby? Vote Sight Show Bob from here. It's great that they're calling him weak on crime by explaining Sideshow Bob is one of those horrible criminals he let free and let out. This is a parody of the infamous Willie Horton Ed from the 1988

Bush-Duccas fight. And it's all about Willie Horton. He was allowed a weekend furlough from prison. And Dukakis was the governor at the time. He did some really terrible things

while on him furlough. He was brought to justice and Dukakis was held responsible for his crimes outside of jail after the initial arrest and imprisonment. I mean, they hit Dukakis on week on crime so hard. That leads to another reference

pretty soon in the episode. But yeah. Yeah, it's amazing how much of that playbook still works considering that like the current manifestation of the Republican Party is like objectively pro-crime like crime like crime is essentially legal if you are a Republican at this point. But meanwhile everything is a crime against them. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just funny. I guess thinking about like, you know, it's not quite the cleanest map, but just like of all the things that are resonant still with this, just that they have a whole riff on like partons and criminality and stuff in this moment. I mean, that revolving door, like, visually, you got to look up the ad yourselves guys online, because visually they capture it perfectly. Like, it is a revolving door prison. They spent money on this horribly racist, monstrous ad. They built an actual, like, brick wall with a revolving door in front of it and paid guys dressed as inmates to walk through it in and out, just like in the Simpsons.

I believe I might be getting this wrong, but I believe last week, or in the last few weeks, Trump pardoned somebody for fraud. that he had previously pardoned for fraud and they went back and did more fraud, got convicted again, and then he just pardoned her again. Chapo has been very good at keeping me up to date about which pardoned January 6ers keep getting arrested for new crimes. Yes, for child porn or whatever, yes.

Sounds like they get out of jail, immediately go to a library and download child pornography, and then back to jail for them. Yes. A bunch of them are trying to make the case that the pardons for January 6th are actually blanket pardons that will then cover future crimes that they have committed after they got their pardon from January. It's amazing. That only works for Hunter Biden, right? He has future immunity.

Also, before the debate scene in the original script, they had another major scene that would have been Homer says, I'll put a stop to sideshow Bob. He then gets dressed up like Travis Bickle and it's him at a campaign event. And he looks very scary. and he asked the guards, hey, where can I get alone with Sightchobab? And he immediately gets arrested and then runs off. A taxi driver reference lost. I think Moe as Travis Bickle was a bit funnier than that, but I still like the reference.

Also in that scene, they had another bit of Smithers rolling his eyes. At Sightchobab threatens to get rid of the Springfield gay men's chorus. That's the too far for Smithers in that bit. Also, there's a weird bit where he seems to imply that he knows he gives empathetic glance to Mo. And then Mo replies, hey, hey, we don't know each other. Interesting.

Yeah. There could have been, had this state in the show, it could have stayed like, wait, Mo's on the down low? Like, a secret history of Moe there.

That would certainly be interesting to see played out over, again, 30 years, if that had become canon in 1994. Now we go to the debate and hosted by Larry King,

his second appearance on The Simpsons here. Yes, and this is a parody of the first televised presidential debate, which they've parodied before when Homer visited the Duff Brewery. It's the Nixon and JFK clip where he also likes that particular beer and Homer gets very mad.

But the story behind that is Nixon injured himself in a very rich person way. He caught his knee in a limousine. That's what happened to him. And he was hospitalized because of that. It sounds very funny, and it is. But that injury led to much greater health problems later in life. I think it developed into a blood clot that later traveled to his lungs. and he had to get surgically removed.

So when you're getting into your limousine folks, watch those closing doors. But because of that, he looked weak. He looked sickly. He just had spent days in the hospital. Meanwhile, JFK looked like the hottest dude of 1960. Which is ironic because JFK is well known to have his entire body be falling apart basically his entire public life.

He was on better drugs. But now, now when I see this scene about a man, performing badly, it's being sick and ruining the Democrats campaign. I can't not think of the 2024 Biden Trump debate, right? Biden closed the limousine door on his brain, you see. That's what happened. He clearly took a lot of extra drowsy formula medication before that event. That's for sure.

I was seeing around people showing, but like, well, though Biden didn't have enough hair to get it into a cowlick that looks like. I feel like I'm shouting out the animation a lot, but the way they make Quimby look for this debate is really funny to me. So this is where they get, well, one softball is thrown and then one real fastball is thrown in the questions here. Ah, a-choo! I shouldn't have shaken hands with those old people.

I hope that flu doesn't affect his performance out there. Don't worry. He's taking a million of these capsules. Saitreau Bob. Councilman Les Weinen says that you're not experienced enough to be mayor. Sir, what do you have to see about that? I'd say that Les Wynan ought to do more thinking and less whining. You're counting less whining?

Good line, though. Mayor Quimby, your well-known, sir, for your lenient stance on crime. But suppose for a second that your house was ransacked by thugs, your family tied up in the basement with socks in their mouths. You try to open the door,

but there's too much blood on the knob What is your right question? My question's about the budget, sir. Oh. And yes, this one goes back to the 88 election as well because it is a parody of the first question asked to Dukakis by Bernard Shaw. And the parody of it is actually less intense than the real question, I feel. But they have to make it funny. I got a clip right here.

Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you face it? an irrevocable death penalty for the killer. No, I don't, Bernard, and I think you know that I've opposed a death penalty during all of my life. I don't see any evidence that it's deterrent, and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime. And yes, that was the first question of the debate. That's insane. It's so insane. I just can't get around that.

Like, just thinking, I know that him being against the death penalty was hit so hard. they were able to effectively make it the major question of his campaign and a general way of showing that Dukakis is a wimp. And this is why like Bill Clinton and many other Democrats like just do capital punishment to prove they can murder people. But Jesus Christ, that wording, that is a CNN host. That's not like a weekly standard guy or something. Isn't there also in that debate like the questions for H.W. Bush are like,

Mr. Bush, why do you make being great look so easy? It is like the softball questions they were throwing Mr. Burns when he ran for governor. Oh, man. It's, yeah, to hear the original, it's a shock to me every time. Like, wow, that was on TV. Like, meanwhile, Lisa saying, like, there's no councilman, Les Wyden. Now, fortunately, we have social media to be able to do that during debates. And not that the fact-checking matters then, either, of course.

But, you know. This is also one of those Simpsons episodes where, because the Les Wyman and the fake people were about to get into it, where you're just like marveling at how they can fit so much plot into something that is also so gag-heavy. There are like six independent plot beats that all resolve within this episode and all involve like political intrigue and subterfewed. It's just one of those perfect, you know, Swiss clock episodes of the Simpsons. Channel 6 also electronically adds flames to Quimby,

another statement on the media. Roasted. And this is where we get to see why people vote. for Republicans. Hmm, I don't agree with his Bart killing policy, but I do approve of his Selma killing policy.

Well, he framed me for armed robbery, but man, I'm making for that upper-class tax cut. Homer is like, this man directly threatens my family, but, you know, and he wants to hurt somebody I hate, so let's go for that. And same with the taxes. Always comes down. I'm doing the finger thing.

Yes. Yeah, again, another part of this that feels eternally relevant to the political moment. Yes, he is a man of incredible cruelty and incompetence, but, you know, that other person that I don't like might get punished from this. Well, I also wouldn't be, I feel like the New York Times opinion page or like at least once a month they publish a regretful Trump voter piece. It's a nevergreen topic as well. So we go to election night after we see only two of the votes. They're both for Bob. and then the media is reporting on it.

We're at the event. It's like we're at the Javit Center with Hillary Clinton all over again here. And the results are in for side Joe Bob 100%. For Joe Quimby, 1%. And we remind you there is a 1% margin of error. All right, let's go live to Bob headquarters now for Mayor Turwilliger's victory speech. And just look how happy he is. And they kind of work in a Citizen Kane reference here, too,

just for fun, right? Yeah, after these statistically impossible 100% of people all voted for Bob, the media does not question. They then cut to the amazing shot of the endless cackling of Sighto Bob as he is triumphant. And yeah, it's the second time when Burns ran for the governor, they did this same shot from Citizen Kane, except this is him triumphant framed by his portrait behind him. So we come back from the commercial break, and in classic Springfield impossibility, an entire expressway has been built up to the point of their home right outside their door, and their house is about to be destroyed. Homer first thinks it's the rapture, of course.

Get barred out of the house before God comes? What is his line? Yes. He knows Bart's going to queer the deal. A good mangling of Terwilliger when he calls that Chobabah. Listen here, To Wigiger, whatever he says. It's good. This is where Bob lets you know that he's giving them 72 hours to vacate,

then he'll explode the house and any remaining Simpsons inside. Even Abe is telling him, move your God darn house, son. Well, you know, Abe is really in it for the Matlock Expressway. You know, his children's family home, unimportant. We've got to get this Matlock Expressway built. He got his roadster out of storage. His jalopy, it should race against the Archie's jalopy. Yeah, this episode has two jalopies.

A classic two jalopies at. This is where the personal reprisals continue as Bart gets held back. Bart, by special request to the mayor's office, you are going to be left back. Oh, you mean I have to repeat the fourth grade? Well, yes, but not for four or five years. Bart, you're going to kindergarten. Kindergarten! Ha!

Now, boys and girls, who knows what this is? Triangle. Very good, Bart. You have first choice of toys for free play. I call the Flintstone phone. Yappa da dao! I like talking to you. The punctuation of Edna's ha on that information is so great. It's also just a very funny boat of this joke that Bart actually loves being in kindergarten.

Yes. That's where he's thriving. He can identify a triangle. He's doing a great job, yeah. And this Flintstone phone thing, we have to linger on it for a second. I looked into this. This toy did not exist. There was a Flintstone phone. It did not talk and it was a rotary phone. It was one of the earlier Flintstone toy. But this thing is awesome. They got the current voice of Fred Flintstone to just come on the show to do one line. It's so impressive.

They got the real Henry Corden to do it. He had taken over the role from the originator Alan Reed in 1977, though he had debaiced him a little bit, starting in 65. I say 1977, just to let you know that due to health side effects from emphysema, Henry Corden retired from the role in 1997. From doing all those Flintstone's lucky strike ads? Yeah, see, he did Fred Flintstone. for 20 years, half as long as, say, Dan Castellaneta has done Homer Simpson. Now, you guys would know this.

Is there a current official voice of Fred Flintstone? You know, I looked into that. They don't have one consistent voice. It's like three different voice actors, depending on the project, because it feels like they do New Flintstones thing every, like, 8 to 15 years now. So there's no one, like, in cold storage they can pull out whenever they need a Fred voice. I feel like we're primed for New Flintstones material. I know they've been threatening to make up a Jetsons movie forever.

and I remember when Kanye West was saying that he was going to do production design for the Jetsons movie. That was a very bizarre Kanyeism from like 2014. But I think that we're ready for some Flintstone's content. You know, Seth McFarlane tried to make a Flintstone's reboot, but America said you cannot have five shows on TV at once. We've determined that the capacity for one house animation designer is four shows. Now, meanwhile, in real life, while you can't get that Flintstone phone,

and you can get the Simpsons equivalent for just $40 right now because Jack's Pacific sells a Moe phone. It's the phone from Moe's bar. You dial any seven numbers into it and it'll play a clip of a Bart prank call on the phone for you. My thoughts are Krusty saying, that was funny for about five minutes. Yes, minutes and minutes of fun.

Just to linger on this for another second here, I love Bart's like stupid, stupid, goony laugh after he calls Fred. Oh, it's great. Yeah, that's a great. Bart mode when he is like tickled by something really stupid. They pull that out every once in a while and it always makes me laugh. I love that delivery by Cartwright on the laugh. I also love her delivery of the two vests triangle, like they're just quick triangle.

Games easy. I know that one, triangle, square, circle, got it. And this is where we go to the dinner table and they realize they're about to live under a bridge like common trolls. And another great line, I can't believe a convicted villain would get so many votes, while another convicted felon will get so few. That's going to be every future election. Yeah, seriously.

I mean, that was like, what was it, 37 times convicted felon? Was that the number? Yes. It was a key plank of the Democratic Party. And it worked so well. Yeah, it seemed like it would. You would think saying, like, you know, he's a felon, being able to call your opponent a felon, usually easy win.

You got this one in the bag. Yeah, but I feel like to the American popular consciousness in general. general, like, felonies that don't involve violence aren't, like, real, you know? Like, people hate being defrauded when it happens to them, but somebody else defrauding somebody is just, like, hearing that somebody won at roulette at the casino is like, oh, good for them. And Lisa decides she's going to do what happens every election since the year 2000, which is investigate voter fraud.

Yes. Doing her own research. Yeah, I mean, this definitely, every. election of Trump, of the Trump era and Obama as well, have all been like, oh, this was fake. This is a fraudulent election. And when Trump won both times, there were certainly blue folks saying that he stole that election too. So it's not one-sided in this.

Yeah, I feel like this is going to, if you imagine like the American system persisting for like another century or several generations, you imagine like this whole like secondary system involving where like you do the election. But that's not the real election. The real election is the second. election that is the voter fraud investigation of the first election. Just like with both Biden and Trump, I always kept imagining that 200 years from now that will just have English royals like system where they have all these rituals that don't really

make sense, you know, like the exchecks or presents the mace, but it'll be like the ceremonial impeachment for Ukraine. Like it doesn't really matter. Like just two years into the president's term, they're impeached for doing Ukraine. And that's just something we do in the system, you know? Yes. I thought after the 2020 election It was going to be every election like

Well it's going to be two weeks before they call it from now Yeah That's just how it's going to be But then Trump just flat out want We don't have to do it Well this next scene here Lisa is looking at the votes of the secret ballot Which the librarian is like meh

And we get the all the president's men parody The direct shot of a parody of that shot And here's a thing That's a great shot But it's wasted on a very inessential part of that movie When they're looking at library slips To see if any White House staffers checked out material on Ted Kennedy, which doesn't feel like it directly connects to what they follow through with later.

I feel like I wish that was a more pivotal part of the movie, but it's so early on in that film. Well, and after that shot, Lisa has handed an anonymous letter, and we go to Pay Park and Pay. So whoever it is who wrote that note wants to meet us here tonight? This is so cool, Bart. We're just like Woodward and Bernstein. Yeah, except their dad wasn't waiting in the car reading Orchy Comics. suck of Reperdale punks. I think they're too good for me.

You're on the right track. Follow the names. How the hell do you know? I can't tell you who I am, but I worked on the campaign. Hey, Mr. Smithers! Well, you might as well give me a ride home now. Never gone behind Mr. Burns back before,

but sideshow Bob's ultra-conservative views conflict with my choice of lifestyle. All I can do is give you one name, Edgar Newbauer. Find him, and you'll find your answer. Bob, you just watched it. In all the President's men, this meeting happens in a parking lot there too, right? Yes, yes. Although now I'm reading about the real deep throat.

We know who he is. We've known for like 20 years now. And it seems like these meetings probably didn't happen at a parking lot. If they had just recorded this commentary a few months later, they could have talked about Mark Felt having just outed himself. Yes. As as it. But yes, they didn't know when they recorded the commentary.

Now, the mystery's gone. Our parents lived through 30 years of a mystery of who was deep throat. It is very, I think it is a subtle neg on D.C. That even if you're like fictionalizing an account and you're like, where's like the sexiest place in Washington, D.C. to have like a clandestine meeting, the most cinematic possible place. Three-story parking structure. And this is where.

If shadowed just as deep throat is in all the president's men, they meet with somebody, which you can easily tell at Smithers, the second you see his hairline. Yes. You know it's Smithers. Smithers doing, trying to conceal his voice is a very funny vocal performance in it because it's such an obvious voice. And smoking a cigarette to look cool.

And in the movie and in the real events, he said follow the money here. He says follow the names. He's revealed too quick as after Homer finishes his Archie comic, which, again, it's real questioning like so he can visit Riverdale. and read their comic books. Well, maybe it's like a soap opera digest in that world, you know, where you're just like keeping up.

Or I guess in our current terms, it would be like getting a magazine about like what the Kardashians are up to or something. Okay, all right. I'll believe that. This is where, though, Homer ruins it immediately, like turns on his lights like, hey, Mr. Smithers.

I love that Homer thinks he's great friends with Smither. This next scene, I feel like it is the first direct admission by Smithers that he is gay. There were so many gay jokes about him and dancing around the subject, but now they're getting, TV is changing, we can talk about things in different ways more, and now I feel like they're safe to sort of have him be a tiny bit up front about his lifestyle choice, as he says.

Yes, yeah, choice of lifestyle as he clears his throat of like, anyway, like, I definitely had to ask my mom to explain that line to me as a kid. Is the Malibu Stacey episode before or after this? Because I feel like that's where they're really laying it on. It's before, yeah. Yeah, him actually referring to choice of lifestyle. I'm saying, I am gay as much as he can in 1994. So he gives him Edgar Newbauer.

They did cut a scene where they go to Selma, who helps with the DMV logs to try to find Edgar Newbauer, but can't there either. They check for the library, gets smashed with bats, can't find anything. This is when it hits Bart. Wait a minute, it's Bart who spots the graveyard. And yes, it is the dead of risen,

and they're voting Republican. Hey. Rees, police, I found Edgar Newbauer. The dead have risen and they're voting Republican. No, Bart, don't you see? Dead people can't vote. Look, Prudence's good wife died 1641. She voted for Bob too.

So did Buddy Holly, Richie Vance, and the Big Bob, Mr. Mrs. Bananas, Humphrey Bowagard. Hey, he did try to kill me. All the names are dead people in the graveyards. I mean, this is, Trump has said it eight million times about multiple. elections, the dead they're voting, the dead of voting. I couldn't find one headline specifically for it because it was like, it was across a whole decade, I'm saying it. I mean, all the names are great.

Prudence's good wife, that's a pretty great one. I'm obsessed with those Puritan names from like the early 17th century, partially from doing the hell on earth, the 17th century podcast. Like, when I was running D&D, I found this Google books called Curiosities of Puritan nomenclature. I would just go to the index of that and find all these names that are like, honest, praise bones or whatever. That's great. I love how for some reason all of the victims of the day the music died are buried in Springfield.

Yes. Yes. Goodbye, baby. And then also nobody questioned Humphrey Boagart being in the voter logs as well. Once they find this, Lisa vows, it's personal because Snowball 1 was in there too. And this is Call for Probe and Bob Flap, the headline. I was thinking seeing this that a really great like Simpsons trivia question. would be who did Snowball won vote for in the 1994 Simpsons or Springfield Mayorial election.

I also love the editorial. Why not let Dead Pet vote? That's every editorial now. Why not? Is that really so bad about any new marble thing? I would feel like that would be a chopper reading series. Editorial ice. You do you. Yeah. Also, complaints to the wiki people out there who write Wikipedia things. They say this bit of the house being torn down for the highway is from,

Hitchhiker's Guide on the Wikipedia. Mirkin on the commentary jokes that it's inspired by Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and then says, no, it's not. That's because the movie just came out, right? Around the time of this commentary. Yes, yeah. He was joking. Take that out of their Wiki.

Listeners have access to Wiki. Fix that. Say he was joking. It wasn't inspired by it. It just happens to be like it. So we head to what is basically an Iran Contra or Watergate style hearing because they didn't have time for it. They were speeding through this.

They called it the stand burn. to talk about it. They call to the stand Big Texan who is named Orvis P. Tex Heidel, which is a great name. Wow. I think his name is now Richard Texan. That's his full name. That is great. But Heidel sounds like one of those names I would hear in the George Bush history.

Yeah. The chop on the Chop of Reading series. The hyper-specific, like, Southern Legacy family name is really funny. Did you say Orbis is his first name? Orvis. Orvis. Orphids. This episode is so stuff Lionel Hutt shows up for two sentences.

Yes, yeah, just Kids help. That's his big line. Mr. Mayor, is it true? You rigged the election. No, I did not. Kids help. Oh, and also, they called to the stand Nixon, and he's like, I

get it. It's because it's Watergate. Yeah, yeah. But he died a month after the table draft's date, so that's why I'm sure it was cut. a legend. This is where I learned the term feculent. Bob is goading them on.

And this is where Lisa figures it out immediately. Like she knows, challenge Bob on this. They joke on the commentary that it's every Perry Mason episode. Is this exactly? Yeah. And Merkin might have been kidding about this too. Tell me out there a few good men likers. People are watching that movie again after the death of Rob Reiner. But

apparently Lisa chugging the water before talking to Bob isn't a few good men reference. The Tom Cruise's character keeps like drinking water as an affectation before he asks a question. Yeah, something like that. I don't quite remember that. I have watched that movie more recently, not just because of Rob Reiner, but

that was for some reason a staple in my wife's family home. Her and her three sisters watched a few good men over and over as young women in Vermont, which I find very funny that that was like one of their go-to, like childhood movies. It's full of

Sorkanisms, though. It's back. When Sorkin is directed by somebody else, his scripts can be pretty good, especially before he really got full of himself. Yeah, I feel like you need to have some frision there where, like, a cynical director's eye is taking his, like, hyper-idealistic scripts and putting some contrast there.

And by 1994, you can't handle the truth had been referenced so much in comedies. Like, I knew about it as a child just because it had been quoted all over the place. Even on The Simpsons. Homer said it in Secrets of a Successful Marriage, right? That's part of his long movie quote rant. Though in this case, I deride your truth handling ability. So good.

You know, side show, Bob, I believe you when you say you're innocent. Indeed, I am. Because we all know you're a naive pawn, puppet, if you will, of the most diabolical political genius Springfield has ever known. Birchibald T. Barlow! You don't have the intelligence to rig an election by yourself, do you? You are just Barlow's lackey. You were Ronnie to his Nancy.

Sonny to his. share. Gingo to his rest of the Beatles! Enough! Lies! Lies! Lies! I did it! I did it all! There! Is that what you want, you smarmy little bastards? We want the truth! You want the truth? You can't handle the truth? No truth handler you!

I deride your truth-handling abilities! Will you get to the point? Yes. Only I could have executed such. a masterpiece of electoral fraud. And I have the records to prove it. Here, just look at these. Each one, a work of Machiavellian art. This is where he gives it up.

He finally admits it. He's like, fine, I have the record. He pulls the records out of everywhere. It's so great. This is where he gives his speech about why people have to vote for Republicans. But why? Because you need me, Springfield. Your guilty conscience may.

force you to vote democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalized criminals, and rule you like a king. That's why I did this to protect you from yourselves. Now, if you don't mind, I have a city to run. Billets place the mayor under arrest. What? Oh, yes. All that stuff I did. Lower taxes, brutalized criminals, and rule you like a king. It's true to this day. Mm-hmm. I mean, this is why we had the No King's Rally. last year as well for this very reason. His closed fist when he's like

rule you like a kid. This is where there's the only deleted scene in the episode, are on the DVD anyway, a little extra line to his speech. Oh, you liberals, you may publicly heap praise on Al Gore, but privately, you thank God

for a Ronald Reagan. You're just too afraid to admit it. That's right up there with the Al Gore jokes about his books later in this season of just that Oh, we all heap praise on Al Gore all of the time. Everybody loves Al Gore so much. This is where, like, my age, you know, I'm generally familiar.

I was becoming conscious around this time of political actions, but I cannot speak to what the pop culture reception of Al Gore was in the 90s. My first memory of being conscious about him was like the 2000 election where all of my tablemates at the lunchroom were making fun of the lockbox as being lame. I guess the pre-2000 perception of Al Gore, you can go back to the two Simpsons jokes about him. You are hearing me talk, the talking Al Gore doll, and how he sits quietly at a desk and play Celebrate Good Times and someone buys a copy of his book. This is where Sideshow Bob does the thing, like, I mean, him getting arrested. They put the cuffs on him and like, oh, right, all that stuff I did. You want to imagine this happening in real life. Would be nice.

It would be nice. In the original script, it is much more complicated how they get him. They find that there was a check written to the Pet Cemetery, and the signature, it's Rich Texan Hydel's signature, but the L's are loopy L's, which they say are very girly. And then it turns out that that's how Bob writes his last name. He writes his name with loopy L's, which he insists, that's the correct way to write it. And so he's taken down by his fancy pants and miss. I think all that stuff I did is a nice shortcut to the ending. Yes.

This is where there's another quick joke in the script where Abe can't take it. And so he then grabs a hammer and tries to smash the Simpson home himself so they can build the Matlock Expressway. Then meanwhile, Quimby thanks them with a bunch of golf balls that are embossed with his signature and a book of his favorite recipes compiled by the Springfield Junior League. This is where we get our final clip here for a bunch of. happy ending, Bob is back in jail. Oh, tomorrow we were going to find out who the dish ran away with. A spoon, bark. Of course.

Someday I'll have my vengeance. Someday, when I find my way out of this savage, roach-ridden cesspool. Say, to Whittaker's a yelly. Bob, come along. We need a knife to row against the Princeton alarms. Princeton? This ending really instilled a lot in me as a young child about justice. And I guess the Springwood Security Prison, Minimum Security Prison, is based on Allenwood, which is a real club fed for white-collar criminals.

Is that where Galane is right now? I think she might be in like real prison. I think there are fewer of these. The Allenwood Federal Prison Camp, as it was officially known, G. Gordon Liddy went there, which I wonder if that's the most direct reference they're doing here. with the Watergate stuff, but it actually was shuttered in 2005, and it might now be a landfill. ironic punishment. I know our listeners are dying to know, but Galane Askswell is in a women's president in Texas for some reason. Yes, that's what I thought, but it is like, yeah, it is considered like a club fed.

It's the same place that the blood lady is at. Yes, and they took away her Xbox, unfortunately. Yes. Hey, just a future, you know, we're recording this a few weeks out. You don't know if Trump has pardoned her yet. Yeah, she might be completely out by then. Again, all crime is legal if you're a Republican. Future VP.

Yes. Let's go. I love the indication that Bob did trade up prison from real prison to nice prison. And also that Bill Oakley, Harvard alum, Josh Weinstein, a Harvard Lampoon alum, though, he went to Stanford. But these are Harvard guys making fun of Yale, though definitely a lot of the most evil Republicans are Yaleies, as well as CIA operatives. And, you know, most mass murderers in that realm. Chris, in your experience of U.S. history, is Harvard or Yale as, which has produced more evil people? I think, okay, tell me if this makes sense. My experience or my analysis, like Harvard produces more like ambiently evil people,

people who get like propelled to the very tops of the elite and just use often as portrayed, like good-natured wanting to help society to perpetuate a brutal status quo, while Yale produces more like actual agents of evil, who, you know, I mean, that's where like Skull and Bones is and, you know, stuff like they're the ones who are generating like the CIA agents who overthrow like Central American governments while Harvard more produces, you know, your Matt Eglacius is who are just out there, you know, trying to write blog posts about how maybe this is the best of all possible worlds.

Yeah, skull and bones, I think, has the advantage because isn't that a society where you get into a coffin and jerk off onto a skull? Geronimo's skull. I thought so. Yes. Yes. Yeah. It's hard to keep up with that.

Meanwhile, you go to Lampoon or you have a hasty pudding thing. Yeah, exactly. Whatever. I can't keep up with that. But I mean, yes, a truly perfect episode

that certainly informed my own politics of cynical ones for sure. And I get more cynical by the year. Every time I watch this, I'm like, oh, I wasn't even cynical enough then to think about that. And I'm probably even not now.

Insanely overstock. you can see that Oakley and Weinstein are kind of auditioning to be showrunners here because this episode proves like they figured out the Simpsons. They can just make the perfect episode and they deserve to run up for two years at least. Yeah. I mean, as I've said a few times, you know, it is, I was just kind of blown away by how fascinating of an object it is because it is kind of the perfect, at its position now,

like this Gen X parody of the current times that is deeply informed from their childhood experience with the past generation's political scandal, but also has all these little, like, resonances that are kind of like, you're joking about this now, but you don't know how bad things are going to get, like the kind of thing where, you live in a political reality

where you're like, oh, this is just a Simpsons joke that I'm living in, and it is not funny to be, like, actually under the regime of constant Simpsons jokes. Satire's not so funny when you got to live. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, that's why I'm not so sure Bob Roberts is a comedy,

but maybe people were falling over in the aisles and spilling their popcorn in 1992. But yeah, and also just like, I said, you know, there's what, like four different movie parodies that aren't just gags but full little plot arcs in this movie, like that classic, where they spend the first 10 minutes of an episode doing something that's basically not the plot

and then has like four more episodes worth of plot like slammed into the back half, but none of it feels rushed. Yeah, I mean, this is, I think, one of the top tier Simpsons episodes. They have all this time. for Rush Limbaugh parody and then in the start you forget about him until that one little

joke at the end where Lisa names him it's like all right this episode had like the perfect Rush Limbaugh parody in the first yeah well Chris you've got to go before you go though congrats on a thousand episodes of Chapo Trapp House but please let us know more about that podcast and more about what we can find you online and what you're up to lately

Chappo Trapp House is having a 10 year anniversary celebration show in Los Angeles California on Friday April 3rd at the Palace theater. This is going to be a real family event. We're asking a number of our friends of the show to come through. You're going to see a lot of familiar faces there from the greater lefty podcast scene. Again, it's just going to be a real celebration of us doing this podcast for 10 full years, a decade of Chapo. So that's probably the biggest thing to promote 10th anniversary show for Chapo Trappos, April 3rd at the

Palace Theater. You could find links for this. I don't know where. Presumably on our Twitter or on our Instagram or on Patreon or something. I'll have them out there. It'll not be hard to find. Well, Chris, thank you for making this toboggan ride we're all on more comfortable. Thank you guys. Love hanging out. Thank you so much to Chris. Wait for being on the show. Please check out Chapo Trap House. We love it.

But as for us, if you want to check out more of what we're doing, support the show and get access to ad-free podcasts and a ton of bonus podcasts. Go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and sign up for five bucks a month. You will get ad-free podcasts one week ahead of time and also access to all of our exclusive miniseries. There are over 200

of those to date that you cannot access. If you're not on the Patreon, we cover Futurama and King of the Hill, Mission Hill, Batman, the animated series, and The Critic. And if you're on that tier on Patreon, you get a new episode of both Talking of the Hill and Talking Futurama every month. That's a great bang for your buck at five bucks a month.

Only at patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. There is a $10 level to. When you access that level, you can also access a mega huge podcast once a month for patrons on that tier. What's going on there, Henry? That would be our What a Cartoon Movie Podcast that Bob's talking about, which we do each month as a special bonus.

It's like three extra podcasts you get at the $10 level. In addition to all the $5 ad-free bonuses, Bob was mentioning too. If you go a little back in our free feed, you would even get to hear a full version of one of those when we covered a toy story that we released over the holidays. We do one of those each month. Last month, we covered the Disney Classic Sleeping Beauty from 1959, one of our most recent of us covering original Walt Disney

era Disney films. This month we are covering Shrek 2, as Bob has said, the total opposite of the film. That's just the kind of range that we cover on the What a Cartoon Movie podcast. We've done tons of Pixar movies, every Disney Renaissance film, a bunch of anime,

like Studio Ghibli or Akira. So many podcasts there, hundreds of hours of additional content in our back catalog. Sign up today to hear all of it and support me and Bob doing this at patreon.com slash Talking Simpson. And I have been one of host Bob Mackey. You can find me on Letterbox and other places like Blue Sky as Bob Servo.

And my other podcast is Retronauts, by the way. That is a classic gaming podcast all about old video games. You can find that where you find podcasts or just go to patreon.com slash retronauts and sign up there for a bunch of bonus stuff. And Henry, what about you? Follow me on Blue Sky and Instagram as Talking Henry. And if you're in the social media mood, you should know on both those places, Blue Sky and Instagram. The official account for this podcast is there at Talk Simpsons Pod. Follow at Talk Simpsons Pod to stay in the loop whenever new episodes

come out. If there's updates on our Patreon, if we've got other cool stuff going on, you'll know about it if you follow at Talk Simpsons Pod, so please do. And if you'd like a list of all the free podcast we've ever released, both for Talking Simpsons and for What a Cartoon, you can find those at

Talking Simpsons.com. Thank you so much for joining us, folks. We'll see you again next time for Season 16's Midnight RX, and we'll see you then. That was a big, Mr. Bart. No children have ever meddled with the Republican Party and lived to tell about it. Stay at the Riverdale.